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Document 1 of 474
Mayor rains on Rio's colorful parade; Former gospel singer tears into Carnival budget
Author: Faiola, Anthony; Kaiser, Anna Jean
Publication info: South Florida Sun - Sentinel ; Fort Lauderdale, Fla. [Fort Lauderdale, Fla]01 Jan 2018: A.2.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - As political polarization intensifies in the United States, Latin America's largest nation is locked in its own escalating culture wars, with the rise of an increasingly powerful religious right. The mayor of this sultry metropolis slashed funding for Carnival, its gay pride parade and a procession honoring an Afro-Brazilian goddess. Mayor Marcelo Crivella, a Pentecostal Christian, calls the moves fiscal prudence. But Rio's libertines see a thinly veiled crusade to impose God's law from city hall. Evangelical politicians such as Crivella - a 60-year old bishop and former gospel singer who once claimed homosexuality could result from botched abortions - are finding enormous success in Brazil. Their rise comes as conservative Protestant faiths make massive inroads in this predominantly Catholic country and as corruption scandals taint traditional parties, causing more Brazilians to vote outside the box. Under former presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff, Brazil stood as a symbol of the global left. But religious conservatives have turned the tables here in part by forming pragmatic coalitions. They have allied with agribusiness interests and gun lobbies, forming a "BBB bloc" of bullets, bulls and Bibles. Evangelical politicians persuaded embattled President Michel Temer, who needed their support to survive in office, to remove progressive passages about gender identity and sexual orientation from textbooks that were to be distributed in schools. "This is Rio!" said Marcelo Misailidis, artistic director for Beija Flor, one of the samba schools, or community groups, that puts on Rio's annual Carnival celebration. "But this mayor, these people - they would put clothes on a cow if they could." That a religious conservative was elected mayor a year ago in a city known for ribald revelry is not as far-fetched as it sounds. Sexual freedom thrives in Rio's South Zone neighborhoods such as Copacabana and Ipanema, where picturesque beaches serve up a cornucopia of flesh. But the city's vast and relatively poorer north is more conservative and religious. Previously a national senator from Rio, Crivella emerged victorious after a highly fractured mayor's race, in which some of his opponents faced corruption allegations. He successfully portrayed himself as the nontraditional candidate that frustrated Cariocas - as the residents of this city are called - were looking for. Crivella is the nephew of Edir Macedo, a well-known televangelist and chairman of Rede Record, Brazil's second-largest television network. Macedo built a multibillion-dollar empire promoting "prosperity theology" - or wealth through the cleansing power of worship. At the same time, he became a perennial target of corruption probes. Crivella in the past has taken positions well outside the mainstream. In a 2002 book written after years spent as a missionary, he denounced the priests of Afro-Brazilian faiths - which have millions of followers here - as "sorcerers and witches." He also argued that public health care systems could save money by embracing the practice of faith healing. Crivella declined to be interviewed for this story. "It's as if he's made an effort not to appear in public, to be a ghost mayor," said João Feres, a political-science professor at Rio State University. "But what little he is doing seems to be colored by this conservative agenda." The mayor's church warns against the pageant of glitter and flesh that is Carnival, citing the consumption of alcohol and drugs as well as the "promotion of sexuality and cheating." But it raised eyebrows when Crivella in February became the first mayor in recent memory to skip the festivities during his first year in the job. A few months later, he cut city funding to Carnival nearly in half, from $7.4 million to $4 million, citing hard economic times and the need to shift spending to schools. Carnival officials are planning a smaller, shorter event for 2018. "This isn't about budgets," said Misailidis, the artistic director. "This is about intolerance." In a written statement, Crivella's press office said the mayor believes that "Christian principles and values form the base of Western civilization. Among them is the rejection of hatred, of discrimination and of prejudice, and respect for free will." Crivella's administration completely defunded the city's 2017 gay pride celebration, which had received the equivalent of $114,000 from the city last year. In response, organizers put on the event in November with the aid of private sponsors Uber and Ambev, the country's largest beer producer, and renamed it "the parade of resistance." Credit: By Anthony Faiola; Anna Jean Kaiser - The Washington Post Caption: People protest last month against Rio de Janeiro Mayor Marcelo Crivella during a gay pride parade at Copacabana Beach. Crivella Mauro Pimentel/AP
Subject: Parades; Artistic directors; Religion; Corruption; Gays & lesbians
Publication title: South Florida Sun - Sentinel; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
First page: A.2
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jan 1, 2018
Publisher: Tribune Interactive, LLC
Place of publication: Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Country of publication: United States, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1982812132
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1982812132?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright © 2018 South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Last updated: 2018-01-01
Database: US Southeast Newsstream
Document 2 of 474
Fireworks, crystal ball help usher in 2018 around the world
Publication info: University Wire ; Carlsbad [Carlsbad]01 Jan 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Publication: The Daily Cardinal, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison WI. From spectacular fireworks in Hong Kong and Australia to a huge LED lightshow at the world's tallest building in Dubai, a look at how revelers around the world are ringing in 2018: CALIFORNIA The Golden State went green when the calendar turned to 2018. Starting at midnight, California joined the growing list of states to legalize recreational marijuana. The moment is significant but will not be met with a non-stop pot party. California has allowed medical marijuana for two decades, and the state is generally tolerant of the drug, so major changes are not expected as the laws are further eased. At least not on New Year's Day. More than 90 outlets received licenses to sell in time for Jan. 1. None of those outlets is holding a midnight opening, but some in San Diego and the San Francisco Bay Area will be open for business starting at 6 a.m. Monday. Some cities, including Los Angeles and San Francisco, will have to wait at least until later in the week before licensed outlets start selling there. Still, some Californians ushered in the new year with marijuana. Johnny Hernandez was celebrating legalization — which he described as "something we've all been waiting for" — by smoking "Happy New Year blunts" with his cousins in Modesto. ——— LAS VEGAS Las Vegas police officers surrounded hundreds of thousands of tourists gathered to welcome the new year on the Strip, where just three months earlier 58 people died in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Police cruisers, dump trucks and other large vehicles blocked key intersections to try to prevent anyone from plowing into crowds filled with people wearing glittery hats, tiaras and other 2018-themed paraphernalia. The Nevada National Guard activated about 350 soldiers and airmen, while federal authorities also deployed additional personnel. A roughly eight-minute fireworks display at the top of seven of the city's world-famous casino-hotels started ten seconds before midnight Monday. Sprays of gold, red and green lightened the sky on time for 2018. Tourism officials expected 330,000 people to come to Sin City for the festivities on the Las Vegas Strip and downtown's Fremont Street. Rosy-cheeked visitors took selfies and livestreamed the celebration amid temperatures in the mid-40s (4 Celsius), much warmer than most of the U.S. ——— NEW YORK With a burst of confetti and fireworks, throngs of revelers ushered in 2018 in a frigid Times Square as the glittering crystal ball dropped. It was the second-coldest on record, with the temperature only 10 degrees (minus 12 degrees Celsius) in New York at midnight. Partygoers bundled up in extra layers, wearing warm hats and face masks, dancing and jogging in place to ward off the cold. There was also tighter security than ever after two terrorist attacks and a rampaging SUV driver who plowed into a crowd on the very spot where the party takes place. The party went off with no major problems. "Auld Lang Syne" and "New York, New York" played as the crowds cheered. The coldest ball drop celebration was in 1917, when it was only 1 degree (minus 17 Celsius). ——— BRAZIL Rio de Janeiro's main party was celebrated with fireworks erupting on Copacabana beach after the clock struck midnight to usher in the new year. After 17 minutes of a multicolored show in the skies, singer Anitta led the party on stage with her single "Vai Malandra," a song that scored 84 million views on YouTube in two weeks. Some of the city's most traditional Carnival samba schools performed later. New Mayor Marcelo Crivella said he believed the celebrations would bring 3 million people to the iconic beach, which would mean nearly half of Rio's population. But locals said Brazil's economic crisis is still impacting one of the city's biggest parties. In 2017, 2 million people showed up at Copacabana beach, a number that hasn't changed much over the years. Almost 2,000 policemen patrolled the Copacabana region after yet another violent year on the streets. Rio's hotel association said occupation is nearly total, but mostly by Brazilian tourists. ——— GERMANY Germans rang in 2018 under tight security from police mindful of widespread sexual abuse of women in Cologne two years ago and of a terrorist attack on a Christmas market about a year ago. Police in Berlin added 1,600 officers on duty and said that large bags and knapsacks would not be allowed on the Party Mile leading from Brandenburg Gate, where thousands of people celebrated at midnight. Police in Frankfurt imposed similar restrictions in the celebration area along the Main River in the country's financial capital. Two people died from fireworks injuries, but the country avoided a repeat of the mass groping in Cologne from 2016. Two years ago, New Year's in Cologne was marred by groping and theft committed against hundreds of women, in most cases by migrants. On Dec. 19, 2016, Tunisian asylum seeker Anis Amri drove a stolen truck into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people. ——— UNITED ARAB EMIRATES Dubai's Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, has again served as the focal point of New Year's Eve celebrations — though this year authorities decided against fireworks and chose a massive LED lightshow on it. That was in part due to safety in the city-state in the United Arab Emirates, which saw a massive skyscraper fire on New Year's Eve in 2015. The display, running down the east side of the 828-meter-tall (2,716-foot-tall) tower, showed Arabic calligraphy, geometric designs and a portrait of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the UAE's first president. But a display of neighboring nations' flags didn't show Qatar's flag. The UAE joined Bahrain, Egypt and Saudi Arabia in boycotting the tiny energy-rich nation in June over allegations Doha supports extremists and has too close ties to Iran. Qatar, which will host the 2022 FIFA World Cup, denies supporting extremists and shares a massive offshore natural gas field with Tehran. ——— VATICAN Bidding 2017 farewell, Pope Francis has decried wars, injustices and environmental decay which he says have "ruined" the year. Francis on Sunday presided at a New Year's Eve prayer service in St. Peter's Basilica, a traditional occasion to say thanks in each year's last hours. He says God gave to us a 2017 "whole and sound," but that "we humans in many ways ruined and hurt it with works of death, lies and injustices." But, he added, "gratitude prevails" thanks to those "cooperating silently for the common good." In keeping with past practice, the pope on New Year's Day will celebrate Mass dedicated to the theme of world peace. ——— AUSTRALIA Fireworks lit up the sky above Sydney Harbor, highlighting the city's New Year's celebrations. The massive fireworks display included a rainbow waterfall cascade of lights and color flowing off the harbor's bridge to celebrate recently passed legislation legalizing gay marriage in Australia. More than 1 million people were expected to gather to watch the festivities. Security was tight, but officials said there was no particular alert. Sydney officials said the event would generate about $170 million for the city and "priceless publicity." Nearly half the revelers were tourists. ——— NEW ZEALAND Tens of thousands of New Zealanders took to streets and beaches, becoming among the first in the world to usher in 2018. As the new year dawned in this southern hemisphere nation, fireworks boomed and crackled above city centers and harbors, and party-goers sang, hugged, danced and kissed. In Auckland, New Zealand's biggest city, tens of thousands gathered around Sky Tower as five minutes of nonstop pyrotechnics exploded from the top of the structure. But on nearby Waiheke Island, 30 kilometers (20 miles) away, authorities canceled the planned fireworks display because of drought conditions and low water supplies for firefighters. ——— UGANDA Thousands of Ugandans gathered at churches across the country to mark the end of 2017. The raucous events, during which some preachers are known to make dubious predictions, have become such a staple of New Year's Eve festivities that the country's longtime president, Yoweri Museveni, sometimes makes time to make an appearance at a church. Still, many in this East African country prefer to celebrate at crowded beaches on the shores of Lake Victoria or in darkened halls listening to the music of pop stars who take turns offering crowd pleasers until midnight. Police warned revelers not to burn car tires in celebration, citing safety reasons, to discourage a favorite activity of those, especially in the countryside, who cannot afford fireworks. ——— RUSSIA As Russians counted down the last moments before 2018 ticked over into each of the country's 11 time zones, President Vladimir Putin called on them to be considerate and conciliatory with each other in the new year. "Say the most cherished words to each other, forgive mistakes and resentment, admit love, warm up with care and attention," Putin said in a televised message broadcast on Sunday just before midnight. Moscow had fireworks and outdoor gatherings despite weather that was less than festive. Usually festooned with snow at New Year's Eve, the Russian capital slogged through a long spell of intermittent rain and constant gray skies. ——— JAPAN Many Japanese celebrated the arrival of the Year of the Dog in the traditional way of praying for peace and good fortune at neighborhood Shinto shrines and eating New Year's food such as noodles, shrimp and sweet black beans. Barbecued beef and octopus dumpling stalls were out at Tokyo's Zojoji Temple, where people took turns striking the giant bell 108 times at midnight, an annual practice repeated at other Buddhist temples throughout Japan. North Korea's nuclear and missile programs cast a shadow over Japan's hopes for peace, said cab driver Masaru Eguchi, who was ready to be busy all night shuttling shrine visitors. "The world situation has grown so complex," Eguchi said, adding that he also worried about possible terrorism targeting Japan. "I feel this very abstracted sense of uncertainty, although I really have no idea what might happen." ——— INDIA Security was tight in the southern Indian city of Bangalore to prevent a repeat of incidents of groping and molestation of several women during New Year's Eve celebrations a year ago. Police Commissioner Sunil Kumar said at least 15,000 police officers were on duty and were being aided by drones and closed-circuit television cameras. A year ago, police first denied that any sexual harassment had taken place during the celebrations in Bangalore, India's information technology hub. But later, police detained at least six men after several video clips of women being attacked by groups of men spread on social media. ——— PHILIPPINES Scores of people were injured by celebratory firecrackers in the Philippines, which has some of the most raucous New Year's celebrations in Asia. Although the number of injuries has tapered off in recent years, largely due to hard economic times and government scare campaigns, the figures remain alarming. President Rodrigo Duterte signed an order confining the use of firecrackers to community-designated areas, such as near shopping malls and parks. Many Filipinos, largely influenced by Chinese tradition, believe that noisy New Year's celebrations drive away evil and misfortune. But they have carried that superstition to extremes, exploding dangerously large firecrackers and firing guns to welcome the new year despite threats of arrest. ——— TURKEY Security measures were ramped up across Turkey, which a year ago was hit by a New Year's attack that killed dozens of people. In Istanbul, 37,000 officers were on duty, with multiple streets closed to traffic and large vehicles barred from entering certain districts. Several New Year's Eve street parties were canceled for security reasons. Early on Jan. 1, 2017, an assailant shot his way into Istanbul's Reina nightclub, where hundreds of people were celebrating New Year's. Thirty-nine people, mostly foreigners, were killed, and 79 were wounded. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility. On Sunday, about 100 people gathered outside the nightclub to remember the victims of the attack. ——— LAS VEGAS Tens of thousands of revelers will ring in the new year in Las Vegas under the close eye of law enforcement just three months after the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Tourism officials expect about 330,000 people to visit Las Vegas for the festivities, which are anchored by a roughly eight-minute fireworks display at the top of seven casino-hotels. Acts including Bruno Mars, Britney Spears, Celine Dion and the Foo Fighters will keep partiers entertained before and after midnight at properties across Sin City. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department had every officer working Sunday, while the Nevada National Guard activated about 350 soldiers and airmen. The federal government sent dozens of personnel to assist with intelligence and other efforts. ——— This version corrects the death toll in last year's Christmas market attack in Berlin to 12, not 19.
Subject: American history; Social networks; Extremism; Nightclubs; Fireworks; Military reserves; Mass murders; Tourism; Marijuana
Publication title: University Wire; Carlsbad
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jan 1, 2018
Section: News
Publisher: Uloop, Inc.
Place of publication: Carlsbad
Country of publication: United States, Carlsbad
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1983156059
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1983156059?accountid=4840
Copyright: © 2018 UWIRE, a division of Uloop
Last updated: 2018-01-01
Database: Social Science Premium Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 3 of 474
China: Rising Like A Star
Publication info: Asia News Monitor ; Bangkok [Bangkok]03 Jan 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Thank you Paloma, for your beautiful words. And thanks to all the Executive Members for organizing such a wonderful dinner and inviting me to speak, which makes me feel inclusive by the CCC family. This definitely means a lot to me. My husband and I and A-bu are going to have our first ever Christmas in Calgary. This is A-bu in her Christmas dress. She seemed not to be very happy probably because I didn't treat her a biscuit before photo shooting (PPT). Besides this lovely creature, there is another one who is obsessed by almost everyone in China. It is a cat, a black cat, an artificial figure and a logo of a B2C online shopping bazaar created by Alibaba and Jack Ma. I don't know why Jack Ma likes a black cat. But this black one eventually brought him big fortune and luck. The cat's name is Tmall. she has been pooling nearly 200 thousand Chinese and international sellers this year. Like Thanksgiving day vs Black Friday, Christmas vs boxing day, Jack Ma chose Nov. 11, i.e. Double 11 going parallel with Tmall as the date of marketing event held annually. Let's see how he made a promotion for Double 11 (Video). Alibaba's triumph has been breathtaking. Double 11 was born in 2009 with $8m transaction volume reached within 24 hours. 8 years later, the transaction volume increased up to $26 bn and 1.3 bn parcels were produced just within one day. More than 200 nations and regions took part in this shopping carnival. The Argentine Ambassador and Consul General of Australia, New Zealand and Brazil in Shanghai even served as deliverymen to deliver parcels ordered from their countries to the local customers (Video). E-commerce in China is sweeping the board. Last year online sales in China hit $366 bn, almost as much as in America and Britain combined. The rise of companies like Alibaba was powered by hundreds of millions of increasingly well-off Chinese coming online, huge capacity of logistic operation, and advanced high-speed rail systems and flight networks. It takes no more than 5 days to deliver a box of tropical fruit from Hainan to the icy city of Harbin. I would like to show you next is how thousands of parcels are sorted at a logistic center (Video). The success of e-commerce in China is also supported by digital payment systems, for example Alipay, that hold a buyer's money until he receives his order and is happy with it. Alipay is now used by about 520m people, not just to shop on Tmall but to pay bills, buy lunch or send money to family. When most of the Western consumers are sticking with their credit cards, Chinese have jumped over into the era of virtual. Last year Alipay had 2.5 times as many users as PayPal and more than 11 times as many as Apple Pay. This year, The Economist published special reports three times a month focusing on the phenomenon of Double 11 and Alibaba, saying the company leading this transition, has seeped into consumers' lives in ways not yet seen in America or Europe. Westerners should picture a combination of Amazon, Twitter, eBay and PayPal, but broader. Another giant basket of everything and tough competitor of Alibaba is Tencent and its App called Wechat. It's famous for turning itself a social media into something almighty. Let's see how this going to work (Video). Alibaba and Wechat are not the sole examples to show how China wants to use technology to reform its industries, which can embrace and support hundreds of thousands of SMEs on the basis of cloud computing and "data-driven infrastructure", to have the innovative capacity to raise productivity, create more value-added jobs, and achieve its economic aspirations. Actually, China's new inventions are way more than e-commerce, e-life or e-plus. An online survey for more than 10 thousand people from 22 major economic entities conducted by Chinese Central TV this October revealed that, 36% recognized high speed railway, 19% recognized manned spaceflight and 16% recognized supercomputer as the representatives speaking on behalf of China's ability of innovation. The upcoming biggest competitors of German cars, American semiconductors, and Japanese robots will come from China. Counterpoint Research recently published the statistics showing that Chinese smart phones have been on the top of the global market share since 2014. 40 out of 100 smart phones sold all over the world are Chinese brands. How smart is it? By reading the face, the phone can tell in a minute whether the one is its owner or not. The tech is called facial recognition and began to use widely in traffic monitor, bank account opening in China. Perhaps it won't take so long to pay the bills by face. But it may not be the good news to those constantly having face surgeries to become more beautiful. As some Silicon Valley insider said, China is no longer a factory hub lacking imagination. It has become a hotbed of crazy innovation. China spent more than $241 billion on research and development in 2016, the second-largest investment by any country in absolute terms and about 2 percent of GDP since 2014. Its universities graduate more than 1.2 million engineers each year. China also leads in patent applications with more than 1.3 million in 2016. Also in 2016, China unveiled the National Strategy of Innovation, aiming to build China into an innovative nation by 2020, an international leader in innovation by 2030, and a world powerhouse of scientific and technological innovation by 2050. Nine key sectors included are: information, intelligent manufacturing, agriculture, energy, eco-environment protection, ocean and space, urbanization, public health and service industry. To carry out this strategy, China has established a capital foundation for emerging industries, esp for small & medium enterprises, with total investment up to $15 billion. The gov also encourages private funds to diversify the financing channels for SMEs. The results are fruitful. In the first half of this year, there were nearly 3 million newly registered enterprises in China, with an average of 16,000 each day. The beneficiaries are more than Chinese enterprises. During 3 quarters of 2017, around 23,000 foreign-invested enterprises were newly opened in China, with a year-on-year growth of 10% and a total investment volume of nearly $100bn. Statistics shows that nearly 70% of the Canadian companies are making profits in China, more than 80% of them are planning to broaden their business there. What makes the Chinese gov to be so concentrated on innovations? The answer lies in the report to the opening of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) delivered by President Xi Jinping, illustrating that, people's ever-growing needs for a better life foster the strongest impetus for development. The cohesive relationship between gov and individuals in China not only enables the government to enjoy the support from overwhelming majority, but also enables individuals to release their potentials in innovation to the greatest extent. Innovations are also guaranteed by Chinese way of doing things. There was a video show on YouTube about the repair of Beijing Sanyuan Bridge in 2015. Over 1,300 tons of new surface of the bridge was transported to the construction site and replaced the old within 43 hours. The speed had amazed more than one million viewers of the world. Some said "Time is gold but simply China doesn't waste it". One thing interestingly observed is that in the industries where innovation requires original inventions or engineering breakthroughs, such as branded pharmaceuticals, China might have small shares of global markets. But in industries where innovation is about to meeting customer needs or driving efficiency in manufacturing--appliances and solar panels, for example-- China is flourishing. China's massive consumer market and unmatched manufacturing ecosystem give it unique advantages in these sectors. A report published by Mckinsey Global Institute in July 2015 called The China Effect On Global Innovation said, the research, based on an impact-driven view of innovation, concludes that China does have potential to become a global innovation leader. Under the right circumstances, Chinese companies can be global competitors in both engineering based industries and science-based industries. With the right policies in place to support entrepreneurship, encourage market-based competition in more industries, and make China more attractive to top science talent, China can succeed in all forms of innovation. For us, one thing must be borne in mind: Timing is critical. With slowing international economic growth, an aging population, and declining returns on massive fixed investments, we must find ways to raise productivity. Innovation is key to this sustainable growth path. That is all for my view over China's innovations. Thank you. (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, People's Republic of China)
Subject: Social networks; Innovations; Manufacturing; Productivity; Research & development--R & D; Consumers; Smartphones; Electronic commerce
Publication title: Asia News Monitor; Bangkok
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jan 3, 2018
Section: General News
Publisher: Thai News Service Group
Place of publication: Bangkok
Country of publication: Thailand, Bangkok
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--Philippines, General Interest Periodicals--Vietnam, General Interest Periodicals--Thailand
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1981933600
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1981933600?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Thai News Service Group Jan 3, 2018
Last updated: 2017-12-29
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 4 of 474
Latin culture to be displayed at Rio Carnival
Author: Wulfson, Michelle
Publication info: University Wire ; Carlsbad [Carlsbad]03 Jan 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Publication: Houstonian, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville TX. Rio Carnival is making its way to Sam Houston State University for the first time through the work of multiple student organizations. Brought to campus by Bailamos Latin Dance, Spanish Conversation Club, and Multi Cultural Student Services, Rio carnival originated from Rio de Janeiro and is celebrated throughout most Catholic countries. Rio Carnival is the largest carnival in the world, bringing Brazil approximately half a million foreign tourists each year. Although it is celebrated for five days beginning Friday the 13th and ending on Fat Tuesday as an ode to glitter and all bodily pleasures, SHSU’s celebration will be condensed into one wild night of drool inducing food, live entertainment, and cultural experiences. Bailamos club dancers will be spreading awareness of Latin culture by performing in costume to the music of a live band in various styles of Spanish dance with an emphasis on the rhythmical Brazilian dance, the samba. The carnival hopes to bring students and faculty together for a night of cultural celebration and awareness. Students can partake in free food, give-aways, masks and face painting. “I think it will give a great name not only to the Latin community, but just Bailamos in general and it will be a safe haven for people to come out to and just have fun,” Bailamos and Spanish Conversation club president Kerrie Hall said. Bailamos is a Latin dance organization at SHSU that teaches the community about Latin and Afro Latin culture through dance. The organization was created three semesters ago, however Rio Carnival is the club’s first self-headed event, funded by the Campus Life Development Fund and Multi Cultural Student Services, along with donations from family and friends. “We just want everyone to come out, enjoy some free food, some good performances, have a good time, and meet new people you haven’t met before,” Hall said. Rio Carnival will be held tomorrow in the LSC Ballroom from 7 to 10 p.m.
Credit: Michelle Wulfson
Subject: Culture; Dance
Publication title: University Wire; Carlsbad
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jan 3, 2018
Section: Culture
Publisher: Uloop, Inc.
Place of publication: Carlsbad
Country of publication: United States, Carlsbad
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1983602966
Document URL: https://lo gin.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1983602966?accountid=4840
Copyright: © 2018 UWIRE, a division of Uloop
Last updated: 2018-01-03
Database: Social Science Premium Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 5 of 474
Future of BHP and Vale's Brazilian iron ore venture remains hazy
Author: Thomson, James
Publication info: The Australian Financial Review ; Melbourne [Melbourne]05 Jan 2018: 15.
Abstract:
The future of BHP Billiton's stake in the Samarco iron ore joint venture in Brazil is unlikely to be resolved quickly, as the iron ore giant and its co-owner Vale inch towards a restart of the operation. In a further update released on December 22, BHP said it had agreed to pump another $US181 million of financial support into Samarco and the Renova Foundation, which has been established by the companies to lead remediation and compensation programs.Full text: The future of BHP Billiton's stake in the Samarco iron ore joint venture in Brazil is unlikely to be resolved quickly, as the iron ore giant and its co-owner Vale inch towards a restart of the operation. Reports out of Brazil on Thursday suggested that Brazilian giant Vale and BHP were holding talks on the future structure of the Samarco venture, which has been shut since a deadly dam failure in November 2015. A Bloomberg report suggested that one option could see Vale acquire Melbourne-based BHP's half-share and taking full ownership of Samarco. While BHP did not comment on the report, it is understood that there are no talks afoot; just as Australian business takes an unofficial break between Christmas and Australian Day on January 26, Brazil's business community is particularly quiet between Christmas and the carnival in Rio, which starts on February 9. However, discussions will continue between BHP and Vale as they move slowly towards a settlement of the $60 billion legal claim made by Brazilian prosecutors, and a restart of the Samarco operations. In December, Samarco received a preliminary permit to begin work to prepare for an eventual restart, with further licences needed to resume production not likely to be granted until at least the middle of the year. But any progress towards a restart is likely to involve discussions about the future structure of the joint venture and Vale taking control of the business may make sense. BHP prefers joint ventures where there is a single operator, not where responsibility is shared, as in the case of Samarco. The proximity of other Vale operations to the Samarco operation - Vale has already agreed Samarco can use one of its mine pits for tailings if it restarts - may also make it a more natural owner. Having a single owner may also smooth the path towards a restart of the mine. In November, BHP and Vale struck a deal with state and federal prosecutors in Brazil to get another 150 days to work on a full settlement over the massive compensation claim. The miners and the prosecutors will now try to hammer out a final settlement by April 20, 2018. In a further update released on December 22, BHP said it had agreed to pump another $US181 million of financial support into Samarco and the Renova Foundation, which has been established by the companies to lead remediation and compensation programs. Of this, $US133 million will go to Renova, while $US48 million will be made available to Samarco for on-going repair works, maintenance of Samarco's facilities and restart planning. BHP shares closed above $30 for the first time since June 2015 on Thursday, rising 0.5 per cent to $30.33. CREDIT: James Thomson
Subject: Steel industry; Iron compounds; Public prosecutors
Publication title: The Australian Financial Review; Melbourne
First page: 15
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jan 5, 2018
Section: Companies and Markets
Publisher: Fairfax Media Publications Pty Limited
Place of publication: Melbourne
Country of publication: Australia, Melbourne
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Public Finance, Taxation
ISSN: 04042018
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1984060674
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1984060674?accountid=4840
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Last updated: 2018-01-05
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 6 of 474
Rotterdam Film Festival reveals 2018 Bright Future selection
Author: Parfitt, Orlando
Publication info: Screen International ; London (Jan 5, 2018).
Abstract:
Read more: ’Jimmie’, ‘The Death Of Stalin’ to bookend Rotterdam film festival The jury for the award will be made up of Artistic Director of Netia Off Camera Ania Trzebiatowska, Rotterdam filmmaker and editor Nathalie Alonse Casale and Grasshopper Films distributor Ryan Krivoshey from New York. Azougue Nazaré/Azougue Nazareth, Tiago Melo, Brazil, 2018, world premiere In the sugarcane country of North East Brazil, where Evangelicalism is on the rise, people start to disappear and other strange things start to happen as Maracatu carnival season gets underway. Poisonous Roses, Ahmed Fawzi Saleh, Egypt/France, 2018, world premiere Saqr dreams of a life beyond his tannery job in the slums, but his love for the sister he would leave behind keeps him tied there. La estrella errante/Wandering Star, Alberto Gracia, Spain, 2018, world premiere The punk band Los Fiambres released one cult album in 1984.Full text:
Eighteen debut films eligible for award, worth Bright Future Award, worth [Euro]10,000.
Impermanence
International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), which runs 24 Jan to 4 Feb, has announced the full line-up of its Bright Future programme, including the titles that will compete for the Bright Future Award.
Scroll down for the full line-up
The competition for the Bright Future Award 2018, worth [Euro]10,000, consists of eighteen debut films, including Impermanence by young Chinese filmmaker Zeng Zeng, German film Ella Und Nell by Aline Chukwuedo and Counting Tiles by Lebanese filmmaker Cynthia Choucair.
Other world premieres include Christopher Makoto Yogi’s debut August At Akiko, The Heart by Swedish filmmaker Fanni Metelius and Egyptian film Poisonous Roses by Ahmed Fawzi Saleh, and La Estrella Errante by Spanish filmmaker Alberto Gracia, who won the FIPRESCI Award with his feature debut The Fifth Gospel Of Kaspar Hauser at IFFR 2013.
Read more: ’Jimmie’, ‘The Death Of Stalin’ to bookend Rotterdam film festival
The jury for the award will be made up of Artistic Director of Netia Off Camera Ania Trzebiatowska, Rotterdam filmmaker and editor Nathalie Alonse Casale and Grasshopper Films distributor Ryan Krivoshey from New York. The award will be presented during the awards ceremony on Friday 2 February.
48 films in all have been selected for the strand in all. The complete line-up is below (descriptions by IFFR).
Brigth Future Competition
August at Akiko’s, Christopher Makoto Yogi, USA, 2018, world premiere
Musician Alex Zhang Hungtai returns to Hawai‘i after years abroad. His search for home and roots intensifies when he forms a bond with local kupuna Akiko.
Azougue Nazaré/Azougue Nazareth, Tiago Melo, Brazil, 2018, world premiere
In the sugarcane country of North East Brazil, where Evangelicalism is on the rise, people start to disappear and other strange things start to happen as Maracatu carnival season gets underway.
The Bangle Seller, Ere Gowda, India, 2018, world premiere
In a small Indian village, Kempanna and his wife Saubaghya are unable to conceive. A scandal seems imminent.
Counting Tiles, Cynthia Choucair, Lebanon , 2018, world premiere
A group of clowns travel to the Greek island of Lesvos on a mission to bring laughter to the many people escaping war in February 2016.
Ella und Nell/Ella & Nell, Aline Chukwuedo, Germany, 2018, world premiere
Ella and Nell used to be best friends. Now grown apart and in their forties, they set out on a hike in order to reconnect. The mood changes as old wounds are reopened.
La fleurière/Flower Shop, Ruben Desiere, Belgium/Slovakia, 2017, international premiere
In the back room of a flower shop, three men are digging a tunnel to break into a bank safe. Heavy rainfall interrupts their work.
Guarda in alto/Look Up, Fulvio Risuleo, Italy, 2017, international premiere
During a break, a young baker notices a strange bird fall. He decides to take a closer look, and an unbelievable journey across the rooftops of Rome ensues.
The Heart, Fanni Metelius, Sweden, 2018, world premiere
Mika and Tesfay. She’s a photographer. He’s a musician. Both are up-and-coming. The first true romance. But an invisible conflict, an unnameable shame, stirs between their sheets.
Impermanence, Zeng Zeng, China, 2018, world premiere
Fate brings together three fascinating lost souls - a monk with a sack of money, an innkeeper with a heavy conscience and a father who’s lost his son - in young Chinese director Zeng Zeng’s mysterious tale of guilt, punishment and ambiguous redemption.
My Friend the Polish Girl, Ewa Banaszkiewicz/Mateusz Dymek, United Kingdom/Poland, 2018, world premiere
An American documentarian sets out to make a film about immigrants in post-Brexit vote London, but ends up intruding on the life of a struggling Polish actress. A raw, sexual, visually brash cine-essay.
Poisonous Roses, Ahmed Fawzi Saleh, Egypt/France, 2018, world premiere
Saqr dreams of a life beyond his tannery job in the slums, but his love for the sister he would leave behind keeps him tied there.
Rabot, Christina Vandekerckhove, Belgium, 2017, international premiere
In a notorious social-housing block in Ghent, both the building and the residents must go. Winner of the 2017 Audience Award at Film Fest Gent.
Respeto, Alberto Monteras II, Philippines, 2017, international premiere
Amidst the violence and poverty of Manila, Hendrix dreams of becoming a rapper. He will need Doc’s help to find the right words.
The Return, Malene Choi Jensen, Denmark/South Korea, 2018, world premiere
A story of two Danish-Korean adoptees visiting their motherland for the first time and confronting their own identity struggles.
Their Remaining Journey, John Clang, Singapore/USA/Taiwan, 2018, world premiere
A tale of reincarnation unfolds through the stories of a dead actress, an ex-mistress and an unfaithful husband, somewhere between New York and Singapore.
La torre/Tower, Sebastián Múnera, Colombia/Mexico, 2018, world premiere
On March 17, 2004 an explosive device was activated at the Piloto Public Library in Medellín, where much of the photographic archive of Colombian history is kept. A photograph is the only evidence of this barbarism.
Los vagos/Bums, Gustavo Biazzi, Argentina, 2017, international premiere
High school sweethearts Ernesto and Paula return to their hometown, Misiones, for the summer. Ernesto’s rekindled friendship with los vagos (‘the bums’) triggers upheaval for the pair.
Windspiel, Peyman Ghalambor, Germany, 2018, world premiere
While making his escape, a thirteen-year-old boy struggling to fit in at a children’s home in the Brandenburg forest meets an old man.
Bright Future premieres
All You Can Eat Buddha, Ian Lagarde, Canada, 2017, European premiere
A man’s mysterious appetite and supernatural powers gradually lead to apocalypse in an all-inclusive resort in the Caribbean.
Ambiguous Places, Ikeda Akira, Japan, 2017, international premiere
A series of odd and mysterious dramas unfolds against ordinary backdrops in this new film from Tiger Award winner Ikeda.
Blockage, Mohsen Gharaei, Iran, 2017, European premiere
Fired from his job at the municipality for making deals on the side, Ghasem is forced to make changes. While is he making plans for his wife’s inheritance, a completely new opportunity arises.
La estrella errante/Wandering Star, Alberto Gracia, Spain, 2018, world premiere
The punk band Los Fiambres released one cult album in 1984. More than thirty years later, their lead singer, Rober Perdut, wanders around his Galician hometown in this sensory, melancholic film.
Hit the Night, Jeong Gayoung, South Korea, 2017, international premiere
Under the pretence of research, Ga-yeong pries into the personal and sexual life of a new acquaintance. Despite having a girlfriend, the acquaintance willingly participates. Is he unaware of her desire, or just impressed by her line of questioning?
Inferninho/My Own Private Hell, Guto Parente, Pedro Diógenes, Brazil, 2018, world premiere
In a bar called Inferninho, the staff dream of escape. A handsome sailor with a dream of finding home arrives.
Jonaki, Aditya Vikram Sengupta, India/France/Singapore, 2018, world premiere
In an esoteric trance, Jonaki, an 80-year-old woman, finds herself in the midst of a decaying world of nostalgia. Here, she is made to relive moments of her life by the ones closest to her.
Ordinary Time, Susana Nobre, Portugal/France, 2018, world premiere
Following two young parents after the birth of their baby, the film scrutinises the calm rhythm of daily life by zooming in on many moments that may not be as ordinary as they appear.
The Pain of Others, Penny Lane, USA, 2018, world premiere
A found-footage documentary about Morgellons, a mysterious illness whose sufferers say they have parasites under the skin and a host of other bizarre symptoms that could be taken from a horror film.
Permanent Green Light, Dennis Cooper/Zac Farley, France, 2018, world premiere
A young disabled guy wants to explode in public. He’s not suicidal or an extremist, he’s purely interested in this act’s effect. That he’ll die is unimportant, he just doesn’t want people to misinterpret the event.
Sol alegria, Tavinho Teixeira, Brazil, 2018, world premiere
An eccentric family on a mission travel through dictatorial Brazil to save humanity from annihilation. Cheerfully nihilistic film trip takes us past a colourful parade of sailors, whores, generals, corrupt priests and trigger-happy nuns.
YEAH, Suzuki Yohei, Japan, 2018, world premiere
A young woman, Ako, wanders around a sparsely populated housing estate in a rural city, Mito, where she spends her time speaking to objects and plants.
Confirmed for Bright Future
3/4, Ilian Metev, Bulgaria/Germany, 2017
Young pianist Mila prepares for an audition abroad. Her eccentric younger brother attempts to distract her while her father tries to keep it all together.
Cocote, Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias, Dominican Republic/Argentina/Germany/Qatar, 2017
To mourn his deceased father, an evangelical gardener is forced to participate in celebrations that are contrary to his will and his beliefs.
DRIFT, Helena Wittmann, Germany, 2017
Two women spend a weekend together at the North Sea before life (and the sea?) take them off in different directions.
Les garçons sauvages/Wild Boys, Bertrand Mandico, France, 2017
On Réunion Island, five young men enamoured with the occult commit a savage crime.
The Gulf, Emre Yeksan, Turkey/Germany/Greece, 2017
Leaving behind a ruined career and a bitter divorce, Selim returns to his hometown, Izmir. While wandering the city he runs into an old friend and finds himself gradually drawn into a new world.
Gutland, Govinda Van Maele, Luxembourg/Belgium/Germany, 2017
In this rural thriller, a stranger finds refuge and community in a small village; it quickly becomes clear he’s not the only one with secrets.
El hombre que cuida/Watchman, Alejandro Andújar, Dominican Republic/Puerto Rico/Brazil, 2017
A broken-hearted man focusses completely on his job as caretaker for a beachfront house, until a group of special guests arrive.
Life and Nothing More, Antonio Méndez Esparza, USA/Spain, 2017
On the verge of adulthood, Andrew yearns to find his purpose as a young African-American facing up to the mounting pressure of family responsibility.
Meteors, Gürcan Keltek, Turkey/Netherlands, 2017
A film about memory and disappearance - of people, places and things.
Milla, Valérie Massadian, France, 2017
With nothing to lose, Milla and Leo set up a new life for themselves in an abandoned house in a seaside town in Normandy.
The Nothing Factory, Pedro Pinho, Portugal, 2017
Under the shadow of the bankruptcy of their elevator factory, workers look for ways to regain control of their lives.
Resurrection, Kristof Hoornaert, Belgium, 2017
An old hermit (Johan Leysen) takes in a young man after finding him half naked in the forest. Despite the young man’s refusal to talk, a connection grows between them.
Soldiers. Story from Ferentari, Ivana Mladenovic, Romania/Serbia/Belgium, 2017
A contemporary love story between an ex-convict and a shy anthropologist, set in the Roma outskirts of Bucharest.
Sweating the Small Stuff, Ninomiya Ryutaro, Japan, 2017
As his surrogate mother lies gravely ill, quietly explosive Ryutaro hits an emotional edge.
Tesnota/Closeness, Kantemir Balagov, Russia, 2017
After celebrating their engagement, a young couple are kidnapped in the north of the Russian Caucasus in the late 1990s. Their families must find the money to secure their freedom.
Those Who Are Fine, Cyril Schäublin, Switzerland, 2017
Using skills gained working in a call centre, Alice makes a sinister income posing as the granddaughter of Zurich’s many lonely grandmothers.
Credit: Orlando Parfitt
Subject: Actors; Motion picture directors & producers; Motion picture festivals
Publication title: Screen International; London
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jan 5, 2018
Section: News
Publisher: Media Business Insight
Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London
Publication subject: Communications--Television And Cable, Motion Pictures
ISSN: 03074617
Source type: Trade Journals
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1985155873
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1985155873?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Media Business Insight Jan 5, 2018
Last updated: 2018-01-06
Database: Performing Arts Periodicals Database; SciTech Premium Collection
Document 7 of 474
A busy year for arrivals and departures
Author: Dunn, Graham
Publication info: Flight International ; London Vol. 193, Iss. 5618, (Jan 9-Jan 15, 2018): 15.
Abstract:
FlightGlobal data shows that 39 new airline operations were established over the first eight months of 2017; roughly matching the 37 carriers that ceased operations or suspended flights during the same period. The start-ups included some subsidiary carriers created to enter new markets, or, in the case of EasyJet Europe, to ensure continuity of operations ahead of the UK's exit from the EU. Notable arrivals included IAG's long-haul, low-cost operation Level, which launched services from Barcelona in June 2017 with flights to Buenos Aires, Los Angeles, Oakland and Punta Cana using Airbus A330s operated by sister carrier Iberia. In December, it announced Paris Orly as its second base, where it will take over the air operator's certificate of another IAG unit, OpenSkies.
Full text: OPERATIONS Bankruptcy claimed several familiar airlines in 2017, but there was no shortage of debutants ready to take their place FlightGlobal data shows that 39 new airline operations were established over the first eight months of 2017; roughly matching the 37 carriers that ceased operations or suspended flights during the same period. The start-ups included some subsidiary carriers created to enter new markets, or, in the case of EasyJet Europe, to ensure continuity of operations ahead of the UK's exit from the EU. Notable arrivals included IAG's long-haul, low-cost operation Level, which launched services from Barcelona in June 2017 with flights to Buenos Aires, Los Angeles, Oakland and Punta Cana using Airbus A330s operated by sister carrier Iberia. In December, it announced Paris Orly as its second base, where it will take over the air operator's certificate (AOC) of another IAG unit, OpenSkies. Conceived by British Airways as an all-premium operator, OpenSkies' Boeing 757s and 767s were subsequently reconfigured to include an economy- class section. The unit will cease operations to Newark and New York by mid-year. Air France-KLM launched services with its new hybrid operation Joon in early December. Initially flying from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Barcelona, Berlin, Lisbon and Porto, it will begin longhaul flights to Fortaleza in Brazil and Mahe in the Seychelles in the 2018 summer season. EURASIAN ACTIVITY In Russia, Azimuth launched flights in September, initially from Rostov-on-Don airport, before becoming one of the initial tenants at that city's new Platov airport. The carrier is now seeking authority to begin routes within the Eurasian Economic Union. Azerbaijan Airlines' new lowcost unit, Buta Airways, also started operations in September. But Swiss start-up Powdair, which had intended to begin ski services from Sion airport before the end of 2017, has pushed back its operational launch into this year, following investor issues. In Chile, Santiago-based JetSmart launched revenue services in late July, and is building up its network, initially to eight domestic destinations. The Indigo Partners- backed operator has a pair of A320s, and aims to build this fleet to at least nine but should benefit from a firm order from its parent for 430 Airbus jets, of which 70 are destined for the operator. Viva Air, meanwhile, launched its second carrier in the region, with Viva Air Peru starting operations in May, initially using two A320s on seven domestic routes. In a strong reflection of Argentina's freshly liberalised aviation industry, three new airlines made progress in launching operations during 2017. Avianca Argentina began flights on 21 November with ATR 72-600s. Low-cost start-up Flybondi took delivery of its first 737-800, and Norwegian's new subsidiary in Argentina is set to begin domestic and regional flights this year, connecting with its Buenos Aires to London Gatwick service. In the Middle East, Saudia launched a new low-cost operation, with Flyadeal having commenced domestic flights in September using the first of eight A320s being leased from Dubai Aerospace Enterprise. Omani start-up SalamAir launched services last January, and now serves domestic and international destinations. WATANIYA RETURNS Kuwaiti carrier Wataniya Airways relaunched operations with a pair of A320s, six years after ceasing flights, having regained an AOC in June. It underlined its growth plans by tentatively signing for 25 A320neos during November's Dubai air show. Air Berlin and Monarch Airlines were lost from the skies in the autumn of 2017, after longstanding financial challenges. Air Berlin was forced to open insolvency proceedings in August, after key shareholder Etihad Airways pulled the plug on further funding. The carrier halted flights under its own brand at the end of October, with EasyJet, IAG and Lufthansa successfully bidding for a number of assets. Another of Etihad's former European investments, Swiss regional operator Darwin Airline, also ceased operations, after the Gulf carrier sold its 33% stake as part of an acquisition of the Lugano-based airline by Adria Airways in July. After briefly operating as Adria Airways Switzerland, in December Darwin was ruled bankrupt by a Swiss court, prompting its liquidation. Leisure carrier Monarch found itself squeezed in the UK-Mediterranean resorts market after security concerns hit tourism demand in North Africa and Turkey, and ceased flights on 2 October. MORE EXITS Other casualties included Hawaiian operator Island Air, which halted services in November, and Venezuela's oldest airline, Aeropostal, which was forced to cease operations last August. Further challenges in the region led to InselAir's Aruba-based subsidiary filing for bankruptcy in June. In Asia, Indian carrier Air Costa had its air operator's permit suspended in June by India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation, following three months of inactivity after hitting financial trouble, and ATR operator Air Carnival also suspended flights. Efforts continue in a bid to restore the operations of Air Pegasus. A deal emerged at the start of 2017 under which Bengaluru- based Flyeasy would acquire a stake in the carrier, but this failed to reach fruition and local reports suggest it has secured a new investor and is working towards a resumption of services this year. Several other operators suspended services pending restructuring, including Mega Maldives Airlines and Turkish regional carrier Borajet.Headnote
Sidebar
Subject: Carriers; Aircraft industry; Aviation; Bankruptcy; Airline operations; Airline industry; Alliances; Shutdowns; Arrivals; Equity stake
Location: North Africa Middle East Turkey Russia United Kingdom--UK Dubai United Arab Emirates Peru Argentina Brazil Seychelles Aruba Asia Europe Azerbaijan Switzerland New York Venezuela India Chile Los Angeles California
People: De Gaulle, Charles (1890-1970)
Company / organization: Name: Adria Airways; NAICS: 481111; Name: Air Berlin; NAICS: 481111; Name: Eurasian Economic Union; NAICS: 928120; Name: Monarch Airlines; NAICS: 481111; Name: OpenSkies; NAICS: 481111; Name: Directorate General of Civil Aviation; NAICS: 926120; Name: Wataniya Airways; NAICS: 481111; Name: Etihad Airways; NAICS: 481111; Name: Mega Maldives Airlines; NAICS: 481111; Name: Dubai Aerospace Enterprise; NAICS: 488119; Name: Azerbaijan Airlines; NAICS: 481111; Name: Boeing Co; NAICS: 336411, 336413, 336414; Name: Air Costa; NAICS: 481111; Name: Air France-KLM; NAICS: 481111; Name: Island Air; NAICS: 481111
Publication title: Flight International; London
Volume: 193
Issue: 5618
Pages: 15
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jan 9-Jan 15, 2018
Section: NEWS FOCUS
Publisher: Reed Business Information UK
Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London
Publication subject: Aeronautics And Space Flight
ISSN: 00153710
Source type: Magazines
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2011560833
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2011560833?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Reed Business Information UK Jan 9-Jan 15, 2018
Last updated: 2018-03-08
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; SciTech Premium Collection
Document 8 of 474
Brazil: Basic data
Publication info: EIU ViewsWire ; New York [New York]10 Jan 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Brazil: Basic data
Land area
8,547,400 sq km. Population
206.1m (2016 estimate) Main cities
Population at last census (2012 official estimate; m) São Paulo: 11.4 Rio de Janeiro: 6.4 Salvador: 2.7 Brasília (capital): 2.6 Fortaleza: 2.5 Belo Horizonte: 2.4 Climate
Mainly tropical and sub-tropical; mild on the southern coast and in the higher regions Weather in São Paulo (altitude 760 metres)
Hottest month, December, 23-30°C; coldest month, June, 15-22°C, average monthly minimum and maximum; driest month, August; wettest month, February Language
Portuguese Measures
Metric system Currency
Real (R); average exchange rate in 2016: R3.5:US$1 Time
The states along the coast, as well as eastern Pará, Brasília-DF, Minas Gerais, Goiás and Tocantins, are three hours behind GMT (official time in Brazil); the states of Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Rondônia, most of Amazonas, Roraima and western Pará are four hours behind GMT; the states of Acre and the south-western part of Amazonas are five hours behind GMT Public holidays
January 1st (New Year's Day); February 10th-14th (Carnival); March 30th (Good Friday); April 21st (Tiradentes); May 1st (Labour Day); September 7th (Independence Day); October 12th (Nossa Senhora Aparecida, the patron saint of Brazil; also Children's Day); November 2nd (All Saints' Day); November 15th (Proclamation of the Republic); December 25th (Christmas Day)
Subject: Economic conditions; Economic indicators; Background
Location: Brazil Latin America
Publication title: EIU ViewsWire; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jan 10, 2018
Publisher: The Economist Intelligence Unit N.A., Incorporated
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Political Science--International Relations
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1986265372
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1986265372?accountid=4840
Copyright: (c) 2018 The Economist Intelligence Unit Ltd. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. No further reproduction is permitted.
Last updated: 2018-01-11
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 9 of 474
Brazil deals in UK indies’ sights
Author: Ravindran, Manori
Publication info: Broadcast ; London (Jan 10, 2018).
Abstract:
Co-production treaty between countries to open up opportunities for British firms at Natpe The co-production treaty signed last year by the UK and Brazil will open up a host of opportunities for British businesses heading to Natpe, according to execs preparing for the Miami trade show. Natpe’s schedule also features a headline conversation between Lionsgate Television Group chairman Kevin Beggs and Facebook head of market development Matt Jacobson, a session with top Wall Street analysts focusing on the landmark Disney/Fox deal and a keynote by Facebook head of global strategy Ricky Van Veen. According to Langenberg, broadcasters such as Mexican media giant Televisa, Brazilian broadcaster Globo and Argentinian network Telefe are looking for formats with good track records.Full text:
Co-production treaty between countries to open up opportunities for British firms at Natpe
The co-production treaty signed last year by the UK and Brazil will open up a host of opportunities for British businesses heading to Natpe, according to execs preparing for the Miami trade show.
The long-awaited TV and film treaty between the two countries, which was finally ratified by the Brazilian government in April, will act as a shot in the arm for British firms descending on the three-day Latin America-focused conference and market.
Ana Langenberg
Under the treaty, British producers will be able to retain rights for shows they make for Brazilian broadcasters, having previously relinquished the majority of their IP in local co-productions. They will also have easier access to Brazil’s tax incentives and state support for TV production.
NBC Universal International Studios formats boss Ana Langenberg told Broadcast that the treaty will “absolutely” make a difference.
A Brazilian delegation met with NBCU-owned Downton Abbey indie Carnival Films in London in late November for “a very interesting conversation about future prospects”, she added.
“We’re figuring out how to work together. It’s early days, but our creatives and producers will be interested in exploring this,” she said.
“Netflix and Amazon will have a huge presence”
JP Bommel, Natpe
Natpe managing director and chief operating officer JP Bommel said Brazilian businesses would have a significant presence at the market, which kicks off at Miami Beach’s Fontainebleau and Eden Roc hotels on 16 January.
“We are working with the Brazilians and putting co-production meetings together in light of that agreement. There’s a willingness and understanding that there are opportunities here,” he said.
Natpe - which has ‘A Changing Industry in a Changing World’ as its 2018 theme - will also host an inaugural Streaming Summit in a bid to connect delegates with major SVoD and OTT players.
“We have the FAANG [Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google] population - Netflix and Amazon will have a huge presence,” said Bommel. “Last year, we had a few panels with the SVoD players, but this year those companies will be well represented.”
Apple debut
Broadcast understands that Apple will also attend the event - marking one of its first market forays since entering the content game last year.
Former Channel 4 chief creative officer Jay Hunt officially starts her role as London-based creative director at the digital giant this month.
Natpe’s schedule also features a headline conversation between Lionsgate Television Group chairman Kevin Beggs and Facebook head of market development Matt Jacobson, a session with top Wall Street analysts focusing on the landmark Disney/Fox deal and a keynote by Facebook head of global strategy Ricky Van Veen.
“We are looking to form a roadmap for the next generation,” said Bommel. “For us, it’s about connecting the dots between international production, financing and creative opportunities.”
”The big shiny floor Saturday and Sunday night show is definitely something that audiences want to see”
Ana Langenberg, NBC Universal International
Scripted programmes, such as telenovelas and mini-series, as well as formats, will form a key part of the equation for many UK businesses appealing to Latin American buyers in Miami.
“Scripted is very strong in LatAm, and we feel that broadcasters are looking for big titles to adapt,” said Langenberg. “The big shiny floor Saturday and Sunday night show is also definitely something that audiences want to see.”
According to Langenberg, broadcasters such as Mexican media giant Televisa, Brazilian broadcaster Globo and Argentinian network Telefe are looking for formats with good track records. She will look to sell US formats including World Of Dance, Making It and Suits to Latin American buyers.
“Economies in territories such as Mexico and Brazil are challenging and broadcasters are looking at what’s working in other territories,” added Langenberg. “They will generally avoid new brands and focus on established titles.”
However, the exec warned that exports from Latin America still follow “old formulas” and are yet to have a major impact in Europe.
“People think [LatAm] shows are not as sophisticated for the Western European market and the key territories of Germany, UK, Netherlands and France,” she said.
“Those shows have not translated well. Even for territories in the southern European countries like Portugal and Italy, they haven’t found an audience.”
Credit: Manori Ravindran
Location: Italy Mexico Netherlands United States--US Germany United Kingdom--UK Latin America Portugal Brazil France Europe
People: Van Veen, Ricky
Company / organization: Name: Carnival Films; NAICS: 512120; Name: Lionsgate Television; NAICS: 512110; Name: NBCUniversal Inc; NAICS: 512110, 515120; Name: Netflix Inc; NAICS: 512120, 518210, 532230; Name: Facebook Inc; NAICS: 518210, 519130; Name: Google Inc; NAICS: 334310, 519130
Publication title: Broadcast; London
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jan 10, 2018
Section: News
Publisher: Media Business Insight
Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London
Publication subject: Communications--Television And Cable, Communications--Radio
ISSN: 00402788
Source type: Trade Journals
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1992669289
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1992669289?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Media Business Insight Jan 10, 2018
Last updated: 2018-01-31
Database: SciTech Premium Collection
Document 10 of 474
Music: Radiohead's Ed O'Brien talks about his future
Publication info: Northern Echo ; Darlington (UK) [Darlington (UK)]11 Jan 2018.
Abstract:
[...]the band, who formed at an Oxford boys' school in 1985, have continued to enjoy critical and chart success. [...]I was very lucky because I had two role models in Johnny Marr [of The Smiths] and Neil Finn [of Crowded House fame] and I saw how they were with their families." The band's guitarist and vocalist has been recording his carnival-inspired solo album, his first record outside Radiohead, after living with his family in Brazil for a year.Full text: IT'S not a subject stars usually get into, but Radiohead's Ed O'Brien is sitting in a recording studio talking about his dreams. Radiohead at Glastonbury in 2011 The guitarist, ranked one of the best of all time, thinks society misses a trick by "dismissing them as flights of fancy" and failing to grasp their true importance. "Do you ever wake up and feel compelled to do something? Or you've had a dream so real it feels it's happened?" the Oxford-born musician asks. His latest project, designing a Sustainer Stratocaster guitar, with Fender, only came to fruition when he woke one morning and decided he had "to act". "I woke and thought, 'This has to be made'. If I'd ruminated on it, I'd have forgotten about it. I acted on that impulse," he says. The 49-year-old believes "you can almost make the things that you form in your head" happen. "I like dreaming at night and dreaming during the day. I always tell young musicians and students, 'Don't be afraid to dream'. Old civilisations took great importance from dreams. Dream time is an important part of my life," says Ed, who is known for creating new sounds by stretching his instruments to the limits. It is 25 years since Radiohead's debut single, Creep, made waves in 1992 and just over 20 years since they released the groundbreaking album OK Computer. Since then the band, who formed at an Oxford boys' school in 1985, have continued to enjoy critical and chart success. Their last album, A Moon Shaped Pool, topped the charts in 2016, and in 2017 they headlined Glastonbury, their "spiritual home", for a third time. But Ed says that at one point he questioned his future with the world-famous quintet, fronted by Thom Yorke, with drummer Philip Selway, and brothers Jonny [guitarist-keyboard player] and Colin Greenwood [bass]. Then, the answer didn't come in a dream, but in the form of some sound advice from two musicians - and his wife, Susan Kobrin. The father-of-two "struggled when the kids were little", juggling fatherhood with going away on long tours. "I come from a split family, so the most important thing in my life has always been making amends for that, wanting to have a family and stay together and to create an environment where the family didn't fall apart. Going away from long periods doesn't assist that," he says with refreshing honesty. "So when the children were born I had that and an incredible biological primal pull just to be there." His second child, daughter Oona, was born in 2006, at around the same time as a six-week tour of America. "I was like, 'I don't think I can do this anymore. I don't want to do it anymore anyway'," he says. "But I was very lucky because I had two role models in Johnny Marr [of The Smiths] and Neil Finn [of Crowded House fame] and I saw how they were with their families." They put things into perspective, telling the musician to remember that when he is with his family, he is really there. "Neil said, 'When your kids are 14 or 15, they're not going to thank you if you leave Radiohead to bring them up.They'll be like, 'What the f*** are you doing?' I thought that was very good advice." And he adds: "My wife said, 'You don't want to do that, and I don't want you to do that!'" While life on the road can be testing for any band, Ed has respect for those doing a far less glamorous job. "Motherhood is the most taken-for-granted job on the whole planet and most men have no idea," he says. "The easiest thing is to go out to work. Obviously people have challenging jobs, but the emotional needs of some other being, that is the hardest thing." The treatment of women in the film world dominates the headlines but Ed criticises what he perceives as "a fundamental disrespect for women everywhere", from advertising to the music industry. "There's an incredible imbalance in the world at the moment and, largely, I think it's because of a gender imbalance," he says. He has been reading up on a tribe in north America, where a council of older women had all the power, because they "were far less likely to go to war". "I was fortunate that I lived with my mum and sister, my parents split up, so I was very aware of the strong female," he adds. We speak as it is announced that a Canadian coroner will investigate the sudden stage collapse that led to the death of the band's drum technician, UK citizen Scott Johnson, hours before a Radiohead concert in Toronto in 2012. Ed says the band are determined the development will finally lead to answers and that the delay has been disgraceful. "We're not going to let this go away. You want to make sure that somebody is answerable to what happened," he says. "This shouldn't have happened and should never happen again and somebody lost their life. Scott's parents need some answers." The band's guitarist and vocalist has been recording his carnival-inspired solo album, his first record outside Radiohead, after living with his family in Brazil for a year. He will be back in the studio in the new year, just over 10 years since Radiohead surprised their fans by asking them to pay what they wanted for their latest album, In Rainbows. They announced online: "It's up to you" - and then added: "No really, it's up to you", causing shock waves in the music world as it grappled with declining revenues. Ed says the music industry is "clawing its way up" from its lowest ebb, now that it is starting to make money from streaming. Sound quality suffered as the industry "got hollowed out" during seismic changes which saw cash drain out of the industry and recording studios lose some of their best engineers. He is positive about the changes which have come with streaming, saying: "One of the things I really like now is that everything's in and nothing is out. People are into all sorts of stuff. There just isn't the tribal ghettoising of music that there was when I was growing up." As for Radiohead themselves, they are planning a tour to South America. He says the band have a "deep friendship, a deep bond" and are "like family". "You do it as long as it feels good. It's not always felt good but that's the nature of things. But there's a deep love and a deep appreciation of what we all do, individually and collectively." Ed O'Brien has launched his Signature Sustainer Stratocaster in collaboration with Fender. For more details visit www.fender.com
Subject: Families & family life; Bands; Musicians & conductors; Music industry; Musical performances
Publication title: Northern Echo; Darlington (UK)
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jan 11, 2018
Publisher: Newsquest (North East) Ltd.
Place of publication: Darlington (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, Darlington (UK)
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--Great Britain
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1986501782
Document URL: https ://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1986501782?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Newsquest (North East) Ltd. Jan 11, 2018
Last updated: 2018-01-12
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 11 of 474
Antonio Sabato Jr.'s risque film roles have conservatives questioning his congressional candidacy
Author: Mehta, Seema
Publication info: Los Angeles Times (Online) , Los Angeles: Tribune Interactive, LLC. Jan 16, 2018.
Abstract:
Some Republicans in his district, which includes most of Ventura County and has been represented by Rep. Julia Brownley (D-Westlake Village) since 2013, are saying movie roles in which Sabato simulated sex with a man and appeared nude disqualify him from representing the GOP. Follow California politics by signing up for our email newsletter » Republican Scott Brown was elected to the Massachusetts Legislature and the U.S. Senate many years after he posed nude, shielding himself with his arm for Cosmopolitan magazine’s “America’s Sexiest Man” contest in 1982. May the first person who has never sinned cast the first stone,” said Kerry Nelson, a small-business owner and the immediate past president of the Conejo Valley Republican Women Federated.Full text: Antonio Sabato Jr. is best known as a soap opera star and Calvin Klein underwear model. But parts of his acting career are raising eyebrows among some conservatives as the Republican and early supporter of President Trump runs for Congress in California. Some Republicans in his district, which includes most of Ventura County and has been represented by Rep. Julia Brownley (D-Westlake Village) since 2013, are saying movie roles in which Sabato simulated sex with a man and appeared nude disqualify him from representing the GOP. Ret. Air Force Maj. Jeffrey Burum, another Republican in the race, deemed the movies “pornography” and called on Sabato to end his campaign. “His behavior is inconsistent with anything I would want from a congressional leader. It’s also inconsistent with a party which has always favored traditional family values, which do not include porn,” Burum said. Sabato and his campaign disputed the description of his work as pornographic. Charles Moran, a Sabato advisor and the former president of California Log Cabin Republicans, said that while Ventura County may be more conservative than neighboring Los Angeles County, many people in the entertainment industry live there and are unlikely to care about Sabato’s previous roles. “They know what it takes to be a successful actor in the industry, and anybody trying to make Antonio Sabato Jr.’s career and job choices salacious does so without really knowing the value of the craft,” he said, predicting the controversy would have no impact on the race. “For a long time, gays have played straight, straights have played gay. A good actor can do this, and many do. Antonio Sabato Jr. is no different.” Sabato noted the movies “Testosterone” and “Deadly Skies,” which were both filmed more than 10 years ago, are part of a three-decade-long acting career. “I’ve done many movies. I’ve done things I’m proud of and things I’m not so proud of, that’s just the way any actor works,” he said. “They don’t know what kind of congressman I’ll be, the work ethic I have.” Actor Antonio Sabato Jr. to run for Congress against Rep. Julia Brownley » Sabato, 45, is best known for roles on “General Hospital” and “Melrose Place” in the 1990s, and “The Bold and the Beautiful” from 2005 to 2006. He has appeared in many other scripted television shows and movies, music videos and reality programs. As first reported on the Ventura County website Citizens Journal, Sabato’s critics are protesting his roles in two films where he plays a gay man. In 2003’s “Testosterone,” Sabato plays an Argentine man who mysteriously deserts his writer boyfriend. He appears fully nude in the film. Three years later, Sabato played an Air Force officer who was dismissed under the military policy of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in “Deadly Skies.” The film, about an asteroid on a collision course with Earth, contains a scene where Sabato appears partly nude and simulates having sex with another man. Unlike films that would traditionally be considered pornography, the movies starred mainstream Hollywood actors, including Jennifer Coolidge, Michael Moriarty, David Sutcliffe, Rae Dawn Chong and Sonia Braga, and don’t comprise solely sexual content. “Testosterone” premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and was reviewed by the New York Times, which described it as “a shaky comic noir larded with soft-core sex.” Sabato is running for Congress in the 26th District. Brownley narrowly won reelection in 2014, but then overwhelmingly won in 2016. A Brownley spokesman declined comment on the matter. The area used to be closely split between Republicans and Democrats, but has grown more liberal in recent years, with Hillary Clinton winning 58% of the district’s votes in 2016 to Trump’s 36%. Sabato is a vocal supporter of Trump and spoke on his behalf at the Republican National Convention in 2016, efforts that he said have hampered his acting career. “I was blacklisted from Hollywood,” Sabato said, adding he had no regret for supporting Trump and has been to the White House since the election. “I’m proud of our president. Look at everything he has been able to do in such a short amount of time,” he said. Critics also note that Sabato posed for Playgirl magazine. He appeared on the cover and inside a 1993 issue devoted to “Soap Studs.” He did not appear nude and was covered with strategically placed bubbles. Sabato isn’t the first political candidate who has posed nude or acted out sex scenes. Follow California politics by signing up for our email newsletter » Republican Scott Brown was elected to the Massachusetts Legislature and the U.S. Senate many years after he posed nude, shielding himself with his arm for Cosmopolitan magazine’s “America’s Sexiest Man” contest in 1982. Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger acted in many love scenes and appeared partly nude during his long acting career. He briefly appeared fully nude onscreen — blurry and shot from a distance — in the first installment of the “Terminator” franchise. He was regularly seen wearing little clothing during his bodybuilding career. And during the 2003 campaign, a two-decade-old Playboy video emerged that included footage of Schwarzenegger dancing provocatively with scantily clad women at Carnival in Brazil. Rob Stutzman, a former top adviser to Schwarzenegger, said none of these appearances mattered to voters, who were familiar with the candidate as an actor and a bodybuilder. But, he said, the same cannot be said about Sabato. “With Antonio Sabato Jr., very few people know who he is, you’re still in the first-impression stage with what voters know about you. Whereas with Arnold, no one was surprised he once danced with Carnival girls wearing dental floss in Rio,” he said. “The type of nudity ... in a movie like ‘Terminator’ isn’t all that far removed from him standing in bikini bottoms in the Metropolitan Museum of New York as a piece of living art.” But some Republican voters noted that the movies took place many years ago. “There are some people that are concerned about it, but my thinking is go back to biblical times: May the first person who has never sinned cast the first stone,” said Kerry Nelson, a small-business owner and the immediate past president of the Conejo Valley Republican Women Federated. “It was so many years ago, and it was his movie career, not his lifestyle.” For the latest on national and California politics, follow @LATSeema on Twitter. Credit: Seema Mehta
Subject: Presidents; Testosterone; Careers; Motion pictures; Actors; Pornography & obscenity; Bodybuilding
Publication title: Los Angeles Times (Online); Los Angeles
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jan 16, 2018
Section: Politics
Publisher: Tribune Interactive, LLC
Place of publication: Los Angeles
Country of publication: United States, Los Angeles
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Blogs, Podcasts, & Websites
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1988131082
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1988131082?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Tribune Interactive, LLC Jan 16, 2018
Last updated: 2018-01-19
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 12 of 474
GOP hopeful blasted over risque roles; Rival calls on actor to exit House race in Ventura County.
Author: Mehta, Seema
Publication info: Los Angeles Times ; Los Angeles, Calif. [Los Angeles, Calif]17 Jan 2018: B.1.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Antonio Sabato Jr. is best known as a soap opera star and Calvin Klein underwear model. But parts of his acting career are raising eyebrows among some conservatives as the Republican and early supporter of President Trump runs for Congress in California. Some Republicans in his district, which includes most of Ventura County and has been represented by Rep. Julia Brownley (D-Westlake Village) since 2013, are saying movie roles in which Sabato simulated sex with a man and appeared nude disqualify him from representing the GOP. Retired Air Force Maj. Jeffrey Burum, another Republican in the race, deemed the movies "pornography" and called on Sabato to end his campaign. "His behavior is inconsistent with anything I would want from a congressional leader. It's also inconsistent with a party which has always favored traditional family values, which do not include porn," Burum said. Sabato and his campaign disputed the description of his work as pornographic. Charles Moran, a Sabato advisor and the former president of California Log Cabin Republicans, said that while Ventura County may be more conservative than neighboring Los Angeles County, many people in the entertainment industry live there and are unlikely to care about Sabato's previous roles. "They know what it takes to be a successful actor in the industry, and anybody trying to make Antonio Sabato Jr.'s career and job choices salacious does so without really knowing the value of the craft," he said, predicting the controversy would have no effect on the race. "For a long time, gays have played straight, straights have played gay. A good actor can do this, and many do. Antonio Sabato Jr. is no different." Sabato noted the movies "Testosterone" and "Deadly Skies," which were both filmed more than 10 years ago, are part of a three-decade-long acting career. "I've done many movies. I've done things I'm proud of and things I'm not so proud of, that's just the way any actor works," he said. "They don't know what kind of congressman I'll be, the work ethic I have." Sabato, 45, is best known for roles on "General Hospital" and "Melrose Place" in the 1990s, and "The Bold and the Beautiful" from 2005 to 2006. He has appeared in many other scripted television shows and movies, music videos and reality programs. As first reported on the Ventura County website Citizens Journal, Sabato's critics are protesting his roles in two films in which he plays a gay man. In 2003's "Testosterone," Sabato plays an Argentine man who mysteriously deserts his writer boyfriend. He appears fully nude in the film. Three years later, Sabato played an Air Force officer who was dismissed under the military policy of Don't Ask, Don't Tell in "Deadly Skies." The film, about an asteroid on a collision course with Earth, contains a scene in which Sabato appears partly nude and simulates having sex with another man. Unlike traditional pornographic films, the movies starred mainstream Hollywood actors, including Jennifer Coolidge, Michael Moriarty, David Sutcliffe, Rae Dawn Chong and Sonia Braga, and don't comprise solely sexual content. "Testosterone" premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and was reviewed by the New York Times, which described it as "a shaky comic noir larded with soft-core sex." Sabato is running for Congress in the 26th District. Brownley narrowly won reelection in 2014, but then overwhelmingly won in 2016. A Brownley spokesman declined to comment on the matter. The area used to be closely split between Republicans and Democrats, but has grown more liberal in recent years, with Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton winning 58% of the district's votes in 2016 to Trump's 36%. Sabato is a vocal supporter of Trump and spoke on his behalf at the Republican National Convention in 2016, efforts that he said have hampered his acting career. "I was blacklisted from Hollywood," Sabato said, adding he had no regret for supporting Trump and has been to the White House since the election. "I'm proud of our president. Look at everything he has been able to do in such a short amount of time," he said. Critics also note that Sabato posed for Playgirl magazine. He appeared on the cover and inside a 1993 issue devoted to "Soap Studs." He did not appear nude and was covered with strategically placed bubbles. Sabato isn't the first political candidate who has posed nude or acted out sex scenes. Republican Scott Brown was elected to the Massachusetts Legislature and the U.S. Senate many years after he posed nude, shielding himself with his arm for Cosmopolitan magazine's "America's Sexiest Man" contest in 1982. Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger acted in many love scenes and appeared partly nude during his long acting career. He briefly appeared fully nude onscreen -- blurry and shot from a distance -- in the first installment of the "Terminator" franchise. He was regularly seen wearing little clothing during his bodybuilding career. And during the 2003 campaign, a two-decade-old Playboy video emerged that included footage of Schwarzenegger dancing provocatively with scantily clad women at Carnival in Brazil. Rob Stutzman, a former top adviser to Schwarzenegger, said none of these appearances mattered to voters, who were familiar with the candidate as an actor and a bodybuilder. But, he said, the same cannot be said about Sabato. "With Antonio Sabato Jr., very few people know who he is, you're still in the first-impression stage with what voters know about you. Whereas with Arnold, no one was surprised he once danced with Carnival girls wearing dental floss in Rio," he said. "The type of nudity ... in a movie like 'Terminator' isn't all that far removed from him standing in bikini bottoms in the Metropolitan Museum of New York as a piece of living art." But some Republican voters noted that the movies took place many years ago. "There are some people that are concerned about it, but my thinking is go back to biblical times: May the first person who has never sinned cast the first stone," said Kerry Nelson, a small-business owner and the immediate past president of the Conejo Valley Republican Women Federated. "It was so many years ago, and it was his movie career, not his lifestyle." -- Twitter: @LATSeema Caption: PHOTO: ACTOR ANTONIO Sabato Jr.'s portrayal of gay men and film nudity disqualify him from representing the GOP in the U.S. House, some conservatives say. PHOTOGRAPHER:Mark J. Terrill Associated Press
Subject: Presidents; Testosterone; Motion pictures; Careers; Actors; Gays & lesbians; Pornography & obscenity; Bodybuilding
Identifier / keyword: SABATO, ANTONIO JR CALIFORNIA POLITICAL CANDIDATES ELECTIONS (2018) REPUBLICAN PARTY VENTURA COUNTY
Publication title: Los Angeles Times; Los Angeles, Calif.
Pages: B.1
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jan 17, 2018
Section: California; Part B; Local Desk
Publisher: Tribune Interactive, LLC
Place of publication: Los Angeles, Calif.
Country of publication: United States, Los Angeles, Calif.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
ISSN: 04583035
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1988002501
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1988002501?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Los Angeles Times Jan 17, 2018
Last updated: 2018-01-17
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 13 of 474
A German hacker offers a rare look inside the secretive world of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks: Andy Müller-Maguhn is of keen interest to Western intelligence agencies investigating how the Russians moved hacked DNC emails to WikiLeaks in 2016.
Author: Nakashima, Ellen; Mekhennet, Souad; Jaffe, Greg
Publication info: The Washington Post (Online) , Washington, D.C.: WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post. Jan 17, 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: LONDON — The passengers stepping off the Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt, Germany, last month head straight for the passport-scanning machines that allow European residents to enter Britain quickly and without any human interaction. A lone figure in a black hoodie and jeans breaks off from the pack. "Too many biometric details," says Andy Müller-Maguhn, eyeing the cameras on the timesaving devices. He has come here, as he does most months, to meet with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, the world's most controversial purveyor of government secrets. For most of the past six years, Assange has been confined to the Ecuadoran Embassy in London, fearful that if he leaves he will be extradited to the United States for prosecution under the Espionage Act. Ecuador recently granted Assange citizenship, but British officials said he is still subject to arrest if he leaves the embassy. Müller-Maguhn is one of Assange's few connections to the outside world. He typically brings Assange books, clothes or movies. Once in 2016, he delivered a thumb drive that he says contained personal messages for the WikiLeaks founder, who for security reasons has stopped using email. These visits have caught the attention of U.S. and European spy chiefs, who have struggled to understand how Assange's organization operates and how exactly WikiLeaks came to possess a trove of hacked Democratic Party emails that the group released at key moments in the 2016 presidential campaign. The three major U.S. intelligence agencies — the CIA, the FBI and the National Security Agency — assessed "with high confidence" that Russia relayed to WikiLeaks material it had hacked from the Democratic National Committee and senior Democratic officials. And last year, then-FBI Director James B. Comey said that the bureau believes the transfer was made using a "cut-out," or a human intermediary or a series of intermediaries. Exactly how the Russians delivered the email trove to WikiLeaks is the subject of an ongoing examination by U.S. and European intelligence officials. As part of their effort to understand the group's operations, these officials have taken an intense interest in Müller-Maguhn, who visits Assange monthly, U.S. officials said. Müller-Maguhn insists that he was never in possession of the material before it was put online and that he did not transport it. "That would be insane," he says. U.S. officials who once dismissed WikiLeaks as a little more than an irritating propaganda machine and Assange as an antiestablishment carnival barker now take a far darker view of the group. "It's time to call out WikiLeaks for what it really is: a nonstate hostile intelligence service," CIA Director Mike Pompeo said in the spring after the group released documents describing CIA hacking tools.In December, he doubled down on that assessment, describing WikiLeaks as a national security threat and suggesting that Assange cannot protect those who pass him state secrets. "He ought to be a bit less confident about that," Pompeo said. In an interview at the Ecuadoran Embassy last month, Assange insisted that Müller-Maguhn never possessed the hacked DNC emails and blasted Pompeo's statementsas "very strange and bombastic." Müller-Maguhn is more cautious. "How many of you wouldn't be scared s---less by the head of the CIA declaring you the next target?" he asks. The 46-year-old hacker moves through Heathrow Airport like a man who knows that powerful governments are tracking his every move. A Washington Post reporter travels with him as he goes through passport control. He switches off his cellphone, fearful that British immigration officials have technology that can steal his data. Müller-Maguhn could enter the United Kingdom with his German identification card but prefers to use his passport. "The ID card has my address on it," he says. A heavy-set immigration officer looks over Müller-Maguhn's passport and stares for several seconds at a computer screen. "Why are you in the U.K?" he asks. "I'm visiting people," Müller-Maguhn replies. The officer pecks at his computer. Necks crane to catch a glimpse of the man clad in all black who is holding up the normally brisk line of passengers headed to early morning business meetings. After a few minutes, the officer waves through Müller-Maguhn, who is walking toward the exit when the officer remembers one last question. "Sir, sir, where are you traveling from again?" he shouts. "Frankfurt," Müller-Maguhn replies. And with that he is gone. Behind him, the immigration officer is still typing. The travelers who briefly took notice of Müller-Maguhn are back staring at their phones or marching toward their destinations. Müller-Maguhn heads for the Heathrow Express into London. Into the embassy The roots of Müller-Maguhn's relationship with Assange trace back to his teenage years in the 1980s when his walk to school in Hamburg took him past the offices of the Chaos Computer Club. The group embodied postwar Germany's anti-fascist convictions and the hacker underground's libertarian ethos. Now the largest hacker club in Europe, it bills itself as "a galactic community of life forms independent of age, sex, race or society orientation that strives across borders for freedom of information." Müller-Maguhn soon became a friend, confidant and adviser to the group's founder, Wau Holland. "They were like a strange couple," said Peter Glaser, a club member, journalist and friend of both men. "Andy was very young and behaved like an adult, and Wau was older and behaved like a child." Müller-Maguhn later parlayed his interest in computers and surveillance into a business that he co-founded in 2003 making encrypted phones. He had hoped to sell the phones to journalists and dissidents but quickly discovered that military and intelligence agencies in Europe, Asia and the Middle East were the only clients who understood the technology and were willing to pay for it. "This was during the time I was following the path of capitalism," he said with a smile during one of several lengthy interviews in Berlin. Müller-Maguhn spent 10 years selling the phones before leaving the company. "You can imagine, I know really strange people in really strange places," he adds. These days, Müller-Maguhn says, he runs a data center that hosts websites and manages email for businesses. He also works as a security consultant, helping companies and governments safeguard their secrets. One of his clients is in China, a state known for its suppression of the Internet and its surveillance of dissidents. By Müller-Maguhn's calculus, the nominally communist government is less prone to violence overseas and less of a threat than the United States is. "They don't have the wish to apply their standards to the rest of the planet or have others dance to their music," he says. "So there's a big difference." In recent years, Müller-Maguhn's consulting and advocacy work has carried him all over the world, including Moscow, where in 2016 and 2017 he attended a security conference organized by the Russian Defense Ministry. On his way into London for his meeting with Assange, Müller-Maguhn casually mentions that he is just back from a three-day trip to Brazil. "It was business-related," he says, declining to elaborate. Müller-Maguhn hops out of a cab in Knightsbridge, a posh section of London that's home to Harrods department store, the Ecuadoran Embassy and Assange. On this cold December day, the stores are decked out for the Christmas season. Müller-Maguhn raises a camera with a telephoto lens and aims it at a building down the street from the brick embassy where Assange has been holed up since 2012. The shutter on his Nikon camera clicks as he snaps a few shots, hoping to spot surveillance equipment pointed at Assange and the embassy. Women in fur coats rush by him as Bentleys and Rolls-Royces roll past on the busy road. Müller-Maguhn moves down the sidewalk to get a better angle, takes some more pictures and then slings the Nikon over his shoulder. Farther down the block and closer to the embassy, he points up toward an apartment building where he suspects that the Spaniards, angry about Assange's tweets in support of Catalan separatists, may have set up a surveillance team. Then he bounds up the steps of the building that houses the Ecuadoran Embassy, takes one last glance over his shoulder and rings the bell of the front door, where a guard immediately recognizes him and welcomes him inside. Müller-Maguhn met Assange through the Chaos Computer Club in 2007 when the WikiLeaks founder was seeking support for his then-fledgling organization. In those early days, Assange described his creation as a group committed to the mission of publishing original source material so citizens of the world could see "evidence of the truth" about global corporations and their governments. Just past the doors to the embassy, a guard asks Müller-Maguhn to turn over all electronic devices: cameras, mobile phones, as well as his watch and car keys. "The last time, they even looked into the fruit I was bringing," Müller-Maguhn says. "These guys have their job. They have their instructions. So I am not complaining." Since WikiLeaks' early days, Assange's circle of contacts has contracted significantly. Some allies, such as Daniel Domscheit-Berg, who first invited Assange to the Chaos Computer Club and signed on as WikiLeaks' spokesman, broke with WikiLeaks in 2010 after Assange released hundreds of thousands of pages of U.S. military documents without redacting the names of local Afghans who had helped the military and could be targeted by the Taliban. Other backers were put off by Assange's legal troubles and allegations of sexual assault in Sweden or his Manichaean view of the world. Still others alleged that the group allowed itself to be used as a tool by the Russians in their campaign to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election. "Look, he has messed up with so many people, I have no idea how many people he has left as friends," Müller-Maguhn says. Assange continues to fear that he will be prosecuted by the United States and as a result is afraid to leave the embassy, saying that doing so would lead to his extradition. The Justice Department is considering a case against him, according to people familiar with the matter. Several months ago, Domscheit-Berg said, the FBI sought an interview with him in connection with a long-running grand jury investigation of WikiLeaks' publication of State Department cables. Domscheit-Berg said in an interview that he rebuffed the request. "No matter the differences that Julian and I had, I'm not going to talk to anybody about what happened," he said. WikiLeaks is ‘always just chaos’ As WikiLeaks has contracted and Assange has retreated from public view, it has become harder for Western intelligence agencies to get a sense of how the group operates. An internal CIA report from November said the U.S. intelligence community has "gained few good insights into WikiLeaks' inner workings." The agency predicted that Assange's negative views of Washington would lead the group to continue to "disproportionately" target the United States. Former WikiLeaks supporters say the group is governed by Assange's whims. "The way to think of it is always just chaos," said one former WikiLeaks activist who spoke on the condition of anonymity to offer a frank opinion and avoid retribution from Assange. "There aren't any systems. There aren't any procedures — no formal roles, no working hours. It's all just Julian and whatever he feels like." During the 2016 campaign, Assange put out word that he wanted material on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. "He was kind of asking everybody, 'Can we get something for the election?' " Müller-Maguhn recalls. Assange signs off on all WikiLeaks publications but does not review everything that comes to the group. "For security reasons, he does not want that," Müller-Maguhn says. Müller-Maguhn, though, is vague about WikiLeaks' internal workings. A former WikiLeaks associate said that Müller-Maguhn and a colleague oversaw submissions through WikiLeaks' anonymous submission server in 2016 — although Müller-Maguhn denies such involvement. Asked to explain the submission review process, he replies, "I don't want to." The only reliable way to contact Assange, he says, is through Direct Message on Twitter. "He seems to live on Twitter," adds Müller-Maguhn, who doesn't hide his disdain for the platform. "On Twitter you follow people, and that's what German history forbids you to do," he says. The size of WikiLeaks' staff and its finances are also murky. Neither Müller-Maguhn nor Assange will say how many people work for the group or where they are located. "It seems to be a rather small team," Müller-Maguhn says. WikiLeaks has amassed a stash of bitcoin, a digital currency that enables anonymous, bank-free transactions. As of this week, the stockpile is worth about $18 million, although in late December, with the currency's spike in value, the group was sitting on $25 million, according to public online ledgers that record such transactions. Over the past several years, the Wau Holland Foundation, which was started in 2003 after the founder of the Chaos Computer Club died, collected hundreds of thousands of dollars for Assange's group. Müller-Maguhn sits on the board of the foundation, which seeks to promote "freedom of information and civil courage in various forms." He says the foundation has provided support for some of WikiLeaks' releases, such as last year's "Vault 7" disclosure of CIA hacking tools. He describes the Vault 7 releases as a public service, adding that the CIA was "messing up other people's computers and making it look like someone else had done it." To Assange, any suggestion that Müller-Maguhn may have served as an intermediary to deliver the DNC emails is "a lame attempt" by U.S. intelligence agencies to hurt the Wau Holland Foundation, which is a key conduit for tax-free donations in Europe. The threat is all the more significant because the only other source of tax-exempt donations, the U.S.-based Freedom of the Press Foundation, has cut ties to WikiLeaks. Müller-Maguhn says he cannot say with certainty what was on the USB drive that he delivered to Assange. "How can I prove what was on there?" he says. "I cannot." But he adds that it would be risky and impractical to deliver sensitive files by hand, rather than through encrypted channels. "A classical walk-in? You saw too many movies from the 1970s," he says. These days, Müller-Maguhn describes his visits to the embassy as motivated by an increasingly rare commodity in Assange's world: friendship. Assange's visitors include celebrities, such as actress Pamela Anderson, and politicians, such as Nigel Farage, a vocal advocate for Britain's exit from the European Union, and Dana Rohrabacher, a GOP congressman from California. When he talks to visitors, Assange turns on a white noise generator in the embassy conference room to counter listening devices. Above the door, he points out a surveillance camera and indicates that sensitive messages should be communicated only via handwritten notes, shielding the text from the camera with a hand or notepad cover. On July 3, 2016, Müller-Maguhn visited Assange at the embassy to celebrate Assange's 45th birthday. Inside the brick building, Ecuadoran children, dressed in traditional garb, serenaded Assange with little guitars and pipe flutes. As the children sang, Müller-Maguhn's mind flashed forward. "I had this s---ty impression of me standing there watching 50-year-olds making music for us, and Julian would still be there," he said. After about two hours inside the embassy last month, Müller-Maguhn emerges from the building, carrying his black leather satchel, stuffed with documents, and his Nikon camera. He quickly makes his way through the Christmas crowds and back to Heathrow Airport for an evening flight home to Germany. He tries to minimize his time in Britain. "I don't like to stay overnight in a country that is hostile toward me," he says. Jaffe reported from Washington. Greg Miller, Rachel Weiner and Julie Tate in Washington, Karla Adam in London and Stefan Pauly in Berlin contributed to this report. Credit: By Ellen Nakashima;Souad Mekhennet;Greg Jaffe
Subject: Electronic mail systems; Cameras; Convictions; Hackers; Surveillance; National security; Motion picture directors & producers; Immigration; Diplomatic & consular services; Identification documents
People: Assange, Julian Paul
Publication title: The Washington Post (Online); Washington, D.C.
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jan 17, 2018
Dateline: 2018011716035800
Section: NATIONAL-SECURITY
Publisher: WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post
Place of publication: Washington, D.C.
Country of publication: United Sta tes, Washington, D.C.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
ISSN: 26419599
Source type: Blogs, Podcasts, & Websites
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1988384601
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1988384601?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post Jan 17, 2018
Last updated: 2018-12-05
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 14 of 474
Brazil: WHO: All of Sao Paulo State at Risk for Yellow Fever
Publication info: Asia News Monitor ; Bangkok [Bangkok]18 Jan 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: The World Health Organization has added all of Sao Paulo state to its list of areas at risk for yellow fever. That puts the megacity of Sao Paulo on the list and means that the organization is recommending that all international visitors to the state be vaccinated. Tuesday's announcement comes as an outbreak is gathering steam in Brazil ahead of Carnival, a major draw for foreign tourists. The WHO says 11 human cases have been confirmed through last week and hundreds more found in monkeys. Much of Brazil is considered at risk for yellow fever, but the coast was largely considered safe. Last year, however, Brazil saw an unusually large outbreak of the disease, including in areas not previously at risk. In response, Brazil rushed to vaccinate millions of people. - VOA
Subject: Fever
Publication title: Asia News Monitor; Bangkok
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jan 18, 2018
Section: General News
Publisher: Thai News Service Group
Place of publication: Bangkok
Country of publication: Thailand, Bangkok
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--Philippines, General Interest Periodicals--Vietnam, General Interest Periodicals--Thailand
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1988108957
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1988108957?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Thai News Service Group Jan 18, 2018
Last updated: 2018-01-17
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 15 of 474
Hacker offers glimpse of Assange's secret world
Author: Nakashima, Ellen; Mekhennet, Souad; Jaffe, Greg
Publication info: The Washington Post ; Washington, D.C. [Washington, D.C]18 Jan 2018: A.1.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: German national is one of WikiLeaks founder's few ties to the outside LONDON - The passengers stepping off the Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt, Germany, last month head straight for the passport-scanning machines that allow European residents to enter Britain quickly and without any human interaction. A lone figure in a black hoodie and jeans breaks off from the pack. "Too many biometric details," says Andy Müller-Maguhn, eyeing the cameras on the timesaving devices. He has come here, as he does most months, to meet with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, the world's most controversial purveyor of government secrets. For most of the past six years, Assange has been confined to the Ecuadoran Embassy in London, fearful that if he leaves he will be extradited to the United States for prosecution under the Espionage Act. Ecuador recently granted Assange citizenship, but British officials said he is still subject to arrest if he leaves the embassy. Müller-Maguhn is one of Assange's few connections to the outside world. He typically brings Assange books, clothes or movies. Once in 2016, he delivered a thumb drive that he says contained personal messages for the WikiLeaks founder, who for security reasons has stopped using email. These visits have caught the attention of U.S. and European spy chiefs, who have struggled to understand how Assange's organization operates and how exactly WikiLeaks came to possess a trove of hacked Democratic Party emails that the group released at key moments in the 2016 presidential campaign. The three major U.S. intelligence agencies - the CIA, the FBI and the National Security Agency - assessed "with high confidence" that Russia relayed to WikiLeaks material it had hacked from the Democratic National Committee and senior Democratic officials. And last year, then-FBI Director James B. Comey said that the bureau believes the transfer was made using a "cut-out," or a human intermediary or a series of intermediaries. Exactly how the Russians delivered the email trove to WikiLeaks is the subject of an ongoing examination by U.S. and European intelligence officials. As part of their effort to understand the group's operations, these officials have taken an intense interest in Müller-Maguhn, who visits Assange monthly, U.S. officials said. Müller-Maguhn insists that he was never in possession of the material before it was put online and that he did not transport it. "That would be insane," he says. U.S. officials who once dismissed WikiLeaks as a little more than an irritating propaganda machine and Assange as an antiestablishment carnival barker now take a far darker view of the group. "It's time to call out WikiLeaks for what it really is: a nonstate hostile intelligence service," CIA Director Mike Pompeo said in the spring after the group released documents describing CIA hacking tools.In December, he doubled down on that assessment, describing WikiLeaks as a national security threat and suggesting that Assange cannot protect those who pass him state secrets. "He ought to be a bit less confident about that," Pompeo said. In an interview at the Ecuadoran Embassy last month, Assange insisted that Müller-Maguhn never possessed the hacked DNC emails and blasted Pompeo's statementsas "very strange and bombastic." Müller-Maguhn is more cautious. "How many of you wouldn't be scared s---less by the head of the CIA declaring you the next target?" he asks. The 46-year-old hacker moves through Heathrow Airport like a man who knows that powerful governments are tracking his every move. A Washington Post reporter travels with him as he goes through passport control. He switches off his cellphone, fearful that British immigration officials have technology that can steal his data. Müller-Maguhn could enter the United Kingdom with his German identification card but prefers to use his passport. "The ID card has my address on it," he says. A heavyset immigration officer looks over Müller-Maguhn's passport and stares for several seconds at a computer screen. "Why are you in the U.K?" he asks. "I'm visiting people," Müller-Maguhn replies. The officer pecks at his computer. Necks crane to catch a glimpse of the man clad in all black who is holding up the normally brisk line of passengers headed to early morning business meetings. After a few minutes, the officer waves through Müller-Maguhn, who is walking toward the exit when the officer remembers one last question. "Sir, sir, where are you traveling from again?" he shouts. "Frankfurt," Müller-Maguhn replies. And with that he is gone. Behind him, the immigration officer is still typing. The travelers who briefly took notice of Müller-Maguhn are back staring at their phones or marching toward their destinations. Müller-Maguhn heads for the Heathrow Express into London. Into the embassy The roots of Müller-Maguhn's relationship with Assange trace back to his teenage years in the 1980s when his walk to school in Hamburg took him past of the offices of the Chaos Computer Club. The group embodied postwar Germany's anti-fascist convictions and the hacker underground's libertarian ethos. Now the largest hacker club in Europe, it bills itself as "a galactic community of life forms independent of age, sex, race or society orientation that strives across borders for freedom of information." Müller-Maguhn soon became a friend, confidant and adviser to the group's founder, Wau Holland. "They were like a strange couple," said Peter Glaser, a club member, journalist and friend of both men. "Andy was very young and behaved like an adult, and Wau was older and behaved like a child." Müller-Maguhn later parlayed his interest in computers and surveillance into a business that he co-founded in 2003 making encrypted phones. He had hoped to sell the phones to journalists and dissidents but quickly discovered that military and intelligence agencies in Europe, Asia and the Middle East were the only clients who understood the technology and were willing to pay for it. "This was during the time I was following the path of capitalism," he said with a smile during one of several lengthy interviews in Berlin. Müller-Maguhn spent 10 years selling the phones before leaving the company. "You can imagine, I know really strange people in really strange places," he adds. These days, Müller-Maguhn says, he runs a data center that hosts websites and manages email for businesses. He also works as a security consultant, helping companies and governments safeguard their secrets. One of his clients is in China, a state known for its suppression of the Internet and its surveillance of dissidents. By Müller-Maguhn's calculus, the nominally communist government is less prone to violence overseas and less of a threat than the United States is. "They don't have the wish to apply their standards to the rest of the planet or have others dance to their music," he says. "So there's a big difference." In recent years, Müller-Maguhn's consulting and advocacy work has carried him all over the world, including Moscow, where in 2016 and 2017 he attended a security conference organized by the Russian Defense Ministry. On his way into London for his meeting with Assange, Müller-Maguhn casually mentions that he is just back from a three-day trip to Brazil. "It was business-related," he says, declining to elaborate. Müller-Maguhn hops out of a cab in Knightsbridge, a posh section of London that's home to Harrods department store, the Ecuadoran Embassy and Assange. On this cold December day, the stores are decked out for the Christmas season. Müller-Maguhn raises a camera with a telephoto lens and aims it at a building down the street from the brick embassy where Assange has been holed up since 2012. The shutter on his Nikon camera clicks as he snaps a few shots, hoping to spot surveillance equipment pointed at Assange and the embassy. Women in fur coats rush by him as Bentleys and Rolls-Royces roll past on the busy road. Müller-Maguhn moves down the sidewalk to get a better angle, takes some more pictures and then slings the Nikon over his shoulder. Farther down the block and closer to the embassy, he points up toward an apartment building where he suspects that the Spaniards, angry about Assange's tweets in support of Catalan separatists, may have set up a surveillance team. Then he bounds up the steps of the building that houses the Ecuadoran Embassy, takes one last glance over his shoulder and rings the bell of the front door, where a guard immediately recognizes him and welcomes him inside. Müller-Maguhn met Assange through the Chaos Computer Club in 2007 when the WikiLeaks founder was seeking support for his then-fledgling organization. In those early days, Assange described his creation as a group committed to the mission of publishing original source material so citizens of the world could see "evidence of the truth" about global corporations and their governments. Just past the doors to the embassy, a guard asks Müller-Maguhn to turn over all electronic devices: cameras, mobile phones, as well as his watch and car keys. "The last time, they even looked into the fruit I was bringing," Müller-Maguhn says. "These guys have their job. They have their instructions. So I am not complaining." Since WikiLeaks' early days, Assange's circle of contacts has contracted significantly. Some allies, such as Daniel Domscheit-Berg, who first invited Assange to the Chaos Computer Club and signed on as WikiLeaks' spokesman, broke with WikiLeaks in 2010 after Assange released hundreds of thousands of pages of U.S. military documents without redacting the names of local Afghans who had helped the military and could be targeted by the Taliban. Other backers were put off by Assange's legal troubles and allegations of sexual assault in Sweden or his Manichaean view of the world. Still others alleged that the group allowed itself to be used as a tool by the Russians in their campaign to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election. "Look, he has messed up with so many people, I have no idea how many people he has left as friends," Müller-Maguhn says. Assange continues to fear that he will be prosecuted by the United States and as a result is afraid to leave the embassy, saying that doing so would lead to his extradition. The Justice Department is considering a case against him, according to people familiar with the matter. Several months ago, Domscheit-Berg said, the FBI sought an interview with him in connection with a long-running grand jury investigation of WikiLeaks' publication of State Department cables. Domscheit-Berg said in an interview that he rebuffed the request. "No matter the differences that Julian and I had, I'm not going to talk to anybody about what happened," he said. 'Always just chaos' As WikiLeaks has contracted and Assange has retreated from public view, it has become harder for Western intelligence agencies to get a sense of how the group operates. An internal CIA report from November said the U.S. intelligence community has "gained few good insights into WikiLeaks' inner workings." The agency predicted that Assange's negative views of Washington would lead the group to continue to "disproportionately" target the United States. Former WikiLeaks supporters say the group is governed by Assange's whims. "The way to think of it is always just chaos," said one former WikiLeaks activist who spoke on the condition of anonymity to offer a frank opinion and avoid retribution from Assange. "There aren't any systems. There aren't any procedures - no formal roles, no working hours. It's all just Julian and whatever he feels like." During the 2016 campaign, Assange put out word that he wanted material on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. "He was kind of asking everybody, 'Can we get something for the election?' " Müller-Maguhn recalls. Assange signs off on all WikiLeaks publications but does not review everything that comes to the group. "For security reasons, he does not want that," Müller-Maguhn says. Müller-Maguhn, though, is vague about WikiLeaks' internal workings. A former WikiLeaks associate said that Müller-Maguhn and a colleague oversaw submissions through WikiLeaks' anonymous submission server in 2016 - although Müller-Maguhn denies such involvement. Asked to explain the submission review process, he replies, "I don't want to." The only reliable way to contact Assange, he says, is through Direct Message on Twitter. "He seems to live on Twitter," adds Müller-Maguhn, who doesn't hide his disdain for the platform. "On Twitter you follow people, and that's what German history forbids you to do," he says. The size of WikiLeaks' staff and its finances are also murky. Neither Müller-Maguhn nor Assange will say how many people work for the group or where they are located. "It seems to be a rather small team," Müller-Maguhn says. WikiLeaks has amassed a stash of bitcoin, a digital currency that enables anonymous, bank-free transactions. As of this week, the stockpile is worth about $18 million, although in late December, with the currency's spike in value, the group was sitting on $25 million, according to public online ledgers that record such transactions. Over the past several years, the Wau Holland Foundation, which was started in 2003 after the founder of the Chaos Computer Club died, collected hundreds of thousands of dollars for Assange's group. Müller-Maguhn sits on the board of the foundation, which seeks to promote "freedom of information and civil courage in various forms." He says the foundation has provided support for some of WikiLeaks' releases, such as last year's "Vault 7" disclosure of CIA hacking tools. He describes the Vault 7 releases as a public service, adding that the CIA was "messing up other people's computers and making it look like someone else had done it." To Assange, any suggestion that Müller-Maguhn may have served as an intermediary to deliver the DNC emails is "a lame attempt" by U.S. intelligence agencies to hurt the Wau Holland Foundation, which is a key conduit for tax-free donations in Europe. The threat is all the more significant because the only other source of tax-exempt donations, the U.S.-based Freedom of the Press Foundation, has cut ties to WikiLeaks. Müller-Maguhn says he cannot say with certainty what was on the USB drive that he delivered to Assange. "How can I prove what was on there?" he says. "I cannot." But he adds that it would be risky and impractical to deliver sensitive files by hand, rather than through encrypted channels. "A classical walk-in? You saw too many movies from the 1970s," he says. These days, Müller-Maguhn describes his visits to the embassy as motivated by an increasingly rare commodity in Assange's world: friendship. Assange's visitors include celebrities, such as actress Pamela Anderson, and politicians, such as Nigel Farage, a vocal advocate for Britain's exit from the European Union, and Dana Rohrabacher, a GOP congressman from California. When he talks to visitors, Assange turns on a white noise generator in the embassy conference room to counter listening devices. Above the door, he points out a surveillance camera and indicates that sensitive messages should be communicated only via handwritten notes, shielding the text from the camera with a hand or notepad cover. On July 3, 2016, Müller-Maguhn visited Assange at the embassy to celebrate Assange's 45th birthday. Inside the brick building, Ecuadoran children, dressed in traditional garb, serenaded Assange with little guitars and pipe flutes. As the children sang, Müller-Maguhn's mind flashed forward. "I had this s---ty impression of me standing there watching 50-year-olds making music for us, and Julian would still be there," he said. After about two hours inside the embassy last month, Müller-Maguhn emerges from the building, carrying his black leather satchel, stuffed with documents, and his Nikon camera. He quickly makes his way through the Christmas crowds and back to Heathrow Airport for an evening flight home to Germany. He tries to minimize his time in Britain. "I don't like to stay overnight in a country that is hostile toward me," he says. Jaffe reported from Washington. Greg Miller, Rachel Weiner and Julie Tate in Washington, Karla Adam in London and Stefan Pauly in Berlin contributed to this report. Credit: Ellen Nakashima;Souad Mekhennet;Greg Jaffe
Subject: Electronic mail systems; Cameras; Convictions; Hackers; Surveillance; National security; Motion picture directors & producers; Immigration; Diplomatic & consular services; Identification documents
Publication title: The Washington Post; Washington, D.C.
First page: A.1
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jan 18, 2018
Dateline: LONDON -
Section: A-SECTION
Publisher: WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post
Place of publication: Washington, D.C.
Country of publication: United States, Washington, D.C.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United S tates
ISSN: 01908286
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1988366041
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1988366041?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post Jan 18, 2018
Last updated: 2018-01-18
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 16 of 474
Brazil back in business as LatAm ploughs deeper
Author: West, Oliver
Publication info: Global Capital ; London (Jan 18, 2018).
Abstract:
Leads Citi, HSBC and Morgan Stanley announced initial price thoughts of 5.8% for a reopening of the sovereign’s existing 5.625% 2047s, which had $1.5bn outstanding.<div>Leads were able to bring in guidance to 5.6% (the number) before launching a $1.5bn trade at 5.6%, equating to a spread of 271bp over US Treasuries. Brazil reopened the bonds at 100.352.</div><div>Estimates on the new issue premium were between 10bp and 12bp, according to bankers away from the deal and investors who participated.</div> “Typically Brazil prints very close to secondary markets and this was true to form,” said Sean Newman, senior portfolio manager at Invesco. Inflows into EM-dedicated retail funds surpassed $3bn last week, said the banker, compared with a weekly average of $1bn in 2017. <div>“We are in a neat zone whereby growth in both emerging and developed markets are ticking along nicely,” said the syndicate banker.Full text: The Brazilian sovereign continued a busy period for the country’s issuers with a tap of its existing 30 year bonds on Thursday as bankers said that borrowers from the country were rushing to issue ahead of elections later this year. “Brazil supply was going to be all about front-loading this year and conditions are perfect for it,” said one banker at a Brazilian bank. “Rates are low but Treasury volatility is always a risk, so given February is always interrupted and later in the year we have elections, we are working as fast as we can.” As corporate earnings numbers go stale in early February — and with carnival between February 9 and 14 meaning business is set to stay slow until the second half of the month — January supply should be extra strong. Other bankers mentioned frequent issuers such as BR Foods and Braskem as potential January issuers, although the first banker said some of the names being mooted were pure guesswork. “If you take a list of frequent issuers and then look at market conditions, it makes sense that these issuers will come,” he said. “But I’m not sure the rumours are based on anything concrete. Also likely to issue soon is state-owned electricity company Eletrobras, whose Ba3 rating Moody’s put on negative outlook in December. But on Thursday, the sovereign showed that investors were looking beyond rating agency moves, easily brushing aside last week’s sovereign downgrade from Standard & Poor’s. Leads Citi, HSBC and Morgan Stanley announced initial price thoughts of 5.8% for a reopening of the sovereign’s existing 5.625% 2047s, which had $1.5bn outstanding. “Typically Brazil prints very close to secondary markets and this was true to form,” said Sean Newman, senior portfolio manager at Invesco. “They don’t have a huge level of dollar funding needs.” Another bond investor said he was happy with what he saw as a 10bp concession, adding that Brazil “aggressively” bought back debt in secondary markets. “Brazil never comes cheap,” he said. Bankers away from the deal said that the sovereign could probably have pushed a little further. “It was in no way a bad deal but I have seen Brazil be more aggressive in the past,” said one DCM banker not working on the deal. “Petrobras will be up next and I should think will have to pay a bit more.” One investor, however, said he stayed away from the deal based on the fact that this year’s new issues were overly driven by technical factors. “There was definitely no concession to entice us, and really we don’t see a super-strong idiosyncratic story in Brazil that makes us think the rally has further to go,” said the investor. The investor said that managing an absolute return fund gave him the luxury of staying out of tighter deals and allowed him somewhat to ignore the benchmarks. With some of the strongest early-year sentiment market participants can remember in EM, the thoughts of some bankers are turning to wondering how sustainable conditions are. But they are struggling to find reasons to be pessimistic. “We have pushed the envelope on new deals several times and to be honest investors are not kicking and screaming,” said one syndicate banker. “Take Ecuador’s deal today (<i>see separate story)</i>: it has tightened 100bp since October. “This just tells me the market is a bit nuts.” Inflows into EM-dedicated retail funds surpassed $3bn last week, said the banker, compared with a weekly average of $1bn in 2017. CREDIT: Oliver West
Subject: Bond issues; International finance
Location: Brazil United States--US Ecuador
Company / organization: Name: Petroleos Brasileiro SA; NAICS: 211111; Name: Morgan Stanley; NAICS: 523110, 523120, 523920
Publication title: Global Capital; London
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jan 18, 2018
Publisher: Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC
Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London
Publication subject: Business And Economics
ISSN: 20552165
Source type: Trade Journals
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2002897509
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2002897509?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC Jan 18, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-19
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 17 of 474
Photos of the Day: Jan. 19; University graduates celebrate in Uganda, a Ukrainian believer bathes in icy water, children greet Pope Francis in Peru, and more
Publication info: Wall Street Journal (Online) ; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]19 Jan 2018: n/a.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Graduates react during a graduation ceremony in which more than 14,000 students received degrees at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda. Victim and former gymnast Aly Raisman speaks at the sentencing hearing
in Lansing, Mich., for Larry Nassar, a former Team USA Gymnastics doctor who pleaded guilty to sexual assault charges. An Orthodox believer bathes in icy water on Epiphany near Kiev, Ukraine. Thousands of Ukrainian Orthodox Church followers plunged into icy rivers and ponds across the country to mark Epiphany, cleansing themselves with water deemed holy for the day. Pope Francis greets children upon his arrival
in the city of Puerto Maldonado, Peru. The pope traveled to the Peruvian Amazon, where he addressed the faithful and met with indigenous organizations. People wait outside the coliseum where Pope Francis is meeting with representatives of indigenous communities of the Amazon River basin from Peru, Brazil and Bolivia, in the Peruvian city of Puerto Maldonado. Women and children from Eritrea sing and pray to celebrate their arrival in Europe aboard the Spanish Proactiva Open Arms rescue vessel in Pozzallo, Sicily, Italy. A man works on a giant figure of President Donald Trump during preparations for the carnival parade in Nice, France. A woman runs from a wave next to a lifeguard tower that collapsed during a storm in Ashkelon, Israel. Torchbearers participate in the Olympic torch relay on the Grand Unification Bridge that leads to the truce village Panmunjom, just south of the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas. A Barbary macaque takes a snowman's carrot nose at Blair Drummond Safari Park near Stirling after snowfall in central Scotland. A rainbow frames children running in a refugee camp in Quneitra, Syria. New citizens and their families look on as a large U.S. flag is passed overhead during a naturalization ceremony at Biscayne National Park, Fla.
Subject: Papal visits; Sex crimes; Religious orthodoxy
People: Trump, Donald J
Publication title: Wall Street Journal (Online); New York, N.Y.
Pages: n/a
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jan 19, 2018
Section: World
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York, N.Y.
Country of publication: United States, New York, N.Y.
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1989024229
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1989024229?accountid=4840
Copyright: (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Reproduced with permission of copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
Last updated: 2018-01-23
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Major Dailies
Document 18 of 474
Auto & Transport Roundup: Market Talk
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]19 Jan 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
The latest Market Talks covering the Auto and Transport sector. Published exclusively on at 4:20 ET, 12:20 ET and 16:50 ET.
1603 GMT - NAFTA talks kicks off next week in Montreal, and Kansas City Southern is preparing for potential outcomes. CEO Patrick Ottensmeyer says the railway, which handles traffic across the Mexico border, can react quickly to preserve profits and cash flow, but he didn't speculate about what business could go away under certain outcomes. "We need to be prepared and certainly aware of the fact that next week could be a headline week for Kansas City Southern depending on the sentiment and the news that comes out of the negotiations in Montreal," he says. ([email protected]; @pziobro)
1602 GMT - When it comes to technology spending Barclays thinks General Motors is leading the pack. The investment bank says GM's aggressive spending on autonomous/electric-vehicle development "seems to be paying off with a leading position in auto tech." That leaves Ford trying to playing catch-up with $11B earmarked for EV development through 2022, plus investment in driverless cars. But while it shows Ford is serious, Barclays says, "we see some risks, as thus far it has had little to show for its spend." Fiat-Chrysler, meanwhile, is spending minimally, content with partnering. ([email protected]; @MikeColias)
1331 GMT - Urban chic makes its way into cruising with Carnival planning to sell passengers four flavors of craft beer from a microbrewery aboard the Carnival Horizon vessel after it's delivered by the Fincantieri yard in late March. Cruise liners are trying to outshine each other with an array of new products aiming to attract all age groups on sailings to destinations like the Caribbean and Europe. ([email protected])
1226 GMT - Several companies included in iBoxx bond indexes are scheduled to report figures next week, drawing the attention of euro credit investors. BayernLB mentions earnings releases by PPG, Netflix, Johnson & Johnson, P&G, Verizon, Novartis, Schaeffler, Ford, Diageo, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Praxair, Caterpillar, 3M and LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton. And as the earnings season picks up, new bond issuance could slow down, moderating the pressure on prices of existing bonds, the German regional bank adds. ([email protected]; @tasosvos)
1113 GMT - Few think of Brazil as a potential electric-vehicle powerhouse, but BMI Research does. It said that Brazil could be a hub for EV production given its proximity to South America's large reserve of the raw-material used for batteries, lithium. It also "benefits from a large skilled and cheap labour force with a good history of being a South American vehicle production powerhouse," BMI said, adding there is a possibility of tax incentives for makers of fuel-efficient vehicles down the road. BMI notes, however, that logistics are a challenge in Brazil and a proper industrial policy is still missing. ([email protected]; @ptrevisani)
1120 GMT - Air France-KLM faces competitive risks that have led Morgan Stanley to downgrade the company to equal-weight from overweight. The bank says stronger competition in France--with capacity growth from low-cost airlines Easyjet, Norwegian and IAG-owned Level--fuel price headwinds and exchange-rate volatility are the main risks. Air France-KLM remains toward the lower end of peer margins and is exposed to market or financial shocks, MS says. The bank also says the company faces risks from ongoing labor negotiations within the short-haul Air France business. MS decreases the target price to EUR18.35 from EUR14.00. Air France-KLM shares trade down 0.5% at EUR13.00. ([email protected])
1101 GMT - Morgan Stanley upgrades easyJet PLC to overweight from equal-weight, saying the European budget carrier is set to benefit from industry takeovers and the strong euro against the pound this year. EasyJet joins rival Ryanair Holdings PLC as part of Morgan Stanley's list of key preferred stocks in 2018. "Short-haul industry consolidation, movement of tour operator capacity and strong EUR/GBP are key factors behind our view," the broker says, increasing its price target to 1725 pence from 1490 pence. Shares gain 3% to 1558 pence. ([email protected])
1008 GMT - While Gama Aviation's legacy legal proceedings will take time to resolve, the company's divisions are expected to deliver growth in 2018 and beyond in the highly fragmented aviation-services market, WH Ireland says. Gama said it is involved in a number of legal proceedings, both by the company in respect of $5.5 million in trade receivables, and those brought against the company totaling $15.3 million that relate to the legacy Hangar 8 business and the company's former CEO. Gama expects that the proceedings will ultimately result in a cash inflow to the company. WH Ireland maintains its forecasts and its 370 pence target price on the stock. ([email protected])
0955 GMT - Infineon shares have had a great run over the past two years, but it's time to take profit and reinvest in Volkswagen, which offers more upside, says Deutsche Bank, regarding its German Stock Ideas portfolio. 2018 is a "sweet spot" to invest in VW shares, with a profit boost from SUVs and an increasingly likely listing of the car maker's truck business ahead, the analysts say. Infineon shares trade up 0.9% at EUR25.32. Volkswagen shares trade up 0.7% at EUR 181.18. ([email protected], @mxbernhard)
0702 GMT - Saying there's 4 major global policy changes which "could impact the multiyear growth drivers" for Chinese auto suppliers starting this year--including US tax cuts and subsidies in China--Nomura leaves the bull camp on steering/driveline maker Nexteer for the first time since 2013's IPO. But it does boost its stock target 28% to HK$19 in the wake of shares' 39% 4Q surge. Meanwhile, the investment bank upgrades Fuyao Glass' Hong Kong shares to buy while hiking the target 48% to HK$38.40. Nexteer falls 1.4% to HK$16.90 while Fuyao rebounds 1.7% to HK$32.70. ([email protected])
0621 GMT - Adani Ports is the top gainer on the Sensex index Friday after strong quarterly results showing a 19% profit gain. Broker IIFL believes there's more good news to come. Volumes are likely to pick up further as the goods and services tax prompts the setting up of more centralized warehouses, IIFL says. The focus on the high growth container segment rather than the coal cargo segment will also help, it adds. Adani's increasing cargo handling capacity will also help it capitalize on the pickup in economic activity during the next few years, IIFL adds. The stock is up 3.7% Friday and by 5% this month after jumping 50% last year. ([email protected])
0100 GMT - With crude prices above $60/barrel, Canadian Pacific CEO Keith Creel sees more oil companies returning to crude-by-rail transportation as economics make train shipments more affordable. Revenue at CP's energy-and-chemicals business jumped 15% from a year earlier in 4Q. "There's demand out there. The market has shifted quite rapidly." Still, Creel continues to view crude-by-rail business as a short-term opportunity and says the company must be responsible if it chooses to pick up more of that freight, compared to the surging demand seen when oil was above $100. Additional pipelines are expected to come online next year, threatening to dry up the railroad's once-lucrative energy business for good, Creel added. ([email protected]; @itsdgc)
(END)
January 19, 2018 12:20 ET (17:20 GMT)
Subject: Aviation; Corporate profits; Airlines; Investments
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jan 19, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1989153927
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1989153927?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Jan 19, 2018
Last updated: 2018-01-20
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 19 of 474
Auto & Transport Roundup: Market Talk
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]19 Jan 2018. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
The latest Market Talks covering the Auto and Transport sector. Published exclusively on at 4:20 ET, 12:20 ET and 16:50 ET.
1258 ET - European planemaker Airbus closed at a new high following a week that saw the manufacturer announce record plane deliveries, higher output plans for 2018, and an order for up to 36 of its flagship A380 superjumbos. Airbus shares 2.6% higher to close at EUR92.79. ([email protected])
1203 ET - NAFTA talks kicks off next week in Montreal, and Kansas City Southern is preparing for potential outcomes. CEO Patrick Ottensmeyer says the railway, which handles traffic across the Mexico border, can react quickly to preserve profits and cash flow, but he didn't speculate about what business could go away under certain outcomes. "We need to be prepared and certainly aware of the fact that next week could be a headline week for Kansas City Southern depending on the sentiment and the news that comes out of the negotiations in Montreal," he says. ([email protected]; @pziobro)
1202 ET - When it comes to technology spending Barclays thinks General Motors is leading the pack. The investment bank says GM's aggressive spending on autonomous/electric-vehicle development "seems to be paying off with a leading position in auto tech." That leaves Ford trying to playing catch-up with $11B earmarked for EV development through 2022, plus investment in driverless cars. But while it shows Ford is serious, Barclays says, "we see some risks, as thus far it has had little to show for its spend." Fiat-Chrysler, meanwhile, is spending minimally, content with partnering. ([email protected]; @MikeColias)
0931 ET - Urban chic makes its way into cruising with Carnival planning to sell passengers four flavors of craft beer from a microbrewery aboard the Carnival Horizon vessel after it's delivered by the Fincantieri yard in late March. Cruise liners are trying to outshine each other with an array of new products aiming to attract all age groups on sailings to destinations like the Caribbean and Europe. ([email protected])
0726 ET - Several companies included in iBoxx bond indexes are scheduled to report figures next week, drawing the attention of euro credit investors. BayernLB mentions earnings releases by PPG, Netflix, Johnson & Johnson, P&G, Verizon, Novartis, Schaeffler, Ford, Diageo, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Praxair, Caterpillar, 3M and LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton. And as the earnings season picks up, new bond issuance could slow down, moderating the pressure on prices of existing bonds, the German regional bank adds. ([email protected]; @tasosvos)
0713 ET - Few think of Brazil as a potential electric-vehicle powerhouse, but BMI Research does. It said that Brazil could be a hub for EV production given its proximity to South America's large reserve of the raw-material used for batteries, lithium. It also "benefits from a large skilled and cheap labour force with a good history of being a South American vehicle production powerhouse," BMI said, adding there is a possibility of tax incentives for makers of fuel-efficient vehicles down the road. BMI notes, however, that logistics are a challenge in Brazil and a proper industrial policy is still missing. ([email protected]; @ptrevisani)
0620 ET - Air France-KLM faces competitive risks that have led Morgan Stanley to downgrade the company to equal-weight from overweight. The bank says stronger competition in France--with capacity growth from low-cost airlines Easyjet, Norwegian and IAG-owned Level--fuel price headwinds and exchange-rate volatility are the main risks. Air France-KLM remains toward the lower end of peer margins and is exposed to market or financial shocks, MS says. The bank also says the company faces risks from ongoing labor negotiations within the short-haul Air France business. MS decreases the target price to EUR18.35 from EUR14.00. Air France-KLM shares trade down 0.5% at EUR13.00. ([email protected])
0601 ET - Morgan Stanley upgrades easyJet PLC to overweight from equal-weight, saying the European budget carrier is set to benefit from industry takeovers and the strong euro against the pound this year. EasyJet joins rival Ryanair Holdings PLC as part of Morgan Stanley's list of key preferred stocks in 2018. "Short-haul industry consolidation, movement of tour operator capacity and strong EUR/GBP are key factors behind our view," the broker says, increasing its price target to 1725 pence from 1490 pence. Shares gain 3% to 1558 pence. ([email protected])
0508 ET - While Gama Aviation's legacy legal proceedings will take time to resolve, the company's divisions are expected to deliver growth in 2018 and beyond in the highly fragmented aviation-services market, WH Ireland says. Gama said it is involved in a number of legal proceedings, both by the company in respect of $5.5 million in trade receivables, and those brought against the company totaling $15.3 million that relate to the legacy Hangar 8 business and the company's former CEO. Gama expects that the proceedings will ultimately result in a cash inflow to the company. WH Ireland maintains its forecasts and its 370 pence target price on the stock. ([email protected])
0455 ET - Infineon shares have had a great run over the past two years, but it's time to take profit and reinvest in Volkswagen, which offers more upside, says Deutsche Bank, regarding its German Stock Ideas portfolio. 2018 is a "sweet spot" to invest in VW shares, with a profit boost from SUVs and an increasingly likely listing of the car maker's truck business ahead, the analysts say. Infineon shares trade up 0.9% at EUR25.32. Volkswagen shares trade up 0.7% at EUR 181.18. ([email protected], @mxbernhard)
0202 ET - Saying there's 4 major global policy changes which "could impact the multiyear growth drivers" for Chinese auto suppliers starting this year--including US tax cuts and subsidies in China--Nomura leaves the bull camp on steering/driveline maker Nexteer for the first time since 2013's IPO. But it does boost its stock target 28% to HK$19 in the wake of shares' 39% 4Q surge. Meanwhile, the investment bank upgrades Fuyao Glass' Hong Kong shares to buy while hiking the target 48% to HK$38.40. Nexteer falls 1.4% to HK$16.90 while Fuyao rebounds 1.7% to HK$32.70. ([email protected])
0121 ET - Adani Ports is the top gainer on the Sensex index Friday after strong quarterly results showing a 19% profit gain. Broker IIFL believes there's more good news to come. Volumes are likely to pick up further as the goods and services tax prompts the setting up of more centralized warehouses, IIFL says. The focus on the high growth container segment rather than the coal cargo segment will also help, it adds. Adani's increasing cargo handling capacity will also help it capitalize on the pickup in economic activity during the next few years, IIFL adds. The stock is up 3.7% Friday and by 5% this month after jumping 50% last year. ([email protected])
(END)
January 19, 2018 16:50 ET (21:50 GMT)
Subject: Aviation; Automobile industry; Corporate profits; Airlines; Investments
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jan 19, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1989157167
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/d ocview/1989157167?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Jan 19, 2018
Last updated: 2018-01-20
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 20 of 474
Auto & Transport Roundup: Market Talk
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]20 Jan 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
The latest Market Talks covering the Auto and Transport sector. Published exclusively on at 4:20 ET, 12:20 ET and 16:50 ET.
1758 GMT - European planemaker Airbus closed at a new high following a week that saw the manufacturer announce record plane deliveries, higher output plans for 2018, and an order for up to 36 of its flagship A380 superjumbos. Airbus shares 2.6% higher to close at EUR92.79. ([email protected])
1603 GMT - NAFTA talks kicks off next week in Montreal, and Kansas City Southern is preparing for potential outcomes. CEO Patrick Ottensmeyer says the railway, which handles traffic across the Mexico border, can react quickly to preserve profits and cash flow, but he didn't speculate about what business could go away under certain outcomes. "We need to be prepared and certainly aware of the fact that next week could be a headline week for Kansas City Southern depending on the sentiment and the news that comes out of the negotiations in Montreal," he says. ([email protected]; @pziobro)
1602 GMT - When it comes to technology spending Barclays thinks General Motors is leading the pack. The investment bank says GM's aggressive spending on autonomous/electric-vehicle development "seems to be paying off with a leading position in auto tech." That leaves Ford trying to playing catch-up with $11B earmarked for EV development through 2022, plus investment in driverless cars. But while it shows Ford is serious, Barclays says, "we see some risks, as thus far it has had little to show for its spend." Fiat-Chrysler, meanwhile, is spending minimally, content with partnering. ([email protected]; @MikeColias)
1331 GMT - Urban chic makes its way into cruising with Carnival planning to sell passengers four flavors of craft beer from a microbrewery aboard the Carnival Horizon vessel after it's delivered by the Fincantieri yard in late March. Cruise liners are trying to outshine each other with an array of new products aiming to attract all age groups on sailings to destinations like the Caribbean and Europe. ([email protected])
1226 GMT - Several companies included in iBoxx bond indexes are scheduled to report figures next week, drawing the attention of euro credit investors. BayernLB mentions earnings releases by PPG, Netflix, Johnson & Johnson, P&G, Verizon, Novartis, Schaeffler, Ford, Diageo, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Praxair, Caterpillar, 3M and LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton. And as the earnings season picks up, new bond issuance could slow down, moderating the pressure on prices of existing bonds, the German regional bank adds. ([email protected]; @tasosvos)
1113 GMT - Few think of Brazil as a potential electric-vehicle powerhouse, but BMI Research does. It said that Brazil could be a hub for EV production given its proximity to South America's large reserve of the raw-material used for batteries, lithium. It also "benefits from a large skilled and cheap labour force with a good history of being a South American vehicle production powerhouse," BMI said, adding there is a possibility of tax incentives for makers of fuel-efficient vehicles down the road. BMI notes, however, that logistics are a challenge in Brazil and a proper industrial policy is still missing. ([email protected]; @ptrevisani)
1120 GMT - Air France-KLM faces competitive risks that have led Morgan Stanley to downgrade the company to equal-weight from overweight. The bank says stronger competition in France--with capacity growth from low-cost airlines Easyjet, Norwegian and IAG-owned Level--fuel price headwinds and exchange-rate volatility are the main risks. Air France-KLM remains toward the lower end of peer margins and is exposed to market or financial shocks, MS says. The bank also says the company faces risks from ongoing labor negotiations within the short-haul Air France business. MS decreases the target price to EUR18.35 from EUR14.00. Air France-KLM shares trade down 0.5% at EUR13.00. ([email protected])
1101 GMT - Morgan Stanley upgrades easyJet PLC to overweight from equal-weight, saying the European budget carrier is set to benefit from industry takeovers and the strong euro against the pound this year. EasyJet joins rival Ryanair Holdings PLC as part of Morgan Stanley's list of key preferred stocks in 2018. "Short-haul industry consolidation, movement of tour operator capacity and strong EUR/GBP are key factors behind our view," the broker says, increasing its price target to 1725 pence from 1490 pence. Shares gain 3% to 1558 pence. ([email protected])
1008 GMT - While Gama Aviation's legacy legal proceedings will take time to resolve, the company's divisions are expected to deliver growth in 2018 and beyond in the highly fragmented aviation-services market, WH Ireland says. Gama said it is involved in a number of legal proceedings, both by the company in respect of $5.5 million in trade receivables, and those brought against the company totaling $15.3 million that relate to the legacy Hangar 8 business and the company's former CEO. Gama expects that the proceedings will ultimately result in a cash inflow to the company. WH Ireland maintains its forecasts and its 370 pence target price on the stock. ([email protected])
0955 GMT - Infineon shares have had a great run over the past two years, but it's time to take profit and reinvest in Volkswagen, which offers more upside, says Deutsche Bank, regarding its German Stock Ideas portfolio. 2018 is a "sweet spot" to invest in VW shares, with a profit boost from SUVs and an increasingly likely listing of the car maker's truck business ahead, the analysts say. Infineon shares trade up 0.9% at EUR25.32. Volkswagen shares trade up 0.7% at EUR 181.18. ([email protected], @mxbernhard)
(END)
January 20, 2018 04:20 ET (09:20 GMT)
Subject: Aviation; Automobile industry; Corporate profits; Airlines; Investments
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jan 20, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1989318952
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/d ocview/1989318952?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Jan 20, 2018
Last updated: 2018-01-21
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 21 of 474
Soldiers, military police move into Rio slums
Author: Anonymous
Publication info: Philadelphia Tribune ; Philadelphia, Pa. [Philadelphia, Pa]21 Jan 2018: 7A.
Abstract:
RIO DE JANEIRO - More than 3,000 soldiers and military police officers moved into four big slums early Thursday seeking to arrest drug traffickers and hunt for the men suspected of gunning down a police inspector last week. Maria Laura Canineu, Brazil director at Human Rights Watch, said at a news conference that Brazil's police need "community cooperation to fight the high levels of crime that plague the country, but as long as some police officers beat and execute people with impunity, communities will not trust the police."Full text: RIO DE JANEIRO - More than 3,000 soldiers and military police officers moved into four big slums early Thursday seeking to arrest drug traffickers and hunt for the men suspected of gunning down a police inspector last week. Military police also participated, though authorities did not say how many. Local media estimated there were 400. Brazil's military police do traditional policing and are not part of the army. The operation took place three weeks ahead of Carnival, when thousands of tourists are expected to arrive in the city. A military spokesman, Col. Roberto Itamar, said no gunfights had taken place during the operation in Rio de Janeiro. The O Globo TV network broadcast images of people being taken into custody, but Rio's Public Security Department did not immediately release any numbers on arrests. Also on Thursday, Human Rights Watch said in its 2018 World Report that Brazilian authorities need to take decisive action to curb extrajudicial killings by police. Maria Laura Canineu, Brazil director at Human Rights Watch, said at a news conference that Brazil's police need "community cooperation to fight the high levels of crime that plague the country, but as long as some police officers beat and execute people with impunity, communities will not trust the police." The report said 437 Brazilian police officers were slain in 2016, most of them while off duty. It said police officers killed at least 4,224 people that year. - (AP)
Subject: Human rights; Military police
Location: Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil
Company / organization: Name: Human Rights Watch; NAICS: 813311
Ethnicity: African American/Caribbean/African
Publication title: Philadelphia Tribune; Philadelphia, Pa.
Pages: 7A
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Nov 10, 2017
Section: INTERNATIONAL
Publisher: Philadelphia Tribune
Place of publication: Philadelphia, Pa.
Country of publication: United States, Philadelphia, Pa.
Publication subject: African American/Caribbean/African, Ethnic Interests
ISSN: 0746956X
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1991566752
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1991566752?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Philadelphia Tribune Jan 21, 2018
Last updated: 2018-01-27
Database: Ethnic NewsWatch
Document 22 of 474
Brazil political press review 22 January 2018
Publication info: BBC Monitoring Americas ; London [London]22 Jan 2018.
Abstract:
By BBC Monitoring Chief Justice overrules lower court decision, suspends minister's installation Supreme Court Chief Justice Carmen Lucia suspended early this morning the installation of Deputy Cristiane Brasil as the new head of the Labour Ministry, which was authorised on Saturday 20 January by Superior Court of Justice Vice President Humberto Martins, which led the Michel Temer administration to schedule Brasil's swearing in ceremony for 0900 this morning to prevent another injunction from suspending her installation. According to the note issued by the press office of the Supreme Court, Lucia temporarily suspended Brasil's installation until she is able to study the full content of the Superior Court of Justice decision. According to the original plan, the militants would gather across Masp (Sao Paulo Art Museum) for an act that would culminate with a Lula speech. According to the Health Secretariat, there are 22 confirmed cases of yellow fever with 15 deaths but the 16th death has not yet been included in the official bulletin as there are still other cases under investigation.Full text: By BBC Monitoring Chief Justice overrules lower court decision, suspends minister's installation Supreme Court Chief Justice Carmen Lucia suspended early this morning the installation of Deputy Cristiane Brasil as the new head of the Labour Ministry, which was authorised on Saturday 20 January by Superior Court of Justice Vice President Humberto Martins, which led the Michel Temer administration to schedule Brasil's swearing in ceremony for 0900 this morning to prevent another injunction from suspending her installation. However, the Independent Lawyers Association, Mati, submitted early this morning a request to the Supreme Court to stop Brasil's installation, which Lucia accepted "partially," Sao Paulo Folha de Sao Paulo reported. According to the note issued by the press office of the Supreme Court, Lucia temporarily suspended Brasil's installation until she is able to study the full content of the Superior Court of Justice decision. President Michel Temer's team is now evaluating whether to appeal Lucia's decision or whether the PTB (Brazilian Labour Party) will be asked to indicate another member of the party to head the Labour Ministry. Temer explains decision to suspend four vice presidents of federal saving bank President Michel Temer explained on Thursday 18 January in an interview with this daily his decision to suspend four vice presidents of the Federal Saving Bank, who are suspected of involvement in corruption practices, saying that he would not complete his term in office with the fault of having incurred in fraud, Folha de Sao Paulo reported. Analyst assesses presence of Temer, Meirelles, Doria at Davos economic forum In the face of the decline of multilateral institutions, which have lost prominence since the US diplomatic blackout, the Davos World Economic Forum, which until recently was considered a mere business meeting, has become an eminently political event and the presence of President Michel Temer, Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles, and Sao Paulo Mayor Joao Doria, who have presidential aspirations in the upcoming elections, show the presence of centre-right candidates, says an analysis by columnist Mathias Alencastro published in Folha de Sao Paulo. Justice minister says not concerned with threats to judges Justice Minister Torquato Jardim told reporters late on Friday 19 January that he defends the people's right to protest and that the threats to judges of the Fourth Regional Federal Court of Porto Alegre, as reported by Court President Carlos Eduardo Thompson Flores, do not worry him as long as they do not turn into illegal physical action, adding that in this case the security forces would have to intervene, Folha de Sao Paulo reported. Jardim said he repudiates the existence of "very aggressive" speeches that promise illegal actions. "One thing is the cry of rhetorical speeches and another thing is action," he said. Jardim added that Lula's trial will be a "historic event" but he downplayed its importance saying that the country has experienced similar important events and there were no repercussions because there was no Internet in those years. The news conference was held at the Piratini Palace downtown Porto Alegre, where he came to attend a ceremony to transfer 25,000 hectares of the municipality of Charqueadas to the Union, where a federal prison will be built. Court denies leftist movements permission to demonstrate on Paulista Avenue A court rejected yesterday an appeal by left-wing movements to organise a rally on Paulista Avenue, downtown Sao Paulo, following the trial of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva scheduled for Wednesday 24 January, Folha de Sao Paulo reported. According to the original plan, the militants would gather across Masp (Sao Paulo Art Museum) for an act that would culminate with a Lula speech. Without authorisation, the Brazil Popular Front and the People Without Fear Movement are calling for a concentration in Republic Park and then a march on Paulista.Avenue. "The entities emphasised that they will not give up the democratic march on the traditional avenue, after they have been prohibited despite the numerous talks," said a note released by the organisers. The leaders of the movements tried to negotiate with the Military Police so that militants and opponents could stage two acts in different points of Paulista Avenue but their request was denied. "They alleged security problems. It is absurd; it is a political decision by the Sao Paulo State Government," said Raimundo Bonfim of the Central Workers Popular Movement. Left-wing parties to seek joint survival strategy With the blessing of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, left-wing parties will seek a joint survival strategy after Lula's trial on 24 January by the Fourth Regional Federal Court in Porto Alegre, Folha de Sao Paulo reported. With the possibility that the Regional Court may uphold the conviction given Lula by another Federal Court, the PT (Workers Party), PC do B (Communist Party of Brazil), PDT (Democratic Labour Party) and even PSB (Brazilian Socialist Party) promote an "electoral truce" and anticipated after the Carnival holiday the launching of a program for an alliance in the second round of the 2018 elections. The PSOL (Socialism and Freedom Party) has joined the discussions as an observer. Daily says Lula does not respect independent justice, media There is no historical record of an authoritarian regime that has not subdued at least one of two basic institutions of democracy: independent justice and the media, and former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva puts both under suspicion in Brazil, which is a dangerous signal by someone who, in spite of the very serious crimes for which he has already been sentenced in the first instance to nine years and six months in prison for corruption and money laundering, still wants to return to the Presidency, says an opinion entitled "Policy of Resentment" published in O Estado de Sao Paulo. Federal judge prohibits MST from setting up camp across court building Federal Judge Osorio Avila Neto on the request of the Attorney General's Office prohibited on Thursday 28 the MST (Landless Rural Workers Movement) from setting up a camp across the Fourth Regional Federal Court of Porto Alegre, which on 24 January will hold the trial of former President Lula da Silva, Folha de Sao Paulo reported. Avila Neto, however, rejected the request by the Attorney General's Office that the MST set up a camp in Farroupilha Park, which is located 2.5 km from the court building, saying that the pro-Lula supporters could use the Harmonia Park across the court building for demonstrations on 24 January during Lula's trial. Leftist movements to camp 1 km from court building Around 10,000 members of left-wing movements, especially peasants, will march on Monday 22 January to a camp located about 1 km from the Regional Federal Court building in Porto Alegre, where the trial of former President Lula da Silva will be held; they will concentrate on Highway BR-116 near Ponte do Guaiba and then leave toward the Anfiteatro Por-do-Sol where the Brazil Popular Front will set up a camp, Folha de Sao Paulo reported. Former president Collor announces intention to run for president Former President Senator Fernando Collor de Mello of the PTC (Christian Labour Party) of Alagoas State announced on Friday 19 January during a visit to Arapiraca, Alagoas, that he intends to run for president in this year's general elections, Sao Paulo O Estado de Sao Paulo reported. "I say to you that this is one of the most important moments of my personal life. Today, my decision is made: I am, yes, candidate for president," he said. Collor won in the first direct election after the country's return to democracy in 1989, defeating several candidates, among them Leonel Brizola, Ulysses Guimaraes, and former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in the runoff election. Minas Gerais declares health state of emergency in 94 municipalities The state of Minas Gerais declared yesterday a health emergency for 180 days in 94 municipalities after the Health Secretariat confirmed another death by yellow fever infection, Sao Paulo's O Estado reported. The municipalities include the regions of Belo Horizonte, Itabira, the state's central region, and Ponte Nova of the Mata region. According to the Health Secretariat, there are 22 confirmed cases of yellow fever with 15 deaths but the 16th death has not yet been included in the official bulletin as there are still other cases under investigation. Social Struggle Movement invades private ranch in Sao Paulo State About 150 members of the Social Struggle Movement, MSL, invaded early Saturday 20 January the Espinho Preto ranch in Rancharia, Sao Paulo State, and according to leader Luciano de Lima, the actions mark the start of land occupations to demand agrarian reform and "in defense of former President Lula's right to be presidential candidate," O Estado de Sao Paulo reported. The Military Police confirmed the invasion and informed that the owner of the property took measures to retake possession of the land. Lima said that the MSL has programmed five other occupations in the western region of Sao Paulo until 24 January when the appeal against the conviction of former President Lula will be ruled upon in the Regional Federal Court of Porto Alegre. BBC Monitoring
Subject: Art galleries & museums; Convictions; Militancy; Presidential elections; Democracy; Trials; Military police; Economic summit conferences; Judges & magistrates
Location: Brazil
People: Temer, Michel Lula da Silva, Luiz Inacio
Publication title: BBC Monitoring Americas; London
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jan 22, 2018
Dateline: BRAZIL
Publisher: BBC Worldwide Limited
Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Political Science
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1990010331
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1990010331?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright BBC Worldwide Limited Jan 22, 2018
Last updated: 2018-01-23
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 23 of 474
OPINION: Commentary: Donald Trump may have caused a billion-dollar marketing blitz for Haiti!
Author: Charles, Jean H
Publication info: TCA Regional News ; Chicago [Chicago]23 Jan 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Jan. 23--According to the principle that any publicity is potentially good publicity, President Donald Trump, in characterizing Haiti as a "shithole country", may have inadvertently caused a marketing blitz for the island nation that Haiti would have had to pay a lot of hard cash to obtain. Anderson Cooper of CNN as well as Conan O'Brian, the well known American comedian with his team Coco, is ringing the first bell by taping a weeklong episode in and about Haiti, promoting the country's continuous mountain ranges, its water, its people, its succulent cuisine and its culture to a worldwide audience. Creative ad agencies are using the very same dirty words to sell the beautiful beaches of Haiti. Norway, Haiti's rival in cleanliness is potentially a buyer for Haiti's garbage. I read recently that Norway is short in solid waste stock because it has used all its garbage to produce electricity for its people. Haiti could even negotiate not only to sell part of its garbage to Norway; it can also subcontract the Norway Electricity Company to produce electricity for Haiti, since 65% of the country has no access to electricity. This global marketing blitz bonanza also happened only eight years ago in difficult circumstances, when Haiti suffered the loss of some 300,000 people due to the earthquake that almost destroyed the capital city of Port au Prince. The entire world commiserated with the country in providing funds and resources for its people. Even the prisoners in one nation pooled their meager pennies to contribute to Haiti. We all know how these contributions have been wasted by the international overseers and the local leaders, not to the benefit of the Haitian people. Will Haiti waste this precious marketing blitz to no effect for its rich cultural offering? It could make the delight of tourists seeking a refuge from the grip of winter from Europe, Japan, Canada or the United States. Haiti is like Israel, a special nation, handpicked by the divine hand for a special mission on earth. Israel was chosen for the appearance of God made man to redeem humanity; Haiti was chosen to teach man and humanity that we are all equal in God's eyes to enjoy his endowment and its richness on earth. Whether we are white, black or yellow, racism has no place in God divine plan! As such, don't threaten either Haiti or Israel! A global volley was raised to defend or protect Haiti against the racial slur that members of the Republican Senate claim the president of the United States may have uttered behind closed doors, racial terms that we all use amongst friends and family but should not be repeated to the outside world. Is Donald Trump racist? He says he is not! In full disclosure, the grandmother of my children lived next door to the Trump family for years in peace and in harmony. Occasionally Donald Trump on weekends and on holidays would visit his mother and father. There was always a friendly hello, a gesture that I cannot testify readily with the new owner of the family house that I do not know either by name or by face. Nevertheless, here is what Haiti can offer to the world in this marketing blitz: 1. Haiti Jazz Festival from January 20 to January 27. Haiti has the privilege of opening the global annual pilgrimage to jazz festivals in different capitals of the world. This year's offering includes major stars such as Kenny Garrett of USA, Felipe Lamoglia of Cuba, Marialy Pacheco of Germany, Nicolas Vera of Chili, Beethoven Obas, Ram and the group String as a grand finale on the beaches of Dicameron resorts hotel on Saturday January 27. 2. Haiti's Carnival starts in earnest on January 14 with events every Sunday, drawing at least a million people behind big trucks manned by well known DJs. Haiti style carnival is more Salvador de Bahia in Brazil than Rio, or Port or Spain in Trinidad. It is a tsunami of people dancing gently to the sound of a mellow music without violence or discord. It culminates in the two days of Monday and Fat Tuesday, falling this year on February 12 and 13 before Ash Wednesday. 3. The Rara Festival, which is the voodoo counterpart of the Catholic celebration, starts on Friday the 16th, producing each Friday, culminating in Good Friday which falls on March 30. The Rara Festival is a mixture of voodoo ritual with music and dance. 4. The International Catholic Jubilee on Quasimodo Sunday, April 8. The Haitian Diaspora in coordination with the local clergy draws thousands of followers to pray and worship together the blood of Christ shed for the redemption of humanity. 5. The summer All Saints Fiestas starting on May 1 in Jacmel and going from city to city with a crescendo on July 16 in Saut d'Eau for the fiesta of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. It travels to Port Margot on July 20, from there to La Plaine du Nord for St Jacques or Ogou Feraille on July 24, with no rest, Granny St Anne in Limonade on July 25 and St Mary Madeleine in bucolic Marmelade on July 29. 6. The Day of the Dead on Thursday November 1, with libations and dance and food in the cemeteries, especially in Port au Prince, Leogane and Grand River. 7. Haitian Independence Day on January 1. 8. The commemoration of the death of some 300,000 people in the 2010 earthquake in the week from January 7 to January 12. In addition to this cultural blitz, Haiti offers the potential investor an immense pool of workers ready to give willingly a day's work for a decent pay. The nation is above all agro-forestry country. Haiti is for Wall Street, pension funds and insurance companies the ideal place to invest in hard and precious wood such as mahogany and cedar that would provide returns stronger than new instruments such as bitcoins and other investor novelties. Haiti, its government and its people have the chance to use this marketing blitz for its profit or to waste it as it did after the earthquake or as it did with the PetroCaribe fund. The choice is theirs. Donald Trump will continue to be the president of the United States for the next three years, possibly for the next seven years. His large base sees in him a drunken uncle who is delivering results. CREDIT: By Jean H Charles
Subject: Marketing; Investments; Earthquakes; Music festivals
Location: Spain United States--US Canada Israel Grand River Germany Cuba Brazil Norway Haiti Japan Europe
People: Cooper, Anderson Trump, Donald J
Company / organization: Name: CNN; NAICS: 515210; Name: Senate; NAICS: 921120
Publication title: TCA Regional News; Chicago
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jan 23, 2018
Publisher: Tribune Content Agency LLC
Place of publication: Chicago
Country of publication: United States, Chicago
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1990841650
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1990841650?accountid=4840
Copyright: (c)2018 the Caribbean News Now (Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands) Visit the Caribbean News Now (Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands) at www.caribbeannewsnow.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Last updated: 2019-03-12
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 24 of 474
Brazil: WHO: Brazil's Death Toll From Yellow Fever Triples
Publication info: Asia News Monitor ; Bangkok [Bangkok]24 Jan 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: The number of confirmed cases of yellow fever outbreak in Brazil has tripled in recent weeks, with 20 deaths since July, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday. Of 35 confirmed cases, 20 were in Sao Paulo state, which includes South America's largest city, Sao Paulo. Earlier this month, a case of the disease was confirmed in the Netherlands for a traveler who had recently been in that state. The WHO recommended last week that foreign travelers get vaccinated before visiting. But Brazil's Health Ministry has said the recommendation, coming just weeks before Carnival, a holiday event in which tens of thousands of tourists descend on Brazil, would not cause it to change its advisory that only travelers going to rural areas be vaccinated. Last week, Brazilians lined up for hours to get yellow fever vaccinations in the country's largest states, alarmed by the increase in the number of fatal cases of infection and a warning from the WHO to tourists visiting parts of the country. Yellow fever is a viral disease transmitted by mosquitoes in tropical regions and is still a major killer in Africa. It had largely been brought under control in the Americas. The first sign that the fever was back in Brazil was the death last year of hundreds of monkeys in the Atlantic rain forest in the states of Rio de Janeiro, Espirito Santo and Sao Paulo. - VOA
Subject: Vaccines; Fever
Location: South America Africa Brazil Netherlands Rio de Janeiro Brazil Americas
Company / organization: Name: World Health Organization; NAICS: 923120
Publication title: Asia News Monitor; Bangkok
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jan 24, 2018
Section: General News
Publisher: Thai News Service Group
Place of publication: Bangkok
Country of publication: Thailand, Bangkok
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--Philippines, General Interest Periodicals--Vietnam, General Interest Periodicals--Thailand
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1989961847
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1989961847?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Thai News Service Group Jan 24, 2018
Last updated: 2018-01-23
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 25 of 474
Q4 2017 Praxair Inc Earnings Call - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]25 Jan 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Presentation OPERATOR: Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Q4 2017 Praxair Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to introduce your host for today's conference, Juan Pelaez, Director of Investor Relations. Mr. Pelaez, you may begin. JUAN PELAEZ, DIRECTOR OF IR, PRAXAIR, INC.: Thank you, Sarah. Good morning, and thank you for attending our fourth quarter earnings call and webcast. I'm joined this morning by Steve Angel, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Matt White, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; and Kelcey Hoyt, Vice President and Controller. Today's presentation materials are available on our website at praxair.com in the Investors section. Please read the forward-looking statement disclosure on Page 2 of the slides and note that it applies to all statements made during this teleconference. In addition, please note that year-over-year and sequential comparisons excludes charges related to U.S. tax reform and the proposed merger. The reconciliations to the U.S. GAAP reported numbers are in the appendix to this presentation and the press release. Now let me turn the call over to Steve. STEPHEN F. ANGEL, CHAIRMAN & CEO, PRAXAIR, INC.: Thanks, Juan. Good morning, everyone. 2017 ended on a strong note, with growth across every major end market as the industrial economy steadily recovered. The discipline and focus of our entire employee base enabled us to capitalize on these trends while simultaneously making progress toward the merger with Linde. In fact, on Slide 4, you will find some specific examples of successful execution of our strategy. We presented this strategy approximately 3 years ago as commodity prices, emerging markets and industrial activity were collectively in decline. Our goal was to optimize the base business, capture quality growth opportunities and position the company for strong recovery when industrial markets improved. And I'm proud to say that the Praxair team has delivered. Over the last several years, we have taken actions to optimize the base business, which have culminated to record for both operating and free cash flow in 2017. Matt will discuss the numbers in more detail, but all of our employees contributed toward creating shareholder value and making our organization more efficient. While optimizing the base, we never took our eye off growing the business. In light of the market conditions of the last few years, we focused our efforts on those sectors that were less cyclical or had fundamental cost advantages where our customers were making capital investments. Our resilient market exposure has grown double digits from roughly 1/4 to 28% of the global portfolio. Furthermore, we have taken additional efforts to diversify and enhance the business portfolio through adding other nonindustrial projects to our backlog. These efforts are supported by recent announcements of contract wins for on-site customers, including nitrogen supply and process gases to EverDisplay's AMOLED manufacturing facility in Shanghai. In fact, as of now, electronic customers comprise roughly 10% of our project backlog versus just 2% last year. And that number will grow in light of new wins we expect in the coming months. In addition to portfolio management, we invested in strategic markets through acquisitions and joint ventures. Leveraging our extensive supply network and process gas expertise in the U.S. Gulf Coast enabled us to secure $1.1 billion worth of new projects, and we're not done yet. I fully expect more key wins in the coming quarters as we continue to see strong investments around the low-cost hydrocarbons. All of these efforts support future growth independent of the macroeconomic environment. But as macro conditions improve, we fully expect to leverage any cyclical recovery, as shown at the bottom of this page. And based on what we've seen over the last several months, I believe we are in the midst of an industrial recovery, especially in the U.S. and parts of Asia and Europe. We have positioned the business well to participate in this rebound while maintaining focus to run a high-quality business. This is evidenced by recent growth trends from the business segments. But we also want to see margins expanding with this recovery. While sequentially, our margins have improved, we're lagging a bit from prior year. However, I fully expect margin expansion in 2018, which we are already experiencing in the first quarter. While executing the strategy, we also made significant progress toward the merger with Linde. I wasn't planning to cover what has already been completed, but suffice to say, it was a tremendous amount of work that our employees successfully managed while we continued to run the business at a high level. That being said, I would like to provide an update on key milestones, which you will find on Slide 5. The takeaway of this entire slide is that we're on track. Regulatory filings are being completed as expected, including the recently filed Form CO with the European Commission. In parallel, we're making good progress on the divestiture process. I expect bid packages to be distributed over the next few weeks, after which we will narrow the potential buyer pool. We will also take advantage of this time to accomplish as much integration planning work as we can to ensure a smooth transition post-close. So overall, we've made good progress. While we can't control the final outcome, we've had very constructive dialogues with the regulators, and milestones are being achieved according to the plan. I'm sure many of you will have questions about the merger, but realize there isn't much more I can say about the process or time line other than these points. Before I hand it over to Matt, I'd like to provide a brief update of business trends on Slide 6. North America at 52% of sales has seen growth across all end markets but, more specifically, strong recovery in the industrial sectors. In the last few months, U.S. industrial production growth for manufacturing has exceeded 2%, and key subsectors of metal fabrication and machinery have grown mid-single digits. This has led to robust growth in our on-site customers for metals, downstream energy and chemicals as well as manufacturing for our packaged gas business. Same-store sales. Hardgoods grew in the high teens and gas in the mid-single digits for the fourth quarter. We also saw a substantial amount of capital equipment sales in the U.S., which may bode well for future industrial and infrastructure activity. Additionally, the chemicals market is growing double digits, while our metals customers continue to perform well as reductions in global steel capacity and improved trade balances have supported domestic production. Our confidence remains high in adding new projects to the backlog from the U.S. Gulf Coast as we are finalizing contract negotiations on a few large projects. Energy markets are also growing double digit in North America but mostly driven by downstream refining. Our customers ran quite hard in the fourth quarter as they rebounded quickly from the hurricanes, but we anticipate a significant turnaround season in this first quarter as several customer outages were deferred in 2017. While oil pricing has rebounded, there hasn't been a meaningful uptick in our upstream business. Mexico has bounced off the low rates, and we are seeing slow improvement in the U.S., but most customers are still operating in the lowest-cost regions using slickwater techniques that don't require very much nitrogen. If oil prices are viewed to be stable at these higher levels, it is possible we may see a return to formations that would require more industrial gases, but we aren't -- but we just aren't seeing much of that yet. South America at 13% of our sales has been stable, but the 2018 election season in Brazil will likely provide some volatility during the year. Industrial activity still remains at multiyear lows, but the recent trend has improved, with low to mid-single-digit IP growth over the last few months. Most end markets have been flat to up, although manufacturing and metals have grown more than other sectors, which may signal some thawing of industrial investments. I wish I could say that I am bullish for recovery, but the uncertainty around the political situation in Brazil will likely result in a continued hold on investments. So at this point, I'm not expecting much from Brazil for the first half of 2018. On the bright side, Argentina continues to be a good growth story, and the commodity rebound should help countries like Chile and Peru, but time will tell on the pace of the Brazilian recovery. Similar to the other regions, Europe has grown in all end markets but most in the industrial areas of metals and manufacturing. Germany, Italy and Spain have all contributed nicely to the growth in segment sales and profits. However, the Nordics and Russia are still lagging on performance just given their local economies. But overall, Europe continues to be a positive story. Asia at 16% of sales has been our strongest growth story for the year, both organically and for new on-site contracts for the project backlog. Double-digit volume growth in chemicals, electronics, manufacturing and metals have contributed to the results. As the Chinese economy rationalizes excess production capacity in key markets like steel, we have benefited from a combination of being partnered with the right on-site customers and improved supply-demand balance in the merchant liquid market. Pricing has improved several quarters in a row as pent-up inflation is working through the supply chain. In China and more specifically Korea, we continue to see significant on-site opportunities around electronics, primarily high-purity nitrogen but also other processed gases used in fabs. In 2017, we announced 3 new projects serving the electronics industry, and there are more to come. In fact, we were recently awarded a very large project, which I expect will be announced shortly. The opportunity set for new projects in Asia, especially electronics, has been quite strong, but we continue to maintain our discipline to only partner with the right customers and terms that fit our risk-reward criteria. I'll now turn it over to Matt to walk through the numbers. MATTHEW J. WHITE, SENIOR VP & CFO, PRAXAIR, INC.: Thanks, Steve. Please turn to Slide 8 for our fourth quarter results. Sales of just under $3 billion were 12% higher than last year and 1% higher than the third quarter of this year. The table in the upper right breaks down the drivers to the sales variance. And you can see that volume is the largest contributor, with 7% and 1% growth from last year and third quarter, respectively. When comparing to prior year, every major end market expanded, led by electronics, chemicals and energy. From a segment perspective, Asia and North America had the greatest growth from a combination of recovery in industrial markets and project contribution. Globally, about 2/3 came from organic volume, with the rest supported by project start-ups. The 1% sequential growth was also supported by U.S. and Asia as the U.S. Gulf Coast recovered from the third quarter hurricanes, and we saw general improvement in manufacturing activity in both regions. South America was seasonally weak as expected due to the holidays and summer break. End market trends were also consistent with expectations. As the energy market rebounded from the U.S. Gulf Coast, it was partially offset by seasonally weaker beverage sales in the Northern Hemisphere. The price/mix improvement of 1% was achieved from focused pricing actions, partially offset by some unfavorable mix impacts in specific regions, especially in South America and Europe. Asian merchant liquid had the strongest performance of the segments, while pricing action in North America were partially offset by the effect of higher capital equipment sales in our packaged gas business. Currency translation is favorable 3%, primarily from strengthening of the euro, Canadian dollar, Chinese RMB and Korean won. Operating profit of $653 million is $54 million or 9% better than last year and $11 million or 2% better than the third quarter. This is the third consecutive quarter in a row where we have expanded operating margins. However, it is lower by 60 basis points from the fourth quarter of 2016. About 20 basis points relates to the impact of higher cost pass-through, so the underlying margin decline from Q4 2016 is about 40 basis points. There are 3 main drivers negatively affecting this. First is the unfavorable mix issues we discussed, including capital equipment sales and overall South America. Second relates to restructuring charges embedded in the results, which you can see in the other income trends. And third relates to the fact that fourth quarter of 2016 had a lower run-rate SG&A as we had to reverse some of the incentive compensation accruals last year due to weaker results. But that is 1-quarter comparison in time, and several of these items will not repeat. As Steve mentioned, we are quite confident that we will be expanding margins in 2018, including the first quarter. More importantly, our operating cash flow margins have increased for 3 straight years to a record 27% in 2017, which I'll speak to on the next slide. Our balance sheet continues to improve with strong capital management and cash generation. Return on capital has steadily risen each quarter, reaching 12.5% by year-end. I expect that number to continue to improve throughout 2018. Our available operating cash flow, which represents operating cash flow minus non-backlog or what we call base CapEx, has grown to almost $600 million for the quarter as we've managed base CapEx and also increased operating cash flow. Please turn to Slide 9 for more details on our cash flow performance. The left part of this slide provides a multiyear trend for our operating and free cash flow. A few things that I'd like to point out. First, you can see that 2017 represented a record for both metrics. This result is a culmination of many efforts from our employees around the world. Second, free cash flow has steadily increased over the period as the organization managed capital spending in line with the underlying growth prospects. Finally, the quality of the business has also steadily increased as operating cash flow margins have improved from 19% to 27%. Said differently, in 2017, for every dollar of sales, we generated $0.27 of operating cash flow that we could either return to shareholders or invest for future growth. This is a very compelling story of both the resiliency of our business as well as the ability to leverage a recovery like we've seen over the last several quarters. The right part of this slide shows how we used the $3 billion of operating cash flow in 2017, resulting in a balance of growth investments, shareholder returns and debt reduction. We are currently pausing stock repurchases during the proposed merger, so I anticipate further declines in net debt leading up to close. Please turn to Slide 10 for tax and guidance update. In the fourth quarter, we booked a tax reform charge of $394 million or $1.36 of EPS. This charge is comprised of 3 pieces: a $467 million charge for the deemed repatriation of accumulated foreign earnings; a $260 million charge for foreign withholding taxes related to anticipated repatriated foreign earnings; and a $333 million benefit associated with the revaluation of a deferred tax liability from 35% to 21%. There is no immediate cash impact from this charge, but cash will be impacted over several years as the liabilities are settled. This charge represents our best estimate of the current tax reform, but it is subject to change as new information becomes available. Looking forward, I anticipate the new tax reform will lower our current effective tax rate down to a range of 23% to 25%, depending upon how specific aspects of the reform are ultimately clarified by the U.S. Treasury Department. For purposes of guidance, we are assuming a tax rate near the middle of that range, which provides a quarterly benefit of approximately $0.05 when compared to our run rate. As far as guidance, the EPS estimate for the first quarter is in the range of $1.53 to $1.58, which includes the $0.05 for tax reform. First quarter is seasonally slower due to Lunar New Year and Carnival. Furthermore, the U.S. Gulf Coast customers are undergoing a significant amount of turnarounds as several slated for 2017 were deferred into this quarter. Despite these known headwinds, we are expecting continued contribution from underlying price and volume, which will improve operating leverage. We did not provide a full year guidance range in light of the anticipated merger close date. As such, we do not expect Praxair will finish 2018 as a stand-alone publicly traded company. Our focus is to continue operating at a high-level performance while supporting the merger integration planning efforts for a successful start to Linde plc. We believe it is more appropriate to provide quarterly guidance for Praxair as the focus shifts to the new combined company in the second half of the year. I'd now like to turn the call over to Q&A. Questions and Answers OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Mike Sison with KeyBanc. MICHAEL JOSEPH SISON, MD & EQUITY RESEARCH ANALYST, KEYBANC CAPITAL MARKETS INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: Steve, when you think about Brazil, and I understand that you're not willing to think there's a recovery yet, but in the event that there is potential, where do you think margins or the potential for the Brazil segment is down the road? STEPHEN F. ANGEL: Well, our goal is to get it back to 20%, and everybody understands that's the objective. I think for that to happen, we need to get more lift from the core manufacturing sector. I mean, you've heard some positives that people have reported. Automotives is up a bit. I think metal export is up a little bit. Pulp and paper is up some. Agriculture is always fairly strong. But really, the base manufacturing, core manufacturing sector has not seen that yet. And again, I think we heard some, what I'll call good news that the past president's conviction was upheld a couple of days ago. So he won't be a factor in the elections, and he had a lot of popular support. But there's still going to be some volatility in the political climate. But to get back and answer your question, we've run as high as 22%, 23% in years past. So our objective again is to get it back to 20%. MICHAEL JOSEPH SISON: Great. And then a follow-up on, in Asia, pricing, I think it's the third quarter in a row you've had positive pricing. Can you maybe talk about some of the dynamics in China that's supporting that? And then I mean, could this be a kind of a multiyear upside potential in terms of pricing for Asia? STEPHEN F. ANGEL: Well, it should be. And most of what's driving that number is China, just to be specific. So you've heard me talk about China in the past where we were really unhappy with the level of pricing, and there were several factors at play. There was excess supply in the merchant liquid market. You had captive steel companies and so forth putting by-product market on -- into the supply. So what has changed, there's really a couple of things. And one of which is if you look at the merchant liquid capacity utilization today, and that's usually a question I get somewhere along the line, I mean, we're in the 90s in terms of capacity utilization. And we're not alone in terms of the fact that given the growth, and there hasn't been the pace of merchant liquid capacity adds that we used to see in the past, that, that market has tightened up. But that's a good thing. And then the second thing, it was in my comments, was China is very serious about managing the environment. They realized they had overcapacity in many sectors, one of which was metals. Again, that's where we saw a lot of excess product come into the market. So as those Tier 2, Tier 3 metals customers are rationalized, then that product doesn't find its way into the market, which is a good thing. So those are some factors that are at play. And yes, I do expect this to continue. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from Vincent Andrews with Morgan Stanley. VINCENT STEPHEN ANDREWS, MD, MORGAN STANLEY, RESEARCH DIVISION: Steve, you talked a bit on the energy side of things in terms of the upstream customers and not really seeing it yet, and maybe we'll see it. Is it just a question of the oil price staying around here at a long enough level that it builds confidence? Or are there other gating events that we need to see? And what do you think the overall -- maybe over the next year or 2, how much recovery in terms of EBITDA dollars do you think we could see? STEPHEN F. ANGEL: Well, it was -- at its peak, it was about 4% of our sales and high margin, as you heard us discuss. Today, as I look at it, it's sub-2%. So yes, you would need prices at a high level. You would need confidence that those prices are going to be sustainable. And I think with that, we would see more energized gases, like nitrogen, used in more formations. And I'd give you an example of the formation that we would see lift in would be the San Juan Basin, for example, in New Mexico. So I would expect some improvement. Would we get all the way back to 4%? I'm not sure about that. It would certainly be a nice bonus for us going forward in terms of our earnings boost. You got to keep in mind, we sold a lot of nitrogen for oil pressurization, for maintenance to PEMEX, and they still have a lot of problems. And I said they bounced off of their bottom, but they're nowhere near their peak. And again, energy prices have moved up quite a bit. So they have issues managing the budget, but they also need to maintain the wells, and they're constantly trying to balance that. So yes, it would be nice to see. Will we get back to the 4% level? I'm not counting on that, but it's possible. VINCENT STEPHEN ANDREWS: Okay. And just a follow-up on the backlog and sort of your CapEx expectations, and I recognize this is a stand-alone question that may no longer be relevant in a little bit. But with the industrial recovery -- and I keep seeing press releases about large-scale CapEx projects all over the world, Middle East, Asia and so forth -- do you anticipate over the next few years that the investment opportunity is going to become more robust and that you guys will go after it? Or are you still a bit on the more cautious side as it relates to the backlog? STEPHEN F. ANGEL: I think that the backlog number that we have today is a pretty sustainable level even as we start up projects. And it's just a function of the confidence that we have, looking at the projects that we're working on. I made some comments about that. A lot of them are in the U.S. Gulf Coast, but there's also a significant number of electronics projects that I'm very optimistic that we'll be adding to the backlog in the not-too-distant future. So I think the outlook with respect to projects is trending positively, mainly driven by those 2 areas. And of course, with respect to the merger, I think that's a question that's better left for Linde to opine on. But if you look at what they've been talking about with respect to their engineering business, the fact that the backlog is strong, they've been adding projects to it, I think that speaks for itself. And if we're seeing opportunities like I described, you would have to assume that certainly, in one of those key markets, they would be seeing similar kinds of opportunities as well given where they are geographically positioned. So I'm optimistic in that regard. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from Peter Clark with Societe Generale. PETER ANTHONY JOHN CLARK, SENIOR ANALYST, CHEMICALS, SOCIETE GENERALE CROSS ASSET RESEARCH: Yes. Steve, one for you on the merger update slide. I know you can't talk too much on this. But with the Q3, you made it quite clear, you didn't see anything that would threaten the threshold. I'm just wondering -- I'd presume that's still applicable given what you've put on that slide. And the second comment, I heard what you said on Brazil with the sort of crawling back to the 20% margin. But of course, this business was doing 500 basis points higher than where you are today. That would be about 300 basis points. I realize there's some mix change here, there's more resilient business. But against that, obviously, you've ripped out costs. You've got more on-site actually, excepting the threshold issue there. I'm just wondering if you're being understandably cautious given the experience you had. STEPHEN F. ANGEL: Well, so I'll take the last question. Possibly, but then again, the economy has to recover the markets that we make a lot of margin in, which is the merchant liquid market. It's the liquid argon, it's the packaged gases. Those markets, those segments have to start growing at a much faster pace. Obviously, 20% is not a cap that I'd put on South America. But I think given where we are today, that's a reasonable objective, I'll say, in the near to medium term. And that's all I really have to say about Brazil at the time. You are correct in the sense that we have been working on the costs. We've also been working on our go-to-market structure and making some changes around that, that we think will be helpful in the long term. So we continue to work that equation. But yes, back to your original question, we do not believe that the threshold is going to be threatened, and we're still maintaining our view of that. OPERATOR: And our next question comes from Duffy Fischer with Barclays. PATRICK DUFFY FISCHER, DIRECTOR AND SENIOR CHEMICAL ANALYST, BARCLAYS PLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: Both Matt and Steve, you've referenced you think that margins are going to expand throughout this year. Can you talk a little bit about what the drivers of that expansion are? And then proffer some kind of a bogey, is it 0.5%, 1%? How much could those margins expand throughout the year? STEPHEN F. ANGEL: Well, I'll speak in terms of this. And again, we didn't deliberately give guidance too far out, but as I'm looking at it, we talked about the first quarter. So kind of the algorithm on the top line is we've said large projects contributed about 2 to the top line and about 3 to the bottom line. So that obviously helps with margin leverage in and of itself. Call currency 0, pass-through 0; then what's left is price and mix, but let's say price and volume. We think price is going to be in the 1%, trending to 2% kind of level. That's our objective. And then in terms of volume, we had some good growth obviously in Q4. We think that trend is going to continue. Of course, you have some seasonal effects that Matt talked about, which can't -- don't change and the heavy turnarounds at HyCO. But year-over-year, we're going to see some volume growth. So I -- so we believe that top line is going to be in the mid-single-digit range, maybe in the upper end of the mid-single-digit range. And then we'll be able to leverage the margins up from that into the high single digits and perhaps push in double digits. PATRICK DUFFY FISCHER: Great. And then just to shift to electronics, it seems with the 3 wins you had last year, you're talking about a couple more wins maybe now, like you're punching above your weight in electronics. If you would agree with that, that you're kind of taking market share there, what's changed in that dynamic that has allowed you to do that? STEPHEN F. ANGEL: Well, I had to laugh a bit, punching above our weight. So a lot of electronics activity is, tell me who the end customer is that's doing the buying or that's making the major investments for growth. And I don't think there's any secret that Samsung is the 800-pound gorilla in terms of investments they're making in semiconductor and also in display. I think I saw a statistic or I'm pretty sure I did that said that in 2017, no corporation globally invested more in CapEx than Samsung, and the plans for '18 are the same. So they're making massive investments. We've always been very well positioned with Samsung. We have a great relationship, long track record of reliability in meeting their needs. And that's why we're so confident in the electronics picture going forward. There were other projects obviously that we won in China. There was 1 or 2 in the U.S. as well. But again, Samsung's the 800-pound gorilla in the electronics space. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from Laurence Alexander with Jefferies. LAURENCE ALEXANDER, VP & EQUITY RESEARCH ANALYST, JEFFERIES LLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: Two quick questions. It looks as if with the timing of the new on-sites, your chemical business will be growing mid-teens, probably through 2019 or even 2020. Is that right? Or are there any offsets to that? STEPHEN F. ANGEL: I think that's about right. But chemicals in the U.S. for sure, because of the project start-ups, I'm pretty sure the math would work out that way. And then of course, in places like China, there's chemicals activity as well, but that's more of a function of really just economic growth in China. LAURENCE ALEXANDER: And secondly, is there any sense in which your run-rate productivity has been delayed or distracted ahead of the merger? Or should we just use the usual algorithm on that side? STEPHEN F. ANGEL: Nothing has changed. In fact, we've made it a point across the business to make sure that we continue to execute on all the programs, initiatives, base business that we normally would. And fortunately, as we work through this merger process, we only involve people in the merger process, the integration planning that need to be involved at that time. And we've been able to manage that quite well. But to your more specific question, the productivity programs look very solid to me. We continue to evolve that productivity pipeline with new initiatives around things like more predictive diagnostic capability and so forth. So -- but the productivity pipeline, the execution of the pipeline, I still think is in good shape, and that's what I would say about that. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from Jeff Zekauskas with JPMorgan. JEFFREY JOHN ZEKAUSKAS, SENIOR ANALYST, JP MORGAN CHASE & CO, RESEARCH DIVISION: I think earlier in the call, Steve, you talked about prices for 2018 perhaps edging up from 1% to 2%. And you also said that your own utilization rates were very high. Is your optimism about pricing a reflection of your views on capacity utilization in the industry or industrial gas capacity utilization rates rising meaningfully? Or is there something else behind the possible price increase? STEPHEN F. ANGEL: Well, it's -- it really is region by region. Of course, these are local businesses, so you have to look at it that way. The comment I made, Jeff, was really around China that we have very high capacity utilization as does the industry, generally speaking. So that is always helpful in terms of our ability to raise prices. If I look around at other parts of the world, you still have some regions that are in the 70s, some that are mid-70s. And so that situation really hasn't corrected itself yet. I would say, generally speaking, though -- we talk about Brazil going the other direction where they historically have been high inflation, now they're low inflation, sub-3%. Most parts of the world are seeing some inflation. I can look at Mexico, I can see some inflation. I can look at other parts where inflation is starting to become more of a factor. And so for us coming into the year -- this is something we talk about at our leadership conference -- that we want to make sure we get out ahead of that inflation curve; we want to make sure that, given we're seeing some good volume growth in certain regions, that we also make sure that we're taking advantage of the pricing opportunities that exist there. And that's what I'm seeing 1 month into the first quarter. JEFFREY JOHN ZEKAUSKAS: Maybe a question for Matt. Your SG&A was up a lot in the quarter, maybe by about 11%. And you talked about some of the factors that were behind that. What kind of SG&A growth do you expect for 2018, exclusive of the Linde merger? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Yes, Jeff. So maybe just a comment on, call it, 2016 to '17. I think looking at the year, full year is probably a little bit better just given some of the timing movements. As you know, there's a variable component of incentives, which get trued up. So when I look at full year '16 to '17, SG&A is up about 5%. Roughly 1% of that is FX, and the remainder is 4%. And probably half of that does relate to some of the incentive impact. As I'd mentioned in the prepared remarks in '16, we really reduced that number down quite low given the weaker performance and that we did not reach a lot of our targets. So you're looking at kind of a couple percent, I think, natural growth, which is in line, I think, with inflation, in line with what you'd expect to merit impact. And I see no reason why -- looking into '18, why that would be any different. So when I remove that variable component, which can go up and down, I think just kind of a low single-digit inflation-like number is what we tend to see in normal years. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from Steve Byrne with Bank of America. IAN MATTHEW BENNETT, ASSOCIATE, BOFA MERRILL LYNCH, RESEARCH DIVISION: This is Ian Bennett on for Steve. Steve, you mentioned earlier about positive pricing expectation in China. And part of that was the environmental initiatives having an effect on the supply from these Tier 2 and 3 providers. Are you seeing any beginning signs of increased demand for gases as a potential to solve some of their environmental needs? STEPHEN F. ANGEL: Well, as a matter of fact, yes. I mean, that's part of the growth profile that we're seeing in China. Water treatment has been really quite strong for the past year. But we're also seeing some of our major steel customers start to utilize more oxygen in their steelmaking process, and this is for environmental reasons. And so yes, the answer is yes. We're seeing the focus on the environment create business opportunities for us, and we're capitalizing on that. IAN MATTHEW BENNETT: And then I just want to follow up on the merger. Is there any possibility to close meaningfully before the long-stop date in October? STEPHEN F. ANGEL: Well, that's going to be a function of the timing of the regulatory approvals, all of them, and negotiation of the remedies that are required. And that is something we spend a lot of time working on planning. I think it's possible that we could -- well, we'll certainly close before October 24. But as far as how earlier, it's really just a function of the things that I said. So we'll -- we've said that in all likelihood, it will be in the second half, and the long-stop date is October 24. So somewhere between the beginning of the third quarter and the long-stop date is when we anticipate closing. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from P.J. Juvekar with Citi. P.J. JUVEKAR, GLOBAL HEAD OF CHEMICALS AND AGRICULTURE AND MD, CITIGROUP INC, RESEARCH DIVISION: Steve, you walked us through your growth and margin analysis. But if I look at your quarter, your sales were up just under 12%, and your operating profits were up 9%. So at this point, shouldn't you see more leverage, especially with high incremental margins from the merchant business? What's causing this? STEPHEN F. ANGEL: Well, that's really what Matt walked through, I think, in his comments. And keep in mind, we had South America as part of that equation. We had a very strong packaged gas, hardgoods flow in Q4, up close to 20%. Matt talked about the year-over-year differential in compensation, how that affected that. You do have some pass-through that's part of that. You had some restructuring charges that we took that were greater than what we had taken in the prior year. That's part of that equation. But I think more importantly is yes, we should see leverage. We are seeing leverage going forward. We're 1 month into the quarter, and we feel good about what we're seeing now. But there were some -- there was a group of things that created that phenomena in Q4. P.J. JUVEKAR: Okay. And then secondly, you haven't gone as aggressively after Chinese projects in coal gasification or syngas. Can you flesh out your concerns either about risks to these projects or potential low returns? STEPHEN F. ANGEL: Well, we have a very successful strategy that we outlined. And so our strategy -- I won't go back through it, but our strategy is very clear in terms of where we're focused and the success that we're seeing. And we also have this little thing called the merger with Linde that's quite important. But every project goes through a risk-return analysis. And as we look at some of the projects that we're talking about, our view of risk and return is it's not that attractive to us and especially given the other opportunities that we have, which, in our view, offer a better risk-return situation. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from David Begleiter with Deutsche Bank. DAVID L. BEGLEITER, MD AND SENIOR RESEARCH ANALYST, DEUTSCHE BANK AG, RESEARCH DIVISION: Steve, manufacturing end markets rose 8% in the quarter. Could you give a little more color as to why that -- those markets did accelerate versus the prior year and even Q3? STEPHEN F. ANGEL: Well, there -- obviously, there is some increase versus Q3. But if you look at the U.S. packaged gas business, what we call PDI, had a very strong quarter from a top line standpoint. Again, you're approaching 20% on hardgoods, which was driven by a lot of capital equipment purchases during the quarter. And gas was still strong, too, kind of in the mid-single-digit range. That's a piece of that, but Mexico is doing quite well from a manufacturing standpoint. Canada is -- had a very good quarter year-over-year from a manufacturing standpoint. And there really isn't any weakness as you look around the globe other than -- I keep coming back to Brazil and South America. But everywhere else, Europe is showing some growth in manufacturing. China obviously is doing very well in manufacturing. So those are the big drivers, and that's how we got an 8% number. DAVID L. BEGLEITER: I see. Just on your backlog, are you at all capacity constrained in bidding for new projects? And also, how is activity in the Middle East and India? STEPHEN F. ANGEL: Well, we are not capacity constrained. We feel very confident in our ability to win projects and execute those projects. In fact, we always look at our project execution track record, and it's been quite good. So we're pleased with that. With respect to -- you asked about Middle East and India. When you look at India, quite frankly, they haven't utilized a lot of capacity that they put in place some years ago. So the growth has not been dynamic enough in India to create the demand for new projects, not yet. So obviously, we feel we're well positioned there when that takes place. But when you're kind of growing at a 4%, 5% kind of number, you're not going to drive a lot of additional projects, not yet. And then with respect to the Mid East, we're not -- we haven't been doing much in the Mid East. That's largely a sale-of-equipment market. So we don't -- haven't historically focused on sale of equipment. And therefore, we just haven't been doing anything in that spot of the world. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from Mike Harrison with Seaport Global Securities. MICHAEL JOSEPH HARRISON, MD & SENIOR CHEMICALS ANALYST, SEAPORT GLOBAL SECURITIES LLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: Just to follow up on the last question there about the Mid East being mostly a sale-of-equipment market. Does that mean that maybe it becomes a little more of a focus as you guys join forces with Linde? STEPHEN F. ANGEL: Well, I think, clearly, Linde has done well in the Mid East. And by large into -- a large reason for that is the fact that they can build olefin plants, they can build ethane crackers, they can build a lot of the upstream plants that are in demand in places like the Mid East. So they have more of a presence there than we have clearly. And as I've talked about before, they have a very good sale-of-equipment business. And you got to break that down. Half of it is things like natural gas plants, olefins plants and the like. The other half is really hydrogen plants, CO plants, syngas plants, ASUs, things that -- obviously that we're very interested in today and would benefit in terms of what they're able to do. So they run a very good business, the engineering business performing at a pretty high level. They are arguably one of the best at the sale-of-equipment side of the fence. So I think that's something that we will look at and evaluate as the merger is consummated. But certainly, as an entity going forward, you can anticipate that we'll be more involved in sale of equipment than Praxair stand-alone today. MICHAEL JOSEPH HARRISON: Got it. And then just going back to the comments on U.S. packaged gases, I believe you said that the growth there was in the mid-single digits. Can you break out what was volume and what was pricing and what your expectations might be going forward for volume and pricing in packaged gas in the U.S.? STEPHEN F. ANGEL: Yes. So my comment really is around -- give me one second here. So essentially, they had a high single-digit number in sales, PDI gas. And hardgoods is in the high teens, pushing 20%, and the gas-only piece would be mid-single digit, 4% or 5%. That's the sales line number. And if you kind of pull that back, they had a decent performance in pricing, kind of in the 1% to 2% range. And they're one of the businesses that I feel optimistic about with respect to pricing going forward, and then the rest of that is volume. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from Tim Iordanov. TIM IORDANOV, ANALYST, RAYMOND JAMES & ASSOCIATES, INC.: This is Tim Iordanov for Patrick Lambert. Question regarding taxes, specifically the tax reform. What do you think that's going to do to cash tax rates going into this year and to the coming quarters? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Sure. So this is Matt answering that question. When you look at on an average run rate, I'd expect the cash benefit to probably be somewhere in the $50 million to $60 million per year range. But you have to take that with a grain of salt. Obviously, that's based on our current interpretation of the tax reform. Obviously, it could be very subject to change as clarifications come out. But right now, I would estimate it in that range of $50 million to $60 million. Obviously, that is slightly less than the earnings. And that's due to the fact that with the upfront charge on the deemed repatriation, that won't be a factor in the ongoing earnings. But clearly, it'll be an effect on the cash. That all being said, for 2018, I don't expect any net impact because we are fully going to do some repatriation in this year. And withholding tax payments we will make on a cash basis, I anticipate to completely offset any of the benefit, primarily due to the rate differential in the U.S. So 2018, no net cash impact. Average annual run rate, probably $50 million to $60 million based on current interpretation. But as you probably know, on the deemed repatriation, that is a step-up formula for the cash. The first 5 years are at 8% of the obligation and then years 6, 7 and 8 step up to 15%, 20%, 25%. So after that 5-year run rate, the cash cost may go up a little higher and the benefit a little lower. But hopefully, that kind of gives you at least an understanding. And then as things change, if we need to update, we'll relook at that. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from Kevin McCarthy with Vertical. KEVIN WILLIAM MCCARTHY, PARTNER, VERTICAL RESEARCH PARTNERS, LLC: On Slide 18, you referenced substantial improvement in your chemicals end use market, including a 5% jump sequentially. Wondering what's driving that, how much might have been storm related versus other factors. STEPHEN F. ANGEL: Well, I think some could easily have been storm related given the storms in Q3, which would affect it more sequentially. Demand in -- say, in China has been quite strong on the chemicals side in keeping in -- keeping pace with the growth of the economy. As I look at the chemicals number year-over-year, I think we had a little -- some project start-ups there as well that contributed somewhat to that number. But really, demand is quite strong in the U.S., as many of you on the call would know. Chemicals volumes will be driven by just the growth in the U.S. economy, industrial production, resi production. And of course, they're advantaged from a natural gas standpoint, looks like that will be a situation that will be sustained going forward. They'll have a natural gas feedstock advantage. And they're exporting now more than they used to. And that all drives demand for the chemicals in -- particularly in the U.S. Gulf Coast and volume for us. KEVIN WILLIAM MCCARTHY: And Steve, as a follow-up, does the change in the U.S. tax regime make the potential separation of any non-gas businesses more palatable or more likely from the standpoint of tax efficiency and the diminished tax bite on any future divestitures that you might contemplate? STEPHEN F. ANGEL: Well, in terms of divestitures, they're going to be driven by strategic factors more so than tax factors. Well, obviously, that will obviously be something that we take a look at any time that we're evaluating a divestiture where the tax bite may or may not be. But I think the overriding factors will continue to be more strategic, particularly going forward. Anything you would add to that, Matt? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Yes. I would just say, Kevin, I mean, any U.S.-based asset, if required to be divested, holding all else constant, should have a better net cash profile and earnings profile just given the tax reform in the U.S. So from that perspective, I think it would bode positive on any potential U.S. divestitures. Outside of the U.S., I wouldn't expect, to Steve's point, any material impact -- effect as people look at this. OPERATOR: Our last question comes from Don Carson with Susquehanna. EMILY KATE WAGNER, ASSOCIATE, SUSQUEHANNA FINANCIAL GROUP, LLLP, RESEARCH DIVISION: This is Emily Wagner on for Don. We were wondering about the Asian volume growth of 11%. Could you break out that base business versus new projects? And how should we think about that mix in 2018 for Asia as well as the stand-alone Praxair entity given the strong backlog? STEPHEN F. ANGEL: I would say that volume growth is probably about half large projects, half base volume. And of course, the large projects are driven by economic conditions. And then you said -- and your question -- I missed your question going forward. EMILY KATE WAGNER: When you think about the backlog for -- looking into 2018 and your expectation for volume growth, if we're to break it out between new projects and base business on the consolidated Praxair, is (multiple speakers) going to be sustainable or...? STEPHEN F. ANGEL: Yes. So we do believe the contributions to the backlog are sustainable going forward. And again, this is based really on the strength of the projects that we're going to be adding to the backlog as their contracts are signed and they're announced. I think the right number is a 2% top line, 3% bottom line contribution from the projects really over the next several years. That's what we've said before, and we feel very confident in that going forward. A lot of that contribution will come out of the U.S. Gulf Coast, but increasingly, we're going to see some contributions driven largely by electronics that will show up in the Asia segment. JUAN PELAEZ: So thank you for participating in our fourth quarter earnings. If you have any further questions, please feel free to reach out to me directly. Thank you. STEPHEN F. ANGEL: Yes. OPERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in today's conference. This does conclude today's program. You may all disconnect. Everyone, have a great day. [Thomson Financial reserves the right to make changes to documents, content, or other information on this web site without obligation to notify any person of such changes. 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Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jan 25, 2018
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Document 26 of 474
Event Brief of Q4 2017 Praxair Inc Earnings Call - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]25 Jan 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: CORPORATE PARTICIPANTS . Juan Pelaez - Praxair, Inc.,Director of IR . Matthew J. White - Praxair, Inc.,Senior VP & CFO . Stephen F. Angel - Praxair, Inc.,Chairman & CEO CONFERENCE CALL PARTICIPANTS . David L. Begleiter - Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division,MD and Senior Research Analyst . Emily Kate Wagner - Susquehanna Financial Group, LLLP, Research Division,Associate . Ian Matthew Bennett - BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division,Associate . Jeffrey John Zekauskas - JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division,Senior Analyst . Kevin William McCarthy - Vertical Research Partners, LLC,Partner . Laurence Alexander - Jefferies LLC, Research Division,VP & Equity Research Analyst . Michael Joseph Harrison - Seaport Global Securities LLC, Research Division,MD & Senior Chemicals Analyst . Michael Joseph Sison - KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc., Research Division,MD & Equity Research Analyst . P.J. Juvekar - Citigroup Inc, Research Division,Global Head of Chemicals and Agriculture and MD . Patrick Duffy Fischer - Barclays PLC, Research Division,Director and Senior Chemical Analyst . Peter Anthony John Clark - Societe Generale Cross Asset Research,Senior Analyst, Chemicals . Tim Iordanov - Raymond James & Associates, Inc.,Analyst . Vincent Stephen Andrews - Morgan Stanley, Research Division,MD OVERVIEW Co. reported 4Q17 sales of just under $3b and operating profit of $653m. Expects 1Q18 EPS to be $1.53-1.58. FINANCIAL DATA 1. 4Q17 sales = just under $3b. 2. 4Q17 operating profit = $653m. 3. 4Q17 YoverY sales growth = 12%. 4. 4Q17 sequential sales growth = 1%. 5. 1Q18 EPS guidance = $1.53-1.58. PRESENTATION SUMMARY - Annotation (J.P.) 1. Note: 1. YoverY and sequential comparisons excludes charges related to US tax reform and proposed merger. 4Q17 Review (S.A.) 1. Strategy: 1. 2017 ended on strong note. 1. Growth across every major end market, as industrial economy steadily recovered. 2. Progressed towards merger with Linde. 2. Presented strategy approx. three years ago as commodity prices, emerging markets and industrial activity were collectively in decline. 1. Goal was to optimize base business, capture quality growth opportunities and position Co. for strong recovery when industrial markets improve. 3. Over the last several years, taken actions to optimize base business. 1. Culminated to record for operating and free cash flow in 2017. 4. While optimizing base, never took eye off growing business. 1. In light of market conditions over the last few years, Co. focused efforts on those sectors that were less cyclical or had fundamental cost advantages where its customers were making capital investments. 2. Resilient market exposure has grown double digits from roughly 25% to 28% of global portfolio. 3. Taken additional efforts to diversify and enhance business portfolio through adding other non-industrial projects to backlog. 1. These efforts are supported by recent announcements of contract wins for on-site customers, including nitrogen supply and process gases to Everdisplay's AMOLED mfg. facility in Shanghai. 2. As of now, electronic customers comprise roughly 10% of Co.'s project backlog vs. just 2% last year. 3. That number will grow in light of new wins expected in coming months. 5. In addition to portfolio mgt., invested in strategic markets through acquisitions and JVs. 1. Leveraging extensive supply network and process gas expertise in US Gulf Coast enabled Co. to secure $1.1b worth of new projects and it is not done yet. 2. Expects more key wins in coming quarters as Co. continues to see strong investments around low cost hydrocarbons. 1. All of these efforts support future growth independent of macroeconomic environment. 6. As macro conditions improve, Co. fully expects to leverage any cyclical recovery. 1. Based on what Co. has seen over the last several months, Co. is in midst of industrial recovery, especially in the US and parts of Asia and Europe. 1. Positioned business well to participate in this rebound, while maintaining focus to run a high quality business. 2. This is evidenced by recent growth trends from business segments. 2. Co. wants to see margins expanding with this recovery. 1. While sequentially margins have improved, it is lagging a bit from prior year. 2. Expects fully margin expansion in 2018, which Co. is already experiencing in 1Q. 2. Merger Update: 1. Progressed significantly towards merger with Linde. 2. Key milestones: 1. Regulatory filings are being completed as expected, including recently filed Form CO with European Commission. 2. Making good progress on divestiture process. 1. Expects bid packages to be distributed over the next few weeks, after which, Co. will narrow potential buyer pool. 3. Co. will take advantage of this time to accomplish as much integration planning work it can to ensure smooth transition post close. 3. Business Trends: 1. North America, 52% of sales. 1. Seen growth across all end markets, but more specifically strong recovery in industrial sectors. 2. In last few months, US industrial production growth for mfg. has exceeded 2% and key sub-sectors of metal fabrication and machinery have grown mid-single digits. 1. This has led to robust growth in on-site customers for metals, downstream energy and chemicals and mfg. for packaged gas business. 3. Same-store sales hardgoods grew in high-teens and gas in mid-single digits. 4. Saw substantial amount of capital equipment sales in the US; may bode well for future industrial and infrastructure activity. 1. Chemicals marketing growing double-digits, while metals customers continue to perform well, as reductions in global steel capacity and improved trade balances have supported domestic production. 2. Confidence remains high in adding new projects to backlog from US Gulf Coast, as Co. is finalizing contract negotiations on few large projects. 5. Energy markets growing double digit, but mostly driven by downstream refining. 6. Customers ran quite hard in 4Q as they rebounded quickly from hurricanes. 1. Anticipates significant turnaround season in this 1Q, as several customer outages were deferred in 2017. 7. While oil pricing has rebounded, there hasn't been a meaningful uptick in upstream business. 1. Mexico has bounced off the low rates and Co. is seeing slow improvement in the US, but most customers are still operating in the lowest cost region using slickwater techniques that don't require very much nitrogen. 2. If oil prices are viewed to be stable at these higher levels, it is possible Co. may see a return to formations that would require more industrial gases, but it isn't seeing much of that yet. 2. South America, 13% of sales, has been stable. 1. 2018 election season in Brazil will likely provide some volatility during the year. 2. Industrial activity remains at multi-year lows. 1. Recent trend has improved with low to mid-single digit IP growth over last few months. 2. Most end markets have been flat to up, although mfg. in metals have grown more than other sectors, which may signal some falling of industrial investments. 3. Uncertainty around political situation in Brazil will likely result in a continued hold on investments. 1. At this point, not expecting much from Brazil for 1H18. 4. Argentina continues to be good growth story. 1. Commodity rebound should help countries like Chile and Peru, but time will tell on pace of Brazilian recovery. 3. Similar to other regions, Europe has grown in all end markets, but most in industrial areas of metals and mfg. 1. Germany, Italy, and Spain have all contributed nicely to growth in segment sales and profits. 2. Nordics and Russia are still lagging on performance just given local economies. 1. Overall, Europe continues to be positive story. 4. Asia, 16% of sales, has been Co.'s strongest growth story for the year, both organically and for new on-site contracts for project backlog. 1. Double digit volume growth in chemicals, electronics, mfg. and metals have contributed to results. 2. As Chinese economy rationalizes excess production capacity in key markets like steel, Co. has benefited from combination of being partnered with right on-site customers and improved supply/demand balance in merchant liquid market. 3. Pricing has improved several quarters in a row as pent up inflation is working through supply chain. 4. In China and more specifically Korea, Co. continues to see significant on-site opportunities around electronics, primarily high purity nitrogen, but also other process gases used in fabs. 5. In 2017, announced three new projects serving electronics industry and more to come. 1. Co. was recently awarded a large project. 6. Opportunity set for new projects in Asia, especially electronics has been quite strong. 4Q17 Financials (M.W.) 1. Results: 1. Sales, just under $3b. 1. Up 12% YoverY. 2. Up 1% sequentially. 2. Drivers to sales variance: 1. Volume, largest contributor. 1. 7% and 1% growth from last year and 3Q, respectively. 2. Every major end market expanded, led by electronics, chemicals and energy vs. prior year. 3. Asia and North America had the greatest growth from combination of recovery in industrial markets and project contribution. 4. Globally, about two-thirds came from organic volume with rest supported by project start-ups. 2. 1% sequential growth was supported by US and Asia, as US Gulf Coast recovered from 3Q hurricanes and Co. saw general improvement in mfg. activity in both regions. 1. South America was seasonally weak as expected due to holidays and summer break. 2. Market trends were consistent with expectations, as energy market rebounded from US Gulf Coast was partially offset by seasonally weaker beverage sales in Northern Hemisphere. 3. Price/mix improvement of 1% was achieved from focused pricing actions, partially offset by some unfavorable mix impacts in specific regions, especially in South America and Europe. 1. Asian merchant liquid had strongest performance of segments, while pricing actions in North America were partially offset by effect of higher capital equipment sales in packaged gas business. 4. Currency translation is favorable 3%, primarily from strengthening of euro, Canadian dollar, Chinese RMB and Korean Won. 3. Operating profit $653m. 1. $54m or 9% better than last year. 2. $11m or 2% better than 3Q. 4. This is third consecutive qtr. in a row where Co. has expanded operating margins. 1. It is lower by 60 BP from 4Q16. 2. About 20 BP relates to impact of higher cost pass-through. 1. Underlying margin decline from 4Q16 is about 40 BP. 3. There are three main drivers negatively affecting this. 1. Unfavorable mix issues, including capital equipment sales and overall South America. 2. Restructuring charges embedded in results. 3. 4Q16 had lower run rate SG&A, as Co. had to reverse some of incentive compensation accruals last year due to weaker results, but that is one qtr. comparison in time and several of these items will not repeat. 4. Quite confident Co. will be expanding margins in 2018, including 1Q. 5. Operating cash flow margins have increased for three straight years to a record 27% in 2017. 5. ROC has readily risen each qtr. reaching 12.5% by year-end. 1. Expects that number to continue to improve throughout 2018. 2. Available operating cash flow which represents operating cash flow minus non-backlog or base CapEx, has grown to almost $600m, as Co. managed base CapEx and increased operating cash flow. 2. Cash Flow Generation: 1. 2017 represented a record for operating and free cash flow. 2. Free cash flow readily increased over the period as organization managed CapEx in line with underlying growth prospects. 3. Quality of business steadily increased as operating cash flow margins have improved from 19% to 27%. 1. In 2017 for every dollar of sales, Co. generated $0.27 of operating cash flow that it could either return to shareholders or invest for future growth. 1. Compelling story of resiliency of business and ability to leverage a recovery like Co. has seen over last several quarters. 4. Usage of $3b of operating cash flow in 2017: 1. Resulting in balance of growth investments, shareholder returns and debt reduction. 1. Currently pausing stock repurchases during proposed merger. 2. Anticipates further declines in net debt leading up to close. 3. Tax: 1. Booked a tax reform charge of $394m or $1.36 of EPS; comprised of three pieces. 1. $467m charge for deemed repatriation of accumulated foreign earnings. 2. $260m charge for foreign withholding taxes related to anticipated repatriated foreign earnings. 3. $333m benefit associated with revaluation of deferred tax liability from 35% to 21%. 1. There is no immediate cash impact from this charge, but cash will be impacted over several years as liabilities are settled. 2. This charge represents Co.'s best estimate of current tax reform, but it is subject to change as new information becomes available. 2. Anticipates that new tax reform will lower current effective tax rate down to 23-25%, depending upon how specific aspects of the reform are ultimately clarified by US Treasury Department. 1. For guidance, assuming tax rate near middle of that range; provides quarterly benefit of approx. $0.05 vs. run rate. 4. 1Q18 Guidance: 1. EPS $1.53-1.58. 1. Includes $0.05 for tax reform. 2. 1Q is seasonally slower due to Lunar, New Year and Carnival. 1. Furthermore, US Gulf Coast customers are undergoing significant amount of turnarounds, as several slated for 2017 were deferred into this qtr. 2. Despite these known headwinds, Co. is expecting continued contribution from underlying price and volume, which will improve operating leverage. 3. Co. did not provide full-year guidance range in light of anticipated merger close date. 1. As such, Co. does not expect it will finish 2018 as a standalone publicly traded co. 4. Focus is to continue operating at high level performance while supporting merger integration planning efforts for successful start to Linde plc. 1. Believes it is more appropriate to provide quarterly guidance for Co., as focus shifts to new combined co. in 2H18. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Mike Sison with KeyBanc. MICHAEL JOSEPH SISON, MD & EQUITY RESEARCH ANALYST, KEYBANC CAPITAL MARKETS INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: Steve, when you think about Brazil, and I understand that you're not willing to think there's a recovery yet, but in the event that there is potential, where do you think margins or the potential for the Brazil segment is down the road? STEPHEN F. ANGEL, CHAIRMAN & CEO, PRAXAIR, INC.: Well, our goal is to get it back to 20%, and everybody understands that's the objective. I think for that to happen, we need to get more lift from the core manufacturing sector. I mean, you've heard some positives that people have reported. Automotives is up a bit. I think metal export is up a little bit. Pulp and paper is up some. Agriculture is always fairly strong. But really, the base manufacturing, core manufacturing sector has not seen that yet. And again, I think we heard some, what I'll call good news that the past president's conviction was upheld a couple of days ago. So he won't be a factor in the elections, and he had a lot of popular support. But there's still going to be some volatility in the political climate. But to get back and answer your question, we've run as high as 22%, 23% in years past. So our objective again is to get it back to 20%. MICHAEL JOSEPH SISON: Great. And then a follow-up on, in Asia, pricing, I think it's the third quarter in a row you've had positive pricing. Can you maybe talk about some of the dynamics in China that's supporting that? And then I mean, could this be a kind of a multiyear upside potential in terms of pricing for Asia? STEPHEN F. ANGEL: Well, it should be. And most of what's driving that number is China, just to be specific. So you've heard me talk about China in the past where we were really unhappy with the level of pricing, and there were several factors at play. There was excess supply in the merchant liquid market. You had captive steel companies and so forth putting by-product market on -- into the supply. So what has changed, there's really a couple of things. And one of which is if you look at the merchant liquid capacity utilization today, and that's usually a question I get somewhere along the line, I mean, we're in the 90s in terms of capacity utilization. And we're not alone in terms of the fact that given the growth, and there hasn't been the pace of merchant liquid capacity adds that we used to see in the past, that, that market has tightened up. But that's a good thing. And then the second thing, it was in my comments, was China is very serious about managing the environment. They realized they had overcapacity in many sectors, one of which was metals. Again, that's where we saw a lot of excess product come into the market. So as those Tier 2, Tier 3 metals customers are rationalized, then that product doesn't find its way into the market, which is a good thing. So those are some factors that are at play. And yes, I do expect this to continue. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from Vincent Andrews with Morgan Stanley. VINCENT STEPHEN ANDREWS, MD, MORGAN STANLEY, RESEARCH DIVISION: Steve, you talked a bit on the energy side of things in terms of the upstream customers and not really seeing it yet, and maybe we'll see it. Is it just a question of the oil price staying around here at a long enough level that it builds confidence? Or are there other gating events that we need to see? And what do you think the overall -- maybe over the next year or 2, how much recovery in terms of EBITDA dollars do you think we could see? STEPHEN F. ANGEL: Well, it was -- at its peak, it was about 4% of our sales and high margin, as you heard us discuss. Today, as I look at it, it's sub-2%. So yes, you would need prices at a high level. You would need confidence that those prices are going to be sustainable. And I think with that, we would see more energized gases, like nitrogen, used in more formations. And I'd give you an example of the formation that we would see lift in would be the San Juan Basin, for example, in New Mexico. So I would expect some improvement. Would we get all the way back to 4%? I'm not sure about that. It would certainly be a nice bonus for us going forward in terms of our earnings boost. You got to keep in mind, we sold a lot of nitrogen for oil pressurization, for maintenance to PEMEX, and they still have a lot of problems. And I said they bounced off of their bottom, but they're nowhere near their peak. And again, energy prices have moved up quite a bit. So they have issues managing the budget, but they also need to maintain the wells, and they're constantly trying to balance that. So yes, it would be nice to see. Will we get back to the 4% level? I'm not counting on that, but it's possible. VINCENT STEPHEN ANDREWS: Okay. And just a follow-up on the backlog and sort of your CapEx expectations, and I recognize this is a stand-alone question that may no longer be relevant in a little bit. But with the industrial recovery -- and I keep seeing press releases about large-scale CapEx projects all over the world, Middle East, Asia and so forth -- do you anticipate over the next few years that the investment opportunity is going to become more robust and that you guys will go after it? Or are you still a bit on the more cautious side as it relates to the backlog? STEPHEN F. ANGEL: I think that the backlog number that we have today is a pretty sustainable level even as we start up projects. And it's just a function of the confidence that we have, looking at the projects that we're working on. I made some comments about that. A lot of them are in the U.S. Gulf Coast, but there's also a significant number of electronics projects that I'm very optimistic that we'll be adding to the backlog in the not-too-distant future. So I think the outlook with respect to projects is trending positively, mainly driven by those 2 areas. And of course, with respect to the merger, I think that's a question that's better left for Linde to opine on. But if you look at what they've been talking about with respect to their engineering business, the fact that the backlog is strong, they've been adding projects to it, I think that speaks for itself. And if we're seeing opportunities like I described, you would have to assume that certainly, in one of those key markets, they would be seeing similar kinds of opportunities as well given where they are geographically positioned. So I'm optimistic in that regard. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from Peter Clark with Societe Generale. PETER ANTHONY JOHN CLARK, SENIOR ANALYST, CHEMICALS, SOCIETE GENERALE CROSS ASSET RESEARCH: Yes. Steve, one for you on the merger update slide. I know you can't talk too much on this. But with the Q3, you made it quite clear, you didn't see anything that would threaten the threshold. I'm just wondering -- I'd presume that's still applicable given what you've put on that slide. And the second comment, I heard what you said on Brazil with the sort of crawling back to the 20% margin. But of course, this business was doing 500 basis points higher than where you are today. That would be about 300 basis points. I realize there's some mix change here, there's more resilient business. But against that, obviously, you've ripped out costs. You've got more on-site actually, excepting the threshold issue there. I'm just wondering if you're being understandably cautious given the experience you had. STEPHEN F. ANGEL: Well, so I'll take the last question. Possibly, but then again, the economy has to recover the markets that we make a lot of margin in, which is the merchant liquid market. It's the liquid argon, it's the packaged gases. Those markets, those segments have to start growing at a much faster pace. Obviously, 20% is not a cap that I'd put on South America. But I think given where we are today, that's a reasonable objective, I'll say, in the near to medium term. And that's all I really have to say about Brazil at the time. You are correct in the sense that we have been working on the costs. We've also been working on our go-to-market structure and making some changes around that, that we think will be helpful in the long term. So we continue to work that equation. But yes, back to your original question, we do not believe that the threshold is going to be threatened, and we're still maintaining our view of that. OPERATOR: And our next question comes from Duffy Fischer with Barclays. PATRICK DUFFY FISCHER, DIRECTOR AND SENIOR CHEMICAL ANALYST, BARCLAYS PLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: Both Matt and Steve, you've referenced you think that margins are going to expand throughout this year. Can you talk a little bit about what the drivers of that expansion are? And then proffer some kind of a bogey, is it 0.5%, 1%? How much could those margins expand throughout the year? STEPHEN F. ANGEL: Well, I'll speak in terms of this. And again, we didn't deliberately give guidance too far out, but as I'm looking at it, we talked about the first quarter. So kind of the algorithm on the top line is we've said large projects contributed about 2 to the top line and about 3 to the bottom line. So that obviously helps with margin leverage in and of itself. Call currency 0, pass-through 0; then what's left is price and mix, but let's say price and volume. We think price is going to be in the 1%, trending to 2% kind of level. That's our objective. And then in terms of volume, we had some good growth obviously in Q4. We think that trend is going to continue. Of course, you have some seasonal effects that Matt talked about, which can't -- don't change and the heavy turnarounds at HyCO. But year-over-year, we're going to see some volume growth. So I -- so we believe that top line is going to be in the mid-single-digit range, maybe in the upper end of the mid-single-digit range. And then we'll be able to leverage the margins up from that into the high single digits and perhaps push in double digits. PATRICK DUFFY FISCHER: Great. And then just to shift to electronics, it seems with the 3 wins you had last year, you're talking about a couple more wins maybe now, like you're punching above your weight in electronics. If you would agree with that, that you're kind of taking market share there, what's changed in that dynamic that has allowed you to do that? STEPHEN F. ANGEL: Well, I had to laugh a bit, punching above our weight. So a lot of electronics activity is, tell me who the end customer is that's doing the buying or that's making the major investments for growth. And I don't think there's any secret that Samsung is the 800-pound gorilla in terms of investments they're making in semiconductor and also in display. I think I saw a statistic or I'm pretty sure I did that said that in 2017, no corporation globally invested more in CapEx than Samsung, and the plans for '18 are the same. So they're making massive investments. We've always been very well positioned with Samsung. We have a great relationship, long track record of reliability in meeting their needs. And that's why we're so confident in the electronics picture going forward. There were other projects obviously that we won in China. There was 1 or 2 in the U.S. as well. But again, Samsung's the 800-pound gorilla in the electronics space. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from Laurence Alexander with Jefferies. LAURENCE ALEXANDER, VP & EQUITY RESEARCH ANALYST, JEFFERIES LLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: Two quick questions. It looks as if with the timing of the new on-sites, your chemical business will be growing mid-teens, probably through 2019 or even 2020. Is that right? Or are there any offsets to that? STEPHEN F. ANGEL: I think that's about right. But chemicals in the U.S. for sure, because of the project start-ups, I'm pretty sure the math would work out that way. And then of course, in places like China, there's chemicals activity as well, but that's more of a function of really just economic growth in China. LAURENCE ALEXANDER: And secondly, is there any sense in which your run-rate productivity has been delayed or distracted ahead of the merger? Or should we just use the usual algorithm on that side? STEPHEN F. ANGEL: Nothing has changed. In fact, we've made it a point across the business to make sure that we continue to execute on all the programs, initiatives, base business that we normally would. And fortunately, as we work through this merger process, we only involve people in the merger process, the integration planning that need to be involved at that time. And we've been able to manage that quite well. But to your more specific question, the productivity programs look very solid to me. We continue to evolve that productivity pipeline with new initiatives around things like more predictive diagnostic capability and so forth. So -- but the productivity pipeline, the execution of the pipeline, I still think is in good shape, and that's what I would say about that. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from Jeff Zekauskas with JPMorgan. JEFFREY JOHN ZEKAUSKAS, SENIOR ANALYST, JP MORGAN CHASE & CO, RESEARCH DIVISION: I think earlier in the call, Steve, you talked about prices for 2018 perhaps edging up from 1% to 2%. And you also said that your own utilization rates were very high. Is your optimism about pricing a reflection of your views on capacity utilization in the industry or industrial gas capacity utilization rates rising meaningfully? Or is there something else behind the possible price increase? STEPHEN F. ANGEL: Well, it's -- it really is region by region. Of course, these are local businesses, so you have to look at it that way. The comment I made, Jeff, was really around China that we have very high capacity utilization as does the industry, generally speaking. So that is always helpful in terms of our ability to raise prices. If I look around at other parts of the world, you still have some regions that are in the 70s, some that are mid-70s. And so that situation really hasn't corrected itself yet. I would say, generally speaking, though -- we talk about Brazil going the other direction where they historically have been high inflation, now they're low inflation, sub-3%. Most parts of the world are seeing some inflation. I can look at Mexico, I can see some inflation. I can look at other parts where inflation is starting to become more of a factor. And so for us coming into the year -- this is something we talk about at our leadership conference -- that we want to make sure we get out ahead of that inflation curve; we want to make sure that, given we're seeing some good volume growth in certain regions, that we also make sure that we're taking advantage of the pricing opportunities that exist there. And that's what I'm seeing 1 month into the first quarter. JEFFREY JOHN ZEKAUSKAS: Maybe a question for Matt. Your SG&A was up a lot in the quarter, maybe by about 11%. And you talked about some of the factors that were behind that. What kind of SG&A growth do you expect for 2018, exclusive of the Linde merger? MATTHEW J. WHITE, SENIOR VP & CFO, PRAXAIR, INC.: Yes, Jeff. So maybe just a comment on, call it, 2016 to '17. I think looking at the year, full year is probably a little bit better just given some of the timing movements. As you know, there's a variable component of incentives, which get trued up. So when I look at full year '16 to '17, SG&A is up about 5%. Roughly 1% of that is FX, and the remainder is 4%. And probably half of that does relate to some of the incentive impact. As I'd mentioned in the prepared remarks in '16, we really reduced that number down quite low given the weaker performance and that we did not reach a lot of our targets. So you're looking at kind of a couple percent, I think, natural growth, which is in line, I think, with inflation, in line with what you'd expect to merit impact. And I see no reason why -- looking into '18, why that would be any different. So when I remove that variable component, which can go up and down, I think just kind of a low single-digit inflation-like number is what we tend to see in normal years. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from Steve Byrne with Bank of America. IAN MATTHEW BENNETT, ASSOCIATE, BOFA MERRILL LYNCH, RESEARCH DIVISION: This is Ian Bennett on for Steve. Steve, you mentioned earlier about positive pricing expectation in China. And part of that was the environmental initiatives having an effect on the supply from these Tier 2 and 3 providers. Are you seeing any beginning signs of increased demand for gases as a potential to solve some of their environmental needs? STEPHEN F. ANGEL: Well, as a matter of fact, yes. I mean, that's part of the growth profile that we're seeing in China. Water treatment has been really quite strong for the past year. But we're also seeing some of our major steel customers start to utilize more oxygen in their steelmaking process, and this is for environmental reasons. And so yes, the answer is yes. We're seeing the focus on the environment create business opportunities for us, and we're capitalizing on that. IAN MATTHEW BENNETT: And then I just want to follow up on the merger. Is there any possibility to close meaningfully before the long-stop date in October? STEPHEN F. ANGEL: Well, that's going to be a function of the timing of the regulatory approvals, all of them, and negotiation of the remedies that are required. And that is something we spend a lot of time working on planning. I think it's possible that we could -- well, we'll certainly close before October 24. But as far as how earlier, it's really just a function of the things that I said. So we'll -- we've said that in all likelihood, it will be in the second half, and the long-stop date is October 24. So somewhere between the beginning of the third quarter and the long-stop date is when we anticipate closing. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from P.J. Juvekar with Citi. P.J. JUVEKAR, GLOBAL HEAD OF CHEMICALS AND AGRICULTURE AND MD, CITIGROUP INC, RESEARCH DIVISION: Steve, you walked us through your growth and margin analysis. But if I look at your quarter, your sales were up just under 12%, and your operating profits were up 9%. So at this point, shouldn't you see more leverage, especially with high incremental margins from the merchant business? What's causing this? STEPHEN F. ANGEL: Well, that's really what Matt walked through, I think, in his comments. And keep in mind, we had South America as part of that equation. We had a very strong packaged gas, hardgoods flow in Q4, up close to 20%. Matt talked about the year-over-year differential in compensation, how that affected that. You do have some pass-through that's part of that. You had some restructuring charges that we took that were greater than what we had taken in the prior year. That's part of that equation. But I think more importantly is yes, we should see leverage. We are seeing leverage going forward. We're 1 month into the quarter, and we feel good about what we're seeing now. But there were some -- there was a group of things that created that phenomena in Q4. P.J. JUVEKAR: Okay. And then secondly, you haven't gone as aggressively after Chinese projects in coal gasification or syngas. Can you flesh out your concerns either about risks to these projects or potential low returns? STEPHEN F. ANGEL: Well, we have a very successful strategy that we outlined. And so our strategy -- I won't go back through it, but our strategy is very clear in terms of where we're focused and the success that we're seeing. And we also have this little thing called the merger with Linde that's quite important. But every project goes through a risk-return analysis. And as we look at some of the projects that we're talking about, our view of risk and return is it's not that attractive to us and especially given the other opportunities that we have, which, in our view, offer a better risk-return situation. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from David Begleiter with Deutsche Bank. DAVID L. BEGLEITER, MD AND SENIOR RESEARCH ANALYST, DEUTSCHE BANK AG, RESEARCH DIVISION: Steve, manufacturing end markets rose 8% in the quarter. Could you give a little more color as to why that -- those markets did accelerate versus the prior year and even Q3? STEPHEN F. ANGEL: Well, there -- obviously, there is some increase versus Q3. But if you look at the U.S. packaged gas business, what we call PDI, had a very strong quarter from a top line standpoint. Again, you're approaching 20% on hardgoods, which was driven by a lot of capital equipment purchases during the quarter. And gas was still strong, too, kind of in the mid-single-digit range. That's a piece of that, but Mexico is doing quite well from a manufacturing standpoint. Canada is -- had a very good quarter year-over-year from a manufacturing standpoint. And there really isn't any weakness as you look around the globe other than -- I keep coming back to Brazil and South America. But everywhere else, Europe is showing some growth in manufacturing. China obviously is doing very well in manufacturing. So those are the big drivers, and that's how we got an 8% number. DAVID L. BEGLEITER: I see. Just on your backlog, are you at all capacity constrained in bidding for new projects? And also, how is activity in the Middle East and India? STEPHEN F. ANGEL: Well, we are not capacity constrained. We feel very confident in our ability to win projects and execute those projects. In fact, we always look at our project execution track record, and it's been quite good. So we're pleased with that. With respect to -- you asked about Middle East and India. When you look at India, quite frankly, they haven't utilized a lot of capacity that they put in place some years ago. So the growth has not been dynamic enough in India to create the demand for new projects, not yet. So obviously, we feel we're well positioned there when that takes place. But when you're kind of growing at a 4%, 5% kind of number, you're not going to drive a lot of additional projects, not yet. And then with respect to the Mid East, we're not -- we haven't been doing much in the Mid East. That's largely a sale-of-equipment market. So we don't -- haven't historically focused on sale of equipment. And therefore, we just haven't been doing anything in that spot of the world. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from Mike Harrison with Seaport Global Securities. MICHAEL JOSEPH HARRISON, MD & SENIOR CHEMICALS ANALYST, SEAPORT GLOBAL SECURITIES LLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: Just to follow up on the last question there about the Mid East being mostly a sale-of-equipment market. Does that mean that maybe it becomes a little more of a focus as you guys join forces with Linde? STEPHEN F. ANGEL: Well, I think, clearly, Linde has done well in the Mid East. And by large into -- a large reason for that is the fact that they can build olefin plants, they can build ethane crackers, they can build a lot of the upstream plants that are in demand in places like the Mid East. So they have more of a presence there than we have clearly. And as I've talked about before, they have a very good sale-of-equipment business. And you got to break that down. Half of it is things like natural gas plants, olefins plants and the like. The other half is really hydrogen plants, CO plants, syngas plants, ASUs, things that -- obviously that we're very interested in today and would benefit in terms of what they're able to do. So they run a very good business, the engineering business performing at a pretty high level. They are arguably one of the best at the sale-of-equipment side of the fence. So I think that's something that we will look at and evaluate as the merger is consummated. But certainly, as an entity going forward, you can anticipate that we'll be more involved in sale of equipment than Praxair stand-alone today. MICHAEL JOSEPH HARRISON: Got it. And then just going back to the comments on U.S. packaged gases, I believe you said that the growth there was in the mid-single digits. Can you break out what was volume and what was pricing and what your expectations might be going forward for volume and pricing in packaged gas in the U.S.? STEPHEN F. ANGEL: Yes. So my comment really is around -- give me one second here. So essentially, they had a high single-digit number in sales, PDI gas. And hardgoods is in the high teens, pushing 20%, and the gas-only piece would be mid-single digit, 4% or 5%. That's the sales line number. And if you kind of pull that back, they had a decent performance in pricing, kind of in the 1% to 2% range. And they're one of the businesses that I feel optimistic about with respect to pricing going forward, and then the rest of that is volume. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from Tim Iordanov. TIM IORDANOV, ANALYST, RAYMOND JAMES & ASSOCIATES, INC.: This is Tim Iordanov for Patrick Lambert. Question regarding taxes, specifically the tax reform. What do you think that's going to do to cash tax rates going into this year and to the coming quarters? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Sure. So this is Matt answering that question. When you look at on an average run rate, I'd expect the cash benefit to probably be somewhere in the $50 million to $60 million per year range. But you have to take that with a grain of salt. Obviously, that's based on our current interpretation of the tax reform. Obviously, it could be very subject to change as clarifications come out. But right now, I would estimate it in that range of $50 million to $60 million. Obviously, that is slightly less than the earnings. And that's due to the fact that with the upfront charge on the deemed repatriation, that won't be a factor in the ongoing earnings. But clearly, it'll be an effect on the cash. That all being said, for 2018, I don't expect any net impact because we are fully going to do some repatriation in this year. And withholding tax payments we will make on a cash basis, I anticipate to completely offset any of the benefit, primarily due to the rate differential in the U.S. So 2018, no net cash impact. Average annual run rate, probably $50 million to $60 million based on current interpretation. But as you probably know, on the deemed repatriation, that is a step-up formula for the cash. The first 5 years are at 8% of the obligation and then years 6, 7 and 8 step up to 15%, 20%, 25%. So after that 5-year run rate, the cash cost may go up a little higher and the benefit a little lower. But hopefully, that kind of gives you at least an understanding. And then as things change, if we need to update, we'll relook at that. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from Kevin McCarthy with Vertical. KEVIN WILLIAM MCCARTHY, PARTNER, VERTICAL RESEARCH PARTNERS, LLC: On Slide 18, you referenced substantial improvement in your chemicals end use market, including a 5% jump sequentially. Wondering what's driving that, how much might have been storm related versus other factors. STEPHEN F. ANGEL: Well, I think some could easily have been storm related given the storms in Q3, which would affect it more sequentially. Demand in -- say, in China has been quite strong on the chemicals side in keeping in -- keeping pace with the growth of the economy. As I look at the chemicals number year-over-year, I think we had a little -- some project start-ups there as well that contributed somewhat to that number. But really, demand is quite strong in the U.S., as many of you on the call would know. Chemicals volumes will be driven by just the growth in the U.S. economy, industrial production, resi production. And of course, they're advantaged from a natural gas standpoint, looks like that will be a situation that will be sustained going forward. They'll have a natural gas feedstock advantage. And they're exporting now more than they used to. And that all drives demand for the chemicals in -- particularly in the U.S. Gulf Coast and volume for us. KEVIN WILLIAM MCCARTHY: And Steve, as a follow-up, does the change in the U.S. tax regime make the potential separation of any non-gas businesses more palatable or more likely from the standpoint of tax efficiency and the diminished tax bite on any future divestitures that you might contemplate? STEPHEN F. ANGEL: Well, in terms of divestitures, they're going to be driven by strategic factors more so than tax factors. Well, obviously, that will obviously be something that we take a look at any time that we're evaluating a divestiture where the tax bite may or may not be. But I think the overriding factors will continue to be more strategic, particularly going forward. Anything you would add to that, Matt? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Yes. I would just say, Kevin, I mean, any U.S.-based asset, if required to be divested, holding all else constant, should have a better net cash profile and earnings profile just given the tax reform in the U.S. So from that perspective, I think it would bode positive on any potential U.S. divestitures. Outside of the U.S., I wouldn't expect, to Steve's point, any material impact -- effect as people look at this. OPERATOR: Our last question comes from Don Carson with Susquehanna. EMILY KATE WAGNER, ASSOCIATE, SUSQUEHANNA FINANCIAL GROUP, LLLP, RESEARCH DIVISION: This is Emily Wagner on for Don. We were wondering about the Asian volume growth of 11%. Could you break out that base business versus new projects? And how should we think about that mix in 2018 for Asia as well as the stand-alone Praxair entity given the strong backlog? STEPHEN F. ANGEL: I would say that volume growth is probably about half large projects, half base volume. And of course, the large projects are driven by economic conditions. And then you said -- and your question -- I missed your question going forward. EMILY KATE WAGNER: When you think about the backlog for -- looking into 2018 and your expectation for volume growth, if we're to break it out between new projects and base business on the consolidated Praxair, is (multiple speakers) going to be sustainable or...? STEPHEN F. ANGEL: Yes. So we do believe the contributions to the backlog are sustainable going forward. And again, this is based really on the strength of the projects that we're going to be adding to the backlog as their contracts are signed and they're announced. I think the right number is a 2% top line, 3% bottom line contribution from the projects really over the next several years. That's what we've said before, and we feel very confident in that going forward. A lot of that contribution will come out of the U.S. Gulf Coast, but increasingly, we're going to see some contributions driven largely by electronics that will show up in the Asia segment. JUAN PELAEZ, DIRECTOR OF IR, PRAXAIR, INC.: So thank you for participating in our fourth quarter earnings. If you have any further questions, please feel free to reach out to me directly. Thank you. STEPHEN F. ANGEL: Yes. OPERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in today's conference. This does conclude today's program. You may all disconnect. Everyone, have a great day. [Thomson Financial reserves the right to make changes to documents, content, or other information on this web site without obligation to notify any person of such changes. In the conference calls upon which Event Briefs are based, companies may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding a variety of items. Such forward-looking statements are based upon current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those stated in any forward-looking statement based on a number of important factors and risks, which are more specifically identified in the companies' most recent SEC filings. Although the companies may indicate and believe that the assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements are reasonable, any of the assumptions could prove inaccurate or incorrect and, therefore, there can be no assurance that the results contemplated in the forward-looking statements will be realized. THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN EVENT BRIEFS REFLECTS THOMSON FINANCIAL'S SUBJECTIVE CONDENSED PARAPHRASE OF THE APPLICABLE COMPANY'S CONFERENCE CALL AND THERE MAY BE MATERIAL ERRORS, OMISSIONS, OR INACCURACIES IN THE REPORTING OF THE SUBSTANCE OF THE CONFERENCE CALLS. IN NO WAY DOES THOMSON FINANCIAL OR THE APPLICABLE COMPANY ASSUME ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY INVESTMENT OR OTHER DECISIONS MADE BASED UPON THE INFORMATION PROVIDED ON THIS WEB SITE OR IN ANY EVENT BRIEF. USERS ARE ADVISED TO REVIEW THE APPLICABLE COMPANY'S CONFERENCE CALL ITSELF AND THE APPLICABLE COMPANY'S SEC FILINGS BEFORE MAKING ANY INVESTMENT OR OTHER DECISIONS.] [Copyright: Content copyright 2018 Thomson Financial. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Electronic format, layout and metadata, copyright 2018 ASC LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No license is granted to the user of this material other than for research. User may not reproduce or redistribute the material except for user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon Thomson Financial's or ASC's copyright or other proprietary rights or interests in the material; provided, however, that members of the news media may redistribute limited portions (less than 250 words) of this material without a specific license from Thomson Financial and ASC so long as they provide conspicuous attribution to Thomson Financial and ASC as the originators and copyright holders of such material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation.]
Subject: Copyright; Acquisitions & mergers; Corporate profits; Contract negotiations; Gases; Trends; Earnings per share; Customers
Location: United States--US Asia
Company / organization: Name: Thomson Financial; NAICS: 511210, 518210, 519190; Name: Praxair Inc; NAICS: 325120, 423830
Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jan 25, 2018
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: Linthicum
Country of publication: United States, Linthicum
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Law--Corporate Law
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1999244733
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1999244733?accountid=4840
Copyright: 2018 Thomson Financial and ASC LLC
Last updated: 2018-02-13
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 27 of 474
Brazil: Temer - Brazil has returned to growth and the future is bright
Publication info: Asia News Monitor ; Bangkok [Bangkok]30 Jan 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Brazil has been thrown into political turmoil once again, with former president Lula da Silva losing an appeal against a corruption conviction, dashing his hopes of making a political comeback in the upcoming presidential elections. Just before that decision was handed down, I spoke to the current president of Brazil, Michel Temer, who's denied previous accusations that he was involved in a large-scale bribery scandal. We discussed the country's fragile economic recovery and, of course, his country's longstanding battle against corruption. Isabelle Kumar: President, many thanks for joining us on the Global Conversation. Now corruption seems to be endemic in Brazil, you yourself have faced accusations which you have denied as have the past two presidents. But it does beg the question, because this does seem to be an issue that runs from the top down. Why is Brazil so corrupt? Temer: You know, this issue of corruption is interesting, because the efforts to tackle corruption are the direct result of our constitution. Corruption allegations come to light very easily and there has been no effort to counter the initiatives to tackle corruption. That is why these references have expanded so much in Brazil. You even referred to alleged allegations of corruption involving myself which I have vehemently rejected. Brazil was never ground to a halt as a result of the allegations of corruption. Interestingly enough, within a very brief time span, my detractors were unmasked. Actually they are in jail, as we speak. Those who accused me. Kumar: Does this damage your credibility, as you try and fight allegations? The fact that you have been under suspicion previously in corruption scandals? Temer: Let me tell you one thing that you and your viewers should know. You probably know that in the last six to seven months, not only have we see more of these misconception that seems to inform your questions - but it corresponds to a period when the country has grown very substantially. Let me share a few facts and figures with you, which you may be aware of. In the past quarter and, as you know, we have been very focused on efforts to overcome unemployment. During this period 1.4 million new job posts were created. In 2016 our GDP was negative -3.3% of the GDP and in 2017 it was already positive. And the forecast for this year, 2018, according to experts is that it will range between 2.5% and 3%. Kumar: But I hear you. These are issues we will come to, but my question was and it is a very simple question. Do you feel that your credibility is tarnished because of this climate of corruption and the fact that you have faced accusations yourself? Temer: Oh yes, because of these false misleading allegations, yes. That does somehow affect my honourability. My personal honour is, of course, somehow affected in terms of my personal credibility from a moral perspective, not from a government perspective at all. Kumar: So you are talking about the economy. We are seeing a modest recovery at the moment. Now there is uncertainty and volatility, particularly in Brazil at the moment. What's your outlook for 2018? Are you being positive about the outlook or do you have concern about future shocks? Temer: Very positive outlook, indeed, because the recovery has not been that slow. We are talking about an administration that has been in office for one year and eight months only, not for eight years - So be aware of these facts and figures that I have just shared as they are very revealing. They are saying that we have left the recession behind us in the first eight to nine months and Brazil is now resuming the growth pattern again. Kumar: You are obviously part of the Mercosur trading block. There is an EU deal there that just seems so near to being grasped. We get the impression, though, that it is running into difficulty at the moment, particularly on the European side. Do you think that trade deal is going to come to fruition? Temer: If we don't do it this month, we'll likely come to an agreement before the end of February and you are right, there has been some resistance from certain European countries, but those sources of resistance are being overcome by the natural effort to engage in a dialogue - and in give and take here and there, both on the European and the Mercosur/Mercosul side. So I think we are soon going to be complete the regional agreement with the EU. Kumar: We've discussed the situation in Brazil in terms of corruption. Obviously in terms of the economy, there's concern about voter disillusionment. Now obviously this is an election year and we hear of worries of an anti-establishment figure, maybe someone from the extreme right or a populist figure being elected (referring to the candidacy of Jair Bolsonaro) who could reverse the reforms that you are putting in place. Is that something that is worrying you now? Temer: I wouldn't say so. You know why? Because the reforms that have been put in place have been so successful so far. So it begs the question, why would a future canditate oppose these current reforms. I mean, think about it. If a presidential candidate wants to criticise the government. He is going to have to say he is against a fall in inflation rates. It used to be 10%, it is currently 2.9%. He will have to say he is against lowering interest rates, which used to be 14% and are now 7%. He will also have to say he is against government spending caps because he want to spend freely at his own will, as opposed to spending only as much as he collect by way of revenues. He will also have to say he's against all the had work we have done that has led to millions and millions of job posts. So I am pretty certain that no one can be elected in Brazil without upholding the reforms - that doesn't mean having populist measures, because past populist measures led us to where we were when I took office. And that is perhaps why there is a certain measure of unpopularity in the case of the incoming president, because our measures are long-term ones. Kumar: Now you are in the, I suppose, the unfortunate position of being one of the most unpopular presidents in Brazil's modern history. Why do you think that is and when you look back at your time in office - because you are not going to stand for re-election - tell me in a few words how you felt holding this post of president. Temer: I will. You know my career as a politician and also as a university professor was very succesful. I will agree with you in that I was somewhat disappointed that, all of a sudden, I found myself being accused of false practices that do somehow affect or did affect my credibility. But that did not at all prevent me from continuing to work and still enjoying a sense of pride not so much for being the president, but rather for leaving an outstanding legacy for future generations. So the unpopularity factor does not make me fearful at all, because what really matters to me is the current acknowledgment which is starting to evolve and the future acknowledgment. Kumar: President, many thanks for being with us. Venice festival kicks off The city of Venice kicked off its carnival season with a spectacular circus performance on the Cannaregio Canal on Saturday. Inspired by Italian Film Director Federico Fellini, the flotilla was complete with inflatable animals, a tightrope walker and fire eaters. Thousands of people from all over the world lined the banks of the canal to see the opening performance while thousands of others got blocked outside by police who said the area was becoming dangerously overcrowded. - euronews
Subject: Credibility; Economic development; Populism; Corruption; Gross Domestic Product--GDP
Location: Brazil
People: Bolsonaro, Jair Temer, Michel Fellini, Federico
Company / organization: Name: Mercosur; NAICS: 813910; Name: Mercosul; NAICS: 926110
Publication title: Asia News Monitor; Bangkok
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jan 30, 2018
Section: General News
Publisher: Thai News Service Group
Place of publication: Bangkok
Country of publication: Thailand, Bangkok
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--Philippines, General Interest Periodicals--Vietnam, General Interest Periodicals--Thailand
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1991974935
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1991974935?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Thai News Service Group Jan 30, 2018
Last updated: 2018-01-29
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 28 of 474
OPINION: Commentary: The international Jazz PAP festival in Haiti, a success story!
Author: Charles, Jean H
Publication info: TCA Regional News ; Chicago [Chicago]30 Jan 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Jan. 30--Haiti is badly in need of a success story. After the magnum opus of January 1, 1804, which rang the bell for the end of bondage upon black people by the world order of slavery, Haiti has had few success stories. A succession of governments that carried favors more for the former slave holders than for the newly freedmen have contributed to create out of Haiti a failed nation instead of a promised land. Successive foreign occupations followed by dictatorial regimes and illiberal democracies added to catastrophic disasters have rendered Haiti the poorest country in the world. Its children are leaving the nation by waves, towards more clement skies, it was first the United States, The Bahamas and the Dominican Republic, and it has been Brazil for a while, now it is Chile for desperate Haitians seeking a hospitable corner of this globe for refuge. Recently, to nail the coffin on Haiti's international standing, there was the characterization of the country as a "shithole" nation from one of the highest world leaders. And then, around all that hoopla, came the Port au Prince International Jazz Festival, the legacy to Haiti and to the world of Herby Widmaier, who passed away last year, in the form of the Haiti Jazz Foundation. Well managed by his son Joel and seconded by Milena Sandler as well as by a whole crew of dedicated volunteers, the jazz festival at 12 years old is taking a life of its own. It is brilliant, eclectic, original and almost enchanting like a bit of fresh air for the aficionados. Run usually in the third week of January, it is the first global jazz festival of the year for those who follow this type of entertainment throughout the world. The organisers have solicited the support of the Haitian government and of different embassies accredited or not in Haiti to send their best jazz ambassadors to the festival. Those embassies have complied not only in sending their talent but also their treasure in ensuring the festival is a success story. This year the festival is hosting artistes from Mexico, Brazil, Spain, Chile, United States, France, Canada, Germany, and Brussels. The diplomats from these regions did not procrastinate in assuring the job is well done. They used their own time to present their artistes to the public. The international jazz groups have the good grace to incorporate some Haitian artistes to add a local taste to their rendering, giving a special flavor to each presentation. The winner to my taste was Erik Truffaz and his group from Switzerland, sponsored by both Switzerland and France. I had to ask Erik how old he was at the end of the performance at the French Institute. He reminded me of myself, getting younger with each birthday. He was jumping, and inviting the audience to participate in this show of spontaneity and creativity well orchestrated beforehand. It was indeed a divine performance under the watchful eye of the blue moon. There was also the legendary jazz artiste Norman Brown from the West Coast of the United States, as well as Loide Jorge with roots from Africa but born in France and raised in the United States. They bring the essence of jazz music that burst onto the world from the southern slave plantations, spread around the globe and much appreciated by the children of the former slave masters. Tribute should be given to the American heroes of the jazz movement such as Louis Armstrong, who might be considered the father of the Afro-American jazz experience. Perusing the literature on jazz history, we find the genesis is located in New Orleans. Since the culture, the music and the food of Louisiana can be traced right back to Haiti, par consequent one can deduce that Haiti is the motherland of jazz, well preserved in New Orleans and sent from there to the whole world. This tradition has been groomed by jazzmen such as Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie (1962); Steve Coleman (1990), Whinstone Marsalis (2010).This musical genre made of African swing and blues coupled with the ancient rhythm of European military bands has taken over the whole world with variations in each country. As such, at the PAP jazz festival, from Brazil came Leila Pinheiro, who reflected the bossa nova tradition, the branch of jazz developed in the Amazon. Brazil was the country given the place of honor in this 12th edition of the festival. It is due to the important place played by the Afro experience of Brazil, especially in the region of Salvador de Bahia, to the world jazz experience. From Germany came Marialy Pacheco, with roots in Cuba, speaking perfect English, she is a true citizen of the world, charming audiences all over the planet. She was the first woman to win the first prize at the Montreaux Jazz Festival in France. From Canada came Emilie Claire Barlow, who enchanted the audience in a fusion performance made of samba, bossa nova and blues rock in the rendition of "Raindrops keep falling on my head". She is a true world class personage, singing like a Brazilian in the skin of a West Coast Canadian. And there were so many more jazz artistes, Nicholas Vera Trio of Chile, Ingrid Beaujean of Mexico, Rutshelle Guillaume and Coralie Herard of Haiti, without forgetting the Ram and the Strings, two legendary Haitian orchestras. As a finale, the PAP jazz festival travels to the town of Montrouis, where under the blue moon, on the beautiful beach of the all inclusive Dicameron resorts, the artistes Beethova Obas, from Haiti, Norman Brown from the United States and Michael Brun with Haitian roots but living in the United States, charmed the audience until late in the evening. The organizers of the jazz festival also built the future into the conceptual framework of the event. They incorporated the children from the College Catts Pressoir, one of the most innovative primary and secondary schools in Haiti, into the festival program. The college has a standing jazz orchestra. Amongst the many people that put their hands together to build this magnificent opus one should make a special mention of Beatrice Compere, the MC, who juggled easily the French, Spanish, English and German languages to present the multinational jazz players to the audience. To conclude, Haiti has several precious cultural stones that need polishing before they are exposed to the world. They might then rise up to the standard of the PAP jazz festival for a worldwide audience to present the Haitian experiences that soothe the soul and the body in this materialistic world. They need true citizen-philanthropists like Widmaier or Max Chauvel of the Nouvelliste who sponsored two Haitian jewels with international standard: Livres en Folie on Thursday Corpus Christi and Artisanat en Fetes in November. Haiti is seeking volunteers to create the tasteful PPP, public-private partnership or foundation that could incubate the Haitian cultural treasures such as the Carnival, the Rara festival and the Fiesta of Saints to make those extraordinary events into polished cultural experiences for world class travelers. They would then through an all inclusive package draw millions of tourists throughout the year to the country; bringing foreign exchange and helping Haiti to change its status of a failed nation into a shining star of the Caribbean chain. The PAP Jazz Festival 2019 will take place from January 19 to 26, 2019. Related essay CREDIT: By Jean H Charles
Subject: Success; Audiences; Diplomatic & consular services; Orchestras; Volunteers; Music festivals; Jazz
Location: Mexico Switzerland Spain United States--US Canada Dominican Republic Louisiana Germany Africa Cuba Chile Brazil France Haiti Bahamas
People: Gillespie, Dizzy
Publication title: TCA Regional News; Chicago
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Ja n 30, 2018
Publisher: Tribune Content Agency LLC
Place of publication: Chicago
Country of publication: United States, Chicago
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1992291196
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1992291196?accountid=4840
Copyright: (c)2018 the Caribbean News Now (Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands) Visit the Caribbean News Now (Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands) at www.caribbeannewsnow.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Last updated: 2018-01-30
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 29 of 474
They Told the Women in Bahia They Couldn’t Drum. Try Telling That to Banda Didá.
Author: Sims, Shannon
Publication info: New York Times (Online) , New York: New York Times Company. Jan 30, 2018.
Abstract:
Meet the all-female Brazilian drum group that is challenging gender norms.
Full text: SALVADOR, Brazil — This northeastern Brazilian city is famous for its Afro-Brazilian drumming traditions; the internationally acclaimed bloco-afro band Olodum has broadcast its colorful drums and pounding syncopation internationally for decades through music collaborations including Michael Jackson’s “They Don’t Really Care About Us” and Paul Simon’s “The Obvious Child” . To see that band — which is composed almost exclusively of men — or any of the city’s other renowned bloco-afros, like Ilê Aiyê, perform live in the streets of Salvador is a deep dive into the roots of this country’s musical traditions. But traditions change. Or actually, traditions are changed. By women like the ones that make up Banda Didá, a group composed exclusively of black women, pounding out those same Afro-Brazilian rhythms, filling up Salvador’s night with its old sounds, played by new hands. Banda Didá is a unique musical group breaking gender boundaries in the capital of Bahia, the state that is the epicenter of Brazil’s African cultural infusion. “Until Didá, no one here played like us,” said one of the band’s leaders and longest-serving members, Viviam Caroline de Jesus Queirós. Formed in 1993, the band was believed to be the first all-female bloco-afro in Brazil. “We’ve brought visibility to a group — black women — that have been historically marginalized here,” Ms. Queirós said. “We’ve feminized percussion here.” Though they’ve been around for years, Didá’s popularity today is representative of an atmosphere of female empowerment in Brazil. Didá, once a torchbearing group among dozens of all-male bloco-afros, now shares the streets of Salvador with a few other all-female groups. As Brazil’s power structure has turned more conservative in recent years, with many female politicians being replaced by male lawmakers who have pushed for legislation to limit women’s access to abortion, the country’s feminist movement has gained strength.
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Banda Didá earned its visibility by taking on old social norms that pushed women away from drums. Historically, “drumming in Salvador has been considered a man’s role,” said Jeff Packman, a University of Toronto associate professor who specializes in the study of drum culture in Salvador. He and Ms. Queirós both report that the gender norms around drumming came out of particular beliefs about a woman’s role and place. One theory, the big bass drums are too heavy for women. The women could even get hurt, and then who would have the babies? Another theory suggested that playing drums in the streets in the night — especially during the bacchanalia of Carnival season, when drum groups perform most intensely — is too time-consuming and dangerous for women, who should instead stay home. Good luck convincing the women of Banda Didá of those theories today. On a recent weekend evening, a few dozen of the group’s 85 members gathered in the second floor of their headquarters. Women, some with children in their laps, listened attentively to the guest speakers, which included older local black women sharing their experiences of finding strength in their feminism and their blackness. “It is our responsibility to share with the world the power that is within us as black women,” one speaker told the group. Two nights later, the band was busy rehearsing its Carnival performance; the celebration is just weeks away. During the captivating rehearsals, which take place in the street in front of their headquarters, the women not only play bass drums — called surdos — strapped around their shoulders or waists and resting against knees protected by thick kneepads, but also swing the heavy, keg-sized drums up into the air, balancing them above their heads with one trembling arm, as the seconds tick by and the gathered crowd cheers, in an act symbolizing their defiance of those old gender rules. Adriana Portela, the first female conductor of a bloco-afro in Salvador’s history, attributes the debunking of the myths around female drumming to “the power of the uterus.” She said this just before rehearsal, while pulling on kneepads and helping the group’s young singer with new lyrics. Jean Jesus dos Santos, one of the younger members of the group — part of the next generation of Didá — was one room over and painting blush onto her cheeks. “They used to say drumming wasn’t for women because the instrument was heavy,” said Jean. “But we’re warrior women, and yes, we can play. And the proof of that is there in the street: we play just as well as the men.” An hour later, after their rehearsal and backstage at an Olodum show a block away, Olodum’s vice president, Marcelo Gentil, said he can’t disagree. “They are from Bahia, so they drank from the same source as Neguinho,” he said, referring to the man who is regarded as the founder of the samba-reggae rhythm that drives much of the drumming in Salvador. “And they play that rhythm a lot better than men who aren’t from Bahia.” Neguinho do Samba, a former leader of Olodum, founded Banda Didá in 1993. Neguinho died several years ago, but his daughter, Debora de Souza, remains an integral part of the administration of Banda Didá. While counting out registration forms in a yellow folder labeled “Carnaval,” Ms. de Souza recalled the passion that led her father to form Banda Didá. "My dad was a feminist. He cared about women, and while he was with Olodum he saw that there was a need for there to be a female drum group.” According to Ms. de Souza, Paul Simon felt so grateful to Olodum for helping him earn a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year in 1992, that he helped him acquire the three-story colonial mansion where Banda Didá in now based. Neguinho’s vision was long-term: to form an all-female drum group, but also ensure the perpetuity of the group by offering free instrument-making workshops and music lessons for women and children at the house. Despite the financial uncertainty that troubles most Brazilian cultural groups that receive little government support, the Didá project has been a success. Today, 130 women and girls take drum lessons at Didá — still for free — creating a diverse pool of candidates for inclusion in the band. The group finances itself through private events and donations. Mornings at the Didá house are filled with the muted sounds of private tutoring in tambourine or conga drums behind closed doors. In the afternoon, young girls scamper down the central stairway after their drum lessons, and on a recent afternoon, older women waited in line to register to volunteer during the group’s Carnival performance. The uniqueness of the city’s first all-female group, and the luxury of the group having a physical headquarters, means that Didá’s reputation now precedes it. The group used to go out to the poor neighborhoods around Salvador to recruit talented young drummers; now, on a typical day, a steady stream of young women show up at the house to inquire about drum lessons or joining the group. "This is the place where I found myself,” said Maiana Santos Bonfim, another young member of the band. “It's where I learned to accept myself, my hair, my body, my race. And I just love playing drums.” Ms. Queirós was just 16 years old when she started playing drums with Banda Didá. She is now 34 and pursuing a Ph.D. in samba-reggae ethnomusicology in her free time away from the group. “I feel like I became a woman through this group,” she said with steady conviction, between sips of passionfruit juice at a local Afro-Brazilian cafe. "In my opinion, the drum could be the great technology for women this century. It redefines the body of a woman — especially black women,” said Ms. Queirós. “I think it’s a weapon; it’s a tool. It gives us power, and makes us more beautiful. And it makes it so that our message is heard farther and farther away.” Source URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/30/travel/brazil-all-female-drums-bahia-banda-dida.html?partner=bloomberg Credit: SHANNON SIMS
Subject: Bands; Men; Feminism; Traditions; Women; Reggae; Power; Gender; Musical performances
Location: Brazil
People: Souza, Paul Simon, Paul
Company / organization: Name: University of Toronto; NAICS: 611310
Identifier / keyword: Bahia (Brazil) Music Women and Girls Banda Dida (Music Group) Surfacing 2018 Drums Carnival (Pre-Lenten)
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/30/travel/brazil-all-female-drums-bahia-banda-dida.html?partner=bloomberg
Publication title: New York Times (Online); New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jan 30, 2018
Section: travel
Publisher: New York Times Company
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Blogs, Podcasts, & Websites
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1992410370
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1992410370?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright 2018 The New York Times Company
Last updated: 2018-02-09
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 30 of 474
The Only Minecraft "Girl Empowerment" Company Releases Three Groundbreaking Products: From Brazilian Chocolate to Dangerous Mummies, New Challenges for Young Players
Publication info: PR Newswire ; New York [New York]31 Jan 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
TEL AVIV, Israel, Jan. 31, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- TOYA, the Minecraft content-creator with a unique niche in the gaming world, is releasing three new products simultaneously in February. The multiple product launch is a first for the Israeli startup, founded by entrepreneurs Anat Shperling and Yifat Anzelevich. The two women are creating a brand of digital games and media designed to inspire children, especially young girls, to realize their full potential, and to know the accomplishments of women who have changed our world.
"The Chocolate Factory Mystery" takes players through an abandoned factory in Brazil that once manufactured some of the best and most famous chocolates in the world. Players move through levels that challenge them to use actual chocolate-making skills, such as choosing and grinding cocoa. With the help of Whysa, an eccentric old lady who appears in every TOYA game, players are tested to see if they can be "the one" who re-opens the famous factory. If they succeed, players can choose flavors and make chocolate bars to sell in the Minecraft store, with a better understanding of the hard work and little bit of magic required to succeed in the business world.
As a complement to the Chocolate Factory's Brazilian origins, TOYA is also launching a new Brazilian skin pack of costumes that celebrate the country's famous Carnival. The costumes are inspired by two São Paulo samba schools run by women – the Golden Roses, led by Angela Basilio, and Mocidade Alegre, led by Solange Bichara Rezende – which took first prize in the Carnival in the last two years. They highlight the creativity and color with vibrant design that it takes to win the festival. Basilio and Alegre have been running their respective teams since 2003, and provide a women's perspective to the samba of São Paulo.
In a very different world, TOYA players will also get to discover the hidden treasures of Alexandria, Egypt, in a game called "Desert of Secrets." Players seek Cleopatra's nine Sea Heart Diamonds, and bring them back to the throne.
"It's important to us as a company to provide an array of international experiences and representations to an international audience," said Shperling, TOYA's CEO. "Setting games in Egypt and in Brazil expands the TOYA universe and the experiences we can provide to young players, especially girls, who will learn from exposure to different cultures.
"The Brazilian costumes in the skin pack were so much fun to design," said Anzelevich, TOYA's COO. "Like the Mummers and New Orleans krewes in the U.S., successful samba schools in Brazil are rarely run by women. Honoring Angela and Solange for their accomplishments in Carnival continues our theme of providing a variety of role models for young gamers. "
TOYA is dedicated to developing new Minecraft games as an alternative to the "for girls" focus on fashion, pets and homecare that is typically applied to grade-school-age girls. The company is designing for boys as well: research indicates that there is only one female for every five male characters in video games, and 76% of solo video game heroes are male, despite the fact that half of online gamers are female. Since the playful learning experience enables gamers to become explorers, adventurers and all sorts of heroes, TOYA's aim is that boys, too, will gain from experiencing the accomplishments of exceptional women from around the world. The company's first two Minecraft games, inspired by the work of renowned gorilla researcher Dian Fossey and Japanese mountain-climber Junko Tabei, were released in November and December 2017.
"It's a challenge for our small company to get three products to market at the same time," Shperling said. "But our team is dedicated to the unique values of TOYA, and expanding our product line quickly is a key strategy for reaching new audiences. It's another landmark for the TOYA approach: fun, interesting but with the serious purpose of empowering girls around the world."
Media contact:
Anat Shperling
97235270202
[email protected]
View original content with multimedia: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-only-minecraft-girl-empowerment-company-releases-three-groundbreaking-products-300590416.html
SOURCE TOYA
CREDIT: TOYA
Subject: Chocolate; Games; Empowerment
Location: Brazil United States--US Alexandria Egypt Israel Egypt
People: Fossey, Dian
Company / organization: Name: Mojang AB; NAICS: 511210
Publication title: PR Newswire; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jan 31, 2018
Dateline: TEL AVIV, Israel, Jan. 31, 2018
Publisher: PR Newswire Association LLC
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1992616367
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1992616367?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright PR Newswire Association LLC Jan 31, 2018
Last updated: 2018-11-09
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 31 of 474
Brazil: Rio Urges Carnival Visitors to Stick to Urban Areas
Publication info: Asia News Monitor ; Bangkok [Bangkok]01 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Brazilian health authorities are urging Carnival visitors to stick to celebrations in the city of Rio de Janeiro and avoid heading out of town for sightseeing at waterfalls and forests where yellow fever has been detected. Rio state Health Secretary Luiz Antonio Teixeira Junior said on Tuesday that there have been no recent urban cases of the disease and that the risk of contagion in touristic parts of Rio is "nearly zero." "Visit our beaches, but avoid forests, bushes and waterfalls. That is where the mosquitoes that transmit the disease live," Teixeira Junior said in a press conference. Brazil is vaccinating more than 20 million people against yellow fever in a massive campaign to control a budding outbreak, and the secretary said Rio state alone has vaccinated more than 8 million. The World Health Organization also suggests that visitors to Rio get vaccinated. As of Tuesday, Brazil's Health Ministry has confirmed 213 cases across the country and 81 deaths in the current outbreak. That's fewer than the 468 cases and 147 deaths that had been confirmed during the same period in the last outbreak, which was unusually large. Alfredo Lopes, the head of Rio's hotel association, said tourism agencies have expressed concern about the outbreak. "There are many doubts because of yellow fever, but few cancelations for now. We don't know how many people would come, but later chose not to," Lopes said. Rio state Tourism Secretary Nilo Felix said the disease won't have a meaningful impact during the high season for tourists. He expects 1.5 million visitors in the city in the next couple of weeks, about the same figure of 2017. James Story, the U.S. consul general in Rio, said he hasn't heard of American concerns about yellow fever directly and believes the outbreak will not affect tourism in the coming weeks. "Carnival is an international festival with people from all over. I am sure this time will be no different," he said. - VOA
Subject: Fever; Tourism
Location: Brazil United States--US Rio de Janeiro Brazil
Company / organization: Name: World Health Organization; NAICS: 923120
Publication title: Asia News Monitor; Bangkok
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 1, 2018
Section: General News
Publisher: Thai News Service Group
Place of publication: Bangkok
Country of publication: Thailand, Bangkok
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--Philippines, General Interest Periodicals--Vietnam, General Interest Periodicals--Thailand
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1992688410
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1992688410?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Thai News Service Group Feb 1, 2018
Last updated: 2018-01-31
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 32 of 474
Q1, Q2 and Q3 2017 Global Eagle Entertainment Inc Earnings Call - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]01 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Presentation OPERATOR: Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Global Eagle's Business Update for the First 3 Quarters of 2017. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to introduce your host for today's conference, Mr. Peter Lopez, Vice President of Investor Relations. Sir, you may begin. PETER LOPEZ: Thank you, [Skyler]. Good morning and welcome to Global Eagle's Business Update for the First 3 Quarters of 2017. On the Investor Relations section of our website at www.globaleagle.com, you will find the slide deck to accompany this webcast. We also filed an earnings release yesterday morning. Before we start, I would like to remind you that our discussion today may include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on our management's current expectations and beliefs and are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. Actual results may vary materially from those forward-looking statements due to various factors that we discussed in our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and our subsequently filed quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. We disclaim any obligation to update or alter those statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Our discussion today will reference adjusted EBITDA which is a non-GAAP financial measure. We have included a reconciliation of adjusted EBITDA to its most directly comparable GAAP financial measure in the appendix of this presentation. Now, I'd like to turn the call over to Jeff Leddy, CEO of Global Eagle. JEFFREY A. LEDDY, CEO & DIRECTOR, GLOBAL EAGLE ENTERTAINMENT INC.: All right. Thanks, Pete, and thank you for joining our call this morning. We are excited to speak with you today. With the filings of our 3 10-Qs yesterday, we are now current with all our SEC filings. On today's call, we'll be providing you with a number of exciting updates on Global Eagle. Joining me are: Walé Adepoju, who runs Media & Content; Josh Marks, who runs Connectivity; and Paul Rainey, our CFO. We will provide you with an overview of our business units, markets, strategy and performance. Both Josh and Walé will update you on their respective units followed by Paul, who will update you on our financials. During my first call early this year, I mentioned that 2017 will be a year of transformation for Global Eagle. Indeed, it has been. Today, I will discuss our successes and our hurdles in 2017 along with next steps. These next steps will define 2018 as the year we achieve growth in revenue, margins and cash flows across all business units. First off, let's begin with the progress in our SEC filings. In the last 75 days, we filed our 2016 Form 10-K and 3 forms 10-Q for 2017. As I mentioned earlier, we are now current with all SEC filings. Importantly, these filings validated the integrity of our financials and confirmed our position that the company is not -- was not subject to any restatements, was not a perpetrator of fraud and did not commit any other wrongdoing. We also maintain compliance with all covenants associated with our debt agreements and we expect to remain in compliance throughout 2018. I want to take a moment to acknowledge the hard work of our accounting firms and our financial organization led by CFO, Paul Rainey and his accounting team, led by Chief Accounting Officer, Sarlina See. Congratulations, Paul and Sarlina. You and your teams have done a wonderful job. We'd also like to thank our newest Board Member and Chairman of our Audit Committee, Ron Steger, for his hard work and guidance through this process. As we enter 2018, we are driving positive momentum for Global Eagle. Our SEC filings are current. We satisfied NASDAQ's listing requirements and we have significant new leadership teams in place across the organization. Our momentum will be sustained with resources we have freed up to focus on integration and optimization of prior acquisitions, and our commercial strategy has been materially enhanced and has been recently validated with some significant wins. Partially offsetting the success were some headwinds along the way. After laying them out for you, I will tell you how we're going to address them. Revenue through Q3 2017 in our Content Business unit was below our plan. This was driven by a number of exceptional items, 2 large airline bankruptcies and material customer loss and inability to win substantial new business. Adjusted EBITDA was below our expectations. A good portion of this was driven by lower revenue we just touched on and was exacerbated by excess content expenses and certain higher operating expenses as a result of timing issues. We expended effort to complete our 2016 10-K and 2017 10-Q filings, also drove extraordinary use of cash in professional services during 2017. Delay-related fees, increased interest rates and additional principal amortization associated with our outstanding debt also drove onetime cash consumption. To address these challenges, we've worked very hard over the last year by dealing with a number of internal organizational, personnel and operational issues. We have made significant progress in these areas. In particular, we restructured our finance reporting capabilities and other shared services that will positively impact our operational efficiency and timely reporting going forward. However, we still have a lot to achieve. Looking into 2018, we'll focus on improving our business in 2 very material ways: improved organic revenue growth and higher EBITDA margins. First, we are optimizing our go-to-market strategy. As you'll hear from Walé and Josh, we're focused on new products and services that differentiate Global Eagle from our competition. We're already developing and selling new solutions like our new ORYX mobile application for Qatar Airlines, our new Ocean Prime TV product in Maritime, and our PRIVA White Glove Concierge Services for high net worth yacht owners. We believe that our improved go-to-market strategy will lead to faster organic revenue growth for Global Eagle in 2018. We expect to win a significant share of the secular growth within our markets. We've already demonstrated our ability to win new large opportunities in both Media & Content and Connectivity segments. These are very substantial wins for us and validate our new approach to market. Our challenges of the past year with our late filings and the associated consequences definitely had a negative impact on winning new opportunities throughout the year. However, post our 2016 10-K filing, we've been able to record several new contracts. Both Walé and Josh will detail these validating and invigorating wins in a few minutes. The second component to our strategy for 2018 is to improve our operating margins. With our SEC filings now current, we will able to allocate more time to the integration and optimization of our prior acquisitions. We expect to optimize margin by lowering our expenses, both with cost of goods sold as well as OpEx. We have many examples of actions that we are taking to improve margins including consolidating facilities, insourcing services, implementing a commercial finance function in our Media & Content segment, lowering the cost of delivery through new contracts and content suppliers for our satellite capacity. The 2 largest cost elements are our content and our satellite capacity and we believe we have made substantial reductions in those areas. We should also achieve synergies through a more effective integration of our numerous past acquisitions, including EMC. Through these efforts, we expect a material OpEx cost reduction over the next few years. Many of these actions have started and will continue to take place during 2018, and they should result in a very much improved cost run rate by the end of the year. In conclusion, there's no question 2017 has had its share of successes and challenges. We've become current in our SEC financial filings, but we were disappointed with our limited revenue growth and our adjusted EBITDA generation due to some unique challenges. However, we've addressed these challenges head on and have not been afraid to make the necessary changes within the organization. We believe that we now have strong positive business momentum. We are well positioned as leaders in many of our market segments and will drive hard to maintain our leadership through renewed innovations and focus on operational excellence. Our customers are focused and we are committed to delivering the best possible performance. Our markets continue to team with growth and opportunity for Global Eagle and our recent commercial wins are a validation for our new go-to-market strategy. We're reasserting ourselves and plan to achieve significant growth within our markets, while at the same time, improving our margins through integration and optimization. Now let me turn the call over to Walé to discuss our Media & Content business. WALé ADEPOJU, EVP OF MEDIA & CONTENT, GLOBAL EAGLE ENTERTAINMENT INC.: Thank you, Jeff. Good morning. I would like to start with a quick recap of what our Media & Content business does in order to provide context to our performance and business outlook. Our main business objective is to enhance the customer experience for travelers on behalf of our Aviation, Maritime and nontheatrical customers. Global Eagle reaches airline passengers worldwide. We provide Media & Content services to airlines who show content to over 1 billion travelers every year for an average of 4 hours each. The market for Content remains heavily concentrated on international long-haul twin-aisle aircraft. In this segment, in-flight entertainment is an essential part of the overall travel experience and is expected by passengers. For the short-haul flights, where our Media & Content business drives comparatively little revenue, our strategy is to support passengers' own devices through our digital media services and to bolster Global Eagle's Connectivity business which actually specializes in single-aisle aircraft connectivity. Our services include the curation, editing and distribution of content such as video, audio, games as well as apps. We are also experts in other key areas of media provision such as the creation of graphical user interfaces as well as the development of mobile anti-back apps. We act as the advertising sales agency for airline media in airport lounges, in-flight television, IPTV and on all forms of passenger portals. The unique value that we bring is the ability to provide a customized experience across over 125 different types of operating systems in over 40 languages. We have created both economies of scale and scope needed to provide a customized experience for our customers regardless of location, culture and brand values. 2017 represents the start of our digital transformation of the Media business. However, during the year, we also experienced a number of exceptional events that impacted on our performance. In terms of financial performance for the first 9 months of 2017, we saw a decline in revenue compared to the same period in 2016. This was due to the full year effect of losing the Content business of one of our larger customers in 2016. The situation was further compounded by 2 unexpected airline bankruptcies during the year. Gross profit was down due to the customer losses mentioned and also the video content costs were higher due to suboptimized content mix. In addition, our music license fees increased following our settlement with the music labels. The business has addressed a number of these performance issues in 2017. We started the rollout of new music products and pricing during 2017. Customer take up has been positive. We have the full year effect of cost in 2017, but only the partial revenue. This will adjust over time, as we gain more customers for the new music deals. The loss of 1 or 2 customers is not unusual. However, in previous years, we would normally win new business that would more than offset any losses. The delayed SEC filings and uncertainty during 2017 had a negative impact on the business. Our ability to win new business was severely impacted. However, the situation turned around very quickly following the filings of our 2016 10-K in the fourth quarter. In Q4, we won the tender process of Finnair and also with our long-term customer, All Nippon Airlines. With All Nippon, we also expanded the relationship, including product increases ahead of the 2020 Olympics in Japan. These wins plus renewals at Air France and KLM contrast sharply with the lack of renewals during the first 3 quarters of 2017. Additionally, we added 2 new customers for Content in the last 2 months alone. I'm pleased to announce our new business with Gulf Air and China Airlines. In 2017, we also started the process of transforming our operations into a leaner digital workflow. This complete redesign of how we work will result in changes to our process and systems and provide greater control and integration with the wider Global Eagle business. We expect this to lead to better efficiencies in terms of our content spend as well as utilization of content. It will also generate a reduction in our overall cost. The operational improvement will also provide improved capability to scale our digital media business going forward. As part of the transformation, we strengthened our content management team with experts who have experience of digital content and e-commerce from companies such as Universal Music, Singapore Airlines, RTL, CBS Asia and the U.K's ITV. The strong momentum we saw with airline customers in late 2017 and also in January has been mirrored in terms of video content. Our slate of exclusive content includes a record number of title -- titles with nominations and awards for industry organizations such as Golden Globe's and Academy Awards. These include titles like Lady Bird, The Post, Wonder, I, Tonya and All the Money in the World. Our advertising business continues to grow at double-digit percentages and remains a high priority for us in our goal of monetizing the travel experience for our Aviation and Maritime customers. We renewed with our advertising partners, Marriott Hotels, a large upfront deal for advertising on American Airlines in-flight entertainment systems. We also reached a new agreement with Southwest Airlines for in-portal and IPTV advertising. We have also expanded our video content marketing team into Dubai to match growing demand from new IFE-equipped aircraft and promotions around the 2020 World Expo. Now let me turn to innovation. As the market leader, we are using innovation to drive growth of our Media & Content business. OTT and social media platforms have disrupted the wider content market and permanently changed how audiences consume media. In the travel market, Global Eagle will capitalize on this disruption. We are already developing the next-generation of mobile-centric travel entertainment services. Our mobile platforms are data enabled to reach this audience in the right place at the right time so that we can maximize commercial value for our customers and partners. This is not just a future dream. Our initial products are already live. In 2017, we launched our mobile content application on Qatar Airways. The product known as ORYX ONE and can be downloaded now on the App Store or Android Play Store. We've also extended some of our content rights to cover the wider travel process. This means that an airline or cruise operator can provide content to customers direct to their mobile at the point a traveler books their ticket. Premium content is locked until the day of travel and remains available until the destination. Other travel enhancing content and applications are available throughout the entire journey. Innovation is also taking place in the long-haul seat-back market. In 2017, our digital media team delivered several next-generation Android seat-back user interfaces for the IFE systems. This included an industry-winning designed for El Al Israel Airlines. The outlook remains strong as we use our mobile applications and seat-back enhancement to provide a more targeted content service, anywhere and everywhere. This combined with our cost reduction from our operational transformation is changing the business performance for 2018 and beyond. Now, let me turn the call over to Josh to discuss our Connectivity business. JOSHUA BENEGAL MARKS, EVP OF CONNECTIVITY, GLOBAL EAGLE ENTERTAINMENT INC.: Thank you, Walé. Thank you, Jeff. Good day to everybody. Today, I'm going to provide an update on Global Eagle Connectivity business. And as a refresher, we serve Aviation, Maritime, enterprise and government sectors. Since April of 2017, we strengthened our foundation, built the right team and driven supply chain efficiencies. We've turned customers into strong references and won deals that validate our technology and approach. We've turned the integration corner and we're seeing positive trend. Let's start with Slide 8, end-to-end solutions. Global Eagle is an end-to-end connectivity solution provider. We have the industry's broadest and deepest portfolio, and now, we have an organization with the talent and global reach to drive profitable growth in each vertical market we choose to serve. Let me start with a discussion of how we see the market. First, we believe great connectivity is more than just a fat pipe. We control network infrastructure from the Internet to the passenger device, deploying our patented technology to prioritize traffic, optimize routes and manage our complex satellite platform. We leave capacity on 56 satellites now including Ku HTS from both SES and Intelsat. We operate across C, Ku and Ka bands. We have a global support and service team, our network is scalable, and we deliver high-performance even when hundreds of aircrafts and dozens of cruise ships are all operating in the same region. Second, we believe great connectivity is more than just Internet browsing. Great connectivity is defined by fast speeds, the user interface and live television. And of course, it's also about capacity and cost structure. Clearly, nobody wants to pay $25 to stream Netflix on a 3-hour flight. When satellite operators have coverage on uncongested beams, they can offer streaming services at attractive cost structures, but that end-user experience isn't scalable when the beams gets congested. In contrast, Global Eagle layers capacity from multiple satellite operators and networks for scalability and cost efficiency. We can take advantage of market conditions to bulk up on capacity to support current and future mobility customers. Turning to the user interface and television. We recognize the driving take rate depends on a low friction and attractive customer interface. AIRtime, our award-winning passenger gateway bundles connectivity, games, journey and destination information, movies on demand and of course, live television. LiveTV is a centerpiece of our offer. It drives take rate, creates end-user loyalty and scratches the passenger itch for new content as an alternative to services like Netflix. Also, by keeping passengers in our ecosystem, we drive revenue share opportunities. To recap, we're global, we're open architecture and we're scalable. We're the only integrator with the cross-platform breadth to drive cost-effective capacity use, coupled with the best [faster] entertainment. So in Global Eagle, we have the right ingredients, but we needed to put the pieces together. We needed the right leaders, the right team and now we're executing an aggressive go-to-market plan. If you turn to Slide 9, recent integration activity. Let me give you an update here. In the last 9 months, we've integrated our Aviation, Maritime and Land businesses. We emerged as a scaled platform with clean differentiation from our more narrowly focused competitors. The first change was to our team. We added executives who understood customer needs and solutions. 80% of our unit leadership changed and the execution impact has been significant. Churn in our yacht business is down 50%. Trouble tickets across our network are down more than 60%. Disabled aircraft are down 80% year-over-year to deliver what we believe is industry-leading reliability. We're not where we want to be yet but we've made tremendous progress. Our mission is to make every customer a reference. To be clear, fixing our core meant that we temporarily delayed some synergies, particularly in headcount as we shifted resources and refocused on growth which is why the real synergy impacts won't show until this year. Second, we made massive network changes. Since the EMC acquisition, we've doubled network bandwidth. We've been laser-focused on bandwidth cost through our purchasing scale, opportunistic timing and our technology. Since the EMC acquisition, we've driven down our average cost per megabit by more than 50%. One driver has been the application of EMC's efficiency technology to our aviation network. If you've flown our airlines recently, you've noticed the improvement. Our antennas are just as fast as our competitors and now we have the network and bandwidth for industry-leading performance. If the airline wants it, we can provide streaming class services at a price point that will appeal to passengers. We recently announced a new deal with SES for HTS capacity. The price was right for us and the scale was right for SES. We doubled down on SES' HTS to fuel our aviation network, supporting growth from Hawaii to Western Europe. The amount we've purchased has had short-term negative margin impacts in 2017 and 2018 as we grow into that capacity. In the fourth quarter, we resumed our attention on overhead and synergies. We're consolidating administrative footprint in operations and rationalizing infrastructure. In parallel, we've introduced our own repair capabilities in the U.S. and in Europe to reduce cost and increase revenue. Turning to Slide 10, I'll give you some updates on Aviation. In Aviation, as in Maritime, we have positive trends and real momentum. Southwest and Norwegian make up 80% of our fleet and with the new long-term contracts, we're growing on both. Last year, Southwest added about 60 aircraft and Norwegian added 20. We reached a full fleet equipage on flydubai and shortly, we'll start their MAXs. Aviation revenue was flat in 2017, as we transitioned to the new contract structures but now it's increasing with fleet growth. We're focused on growth from new airlines and in new geographies. We're in the lead position for India, China and more generally, in Asia Pac. We have the capacities, key partner, teleports, STC approvals, operational analytics and cockpit integration and, of course, Boeing line fits. We have teams on the ground in each of these developing markets. In China, we're still working with HNA, and we expect installations this year. But in the meantime, we've partnered with 9 Air, a Chinese low-cost carrier, to conduct and complete smartphone connectivity testing. We installed on their first aircraft in December. They've now completed initial testing and we expect to launch the first Chinese smartphone-centric domestic connectivity in coming months. In India, the regulatory process has produced recommendations that are consistent with our approach. Our STCs and installations on Jet Airways with 60-plus aircraft ready for connectivity upgrades, puts us in a great position in India, too. And our progress isn't limited to Asia. We expect to be the largest provider of in-flight connectivity to single-aisle aircraft in Europe. We are deployed on Norwegian and we've commenced installations with LOT Polish. Also, we have signed an MOU with a major airline after winning a highly competitive process, and we have already received multimillion dollar purchase orders from them for additional hardware kits. We expect this new airline will be larger than Norwegian in scale. To win the deal, we bundled portal and media services, and we will provide scalable bandwidth over their hubs. I am proud of what our Aviation team has accomplished and excited about our global potential to add on to our recent wins. Turning to Slide 11 on Maritime and Land. I want to provide some additional color on Maritime and Land to help investors understand the business dynamics. The EMC acquisition turned Global Eagle into a scaled provider across vertical markets. We've spoken about cost synergies and there are significant revenue opportunities too. In the past year, we brought our award-winning passenger portal from Aviation to Maritime. We bulked up our Maritime television network to leverage our Aviation platform. Our aviation networks in turn benefited from EMC's network technology and traffic prioritization. As we build our advertising and analytics capability, we have unique capability to deploy those across air, sea and land. To understand Maritime and Land growth drivers, let me start by talking about the relevant segments. At a macro level, Maritime and Land is just over half of our total Connectivity revenue, the rest being Aviation. Of our Maritime and Land revenue, excluding cellular backhaul, cruise and ferry represents about 40%, while Government of Brazil, yachts and commercial oil and gas make up about 1/5 each. Our cruise business has many synergies with Aviation. Both require concentrated capacity on moving targets and the capacity must be scalable to serve congested regions. Cruise ships can require hundreds of megabits and the traffic is bidirectional. Cruise passengers love to live stream and cruise lines love that social marketing. Again, it's not the size of the pipe that matters, it's how well you manage that pipe to deliver Internet, TV, telephony and operational services without sacrificing end-user experience or buffering that live stream. That's where our expertise shines. There are about 460 active cruise ships. About 150 of those are with Carnival and with Royal Caribbean. We don't provide Wi-Fi to Carnival or RCI, but we do provide those lines with a number of other services. For everyone, other than Carnival and RCI, we are the largest provider with active Wi-Fi service on over 100 ships. Our downside performance in this market segment is protected. More than 90% of our monthly revenue is in backlog for 2018 and our renewal risk is limited for the next 2 years. Thanks to the team's hard work, we've renewed key contracts with Crystal, Pullmantur, Celestyal, Phoenix Reisen and Global Cruise Lines in recent months. We're seeing 5% to 10% annual growth through new services and packages, driven by new ship builds, take rates and increasing revenue per user. I should note that take rates in cruise are still 25% or less so there is a lot of growth potential from our existing fleet. Of course, we're also focused on capturing market share. We'll leverage television and our cellular roaming joint venture. Both of those give us a strong beachhead to win business from our competitors. Turning to yacht. We have over 200 large yachts under contract, and the business is growing at about 10% per year through a combination of ship count and new services to each ship. We focus on mega yachts with our PRIVA Concierge Service, our global support and our ability to surge capacity from our network when owners are onboard. There are more than 1,200 mega yachts that fit our value proposition and we have fragmented competition, so we are bullish about our ability to accelerate growth here. Our Government and Land business is our fastest-growing segment. It's growing at about 20% per year. It's been a positive surprise from the EMC deal. Now some of that growth is macro in nature. The U.S. Military is accelerating connectivity with multibillion-dollar task orders and increased deployments in the Middle East and Africa. We're well positioned through our prime contractor relationships to be the infrastructure provider of choice. We have a long-term contract with The United Nations, supporting 12 UN agencies. And in Brazil, we've got a niche business connecting schools, enterprise facilities and remote sites with local tech support, billing and network infrastructure. Our land sites in Brazil doubled in 2017, and we expect to continue that pace. Now we serve other sectors too such as commercial shipping and oil and gas, but in those areas we are a niche player, and we focus on profitable deals. We're optimistic about energy as oil prices recover and in commercial shipping, we are focused on packaging TV, telephony, cyber security and operational analytics with our Internet connectivity to increase value. So overall, we have the bandwidth, the technology, television, customer portals, analytics and an advertising platform to succeed. With changes to our go-to-market strategy made last year, we're seeing positive trends. We are taking advantage of market conditions to invest in bandwidth and that will impact short-term margins but we're confident in our ability to fill that with the existing and new customers. We're also very confident in the transformation of our business and focused on making every customer a strong reference for our product, our services and our support. Over to you, Paul, for an update on finance. PAUL RAINEY, CFO & EXECUTIVE VP, GLOBAL EAGLE ENTERTAINMENT INC.: Thank you, Josh. I would like to begin with selective financial data on Page 13 for the first 3 quarters of 2017. And as a reminder, our comparative 2016 results include a partial period result for our acquisition of EMC on July 27, 2016. Total revenue for the 9-month period ended September 30, 2017 was $460 million, a 23% increase over the prior year period. The increase over the prior year period was driven by the acquisition of EMC and growth in service revenue in our Connectivity segment due to new aircraft, vessel and site additions, as Josh mentioned earlier, which was partially offset by a revenue decline in our Media & Content segment. Adjusted EBITDA for the 9-month period was $48.3 million, up 26% year-over-year. Our revenue and adjusted EBITDA quarterly trending was impacted by the delayed 2016 10-K audit filing. Internally, it was an operational distraction that suboptimized our efficiency. Externally, it presented unique commercial challenges that were particularly significant in our Media & Content segment, as Walé outlined in his business update. Additionally, we were in the process of making a number of leadership changes and operational adjustments. Those compounding headwinds and impacts from seasonality culminated with a third quarter step down in both revenue and margin. As Walé, Josh and Jeff mentioned, since the filing of our 2016 Form 10-K, we have seen an uptick in the marketplace and a more focused operational execution to where we already see that trend reversing. We expect the fourth quarter of 2017 to have positive year-over-year growth compared to the fourth quarter 2016 revenue and adjusted EBITDA. With these recent SEC filings, we are compliant with our financial covenant and our credit agreement and expect to continue to remain compliant throughout 2018. Now, we will talk a little bit about our cash on Page 14 and provide you more color on what happened in 2017. To reiterate Jeff's comment, 2017 was a transition year for Global Eagle. Therefore, we incurred a significant number of onetime cash expenses that we do not expect to occur in the future years. The following are the major uses of cash throughout 2017: onetime fees and payments, including professional services fees related to the 2016 and 2017 audits of approximately $63 million; the Eagle-1 satellite capital expenditure of approximately $29 million related to the SES transponder purchase; other capital expenditures, excluding the Eagle-1 satellite of approximately $40 million. Excluding these onetime professional services fees and the $36 million in interest expense, we expect to generate cash from operations for full year 2017 of approximately $39 million. The company expects its consolidated unrestricted cash balance as of December 31, 2017 to be approximately $51 million, effectively flat with the prior year. From a compliance perspective, with the filing of our 2017 quarterly reports on Form 10-Q yesterday, we have become current with our SEC reporting. Additionally, we have fulfilled the condition set by NASDAQ for continued listing and expect NASDAQ to confirm shortly that it is discontinuing its delisting proceedings. From an audit perspective, in the last 75 days, we have successfully transitioned to KPMG as our new audit firm and completed 3 Form 10-Qs. We expect to build on that momentum as the company and our auditors are committed to filing the 2017 Form 10-K, compliant with the SEC reporting requirements. Now, I'd like to turn the call over to Jeff for final comments. JEFFREY A. LEDDY: All right. Thanks, Paul, Josh and Walé. In summary, we're very excited about the future for Global Eagle, both near-term and long-term. We've assembled a world-class team of leaders, and through the integration of our services of both Connectivity and Media, we are uniquely positioned to address the needs of our customers in the air, the land and maritime markets. Thank you and now we'll open the line for questions. Questions and Answers OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) And our first question comes from Paul Penney with Northland Capital. PAUL RICHARD PENNEY, MD & SENIOR RESEARCH ANALYST, NORTHLAND CAPITAL MARKETS, RESEARCH DIVISION: In baseball terms, what inning are we in, in terms of your operational and financial synergies between your various divisions, and especially your circa 2015, 2016 acquisitions? JEFFREY A. LEDDY: Okay. Thanks, Paul, for the question. I am a baseball fan, and I'm not sure how to quite give you baseball analogy, but it's -- we're in process. We've made some significant strides in certain areas and there is more work to be done in others. Most importantly, we've integrated the core operating elements of the business, kind of the first phase. We are in the process of second phase where we see a lot more efficiency to be derived in things like software development processes. The way we procure, the way we manage inventory, there is a lot of fundamental business processes that we're still working through and optimizing. So it's an ongoing process and it will never stop. Continuous improvement is clearly a theme that we started and we'll continue going forward. So made a lot of progress, but a lot more work to go. PAUL RICHARD PENNEY: Okay, great. Maybe a question for Josh. Can you give more details in terms of your go-to-market strategy? And secondarily, can you give some color in terms of the trends you're seeing in terms of connectivity with airlines and in terms of them sponsoring CapEx on the installation side and some of the trends in the SOA agreements in terms of minimum bandwidth requirements? JOSHUA BENEGAL MARKS: Yes. So I'll start with go-to-market because that applies equally across air, sea and land. Our approach is to be the provider that adds the highest value to the solution, highest value to the passenger or guest experience and that applies equally if we're talking about a land facility with a remote worker or a solider in a U.S. Military base. So as I said during my presentation, we look to bundle services in our offers, we view television and the interface onboard as fundamental to providing both the right experience for the end-user, as well as the most efficient use of bandwidth across the network. So far, so good in terms of how we articulate that and take it to market. As I mentioned, the recent wins that we've had was a showcase of that combination of products, and it was critical as a driver of that successful outcome. Turning to sort of where we see the broader trends in Aviation Connectivity. There are sort of a couple of providers in this space, one in particular, that is very aggressively pushing hardware and effectively subsidizing fully the cost of it. That's not a path we're going down. We had a couple of deals in our path where we had done that kind of a deal structure. We've quickly realized that's not the most efficient way to structure a deal, given our goal of driving value creation for the airline and additional ability to work with the airline on advertising monetization and drive the right long-term revenue mix for us and for our customers. So the recent win, as I said in the presentation, we've received hardware purchase orders. We do intend to continue selling hardware. There may be cases where we work in the future with a sponsor, with a third-party, who can provide either hardware financing or participate in the deal structure but our core offer is one where the airline purchases hardware from us and we provide a service that provides the airline with the control over what a passenger sees, how they see it and how that passenger is monetized. PAUL RICHARD PENNEY: Great. And a question to Paul, just kind of dish around. If my math is right, you quantified a $130 million-ish of nonrecurring expenses. Just want to clarify if that's true? And then secondarily, are there any -- can you quantify, like, if other costs that you can potentially take out of the system on a go-forward basis? PAUL RAINEY: Yes, you are right around the onetime tax expenses that we don't think will reincur. As we move forward, that's going to be the biggest generation for the -- in our cash flow improvement. Jeff and Josh have outlined a number of things that we're doing to improve our operational efficiency. And as we take those costs out, that's going to continue to improve our cash flow as well. But in addition to that, we do have opportunities across the working capital efforts improving the efficiency on those dynamics as well. So we see on several different fronts, improvement of the onetime expenses, improvements on our revenue and margins and improvements in our just operational efficiency on working capital where we see that cash balance being improved going forward. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from Rich Valera with Needham & Company. RICHARD FRANK VALERA, SENIOR ANALYST, NEEDHAM & COMPANY, LLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: Just following up on the expense side. I think, Jeff, it may have been you that mentioned in the prepared -- in your prepared remarks that you are undertaking pretty significant OpEx reduction initiatives, I guess, starting now and they would progress through 2018. Is there any kind of baseline you can give us for sort of where OpEx is now, I guess, maybe 4Q or 1Q of this year and where you would like to get that, either as a percentage of revenue or any kind of more granularity you can give on your targets for OpEx? JEFFREY A. LEDDY: Yes, I think, maybe the best way to think about it is a combination of things, like I said, from facility rationalization to more efficient processes, better shared services. Right now what we're targeting throughout the course of 2018 to get about a 10% to 15% reduction in those OpEx items. And a lot of that also is bringing external activities and in-source them. So it's going to be in this year in that 10% to 15% range. More to do after that, again, we're trying to do this properly and not rush through it. We're still running a business. So we are very concerned about maintaining integrity of the performance of our services and products to our customers. So we're doing it in a very thoughtful and controlled fashion, but still trying to be aggressive in getting those synergies realized as soon as possible. RICHARD FRANK VALERA: Got it. And then, I think, this one is for Josh. You mentioned in your presentation, I think, that your cost for bandwidth has come down by 50%, I believe since, I think, third quarter of '16. Can you say how your price to your customer has come down over that time? Have you kind of matched the price reductions you had to give to your customers, done better than that? How have you trended versus the -- where kind of the market is on a pricing basis for bandwidth? JOSHUA BENEGAL MARKS: So let me start with the following. My statement was average cost per megabit, right? So those bundles both the decrease in bandwidth cost from the market perspective as well as our ability using EMC's technology to drive higher efficiency and how we flow data over our pipes. So that's -- there is both an element of market cost reduction there as well as a significant element of our unique capabilities in that area through the technology side. The overall trend we're seeing has been one where as fleets grow and as the customer experience becomes richer onboard, we're providing more bandwidth to the customers. And we've talked about that in prior discussions around our new contracts with Southwest and Norwegian. So over time, I expect the bandwidth will be a key part of our cost structure, that we will continue to get more efficient and that we have opportunities to drive margin from the efficient utilization of our bandwidth, but that there will be a parallel path of continuing delivery of bandwidth to aircraft to enable new passenger experiences. And in fact, to be able to deploy bandwidth to fuel some of the digital media and other capabilities that Walé's team is building as well. RICHARD FRANK VALERA: Got it. So if you were to look over time, and I understand there is some near-term kind of dislocation because you've brought on a big chunk of bandwidth, which I guess, you're effectively incurring sort of amortization for while it's not fully utilized, but how do you think about your -- the cost of your in-flight connectivity -- the margin of your in-flight Connectivity service over time? And I guess, part of it you should have sort of a tailwind from increasing usage of that big chunk of bandwidth, but can you give any color on how you think about the margin of that business over time? JOSHUA BENEGAL MARKS: Yes. So first of all, we're very focused on our strategy in Aviation Connectivity, right. We're not trying to chase every deal in the world. We want to be the provider of choice for short-haul single-aisle aircraft that are operating dense -- operations inside of a specific region. And we have a unique value add in serving that market because we take capacity from different operators and different orbits and different networks and we bring them together to provide a scalable user experience over that specific area. The key there is achieving regional density, right, that's the key to getting efficient utilization out of your network and being able to drive significant margin growth from the operation of Connectivity services. So as I look forward, whether it's North America, Western Europe or Asia Pac, our focus is on building additional aircraft counts within those areas and being disciplined about what we go after. I do think that there is margin opportunity there. I do think that with technology change, we have an increasing opportunity, but I also think that it depends on our being disciplined about which accounts we go after. RICHARD FRANK VALERA: Got it. And one more and this, I think, it's probably for Paul. But I saw in your latest Q that you're in compliance, right, and you've said you're in compliance with your covenant, your latest covenant, which is 4.5x leverage covenant. And doing some kind of back of the envelope, it seems like you would need around $125 million of EBITDA to meet that covenant. So I'm wondering how you bridge between that and kind of the, let's call the annualized number for your adjusted EBITDA, which would seem to be in kind of maybe the $60 million to $70 million range if you analyze your 9-month number. Is there any way you could help us to bridge to that EBITDA that you use for your covenant? PAUL RAINEY: Yes. Part of the agreement there is a bridge between the adjusted EBITDA that you mentioned to the consolidated EBITDA, which is in the debt agreement where we can additional add-backs, including a limited number of future cost savings in there as well. So that's the main bridge between the 2 items. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from Robert Gutman with Guggenheim Partners. ROBERT ARI GUTMAN, SENIOR ANALYST, GUGGENHEIM SECURITIES, LLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: So I was wondering, I wasn't sure if I heard, if you provided an aviation installation backlog. And in addition, in the information that's come out not sure if I saw sort of quarterly aircraft installations and aircraft count to date. Have you provided that information or can you provide it? JOSHUA BENEGAL MARKS: In terms of both backlog and the breakout of current counts, we're not going to be providing that in detail going forward. If you want sort of the approximate numbers of where we are, there are approximately 900 aircraft today. You can go count radomes to get to that number but we're specifically not sort of getting into the details of what our backlog is. ROBERT ARI GUTMAN: Okay. And as a follow-on, you talked a lot about the cost savings. I'm just wondering in reference to the Content segment which had been sort of segment profit margin historically in the low to mid-30s, where do you see that settling out longer-term over time on that particular segment? JEFFREY A. LEDDY: I think if you look at the segment as a whole, as Walé pointed out, there is different sub-elements to it. While our margin was depressed in 2017 for the reasons we articulated, we do expect the margins to return closer to historical numbers. But again, it's a mix of very different types of sub-elements to that business that has -- have different margin elements to it. But we absolutely see the margins moving back towards more historical levels, as we implement some of the cost savings and process improvement activities that we're engaged in right now. And in fact, we moved to a much more digital world and drive more into digital media, you will see that continuous improvement. ROBERT ARI GUTMAN: Okay. One last one. I'm not sure if you'd go into detail on this, but how do you talk about over the past year or so, the product -- the Aviation product evolved, how are you talking to people about capacity throughput to the aircraft in terms of the capabilities of the current product into the mbps to a plane or otherwise and some sort of range or... JOSHUA BENEGAL MARKS: Our systems are capable of the same performance as everybody else's systems. Ultimately, it comes down to the strength of your network and how you run it. I think anybody who's flown one of our reference customers is going to see that we fundamentally changed the experience in a positive direction. Netflix, for example, now makes up more traffic on our North American networks than Facebook does. So I don't think there's any question about our capabilities to deliver a full streaming class experience for those who want it. Again, as I said, during the prepared remarks, delivering a streaming class service only works if you can provide it at a cost price point to the end passenger that people want to pay. People aren't going to pay $25 to stream a Netflix movie. So our focus is on delivering that efficiently, and I'm looking to television and other services to scratch the itch for passengers to reserve the bandwidth for people who really wanted to stream Netflix. OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from Louie Dipalma with William Blair. LOUIE DIPALMA, ASSOCIATE, WILLIAM BLAIR & COMPANY L.L.C., RESEARCH DIVISION: Nice work completing the 10-Qs and the 10-K. Also nice work on the potential new European customer for greater than 125 aircraft. Josh, as you know, you've been involved in trials with a particular European customer since 2014 and I was wondering if this potential big win is for a different customer? JOSHUA BENEGAL MARKS: All I'm going to say on that is our business model, our partnership model with airlines allows airlines to control the onboard products, it allows airlines to define how they want to roll it out. And in this case, the airline will announce it when the airline is ready to. We're proud of what we accomplished. We have a lot of work to do to roll the system out in a timely way. As I said, the POs are in, so the process has started. We're thrilled about where we are and we're looking forward to the airline making that announcement. LOUIE DIPALMA: Sounds good. And for Paul, from a broad perspective, are you comfortable with your current balance sheet and liquidity position? PAUL RAINEY: I would say from a liquidity perspective, we've effectively run this business between the $40 million and $50 million range as we've been disclosing over the last 9 months. We think we can continue to effectively run that going forward, but in addition to that, the things that I mentioned earlier, with the onetimers going away, with the top line and margin expansion and with the improvements in our working capital, we continue to expect to improve that cash performance as we move forward. JEFFREY A. LEDDY: As we've stated, Louie, we have added liquidity to operate over the foreseeable future. LOUIE DIPALMA: Okay. And for certain aviation contracts such as the Southwest contract, you invested money into owning the Eagle-1 satellite and there are upfront costs. So I was wondering if you win future aviation deals, what available funding options you may have for such contracts? JEFFREY A. LEDDY: Yes, I think the best way to answer that is, as we are pursuing numerous opportunities, we just identified one. There's many others we're actively engaged in as well. We're structuring those relationships and have come to general terms with prospective customers that we have the adequate capital resources to service those opportunities. If we do choose to further invest in other opportunities or new product development, we do have avenues available to us to achieve additional liquidity. So we're always reviewing options and assessing ways to satisfy any future capital needs the company may have, but as of right now we feel very comfortable that we are doing things necessary to fund and operate this business. LOUIE DIPALMA: Great. And lastly, could you provide revised growth expectations for each of your individual divisions? I know you previously did that and I know you've also said that the Aviation and Maritime divisions are more integrated than before. But I was wondering if you could still provide some more color on how you see growth progressing between Content, Aviation and Maritime? JEFFREY A. LEDDY: Yes, I think, as I said, we are very focused on growth. That is the cornerstone of the company going forward. That said, we are still in a transitional phase. And at this point, we're not going to articulate specifically what growth parameters are for each for the sub-elements of our business, but what we will say is it is a primary focus of the company and we feel very good about our growth prospects, as I said earlier, across all of our various business units. But at this point, it's little premature to try and quantify what those specific growth items might be. OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) At this time, I'm showing no further questions. And I'd like to turn the call back over to Mr. Jeff Leddy for closing remarks. JEFFREY A. LEDDY: Well, again, thanks everyone for joining the call today. Again, I reiterate the entire team is excited, invigorated to march forward. And while we had our challenges in 2017, we feel like we've made appropriate adjustments and changes. And while there is still work to be done and still challenges to be tackled, we're excited about our future prospects and we look forward to sharing updates with you in the future. Well, thanks again, for your time today. OPERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day. [Thomson Financial reserves the right to make changes to documents, content, or other information on this web site without obligation to notify any person of such changes. In the conference calls upon which Event Transcripts are based, companies may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding a variety of items. Such forward-looking statements are based upon current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties. 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Subject: Copyright; Acquisitions & mergers; Market strategy; Teams; Accounting
Company / organization: Name: Thomson Financial; NAICS: 511210, 518210, 519190
Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 1, 2018
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Document 33 of 474
LAST DAY TO APPLY FOR PRE-K PROGRAMS IN PINELLAS SCHOOLS
Publication info: Tampa Bay Times ; Tampa Bay [Tampa Bay]02 Feb 2018: 2.
Abstract:
Names of legislators who voted for the measure will be posted at the event to spread awareness, the union said. * * * SPC's College of Education to host open house The College of Education at St. Petersburg College is hosting an Open House and Career Exploration event from 4 to 7 p.m. Wednesday at the SPC Clearwater Campus, ES 104, 2465 Drew St. Attendees will be able to speak with college advisers, faculty and students; find out about scholarships and financial aid; get application help; learn about degrees, certificates and job opportunities; and get information about General Knowledge Test requirements. To RSVP, visit spcollege.edu or call Pat Roper at (727) 712-5410. * * * Hispanic Achievement Awards on Saturday About 450 students from Pinellas County elementary, middle and high schools will be honored at the inaugural Maria Edmonds Hispanic Achievement Awards ceremony 9-10:30 a.m. Saturday at Ruth Eckerd Hall. The Eckerd campus is at 4200 54th Ave. S in St. Petersburg. * * * Elementary school lunches Monday: Hamburger/cheeseburger, roasted chicken with roll, fruit and yogurt plate, turkey and cheese hoagie, mashed potatoes with gravy, veggie dippers.Full text: Today is the last day for Pinellas County parents to apply for a public school prekindergarten program for the 2018-19 academic year, starting in the fall. The district offers programs for children who will be 3 years old on or before Sept. 1 and those who will be 4 years old on or before the same date. The younger children attend the district's regular prekindergarten program while the older ones fall under the free, state-funded Voluntary Prekindergarten program. For more information about the 3-year-old programs, visit pcsb.org/prek3. To learn more about the VPK program, visit pcsb.org/vpk. Parents also may call (727) 588-6513. * * * Teachers union plans event to combat HB 25 The Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association hopes to combat brewing anti-union legislation with a carnival next week. In response to House Bill 25, the union will host a "Hold-'Em Accountable Carnival" from 3 to 7 p.m. Monday at its headquarters, 650 Seminole Blvd. in Largo. The event is free and open to all families. The bill, which recently passed the House by a vote of 65-41, would require unions to publicly disclose more information about their membership. It also would require bargaining units that represent less than 50 percent of an employee group to apply for recertification with the Public Employees Relations Commission. Names of legislators who voted for the measure will be posted at the event to spread awareness, the union said. * * * SPC's College of Education to host open house The College of Education at St. Petersburg College is hosting an Open House and Career Exploration event from 4 to 7 p.m. Wednesday at the SPC Clearwater Campus, ES 104, 2465 Drew St. Attendees will be able to speak with college advisers, faculty and students; find out about scholarships and financial aid; get application help; learn about degrees, certificates and job opportunities; and get information about General Knowledge Test requirements. The event will include a breakout session, as well as door prizes and food. To RSVP, visit spcollege.edu or call Pat Roper at (727) 712-5410. * * * Hispanic Achievement Awards on Saturday About 450 students from Pinellas County elementary, middle and high schools will be honored at the inaugural Maria Edmonds Hispanic Achievement Awards ceremony 9-10:30 a.m. Saturday at Ruth Eckerd Hall. In addition to receiving awards, students will have opportunities for scholarships from St. Petersburg College, the University of South Florida St. Petersburg and Pinellas Technical College. The event will honor the legacy of Maria Nieves Edmonds, an advocate for women, children and members of the Hispanic community who died last year. She was an associate provost at SPC and served on the Juvenile Welfare Board and as chairperson for the Hispanic Leadership Council. The event will feature student performances, a presentation by school superintendent Mike Grego, a message from Mount Vernon Elementary principal Robert Ovalle and closing remarks by a student from East Lake High. * * * Busy week of lectures at Eckerd Eckerd College will host three lectures on campus next week. On Tuesday, Matias Franchini, author of Brazil and Climate Change, will join the University of Brasilia's Ana Carolina Mauad in a discussion on the advances and challenges of Brazil's leadership role in climate change politics. On Wednesday, sociologist and masculinities scholar Michael Kimmel will offer a multimedia presentation that looks inside the extreme right wing in the U.S., with a glance to Scandinavia and Germany. On Thursday, Eckerd alum Randy Browne, an assistant professor of history at Xavier University, will discuss his work involving people who survived slavery in the British Caribbean. All three lectures are free and open to the public and will be held at 7 p.m. in the Dan and Mary Miller Auditorium. The Eckerd campus is at 4200 54th Ave. S in St. Petersburg. * * * Elementary school lunches Monday: Hamburger/cheeseburger, roasted chicken with roll, fruit and yogurt plate, turkey and cheese hoagie, mashed potatoes with gravy, veggie dippers. Tuesday: Uno's cheeseburger pizza, grilled cheese sandwich, veggie double dipper salad, Jamwich Kit, tomato soup, romaine side salad. Wednesday: Chicken tender basket with fries, spaghetti and meatballs or ravioli with breadstick, yogurt and fruit parfait, ham and cheese croissant, steamed broccoli, sliced cucumbers. Thursday: Breakfast for lunch, mozzarella sticks, chef salad, chicken caesar wrap, marinara cup, deli-roasted potatoes, side salad. Friday: Pizza, fish nuggets with roll, chicken caesar salad, Italian sub, oven-baked beans, veggie dippers.
Subject: Hispanics; Students; Public speaking; Awards & honors; College campuses; Labor unions
Location: United States--US Scandinavia Germany Brazil
Company / organization: Name: University of Brasilia; NAICS: 611310; Name: Xavier University; NAICS: 611310; Name: University of South Florida; NAICS: 611310; Name: Eckerd College; NAICS: 611310
Publication title: Tampa Bay Times; Tampa Bay
First page: 2
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 2, 2018
column: SCHOOL NOTEBOOK
Section: ST. PETE TIMES
Publisher: Times Publishing Company
Place of publication: Tampa Bay
Country of publication: United States, Tampa Bay
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
ISSN: 23279052
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1993394096
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1993394096?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Times Publishing Company Feb 2, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-02
Database: US Southeast Newsstream
Document 34 of 474
An Article Published Online is already Triggering Harsh Criticism for its Author, Katie Roiphe
Author: Pauley, Jane; Dokoupil, Tony
Publication info: CBS News Sunday Morning ; New York New York: CQ Roll Call. (Feb 4, 2018)
Abstract:
A few months ago Harper's Magazine asked me to write an article on the #MeToo movement. I'm a feminist writer and professor who's disagreed with other feminists in the past. Usually, people wait to read what I have to write before getting angry about it, not this time. Before the magazine article had even been published, thousands of people took to Twitter, furious at me for rumors about what might be in the piece.
Full text: JANE PAULEY: An article published online today is already triggering harsh criticism for its author, Katie Roiphe. She has some thoughts about that. (Begin VT) KATIE ROIPHE: A few months ago Harper's Magazine asked me to write an article on the #MeToo movement. I'm a feminist writer and professor who's disagreed with other feminists in the past. Usually, people wait to read what I have to write before getting angry about it, not this time. Before the magazine article had even been published, thousands of people took to Twitter, furious at me for rumors about what might be in the piece. Total strangers called me "a garbage person," "a ghoul," "human scum." They threatened that my career was over and said obscene things not fit for Sunday morning, or any morning. My children, of course, were reading and hearing all of this. What was my crime? Having doubts about the excesses of #MeToo, even as I shared its goals? Departing slightly from the officially- accepted feminist position? What happened to speaking my truth? It felt like there was a mob with torches outside my window. In his novel "1984," George Orwell created a phrase for my accusers: "Thought police." If we as a culture are going to sort through the very tangled question of what constitutes an abuse of male power, we need to be able to hear, really hear, lots of different opinions. Is asking a woman for her phone number an abuse of power? Does the distinction between sleazy behavior and a criminal act matter? Is it okay to try people in the press? Lots of good and reasonable people will disagree about the answers to these questions. If we want a true reckoning, it means listening to authentically conflicting points of view, from both women and men. Anyone whose feminist activism consists largely of hurling abuse at other women might want to take a look in the mirror. If we are calling other women "human scum" because they have ideas or politics that are different from ours, are we any different from Trump supporters tweeting "lock her up" at Hillary Clinton? With their politics of personal destruction, the hate and nastiness and name-calling, are these Twitter feminists any less bullying than the people we say we oppose? Isn't silencing women what we're fighting against? (End VT) (ANNOUNCEMENTS) JANE PAULEY: Here's a look at the week ahead on our SUNDAY MORNING Calendar: On Monday, Baseball Hall of Famer Hank Aaron celebrates his eighty-fourth birthday. Tuesday sees the scheduled launch of the SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket, which features a Tesla Roadster from Elon Musk's personal collection on board. Wednesday's the day for the forty-first annual Empire State Building Run-Up, a foot race up the skyscraper's eighty-six flights of stairs. Thursday brings the American Heart Association's Go Red for Women Fashion Show, a New York Fashion Week event aimed at reminding women about heart health. Friday marks the kick-off of Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. And on Saturday, the Motion Picture Academy hands out awards for scientific and technical achievement at a ceremony in Beverly Hills. And now we to go Margaret Brennan in Washington for a look at what's ahead on FACE THE NATION. Good morning, Margaret. MARGARET BRENNAN: Good morning, Jane. We'll speak with Trey Gowdy, a key House Republican who has read all the classified information behind the infamous memo released Friday, he'll walk us through it. JANE PAULEY: Margaret, we'll see you soon. Our reminder about our SUNDAY MORNING podcast, same great stories and more, available on iTunes and your Apple podcast app. And next week here on SUNDAY MORNING, love in the workplace. TONY DOKOUPIL: Do you think it's still possible in this day and age to have a-- a romance like yours? WOMAN: If you believe in it, yes. (ANNOUNCEMENTS) JANE PAULEY: We leave you this SUNDAY MORNING in a snowstorm at Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. I am Jane Pauley. Please join us when our trumpet sounds again next SUNDAY MORNING. END
Subject: Feminism; Social networks; Women
Location: New York Colorado Rio de Janeiro Brazil
People: Musk, Elon Aaron, Hank Gowdy, Trey Pauley, Jane Clinton, Hillary Rodham Orwell, George (Eric Blair) (1903-50)
Company / organization: Name: Twitter Inc; NAICS: 519130; Name: Space Exploration Technologies Corp; NAICS: 336414; Name: Rocky Mountain National Park; NAICS: 712190; Name: American Heart Association; NAICS: 813212
Identifier / keyword: Harper`s Magazine #MeToo George Orwell Hillary Clinton Hank Aaron SpaceX Falcon Heavy Tesla Roadster Elon Musk Empire State Building Run-Up American Heart Association Go Red for Women Fashion Show Carnival Rio de Janeiro Motion Picture Academy Beverly Hills Trey Gowdy House Republican iTunes Apple
Publication title: CBS News Sunday Morning; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 4, 2018
Section: News; Domestic
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Other Sources
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1998882430
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1998882430?accountid=4840
Copyright: Content and programming Copyright MMXVIII CBS Broadcasting Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyrig ht 2018 ASC Services II Media, LLC. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of ASC Services II Media, LLC. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.
Last updated: 2018-02-08
Database: US Southeast Newsstream
Document 35 of 474
Winter Olympics, BoE policy decision, mining in the spotlight
Publication info: FT.com ; London (Feb 4, 2018).
Abstract:
Investors will also watch for commentary on production and inventory levels in a declining US new vehicle sales market and for more information on sales of higher-margin pick-up trucks, SUVs and crossovers. * US car groups issue warnings over outlook in 2018 Walt Disney Walt Disney is expected to post a rise in first-quarter revenue, helped by the success of Thor: Ragnarok and Star Wars: The Last Jedi. According to Reuters polls, markets see a 50 per cent chance that there will be another move in May, a relatively quick follow-up to November’s rate rise, the first for a decade. Analysts will also watch how Mr Duperreault is reshaping AIG into a more technology-focused insurer that is trying to expand underlying businesses after nearly a decade of restructuring and asset sales. * AIG to use old losses to avoid taxes on Validus profits Twitter Twitter, which has not posted a profit since its debut, is expected to report a gain for the first time in the fourth quarter as efforts to cut costs pay off. With more users switching to online entertainment, cable and satellite companies have shed more than 1m subscribers, meaning investors and analysts will pay close attention to commentary on forecasts. * CBS and Viacom take steps towards exploring merger Friday Winter Olympics The 23rd Olympic Winter Games start at Pyeongchang, South Korea, with doping in the spotlight.Full text: Monday Tillerson visits Colombia Rex Tillerson, US secretary of state, is due to arrive in Colombia as part of a tour of Latin America that has included stops in Mexico, Argentina and Peru. Washington said ahead of the visit that Venezuela, which is suffering a severe economic crisis, would be high on the agenda for discussion. In a speech before setting off Mr Tillerson said that China was now the largest trading partner of Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Peru. He said Russia’s growing presence in the region was “alarming as well”, adding that strong institutions and accountable governments were needed to secure sovereignty against “potential predatory actors”. Mr Tillerson travels to Jamaica on Wednesday. * Tillerson extols 19th-century US foreign policy in Latin America Ryanair Ryanair reports third-quarter earnings. The low-cost carrier has just reached its first union deal, agreeing to recognise Britain’s pilot group as it attempts to resolve a long-running battle with cockpit crews over wages and conditions. Michael O’Leary, chief executive, had earlier said hell would freeze over before he would welcome unions into Ryanair, but the company now says dialogue with organised workers will help the business. The airline reported earnings per share of $4.34 for the last quarter in October, missing the consensus estimate of $4.37. The consensus EPS forecast for the third quarter is $0.50. The reported EPS for the same quarter last year was $0.41. * Ryanair in ‘historic’ deal to recognise British pilots’ union Africa mining conference Cape Town hosts the Investing in African Mining Indaba. The conference is expected to draw thousands of investors and key corporate figures, including delegations from 45 African and non-African governments. The mining sector is enjoying its best run since 2010 as a combination of accelerating global growth and supply constraints has driven raw material prices to their highest level in more than three years, boosting the profitability and cash positions of the world’s biggest mining houses. However, some in the industry may be wary of mining’s history of violent boom and bust cycles. The conference will also present a platform for Zimbabwe’s new administration to attract investment. President Emmerson Mnangagwa has been keen to stress the country is now “open for business”. The event runs until Thursday. * Miners and investors bet and fret over latest commodities cycle Tuesday EU expansion The European Parliament meets for a plenary session in Strasbourg, where the EU will hold out the prospect of membership to six western Balkan countries by 2025 as it seeks to breathe new life into enlargement of the bloc, strengthen controls on migration and counter Russian influence in the volatile region. There will be a debate with the prime minister of Croatia, Andrej Plenkovic, on the future of Europe and also a European Commission statement on the decision adopted on the EU Enlargement Strategy on the Western Balkans. * EU to map out membership for 6 western Balkan states BP BP posts fourth-quarter results. BP reported underlying third-quarter profits on a replacement cost basis - the measure watched most closely by analysts - of $1.87bn, compared with $933m in the same period last year. BP said early last month that while the lowering of the US corporate tax rate from 35 to 21 per cent would have a positive impact on future earnings, the reforms would have a negative impact on its fourth-quarter results. BP is expected to see a strong rise in profits from its upstream business but its refining margin is likely to fall. * BP says US tax reforms will cause $1.5bn hit General Motors General Motors is expected to report strong year-end results. Chuck Stevens, GM’s chief financial officer, said last month during a 2018 guidance presentation that he expected the US carmaker to “deliver record earnings per share at the high end of the $6 to $6.50 range, which is an increase from our prior guidance”. However, the company warned its earnings would stall this year due to a deteriorating US market. Investors will also watch for commentary on production and inventory levels in a declining US new vehicle sales market and for more information on sales of higher-margin pick-up trucks, SUVs and crossovers. * US car groups issue warnings over outlook in 2018 Walt Disney Walt Disney is expected to post a rise in first-quarter revenue, helped by the success of Thor: Ragnarok and Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Disney’s ESPN, which has been losing subscribers, is still trying to boost advertising sales. Disney is in the process of buying most of Fox for $52bn and investors will watch for more details on the deal. They will also seek more clarity on the timing of the launch of the company’s video streaming offerings. * Disney-Fox deal heralds a new dawn in tax-related M&A Singapore Air show Asia’s largest air show opens in Singapore. The Asia-Pacific region is the world’s fastest-growing aviation market and manufacturers will be looking to sell products and services. Strong airline profits and higher defence spending have boosted the outlook for aerospace groups but after a surge of activity in 2017 the event is expected to produce few big-ticket deals. China is pushing into the military drone markets and is also seeking to carve out space in the tightly controlled commercial market with its narrow-body C919. Russia’s Irkut MC-21 and Japan’s Mitsubishi Regional Jet are seeking to become serious competitors and will also be represented. * Airbus woos China with A380 industrial partnership offer Wednesday Rio Tinto Rio Tinto reports full-year results. Aided by higher commodity prices and a productivity push the Anglo-Australian miner is tipped by analysts to pay a record dividend of $2.75 a share and top up its share buyback programme. For the 12 months to December, Rio is expected to report underlying earnings of $8.58bn, up from $5.1bn in 2016, according to analyst estimates compiled by Vuma, on sales of $41.5bn. Rio’s plans for its 40 per cent interest in Grasberg, the world’s second-biggest copper mine, will also be scrutinised. The miner has held discussions with the government of Indonesia over selling its interest. * Rio investors back remuneration chief as next chair GSK GlaxoSmithKline posts fourth-quarter results. New treatments for HIV and respiratory problems helped boost sales at the UK’s largest drugmaker in the third quarter, which said in October it was on track to meet expectations after being forced to cut the top end of guidance earlier in 2017. This time around GSK is expected to beat forecasts thanks to strong pharmaceuticals and vaccines sales, while cost savings from restructuring and continued efficiencies are likely to boost operating profits. * GSK leads drugmakers’ fight against superbugs Tesla Elon Musk’s Tesla reports fourth-quarter results. The company is expected to post a jump in revenue as it benefits from higher sales of its Model S, Model X and Model 3 vehicles. However, the electric carmaker will continue to post losses as production efforts for its mass market Model 3 ramp up and the company burns cash. Investors will watch for details about vehicle deliveries as well as guidance for Model S, X and 3 delivery targets in the first quarter and beyond. * Tesla chief Musk’s new pay deal aims for $650bn valuation Thursday BoE policy decision The Bank of England delivers its interest rate decision. With wage growth still weak and the pace of activity slow by global and historical standards, the Monetary Policy Committee is expected to vote unanimously in favour of leaving rates on hold at 0.5 per cent and asset purchases unchanged. According to Reuters polls, markets see a 50 per cent chance that there will be another move in May, a relatively quick follow-up to November’s rate rise, the first for a decade. The February Inflation Report will also be scrutinised for any signs of rate rises on the horizon. Looking ahead, there has been an upside surprise on growth since November, which could lift the 2018 forecast from 1.6 per cent to 1.7 per cent. Sterling has strengthened and the oil futures curve is sloping downwards, leading HSBC Global Research to think inflation forecasts for 2019 and 2020 could be marked down. * Mark Carney calls time on RPI inflation measure AIG American International Group reports fourth-quarter earnings. Brian Duperreault, chief executive, pledged to rethink the insurer’s approach to risk taking after he described AIG’s performance as too “volatile” in the wake of last quarter’s wider-than-forecast $1.7bn loss. There will be much to digest this time around. Special items related to a new US law stand to reduce the tax benefits AIG has been able to reap due to the hefty losses it posted during the 2007-09 financial crisis. It also recently reworked its business lines and acquired reinsurer Validus. Analysts will also watch how Mr Duperreault is reshaping AIG into a more technology-focused insurer that is trying to expand underlying businesses after nearly a decade of restructuring and asset sales. * AIG to use old losses to avoid taxes on Validus profits Twitter Twitter, which has not posted a profit since its debut, is expected to report a gain for the first time in the fourth quarter as efforts to cut costs pay off. Revenue is expected to fall again, raising some concerns, but investors will watch for userbase growth. Chief operating officer Anthony Noto left the company in January and any signs on how his role will be filled will also be watched. * Anthony Noto leaves Twitter for top job at SoFi Viacom Media conglomerate Viacom, which is exploring a merger with CBS, is expected to report a fall in quarterly revenue led by lower income from cable and satellite companies. With more users switching to online entertainment, cable and satellite companies have shed more than 1m subscribers, meaning investors and analysts will pay close attention to commentary on forecasts. * CBS and Viacom take steps towards exploring merger Friday Winter Olympics The 23rd Olympic Winter Games start at Pyeongchang, South Korea, with doping in the spotlight. The International Olympic Committee has issued invitations to 169 Russian athletes who can compete as neutrals despite being banned in December after alleged state-sponsored doping at the 2014 games in Sochi. There will be seven sports - biathlon, bobsleigh, curling, ice hockey, luge, skating and skiing - including 15 varied disciplines, with 102 medals up for grabs. Nigeria’s women’s bobsleigh team will be the first African sled to compete at the Winter Games and Jamaica is sending a women’s bobsleigh team 30 years after their men’s team made a historic appearance in Calgary. North and South Korea, meanwhile, are still discussing the possibility of a combined women’s ice hockey team. * Russian athletes have lifetime Olympic ban overturned Rio de Janeiro Carnival The annual Rio de Janeiro Carnival takes place in Brazil. The opening ceremony sees the mayor handing over the keys to the city to a Dionysian character called King Momo, the Lord of Unruliness, thus heralding four days of revelry and colour. The carnival’s highlight is the samba, with two classes that parade on the Avenida Rio Branco and at the Sambodrome. Some samba schools have members running into thousands, with as many as 30 floats each and divisions of drummers running into the hundreds. Among the confetti, floats, skimpy sequinned costumes and masquerades, the boundaries of race, gender, sex and class are transcended and the masses party. * My City: Rio de Janeiro Markets questions How vulnerable are equity markets as bond yields rise? Will US wages growth force investors to rethink dollar selling? What can we expect to hear from the Bank of England? Clickherefor the major talking points for investors as a new trading week beckons.
Subject: Corporate profits; Mining; Earnings per share; Profitability; Drugs & sports; Air shows; Tax rates; Olympic games; Social networks; Tax reform; Stock prices; Ice hockey
Location: Russia Jamaica Latin America Peru Argentina Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil South Korea United States--US Singapore China Colombia
People: Musk, Elon
Company / organization: Name: Ryanair Holdings PLC; NAICS: 481111, 492110; Name: Rio Tinto Group; NAICS: 212112, 212291; Name: Twitter Inc; NAICS: 519130; Name: General Motors Corp; NAICS: 333415, 336111, 336390
Publication title: FT.com; London
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 4, 2018
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Trade Journals
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2011116901
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2011116901?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Feb 4, 2018
Last updated: 2019-06-10
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 36 of 474
Brazil: question of Lula going to jail still fixates media
Publication info: BBC Monitoring Americas ; London [London]05 Feb 2018.
Abstract:
By BBC Monitoring Millions of Brazilians will be celebrating Carnival over the next two weeks, but the question of whether - or when - former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva might go to jail following his 24 January reconfirmed corruption conviction and sentence continued to occupy local media and political commentators. Many major media outlets saw the fate of Lula, who has a 12-year prison sentence handed down by a federal regional appeals court hanging over him, resting in the hands of the country's Supreme Court (STF). Lula's defence team suffered a fresh setback last week when a higher court, the Superior Court of Justice, refused to grant a habeas corpus request, which would have kept him out of jail until all appeals were exhausted.Full text: By BBC Monitoring Millions of Brazilians will be celebrating Carnival over the next two weeks, but the question of whether - or when - former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva might go to jail following his 24 January reconfirmed corruption conviction and sentence continued to occupy local media and political commentators. Many major media outlets saw the fate of Lula, who has a 12-year prison sentence handed down by a federal regional appeals court hanging over him, resting in the hands of the country's Supreme Court (STF). Brazilian media have been debating whether the top court might overturn an existing rule that currently allows for the "immediate" arrest of those condemned in regional courts, which is Lula's case after his 24 January conviction in Porto Alegre. The left-wing former president is not currently in custody and his lawyers are appealing his sentence. If all appeals fail, Lula faces jail and so would not be able to stand in the October presidential elections. He has been topping opinion polls. For news magazine Veja, the Supreme Court was not likely to help Lula. "The ex-President may begin serving time within the next month," the high-profile magazine wrote in its latest edition of 2 February. Veja believed the "countdown" to jail had started for the ex-president and said he might even end up behind bars "by mid-March". Political analyst Josias de Souza agreed. "Lula is getting closer to the criminal complex of Pinhais, the prison in which Lavo Jato [Car Wash anti-corruption case] thieves are being locked up", he wrote on news website UOL on 4 February. For de Souza, the former president had "showed a corrosive temperament in recent days", which he said indicated Lula knew his options were limited. Possible 'asylum' and 'exile'? Lula's defence team suffered a fresh setback last week when a higher court, the Superior Court of Justice, refused to grant a habeas corpus request, which would have kept him out of jail until all appeals were exhausted. Another appeal by his defence team was then filed with the Supreme Court on 2 February, as widely reported by local media. Some analysts have suggested that seeking asylum overseas and "exile" might be the only way out for Lula. "Is Lula going to be arrested? When? There is another possibility. Faced with the inevitable and close to prison, Lula can walk into a Latin American embassy, declare himself to be politically persecuted and ask for diplomatic asylum. There is no indication that he intends to do this, but reality teaches that this path exists," political analyst Elio Gaspari wrote in Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper on 4 February. Gaspari noted that Lula could obtain protection from at least two embassies, Bolivia and Ecuador, whose governments have in the past been supportive of the left-wing ex-president. But seeking help from leftist allies such as the Cubans or Venezuelans, in his opinion, would be "too embarrassing" for the ex-president. Passport drama Africa, and not Latin America, might be in Lula's asylum sights, according to right-wing blog O Antagonista. In a posting on 4 February, the blog affirmed that "Algeria is an asylum alternative for Lula. It is safer than Uruguay because it does not have an extradition treaty with Brazil. In addition, despite being governed by the left, Uruguay would be reluctant to grant Lula asylum because it depends on trade relations with Brazil". Fears that Lula could seek asylum abroad prompted a federal judge to order the retention of his passport last week. The order was revoked on 2 February. Lula had scheduled a trip to Ethiopia when his passport was confiscated but the federal judge who ordered that it be returned on 2 Februray wrote that Lula did "not represent a risk", that his trip had been "informed" in advance and that those who thought he would escape were indulging their "imagination", UOL reported on 2 February. Lula arrest 'unconstitutional' Some analysts believed that the imprisonment of Lula would be an "arbitrary" act. Writing in Folha on 4 February, political columnist Janio de Freitas called any potential arrest of Lula "unconstitutional" until all of his appeals were exhausted. De Freitas wrote: "The laws and regulations are published and available to all but what prevails is arbitrariness, the random decision of one or a few without attention to such laws and regulations. This practice is one of the main causes of the fall of the Judiciary, which has been dragged down by its highest court [The Supreme Court] and to the [same] levels of discredit as Congress and the government". The analyst argued that the Brazilian Constitution stated that no one could be considered "guilty" while a case was still under review within the judicial system. Lula himself criticised the country's judiciary on 3 February during a remembrance mass that marked the first year of his wife's death. He made an "emotional" speech at the event, local media reported. "The judiciary is a powerful institution with some extraordinary people. However, institutions also have people who are neither extraordinary nor in good faith...Some people today act much more like [political] party leaders than representatives of the Judiciary," Lula said, quoted by O Estado de Sao Paulo. BBC Monitoring
Subject: Politics; Diplomatic & consular services; Criminal sentences; Convictions; Prisons; Presidential elections; State court decisions; Judges & magistrates
Location: Bolivia Ethiopia Latin America Africa Brazil Algeria Ecuador Uruguay
People: Lula da Silva, Luiz Inacio
Company / organization: Name: Congress; NAICS: 921120
Publication title: BBC Monitoring Americas; London
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 5, 2018
Dateline: BRAZIL
Publisher: BBC Worldwide Limited
Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Political Science
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1994077153
Document URL: https://login.proxy .lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1994077153?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright BBC Worldwide Limited Feb 5, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-05
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 37 of 474
Brazil political press review 5 February 2018
Publication info: BBC Monitoring Americas ; London [London]05 Feb 2018.
Abstract:
Temer meets Deputy Maia to discuss social security reform proposal President Michel Temer met yesterday with Deputy Arthur Maia, the rapporteur of the Social Security Reform Proposal at the Chamber of Deputies, and with Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles and Presidential General Secretary Moreira Franco to discuss when the proposal would be submitted to the Lower House as Congress was resuming its activities today after the summer recess, O Estado de Sao Paulo reported. Federal court orders return of passport to former president Lula The First Region Federal Court of Brasilia headed by Judge Bruno Apolinario overruled on Friday 2 February a decision by the 10th Federal Court of Brasilia which had ordered the confiscation of the passport of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of the PT (Workers Party) after the Fourth Regional Federal Court of Porto Alegre sentenced Lula to 12 years and one month in prison and barred him from leaving the country, Sao Paulo Valor reported. Former president Lula's defence files appeal to prevent arrest The defence of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva filed on Friday 2 February a writ of habeas corpus to prevent Lula's imprisonment until all resources in his case have been exhausted and the case has been studied by Justice Edson Fachin, who is the rapporteur for Operation Lava Jato bribe scandal investigation at the Supreme Court, STF, O Estado de Sao Paulo reported.Full text: By BBC Monitoring Temer says he supports housing allowance for military personnel President Michel Temer said on Friday 2 February that he agreed with Navy Commander Admiral Eduardo Bacellar Leal Ferreira, who in an interview with this daily called for the return of a housing allowance for military personnel that was discontinued in December 2000, and which is also supported by Army Commander General Eduardo Villas Boas, on the basis that the salaries of military personnel are low taking into account the peculiarities of military career, O Estado de Sao Paulo reported. Temer told this daily that there was still no decision on this issue but that he would study the position of the two commanders to verify the possibility of reinstating the benefit to the military, noting that they had a large "pay gap" and that the peculiarities in their careers should be taken into account when examining the possibility of reinstating that benefit. The Defence Ministry already had a study not only on reinstating the housing allowance but also on the whole restructuring of the military career, which would imply a salary improvement to try to get a little closer to the other categories of public sector employees. The study had not yet been presented to Temer. Temer meets Deputy Maia to discuss social security reform proposal President Michel Temer met yesterday with Deputy Arthur Maia, the rapporteur of the Social Security Reform Proposal at the Chamber of Deputies, and with Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles and Presidential General Secretary Moreira Franco to discuss when the proposal would be submitted to the Lower House as Congress was resuming its activities today after the summer recess, O Estado de Sao Paulo reported. It was believed that the House Plenary would start debating the proposal on 19 February after the carnival festivities. There was also the possibility that the changes made to the proposal that were already approved by a special committee would be attached to the proposal and Arthur Maia said that Chamber of Deputies President Rodrigo Maia would decide the appropriate time for submitting the proposal and if an alternate proposal with the suggested changes proposed by the government base would be submitted. Speaker Maia says he prefers to suspend vote on social security reform Chamber of Deputies Speaker Rodrigo Maia said he realised that the government only had around 250 votes in the lower house which was not enough to have the social security reform proposal approved and therefore, he preferred to shelve the proposal transferring the burden of the defeat to the government and to leave the proposal for 2019, when it would be handled by the new president to be elected in the general elections late this year, Folha de Sao Paulo reported. Federal court orders return of passport to former president Lula The First Region Federal Court of Brasilia headed by Judge Bruno Apolinario overruled on Friday 2 February a decision by the 10th Federal Court of Brasilia which had ordered the confiscation of the passport of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of the PT (Workers Party) after the Fourth Regional Federal Court of Porto Alegre sentenced Lula to 12 years and one month in prison and barred him from leaving the country, Sao Paulo Valor reported. Apolinario said that the 10th Federal Court of Brasilia had no power to impose on the former president any restrictive measure of freedom on the grounds of protecting the effectiveness of the ruling of another jurisdictional region. Former president Lula's defence files appeal to prevent arrest The defence of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva filed on Friday 2 February a writ of habeas corpus to prevent Lula's imprisonment until all resources in his case have been exhausted and the case has been studied by Justice Edson Fachin, who is the rapporteur for Operation Lava Jato bribe scandal investigation at the Supreme Court, STF, O Estado de Sao Paulo reported. Workers' Party leader Pimenta criticises Supreme Court President Antunes Deputy Paulo Pimenta, the PT [Workers' Party] leader in the Chamber of Deputies, criticised on Friday 2 February the recent comments by Supreme Court Chief Justice Carmen Lucia Antunes on the political connotations of the conviction of former President Lula da Silva in the second instance saying that it was "inappropriate" for the Justice to speak out on the case when she would certainly have to vote on future appeals that Lula must file in court, O Estado de Sao Paulo reported. BBC Monitoring in Portuguese 1857 gmt 5 Feb 18
Subject: Housing; Convictions; Presidential elections; Military personnel
Location: Brazil
People: Temer, Michel Leal Ferreira, Eduardo Bacellar Lula da Silva, Luiz Inacio
Company / organization: Name: Congress; NAICS: 921120
Publication title: BBC Monitoring Americas; London
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 5, 2018
Dateline: BRAZIL
Publisher: BBC Worldwide Limited
Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Political Science
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1994098268
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1994098268?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright BBC Worldwide Limited Feb 5, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-05
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 38 of 474
Rhythm of the Streets: 'We're Warrior Women, and Yes, We Can Play': [Foreign Desk]
Author: Sims, Shannon
Publication info: New York Times , Late Edition (East Coast); New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]06 Feb 2018: A.5.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: SALVADOR, Brazil -- This northeastern Brazilian city is famous for its Afro-Brazilian drumming traditions; the internationally acclaimed bloco-afro band Olodum has broadcast its colorful drums and pounding syncopation internationally for decades through music collaborations including Michael Jackson's "They Don't Really Care About Us" and Paul Simon's "The Obvious Child". To see that band -- which is composed almost exclusively of men -- or any of the city's other renowned bloco-afros, like Ilê Aiyê, perform live in the streets of Salvador is a deep dive into the roots of this country's musical traditions. But traditions change. Or actually, traditions are changed. By women like the ones that make up Banda Didá, a group composed exclusively of black women, pounding out those same Afro-Brazilian rhythms, filling up Salvador's night with its old sounds, played by new hands. Banda Didá is a unique musical group breaking gender boundaries in the capital of Bahia, the state that is the epicenter of Brazil's African cultural infusion. "Until Didá, no one here played like us," said one of the band's leaders and longest-serving members, Viviam Caroline de Jesus Queirós. Formed in 1993, the band was believed to be the first all-female bloco-afro in Brazil. "We've brought visibility to a group -- black women -- that have been historically marginalized here," Ms. Queirós said. "We've feminized percussion here." Though they've been around for years, Didá's popularity today is representative of an atmosphere of female empowerment in Brazil. Didá, once a torchbearing group among dozens of all-male bloco-afros, now shares the streets of Salvador with a few other all-female groups. As Brazil's power structure has turned more conservative in recent years, with many female politicians being replaced by male lawmakers who have pushed for legislation to limit women's access to abortion, the country's feminist movement has gained strength. For more Surfacing pieces, like one on a Jamaican synchronized swimming team, click here. Banda Didá earned its visibility by taking on old social norms that pushed women away from drums. Historically, "drumming in Salvador has been considered a man's role," said Jeff Packman, a University of Toronto associate professor who specializes in the study of drum culture in Salvador. He and Ms. Queirós both report that the gender norms around drumming came out of particular beliefs about a woman's role and place. One theory, the big bass drums are too heavy for women. The women could even get hurt, and then who would have the babies? Another theory suggested that playing drums in the streets in the night -- especially during the bacchanalia of Carnival season, when drum groups perform most intensely -- is too time-consuming and dangerous for women, who should instead stay home. Good luck convincing the women of Banda Didá of those theories today. On a recent weekend evening, a few dozen of the group's 85 members gathered in the second floor of their headquarters. Women, some with children in their laps, listened attentively to the guest speakers, which included older local black women sharing their experiences of finding strength in their feminism and their blackness. "It is our responsibility to share with the world the power that is within us as black women," one speaker told the group. Two nights later, the band was busy rehearsing its Carnival performance; the celebration is just weeks away. During the captivating rehearsals, which take place in the street in front of their headquarters, the women not only play bass drums -- called surdos -- strapped around their shoulders or waists and resting against knees protected by thick kneepads, but also swing the heavy, keg-sized drums up into the air, balancing them above their heads with one trembling arm, as the seconds tick by and the gathered crowd cheers, in an act symbolizing their defiance of those old gender rules. Adriana Portela, the first female conductor of a bloco-afro in Salvador's history, attributes the debunking of the myths around female drumming to "the power of the uterus." She said this just before rehearsal, while pulling on kneepads and helping the group's young singer with new lyrics. Jean Jesus dos Santos, one of the younger members of the group -- part of the next generation of Didá -- was one room over and painting blush onto her cheeks. "They used to say drumming wasn't for women because the instrument was heavy," said Jean. "But we're warrior women, and yes, we can play. And the proof of that is there in the street: we play just as well as the men." An hour later, after their rehearsal and backstage at an Olodum show a block away, Olodum's vice president, Marcelo Gentil, said he can't disagree. "They are from Bahia, so they drank from the same source as Neguinho," he said, referring to the man who is regarded as the founder of the samba-reggae rhythm that drives much of the drumming in Salvador. "And they play that rhythm a lot better than men who aren't from Bahia." Neguinho do Samba, a former leader of Olodum, founded Banda Didá in 1993. Neguinho died several years ago, but his daughter, Debora de Souza, remains an integral part of the administration of Banda Didá. While counting out registration forms in a yellow folder labeled "Carnaval," Ms. de Souza recalled the passion that led her father to form Banda Didá. "My dad was a feminist. He cared about women, and while he was with Olodum he saw that there was a need for there to be a female drum group." According to Ms. de Souza, Paul Simon felt so grateful to Olodum for helping him earn a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year in 1992, that he helped him acquire the three-story colonial mansion where Banda Didá in now based. Neguinho's vision was long-term: to form an all-female drum group, but also ensure the perpetuity of the group by offering free instrument-making workshops and music lessons for women and children at the house. Despite the financial uncertainty that troubles most Brazilian cultural groups that receive little government support, the Didá project has been a success. Today, 130 women and girls take drum lessons at Didá -- still for free -- creating a diverse pool of candidates for inclusion in the band. The group finances itself through private events and donations. Mornings at the Didá house are filled with the muted sounds of private tutoring in tambourine or conga drums behind closed doors. In the afternoon, young girls scamper down the central stairway after their drum lessons, and on a recent afternoon, older women waited in line to register to volunteer during the group's Carnival performance. The uniqueness of the city's first all-female group, and the luxury of the group having a physical headquarters, means that Didá's reputation now precedes it. The group used to go out to the poor neighborhoods around Salvador to recruit talented young drummers; now, on a typical day, a steady stream of young women show up at the house to inquire about drum lessons or joining the group. "This is the place where I found myself," said Maiana Santos Bonfim, another young member of the band. "It's where I learned to accept myself, my hair, my body, my race. And I just love playing drums." Ms. Queirós was just 16 years old when she started playing drums with Banda Didá. She is now 34 and pursuing a Ph.D. in samba-reggae ethnomusicology in her free time away from the group. "I feel like I became a woman through this group," she said with steady conviction, between sips of passionfruit juice at a local Afro-Brazilian cafe. "In my opinion, the drum could be the great technology for women this century. It redefines the body of a woman -- especially black women," said Ms. Queirós. "I think it's a weapon; it's a tool. It gives us power, and makes us more beautiful. And it makes it so that our message is heard farther and farther away."
Subject: Men; Bands; Feminism; Reggae; Power; Musical performances; Gender; Traditions; Women
Location: New York Brazil
People: Souza, Paul Simon, Paul
Company / organization: Name: New York Times Co; NAICS: 511110, 511120, 515112, 515120; Name: University of Toronto; NAICS: 611310
Publication title: New York Times, Late Edition (East Coast); New York, N.Y.
Pages: A.5
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 6, 2018
Section: A
Publisher: New York Times Company
Place of publication: New York, N.Y.
Country of publication: United States, New York, N.Y.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
ISSN: 03624331
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1994239861
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1994239861?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright New York Times Company Feb 6, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-06
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 39 of 474
Illinois' Top Youth Volunteers Of 2018 Selected By National Program: The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards honors Edwardsville and Palatine students with $1,000, medallions and trip to nation's capital
Publication info: PR Newswire ; New York [New York]06 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Harold Banks, Prudential Financial, (973) 802-8974 or (973) 216-4833, [email protected] SPRINGFIELD, Ill., Feb. 6, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Kennison Adams, 18, of Edwardsville and Rosalea Colucci, 13, of Palatine today were named Illinois' top two youth volunteers of 2018 by The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards, a nationwide program honoring young people for outstanding acts of volunteerism. As State Honorees, Kennison and Rosalea each will receive $1,000, an engraved silver medallion and an all-expense-paid trip in late April to Washington, D.C., where they will join the top two honorees from each of the other states and the District of Columbia for four days of national recognition events. During the trip, 10 students will be named America's top youth volunteers of 2018. The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards, now in its 23rd year, is conducted by Prudential Financial in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP). These are Illinois' top youth volunteers of 2018: High School State Honoree: Kennison Adams Kennison, a senior at Edwardsville High School, has assisted hundreds of people in emergency situations over the past three years as a member of the Edwardsville Fire Department Explorer Post. She learned about the opportunity to serve her community in that capacity at an informational presentation in her medical careers class. "I have always had a passion for medicine, along with a compassion for helping others, and this program combined both aspects," said Kennison. In order to join the Explorer Post program, Kennison had to be trained and certified in CPR, first-aid and blood-borne pathogen safety, and learn how to draw blood and start IVs. Now, she makes sure fire trucks and ambulances are stocked and ready for emergency calls, rides along with first-responders to assist in any way she can, and cleans up vehicles afterwards. Kennison also provides hands-on help at community events, including fire department open houses and safety awareness presentations, pediatric cancer fundraisers and local homecoming carnivals and festivals. She is currently assistant chief of her Explorer Post program. Middle Level State Honoree: Rosalea Colucci Rosalea, an eighth-grader at Plum Grove Junior High School, has collected more than 60,000 toys, books, stuffed animals, games and other gifts for hospitalized children, and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to help find a cure for childhood cancer. When she was just 3, Rosie was diagnosed with brain tumors and numerous other serious conditions that required her to spend a lot of time in the hospital. While there, she received so many gifts that her mother said she couldn't keep them all. So Rosie decided to share them with kids who didn't have any. "I know what it's like to lay in a hospital bed feeling bored and bad, worse than bad, and miss out on fun, school, playgrounds, riding bikes, holiday parties, play dates and sports," she said. "I wanted to make other kids' hospital stays better. I wanted to bring them sunshine and joy!" A year after her diagnosis, Rosie started "Rosie's Toy Box" and began collecting donated gifts in a plastic bin outside her family's front door. Before long, she was not only soliciting donations of toys and other items for pediatric patients, but was also working to raise money for a variety of charities and foundations. She asks big and small businesses, schools, churches, daycare centers and restaurants to conduct toy drives or fundraisers with her; and she promotes her efforts through fliers, social media and the news media. Among the activities she has conducted to pursue her mission are walk/runs, lemonade and bake sales, dance marathons, school competitions and head-shaving. "I want to further research so kids like me don't have to die," said Rosie. "We need some answers! We need a cure now!" Distinguished Finalists The program judges also recognized eight other Illinois students as Distinguished Finalists for their impressive community service activities. Each will receive an engraved bronze medallion. These are Illinois' Distinguished Finalists for 2018: Sophia (Sophie) Happ, 14, of Monticello, Ill., an eighth-grader at Monticello Middle School, started a drive four years ago that has collected nearly 15,000 books for children in need. Sophie spreads the word and distributes collection boxes to schools throughout her district, works with friends and family to sort books by reading level and genre, then contacts agencies to find them good homes. Taylor Larson, 18, of Chillicothe, Ill., a senior at Illinois Valley Central High School, has collected 6,500 stuffed animals over the past 10 years to bring comfort to kids in the hospital, children's homes, house fires and domestic disputes. Taylor started by volunteering with the stuffed animal drive that gave her a much-loved teddy bear when she was in the hospital, and later decided to expand her impact by starting her own nonprofit, "Cuddles for Kids." Radoslava Pribyl Pierdinock, 17, of Riverside, Ill., a senior at Riverside Brookfield Township High School, led an initiative that turned a run-down room into a library for students at a school in a low-income community. After learning that the students didn't have a library, Radoslava worked with educators and her town libarian on a concept for a space where kids would be excited to read, then rallied her community to donate books, furnishings and manpower to help bring the idea to life. Bhavana Ravala, 17, of Bloomington, Ill., a senior at Normal Community High School, has dedicated hundreds of hours to education advocacy, and created an organization that evolved from a mentoring program for kids from low-income families to a political advocacy group. Bhavana's group, which now includes about 20 people, writes and compiles resources advocating for the right to education for kids around the world. Evan Robinson, 12, of Chicago, Ill., a seventh-grader at Kenwood Academy High School, raised more than $2,000 for relief efforts in Puerto Rico after Hurricanes Irma and Maria by making and selling nearly 1,000 empanadas. When out-of-towners contributed to #PiesforPuertoRico but couldn't pick up their empanadas in person, Evan donated their pies to homeless shelter. Clare Vanspeybroeck, 18, of Rock Island, Ill., a member of Rock Island County 4-H and a senior at Alleman High School, has directed an annual volunteer meal-packaging event since 2015, raising more than $11,000 and packaging 78,000 meals over the past three years to feed the hungry in her region. Clare, whose events have drawn more than 500 volunteers, mentored several teenagers this year to ensure that the project can continue in the future. Matthew Williams, 16, of Schaumburg, Ill., a sophomore at Schaumburg High School, has been responsible since June 2016 for expanding and maintaining the parent resource library at his local Easter Seals facility, stretching limited resources to ensure parents have the information they need to help their kids with disabilities gain independence. Matthew, who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, has supported the library through efforts from cataloguing to calling in overdue materials. Esther Xiang, 16, of Freeport, Ill., a junior at Freeport High School, is the founder and president of the "Freeport Food Ark," a nonprofit that mobilizes young people to fight food insecurity. Motivated by her own experience with food insecurity, Esther has also helped other schools create their own Food Ark clubs and help them establish gardens and food pantries. "Prudential is proud to recognize these remarkable young people for using their energy, creativity and compassion to bring meaningful change to their communities," said Prudential Chairman and CEO John Strangfeld. "We hope their stories inspire others to consider how they can do the same." "These middle level and high school students have not only improved the lives of the people and communities they've served – they also set an important example for their peers," said JoAnn Bartoletti, executive director of NASSP. "These honorees prove that you're never too young to make a difference." About The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards represents the United States' largest youth recognition program based solely on volunteer service. All public and private middle level and high schools in the country, as well as all Girl Scout councils, county 4-H organizations, American Red Cross chapters, YMCAs and affiliates of Points of Light's HandsOn Network, were eligible to select a student or member for a local Prudential Spirit of Community Award. These Local Honorees were then reviewed by an independent judging panel, which selected State Honorees and Distinguished Finalists based on criteria including personal initiative, effort, impact and personal growth. While in Washington, D.C., the 102 State Honorees – one middle level and one high school student from each state and the District of Columbia – will tour the capital's landmarks, meet top youth volunteers from other parts of the world, attend a gala awards ceremony at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, and visit their congressional representatives on Capitol Hill. On April 30, 10 of the State Honorees – five middle level and five high school students – will be named America's top youth volunteers of 2018. These National Honorees will receive additional $5,000 awards, gold medallions, crystal trophies and $5,000 grants from The Prudential Foundation for nonprofit charitable organizations of their choice. Since the program began in 1995, more than 120,000 young volunteers have been honored at the local, state and national level. The program also is conducted by Prudential subsidiaries in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Ireland, India, China, Brazil and Poland. In addition to granting its own awards, The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program also distributes President's Volunteer Service Awards to qualifying Local Honorees. For information on all of this year's Prudential Spirit of Community State Honorees and Distinguished Finalists, visit http://spirit.prudential.com or www.nassp.org/spirit. About NASSP The National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) is the leading organization of and voice for middle level and high school principals, assistant principals, and school leaders from across the United States. The association connects and engages school leaders through advocacy, research, education, and student programs. NASSP advocates on behalf of all school leaders to ensure the success of each student and strengthens school leadership practices through the design and delivery of high quality professional learning experiences. Reflecting its long-standing commitment to student leadership development, NASSP administers the National Honor Society, National Junior Honor Society, National Elementary Honor Society, and National Student Council. For more information about NASSP, located in Reston, VA, visit www.nassp.org. About Prudential Financial Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE: PRU), a financial services leader, has operations in the United States, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Prudential's diverse and talented employees are committed to helping individual and institutional customers grow and protect their wealth through a variety of products and services, including life insurance, annuities, retirement-related services, mutual funds and investment management. In the U.S., Prudential's iconic Rock symbol has stood for strength, stability, expertise and innovation for more than a century. For more information, please visit www.news.prudential.com. For Spirit of Community Awards program logo and medallion graphics, please visit https://spirit.prudential.com/resources/media SOURCE Prudential Financial, Inc. CREDIT: Prudential Financial, Inc.
Nominated by Edwardsville High School in Edwardsville
Nominated by Plum Grove Junior High School in Rolling Meadows
View original content with multimedia: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/illinois-top-youth-volunteers-of-2018-selected-by-national-program-300592769.html
Subject: Students; Educational leadership; Secondary schools; School principals
Location: United States--US Illinois Washington DC
Company / organization: Name: National Association of Secondary School Principals; NAICS: 813920; Name: Prudential Financial Inc; NAICS: 551112
Publication title: PR Newswire; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 6, 2018
Dateline: SPRINGFIELD, Ill., Feb. 6, 2018
Publisher: PR Newswire Association LLC
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1994338480
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1994338480?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright PR Newswire Association LLC Feb 6, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-06
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 40 of 474
Brazil political press review 6 February 2018
Publication info: BBC Monitoring Americas ; London [London]06 Feb 2018.
Abstract:
Supreme Court Judge Mendes says Lula has 'remote' chance of running for president Supreme Court Judge Gilmar Mendes, who was handing over today the TSE presidency to Justice Luiz Fux, made an assessment of the judicial situation of former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva saying that there was only a "remote" chance for Lula to run for president in this year's elections, Folha de Sao Paulo reported. According to party leaders, the pre-Carnival period made it difficult to mobilise supporters for the event.Full text: By BBC Monitoring Temer calls on congress to approve social security reform President Michel Temer said in a message to Congress that his administration made adjustments to soften the social security reform bill and that "it is time to make a decision" on the proposal, Folha de Sao Paulo reported. Supreme Court Judge Fux to lead Superior Electoral Court Supreme Court Justice Luiz Fux was scheduled to be sworn in today as the new head of the Superior Electoral Court, TSE, replacing Judge Gilmar Mendes and it was expected that Fux would have a more discreet administration than Mendes had, Folha de Sao Paulo reported. Fux said through his aides that he would combat "fake news" and that the organisation of "caravans'" throughout the country to explain electoral issues to the electorate would be a priority in his administration. Fux's term in office is scheduled to end on 15 August when he would be replaced by his colleague, Supreme Court Judge Rosa Weber. Supreme Court Judge Mendes says Lula has 'remote' chance of running for president Supreme Court Judge Gilmar Mendes, who was handing over today the TSE presidency to Justice Luiz Fux, made an assessment of the judicial situation of former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva saying that there was only a "remote" chance for Lula to run for president in this year's elections, Folha de Sao Paulo reported. Democratic Social Party to challenge Meirelles's presidential bid The PSD (Democratic Social Party) was expected to interrupt in the following weeks the presidential aspirations of Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles because the party's priority right was to seek a national alliance with Sao Paulo Governor Geraldo Alckmin, who was a presidential hopeful of the PSDB (Brazilian Social Democracy Party), Sao Paulo daily Valor reported. PSD leader and Science, Technology, Innovation and Communications Minister Gilberto Kassab said that the party tended to support Alckmin's presidential candidacy and that Meirelles's presidential aspiration did not get the people's support despite the PSD's efforts supporting Meirelles in the party's programmes. Workers' Party delays launch of Lula's candidacy in Porto Alegre The PT (Workers Party) leadership decided yesterday to postpone an act with former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to launch his presidential candidacy in Belo Horizonte, Folha de Sao Paulo reported. The event that was scheduled for Wednesday 7 February was rescheduled for 21 February. According to party leaders, the pre-Carnival period made it difficult to mobilise supporters for the event. Leftist movements believe Lula could be arrested after 19 February The PT [Workers' Party], leftist movements and the Brazil Popular Front distributed yesterday a calendar of actions for February and March against the social security reform proposal and in defence of former president Luiz Lula da Silva during a meeting headed by PT President Senator Gleisi Hoffmann, warning that Lula ran the risk of being arrested after 19 February, Folha de Sao Paulo reported. BBC Monitoring in Portuguese 1843 gmt 6 Feb 18
Subject: Candidates; State court decisions; Judges & magistrates
Location: Brazil
People: Mendes, Gilmar Temer, Michel Lula da Silva, Luiz Inacio
Publication title: BBC Monitoring Americas; London
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 6, 2018
Dateline: BRAZIL
Publisher: BBC Worldwide Limited
Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Political Science
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1994422469
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1994422469?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright BBC Worldwide Limited Feb 6, 2018
Last updated: 2018-11-12
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 41 of 474
Ready For Takeoff? Boeing Reportedly Presents Embraer Jet JV Plan
Author: Larkin, Michael
Publication info: Investor's Business Daily ; Los Angeles [Los Angeles]06 Feb 2018.
Abstract:
According to Reuters, shareholders will have 10%-20% of the commercial activities transferred to the new company and be entitled to dividends. The massive tariff spurred Bombardier to sell a majority stake in the C Series jet to Boeing's archrival Airbus, which will use its global marketing heft to expand the C Series' reach in the aviation market.Full text: Boeing (BA) reportedly has presented a compromise plan to Brazil's government that will see it take an 80%-90% stake in a joint venture consisting of Embraer's (ERJ) commercial jet business. If it goes ahead, the plan will give the U.S. aerospace giant a leading share of the 70- to 130-seat market, allowing it to compete directly with Bombardier's[ticker symb=BDRBF] C-Series jets, which Europe's Airbus (EADSY) controls with a majority stake acquired last year. The new joint company would exclude the defense operations of Embraer, which is the world's third biggest maker of planes, fulfilling the demands of Brazilian lawmakers, according to details of the plan reported by Valor Economico, according to Reuters. Under the proposal, Boeing will pay Embraer in cash, with most of the proceeds being distributed to shareholders as dividends. According to Reuters, shareholders will have 10%-20% of the commercial activities transferred to the new company and be entitled to dividends. If approved by the Brazilian government and Embraer itself, the proposal could go before shareholders for approval as soon as the second quarter. However, talks with the government will be on hold until after the country's famous Carnival holiday, which ends next week. Boeing shares rose 3.7% to 341.03 on the stock market today. Embraer's U.S.-listed shares rose 6.8% and Airbus added 3.5%. Embraer is a former state-owned enterprise, and Brasilia holds veto power over some strategic decisions, including Boeing's push for a tie-up. A key part of the deal is the government wants to retain control over the firm's military jet unit, even though it generates almost nothing in earnings. It was previously reported Embraer had accepted Boeing's offer, while Brazil's defense minister said last month a Boeing-Embraer joint venture or partnership would have the government's "blessing" but not a Boeing takeover of control, despite earlier reports that such a move was on the table. A Boeing-Embraer deal would come just weeks after the U.S. International Trade Commission unanimously ruled that Boeing had not been harmed by Bombardier's C Series. Boeing had claimed it was the victim of price dumping in the U.S. due to Canadian government subsidies to Bombardier, prompting the Commerce Department to hit the C Series with a near-300% duty on sales to American carriers. The massive tariff spurred Bombardier to sell a majority stake in the C Series jet to Boeing's archrival Airbus, which will use its global marketing heft to expand the C Series' reach in the aviation market. Following the favorable ITC ruling, Airbus maintained its pledge to build the C Series for American customers at a plant in Alabama. YOU MAY ALSO BE INTERESTED IN Boeing's Cash Flow Could Jump 35%; Lockheed Cash Boom Also Seen Boeing Mulls Canadian Fighter Jet Bid Despite Bombardier Spat, Eyes Indian F/A-18 Hornet Deal Defense And Aerospace Stocks To Watch And Industry News How Do You Spot A Major Stock Market Top? Here's The Easy Way Credit: MICHAEL LARKIN
Subject: Acquisitions & mergers; Stockholders; Aircraft industry; Securities markets; Joint ventures
Location: Brazil Alabama United States--US Europe
Company / organization: Name: Boeing Co; NAICS: 336411, 336413, 336414; Name: International Trade Commission--ITC; NAICS: 926150, 928120
Publication title: Investor's Business Daily; Los Angeles
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 6, 2018
Section: News
Publisher: Investor's Business Daily, Inc.
Place of publication: Los Angeles
Country of publication: United States, Los Angeles
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Investments
ISSN: 10612890
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1994460389
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1994460389?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Investor's Business Daily, Inc. Feb 6, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-06
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 42 of 474
BBCM Latin America Watchlist for 7 February
Publication info: BBC Monitoring Americas ; London [London]07 Feb 2018.
Abstract:
The statement specifically warned the country's transportation industry: "We call on transporters and passengers to abstain from travelling and avoid inconveniences." https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dosoye In Venezuela, an NGO said the left-wing Colombian National Liberation Army (ELN) rebel group was distributing Venezuelan government-subsidised food boxes in areas of the country bordering Colombia, Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional reported on its website on 7 February. According to El Nacional, which takes a critical stance towards the Venezuelan government, Javier Tarazona, president of the Fundacion Redes (Redes Foundation) NGO, alleged that the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was authorising the handout by the ELN of the food boxes, which are part of a Venezuelan government food distribution scheme known as CLAP. An opinion column published by the Colombian website La Silla Vacia called this "payback" for what it said was the FARC's "arrogance". https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dospxs Venezuela opposition says no dialogue deal with government 'without electoral guarantees' The head of Venezuela's opposition delegation to dialogue talks with the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Julio Borges, said that "without electoral guarantees" for upcoming presidential elections, no agreement would be signed between the two sides, Venezuelan Union Radio reported on its website on 7 February.Full text: By BBC Monitoring Colombia: ELN rebels announce 10-13 Feb 'armed stoppage', warn transport sector Colombia's National Liberation Army (ELN) left-wing rebel group announced it would stage a "national armed stoppage" on 10-13 February in reaction to what the guerrilla movement called "the continuation of state terrorism and an increase in the persecution against popular leaders", Colombian newspaper El Espectador reported on 7 January. A statement published on the @ELN_Ranpal Twitter account said all of the rebel group's military structures had been instructed to carry out the order. The statement specifically warned the country's transportation industry: "We call on transporters and passengers to abstain from travelling and avoid inconveniences." https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dosoye In Venezuela, an NGO said the left-wing Colombian National Liberation Army (ELN) rebel group was distributing Venezuelan government-subsidised food boxes in areas of the country bordering Colombia, Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional reported on its website on 7 February. According to El Nacional, which takes a critical stance towards the Venezuelan government, Javier Tarazona, president of the Fundacion Redes (Redes Foundation) NGO, alleged that the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was authorising the handout by the ELN of the food boxes, which are part of a Venezuelan government food distribution scheme known as CLAP. The newspaper said the distribution by the ELN had occurred in areas of Venezuela's western Tachira, Apure and Zulia states on the frontier with Colombia. https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dospkw The political party formed by Colombia's former FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) rebels has been experiencing hostile protests and heckling in its campaigning so far for upcoming elections. An opinion column published by the Colombian website La Silla Vacia called this "payback" for what it said was the FARC's "arrogance". https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dospxs Venezuela opposition says no dialogue deal with government 'without electoral guarantees' The head of Venezuela's opposition delegation to dialogue talks with the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Julio Borges, said that "without electoral guarantees" for upcoming presidential elections, no agreement would be signed between the two sides, Venezuelan Union Radio reported on its website on 7 February. The website story quoted Borges, who heads the opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) team at the dialogue talks being held in Dominican Republic, as saying that "if the government insists on its points in the negotiation today [7 February] it could be the last meeting and this will end without agreement". https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dospfy In a separate development, Venezuela's Electrical Energy Minister Luis Motta Dominguez said an "act of sabotage" caused a power cut that blacked out "a large part" of the capital Caracas and the surrounding states of Miranda and Vargas on the evening of 6 February, Venezuelan government newspaper Correo del Orinoco reported. It cited Motta Dominguez saying on the night of 6 February that a "cutting of cables" produced an "overload" and caused an explosion and fire in the Santa Teresa substation, blacking out major sectors of Caracas such as Chacao, El Marques, Guatire, Guarenas, Catia, Propatria, El Junquito, and areas of Vargas state. https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dosovd State VTV was reporting on 7 February that Venezuela and China signed a "security and defence accord". A VTV Twitter posting linked to a story on the website of the Venezuelan Vice-Presidency, http://www.vicepresidencia.gob.ve, which said the agreement was signed during a 6 February meeting between Venezuelan Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez and the Chinese ambassador, Li Baorong. However, it gave no details of the agreement signed. https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dospv3 Brazil: over 3,000 troops launch security operation in Rio ahead of Carnival More than 3,000 Brazilian troops were participating in a security operation targeting criminals and drug-traffickers in Cidade de Deus, Rocinha, Morro da Barao and other areas of Rio de Janeiro city and state, Brazilian news website G1 reported on 7 February. The anti-crime operation was taking place across communities located in Rio de Janeiro's metropolitan area and included the participation of the Federal Police, the Federal Highway Police, the National Force and Rio's civil and military police. Brazilian authorities were also keeping a tight control on Rio's air space and private airplanes were operating under restrictions, the G1 story said. The operation took place as the city prepared to welcome thousands of visitors to the famous annual Rio carnival. https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dosp4n Coming up Colombia's ELN left-wing rebel group has announced it will stage a "national armed stoppage" on 10-13 February. Brazil's Rio de Janeiro holds its world-famous Carnival 9-17 February BBC Monitoring
Subject: Agreements; Local elections; Web sites; Military police; Social networks; Guerrilla forces
Location: Venezuela Dominican Republic Latin America China Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil Colombia
People: Maduro, Nicolas
Company / organization: Name: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia; NAICS: 813940; Name: Twitter Inc; NAICS: 519130; Name: El Espectador; NAICS: 511110
Publication title: BBC Monitoring Americas; London
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 7, 2018
Dateline: FST3368 2 BBC 730 LA1-LATAM WATCHLIST
Publisher: BBC Worldwide Limited
Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Political Science
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1995338101
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1995338101?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright BBC Worldwide Limited Feb 7, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-07
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 43 of 474
LatAm Political, Economic Calendar--Week Ahead
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]07 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
(END)
February 07, 2018 09:30 ET (14:30 GMT)All dates are in local time Wednesday, February 7, 2018 Exp Prev Local/GMT/ET 1600/1900/1400 ARG Dec Industrial Capacity Utilization 1820/2020/1520 BRA Brazil Monetary Policy decision SELIC Rate 7.0 N/A ARG GPFI Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion Plenary Meeting Thursday, February 8, 2018 Exp Prev Local/GMT/ET 0800/1000/0500 BRA Feb IGP-M First 10-day Period 0800/1100/0600 CHI Jan CPI CPI, M/M% +0.1% 0900/1100/0600 BRA Jan CPI CPI, M/M% +0.44% Rolling 12-Mos %Chg +2.95% 0800/1400/0900 MEX Jan PPI 0800/1400/0900 MEX Jan CPI full month CPI, M/M% +0.59% Core CPI, M/M% +0.42% 1700/2200/1700 PER Central Reserve Bank of Peru monetary policy meeting and decision Reference Interest Rate 3.0% N/A PER Dec Trade Balance Trade Balance (USD) 588M N/A MEX Banco de Mexico monetary policy decision announcement Overnight Rate 7.25 Overnight Rate, Net Chg +25 (Bps) Friday, February 9, 2018 Exp Prev Local/GMT/ET 0500/0700/0200 BRA Fipe 4-Week CPI 4-Week %Chg +0.52% 0900/1100/0600 BRA Dec Retail Sales Retail Sales, M/M% +0.7% Retail Sales, Y/Y% +1.1% 0800/1400/0900 MEX Dec Industrial Production Indus Output-SA, M/M% -0.1% Indus Output, Y/Y% -1.5% 0800/1400/0900 MEX Dec Final Trade Balance Monday, February 12, 2018 Exp Prev Local/GMT/ET N/A BRA Brazil: Carnival. Financial markets closed N/A PER Dec Trade - Imports and Exports N/A ARG Argentina: Lunes de Carnaval. Financial markets closed N/A VEN Venezuela: Carnival Monday. Financial markets closed
Subject: Monetary policy; International trade; Economic models; Inflation
Location: Argentina Brazil Venezuela
Company / organization: Name: Central Reserve Bank of Peru; NAICS: 521110; Name: Banco de Mexico; NAICS: 521110
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 7, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1999044491
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://sea rch.proquest.com/docview/1999044491?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Feb 7, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-08
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 44 of 474
LatAm Political, Economic Calendar--Week Ahead
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]07 Feb 2018. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
(END)
February 07, 2018 14:30 ET (19:30 GMT)All dates are in local time Wednesday, February 7, 2018 Exp Prev Local/GMT/ET 1820/2020/1520 BRA Brazil Monetary Policy decision SELIC Rate 7.0 N/A ARG GPFI Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion Plenary Meeting Thursday, February 8, 2018 Exp Prev Local/GMT/ET 0800/1000/0500 BRA Feb IGP-M First 10-day Period 0800/1100/0600 CHI Jan CPI CPI, M/M% +0.1% 0900/1100/0600 BRA Jan CPI CPI, M/M% +0.44% Rolling 12-Mos %Chg +2.95% 0800/1400/0900 MEX Jan PPI 0800/1400/0900 MEX Jan CPI full month CPI, M/M% +0.59% Core CPI, M/M% +0.42% 1700/2200/1700 PER Central Reserve Bank of Peru monetary policy meeting and decision Reference Interest Rate 3.0% N/A PER Dec Trade Balance Trade Balance (USD) 588M N/A MEX Banco de Mexico monetary policy decision announcement Overnight Rate 7.25 Overnight Rate, Net Chg +25 (Bps) Friday, February 9, 2018 Exp Prev Local/GMT/ET 0500/0700/0200 BRA Fipe 4-Week CPI 4-Week %Chg +0.52% 0900/1100/0600 BRA Dec Retail Sales Retail Sales, M/M% +0.7% Retail Sales, Y/Y% +1.1% 0800/1400/0900 MEX Dec Industrial Production Indus Output-SA, M/M% -0.1% Indus Output, Y/Y% -1.5% 0800/1400/0900 MEX Dec Final Trade Balance Monday, February 12, 2018 Exp Prev Local/GMT/ET N/A BRA Brazil: Carnival. Financial markets closed N/A PER Dec Trade - Imports and Exports N/A ARG Argentina: Lunes de Carnaval. Financial markets closed N/A VEN Venezuela: Carnival Monday. Financial markets closed
Subject: Monetary policy; International trade; Economic models; Inflation
Location: Argentina Brazil Venezuela
Company / organization: Name: Central Reserve Bank of Peru; NAICS: 521110; Name: Banco de Mexico; NAICS: 521110
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 7, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1999050171
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://sea rch.proquest.com/docview/1999050171?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Feb 7, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-08
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 45 of 474
13 Chicago spots to celebrate Mardi Gras
Author: Nelson, Samantha
Publication info: Chicago Tribune (Online) , Chicago: Tribune Interactive, LLC. Feb 7, 2018.
Abstract:
The Boundary 1932 W. Division St. 773-278-1919 Order a slice of $8 king cake made with cinnamon brown ale cake, nut crumble and cream cheese frosting and eat it carefully since if you find a plastic baby hidden inside you'll win a $250 Visa gift card. Fat Cat 4840 N. Broadway 773-506-3100 Feast on a buffet of Louisiana crawfish, chicken and Andouille sausage jambalaya, red beans and rice, Cajun fried catfish, hush puppies, corn bread, and king cake for $30 at the Uptown bar's 10th annual Mardi Gras celebration at 5:30 and 8 p.m. Feb. 13. Heaven on Seven 111 N. Wabash Ave. 312-263-6443 The Loop spot serves Cajun fare year-round, but they’re offering specials for Mardi Gras including barbecue shrimp rice fritters ($13.99) and green tomato Parmesan with Creole tomato sauce ($14.99) along with hosting live music Feb. 9, 10 and 13.Full text: Whether you call it Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras or Carnival, the days before the start of Lent mean huge celebrations around the world. Luckily you don't have to travel to Brazil or New Orleans to get in on the fun — these 13 spots are bringing the party to Chicago with food and drink specials, live music, giveaways and more. The Boundary 1932 W. Division St. 773-278-1919 Order a slice of $8 king cake made with cinnamon brown ale cake, nut crumble and cream cheese frosting and eat it carefully since if you find a plastic baby hidden inside you'll win a $250 Visa gift card. The Wicker Park restaurant also offers other New Orleans-inspired dishes from Feb. 9 to 13, including shrimp po’ boys ($14) and alligator gumbo ($8). Cactus Bar & Grill 404 S. Wells St. 312-922-3830 Slurp down two pounds of crustaceans as fast as you can for a shot at winning the bar's eighth annual Fat Tuesday crawfish eating contest from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Feb. 13. The winner of each round gets a hurricane in a souvenir glass and the top finisher takes home a $100 gift certificate. The contest is free to watch and the $20 entry fee supports Chicago area animal rescue organizations. Tickets: eventbrite.com Carnivale 702 W. Fulton Market 312-850-5005 Combining the traditions of New Orleans and Brazil, the West Loop restaurant hosts silk aerialists and flag and samba dancers during dinner on Feb. 13 and serves specials including baked oysters with Andouille sausage ragout ($13), grilled beef with chimichurri ($36) and king cake with ice cream ($13). Fat Cat 4840 N. Broadway 773-506-3100 Feast on a buffet of Louisiana crawfish, chicken and Andouille sausage jambalaya, red beans and rice, Cajun fried catfish, hush puppies, corn bread, and king cake for $30 at the Uptown bar's 10th annual Mardi Gras celebration at 5:30 and 8 p.m. Feb. 13. They'll also hand out beads, play zydeco music and serve drink specials, including $5 Abita beer, $30 hurricane punch bowls and $11 Sazerac cocktails. Tickets: eventbrite.com Frontier 1072 N. Milwaukee Ave. 773-772-4322 The West Town restaurant’s annual Fat Tuesday shrimp boil at 6 p.m. Feb. 13 offers all-you-can-eat seafood, red beans and rice, corn, potatoes and king cake for $35. If you're not that hungry, opt for a $13 shrimp po’ boy or $10 jambalaya. Either way you’ll want to linger with $4 Abita beer, $6 hurricanes and $7 Sazerac cocktails while listening to music from the Four Star Brass Band. Heaven on Seven 111 N. Wabash Ave. 312-263-6443 The Loop spot serves Cajun fare year-round, but they’re offering specials for Mardi Gras including barbecue shrimp rice fritters ($13.99) and green tomato Parmesan with Creole tomato sauce ($14.99) along with hosting live music Feb. 9, 10 and 13. House of Blues 329 N. Dearborn St. 312-923-2000 Get your fortune told by a palm reader and catch performances by a brass band and magician at the River North spot’s Carnival of Mardi Gras celebration from 5 to 9 p.m. Feb. 13. Admission is free, but you can get in on a $29.95 crawfish boil, which comes with a hurricane or beer, or just take advantage of specials including $4 Abita beer. RSVP: eventbrite.com Mon Ami Gabi 2300 N. Lincoln Park West 773-348-8886 The Lincoln Park French restaurant goes French Quarter at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 13 with a special dinner including oysters Rockefeller, duck gumbo, jambalaya and king cake with praline ice cream. The $65 meal includes hurricane punch and red and white wine pairings. Nacional 27 325 W. Huron St. 312-664-2727 The River North club kicks off its Carnival celebration from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Feb. 8 with a set from DJ-X. Brazilian dancers and drummers perform starting at 9:30 p.m. Feb. 9 while samba dancers take the floor at 10:30 p.m. Saturday. Hurricanes are $10 throughout the weekend. The Pony 1638 W. Belmont Ave. 312-453-9397 You can feel good about indulging from Feb. 8-13 since the Lakeview bar will donate $1 from every $5 hurricane sold to the Red Cross Relief Fund. For extra New Orleans flavor, the spot also offers a special menu of po’ boys, $4 Abita drafts and $5 hand grenades. Porkchop 1516 E. Harper Court 773-493-9333 Enjoy some bayou flavor at the chain’s Hyde Park location, which serves a smoked alligator sandwich with fries and coleslaw made from kudzu ($13) plus $9 hurricane, Sazerac and hand grenade cocktails on Feb. 13. Rizzo’s Bar & Inn 3658 N. Clark St. 773-799-8161 Keep the party going from noon to 9 p.m. Feb. 17 at BeadQuest, TBOX's 10th annual Mardi Gras bar crawl. For $20 you'll visit 10 Wrigleyville bars enjoying specials on Cajun food, beer and hurricanes and collecting beads for a chance to win prizes. Tickets: eventbrite.com The Sedgwick Stop 1612 N. Sedgwick St. 312-265-1907 Catch a burlesque performance by the Harlequin Girls from 8 to 10 p.m. Feb. 13 at the Old Town bar, which will also serve $10 gumbo and $7 hurricanes. Admission is $20 and includes a Stolen Rum hurricane. Tickets: eventbrite.com. Samantha Nelson is a RedEye freelancer. Still thirsty? More of RedEye's bar coverage » Credit: Samantha Nelson
Subject: Music; Beer; Mardi Gras; Restaurants
Location: Chicago Illinois Brazil Louisiana
Company / organization: Name: Mon Ami Gabi; NAICS: 722511
Publication title: Chicago Tribune (Online); Chicago
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 7, 2018
Section: Redeye - Bars
Publisher: Tribune Interactive, LLC
Place of publication: Chicago
Country of publication: United States, Chicago
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Blogs, Podcasts, & Websites
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1999190946
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1999190946?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Tribune Interactive, LLC Feb 7, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-08
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 46 of 474
Q4 2017 Ball Corp Earnings Call - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]07 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Presentation OPERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Ball Corporation Fourth Quarter Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded today, Wednesday, February 7, 2018. I would now like to turn the conference over to John Hayes, Chairman, President and CEO for Ball Corporation. Please go ahead, sir. JOHN A. HAYES, CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT & CEO, BALL CORPORATION: Great. Thank you, Nelson, and good morning, everyone. This is Ball Corporation's conference call regarding the company's fourth quarter and full year 2017 results. The information provided during this call will contain forward-looking statements, including estimates related to the impact of the U.S. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Actual results or outcomes may differ materially from those that may be expressed or implied. Some factors that could cause the results or outcomes to differ are in the company's latest 10-K and in other company SEC filings as well as the company news releases. If you don't already have our fourth quarter and full year 2017 earnings release, it's available on our website at ball.com. Information regarding the use of non-GAAP financial measures may also be found in the notes section of today's earnings release. The release also includes a table summarizing business consolidation and other activities as well as a reconciliation of comparable operating earnings and diluted earnings per share calculations. Joining me on the call today are Scott Morrison, Senior Vice President and CFO; and Dan Fisher, Senior Vice President and COO of our global beverage business. I'll provide some brief introductory remarks. Dan will discuss the global beverage packaging performance. Scott will discuss key financial metrics, and then I'll finish up with comments on our food and aerosol and aerospace businesses as well as our outlook for 2018. We were very pleased with our strong fourth quarter comparable operating earnings and free cash flow. Each of our public reporting segments were up year-over-year from an earnings perspective and much of the hard work in terms of cost out and value in for each of our businesses continued to show up. While we're pleased with this performance, we are not surprised. Since the closing of the acquisition, there have been questions and opinions regarding our ability to hit our 2017 and 2019 comparable EBITDA and free cash flow targets. When we closed on the acquisition of Rexam 18 months ago, we had a pro forma comparable EBITDA of just over $1.5 billion and laid out a 3.5-year plan to increase that by the end of 2019 to $2 billion while generating free cash flow in excess of $1 billion. We also said that we expected to generate in 2017 comparable EBITDA of $1.75 billion to $1.85 billion, free cash flow in excess of $750 million. Along the way, we knew that there would be ups and downs, but were confident and had conviction that these targets were achievable. Nothing has changed in our view. In the 18 months since then, we indeed have had our ups and downs. In the ups column, we have met or exceeded our initial synergies in terms of G&A, sourcing and footprint activities. We have had exceptional performance from our South American business; continued improvement from our European business; greater stability in terms of North American CSD volumes; continued strong growth in craft, sparkling water and other emerging categories; and strong growth in Central America, particularly in Mexico. We've had good aluminum aerosol growth and continued strong performance from our aerospace business. In the downs column, we have had and continue to face headwinds in terms of domestic U.S. beer consumption; difficult manufacturing performance in our food and aerosol business in the first half of 2017 that is now behind us; challenging food industry dynamics; supply disruptions in North American beverage due to the hurricanes last fall; volatile volumes in our EMEA beverage can business, driven by governmental regulation, carbonation tax and economic disruptions; and continued pricing pressures in China. However, because and in spite of all of these, we achieved or exceeded our 2017 targets. Our long-term strategy is intact. As we go forward, we will continue to execute our long-term strategy of growing our earnings through a mix of volume, price, cost and supply-demand and innovation management, generating higher free cash flow, reinvesting in EVA dollar value-creating growth projects and returning excess free cash flow to our shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. Now as we look back over the fourth quarter of 2017, several highlights include: the beverage can continues to win versus other substrates across the globe. Depending on geography and on beverage segment, this is due in part to the economic value creation of the can to our customers and their consumers, its recycling and sustainable attributes relative to other substrates, the superior product protection that the can provides the beverage itself and the overall efficiency the can provides from a freight, distribution, warehousing and retail shelf perspective. We continue to believe that the can has much further runway to capture a greater share of the packaging mix. Dan Fisher will amplify that a bit more later. In addition to lowering our G&A cost structure and achieving sourcing savings, we recognized cost savings from the beverage can plant network optimizations in North America and Europe. We continued to improve manufacturing efficiencies in our tinplate businesses and saw a slight pull-forward of certain food can shipments in the fourth quarter in advance of anticipated raw material hikes, and we achieved record contracted backlog of $1.75 billion in our aerospace business. Going into 2018, it's on us to execute on our existing plans to maximize the value of each of our businesses, broadening our geographic footprint, aligning with the right customers and markets, expanding into new products and capabilities, leveraging our technical know-how and positioning our products as the most sustainable in the segments in which we operate. Key areas of emphasis for us will be the successful start-ups of our Goodyear, Arizona and Madrid, Spain beverage can facilities, effectively managing our various beverage can footprint initiatives, positioning the can as the most sustainable package in the world in which we live, successfully managing the growth and investment in our aerospace business, profitably growing our aluminum aerosol businesses and improving the profitability of our food can and China beverage can businesses. Thanks to our -- all of our 18,000 plus employees who helped the company achieve these results with numerous customer awards and once again, being recognized as an industry leader on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and on the Corporate Equality Index. And with that, I'll turn it over to Dan. DANIEL WILLIAM FISHER, SENIOR VP & COO OF GLOBAL METAL BEVERAGE PACKAGING, BALL CORPORATION: Thanks, John. As we begin 2018, our global beverage businesses are poised to execute on numerous growth projects, network optimizations and product launches. Our global beverage can volumes grew nearly 2% in 2017 and almost 2.5% in the fourth quarter, led by South America, Europe and our specialty portfolio. The beverage can is the most environmentally sustainable and capable package in our customers' lineup, and you will continue to hear us promote these qualities to consumers and customers alike. John referenced the disciplined growth investments and efficiency activities going on across each of our regional segments. Project teams are aligned, on budget and on schedule. Moving to the individual segments. Though much gets said about continued pressure on domestic mass beer declines, Ball's North American segment volumes were flat versus the industry, which was down slightly, and this was largely due to continued growth in Mexican imports, craft, sparkling water and brands using specialty containers to promote their products. And let's not forget that Ball is well positioned with the 2 fastest-growing segments of the U.S. beer industry, which are Mexican imports and craft, and that the beverage can continues to win versus other substrates. In 2017, cans picked up another 1.5% of share from glass. The North American team did a great job in the fourth quarter, and they recorded good financial results despite the lingering effect of higher freight rates. In advance of our second half 2018 plant network optimization, where will we add no new net capacity and tighten 12-ounce supply-demand, we will be contemplating line speedups and other efficiency programs at remaining facilities across the network. With this in mind, our first quarter utilization rates will likely be lower than fourth quarter. We have a busy and exciting year in North America, and the team is much more on its toes as we position ourselves for additional fixed cost savings in 2018 and beyond. Our South American business had a really nice quarter. Segment volume grew mid-teens versus mid-teens decline in fourth quarter 2016. In addition to better weather, the overall beer consumption trends in Brazil stabilized and our customers further emphasized cans over glass across South America, with cans growing its share of the beer segment from 43% to 45% in Brazil and even higher package share gains in other surrounding countries. To further support beverage can growth in countries surrounding Brazil and having a multiyear contract in place, we're building a beverage can plant in Paraguay to serve its needs as well as continued growth in Argentina and Bolivia. In Brazil, our resulting disciplined response to competitive behavior will likely lead to Ball's volume growing slower than the market rate during 2018. Despite this comment, year-to-date demand trends have remained quite favorable in advance of Carnival, and I would expect will remain strong through World Cup. I do anticipate tougher year-over-year comps in the second half for our Brazil business due to the profit recorded on the ends manufacturing contract that supported the divestment business going away and challenging year-over-year volume comparisons. The European business once again saw mid-single-digit volume growth, led by Russia and Spain. Our ongoing plant construction in Spain is right on track with the plant likely starting up late May, early June, which is a bit ahead of schedule. Our near and long-term initiatives to get segment performance back to where Ball's legacy business was are on track and the cost savings from the German plant closure will anniversary in early August. The ongoing finance transformation projects will largely be complete by year-end 2018, which will contribute to planned G&A savings in 2019. The European team finished the year strong, both from a free cash flow and earnings perspective, and I'm sure everyone is looking forward to World Cup being held in Russia, where we have a nice presence and an outstanding regional team. In EMEA, demand volatility remains with full year volume down mid-teens, yet the team continues to do a great job dealing with the complexity. As we look forward in the region, we are lowering our cost structure and helping certain governments understand how legacy laws on their books are stifling job growth and impeding environmentally friendly packaging growth. Our China business continues to be cash flow positive, and we will continue to exercise a disciplined approach in this market, and prune larger chunks of capital when appropriate. In summary, our global beverage business posted strong results to close the year. We have a feeling of momentum across most of our regional businesses. We know what we need to do in 2018, and our multiyear thesis for acquiring Rexam and deploying growth capital remains intact. Thank you again to all of our teams around the globe. With that, I'll turn it over to Scott. SCOTT C. MORRISON, SENIOR VP & CFO, BALL CORPORATION: Thanks, Dan. Comparable fourth quarter 2017 earnings were $0.60 versus $0.44 in 2016, a 36% improvement. And full year 2017 comparable earnings per diluted share improved 17% from $1.74 in 2016 to $2.04 in 2017. Fourth quarter comparable diluted earnings per share reflect solid operational performance across every segment and lower corporate costs. Full year results were driven by strong operating results at our largest global beverage businesses and our aerospace business, offset by slightly lower food and aerosol segment performance and higher year-over-year interest expense. Details are provided in the Notes section of today's earnings release and additional information will be provided in our 10-K. Net debt ended the year at $6.5 billion, which was right on top of our expectation after $200 million of pension funding and returning over $200 million to shareholders and despite $275 million of unfavorable FX impact on foreign-denominated debt. We exceeded our free cash flow goal for 2017, coming in at $922 million after spending $556 million in CapEx. Activities to squeeze working capital out of the balance sheet were incredibly successful and a team effort across all our businesses. As we think about 2018, we expect full year 2018 comparable EBITDA to be pretty much a straight line into our 2019 goal of $2 billion of EBITDA. Free cash flow is expected to be in the range of $900 million after spending at least $600 million of CapEx supporting the completion of the Goodyear, Madrid and Paraguay plants as well as the aerospace expansion. Full year 2018 interest expense will be in the range of $295 million. The full year effective tax rate on comparable earnings will be in the range of 23%, based our current estimates of the impact of U.S. tax reform. And corporate undistributed will be in the range of $115 million for full year 2018. The cash is showing up. So in addition to our ongoing quarterly cash dividends, we're planning for our share buyback to step up as well. Our initial estimates are for $350 million of share buybacks in 2018, largely, but not exclusively, in the second half of the year, given the timing of our seasonal working capital build. We feel good about where we are. And at this early stage in the year, we look forward to returning even more value to shareholders in 2019 and beyond. And with that, I'll turn it back to you, John. JOHN A. HAYES: Great. Thanks, Scott. Our aerospace business reported improved fourth quarter results, driven by solid contract performance and the continuing ramp-up on new contracts. We've been saying that the Ball aerospace team was winning new work and it now has translated into contracted backlog. Our staffing levels will continue to increase in 2018 as we ramp up on these key wins. The aerospace team has done a wonderful job leveraging the capabilities of our customer focus, world-class technology and know-how and talent in year-over-year profitable earnings growth, which will extend beyond 2018. Now as we look forward for our corporation, as mentioned previously, we are on track to achieve our 2019 targets largely through the stated synergy benefits from the transaction, continued growth of our beverage can, improved performance from the food and aerosol business and the ramp-up of new business in aerospace. From a synergy perspective, recall that we had a 3.5-year plan to realize $300 million of net synergies. Phase I and II of synergy capture would be in the form of G&A office reduction and sourcing synergies, which would come within the first 18 month of the closing of the acquisition. We are currently at or above our targets in both of these phases, still have more synergy opportunities that we should realize on the sourcing side in 2018 as well as realizing our shared services G&A efficiencies in late 2018 and 2019. Phase III is our footprint work, which would come in years 1 through 3 following the closure of the acquisition. We have already closed the Recklinghausen, Germany and Reidsville, North Carolina facilities and have announced 3 plant closures in the U.S. We are also building new plants in Arizona, Spain, Paraguay and in our joint venture in Panama and are installing new lines in several other plants, including Texas and Mexico. Once realized, we should be above our goals for this phase. Phase 4 is to leverage any commercial benefits from the transaction, including but not limited to, providing our customers anything, anywhere, anytime with respect to product, service, innovation and other discriminators. We did not count on any synergies in this area. And if we're able to realize some, we said it would be in the back end and beyond of the 3.5 year planning period. We are delivering on our commitments and see a path to further growth beyond 2019, as our newly deployed in 2018 growth capital hits its stride. And with that, Nelson, we're ready for questions. Questions and Answers OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Ghansham Panjabi with Robert W. Baird & Company. MEHUL M. DALIA, SENIOR RESEARCH ASSOCIATE, ROBERT W. BAIRD & CO. INCORPORATED, RESEARCH DIVISION: This is actually Mehul Dalia sitting in for Ghansham. First question on EBITDA, I guess, your EBITDA comments imply $1.6 billion in EBITDA for 2018. Is that right? And how should we think about the cadence on a quarterly basis just given there's a lot of moving parts with plant additions and shuttering throughout the year? SCOTT C. MORRISON: No, I don't think the number you're referencing is right. I would take -- in the back of the earnings release, I think it rolls up to $1.752 billion. I'd take that and add $2 billion and divide by 2, that should kind of get you where I was referring to. JOHN A. HAYES: Yes, said another way. We finished the year about $1.75 billion. We said by '19 we'd hit $2 billion. So split the difference between the 2, that's a good guidepost for 2018. I think, as we said in the first half of 2018, we actually had some good momentum going into it. When we go through, there is going to be some ups and downs. But we continue to expect a continued improvement in each of the quarters. I think as we get to the second half of the year with the fall, with no longer providing the ends as we talked about in South America, that will be a little bit of a headwind in South America. But at the same time, we'll -- if we actually queue correctly, we'll be ramping up on some of our cost-out initiatives in North America as well as continuing our cost-out initiatives in Europe. And so remember, it's February right now. So I think it's premature to give any additional guidance, but that's what we see as we sit here right now. MEHUL M. DALIA: Okay, great. And sorry, I did the calculation wrong, but that makes sense. And just one follow-on. Can you be help -- your expectations for Brazilian growth in 2018. How much lower do you expect that to be for you guys on a relative basis? DANIEL WILLIAM FISHER: Yes. Well, I don't expect it to be lower. I expect it to be higher on a year-over-year basis. I think we will, with the new market entrant that we were -- that we gave guidance on in our last earnings call, I expect all the participants to have a slower growth profile than the overall growth in the marketplace. JOHN A. HAYES: Yes, we -- the Brazilians in particular, but also surrounding countries, the growth in that was quite strong. We mentioned in South America we had 13% to 15% growth in the fourth quarter. And for the full year, it was close to just under 10%. We don't expect that to continue. But I do think in the first half of the year, with the World Cup coming up, we'll continue to see some strength. But in the second half of the year, we're going to be facing some very difficult comps. And I think as Dan alluded to, with a new competitor in there, we expect to be growing at a rate lower than the overall market for 2018. MEHUL M. DALIA: All right. I guess, my question wasn't clear. I think that's what I was trying to ask. So how much lower do you expect it to be versus the market in 2018? JOHN A. HAYES: It's premature to tell. What I would say is probably a couple of points, 3% to 4% points lower than the overall growth of the market. But that's just a guess. Because here's the reality. We have a new competitor coming on. They're adding a couple of new lines into that market, which is about $1.5 billion. We understand that they're in the process of ramping up, and we understand that's largely contracted. Much of that business was able to -- came out of Ball's business, but we still see overall growth well in excess of that. So we're going to see some growth in our business, just not as great because we face that headwind. DANIEL WILLIAM FISHER: The other signal to point to is if you go back to the last World Cup, there will be a winner and a loser from a retail presence and a customer. We don't know who that's going to be at this point. That could -- that makes the -- answering that question a lot harder, given the year and the events that are going to take place. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Tyler Langton with JPMorgan. TYLER J. LANGTON, RESEARCH ANALYST, JP MORGAN CHASE & CO, RESEARCH DIVISION: Just had a question on the free cash flow guide for 2018. Scott, give us a sense, I guess, of how much working capital is baked into that $900 million number. SCOTT C. MORRISON: I think we really overachieved in '17 on getting a lot of the working capital out. So I still expect a benefit in '18, but it's probably more like $100 million in '18. TYLER J. LANGTON: Got it. And then just in South America. Dan, I don't know if you can give any -- I know that the third-party sales of ends are benefiting. Can you give us a sense like how much, I guess, they benefited 4Q results and sort of what you expect for 2018? JOHN A. HAYES: Yes, it's -- we were -- what we were trying to say, it's tough to parse out because we've had that since the closing of the acquisition. What we're saying is part of the divestiture, the company we sold it to is going to be building their own capacity. That -- we expect that to be coming online sometime in mid-2018. So we've actually been selling them ends mid-'16 through mid-'18. In the second half of '18, we won't be selling those ends. TYLER J. LANGTON: Okay. And then just final question on CapEx. (inaudible) -- I know it's going to be a little bit higher in '18. Is $500 million still sort of a -- depending on projects, a good run rate kind of for 2018 and beyond? SCOTT C. MORRISON: No, we said in '18, we'll probably spend a little over $600 million, in the range of $600 million, because we've got -- the big projects are Goodyear, finishing up Spain and getting that up and running, some specialty investments and then all the aerospace capital that we're spending for their facilities. JOHN A. HAYES: And we also announced yesterday a new Paraguay facility. TYLER J. LANGTON: I'm sorry, I meant sort of post-2018, like 2019 beyond, is $500 million sort of a (multiple speakers) SCOTT C. MORRISON: Oh, post it, yes, I think it -- yes, I think that's a good proxy. It depends on growth, right? If it grows and we continue to find places to deploy capital, we'll do that. If it's a little bit slower, we'll probably dial it back. These are some pretty big chunks, so I would expect it to come down in '19. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Anthony Pettinari with Citi. ANTHONY JAMES PETTINARI, VP AND PAPER, PACKAGING AND FOREST PRODUCTS ANALYST, CITIGROUP INC, RESEARCH DIVISION: I had a couple of questions on Europe. I think in your last Q, you discussed the pockets of negative pricing in bev cans. Obviously, you had a very strong 4Q. I don't know if that's abated or to the extent you can, if you can talk generally about price/cost in the region. And then can you remind us in terms of World Cup, typically how that helps your volumes and the timing of that bump in Europe and maybe the host country? JOHN A. HAYES: Yes, why don't I take it first and then I'll turn it over to Dan. First, in terms of your question, we inherited some contracts that had year-over-year price increases as we went into 2017. As we go into 2018, we still have a little bit of it, although it's a little bit less of a headwind and then those contracts expire. And so we still feel some of the effects of it. But I think, overall, in terms of the overall market tone, it's a relatively flat market right now in terms of the price/cost mix. In terms of your second question about the World Cup as we've alluded to in our prepared remarks, it's in Russia, where we have a very good presence and a very good team. What we have found is always World Cup, always adds some benefit. But quite candidly, it depends upon what geographies and which regions are doing well in the World Cup. If South America does well, it will benefit that. If a European team does well, it will benefit that. Unfortunately, I wish I could say, if an American team did okay. But other than Mexico, I'm not sure that's the case. So Dan, do you have anything else to add? DANIEL WILLIAM FISHER: Yes, just one clarifying comment. I think John said price increase. It was obviously a price decrease on those contracts that we inherited. So that wasn't in a negotiating context that was just being inherited and what was built into those. And then the other point specific to World Cup is if the World Cup is happening in a region where it's already peak season, you'll have a negligible increase. So to John's comments, if you're in an off-peak season in a place like Brazil, the World Cup can stimulate growth in that area. So I wouldn't necessarily read into Europe's going to have a significant benefit, given the timing of when that happens and relative to the peak season. ANTHONY JAMES PETTINARI: Okay, that's very helpful. And then just switching to North America, a quick question. Freight and weather was a big concern in 3Q. Is it possible to say how much of an impact higher freight costs had in 4Q and kind of, as you sit today, would you say those costs have kind of mostly normalized? Or how do you think about freight in North America? DANIEL WILLIAM FISHER: Well, I would say that the freight rates have definitely increased. What we experienced in the third quarter was disruption because of the weather patterns. And with that, you get expedited freight rates as opposed to just a natural rate increase. The natural rate increase is probably in the area of $5 million to $7 million in a quarter in North America. And we're experiencing that right now in Q1, and we don't see that dissipating until fuel prices or oil prices come down. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Edlain Rodriguez with UBS. EDLAIN S. RODRIGUEZ, DIRECTOR AND EQUITY RESEARCH ASSOCIATE, CHEMICALS, UBS INVESTMENT BANK, RESEARCH DIVISION: Some questions on U.S. beer. Like how much was volume down in the U.S. for big beer? And two, do you continue to expect like the strengths in Mexico imports in the region down there to continue to be able to offset the weakness we're seeing in U.S. mega beer? DANIEL WILLIAM FISHER: Yes. Well, I would say, I mean, what we've continued to see when you talk about kind of the top 10 brands in mega beer, they were off double digits for the full year. And then craft beer, Mexican imports and other things like ciders, seltzers that go into that category, essentially offset it so it's negligible a couple decimal points down in aggregate for North Americas. Yes, we continue to see -- all the trends would suggest with the Hispanic millennials that that will continue to be a demand stimulant. And craft beer, it may not necessarily be that the craft beer segment is growing, but substrate penetration has a lot of legs left on it for us in the can. JOHN A. HAYES: I might just add. I do think people are talking a little bit too much about this mass beer in the United States. It's been in a slow decline for a number of years now, and it's been declining. There's 2 large mass beer companies in the United States, and they collectively have been declining around 3% on some of the bigger brands that Dan alluded to. One of them manufactures their own cans in house, and the other one, we do effectively 100% within the United States. We've been able to more than offset that through exactly what Dan said and through other categories that have been growing, whether it's Mexican imports, whether it's craft, whether it's the alcoholic seltzers. And we expect those trends to continue. One of the things we are seeing in terms of the mass is that they are trying to use different types of cans and specialty cans to really help drive incremental volume. And we expect, as we go forward, we're going to see more and more of that going on. EDLAIN S. RODRIGUEZ: No, that makes sense. And one last one on food and aerosol. I think you've noted that some of the volume growth was due to customers carrying more inventories into 2018. Will that lead to lower volume in '18, given that it's probably taking away volume from the first quarter or the second half? JOHN A. HAYES: It could. As we're sitting here now, we really haven't seen it. But that is really a seasonal business. And until you get into the big seasonal selling season and planting season, it's premature to tell. You are right, there was some pull ahead or appeared to be some pull ahead, but it was also a relatively muted pack as well. And so it's difficult to separate those 2. I think, overall, though the market in the fourth quarter was up about 3%. We were up a little bit more than that. But again, for the full year, the overall market was down only about 1%. We were down a little bit more than that, but I wouldn't read too much into that. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Adam Josephson with KeyBanc Capital Markets. ADAM JESSE JOSEPHSON, DIRECTOR AND SENIOR EQUITY RESEARCH ANALYST, KEYBANC CAPITAL MARKETS INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: Just a couple on Brazil. Dan, I think you mentioned, you expect to grow by a few points less than the market in '18. Did you -- forgive me, if I missed this, but what was the market up by in '17? And roughly what are your expectations for '18 in Brazil? JOHN A. HAYES: I think, let me jump in because I have that in front of me. I know the overall market in the fourth quarter was up about just under 5%, 4.5%, 5%. And I think, overall, for the full year, it was up about 3% to 4%. DANIEL WILLIAM FISHER: And in reference to the -- yes, I said in reference to the go -- the future question, as we sit here today and refer back to my comment on who the winners and losers are going to be relative to the World Cup, I would expect us to grow slightly below the aggregate market because of the new market entrant. ADAM JESSE JOSEPHSON: Okay. But a similar level of market growth, it sounds like, in '18 versus '17, up 3%, 4% or so? JOHN A. HAYES: Yes, the Brazilian economy is coming back. There's still -- unemployment is still higher than what we would like to see. But you're actually starting to see some positive economic indicators coming out of that. You're starting to see investment that's going to create job growth going into Brazil. And to Dan's earlier comments about continued can penetration growth, particularly in the beer side, which makes up the majority of the can market, those are the things that underweight the continued growth there. ADAM JESSE JOSEPHSON: And just one other on Brazil. I think you mentioned about 1.5 billion cans coming in. I think it's call it a 26 billion can market, correct me if I'm wrong there. So as you're talking 5% or 6% capacity growth, you're talking about demand growth of 3% to 4%. So how do you think about just the interplay between those 2 factors? And any pricing impact that you would anticipate based on the fact that it appears as if supply is growing a bit faster than demand this year? JOHN A. HAYES: Well, remember, though, that's 1.5 billion, and it all doesn't come on at once. It's phased in. And they -- our competitors started up in the fourth quarter, but they haven't completely ramped up all the way. So you're not going to get a full 1.5 billion in 2018. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Mark Wilde with BMO Capital Markets. MARK WILLIAM WILDE, SENIOR ANALYST, BMO CAPITAL MARKETS EQUITY RESEARCH: I wondered, Dan, if you can give us a little bit more guidance on the expansions that you announced yesterday in terms of both the cost and just the timing? DANIEL WILLIAM FISHER: Yes, I think for -- I mean, typically, this is a greenfield start-up. And so you think about in the 18- to 24-month range depending on environmental permitting and all the fun stuff that happens relative to that. We've obviously made some commitments to our anchor investor there. The capital outlay would look consistent to a one-line can plant start-up. The difference for us is we're going to use a lot of used equipment. So it'll be somewhat -- significantly less than a typical greenfield start-up would be. In a greenfield start-up one-line could be somewhere in the neighborhood of $80 million to $100 million. It'll be less than that depending on how much used equipment and how much new equipment we have to use. MARK WILLIAM WILDE: And now what about in Argentina, Dan? DANIEL WILLIAM FISHER: Yes, in Argentina, we've got a facility that we've continued to make small investments in, and we'll continue to build that facility out. It's relatively insignificant in terms of capital dollars. I think our latest installment will be in the $10 million to $15 million range. MARK WILLIAM WILDE: Okay. And then just as a follow-on. I wondered, we're seeing a little bit of an uptick in aluminum premiums. And I think some of your business in Latin America may be influenced by aluminum premiums. Can you just talk about sort of what type of impact and what you might be doing to kind of hedge yourself there? SCOTT C. MORRISON: You're able to hedge those premiums. So we won't see a near-term impact for any of that. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Debbie Jones with Deutsche Bank. DEBORAH ANNE JONES, DIRECTOR, DEUTSCHE BANK AG, RESEARCH DIVISION: You made some comments about the sourcing benefits in shared services that you think you can get. Should we assume that the opportunity is really in the U.S. and Europe? Or is this -- are you approaching this across your entire system? SCOTT C. MORRISON: No, it's really across our entire system. There's different opportunities in different places. So it's really across the 3 big segments. It's just different buckets in different places. But in total, we're real happy with where we're at and what we expect to show up in '18 and beyond in '19. DEBORAH ANNE JONES: Okay. And then -- seems to be a bit of a renewed debate about plastics specifically in Europe, single-use plastics. And I'm just wondering if you think that there could be an opportunity to kind of increase a shift away from, let's say PET in kind of the non-beer categories. Are you having any of those conversations? Is this an opportunity for you in certain regions? JOHN A. HAYES: Absolutely, it is. I think all of us, for a long time, have recognized not only the inherent advantages of aluminum and used aluminum in a recycling stream, but also people are increasingly waking up to the very difficult fact that we're polluting our oceans and polluting our world with plastic. And people often confuse recycling with collection. Too often, what happens is plastic gets collected but doesn't necessarily get recycled. And last fall, China turned off that spigot where they're no longer accepting any -- import of any plastic, and that's creating more and more of a discussion about it. I think it's a wonderful opportunity for the beverage can really be extolling our benefits as the most sustainable package in the world. And I would -- you should expect to see Ball Corporation really starting to put its shoulder into that, because I think it's the right thing to do, but more importantly, it's in our economic best interest to do. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Scott Gaffner with Barclays. SCOTT LOUIS GAFFNER, DIRECTOR AND SENIOR ANALYST, BARCLAYS PLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: Dan, when I think about some of the added complexity that you've mentioned on prior calls within the system, a lot of it seems to be on the printing side of the equation. And just wondering, from a technological standpoint, has Ball or the industry really been able to solve some of that complexity such that it's not nearly as much of an issue as far as changeovers, et cetera, within the system? How should we think about that? DANIEL WILLIAM FISHER: Yes, I think there's been an awful lot of work that's gone on. Twofold, obviously, digital printing is really sexy. I think a lot of folks are investing in that. I -- that might be able to apply to certain segments of our business Think about craft beer and obviously the proliferation of labels there and -- but the biggest thing right now, it's still costly. I don't know who's going to pay for that right now. There are some solves, but it's at lower speeds and not quite what the industry needs in a $300 billion marketplace. But the other more likely is using robotics and automation on the printers. And obviously, a lot of investment is going in there. Nothing has really cemented itself in the 4 walls of our plants, but I think we're probably a lot closer to that than we have been historically. And why we've organized the way we have in around a global business is to make sure that we're prioritizing investments and increasing skill mix in areas like that to get after that ahead of our competitors and in line with what our customers expect. SCOTT LOUIS GAFFNER: Okay. And Scott, when I think about the share buyback for 2018, you said weighted to the second half of the year. And I understand that's when you typically generate most of your free cash flow for the year, but if I look back historically, most of your share buybacks have been in the first half of the year. Is this only in the second half, because we're at an inflection point of trying to pay down the balance sheet first and then getting the free -- to share repurchase? Or has there been a fundamental, sort of, rethink about when the timing of share repurchase throughout the year? SCOTT C. MORRISON: No, no fundamental change. It's just we have a big working capital build that happens in the first half of the year. We have to reassess our business after we get through the first quarter and be able to dial it in better. So just as we sit here right now, that working capital build will use a lot of our cash for right now. But I think $350 million is a good starting point for 2018, and I see that growing in 2019, because I think our cash flow -- we expect to get $1 billion of free cash flow and we'll be at a point from a leverage standpoint where really, no delevering has to occur. And I would see us being able to orient all or, if not all, the vast majority of that cash to our share buyback and to our dividends. And I see that continuing for a while because this is going to be a cash machine. SCOTT LOUIS GAFFNER: Sure. And the last thing is just on working capital that you generated in 4Q. I mean, how much of that was coming out of the European business? Because if I recall correctly, I think that business in particular had higher-than-expected working capital uses in 4Q of '16. Just thinking (multiple speakers) line. SCOTT C. MORRISON: I think the way that -- I think you're thinking about it right. The businesses, the large businesses that we acquired from Rexam, they weren't an EVA company. So obviously, there was more opportunity in those -- on those balance sheets to get a lot of cash flow, and we saw that going into the deal. And our teams, both from kind of a corporate, treasury, sourcing, legal standpoint working with finance teams in each of those businesses did a fantastic job, and there's more to come. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Brian Maguire with Goldman Sachs. BRIAN P. MAGUIRE, EQUITY ANALYST, GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: Just wanted to come back on South America. It was obviously a really strong performance in there, at least relative to what we were expecting. Just wondering if you could -- looking at the 23.5% margin you generated there, is that kind of in line with how you guys thought the quarter was going to shape up? And I just wanted to get a sense of how sustainable that was or if there were any, sort of, one-timers or good guys in there that would reverse out in '18 other than the ends plant and the new entrant to the market that you called out? JOHN A. HAYES: Yes, maybe I'll point, because I -- we've said in the past that, that is an excellent management team. We have scale there, which is very important. It's a seasonally strongest quarter. And we grew volume-wise 14%. That, in large part, is what drove the continued strong performance. As Dan had mentioned and as I had talked about, as we go into '18, I do think that, that is unsustainable from a margin perspective because of the competitive nature that Dan alluded to, and because we'll be losing some end volume. And so we're going to have to right-size that size of it. But yes, we had a better-than-expected quarter in South America, but not just South America. Dan alluded to it, it's in the rest of the surrounding countries, Argentina. That's why we're building in Paraguay. And Chile was another one that continued strong growth. So I think we did very well there and candidly above our own expectations. DANIEL WILLIAM FISHER: Yes, I would just echo that. We were better than expected, but we were not surprised, and that's why we were able to deliver. So we had -- we were reading the tea leaves in August and September that this was going to be a strong fourth quarter from some of our major customers there, and we made sure that we had capacity online and metal to deliver, and that's what showed up. BRIAN P. MAGUIRE: Okay, great. And then just switching gears to the food business. I think in the past, you've sort of articulated it doesn't consume a lot of capital, generates a lot of cash. Just wondering if the thought there on its strategic position in the overall company has changed at all in the last couple of months? And just any thoughts on how that business will contribute to Ball going forward? JOHN A. HAYES: Well, it's an important part of our business, and it is part of our business until it's not anymore. But our sole objective is to maximize the value of each and every one of our businesses. And we had some manufacturing issues in the first half of 2017. We got past those, and you see, since that time, they've had year-over-year profitability improvement. And as we go into 2018, we continue to expect continued improvement in that business. We are facing headwinds in terms of secular decline in terms of the food category, the food can category, but that doesn't mean we don't expect to make more money as we go forward. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Chip Dillon with Vertical. CLYDE ALVIN DILLON, PARTNER, VERTICAL RESEARCH PARTNERS, LLC: Yes, a couple questions. Could you update us on the start time that you expect for the Madrid plant? Number one. And number two, you mentioned -- I think Scott mentioned that CapEx in 2019 would likely be down. Would that be the case if it made sense? And could it make sense to add capacity somewhere in Mexico, given that it will have been a while since you last added that third line in Monterrey? DANIEL WILLIAM FISHER: For the start-up in Madrid, I referenced in the notes at the beginning, a little ahead of where we thought, maybe 90 days ago, but tail end of May, beginning of June, which is probably 3 to 4 weeks ahead of where we thought this time last quarter. SCOTT C. MORRISON: And on the CapEx side, as I mentioned, we've got some big projects coming on that'll come online in '18, and then we'll see what kind of opportunities we have going forward. We're always talking with our customers to make sure that if they are growing, we're able to supply that growth, and we'll see where that takes us. CLYDE ALVIN DILLON: And then just as a quick follow-on. Can you talk a little bit about how your mix changed last year, either in a given region or as a company when you look at specialty versus standard? And is that partly a factor in what's going on down in South America? You mentioned the new competitor. Are they mainly coming into the standard sizes, and that's sort of -- and therefore, that's what you're losing in terms of share? And maybe that will be, over time, offset by higher specialty volumes? Any comments there would be helpful. DANIEL WILLIAM FISHER: Yes, so it's hard to parse out the definition of what a standard and specialty can is outside of the U.S., because all the other markets around the world have essentially gone to something other than a standard 12-ounce or 33-centiliter can. So the competitor's coming in with cans that are not a 33-centiliter can. But that doesn't mean that, that's not the -- the overwhelming majority of product that's shipped in that marketplace. And I think our specialty growth has been in line or slightly ahead in probably every region in the world, and we continue to see that continuing. As that's what the end consumer preference is, that's what our customers want and that's what we've been investing in. JOHN A. HAYES: Yes, just to give you context. On a global basis, our specialty mix is about 37%. And to Dan's point, in South America, it's almost 50%. When you think about how we define it in the United States, and it's even much greater in EMEA, it's closer to 80%, to Dan's point. And so it varies. But we are seeing growth in specialty stronger than growth in "standard" in every major market. CLYDE ALVIN DILLON: And the 45% in Brazil, that's just for beer or for everything? JOHN A. HAYES: No, that's for everything. CLYDE ALVIN DILLON: Okay. JOHN A. HAYES: Yes, and when you said 45%, I want to clarify, I said just under 50%. So it's between 45% and 50%. CLYDE ALVIN DILLON: Okay. Of the share that can has of all beverage containers? DANIEL WILLIAM FISHER: For clarification, the 45% is can mix. And so what John referenced was the mix within the can mix. JOHN A. HAYES: Yes, the specialty -- said another way, just under 50% of all cans we sell in South America are specialty containers. CLYDE ALVIN DILLON: Understood. But you had said earlier that the can's share of all substrates, I believe, or was it just for beer, went from 43% to 45%. That was in the prepared remarks. I didn't know if that was for beer or for everything. JOHN A. HAYES: I'm sorry, that was just for beer. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of George Staphos with Bank of America. GEORGE LEON STAPHOS, MD AND CO-SECTOR HEAD IN EQUITY RESEARCH, BOFA MERRILL LYNCH, RESEARCH DIVISION: So I know you didn't really want to chat too much about -- or if you feel we chat too much about North America. But I really want to come back to a question here as relates to the fourth quarter. Was there anything aberrational from what you saw in terms of your customers and/or their customers in terms of destocking? We had heard from some of our contacts that there might have been a little bit of effect there, or an effect related to changes in excise taxes, part of the overall tax policy regime change that we've had in the States. I don't know if you have any numbers around that, but I was curious. And then, on specialty, maybe piggybacking off of Chip's last question. What was the specialty growth for you, recognizing it's difficult to parse? If you had to put a number on it either globally or within North America in the quarter. DANIEL WILLIAM FISHER: I'd say on the destocking, the excise tax, really no impact to us. And then on the specialty growth -- JOHN A. HAYES: Yes, it was about 10% on a global basis. GEORGE LEON STAPHOS: Okay. And then the next question I had, if we think about the synergies with Rexam and again, traditionally, it was around SG&A, procurement, footprint. And it sounded like from your comments earlier in the presentation that those are at least trending in line or better than your expectations. I know better than to ask you for a specific number, guys, but is there any one bucket that is seeming maybe a little bit better than your initial expectations? Recognizing that the whole pie is at least in line or better than where you initially started. And if so, could you provide some additional clarity around that? JOHN A. HAYES: Yes, let me -- let's take a step back. And when we said the net $300 million, it roughly broke into about 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 between G&A, sourcing and then manufacturing/footprint/all other. On the G&A side, we said we'd probably get half of it through closure of offices. And recall that we closed the Millbank office. And remember that in June of last year we closed the Charlotte office. We probably got a half or a little bit more of that. The second half of it's going to be coming from moving a lot of activities into our shared services areas that we stood up in '17, including Querétaro, Mexico and Belgrade. So we have yet to get half of that $100 million from G&A, and we expect to get that late '18, but really going into 2019. On the sourcing side, we have gotten all of that -- of that roughly $100 million. And we think there could be a little bit more as we go into '18. And then, as you know, on the footprint side, we have announced the closure of Recklinghausen, and closed in August. We announced the closure of Reidsville in United States, and closed that last summer. We have only -- haven't even gotten a full year benefit of those, and we've announced 3 additional closures in North America that we've gotten 0 benefit from. And we said, between those 3 things on a run rate basis, it's approximately $120 million. GEORGE LEON STAPHOS: Okay. Fair enough. And so when it actually occurs and you can measure it, then we can ask you, at least qualitatively, how you performed there. But certainly nothing. That would suggest that you're not trending where you expect to be on that front. Phase 4, can you provide a little bit more clarity in terms of what goes into Phase 4? And is there any commercial benefit built into that, recognizing it would be in excess of the $300 million plus that you had guided to? JOHN A. HAYES: Well, as -- I'll stand by what I said that we have counted on no benefits in any of the numbers we've talked about from a 2019 perspective in our -- related to the commercial activities. But the various types of things that you should think about that we are contemplating is, number one, let's just focus here in North America. Dan talked about we are building a new plant and closing 3 new facilities, and we're adding no new net capacity. So we're closing standard 12-ounce and adding specialty. The continued growth of that is a part of it. Changing the customer mix over in Europe, where we were far too overweighted to soft drink, is a part of it. I talked about in Europe that we inherited some contracts that were declining year-over-year to, at a minimum, stop that decline is another example. I could go on and on, but there's hundreds of different things. In terms of being more disciplined about to call off fences that we allow our customers to order so they can't change their orders within 12 hours, but they need 48 or 72 hours to do it. There's hundreds of different things. Those often require renegotiation of contracts. And as you know, George, and the other people know, that when we closed on the acquisition of it, we said we have no big contracts coming up for a couple of years. So you put that all together and hopefully, you're starting to see a mosaic that we're painting towards. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Chris Manuel with Wells Fargo. CHRISTOPHER DAVID MANUEL, MD & SENIOR ANALYST, WELLS FARGO SECURITIES, LLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: I wanted to switch gears a second, if I could, and help us a little bit with aerospace. So I kind of look at the progress of the backlog. Just 2 years ago, the backlog was around $600 million. So you almost tripled the backlog over the last couple of years. And I know there kind of tends to be a little bit of a lag as that gets monetizing and goes forward. But appreciating that we're packaging analysts moonlighting in this aerospace business to try to cover, help us with how you would anticipate revenue and EBIT growth goes the next couple of years? I mean, thinking about something that's $10 million to $20 million of EBIT growth, does that sound crazy to you the next couple of years? JOHN A. HAYES: No, I think that's not out of the realm of possibility at all. The only point of nuance that I would add is, usually, the growth of the profitability on the front end of those contracts is a little bit slower as you derisk those contracts and it ramps up. And so, I think, as we start to execute on this, you're going to see, all things being equal, a slightly muted growth. And then if we perform well, we exceed on the back end, as you know. We've done that time and time again. CHRISTOPHER DAVID MANUEL: And the new business that's come in, is it proportionately weighted towards fixed or cost plus? Or how should we think about kind of where that sits? JOHN A. HAYES: Yes. No, it's a little bit more proportionately weighted towards cost plus than we have been over the last 3 to 5 years. A lot of these are very big programs. A lot -- some of them are developmental programs. And as you know, in a developmental program, the cost plus is far more favorable for us and our customer because the specs, if you will, have not been defined. CHRISTOPHER DAVID MANUEL: Okay, that's helpful. And then one question for Scott. As we think about the working capital component, I think you indicated this year, perhaps another $100 million. And how should we think about that going forward? Does it start to -- I mean, I appreciate you had a lot you wanted to bring out of Rexam as you translated -- move -- migrated them towards an EVA platform. But metal costs are going up a little bit. Should we kind of think that working capital begins to flatten out after '18? Or do you feel you still have a little more runway? SCOTT C. MORRISON: It's way too early to tell. We think $100 million is a good proxy for '18. But every year our people have been -- when people are motivated by EVA, they get incredibly creative on ways to generate even more. And so, I'm sure as we get through '18, they'll be thinking about what we can do in '19. CHRISTOPHER DAVID MANUEL: Or perhaps there's something as you open up Goodyear and you get the other 3 plants closed that can continue to move as well. So okay, that's helpful. SCOTT C. MORRISON: Yes. That could help, too. CHRISTOPHER DAVID MANUEL: Last question I had was book in cash tax. So I think you indicated that the book rate was going to migrate down in '19 or '18, I'm sorry... SCOTT C. MORRISON: '18, right. CHRISTOPHER DAVID MANUEL: '18. Do you have a number for us for what you did, cash taxes in '17, and what you think kind of a reasonable cash tax rate might be on a go-forward basis from here? SCOTT C. MORRISON: We didn't pay much in the way of cash taxes in '17. We've got NOLs that we're utilizing, and we won't pay much in the way in '18. That wasn't different with tax reform. That was already anticipated. JOHN A. HAYES: That's for our U.S. taxes. SCOTT C. MORRISON: Correct, U.S. taxes. CHRISTOPHER DAVID MANUEL: Yes. So is the whole corporate, I mean, is something in the 20%-ish range reasonable for cash taxes going forward? SCOTT C. MORRISON: No, it would be -- let me check on that, Chris, and I'll get back to you. I think it's lower than that. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Arun Viswanathan with RBC Capital Markets. ARUN SHANKAR VISWANATHAN, ANALYST, RBC CAPITAL MARKETS, LLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: Just a question on the European margins. They were slightly below our estimates. And just wondering if that was more due to metal pass-through or if it's just kind of delayed benefits from some of the actions you've taken there like Recklinghausen? SCOTT C. MORRISON: Well remember, you got to -- are you adjusting for the depreciation change? ARUN SHANKAR VISWANATHAN: Yes. DANIEL WILLIAM FISHER: Well, I think there -- however, the answer is they're in line or ahead of where we anticipated 90 days ago. So I can't -- I guess I can't comment on your model. ARUN SHANKAR VISWANATHAN: Okay. No problem. Similarly in the U.S., I guess, your margins also on our basis was a little bit lower. But how would you characterize that versus your own expectations? I mean, was there added softness from the beer weakness? DANIEL WILLIAM FISHER: No, I -- we didn't. I mean, we didn't experience the beer weakness in Q4 largely due to our customer mix and our segment mix. The only thing -- we were favorable on basically every line item of our cost structure in the fourth quarter with the exception of the continued headwinds on the freight rates. But all in all, we were ahead of where we thought we'd be in Q4 in the U.S. as well. ARUN SHANKAR VISWANATHAN: And then just real quickly, what's an appropriate level of corporate expense per quarter going ahead? SCOTT C. MORRISON: Well I said it would be $115 million for the full year. OPERATOR: Our last question is a follow-up from the line of Mark Wilde with BMO Capital Markets. MARK WILLIAM WILDE: Yes, I'm just curious if we can get any sense of what the incremental CapEx is in aerospace? SCOTT C. MORRISON: Yes, it's in excess of $100 million. JOHN A. HAYES: Spread over several years. SCOTT C. MORRISON: Yes, spread over a couple of years. We've guided, if you come out to Colorado, Mark, we've got a number of big projects going on right now to expand a number of test facilities and manufacturing facilities. And that'll be mostly in '18 and in '19. JOHN A. HAYES: Yes, and just to give you context. In our satellite manufacturing, we're building some more chambers by which you test, so much larger chambers. And then in our -- as you know, we've experienced some very strong growth in our tactical products, which are everything from the stealth antennas to the video cameras. And we are building on a very large manufacturing wing on to our existing manufacturing site. Those are probably the 2 biggest ones. And if you came out and wanted to visit, we'd be happy to show you. MARK WILLIAM WILDE: I'd love to do that. John, I just want to ask about this Diet Coke rollout that's -- they've been publicizing over the last several weeks. It looks like it's going into sleek cans. And I wondered if you're just -- you're seeing kind of more inquiries from the beverage companies on that sort of thing. JOHN A. HAYES: Yes, I think that hits to the trend that Dan talked about earlier and I did as well. I think you're seeing -- that's why we're seeing 10% growth on a global basis of our specialty. And I think repositioning that is a great example of creating profit pools for themselves and using specialty cans to help do it for them. MARK WILLIAM WILDE: And if that works, if that rollout takes, would they usually use the same packaging format kind of globally, so they'd use the sleek cans in other markets around the world? JOHN A. HAYES: Not necessarily, because tastes are very different by geography and region. And also, they have different bottlers that have different areas of focus. But I do think the use of specialty generally is you're seeing more and more across all of our customer base. OPERATOR: And there are no further questions. JOHN A. HAYES: Okay, great. Thank you, Nelson, and thank you, everyone, for your participation, and we look forward to a strong 2018. OPERATOR: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude the conference call for today. We thank you for your participation, and ask that you please disconnect your line. [Thomson Financial reserves the right to make changes to documents, content, or other information on this web site without obligation to notify any person of such changes. In the conference calls upon which Event Transcripts are based, companies may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding a variety of items. Such forward-looking statements are based upon current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those stated in any forward-looking statement based on a number of important factors and risks, which are more specifically identified in the companies' most recent SEC filings. 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Subject: Copyright; Acquisitions & mergers; Presidents; Geography; Food; Cash flow; Investments; Earnings per share; Cost control
Location: United States--US
Company / organization: Name: Thomson Financial; NAICS: 511210, 518210, 519190; Name: Ball Corp; NAICS: 326199, 327213, 332431, 336414
Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 7, 2018
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: Linthicum
Country of publication: United States, Linthicum
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Law--Corporate Law
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2006838438
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2006838438?accountid=4840
Copyright: 2018 Thomson Financial and ASC LLC
Last updated: 2018-03-09
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 47 of 474
Event Brief of Q4 2017 Ball Corp Earnings Call - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]07 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: CORPORATE PARTICIPANTS . Daniel William Fisher - Ball Corporation,Senior VP & COO of Global Metal Beverage Packaging . John A. Hayes - Ball Corporation,Chairman, President & CEO . Scott C. Morrison - Ball Corporation,Senior VP & CFO . Daniel William Fisher - Ball Corporation,Senior VP & COO of Global Metal Beverage Packaging . John A. Hayes - Ball Corporation,Chairman, President & CEO . Scott C. Morrison - Ball Corporation,Senior VP & CFO CONFERENCE CALL PARTICIPANTS . Adam Jesse Josephson - KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc., Research Division,Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst . Anthony James Pettinari - Citigroup Inc, Research Division,VP and Paper, Packaging and Forest Products Analyst . Arun Shankar Viswanathan - RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division,Analyst . Brian P. Maguire - Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division,Equity Analyst . Christopher David Manuel - Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division,MD & Senior Analyst . Clyde Alvin Dillon - Vertical Research Partners, LLC,Partner . Deborah Anne Jones - Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division,Director . Edlain S. Rodriguez - UBS Investment Bank, Research Division,Director and Equity Research Associate, Chemicals . George Leon Staphos - BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division,MD and Co-Sector Head in Equity Research . Mark William Wilde - BMO Capital Markets Equity Research,Senior Analyst . Mehul M. Dalia - Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Research Division,Senior Research Associate . Scott Louis Gaffner - Barclays PLC, Research Division,Director and Senior Analyst . Tyler J. Langton - JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division,Research Analyst . Adam Jesse Josephson - KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc., Research Division,Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst . Anthony James Pettinari - Citigroup Inc, Research Division,VP and Paper, Packaging and Forest Products Analyst . Arun Shankar Viswanathan - RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division,Analyst . Brian P. Maguire - Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division,Equity Analyst . Christopher David Manuel - Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division,MD & Senior Analyst . Clyde Alvin Dillon - Vertical Research Partners, LLC,Partner . Deborah Anne Jones - Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division,Director . Edlain S. Rodriguez - UBS Investment Bank, Research Division,Director and Equity Research Associate, Chemicals . George Leon Staphos - BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division,MD and Co-Sector Head in Equity Research . Mark William Wilde - BMO Capital Markets Equity Research,Senior Analyst . Mehul M. Dalia - Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Research Division,Senior Research Associate . Scott Louis Gaffner - Barclays PLC, Research Division,Director and Senior Analyst . Tyler J. Langton - JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division,Research Analyst OVERVIEW Co. reported 4Q17 comparable diluted EPS of $0.60. FINANCIAL DATA 1. 2017 comparable diluted EPS = $2.04. 2. 4Q17 comparable diluted EPS = $0.60. 3. 2017-end net debt = $6.5b. PRESENTATION SUMMARY - 4Q17 Review (J.H.) 1. Overview: 1. Strong comparable operating earnings and free cash flow. 2. Each of public reporting segments up YoverY from earnings perspective. 1. Much of hard work in terms of cost out, value in for each businesses continued to show up. 3. When Co. closed on acquisition of Rexam 18 months ago, had pro forma comparable EBITDA of just over $1.5b and laid out 3.5-year plan to increase that by 2019-end $2b, while generating free cash flow in excess of $1b. 1. Expected to generate 2017 comparable EBITDA of $1.75-1.85b, free cash flow in excess of $750m. 4. In 18 months [sense], had ups and downs. 1. Ups: 1. Met or exceeded initial synergies in terms of G&A, sourcing and footprint activities. 2. Had exceptional performance from South American business. 3. Continued improvement from European business. 4. Greater stability in terms of North America CSD volumes. 5. Continued strong growth in crafts, sparkling water and other emerging categories. 6. Strong growth in Central America, particularly Mexico. 7. Had good aluminum aerosol growth and continued strong performance from aerospace business. 2. Downs: 1. Continued to face headwind in terms of domestic US beer consumption. 2. Difficult manufacturing performance in food and aerosol business in 1H17 that is now behind Co. 3. Challenging food industry dynamics. 4. Supply disruptions in North American beverage, due to hurricanes last fall. 5. Volatile volumes in EMEA beverage can business, driven by governmental regulation, carbonation tax and economic disruptions and continued pricing pressures in China. 3. Because and in spite of all of these, achieved or exceeded 2017 targets. 5. Long-term strategy is intact. 1. Will continue to execute long-term strategy of growing earnings through: 1. Mix of volume, price, cost and supply, demand and innovation management. 2. Generating higher free cash flow. 3. Reinvesting in EVA dollar value-creating growth projects. 4. Returning excess free cash flow to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. 2. Highlights: 1. Beverage can continues to win vs. other substrates across the globe. 2. Depending on geography in beverage segment, this is due in part to economic value creation of can to customers and their consumers. 1. Recycling and sustainable attributes relative to other substrates, superior product protection that can provides beverage itself and overall efficiency can provides from freight distribution warehousing and retail shelf perspective. 2. Believing can has much further runway to capture greater share of packaging mix. 3. In addition to lowering G&A cost structure and achieving sourcing savings, recognized cost savings from beverage can plant network optimizations in North America and Europe. 1. Continued to improve manufacturing efficiencies in tinplate businesses. 2. Saw slight pull forward of certain food can shipments in 4Q in advance of anticipated raw material hikes. 3. Achieved record contracted backlog of $1.75b in aerospace business. 4. Going into 2018, it is on Co. to execute on its existing plans to: 1. Maximize value of each of businesses. 2. Broadening geographic footprint. 3. Aligning with right customers and markets. 4. Expanding new products and capabilities. 5. Leveraging technical know-how. 6. Positioning products as most sustainable in segments in which Co. operates. 5. Key areas of emphasis will be: 1. Successful startups of Goodyear, Arizona and Madrid, Spain beverage can facilities. 2. Effectively managing various beverage can footprint initiatives. 3. Positioning can as the most sustainable package in the world. 4. Successfully managing growth and investment in aerospace business. 5. Profitably growing aluminum aerosol businesses. 6. Improving profitability of food can and China beverage can businesses. 6. Being recognized as Industry Leader on: 1. Dow Jones Sustainability Index. 2. Corporate Equality Index. Global Beverage Packaging (D.F.) 1. Global Beverage Businesses: 1. As Co. began 2018, global beverage businesses are poised to execute on: 1. Numerous growth projects. 2. Network optimizations. 3. Product launches. 2. Global beverage can volumes grew nearly 2% in 2017 and almost 2.5% in 4Q17, led by: 1. South America. 2. Europe. 3. Specialty portfolio. 3. Beverage can is the most environmentally sustainable and capable package in customers' lineup. 4. Project teams are aligned on budget and on schedule. 5. Continued pressure on domestic mass beer declines. 1. North American segment volumes flat vs. industry. 1. Down slightly. 2. Largely due to continued growth in Mexican imports, craft, sparkling water and brands using specialty containers to promote their products. 6. Well positioned with two fastest growing segments of US beer industry, which are Mexican imports and craft. 1. Beverage can continues to win vs. other substrates. 7. In 2017, cans picked up another 1.5% of share from glass. 2. North America: 1. Recorded good financial results, despite lingering effect of higher freight rates. 2. In advance of 2H18 plant network optimization, where Co. will add no new net capacity and tighten 12 ounce supply demand, will be contemplating line speedups and other efficiency programs at remaining facilities across network. 1. 1Q utilization rates will likely be lower than 4Q. 2. Much more on toes, as Co. positions itself for additional fixed cost savings in 2018 and beyond. 3. South America: 1. Segment volume grew mid-teens vs. mid-teens decline in 4Q16. 2. In addition to better weather, overall beer consumption trends in Brazil stabilized. 1. Customers further emphasize cans over glass with cans growing at share of beer segment from 43% to 45% in Brazil, and even higher packaged share gains in other surrounding countries. 2. To further support beverage can growth in countries surrounding Brazil and having a multi-year contract in place, building beverage can plant in Paraguay to serve its needs and continued growth in Argentina and Bolivia. 3. Brazil: 1. Resulting discipline response to competitive behavior will likely lead to Co.'s volume growing slower than market rate during 2018. 1. YTD demand trends remained quite favorable in advance of Carnival. 2. Expects will remain strong through World Cup. 2. Anticipates tougher YoverY comps in the 2H, due to profit recorded on ends manufacturing contract that supported divestment business going away and challenging YoverY volume comparisons. 4. European: 1. Saw mid-single-digit volume growth, led by: 1. Russia. 2. Spain. 2. Ongoing plant construction in Spain is right on track with plant likely starting up late May, early June a bit ahead of schedule. 3. Near and long term initiatives to get segment performance back to where Co.'s legacy business was are on track. 1. Cost savings from German plant closure will anniversary in early Aug. 4. Ongoing finance transformation projects will largely be complete by 2018-end. 1. Will contribute to planned G&A savings in 2019. 5. Finished the year strong from free cash flow and earnings perspective. 5. EMEA: 1. Demand volatility remains with full-year volume down mid-teens, yet team continues to do a great job dealing with complexity. 2. Lowering cost structure and helping certain governments understand how legacy laws on their books are stifling job growth and impeding environmentally-friendly packaging growth. 3. China business continues to be cash flow positive. 1. Will continue to exercise disciplined approach in this market and prune larger chunks of capital when appropriate. 6. Summary: 1. Global beverage business posted strong results to close the year. 2. Multi-year thesis for acquiring Rexam and deploying growth capital remains intact. 4Q17 Financials (S.M.) 1. Results: 1. Comparable diluted EPS: 1. 4Q17, $0.60 vs. $0.44 in 2016. 1. 36% improvement. 2. 2017 $2.04. 1. Improved 17% from $1.74 in 2016. 3. 4Q17 reflects: 1. Solid operational performance across every segment. 2. Lower corporate costs. 4. Full-year results driven by strong operating results in largest global beverage businesses and aerospace business, offset by: 1. Slightly lower food and aerosol segment performance. 2. Higher YoverY interest expense. 2. 2017-end net debt $6.5b. 1. On top of expectation, after $200m of pension funding and returning over $200m to shareholders and despite $275m of unfavorable FX impact on foreign denominated debt. 3. 2017 free cash flow $922m. 1. Exceed goal after spending $556m of CapEx. 4. Activities to squeeze working capital out of balance sheet were incredibly successful and team effort across all businesses. 2. 2018 Guidance: 1. Comparable EBITDA to be pretty much a straight line into 2019 goal of $2b. 2. Free cash flow in range of $900m, after spending at least $600m of CapEx, supporting completion of Goodyear, Madrid and Paraguay plants and aerospace expansion. 3. Interest expense in range of $295m. 4. Effective tax rate on comparable earnings in range of 23%, based on current estimates of US tax reform impact. 5. Corporate undistributed in range of $115m. 6. Cash showing up. 1. In addition to ongoing quarterly cash dividends, planning for share buyback to step up. 2. Initial estimates are for $350m of share buybacks, largely but not exclusively in 2H18, given timing of seasonal working capital bill. 3. At this early stage in the year, looks forward to returning even more value to shareholders in 2019 and beyond. Closing Comments (J.H.) 1. Aerospace: 1. Improved 4Q results driven by: 1. Solid contract performance. 2. Continuing ramp up on new contracts. 2. Winning new work. 1. Translated into contracted backlog. 2. Staffing levels will continue to increase in 2018, as Co. ramps up on these key wins. 3. Leveraging capabilities of customer focus, world-class technology, and know-how and talent in YoverY profitable earnings growth, which will extend beyond 2018. 2. Corporation: 1. On track to achieve 2019 targets largely through: 1. Stated synergy benefits from transaction. 2. Continued growth of beverage can. 3. Improved performance from food and aerosol business. 4. New business ramp up in aerospace. 3. Synergy: 1. Had 3.5-year plan to realize $300m of net synergies. 1. Phase 1 and 2 of synergy capture would be in the form of G&A office reduction and sourcing synergies, which would come within first 18 month of closing of acquisition. 1. Currently at or above targets in both of these phases. 2. Still has more synergy opportunities that Co. should realize on sourcing side in 2018, and realizing shared services G&A efficiencies in late 2018 and 2019. 2. Phase 3 is footprint work. 1. Would come in years one through three following closure of acquisition. 2. Already closed Recklinghausen, Germany and Reidsville, North Carolina facilities. 3. Announced three plant closures in US. 4. Building new plants in Arizona, Spain, Paraguay and JV in Panama. 5. Installing new lines in several other plants, including Texas and Mexico. 6. Once realized, should be above goals with this phase. 3. Phase 4 is to leverage any commercial benefits from transaction, including but not limited to providing customers anything, anywhere, anytime with respect to product, service, innovation and other discriminators. 1. Did not count on any synergies in this area. 2. If Co. was able to realize some, it would be in back-end and beyond to 3.5-year planning period. 4. Summary: 1. Delivering on commitments. 1. Sees a path to further growth beyond 2019, as newly deployed and 2018 growth capital hits its stride. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Ghansham Panjabi with Robert W. Baird & Company. MEHUL M. DALIA, SENIOR RESEARCH ASSOCIATE, ROBERT W. BAIRD & CO. INCORPORATED, RESEARCH DIVISION: This is actually Mehul Dalia sitting in for Ghansham. First question on EBITDA, I guess, your EBITDA comments imply $1.6 billion in EBITDA for 2018. Is that right? And how should we think about the cadence on a quarterly basis just given there's a lot of moving parts with plant additions and shuttering throughout the year? SCOTT C. MORRISON, SENIOR VP & CFO, BALL CORPORATION: No, I don't think the number you're referencing is right. I would take -- in the back of the earnings release, I think it rolls up to $1.752 billion. I'd take that and add $2 billion and divide by 2, that should kind of get you where I was referring to. JOHN A. HAYES, CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT & CEO, BALL CORPORATION: Yes, said another way. We finished the year about $1.75 billion. We said by '19 we'd hit $2 billion. So split the difference between the 2, that's a good guidepost for 2018. I think, as we said in the first half of 2018, we actually had some good momentum going into it. When we go through, there is going to be some ups and downs. But we continue to expect a continued improvement in each of the quarters. I think as we get to the second half of the year with the fall, with no longer providing the ends as we talked about in South America, that will be a little bit of a headwind in South America. But at the same time, we'll -- if we actually queue correctly, we'll be ramping up on some of our cost-out initiatives in North America as well as continuing our cost-out initiatives in Europe. And so remember, it's February right now. So I think it's premature to give any additional guidance, but that's what we see as we sit here right now. MEHUL M. DALIA: Okay, great. And sorry, I did the calculation wrong, but that makes sense. And just one follow-on. Can you be help -- your expectations for Brazilian growth in 2018. How much lower do you expect that to be for you guys on a relative basis? DANIEL WILLIAM FISHER, SENIOR VP & COO OF GLOBAL METAL BEVERAGE PACKAGING, BALL CORPORATION: Yes. Well, I don't expect it to be lower. I expect it to be higher on a year-over-year basis. I think we will, with the new market entrant that we were -- that we gave guidance on in our last earnings call, I expect all the participants to have a slower growth profile than the overall growth in the marketplace. JOHN A. HAYES: Yes, we -- the Brazilians in particular, but also surrounding countries, the growth in that was quite strong. We mentioned in South America we had 13% to 15% growth in the fourth quarter. And for the full year, it was close to just under 10%. We don't expect that to continue. But I do think in the first half of the year, with the World Cup coming up, we'll continue to see some strength. But in the second half of the year, we're going to be facing some very difficult comps. And I think as Dan alluded to, with a new competitor in there, we expect to be growing at a rate lower than the overall market for 2018. MEHUL M. DALIA: All right. I guess, my question wasn't clear. I think that's what I was trying to ask. So how much lower do you expect it to be versus the market in 2018? JOHN A. HAYES: It's premature to tell. What I would say is probably a couple of points, 3% to 4% points lower than the overall growth of the market. But that's just a guess. Because here's the reality. We have a new competitor coming on. They're adding a couple of new lines into that market, which is about $1.5 billion. We understand that they're in the process of ramping up, and we understand that's largely contracted. Much of that business was able to -- came out of Ball's business, but we still see overall growth well in excess of that. So we're going to see some growth in our business, just not as great because we face that headwind. DANIEL WILLIAM FISHER: The other signal to point to is if you go back to the last World Cup, there will be a winner and a loser from a retail presence and a customer. We don't know who that's going to be at this point. That could -- that makes the -- answering that question a lot harder, given the year and the events that are going to take place. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Tyler Langton with JPMorgan. TYLER J. LANGTON, RESEARCH ANALYST, JP MORGAN CHASE & CO, RESEARCH DIVISION: Just had a question on the free cash flow guide for 2018. Scott, give us a sense, I guess, of how much working capital is baked into that $900 million number. SCOTT C. MORRISON: I think we really overachieved in '17 on getting a lot of the working capital out. So I still expect a benefit in '18, but it's probably more like $100 million in '18. TYLER J. LANGTON: Got it. And then just in South America. Dan, I don't know if you can give any -- I know that the third-party sales of ends are benefiting. Can you give us a sense like how much, I guess, they benefited 4Q results and sort of what you expect for 2018? JOHN A. HAYES: Yes, it's -- we were -- what we were trying to say, it's tough to parse out because we've had that since the closing of the acquisition. What we're saying is part of the divestiture, the company we sold it to is going to be building their own capacity. That -- we expect that to be coming online sometime in mid-2018. So we've actually been selling them ends mid-'16 through mid-'18. In the second half of '18, we won't be selling those ends. TYLER J. LANGTON: Okay. And then just final question on CapEx. (inaudible) -- I know it's going to be a little bit higher in '18. Is $500 million still sort of a -- depending on projects, a good run rate kind of for 2018 and beyond? SCOTT C. MORRISON: No, we said in '18, we'll probably spend a little over $600 million, in the range of $600 million, because we've got -- the big projects are Goodyear, finishing up Spain and getting that up and running, some specialty investments and then all the aerospace capital that we're spending for their facilities. JOHN A. HAYES: And we also announced yesterday a new Paraguay facility. TYLER J. LANGTON: I'm sorry, I meant sort of post-2018, like 2019 beyond, is $500 million sort of a (multiple speakers) SCOTT C. MORRISON: Oh, post it, yes, I think it -- yes, I think that's a good proxy. It depends on growth, right? If it grows and we continue to find places to deploy capital, we'll do that. If it's a little bit slower, we'll probably dial it back. These are some pretty big chunks, so I would expect it to come down in '19. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Anthony Pettinari with Citi. ANTHONY JAMES PETTINARI, VP AND PAPER, PACKAGING AND FOREST PRODUCTS ANALYST, CITIGROUP INC, RESEARCH DIVISION: I had a couple of questions on Europe. I think in your last Q, you discussed the pockets of negative pricing in bev cans. Obviously, you had a very strong 4Q. I don't know if that's abated or to the extent you can, if you can talk generally about price/cost in the region. And then can you remind us in terms of World Cup, typically how that helps your volumes and the timing of that bump in Europe and maybe the host country? JOHN A. HAYES: Yes, why don't I take it first and then I'll turn it over to Dan. First, in terms of your question, we inherited some contracts that had year-over-year price increases as we went into 2017. As we go into 2018, we still have a little bit of it, although it's a little bit less of a headwind and then those contracts expire. And so we still feel some of the effects of it. But I think, overall, in terms of the overall market tone, it's a relatively flat market right now in terms of the price/cost mix. In terms of your second question about the World Cup as we've alluded to in our prepared remarks, it's in Russia, where we have a very good presence and a very good team. What we have found is always World Cup, always adds some benefit. But quite candidly, it depends upon what geographies and which regions are doing well in the World Cup. If South America does well, it will benefit that. If a European team does well, it will benefit that. Unfortunately, I wish I could say, if an American team did okay. But other than Mexico, I'm not sure that's the case. So Dan, do you have anything else to add? DANIEL WILLIAM FISHER: Yes, just one clarifying comment. I think John said price increase. It was obviously a price decrease on those contracts that we inherited. So that wasn't in a negotiating context that was just being inherited and what was built into those. And then the other point specific to World Cup is if the World Cup is happening in a region where it's already peak season, you'll have a negligible increase. So to John's comments, if you're in an off-peak season in a place like Brazil, the World Cup can stimulate growth in that area. So I wouldn't necessarily read into Europe's going to have a significant benefit, given the timing of when that happens and relative to the peak season. ANTHONY JAMES PETTINARI: Okay, that's very helpful. And then just switching to North America, a quick question. Freight and weather was a big concern in 3Q. Is it possible to say how much of an impact higher freight costs had in 4Q and kind of, as you sit today, would you say those costs have kind of mostly normalized? Or how do you think about freight in North America? DANIEL WILLIAM FISHER: Well, I would say that the freight rates have definitely increased. What we experienced in the third quarter was disruption because of the weather patterns. And with that, you get expedited freight rates as opposed to just a natural rate increase. The natural rate increase is probably in the area of $5 million to $7 million in a quarter in North America. And we're experiencing that right now in Q1, and we don't see that dissipating until fuel prices or oil prices come down. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Edlain Rodriguez with UBS. EDLAIN S. RODRIGUEZ, DIRECTOR AND EQUITY RESEARCH ASSOCIATE, CHEMICALS, UBS INVESTMENT BANK, RESEARCH DIVISION: Some questions on U.S. beer. Like how much was volume down in the U.S. for big beer? And two, do you continue to expect like the strengths in Mexico imports in the region down there to continue to be able to offset the weakness we're seeing in U.S. mega beer? DANIEL WILLIAM FISHER: Yes. Well, I would say, I mean, what we've continued to see when you talk about kind of the top 10 brands in mega beer, they were off double digits for the full year. And then craft beer, Mexican imports and other things like ciders, seltzers that go into that category, essentially offset it so it's negligible a couple decimal points down in aggregate for North Americas. Yes, we continue to see -- all the trends would suggest with the Hispanic millennials that that will continue to be a demand stimulant. And craft beer, it may not necessarily be that the craft beer segment is growing, but substrate penetration has a lot of legs left on it for us in the can. JOHN A. HAYES: I might just add. I do think people are talking a little bit too much about this mass beer in the United States. It's been in a slow decline for a number of years now, and it's been declining. There's 2 large mass beer companies in the United States, and they collectively have been declining around 3% on some of the bigger brands that Dan alluded to. One of them manufactures their own cans in house, and the other one, we do effectively 100% within the United States. We've been able to more than offset that through exactly what Dan said and through other categories that have been growing, whether it's Mexican imports, whether it's craft, whether it's the alcoholic seltzers. And we expect those trends to continue. One of the things we are seeing in terms of the mass is that they are trying to use different types of cans and specialty cans to really help drive incremental volume. And we expect, as we go forward, we're going to see more and more of that going on. EDLAIN S. RODRIGUEZ: No, that makes sense. And one last one on food and aerosol. I think you've noted that some of the volume growth was due to customers carrying more inventories into 2018. Will that lead to lower volume in '18, given that it's probably taking away volume from the first quarter or the second half? JOHN A. HAYES: It could. As we're sitting here now, we really haven't seen it. But that is really a seasonal business. And until you get into the big seasonal selling season and planting season, it's premature to tell. You are right, there was some pull ahead or appeared to be some pull ahead, but it was also a relatively muted pack as well. And so it's difficult to separate those 2. I think, overall, though the market in the fourth quarter was up about 3%. We were up a little bit more than that. But again, for the full year, the overall market was down only about 1%. We were down a little bit more than that, but I wouldn't read too much into that. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Adam Josephson with KeyBanc Capital Markets. ADAM JESSE JOSEPHSON, DIRECTOR AND SENIOR EQUITY RESEARCH ANALYST, KEYBANC CAPITAL MARKETS INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: Just a couple on Brazil. Dan, I think you mentioned, you expect to grow by a few points less than the market in '18. Did you -- forgive me, if I missed this, but what was the market up by in '17? And roughly what are your expectations for '18 in Brazil? JOHN A. HAYES: I think, let me jump in because I have that in front of me. I know the overall market in the fourth quarter was up about just under 5%, 4.5%, 5%. And I think, overall, for the full year, it was up about 3% to 4%. DANIEL WILLIAM FISHER: And in reference to the -- yes, I said in reference to the go -- the future question, as we sit here today and refer back to my comment on who the winners and losers are going to be relative to the World Cup, I would expect us to grow slightly below the aggregate market because of the new market entrant. ADAM JESSE JOSEPHSON: Okay. But a similar level of market growth, it sounds like, in '18 versus '17, up 3%, 4% or so? JOHN A. HAYES: Yes, the Brazilian economy is coming back. There's still -- unemployment is still higher than what we would like to see. But you're actually starting to see some positive economic indicators coming out of that. You're starting to see investment that's going to create job growth going into Brazil. And to Dan's earlier comments about continued can penetration growth, particularly in the beer side, which makes up the majority of the can market, those are the things that underweight the continued growth there. ADAM JESSE JOSEPHSON: And just one other on Brazil. I think you mentioned about 1.5 billion cans coming in. I think it's call it a 26 billion can market, correct me if I'm wrong there. So as you're talking 5% or 6% capacity growth, you're talking about demand growth of 3% to 4%. So how do you think about just the interplay between those 2 factors? And any pricing impact that you would anticipate based on the fact that it appears as if supply is growing a bit faster than demand this year? JOHN A. HAYES: Well, remember, though, that's 1.5 billion, and it all doesn't come on at once. It's phased in. And they -- our competitors started up in the fourth quarter, but they haven't completely ramped up all the way. So you're not going to get a full 1.5 billion in 2018. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Mark Wilde with BMO Capital Markets. MARK WILLIAM WILDE, SENIOR ANALYST, BMO CAPITAL MARKETS EQUITY RESEARCH: I wondered, Dan, if you can give us a little bit more guidance on the expansions that you announced yesterday in terms of both the cost and just the timing? DANIEL WILLIAM FISHER: Yes, I think for -- I mean, typically, this is a greenfield start-up. And so you think about in the 18- to 24-month range depending on environmental permitting and all the fun stuff that happens relative to that. We've obviously made some commitments to our anchor investor there. The capital outlay would look consistent to a one-line can plant start-up. The difference for us is we're going to use a lot of used equipment. So it'll be somewhat -- significantly less than a typical greenfield start-up would be. In a greenfield start-up one-line could be somewhere in the neighborhood of $80 million to $100 million. It'll be less than that depending on how much used equipment and how much new equipment we have to use. MARK WILLIAM WILDE: And now what about in Argentina, Dan? DANIEL WILLIAM FISHER: Yes, in Argentina, we've got a facility that we've continued to make small investments in, and we'll continue to build that facility out. It's relatively insignificant in terms of capital dollars. I think our latest installment will be in the $10 million to $15 million range. MARK WILLIAM WILDE: Okay. And then just as a follow-on. I wondered, we're seeing a little bit of an uptick in aluminum premiums. And I think some of your business in Latin America may be influenced by aluminum premiums. Can you just talk about sort of what type of impact and what you might be doing to kind of hedge yourself there? SCOTT C. MORRISON: You're able to hedge those premiums. So we won't see a near-term impact for any of that. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Debbie Jones with Deutsche Bank. DEBORAH ANNE JONES, DIRECTOR, DEUTSCHE BANK AG, RESEARCH DIVISION: You made some comments about the sourcing benefits in shared services that you think you can get. Should we assume that the opportunity is really in the U.S. and Europe? Or is this -- are you approaching this across your entire system? SCOTT C. MORRISON: No, it's really across our entire system. There's different opportunities in different places. So it's really across the 3 big segments. It's just different buckets in different places. But in total, we're real happy with where we're at and what we expect to show up in '18 and beyond in '19. DEBORAH ANNE JONES: Okay. And then -- seems to be a bit of a renewed debate about plastics specifically in Europe, single-use plastics. And I'm just wondering if you think that there could be an opportunity to kind of increase a shift away from, let's say PET in kind of the non-beer categories. Are you having any of those conversations? Is this an opportunity for you in certain regions? JOHN A. HAYES: Absolutely, it is. I think all of us, for a long time, have recognized not only the inherent advantages of aluminum and used aluminum in a recycling stream, but also people are increasingly waking up to the very difficult fact that we're polluting our oceans and polluting our world with plastic. And people often confuse recycling with collection. Too often, what happens is plastic gets collected but doesn't necessarily get recycled. And last fall, China turned off that spigot where they're no longer accepting any -- import of any plastic, and that's creating more and more of a discussion about it. I think it's a wonderful opportunity for the beverage can really be extolling our benefits as the most sustainable package in the world. And I would -- you should expect to see Ball Corporation really starting to put its shoulder into that, because I think it's the right thing to do, but more importantly, it's in our economic best interest to do. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Scott Gaffner with Barclays. SCOTT LOUIS GAFFNER, DIRECTOR AND SENIOR ANALYST, BARCLAYS PLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: Dan, when I think about some of the added complexity that you've mentioned on prior calls within the system, a lot of it seems to be on the printing side of the equation. And just wondering, from a technological standpoint, has Ball or the industry really been able to solve some of that complexity such that it's not nearly as much of an issue as far as changeovers, et cetera, within the system? How should we think about that? DANIEL WILLIAM FISHER: Yes, I think there's been an awful lot of work that's gone on. Twofold, obviously, digital printing is really sexy. I think a lot of folks are investing in that. I -- that might be able to apply to certain segments of our business Think about craft beer and obviously the proliferation of labels there and -- but the biggest thing right now, it's still costly. I don't know who's going to pay for that right now. There are some solves, but it's at lower speeds and not quite what the industry needs in a $300 billion marketplace. But the other more likely is using robotics and automation on the printers. And obviously, a lot of investment is going in there. Nothing has really cemented itself in the 4 walls of our plants, but I think we're probably a lot closer to that than we have been historically. And why we've organized the way we have in around a global business is to make sure that we're prioritizing investments and increasing skill mix in areas like that to get after that ahead of our competitors and in line with what our customers expect. SCOTT LOUIS GAFFNER: Okay. And Scott, when I think about the share buyback for 2018, you said weighted to the second half of the year. And I understand that's when you typically generate most of your free cash flow for the year, but if I look back historically, most of your share buybacks have been in the first half of the year. Is this only in the second half, because we're at an inflection point of trying to pay down the balance sheet first and then getting the free -- to share repurchase? Or has there been a fundamental, sort of, rethink about when the timing of share repurchase throughout the year? SCOTT C. MORRISON: No, no fundamental change. It's just we have a big working capital build that happens in the first half of the year. We have to reassess our business after we get through the first quarter and be able to dial it in better. So just as we sit here right now, that working capital build will use a lot of our cash for right now. But I think $350 million is a good starting point for 2018, and I see that growing in 2019, because I think our cash flow -- we expect to get $1 billion of free cash flow and we'll be at a point from a leverage standpoint where really, no delevering has to occur. And I would see us being able to orient all or, if not all, the vast majority of that cash to our share buyback and to our dividends. And I see that continuing for a while because this is going to be a cash machine. SCOTT LOUIS GAFFNER: Sure. And the last thing is just on working capital that you generated in 4Q. I mean, how much of that was coming out of the European business? Because if I recall correctly, I think that business in particular had higher-than-expected working capital uses in 4Q of '16. Just thinking (multiple speakers) line. SCOTT C. MORRISON: I think the way that -- I think you're thinking about it right. The businesses, the large businesses that we acquired from Rexam, they weren't an EVA company. So obviously, there was more opportunity in those -- on those balance sheets to get a lot of cash flow, and we saw that going into the deal. And our teams, both from kind of a corporate, treasury, sourcing, legal standpoint working with finance teams in each of those businesses did a fantastic job, and there's more to come. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Brian Maguire with Goldman Sachs. BRIAN P. MAGUIRE, EQUITY ANALYST, GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: Just wanted to come back on South America. It was obviously a really strong performance in there, at least relative to what we were expecting. Just wondering if you could -- looking at the 23.5% margin you generated there, is that kind of in line with how you guys thought the quarter was going to shape up? And I just wanted to get a sense of how sustainable that was or if there were any, sort of, one-timers or good guys in there that would reverse out in '18 other than the ends plant and the new entrant to the market that you called out? JOHN A. HAYES: Yes, maybe I'll point, because I -- we've said in the past that, that is an excellent management team. We have scale there, which is very important. It's a seasonally strongest quarter. And we grew volume-wise 14%. That, in large part, is what drove the continued strong performance. As Dan had mentioned and as I had talked about, as we go into '18, I do think that, that is unsustainable from a margin perspective because of the competitive nature that Dan alluded to, and because we'll be losing some end volume. And so we're going to have to right-size that size of it. But yes, we had a better-than-expected quarter in South America, but not just South America. Dan alluded to it, it's in the rest of the surrounding countries, Argentina. That's why we're building in Paraguay. And Chile was another one that continued strong growth. So I think we did very well there and candidly above our own expectations. DANIEL WILLIAM FISHER: Yes, I would just echo that. We were better than expected, but we were not surprised, and that's why we were able to deliver. So we had -- we were reading the tea leaves in August and September that this was going to be a strong fourth quarter from some of our major customers there, and we made sure that we had capacity online and metal to deliver, and that's what showed up. BRIAN P. MAGUIRE: Okay, great. And then just switching gears to the food business. I think in the past, you've sort of articulated it doesn't consume a lot of capital, generates a lot of cash. Just wondering if the thought there on its strategic position in the overall company has changed at all in the last couple of months? And just any thoughts on how that business will contribute to Ball going forward? JOHN A. HAYES: Well, it's an important part of our business, and it is part of our business until it's not anymore. But our sole objective is to maximize the value of each and every one of our businesses. And we had some manufacturing issues in the first half of 2017. We got past those, and you see, since that time, they've had year-over-year profitability improvement. And as we go into 2018, we continue to expect continued improvement in that business. We are facing headwinds in terms of secular decline in terms of the food category, the food can category, but that doesn't mean we don't expect to make more money as we go forward. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Chip Dillon with Vertical. CLYDE ALVIN DILLON, PARTNER, VERTICAL RESEARCH PARTNERS, LLC: Yes, a couple questions. Could you update us on the start time that you expect for the Madrid plant? Number one. And number two, you mentioned -- I think Scott mentioned that CapEx in 2019 would likely be down. Would that be the case if it made sense? And could it make sense to add capacity somewhere in Mexico, given that it will have been a while since you last added that third line in Monterrey? DANIEL WILLIAM FISHER: For the start-up in Madrid, I referenced in the notes at the beginning, a little ahead of where we thought, maybe 90 days ago, but tail end of May, beginning of June, which is probably 3 to 4 weeks ahead of where we thought this time last quarter. SCOTT C. MORRISON: And on the CapEx side, as I mentioned, we've got some big projects coming on that'll come online in '18, and then we'll see what kind of opportunities we have going forward. We're always talking with our customers to make sure that if they are growing, we're able to supply that growth, and we'll see where that takes us. CLYDE ALVIN DILLON: And then just as a quick follow-on. Can you talk a little bit about how your mix changed last year, either in a given region or as a company when you look at specialty versus standard? And is that partly a factor in what's going on down in South America? You mentioned the new competitor. Are they mainly coming into the standard sizes, and that's sort of -- and therefore, that's what you're losing in terms of share? And maybe that will be, over time, offset by higher specialty volumes? Any comments there would be helpful. DANIEL WILLIAM FISHER: Yes, so it's hard to parse out the definition of what a standard and specialty can is outside of the U.S., because all the other markets around the world have essentially gone to something other than a standard 12-ounce or 33-centiliter can. So the competitor's coming in with cans that are not a 33-centiliter can. But that doesn't mean that, that's not the -- the overwhelming majority of product that's shipped in that marketplace. And I think our specialty growth has been in line or slightly ahead in probably every region in the world, and we continue to see that continuing. As that's what the end consumer preference is, that's what our customers want and that's what we've been investing in. JOHN A. HAYES: Yes, just to give you context. On a global basis, our specialty mix is about 37%. And to Dan's point, in South America, it's almost 50%. When you think about how we define it in the United States, and it's even much greater in EMEA, it's closer to 80%, to Dan's point. And so it varies. But we are seeing growth in specialty stronger than growth in "standard" in every major market. CLYDE ALVIN DILLON: And the 45% in Brazil, that's just for beer or for everything? JOHN A. HAYES: No, that's for everything. CLYDE ALVIN DILLON: Okay. JOHN A. HAYES: Yes, and when you said 45%, I want to clarify, I said just under 50%. So it's between 45% and 50%. CLYDE ALVIN DILLON: Okay. Of the share that can has of all beverage containers? DANIEL WILLIAM FISHER: For clarification, the 45% is can mix. And so what John referenced was the mix within the can mix. JOHN A. HAYES: Yes, the specialty -- said another way, just under 50% of all cans we sell in South America are specialty containers. CLYDE ALVIN DILLON: Understood. But you had said earlier that the can's share of all substrates, I believe, or was it just for beer, went from 43% to 45%. That was in the prepared remarks. I didn't know if that was for beer or for everything. JOHN A. HAYES: I'm sorry, that was just for beer. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of George Staphos with Bank of America. GEORGE LEON STAPHOS, MD AND CO-SECTOR HEAD IN EQUITY RESEARCH, BOFA MERRILL LYNCH, RESEARCH DIVISION: So I know you didn't really want to chat too much about -- or if you feel we chat too much about North America. But I really want to come back to a question here as relates to the fourth quarter. Was there anything aberrational from what you saw in terms of your customers and/or their customers in terms of destocking? We had heard from some of our contacts that there might have been a little bit of effect there, or an effect related to changes in excise taxes, part of the overall tax policy regime change that we've had in the States. I don't know if you have any numbers around that, but I was curious. And then, on specialty, maybe piggybacking off of Chip's last question. What was the specialty growth for you, recognizing it's difficult to parse? If you had to put a number on it either globally or within North America in the quarter. DANIEL WILLIAM FISHER: I'd say on the destocking, the excise tax, really no impact to us. And then on the specialty growth -- JOHN A. HAYES: Yes, it was about 10% on a global basis. GEORGE LEON STAPHOS: Okay. And then the next question I had, if we think about the synergies with Rexam and again, traditionally, it was around SG&A, procurement, footprint. And it sounded like from your comments earlier in the presentation that those are at least trending in line or better than your expectations. I know better than to ask you for a specific number, guys, but is there any one bucket that is seeming maybe a little bit better than your initial expectations? Recognizing that the whole pie is at least in line or better than where you initially started. And if so, could you provide some additional clarity around that? JOHN A. HAYES: Yes, let me -- let's take a step back. And when we said the net $300 million, it roughly broke into about 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 between G&A, sourcing and then manufacturing/footprint/all other. On the G&A side, we said we'd probably get half of it through closure of offices. And recall that we closed the Millbank office. And remember that in June of last year we closed the Charlotte office. We probably got a half or a little bit more of that. The second half of it's going to be coming from moving a lot of activities into our shared services areas that we stood up in '17, including Querétaro, Mexico and Belgrade. So we have yet to get half of that $100 million from G&A, and we expect to get that late '18, but really going into 2019. On the sourcing side, we have gotten all of that -- of that roughly $100 million. And we think there could be a little bit more as we go into '18. And then, as you know, on the footprint side, we have announced the closure of Recklinghausen, and closed in August. We announced the closure of Reidsville in United States, and closed that last summer. We have only -- haven't even gotten a full year benefit of those, and we've announced 3 additional closures in North America that we've gotten 0 benefit from. And we said, between those 3 things on a run rate basis, it's approximately $120 million. GEORGE LEON STAPHOS: Okay. Fair enough. And so when it actually occurs and you can measure it, then we can ask you, at least qualitatively, how you performed there. But certainly nothing. That would suggest that you're not trending where you expect to be on that front. Phase 4, can you provide a little bit more clarity in terms of what goes into Phase 4? And is there any commercial benefit built into that, recognizing it would be in excess of the $300 million plus that you had guided to? JOHN A. HAYES: Well, as -- I'll stand by what I said that we have counted on no benefits in any of the numbers we've talked about from a 2019 perspective in our -- related to the commercial activities. But the various types of things that you should think about that we are contemplating is, number one, let's just focus here in North America. Dan talked about we are building a new plant and closing 3 new facilities, and we're adding no new net capacity. So we're closing standard 12-ounce and adding specialty. The continued growth of that is a part of it. Changing the customer mix over in Europe, where we were far too overweighted to soft drink, is a part of it. I talked about in Europe that we inherited some contracts that were declining year-over-year to, at a minimum, stop that decline is another example. I could go on and on, but there's hundreds of different things. In terms of being more disciplined about to call off fences that we allow our customers to order so they can't change their orders within 12 hours, but they need 48 or 72 hours to do it. There's hundreds of different things. Those often require renegotiation of contracts. And as you know, George, and the other people know, that when we closed on the acquisition of it, we said we have no big contracts coming up for a couple of years. So you put that all together and hopefully, you're starting to see a mosaic that we're painting towards. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Chris Manuel with Wells Fargo. CHRISTOPHER DAVID MANUEL, MD & SENIOR ANALYST, WELLS FARGO SECURITIES, LLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: I wanted to switch gears a second, if I could, and help us a little bit with aerospace. So I kind of look at the progress of the backlog. Just 2 years ago, the backlog was around $600 million. So you almost tripled the backlog over the last couple of years. And I know there kind of tends to be a little bit of a lag as that gets monetizing and goes forward. But appreciating that we're packaging analysts moonlighting in this aerospace business to try to cover, help us with how you would anticipate revenue and EBIT growth goes the next couple of years? I mean, thinking about something that's $10 million to $20 million of EBIT growth, does that sound crazy to you the next couple of years? JOHN A. HAYES: No, I think that's not out of the realm of possibility at all. The only point of nuance that I would add is, usually, the growth of the profitability on the front end of those contracts is a little bit slower as you derisk those contracts and it ramps up. And so, I think, as we start to execute on this, you're going to see, all things being equal, a slightly muted growth. And then if we perform well, we exceed on the back end, as you know. We've done that time and time again. CHRISTOPHER DAVID MANUEL: And the new business that's come in, is it proportionately weighted towards fixed or cost plus? Or how should we think about kind of where that sits? JOHN A. HAYES: Yes. No, it's a little bit more proportionately weighted towards cost plus than we have been over the last 3 to 5 years. A lot of these are very big programs. A lot -- some of them are developmental programs. And as you know, in a developmental program, the cost plus is far more favorable for us and our customer because the specs, if you will, have not been defined. CHRISTOPHER DAVID MANUEL: Okay, that's helpful. And then one question for Scott. As we think about the working capital component, I think you indicated this year, perhaps another $100 million. And how should we think about that going forward? Does it start to -- I mean, I appreciate you had a lot you wanted to bring out of Rexam as you translated -- move -- migrated them towards an EVA platform. But metal costs are going up a little bit. Should we kind of think that working capital begins to flatten out after '18? Or do you feel you still have a little more runway? SCOTT C. MORRISON: It's way too early to tell. We think $100 million is a good proxy for '18. But every year our people have been -- when people are motivated by EVA, they get incredibly creative on ways to generate even more. And so, I'm sure as we get through '18, they'll be thinking about what we can do in '19. CHRISTOPHER DAVID MANUEL: Or perhaps there's something as you open up Goodyear and you get the other 3 plants closed that can continue to move as well. So okay, that's helpful. SCOTT C. MORRISON: Yes. That could help, too. CHRISTOPHER DAVID MANUEL: Last question I had was book in cash tax. So I think you indicated that the book rate was going to migrate down in '19 or '18, I'm sorry... SCOTT C. MORRISON: '18, right. CHRISTOPHER DAVID MANUEL: '18. Do you have a number for us for what you did, cash taxes in '17, and what you think kind of a reasonable cash tax rate might be on a go-forward basis from here? SCOTT C. MORRISON: We didn't pay much in the way of cash taxes in '17. We've got NOLs that we're utilizing, and we won't pay much in the way in '18. That wasn't different with tax reform. That was already anticipated. JOHN A. HAYES: That's for our U.S. taxes. SCOTT C. MORRISON: Correct, U.S. taxes. CHRISTOPHER DAVID MANUEL: Yes. So is the whole corporate, I mean, is something in the 20%-ish range reasonable for cash taxes going forward? SCOTT C. MORRISON: No, it would be -- let me check on that, Chris, and I'll get back to you. I think it's lower than that. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Arun Viswanathan with RBC Capital Markets. ARUN SHANKAR VISWANATHAN, ANALYST, RBC CAPITAL MARKETS, LLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: Just a question on the European margins. They were slightly below our estimates. And just wondering if that was more due to metal pass-through or if it's just kind of delayed benefits from some of the actions you've taken there like Recklinghausen? SCOTT C. MORRISON: Well remember, you got to -- are you adjusting for the depreciation change? ARUN SHANKAR VISWANATHAN: Yes. DANIEL WILLIAM FISHER: Well, I think there -- however, the answer is they're in line or ahead of where we anticipated 90 days ago. So I can't -- I guess I can't comment on your model. ARUN SHANKAR VISWANATHAN: Okay. No problem. Similarly in the U.S., I guess, your margins also on our basis was a little bit lower. But how would you characterize that versus your own expectations? I mean, was there added softness from the beer weakness? DANIEL WILLIAM FISHER: No, I -- we didn't. I mean, we didn't experience the beer weakness in Q4 largely due to our customer mix and our segment mix. The only thing -- we were favorable on basically every line item of our cost structure in the fourth quarter with the exception of the continued headwinds on the freight rates. But all in all, we were ahead of where we thought we'd be in Q4 in the U.S. as well. ARUN SHANKAR VISWANATHAN: And then just real quickly, what's an appropriate level of corporate expense per quarter going ahead? SCOTT C. MORRISON: Well I said it would be $115 million for the full year. OPERATOR: Our last question is a follow-up from the line of Mark Wilde with BMO Capital Markets. MARK WILLIAM WILDE: Yes, I'm just curious if we can get any sense of what the incremental CapEx is in aerospace? SCOTT C. MORRISON: Yes, it's in excess of $100 million. JOHN A. HAYES: Spread over several years. SCOTT C. MORRISON: Yes, spread over a couple of years. We've guided, if you come out to Colorado, Mark, we've got a number of big projects going on right now to expand a number of test facilities and manufacturing facilities. And that'll be mostly in '18 and in '19. JOHN A. HAYES: Yes, and just to give you context. In our satellite manufacturing, we're building some more chambers by which you test, so much larger chambers. And then in our -- as you know, we've experienced some very strong growth in our tactical products, which are everything from the stealth antennas to the video cameras. And we are building on a very large manufacturing wing on to our existing manufacturing site. Those are probably the 2 biggest ones. And if you came out and wanted to visit, we'd be happy to show you. MARK WILLIAM WILDE: I'd love to do that. John, I just want to ask about this Diet Coke rollout that's -- they've been publicizing over the last several weeks. It looks like it's going into sleek cans. And I wondered if you're just -- you're seeing kind of more inquiries from the beverage companies on that sort of thing. JOHN A. HAYES: Yes, I think that hits to the trend that Dan talked about earlier and I did as well. I think you're seeing -- that's why we're seeing 10% growth on a global basis of our specialty. And I think repositioning that is a great example of creating profit pools for themselves and using specialty cans to help do it for them. MARK WILLIAM WILDE: And if that works, if that rollout takes, would they usually use the same packaging format kind of globally, so they'd use the sleek cans in other markets around the world? JOHN A. HAYES: Not necessarily, because tastes are very different by geography and region. And also, they have different bottlers that have different areas of focus. But I do think the use of specialty generally is you're seeing more and more across all of our customer base. OPERATOR: And there are no further questions. JOHN A. HAYES: Okay, great. Thank you, Nelson, and thank you, everyone, for your participation, and we look forward to a strong 2018. OPERATOR: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude the conference call for today. We thank you for your participation, and ask that you please disconnect your line. [Thomson Financial reserves the right to make changes to documents, content, or other information on this web site without obligation to notify any person of such changes. In the conference calls upon which Event Briefs are based, companies may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding a variety of items. 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User may not reproduce or redistribute the material except for user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon Thomson Financial's or ASC's copyright or other proprietary rights or interests in the material; provided, however, that members of the news media may redistribute limited portions (less than 250 words) of this material without a specific license from Thomson Financial and ASC so long as they provide conspicuous attribution to Thomson Financial and ASC as the originators and copyright holders of such material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation.]
Subject: Acquisitions & mergers; Geography; Corporate profits; Investments; Food; Capital markets; Cost control; Aluminum; Copyright; Breweries; Equity; Cash flow; Beer; Earnings per share; Packaging
Location: United States--US North America China Europe
Company / organization: Name: Ball Corp; NAICS: 326199, 327213, 332431, 336414; Name: Thomson Financial; NAICS: 511210, 518210, 519190
Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 7, 2018
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: Linthicum
Country of publication: United States, Linthicum
Publication subject: Bus iness And Economics, Law--Corporate Law
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2006845473
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2006845473?accountid=4840
Copyright: 2018 Thomson Financial and ASC LLC
Last updated: 2018-03-09
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 48 of 474
Brazil: Transgender Parade Star Opens Doors to Diversity in Rio Carnival
Publication info: Asia News Monitor ; Bangkok [Bangkok]08 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: When he paraded during Carnival at age 14 for the first time with a Rio de Janeiro samba group, Wagner Carvalho did not recognize himself in the mirror. Today, after 16 years, four plastic surgeries and a long process of self-discovery, Wagner, now Kamilla, will become the first transgender woman to be one of the star dancers leading the top-tier Acadêmicos do Salgueiro samba group during Rio's glittering Carnival parades, which begin Sunday. While Brazil has a reputation as a free-for-all and tolerant nation, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community faces significant numbers of hate crimes and killings. In 2017, over 170 transgender people were slain in Brazil, compared with 56 in Mexico and 25 in the United States, according to Transgender Europe, an advocacy group. "Adversity for trans people is everywhere," Carvalho said. "If you go into a bakery with me, people are going to look. If I go to a nightclub that is not used to people like me, everything that is different is going to generate resistance." Born in the Rio favela of Providencia, Carvalho always loved Carnival. After debuting with a small neighborhood group at age 14, she began parading on floats with the Salgueiro samba group in 2008. Her big break came last year, when she met the head of Salgueiro, Regina Celi, who invited her to parade in a prominent position. Ten years after dancing with Salgueiro for the first time, Carvalho will play a queen as part of this year's Women of the World's Womb theme, which celebrates the strength of black women. "The story is about ... women warriors ... those who made it possible for women to be empowered today. I think the story is perfect for me," Carvalho said. Celi said Carvalho's prominent role this year was good for Salgueiro, which will compete against 12 other groups for the coveted title of Rio's Carnival champions, a hotly contested event that tens of millions of Brazilians watch live on TV. "It is only natural for us to have this beautiful transgender woman representing us," Celi said. Despite the danger transgender people face in Brazil, Kamilla sees Carnival as an opportunity to promote tolerance. "People should use the street carnival to enjoy themselves peacefully ... without segregating any kind of person, any race, to embrace people," she said. - VOA
Subject: Women; Gays & lesbians; Transgender persons
Location: Mexico Providencia Brazil United States--US Rio de Janeiro Brazil Europe
Publication title: Asia News Monitor; Bangkok
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 8, 2018
Section: General News
Publisher: Thai News Service Group
Place of publication: Bangkok
Country of publication: Thailand, Bangkok
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--Philippines, General Interest Periodicals--Vietnam, General Interest Periodicals--Thailand
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1995127478
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1995127478?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Thai News Service Group Feb 8, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-07
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 49 of 474
Let the good times roll: 13 Chicago spots to celebrate Mardi Gras
Author: Nelson, Samantha
Publication info: Chicago Tribune ; Chicago, Ill. [Chicago, Ill]08 Feb 2018: 14.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Whether you call it Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras or Carnival, the days
before the start of Lent mean huge celebrations around the world.
Luckily you don't have to travel to Brazil or New Orleans to get in
on the fun -- these 13 spots are bringing the party to Chicago with
food and drink specials, live music, giveaways and more. The Boundary 1932 W. Division St. 773-278-1919 Order a slice of $8 king cake made with cinnamon brown ale cake, nut crumble and cream cheese frosting and eat it carefully since if you find a plastic baby hidden inside you'll win a $250 Visa gift card. The Wicker Park restaurant also offers other New Orleans-inspired dishes from Feb. 9 to 13, including shrimp po' boys ($14) and alligator gumbo ($8). Cactus Bar & Grill 404 S. Wells St. 312-922-3830 Slurp down two pounds of crustaceans as fast as you can for a shot at winning the bar's eighth annual Fat Tuesday crawfish eating contest from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Feb. 13. The winner of each round gets a hurricane in a souvenir glass and the top finisher takes home a $100 gift certificate. The contest is free to watch and the $20 entry fee supports Chicago area animal rescue organizations. Carnivale 702 W. Fulton Market 312-850-5005 Combining the traditions of New Orleans and Brazil, the West Loop restaurant hosts silk aerialists and flag and samba dancers during dinner on Feb. 13 and serves specials including baked oysters with Andouille sausage ragout ($13), grilled beef with chimichurri ($36) and king cake with ice cream ($13). Fat Cat 4840 N. Broadway 773-506-3100 Feast on a buffet of Louisiana crawfish, chicken and Andouille sausage jambalaya, red beans and rice, Cajun fried catfish, hush puppies, corn bread, and king cake for $30 at the Uptown bar's 10th annual Mardi Gras celebration at 5:30 and 8 p.m. Feb. 13. They'll also hand out beads, play zydeco music and serve drink specials, including $5 Abita beer, $30 hurricane punch bowls and $11 Sazerac cocktails. Frontier 1072 N. Milwaukee Ave. 773-772-4322 The West Town restaurant's annual Fat Tuesday shrimp boil at 6 p.m. Feb. 13 offers all-you-can-eat seafood, red beans and rice, corn, potatoes and king cake for $35. If you're not that hungry, opt for a $13 shrimp po' boy or $10 jambalaya. Either way you'll want to linger with $4 Abita beer, $6 hurricanes and $7 Sazerac cocktails while listening to music from the Four Star Brass Band. Heaven on Seven 111 N. Wabash Ave. 312-263-6443 The Loop spot serves Cajun fare year-round, but they're offering specials for Mardi Gras including barbecue shrimp rice fritters ($13.99) and green tomato Parmesan with Creole tomato sauce ($14.99) along with hosting live music Feb. 9, 10 and 13. House of Blues 329 N. Dearborn St. 312-923-2000 Get your fortune told by a palm reader and catch performances by a brass band and magician at the River North spot's Carnival of Mardi Gras celebration from 5 to 9 p.m. Feb. 13. Admission is free, but you can get in on a $29.95 crawfish boil, which comes with a hurricane or beer, or just take advantage of specials including $4 Abita beer. Mon Ami Gabi 2300 N. Lincoln Park West 773-348-8886 The Lincoln Park French restaurant goes French Quarter at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 13 with a special dinner including oysters Rockefeller, duck gumbo, jambalaya and king cake with praline ice cream. The $65 meal includes hurricane punch and red and white wine pairings. Nacional 27 325 W. Huron St. 312-664-2727 The River North club kicks off its Carnival celebration from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Feb. 8 with a set from DJ-X. Brazilian dancers and drummers perform starting at 9:30 p.m. Feb. 9 while samba dancers take the floor at 10:30 p.m. Saturday. Hurricanes are $10 throughout the weekend. The Pony 1638 W. Belmont Ave. 312-453-9397 You can feel good about indulging from Feb. 8-13 since the Lakeview bar will donate $1 from every $5 hurricane sold to the Red Cross Relief Fund. For extra New Orleans flavor, the spot also offers a special menu of po' boys, $4 Abita drafts and $5 hand grenades. Porkchop 1516 E. Harper Court 773-493-9333 Enjoy some bayou flavor at the chain's Hyde Park location, which serves a smoked alligator sandwich with fries and coleslaw made from kudzu ($13) plus $9 hurricane, Sazerac and hand grenade cocktails on Feb. 13. Rizzo's Bar & Inn 3658 N. Clark St. 773-799-8161 Keep the party going from noon to 9 p.m. Feb. 17 at BeadQuest, TBOX's 10th annual Mardi Gras bar crawl. For $20 you'll visit 10 Wrigleyville bars enjoying specials on Cajun food, beer and hurricanes and collecting beads for a chance to win prizes. The Sedgwick Stop 1612 N. Sedgwick St. 312-265-1907 Catch a burlesque performance by the Harlequin Girls from 8 to 10 p.m. Feb. 13 at the Old Town bar, which will also serve $10 gumbo and $7 hurricanes. Admission is $20 and includes a Stolen Rum hurricane. Samantha Nelson is a RedEye freelancer.< CAPTION: Photo: King cake from The Boundary. CARINA SHERMAN; Photo: Mardis Gras at House of Blues. ALEX SCHELLDORF; Photo: Catch a burlesque performance by the Harlequin Girls at The
Sedgwick Stop. MEGHAN BESTLER; Photo: Porkchop's alligator sandwich and Mardi Gras cocktails. ERIC
FELTMAN< CREDIT: By Samantha Nelson, For RedEye
Samantha Nelson is a RedEye freelancer.
Subject: Beer; Mardi Gras; Musical performances; Restaurants
Location: Chicago Illinois Brazil Louisiana
Company / organization: Name: Mon Ami Gabi; NAICS: 722511
Publication title: Chicago Tribune; Chicago, Ill.
First page: 14
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 8, 2018
Publisher: Tribune Interactive, LLC
Place of publication: Chicago, Ill.
Country of publication: United States, Chicago, Ill.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
ISSN: 10856706
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1999106676
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1999106676?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Tribune Interactive, LLC Feb 8, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-08
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 50 of 474
BBCM Latin America Watchlist for 8 February
Publication info: BBC Monitoring Americas ; London [London]08 Feb 2018.
Abstract:
Please contact Monitoring's News Desk at Caversham (+44-118-9486555) for queries or more information Venezuela: Maduro says will win 22 April election "with or without" opposition participation Only hours after the latest break-down of his government's peace dialogue with the opposition in Dominican Republic, President Nicolas Maduro pressed ahead regardless with his plan to hold an early presidential election, in which he will stand for re-election. Colombia government pledges to protect citizens during 10-13 February ELN 'armed stoppage' Colombia's Interior Minister Guillermo Rivera said the country's armed forces had been ordered to "guarantee the mobility and integrity" of citizens during an "armed stoppage" announced by the National Liberation Army (ELN) rebel group for 10-13 February, Colombian radio station La W reported on 8 February. Interviewed by W Radio, Rivera said: "Colombians should have the tranquillity and the certainty that the public force will take all the precautions so that, regardless of the [ELN's] call for an armed stoppage, they can continue to carry on normally with their lives, especially in those areas where there is a larger presence of the National Liberation Army." https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dosxb0 Colombia's former vice-president Angelino Garzon said the presidential candidate for the demobilised rebels of the FARC (formerly known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), Rodrigo Londono alias "Timochenko", should withdraw from the campaign trail following protests and heckling against him in the cities of Cali, Armenia and Pereira, as he was placing his life in danger, Colombian daily El Espectador reported on 8 February. https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dosxgy Brazil: leading newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo stops posting content on Facebook Leading Brazilian daily Folha de Sao Paulo announced on 8 February its decision to stop posting content on Facebook due to the "reduced visibility of professional journalism in the social network".Full text: By BBC Monitoring Stories being covered today by BBC Monitoring from Latin American broadcast, press and social media sources. Please contact Monitoring's News Desk at Caversham (+44-118-9486555) for queries or more information Venezuela: Maduro says will win 22 April election "with or without" opposition participation Only hours after the latest break-down of his government's peace dialogue with the opposition in Dominican Republic, President Nicolas Maduro pressed ahead regardless with his plan to hold an early presidential election, in which he will stand for re-election. The pro-government National Electoral Council (CNE) set the election date for 22 April. In a defiant speech on state TV, Maduro said his left-wing "Bolivarian Revolution" would win the upcoming presidential election "with or without" the participation of the opposition, Venezuelan government newspaper Correo del Orinoco reported on 7 February. https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1doswaj The opposition had been pressing for a later election date, in the second quarter of 2018. Maduro's unilateral insistence on the earlier date only increased suspicions among opponents and critics that the Venezuelan elections would not be free or fair. Chile's foreign minister, for example, said his country would "only accept democratic elections". In a separate development, Venezuelan opposition members welcomed an 8 February announcement by International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutors of a preliminary investigation into whether Venezuela's government authorities used excessive force against protesters in 2017. Colombia government pledges to protect citizens during 10-13 February ELN 'armed stoppage' Colombia's Interior Minister Guillermo Rivera said the country's armed forces had been ordered to "guarantee the mobility and integrity" of citizens during an "armed stoppage" announced by the National Liberation Army (ELN) rebel group for 10-13 February, Colombian radio station La W reported on 8 February. Interviewed by W Radio, Rivera said: "Colombians should have the tranquillity and the certainty that the public force will take all the precautions so that, regardless of the [ELN's] call for an armed stoppage, they can continue to carry on normally with their lives, especially in those areas where there is a larger presence of the National Liberation Army." https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dosxb0 Colombia's former vice-president Angelino Garzon said the presidential candidate for the demobilised rebels of the FARC (formerly known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), Rodrigo Londono alias "Timochenko", should withdraw from the campaign trail following protests and heckling against him in the cities of Cali, Armenia and Pereira, as he was placing his life in danger, Colombian daily El Espectador reported on 8 February. https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dosxgy Brazil: leading newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo stops posting content on Facebook Leading Brazilian daily Folha de Sao Paulo announced on 8 February its decision to stop posting content on Facebook due to the "reduced visibility of professional journalism in the social network". "Folha will stop publishing its content on Facebook this Thursday [8 February]. The daily will keep its page on the social network, but will not update it with new posts," Folha said in a story published on its website. "The decision is the reflection of internal discussions about the best way to make its content available to its readers." https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1doswqr Mexican drug cartel tentacles reach from Belize to Buenos Aires Miami will file today 8 February an Explainer on how, from tiny Belize to teeming Buenos Aires, Mexico's drug cartels have extended the tentacles of their criminal business empires across the length and breadth of Latin America. Coming Up Colombia's ELN left-wing rebel group has announced it will stage a "national armed stoppage" on 10-13 February. Brazil's Rio de Janeiro holds its world-famous Carnival 9-17 February BBC Monitoring
Subject: Social networks; Guerrilla forces; Presidential elections; Armed forces
Location: Mexico Belize Venezuela Dominican Republic Armenia Latin America Chile Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil Colombia
People: Maduro, Nicolas
Company / organization: Name: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia; NAICS: 813940; Name: El Espectador; NAICS: 511110; Name: Facebook Inc; NAICS: 518210, 519130; Name: International Criminal Court; NAICS: 922110, 928120
Publication title: BBC Monitoring Americas; London
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 8, 2018
Dateline: LATAM
Publisher: BBC Worldwide Limited
Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Political Science
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1999234451
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1999234451?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright BBC Worldwide Limited Feb 8, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-08
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 51 of 474
Women at Brazil Carnival push back against harassment
Author: Prengaman, Petere
Publication info: Charleston Gazette - Mail ; Charleston, W.V. [Charleston, W.V]08 Feb 2018: A.7.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: RIO DE JANEIRO - Ana Lobo, who is six months pregnant, was at a pre-Carnival street party last weekend when a man started yelling and calling her names. "Whore! she remembered him saying, apparently because she was wearing a revealing top. "Some men have this feeling that they can do whatever to your body, said Lobo, a 29-year-old artist who later that night attended one of the many feminist-themed parties. "It's time for women to take advantage of this moment to push back. Many women in Latin America's largest nation are doing exactly that during this year's Carnival celebrations, with block parties of all-female musicians, shirts, necklaces and crowns with messages like "my breasts, my rules and several campaigns to report and crackdown on harassment. The #metoo movement against harassment that is roiling the U.S. has yet to catch on in Brazil, which has one of the world's highest homicide rates for women, according to the Brazilian nonprofit Mapa da Violencia. But while women's groups say that Brazil has a long way to go to address inequality and ingrained machismo, they see glimmers of a potentially bigger movement in the public dialogue about harassment during Carnival and what authorities and several organizations are doing to crack down on it. The massive party officially begins Friday and goes through Wednesday, but in some cities, such as Rio de Janeiro, it's a multi-week event. The hundreds of block parties often include heavy drinking and round-the-clock samba dancing and they come during the Southern Hemisphere's sweaty summer month of February, when the heat drives many to wear few clothes. Debora Thome, who in 2015 co-organized a block party called "Mulheres Rodadas, or "Women Who Get Around, says Carnival is a good time to focus on fighting harassment because it forces the question of respect amid scantily dressed partygoers. "A woman can be naked in the street and nobody should be allowed to touch her, said Thome, a former reporter currently working on a doctorate on female participation in Brazilian politics. Mulheres Rodadas began as a reaction to photo that went viral on Facebook of a man holding a sign in Portuguese saying he "didn't deserve a woman who gets around. Thome and co-founder Renata Rodrigues announced plans for a block party protest as a joke, and within 24 hours more than 1,000 women said would attend. They knew they had struck a nerve. "Carnival is just a small piece of a much larger problem, said Rodrigues. Since then, several other feminist-themed street party groups have been formed in cities nationwide. They include all-female bands and edgy themes that push back at traditional gender roles and even make fun of derogatory names. At one recent feminist-themed block party, hundreds of women dressed up as animals they said they had been called on the streets: cows, piranhas, hens and cobras, among others. Roma Neptune, a 29-year-old high school sociology teacher, says learning to play the agogo - a percussion instrument that, like all others during Carnival, is usually played by men - has been empowering. However, she is disillusioned by men who claim to be supportive but are not. "They say they are against machismo but won't put their hands in the fire when a woman is in dangerous situation, said Neptune, who dressed as a cow and played in the band. Anderson Semme, one of a few dozen men at the same block party, agreed. "Men's role is to recognize we were wrong for a long time and now do the right thing, said Semme, a 34-year-old computer technician. As she listened to the music with her 3-year-old daughter, Maria Marzal reflected on why she wanted to join the party. The emergency room nurse said that every shift she sees at least one woman who has been raped. "It's a real fear, a cruel fear, said Marzal, 27. Last year, military police in Rio received 2,154 calls about violence against women during Carnival. Noting that figure means one woman was assaulted every few minutes, security officials and several non-government groups that have launched campaigns against harassment. Thousands of stickers are being handed out with messages like "No' is no!' and "Grabbing me won't get you a kiss! Websites encourage women report harassment and direct them to police stations. Maj. Claudia Morais, a Rio police officer who focuses on crimes against women, says the discussion is a step in the right direction, but that women must go beyond that and make reports when incidents happen. Recent changes in the law have made it easier to prosecute aggressors for rape even if there wasn't intercourse, added Morais, who gave the example of a man who has been charged with rape for recently ejaculating on a woman in a public bus. "At the very least, a guy who gets arrested and goes before a judge will think twice about assaulting a woman in the future, she said. Credit: By Petere Prengaman The Associated Press
Subject: Feminism; Women; Assaults; Military police
Location: Brazil United States--US Rio de Janeiro Brazil Southern Hemisphere Latin America
Company / organization: Name: Associated Press; NAICS: 519110; Name: Facebook Inc; NAICS: 518210, 519130
Publication title: Charleston Gazette - Mail; Charleston, W.V.
First page: A.7
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 8, 2018
Section: News
Publisher: Charleston Newspapers
Place of publication: Charleston, W.V.
Country of publication: United States, Charleston, W.V.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1999297013
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1999297013?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Charleston Newspapers Feb 8, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-08
Database: US Southeast Newsstream
Document 52 of 474
LatAm Political, Economic Calendar--Week Ahead
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]08 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
(END)
February 08, 2018 09:30 ET (14:30 GMT)All dates are in local time Thursday, February 8, 2018 Exp Prev Local/GMT/ET 1700/2200/1700 PER Central Reserve Bank of Peru monetary policy meeting and decision Reference Interest Rate 3.0% N/A PER Dec Trade Balance Trade Balance (USD) 588M N/A MEX Banco de Mexico monetary policy decision announcement Overnight Rate 7.25 Overnight Rate, Net Chg +25 (Bps) Friday, February 9, 2018 Exp Prev Local/GMT/ET 0500/0700/0200 BRA Fipe 4-Week CPI 4-Week %Chg +0.52% 0900/1100/0600 BRA Dec Retail Sales Retail Sales, M/M% +0.7% Retail Sales, Y/Y% +1.1% 0800/1400/0900 MEX Dec Industrial Production Indus Output-SA, M/M% -0.1% Indus Output, Y/Y% -1.5% 0800/1400/0900 MEX Dec Final Trade Balance Monday, February 12, 2018 Exp Prev Local/GMT/ET N/A BRA Brazil: Carnival. Financial markets closed N/A PER Dec Trade - Imports and Exports N/A ARG Argentina: Lunes de Carnaval. Financial markets closed N/A VEN Venezuela: Carnival Monday. Financial markets closed Tuesday, February 13, 2018 Exp Prev Local/GMT/ET N/A VEN Venezuela: Carnival Tuesday. Financial markets closed N/A ARG Argentina: Martes de Carnaval. Financial markets closed N/A BRA Brazil: Carnival holiday continues. Financial markets closed
Subject: Monetary policy; International trade; Securities markets; Economic models
Location: Argentina Brazil Venezuela
Company / organization: Name: Central Reserve Bank of Peru; NAICS: 521110; Name: Banco de Mexico; NAICS: 521110
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 8, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1999440777
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?ur l=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1999440777?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Feb 8, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-09
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 53 of 474
LatAm Political, Economic Calendar--Week Ahead
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]08 Feb 2018. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
(END)
February 08, 2018 14:30 ET (19:30 GMT)All dates are in local time Thursday, February 8, 2018 Exp Prev Local/GMT/ET 1700/2200/1700 PER Central Reserve Bank of Peru monetary policy meeting and decision Reference Interest Rate 3.0% N/A PER Dec Trade Balance Trade Balance (USD) 588M N/A MEX Banco de Mexico monetary policy decision announcement Overnight Rate 7.25 Overnight Rate, Net Chg +25 (Bps) Friday, February 9, 2018 Exp Prev Local/GMT/ET 0500/0700/0200 BRA Fipe 4-Week CPI 4-Week %Chg +0.52% 0900/1100/0600 BRA Dec Retail Sales Retail Sales, M/M% +0.7% Retail Sales, Y/Y% +1.1% 0800/1400/0900 MEX Dec Industrial Production Indus Output-SA, M/M% -0.1% Indus Output, Y/Y% -1.5% 0800/1400/0900 MEX Dec Final Trade Balance Monday, February 12, 2018 Exp Prev Local/GMT/ET N/A BRA Brazil: Carnival. Financial markets closed N/A PER Dec Trade - Imports and Exports N/A ARG Argentina: Lunes de Carnaval. Financial markets closed N/A VEN Venezuela: Carnival Monday. Financial markets closed Tuesday, February 13, 2018 Exp Prev Local/GMT/ET N/A VEN Venezuela: Carnival Tuesday. Financial markets closed N/A ARG Argentina: Martes de Carnaval. Financial markets closed N/A BRA Brazil: Carnival holiday continues. Financial markets closed
Subject: Monetary policy; International trade; Securities markets; Economic models
Location: Argentina Brazil Venezuela
Company / organization: Name: Central Reserve Bank of Peru; NAICS: 521110; Name: Banco de Mexico; NAICS: 521110
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 8, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1999450012
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?ur l=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1999450012?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Feb 8, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-09
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 54 of 474
Press Release: FLEETCOR Reports Fourth Quarter and Fiscal-Year 2017 Financial Results
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]08 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
FLEETCOR Reports Fourth Quarter and Fiscal-Year 2017 Financial Results
FLEETCOR Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:FLT), a leading global provider of commercial payment solutions, today reported financial results for its fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2017.
"Our Q4 revenues and profits finished above our expectations, and our sales, retention, and same store customer trends were very strong. For fiscal year 2017, revenues and adjusted net income per diluted share grew 23%; while we re-positioned the company for faster growth, with the Cambridge acquisition and the Nextraq divestiture," said Ron Clarke, chairman and chief executive officer, FLEETCOR Technologies, Inc. "For 2018, we expect each of our four primary product categories -- fuel, toll, lodging, corporate payments -- to continue to drive our Company's growth as we focus relentlessly on execution in order to win new clients, open up new geographies, and provide improved value over a broader range of spend categories."
Financial Results for Fourth Quarter of 2017:
GAAP Results
Non-GAAP Results(1)
Financial Results for Fiscal-Year 2017:
GAAP Results
Non-GAAP Results(1)
Fiscal-Year 2018 Outlook:
"2018 is setting up well with a number of tailwinds that we expect will help drive profits in the year. First, the macro is expected to continue to be favorable to revenue by approximately $40 million, organic growth is expected to be in the 8% to 10% range on a normalized basis, and the new tax act will drive our overall tax rate down by an estimated 5%. As a result, we are guiding adjusted net income per diluted share to $10.20 at the midpoint which represents approximately a 20% growth from prior year," said Eric Dey, chief financial officer FLEETCOR Technologies, Inc.
For 2018, FLEETCOR Technologies, Inc. financial guidance is as follows:
FLEETCOR's guidance assumptions for 2018 are as follows:
Fiscal First Quarter of 2018 Outlook:
For those of you that are looking for guidance for the first quarter, the business has some seasonality and typically the first quarter is the lowest in terms of both revenue and profit. First quarter seasonality is impacted by weather, holidays in the U.S., and lower business levels in Brazil, due to summer break and the Carnival celebration that occurs in the first quarter.
With that said, the Company is expecting first quarter adjusted net income per diluted share to be between $2.30 and $2.40(1) . Additionally, volumes should build throughout the year, and new asset initiatives are also expected to gain momentum throughout the year resulting in higher revenue and earnings per share in the second through fourth quarters.
Conference Call
The Company will host a conference call to discuss fourth quarter and full year 2017 financial results today at 5:00pm ET. Hosting the call will be Ron Clarke, chief executive officer, Eric Dey, chief financial officer and Jim Eglseder, investor relations. The conference call can be accessed live over the phone by dialing (877) 407-0784, or for international callers (201) 689-8560. A replay will be available one hour after the call and can be accessed by dialing (844) 512-2921 or (412) 317-6671 for international callers; the conference ID is 13675734. The replay will be available until February 15, 2018. The call will be webcast live from the Company's investor relations website at investor.fleetcor.com. Prior to the conference call, the Company will post supplemental financial information that will be discussed during the call and live webcast.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about FLEETCOR's beliefs, expectations and future performance, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "anticipate," "intend," "believe," "estimate," "plan," "seek," "project, " "expect," "may," "will," "would," "could" or "should," the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. Examples of forward-looking statements in this press release include statements relating to macro- economic conditions, expected organic growth rates, impact of the new tax act, and estimated impact of these conditions on our operations and financial results, expected timing of acquisitions and dispositions, revenue and earnings guidance and assumptions underlying financial guidance. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement, such as fuel price and spread volatility; the impact of foreign exchange rates on operations, revenue and income; the effects of general economic conditions on fueling patterns and the commercial activity of fleets; changes in credit risk of customers and associated losses; the actions of regulators relating to payment cards or resulting from investigations; failure to maintain or renew key business relationships; failure to maintain competitive offerings; failure to maintain or renew sources of financing; failure to complete, or delays in completing, anticipated new customer arrangements or acquisitions and the failure to successfully integrate or otherwise achieve anticipated benefits from such customer arrangements or acquired businesses; failure to successfully expand business internationally, risks related to litigation, as well as the other risks and uncertainties identified under the caption "Risk Factors" in FLEETCOR's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 1, 2017, and quarterly reports on form 10-Q for the quarters ended June 30 and September 30, 2017 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 8, 2017 and November 9, 2017, respectively. FLEETCOR believes these forward-looking statements are reasonable; however, forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of performance, and undue reliance should not be placed on such statements. The forward-looking statements included in this press release are made only as of the date hereof, and FLEETCOR does not undertake, and specifically disclaims, any obligation to update any such statements or to publicly announce the
(MORE TO FOLLOW)
February 08, 2018 16:05 ET (21:05 GMT)PEACHTREE CORNERS, Ga.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--February 08, 2018-- -- Total revenues increased 18.5% to $610.0 million in the fourth quarter of 2017 compared to $515.0 million in the fourth quarter of 2016. -- Net income increased 196.3% to $282.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2017 compared to $95.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2016. Included in the fourth quarter is the favorable estimated impact of adoption of the Tax Reform Act of $127.5 million. Also, included in the fourth quarter of 2016 were non-cash impairment charges related to the Company's minority investment in Masternaut of approximately $36 million. -- Net income per diluted share increased 204.6% to $3.05 in the fourth quarter of 2017 compared to $1.00 per diluted share in the fourth quarter of 2016. -- Adjusted revenues1 (revenues, net less merchant commissions) increased 18.4% to $579.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2017 compared to $489.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2016. -- Adjusted net income1 increased 24.1% to $224.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2017 compared to $180.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2016. -- Adjusted net income per diluted share1 increased 27.6% to $2.42 in the fourth quarter of 2017 compared to $1.90 per diluted share in the fourth quarter of 2016. -- Total revenues increased 22.8% to $2,249.5 million in 2017 compared to $1,831.5 million in 2016. -- GAAP net income increased 63.6% to $740.2 million in 2017 compared to $452.4 million in 2016. Included in 2017 is the favorable estimated impact of adoption of the Tax Reform Act of $127.5 million and a gain on the sale of Nextraq of $109.2 million. -- GAAP net income per diluted share increased 66.5% to $7.91 in 2017 compared to $4.75 per diluted share in 2016. -- Adjusted revenues1 (revenues, net less merchant commissions) increased 23.7% to 2,136.4 million in 2017 compared to $1,727.2 million in 2016. -- Adjusted net income1 increased 21.2% to $798.9 million in 2017 compared to $659.2 million in 2016. -- Adjusted net income per diluted share1 increased 23.3% to $8.54 in 2017 compared to $6.92 in 2016. -- Total revenues between $2,490 million and $2,550 million; -- Adjusted Revenues to be between $2,370 million and $2,430 million; -- GAAP net income between $690 million and $720 million; -- GAAP net income per diluted share between $7.40 and $7.70; -- Adjusted net income1 between $935 million and $965 million; and -- Adjusted net income per diluted share1 between $10.05 and $10.35. -- Weighted fuel prices equal to $2.57 per gallon average in the U.S. for those businesses sensitive to the movement in the retail price of fuel. -- Market spreads equal to the 2017 average. -- Foreign exchange rates equal to the seven-day average as of January 22, 2018. -- Interest expense of $125 million, which assumes two additional twenty-five basis point increases in 2018. -- Fully diluted shares outstanding of approximately 93.3 million shares. -- A tax rate of 22 to 24%. -- No impact for ASC 606, as we are still completing our analysis. -- No impact related to acquisitions or material new partnership agreements not already disclosed. _______________________________________ (1) Reconciliations of GAAP results to non-GAAP results are provided in Exhibit 1 attached. Additional supplemental data is provided in Exhibit 2-3 and 5, and segment information is provided in Exhibit 4. A reconciliation of GAAP guidance to non-GAAP guidance is provided in Exhibit 6.
Subject: Acquisitions & mergers; Tax reform; Tax rates; Corporate profits; Foreign exchange rates; Economic conditions; Earnings per share; Webcasting; Net income
Location: United States--US
Company / organization: Name: Securities & Exchange Commission; NAICS: 926150
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 8, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1999456424
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1999456424?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Feb 8, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-09
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 55 of 474
A sisterhood of drummers, 80 strong, keeping time to a Brazilian beat: In Batalá Washington, women from all walks of life bond while playing the Carnival sounds of northeast Brazil.
Author: Catlin, Roger
Publication info: The Washington Post (Online) , Washington, D.C.: WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post. Feb 8, 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: You hear them long before you see them: Big, booming sounds bouncing off buildings that grow more insistent and precise in their polyrhythms as they approach. And when the musicians come into focus, swaggering and moving with the beat, there is another surprise: They are all women. Batalá Washington, 80 women strong, has been delighting audiences for a decade, bringing the Carnival rhythms of the Bahia region of northeast Brazil to the District and beyond, even as they show a force of solid sisterhood. They are young, old, black, white, petite, large, tall, short — all working this indomitable, percussive cultural-delivery machine. Although they are part of an international movement that began in France 20 years ago, Batalá Washington maintains its unique status, says Alison Rodden, the group's musical director. "There are over 35 Batalás around the world and here in the U.S. there's about to be 10," Rodden says. "We were the first one that was 100 percent women." A fixture at city marathons and street fairs, Batalá has played internationally, led both big Women's Marches in the District and opened for the Rolling Stones in 2012. "How many people can say, 'I opened for the Rolling Stones?' " says Carol Freitas, one of a handful of Brazilians in Batalá. "We played with Sheila E., we played with Wyclef Jean," Rodden says. "And then of course, in Brazil, we performed with a lot of the founders of the genre samba-reggae. Even the Blue Man Group asked one year if we could play with them." There is a growing demand for them to play in town, with up to 10 performances a month come summertime. As much as they've accomplished in a decade, Rodden says, "it's just a beginning for us. We're taking the band to a new level. Some of our members have been in the band nine or 10 years now, so it's important for those who are technically advanced and been around a bit, but we've also got people who started yesterday." Most newcomers are trained on the largest drum — the surdo — big as a Western bass drum and played with mallets — which provides the heartbeat of the sound. The nearly-as-big dobra offers a melody that plays in call-and-response style with the tom-tom-like repique, while the snare-like caixa offers the highest-pitched clatter. "There's something pretty incredible about having all women with these drums strapped around their waist," says Janine Sayles. "It's very empowering. And I think that we empower a lot of women who watch us." After all, few women were encouraged to take up the drums, Rodden says. When it came time in elementary school to choose instruments, she says, "they're like, 'What do you want to play?' For girls, it's flute or clarinet." Even now, the ranks of professional female drummers is fairly limited. So when a big unit of female drummers marches noisily toward you, "it's undeniable," Rodden says. For some band members, Batalá is a chance to pick up on drumming they otherwise had to give up with college marching bands. "I've drummed all my life," says Ellen Arnold-Losey, a member since 2010 who is originally from Iowa. "Once you finish school, there's not many opportunities to play anymore. "I did a summer with a professional drum-and-bugle choir. I tried these hand-drumming circles. I tried drum set," Arnold-Losey says. "They weren't a good fit for me. And then shortly after I moved to D.C., I happened upon the band, and I was like: That's the thing I was looking for." There was a learning curve, she says. "My background was American, traditional, Revolutionary style of drum-line drumming, and this is Brazilian. It's got a very different swing. The rhythms move in ways that are different than I was used to before," Arnold-Losey says. Most of the learning is done in the rehearsals. One recent Saturday, in the empty morning-after of a U Street disco, Rodden faces the eager drummers with a variety of hand signals and encouragements. "Don't be shy about anything," she says to newcomers about their demonstrative movements. "If you think something is too much, take it two steps beyond." There is no sheet music, video training or reference materials. "That's consistent with the tradition of how the music was taught in Brazil," says Rosa Moreno. "The oral tradition of teaching and learning is really critical. That's something we really embody with the music, and it also helps create community," Rodden says. Each Saturday without fail, they gather to rehearse for four hours, perfecting their approach on their array of colorful drums, sometimes capped by a guerrilla street performance. There's more women who have wanted to join Batalá than there are drums to give them, so often months go by without accepting new members. A visitor to Saturday practice is first offered earplugs. Loud enough at their regular audition spot at Hancock Park near the L'Enfant Plaza Metro station, they are even more necessary in the indoor spaces at the 9:30 Club or nearby Town Danceboutique. "We used to rehearse at Farragut Square, but we got kicked out because a hotel there complained of noise," Freitas says. "Then we had rehearsed at Dupont Circle, got kicked out." "You name it and we've been kicked out of there," Rodden says. Rehearsal spaces now seem stable, especially because the federal offices near Hancock Park are otherwise deserted on Saturday mornings. There, one of the newest drummers is Emily Smith, 37, an "aspiring" band member who, after a number of rehearsals over time, can become eligible for her own drum. The Louisiana native, a program manager at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, had a decade of drumming experience. "But this is brand new," Smith says. "The dancing, for one thing, and all the choreography. I did a marching band, but that's a very different thing." So far, she says, "it's a really good vibe. All the women are very welcoming. We remind each other we're here because we love this. There doesn't seem to be any tension among us because we all love this. Nobody's getting paid. But I love seeing we've had women in their 70s down to their 20s." "That's one of my favorite things about this band," says Ashley Elstro, 30, a data analyst in the senior living industry. "I feel like I'm learning so much about ladies of all ages, all walks of life, all different professions, so if I ever have an issue, there's always somebody I can learn from." The oldest current member of Batalá is Charlotte Conley, 66, a reading teacher in Congress Heights. She decided to join "a couple months before my 65th birthday. It was my birthday present to myself." "My friends and family were shocked," Conley says. "I had no musical genes whatsoever. But apparently I can rally some rhythm." She had seen Batalá at a street festival in 2014. "Everybody was dancing and having a great time. And it was also a strong group of women. You could feel the energy and the camaraderie." The group was very accommodating to her, Conley says. "I got hip replacement surgery January last year, but it hasn't made a bit of difference. I played sitting down for a while. They're very accommodating to my using adaptive equipment. Half of the rehearsal I play standing up at the drum, and half I play with my drum stand." "I don't think I would have done it had it been a co-ed group, considering I have no musical ability whatsoever," Conley says. "The fact that it was an all-female group felt much more supportive and accepting. And they were very accepting." Compared with her friends who also settled in the District after college, Cait Nordehn says she has found a wider community surrounding her, "built over the past five years, where I've met people from all over the DMV that I probably wouldn't have met who are older, younger, from different places and different professions. This is what's been really enriching just as much as the music." Would it be different if men were in the group? "We talk about it sometimes," says Nordehn, who plays the speedy sixteenth notes on the caixa: "What if we invited men to join us? While I would certainly welcome that, I think there's a special relationship we have and a different way we can be just among women." Having only women, says Karon Phillips, brings a "certain level of deeper understanding among each other without it even being said." Credit: By Roger Catlin
Subject: Bands; Music; Rehearsals; Empowerment; Professions
Location: United States--US Louisiana Brazil France Iowa
People: Jean, Wyclef
Company / organization: Name: Congress; NAICS: 921120; Name: Rolling Stones; NAICS: 711130; Name: National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration--NOAA; NAICS: 924120; Name: Blue Man Group; NAICS: 711190
Publication title: The Washington Post (Online); Washington, D.C.
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 8, 2018
Dateline: 2018020817584600
Section: STYLE
Publisher: WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post
Place of publication: Washington, D.C.
Country of publication: United States, Washington, D.C.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
ISSN: 26419599
Source type: Blogs, Podcasts, & Websites
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1999473419
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1999473419?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post Feb 8, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-09
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 56 of 474
Q4 2017 Fleetcor Technologies Inc Earnings Call - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]08 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Presentation OPERATOR: Greetings, and welcome to the FLEETCOR Technologies Fourth Quarter 2017 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, James Eglseder, Head of Investor Relations. JAMES P. EGLSEDER, HEAD OF IR, FLEETCOR TECHNOLOGIES, INC.: Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for joining us today. By now you should have access to our fourth quarter press release, which can be found on our website www.fleetcor.com under the Investor Relations section. I would like to point out that we also published a supplemental presentation in conjunction with the release that we hope will be useful in reviewing our results and outlook. Throughout this conference call, we will be presenting non-GAAP financial information, including adjusted revenues, adjusted net income and adjusted net income per diluted share. This information is not calculated in accordance with GAAP and may be calculated differently than other companies similarly titled non-GAAP information. Quantitative reconciliations of historical non-GAAP financial information to the most directly comparable GAAP information appears in today's press release and on our website as previously described. Also, we are providing 2018 guidance on both a GAAP and the non-GAAP basis with a reconciliation of the two. Finally, before we begin our formal remarks, I need to remind everyone that part of our discussion today will include forward-looking statements. This includes forward-looking statements about our 2018 guidance, new products and fee initiatives and expectations regarding business development and acquisitions. They are not guarantees of future performance, and therefore, you should not put undue reliance upon them. These results are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from what we expect. Some of those risks are mentioned in today's press release on Form 8-K and on our annual report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These documents are available on our website, as previously discussed and at www.sec.gov. With that out of the way, I would like to turn the call over to Ron Clarke, our Chairman and CEO. Ron? RONALD F. CLARKE, CHAIRMAN & CEO, FLEETCOR TECHNOLOGIES, INC.: Okay. Jim, thanks. We're delighted that you've joined us, the head of IR here at FLEETCOR. And hi to everyone, I appreciate you joining the call this afternoon. So upfront here, I'll plan to cover 3 subjects. First, I'll provide my take on Q4 and full year 2017. Second, I'll discuss our plans and our guidance for 2018. And then finally, I'll share our thoughts on our midterm prospects, those beyond 2018. Okay. So on to the quarter. We reported Q4 revenue of $610 million, up 18%, and cash EPS of $242 million, up 28%. So $610 million and $242 million, 18% top line, 28% bottom line. Some good news on organic revenue growth for the quarter. Overall organic growth improved to 10% in Q4. Inside of that, our fuel card organic growth was 5%, although we believe it would have been 8% to 9% if adjusted for the MasterCard conversion. Our nonfuel card, our product categories, tolls, lodging and corporate payments, excluding Cambridge, all grew organically in excess of 20% for the quarter. So very strong. In terms of other trends, our same-store sales were positive plus 2% for the quarter, that's on top of 2% last quarter as well. We saw increased strength in Brazil and Russia inside our hotel business, the rail and oil and gas recovered nicely and a lot of strength across the board in our Corporate Payments business. Another train customer retention, very strong 91% in Q4, that makes 11 consecutive quarters at 90% plus. Our sales, our new sales bookings, terrific, up 23% in Q4 and that's on back of 23% sales growth that we reported in Q3. So new sales bookings accelerating here in the second half versus the first half. So look, in summary, we'd say a very good Q4. Cash EPS, up 28%, revenues came in at the high end of our expectations. Organic growth improved to 10% overall. Continued record sales growth, up 23%. Strengthening of our same-store sales, up plus 2% and continued 90% plus customer retention. So in terms of full year 2017, let me talk about just a few highlights. So first, revenue of $2,250,000,000, up 23%, full year cash EPS of $854 million also up 23%. So 23% top, 23% bottom for full year 2017. Our full year 2017 new sales bookings, up 18% for the full year, but again, 23% in the second half. Our full year 2017 organic revenue growth penciled out at 9%. We did reposition the portfolio in '17 for faster growth. We acquired Cambridge along with 2 tuck-in acquisitions and sold NexTraq, our telematics business to Michelin. STP worked out quite well, we integrated it nicely here in its first full year at FLEETCOR. Revenues for the full year grew 18% and their profits grew over 50% versus 2016 pro forma. In terms of presenting our company, we think we simplified the presentation of FLEETCOR into 4 primary spend categories, enhanced our disclosures, hoping to make the company easier to understand, and we did return some capital. We retired almost 2.9 million FLEETCOR shares in '17 and refinanced our credit facility to give us a bit more liquidity. So look, all in all, a pretty good year. Greater than 20% revenue and profit growth, record sales, good retention, a material acquisition, some accretive capital allocation and a pretty strong finish. Okay, let me transition over to our plans for 2018. First, I'll lay out our '18 guidance and then speak a bit to the bridge. So for full year 2018, our guidance is as follows. Revenue of $2,520,000,000 at the midpoint, that's up 12% or $270 million and cash EPS of $10.20 at the midpoint, that's up approximately 20%. So if you think about the revenue bridge, it goes something like this. The net impact of the new acquisitions versus the divestitures in '17 gives us about a 3% lift in '18. We're expecting the macro fuel and FX to help us about 2% in '18, and we're planning normalized organic growth to be between 8% and 10%. Inside of that though, we do expect the one-time grow overs related to Chevron, FEMA and GFN to press normalize growth about 2%. So if you add those 4 up, that should be the 12% planned revenue increase. We have included a bridge in our earnings supplement for this call to help walk through this. Inside of the overall 12% revenue growth, we're expecting our fuel card business to grow 6% to 8%, our gift and all other buckets to be fundamentally flat and then the rest of our nonfuel card businesses to grow quite nicely into mid-teens. If you recall, we have grown revenues organically about 9% in 2016 and 2017. So we're planning the same range 8% to 10% this year, 2018 on a normalized basis. Our sales and retention trends, as I mentioned earlier, are quite good, which gives us some confidence in the 8% to 10% target. So in terms of cash EPS, the bridge goes something like this. We've reported $854 million in cash EPS for 2017, and in a constant tax world, we're expecting cash EPS to grow about 15% at the midpoint. But as a result of the tax reform, we're estimating today about a 5% lower 2018 ETR, around 23% versus close to 28% in 2017. That lower tax rate results in about $0.64 of tax savings. Our plan this year is to invest about a third of that of those tax savings back into the business and that takes us to our $10.20 cash EPS guidance at the midpoint. In terms of the initial thoughts for the tax savings reinvestment, we're considering 3 areas. So first, employees, returning some of our tax savings to our employees who obviously make FLEETCOR go. We're looking at improving certain benefits in the company like 401(k) and considering higher minimum wages. The second area for reinvestment is in growth, specifically to hire some additional sales teams where things are working and then some additional IT resources to accelerate growth at the midterm. And then the third area is really transformation. We've got a couple of big transformational initiatives to simplify and standardize our systems and really improve quality and the overall customer experience. So thoughts are to double down there. In terms of our plan, yes, we do think there could be some upside potentially to the $10.20 plan. We do have some active partner prospects and some active acquisitions that obviously will progress this year. Okay, so last up is the midterm. So let me relay our thinking as it relates to the midterm prospects, so beyond 2018. So at the highest level, we think of our company as participating in 4 major spend categories. Fuel, toll, lodging and corporate pay. Each of these categories are multi-billion dollar market opportunities and we're fortunate to have advantaged positions in each one of them. We did enjoy 20%-plus revenue growth in the 3 nonfuel lines of business in Q4 excluding Cambridge, and we do expect fuel to recover to the 8% to 10% mark once we lap the onetime items this year. I do want to speak a bit about some of the innovative product and distribution ideas that we're working that could have some lift, some impact to our midterm prospects. So in the fuel card category, we have spoken about this fuel-first initiative in Brazil. We're quite excited about that. Expanding the market there to non-toll users, so that's in progress. We also like this beyond fuel idea here in the U.S. and the U.K. of getting our existing fuel card clients to spend monies on other purchase categories other than fuel. In lodging, we're underway with our couple new ways for our clients to book. Historically, our CLC clients either walked into hotels or called and reserve rooms themselves. We've now offered a digital option, which people obviously have come to expect along with an old-fashioned kind of reservation option, which provides what we call, more ways to book. And we're already seeing some volume lift early on. In the toll business, in STP, we've launched 3 or 4 new sales channel approaches including using third-party retailers, pushing hard at the digital, the web and even testing vending machines to sell tags in 2017. The success has been pretty good and we're actually planning 30% of all new STP sales in 2018 to come from these new channels. We also are looking at 3 or 4 new toll roads in Brazil that come online starting this spring. So we should get a bit of a lift from that. And lastly, in Corporate Payments, we've spoken about this full AP solution that we're working on, in which we'd offer smaller clients, a combination of virtual card, ACH and even paper checks, so that they could get a complete payables-outsourcing solution. So quite excited about pushing that forward. And clearly with Cambridge now in the fold, we have some opportunities to bundle and cross-sell international FX, so a couple of upsides there. So lastly, we feel quite clear on what we're trying to do to grow the business. As a reminder, 3 things. So one, we're simply trying to add more clients by selling more and offering innovative products. Two, we're trying to capture more spend from clients, offering new spend categories to them. And then lastly we're looking to widen or expand the geography in which we do everything that we do. So anyway we do like our midterm prospects and hope that you do too. So with that, let me turn the call over to Eric, he'll cover a few more details on the quarter and on '18. Eric? ERIC R. DEY, CFO, FLEETCOR TECHNOLOGIES, INC.: Thank you, Ron. For the fourth quarter of 2017, we reported revenue of $610 million, up 18.5% compared to $515 million in the fourth quarter of 2016. The revenue from our North America segment increased 18% to $387.8 million from $328.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2016. Revenue from our international segment increased 19.2% to $222.2 million from $186.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2016. For the fourth quarter of 2017, GAAP net income increased 196.3% to $282.7 million or $3.05 per diluted share from $95.4 million or $1 per diluted share in the fourth quarter of 2016. Included in the fourth quarter of 2017 net income was an estimated favorable impact of adoption of a Tax Reform Act of $127.5 million. Non-GAAP financial metrics that we routinely use are adjusted revenues and adjusted net income, which we sometimes also refer to as cash net income or cash EPS. Adjusted revenues equal our GAAP revenues less merchant commissions. A reconciliation of adjusted revenues and adjusted net income to GAAP numbers are provided in exhibit one of our press release. Adjusted revenues in the fourth quarter of 2017 were $579.5 million, up 18.4% compared to $489.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2016. Adjusted net income for the fourth quarter of 2017 increased 24.1% to $224.1 million, compared to $180.5 million. And adjusted net income per diluted share increased 27.6% to $2.42 compared to $1.90 per diluted share in the fourth quarter of 2016. Fourth quarter results reflect the impact of a positive macroeconomic environment. Changes in foreign exchange rates from the fourth quarter of 2016 were primarily positive, and we believe positively impacted revenue during the quarter by approximately $9 million. Fuel prices were also mostly favorable during the quarter and although we cannot precisely calculate the impact of these changes, we believe positively impacted revenues by approximately $8 million. And finally, fuel spreads had no meaningful impact versus the fourth quarter of 2016. So in total, the impact of those changes positively impacted our fourth quarter revenues by approximately $17 million and adjusted net income per diluted share by approximately $0.11 versus the fourth quarter of 2016. Organic revenue growth even after adjusting out the positive impact of the macroeconomic environment was approximately 10% for the fourth quarter of 2017. Now let's shift over and discuss other drivers of our fourth quarter performance. Most of our major product categories performed well during the quarter. Our fuel card business reported 5% organic growth in the quarter. However, we believe the organic growth would have been approximately 8% or 9% after adjusting for the MasterCard conversion issue in the first quarter. We expect that organic growth in the category will continue to be impacted until we lap the conversion issue at the end of the second quarter up to 2018. The Corporate Payments category continues to grow well and was up 16% organically during the quarter as we saw very good growth from our new customer acquisitions over the last few years. Our toll business was up 24% organically due primarily to implementation of a number of our growth initiatives, implemented throughout the year at STP. Our lodging business was up 31%, driven primarily by higher sales and increase in room nights due to improvement in the energy sector and continued FEMA rooms due to the impact of hurricanes in 2017. The gift business was up 6% organically due primarily to the timing of card sales. So all in all, another solid quarter for our businesses. Now moving down the income statement. Total operating expenses for the fourth quarter were $370 million, compared to $299 million in the fourth quarter of 2016. An increase of 23.7%. As a percentage of total revenues, operating expenses increased to 60.7% of revenue, compared to 58.1% in the fourth quarter of 2016. Included in operating expenses are merchant commissions, processing expenses, bad debt, selling and general and administrative expense, depreciation and amortization expense and other operating net. The increase in operating expenses were primarily due to acquisitions completed in 2017, which has a lower than average EBITDA margins, an increase in stock-based compensation to $24.6 million compared to $14 million in the fourth quarter of 2016, and additional legal and settlement expenses booked in the fourth quarter. Credit losses were $8.9 million for the fourth quarter or 5 basis points, compared to $11.4 million or 7 basis points in the fourth quarter of 2016. Depreciation and amortization expense increased 7.2% to $65.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2017 from $61.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2016. The increase was primarily due to acquisitions completed in 2017. Interest expense increased 40.2% to $30.8 million, compared to $22 million in the fourth quarter of 2016. The increase in interest expense was due primarily to the impact of additional borrowing for the Cambridge acquisition, share buybacks and increases in LIBOR. Equity investment loss decreased to $667,000 in the fourth quarter of 2017 versus a loss of $38.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2016. The year-over-year change was primarily due to a $36 million impairment charge booked in the fourth quarter of 2016, and 2017 changes associated with our investment arrangement with the majority partner. On December 22, 2017, the U.S. government enacted comprehensive tax legislation, commonly referred to as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The tax act makes broad and complex changes to the U.S. tax code, including but not limited to reducing the U.S. federal corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% and requiring companies to pay a onetime transition tax on certain unrepatriated earnings of foreign subsidiaries. The transition tax can be paid over 8 years. Also, the SEC staff issued staff accounting bulletin 118, which provides guidance on accounting for the tax effects of the tax act. In accordance with SAB 118, we have a 1-year measurement period in which to complete our accounting for the tax act. We have made an estimate of the effects on our existing deferred tax balances and the onetime transition tax, which resulted in a provisional net tax benefit of $127.5 million, which is included as a component of income tax expense from continuing operations. The onetime transition tax is based on our total post-1986 earnings and profits that we previously deferred from U.S. income taxes. In the fourth quarter, we recorded a professional amount for the onetime transition tax expense of $882.5 million. We also remeasured certain deferred tax assets and liabilities after considering the U.S. federal income tax rate reduction to 21%. The provisional tax benefit recorded related to the remeasurement of our net deferred tax liability was $210 million. As stated earlier, we are still analyzing certain aspects of the tax act and refining our calculations, which could potentially affect the measurement of these balances. In the fourth quarter of 2017, after the impact of the tax act, as I just discussed, we recorded a tax benefit of $74.4 million, compared to a tax expense of $58 million for the fourth quarter of 2016. Excluding the impact of the tax act, our GAAP taxes would have been $53.1 million or 25.5%, compared to 37.8% in the fourth quarter of 2016. The fourth quarter of 2016 tax rate was unfavorably impacted by the non-cash impairment charge, which resulted in a reduction in basis in a minority investment for book purposes but not for tax purposes. Excluding this non-cash item, our tax rate in the fourth quarter of 2016 would have been 30.2%. The fourth quarter of 2017 tax rate was favorably impacted by a tax project completed in the fourth quarter, which lowered our fourth quarter tax rate by approximately 2.8%, it will also benefit future periods by approximately the same amount. In addition, a onetime true-up of prior year taxes reduced our fourth quarter tax rate by approximately 1.3%. Our normalized tax rate for the quarter was approximately 27%. Now turning to the balance sheet. We ended the quarter with $1,131,000,000 in total cash. Approximately $190 million is restricted and consists primarily of customer deposits. As of December 31, 2017, we had $2,656,000,000 outstanding on our term A loan. $349 million outstanding on our term B loan and $670 million drawn on our revolver, leaving approximately $615 million of undrawn availability. We had $811 million borrowed in our securitization facility at the end of the quarter. We did not repurchase any shares of common stock in the fourth, and in total for 2017, we purchased 2,850,000 shares. We have approximately $510 million in repurchase capacity remaining under our current authorization. As of December 31, 2017, our leverage ratio was 2.42x EBITDA, which is well below our covenant level of 4x EBITDA as calculated under our new credit agreement. We intend to use our future excess cash flow to temporarily pay down the balance on our revolving credit facility and securitization facility, and maintain liquidity for acquisitions and other corporate purposes. Finally, we're not a capital-intensive business, spending approximately $21 million on CapEx during the fourth quarter of 2017. Now onto our outlook for 2018. Before I walk you through our 2018 Outlook, there are a number of puts and takes I want to make sure you have considered as you model the walk from 2017 actuals to our 2018 guidance. First, the net effect of 2017 acquisitions and divestitures on 2018, such as a full year of Cambridge, CLS, and a new partner deal in Russia and a disposition of NexTraq will result in approximately $70 million of additional pro forma annualized revenue in 2018 versus what was reported in 2017. Partially offsetting these items is the impact of a deconversion of a major oil partner, which we are estimating to not have in the second half of the year. The residual impact in the first half of 2018 of the portfolio conversion issue from early in 2017, and the favorable benefit of the FEMA contract in our lodging business that will not recur in 2018. All in, this amounts to an estimated $40 million reduction to your starting point for 2018 revenues. Secondly, I want to update you on our latest thinking about the macroeconomic environment. For 2018, we are again expecting the macro to have a favorable impact on our results. We are estimating that the absolute price of fuel will be higher than the 2017 average and positively impact revenue in 2018. Foreign exchange rates should continue to be favorable and spreads will be approximately neutral to 2017. In total, we believe these items will create an estimated $40 million revenue tailwind and positively impact cash EPS by approximately $0.15 per share. However, we estimate that higher interest rates will negatively impact 2018 EPS by an estimated $0.15 per share effectively offsetting the favorable revenue macro. Third, we are planning for another 8% to 10% organic growth rate year after adjusting out the favorable macro and the organic scope changes outlined earlier. Helping to drive the 8% to 10% organic growth rate in 2018, our fuel cards, which are expected to grow organically in the 8% to 10% range after adjusting for the deconversion of an oil partner and MasterCard conversion impact that will continue to the second quarter of 2018 or approximately 6% to 8% on a print basis. We expect the corporate payments, toll and lodging businesses to grow mid-teens in 2018, and gift another to be approximately flat. And lastly, while we are still evaluating recently released interpretations of the new tax act, we estimate an effective tax rate for 2018 of approximately 22% to 24%. The estimated benefit from the change is expected to be approximately $0.65 in adjusted net income per share. And as Ron mentioned earlier, we expect to invest roughly 1/3 of this benefit back into the business in 2018. Also, please refer to our fourth quarter earnings call supplement for additional information. So with that out of the way, our guidance is as follows: total revenues to be between $2,490,000,000 and $2,550,000,000. Adjusted revenues to be between $2,370,000,000 and $2,430,000,000. GAAP net income to be between $690 million and $720 million, GAAP net income per diluted share to be between $7.40 and $7.70. Adjusted net income to be between $935 million and $965 million. And adjusted net income per diluted share to be between $10.05 and $10.35. This guidance represents approximately a 12% growth in revenue and 20% growth in adjusted net income per diluted share for the year at the midpoint of the range. Some of the assumptions we have made in preparing the guidance includes the following: weighted fuel prices equal to $2.57 per gallon average in the U.S. for those businesses sensitive to the movement in the retail price of fuel. Market spreads equal to the 2017 average, foreign exchange rates equal to the 7-day average as of January 22, 2018. Interest expense of $125 million, which assumes 2 additional 25 basis point increases in 2018. Fully diluted shares outstanding of approximately 93.3 million shares, a tax rate of 22% to 24%, no impact for new revenue accounting standard as we are still completing our analysis, and no impact related to acquisitions or material new partnership agreements not already disclosed. And for those of you that are looking for guidance in the first quarter, I want to remind everyone that our business has some seasonality and that typically the first quarter is the lowest in terms of both revenue and profit. First quarter seasonality is impacted by weather, holidays in the U.S. and lower business levels in Brazil due to summer break and the Carnival celebration that occurs in the first quarter. With that said, we are expecting our first quarter 2018 adjusted net income per share to be between $2.30 and $2.40. Additionally, our volumes should build throughout the year and our new asset initiatives should gain momentum throughout the year, resulting in higher revenue and earnings per share in the second to fourth quarters. With that said, operator, we'll open it up for questions. Questions and Answers OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) Our first question is from Ramsey El-Assal with Jefferies. RAMSEY CLARK EL-ASSAL, EQUITY ANALYST, JEFFERIES LLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: I wanted to ask about the organic guidance growth. You hit 10% this quarter, which was great, and yet next year you have a little bit of deceleration, I understand there are some puts and takes and sort of potential headwinds from the conversion but what would cause your organic growth performance to trend at a lower end of the range versus the upper end of a range or to exceed? RONALD F. CLARKE: Ramsey, it's Ron. I'd say, the short answer is we're lapping a bit of the pricing late in the year, late in '17. RAMSEY CLARK EL-ASSAL: Okay. And then in your presentation, you'd mentioned that no impact for the ASC 606, and that's something that you're still evaluating. Is there a -- do you have any way to help us think about what the potential impact there could be if it would be material, et cetera? ERIC R. DEY: Ramsey, this is Eric. Yes, we don't expect any material outcome certainly on our bottom line results in any way, shape or form. The only thing that we're really discussing is whether to use the metric that we call, adjusted revenues today versus just revenue. So there is a possibility that, that would be our revenue going forward, but we'll have an answer to that in obviously in about 30 days. RAMSEY CLARK EL-ASSAL: Okay. And just quick last one from me. Just was wondering, and this is kind of reaching back in the past a little bit. Any incremental regulatory or legal items that are worth calling out or anything -- any developments on that front in the last few months? ERIC R. DEY: Not really, Ramsey. No, no real new -- there's no development there at all. OPERATOR: Our next question is from David Togut with Evercore ISI. DAVID MARK TOGUT, SENIOR MD, HEAD OF PAYMENTS, PROCESSORS & IT SERVICES RESEARCH AND FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCH ANALYST, EVERCORE ISI, RESEARCH DIVISION: Slight deceleration in the fuel card business in the fourth quarter, the 5% from 6%, I believe, in Q3, any call outs specifically behind that? RONALD F. CLARKE: Yes, David, it's Ron. Same thing, I think the GFN thing widened just a shade from our estimates in the summer, so I'd say, that's probably a point of it. So again, we kind of say, we think without the GFN thing we'd probably be around 9% for the quarter for fuel. DAVID MARK TOGUT: So did GFN have a greater incremental negative impact in Q4 than it did in Q3? RONALD F. CLARKE: Yes. But more importantly, It had -- I'd say a couple of million more than our forecast from back in the summer. DAVID MARK TOGUT: And any commentary on -- like client retention in that portfolio? Has the retention stabilized? RONALD F. CLARKE: Yes, I think obviously this is not our fondest topic. But I think the good news is we're kind of on the other side, all systems are green. We're selling back on the platform. Sequential retention of the base, that's on it is in line with where we think. So I think it's effectively over other than basically on the compares going forward. But we are finally on the other side of it. All fixed, people happy, back to normal. DAVID MARK TOGUT: Got it. Okay. And then performance of Cambridge global payments acquisition versus your buy plan? RONALD F. CLARKE: Yes, not super. I'd say it had a bit of a sluggish revenue Q4, and mostly, because we were working on restructuring. We exited some people. I think we've told you that we're pretty focused here on profit pools, and so that business has a very large number of small unprofitable clients. So there was a lot of energy in the quarter. Repricing and exiting what we think are a set of pretty unprofitable accounts. So that's going to result in big margin expansion for that business in 2018, and still I say, we're planning kind of mid-teens growth. So I'd say the plan that we have for '18 is pretty in line with the thesis we had this summer. DAVID MARK TOGUT: Understood. And then question on the cost structure, and realize these are GAAP numbers, general and admin expense at least on a GAAP basis was up 51% year-over-year. How much of that is onetime in nature versus sustainable in '18? RONALD F. CLARKE: Yes, so there's 2. And let start and I'll give it over to Eric. So there's a couple of things going on, one is a couple of onetime legal settlement kind of restructuring things in there, and then two, we greenlighted a bit of discretionary spend when we saw the business was tracking kind of ahead of our forecast particularly around IT, and a bit around some consulting projects. I'd say, ballpark probably about $20 million of this spend was one of those 2 flavors, either legal settlement flavor or a bit of a step up in discretionary spend. And then the balance is obviously the business mix, right? The fact that we own lower-margin assets, for example, like Cambridge in that quarter. You have any answer to that? ERIC R. DEY: Yes, and just to add to that. I mean, again, just to add, the last thing that Ron said, I mean, don't forget, a year ago we did not own Cambridge, we did not own CLS, we did not own the private -- the small private-label account in Russia. So you've got the year-over-year impact of owning that business, which is actually the majority of the increase in revenue -- I mean, in expense. And then there's the 2 or 3 things Ron kind of packed on to that kind of added some expense in the fourth quarter. But most of that stuff was one time. DAVID MARK TOGUT: Got it. Just a quick final one for me. Net cash from operations was down about $39 million year-over-year in 2017 versus '16, and it looks like accounts and other receivables were up about $100 million year-over-year in terms of using cash. [The] call-out on DSO, was that -- is that business mix-related? ERIC R. DEY: Yes. You know what? A lot of it had to do with the acquisitions. Again, don't forget that we added a lot of new business versus the prior year. We also made more tax payments this year than we did last year, which also impacted the cash flow from operations. But if I could remind that -- you that our business is very simple from a cash perspective. We bill and we collect. I mean, our DSO literally runs approximately 15 days. So we collect 99.995% of all of our receivables. So it all turns into cash. If there's any variances on the operating cash flow statement, it really is just timing. OPERATOR: Our next question is from Darrin Peller with Barclays. DARRIN DAVID PELLER, MD, BARCLAYS PLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: Good trends. I just want to start off, you're mentioning for guidance mid-teens growth in the nonfuel areas other than gift. So corporate, tolls, lodging, it seems like those were growing. At least toll's up 20%, lodging up over 30%. So first of all, how is -- making sure lodging, that's organic, that's without CLS, I think, right? And then, why would those businesses, including corporate up 16%, decelerate to mid-teens, which is what it sounds like you're trying to imply in the guide? RONALD F. CLARKE: Yes, Darrin. Hey, it's Ron. So the short story on CLC is we got some hurricane FEMA help in Q4 that probably gave us 10, 12 points of incremental growth. So that thing was still -- excluding the hurricane, a mid- to high-teens grower. And then on the other 2, I'd say, again, the comment I said to Ramsey, it's really kind of lapping some pricing so the compare gets steeper as you get later into the year, particularly in corporate pay and STP. So I would say those are the couple of reasons that something that's in the low-20s will be in the mid- to high-teens. But I do want to say, [because] it doesn't sound this way, we're happy. I mean, we're happy in this company to have 3 lines of business, that are half the company, grow in mid- to high-teens. I don't want you to miss that point. We're happy. DARRIN DAVID PELLER: No. Yes, we're not missing that. Just one quick follow-up and then some really -- a couple of technical questions. One of them is on the fuel price assumption. It looks -- I think you're using $2.57. I think the spot's closer to $3 now, so just a quick comment on that. And then on the gift business, you left us off last quarter thinking there could be something coming with regard to structural changes. Just wondering what's -- what the strategy there is now. RONALD F. CLARKE: Yes. So the fuel price, Darrin, is basically a mix of diesel and unleaded, and obviously, it mirrors the geographies and stuff that our client base is in. And so yes, sitting here at this moment, I'd say the number that we have in is a bit conservative. But as you know, that price can move, obviously, materially up or down. So if they stay where it is, there would be some upside in the plan. ERIC R. DEY: So Darrin, just to add to that, that guide is really for only those businesses that are directly sensitive to the movement in the retail price of fuel, so it's primarily our fuel -- like our MasterCard businesses, as an example would not include Comdata as an example, which is obviously 95% diesel, because those businesses really don't react that much to changes in fuel price. So again, it's really those 2 businesses, and that business has more of a 50-50 kind of mix between gas and diesel. RONALD F. CLARKE: What was your second part, Darrin? What was the second part of your question? DARRIN DAVID PELLER: Yes, the gift business strategy now. RONALD F. CLARKE: Yes. So we're still, I'd say, at the plate. I think what we said last time is the same, just slower. So we're on our third idea for that business and still actively working on it. So no news to report today. I think I said this last time. Hoping to have some news next time we talk. So we're still chopping wood on this idea we have. OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) Our next question is from Sanjay Sakhrani with KBW. SANJAY HARKISHIN SAKHRANI, MD, KEEFE, BRUYETTE, & WOODS, INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: I guess, a question on -- so the nonfuel businesses at the mid-teens and maybe more the toll business. When we think about the growth rates you're anticipating, are you assuming any benefit from beyond fuel? And if not, when can we conceivably expect any upside to kick in? RONALD F. CLARKE: So the first thing is the -- most of the beyond-fuel initiative is in our fuel segment. When we use that term, we're referring to our fuel card clients, primarily here and in the U.K., that buy only fuel, opening those cards and letting them buy some other things like construction supplies. But again, I said the same thing earlier, we're pretty happy with mid to high teens for the 3 nonfuel card businesses, and the reason that's decelerating a bit is they're lapping, again, the exit rate or the pricing. SANJAY HARKISHIN SAKHRANI: Okay. And when we think about other initiatives within toll that I think you've talked about in the past, are we expecting some of those to kick off in 2018? Or is it more just -- more of the same in terms of organic growth? RONALD F. CLARKE: Yes, that's a great question. So again, the toll business, the STP business that we just reported in Q4 is 97% toll- and parking-related revenue. And then the third part is a little bit of fuel revenue for the people that use the toll product. So the big idea we have there is what we call fuel first, which, in English, means offering that same technology to consumers or businesses that don't go on the highway, so are not toll users. So effectively almost like a fuel card, people that go locally and go into the major branded stations would be able to avail themselves of the STP technology. So that opens up a market, call it, 5 to 10x the size of the market that we're in, and we've got a unique position having our STP [gadgets] in those locations and having those contracts. So we've got, I don't have it in front of me, probably circa $5 million to $8 million, I think, in our '18 plan for that initiative. So this is a "pilot and start to ramp it up" year. SANJAY HARKISHIN SAKHRANI: Okay. Maybe just one quick follow-up on the reinvestment of the tax benefit, Eric. It sounded like 1/3 of it sort of maybe not recurring. Is that the way we should think about it? Or is the total reinvestment the recurring amount after 2018? ERIC R. DEY: Yes, again, we're still developing some plans on exactly what we're going to invest in. I think, as Ron kind of mentioned, we're going to invest some money in some people, and then hopefully more sales investment into some other things to more protect the business. We don't have the exact number we're going to spend. We kind of called out about 1/3, but that would be something we would consider to be at least ongoing for now. It might change next year, but for now, we would expect that number to be in the business. RONALD F. CLARKE: Yes, just -- Sanjay, it's Ron. I'd say the only piece that feels a little bit more onetime in that third is the segment we call transformation projects. So we do have a couple of big kind of onetime things. We're trying to clean up and make better. I don't know if that's going to run for a year or a little bit more, but call it, 1/3 to 40% of the third Eric mentioned may be kind of more onetime-ish. OPERATOR: Our next question is from Tim Willi with Wells Fargo. TIMOTHY WAYNE WILLI, MD & SENIOR ANALYST, WELLS FARGO SECURITIES, LLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: My first question, Ron or Eric, on the M&A front, when you think about some of the areas, I guess, around like fleets and payments, do you see opportunities to acquire businesses or technologies that might take you deeper into the value chain for, I guess, more of your larger fleet customers beyond just a transactional service that you provide? Is there something else where you see a logical, I guess -- to deepen that relationship and helping them manage their fleets and their businesses, et cetera? RONALD F. CLARKE: Yes, I would say that, that's probably not a primary area that we're looking at. Again, I think our idea for deepening relationships are, A, to open up the cards and allow controlled purchases in adjacent space like for a big construction client, as an example. And then I think, B, the other deepening is the cross-sell into some of our clients our corporate pay and FX kinds of solutions. So I think that deepening idea is a little bit closer to kind of what we're in, in some of the divisions that we've got than it is something entirely new. TIMOTHY WAYNE WILLI: Okay. And then my follow-up sort of related to that is, obviously, you've got a lot going on around [work] initiatives, and I think it touches on the last question around investing the tax savings. Would it -- just conceptually, as we think about -- out over the next, call it, 2 years, 3 years, as these new initiatives around expanding the categories and spend in Cambridge, et cetera, begin to take off, is that another leg to the margin story? Or is there an investment amount in here right now that's sort of suppressing the margins otherwise that we see more clearly as those initiatives move forward? RONALD F. CLARKE: No, I don't think it's a margin enhancement. I think it's a revenue acceleration opportunity. So for us, we look closely at the sales and loss or retention metrics that we quote, and that math is penciling out to kind of 9%, 9% and 9%, right? We said 9% organic growth, '16; 9%, '17; and normalized kind of 8% to 10%, call it 9%. So 9, 9, 9. I think what we see is if we can get from those 4 or 5, what we call, big ideas or big initiatives to hunt, that, that provides potentially some revenue acceleration in those various businesses, particularly in the case of where it can be added on to a client we have. That would create a little bit of margin leverage, like getting existing clients to buy additional things. So I'd say that it's really more directed at revenue growth than it is margin. OPERATOR: Our next question is from James Schneider with Goldman Sachs. JAMES EDWARD SCHNEIDER, VP, GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: Good to see the same-store sales stabilize at 2%, same as last quarter. Based on what you're hearing from your clients right now, I mean, do you think that, that could improve a lot or at all throughout the year from -- especially from some of the industrials clients? And maybe just kind of comment on whether your guidance just assumes that the same-store sales level continues as it is now. RONALD F. CLARKE: Jim, it's Ron. So let me take the second part first. So our guidance, our plan for '18 is using roughly the average of '17. I don't have it in front of me, but that would pencil out to be somewhere between 1% and 2%. And again, that consolidated number that we quote is made up of lots of product lines in lots of geographies. And so mostly, what affects it is when pockets that may have been weak, like Brazil or Russia, start to strengthen or an industry type, like rail and our hotel business, tends to strengthen. I'd say those things seem to have more impact on the total number than, call it, the normal accounts that we would have in fuel or somewhere else. So we're planning it kind of consistent with the prior year, but who knows? Again, it's a macro assumption sitting out there. JAMES EDWARD SCHNEIDER: That's helpful. And maybe just as a follow-up, quickly on the MasterCard, the universal product, I know you started -- restarted sales there. Can you maybe give us a sense as to what point you can be back to the prior kind of like 8% to 10% growth rate? Is that sometime by Q2? Q3? How should we think about how we get back to that previous growth rate? RONALD F. CLARKE: Yes. I think, if you looked at our plan, I think, as we lap the Q1, Q2 issue, it's double-digit starting in Q3 and Q4. So again, getting -- someone asked it earlier, getting the salespeople's confidence back on the product and that we're going to deliver it in a quality way, that builds a bit with time. But yes, the plan is to keep investing behind that product. And I think I mentioned that same product functionality running on the mainframe has continued to grow really nicely throughout the whole time, which reminds us that the product that we've got is good and is in demand. And so we just have to make sure we deliver it in a quality way. OPERATOR: Our next question is from Tien-tsin Huang from JPMorgan. TIEN-TSIN HUANG, SENIOR ANALYST, JP MORGAN CHASE & CO, RESEARCH DIVISION: Great. Thanks for the presentation, too. It's helpful. Just the bookings. What sold well, guys? If you don't mind sharing, maybe by segment, just any other detail there. And I'm curious, given some of the pipeline for potential sold business this year, you think you can do better, worse, same as '18 that you posted in '17? RONALD F. CLARKE: Hey, Tien-tsin, it's Ron. It's a great -- that's a great question. I'd say, sitting in our kind of close-of-the-year staff meeting in December, we remarked that, call it, out of 12 or 14 sales lines that we report and look at, I think all but one of them was up pretty significantly. So this is the first year that I can recall that kind of almost everything we have in the company in almost every place sold a bunch more than the prior year. And then, second, which I mentioned earlier, is the sales levels are accelerating. We did a lot better getting away from the distractions of the first half of the year. And so we planned sales a bit more conservatively for '18, but we like how things are rolling into the front of the year. OPERATOR: Our next question is from Danyal Hussain with Morgan Stanley. DANYAL HUSSAIN, EQUITY ANALYST, MORGAN STANLEY, RESEARCH DIVISION: Just a couple of quick ones. Just on the Chevron contract. Does your guidance assume that the conversion begins sort of on day 1 in Q3? And then does that come off gradually or all at once? And do you expect there'll be any cost offsets in -- during the year? RONALD F. CLARKE: Yes. Again, it's Ron. I don't think we'd comment that specifically on a given partner, but I'd say it'd be kind of okay for you guys to plan that we retain that thing for, call it, at least the first half of the year. I mean, practically all conversions have a beginning and end. So to your point, they actually stream over some period of time, usually 4 to 6 months. So that's what the shape of the thing will look like. DANYAL HUSSAIN: Okay, great. And then just a quick one on, I guess, M&A pipeline. You had suggested there might be a couple tuck-ins that are imminent, and then maybe just juxtaposing that against appetite for buybacks, I think, just given where the market is now. RONALD F. CLARKE: (inaudible) today, that's a more -- even a more relevant question. So yes, on the first part, I did mention that we've got 3 or 4 active acquisition things that we're working on. I would -- I guess, I'd characterize them as kind of mid-size. They're not super small, they're not super big, they're, call it, $100 million to $300 million or $400 million, $500 million kind of in size. So my guess is that we will work some of those through the pipeline before we get to the turn. And yes, on the question of buybacks, I think we've shown that we'll buy back FLT. We've bought back, whatever we said, 2.5 million shares... ERIC R. DEY: 2.5 million shares. RONALD F. CLARKE: Yes, last year. And so like always, it's a function of relative price. So when we see the price of our stock vis-à-vis its comps and we look at our deal pipeline and we look at our liquidity, which are all good, our leverage ratio, I think, was 2.4 at the close, and so yes, I would say, at these kind of prices, we're certainly buyers of our stock. OPERATOR: Our next question is from Oscar Turner with SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. OSCAR D. TURNER, ASSOCIATE, SUNTRUST ROBINSON HUMPHREY, INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: I guess, one more follow-up on this 2018 outlook. With regards to your nonfuel segments, can you provide a detailed growth outlook for those 3, I think it's tolls, Corporate Payments and lodging, just given that those are the revenue growth engine? ERIC R. DEY: Yes, we did. I did provide some guidance on that. All of them are projected to grow kind of in that kind of mid- to upper-teens rate in 2018. We didn't talk about it specifically by product. I'd have to go back and look at it, but I would expect all of those, the tolls, the lodging, the corporate pay businesses, to be in the -- kind of the mid to upper teens. OSCAR D. TURNER: Okay. And then, appreciate the color on the midterm growth initiatives. I guess, my question's -- or follow-up's particularly on the beyond fuel. Can you provide color on the time line for broader rollout of beyond fuel? And then, I think you mentioned testing that with some of your domestic customers. And how much revenue from that initiative's in your 2018 guidance? RONALD F. CLARKE: Yes. Oscar, it's Ron. It's a really good question. And so what I'd say is that we've done the iceberg work here in the U.S. and the U.K., so we now have lots of our fuel card clients on platforms that we can open up and offer nonfuel things to them, point one. Point two is we tested pretty hard for about 1.5 years in one vertical, the construction vertical, and had a lot of success with it. About half of the purchases of these new construction clients were construction supplies and the other half were fuel. So we've got good demonstration that this beyond fuel idea works, at least in some places. So what we're doing now, and is in kind of our plans for '18, is widening that and looking at other verticals, looking at our customer base to upgrade. So I'd say a lot of the work now is around targeting, marketing, credit analysis because it would increase obviously the credit for the accounts. So I would think that probably a fair amount of this year will be getting some other areas including the client base and other verticals fine-tuned so that it can be a much more material number next year. But it is working, wherever we tried it, it is working. OPERATOR: And our final question will be from Bob Napoli with William Blair. ROBERT PAUL NAPOLI, PARTNER AND CO-GROUP HEAD OF FINANCIAL SERVICES & TECHNOLOGY, WILLIAM BLAIR & COMPANY L.L.C., RESEARCH DIVISION: Thanks for the outlook, the detailed outlook. But as we look at the numbers -- and mid-teens, I agree, are very healthy growth rates for those 3 segments. Where do you see the biggest risks to that outlook? Which businesses or which segments are you most confident in achieving those numbers? And so where could there be upside and where do you see -- if you missed these numbers next year, where would they -- which segment would it come from? Is it in -- where is the execution risk the highest? RONALD F. CLARKE: Bob, it's Ron again. I'd -- it's a good question. I'd say that I'm not particularly worried about any of them because we've built plans, again, I think I'd tell you guys, that we think we can make. But I'd say that because of the model of Corporate Payments, I would have higher confidence because of the implementation cycle. So I'd say sitting here today, that book is sold already to make the plan. So the risk there is really implementation, not selling. But in the case of tolls and even lodging, those things have to be sold. We have to sell more in 2018, but obviously, we sold a lot in 2017. So I'd say, if you made me order them, I'd have the most confidence probably in corporate pay, probably second in lodging because this revamp of the product is just crazy good. We've taken a product that was not super easy to use or super easy to book rooms, low-cost rooms, and we've made it like super easy now. And looking at January, we're getting a lift. So I'd feel I'd say super good there. And so I'd say the one that's just more of proving to do that's just got a pretty big number would be the tolls business, would be my order. ROBERT PAUL NAPOLI: And which of those do you see the most likely to have upside potential, I guess? Would it be in the same order? RONALD F. CLARKE: I'd say probably, for the same reason. Because beta flexes down and beta flexes up. I'd probably say the same thing. I was looking at the report this morning of the new tolls. I think I mentioned that in the upfront remarks. There's 4, I think, new toll roads expected to come online starting actually in Q2. So we've built some kind of forecast of the lift, which is -- starts to be pretty meaningful as you exit the year. So I'd say that, and then the common someone -- or question someone asked earlier about fuel first, I'd say the same thing. That thing is kind of ready to go. We're testing. We put a little bit in the plan, but from the research and the reactions, that's something that could roll way faster. So I'd say, although it has to all be sold in the year, which could create some risk, I think it's also got some flex where it could do a lot better. ROBERT PAUL NAPOLI: And last, I have to ask about Europe and fuel card outsourcing by the major oils which we've talked about for years. And you mentioned some potential major partnerships that could affect the numbers this year. RONALD F. CLARKE: Yes. I'm always wrong, I feel like when I try to answer this question. So you guys have made me a bit cautious. But it's a bit of a broken record. Yes, I'm looking at some partner pipeline, and there are 3 or 4 things in Europe that we're in conversations but where and when those things will land, I don't know. But it continues to be something of great interest. I got an e-mail from one of my guys who had a great meeting yesterday and wanted to report back. The CEO, they want us to meet. So it continues to be of interest, but it always seems a bit harder to actually get it over the goal line. OPERATOR: Thank you. This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and thank you for your participation. [Thomson Financial reserves the right to make changes to documents, content, or other information on this web site without obligation to notify any person of such changes. In the conference calls upon which Event Transcripts are based, companies may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding a variety of items. 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Subject: Copyright; Acquisitions & mergers; Web sites; Earnings per share; Customer retention
Company / organization: Name: Thomson Financial; NAICS: 511210, 518210, 519190
Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 8, 2018
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: Linthicum
Country of publication: United States, Linthicum
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Law--Corporate Law
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2007191553
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Copyright: 2018 Thomson Financial and ASC LLC
Last updated: 2018-02-23
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Document 57 of 474
Event Brief of Q4 2017 Fleetcor Technologies Inc Earnings Call - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]08 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: CORPORATE PARTICIPANTS . Eric R. Dey - FleetCor Technologies, Inc.,CFO . James P. Eglseder - FleetCor Technologies, Inc.,Head of IR . Ronald F. Clarke - FleetCor Technologies, Inc.,Chairman & CEO CONFERENCE CALL PARTICIPANTS . Danyal Hussain - Morgan Stanley, Research Division,Equity Analyst . Darrin David Peller - Barclays PLC, Research Division,MD . David Mark Togut - Evercore ISI, Research Division,Senior MD, Head of Payments, Processors & IT Services Research and Fundamental Research Analyst . James Edward Schneider - Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division,VP . Oscar D. Turner - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc., Research Division,Associate . Ramsey Clark El-Assal - Jefferies LLC, Research Division,Equity Analyst . Robert Paul Napoli - William Blair & Company L.L.C., Research Division,Partner and Co-Group Head of Financial Services & Technology . Sanjay Harkishin Sakhrani - Keefe, Bruyette, & Woods, Inc., Research Division,MD . Tien-tsin Huang - JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division,Senior Analyst . Timothy Wayne Willi - Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division,MD & Senior Analyst OVERVIEW Co. reported 2017 revenue of $2.250b and cash EPS of $8.54. 4Q17 revenues were $610m, GAAP net income was $282.7m and GAAP diluted EPS was $3.05. Expects 2018 total revenues to be $2.490-2.550b and GAAP net income per diluted share to be $7.40-7.70. Expects 1Q18 adjusted net income per share to be $2.30-2.40. FINANCIAL DATA 1. 2017 revenue = $2.250b. 2. 4Q17 revenue = $610m. 3. 4Q17 adjusted revenue = $579.5m. 4. 4Q17 GAAP net income = $282.7m. 5. 4Q17 adjusted net income = $224.1m. 6. 2017 cash EPS = $8.54. 7. 4Q17 GAAP diluted EPS = $3.05. 8. 4Q17 adjusted net income per diluted share = $2.42. 9. 2017 YoverY revenue growth = 23%. 10. 2017 YoverY organic revenue growth = 9%. 11. 4Q17 YoverY revenue growth = 18.5%. 12. 4Q17 YoverY adjusted revenue growth = 18.4%. 13. 4Q17 YoverY organic revenue growth = approx. 10%. 14. 4Q17 total OpEx = $370m. 15. 4Q17 CapEx = approx. $21m. 16. 4Q17-end total cash = $1.131b. 17. 2017 share repurchase = 2,850,000 shares. 18. Co. did not repurchase any shares of common stock in 4Q17. 19. 2018 total revenue guidance = $2.490-2.550b. 20. 2018 adjusted revenue guidance = $2.370-2.430b. 21. 2018 GAAP net income per diluted share guidance = $7.40-7.70. 22. 2018 adjusted net income per diluted share guidance = $10.05-10.35. 23. 1Q18 adjusted net income per share guidance = $2.30-2.40. PRESENTATION SUMMARY - 4Q17 Review (R.C.) 1. Highlights: 1. Revenue $610m, up 18%. 2. Cash EPS $2.42, up 28%. 3. Organic revenue growth improved to 10%. 1. Fuel card organic growth 5%. 1. Believes it would have been 8-9% if adjusted for MasterCard conversion. 2. Non-fuel card product categories (tolls, lodging and corporate payments, excluding Cambridge) grew organically in excess of 20%. 4. Same-store sales were positive; plus 2% on top of 3Q17's 2%. 5. Increased strength in Brazil and Russia. 1. Inside hotel business, rail and oil and gas recovered nicely. 2. Lot of strength across the board in corporate payments business. 6. Another (inaudible) customer attention; strong, 91%. 1. 11 consecutive quarters at 90% plus. 7. New sales bookings up 23%. 1. 23% sales growth in 3Q. 2. Accelerating in 2H17 vs. 1H17. 8. Summary: 1. Cash EPS up 28%. 2. Revenues came in at high-end of expectations. 3. Organic growth improved to 10%. 4. Continued record sales growth; 23%. 5. Strengthening of same-store sales; plus 2%. 6. Continued 90% plus customer attention. 2. 2017: 1. Revenue $2.250b, up 23%. 2. Cash EPS $8.54, up 23%. 3. New sales bookings up: 1. 18% in 2017. 2. 23% in 2H17. 4. Organic revenue growth 9%. 5. Repositioned portfolio for faster growth. 1. Cambridge, along with two tuck-in acquisitions, sold Nextraq (telematics business) to Michelin. 6. STP worked out quite well. 1. Integrated it nicely in its first (inaudible). 2. Revenues grew 18% and profits grew over 50% vs. 2016 pro forma. 7. Simplified presentation of Co. into four primary spend categories. 1. Enhanced disclosures, hoping to make Co. easier to understand. 8. Returned some capital. 1. Retired almost 2.9m Co. shares. 2. Refinanced credit facility to give Co. bit more liquidity. 9. Summary: 1. Greater than 20% revenue and profit growth. 2. Record sales. 3. Good retention. 4. Material acquisition. 5. Some accretive capital allocation. 6. Strong finish. 3. 2018 Outlook: 1. Revenue $2.520b at midpoint; up 12% or $270m. 2. Cash EPS $10.20 at midpoint; up approx. 20%. 3. Revenue bridge: 1. Net impact of new acquisitions vs. divestitures in 2017 gives Co. about 3% lift in 2018. 2. Expecting macro fuel and FX to help about 2% in 2018. 3. Planning normalized organic growth to be 8-10%. 1. Expects one-time grow overs related to Chevron, FEMA and GFN to depress normalized growth about 2%. 2. Adding four up, should be 12% planned revenue increase. 4. Inside of overall revenue growth: 1. Fuel card business to grow 6-8%. 2. Gift and all other buckets to be fundamentally flat. 3. Rest of non-fuel card businesses to grow quite nicely in mid-teens. 5. Grown revenues organically about 9% in 2016 and 2017. 1. Planning same range, 8-10%, this year on normalized basis. 2. Sales and retention trends are quite good. 1. Gives some confidence in 8-10% target. 6. Cash EPS bridge: 1. 2017 $8.54. 2. In constant tax world, expecting cash EPS to grow about 15% at midpoint. 1. Due to tax reform, estimating about 5% lower 2018 [ETR]; around 23% vs. close to 28% in 2017. 3. Lower tax rate results in about $0.64 of tax savings. 1. Plan is to invest about a third of those tax savings back end of business. 4. Takes to $10.20 cash EPS guidance at midpoint. 7. Tax Savings Reinvestment: 1. Returning some of tax savings to employees. 1. Looking at improving certain benefits in Co. like 401(k) and considering higher minimum wages. 2. Growth: 1. Specifically to hire some additional sales teams and some additional IT resources to accelerate growth at mid-term. 3. Transformation: 1. Got couple of big transformational initiatives to simplify and standardize systems and improve quality and overall customer experience. 2. Thinking to double down. 8. Believes there could be some upside potentially to $10.20 plan. 1. Has some active partner prospects and some active acquisitions that will progress this year. 4. Mid-Term Prospects (Beyond 2018): 1. At highest level, thinks of Co. is participating in four major spend categories. 1. Fuel. 2. Toll. 3. Lodging. 4. Corporate pay. 1. Each of these categories are multi-billion dollar market opportunities. 2. Has vantage positions in each one of them. 2. Enjoyed 20% plus revenue growth in three non-fuel lines of business, excluding Cambridge. 1. Expects fuel to recover to 8-10% mark once Co. lapses one-time items this year. 3. Working innovative product and distribution ideas that could have some lift, some impact to mid-term prospects. 1. In fuel card category, spoken about fuel first initiative in Brazil, expanding market to non-toll users; in progress. 1. Likes beyond fuel idea in US and UK of getting existing fuel card clients to spend monies on other purchase categories other than fuel. 2. In lodging, Co. is underway with couple of new ways for clients to book. 1. Historically, CLC clients either walked into hotels or called and reserved rooms themselves. 2. Co. offered digital option along with old-fashioned reservation option, which provides more ways to book. 3. Seeing some volume lift early on. 3. Toll: 1. In STP, launched 3-4 new sales channel approaches, including using third-party retailers pushing hard at digital, web and testing vending machines to sell tags in 2017. 2. Success has been good. 3. Planning 30% of all new STP sales in 2018 to come from these new channels. 4. Looking at 3-4 new toll roads in Brazil that come online starting this spring; should get a bit of lift from that. 4. Corporate payments: 1. Working on full AP solution. 2. Would offer smaller clients combination of virtual card, ACH and pay-per-checks so that they could get complete payables outsourcing solution. 3. With Cambridge on the fold, has some opportunities to bundle and cross-sell international FX. 4. Feels quite clear on what Co. is trying to do to grow business. 1. Trying to add more clients by selling more and offering innovative products. 2. Trying to capture more spend from clients, offering new spend categories to them. 3. Working to widen or expand geography in which Co. does everything it does. 4Q17 Financials (E.D.) 1. Highlights: 1. Revenue: 1. $610m, up 18.5% vs. 4Q16's $515m. 2. North America $387.8m; increased 18% from 4Q16's $328.6m. 3. International $222.2m; increased 19.2% from 4Q16's $186.4m. 2. GAAP net income $282.7m or $3.05 per diluted share; increased 196.3% from 4Q16's $95.4m or $1 per diluted share. 1. Included estimated favorable impact of adoption of tax reform act of $127.5m. 3. Non-GAAP financial measures Co. routinely uses are adjusted revenues and adjusted net income. 1. Sometimes refers to as cash net income or cash EPS. 2. Adjusted revenues equal GAAP [revenues] less merchant commissions. 3. Adjusted: 1. Revenues $579.5m, up 18.4% vs. 4Q16's $489.4m. 2. Net income $224.1m; increased 24.1% vs. 4Q16's $180.5m. 3. Net income per diluted share $2.42; increased 27.6% vs. 4Q16's $1.90. 4. Results reflect impact of positive macroeconomic environment. 1. Changes in FX rates from 4Q16 were primarily positive. 1. Believes positively impacted revenue by approx. $9m. 2. Fuel prices were mostly favorable. 1. Although Co. cannot precisely calculate impact of these changes, believes positively impacted revenues by approx. $8m. 2. Fuel spreads had no meaningful impact vs. 4Q16. 3. Impact of those changes positively impacted revenues by approx. $17m and adjusted net income per diluted share by approx. $0.11 vs. 4Q16. 5. Organic revenue growth, even after adjusting out for positive impact of macroeconomic environment, approx. 10%. 2. Other Drivers: 1. Most of major product categories performed well. 1. Fuel card business organic growth 5%. 1. Believes organic growth would have been approx. 8% or 9% after adjusting for MasterCard conversion issue in 1Q. 2. Expects organic growth in category will continue to be impacted until Co. laps conversion issue at 2Q18-end. 2. Corporate payments category continues to grow well; up 16% organically. 1. Good growth from new customer acquisitions over last few years. 3. Toll business up 24% organically, due primarily to implementation of number of growth initiatives implemented throughout year at STP. 4. Lodging business up 31%, driven primarily by higher sales and increase in room nights due to improvement in energy sector and continued FEMA rooms due to impact of hurricanes in 2017. 5. Gift business up 6% organically due primarily to timing of card sales. 3. Other Financials: 1. Total OpEx $370m vs. 4Q16's $299m; up 23.7%. 1. OpEx increased to 60.7% of total revenue vs. 4Q16's 58.1%. 2. Included in OpEx: 1. Merchant commissions. 2. Processing expenses. 3. Bad debt. 4. Selling and general and administrative expense. 5. Depreciation and amortization expense. 6. Other operating net. 3. OpEx increase was primarily due to: 1. Acquisitions completed in 2017, which has lower-than-avg. EBITDA margins. 2. Increase in stock-based compensation to $24.6m vs. 4Q16's $14m. 3. Additional legal and settlement expenses booked in 4Q17. 2. Credit losses $8.9m or 5 BP. 1. 4Q16 $11.4m or 7 BP. 3. Depreciation and amortization expense $65.8m, increased 7.2% from 4Q16's $61.4m, primarily due to acquisitions completed in 2017. 4. Interest expense $30.8m, increased 40.2% vs. 4Q16's $22m, primarily due to impact of additional borrowing for Cambridge acquisition, share buybacks and increases in LIBOR. 5. Equity investment loss decreased to $667,000 vs. loss of $38.6m in 4Q16. 1. YoverY change was primarily due to $36m impairment charge booked in 4Q16 and 2017 changes associated with investment arrangement with majority partner. 4. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act: 1. On 12/22/17, US government enacted comprehensive tax legislation, commonly referred to as Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. 1. Tax Act makes broad and complex changes to US tax code, including but not limited to reducing US federal corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% and requiring companies to pay one-time transition tax on certain unrepatriated earnings of foreign subsidiaries. 1. Transition tax can be paid over eight years. 2. SEC staff issued Staff Accounting Bulletin 118, which provided guidance on accounting for tax effects of Tax Act. 1. In accordance with SAB 118, Co. has one year measurement period in which to complete accounting for Tax Act. 2. Made estimate of effects on existing deferred tax balances and one-time transition tax, which [resulted in net tax benefit] of $127.5m, which is included as component of income tax expense from continuing operations. 3. One-time transition tax is based on total post-1986 earnings and profits that Co. previously deferred from US income taxes. 4. In 4Q17, recorded provisional amount for one-time transition tax expense of $82.5m. 1. Remeasured certain deferred tax assets and liabilities after considering US federal income tax rate reduction to 21%. 1. Provisional tax benefit recorded related to remeasurement of net deferred tax liability was $210m. 5. Analyzing certain aspects of Tax Act and refining calculations, which could potentially affect measurement of aforementioned balances. 5. Tax Rate: 1. After impact of Tax Act, recorded $74.4m tax benefit vs. 4Q16's tax expense of $58m. 2. Excluding impact of Tax Act, GAAP taxes would have been $53.1m or 25.5% vs. 4Q16's 37.8%. 1. 4Q16 tax rate was unfavorably impacted by non-cash impairment charge which resulted in reduction in basis in minority investment for book purposes but not tax purposes. 2. Excluding this non-cash item, 4Q16 tax rate would have been 30.2%. 3. Favorably impacted by tax project completed in 4Q17, which lowered tax rate by approx. 2.8%. 1. Will benefit future periods by approx. same amount. 4. One-time true-up of prior year taxes reduced tax rate by approx. 1.3%. 5. Normalized tax rate approx. 27%. 6. Balance Sheet: 1. 4Q17-end total cash $1.131b. 1. Approx. $190m is restricted and consists primarily of customer deposits. 2. As of 12/31/17, had: 1. $2.656b outstanding on term A loan. 2. $349m outstanding on term B loan. 3. $670m drawn on revolver, leaving [approx. $650m] of undrawn availability. 3. Had $811m borrowed in securitization facility at 4Q17-end. 4. Did not repurchase any shares of common stock in 4Q17. 1. In total for 2017, purchased 2,850,000 shares. 2. Has approx. $510m in repurchase capacity remaining under current authorization. 5. As of 12/31/17, leverage ratio was 2.42 times EBITDA. 1. Well below covenant level of 4 times EBITDA as calculated under new credit agreement. 6. Intends to use future excess cash flow to temporarily pay down balance on revolving credit facility and securitization facility and maintain liquidity for acquisitions and other corporate purposes. 7. Not capital-intensive business, spending approx. $21m on CapEx in 4Q17. 7. 2018 Outlook: 1. Net effect of 2017 acquisitions and divestitures on 2018: 1. Full year of Cambridge, CLS, new partner deal in Russia and disposition of Nextraq will result in approx. $70m of additional pro forma annualized revenue vs. reported in 2017. 2. Partially offsetting aforementioned items is: 1. Impact of deconversion of major oil partner, which Co. is estimating to not have in 2H18. 2. Residual impact in 1H18 of portfolio conversion issued from early in 2017. 3. Favorable benefit of FEMA contract in lodging business that will not recur in 2018. 3. All-in, aforementioned amounts to estimated $40m reduction to starting point for 2018 revenues. 2. Latest thinking about macroeconomic environment: 1. For 2018, expecting macro to have favorable impact on results. 2. Estimating absolute price of fuel will be higher than 2017 avg. and positively impact revenue in 2018. 3. FX rates to continue to be favorable. 4. Spreads will be approx. neutral to 2017. 5. Believes aforementioned items will: 1. Create estimated $40m revenue tailwind. 2. Positively impact cash EPS by approx. $0.15 per share. 6. Estimates that higher interest rates will negatively impact 2018 EPS by estimated $0.15 per share, effectively offsetting favorable revenue macro. 3. Planning for another 8-10% organic growth rate year, after adjusting out favorable macro and organic scope changes. 1. Helping to drive 8-10% organic growth rate in 2018 are fuel cards, which are expected to grow organically in 8-10%, after adjusting for deconversion of oil partner and MasterCard conversion impact that will continue through 2Q18 or approx. 6-8% on print basis. 2. Expects corporate payments, toll and lodging businesses to grow mid-teens and gift another to be approx. flat. 4. Evaluating recently-released interpretations of new Tax Act. 1. Estimates effective tax rate of approx. 22-24%. 1. Estimated benefit from change is expected to be approx. $0.65 in adjusted net income per share. 2. Expects to invest roughly a third of this benefit back into business in 2018. 5. Total revenues $2.490-2.550b. 1. Adjusted revenues $2.370-2.430b. 6. GAAP net income $690-720m. 1. GAAP net income per diluted share $7.40-7.70. 7. Adjusted net income $935-965m. 1. Adjusted net income per diluted share $10.05-10.35. 8. Guidance represents approx. 12% growth in revenue and 20% growth in adjusted net income per diluted share at midpoint of range. 9. Some assumptions in preparing guidance includes: 1. Weighted fuel prices equal to $2.57 per gallon avg. in US for those businesses sensitive to movement in retail price of fuel. 2. Market spreads equal to 2017 avg. 3. FX rates equal to seven day avg. as of 01/22/18. 4. Interest expense $125m; assumes two additional 25 BP increases in 2018. 5. Fully diluted shares outstanding of approx. 93.3m shares. 6. Tax rate 22-24%. 7. No impact for new revenue accounting standard as Co. is still completing analysis. 8. No impact related to acquisitions or material new partnership agreements not already disclosed. 8. 1Q18 Guidance: 1. Business has some seasonality. 1. Typically 1Q is lowest in terms of revenue and profit. 2. 1Q seasonality is impacted by: 1. Weather. 2. Holidays in US. 3. Lower business levels in Brazil, due to summer break and Carnival celebration that occurs in 1Q. 2. Adjusted net income per share $2.30-2.40. 1. Volume should build throughout year and new asset initiatives should gain momentum throughout the year, resulting in higher revenue and EPS in 2Q through 4Q. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) Our first question is from Ramsey El-Assal with Jefferies. RAMSEY CLARK EL-ASSAL, EQUITY ANALYST, JEFFERIES LLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: I wanted to ask about the organic guidance growth. You hit 10% this quarter, which was great, and yet next year you have a little bit of deceleration, I understand there are some puts and takes and sort of potential headwinds from the conversion but what would cause your organic growth performance to trend at a lower end of the range versus the upper end of a range or to exceed? RONALD F. CLARKE, CHAIRMAN & CEO, FLEETCOR TECHNOLOGIES, INC.: Ramsey, it's Ron. I'd say, the short answer is we're lapping a bit of the pricing late in the year, late in '17. RAMSEY CLARK EL-ASSAL: Okay. And then in your presentation, you'd mentioned that no impact for the ASC 606, and that's something that you're still evaluating. Is there a -- do you have any way to help us think about what the potential impact there could be if it would be material, et cetera? ERIC R. DEY, CFO, FLEETCOR TECHNOLOGIES, INC.: Ramsey, this is Eric. Yes, we don't expect any material outcome certainly on our bottom line results in any way, shape or form. The only thing that we're really discussing is whether to use the metric that we call, adjusted revenues today versus just revenue. So there is a possibility that, that would be our revenue going forward, but we'll have an answer to that in obviously in about 30 days. RAMSEY CLARK EL-ASSAL: Okay. And just quick last one from me. Just was wondering, and this is kind of reaching back in the past a little bit. Any incremental regulatory or legal items that are worth calling out or anything -- any developments on that front in the last few months? ERIC R. DEY: Not really, Ramsey. No, no real new -- there's no development there at all. OPERATOR: Our next question is from David Togut with Evercore ISI. DAVID MARK TOGUT, SENIOR MD, HEAD OF PAYMENTS, PROCESSORS & IT SERVICES RESEARCH AND FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCH ANALYST, EVERCORE ISI, RESEARCH DIVISION: Slight deceleration in the fuel card business in the fourth quarter, the 5% from 6%, I believe, in Q3, any call outs specifically behind that? RONALD F. CLARKE: Yes, David, it's Ron. Same thing, I think the GFN thing widened just a shade from our estimates in the summer, so I'd say, that's probably a point of it. So again, we kind of say, we think without the GFN thing we'd probably be around 9% for the quarter for fuel. DAVID MARK TOGUT: So did GFN have a greater incremental negative impact in Q4 than it did in Q3? RONALD F. CLARKE: Yes. But more importantly, It had -- I'd say a couple of million more than our forecast from back in the summer. DAVID MARK TOGUT: And any commentary on -- like client retention in that portfolio? Has the retention stabilized? RONALD F. CLARKE: Yes, I think obviously this is not our fondest topic. But I think the good news is we're kind of on the other side, all systems are green. We're selling back on the platform. Sequential retention of the base, that's on it is in line with where we think. So I think it's effectively over other than basically on the compares going forward. But we are finally on the other side of it. All fixed, people happy, back to normal. DAVID MARK TOGUT: Got it. Okay. And then performance of Cambridge global payments acquisition versus your buy plan? RONALD F. CLARKE: Yes, not super. I'd say it had a bit of a sluggish revenue Q4, and mostly, because we were working on restructuring. We exited some people. I think we've told you that we're pretty focused here on profit pools, and so that business has a very large number of small unprofitable clients. So there was a lot of energy in the quarter. Repricing and exiting what we think are a set of pretty unprofitable accounts. So that's going to result in big margin expansion for that business in 2018, and still I say, we're planning kind of mid-teens growth. So I'd say the plan that we have for '18 is pretty in line with the thesis we had this summer. DAVID MARK TOGUT: Understood. And then question on the cost structure, and realize these are GAAP numbers, general and admin expense at least on a GAAP basis was up 51% year-over-year. How much of that is onetime in nature versus sustainable in '18? RONALD F. CLARKE: Yes, so there's 2. And let start and I'll give it over to Eric. So there's a couple of things going on, one is a couple of onetime legal settlement kind of restructuring things in there, and then two, we greenlighted a bit of discretionary spend when we saw the business was tracking kind of ahead of our forecast particularly around IT, and a bit around some consulting projects. I'd say, ballpark probably about $20 million of this spend was one of those 2 flavors, either legal settlement flavor or a bit of a step up in discretionary spend. And then the balance is obviously the business mix, right? The fact that we own lower-margin assets, for example, like Cambridge in that quarter. You have any answer to that? ERIC R. DEY: Yes, and just to add to that. I mean, again, just to add, the last thing that Ron said, I mean, don't forget, a year ago we did not own Cambridge, we did not own CLS, we did not own the private -- the small private-label account in Russia. So you've got the year-over-year impact of owning that business, which is actually the majority of the increase in revenue -- I mean, in expense. And then there's the 2 or 3 things Ron kind of packed on to that kind of added some expense in the fourth quarter. But most of that stuff was one time. DAVID MARK TOGUT: Got it. Just a quick final one for me. Net cash from operations was down about $39 million year-over-year in 2017 versus '16, and it looks like accounts and other receivables were up about $100 million year-over-year in terms of using cash. [The] call-out on DSO, was that -- is that business mix-related? ERIC R. DEY: Yes. You know what? A lot of it had to do with the acquisitions. Again, don't forget that we added a lot of new business versus the prior year. We also made more tax payments this year than we did last year, which also impacted the cash flow from operations. But if I could remind that -- you that our business is very simple from a cash perspective. We bill and we collect. I mean, our DSO literally runs approximately 15 days. So we collect 99.995% of all of our receivables. So it all turns into cash. If there's any variances on the operating cash flow statement, it really is just timing. OPERATOR: Our next question is from Darrin Peller with Barclays. DARRIN DAVID PELLER, MD, BARCLAYS PLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: Good trends. I just want to start off, you're mentioning for guidance mid-teens growth in the nonfuel areas other than gift. So corporate, tolls, lodging, it seems like those were growing. At least toll's up 20%, lodging up over 30%. So first of all, how is -- making sure lodging, that's organic, that's without CLS, I think, right? And then, why would those businesses, including corporate up 16%, decelerate to mid-teens, which is what it sounds like you're trying to imply in the guide? RONALD F. CLARKE: Yes, Darrin. Hey, it's Ron. So the short story on CLC is we got some hurricane FEMA help in Q4 that probably gave us 10, 12 points of incremental growth. So that thing was still -- excluding the hurricane, a mid- to high-teens grower. And then on the other 2, I'd say, again, the comment I said to Ramsey, it's really kind of lapping some pricing so the compare gets steeper as you get later into the year, particularly in corporate pay and STP. So I would say those are the couple of reasons that something that's in the low-20s will be in the mid- to high-teens. But I do want to say, [because] it doesn't sound this way, we're happy. I mean, we're happy in this company to have 3 lines of business, that are half the company, grow in mid- to high-teens. I don't want you to miss that point. We're happy. DARRIN DAVID PELLER: No. Yes, we're not missing that. Just one quick follow-up and then some really -- a couple of technical questions. One of them is on the fuel price assumption. It looks -- I think you're using $2.57. I think the spot's closer to $3 now, so just a quick comment on that. And then on the gift business, you left us off last quarter thinking there could be something coming with regard to structural changes. Just wondering what's -- what the strategy there is now. RONALD F. CLARKE: Yes. So the fuel price, Darrin, is basically a mix of diesel and unleaded, and obviously, it mirrors the geographies and stuff that our client base is in. And so yes, sitting here at this moment, I'd say the number that we have in is a bit conservative. But as you know, that price can move, obviously, materially up or down. So if they stay where it is, there would be some upside in the plan. ERIC R. DEY: So Darrin, just to add to that, that guide is really for only those businesses that are directly sensitive to the movement in the retail price of fuel, so it's primarily our fuel -- like our MasterCard businesses, as an example would not include Comdata as an example, which is obviously 95% diesel, because those businesses really don't react that much to changes in fuel price. So again, it's really those 2 businesses, and that business has more of a 50-50 kind of mix between gas and diesel. RONALD F. CLARKE: What was your second part, Darrin? What was the second part of your question? DARRIN DAVID PELLER: Yes, the gift business strategy now. RONALD F. CLARKE: Yes. So we're still, I'd say, at the plate. I think what we said last time is the same, just slower. So we're on our third idea for that business and still actively working on it. So no news to report today. I think I said this last time. Hoping to have some news next time we talk. So we're still chopping wood on this idea we have. OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) Our next question is from Sanjay Sakhrani with KBW. SANJAY HARKISHIN SAKHRANI, MD, KEEFE, BRUYETTE, & WOODS, INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: I guess, a question on -- so the nonfuel businesses at the mid-teens and maybe more the toll business. When we think about the growth rates you're anticipating, are you assuming any benefit from beyond fuel? And if not, when can we conceivably expect any upside to kick in? RONALD F. CLARKE: So the first thing is the -- most of the beyond-fuel initiative is in our fuel segment. When we use that term, we're referring to our fuel card clients, primarily here and in the U.K., that buy only fuel, opening those cards and letting them buy some other things like construction supplies. But again, I said the same thing earlier, we're pretty happy with mid to high teens for the 3 nonfuel card businesses, and the reason that's decelerating a bit is they're lapping, again, the exit rate or the pricing. SANJAY HARKISHIN SAKHRANI: Okay. And when we think about other initiatives within toll that I think you've talked about in the past, are we expecting some of those to kick off in 2018? Or is it more just -- more of the same in terms of organic growth? RONALD F. CLARKE: Yes, that's a great question. So again, the toll business, the STP business that we just reported in Q4 is 97% toll- and parking-related revenue. And then the third part is a little bit of fuel revenue for the people that use the toll product. So the big idea we have there is what we call fuel first, which, in English, means offering that same technology to consumers or businesses that don't go on the highway, so are not toll users. So effectively almost like a fuel card, people that go locally and go into the major branded stations would be able to avail themselves of the STP technology. So that opens up a market, call it, 5 to 10x the size of the market that we're in, and we've got a unique position having our STP [gadgets] in those locations and having those contracts. So we've got, I don't have it in front of me, probably circa $5 million to $8 million, I think, in our '18 plan for that initiative. So this is a "pilot and start to ramp it up" year. SANJAY HARKISHIN SAKHRANI: Okay. Maybe just one quick follow-up on the reinvestment of the tax benefit, Eric. It sounded like 1/3 of it sort of maybe not recurring. Is that the way we should think about it? Or is the total reinvestment the recurring amount after 2018? ERIC R. DEY: Yes, again, we're still developing some plans on exactly what we're going to invest in. I think, as Ron kind of mentioned, we're going to invest some money in some people, and then hopefully more sales investment into some other things to more protect the business. We don't have the exact number we're going to spend. We kind of called out about 1/3, but that would be something we would consider to be at least ongoing for now. It might change next year, but for now, we would expect that number to be in the business. RONALD F. CLARKE: Yes, just -- Sanjay, it's Ron. I'd say the only piece that feels a little bit more onetime in that third is the segment we call transformation projects. So we do have a couple of big kind of onetime things. We're trying to clean up and make better. I don't know if that's going to run for a year or a little bit more, but call it, 1/3 to 40% of the third Eric mentioned may be kind of more onetime-ish. OPERATOR: Our next question is from Tim Willi with Wells Fargo. TIMOTHY WAYNE WILLI, MD & SENIOR ANALYST, WELLS FARGO SECURITIES, LLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: My first question, Ron or Eric, on the M&A front, when you think about some of the areas, I guess, around like fleets and payments, do you see opportunities to acquire businesses or technologies that might take you deeper into the value chain for, I guess, more of your larger fleet customers beyond just a transactional service that you provide? Is there something else where you see a logical, I guess -- to deepen that relationship and helping them manage their fleets and their businesses, et cetera? RONALD F. CLARKE: Yes, I would say that, that's probably not a primary area that we're looking at. Again, I think our idea for deepening relationships are, A, to open up the cards and allow controlled purchases in adjacent space like for a big construction client, as an example. And then I think, B, the other deepening is the cross-sell into some of our clients our corporate pay and FX kinds of solutions. So I think that deepening idea is a little bit closer to kind of what we're in, in some of the divisions that we've got than it is something entirely new. TIMOTHY WAYNE WILLI: Okay. And then my follow-up sort of related to that is, obviously, you've got a lot going on around [work] initiatives, and I think it touches on the last question around investing the tax savings. Would it -- just conceptually, as we think about -- out over the next, call it, 2 years, 3 years, as these new initiatives around expanding the categories and spend in Cambridge, et cetera, begin to take off, is that another leg to the margin story? Or is there an investment amount in here right now that's sort of suppressing the margins otherwise that we see more clearly as those initiatives move forward? RONALD F. CLARKE: No, I don't think it's a margin enhancement. I think it's a revenue acceleration opportunity. So for us, we look closely at the sales and loss or retention metrics that we quote, and that math is penciling out to kind of 9%, 9% and 9%, right? We said 9% organic growth, '16; 9%, '17; and normalized kind of 8% to 10%, call it 9%. So 9, 9, 9. I think what we see is if we can get from those 4 or 5, what we call, big ideas or big initiatives to hunt, that, that provides potentially some revenue acceleration in those various businesses, particularly in the case of where it can be added on to a client we have. That would create a little bit of margin leverage, like getting existing clients to buy additional things. So I'd say that it's really more directed at revenue growth than it is margin. OPERATOR: Our next question is from James Schneider with Goldman Sachs. JAMES EDWARD SCHNEIDER, VP, GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: Good to see the same-store sales stabilize at 2%, same as last quarter. Based on what you're hearing from your clients right now, I mean, do you think that, that could improve a lot or at all throughout the year from -- especially from some of the industrials clients? And maybe just kind of comment on whether your guidance just assumes that the same-store sales level continues as it is now. RONALD F. CLARKE: Jim, it's Ron. So let me take the second part first. So our guidance, our plan for '18 is using roughly the average of '17. I don't have it in front of me, but that would pencil out to be somewhere between 1% and 2%. And again, that consolidated number that we quote is made up of lots of product lines in lots of geographies. And so mostly, what affects it is when pockets that may have been weak, like Brazil or Russia, start to strengthen or an industry type, like rail and our hotel business, tends to strengthen. I'd say those things seem to have more impact on the total number than, call it, the normal accounts that we would have in fuel or somewhere else. So we're planning it kind of consistent with the prior year, but who knows? Again, it's a macro assumption sitting out there. JAMES EDWARD SCHNEIDER: That's helpful. And maybe just as a follow-up, quickly on the MasterCard, the universal product, I know you started -- restarted sales there. Can you maybe give us a sense as to what point you can be back to the prior kind of like 8% to 10% growth rate? Is that sometime by Q2? Q3? How should we think about how we get back to that previous growth rate? RONALD F. CLARKE: Yes. I think, if you looked at our plan, I think, as we lap the Q1, Q2 issue, it's double-digit starting in Q3 and Q4. So again, getting -- someone asked it earlier, getting the salespeople's confidence back on the product and that we're going to deliver it in a quality way, that builds a bit with time. But yes, the plan is to keep investing behind that product. And I think I mentioned that same product functionality running on the mainframe has continued to grow really nicely throughout the whole time, which reminds us that the product that we've got is good and is in demand. And so we just have to make sure we deliver it in a quality way. OPERATOR: Our next question is from Tien-tsin Huang from JPMorgan. TIEN-TSIN HUANG, SENIOR ANALYST, JP MORGAN CHASE & CO, RESEARCH DIVISION: Great. Thanks for the presentation, too. It's helpful. Just the bookings. What sold well, guys? If you don't mind sharing, maybe by segment, just any other detail there. And I'm curious, given some of the pipeline for potential sold business this year, you think you can do better, worse, same as '18 that you posted in '17? RONALD F. CLARKE: Hey, Tien-tsin, it's Ron. It's a great -- that's a great question. I'd say, sitting in our kind of close-of-the-year staff meeting in December, we remarked that, call it, out of 12 or 14 sales lines that we report and look at, I think all but one of them was up pretty significantly. So this is the first year that I can recall that kind of almost everything we have in the company in almost every place sold a bunch more than the prior year. And then, second, which I mentioned earlier, is the sales levels are accelerating. We did a lot better getting away from the distractions of the first half of the year. And so we planned sales a bit more conservatively for '18, but we like how things are rolling into the front of the year. OPERATOR: Our next question is from Danyal Hussain with Morgan Stanley. DANYAL HUSSAIN, EQUITY ANALYST, MORGAN STANLEY, RESEARCH DIVISION: Just a couple of quick ones. Just on the Chevron contract. Does your guidance assume that the conversion begins sort of on day 1 in Q3? And then does that come off gradually or all at once? And do you expect there'll be any cost offsets in -- during the year? RONALD F. CLARKE: Yes. Again, it's Ron. I don't think we'd comment that specifically on a given partner, but I'd say it'd be kind of okay for you guys to plan that we retain that thing for, call it, at least the first half of the year. I mean, practically all conversions have a beginning and end. So to your point, they actually stream over some period of time, usually 4 to 6 months. So that's what the shape of the thing will look like. DANYAL HUSSAIN: Okay, great. And then just a quick one on, I guess, M&A pipeline. You had suggested there might be a couple tuck-ins that are imminent, and then maybe just juxtaposing that against appetite for buybacks, I think, just given where the market is now. RONALD F. CLARKE: (inaudible) today, that's a more -- even a more relevant question. So yes, on the first part, I did mention that we've got 3 or 4 active acquisition things that we're working on. I would -- I guess, I'd characterize them as kind of mid-size. They're not super small, they're not super big, they're, call it, $100 million to $300 million or $400 million, $500 million kind of in size. So my guess is that we will work some of those through the pipeline before we get to the turn. And yes, on the question of buybacks, I think we've shown that we'll buy back FLT. We've bought back, whatever we said, 2.5 million shares... ERIC R. DEY: 2.5 million shares. RONALD F. CLARKE: Yes, last year. And so like always, it's a function of relative price. So when we see the price of our stock vis-à-vis its comps and we look at our deal pipeline and we look at our liquidity, which are all good, our leverage ratio, I think, was 2.4 at the close, and so yes, I would say, at these kind of prices, we're certainly buyers of our stock. OPERATOR: Our next question is from Oscar Turner with SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. OSCAR D. TURNER, ASSOCIATE, SUNTRUST ROBINSON HUMPHREY, INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: I guess, one more follow-up on this 2018 outlook. With regards to your nonfuel segments, can you provide a detailed growth outlook for those 3, I think it's tolls, Corporate Payments and lodging, just given that those are the revenue growth engine? ERIC R. DEY: Yes, we did. I did provide some guidance on that. All of them are projected to grow kind of in that kind of mid- to upper-teens rate in 2018. We didn't talk about it specifically by product. I'd have to go back and look at it, but I would expect all of those, the tolls, the lodging, the corporate pay businesses, to be in the -- kind of the mid to upper teens. OSCAR D. TURNER: Okay. And then, appreciate the color on the midterm growth initiatives. I guess, my question's -- or follow-up's particularly on the beyond fuel. Can you provide color on the time line for broader rollout of beyond fuel? And then, I think you mentioned testing that with some of your domestic customers. And how much revenue from that initiative's in your 2018 guidance? RONALD F. CLARKE: Yes. Oscar, it's Ron. It's a really good question. And so what I'd say is that we've done the iceberg work here in the U.S. and the U.K., so we now have lots of our fuel card clients on platforms that we can open up and offer nonfuel things to them, point one. Point two is we tested pretty hard for about 1.5 years in one vertical, the construction vertical, and had a lot of success with it. About half of the purchases of these new construction clients were construction supplies and the other half were fuel. So we've got good demonstration that this beyond fuel idea works, at least in some places. So what we're doing now, and is in kind of our plans for '18, is widening that and looking at other verticals, looking at our customer base to upgrade. So I'd say a lot of the work now is around targeting, marketing, credit analysis because it would increase obviously the credit for the accounts. So I would think that probably a fair amount of this year will be getting some other areas including the client base and other verticals fine-tuned so that it can be a much more material number next year. But it is working, wherever we tried it, it is working. OPERATOR: And our final question will be from Bob Napoli with William Blair. ROBERT PAUL NAPOLI, PARTNER AND CO-GROUP HEAD OF FINANCIAL SERVICES & TECHNOLOGY, WILLIAM BLAIR & COMPANY L.L.C., RESEARCH DIVISION: Thanks for the outlook, the detailed outlook. But as we look at the numbers -- and mid-teens, I agree, are very healthy growth rates for those 3 segments. Where do you see the biggest risks to that outlook? Which businesses or which segments are you most confident in achieving those numbers? And so where could there be upside and where do you see -- if you missed these numbers next year, where would they -- which segment would it come from? Is it in -- where is the execution risk the highest? RONALD F. CLARKE: Bob, it's Ron again. I'd -- it's a good question. I'd say that I'm not particularly worried about any of them because we've built plans, again, I think I'd tell you guys, that we think we can make. But I'd say that because of the model of Corporate Payments, I would have higher confidence because of the implementation cycle. So I'd say sitting here today, that book is sold already to make the plan. So the risk there is really implementation, not selling. But in the case of tolls and even lodging, those things have to be sold. We have to sell more in 2018, but obviously, we sold a lot in 2017. So I'd say, if you made me order them, I'd have the most confidence probably in corporate pay, probably second in lodging because this revamp of the product is just crazy good. We've taken a product that was not super easy to use or super easy to book rooms, low-cost rooms, and we've made it like super easy now. And looking at January, we're getting a lift. So I'd feel I'd say super good there. And so I'd say the one that's just more of proving to do that's just got a pretty big number would be the tolls business, would be my order. ROBERT PAUL NAPOLI: And which of those do you see the most likely to have upside potential, I guess? Would it be in the same order? RONALD F. CLARKE: I'd say probably, for the same reason. Because beta flexes down and beta flexes up. I'd probably say the same thing. I was looking at the report this morning of the new tolls. I think I mentioned that in the upfront remarks. There's 4, I think, new toll roads expected to come online starting actually in Q2. So we've built some kind of forecast of the lift, which is -- starts to be pretty meaningful as you exit the year. So I'd say that, and then the common someone -- or question someone asked earlier about fuel first, I'd say the same thing. That thing is kind of ready to go. We're testing. We put a little bit in the plan, but from the research and the reactions, that's something that could roll way faster. So I'd say, although it has to all be sold in the year, which could create some risk, I think it's also got some flex where it could do a lot better. ROBERT PAUL NAPOLI: And last, I have to ask about Europe and fuel card outsourcing by the major oils which we've talked about for years. And you mentioned some potential major partnerships that could affect the numbers this year. RONALD F. CLARKE: Yes. I'm always wrong, I feel like when I try to answer this question. So you guys have made me a bit cautious. But it's a bit of a broken record. Yes, I'm looking at some partner pipeline, and there are 3 or 4 things in Europe that we're in conversations but where and when those things will land, I don't know. But it continues to be something of great interest. I got an e-mail from one of my guys who had a great meeting yesterday and wanted to report back. The CEO, they want us to meet. So it continues to be of interest, but it always seems a bit harder to actually get it over the goal line. OPERATOR: Thank you. This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and thank you for your participation. [Thomson Financial reserves the right to make changes to documents, content, or other information on this web site without obligation to notify any person of such changes. In the conference calls upon which Event Briefs are based, companies may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding a variety of items. Such forward-looking statements are based upon current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those stated in any forward-looking statement based on a number of important factors and risks, which are more specifically identified in the companies' most recent SEC filings. Although the companies may indicate and believe that the assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements are reasonable, any of the assumptions could prove inaccurate or incorrect and, therefore, there can be no assurance that the results contemplated in the forward-looking statements will be realized. THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN EVENT BRIEFS REFLECTS THOMSON FINANCIAL'S SUBJECTIVE CONDENSED PARAPHRASE OF THE APPLICABLE COMPANY'S CONFERENCE CALL AND THERE MAY BE MATERIAL ERRORS, OMISSIONS, OR INACCURACIES IN THE REPORTING OF THE SUBSTANCE OF THE CONFERENCE CALLS. IN NO WAY DOES THOMSON FINANCIAL OR THE APPLICABLE COMPANY ASSUME ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY INVESTMENT OR OTHER DECISIONS MADE BASED UPON THE INFORMATION PROVIDED ON THIS WEB SITE OR IN ANY EVENT BRIEF. USERS ARE ADVISED TO REVIEW THE APPLICABLE COMPANY'S CONFERENCE CALL ITSELF AND THE APPLICABLE COMPANY'S SEC FILINGS BEFORE MAKING ANY INVESTMENT OR OTHER DECISIONS.] [Copyright: Content copyright 2018 Thomson Financial. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Electronic format, layout and metadata, copyright 2018 ASC LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No license is granted to the user of this material other than for research. User may not reproduce or redistribute the material except for user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon Thomson Financial's or ASC's copyright or other proprietary rights or interests in the material; provided, however, that members of the news media may redistribute limited portions (less than 250 words) of this material without a specific license from Thomson Financial and ASC so long as they provide conspicuous attribution to Thomson Financial and ASC as the originators and copyright holders of such material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation.]
Subject: Copyright; Acquisitions & mergers; Tax rates; Earnings per share; Net income
Company / organization: Name: Thomson Financial; NAICS: 511210, 518210, 519190
Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 8, 2018
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: Linthicum
Country of publication: United States, Linthicum
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Law--Corporate Law
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2007210724
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2007210724?accountid=4840
Copyright: 2018 Thomson Financial and ASC LLC
Last updated: 2018-02-23
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 58 of 474
Capture the carnival: six homes in the heart of festivals
Author: Knowles, Claudia
Publication info: FT.com ; London (Feb 8, 2018).
Abstract:
What A three-bedroom apartment with more than 4,550 sq metres of living space, a media room, parking spaces and 24-hour concierge. Why The French Quarter is renowned for its Mardi Gras carnival, which runs this weekend. There’s a cinema room, a wine cellar and the property has access to a private garden.Full text: Penthouse on Canal Grande, San Polo, Venice, Italy, €7.8m Where On the Grand Canal in Venice. Marco Polo international airport is 30 minutes away by water taxi. What A three-bedroom apartment on the top floor of a 19-century building. Why Venice celebrates its carnevale with masked balls and boat parades on the Grand Canal. Who Romolini International Real Estate Agency through Christie’s International Real Estate, christiesrealestate.com, tel: +39 0575 788948 Penthouse on Avenue Vieira Souto, Ipanema, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, US$5.04m Where Overlooking Rio’s Ipanema beach in a neighbourhood filled with theatres and restaurants. Rio-Galeão international airport is a half-hour drive. What A three-bedroom apartment with more than 4,550 sq metres of living space, a media room, parking spaces and 24-hour concierge. Why The property has views across Ipanema beach, where each year tens of thousands gather for the Banda de Ipanema street parade during Rio’s Carnival. Who Judice & Araujo through Christie’s International Real Estate, christiesrealestate.com, tel: +55 21 2540 9088 600 Governor Nicholls Street, New Orleans, Louisiana, US, $3.5m Where In New Orleans’ French Quarter. Louis Armstrong New Orleans international airport is a 25-minute drive. What A three-bedroom house with almost 5,000 sq ft of living space. The green wrought-iron balcony wraps around two sides of the house. Why The French Quarter is renowned for its Mardi Gras carnival, which runs this weekend. Who Dorian Bennett Sotheby’s International Realty, sothebysrealty.com, tel: +1 504 944 3605 Elgin Crescent, Notting Hill, London, UK, £12.95m Where Just off Ladbroke Grove in a garden square in Notting Hill, west London. Heathrow international airport is about 12 miles away. What A six-storey house with five bedrooms and four reception areas. There’s a cinema room, a wine cellar and the property has access to a private garden. Why Every August Notting Hill turns into an explosion of colourful outfits, music and dancing with a parade that travels down nearby Ladbroke Grove. The carnival has run since the 1960s, celebrating the Caribbean community and different cultures in the area. Who Knight Frank, knightfrank.co.uk, tel: +44 20 7229 0229 House in Sandy Lane, St James, Barbados, Caribbean, $8m Where In Sandy Lane, on the west coast of Barbados. Grantley Adams international airport is a little more than a half-hour drive. What A 7,800 sq ft house with four bedrooms. The dining room has a table made from carved coral stone. Outside there’s an infinity pool as well as a pond with koi fish. Why The island’s Crop Over carnival brings thousands to the streets from June until August, including singer Rihanna. It ends with the Grand Kadooment parade. Who 7th Heaven Properties, 7thheavenproperties.com, tel: +44 20 8960 1010 Palace in Palma, Mallorca, Spain, €13.5m Where In the old town of Palma, Mallorca, off the Mediterranean coast of Spain. The property is less than 25 minutes’ drive from Palma de Mallorca international airport. What A refurbished former palace with 890 sq metres of living space, including eight bedrooms. From the roof terrace you can see the cathedral and the sea. Why The city holds street parties and parades before Lent — this year’s festivities are this weekend. Who Mallorca Sotheby’s International Realty, mallorca-sothebysrealty.com, tel: +34 971 721 000 Follow @FTProperty on Twitter to find out about our latest stories first. Subscribe to FT Life on YouTube for the latest FT Weekend videos Credit: Claudia Knowles
Subject: Parades; Airports
Location: Italy Majorca Brazil Spain United States--US Rio de Janeiro Brazil Louisiana Barbados United Kingdom--UK
Company / organization: Name: Twitter Inc; NAICS: 519130; Name: YouTube Inc; NAICS: 519130
Publication title: FT.com; London
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 8, 2018
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Trade Journals
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2121703449
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2121703449?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Feb 8, 2018
Last updated: 2018-10-18
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 59 of 474
Prosecutor dismisses 13 cases tied to biker shootout in Waco; ; ICC to open preliminary probes in Philippines and Venezuela; Mich. Sen. Stabenow: Give me 'five minutes' with Larry Nassar; Man facing deportation from Kansas gets temporary stay; Final checks sent to sterilization victims in N.C.; Carnival ready to kick off with more security planned in Rio
Publication info: Orlando Sentinel ; Orlando, Fla. [Orlando, Fla]09 Feb 2018: A.8.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: FORT WORTH, Texas - A Texas prosecutor on Thursday dismissed 13 cases stemming from a 2015 shootout in Waco involving bikers and police and recused himself from two others, placing into doubt the criminal prosecution of the more than 130 bikers still awaiting trial. The actions came hours before a scheduled hearing for Jorge Salinas, whose case was among those dismissed. Current and former staff had been due to speak at the hearing about corruption allegations against District Attorney Abel Reyna, who faces a Republican primary election in March. The hearing was canceled. According to a motion filed Thursday, the prosecutor dismissed Salinas' case "in order to focus its efforts and resources on co-defendants with a higher level of culpability." The May 2015 shootout involving members of the Bandidos and Cossacks motorcycle clubs outside a Twin Peaks restaurant left nine bikers dead and 20 injured. Local police arrested 177 bikers after the mayhem, and more than 150 people were eventually indicted on felony charges of engaging in organized criminal activity resulting in the deaths and injuries. Ballistics evidence showed that police bullets struck four bikers, killing at least two of them. The three officers involved were cleared by an internal investigation. Nearly three years later, only one biker, Bandido chapter president Christopher "Jake" Carrizal, has been tried. Carrizal's November trial resulted in a mistrial when jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict. The second biker set for trial rejected a plea deal in December. ICC to open preliminary probes in Philippines and Venezuela THE HAGUE, Netherlands - The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court announced Thursday that she is opening preliminary probes into alleged crimes by security forces in the Philippines and Venezuela. Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said that the probe on Venezuela will look at allegations that since April 2017 government forces "frequently used excessive force to ... put down demonstrations," and abused some opposition members in detention. The Philippines probe will focus on allegations since July 2016 that thousands of people have been killed in the government's war on drugs. A Filipino lawyer last year presented documents to the court which he said had evidence of the involvement of President Rodrigo Duterte in the extra-judicial killings of suspected drug dealers and other crime suspects. Mich. Sen. Stabenow: Give me 'five minutes' with Larry Nassar CHARLOTTE, Mich. - Sen. Debbie Stabenow says she was disappointed that an enraged father was prevented from punching Larry Nassar in a Michigan courtroom last week, saying she "would have liked five minutes" with the disgraced sports doctor accused of sexually abusing more than 260 women and girls. "All of us understand how destructive and how outrageous this perversion and (Nassar's) actions have been," Stabenow, a Michigan Democrat, said Wednesday Washington. "As a mom and as a grandmother who now has a young granddaughter in sports, I thought, you know, I would have liked five minutes with this guy," Stabenow said of Nassar, 54, a former Michigan State University doctor, who has been sentenced to decades in prison for sexual assault. Man facing deportation from Kansas gets temporary stay LAWRENCE, Kan. - An adjunct college chemistry instructor living in Kansas who faced imminent deportation to Bangladesh has been granted a temporary stay. Lawyers representing 55-year-old Syed Ahmed Jamal announced Thursday that a judge issued the temporary stay and gave the Department of Homeland Security until Feb. 15 to respond to a motion to stay the deportation and re-open immigration proceedings. Jamal was arrested Jan. 24 at his home in Lawrence. He arrived legally in the U.S. in 1987, but after pursuing a doctorate degree, he overstayed his visa. Since his visa expired, he has been allowed to stay in the U.S. and report regularly to immigration authorities. He and his Bangladeshi wife have three children who are American citizens. Final checks sent to sterilization victims in N.C. RALEIGH, N.C. - The third and final compensation payment has been mailed to sterilization victims, marking the end of a 15-year pursuit of financial help for people who suffered under North Carolina's eugenics program. The state Department of Administration said it mailed letters and an enclosed check of almost $10,500 to victims Thursday. Victims with approved claims received their first payment of $20,000 each in October 2014. A second payment of $15,000 each was mailed in November 2015. About 7,600 people were sterilized under North Carolina's eugenics program before it ended in 1974. The N.C. Industrial Commission certified 220 victims. The payments were made after a decision by the N.C. Court of Appeals rejecting arguments from the heirs of some victims about the law. Carnival ready to kick off with more security planned in Rio RIO DE JANEIRO - Authorities in Rio de Janeiro state said Thursday that security is being beefed up as the world-famous Carnival bash begins, following a wave of violence caused by gangs. Gov. Luiz Fernando Pezao said in a news conference that security forces will now total more than 17,000 statewide per day. That includes 2,000 extra agents who were off duty and will now work during the bash. Last year Rio used almost 12,000 policemen during Carnival, but it also counted on the help of 9,000 members of the country's armed forces. Brazil's most popular Carnival party starts Friday and ends Tuesday. Gov. Pezao also promised to pay policemen more than $20 million in delayed salaries and bring back a bonus program that was downsized due to the state's financial crisis. Authorities in Mexico's Gulf coast state of Veracruz announced charges Thursday of "forced disappearance" against 19 current or former state police officials and officers, saying they kidnapped and killed 15 innocent civilians. The governor said the victims included two women and two minors. Montana wildlife officials are recommending against holding a grizzly bear hunt in 2018 after the animals lost their federal protections across a three-state region around Yellowstone National Park. An official said Thursday the state wants to demonstrate its commitment to the grizzly's long-term recovery. Credit: - Staff and news services Caption: PHOTO: Rescuers in Taiwan continued their search for survivors in a dangerously tilted building Thursday, more than a day after it was damaged in a 6.4-magnitude earthquake that shook the island's east coast and killed at least 10 people. Billy H.C. Kwok/Getty
Subject: Indictments; Sex crimes; Immigration; Deportation; Trials; Genetic engineering; Earthquakes; Murders & murder attempts
Location: Bangladesh Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil Michigan Mexico Texas Montana Netherlands United States--US Venezuela Philippines Kansas North Carolina Taiwan
People: Stabenow, Debbie Duterte, Rodrigo R
Company / organization: Name: Yellowstone National Park; NAICS: 712190; Name: Department of Homeland Security; NAICS: 922120; Name: Michigan State University; NAICS: 611310; Name: International Criminal Court; NAICS: 922110, 928120
Publication title: Orlando Sentinel; Orlando, Fla.
First page: A.8
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 9, 2018
Publisher: Tribune Interactive, LLC
Place of publication: Orlando, Fla.
Country of publication: United States, Orlando, Fla.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1999453566
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1999453566?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright © 2018 Orlando Sentinel
Last updated: 2018-02-09
Database: US Southeast Newsstream
Document 60 of 474
Prosecutor dismisses 13 cases tied to biker shootout in Waco; NEWS BRIEFING; Staff and news services; ICC to open preliminary probes in Philippines and Venezuela; Mich. Sen. Stabenow: Give me 'five minutes' with Larry Nassar; Man facing deportation from Kansas gets temporary stay; Final checks sent to sterilization victims in N.C.; Carnival ready to kick off with more security planned in Rio
Publication info: South Florida Sun - Sentinel ; Fort Lauderdale, Fla. [Fort Lauderdale, Fla]09 Feb 2018: A.3.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: FORT WORTH, Texas - A Texas prosecutor on Thursday dismissed 13 cases stemming from a 2015 shootout in Waco involving bikers and police and recused himself from two others, placing into doubt the criminal prosecution of the more than 130 bikers still awaiting trial. The actions came hours before a scheduled hearing for Jorge Salinas, whose case was among those dismissed. Current and former staff had been due to speak at the hearing about corruption allegations against District Attorney Abel Reyna, who faces a Republican primary election in March. The hearing was canceled. According to a motion filed Thursday, the prosecutor dismissed Salinas' case "in order to focus its efforts and resources on co-defendants with a higher level of culpability." The May 2015 shootout involving members of the Bandidos and Cossacks motorcycle clubs outside a Twin Peaks restaurant left nine bikers dead and 20 injured. Local police arrested 177 bikers after the mayhem, and more than 150 people were eventually indicted on felony charges of engaging in organized criminal activity resulting in the deaths and injuries. Ballistics evidence showed that police bullets struck four bikers, killing at least two of them. The three officers involved were cleared by an internal investigation. Nearly three years later, only one biker, Bandido chapter president Christopher "Jake" Carrizal, has been tried. Carrizal's November trial resulted in a mistrial when jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict. The second biker set for trial rejected a plea deal in December. ICC to open preliminary probes in Philippines and Venezuela THE HAGUE, Netherlands - The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court announced Thursday that she is opening preliminary probes into alleged crimes by security forces in the Philippines and Venezuela. Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said that the probe on Venezuela will look at allegations that since April 2017 government forces "frequently used excessive force to ... put down demonstrations," and abused some opposition members in detention. The Philippines probe will focus on allegations since July 2016 that thousands of people have been killed in the government's war on drugs. A Filipino lawyer last year presented documents to the court which he said had evidence of the involvement of President Rodrigo Duterte in the extra-judicial killings of suspected drug dealers and other crime suspects. Mich. Sen. Stabenow: Give me 'five minutes' with Larry Nassar CHARLOTTE, Mich. - Sen. Debbie Stabenow says she was disappointed that an enraged father was prevented from punching Larry Nassar in a Michigan courtroom last week, saying she "would have liked five minutes" with the disgraced sports doctor accused of sexually abusing more than 260 women and girls. "All of us understand how destructive and how outrageous this perversion and (Nassar's) actions have been," Stabenow, a Michigan Democrat, said Wednesday Washington. "As a mom and as a grandmother who now has a young granddaughter in sports, I thought, you know, I would have liked five minutes with this guy," Stabenow said of Nassar, 54, a former Michigan State University doctor, who has been sentenced to decades in prison for sexual assault. Man facing deportation from Kansas gets temporary stay LAWRENCE, Kan. - An adjunct college chemistry instructor living in Kansas who faced imminent deportation to Bangladesh has been granted a temporary stay. Lawyers representing 55-year-old Syed Ahmed Jamal announced Thursday that a judge issued the temporary stay and gave the Department of Homeland Security until Feb. 15 to respond to a motion to stay the deportation and re-open immigration proceedings. Jamal was arrested Jan. 24 at his home in Lawrence. He arrived legally in the U.S. in 1987, but after pursuing a doctorate degree, he overstayed his visa. Since his visa expired, he has been allowed to stay in the U.S. and report regularly to immigration authorities. He and his Bangladeshi wife have three children who are American citizens. Final checks sent to sterilization victims in N.C. RALEIGH, N.C. - The third and final compensation payment has been mailed to sterilization victims, marking the end of a 15-year pursuit of financial help for people who suffered under North Carolina's eugenics program. The state Department of Administration said it mailed letters and an enclosed check of almost $10,500 to victims Thursday. Victims with approved claims received their first payment of $20,000 each in October 2014. A second payment of $15,000 each was mailed in November 2015. About 7,600 people were sterilized under North Carolina's eugenics program before it ended in 1974. The N.C. Industrial Commission certified 220 victims. The payments were made after a decision by the N.C. Court of Appeals rejecting arguments from the heirs of some victims about the law. Carnival ready to kick off with more security planned in Rio RIO DE JANEIRO - Authorities in Rio de Janeiro state said Thursday that security is being beefed up as the world-famous Carnival bash begins, following a wave of violence caused by gangs. Gov. Luiz Fernando Pezao said in a news conference that security forces will now total more than 17,000 statewide per day. That includes 2,000 extra agents who were off duty and will now work during the bash. Last year Rio used almost 12,000 policemen during Carnival, but it also counted on the help of 9,000 members of the country's armed forces. Brazil's most popular Carnival party starts Friday and ends Tuesday. Gov. Pezao also promised to pay policemen more than $20 million in delayed salaries and bring back a bonus program that was downsized due to the state's financial crisis. Authorities in Mexico's Gulf coast state of Veracruz announced charges Thursday of "forced disappearance" against 19 current or former state police officials and officers, saying they kidnapped and killed 15 innocent civilians. The governor said the victims included two women and two minors. Montana wildlife officials are recommending against holding a grizzly bear hunt in 2018 after the animals lost their federal protections across a three-state region around Yellowstone National Park. An official said Thursday the state wants to demonstrate its commitment to the grizzly's long-term recovery. Caption: Rescuers in Taiwan continued their search for survivors in a dangerously tilted building Thursday, more than a day after it was damaged in a 6.4-magnitude earthquake that shook the island's east coast and killed at least 10 people. Billy H.C. Kwok/Getty
Subject: Indictments; Sex crimes; Immigration; Deportation; Trials; Genetic engineering; Earthquakes; Murders & murder attempts
Location: Bangladesh Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil Michigan Texas Mexico Netherlands Montana United States--US Venezuela Philippines Kansas North Carolina Taiwan
People: Stabenow, Debbie Duterte, Rodrigo R
Company / organization: Name: Yellowstone National Park; NAICS: 712190; Name: Department of Homeland Security; NAICS: 922120; Name: Michigan State University; NAICS: 611310; Name: International Criminal Court; NAICS: 922110, 928120
Publication title: South Florida Sun - Sentinel; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
First page: A.3
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 9, 2018
Publisher: Tribune Inter active, LLC
Place of publication: Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Country of publication: United States, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1999453612
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1999453612?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright © 2018 South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Last updated: 2018-02-09
Database: US Southeast Newsstream
Document 61 of 474
NEWS BRIEFING
Author: Staff; news services
Publication info: Daily Press ; Newport News, Va. [Newport News, Va]09 Feb 2018: A.16.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Prosecutor dismisses 13 cases tied to biker shootout in Waco FORT WORTH, Texas - A Texas prosecutor on Thursday dismissed 13 cases stemming from a 2015 shootout in Waco involving bikers and police and recused himself from two others, placing into doubt the criminal prosecution of the more than 130 bikers still awaiting trial. The actions came hours before a scheduled hearing for Jorge Salinas, whose case was among those dismissed. Current and former staff had been due to speak at the hearing about corruption allegations against District Attorney Abel Reyna, who faces a Republican primary election in March. The hearing was canceled. According to a motion filed Thursday, the prosecutor dismissed Salinas' case "in order to focus its efforts and resources on co-defendants with a higher level of culpability." The May 2015 shootout involving members of the Bandidos and Cossacks motorcycle clubs outside a Twin Peaks restaurant left nine bikers dead and 20 injured. Local police arrested 177 bikers after the mayhem, and more than 150 people were eventually indicted on felony charges of engaging in organized criminal activity resulting in the deaths and injuries. Ballistics evidence showed that police bullets struck four bikers, killing at least two of them. The three officers involved were cleared by an internal investigation. Nearly three years later, only one biker, Bandido chapter president Christopher "Jake" Carrizal, has been tried. Carrizal's November trial resulted in a mistrial when jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict. The second biker set for trial rejected a plea deal in December. ICC to open preliminary probes in Philippines and Venezuela THE HAGUE, Netherlands - The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court announced Thursday that she is opening preliminary probes into alleged crimes by security forces in the Philippines and Venezuela. Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said that the probe on Venezuela will look at allegations that since April 2017 government forces "frequently used excessive force to ... put down demonstrations," and abused some opposition members in detention. The Philippines probe will focus on allegations since July 2016 that thousands of people have been killed in the government's war on drugs. A Filipino lawyer last year presented documents to the court which he said had evidence of the involvement of President Rodrigo Duterte in the extra-judicial killings of suspected drug dealers and other crime suspects. Mich. Sen. Stabenow: Give me 'five minutes' with Larry Nassar CHARLOTTE, Mich. - Sen. Debbie Stabenow says she was disappointed that an enraged father was prevented from punching Larry Nassar in a Michigan courtroom last week, saying she "would have liked five minutes" with the disgraced sports doctor accused of sexually abusing more than 260 women and girls. "All of us understand how destructive and how outrageous this perversion and (Nassar's) actions have been," Stabenow, a Michigan Democrat, said Wednesday Washington. "As a mom and as a grandmother who now has a young granddaughter in sports, I thought, you know, I would have liked five minutes with this guy," Stabenow said of Nassar, 54, a former Michigan State University doctor, who has been sentenced to decades in prison for sexual assault. Man facing deportation from Kansas gets temporary stay LAWRENCE, Kan. - An adjunct college chemistry instructor living in Kansas who faced imminent deportation to Bangladesh has been granted a temporary stay. Lawyers representing 55-year-old Syed Ahmed Jamal announced Thursday that a judge issued the temporary stay and gave the Department of Homeland Security until Feb. 15 to respond to a motion to stay the deportation and re-open immigration proceedings. Jamal was arrested Jan. 24 at his home in Lawrence. He arrived legally in the U.S. in 1987, but after pursuing a doctorate degree, he overstayed his visa. Since his visa expired, he has been allowed to stay in the U.S. and report regularly to immigration authorities. He and his Bangladeshi wife have three children who are American citizens. Final checks sent to sterilization victims in N.C. RALEIGH, N.C. - The third and final compensation payment has been mailed to sterilization victims, marking the end of a 15-year pursuit of financial help for people who suffered under North Carolina's eugenics program. The state Department of Administration said it mailed letters and an enclosed check of almost $10,500 to victims Thursday. Victims with approved claims received their first payment of $20,000 each in October 2014. A second payment of $15,000 each was mailed in November 2015. About 7,600 people were sterilized under North Carolina's eugenics program before it ended in 1974. The N.C. Industrial Commission certified 220 victims. The payments were made after a decision by the N.C. Court of Appeals rejecting arguments from the heirs of some victims about the law. Carnival ready to kick off with more security planned in Rio RIO DE JANEIRO - Authorities in Rio de Janeiro state said Thursday that security is being beefed up as the world-famous Carnival bash begins, following a wave of violence caused by gangs. Gov. Luiz Fernando Pezao said in a news conference that security forces will now total more than 17,000 statewide per day. That includes 2,000 extra agents who were off duty and will now work during the bash. Last year Rio used almost 12,000 policemen during Carnival, but it also counted on the help of 9,000 members of the country's armed forces. Brazil's most popular Carnival party starts Friday and ends Tuesday. Gov. Pezao also promised to pay policemen more than $20 million in delayed salaries and bring back a bonus program that was downsized due to the state's financial crisis. Authorities in Mexico's Gulf coast state of Veracruz announced charges Thursday of "forced disappearance" against 19 current or former state police officials and officers, saying they kidnapped and killed 15 innocent civilians. The governor said the victims included two women and two minors. Montana wildlife officials are recommending against holding a grizzly bear hunt in 2018 after the animals lost their federal protections across a three-state region around Yellowstone National Park. An official said Thursday the state wants to demonstrate its commitment to the grizzly's long-term recovery. Credit: Staff; news services Caption: Billy H.C. Kwok/Getty Rescuers in Taiwan continued their search for survivors in a dangerously tilted building Thursday, more than a day after it was damaged in a 6.4-magnitude earthquake that shook the island's east coast and killed at least 10 people.
Subject: Indictments; Sex crimes; Immigration; Deportation; Trials; Genetic engineering; Earthquakes; Murders & murder attempts
Location: Bangladesh Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil Michigan Mexico Texas Montana Netherlands United States--US Venezuela Philippines Kansas North Carolina Taiwan
People: Stabenow, Debbie Duterte, Rodrigo R
Company / organization: Name: Yellowstone National Park; NAICS: 712190; Name: Department of Homeland Security; NAICS: 922120; Name: Michigan State University; NAICS: 611310; Name: International Criminal Court; NAICS: 922110, 928120
Publication title: Daily Press; Newport News, Va.
First page: A.16
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 9, 2018
Publisher: Tribune Interactive, LLC
Place of publication: Newport News, Va.
Country of publication: United States, Newport News, Va.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1999454253
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1999454253?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright © 2018 Daily Press
Last updated: 2018-02-09
Database: US Southeast Newsstream
Document 62 of 474
Prosecutor dismisses 13 cases tied to biker shootout in Waco; NEWS BRIEFING; Staff and news services; ICC to open preliminary probes in Philippines and Venezuela; Mich. Sen. Stabenow: Give me 'five minutes' with Larry Nassar; Man facing deportation from Kansas gets temporary stay; Final checks sent to sterilization victims in N.C.; Carnival ready to kick off with more security planned in Rio
Publication info: The Baltimore Sun ; Baltimore, Md. [Baltimore, Md]09 Feb 2018: A.6.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: FORT WORTH, Texas - A Texas prosecutor on Thursday dismissed 13 cases stemming from a 2015 shootout in Waco involving bikers and police and recused himself from two others, placing into doubt the criminal prosecution of the more than 130 bikers still awaiting trial. The actions came hours before a scheduled hearing for Jorge Salinas, whose case was among those dismissed. Current and former staff had been due to speak at the hearing about corruption allegations against District Attorney Abel Reyna, who faces a Republican primary election in March. The hearing was canceled. According to a motion filed Thursday, the prosecutor dismissed Salinas' case "in order to focus its efforts and resources on co-defendants with a higher level of culpability." The May 2015 shootout involving members of the Bandidos and Cossacks motorcycle clubs outside a Twin Peaks restaurant left nine bikers dead and 20 injured. Local police arrested 177 bikers after the mayhem, and more than 150 people were eventually indicted on felony charges of engaging in organized criminal activity resulting in the deaths and injuries. Ballistics evidence showed that police bullets struck four bikers, killing at least two of them. The three officers involved were cleared by an internal investigation. Nearly three years later, only one biker, Bandido chapter president Christopher "Jake" Carrizal, has been tried. Carrizal's November trial resulted in a mistrial when jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict. The second biker set for trial rejected a plea deal in December. ICC to open preliminary probes in Philippines and Venezuela THE HAGUE, Netherlands - The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court announced Thursday that she is opening preliminary probes into alleged crimes by security forces in the Philippines and Venezuela. Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said that the probe on Venezuela will look at allegations that since April 2017 government forces "frequently used excessive force to ... put down demonstrations," and abused some opposition members in detention. The Philippines probe will focus on allegations since July 2016 that thousands of people have been killed in the government's war on drugs. A Filipino lawyer last year presented documents to the court which he said had evidence of the involvement of President Rodrigo Duterte in the extra-judicial killings of suspected drug dealers and other crime suspects. Mich. Sen. Stabenow: Give me 'five minutes' with Larry Nassar CHARLOTTE, Mich. - Sen. Debbie Stabenow says she was disappointed that an enraged father was prevented from punching Larry Nassar in a Michigan courtroom last week, saying she "would have liked five minutes" with the disgraced sports doctor accused of sexually abusing more than 260 women and girls. "All of us understand how destructive and how outrageous this perversion and (Nassar's) actions have been," Stabenow, a Michigan Democrat, said Wednesday Washington. "As a mom and as a grandmother who now has a young granddaughter in sports, I thought, you know, I would have liked five minutes with this guy," Stabenow said of Nassar, 54, a former Michigan State University doctor, who has been sentenced to decades in prison for sexual assault. Man facing deportation from Kansas gets temporary stay LAWRENCE, Kan. - An adjunct college chemistry instructor living in Kansas who faced imminent deportation to Bangladesh has been granted a temporary stay. Lawyers representing 55-year-old Syed Ahmed Jamal announced Thursday that a judge issued the temporary stay and gave the Department of Homeland Security until Feb. 15 to respond to a motion to stay the deportation and re-open immigration proceedings. Jamal was arrested Jan. 24 at his home in Lawrence. He arrived legally in the U.S. in 1987, but after pursuing a doctorate degree, he overstayed his visa. Since his visa expired, he has been allowed to stay in the U.S. and report regularly to immigration authorities. He and his Bangladeshi wife have three children who are American citizens. Final checks sent to sterilization victims in N.C. RALEIGH, N.C. - The third and final compensation payment has been mailed to sterilization victims, marking the end of a 15-year pursuit of financial help for people who suffered under North Carolina's eugenics program. The state Department of Administration said it mailed letters and an enclosed check of almost $10,500 to victims Thursday. Victims with approved claims received their first payment of $20,000 each in October 2014. A second payment of $15,000 each was mailed in November 2015. About 7,600 people were sterilized under North Carolina's eugenics program before it ended in 1974. The N.C. Industrial Commission certified 220 victims. The payments were made after a decision by the N.C. Court of Appeals rejecting arguments from the heirs of some victims about the law. Carnival ready to kick off with more security planned in Rio RIO DE JANEIRO - Authorities in Rio de Janeiro state said Thursday that security is being beefed up as the world-famous Carnival bash begins, following a wave of violence caused by gangs. Gov. Luiz Fernando Pezao said in a news conference that security forces will now total more than 17,000 statewide per day. That includes 2,000 extra agents who were off duty and will now work during the bash. Last year Rio used almost 12,000 policemen during Carnival, but it also counted on the help of 9,000 members of the country's armed forces. Brazil's most popular Carnival party starts Friday and ends Tuesday. Gov. Pezao also promised to pay policemen more than $20 million in delayed salaries and bring back a bonus program that was downsized due to the state's financial crisis. Authorities in Mexico's Gulf coast state of Veracruz announced charges Thursday of "forced disappearance" against 19 current or former state police officials and officers, saying they kidnapped and killed 15 innocent civilians. The governor said the victims included two women and two minors. Montana wildlife officials are recommending against holding a grizzly bear hunt in 2018 after the animals lost their federal protections across a three-state region around Yellowstone National Park. An official said Thursday the state wants to demonstrate its commitment to the grizzly's long-term recovery. Caption: Rescuers in Taiwan continued their search for survivors in a dangerously tilted building Thursday, more than a day after it was damaged in a 6.4-magnitude earthquake that shook the island's east coast and killed at least 10 people. Billy H.C. Kwok/Getty
Subject: Indictments; Sex crimes; Immigration; Deportation; Trials; Genetic engineering; Earthquakes; Murders & murder attempts
Location: Bangladesh Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil Michigan Texas Mexico Netherlands Montana United States--US Venezuela Philippines Kansas North Carolina Taiwan
People: Stabenow, Debbie Duterte, Rodrigo R
Company / organization: Name: Yellowstone National Park; NAICS: 712190; Name: Department of Homeland Security; NAICS: 922120; Name: Michigan State University; NAICS: 611310; Name: International Criminal Court; NAICS: 922110, 928120
Publication title: The Baltimore Sun; Baltimore, Md.
First page: A.6
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 9, 2018
Publisher: Tribune Interactive, LLC
Place of publication: Baltimore, Md.
Country of publication: United States, Baltimore, Md.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
ISSN: 19439504
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1999508508
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1999508508?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright © 2018 The Baltimore Sun
Last updated: 2018-02-09
Database: US Southeast Newsstream
Document 63 of 474
NEWS BRIEFING
Author: Staff
Publication info: Chicago Tribune ; Chicago, Ill. [Chicago, Ill]09 Feb 2018: 13.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Prosecutor dismisses 13 cases tied to biker shootout in Waco FORT WORTH, Texas -- A Texas prosecutor on Thursday dismissed 13 cases stemming from a 2015 shootout in Waco involving bikers and police and recused himself from two others, placing into doubt the criminal prosecution of the more than 130 bikers still awaiting trial. The actions came hours before a scheduled hearing for Jorge Salinas, whose case was among those dismissed. Current and former staff had been due to speak at the hearing about corruption allegations against District Attorney Abel Reyna, who faces a Republican primary election in March. The hearing was canceled. According to a motion filed Thursday, the prosecutor dismissed Salinas' case "in order to focus its efforts and resources on co-defendants with a higher level of culpability." The May 2015 shootout involving members of the Bandidos and Cossacks motorcycle clubs outside a Twin Peaks restaurant left nine bikers dead and 20 injured. Local police arrested 177 bikers after the mayhem, and more than 150 people were eventually indicted on felony charges of engaging in organized criminal activity resulting in the deaths and injuries. Ballistics evidence showed that police bullets struck four bikers, killing at least two of them. The three officers involved were cleared by an internal investigation. Nearly three years later, only one biker, Bandido chapter president Christopher "Jake" Carrizal, has been tried. Carrizal's November trial resulted in a mistrial when jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict. The second biker set for trial rejected a plea deal in December. ICC to open preliminary probes in Philippines and Venezuela THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court announced Thursday that she is opening preliminary probes into alleged crimes by security forces in the Philippines and Venezuela. Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said that the probe on Venezuela will look at allegations that since April 2017 government forces "frequently used excessive force to ... put down demonstrations," and abused some opposition members in detention. The Philippines probe will focus on allegations since July 2016 that thousands of people have been killed in the government's war on drugs. A Filipino lawyer last year presented documents to the court which he said had evidence of the involvement of President Rodrigo Duterte in the extra-judicial killings of suspected drug dealers and other crime suspects. Mich. Sen. Stabenow: Give me 'five minutes' with Larry Nassar CHARLOTTE, Mich. -- Sen. Debbie Stabenow says she was disappointed that an enraged father was prevented from punching Larry Nassar in a Michigan courtroom last week, saying she "would have liked five minutes" with the disgraced sports doctor accused of sexually abusing more than 260 women and girls. "All of us understand how destructive and how outrageous this perversion and (Nassar's) actions have been," Stabenow, a Michigan Democrat, said Wednesday Washington. "As a mom and as a grandmother who now has a young granddaughter in sports, I thought, you know, I would have liked five minutes with this guy," Stabenow said of Nassar, 54, a former Michigan State University doctor, who has been sentenced to decades in prison for sexual assault. Man facing deportation from Kansas gets temporary stay LAWRENCE, Kan. -- An adjunct college chemistry instructor living in Kansas who faced imminent deportation to Bangladesh has been granted a temporary stay. Lawyers representing 55-year-old Syed Ahmed Jamal announced Thursday that a judge issued the temporary stay and gave the Department of Homeland Security until Feb. 15 to respond to a motion to stay the deportation and re-open immigration proceedings. Jamal was arrested Jan. 24 at his home in Lawrence. He arrived legally in the U.S. in 1987, but after pursuing a doctorate degree, he overstayed his visa. Since his visa expired, he has been allowed to stay in the U.S. and report regularly to immigration authorities. He and his Bangladeshi wife have three children who are American citizens. Final checks sent to sterilization victims in N.C. RALEIGH, N.C. -- The third and final compensation payment has been mailed to sterilization victims, marking the end of a 15-year pursuit of financial help for people who suffered under North Carolina's eugenics program. The state Department of Administration said it mailed letters and an enclosed check of almost $10,500 to victims Thursday. Victims with approved claims received their first payment of $20,000 each in October 2014. A second payment of $15,000 each was mailed in November 2015. About 7,600 people were sterilized under North Carolina's eugenics program before it ended in 1974. The N.C. Industrial Commission certified 220 victims. The payments were made after a decision by the N.C. Court of Appeals rejecting arguments from the heirs of some victims about the law. Carnival ready to kick off with more security planned in Rio RIO DE JANEIRO -- Authorities in Rio de Janeiro state said Thursday that security is being beefed up as the world-famous Carnival bash begins, following a wave of violence caused by gangs. Gov. Luiz Fernando Pezao said in a news conference that security forces will now total more than 17,000 statewide per day. That includes 2,000 extra agents who were off duty and will now work during the bash. Last year Rio used almost 12,000 policemen during Carnival, but it also counted on the help of 9,000 members of the country's armed forces. Brazil's most popular Carnival party starts Friday and ends Tuesday. Gov. Pezao also promised to pay policemen more than $20 million in delayed salaries and bring back a bonus program that was downsized due to the state's financial crisis. Authorities in Mexico's Gulf coast state of Veracruz announced charges Thursday of "forced disappearance" against 19 current or former state police officials and officers, saying they kidnapped and killed 15 innocent civilians. The governor said the victims included two women and two minors. Montana wildlife officials are recommending against holding a grizzly bear hunt in 2018 after the animals lost their federal protections across a three-state region around Yellowstone National Park. An official said Thursday the state wants to demonstrate its commitment to the grizzly's long-term recovery. CAPTION: Photo: Rescuers in Taiwan continued their search for survivors in a dangerously tilted building Thursday, more than a day after it was damaged in a 6.4-magnitude earthquake that shook the island's east coast and killed at least 10 people. BILLY H.C. KWOK/GETTY CREDIT: Staff and news services
Subject: Indictments; Sex crimes; Immigration; Deportation; Trials; Genetic engineering; Earthquakes; Murders & murder attempts
Location: Bangladesh Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil Michigan Texas Mexico Netherlands Montana United States--US Venezuela Philippines Kansas North Carolina Taiwan
People: Stabenow, Debbie Duterte, Rodrigo R
Company / organization: Name: Yellowstone National Park; NAICS: 712190; Name: Department of Homeland Security; NAICS: 922120; Name: Michigan State University; NAICS: 611310; Name: International Criminal Court; NAICS: 922110, 928120
Publication title: Chicago Tribune; Chicago, Ill.
First page: 13
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 9, 2018
Section: News
Publisher: Tribune Interactive, LLC
Place of publication: Chicago, Ill.
Country of publication: United States, Chicago, Ill.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
ISSN: 10856706
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1999517892
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1999517892?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Tribune Interactive, LLC Feb 9, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-09
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 64 of 474
BBCM Latin America Watchlist for 9 February
Publication info: BBC Monitoring Americas ; London [London]09 Feb 2018.
Abstract:
By BBC Monitoring Colombia's FARC ex-rebels suspend electoral campaign after hostile protests, heckling Colombia's demobilised FARC rebels announced the temporary suspension of their campaign for upcoming congressional and presidential elections, saying there were no "guarantees" for their electoral activity following recent protests and heckling against their presidential candidate Rodrigo Londono alias "Timochenko", Colombian Blu Radio reported on its website on 9 February. Daza said congressional candidates of rival parties were inciting people in different Colombian cities to attack members of the FARC physically and verbally before the parliamentary elections set to take place on 11 March and the presidential elections scheduled for 27 May. https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dot38f Mexico authorities announce arrests of leading drug cartel members Mexican marines captured Jose Maria Guizar Valencia, alias "El Z-43", identified by law enforcement officials as the person who controlled drug operations for the Los Zetas cartel in southern Mexico, leading Mexican daily El Universal reported on 9 February. The Venezuelan foreign ministry statement was responding to an 8 February declaration by the US State Department which criticised "the decision by Venezuela's National Electoral Council to unilaterally advance presidential elections without guarantees to ensure free, fair and internationally-validated elections". https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dot3na Argentina, UK close to agreement on Buenos Aires to Stanley Falklands flights-website report Argentina and the UK are moving closer to reaching an agreement to establish flights between the Argentine capital Buenos Aires and the Falklands (Malvinas) Islands, Argentine news website InfoBae reported on 9 February.Full text: By BBC Monitoring Colombia's FARC ex-rebels suspend electoral campaign after hostile protests, heckling Colombia's demobilised FARC rebels announced the temporary suspension of their campaign for upcoming congressional and presidential elections, saying there were no "guarantees" for their electoral activity following recent protests and heckling against their presidential candidate Rodrigo Londono alias "Timochenko", Colombian Blu Radio reported on its website on 9 February. FARC vice-presidential candidate Imelda Daza explained the decision during an interview with Blu Radio: "The decision was made due to the lack of guarantees to carry out political activities in the country. We demand more commitment from the government and the institutions to keep the mobs, which have not only attacked 'Timochenko' but also Ivan Marquez in Florencia [southern Colombian city], under control". Former FARC commander "Timochenko" had recently experienced aggressive protests and heckling from opponents while campaigning in the cities of Cali, Armenia and Pereira. Daza said congressional candidates of rival parties were inciting people in different Colombian cities to attack members of the FARC physically and verbally before the parliamentary elections set to take place on 11 March and the presidential elections scheduled for 27 May. https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dot38f Mexico authorities announce arrests of leading drug cartel members Mexican marines captured Jose Maria Guizar Valencia, alias "El Z-43", identified by law enforcement officials as the person who controlled drug operations for the Los Zetas cartel in southern Mexico, leading Mexican daily El Universal reported on 9 February. The newspaper said Guizar Valencia, who holds both Mexican and US citizenship, was detained by Mexican marines on the morning of 8 February. He was part of a list of more than 100 wanted individuals termed "priority objectives" by the Mexican government in its fight against the drug cartels. https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dot3bi In western Michoacan state, police detained the suspected regional leader of La Nueva Familia Michoacana (The New Michoacan Family) crime group, an armed wing of Los Viagras drug cartel, Mexican investigative magazine Proceso reported on 8 February. https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dot3dh On 8 February, Miami filed an explainer on the reach of the Mexican drug cartels and their operations across Latin America. https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dosxuu Latin American nations to meet on Venezuela crisis; Maduro government blasts US 'meddling' Peru's foreign ministry called a 13 February meeting of the "Lima Group" of 12 Latin American nations which would consider a response to the decision by Venezuela's National Electoral Council (CNE) to hold presidential elections on 22 April, Peruvian radio station RPP reported on 9 February. In a 8 February statement, the Peruvian foreign ministry said the 22 April date for the Venezuelan election would "not allow for a just, free, transparent and democratic [electoral] process". https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dot3zw Venezuela's government accused US President Donald Trump's administration of "repeated meddling" in its internal affairs, saying Washington was "prejudging" a 22 April presidential election called by Venezuelan authorities, Venezuelan government newspaper Correo del Orinoco reported on 9 February. The Venezuelan foreign ministry statement was responding to an 8 February declaration by the US State Department which criticised "the decision by Venezuela's National Electoral Council to unilaterally advance presidential elections without guarantees to ensure free, fair and internationally-validated elections". https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dot3na Argentina, UK close to agreement on Buenos Aires to Stanley Falklands flights-website report Argentina and the UK are moving closer to reaching an agreement to establish flights between the Argentine capital Buenos Aires and the Falklands (Malvinas) Islands, Argentine news website InfoBae reported on 9 February. "Thirty-six years after the [1982] Malvinas (Falklands) war [between Argentina and the UK], the dream of re-instating a flight between Puerto Argentino [as Stanley in the Falklands is known in Argentina] and Buenos Aires would seem to be just around the corner," InfoBae wrote. https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dot43v Coming Up Colombia's ELN left-wing rebel group has announced it will stage a "national armed stoppage" on 10-13 February. On 13 February, Peru hosts a meeting of the Lima Group of 12 Latin American governments to consider Venezuela's upcoming 22 April elections Brazil's Rio de Janeiro holds its world-famous Carnival 9-17 February BBC Monitoring
Subject: Cartels; Presidential elections
Location: Mexico United States--US Venezuela Armenia United Kingdom--UK Latin America Peru Argentina Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil Colombia
People: Trump, Donald J Marquez, Ivan
Company / organization: Name: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia; NAICS: 813940; Name: Department of State; NAICS: 928120; Name: Proceso; NAICS: 511120
Publication title: BBC Monitoring Americas; London
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 9, 2018
Dateline: LATAM
Publisher: BBC Worldwide Limited
Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Political Science
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1999703500
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1999703500?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright BBC Worldwide Limited Feb 9, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-09
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 65 of 474
BRAZIL: Ibovespa Falls 0.78% Amid High Volatility In Foreign Markets
Publication info: RTTNews ; Williamsville [Williamsville]09 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: (RTTNews) - Ibovespa, the benchmark stock index in Brazil, closed 0.78% lower at 80,898.69 points Friday, reacting to the strong volatility in the U.S. markets and a drop of more than 3% in oil prices. In the United States, the stock markets were trading lower amid speculation on how many times the Federal Reserve (Fed) will raise interest rates in the country during 2018. "We are tracking the external movement of risk aversion, and today we have impacted Treasuries and falling commodities in the market here," said Vitor Suzaki, an analyst at Lerosa Investimentos. According to Ari Santos, the chief operating officer of H.Commcor, "volatility is prevailing, and it is not due to corporate or internal news." In the business field, Vale's shares rose 0.98%, while Itaú Unibanco's shares rose 0.25%, holding the index below the 1% drop. Suzaki recalled that the approval to the privatization of Eletrobras' power distributors prevented a further drop in the index. With the carnival, the movement of the index for Wednesday is uncertain, said Santos, since the market will remain closed for two days in a scenario of high volatility and extreme vulnerability to the United States market. Meanwhile, after trading volatile, but for most of the trading session in the positive field, the locally traded U.S. dollar ended the session with gains of 0.67%, quoted at R$ 3.3032. In the week, the currency appreciated 2.74%. For comments and feedback: contact [email protected] Copyright(c) 2018 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved
Publication title: RTTNews; Williamsville
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 9, 2018
Section: Business
Publisher: Global Network Content Services LLC, DBA Noticias Financieras LLC
Place of publication: Williamsville
Country of publication: United States, Williamsville
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1999796851
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest. com/docview/1999796851?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright (c) 2018 RTT News
Last updated: 2018-02-09
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 66 of 474
Photos of the Day: Feb. 9
Publication info: Wall Street Journal (Online) ; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]09 Feb 2018: n/a.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Soldiers train in China, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence attends the Olympics, dust forms patterns on Mars, and more Soldiers train in Nanning, China. Kim Yo Jong, right, the sister of
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and Kim Yong Nam, North Korea's ceremonial head of state, are seated behind U.S. Vice President Mike Pence at the Opening Ceremony
of the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympic Games. A girl touches the tail of the corpse of a beached whale at Arenal de Moris in Caravia, Spain, on Friday. Air bubbles are frozen in water in the Herrenhausen Gardens in Hanover, Germany. A costumed reveler is seen during Bicharada, an the annual block party that is part of pre-carnival festivities in Cameta, Brazil. Blood stains a door following a bombing inside a mosque in Benghazi, Libya. An image obtained from social media shows rescuers searching for survivors Thursday inside a building that was damaged by an earthquake
in Hualien, Taiwan, earlier this week. This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter released Friday shows streaks forming on slopes when dust cascades downhill, the dark streak is an area of less dust compared with the brighter and reddish surroundings. What triggers these avalanches isn't known, but might be related to sudden warming of the surface. [Interactive content available online]
Subject: Mars
Location: North Korea China Benghazi Libya Brazil Spain United States--US Germany Taiwan
People: Pence, Mike Kim Yong Nam Kim Jong Un
Company / organization: Name: National Aeronautics & Space Administration--NASA; NAICS: 927110
Publication title: Wall Street Journal (Online); New York, N.Y.
Pages: n/a
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 9, 2018
Section: Interactives
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York, N.Y.
Country of publication: United States, New York, N.Y.
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1999809109
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search .proquest.com/docview/1999809109?accountid=4840
Copyright: (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Reproduced with permission of copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
Last updated: 2018-02-09
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Major Dailies
Document 67 of 474
Brazil: Basic data
Publication info: EIU ViewsWire ; New York [New York]09 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Brazil: Basic data
Land area
8,547,400 sq km. Population
206.1m (2016 estimate) Main cities
Population at last census (2012 official estimate; m) São Paulo: 11.4 Rio de Janeiro: 6.4 Salvador: 2.7 Brasília (capital): 2.6 Fortaleza: 2.5 Belo Horizonte: 2.4 Climate
Mainly tropical and sub-tropical; mild on the southern coast and in the higher regions Weather in São Paulo (altitude 760 metres)
Hottest month, December, 23-30°C; coldest month, June, 15-22°C, average monthly minimum and maximum; driest month, August; wettest month, February Language
Portuguese Measures
Metric system Currency
Real (R); average exchange rate in 2016: R3.5:US$1 Time
The states along the coast, as well as eastern Pará, Brasília-DF, Minas Gerais, Goiás and Tocantins, are three hours behind GMT (official time in Brazil); the states of Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Rondônia, most of Amazonas, Roraima and western Pará are four hours behind GMT; the states of Acre and the south-western part of Amazonas are five hours behind GMT Public holidays
January 1st (New Year's Day); February 10th-14th (Carnival); March 30th (Good Friday); April 21st (Tiradentes); May 1st (Labour Day); September 7th (Independence Day); October 12th (Nossa Senhora Aparecida, the patron saint of Brazil; also Children's Day); November 2nd (All Saints' Day); November 15th (Proclamation of the Republic); December 25th (Christmas Day)
Subject: Economic conditions; Economic indicators; Background
Location: Brazil Latin America
Publication title: EIU ViewsWire; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 9, 2018
Publisher: The Economist Intelligence Unit N.A., Incorporated
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Political Science--International Relations
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1999850005
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1999850005?accountid=4840
Copyright: (c) 2018 The Economist Intelligence Unit Ltd. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. No further reproduction is permitted.
Last updated: 2018-02-10
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 68 of 474
LatAm Political, Economic Calendar - Week Ahead
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]09 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
(END)
February 09, 2018 09:30 ET (14:30 GMT)All dates are in local time Monday, February 12, 2018 Exp Prev Local/GMT/ET N/A BRA Brazil: Carnival. Financial markets closed N/A PER Dec Trade - Imports and Exports N/A ARG Argentina: Lunes de Carnaval. Financial markets closed N/A VEN Venezuela: Carnival Monday. Financial markets closed Tuesday, February 13, 2018 Exp Prev Local/GMT/ET N/A ARG Argentina: Martes de Carnaval. Financial markets closed N/A VEN Venezuela: Carnival Tuesday. Financial markets closed N/A BRA Brazil: Carnival holiday continues. Financial markets closed Wednesday, February 14, 2018 Exp Prev Local/GMT/ET 1000/1500/1000 COL Dec External Trade - Imports Imports, Y/Y% -4.3% Trade Balance (USD) -791.7M 1000/1500/1000 COL Dec Retail Trade Retail Sales, Y/Y% -1.2% 1000/1500/1000 COL Dec Industrial Production Indus Output, Y/Y% +0.3% N/A BRA Brazil: Ash Wednesday special trading hours. Trading and registration in BM&FBOVESPA's markets begins at 13:00 local time
Subject: International trade; Securities markets
Location: Argentina Brazil Venezuela
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 9, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1999875911
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1999875911?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Feb 9, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-10
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 69 of 474
Carnival Delays Brazil's Central Bank Guidance -- Market Talk
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]09 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
16:56 ET - Brazilian markets are looking forward to central bank minutes from this week's meeting, where policymakers cut the Selic rate to 6.75% from 7%, as expected, and followed with a statement indicating for the first time the easing cycle launched in 2016 is about to end. The minutes could shed light into the monetary authority's view of economic drivers, including lower-than target domestic inflation and fears of higher interest rates in the US. But analysts will have to wait longer than usual. The minutes, normally released on the first Tuesday after the meeting, won't come out until Thursday morning, thanks to Carnival holiday, which begins today and extends into Wednesday morning. ([email protected]; @ptrevisani)
(END)
February 09, 2018 16:57 ET (21:57 GMT)
Subject: Central banks; International finance; Inflation
Location: Brazil United States--US
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 9, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1999888184
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1999888184?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Feb 9, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-10
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 70 of 474
LatAm Political, Economic Calendar - Week Ahead
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]09 Feb 2018. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
(END)
February 09, 2018 14:30 ET (19:30 GMT)All dates are in local time Monday, February 12, 2018 Exp Prev Local/GMT/ET N/A BRA Brazil: Carnival. Financial markets closed N/A PER Dec Trade - Imports and Exports N/A ARG Argentina: Lunes de Carnaval. Financial markets closed N/A VEN Venezuela: Carnival Monday. Financial markets closed Tuesday, February 13, 2018 Exp Prev Local/GMT/ET N/A ARG Argentina: Martes de Carnaval. Financial markets closed N/A VEN Venezuela: Carnival Tuesday. Financial markets closed N/A BRA Brazil: Carnival holiday continues. Financial markets closed Wednesday, February 14, 2018 Exp Prev Local/GMT/ET 1000/1500/1000 COL Dec External Trade - Imports Imports, Y/Y% -4.3% Trade Balance (USD) -791.7M 1000/1500/1000 COL Dec Retail Trade Retail Sales, Y/Y% -1.2% 1000/1500/1000 COL Dec Industrial Production Indus Output, Y/Y% +0.3% N/A BRA Brazil: Ash Wednesday special trading hours. Trading and registration in BM&FBOVESPA's markets begins at 13:00 local time
Subject: International trade; Securities markets
Location: Argentina Brazil Venezuela
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 9, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1999895186
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1999895186?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Feb 9, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-10
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 71 of 474
Women in Brazil launch 'No Means No' anti-harassment campaign during Carnival
Author: Langlois, Jill
Publication info: Los Angeles Times (Online) , Los Angeles: Tribune Interactive, LLC. Feb 9, 2018.
Abstract:
According to feminist group Think Olga, 99.6% of women in Brazil have been catcalled. Last year’s Carnival saw the number of sexual assault complaints across Brazil jump 90% compared to the same four days in 2016, according to the Secretariat of Policies for Women. The secretariat said the increase in complaints — which are registered when victims call 180, a number dedicated to reporting crimes against women — was a result of government campaigns to stop this type of violence.Full text: For Aisha Jacob, the assault came in public, during a samba circle as scores gathered for Brazil’s joyous dance. A man kept making advances, and three times Jacob told him she wasn’t interested. Suddenly, he grabbed her by a leg and shoved his hand up her shorts. The man was kicked out, but “I was shaken,” Jacob said. “When I told my girlfriends what happened, they started sharing their stories too. Every single one of them had something to say. They had all been through it before.” The assault occurred last year just before Carnival, Brazil’s festive pre-Lenten celebration known for its big crowds, loud music, glittery costumes and hedonistic street parties. Jacob, a stylist from Rio de Janeiro, and other women decided it was time to speak out against sexual harassment and assaults during the street parties known as blocos. According to feminist group Think Olga, 99.6% of women in Brazil have been catcalled. The Brazilian Forum on Public Security, a private group, also reports that every 11 minutes, a woman is raped in the South American country, but just 10% report their assaults. Last year’s Carnival saw the number of sexual assault complaints across Brazil jump 90% compared to the same four days in 2016, according to the Secretariat of Policies for Women. The secretariat said the increase in complaints — which are registered when victims call 180, a number dedicated to reporting crimes against women — was a result of government campaigns to stop this type of violence. Local governments across Brazil have launched campaigns in recent years to stamp out crimes against women during Carnival. Some states coined their own slogans, including Rio’s “costumes are not invitations,” Paraíba’s “forcing a kiss is a crime” and Bahia’s “respect the girls.” Jacob and a group of friends decided to add their voices to the movement and create their own campaign, Não é Não, or No Means No. The best way to get their message across, they decided, was by putting it directly on their bodies. “We had already been planning on having temporary tattoos made for our [Carnival] costumes,” she said. “There was a moment when we just looked at each other and said, ‘We have to make tattoos for women that say ‘no means no.’ We have to protect each other.’ “It wouldn’t make sense to have stickers made with that message. It had to be something that we could carry with us on our bodies.” Within 48 hours, the friends created a WhatsApp group of 40 women to fund the production of 4,000 temporary tattoos. It was all done on the fly — nobody had planned on creating a campaign against sexual harassment and assault for Carnival’s kickoff the following week — but they managed to get them printed in time to hand them out for free to women at Rio’s blocos. This year, the campaign has a much wider reach. After setting up a crowd-funding page to lessen the burden on the 40 women they had counted on financially in 2017, Jacob was surprised to see how quickly they reached their first target of 4,000 tattoos for $2,360. She was even more shocked when the campaign almost tripled that amount. She and her friends were able to print 25,000 tattoos with the $6,443 raised from 355 donors. With time to plan, Jacob and the four other women who work with her on production — Nanda Barbosa, Luiza Borges, Barbara Menchise and Julia Parucker — also created distribution partnerships with bloco organizers in São Paulo, Salvador, Belo Horizonte and Recife. This year’s Carnival started Friday and lasts till Feb. 13, the day before Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent. Individual women who heard about the No Means No campaign have also volunteered to hand out the temporary tattoos in their cities, and plans for a new campaign for International Women’s Day are already underway. While the campaign encourages and welcomes the support of men, Jacob wants to make it clear that No Means No is something created by women, for women. It’s not just a means of getting their message across to men, but also about creating a sense of security for women who want to attend blocos. “With the tattoos, it’s easy to see who is a part of No Means No, so it creates a type of support group for women,” Jacob said. “If they need to ask for help, they know who they can reach out to. They know they’re not alone.” Langlois is a special correspondent. Credit: Jill Langlois
Subject: Tattoos; Assaults; Sex crimes; Sexual harassment; Rape
Location: Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil
Publication title: Los Angeles Times (Online); Los Angeles
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 9, 2018
Dateline: Reporting from SAO PAULO, BRAZIL
Section: World
Publisher: Tribune Interactive, LLC
Place of publication: Los Angeles
Country of publication: United States, Los Angeles
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Blogs, Podcasts, & Websites
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2000486531
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2000486531?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Tribune Interactive, LLC Feb 9, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-10
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 72 of 474
Q3 2018 Biosev SA Earnings Call - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]09 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Presentation OPERATOR: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome, everyone, to Biosev S.A. earnings call to discuss results concerning the third quarter of the '17/'18 crop year. Today with us, we have Mr. Rui Chammas, CF -- CEO; Mr. Paulo Prignolato, CFO and IRO; and Mr. Luiz Valverde, Executive Director of Investor Relations. The audio and slides for this conference called are being simultaneously broadcast at www.biosev.com.br/ir. (Operator Instructions) We'd like to also inform you that statements during this conference may constitute forward-looking statements based on the company's future expectations. Such statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that might lead those expectations not to materialize or be considerably different from what was expected. I'd like to turn the floor over to Mr. Chammas, who will start the presentation. Thank you. Mr. Chammas, you have the floor. RUI CHAMMAS, CEO AND MEMBER OF EXECUTIVE BOARD, BIOSEV S.A.: Thank you, everyone. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to our earnings conference for the third quarter of the '17/'18 crop year. I'd like to invite you to move to Slide #3, where I'll start with the presentation on the numbers. On that slide, we have the main highlights for the third quarter and the accumulated results for the 9 months, which will be discussed in detail throughout the presentation. Crushing reached 29.1 million tons, in line with the same period of last year. It was helped by the higher rainfall in the South Central Region. Our yield, as measured by TCH, stood at 80.2 tons per hectare, an increase of 0.8%, which reinforces the results coming from the improvements we have implemented. Cane TRS reached 135 kilos per ton in the accumulated for the first 9 months, an increase of 1.5% and 0.7%, respectively, for the quarter and for the accumulated period, which reflects a better use of our varietal profile and fields. Our production volume reached 3.8 million tons in the first 9 months of the crop year, an increase of 2.8% when compared to the same period of last year, a growth coming from higher industrial efficiency and an increase of TRS Cane, which is considerably higher than the growth in crushing, which only reinforces the importance of such result. In the periods analyzed, this has evolved in terms of operational cost as a consequence of better cost management, which was presented to you in previous meetings. The COGS ex resale dropped by 21% in the quarter and by 9.3% in the year-to-date 9 months, a considerable reduction. Also for the same period, the adjusted EBITDA amounted to BRL 588 million, with a margin of 44.5% in the quarter and BRL 1.2 billion in the year-to-date for 9 months with a margin of 34%. For the year, the EBITDA grew 18.5%, with a gain in margin of 3.6 percentage points. Lastly, the result was impacted by BRL 173 million due to payments to the historical Santelisa Vale shareholders of the resources received from lawsuits against the Sugar and Ethanol Institute. Moving on to the next slide, Slide #4, we have the main operating results for the year -- or for the quarter and for the year-to-date for this crop. As I mentioned before, consolidated productivity year-to-date, measured by TCH, grew 9%. And it's worth mentioning the growth of 5.2% in the yield for the Mato Grosso do Sul Cluster, reaching 85.1 tons per hectare. As also mentioned, TRS Cane stood at 31.9 (sic) [131.9] kilos per ton of cane, an increase of 0.7%, boosted by the TRS coming from the Ribeirão Preto Cluster, which reached 136 kilos per ton. The tons of sugar per hectare. The amount of sugar contained in each hectare of our fields reached 10.6 tons per hectare in those 9 months, a growth of 1.6% when compared to the previous crop. I now move on to Slide #5, where we see the breakdown of our revenue per product throughout the crop. The company's net revenue reached BRL 2.8 million, an increase of 12%. That result reflects mainly the growth of 11% on the end amounts sold. An increase of 20% in net imports should be highlighted on top of a 1% increase in the average price in the period. It also means the average prices were impacted negatively by an increase in the participation in the change of our sales mix, which resulted from our decision to concentrate our production in this period, which had, as a counterpart, a reduction in costs and an increase in industrial efficiency, as mentioned. The BRL 1.5 billion was the net revenue, an increase of 12%. That volume reflects an increase of 23% in volume, a function of our mix more geared towards product throughout the crop, which was offset by a reduction of 9% on the average price. It's important to say that, that drop in average price is related to an increase in taxes levied on ethanol, which took place in the beginning of last year. Another important point to highlight is that there was less loss in terms of anhydrous ethanol and then a recovery when compared to the previous year. As for energy, the net revenue reached BRL 281 million, an increase of 53.1%, due mainly to an increase of 46% on average prices, leveraged by an increase of the spot price as a consequence of regulatory decisions, which took place throughout the period. We increased our energy sales 5%, coming mainly from the resale of energy from the company. Moving on to Slide #6, where we have our cash COGS as compared to unit costs. The company presented a reduction of cost when we compare quarter-on-quarter and in the year-to-date numbers. That improvement reflects a reduction in operating cost as a result of our better management of portfolio and structures. We saw a reduction in leasing and -- land leasing and industrial cost. As shown on the left, cash COGS ex resale dropped by 2%. It's important to realize the reduction in nonrecurring cost as a consequence of our structure optimization. For the COGS ex resale, we saw a drop of 2.2% when compared to same period of last year. When we talk about the unit base for discounts, the impact of the higher volume sold saw a drop of 9.3% in the period, which reinforces the good results I have previously announced. I now move -- give the floor over to Mr. Prignolato, our CFO, who will be talking about our financial numbers in the period. Paulo, you have the floor. PAULO PRIGNOLATO, CHIEF FINANCIAL & IR OFFICER AND MEMBER OF EXECUTIVE BOARD, BIOSEV S.A.: Thank you, Rui. Good morning, everyone. Well, the company's adjusted EBITDA reached BRL 1.3 billion in the first 9 months of the crop, an increase of 18.5% when compared to the same period of the previous crop. The EBITDA margin was 34%, an increase of 3.6 percentage points when compared to the same period of last year. That result comes from an improvement in revenue and a reduction in cost, as mentioned by Rui. As for CapEx, it's important to realize the following: First, Biosev has been implementing a new planting model, which contemplates using the workforce used for harvest and treatment. Harvesting of cane will start being done from December through March in the Mid-South region. Number two, the improvements in our agricultural area have helped us have a younger field with longer longevity, which will allow us to reduce our field renewal rate for the coming crops. And also, the implementation of this model has, as its objective, to reduce costs with planting, consequently increasing the company's price competitiveness. Based on that, Biosev has invested BRL 723 million in the 9 months of this crop. In other words, a reduction of 14.6% when compared to the amount invested in the same period of the previous crop. When you combine all those effects, we see that the indicator, adjusted EBITDA minus CapEx reached BRL 555 million in the 9 months, an increase of 139%. I'd like to invite you to move to Slide #8, where we have a picture or a snapshot of our debt. Biosev closed the quarter with a debt level of BRL 5.5 billion gross, in line with the closing of the previous quarter. Net amortizations in the quarter were offset by foreign exchange variation in the period. The reduction in the cash levels came mainly from net amortizations in the period, which more than offset the operating -- the generation of cash in the period. Total net debt totaled BRL 5.5 billion, an increase of 2% as compared to the closing of the previous crop. Important to notice that the financial leverage, as measured by net debt over EBITDA, moved from 3.8x in the second quarter to 3.4x at the end of this current quarter, leveraged mainly by the increase in EBITDA. Now let's move on to Slide #9. We're going to be talking about guidance and about hedge. Biosev has kept its guidance for the '17/'18 crop, as shown on the table on Page 9 on the left-hand side. As for the sugar hedge, for the '17/'18 crop, Biosev has hired a volume of approximately 1.3 million tons at a price of $0.1790 per pound, which represents almost the totality of its exposure and a volume of USD 465 million at the price of BRL 3.57 per $1. As for the sugar hedge for the '18/'19 crop, we have hired 815,000 tons at a price of $0.1567 per pound and a volume of USD 100 million to an average price of BRL 3.51 to the dollar. The hedge price, including a polarization price, sits at about BRL 0.5750 per pound. On 31 December 2015, the hedged volume of sugar for the next crop accounted for 62% of our exposure. Now I give the floor back over to Rui for his final remarks. RUI CHAMMAS: Thank you, Paulo. Biosev's team today is totally focused on reduction costs and increasing productivity and yields to guarantee the company's resilience, whatever the scenario might be. We have been announcing that since the beginning of this crop year, and we have managed to deliver consistent results in terms of cost reduction and in terms of improving indicators such as the difference between our EBITDA -- the projected EBITDA and the executed CapEx, thus showing the good effects of the initiatives which have been implemented so that we can continue to work with a scale and platform with competitive assets based on the best agricultural technology available, higher longevity to ensure future cash generation, which will allow us to continue to manage the company's debt profile, as we have announced. I'd like to thank you all for participating in our call. And now we remain available for questions or comments if you have any. Questions and Answers OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Victor Vieira from BTG Pactual. VICTOR VIEIRA: I'd like to know your opinion about the price dynamics for sugar for the coming crop year, especially when we look at the current price dynamics, which is presenting a downtrend for sugar and a potential change in production mix leaning towards ethanol. So I'd like to hear from you as we look ahead in terms of sugar prices, and how do you position yourselves in the market now that you have a mix which is more leaning towards ethanol? I'm talking about the next year, of course. RUI CHAMMAS: Thank you, Victor, for your question. Market conditions, as they are for future ethanol and sugar, based on what we're seeing today, indicate that the Brazilian crop will lean much to alcohol. So we intend to produce as much alcohol or ethanol as we can. As for Biosev, that's the view we have for the next crop year. We'll start crushing in the Mid-South Eastern region starting in March. And today, our view is that the mill's production in March will be leaning towards ethanol, preferably. There is a lot of volatility in the sugar market, no doubt. And I believe that the international market, as they realize the Brazilian crop leaning towards alcohol, they'll perhaps perceive that there will be a higher offer of sugar, which will lead the market to react in terms of prices. OPERATOR: Next question comes from Márcio Montes from Banco do Brazil. MáRCIO DE CARVALHO MONTES, ANALYST, BB-BANCO DE INVESTIMENTO S.A., RESEARCH DIVISION: Two things. Picking up where Victor left off, this change we're going to see in terms of mix towards alcohol. So what is your expectation in terms of the amount of sugar which will be withdrawn from the production? What kind of effect will that have? A second question is despite the company's operating performances -- or improvements in performance, we see that the financial part is consuming significant efforts. So what has been done to try and reduce those effects? We have seen a considerable loss when compared to the previous crop year. RUI CHAMMAS: Márcio, thank you for your question. In terms of the Brazilian market, according to our estimates, if Brazil produces as much as possible ethanol, we would be reducing the amount of sugar for export to the tune of 4 million to 5 million tons, which could have a relevant impact in the supply/demand balance when compared to this year. Of course, there are other factors at play both on the demand side and on the supply side for the next crop, but that's an impact that we can't estimate now. As for the financial part, I'll give the floor over to Paulo to address your question. PAULO PRIGNOLATO: Thank you, Rui. Marcio, thank you for your question. Actually, it's important to highlight the following. The financial result for the quarter was impacted by a noncash effect from a hedge accounting of the foreign-denominated debt. So it had an effect on P&L of BRL 238 million, negative in the third quarter. If we compare that with the previous crop, in the previous crop, the same effect had worked the other way around. The exchange variation was beneficial for us. So when we compare both periods, of course that sort of evens out. But it's important to highlight that our gross debt stood in line with the previous quarter, and that's very important. It shows that we are very disciplined on that front. On top of that, our leverage level came from 3.8x to 3.4x. And of course, we continue with the support -- to count on the support of several banks to go on in renewing our credit lines, okay? OPERATOR: Our next question comes from Carlos Herrera from Eleven Financial. CARLOS HERRERA, ANALYST, ELEVEN FINANCIAL RESEARCH: My question is the following, the financial leverage. Where do you expect to close the next crop? What would be the ideal level in terms of financial leverage for the coming crop? I'm talking about debt, of course. And then we saw several nonrecurring items. PAULO PRIGNOLATO: Thank you, Carlos. This is Paulo Prignolato again. Okay, so 2 important aspects you touched upon. As for the nonrecurring items, of course, they are a highlight. What had you -- have we been considering as nonrecurring? Well, the higher impact in this quarter came from the transfer or the payout of the former shareholders of Santelisa Vale that was their right. That alone impacted to the tune of BRL 173 million. That's why it was treated as a nonrecurring item because it has no direct relation with the day-to-day doings of the business. On top of that, we also had an impact coming from our measures to restructure the company. We started that in the beginning of the crop, and we already see positive results in terms of cost reduction. But because we're talking about items which entailed changing toward the new model -- for planting, for example -- that's something we're not going to repeat that going forward. So that's why they were treated as nonrecurring. As for your question concerning debt, we do not provide leverage guidance for the end of the crop. In any event, as per our financial policies, we'd like to make it clear that every year, in March, we have a limitation for covenants purposes. So our ceiling is 3.5x, so we're going to be below that until December and even further down when compared to the last number filed in September, okay? OPERATOR: Mr. Carlos, your line is open. CARLOS HERRERA: I was disconnected briefly, but I understand your answer. My final question has to do with the following. What would be the size of that effect in terms of cost reduction SG&A and when do you expect to see those effects emerging or materializing? PAULO PRIGNOLATO: I'm sorry about you being disconnected. The answer was recorded, and please feel free to listen to it later. As for a reduction in G&A, we already see it materializing in this crop year, and we should see that going on for the coming crop. Once those nonrecurring expenses -- with the termination of some labor contracts -- won't be present anymore, okay? UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE: We have a question from the web. I'll read it from [Manuel Bezeha]. The question is the following: How is the company working gas prices readjustments vis-à-vis oil prices? Are you trying to improve margins on ethanol? RUI CHAMMAS: Well, the company sees that with very good eyes, this new transparent policy from Petrobras as they peg their prices to the international market with no intervention whatsoever from players outside the market. That helps us predict our commercial flows with ethanol. Having observed Petrobras's policies for the past month, the company's management felt at ease, if you will, to take that to the board. This was approved at our board meeting yesterday. So the idea is to request an authorization to change our risk policy to allow us to start making hedges of our future ethanol sales based on energy -- or international energy commodities. So starting now, we will start exploring those opportunities so that we can ensure future results based on international energy prices and also foreign currency levels. UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE: We have one more question from the web, from Mr. [Manuel Bezeha] again. What will be the company's strategy to pay out debt for the crops '18/'19 and '19/'20? We see that numbers for amortization are quite considerable. PAULO PRIGNOLATO: Well, thank you, [Manuel], for your question. It's important to highlight a few aspects. If we look at what we have in terms of debt maturing in '17/'18 from January through March, the amount that we have in cash is sufficient for that. It's important to highlight as well that -- and this is part of our statements. We closed December with an important inventory level for sugar and ethanol. So from January through March, those inventories will be sold, which will then increase our revenue and our cash generation in the period. Additionally, I also mentioned that we still count on the support of our partner banks, both in Brazil and abroad, and we have managed to roll out our debt efficiently. Of course, as we pay out those that you mentioned, '18/'19 and 19/'20, those crop years, we'll be communicating the market of that. OPERATOR: Next question comes from Ian Miller, Crédit Suisse. IAN MILLER, RESEARCH ANALYST, CRéDIT SUISSE AG, RESEARCH DIVISION: My question is about the importation of American ethanol. There's a premium for Brazilian ethanol even we consider the import tariff. Do you see that as a risk for the internal market price level -- I mean, a risk of importing ethanol from the U.S.? UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE: No. No, not really. We don't see the volume of imported ethanol after import taxes are paid to represent a risk. In the intercrop year, we have an important demand for ethanol -- hydrous ethanol. We see that now, hydrated ethanol. But we do not see the anhydrous ethanol coming from abroad as a threat to the prices paid in Brazil. And I don't see an important growth in imported ethanol, especially after the measures which were taken in terms of defining rates for corn-based ethanol coming from the U.S. OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) This closes our Q&A session. I'd like to give the floor back over to Mr. Chammas for his closing remarks. RUI CHAMMAS: Thank you all for your interest in the company's numbers and results. Thank you all for your questions, all of them very interesting and timely, and they allowed us all to understand the company and its results a lot better and also helps to understand the trend that we're now following. I wish you all a good day, a good long weekend, a good Carnival. And our IR team remains available should you have more questions or doubts or questions. Thank you. OPERATOR: Biosev's audio conference is now over. I'd like to thank you all for participating. Have a nice day. [Thomson Financial reserves the right to make changes to documents, content, or other information on this web site without obligation to notify any person of such changes. In the conference calls upon which Event Transcripts are based, companies may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding a variety of items. Such forward-looking statements are based upon current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those stated in any forward-looking statement based on a number of important factors and risks, which are more specifically identified in the companies' most recent SEC filings. 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Subject: Copyright; Litigation; Ethanol
Company / organization: Name: Thomson Financial; NAICS: 511210, 518210, 519190
Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 9, 2018
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: Linthicum
Country of publication: United States, Linthicum
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Law--Corporate Law
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Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2007407430
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Copyright: 2018 Thomson Financial and ASC LLC
Last updated: 2018-05-03
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Document 73 of 474
Q4 2017 Usinas Siderurgicas de Minas Gerais SA Usiminas Earnings Call - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]09 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Presentation OPERATOR: (Interpreted) Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for waiting to the Usiminas conference call with the results of the fourth quarter of the year 2017. (Operator Instructions) Please remember that this conference call is being recorded. This presentation is accompanied by slides and is being simultaneously transmitted via Internet at www.usiminas.com/ri. You can also obtain a copy of the company's release. Participants who are listening in English also may ask the questions directly to the speakers. Before proceeding, I would like to clarify that forward-looking statements made during this conference call regarding the company's business prospects as well as projections, operational and financial targets related to the potential forecast are based on the management's expectations regarding to the future of Usiminas. These expectations are highly dependent on the performance of the steel sector, the country's economic situation and the situation of international markets and therefore are subject to change. With us today are Usiminas' Executive Board: Mr. Sérgio Leite, CEO and Technology and Quality Vice President Officer and Commercial Vice President Officer; Mr. Ronald Seckelmann, Finance and Investor Relations and Vice President Officer and Subsidiaries Vice President Officer; Mr. Tulio Chipoletti, Industrial Vice President Officer; Mr. Takahiro Mori, Corporate Planning Vice President Officer; Mr. Wilfred Bruijn, Managing Director of Mineração Usiminas; Mr. Heitor Takaki, Managing Director of Usiminas Mecanica; Mr. Ascanio Merrighi, Managing Director of Soluções Usiminas; Mr. Bruno Paulino, Head of Legal Department; Mr. Julio Arroyo, Comptroller; and Mr. Leonardo Karam, Head of IR. First, Mr. Sérgio Leite will make some initial comments, followed by Mr. Ronald Seckelmann that will comment on the fourth quarter 2007 (sic - 2017) results. After, the management will be at your disposal to answer your questions. I would like to give the floor to Mr. Sérgio Leite. SERGIO LEITE DE ANDRADE, CEO, VP DIRECTOR OF COMMERCIAL, VP DIRECTOR OF TECHNOLOGY & QUALITY & MEMBER OF EXECUTIVE BOARD, USINAS SIDERúRGICAS DE MINAS GERAIS S.A.: (Interpreted) Good afternoon to all of you. Thank you very much for participating in the Usiminas conference call. This is a Friday. And it's carnival period, a very important period for the Brazilians of celebration. And we thank you on behalf of the team of Usiminas for participating in this conference call. First and foremost, we would like to share with you the joy that we are having today at Usiminas. For us, in Usiminas, today, this is a very special moment. We are presenting the results of 2017 that was a year where, due to the Usiminas team work, we made great progress in 2017. We had an EBITDA of BRL 2.2 billion, and if we exclude the BRL 200 million of the Sudeste port. Now this EBITDA level, represents the second-best EBITDA results in the past 9 years. As of 2009, we had a value that was billion BRL 2.186 billion in 2010. So this is a very important point for us, because all the effort that was made by the entire Usiminas team. We, as of December, started amortizing our debt that was expected for the renegotiation agreement signed in September 2017, and we expected it for September 2019. We've anticipated it [2 years]. We amortized $90 million on December 15, 2017, another $180 million in January 18, 2018. And we will, on March 15 this year, amortize around $100 million. So this is an extremely important fact for us in Usiminas. We are -- the entire company is mobilized, undergoing a very good climate, especially today. Today, for us in Usiminas, this is a date that will stay in history. This is a day of celebration because of the results that we are presenting to you. And also, because of yesterday's celebration in London, an agreement between Nippon Steel and Ternium, where this was a conflict of 3 years, that has come to an end. Now we are working together, focused on the construction of Usiminas results. The 3 driving forces, Italian-Argentine, Japanese and Brazilian, are working in unison now. And yesterday, this was celebrated in London, and we announced simultaneously by the agreement of Ternium in New York. And there are 3 very important points here. The first point is the CEO and Chairman alternation of -- between the 3 companies. This year, Ternium will appoint the CEO, and Nippon will appoint the Chairman. In 4 years, we change the appointments: Nippon appoints the CEO, and Ternium will appoint the Chairman. The second important point here in the signed agreement was to establish an exit clause that is valid as of the election of the new board in May, and then we have 4.5 years later. And the third point, that is very relevant, is the commitment of everybody regarding to close all the legal lawsuits that are pending, bringing definite peace to the Usiminas universe for us, employees of Usiminas, for all our stakeholders, for all the communities where we operate, all the cities, in the 6 cities where we are present. For Minas Gerais, this is an extremely important moment. I counted with the leadership of Minas Gerais, the joy is general, and I would like to share this moment of joy that we're undergoing right now in Usiminas. Once again, I thank you all, and I will give the floor to Ronald Seckelmann to present the results of the fourth quarter of 2017. RONALD SECKELMANN, CFO, IRO OF FINANCE & IR & VICE-PRESIDENT OFFICER, SUBSIDIARIES AND MEMBER OF EXECUTIVE BOARD, USINAS SIDERúRGICAS DE MINAS GERAIS S.A.: (Interpreted) Thank you very much, Sérgio. My comments are based on a presentation that you will be able to follow through our RI site. I will talk about the fourth quarter of 2017 compared to the past quarter, and then the yearly figures compared to the figures of 2016. The first quarter, you can see the evolution in operational and financial indicator, 7% growth in the sales of Steel. Iron ore sale growth growing 66%, vis-à-vis the past quarter. We will talk about these 2 growth, steel and iron ore, an EBITDA of BRL 450 million, aligned with the past quarter. And the net profit that we should comment on, we have a column, an additional comment, to the breaking out the BRL 76 million and BRL 45 million negative. And why did we have these results? It's interesting to notice that the exchange rate variation was the same. Nevertheless, with a contrary signal during the third quarter, the exchange rate barrier drove the results positively in BRL 56 million during this quarter. This was negative in the same value, BRL 56 million. In addition, we had some impairments, typical from the end of the year, of BRL 75 million. When we compare the net results of the last line without the extraordinary effect, we should have registered during the last quarter an BRL 86 million positive. Now we have a quarterly evolution of the sales volume of Steel growing 7%, a very important contribution from the export and also growth, modest, a shy growth of 1% on Steel sale. But the fourth quarter seasonally is the weakest quarter of the year. And unlike what we generally registered in the past years, we were able to increase our sales in the domestic market and also in export. And we had a growth of over 1 million tons during this quarter. Now the next slide, you can see the quarterly evolution of Steel EBITDA margin. Here we can see the right-hand columns are the announced results. To the left, we have the recurring results. We would like to highlight the nonrecurring events of each quarter. Here you can see that during the last quarter, we had a very clean result without no nonrecurring event that could distort the results. Now our next slide, the sales volume of iron ore, totaling 1.5 million tons, a contribution that was very important from exports, over 700 million tons of exported iron ore. And this 1.5 million on a year represents 6 million tons, which is approximately what we expect throughout next year. The next quarter -- or the next slide, the EBITDA margin evolution from Mining, BRL 41 million, aligned with the former results and EBITDA margin of 20%. And we will be able to comment this when we see the yearly results of Mining. Next slide, we have the quarterly evolution of the Usiminas Solutions, aligned with the past quarter, an EBITDA margin of 3%. Let's highlight that in this business, any contribution that is positive adds the results to the Steel results. We buy steel from the steel mill at a market price, and we want to add value to steel sold by the steel mill. Our next slide, you can see the results of Usiminas Mecânica. This is the most affected business by the -- a stop of investments of oil and gas. Usiminas Mecânica has adjusted to work in a scenario of no new business, and it is being able to sustain itself without burning cash. They don't generate, but they don't burn during a stagnation period. Prepared to rapidly grow as business recovers. And a consolidated result of the quarter, BRL 450 million, aligned with the result of the past quarter and with very little extraordinary effects. Going now to the yearly figures. In the year 2017 compared to 2016, Steel sales grew 10%; iron ore sales grew 14%; and the EBITDA, threefold, in less -- shyly below BRL 7 million to BRL 2.2 billion; the EBITDA margin of 20%. Now the net profit went from BRL 577 million in loss to BRL 315 million in profit with very few nonrecurring effects this year. If we see 2016, there was a nonrecurring effect that was very important during the year. Now the next slide, we see the yearly evolution of Steel sales. Since 2012, we can see that 2012 to 2016 is a drop until we reached 3,652 tons. And we started recovering as of 2017, exceeding the level of 4 million tons and growing 8% in the domestic sales. Now we see the evolution of the Steel EBITDA results. The result, BRL 1.8 billion, very close to BRL 1,827 billion, an 18% margin in the Steel results. Now we have the yearly results of the sales of iron ore, dropped since 2013, and now we see a recovery driven by exports during the last quarter of last year and growing 15% throughout the year. These results, the EBITDA margin and EBITDA results in Mining, you can see in the next slide, BRL 345 million in EBITDA published in 2017. A strong contribution due to the Porto Sudeste agreement, and this was total BRL 200 million. Anyhow, the recurring result -- the operational result of Usiminas Mineração was very significant with the recovery since 2016, totaling BRL 180 million throughout the year. Now we have Usiminas Solutions, registering the best result in history, exceeding BRL 100 million of EBITDA throughout the year. Now here we have Usiminas Mecânica, there's a negative result. Nevertheless, this negative result has an important contribution from the tax regularization program in Minas Gerais. So the recurring result was BRL 11 million negative. That is very close to the operational breakeven point. Now we see the consolidated result of almost BRL 2.2 billion. And if we exclude the effect of the agreement of Porto Sudeste of BRL 200 million, we would still register a result above BRL 2 billion throughout the year. Now we have the G&A evolution. The first would be G&A evolution is controlled. We have lower figures here. Now here we have the working capital throughout this quarter, and working capital totaled BRL 2.8 billion at the end of last year, and this is one of our management indicators. What explains the drop in the working capital from one quarter to the other is in the next slide that shows the evolution of Steel inventory that dropped 48 days of inventory in the average throughout the quarter -- in average throughout quarter. Cash position and indebtedness, Sérgio mentioned that in December, we amortized $90 million that was expected in our program. We totally -- we use the eurobonds at $400 million. From the $400 million, $200 million had been repurchased by Usiminas and went back to the cash to the company. And the company at the end of a quarter had a surplus of cash, and according to the rules that we established with creditors, will be used to amortize the debt at $100 million. And this will be carried out on March 15 of the present year. The next slide is our CapEx. We said that this would be below what we expected to spend. We would like to have a carryover of BRL 150 million that will be spent throughout the year of 2018. And at last, the performance of our shares that you are aware and the evolution of ratings and the ratings upgrades that we attained from the 3 international rating agencies. And the expectation is that we will continue upgrading our ratings throughout this year. So these are my comments. Thank you very much for your attention. And now we are at your disposal to answer questions or to clarify any doubts that you may have. Questions and Answers OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) (Interpreted) The first question, Renan Criscio from Credit Suisse -- or Thiago Ojea, Citibank. THIAGO OJEA, ANALYST, CITIGROUP INC, RESEARCH DIVISION: (Interpreted) Number one, I would like to ask Sérgio what he sees regarding parity and the recent price increase that were announced, if they're being implemented, if you're discussing this with customers. And I would like to know about volume prospects. What kind of volume increase do you see of 2018 [BR] at 6% or 7% a year? Do you believe that Usiminas can outperform this volume? And if -- how could this impact the fixed costs if it weren't to increase that much? SERGIO LEITE DE ANDRADE: (Interpreted) Thiago, regarding the first part of your question, prices, we concluded -- we ended at the end of December with an agreement of the assembly lines regarding prices for 2018. The increase of prices were around 20%. Currently, we are negotiating together with the industries, and the increase that we announced during the distribution at the end of January are being implemented. So I believe that the price scenario during the first quarter is positive and consolidated. Now regarding volumes, the expectation that the Instituto Aço Brasil expects would be around flat steel, around 6%, 7%, like you mentioned. With this consumption, we will follow, and we will try to increase our sales at the same level of the consumption of flat steel. OPERATOR: (Interpreted) Bradesco BBI, Thiago Lofiego. ARTHUR VOLPA SUELOTTO, RESEARCH ANALYST, BRADESCO S.A. CORRETORA DE TíTULOS E VALORES MOBILIáRIOS, RESEARCH DIVISION: (Interpreted) This is Arthur Suelotto. Congratulations for your results and for the announcement yesterday. When we see a specific sector, that would be galvanized steel, we have seen -- we saw 25% last year. Perhaps it can increase a bit more this year. There is a great demand for galvanized products from the automobile industry, and Usiminas has capacity of 1.2 billion tons. Let's say that the domestic market recovers, although the automobile industry is way below historic levels, do you believe that? Would you have difficulties in attending this increase of demand in the line of galvanized products? And my second question will be when we see also plates, heavy plates, what market possibilities do you see in the market? And do you believe that we would have an additional demand from heavy plates, according to what we are seeing in the market right now? Would you be able to meet this demand? SERGIO LEITE DE ANDRADE: (Interpreted) Regarding the first point of galvanized steel, number one, we have installed production capacity of HDG that was 900,000 tons a year. And we have 2 lines. We have a capacity of 360,000 tons of electrogalvanized, and we operated in 2017 with the 2 HDG lines at a level to full load. The EG, the electrogalvanized, has high idle time. Regarding the growth of the markets throughout 2017, there was significant growth of the automobile industry, around 5%. Usiminas is prepared to meet the automobile industry. That is our priority. Even if they grow over 50%, we can meet their demands. In order to do this, we would reduce our exports. Number two, we would reduce the services to the non-automobile industry. We would increase the installed capacity of the EG, and we can increase the productivity of HDG line. And we have started preliminary studies so that in the future, if we confirm the growth of the Brazilian economy, we will discuss the investment in a new line of galvanized. Now regarding the heavy plate market, this is a market that was most affected. And it is a market that is strongly pegged to investment in infrastructure, civil construction and oil and gas. These are sectors that are highly depressed. Our expectation regarding the consuming markets of heavy plates is to have a growth in 2018 vis-à-vis 2017. The civil construction will probably grow shyly below 5%, oil and gas growing a little slightly. And the expectation is big for infrastructure and products that may be launched within this year. Nevertheless, the consumption level regarding the production potential is we already have installed capacity above 3 million tons of heavy plates. This is a market that is of 600,000 tons or 0.5 million tons. But we see growth in 2018 when we compare it to 2017. OPERATOR: (Interpreted) Next question from Marcos Assumpção, Itaú BBA. MARCOS ASSUMPçãO, SECTOR HEAD, ITAú CORRETORA DE VALORES S.A., RESEARCH DIVISION: (Interpreted) Sérgio, if you could comment on your revenue growth expectations per ton this quarter and the next quarter, as you have done throughout the past quarters. This could help us to project future figures. As you have a concentration of price increase in the short term, I believe that the price of the ton can vary. If Ronald could give us guidance regarding the total CapEx. In addition to the carryover of 2017 to 2018, what do you expect in terms of financial expenses? Because the level is low right now, and your indebtedness is dropping. And how much do you expect to pay in taxes in 2018? RONALD SECKELMANN: (Interpreted) Marcos, regarding the growth of our revenue, I will comment about the growth of the average price. We expect that the average price in 2018 will grow between 7% and 10% vis-à-vis the fourth quarter of 2017. This is the first quarter compared to the fourth quarter. Now regarding CapEx, this year, we had a budget of BRL 350 million. We spent slightly above BRL 200 million. The carryover is almost BRL 150 million for this year. In addition to the new project, the expectation is a CapEx of -- in 2018 of BRL 500 million. Net financial expenses would be around BRL 500 million as well. And regarding taxes, I don't have these figures. We have a lot of tax credits that we can use. Therefore, taxes aren't very relevant. I hope I am wrong. I hope that we have better results so that we can pay more taxes. But for the time being, it's not a relevant figure. And Sérgio talked about prices. Now mainly because of the increase of the slabs that we bought, I believe that the cost will increase 5% because we're buying slabs. Yes, this is the average cost per ton. Yes, you can see the increase of average price per ton. MARCOS ASSUMPçãO: (Interpreted) Just a last question for Sérgio. When we see the global steel price, what is your expectation for 2018? Last year, we were positively surprised by the drop of exports in China. So how do you see the price of steel in the international market in 2018? SERGIO LEITE DE ANDRADE: (Interpreted) Now this question is -- you're provoking us, because in current times, any forecast has been non-proven afterwards. For example, we had an event in New York in June last year. They said that the prospect was the drop of price. So -- and then there was an increase of price. So we are working with the expectation of price stability, 575, 580, 590. We don't expect major increases, neither major drops. We are working with this perspective, okay? OPERATOR: (Interpreted) Next question from Caio Ribeiro, JPMorgan. CAIO B. RIBEIRO, ANALYST, JP MORGAN CHASE & CO, RESEARCH DIVISION: (Interpreted) My first question would be the high furnace of Cubatão. You said it is too early to talk about reconnecting this furnace with a market with slabs of higher prices. Could we anticipate the reconnection of this high furnace? Or you expect to reconnect it after 2020? Now regarding Mining, you have told us that there will be an increase, around 3 million, 3.5 million increase this year. But has this figure changed? Because the spot prices are currently at high levels. And if you could also talk about breakeven costs in the mining sector, if this could -- give us your view. SERGIO LEITE DE ANDRADE: (Interpreted) Now regarding the primary area of Cubatão, the high furnace, in January 2016, we temporarily interrupted the activities in the primary areas of Cubatão. The decision was made with a medium and long-term view regarding a probable resumption in the recovery of the primary area. And what we have seen is that the reconnection would have to go through the recovery of the Brazilian economy in 2017 and 2018. In 2017, we -- the GDP hasn't been announced. We believe that it has grown 1%. 2018, Focus Report talks about 2.7% growth in GDP in Brazil. To reconnect the primary units of Cubatão, Brazilian economy has to grow at higher levels. We need robust growth. Now in April, we're reconnecting the high furnace of Ipatinga. We will be able to produce 600,000 tons of our own slabs. So right now, we have no forecast of reconnecting the primary areas of Cubatão. We are paying attention. We are studying and analyzing this matter. But for this, the Brazilian economy should present robust growth. Now your question regarding the sales of iron ore for 2018, we are working with a volume between 3 million and 3.5 million. The market is firm, steady. Although, when we see 2017, there was a lot of volatility. In 2017, we had from 95 to 50. So we are always analyzing the market, see when we can make a decision to increase volume. But when you decide that this volume goes into the market 6 months afterwards, because you have to reconnect the plant, you have to hire new people. So we continue -- are analyzing this moment, and reminding you that we need to pay attention to maritime freight and also to the exchange rate. We have been working with a breakeven of $55, and we are above of breakeven because it's $75. But 2 weeks ago, maritime freight was $21. Now it's around $50, $60. So this breakeven fluctuates; it's dynamic. Therefore, we have to pay attention to it so that we can make better decisions. But for the time being, the volume is 3 million, 3.5 million. So if we have a greater level of stability, we can do something else here. OPERATOR: (Interpreted) The next question, in English, from Carlos De Alba, Morgan Stanley. CARLOS DE ALBA, EQUITY ANALYST, MORGAN STANLEY, RESEARCH DIVISION: I just wanted to understand what the expectations are in terms of working capital for 2018, given the recovery that is forecast by everyone. And second, maybe Ronald, if you could once again just go through the debt repayments, bond repayments that are expected in the coming months? I understand $180 million were paid in January, and then I heard $100 million more will be paid in March. Could you just corroborate those figures? And if there is any more that are expected to come later in the year? RONALD SECKELMANN: (Interpreted) Carlos, you pose 2 questions. The one would be working capital and what would be the level of working capital that would be normalized and something that we could expect throughout the year of 2018. I would tell you that it would be around the level that we reached at the end of last year, BRL 2.8 billion up to BRL 3.3 billion, BRL 3.1 billion. This varies because of the slab inventories that we don't have in Cubatão. These are slabs that we have to buy, okay? BRL 2.8 billion, BRL 3.1 billion without major variation. Now it all depends on the seasonality of the quarters throughout the year. Now regarding the repayment of our debt, the regular repayment or amortization of our debt within what was agreed with our creditors in 2016 starts in 2019, during the second semester of 2019. This was the agreement, okay? Nevertheless, within the agreements, together with our creditors, as we did not realize an exchange offer of our bond that was expected last year, we said that we would amortize a certain amount in December. And it is reflected in the figures of the end of the year. Now regarding the 2 other events, you are totally right. We paid $180 million from our bonds. We redeemed $400 million. The company had $220 million that were repurchased. The net amortization in January was $190 million (sic - $180 million), and this still doesn't appear in the figures at the end of the year. And there is an anticipated payment of debt mechanism based on cash surplus. At the end of the last year, we registered a cash surplus of around $100 million and as a consequence, will be used to [anticipately] repay $100 million that will be paid on March 15. Now throughout the rest of the year, we do not expect any other type of debt repayment. Nevertheless, depending on the results evolution, perhaps there we will anticipate a payment of lower value throughout the quarters. But this is pure speculation. There is nothing scheduled regarding this. CARLOS DE ALBA: Okay. If I may ask on cost, I heard that there is a potential cost increase of around 5% because of higher slab cost. And I thought that was on a per-ton basis. Could you corroborate that figure and also expand on what other cost pressures the company may be facing? RONALD SECKELMANN: (Interpreted) Now the increase of prices, your observation is correct. We did mention an expectation of an increase of a cost per ton of 5%, especially because of the increase of the price of the slabs that we buy in the market. So you are right in your comment. Currently, in addition to the purchased slabs, we do not have any other relevant factors that would present an increase in prices. We have seen an increase on coal iron ore. This, of course, impacts an increase of costs in the plant with Ipatinga. But mainly, the cost comes from the slabs that we have to buy in the market, this increase. OPERATOR: (Interpreted) Leonardo Correa, BTG Pactual. LEONARDO CORREA, RESEARCH ANALYST, BANCO BTG PACTUAL S.A., RESEARCH DIVISION: (Interpreted) There are a number of points that I would like to clarify. One, regarding profitability, we saw certain deterioration of the EBITDA margin. And in this quarter, it's a strong figure. But Sérgio, Ronald, you talked about the first quarter. What will be the balance between price and cost, price increasing more than cost? If you could tell us what the scenario will be for 2018, if we can go back to the EBITDA margin of 20%? Another point, and a question for Sérgio. Sérgio, we have certain difficulties in trying to map a transfer to the industry. You said that the conversations are starting, and the readjustment is 20%. What about the expectation of transferring? Do you believe that we have the right conditions to implement this adjustment? Will this depend case-by-case? Could you please give me your prospect regarding this implementation, especially for the industry? That is so important for Usiminas. A question for Ronald now. Now we have seen a certain pollution of other expenses, and I believe it's difficult -- sometimes it makes our life, forecasting a bit difficult. Do you believe that this figure will drop here? You have provisions for doubtful accounts. You have equipment shutdown. Do you think you could do something regarding these expenses in the future that would clean, I don't know, these results? Because it's a little bit difficult to map what's going on there. SERGIO LEITE DE ANDRADE: (Interpreted) Leonardo, now regarding prices, and you specifically focused on the industry. As you are all aware, the automobile industry and our negotiations with them are yearly, are done through yearly contracts. Now in the distribution center, these are actions that can be monthly. It depends on the international market. Regarding distribution, due to the increase that we implemented at the end of January, today, our level regarding price reference is between 5% and 10%, closer to 10%. So the distribution price is balanced with the international market. And your question regarding the industry, well, in the industry, we hold negotiations together with our customers. And in many cases, these are quarterly negotiations. And in others, they are done every 6 months. We already -- we have been negotiating together with the industry since the fourth quarter last year. And the results of the fourth quarter of 2017, when we compare to the third quarter, you can see an increase of the average price at 3.7%, impacted by the distribution carryover of the third quarter and the increase in the industry. We are negotiating together with the industry. And the level is the same from the automobile industry, 20%. Now some industries have already included this in the fourth quarter. And our expectation is that until the end of the first, second quarter, we will fully implement this at a level of 20%. RONALD SECKELMANN: (Interpreted) Leonardo, Ronald. Now when you talk about the deterioration of the margin per ton, the main factor that explains this quarter-on-quarter is a growth of 46% of exports volume. We -- during the third quarter last year, we went to 130,000. And in the fourth quarter, there were 240,000 tons. And as you know, exports have a great contribution margin. The lower prices, but it contributes to dilute our costs. During your second question regarding other items, as a matter of fact, as other companies, we carry out our adjustments at the end of the year. We carry out many impairment adjustments, inventory adjustments, and all of them are portrayed at the end of the year. But if you see a chart that I demonstrated in the beginning of my presentation, the EBITDA that shows the most relevant operational results, as you can see, we practically had no nonrecurring effects. This is on Page 9 of our webcast. Practically, we talked about BRL 443 million of recurring results, and the published result was BRL 450 million. Others practically did not affect the EBITDA that I believe that is the most relevant indicator here. OPERATOR: (Interpreted) Next question, Karel Luketic, Bank of America Merrill Lynch. KAREL LUKETIC, ASSOCIATE, BOFA MERRILL LYNCH, RESEARCH DIVISION: (Interpreted) I would like to congratulate all the team from Usiminas for the negotiation of the new governance of Usiminas. I believe that all of you are very happy, and Sérgio, also, for being CEO again. Leo talked about the increase of prices. How much carryover will we have from -- in our price, considering that most of the contracts are signed during the second semester? And what will be the change between the first and the second semester? And what do you expect due to the increase of price per ton during the second semester? And what about actuarial expenses? Are you renegotiating these expenses? These are my questions. SERGIO LEITE DE ANDRADE: (Interpreted) Thank you very much for your comments. All the team of Usiminas is very happy, not only because of the results of 2017, but the agreement signed with our main shareholders yesterday. Now regarding prices for the second semester, it's too early to calculate. What we can say is that there will be an increase of the average price during the second semester, vis-à-vis the first semester, but it's too early to calculate this amount. We hope that it's the best possible, of course. Now regarding actuarial debt, we constantly follow up with Usiminas Pension Fund the actuarial assessments of the different pension funds that are managed by Usiminas Pension Funds. We have 2 actuarial debts. We follow this up very closely. And there is no doubt that there are ongoing conversations to reassess these debts, but nothing that I can anticipate right now in terms of solid results that will reflect on the short term. OPERATOR: (Interpreted) Next question from Renan Criscio, Credit Suisse. RENAN CRISCIO, ANALYST, CREDIT SUISSE: (Interpreted) My questions would be a follow-up of past years. One would be debt. You have this instrument, so you pay one part to the creditors of the cash surplus when you reach this level. So this limit will continue the same in 2018 or will it change? What is this limit? To understand, if you reach this level, will you pay the debt to your creditors? You mentioned a possibility of a study of CapEx of a galvanized line. Is there a covenant in the renegotiation of debt that limits the CapEx? Now what about others in terms of costs? You have taxes that represent BRL 550 million per quarter and PIS/COFINS. And you said that this amount would be negotiated during the first quarter. Do you continue with this guidance? Or has it changed? RONALD SECKELMANN: (Interpreted) Renan, this is Ronald speaking. Now regarding cash flip mechanism, as minimum cash where the mechanism is activated, this varies throughout the years. It is [ever growing] throughout this year, we will have no changes. It will be the same amount as last year. We have not announced this limit. It is a limit that allows us to operate comfortably. So we do not expect any difficulties. Our interest is to amortize this debt. In the consolidated results, we have a leverage level of 2x. In the controlling company, the leverage is 3x. We want to reduce the leverage in the controlling company, that's where we have most of our debt focused. Now CapEx, when we said that we are studying, perhaps broadening the [ADE], this wouldn't be considered an expansion of volume in Usiminas because we would consume greater volume of cold-rolled. So we would enrich the mix. And when we talk about mix enrichment, there is no restriction in our debt renegotiation agreement. And our credits, tax credits of PIS and COFINS throughout 2017, we use them more. We believe there will be a drop in 2018. I believe that we will have something during the first semester of 2018, much lower than last year. By and large, we can calculate a difference from what was used in 2017 and what will actually happen in 2018 of BRL 200 million. RENAN CRISCIO: (Interpreted) Okay. Less in '18 than what was used in '17. OPERATOR: (Interpreted) Our next question, in English, from Jonathan Brandt from HSBC. JONATHAN L. BRANDT, HEAD OF LATAM CEMENT, CONSTRUCTION & REAL ESTATE EQUITY RESEARCH TEAM, HSBC, RESEARCH DIVISION: I wanted to first return back to the debt. Is it fair to say that your debt repayments will only be dictated by the cash [sweep]? In other words, you won't pay more than you are mandatory -- mandatorily have to? And if you could comment a little bit about your average cost of debt, and if there's any room for refinancing or liability management to improve that. And then secondly, I'm hoping to understand a little bit more about the restart of the blast furnace in a couple of months, particularly what the impact will be, maybe in the short term, what the impact is on profitability as you restart that blast furnace. And what sort of cost savings we can expect vis-à-vis buying slabs in the market once it's fully ramped up? SERGIO LEITE DE ANDRADE: (Interpreted) Jon, well, you posed a number of questions of payment of our debt, if the amortization in December and the amortizations for January and scheduled for March, if they are exclusively because of the cash sweep. Now the amortization during the month of December and the beginning of January, on January 18, $90 million in December and $180 million net January, they are not connected with cash sweep. These 2 amortizations are basically directly and indirectly connected with the repayment of the bonds that were issued in 2018. The bonds issued in 2018 were fully paid when they mature. And the amortization of $90 million is indirectly related to this event, and the amortization of $180 million in January is directly related to this event. So none of these 2 are connected with the cash sweep, okay? Now the amortization schedule for the month of March, March 15 of approximately $100 million, yes, this repayment is due to the cash sweep mechanism. As I mentioned to one of your colleagues during this call, we do not expect any other anticipated payment throughout 2018. Now nevertheless, if the business conditions evolve in a more positive fashion than we expect, well, yes, perhaps during the next measurement of cash sweep, that is on June 30, perhaps we will anticipate payment. But for the time being, we do not have this scheduled. It's not scheduled. Now regarding the average cost of the debt after the payment of the bonds, most of our debt, over 80% of our debt, is paid in reals. The average cost of the debt in reals is CDI plus 3%. There is a 3% spread here. Now the liability management is something that we're assessing right now. It is still too early to make -- to take any measures. The objective here is not only to reduce the cost of the debt, but also to extend the term of the debt. We must wait an additional improvement in our ratings. But we believe that at the end of the year and the beginning of next year, this will be a very important moment to carry out some liability management, with 2 targets: To reduce the cost of the debt and to increase the -- or to extend the payment terms. So -- and then you asked about the recovery of steel production and the reconnection of the furnace, right? The furnace #1 of Ipatinga will start its activities in 2 months, in April, with a production capacity of over 600,000 tons of steel a year. In 2018, it will produce 350,000, 400,000, and the cost of this restart is around BRL 80 million to restart this furnace. OPERATOR: (Interpreted) Next question from Gabriela Cortez, Banco do Brasil. GABRIELA ELERATI CORTEZ, SENIOR ANALYST, BB-BANCO DE INVESTIMENTO S.A., RESEARCH DIVISION: (Interpreted) You've reduced 25% the cost of your cash flow in Mining. What do we expect at the end of the year? Can you still drop these expenses? Now what about slabs? How much do you expect to reduce the cost of the slabs now that Ipatinga will be back into production? SERGIO LEITE DE ANDRADE: (Interpreted) Gabriela, regarding your question, the cost of Mining, this is a recurring subject every day. And we are trying to be competitive in terms of production, logistics, that are very important regarding our cost matrix for the year 2018. And we started this in 2017, we put into operation our plant of Mina Leste, especially the East Mine has -- represents a lower cost, which helps us in our average cost, and that we use the main input and flotation larva that comes from the dam. So we're talking about this is a dam that comes from our plant, and this helps us to dilute our cost. As this process started in August, we will -- we see the impact in 2017 throughout 5 months, but we will see the impact throughout the entire year of 2018. And this means that we will be able to improve our costs this year that just started. Gabriela, your question regarding the expected effect from the high -- from the restart of the high furnace of Ipatinga 1. After the restart of high furnace 1 in Ipatinga in June, we have a scheduled maintenance shutdown of furnace #3, that is the biggest furnace. So furnace #1 will help us to produce what is not produced during 15 days through furnace 3. So throughout 2018, we will have moments of slabs that come from Ipatinga that will be around 300,000 tons a year, especially during the second semester. And for this, we will -- this will not replace Ipatinga. [Release] of produced slabs and Cubatão purchased, we have a mix that was 70% owned slabs and 30% of purchased slabs. So it is very difficult to tell you how much furnace 1 will contribute to reduce our average cost. But anyhow, there is a very significant difference between our slabs and the purchased slabs, but it's difficult to give you this figure right now. As we have no further questions, we bring our conference call to the end. Should you have any questions, our investor relations team is at your disposal to answer any questions. We thank you very much, and have a good afternoon. [Thomson Financial reserves the right to make changes to documents, content, or other information on this web site without obligation to notify any person of such changes. 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Subject: Agreements; Copyright; Litigation
Company / organization: Name: Thomson Financial; NAICS: 511210, 518210, 519190; Name: Usiminas; NAICS: 212210, 331110, 332119, 332812, 551112
Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 9, 2018
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: Linthicum
Country of publication: United States, Linthicum
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Law--Corporate Law
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2007431948
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2007431948?accountid=4840
Copyright: 2018 Thomson Financial and ASC LLC
Last updated: 2018-03-01
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 74 of 474
Q4 2017 Lojas Renner SA Earnings Call - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]09 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Presentation OPERATOR: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for waiting. Welcome to Lojas Renner conference call to discuss the results of the fourth quarter of 2017. We would like to inform you that all participants -- we would like to inform you that today's live webcast, including the slide show, may be accessed through Lojas Renner's website at www.lojasrenner.com.br Investor Relations section at the webcast platform and also with the MZiQ platform. We would like to remind you that questions will be taken by telephone and by the platform. (Operator Instructions) I would like to remind you that questions from journalists may be taken by our press office at the number 55 (11) 3165-9586. Before proceeding, we would like to mention that forward-looking statements that might be made during this call related to the business perspectives of the company, projections and operating targets and financial targets are beliefs and assumptions of the part of Lojas Renner management as well as information currently available to the company. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance. They involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions because they refer to future events, and therefore, they depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors should understand that general economic conditions, industry conditions and other operating factors may also affect the future results of the company or lead to results that differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. Now we would like to turn the floor over to the Mr. Jose Galló, CEO. Mr. Galló, you may proceed. JOSE GALLó, CEO, MD AND DIRECTOR, LOJAS RENNER S.A.: Thank you very much. Good afternoon, everybody. First, I would like to apologize for the delay. We had an operating problem here in our part, but everything is perfect now. Today, we are here to talk about the results of 2017. But before giving the floor to Laurence, I would like to make some remarks about this past year and also the opportunity that we have ahead. We have Paula Picinini today, our General Investor Relations and new Business Manager; and Luciano Agliardi, Controller; and Laurence as well. In 2017, once again, our business model showed to be resilient. To the scenario that we had at the time, we resumed a good sales growth, maintaining our operating margins at levels -- very high competitive levels and even in a low activity context. We were able to continue to invest and the increase of the selling area. And I would like to mention that we talked to many of you in February, and we then defined some guidelines as well as some expectations about what will be happening this year. And on our part, we are very comfortable because I talked in February -- everything that we said in February has already been delivered. We inaugurated 70 stores, and this is important to be considered in the current context and also doing retail in general. 70 stores, in our opinion, is something very close to (inaudible) because we opened Renner, Camicado, Youcom stores, and we also inaugurated our first operation -- international operation in Uruguay. And we are very much encouraged by the performance so far, and we intensified our focus also on our process for -- to capture trends, fashion trend, develop collections and also assorting structure and maybe interaction between stores and procurement in order to be more assertive in our collections. So in 2017, we were able to have Realize, which is our financial institution. So we incorporated it, and it is a digital financial institution, in fact. And the objective is a good support to our business and the business structure. We will start to have more governance, more agility, flexibility and efficiency in our consumer finance. And we expect to offer new functionalities and services to our cards clients who are very numerous, approximately 6.5 million -- 6.7 million cards. And this is a very good thing for us to work and do additional things for our clients. Looking at 2018, we will continue investing in improvements that will allow us to have more accurate inventory, promoting productivity gains and a higher use of technologies. And here, we start talking about digital technologies, in fact, in order to improve multichannel experience. And I think it's very clear to all of you that we have been making very heavy bids on multichannel because we believe that brick-and-mortar stores and online stores supplement each other in great synergy. And we will -- we start to see this very clearly with many international players, and we intend to keep our expansion plan according to the budget plan that we presented, BRL 620 million, which means new 25 to 30 Renner stores, including 2 additional stores in Uruguay; 10 to 15 Camicado stores; and 20 to 25 Youcom stores. And this year, such as we do constantly, as to profitability monitoring process, we will continue, and we are going to find some low-performance units. And for this reason, we chose to shut down 5 Renner stores and 2 Youcom stores. In order to avoid any question, we have no intention of closing any additional Renner stores in this year. And also, we don't see anything relevant that would lead us to do this. So this is the first time, I would like to stress, that we are shutting down stores. And maybe because of the enthusiasm, hopefully stores and shopping centers in spite of all the very in-depth studies done with the content evaluation supported by company, an excellent company in the market. So by closing these stores, we evaluated that the clothes of these stores are going to be taken over by other units and there will be a transfer, so to say, of our clients to these new stores. And we've been increasing the profitability of these stores that will receive these additional sales. And we know that [the EO] points to an upswing in consumption in spite of the uncertainties in the political environment. I would say that if we had no political problems, we would have a very interesting year. But anyway, the scenario continued to be favorable with no inflation in interest rates. And maybe we do not -- we are not aware of the fact that the (inaudible) has changed. And there is -- the miracle that was in 2 years we were able to grow the Selic rate from 14% to 6%. And those who are older know very well that it was incredibly difficult to reduce 1% of the Selic rate. And it falls from 14% to 3.5% without mentioning inflation. In less than 2 years, we went from an inflation of 9% to 2.85% or 2.95%. If you look at the past, if you remember the past, when we were able to reduce 1 percentage point from 1 year to the other, and inflation is a big feat. And we had a very high -- (inaudible) that we also see an important improvement. We see some sectors making some moves that are very relevant to this area and improving this environment level. So we believe that we will be able to keep our growth rate and also our share gains. And when we evaluate our growth and compare this with some market indicators, you can see that our conclusion is that we are gaining share and very much focused on our operating improvement that we have been implementing and that will be improved. As to our gross margin, we expect a valuation in the promotional environment. And together with our commission management, they should think about conditions for us to exceed the levels of 2017 this year. Now talking about SG&A. We believe there will be stability vis-à-vis net revenue because of major projects, expenses and structures and operating improvements have already been concluded in these past years moving into fourth quarter. In relation to financial credit, it's important to highlight that after a period of structuring of Realize and also technological updates, we should have a year with stability in the levels of delinquency and more moderate creation of revenue because of the reduction in interest rate and also the maturation of Meu Cartão. We will continue to grow Meu Cartão higher than the economy indicators but not as much as happened in the past. Now I would like to give the floor to Laurence, who will talk about details of our results. Yet today, we delivered this to you already. Thank you. LAURENCE BELTRãO GOMES, CFO AND IR OFFICER, LOJAS RENNER S.A.: Good afternoon, everyone. This is Laurence, and I would like to talk very quickly about our performance in each one of the businesses. But before talking about the other result, I would like to make some remarks about the first quarter of '17. This quarter, in terms of sales and gross margin, was a good quarter. We had constant improvement, a greater improvement month-over-month. We have a good Christmas, good traffic in shopping centers and the trend that will continue -- or continue in 2018. As to the growth margin, as we expected, we also had an improvement in our gross margin with the growth of 1.2 percentage points -- or 0.3 percentage points net of the PIS and COFINS taxes effect, the favorable dollar. And the more stable promotional environment also contributed to this performance in the quarter. As for the expenses were higher due to a shift in the marketing budget for the fourth quarter of '17 and the structural targets that are on the way. But mainly because in 2016, in the first quarter of 2016, there was a weak performance of sales and we had to hold our expenses and we had to check our expenses. And in 2017, this became normal when you compare to different quarter of last year or the previous year. But as Galló mentioned himself, this past year was marked by our resilience in 2017. We consider that we have delivered all the other results according to our estimate. And in spite of all the macro challenges, we got to a growth in our revenues, up 15.4% and same-store sales reaching 9.2%. And in spite of several projects and operating improvements that are underway, we were able to have a decent margin reaching levels that were similar to 2016 if we exclude the non-comparable items that led to the margin of that year to reach a record level of 23.4%. As a consequence, our net income reached BRL 732.7 million, a 17.2% increase year-over-year. Now I would like to talk about the result of each one of the businesses. At Renner, net revenue reached BRL 6 billion with an increase of 14% with an improvement in traffic in our stores. And our gross margin was stable, 55.7%, in spite of the competitive environment and the more price-sensitive customers. In spite of the pressure that we had in our operating expenses, we were able to keep our margins at highly competitive levels. Camicado. We delivered a 27.4% sales growth. Net revenue was BRL 444 million, and the gross margin reached 54.1%. These results stem from a series of improvements that are being implemented. As for Youcom, we reached sales amounting to BRL 124.4 million with a 51.7% gross margin, reaching 60.3%. And we continue to progress in the construction of this project. The Youcom performance evidences the opportunity that we had in a highly fragmented market, the opportunity to differentiate ourselves with a concept of one fashion with quality and competitive prices. And finally, results on Financial Products that grew 32%. This was a really important year for our consumer finance operations because besides replacing the technological platform. We started operation of Realize after the institution that at the end of this year, held the full credit portfolio of the co-branded cards. And before finalizing, I would like to reinforce to our invitation so that all our shareholders may participate in our extraordinary shareholders meeting, scheduled for February 28 at 2:00 p.m. In this event, we need to have a minimum quorum of 67% in order to be -- order to approve all of the changes that we have proposed by means of the updating of the statement of the Novo Mercado regulation as well as some improvements recommended by our management. The participation of our shareholders can be in person or by public request for Power of Attorney or by remote voting, which means that we count on all of you. So these are my remarks, and now we are available to answer any questions that you might have. Thank you. (Operator Instructions) Questions and Answers OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) (inaudible) from Itaú BBA. UNIDENTIFIED ANALYST: Could you talk about your expectations regarding the gross margin for this year? And if you could give us some details about this hedge for 2018 and how it compares to what you had in 2017? And it would -- do you believe that it's an area will be much more benign for the gross margin. Do you expect to have an expansion in your gross margin? Or will you have a more conservative expectation in this regard? LAURENCE BELTRãO GOMES: Thank you for the question. This is Laurence. We see 2018 with favorable conditions for good performance, and Galló has already talked about it. And we see and we believe in an upswing -- or could be an upswing of the economic activity in the country which is driven by consumption differently from other moments in our history, but it is the recovery that is supported by fundamentals by an interest rate that encourages and supports the recovery of the purchasing power. And interest rates that are historically low and credit little by little being made available in the economy by the banking center for individuals. And with that, we believe in a recovery in the level of confidence as well, of course together with the less promotional environment with a certain degree of normalization, so to say, of the commercial environment. So having said that, we believe that we have good conditions for 2018 and also good conditions to review our expansion, the gradual expansion of our gross margin in 2018. And the previous case of 2016, 2017 were years that we lagged a little bit behind, but we already knew that. So it's going back to normal which means that in 2018, it will be possible, in our opinion, to go back to that level of expansion. In relation to the exchange rate, our imports have already been ordered. We already have a very good level of coverage. In fact, 80% is already locked in as levels grows to 3.30%, 3.30%. Yes, exactly. OPERATOR: Guilherme Assis from Brasil Plural. GUILHERME ASSIS, ANALYST, BRASIL PLURAL CORRETORA DE CAMBIO, TITULOSE VALORES MOBILIáRIOS S.A., RESEARCH DIVISION: I would like to ask 2 questions. Going back to the gross margin. I know you have already talked about it and somebody has already asked, but I would like to understand the impact of push and pull in your results in logistics that you have made in distribution logistics and the systems. Do you already see a contribution from these endeavors? And what are the potential gains that you envisage that you have already been achieving from your push and pull as the market was more promotional and it had to do with your competitiveness? And do you believe this will be an additional growth driver for 2018 on? So this is one question. And the second question, I would like to understand the rationale of your shutting down some stores. I know that you evaluate the performance at each one of your stores but I would like to understand. While Galló made it very clear that you have no intention whatsoever of closing additional stores. But with these specific stores, could you give us some background about what happened and how long it took to made the decision to close these stores? And what kind of criteria did you have in order to support this decision? Were they street stores or shopping mall stores? And could you talk about these stores that you closed? LAURENCE BELTRãO GOMES: Guilherme, this is Laurence, and thank you for your questions. Guilherme, as we have been repeating, we continue to evolve. And we said that during the Renner Day last year about the evolution of our results in terms of our logistics process, and we expect to tap into part of this belief that we have that it will be possible to resume the gradual expansion of our gross margin in 2018 and in the favorable environment and also with a combination of all the projects and all the improvements that we carried out and that we have been carrying out, including the logistics project and our distribution. So we have closed the year reaching all the targets of our push and pull, and the rollout has already started for the other projects, and this is going quite well. But I would say that this is a combination of manufacturers. And in our expectations and our beliefs, we have the [canter] these benefits that come from the new distribution and the logistics system. Now let's talk about the closing of stores in a nutshell. How do we approve our store? You may very well imagine that we received many different alternatives. And what happened is that, at the first moment, we check how things are going and our expansion, how it's going. And when we see a certain degree of feasibility, we carry out a more in-depth study. We have an external consultancy company that have been working with us for a long time, so we know very well how to calculate sales. And then, we carry out a feasibility study, during which we require a relevantly higher IRR than the WACC. And this is all brought to the occupations officer [Lauren] and I participate myself in this committee and then we approve the store. What I can tell you is that this rigor. We used to have 320 stores. After 25 years of operation, we closed 5 stores. And the reason is very easy to explain. Our managers, they evaluate this other return and the expenses in each one of the stores. And what happened is that, 2 of these stores are in shopping malls, absorbed -- these are not new stores. They were relatively old stores. And other shopping centers were affected by a new mall that was opened, and the cannibalization degree was higher than necessary, I would say. So this is very dynamic. And our profit -- or profitability is the name of the game as far as we are concerned, so there is no need to be there. There are no big explanation. This is a matter of profitability, our financial revenue. And this is only normal when you evaluate even very successful companies. (inaudible) for instance, is a big success story, and they closed stores. But this is something very normal. This is business as usual. We make all the necessary efforts before making this decision. And when we take this decision, we know that most of these clients, most of these customers will be channeled to the other stores that we are opening, okay. GUILHERME ASSIS: Just a follow-up. Still talking about the stores that were closed. This happened in the fourth quarter. So did this have an impact on this quarter, too, after March, 2 now; and 3 up to March? OPERATOR: Mr. Marcel Moraes from Deutsche Bank. MARCEL MORAES, SENIOR ANALYST OF THE BRAZILIAN RETAIL AND HOUSEHOLD PERSONAL CARE SECTORS, DEUTSCHE BANK AG, RESEARCH DIVISION: My question is about operating expenses. In 2017, we saw the grade of stability but in part -- but in spite of the benefits brought about by the PIS and COFINS that contributed to this higher figure. Do you believe by 2018 or the pace of opening of stores continues to be very fast? And what -- seems -- I don't know whether it's going to be the same level of 2017. So it seems to me that we will have 2018 with some pressure on your SG&A such as was the case in 2017 if we exclude the benefits of the PIS and COFINS taxes. So could you talk about that, please? LAURENCE BELTRãO GOMES: Marcel, this is Laurence. Thank you for the question. Along the thin lines that we said previously about the favorable conditions and the way we interpret the current conditions and over the year, as Galló mentioned, we have a degree of uncertainty with political scenario. But if you adopt the base case scenario, there will be no big surprises. And taking this into account, we believe that we will have a good pace for our sales in spite of consuming our structure projects that we have been implementing and also with a quite high number of new stores. We believe that in spite of all that, we will be able to keep our operational leverage and the SG&A as a percentage of our expenses at a stable figure. This is our belief, as I said, in spite of all the projects that we have underway. As I said before, these projects, think about the increase in expenses first. And then afterwards, we have the full gains coming from these and others. So in spite of all that, we believe that we will be having relative stability in our SG&A vis-a-vis our revenue. OPERATOR: Joseph Giordano of JPMorgan. JOSEPH GIORDANO, SENIOR LATAM HEALTHCARE ANALYST, JP MORGAN CHASE & CO, RESEARCH DIVISION: I would like to talk -- I would like you to talk about the expense side, the position for the rise of assets around BRL 15 million. Is this related to the closing of stores only? Or do you have any other factor? Or anything else that we could expect from now on? And when I look at the SG&A, which was a good surprise for the quarter, we see that the line item of third-party services were the biggest player in this increase. So I would like to know what exactly do you mean by third-party services. And could we expect an additional increase in this line item? LAURENCE BELTRãO GOMES: Joseph, thank you very much for your question. This is Laurence. And the answer is yes to the first question. This amount is related to the provisioning for the write-off of assets. That is to say the operations that will be discontinued in 2018. But I would like to add a little bit more color to this. This is a process that has to do with the monitoring of profitability. And besides, the approval process that Galló mentioned by our committee, we also have the monitoring every half year regarding the profitability of each store. And we try to project first stores with a low performance, what could be done, what actions could be taken in terms of operations or a renegotiation of cost, occupancy and product mix. And we consider all of the possibilities to do our housekeeping in these stores and increase the future projection or the future results of these stores. And when we have this compared to the value of the current asset, this is when we make the decision regarding the process. And I believe that in the fourth quarter, in relation to the increase in expenses, we had a shift of marketing expenses from the third quarter to the fourth quarter of '17. We also have more structural projects that are continuing, that are ongoing. And among them, I could mention is the specialization of stores, the implementation of ERP at Youcom and the continuation of the activity project, and as Galló said, also actions focused on multichannel operations, so these are the projects. And third-party services here, they involve mainly the e-commerce channel and the actions taken in our e-commerce in order to strengthen our channel. And also, in the fourth quarter, we had some expenses related to the increase in our internal logistics efficiency, a bigger effort in our logistics in order to reduce our lead time with a higher speed and a higher frequency. And I believe that this effort also be a contribution to our sales performance in this period. For this year, we do not see anything different. I would say just the normalization, and we have already fitted ourselves into this expectation of a stable SG&A for 2018. OPERATOR: Franco Abelardo from Morgan Stanley. FRANCO T ABELARDO, EQUITY ANALYST, MORGAN STANLEY, RESEARCH DIVISION: I have 2 questions, in fact. The first one has to do with the growth of same-store sales. I would like to understand the beginning of 2018 in this regard. And Mr. Gallo have said that he expect a good growth phase to be maintained. But we know that the basis for comparison as of the beginning of this year becomes stronger coming from a recovery in 2017. So I would like to know if, in spite of that, we could expect same-store sales reaching a high digit as was the case in 2017? Is this your expectation? Or because of this higher basis for comparison, should we see a more normalized level, more, let's say, close to inflation? This is my first question. LAURENCE BELTRãO GOMES: Your question is very good, because it is going to give me the opportunity to talk about that. 9.2% growth in same-store sales. In the fourth quarter, 8.7%. Inflation, 2.95%. I think we have to positively cycle our sales because one thing is to have same-store 8%, 9% or 10% with an inflation of 8% or 9%, and when I look at 9.2% and 2.95%, I think we are operating at a very good level. If you asked me, why? This is the idea. Well, it's a difference of over 6 percentage points. So a difference of more than 6 percentage points is something huge. And if you consider the cost of this apparel, the garment. Is this optimal? No, no. This is not optimal. If you read all the reports over the last 20 years, you will never think that it is optimal, the result. Peak is when everything is very good, it is very good. I will -- I think the figure is good, reasonably good. Afterwards, of course, we will be evaluating things as they are. But for this year, what we intend to achieve is the continuation, more or less, in the same pace. But I would like to remind you, that we have to recycle a little bit because inflation is no longer 9%, it's 2.95%. So our requirement for productivity, et cetera, they have to be based on this 2.95% inflation rate. FRANCO T ABELARDO: Very clear. And my second question has to do with the retail margin, the gross margin. Between the -- well, it was close to 17% which is very similar to what you had in 2013. You reached 18%, 19% for '15, '16. And now you're going back because you have some many projects, many areas being invested into. And the margin that you had in '15, '16, is it feasible to be obtained in the short run? Or was there a more relevant set to a nonrecurring factors that would prevent you from seeking the same level of margin for retail this year not -- net of Financial Services? LAURENCE BELTRãO GOMES: Thank you for the question, Franco. This is Laurence. In '13, '14 and '15, it's important to remind you that we had the benefit that represented 1.4 percentage points of the SG&A. 1.4% or 1.4 percentage points in this account. For 2018, we do see some conditions to go back to normal, to have sales performance and the operating performance going back to similar levels, such as 2014 and '15. Similar to '14 and '15, that's about the benefit of the payroll, right? And now you have some benefit from the PIS and COFINS rate. So how much would that help you with these taxes? LAURENCE BELTRãO GOMES: Well, we continue to have a new array of stores. And the new stores, they have a maturation curve that starts with a higher SG&A than the mature stores. And the project continue, that is to say -- as I've said before, the projects continue, ongoing. And we are focused on strengthening our competitiveness and our value proposition. And as Gallo mentioned, that we have already mentioned, we continue to make strides in our operational efficiency and improving the shopping experience. What I can say is that we are comfortable that we will have -- delivering very high competitive margins in 2018. OPERATOR: Tobias Stingelin. TOBIAS STINGELIN, DIRECTOR, CRéDIT SUISSE AG, RESEARCH DIVISION: Laurence and Gallo, what was the total spend in marketing 2017 comparing to 2016? How much did it go up? And taking it out seasonality as well comparing the quarters. JOSE GALLó: Hi, Tobias. there was a percentage of sales that was lower than last year. What will be happening, is that there was a shift. As you know, it was shifted in part to December, the one part that was supposed to be in November. So there was no increase in the marketing budget. Let's not call it marketing, it's communication and advertising. If you consider the net revenues of last year, so you don't have to have any worries about that. There was no increase. LAURENCE BELTRãO GOMES: This is Laurence here. Tobias, I would like to add to what Gallo said. In the fourth quarter, we had the shift and this concentration there for us and the marketing expense grew up, grew 44% in this quarter, but 12% in the year. So much more than the growth of our net revenue. TOBIAS STINGELIN: What about your allocations between online and traditional media? Are you growing more in online media? And what about the performance of your sales -- online sales? Could you talk more about what Gallo said at the beginning about the multichannel strategy while it was changing? LAURENCE BELTRãO GOMES: Right. And importantly, we do not talk about percentages, but we see a very good growth in social media, et cetera. TOBIAS STINGELIN: And when you start to see the effects of your communication efforts and you see that e-commerce and the results of e-commerce and brick-and-mortar stores and social media, everything is intertwined. And so what about an update of your online operation sales? How much they are growing vis-à-vis your expectations? LAURENCE BELTRãO GOMES: I would say that it is rather interesting, higher than our expectations. And the most important thing is that it is profitable. And we even want to accelerate it further what we thought we would be achieving in 5 years, we would be achieving in 3 years. And that every passing day, I have no doubt whatsoever about the synergies between the brick-and-mortar stores and the e-commerce. You can see the synergies very clearly. In order to carry out certain things, you cannot really start from scratch. Two years ago, we invested very heavily in a platform, in technology and this new platform gave us the capacity and the potential to carry out many things that we did in e-commerce, and that we would not be able to do without the platform. So you have the digital world here, and we are paying a lot of attention to that and many things are going on and you have artificial intelligence, and you have algorithms. In processing capacity, there's so many things that, of course, there is the cloud that there will always be a new platform for processing. And without that you just stay outside the digital world. So our investment was relatively high, but it has to do with the structural projects. Very often, you have the OpEx and you have the CapEx. But vis-à-vis the potential for e-commerce and everything that we can do, you know how many processes we have to change? 148 processes have to be changed because of this new platform and going to Uruguay. It was for 1.5 years, we were looking for opportunities, we were preparing ourselves. And sometimes, it's not enough attention is given to this. But the base that we have, well, it would allow it to reach 400 stores for instance. And now, we can make more stores and we still have the objective of having 430. Our capacity to go abroad, our capacity of having a major e-commerce operation, supporting our operations in general. So sometimes you do not see figures about that, but I want to make this very clear to you. TOBIAS STINGELIN: And one last question. You've said that the fourth quarter of '16 was difficult because you were very efficient in expenses. And if I remove everything, not structural expenses and project expenses, looking only at the recurring base for expenses, because it was very efficient in 2016. What about 2017? LAURENCE BELTRãO GOMES: Well, if you remove all the investments that you made. Tobias, this is Laurence. As I said before, in the fourth quarter -- well, our year was very difficult. And over the years, we accelerated and we went more in depth with the program to check our expenses that year especially in the fourth quarter. And this is the reason why we say that the results are not really comparable because of the efforts that were made. But if we were to remove or exclude these structural projects, the SG&A in the quarter would have gone up 18%, still higher than the growth of our expenses. This is what explains the difference between the 15.7% growth in net revenue. As I said before, with a faster speed and our level of services that our logistics and our e-commerce, all these things being improved, but also, the marketing side -- the market side. So these were the factors that came into play, making the difference between '18 and '17. OPERATOR: Irma Sgarz from Goldman Sachs. IRMA SGARZ, EQUITY ANALYST, GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: I have 2 questions. One more in line with Tobias' question about e-commerce. If you can give us more details about your initiatives in the pipeline to integrate more and more your brick-and-mortar stores to e-commerce? And the other one has to do with Camicado. That was a good result and I would like to know a little bit more about how much this has been helping you in your overall figures? And additional feedback about productivity in the sales area. And the other one has to do with housekeeping, same-store. Does it include e-commerce or not? JOSE GALLó: Irma, this is Gallo. I really have a lot to add to what Tobias -- to what I've said to Tobias about e-commerce was one thing that escaped me was the following. When you talk about support, we have a new website. Our new website is much more modern, more dynamic, more user-friendly. So this kind of improvement allows us to have a higher degree of interaction between e-commerce and our -- for instance, our purchasing area. E-commerce is totally free to come to us and choose products and the amount of each item and things that you mature gradually and you become more and more efficient and interaction become stronger and stronger. And when you get to -- into an e-commerce process, very often, you have a degree of rivalry between brick-and-mortar and online operations. However, here at Renner, it was practically 0, so we have a lot of synergies between these 2 areas. So all these factors lead us to grow 2 or 3x more than the indicator, 3x more than the e-commerce of apparel. Our e-commerce grows about 3x more than Itau in general. We continue to invest, we are going to accelerate further and we are going to invest more to make us even more agile than we are today. And more and more multi channels. LAURENCE BELTRãO GOMES: This is Laurence, Irma. Thank you for your question about same-store sales whether it is included. And in relation to Camicado, in our opinion this was another good year for Camicado as well. We had a good growth in our sales, and we reached our targets in terms of growth and good negotiations regarding R&D, seasoned competitors. Gross margin, the evolution also in the number of products and the introduction of lifestyle in 2016 and that is maturating also contributed in the increase in the participation of imported goods as well contributing to improve our assortments and it was one of the highlight. And we are advancing also in terms of suppliers for Camicado in our chain. In Camicado, Camicado is already close to international levels of operating margins and international benchmark. So we are very pleased with the performance of Camicado. OPERATOR: Mello Paola, (inaudible) Investments. PAOLA MELLO, VP AND ANALYST, CITIGROUP INC, RESEARCH DIVISION: Could you talk about the reduction of 3.3% in the total sales? Was there any problem regarding -- do you intend to go back to a higher level of participation? And what are the new functionalities and services that you intend to offer through your finance company? And what is your expectation regarding your working capital for 2018? Do you have room for improvement regarding your suppliers and clients and inventories? LAURENCE BELTRãO GOMES: Mello Paola, this is Laurence. Thank you for the questions. First, about the participation of our private label card, this has been an ongoing challenge in the last few years due to the economic scenario, through years '15 and '16, were years of recession, low economic activity. And we became more cautious in terms of extending our terms -- the payment terms, and we have to exert some self-control with this regard. But also, our clients were more careful in the use of cards, and this is what we saw. Customers avoiding to pay interest rates during the recession period. And on the other hand, we had a good performance in terms of acquiring new clients and activating new clients. We had 1.8 million new cards. But on the other hand, we had churn in our card base and with a figure that is higher than is desirable. So for 2018, we are working to the revitalize and taking actions to revitalize the Renner Card. As Gallo said, this also has to do with our multichannel operations and with the digital shopping experience. And over 2018, we will be able to evolve and bring some additional oxygen to the Renner Card. So these are the main points. Regarding functionalities and services, I think it's important to mention that the financial institution started operations in June and ended the year with the total portfolio of the co-branded card and we are now migrating our portfolio of personal loans and the fast withdrawal. And this year, we will be starting migrating new customers as well to this company, the private label. We have already started our project in '18 to migrate the private label card in 2019. In terms of the product portfolio, there will be no change, but we'll continue to have the same portfolio. However, we are going to strengthen these products. We are going to offer different experiences in this portfolio of products. But in the short run, what we see is an update in terms of insurance and assistance this should change, but no change in terms of the client experience in terms of products and product positioning, this does not change. For 2018, in terms of working capital, here at Renner, we are always looking at opportunities to seek value for our working capital. There is an ongoing effort on the part of (inaudible) to tap into opportunities. And we see some room for improvement in our working capital mainly in what regards, inventories. And as far as clients and suppliers are concerned, this will be stable. But this year, this will come from our inventory turnover. OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) UNIDENTIFIED ANALYST: This is [Laurence]. The question's on basic trading. The first question is the following. The wage payout in 2017, what is the future of cash? LAURENCE BELTRãO GOMES: Regarding the payout, this is a decision made by our board. We met our investments through our cash generation and this is decided by the Board. And the second question has to do with the pace of new stores inauguration for Youcom. It will be normal, it will be maintained. And the last question has to do with the future of the cash surplus. I have already answered that when I answered the first question. OPERATOR: We have another question coming from [Julie] (inaudible). UNIDENTIFIED ANALYST: Do we intend to open less stores of Camicado this year and what about online for this category? And this will be driving Camicado, the online operation? LAURENCE BELTRãO GOMES: What we believe is that we will have 10 to 15 new stores. It will be rather similar to 2017, in 2018. In relation to the e-commerce of Camicado, we are making all the endeavors that were mentioned by Gallo in e-commerce as a whole. When we talk about e-commerce, we talk about all formats of e-commerce. I would like to add that Gallo, the percentage of e-commerce in Camicado, the percentage of the sales has to do a lot more with the characteristics of products, as happened internationally. Are there any more questions? OPERATOR: Luiz Felipe from BTG Pactual. LUIZ FELIPE POLI GUANAIS, RESEARCH ANALYST, BANCO BTG PACTUAL S.A., RESEARCH DIVISION: Regarding your growth margin dynamics. Could you talk about the market competition in 2017 and '18? And do you intend to invest some of your gains in gross margin mainly those coming from push and pull in price competitiveness over the next a few quarters in order to keep the level of growth that you delivered in 2017? JOSE GALLó: Thank you for the question. As we said before, we expect to tap into the benefits of the target that we have already implemented. And together with a favorable environment, we believe that we will be going back to the gradual expansion of a gross margin. In 2017, we talked about having a more aggressive stance vis-à-vis prices and it was in the first quarter of 2017. As the environment became more and more normal, we closed the fourth quarter as we expected with an expansion of our gross margin and we expect to see a continuation of this process. So I think we will go back to the normal guide of expansion of the gross margin. OPERATOR: Now we close the Q&A session, and we would like to turn the floor over to Renner for the closing remarks. LAURENCE BELTRãO GOMES: We thank you for your participation. And we will go ahead. We know that in Brazil the year starts after Carnival. But as far as Renner is concerned, we started on January 1. So thank you very much, and we are available to answer any questions that you might have about Renner. Thank you very much for your presence. OPERATOR: Lojas Renner conference call is closed. Thank you very much for participating, and we wish you all a very good day. [Thomson Financial reserves the right to make changes to documents, content, or other information on this web site without obligation to notify any person of such changes. In the conference calls upon which Event Transcripts are based, companies may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding a variety of items. Such forward-looking statements are based upon current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those stated in any forward-looking statement based on a number of important factors and risks, which are more specifically identified in the companies' most recent SEC filings. 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USERS ARE ADVISED TO REVIEW THE APPLICABLE COMPANY'S CONFERENCE CALL ITSELF AND THE APPLICABLE COMPANY'S SEC FILINGS BEFORE MAKING ANY INVESTMENT OR OTHER DECISIONS.] [Copyright: Content copyright 2018 Thomson Financial. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Electronic format, layout and metadata, copyright 2018 ASC LLC (www.ascllc.net) ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No license is granted to the user of this material other than for research. User may not reproduce or redistribute the material except for user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon Thomson Financial's or ASC's copyright or other proprietary rights or interests in the material; provided, however, that members of the news media may redistribute limited portions (less than 250 words) of this material without a specific license from Thomson Financial and ASC so long as they provide conspicuous attribution to Thomson Financial and ASC as the originators and copyright holders of such material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation.]
Subject: Copyright; Financial institutions; Webcasting
Location: Uruguay
Company / organization: Name: Thomson Financial; NAICS: 511210, 518210, 519190
Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 9, 2018
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: Linthicum
Country of publication: United States, Linthicum
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Law--Corporate Law
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2007454430
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2007454430?accountid=4840
Copyright: 2018 Thomson Financial and ASC LLC
Last updated: 2018-02-26
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 75 of 474
Bahia Carnival to Feature 200+ Attractions in 5 Days of Revelry
Publication info: Brazil Business News ; Sydney [Sydney]09 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Feb. 9 -- The 2.1 million tourists expected to visit Bahia for this Carnival will have a multitude of choices to enjoy the holiday. In state capital Salvador, visitors can enjoy the city's time-honoured trios eletricos (massive "pied piper" style parties with sound trucks that carry live performances throughout the city) to the sound of major national attractions, including Baiana System, Bell Marques, Harmonia do Samba, Leo Santana, Baby do Brasil, Luis Caldas, Pitty, Avioes, Carla Perez and Anitta. In total, a whopping 204 performances will liven up Salvador's Carnival. The main circuits (i.e. the paths followed by the trios eletricos) are Dodo (Barra), Osmar (Avenida) and Batatinha (Pelourinho). Amaralina, Cajazeiras, Castelo Branco and Piata are expected to be the busiest neighbourhoods of the city during the festivities. There is much fun to be had outside Salvador as well. Many of the state's cities will offer their own attractions and afoxe, samba, reggae, axe, pop, MPB and fanfare concerts, with Porto Seguro, Itabuna and Juazeiro standing out among the most sought-out destinations. The Bahia government expects Carnival to inject R$ 2.3 billion in the state's economy. Source: BrazilGovNews, Federal Government of Brazil Copyright 2017 Contify.com
Location: Brazil
Publication title: Brazil Business News; Sydney
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 9, 2018
Publisher: Athena Information Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
Place of publication: Sydney
Country of publication: India, Sydney
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2120879199
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2120879199?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright 2017 Contify.com
Last updated: 2018-10-17
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 76 of 474
Week ahead: US budget, inflation data and Chinese new year
Author: Dye, Jessica
Publication info: FT.com ; London (Feb 9, 2018).
Abstract:
Investors will see next week whether those concerns were justified when the latest data on US retail sales and inflation are released, alongside the White House’s reveal of an infrastructure spending plan and 2019 budget, the latest batch of corporate earnings and the start of Chinese new year. RETAIL SALES It’s tough to pinpoint one factor to blame for US equities’ wild week, but some analysts have pointed to strong wage growth in January touching off fresh concerns about rising inflation and what that could mean for the Federal Reserve’s subsequent rate trajectory. Analysts are looking for a 0.4 per cent increase for headline inflation and a likely 0.2 per cent gain in core prices, which exclude volatile food and energy prices, from December.Full text: Rising inflation fears helped fuel the market turmoil that dominated Wall Street this week. Investors will see next week whether those concerns were justified when the latest data on US retail sales and inflation are released, alongside the White House’s reveal of an infrastructure spending plan and 2019 budget, the latest batch of corporate earnings and the start of Chinese new year. Here is what to watch in the week ahead. RETAIL SALES It’s tough to pinpoint one factor to blame for US equities’ wild week, but some analysts have pointed to strong wage growth in January touching off fresh concerns about rising inflation and what that could mean for the Federal Reserve’s subsequent rate trajectory. That will give Wednesday’s release of US retail sales and inflation data from January special significance. Economists are generally looking for the US consumer-price index to advance for a fifth straight month. Analysts are looking for a 0.4 per cent increase for headline inflation and a likely 0.2 per cent gain in core prices, which exclude volatile food and energy prices, from December. Core CPI is tipped for a 1.7 per cent year-on-year advance. Retail sales are also expected to post moderate gains, indicating steady household spending, although they could show some impact from slowing auto sales. UK retail sales are also due for release on Friday. US SPENDING PLANS The White House is expected to release two major proposals on Monday that could set the agenda for US President Trump’s second year in office. Mr Trump is expected to support more defence spending in his 2019 budget plan. While presidential budget plans tend to be wish lists rather than concrete proposals, it will still be closely watched to see what the administration wants to put at the top of Congress’s agenda. After campaigning on it and promising it throughout his first year of office, Mr Trump is also set to finally deliver the outlines of his promised $1.5tn infrastructure upgrade programme to fund public works like highways and airports. More details are expected over the weekend, although how specific the proposal will be remains to be seen. CHINESE NEW YEAR All work and no play . . . The Chinese new year starts next Thursday and runs through February 21, a time during which Asian financial hubs will see activity slow or stop. Mainland Chinese markets will shut down from February 15 -21 as the year of the dog begins. The Olympics are finally under way in Pyeongchang, South Korea. In addition to the sport competitions, geopolitical observers will also be closely watching the interactions between thedelegationdispatched by North Korea — including the younger sister of leader Kim Jong Un — and South Korea to see if this could be a harbinger of warmer relations on the peninsula. Asia isn’t having all the fun. Carnival kicks off Saturday in Brazil, and runs through February 14. EARNINGS: Earnings season continues with results expected from companies including ConEdison, Credit Suisse, Nestlé, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. Credit: Jessica Dye
Subject: Consumer Price Index; Budgets; New year
Location: North Korea United States--US Pyeongchang South Korea United Kingdom--UK Brazil Asia South Korea
People: Trump, Donald J Kim Jong Un
Company / organization: Name: Credit Suisse Group; NAICS: 522110; Name: PepsiCo Inc; NAICS: 312111; Name: Congress; NAICS: 921120
Publication title: FT.com; London
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 9, 2018
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Trade Journals
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2121711653
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2121711653?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Feb 9, 2018
Last updated: 2018-10-18
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 77 of 474
At Carnival in Brazil, women share a message; A 'No Means No' campaign aims to spread awareness of sexual harassment.
Author: Langlois, Jill
Publication info: Los Angeles Times ; Los Angeles, Calif. [Los Angeles, Calif]10 Feb 2018: A.5.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: For Aisha Jacob, the assault came in public, during a samba circle as scores gathered for Brazil's joyous dance. A man kept making advances, and three times Jacob told him she wasn't interested. Suddenly, he grabbed her by a leg and shoved his hand up her shorts. The man was kicked out, but "I was shaken," Jacob said. "When I told my girlfriends what happened, they started sharing their stories too. Every single one of them had something to say. They had all been through it before." The assault occurred last year just before Carnival, Brazil's festive pre-Lenten celebration known for its big crowds, loud music, glittery costumes and hedonistic street parties. Jacob, a stylist from Rio de Janeiro, and other women decided it was time to speak out against sexual harassment and assaults during the street parties known as blocos. According to feminist group Think Olga, 99.6% of women in Brazil have been catcalled. The Brazilian Forum on Public Security, a private group, also reports that every 11 minutes a woman is raped in the South American country, but just 10% report their assaults. Last year's Carnival saw the number of sexual assault complaints across Brazil jump 90% compared with the same four days in 2016, according to the Secretariat of Policies for Women. The secretariat said the increase in complaints -- which are registered when victims call 180, a number dedicated to reporting crimes against women -- was a result of government campaigns to stop this type of violence. Local governments across Brazil have launched campaigns in recent years to stamp out crimes against women during Carnival. Some states coined their own slogans, including Rio's "costumes are not invitations," Paraiba's "forcing a kiss is a crime" and Bahia's "respect the girls." Jacob and a group of friends decided to add their voices to the movement and create their own campaign, Nao e Nao, or No Means No. The best way to get their message across, they decided, was by putting it directly on their bodies. "We had already been planning on having temporary tattoos made for our [Carnival] costumes," she said. "There was a moment when we just looked at each other and said, 'We have to make tattoos for women that say "No Means No." We have to protect each other.' "It wouldn't make sense to have stickers made with that message. It had to be something that we could carry with us on our bodies." Within 48 hours, the friends created a WhatsApp group of 40 women to fund the production of 4,000 temporary tattoos. It was all done on the fly -- nobody had planned on creating a campaign against sexual harassment and assault for Carnival's kickoff the following week -- but they managed to get them printed in time to hand them out for free to women at Rio's blocos. This year, the campaign has a much wider reach. After setting up a crowdfunding page to lessen the burden on the 40 women they had counted on financially in 2017, Jacob was surprised to see how quickly they reached their first target of 4,000 tattoos for $2,360. She was even more shocked when the campaign almost tripled that amount. She and her friends were able to print 25,000 tattoos with the $6,443 raised from 355 donors. With time to plan, Jacob and the four other women who work with her on production -- Nanda Barbosa, Luiza Borges, Barbara Menchise and Julia Parucker -- also created distribution partnerships with bloco organizers in Sao Paulo, Salvador, Belo Horizonte and Recife. This year's Carnival started Friday and lasts till Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent. Individual women who heard about the No Means No campaign have also volunteered to hand out the temporary tattoos in their cities, and plans for a new campaign for International Women's Day next month are already underway. While the campaign encourages and welcomes the support of men, Jacob wants to make it clear that No Means No is created by women, for women. It's not just a means of getting their message across to men, but also about creating a sense of security for women who want to attend blocos. "With the tattoos, it's easy to see who is a part of No Means No, so it creates a type of support group for women," Jacob said. "If they need to ask for help, they know who they can reach out to. They know they're not alone." Caption: PHOTO: A WOMAN hands out stickers in Rio de Janeiro. Campaigns are trying to stamp out assaults during Carnival. PHOTOGRAPHER:Silvia Izquierdo Associated Press Credit: Langlois is a special correspondent.
Subject: Tattoos; Women; Assaults; Sex crimes; Sexual harassment; Rape
Location: Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil
Identifier / keyword: BRAZIL WOMEN POLITICAL ACTIVISM SEXUAL HARASSMENT
Publication title: Los Angeles Times; Los Angeles, Calif.
Pages: A.5
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 10, 2018
Dateline: SAO PAULO, BRAZIL
Section: Main News; Part A; Foreign Desk
Publisher: Tribune Interactive, LLC
Place of publication: Los Angeles, Calif.
Country of publication: United States, Los Angeles, Calif.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
ISSN: 04583035
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 1999886136
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/1999886136?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Los Angeles Times Feb 10, 2018
Last updated: 2018-03-01
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 78 of 474
Rio Carnival Kicks Off With Samba, Blocos and Nod to #MeToo
Author: Londoño, Ernesto
Publication info: New York Times (Online) , New York: New York Times Company. Feb 10, 2018.
Abstract:
Rio de Janeiro’s famous festivities got underway on Friday, with a political undertone and a focus on women’s rights.
Full text: RIO DE JANEIRO — Gunfights have raged daily in several neighborhoods of Rio de Janeiro, as drug gangs battled over territory in recent weeks. Residents have been lining up for hours in hopes of scoring a yellow fever vaccine amid an outbreak that has killed more than 20 people in the state. But that didn’t stop thousands of people from pouring onto the streets on Friday as the city’s famed Carnival began, displaying Rio de Janeiro’s mesmerizing ability to keep chaos and carnage from derailing a party. As samba schools had their first parades at the Sambódromo — a purpose-built stadium in which thousands of costumed performers appear each year — residents gathered for street parties that were heavier on politics and, many women hope, lighter on lasciviousness than years past. The festivities, which officially run through Wednesday, have taken on a decidedly political tone as the country heads toward a presidential election in October . Several blocos, as the informal groups that perform on the streets are called, plan to parody the country’s widely despised political elite. Mayor Marcelo Crivella, an evangelical pastor whose support for the annual event has been far from ebullient, is likely to be the subject of scorn. President Michel Temer, meanwhile, will be honored by a bloco called “We have to maintain that, O.K.” The name references the president’s remarks to a businessman who was wearing a wire, which led prosecutors to charge Mr. Temer with corruption and obstruction of justice last year. Politics weren’t the only topics at the front of mind during the elaborate festival, which is known for its debauchery. While the #MeToo movement has yet to reverberate strongly in Brazil, some women are demanding that men keep their hands to themselves during the drunken, sweaty, teeming days of Carnival. Many have been staying cool with fans that say “No Means No.” Credit: Ernesto Londoño
Subject: Obstruction of justice
Location: Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil
People: Temer, Michel
Identifier / keyword: Carnival (Pre-Lenten) Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) Brazil #MeToo Movement vis-photo
Publication title: New York Times (Online); New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 10, 2018
Section: world
Publisher: New York Times Company
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Blogs, Podcasts, & Websites
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2000062748
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2000062748?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright 2018 The New York Times Company
Last updated: 2018-02-27
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 79 of 474
Hot property Carnivals [Europe Region]
Author: Knowles, Claudia
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]10 Feb 2018: 12. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: IP h C lG d ? Penthouse on Canal Grande, San Polo, Venice, Italy, €7.8m Where On the Grand Canal in Venice. Marco Polo international airport is 30 minutes away by water taxi. What A three-bedroom apartment on the top floor of a 19-century building. Why Venice celebrates its carnevale with masked balls and boat parades on the Grand Canal. Who Romolini International Real Estate Agency through Christie's International Real Estate, christiesrealestate.com, tel: +39 0575 788948 00 G i h ll ? 600 Governor Nicholls Street, New Orleans, Louisiana, US, $3.5m Where In New Orleans' French Quarter. Louis Armstrong New Orleans international airport is a 25-minute drive. What A three-bedroom house with almost 5,000 sq ft of living space. The green wrought-iron balcony wraps around two sides of the house. Why The French Quarter is renowned for its Mardi Gras carnival, which runs this weekend. Who Dorian Bennett Sotheby's International Realty, sothebysrealty.com, tel: +1 504 944 3605 ? House in Sandy Lane, St James, Barbados, Caribbean, $8m BWhere In Sandy Lane, on the west coast of Barbados. Grantley Adams nternational airport is a little more than a half-hour drive. Wcin tWbt What A 7,800 sq ft house with four bedrooms. The dining room has a table made from carved coral stone. Outside there's an infinity pool as well as a pond with koi fish. Why The island's Crop Over carnival brings thousands to the streets from June until August, including singer Rihanna. It ends with the Grand Kadooment parade. Who 7th Heaven Properties, 7thheavenproperties.com, tel: +44 20 8960 1010 ? Penthouse on Avenue Vieira Souto, Ipanema, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, US$5.04m Where Overlooking Rio's Ipanema beach in a neighbourhood filled with theatres and restaurants. Rio-Galeão international airport is a half-hour drive. What A three-bedroom apartment with more than 4,550 sq metres of living space, a media room, parking spaces and 24-hour concierge. Why The property has views across Ipanema beach, where each year tens of thousands gather for the Banda de Ipanema street parade during Rio's Carnival. Who Judice & Araujo through Christie's International Real Estate, christiesrealestate.com, tel: +55 21 2540 9088 El i C N i Hill ? Elgin Crescent, Notting Hill, London, UK, £12.95m Where Just off Ladbroke Grove in garden square in Notting Hill, west LaWbawaWtopLrC London. Heathrow international airport is about 12 miles away. What A six-storey house with five bedrooms and four reception areas. There's a cinema room, a wine cellar and the property has access to a private garden. Why Every August Notting Hill turns into an explosion of colourful outfits, music and dancing with a parade that travels down nearby Ladbroke Grove. The carnival has run since the 1960s, celebrating the Caribbean community and different cultures in the area. Who Knight Frank, knightfrank.co.uk, tel: +44 20 7229 0229 ? Palace in Palma, Mallorca, Spain, €13.5m Where In the old town of Palma, Mallorca, off the Mediterranean coast of Spain. The property is less than 25 minutes' drive from Palma de Mallorca international airport. What A refurbished former palace with 890 sq metres of living space, including eight bedrooms. From the roof terrace you can see the cathedral and the sea. Why The city holds street parties and parades before Lent — this year's festivities are this weekend. Who Mallorca Sotheby's International Realty, mallorca-sothebysrealty.com, tel: +34 971 721 000 CREDIT: By Claudia Knowles
Subject: Airports; Carnivals; Parades; Mardi Gras
Location: Italy Spain United States--US Louisiana United Kingdom--UK Majorca Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil Barbados
Company / organization: Name: Sothebys; NAICS: 453920
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 12
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 10, 2018
Section: House and Home
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2013148395
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2013148395?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Feb 10, 2018
Last updated: 2019-06-04
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 80 of 474
Hot property Carnivals [Asia Region]
Author: Knowles, Claudia
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]10 Feb 2018: 12. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: IP h C lG d ? Penthouse on Canal Grande, San Polo, Venice, Italy, €7.8m Where On the Grand Canal in Venice. Marco Polo international airport is 30 minutes away by water taxi. What A three-bedroom apartment on the top floor of a 19-century building. Why Venice celebrates its carnevale with masked balls and boat parades on the Grand Canal. Who Romolini International Real Estate Agency through Christie's International Real Estate, christiesrealestate.com, tel: +39 0575 788948 00 G i h ll ? 600 Governor Nicholls Street, New Orleans, Louisiana, US, $3.5m Where In New Orleans' French Quarter. Louis Armstrong New Orleans international airport is a 25-minute drive. What A three-bedroom house with almost 5,000 sq ft of living space. The green wrought-iron balcony wraps around two sides of the house. Why The French Quarter is renowned for its Mardi Gras carnival, which runs this weekend. Who Dorian Bennett Sotheby's International Realty, sothebysrealty.com, tel: +1 504 944 3605 ? House in Sandy Lane, St James, Barbados, Caribbean, $8m BWhere In Sandy Lane, on the west coast of Barbados. Grantley Adams nternational airport is a little more than a half-hour drive. Wcin tWbt What A 7,800 sq ft house with four bedrooms. The dining room has a table made from carved coral stone. Outside there's an infinity pool as well as a pond with koi fish. Why The island's Crop Over carnival brings thousands to the streets from June until August, including singer Rihanna. It ends with the Grand Kadooment parade. Who 7th Heaven Properties, 7thheavenproperties.com, tel: +44 20 8960 1010 ? Penthouse on Avenue Vieira Souto, Ipanema, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, US$5.04m Where Overlooking Rio's Ipanema beach in a neighbourhood filled with theatres and restaurants. Rio-Galeão international airport is a half-hour drive. What A three-bedroom apartment with more than 4,550 sq metres of living space, a media room, parking spaces and 24-hour concierge. Why The property has views across Ipanema beach, where each year tens of thousands gather for the Banda de Ipanema street parade during Rio's Carnival. Who Judice & Araujo through Christie's International Real Estate, christiesrealestate.com, tel: +55 21 2540 9088 El i C N i Hill ? Elgin Crescent, Notting Hill, London, UK, £12.95m Where Just off Ladbroke Grove in garden square in Notting Hill, west LaWbawaWtopLrC London. Heathrow international airport is about 12 miles away. What A six-storey house with five bedrooms and four reception areas. There's a cinema room, a wine cellar and the property has access to a private garden. Why Every August Notting Hill turns into an explosion of colourful outfits, music and dancing with a parade that travels down nearby Ladbroke Grove. The carnival has run since the 1960s, celebrating the Caribbean community and different cultures in the area. Who Knight Frank, knightfrank.co.uk, tel: +44 20 7229 0229 ? Palace in Palma, Mallorca, Spain, €13.5m Where In the old town of Palma, Mallorca, off the Mediterranean coast of Spain. The property is less than 25 minutes' drive from Palma de Mallorca international airport. What A refurbished former palace with 890 sq metres of living space, including eight bedrooms. From the roof terrace you can see the cathedral and the sea. Why The city holds street parties and parades before Lent — this year's festivities are this weekend. Who Mallorca Sotheby's International Realty, mallorca-sothebysrealty.com, tel: +34 971 721 000 CREDIT: By Claudia Knowles
Subject: Airports; Carnivals; Parades; Mardi Gras
Location: Italy Spain United States--US Louisiana United Kingdom--UK Majorca Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil Barbados
Company / organization: Name: Sothebys; NAICS: 453920
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 12
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 10, 2018
Section: House and Home
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2013148931
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2013148931?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Feb 10, 2018
Last updated: 2019-06-04
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 81 of 474
Hot property Carnivals
Author: Knowles, Claudia
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]10 Feb 2018: 12. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Penthouse on Canal Grande, San Polo, Venice, Italy, €7.8m Where On the Grand Canal in Venice. Marco Polo international airport is 30 minutes away by water taxi. What A three-bedroom apartment on the top floor of a 19-century building. Why Venice celebrates its carnevale with masked balls and boat parades on the Grand Canal. Who Romolini International Real Estate Agency through Christie's International Real Estate, christiesrealestate.com, tel: +39 0575 788948 00 600 Governor Nicholls Street, New Orleans, Louisiana, US, $3.5m Where In New Orleans' French Quarter. Louis Armstrong New Orleans international airport is a 25-minute drive. What A three-bedroom house with almost 5,000 sq ft of living space. The green wrought-iron balcony wraps around two sides of the house. Why The French Quarter is renowned for its Mardi Gras carnival, which runs this weekend. Who Dorian Bennett Sotheby's International Realty, sothebysrealty.com, tel: +1 504 944 3605 House in Sandy Lane, St James, Barbados, Caribbean, $8m BWhere In Sandy Lane, on the west coast of Barbados. Grantley Adams nternational airport is a little more than a half-hour drive. What A 7,800 sq ft house with four bedrooms. The dining room has a table made from carved coral stone. Outside there's an infinity pool as well as a pond with koi fish. Why The island's Crop Over carnival brings thousands to the streets from June until August, including singer Rihanna. It ends with the Grand Kadooment parade. Who 7th Heaven Properties, 7thheavenproperties.com, tel: +44 20 8960 1010 Penthouse on Avenue Vieira Souto, Ipanema, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, US$5.04m Where Overlooking Rio's Ipanema beach in a neighbourhood filled with theatres and restaurants. Rio-Galeão international airport is a half-hour drive. What A three-bedroom apartment with more than 4,550 sq metres of living space, a media room, parking spaces and 24-hour concierge. Why The property has views across Ipanema beach, where each year tens of thousands gather for the Banda de Ipanema street parade during Rio's Carnival. Who Judice & Araujo through Christie's International Real Estate, christiesrealestate.com, tel: +55 21 2540 9088 Elgin Crescent, Notting Hill, London, UK, £12.95m Where Just off Ladbroke Grove in garden square in Notting Hill, west LaWbawaWtopLrC London. Heathrow international airport is about 12 miles away. What A six-storey house with five bedrooms and four reception areas. There's a cinema room, a wine cellar and the property has access to a private garden. Why Every August Notting Hill turns into an explosion of colourful outfits, music and dancing with a parade that travels down nearby Ladbroke Grove. The carnival has run since the 1960s, celebrating the Caribbean community and different cultures in the area. Who Knight Frank, knightfrank.co.uk, tel: +44 20 7229 0229 Palace in Palma, Mallorca, Spain, €13.5m Where In the old town of Palma, Mallorca, off the Mediterranean coast of Spain. The property is less than 25 minutes' drive from Palma de Mallorca international airport. What A refurbished former palace with 890 sq metres of living space, including eight bedrooms. From the roof terrace you can see the cathedral and the sea. Why The city holds street parties and parades before Lent — this year's festivities are this weekend. Who Mallorca Sotheby's International Realty, mallorca-sothebysrealty.com, tel: +34 971 721 000 CREDIT: By Claudia Knowles
Subject: Parades; Airports; Carnivals
Location: Italy Majorca Brazil Spain United States--US Rio de Janeiro Brazil Louisiana Barbados United Kingdom--UK
Company / organization: Name: Sothebys; NAICS: 453998
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 12
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 10, 2018
Section: House and Home
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2013158980
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2013158980?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Feb 10, 2018
Last updated: 2018-03-13
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 82 of 474
Hot property Carnivals [Usa Region]
Author: Knowles, Claudia
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]10 Feb 2018: 12.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: IP h C lG d ? Penthouse on Canal Grande, San Polo, Venice, Italy, €7.8m Where On the Grand Canal in Venice. Marco Polo international airport is 30 minutes away by water taxi. What A three-bedroom apartment on the top floor of a 19-century building. Why Venice celebrates its carnevale with masked balls and boat parades on the Grand Canal. Who Romolini International Real Estate Agency through Christie's International Real Estate, christiesrealestate.com, tel: +39 0575 788948 00 G i h ll ? 600 Governor Nicholls Street, New Orleans, Louisiana, US, $3.5m Where In New Orleans' French Quarter. Louis Armstrong New Orleans international airport is a 25-minute drive. What A three-bedroom house with almost 5,000 sq ft of living space. The green wrought-iron balcony wraps around two sides of the house. Why The French Quarter is renowned for its Mardi Gras carnival, which runs this weekend. Who Dorian Bennett Sotheby's International Realty, sothebysrealty.com, tel: +1 504 944 3605 ? House in Sandy Lane, St James, Barbados, Caribbean, $8m BWhere In Sandy Lane, on the west coast of Barbados. Grantley Adams nternational airport is a little more than a half-hour drive. Wcin tWbt What A 7,800 sq ft house with four bedrooms. The dining room has a table made from carved coral stone. Outside there's an infinity pool as well as a pond with koi fish. Why The island's Crop Over carnival brings thousands to the streets from June until August, including singer Rihanna. It ends with the Grand Kadooment parade. Who 7th Heaven Properties, 7thheavenproperties.com, tel: +44 20 8960 1010 ? Penthouse on Avenue Vieira Souto, Ipanema, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, US$5.04m Where Overlooking Rio's Ipanema beach in a neighbourhood filled with theatres and restaurants. Rio-Galeão international airport is a half-hour drive. What A three-bedroom apartment with more than 4,550 sq metres of living space, a media room, parking spaces and 24-hour concierge. Why The property has views across Ipanema beach, where each year tens of thousands gather for the Banda de Ipanema street parade during Rio's Carnival. Who Judice & Araujo through Christie's International Real Estate, christiesrealestate.com, tel: +55 21 2540 9088 El i C N i Hill ? Elgin Crescent, Notting Hill, London, UK, £12.95m Where Just off Ladbroke Grove in garden square in Notting Hill, west LaWbawaWtopLrC London. Heathrow international airport is about 12 miles away. What A six-storey house with five bedrooms and four reception areas. There's a cinema room, a wine cellar and the property has access to a private garden. Why Every August Notting Hill turns into an explosion of colourful outfits, music and dancing with a parade that travels down nearby Ladbroke Grove. The carnival has run since the 1960s, celebrating the Caribbean community and different cultures in the area. Who Knight Frank, knightfrank.co.uk, tel: +44 20 7229 0229 ? Palace in Palma, Mallorca, Spain, €13.5m Where In the old town of Palma, Mallorca, off the Mediterranean coast of Spain. The property is less than 25 minutes' drive from Palma de Mallorca international airport. What A refurbished former palace with 890 sq metres of living space, including eight bedrooms. From the roof terrace you can see the cathedral and the sea. Why The city holds street parties and parades before Lent — this year's festivities are this weekend. Who Mallorca Sotheby's International Realty, mallorca-sothebysrealty.com, tel: +34 971 721 000 CREDIT: By Claudia Knowles
Subject: Airports; Carnivals; Parades; Mardi Gras
Location: Italy Spain Louisiana United Kingdom--UK Majorca Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil Barbados
Company / organization: Name: Sothebys; NAICS: 453920
Publication title: Financial Times London (UK)
First page: 12
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 10, 2018
Section: House and Home
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2013171224
Document URL: https:// login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2013171224?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Feb 10, 2018
Last updated: 2019-06-04
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 83 of 474
Bonding over the beat
Author: Catlin, Roger
Publication info: The Washington Post ; Washington, D.C. [Washington, D.C]11 Feb 2018: E.4.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: You hear them long before you see them: Big, booming sounds bouncing off buildings that grow more insistent and precise in their polyrhythms as they approach. And when the musicians come into focus, swaggering and moving with the beat, there is another surprise: They are all women. Batalá Washington, 80 women strong, has been delighting audiences for a decade, bringing the Carnival rhythms of the Bahia region of northeast Brazil to the District and beyond, even as they show a force of solid sisterhood. They are young, old, black, white, petite, large, tall, short - all working this indomitable, percussive cultural-delivery machine. Although they are part of an international movement that began in France 20 years ago, Batalá Washington maintains its unique status, says Alison Rodden, the group's musical director. "There are over 35 Batalás around the world and here in the U.S. there's about to be 10," Rodden says. "We were the first one that was 100 percent women." A fixture at city marathons and street fairs, Batalá has played internationally, led both big Women's Marches in the District and opened for the Rolling Stones in 2012. "How many people can say, 'I opened for the Rolling Stones?' " says Carol Freitas, one of a handful of Brazilians in Batalá. "We played with Sheila E., we played with Wyclef Jean," Rodden says. "And then of course, in Brazil, we performed with a lot of the founders of the genre samba-reggae. Even the Blue Man Group asked one year if we could play with them." There is a growing demand for them to play in town, with up to 10 performances a month come summertime. As much as they've accomplished in a decade, Rodden says, "it's just a beginning for us. We're taking the band to a new level. Some of our members have been in the band nine or 10 years now, so it's important for those who are technically advanced and been around a bit, but we've also got people who started yesterday." Most newcomers are trained on the largest drum - the surdo - big as a Western bass drum and played with mallets - which provides the heartbeat of the sound. The nearly-as-big dobra offers a melody that plays in call-and-response style with the tom-tom-like repique, while the snare-like caixa offers the highest-pitched clatter. "There's something pretty incredible about having all women with these drums strapped around their waist," says Janine Sayles. "It's very empowering. And I think that we empower a lot of women who watch us." After all, few women were encouraged to take up the drums, Rodden says. When it came time in elementary school to choose instruments, she says, "they're like, 'What do you want to play?' For girls, it's flute or clarinet." Even now, the ranks of professional female drummers is fairly limited. So when a big unit of female drummers marches noisily toward you, "it's undeniable," Rodden says. For some band members, Batalá is a chance to pick up on drumming they otherwise had to give up with college marching bands. "I've drummed all my life," says Ellen Arnold-Losey, a member since 2010 who is originally from Iowa. "Once you finish school, there's not many opportunities to play anymore. "I did a summer with a professional drum-and-bugle choir. I tried these hand-drumming circles. I tried drum set," Arnold-Losey says. "They weren't a good fit for me. And then shortly after I moved to D.C., I happened upon the band, and I was like: That's the thing I was looking for." There was a learning curve, she says. "My background was American, traditional, Revolutionary style of drum-line drumming, and this is Brazilian. It's got a very different swing. The rhythms move in ways that are different than I was used to before," Arnold-Losey says. Most of the learning is done in the rehearsals. One recent Saturday, in the empty morning-after of a U Street disco, Rodden faces the eager drummers with a variety of hand signals and encouragements. "Don't be shy about anything," she says to newcomers. "If you think something is too much, take it two steps beyond." There is no sheet music, video training or reference materials. "That's consistent with the tradition of how the music was taught in Brazil," says Rosa Moreno. "The oral tradition of teaching and learning is really critical. That's something we really embody with the music, and it also helps create community," Rodden says. Each Saturday without fail, they gather to rehearse for four hours, perfecting their approach on their array of colorful drums, sometimes capped by a guerrilla street performance. There's more women who have wanted to join Batalá than there are drums to give them, so often months go by without accepting new members. A visitor to Saturday practice is first offered earplugs. Loud enough at their regular audition spot at Hancock Park near the L'Enfant Plaza Metro station, they are even more necessary in the indoor spaces at the 9:30 Club or nearby Town Danceboutique. "We used to rehearse at Farragut Square, but we got kicked out because a hotel there complained of noise," Freitas says. "Then we had rehearsed at Dupont Circle, got kicked out." "You name it and we've been kicked out of there," Rodden says. Rehearsal spaces now seem stable, especially because the federal offices near Hancock Park are otherwise deserted on Saturday mornings. There, one of the newest drummers is Emily Smith, 37, an "aspiring" band member who, after a number of rehearsals over time, can become eligible for her own drum. The Louisiana native, a program manager at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, had a decade of drumming experience. "But this is brand new," Smith says. "The dancing, for one thing, and all the choreography. I did a marching band, but that's a very different thing." So far, she says, "it's a really good vibe. All the women are very welcoming. We remind each other we're here because we love this. There doesn't seem to be any tension among us because we all love this. Nobody's getting paid. But I love seeing we've had women in their 70s down to their 20s." "That's one of my favorite things about this band," says Ashley Elstro, 30, a data analyst for Sunrise Senior Living. "I feel like I'm learning so much about ladies of all ages, all walks of life, all different professions, so if I ever have an issue, there's always somebody I can learn from." The oldest current member of Batalá is Charlotte Conley, 66, a reading teacher in Congress Heights. She decided to join "a couple months before my 65th birthday. It was my birthday present to myself." "My friends and family were shocked," Conley says. "I had no musical genes whatsoever. But apparently I can rally some rhythm." She had seen Batalá at a street festival in 2014. "Everybody was dancing and having a great time. And it was also a strong group of women. You could feel the energy and the camaraderie." The group was very accommodating to her, Conley says. "I got hip replacement surgery January last year, but it hasn't made a bit of difference. I played sitting down for a while. They're very accommodating to my using adaptive equipment." Compared with her friends who also settled in the District after college, Cait Nordehn says she has found a wider community surrounding her, "built over the past five years, where I've met people from all over the DMV that I probably wouldn't have met who are older, younger, from different places and different professions. This is what's been really enriching just as much as the music." Would it be different if men were in the group? "We talk about it sometimes," says Nordehn, who plays the speedy sixteenth notes on the caixa: "What if we invited men to join us? While I would certainly welcome that, I think there's a special relationship we have and a different way we can be just among women." Having only women, says Karon Phillips, brings a "certain level of deeper understanding among each other without it even being said." Credit: Roger Catlin
Subject: Bands; Music; Empowerment; Professions
Location: United States--US Louisiana Brazil France Iowa
People: Jean, Wyclef
Company / organization: Name: Congress; NAICS: 921120; Name: Rolling Stones; NAICS: 711130; Name: National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration--NOAA; NAICS: 924120; Name: Blue Man Group; NAICS: 711190
Publication title: The Washington Post; Washington, D.C.
First page: E.4
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 11, 2018
Section: ARTS
Publisher: WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post
Place of publication: Washington, D.C.
Country of publication: United States, Washington, D.C.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
ISSN: 01908286
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2000690718
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2000690718?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post Feb 11, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-11
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 84 of 474
Brazil carnival revellers warned that all that glitters is not good for the planet
Publication info: Gulf News ; Dubai [Dubai]11 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Dom Phillips, Guardian News and Media Rio de Janeiro: Rio's vast annual street celebration features copious amounts of sparkling microplastics that find their way into the marine food chain With Rio's enormous carnival in full swing, the streets are full of revellers in colourful fancy dress, thronging the city's many samba street parties. And among the looks, there is one carnival constant: multicoloured glitter smeared over bare skin. But now worries over glitter's damaging environmental impact are dampening the mood at the world's biggest party. Concern is growing about the impact the tiny pieces of plastic -- called microplastics -- have on marine life. Last year the UK's Tops Days Nurseries Group banned glitter in a pre-Christmas drive and scientists called for it to be banned. But while new "sustainable glitter" products are finding favour in Brazil with environmentally conscious carnival-goers, poorer Brazilians complain they are too expensive. Other carnival-goers say they are reducing their glitter consumption -- but not cutting it out. At a Rio street party, known as a bloco, Angelica Nobrega, 37, wore non-sustainable glitter on her cheeks and said she was sceptical about environmental concerns. "It is just one more thing to make the lives of Brazilians more difficult," she said. "I think they are making it up." Felipe Gusmao, an adjunct professor of biodiversity and conservation at the Federal University of Sao Paulo's Marine Science Institute in Santos, said the problem with glitter is that it is usually made of microplastics, which are less than five millimetres in size and impossible to remove from the environment. "Imagine the amount of glitter that is used in carnival, it's amazing," he said. "We use it, we wash it and it goes straight to the water. That's the biggest problem." Although the damage from glitter itself is unknown, he said, there is evidence that microplastics have the potential to have a negative impact on marine life. Contaminants tend to stick to these tiny pieces of plastic which get into the food chain. "We have studies showing the impacts of microplastics from the cellular level to the ecosystem level," Gusmao said. And that includes human beings. "Tiny animals at the base of the marine food chain can eat these particles, and both microplastics and their associated contaminants can be transferred to the animals up in the marine food chain," he said. "Humans are at the top of the food chain, so both microplastics and the contaminants can potentially reach us." To counter this, several kinds of "sustainable glitter" are now on the market. Maira Inae and Noemi Puig are the entrepreneurs behind a make-up line called Glitra, made of eucalyptus cellulose, wax and natural oils. "People don't know that glitter is made of microplastics," Inae said. "This is a problem all over the world." She was inspired by attending the Burning Man music and arts festival in the Nevada desert. Festival-goers take everything home with them afterwards and the festival prohibits glitter and sequins. But at £12 ($17) for an 8-gram recyclable tin of Glitra in shops (or £10 online), the product is much more expensive than common glitter, sold in central Rio for as little as £6.50 a kilo. "Sustainable alternatives are necessary," said Gabriela Cunha, 32, a journalist at a cable television channel, as she applied non-sustainable glitter before a street party in central Rio. "But at this carnival, the alternatives on the market are too expensive." Instead, she was reducing her glitter consumption. "It is just for today," she said. © Al Nisr Publishing LLC 2018. All rights reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info). Credit: Dom Phillips, Guardian News and Media
Subject: Bans; Food chains; Festivals
Location: Brazil Nevada Rio de Janeiro Brazil United Kingdom--UK
Company / organization: Name: University of Sao Paulo; NAICS: 611310
Publication title: Gulf News; Dubai
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 11, 201 8
Publisher: SyndiGate Media Inc
Place of publication: Dubai
Country of publication: United States, Dubai
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United Arab Emirates
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2000800440
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2000800440?accountid=4840
Copyright: © Al Nisr Publishing LLC 2018. All rights reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).
Last updated: 2018-02-11
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 85 of 474
Brazilians take Carnival back to the streets
Publication info: Gulf News ; Dubai [Dubai]11 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: By Andrew Hammond, Special to Gulf News,Thinker Brazil’s postcard-perfect Carnival competition officially kicked off yesterday, but the world’s most enthusiastic merrymakers have never stood on ceremony. For weeks now, the Cariocas, as Rio natives are known, have donned feathers and paint, mobbed the streets, and belted out provocative anthems. One of this season’s biggest hits? Al, Al Gilmar, a sendup of controversial Supreme Court justice Gilmar Mendes, famed for ordering the release of big shots jailed in the country’s rolling corruption scandal. (The former Rio health secretary, accused of diverting $90 million [Dh331 million] from state coffers, was Mendes’s latest beneficiary.) ‘Hello, hello, Gilmar/I’m in jail, come set me free’, goes the refrain of the song, which quickly became a hit on the web. OK, you won’t hear this mischievous number in the Sambdromo, the grand arena where battalions of samba dancers vie for glory and audience share. And no doubt, the headline show — featuring giant floats, columns of gyrating dancers, and nifty special effects — is a wonder. “Kind of like Las Vegas meets the Roman circus,” Nelson Motta, a popular music producer and critic, told me. Yet, Brazil’s Carnival spirit never fit so easily in a concrete box. Since late January, the number of street parties and parades has soared with the summer temperatures, snarling traffic, emptying offices, and scuttling any hint of metropolitan normalcy. Driving this year’s merriment are rambling bards like the Band of Ipanema, and block parties like Christ’s Armpit (which gathers below Rio’s Christ the Redeemer statue), the massive Cordon of the Black Ball, and, my favourite, Sympathy is Almost Love, which this year spoofed Rio’s evangelical mayor, Marcelo Crivella. Sure, not everyone is enchanted: Outbound passengers despaired when 1.5 million revellers blocked the airport thoroughfare last Sunday, and my wife’s usual 10-minute commute has become an hour-long crawl through a beer-splashed gauntlet. With the city’s crime rate spiking, 12 million people out of work across Brazil, and much of the political class under scrutiny for graft and payola, you might well ask, as a friend of mine did: What’s to celebrate? Silly question. Carnival in Venice is more elegant, and the Andean version in Oruro, Bolivia, just as colourful. However, few societies have done more than Brazil to turn the date on the Catholic calendar into a collective catharsis, a moment when, with a headdress and some glitter, the poor become royalty and miseries, memes. If once Rio’s Carnival was the privilege of tony ballrooms, it took its cues and its pulse from the streets. Samba got its start more than a century ago, when an ambitious city boss razed the slums to hurl up a monumental downtown inspired by Parisian urban planning. The poor picked through the rubble for what remained and trudged up the hillsides, inventing the favela and samba, as biographer Lira Neto writes in the engaging first volume of his trilogy, Uma Histria do Samba (A History of Samba). Samba was squalour made song, an amalgam of African rhythms, Iberian chords and European melodies. As samba musicians travelled, they added jazz to the mix, creating one of those rare moments in a nation’s culture when the best music was also its most popular. True, polite Brazilian society balked at the new sound at first. When samba ace Pixinguinha and his band returned from a successful tour of France in the early 1920s, having added instruments like the banjo and saxophone and rhythms like ragtime and the Charleston to the repertoire, critics blasted them as turncoats, “aping imported fashions”, as one wrote. Such parochialism has resurfaced again and again, plaguing the country’s itinerant talents from Carmen Miranda to bossa nova’s Antnio Carlos Jobim. Yet, the resistance wouldn’t last. Samba’s envoys did only what Brazilians at their best, from maestros to urban planners, have always done: Gobble up global styles and genres, and repurpose them into something of their own. In time, samba became the national sound, and the favela masters, its icons. Every year, Carnival was a much anticipated contest among the country’s most talented composers — Ary Barroso, Cartola, Ismael Silva and Noel Rosa — whose sambas enchanted the ballrooms and the street parties. Perhaps it was inevitable that Brazil’s successful high-low culture ended up encastled. Enter the Sambdromo, a great stadium sculpted of reinforced concrete by storied modernist architect Oscar Niemeyer. The Sambdromo was Broadway to Brazil’s popular opera, and every year the Carnival contest grew bigger and more exorbitant. Beer companies, telephone operators and, more controversially, even foreign governments poured fortunes into the official parade. Yet, grandeur didn’t do much for samba. “Like on Broadway, the songs are overshadowed by the theatrics,” author Ruy Castro, a samba scholar and biographer of Carmen Miranda, told me. “The official pageant drowned out street carnival.” Sure, the Sambadrome can still be sensational. There may be no inebriant like a 700-piece percussion section thundering by the bleachers. But the music itself had become predictable, the same song droning on for 80 minutes. “The arena took Carnival out of the street and put it behind walls,” anthropologist Roberto DaMatta, a Carnival scholar, told me. Perhaps because of that very rigidity, the street festival is now flourishing again. “It’s a party that no one owns, no media group controls, and where the crowd sets the pace,” said Motta. So much the better for Carnival’s soundtrack, where once again revellers are flirting with a wide range of dance rhythms, such as Brazilian country, reggaeton, and funk. There’s even a Carnival band dedicated to mingling samba and the Beatles, Sargento Pimenta (Sergeant Pepper’s). Brazil’s consumer retailers have taken note. They know a money note when they hear it. — Bloomberg Mac Margolis writes about Latin America for Bloomberg View. He is the author of The Last New World: The Conquest of the Amazon Frontier. © Al Nisr Publishing LLC 2018. All rights reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).
Subject: Bands; Musical performances
Location: Brazil Bolivia France Las Vegas Nevada Latin America
People: Miranda, Carmen Mendes, Gilmar
Company / organization: Name: Beatles; NAICS: 711130; Name: Gulf News; NAICS: 511110
Publication title: Gulf News; Dubai
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 11, 2018
Publisher: SyndiGate Media Inc
Place of publication: Dubai
Country of publication: United States, Dubai
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United Arab Emirates
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2000800441
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2000800441?accountid=4840
Copyright: © Al Nisr Publishing LLC 2018. All rights reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).
Last updated: 2018-03-28
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 86 of 474
Rio Carnival evolves into low-cost street pageant
Author: Savarese, Mauricio
Publication info: Philadelphia Tribune ; Philadelphia, Pa. [Philadelphia, Pa]11 Feb 2018: 2B,3B.
Abstract:
500,000 more tourists expected this year RIO DE JANEIRO - Once a party of luxury and glamour, Brazil's most famous Carnival is increasingly being dominated by thrifty tourists more interested in free street parties than the pricey samba school parades. While Mayor Marcelo Crivella cut more than $1.5 million in funding for the samba school parades, which represents almost half the budget of some schools, he increased the number of portable street toilets by a few thousand, to 32,560. Attendees hear some of the best drummers in the world as they watch massive and gaudily decorated floats roll by, while beautiful people - some wearing very little - sing and dance to samba music.Full text: 500,000 more tourists expected this year RIO DE JANEIRO - Once a party of luxury and glamour, Brazil's most famous Carnival is increasingly being dominated by thrifty tourists more interested in free street parties than the pricey samba school parades. Cariocas, as Rio de Janeiro residents are known, and tourists used to spend a lot on Carnival parade tickets and costumes. But a grinding economic crisis in Latin America's largest nation and the rise of "blocos," as local street parties are known, are changing the nature of the big bash. Rio's tourism agency expects a quarter of all visitors to spend less than $100 a day, compared to 12 percent who did so last year. "We have millions of people willing to take to the streets for the free and cool blocos, while the samba school parades have been frozen in time and become very expensive," Carnival historian Luiz Antonio Simas said. "For tourists who want to spend less, it is an obvious choice." Rio's tourism agency expects 1.5 million tourists to descend on the city between Friday and Tuesday, almost 500,000 more than last year. But city revenues during Carnival are expected to be roughly the same as last year, about $1 billion. Most of the visitors are unlikely to attend parades with the traditional samba schools that have prepared all year for the event. Instead, they will hang out alongside thousands of others at some of the estimated 600 block parties. In 2007, when Brazil's economy was booming, Rio's Carnival had only 300 block parties. Rio authorities and businesses are also shifting their priorities toward the streets and out of the Sambadrome, where the samba schools perform. While Mayor Marcelo Crivella cut more than $1.5 million in funding for the samba school parades, which represents almost half the budget of some schools, he increased the number of portable street toilets by a few thousand, to 32,560. For the first time, more than 3,000 private security agents will be at work during the party, most protecting street parties. Much of the appeal of Rio's street parties is the variety of themes. Any costume, or no costume at all, is fine, and revelers can choose according to their musical taste and location. The street parties are free, or close to it, and partiers spend what they want on the food and drink being offered. The experience at the Sambadrome, where top schools parade into the wee hours on two consecutive nights, dates back to 1932. Attendees hear some of the best drummers in the world as they watch massive and gaudily decorated floats roll by, while beautiful people - some wearing very little - sing and dance to samba music. The Sambadrome parade does try to maintain appeal for thrifty visitors with about 14,000 tickets that cost as little as $3. But those go quickly and are not close to the best sections. The most expensive tickets cost about $2,000. Parade financial director Heron Schneider says that selling more cheap tickets won't make the parade more accessible because scalpers would quickly buy them up and resell them for higher prices. He believes low-cost tourists can find good options at the Sambadrome if they really want to go. "I don't see a conflict between the parade and the blocos. You can go to both," Schneider said. "They are different in nature; ours is a show and a competition that has to be paid for. It is not sheer fun." Rita Fernandes, head of Rio's street party association, says the groups that organize them are struggling despite all the people attending. She believes block parties need some public funds and to find sponsors. "To keep those tourists coming, the street parties need money too," she said. "Nowadays we get nothing to improve people's experience." The local hotel association expects 85 percent of rooms to be taken for the bash, higher than the last couple of years but still far below the nearly maxed-out occupancy of years past. Many low-spending tourists in Rio will come from the neighboring state of Sao Paulo, the country's most populous. Television producer Rodrigo Rodrigues, 35, is one of those who will stay far from the Sambadrome and expensive hotels. He will travel six hours to Rio by bus, stay at a cousin's small apartment far from the beaches and cook his own food. - (AP)Headnote
Subject: Parades; Schools; Tourism
Location: Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil Latin America
Ethnicity: African American/Caribbean/African
Publication title: Philadelphia Tribune; Philadelphia, Pa.
Pages: 2B,3B
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Nov 10, 2017
Section: LEISURE
Publisher: Philadelphia Tribune
Place of publication: Philadelphia, Pa.
Country of publication: United States, Philadelphia, Pa.
Publication subject: African American/Caribbean/African, Ethnic Interests
ISSN: 0746956X
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2002919867
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2002919867?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Philadelphia Tribune Feb 11, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-19
Database: Ethnic NewsWatch
Document 87 of 474
U.S. Backs Israel in Standoff with Iran and Syria; Oxfam Denies Cover-up in Prostitution Scandal; President Expresses Sympathy for Ex-
Publication info: International Wire ; Lanham [Lanham]11 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: [04:00:00] (MUSIC PLAYING) GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Israel launches airstrikes after the downing of an Israeli fighter jet. We are live in Jerusalem this hour. Also ahead, British aid agency Oxfam denies it tried to cover up a sex scandal after allegations that some of its workers sent to Haiti after the 2010 earthquake paid for prostitutes. And an Olympic style charm offensive between North and South Korea. Are they sidelining the United States? We are live from CNN World Headquarters here in Atlanta. We want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm George Howell, CNN NEWSROOM starts right now. (MUSIC PLAYING) HOWELL: Around the world, good day to you. It is 4:00 am on the U.S. East Coast and the United States is responding to a growing confrontation between Israel, Iran and Syria, Israel saying that it had the right to defend itself. That nation launched attacks on Iranian targets inside Syria. Now these attacks follow the crash of an Israeli F-16 warplane after it was hit by Syrian anti-aircraft fire on Saturday. The downed jet was returning from a raid on what Israel says was an Iranian command center in Syria. We're across the story with our correspondents throughout the region; CNN correspondent Oren Liebermann, live in Jerusalem, and our senior international correspondent, Ben Wedeman, in the Lebanese capital of Beirut. Let's start with you, Oren. First of all, what sort of responses are you hearing about this conflict from the United States, regarding its key ally in the region? OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there were two big responses we were looking for from some of the regional players. The first was the U.S. and the second was Russia. The U.S. -- and this is perhaps no surprise, sided almost completely with the Israelis, saying Israel has a right to defend itself. The U.S. backed Israel's actions and it was a short statement but significant and it showed where the U.S. stood. As for Russia, remember that Russia is both an ally of Israel and Iran and has leverage over both countries. Russia's statement was much more in the middle, urging both sides to de-escalate. It would be Russia that has the power, or at least more power, to affect that decision. So far, since about yesterday afternoon, so Saturday afternoon local time, the level of military tension has not escalated, even as the rhetoric in statements coming from all sides has escalated. So this could be the end of the escalation. I would say the Russians would have a part of that in making sure that nobody else carries on this cycle of retaliation. But it is still very early. We're less than 36 hours after this all started at roughly 4:30 in the morning local time. So we are still waiting to see in what direction this goes at this point -- George. HOWELL: All right. Let's bring in Ben Wedeman to give some context here. Ben, we are seeing an escalation between long-time rivals and their capabilities against each other here. BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, George. We've heard from Hezbollah and Iran and from Syria, all saying that the downing of this Israeli F-16 yesterday is a game changer, that the old equations are being revised. This is the first time since, at best the early 1980s, during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 that Syria has managed to, it appears, shoot down an Israeli aircraft, an F-16, a very sophisticated aircraft. And therefore, certainly, this is a major change. Now the question is, where does it go from here? The major allies of the Syrian government, Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, have been very busy in recent years, trying to counter the anti-regime forces in Syria, as well as ISIS. That seems to be, they now have the upper hand and the question is, are they willing and ready to start focusing more on Syria's long- running confrontation with Israel? It appears that, even though yesterday at this time things were looking very tense, it's calming down a bit. But really, what we're looking at is the post-ISIS reality in this region. For years now, the U.S., Russia and others, have been focusing on crushing ISIS. ISIS is gone. But the old conflicts between Iran and Israel, between the United States and Iran, are coming back to the fore. And that's what we're seeing now. HOWELL: These two longtime rivals, certainly a line in the sand here and it's good to have the reporting and context from you both, through your experience, to give us a sense of where things stand now -- [04:05:00] HOWELL: -- and where things stand now and where things could go, hoping for calm, of course. Ben Wedeman live for us and Oren Liebermann as well, thank you, gentlemen, for the reporting. The aid agency Oxfam is denying it covered up allegations that some of its senior employees paid for sex in Haiti. This apparently happened shortly after the earthquake that took place in 2010. An investigation by "The Times" newspaper in London says a confidential Oxfam report found that, quote, "children may have been among those sexually exploited by aid workers." Important to point out here, CNN has not independently reviewed the report and the aid agency says sexual allegations involving minors were never proven. Let's bring in CNN's Erin McLaughlin, following the story, live for us in our London bureau this hour. Erin, good to have you. First, let's start with the backstory, when these crimes allegedly happened and what looks to be a cover-up. ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, George. I think it's important to remind our viewers what Haiti was like back following that devastating 2010 earthquake. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed. Hundreds of thousands of people were injured; 1.5 million people displaced. It was truly a country devastated. Oxfam was one of the major aid organizations that was supposed to be there to help. Now allegations that it engaged in a cover-up, allegations coming to light now, due to an investigation by the "London Times," which obtained a copy of an internal Oxfam report that had not been made public. Inside that report, detailing sexual misconduct by Oxfam employees, including the country director, allegations that those employees had hired female prostitutes, not ruling out the possibility that some of those prostitutes could, in fact, have been minors. Now at the time Oxford -- Oxfam, rather -- was forthcoming that it was investigating employee misconduct. But it did not go in to detail with Haitian authorities or with its trustees. The nature of that misconduct, the details of the investigation and now we are hearing from some of those trustees. The Department for International Development here in the U.K., putting out a statement that reads, in part, "We often work with organizations in chaotic and difficult circumstances. If wrongdoing, abuse, fraud or criminal activity occur, we need to know about it immediately, in full. "The way this appalling abuse of vulnerable people was dealt with raises serious questions that Oxfam must answer." The Department for International Development saying that it is now reviewing its partnership, its current work with Oxfam as well. We're also hearing from the Haiti ambassador to the U.K. express his outrage. Take a listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is clear it's a cover-up case. The fact that those folks were allowed to leave the country without any punishment, without even informing really the Haitian authorities about that, it was a cover-up. And now, the fact that they did such a crime or there was such a cover-up, now we are wondering how many of those cases are still being happening in Haiti. (END VIDEO CLIP) MCLAUGHLIN: Now Oxfam says seven of its employees were either dismissed or fired in the wake of its own internal investigation. But now, the "London Times" is reporting that some of those employees actually went on to work with other aid organizations in other countries. And those aid organizations were not made aware by Oxfam of this internal investigation -- George. HOWELL: And those details, Erin, important here, because, given the allegations here, some agencies may have taken different steps had they known those critical details. There's a lot, certainly, to look into with this. It also leads to that age-old question, the cover-up, which is worse, the cover-up or the crime? How has Oxfam responded to these accusations? MCLAUGHLIN: Well, Oxfam certainly not excusing the employees' behavior. But it is denying that a cover-up took place. Take a listen to what the Oxfam CEO had to say. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MARK GOLDRING, OXFAM CEO: Well, I think at the time Oxfam took serious and immediate action and it was open, Oxfam was actually pro- active in going to the British public, the Department for International Development and the Charity Commission, to explain that there had been serious misconduct and we'd taken action. What Oxfam didn't do was describe the detailed nature of the offenses, which included the use of prostitution. (END VIDEO CLIP) MCLAUGHLIN: Now Oxfam says it did receive legal advice that, given the situation on the ground in Haiti at the time, that nothing would have happened had they -- [04:10:00] MCLAUGHLIN: -- reported those employees to Haitian authorities. It does acknowledge, though, that it could have done more to inform other NGOs of that employee misconduct, putting out a statement saying, "While there is nothing we can do to stop individuals falsifying references or getting colleagues to provide a reference in a personal capacity, there's clearly more that can and should be done to ensure that individuals who are found to be guilty of sexual misconduct do not continue to find work in the sector." -- George. HOWELL: There are some serious questions raised in this report. Erin McLaughlin, live for us, thank you for the reporting on it. Now let's get some context with Andrew MacLeod, Andrew is a visiting professor at Kings College in London. He was a senior official with the United Nations and is now an adviser for Hear Their Cries, an organization fighting sexual exploitation. Andrew, thank you so much. ANDREW MACLEOD, KINGS COLLEGE: Good morning. HOWELL: With us to talk about this very important story. You recently wrote about this controversy. More specifically, the part about the report that states that children may have been among those sexually exploited. And the aid agency, of course, they say that that was never proven. But let's talk about that first, because you say this is a growing problem that, quite frankly, is not being handled effectively enough. MACLEOD: That's right. The National Crime Authority in the United Kingdom has been warning since 1999 that, as we crack down on pedophiles in the developed world, the predatory pedophiles are now going to the developing world to get access to children. It's disgusting. But you can see the truth in that. Worse, the National Crime Authority has been warning that predatory pedophiles' chosen methodology to get access to children is to join a children's charity. Again, disgusting, but easy to believe. And that means that charities have a higher than normal obligation to ensure that they do everything they possibly can in training, prevention, detection and, critically, prosecution. When I heard that clip from the Oxfam man that you just put on, "we took immediate and serious action," are you kidding me? If these were adult prostitutes you've broken the law in Haiti so you should have reported them to the police. If any of these prostitutes were under age, then these British aid workers have actually broken British sex tourism laws and should be held to account in front of the courts here. And if Oxfam has turned a blind eye, question whether senior executives in Oxfam have broken the child sex tourism laws here in the United Kingdom for aiding and abetting people by turning a willful blind eye. HOWELL: Well, here's the thing, so, you know, we heard that response just a moment ago from the chief executive, that they took serious and immediate action. But, you know, the question is raised, the uncertainty with that, many of these aid workers were allowed to move on to other aid organizations, with seemingly spotless records. MACLEOD: Let's be really clear here. A lot of your viewers are good hearted people who have put their hands in their pockets, donated money to charity and will be feeling sick to the stomach to think that their money is going to fund pedophilia or sexual abuse -- and it is. How can Oxfam possibly say that they took serious and immediate action but didn't tell the police, didn't ask for an investigation, either in Haiti or in the United Kingdom? Oxfam are right to say that it was not proved that any of the prostitutes were underage but it wasn't disproved that they were underage, either. So British crime authorities should have a close investigation. But there is a bigger issue here. We know in the aid industry that we -- and I'm a former aid worker -- have the responsibility to look after people on the ground. We are sent there to help. There is a higher than normal obligation on us. And what this should be is a warning to all charities and the United Nations, that we need to do more in training, prevention, detection and prosecution. Now many aid workers have blown the whistles over the years and they have all been chastised. I spoke to Ambassador Haley's office late last year, and we recognize that we actually need at the international level a new independent whistleblowing mechanism. The secretary of state for international development in the United Kingdom here, Priti Patel, agreed that the United Kingdom will host a meeting in the first half of this year to create a new independent whistle-blowing mechanism. Unfortunately, Ms. Patel is no longer the secretary of state, there is a new secretary of state. So I'm wondering, between the secretary of state for international development here in the U.K. and Ambassador Haley's office in the United States, can we please create this new whistle-blowing mechanism so good aid workers who are really doing their best for people, can report on these horrendous acts of both adult and child sexual abuse that is rife within the U.N.? HOWELL: And, Andrew, look, to the credit of the many people that you've worked with, it is important to point out there are many good men and women doing good work around the world. MACLEOD: That's right. HOWELL: But this report certainly makes one take pause. When you went out to write on this -- [04:15:00] HOWELL: -- you compare this to what you saw happening in the Catholic Church. That's indeed. When I was a young lawyer I acted on some of the Catholic Church insurance in the 1990s -- sorry; the Catholic Church litigation in the early 1990s. And I have to say, a lot of the responses are very similar: minimize, deny, shoot the messenger. But I understand that. For many Catholics in the 1970s and '80s, it was very difficult for them to understand that this child abuse was happening in the organization that they loved and worked for. And many aid workers are finding it very difficult to comprehend that a number of people that they work with, that are their friends, are actually committing these heinous acts. The vast majority of aid workers are doing great, vital and very important work. But the truth is, unless we stamp down hard now on adult and child sexual abuse in the aid industry, people will stop donating and should stop donating. Money will stop flowing. And I now ask you this, Angelina Jolie and Emma Watson and David Beckham are very big ambassadors for U.N. agencies and big international charities, very passionate in the #MeToo movement. I call on Angelina Jolie and Emma Watson to suspend their ambassadorial roles in the United Nations, strengthen their activity in the #MeToo movement and work with the U.N. to stamp out this scourge, ensure that all major charities and all U.N. agencies report all accusations to the police forces. And until there is a new protocol of reporting these people to the police, Angelina Jolie and Emma Watson should suspend their ambassadorial roles with the U.N. They are ambassadors for organizations that are not doing all they can in the prevention, detection and prosecution of adult and child sexual abuse. HOWELL: Andrew, somehow I believe we'll be talking more about this story. Thank you so much for taking time and giving us your perspective. And we'll stay in touch with you. MACLEOD: Thank you, George. HOWELL: Around the world this hour, you're watching CNN NEWSROOM. And still ahead, the U.S. president seems to dismiss accusations of domestic abuse against two former White House staffers. But does he really believe it's a mere allegation? Well, we'll take a look. Stay with us. (MUSIC PLAYING) (COMMERCIAL BREAK) [04:20:00] (MUSIC PLAYING) HOWELL: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm George Howell. Two White House aides who quit last week over allegations of domestic abuse apparently still have the sympathy and support of their former boss, the U.S. president. A tweet by Donald Trump on Saturday gave short shrift to the accusations against the former staffers. CNN's Ryan Nobles has more. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The White House dealing with yet another public relations crisis; this time involving two now former staffers who are pushing back against claims of domestic violence. One of those staffers, Rob Porter, the former staff secretary, a very important job in this White House, resigned earlier this week. And then, on Friday, it was David Sorensen, a speech writer who said that he approached White House officials, knowing that he had similar accusations against him, and tendered his resignation so he wouldn't be a distraction to the administration. And the president himself, seeming to defend both of these men without mentioning them by name in a tweet sent Saturday morning. He said, quote, "People's lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation. Some are true or false, some are old, some are new, there's no recovery for someone falsely accused. Life and career gone. Is there no such thing any longer as due process?" The president not mentioning the victims in this case and there's not a whole lot of clarity yet as to when the White House learned about these accusations, particularly with Rob Porter, and why it took so long to address them and waiting until media reports surfaced before taking formal action. Now as the White House is dealing with this particular piece of controversy, they're also dealing with the fallout from a decision by the administration not to release that Democratic memo that was a response to a Republican memo having to do with the FISA court and the way the FISA court conducts itself. And the president weighing in on that, as well, in a tweet, saying, quote, "The Democrats sent a very political and long response memo, which they knew, because of sources and methods and more, would have to be heavily redacted, whereupon they would blame the White House for a lack of transparency. Told them to redo and send back in its proper form." Of course, the president seems very concerned about how the Department of Justice and FBI have viewed this Democratic memo. He didn't seem to share those same concerns for the Republican memo which he allowed to go forward with no redactions, despite the fact that the DOJ and FBI did not want the memo to come out at all. Now what Democrats are concerned about is that they agree that redactions are probably necessary for this particular document. But they're worried those redactions may be politically motivated as opposed to protecting confidential information. So at this point, it is a waiting game. The memo is back in the hands of the House Intelligence Committee, where they will address some of these concerns. We're not sure if and when the memo will ever come out. But, the White House says they are inclined to release that memo as long as their concerns are addressed -- Ryan Nobles, CNN, at the White House. (END VIDEOTAPE) HOWELL: Ryan Nobles with the reporting, thank you. Now James Davis joining us, James, the dean of the school of economics and political science at the University of St. Galen, live for us in Munich, Germany. Thank you so much for being with us today. JAMES DAVIS, UNIVERSITY OF ST. GALEN: Good morning, George. HOWELL: Let's start with the president's defense. The president's sympathy for the two men who recently left the White House and the optics here that play out, given that the President of the United States himself also faces a host of allegations against him. DAVIS: Yes, I mean, I think that the president is showing himself to be tone deaf. We have a national discussion going on right now about the status of women, the way women are treated, the efforts of men to cover up for each other when it's a question of sexual harassment or even perhaps domestic violence. And so the president is showing that he's tone deaf. I mean, he's right on the issue, that we do have due process. You are innocent until proven guilty. [04:25:00] DAVIS: But the bigger question is, of course, the question of how this White House is being run. How are they vetting employees, high-ranking employees, employees with access to very sensitive information, employees that would be the target of any adversary of the United States that was trying to compromise them and get access to confidential information? And so the question for me is, what's going on in the White House? And why do we not have procedures in place that make it difficult for people that have such serious charges leveled against them from being hired in the first place? HOWELL: And certainly no real mention of the women who spoke out about this, rather defense and sympathy for the men -- DAVIS: Well, that's right. I mean, these cases seem to be fairly substantiated. I mean, there was a restraining order placed on Mr. Porter by a court. So this is -- these are credible charges. This isn't just hearsay. HOWELL: Now I want to switch over to the other issue that is in play, this Democratic memo. The president did send it back to the Intelligence Committee. But here's the question, does it ever see the light of day? And how important is it for that to happen? DAVIS: Well, I'm one of those people that doesn't like the fact that these memos are being passed around, anyway. I mean, I would rather see the Mueller investigation proceed in an orderly fashion and not have classified intelligence information sources, methods, important matters of national security, politicized in the first place. But, you know, the Nunes memo was the first to do this. The Republicans chose to go this path. The president went along with that, against the advice of the FBI and other intelligence services. So he chose to put his personal political fortunes ahead of the security of the country. And so now, it appears that he's being rather cynical in claiming that he has to protect sources and methods when it comes to a memo from the other side. DAVIS: A lot of fair questions to raise there. James Davis, thank you so much for being with us, live in Munich, Germany. Thanks. DAVIS: Thank you, George. HOWELL: Still ahead, the Vice President of the United States returns from the Olympic Games. Did ignoring North Korea pay any diplomatic dividends? We have a live report to look into it as CNN NEWSROOM pushes on. (MUSIC PLAYING) (COMMERCIAL BREAK) [04:30:00] (MUSIC PLAYING) HOWELL: From coast to coast across the United States and live around the world this hour you're watching CNN NEWSROOM. Thank you so much for being with us. I'm George Howell with the headlines. (HEADLINES) HOWELL: So a lot to talk about here when it comes to diplomatic gamesmanship, diplomatic diplomacy, rather, Olympic diplomacy that's playing out. Let's bring in our Paula Hancocks, following this story from PyeongChang. So you've been watching this play out, specifically that moment and if we can show the image again, the U.S. vice president so close, so close to this high delegation from North Korea. You know, this was not a moment that they would be passing the chips. In fact, we understand that the vice president, Paula, ignored them. PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, George, that's, yes, exactly what we've heard now from a senior administration official, that it wasn't by accident that there was no talking, there was no eye contact, there was nothing between the two sides. But of course, we didn't see anything from the North Korean side towards the U.S., either. So, yes, they were meters away. But there was no acknowledgment between the two sides. We have though heard from the U.S. vice president, Mike Pence, on that trip back to the United States on the plane. He briefed reporters and he was saying that there is no daylight between South Korea and the U.S. and Japan when it comes to how to deal with North Korea, talking about how it is still important to have these sanctions and have the pressure and it's agreed upon. But, of course, what we're seeing from the South Korean side is something very different. We have the invitation from North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, to the South Korean president, hand delivered by his sister. We haven't had a response at this point from the South Korean president. But there's very few people who would imagine that he would have objections to it, given he has always said he wanted more engagement, more dialogue, with North Korea. So we are seeing two very different approaches now when it comes to how to deal with the North Koreans. Just tonight, in a matter of hours, the South Korean president will be going with the North Korea ceremonial head of state, Kim Jong-nam, and also Kim Yo-jong, the sister of the North Korean leader. And they will be going to see an orchestra, They're going to see the art troupe which is performing now in Seoul, a few days after it performed down in this area of South Korea near the Olympics. So we're seeing very different approaches, even though the United States is insisting there's no daylight between the two. And certainly from South Korea's point of view, they are welcoming the North Korean delegation with open arms. HOWELL: So, Paula, a little context here. South Korea certainly a robust democracy. That point proven, given the controversy around its previous president. Now with this particular president, who has been -- [04:35:00] HOWELL: -- focused more on engagement with North Korea, what is the general sentiment about what's happening here, seeing South Korean officials try to have more interaction with North Korea? Is there a trust gap? HANCOCKS: There's two very different views. There are some that believe that this is a good thing, that, given the tensions we saw just last year, just a few months ago, then engagement is absolutely necessary. But there are also some and those that have been vocal today and over recent days, following the North Korean delegation, that have been protesting against what they see as the hijacking of the South Korean Olympics. Many believe that North Korea didn't have to give anything up in order to come to the Olympics. And many are frustrated that South Korean athletes were not able to march into their own Olympics, under their own flag. They marched, remember, with the North Korean athletes under that unified Korea flag. So there is frustration here. But for some also, they feel relief that the tensions have eased. But of course, no one quite knows what the end game is, from the North Korean perspective. There was quite a dramatic shift in tactic from the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, on New Year's Day, when he decided that he wanted to send a delegation to South Korea. So it's really a wait-and-see stance trying to figure out exactly what the next move is. And of course, if the South Korean president does go to Pyongyang, there will be a lot of pressure on him to actually come back with some kind of concession from the North Koreans when it comes to the missile and nuclear program -- George. HOWELL: Paula Hancocks, of course, there at the Olympic Games, keeping a keen eye on the Olympic diplomacy that is also playing out. Thank you for the reporting and we'll stay in touch with you. We just saw those images of protests. Protests have been happening. Our Paula Newton was in the thick of it all in Seoul, South Korea. Here's the report that she filed for us. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So it has to be said that South Korea has a very robust protest culture. There are a lot of protests here, week in, week out. But this protest in particular is anti-North Korea. There has been a lot more tension in the last few days now that North Korea and its delegation have been getting so much attention here during these Olympics. Even before the Olympics started, some protesters here cynically were calling them the Pyongyang Olympics. But now they're very angry, especially blaming Moon Jae-in for allowing them to take the Olympic spotlight and for accepting, it seems, an invitation to Pyongyang for peace negotiations. I want you to listen to one particular protester, who was quite angry. Take a listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm very angry. Now I'm upset. I watch America demolish the North Korea before Moon Jae-in, before the visitors to South Korea. NEWTON: Thank you. Thank you very much for your time. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: United States, please help us. (END VIDEO CLIP) NEWTON: Now while protesters like that are, in fact, angry, what they really do not want is to have that unification with North Korea. What's interesting here is that even though these protesters are quite committed, it underscores what is a lot more anger in South Korea of late towards Moon Jae-in, especially in the younger generation. His approval ratings are down. And it will be really interesting to see how South Koreans accept this kind of entente with North Korea in the weeks that follow the Olympics -- Paula Newton, CNN, Seoul. (END VIDEOTAPE) HOWELL: All right, Paula, thank you for the report. Still ahead here on NEWSROOM, millions of people in Iran come together to celebrate the anniversary of a revolution. We'll have details on that ahead. Plus Norway developing a nice collection of medals at the Olympic Games after sweeping the podium in the men's cross-country skiathlon. We're live in PyeongChang as NEWSROOM continues. (MUSIC PLAYING) (COMMERCIAL BREAK) [04:40:00] (MUSIC PLAYING) HOWELL: Iranian state media say millions of people came together across that nation, rallying to mark the 39th anniversary of the Islamic revolution. That's when the government of the U.S.-backed shah was overthrown and the Ayatollah Khomeini who had returned from exile became head of the new Islamic republic. The president of that nation, Hassan Rouhani, spoke to the crowds in Tehran a short time ago. But just weeks ago anti-government protests rocked the country. Hundreds of people were arrested there and at least 21 were killed in the unrest. In Italy, organizers say 15,000 people marched to oppose fascism and the rise of far right political parties. The rally was held in a town of Misurata (ph). That's where a week ago an Italian man opened fire on African migrants in what officials are calling a racially motivated attack. Six people were wounded there. Police arrested the suspected shooter. He ran as a far right candidate in local elections just last year. Protesters say they fear the rise in racist rhetoric in the country will lead to more violence -- listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We are here because we want to be a dam against the mountain of hate which is spreading continuously, a social hatred against migrants and, in general, against the poor. (END VIDEO CLIP) HOWELL: A larger anti-fascist demonstration is set for February 24th, one week before the national elections in that country. Cape Town, South Africa, is inching closer now to Day Zero. Day Zero is the day when the city will officially run out of water. Is that something you ever considered could happen? Well, it is happening in Cape Town. On Friday, residents there felt a small bit of rain, though, just a bit of relief from a light rainfall. Excited people shared these pictures on social media, celebrating the sudden rain, hoping that more was to come. But it wasn't nearly enough to ease the drought. Unfortunately, they saw just a bit of water, not a lot. So people are adjusting to a very strict 50 liter a day or 13-gallon water usage guideline, hoping for a miracle. Right now, Day Zero is set to happen on May 11th. Wow. Still ahead here on NEWSROOM, PyeongChang, South Korea, may be freezing, the temperatures there cold. But the competition, it's heating up on the Winter Games. We'll have the latest ahead. Plus our meteorologist, Derek Van Dam, he is getting fully into the Olympic spirit. He hit the slopes to learn from an Olympic snowboarder. You won't want to miss his report. Stay with us. (MUSIC PLAYING) (COMMERCIAL BREAK) [04:45:00] (MUSIC PLAYING) HOWELL: The Winter Olympic Games are in full swing in PyeongChang, South Korea. Six medal events are scheduled for Sunday and Norway has dominated at the men's skiathlon podium, securing the gold, the silver and bronze medals. CNN "WORLD SPORT's" Amanda Davies joins now from PyeongChang, South Korea, with the highlights. Amanda, good to have you. AMANDA DAVIES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, George. And the big news, look at this, it is actually snowing. It really feels like a Winter Olympics here on this Sunday evening in PyeongChang. We've got news of that skiathlon in a minute. But the USA has a new superstar on the snowboard, 17-year-old Red Gerard competing in his first Olympic Games. He's admitted he cannot believe he claimed the gold in the slopestyle. He beat off some pretty stiff competition from the Canadian, Max Parrot, who took silver and the comeback king, Mark McMorris who took bronze. McMorris has another one of the Games' truly inspirational story. I spoke to him just last week. He fought back from a near fatal accident last March, where he feared he wouldn't survive whilst he was waiting for the helicopter to lift him off the mountain. But he's fought back in style to his place on the podium. And their performances -- [04:50:00] DAVIES: -- were all the more impressive today, given the absolutely brutal winds that have been battering PyeongChang today. The ladies' snowboard slopestyle qualification was canceled. And so, too, one of the blue ribbon events of the games, the men's downhill. The course is quite a good deal higher than we are here. And high winds on the slopes forced organizers to reschedule just hours before it starts. That's really tough on the skiers who woke up for what for many of them would have been the biggest day of their sporting careers. But those on the alpine circuit are used to it. And Norway's (INAUDIBLE) tweeted, saying "Downhill canceled due to strong winds. It's imperative, with fair conditions and I applaud the decision, thanks FIS Alpine and Olympics." It's all about maintaining the integrity really of the competition. It's now due to take place on Thursday, weather depending. The weather apparently, the high winds are likely to continue for the next couple of days. There was a very good lesson, though, in never giving up in that men's skiathlon. Norway's (INAUDIBLE) Krueger made a remarkable fight back from last place in the field to win gold. The 24-year old was at the back and had to replace his poles after colliding with two other athletes in a very congested start. But he took the lead on the penultimate lap to race clear to head up a Norway one, two, three. Look at those smiles. In the last half an hour, as well, there's been an historic gold for the Dutch speed skater, Sven Kramer. He won the 5,000 meters for a third successive games. And there's another big name athlete going for the three-peat later on Sunday, that's Germany's Phoenix Loch (ph) hoping for a third straight gold in the luge. So plenty to keep us on our toes. And we certainly need it, I have to tell you, George, in these temperatures. It is Baltic today. HOWELL: And, Amanda, it's snowing. That's exciting. Thank you so much for the reporting. We'll stay in touch. With more than 100 events scheduled, this is the largest Winter Games in history. But some of the lesser known sports can get overlooked like snowboard cross. Our Derek Van Dam takes a look at that sport and even got some lessons from a medal-winning pro. Let's watch. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: We are in the presence of greatness here. I am totally intimidated just to be standing next to you. This is Erin Simmons, an Olympian from Steamboat Springs. Erin competed in the 2006 Winter Olympics, world championships and multiple X Games as a snowboard cross athlete. She's even taken home some hardware. ERIN SIMMONS, OLYMPIAN: Eight X Games. VAN DAM: OK, and any medals? SIMMONS: Three silver medals. VAN DAM: Where are those now? SIMMONS: Almost gold. They're in a little case at home. VAN DAM (voice-over): Turin, Italy, was the first time that snowboard cross was introduced to the Olympics. SIMMONS: It was the inaugural year for snowboard cross, super fun. VAN DAM (voice-over): The sport involves up to six athletes racing down a narrow, undulating course with the objective to reach the finish line first. Of course, it's a lot harder than she makes it look. VAN DAM: Can you give me a couple tips and inside info? SIMMONS: Mainly stay low, controlled, you know, parallel with your board. We're checking out every feature, what we feel might be the best line, coming in to it, going off of it, connecting to the next feature. You basically are trying to absorb stuff and pump down the other side. You want to land about here. VAN DAM (voice-over): With Olympian training and 20 years experience under my belt, it was time to find out if I had what it takes to be a snowboard cross athlete. SIMMONS: One, two, three, go. There you go, nice. Up. Stay on top. Come down. VAN DAM: Whoo! SIMMONS: Yes! (LAUGHTER) VAN DAM: Yes. SIMMONS: You did it. (LAUGHTER) VAN DAM (voice-over): I think I'll leave this one to the pros. HOWELL: Derek -- (CROSSTALK) VAN DAM: One of the better assignments. (CROSSTALK) VAN DAM: Yes, it was a fantastic -- you know, Erin was telling me how physical the start line can actually be. So you've got six athletes all competing to try and get down this very narrow course. And she said she's actually collided midair going over one of those little speed humps. HOWELL: Wow. VAN DAM: So it can get pretty physical and pretty dangerous, because the ground -- and I had a firsthand look at this -- is extremely hard- packed snow. So it's not the soft, powdery, velvety snow that so many of us skiers and snowboarders look for. It is hard-packed, machine packed snow. And if you fall or catch an edge, for instance you could definitely have a major -- HOWELL: -- hurt. VAN DAM: Yes, absolutely. (WEATHER REPORT) [04:55:00] HOWELL: All right, switching from cold now to the warm of Brazil. Let's talk about this. That full week of street parties, parades and music, dancing, that is underway in Rio de Janeiro. The carnival festival kicked off on Friday with local samba schools filling the streets with colorful floats and costumes like that. Hundreds of thousands of tourists came out to take part in the festivities. Those festivities continue through February 17th. Thank you for being with us this hour for CNN NEWSROOM. I'm George Howell at the CNN Center in Atlanta. The next hour of NEWSROOM right back after the break. Stand by. [Byline: George Howell; Oren Liebermann; Ben Wedeman; Erin McLaughlin; Ryan Nobles; Paula Hancocks; Paula Newton; Amanda Davies; Derek Van Dam] [Guest: Andrew MacLeod; James Davis] [High: Israel launched attacks on Iranian targets inside Syria following the crash of an Israeli F-16 warplane after it was hit by Syrian anti-aircraft fire; British aid agency Oxfam denies it tried to cover up a sex scandal after allegations that some of its workers sent to Haiti after the 2010 earthquake paid for prostitutes; It's logical in a way that Trump would support the two men accused of domestic violence because to make any gesture of believing the victims would shine a light on his own indiscretions and the accusations against him that have so far remained unresolved; At the Olympic opening ceremony, Mike Pence, just meters away from the sister of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, never acknowledged her. A senior administration official said Pence purposely ignored the North Korean delegation; In Italy organizers say 15,000 people marched to oppose fascism and the rise of far right political parties. The rally was held in a town where a week ago a man opened fire on African migrants in what officials are calling a racially motivated attack; Brutal winds are affecting competition at the Winter Olympic Games. The women's snowboard slopestyle qualifying round was canceled and the men's downhill skiing was rescheduled] [Spec: Middle East; Military; Asia; Sports; World Affairs; Abuse; Violence; Prostitution] [Copy: Content and programming copyright 2018 Cable News Network LP, LLLP. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Prepared by ASC Services II Media, LLC. No license is granted to the user of this material other than for research. User may not reproduce or redistribute the material except for user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon Cable News Network LP, LLLP's copyright or other proprietary rights or interests in the material; provided, however, that members of the news media may redistribute limited portions (less than 250 words) of this material without a specific license from CNN so long as they provide conspicuous attribution to CNN as the originator and copyright holder of such material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation.] [End-Story: U.S. Backs Israel in Standoff with Iran and Syria; Oxfam Denies Cover-up in Prostitution Scandal; President Expresses Sympathy for Ex-Staffers Accused of Assault; Korean Diplomacy; Thousands Gather in Italy for Anti-Fascism Rally; Day 2 Action Underway at Winter Games. Aired 4-5a ET]
Subject: Olympic games; Fascism; Military aircraft; Domestic violence; Displaced persons; Prostitution; Copyright; Earthquakes; Scandals; Sex industry
Location: Italy Russia United States--US Israel Jerusalem Israel Iran Syria Haiti Atlanta Georgia
Company / organization: Name: Hezbollah-Party of God; NAICS: 813940; Name: Cable News Network LP; NAICS: 515210; Name: CNN; NAICS: 515210; Name: Oxfam GB; NAICS: 813219
Publication title: International Wire; Lanham
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 11, 2018
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: Lanham
Country of publication: United States, Lanham
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2003109555
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2003109555?accountid=4840
Copyright: 2018 Cable News Network LP, LLLP
Last updated: 2018-02-19
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 88 of 474
Brazil: Rio Carnival Evolves Into Low-Cost Street Party Extravaganza
Publication info: Asia News Monitor ; Bangkok [Bangkok]12 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Once a party of luxury and glamour, Brazil's most famous Carnival is increasingly being dominated by thrifty tourists more interested in free street parties than the pricy samba school parades. Cariocas, as Rio de Janeiro residents are known, and tourists used to spend a lot on Carnival parade tickets and costumes. But a grinding economic crisis in Latin America's largest nation and the rise of "blocos," as local street parties are known, are changing the nature of the big bash. Rio's tourism agency expects a quarter of all visitors to spend less than $100 a day, compared to 12 percent who did so last year. "We have millions of people willing to take to the streets for the free and cool blocos, while the samba school parades have been frozen in time and become very expensive," Carnival historian Luiz Antonio Simas said. "For tourists who want to spend less, it is an obvious choice." Rio's tourism agency expects 1.5 million tourists to descend on the city between Friday and Tuesday, almost 500,000 more than last year. But city revenues during Carnival are expected to be roughly the same as last year, about $1 billion. Most of the visitors are unlikely to attend parades with the traditional samba schools that have prepared all year for the event. Instead, they will hang out alongside thousands of others at some of the estimated 600 block parties. In 2007, when Brazil's economy was booming, Rio's Carnival had only 300 block parties. Rio authorities and businesses are also shifting their priorities toward the streets and out of the Sambadrome, where the samba schools perform. While Mayor Marcelo Crivella cut more than $1.5 million in funding for the samba school parades, which represents almost half the budget of some schools, he increased the number of portable street toilets by a few thousand, to 32,560. For the first time, more than 3,000 private security agents will be at work during the party, most protecting street parties. Much of the appeal of Rio's street parties is the variety of themes. Any costume, or no costume at all, is fine, and revelers can choose according to their musical taste and location. The street parties are free, or close to it, and partiers spend what they want on the food and drink being offered. The experience at the Sambadrome, where top schools parade into the wee hours on two consecutive nights, dates back to 1932. Attendees hear some of the best drummers in the world as they watch massive and gaudily decorated floats roll by, while beautiful people - some wearing very little - sing and dance to samba music. The Sambadrome parade does try to maintain appeal for thrifty visitors with about 14,000 tickets that cost as little as $3. But those go quickly and are not close to the best sections. The most expensive tickets cost about $2,000. Parade financial director Heron Schneider says that selling more cheap tickets won't make the parade more accessible because scalpers would quickly buy them up and resell them for higher prices. He believes low-cost tourists can find good options at the Sambadrome if they really want to go. "I don't see a conflict between the parade and the blocos. You can go to both," Schneider said. "They are different in nature; ours is a show and a competition that has to be paid for. It is not sheer fun." Rita Fernandes, head of Rio's street party association, says the groups that organize them are struggling despite all the people attending. She believes block parties need some public funds and to find sponsors. "To keep those tourists coming, the street parties need money too," she said. "Nowadays we get nothing to improve people's experience." The local hotel association expects 85 percent of rooms to be taken for the bash, higher than the last couple of years but still far below the nearly maxed-out occupancy of years past. Many low-spending tourists in Rio will come from the neighboring state of Sao Paulo, the country's most populous. Television producer Rodrigo Rodrigues, 35, is one of those who will stay far from the Sambadrome and expensive hotels. He will travel six hours to Rio by bus, stay at a cousin's small apartment far from the beaches and cook his own food. "The street parties are where the pretty women will be," he said. "Just watching [the schools] parade through the Sambadrome is not the kind of Carnival I want, even if I could afford it." - VOA
Subject: Parades; Schools; Tourism
Location: Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil Latin America
Publication title: Asia News Monitor; Bangkok
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 12, 2018
Section: General News
Publisher: Thai News Service Group
Place of publication: Bangkok
Country of publication: Thailand, Bangkok
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--Philippines, General Interest Periodicals--Vietnam, General Interest Periodicals--Thailand
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2000816198
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2000816198?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Thai News Service Group Feb 12, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-11
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 89 of 474
Let the Good Times Roll with Mardi Gras
Publication info: University Wire ; Carlsbad [Carlsbad]12 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Publication: Washington Square News, New York University, New York NY. Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans, Louisiana, include many colorful costumes and parades.
Jaime Ostrow
Jaime Ostrow
Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans, Louisiana, include many colorful costumes and parades.
Tianne Johnson, Contributing WriterFebruary 12, 2018
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Born in the Big Easy, my sisters and I were always excited to build cardboard floats filled with candy and beads to imitate the huge floats that flooded the French Quarter and Bourbon Street for Mardi Gras parades. If I was lucky, I’d be the one to find the small plastic baby inside the tasty purple, green and gold King Cake. I remember going to parades and seeing the second-liners fill the streets, catching beads thrown to us from the floats above and being picked up in the wave of bounce music, jazz bands and dancers. And how could I forget gathering to eat crawfish and gumbo after the long day of festivities? If only I could go back.
Mardi Gras is a Christian holiday celebrated in many countries throughout the world with large Roman Catholic populations. Mardi Gras, which falls on Feb. 13 this year, directly translates to “Fat Tuesday” from French. The name of the holiday originated thousands of years ago in Europe because of the binge eating that would occur in the days leading up to Lent, the period of fasting between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday.
Fat Tuesday can fall on any Tuesday between Feb. 3 and March 9 and is the biggest and perhaps the most important day of celebration. However, the exciting Carnival celebrations go on from Jan. 6, the Twelfth Night or Feast of Epiphany, until the midnight of Fat Tuesday.
When Christianity spread from Rome to various parts of the world, so did Mardi Gras. Today, Brazil, Venice and New Orleans are among the top places in the world to celebrate the festivities of the holiday, attracting thousands of tourists every year.
Tisch freshman Abby Tawiah doesn’t feel that she can personally identify with Mardi Gras.
“I’ve never been one to celebrate a holiday that I have no connection to,” Tawiah said. “I’m from West Africa and have no family from here. I’m sure the holiday means more to the native people of Orleans, and I wouldn’t want to appropriate that.”
Due to the French influence in New Orleans, Mardi Gras remains a rich custom for the Cajun and Creole people of Louisiana. Krewes, which are organizations that arrange parades during the carnival season, have remained a paramount part of the carnival culture in New Orleans over the years. There are tons of Krewes in New Orleans, such as the Krewe of Zulu, the Mardi Gras Indians and many others.
Nonetheless, we can give credit to the Krewe of Rex for establishing purple, green and gold as the official colors of Mardi Gras. Each color has a special meaning: purple symbolizes justice, gold signifies power and green represents faith.
Colored purple, green and gold, King Cake is essential for any Mardi Gras celebration. This cake, rich in color and flavor, originated in France in 1870 as a cross between a coffee cake and a French pastry. In every glittery King Cake comes a tiny doll, which many people say represents baby Jesus. The meaning of finding the baby in the cake isn’t very clear, but it either signifies prosperity and good luck or marks you as responsible for providing a King Cake at the next celebration.
While most NYU students have heard of Mardi Gras, few students plan to celebrate the festive holiday this year. CAS freshman Lauren Rodriguez stated that she did not share the excitement of some of her peers.
“Yeah, I’ve heard of Mardi Gras before, but I don’t plan to celebrate it this year,” Rodriguez said.
CAS freshman Charlotte Dankwah is not celebrating the festival this year.
“I’ve heard of Mardi Gras, and I know that it’s a big French holiday celebrated in Louisiana,” Dankwah said. “I even know of a few events happening in [New York City] to celebrate, but I’m just too busy to go.”
SPS freshman Matthew Oscodar is more willing to see how New York City celebrates Mardi Gras.
“I’d be willing to celebrate it if I knew of any events happening here in the city,” Oscodar said.
Some students, like Steinhardt senior Marco Chan, are trying to keep the Mardi Gras spirit alive even if they are not in New Orleans.
“I have heard of Mardi Gras but never celebrated it in the past,” Chan said. “But this week, the [Faculty Fellows in Residence] on [Lipton Residence Hall’s] 11th floor are having a party in their room to celebrate and will be welcoming residents in with foods from Louisiana. I definitely plan to stop by.”
The city that never sleeps doesn’t sleep on this holiday either. There are various bars, jazz lounge and dance clubs that give you a taste of the Big Easy right here in the Big Apple. If you want a funk-filled night, check out B.B. King Blues Club & Grill. The House of Yes in Brooklyn is hosting its annual Mardi Gras event with circus performances, good company and great music. Whether you plan to travel down to Canal Street in New Orleans for the holiday or Canal Street in New York City, Mardi Gras is a time of fun and celebration that everyone should experience.
A version of this article appeared in the Feb. 12 print edition. Email Tianne Johnson at [email protected]
Subject: Bakeries; Parades; Mardi Gras
Location: Brazil New York France Louisiana West Africa Europe
Company / organization: Name: New York University; NAICS: 611310
Publication title: University Wire; Carlsbad
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 12, 2018
Section: Features
Publisher: Uloop, Inc.
Place of publication: Carlsbad
Country of publication: United States, Carlsbad
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2001013625
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2001013625?accountid=4840
Copyright: © 2018 UWIRE, a division of Uloop
Last updated: 2018-02-12
Database: Social Science Premium Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 90 of 474
Less politics, more fun: Carnival truce in Brazilian media
Publication info: BBC Monitoring Americas ; London [London]12 Feb 2018.
Abstract:
According to news website UOL, over 1,6 million people celebrated on 10 February in the streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest city, and in the Sambadrome of Anhembi, where samba schools gathered for some luxurious and colorful carnival parades. The editors of UOL elected what they considered were the most creative ones: a family of eight dressed as Smurfs, a group of friends who appeared as "recycling bins" and a man in yellow who held a syringe and a banner representing "the vaccine against the yellow fever" while Brazil faces an outbreak of the disease. According to a story published by news website G1 on 9 February, she called such costumes "racist and not homages" to native Brazilians.Full text: By BBC Monitoring After months of political turmoil, Carnival season has arrived in Brazil, and both revellers and the local media look like they decided it was time to press pause on the country's turbulent political crisis. Although talks on the possible arrest of ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva remain in the headlines, mainstream news outlets placed most of this weekend's attention on the nation's so-called "happiest season". Many cover pages were dedicated to the hundreds of street parties that took place across the country in the past few days. According to news website UOL, over 1,6 million people celebrated on 10 February in the streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest city, and in the Sambadrome of Anhembi, where samba schools gathered for some luxurious and colorful carnival parades. Amidst much of the fun, some costumes became instant media and social media hits. The editors of UOL elected what they considered were the most creative ones: a family of eight dressed as Smurfs, a group of friends who appeared as "recycling bins" and a man in yellow who held a syringe and a banner representing "the vaccine against the yellow fever" while Brazil faces an outbreak of the disease. "Brumar": best idea for carnival? Perhaps no other costume gained more media attention than what Brazilians refer to as "Brumar". The word, which is a popular hashtag on Twitter, combines the name of the country's most famous soccer player, Neymar, with that of his girlfriend, local actress Bruna Marquezine. One reveller from Sao Paulo celebrated carnival on 10 February as "Brumar"; he showed up with a mask split in half with the couple's faces, accompanied by a costume that was split in two as well: a girl in a golden skirt and a boy wearing Neymar´s Paris St. Germain team football jersey. "Best costume", "loved it" and "genius", were among some of the comments left on the man's Instagram account. Many fans tagged the soccer player and the actress, who have over 115 million followers combined on their individual Instagram pages. Neymar and Bruna are well-known for leaving some passionate posts to each other on social media. "Indians not costumes" Calls for politically-correct costumes sparked much debate on social media after an activist criticised the representation of indigenous Brazilians on carnival. "An Indian is not a costume", Katu Miriam, who is of indigenous heritage herself, wrote on her Facebook page. According to a story published by news website G1 on 9 February, she called such costumes "racist and not homages" to native Brazilians. "I ask that people look at indigenous peoples with respect and fight with us", she was quoted by G1 as saying. Writing for newspaper Folha de S. Paulo on 11 February, columnist Antonio Prata reacted to such "correctness" on costumes. He said that "Carnival has been the inversion party for many centuries...Far from reinforcing stereotypes, the inversion contained in costumes and the humour it brings, break the hierarchy, deconstruct the sacredness of established places, and teach us, as historian Paul Veyne put it, that what is, could not have been". At least one samba school from Rio de Janeiro used politics during the parades at the Sapucai Sambadrome on 11 February. A man dressed as the president appeared in a glamorous vampire costume, website G1 reported. Samba "queens" demand respect Local media also dedicated part of their carnival coverage to women's issues. A news story aired on 11 February by Fantastico, which is TV Globo's most watched Sunday show, discussing one "carnival myth", which claims that women who dance samba wearing tiny costumes and high heels are wrongfully perceived as being "available". Fantastico interviewed 11 women from samba schools who are popularly known as "queens" for their beauty and samba moves. "They bring to Carnival the fight of every woman" and "many are mothers", Globo stated. "We represent a culture, our roots, we are the essence of samba. This is not what you think", one woman said. "Samba queens are fighters and warriors, they all have their professions", another one stressed. Globo reminded its viewers that what these women do is "art" and should be seen as such. BBC Monitoring
Subject: Social networks; Costumes; Women
Location: Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil
People: Lula da Silva, Luiz Inacio
Company / organization: Name: Folha de S Paulo; NAICS: 511110; Name: Twitter Inc; NAICS: 519130; Name: Facebook Inc; NAICS: 518210, 519130
Publication title: BBC Monitoring Americas; London
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 12, 2018
Dateline: BRAZIL
Publisher: BBC Worldwide Limited
Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Political Science
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2001074106
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2001074106?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright BBC Worldwide Limited Feb 12, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-12
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 91 of 474
BBCM Latin America Watchlist for 12 February
Publication info: BBC Monitoring Americas ; London [London]12 Feb 2018.
Abstract:
Please contact Monitoring's News Desk at Caversham (+44-118-9486555) for queries or more information Colombia's ELN carries out attacks during 'armed stoppage' Colombia's left-wing National Liberation Army (ELN) rebel group carried out attacks on roads, bridges and vehicles in several areas of the country during the weekend of 10-11 February, after announcing an "armed stoppage" lasting until 13 February, Colombian radio station Caracol reported on its website on 12 February. [...]the departmental government said that through "an increase in vigilance" it was able to avoid more attacks from happening, Caracol reported. https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dothfo Mexico: Zetas 'most affected' by Pena's anti-drug strategy During the last five years, Mexico's security forces arrested or killed 33 high-ranking members of the Los Zetas criminal organisation, making it the drug cartel 'most affected' by President Enrique Pena Nieto's anti-drug strategy, Mexican daily El Financiero reported on 12 February.Full text: By BBC Monitoring Stories being covered today by BBC Monitoring from Latin American broadcast, press and social media sources. Please contact Monitoring's News Desk at Caversham (+44-118-9486555) for queries or more information Colombia's ELN carries out attacks during 'armed stoppage' Colombia's left-wing National Liberation Army (ELN) rebel group carried out attacks on roads, bridges and vehicles in several areas of the country during the weekend of 10-11 February, after announcing an "armed stoppage" lasting until 13 February, Colombian radio station Caracol reported on its website on 12 February. In northern Norte de Santander department, four attacks were attributed to the ELN, including one in which two people died when the explosive artefact they were handling to apparently try to blow up a bridge detonated. In central north-western Antioquia department, four more attacks were blamed on the ELN, which included the burning of trucks. However, the departmental government said that through "an increase in vigilance" it was able to avoid more attacks from happening, Caracol reported. https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dothfo Mexico: Zetas 'most affected' by Pena's anti-drug strategy During the last five years, Mexico's security forces arrested or killed 33 high-ranking members of the Los Zetas criminal organisation, making it the drug cartel 'most affected' by President Enrique Pena Nieto's anti-drug strategy, Mexican daily El Financiero reported on 12 February. The newspaper said the government's strategy prevented Los Zetas from further expanding, despite the cartel having a presence in at least 20 of Mexico's states. In some territories, Los Zetas had been replaced by other crime organisations such as the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), the story added. The second "most-affected" cartel in the Pena Nieto government's anti-drug strategy was the Sinaloa cartel, El Financiero reported in its story. "The most relevant action was the double capture of [Sinaloa cartel boss] Joaquin Guzman Loera, "El Chapo", on 22 February 2014 in Mazatlan, Sinaloa, and on 8 January 2016, in Los Mochis, Sinaloa," El Financiero wrote. https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dothgx Less politics, more fun: Carnival truce in Brazilian media Miami filed a media roundup showing how, after months of political turmoil, Carnival season has arrived in Brazil, and both revellers and the local media look like they decided it was time to press pause on the country's turbulent political crisis. Following months of reporting on the crisis, Brazil's media changed pace to focus on Carnival costumes generating social media sensations and millions of locals and tourists enjoying themselves in the world-famous celebration. https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dothje Coming Up Colombia's ELN left-wing rebel group is staging a "national armed stoppage" which started on 10 February and is scheduled to continue through 13 February. On 13 February, Peru hosts a meeting of the Lima Group of 12 Latin American governments to consider Venezuela's upcoming 22 April elections Brazil's Rio de Janeiro is holding its world-famous Carnival, which began on 9 February and lasts until 17 February BBC Monitoring
Subject: Social networks; Cartels
Location: Mexico Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil Venezuela Latin America Colombia Peru
People: Guzman, Joaquin (El Chapo)
Publication title: BBC Monitoring Americas; London
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 12, 2018
Dateline: LATAM
Publisher: BBC Worldwide Limited
Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Political Science
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2001077964
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2001077964?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright BBC Worldwide Limited Feb 12, 2018
Last updated: 2019-02-15
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 92 of 474
Brazil political press review 12 February 2018
Publication info: BBC Monitoring Americas ; London [London]12 Feb 2018.
Abstract:
Analyst assesses Supreme Court justice's decision to deny Lula's habeas corpus request Supreme Court Justice Edson Fachin, who is in charge of the Lava Jato (Car Wash) bribe scandal investigation, denied a habeas corpus request submitted by the defence lawyers of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and then made a strategic decision by submitting the legal case against Lula to the Supreme Court Plenary to gain time to allow the Fourth Regional Federal Court of Porto Alegre to decide on Lula's imprisonment after he was sentenced by that court, according to an analysis by Diego Escosteguy published in Folha de Sao Paulo. Supreme Court Justice summons Federal Police Chief to 'clarify' interview with news agency Supreme Court Justice Roberto Barroso summoned Federal Police Chief Fernando Segovia to explain his recent remarks to a news agency in which he said there was no evidence of a crime committed by President Michel Temer over the ports decree granting benefits to private companies. Former president Cardoso encourages TV personality Huck to run for president Former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso of the PSDB (Brazilian Social Democracy Party) is encouraging TV personality Luciano Huck to become a presidential candidate in this year's elections but he listed a number of issues that the host of the Rede Globo TV programme should address if he decides to enter the race, Folha de Sao Paulo reported.Full text: By BBC Monitoring President Temer visits northern Roraima state to discuss influx of Venezuelan immigrants President Michel Temer decided to go today [12 February] to Boa Vista, capital of Roraime State, to discuss emergency measures for the crisis caused by the influx of Venezuelan immigrants into Brazil as there are approximately 40,000 Venezuelan nationals in Boa Vista alone, Folha de Sao Paulo reported. In almost two years, it will be the President's first trip to the capital of Roraima to take care of the problem after he finally became aware of the dramatic situation. "It is a humanitarian crisis; it is not about numbers, but about people," said Boa Vista Mayor Teresa Surita. This morning Temer is scheduled to meet with Surita, State Governor Suely Campos, Senate Government Leader Romero Juca and other authorities. Members of the state judiciary and state legislators will also participate in the meeting. The increasing number of Venezuelan refugees has awakened xenophobic reactions in the local population. Last week, two incidents raised the alarm. A four-year-old child and her parents were injured in a fire in a house in Boa Vista where 13 migrants live. In addition, a man was spotted by security cameras throwing an incendiary object at another property inhabited by Venezuelans. The Conectas Human Rights Organisation said that the deliberate incidents were the result of the lack of a clear and articulated response from the federal, state and municipal authorities in dealing with the recent migratory flow of Venezuelan refugees into Brazil. Analyst assesses Supreme Court justice's decision to deny Lula's habeas corpus request Supreme Court Justice Edson Fachin, who is in charge of the Lava Jato (Car Wash) bribe scandal investigation, denied a habeas corpus request submitted by the defence lawyers of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and then made a strategic decision by submitting the legal case against Lula to the Supreme Court Plenary to gain time to allow the Fourth Regional Federal Court of Porto Alegre to decide on Lula's imprisonment after he was sentenced by that court, according to an analysis by Diego Escosteguy published in Folha de Sao Paulo. News agency makes changes to Federal Police Chief interview story The Reuters news agency reissued an exclusive interview with Federal Police Chief Fernando Segovia, changing the original interview released on Friday night 9 February which quoted Segovia as saying that the trend in the Federal Police was to shelve the investigation against President Michel Temer over the Ports Decree which have benefit to private companies, O Estado de Sao Paulo reported. Reuters changed the word "affirming" for "indicating." The agency "clarifies that Segovia said that so far there is no 'indication' of crime in the case, indicating rather than affirming, that the trend in the Federal Police is to shelve the case." Federal Police Chief releases note clarifying news agency report Following controversy over comments quoted in an interview he gave to the Reuters news agency, Federal Police Chief Fernando Segovia released on Saturday 10 February a note distributed to Federal Police officials denying that he said that the investigation into President Michel Temer would be shelved, Folha de Sao Paulo reported. Supreme Court Justice summons Federal Police Chief to 'clarify' interview with news agency Supreme Court Justice Roberto Barroso summoned Federal Police Chief Fernando Segovia to explain his recent remarks to a news agency in which he said there was no evidence of a crime committed by President Michel Temer over the ports decree granting benefits to private companies. Segovia telephoned Barroso and they decided to meet on Monday 19 February to discuss the issue, O Globo newspaper reported. Barroso is the rapporteur of the investigation into the ports decree and Segovia´s aides are preparing a transcription of the recorded interview to be delivered to Barroso to clarify what was said. Federal Police directors find Chief Segovia´s explanations ´unsatisfactory' Federal Police directors have found that the explanations given by Federal Police Chief Fernando Segovia about the investigation of irregularities in the ports decree signed by President Michel Temer, benefitting private companies, are "unsatisfactory" and therefore, they are pressuring the Federal Police Directors National Association to ask for Segovia's resignation, Folha de Sao Paulo reported. However, the association leaders decided to wait for the answers Segovia will give Justice Roberto Barroso during a meeting after the carnival holiday, Analyst says Police Chief Segovia's argument of being misinterpreted by news agency is 'irrelevant' The argument used by Federal Police Chief Fernando Segovia that his remarks given in an interview with a news agency were misinterpreted is "irrelevant" because he expressed an opinion on an investigation still going on in the Federal Police, says an analysis by columnist Leandro Colon published in Folha de Sao Paulo. Former president Cardoso encourages TV personality Huck to run for president Former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso of the PSDB (Brazilian Social Democracy Party) is encouraging TV personality Luciano Huck to become a presidential candidate in this year's elections but he listed a number of issues that the host of the Rede Globo TV programme should address if he decides to enter the race, Folha de Sao Paulo reported. Venezuelan military chiefs seeking medical treatment in Brazil-report Venezuelan military chiefs are coming across the Brazilian border without identifying their military positions to seek medical treatment they cannot get in Venezuela. This was the case of Brigadier General Silvano Jose Torre Onates, 46, who came to Boa Vista, capital of Roraima State, to be treated for a broken leg, O Globo reported. BBC Monitoring
Subject: Local elections; Criminal investigations; Habeas corpus
Location: Brazil Roraima Venezuela
People: Temer, Michel Lula da Silva, Luiz Inacio
Company / organization: Name: Senate; NAICS: 921120
Publication title: BBC Monitoring Americas; London
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 12, 2018
Dateline: BRAZIL
Publisher: BBC Worldwide Limited
Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Political Science
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2001131091
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2001131091?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright BBC Worldwide Limited Feb 12, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-12
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 93 of 474
LatAm Political, Economic Calendar - Week Ahead
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]12 Feb 2018. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
(END)
February 12, 2018 09:30 ET (14:30 GMT)All dates are in local time Monday, February 12, 2018 Exp Prev Local/GMT/ET N/A BRA Brazil: Carnival. Financial markets closed N/A PER Dec Trade - Imports and Exports N/A VEN Venezuela: Carnival Monday. Financial markets closed N/A ARG Argentina: Lunes de Carnaval. Financial markets closed Tuesday, February 13, 2018 Exp Prev Local/GMT/ET N/A VEN Venezuela: Carnival Tuesday. Financial markets closed N/A ARG Argentina: Martes de Carnaval. Financial markets closed N/A BRA Brazil: Carnival holiday continues. Financial markets closed Wednesday, February 14, 2018 Exp Prev Local/GMT/ET 1000/1500/1000 COL Dec Retail Trade Retail Sales, Y/Y% -1.2% 1000/1500/1000 COL Dec Industrial Production Indus Output, Y/Y% +0.3% 1000/1500/1000 COL Dec External Trade - Imports Imports, Y/Y% -4.3% Trade Balance (USD) -791.7M N/A BRA Brazil: Ash Wednesday special trading hours. Trading and registration in BM&FBOVESPA's markets begins at 13:00 local time Thursday, February 15, 2018 Exp Prev Local/GMT/ET 0800/1000/0500 BRA Banco Central do Brasil Monetary Policy Committee (Copom) Minutes 1100/1600/1100 COL Q4 GDP GDP, Y/Y% +2.0% 1600/1900/1400 ARG Jan CPI CPI, M/M% +3.1% 1600/1900/1400 ARG Jan PPI PPI, M/M% +1.8% N/A PER Q4 GDP GDP, Y/Y% +2.5% N/A PER Dec Labor Market Situation in the Lima Metropolitan Area N/A PER Dec National Production Friday, February 16, 2018 Exp Prev Local/GMT/ET 0500/0700/0200 BRA Fipe 4-Week CPI 4-Week %Chg +0.25% 0830/1130/0630 CHI Banco Central de Chile Monetary Policy Meeting Minutes 1000/1600/1100 MEX Dec Mexico Leading Indicators
Subject: Monetary policy; International trade; Securities markets
Location: Argentina Mexico Brazil Venezuela
Company / organization: Name: Banco Central de Chile; NAICS: 521110; Name: Banco Central do Brasil; NAICS: 521110
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 12, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2001270283
Document URL: https ://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2001270283?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Feb 12, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-13
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 94 of 474
DJ AGS WEEK AHEAD: Soybean Traders Feel The Heat; Sugar Bulls Pin Hopes on Supply Shock, Short-Covering
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]12 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
By David Hodari
LONDON--A roundup of key agriculture commodities markets for the week of February 12-February 16, by WSJ/ commodities reporters in London.
GRAINS AND OILSEEDS
Wheat was last up 2.1% at $4.58 a bushel; corn was last up 0.8% at $3.65 a bushel; soybeans were last 0.9% higher at $9.91 a bushel.
Grain traders were closely watching for any signs of contagion from last week's whipsaw volatility in equities markets. For corn, however, the week was "mostly business as usual," according to AG Watch Market Advisors in a note.
The United States Department of Agriculture's World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates Report (WASDE) for February, released late Thursday, revealed a cut in forecast corn production. That change was "slightly bullish" for corn prices, Rabobank analysts noted. Prices have ticked up 4.2% year-to-date.
The USDA's soybean estimate, went in the opposite direction, however. The WASDE's upward correction of soybean production forecast was more pronounced than expected, Commerzbank analysts said. However, a discrepancy between USDA forecasts for Argentine soybean production and the estimate put out by the Buenos Aires Grain Exchange--the USDA forecasts 54 million tons versus Argentina's 51 million tons--could lead to uncertainty in the coming weeks, Commerzbank continued.
Continued dry, hot weather, a symptom of the ongoing weak La Niña weather system, will continue to stress crops meaning "Argentina's bottom line remains one of great concern of falling production potentials," World Weather Inc. said according to a note from agricultural advisory firm Allendale.
Wheat rose 4% in the week to Monday, with dry weather in the U.S. southern plains continuing to be a dominant price driver, AG Watch said. U.S. wheat exports, meanwhile, were struggling given the continuing dominance of Black Sea wheat.
The latest example of that continued Russian dominance came in the Egyptian General Authority for Supply Commodities's most recent wheat tender, at the end of which it bought 360,000 metric tons of wheat. Of the six 60,000 tons Egypt bought, four were Russian and two were from Romania. Friday's purchase was only the second tender out of GASC's most recent 13 to include non-Russian wheat.
In that vein, Federal Customs Service of Russia said wheat exports from the beginning of the agricultural season amounted to more than 24.5 million tons, which is 37% higher than the level of the same period in 2016, Allendale said.
COCOA
London-traded cocoa futures were last down 0.5% at GBP1,428 a metric ton, having more-than-pared last week's gains. New York-traded futures were last 0.5% down at $1,998 a ton.
Those slides come despite ICE trader commitment data, released Monday, which revealed that London managed money funds cut their short positions for the fourth time in as many weeks in the days to Feb. 6. New York funds, meanwhile, flipped into bullish territory.
"It's merely a question of short-covering in my view," said a Europe-based trader. "The question also remains of why prices are moving up. I have the feeling there is plenty of cocoa, however, the excess is in the hands of four or five international buyers," the trader said.
That situation has arisen after 180,000 tons-worth of soon-to-default cocoa contracts were resold by the Ivorian Coffee and Cocoa Council at the end of January. "It's a bloody, crooked mess--they should have been resold via the auction system and they weren't. The sales director responsible has been fired after only a few months in the job."
Apart from that Ivorian imbroglio, hot and dry Harmattan winds were starting to hit world number two producer Ghana. Investors continue to live in the hope that the Ghanaian government body Cocobod will cut its farm-gate price in the coming months. "They should have done it for this season as they're not making a dime right now," another trader said.
As for next season, traders reported that the Ivory Coast had already sold 500,000 tons for the 2018/19 season and that Ghana had sold at least 100,000 tons.
Despite that forward selling, though, prices went up last week mostly thanks to a weaker pound.
SUGAR
Raw sugar futures were last 0.22% down at 13.62 U.S. cents a pound. With a bearish consensus emerging from last week's Dubai sugar conference--according to ED&F Man in a note--investors were still focusing on the large surplus forecast by the overwhelming majority of market participants.
There was "little fresh fundamental news around [with] markets are still locked in a range," said Nick Penney, senior trader at Sucden Financial Research in a note.
One European trader, though, was expecting a short-term pick-up in prices, given that traders are currently at a "massive speculative short position. They've smashed the previous net-short by a good 50,000 lots."
Raw sugar futures have lost 9% in 2018, and prices may not have much room to sink any further. "Between 13 and 14 cents [a pound], it doesn't feel like anyone else can come in and sell," the trader added. Aside from the potential for traders to cover their short-positions and drive up prices, "it's rather boring but it often takes a supply shock rather than a demand shock to get the market going higher and that doesn't seem likely any time soon," the trader added.
COFFEE
"It's not going to be a very good week for making money with the two big boys away," said one London coffee trader. He was, of course, referring to Brazil and Vietnam--the world's two biggest producers of coffee--with the former celebrating its carnival and the latter slowing down ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday.
"Upside potential for arabica prices is really limited--I think it will move higher at some point as traders start to bargain hunt and cover their short positions. I don't see value below $1.20 a pound," the trader added.
Similarly, Societe Generale analysts rated arabica coffee as being oversold and vulnerable to short-covering in a note released Monday.
New York arabica was last 0.4% down at $1.23 a pound and London-traded robusta was last 0.1% down at $1,788 a metric ton.
Write to David Hodari at [email protected]
(END)
February 12, 2018 13:00 ET (18:00 GMT)
Subject: Agriculture; Futures; Coffee; Prices; Soybeans
Location: Russia United States--US New York Ivory Coast Romania Black Sea Egypt Vietnam Dubai United Arab Emirates Argentina Brazil Ghana Europe
Company / organization: Name: Department of Agriculture; NAICS: 926140; Name: Societe Generale; NAICS: 522110, 522120, 523110, 523120
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 12, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2001275624
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2001275624?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Feb 12, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-13
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 95 of 474
LatAm Political, Economic Calendar - Week Ahead
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]12 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
(END)
February 12, 2018 14:30 ET (19:30 GMT)All dates are in local time Tuesday, February 13, 2018 Exp Prev Local/GMT/ET N/A VEN Venezuela: Carnival Tuesday. Financial markets closed N/A ARG Argentina: Martes de Carnaval. Financial markets closed N/A BRA Brazil: Carnival holiday continues. Financial markets closed Wednesday, February 14, 2018 Exp Prev Local/GMT/ET 1000/1500/1000 COL Dec Retail Trade Retail Sales, Y/Y% -1.2% 1000/1500/1000 COL Dec Industrial Production Indus Output, Y/Y% +0.3% 1000/1500/1000 COL Dec External Trade - Imports Imports, Y/Y% -4.3% Trade Balance (USD) -791.7M N/A BRA Brazil: Ash Wednesday special trading hours. Trading and registration in BM&FBOVESPA's markets begins at 13:00 local time Thursday, February 15, 2018 Exp Prev Local/GMT/ET 0800/1000/0500 BRA Banco Central do Brasil Monetary Policy Committee (Copom) Minutes 1100/1600/1100 COL Q4 GDP GDP, Y/Y% +2.0% 1600/1900/1400 ARG Jan CPI CPI, M/M% +3.1% 1600/1900/1400 ARG Jan PPI PPI, M/M% +1.8% N/A PER Q4 GDP GDP, Y/Y% +2.5% N/A PER Dec Labor Market Situation in the Lima Metropolitan Area N/A PER Dec National Production Friday, February 16, 2018 Exp Prev Local/GMT/ET 0500/0700/0200 BRA Fipe 4-Week CPI 4-Week %Chg +0.25% 0830/1130/0630 CHI Banco Central de Chile Monetary Policy Meeting Minutes 1000/1600/1100 MEX Dec Mexico Leading Indicators
Subject: Monetary policy; Securities markets
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 12, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2001281658
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2001281658?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Feb 12, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-13
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 96 of 474
Russia: Russian female dancer to participate in samba schools parade at Rio de Janeiro Carnival
Publication info: Asia News Monitor ; Bangkok [Bangkok]13 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Russian female dancer Yuliana Titaeva will participate in the samba schools parade at the carnival in Brazil's Rio de Janeiro for the second year a row. "[The Rio de Janeiro Carnival] is my Olympic Games. I will go there whilst I have an opportunity to be there," Titaeva told TASS on Saturday. The official opening ceremony of the Rio de Janeiro Carnival took place on Friday, February 9. The parade of competing samba schools is a traditional highlight of the festival. Titaeva, the only Russian dancer at the Rio Carnival last year and this year, participates in the festival as part of the Portela samba school, which won the samba parade last year. "The issue is not in participating once and winning. This is a continuous process of growth and this is an extra experience for me. Furthermore, how could I miss the carnival," Titaeva said. Winners of the samba schools parade will be announced this year on February 14. The six schools getting the highest marks will show their skills once again at the "Winners' Parade" on February 17. (Russian News Agency)
Subject: Parades; Schools
Location: Brazil Russia Rio de Janeiro Brazil
Publication title: Asia News Monitor; Bangkok
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 13, 2018
Section: General News
Publisher: Thai News Service Group
Place of publication: Bangkok
Country of publication: Thailand, Bangkok
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--Philippines, General Interest Periodicals--Vietnam, General Interest Periodicals--Thailand
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2001034143
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2001034143?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Thai News Service Group Feb 13, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-12
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 97 of 474
BBCM Latin America Watchlist for 13 February
Publication info: BBC Monitoring Americas ; London [London]13 Feb 2018.
Abstract:
Writing on his @moisejovenel account, the Haitian president said: "There is nothing more unworthy and dishonest than a sexual predator who uses his position in the framework of a humanitarian response to a natural catastrophe to exploit needy persons in their moments of greatest vulnerability" https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dotlqk Oxfam International chair arrested for corruption had condemned 'abominable' Haiti acts On 13 February, the image of the UK-based charity received a further blow when its international chair, former Guatemalan finance minister Juan Alberto Fuentes, was among several ex-officials arrested for corruption in the Central American country. Less than a day before he was arrested for alleged corruption in Guatemala, Fuentes had condemned on Twitter what he called the "abominable actions of the Oxfam team in Haiti", saying the Haiti scandal hurt "good people from Oxfam, with whom I identify," according to a 12 February posting on his Twitter account. https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dotod6 Colombia government issues arrest warrants for top ELN rebel leaders Colombia's Prosecutor's Office issued warrants for the arrest of five members of the central command of the National Liberation Army (ELN) left-wing rebel group, among them Israel Ramirez, alias Pablo Beltran, who was a member of the guerrilla movement's delegation to now suspended peace talks with the Colombian government in Quito, Ecuador, Colombian daily El Espectador reported on 13 February. Colombian radio station Caracol Radio wrote on its website on 13 February that the Colombian government would send the warrants to the international police agency Interpol after the head of the Colombian armed forces said the ELN's top leadership had fled to Venezuela. https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dotnlu Mexico: Top Zetas leader says he 'contributed' to campaign of Guatemala ex-president Jose Maria Guizar Valencia, alias "El Z-43", a leader of the Los Zetas cartel arrested on 8 February, told Mexican authorities he had contributed to fund the presidential campaign of former Guatemalan president Otto Perez Molina, who is accused of corruption, according to a 13 February commentary published by El Universal newspaper. https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dotoco An editorial published by left-wing newspaper La Jornada on its website on 13 February said the western Mexican state of Nayarit was currently "helpless" against crime. https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dotoem On 12 February, Miami published an Explainer on how Mexico's premier tourism resorts are being impacted by the drug cartel violence.Full text: By BBC Monitoring Stories being covered today by BBC Monitoring from Latin American broadcast, press and social media sources. Please contact Monitoring's News Desk at Caversham (+44-118-9486555) for queries or more information Haitian president condemns 'serious violation of human dignity' in Oxfam case In the first official reaction from Haiti to the scandal over Oxfam employees allegedly hiring prostitutes there, Haitian President Jovenel Moise said on Twitter on 12 February that such actions represented "an extremely serious violation of human dignity". Writing on his @moisejovenel account, the Haitian president said: "There is nothing more unworthy and dishonest than a sexual predator who uses his position in the framework of a humanitarian response to a natural catastrophe to exploit needy persons in their moments of greatest vulnerability" https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dotlqk Oxfam International chair arrested for corruption had condemned 'abominable' Haiti acts On 13 February, the image of the UK-based charity received a further blow when its international chair, former Guatemalan finance minister Juan Alberto Fuentes, was among several ex-officials arrested for corruption in the Central American country. Guatemala's former President Alvaro Colom was also among those detained in connection with irregularities in the payment of subsidies to public transport system Transurbano, Guatemalan daily elPeriodico reported on 13 February. https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dotns0 In its initial report, the Guatemalan newspaper did not mention Fuentes' Oxfam affiliation. Less than a day before he was arrested for alleged corruption in Guatemala, Fuentes had condemned on Twitter what he called the "abominable actions of the Oxfam team in Haiti", saying the Haiti scandal hurt "good people from Oxfam, with whom I identify," according to a 12 February posting on his Twitter account. https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dotod6 Colombia government issues arrest warrants for top ELN rebel leaders Colombia's Prosecutor's Office issued warrants for the arrest of five members of the central command of the National Liberation Army (ELN) left-wing rebel group, among them Israel Ramirez, alias Pablo Beltran, who was a member of the guerrilla movement's delegation to now suspended peace talks with the Colombian government in Quito, Ecuador, Colombian daily El Espectador reported on 13 February. The newspaper said however that the warrant for Beltran's arrest would remain "suspended" under government orders as part of the peace initiative efforts. The remaining active warrants ordered the arrest of Nicolas Rodriguez Bautista, alias Gabino, the ELN's top leader, Eliecer Chamorro, alias Antionio Garcia, Rafael Sierra, alias Ramiro Vargas, and Gustavo Anibal Giraldo, alias Pablito. Colombian radio station Caracol Radio wrote on its website on 13 February that the Colombian government would send the warrants to the international police agency Interpol after the head of the Colombian armed forces said the ELN's top leadership had fled to Venezuela. https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dotnlu Mexico: Top Zetas leader says he 'contributed' to campaign of Guatemala ex-president Jose Maria Guizar Valencia, alias "El Z-43", a leader of the Los Zetas cartel arrested on 8 February, told Mexican authorities he had contributed to fund the presidential campaign of former Guatemalan president Otto Perez Molina, who is accused of corruption, according to a 13 February commentary published by El Universal newspaper. https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dotoco An editorial published by left-wing newspaper La Jornada on its website on 13 February said the western Mexican state of Nayarit was currently "helpless" against crime. https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dotoem On 12 February, Miami published an Explainer on how Mexico's premier tourism resorts are being impacted by the drug cartel violence. Explainer: Bullets on the beach? Mexico resorts under threat https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1doti42 Coming Up On 13 February, Peru hosts a meeting of the Lima Group of 12 Latin American governments to consider Venezuela's upcoming 22 April elections Brazil's Rio de Janeiro is holding its world-famous Carnival, which began on 9 February and lasts until 17 February BBC Monitoring
Subject: Paramilitary groups; Arrests; Corruption; Presidents; Social networks; Leadership
Location: Israel United Kingdom--UK Latin America Peru Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil Ecuador Haiti Mexico Venezuela Guatemala Colombia
People: Perez Molina, Otto Colom, Alvaro Moise, Jovenel Garcia, Rafael
Company / organization: Name: La Jornada; NAICS: 511120; Name: El Espectador; NAICS: 511110; Name: Interpol; NAICS: 922120; Name: Twitter Inc; NAICS: 519130; Name: Oxfam GB; NAICS: 813219
Publication title: BBC Monitoring Americas; London
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 13, 2018
Dateline: LATAM
Publisher: BBC Worldwide Limited
Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Political Science
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2001473117
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2001473117?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright BBC Worldwide Limited Feb 13, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-13
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 98 of 474
Photos of the Day: Feb. 13
Publication info: Wall Street Journal (Online) ; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]13 Feb 2018: n/a.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Festival participants wear costumes during Carnival celebrations in Belgium, FBI Director Christopher Wray arrives to testify on Capitol Hill, a Mardi Gras parade is held in New Orleans, and more Festival participants wear traditional costumes during Carnival celebrations in the streets of Binche, Belgium, on Tuesday. U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray arrives to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. People create a human chain along the Elbe river in Dresden, Germany, to commemorate the World War II bombing of the city. A boy jumps over debris outside the Iron Market, also known as Marche Hyppolite, in the aftermath of a massive fire that swept through a section of the popular marketplace, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. A member of the Krewe of Zulu marches in a Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans. A mute swan performs a courtship ritual on the Rhine river in Au am Rhein near Karlsruhe, Germany. Exhausted float pushers for the Beija Flor Samba school rest at the end of Carnival celebrations at the Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Tuesday. The world-famous two-day parade finished earlier in the day. A resident walks past a house damaged by flooding following heavy rains from tropical Storm Sanba in the town of Jaboanga on the southern island of Mindanao, Philippines. Choi Soon-sil, right, a confidante of former South Korean President Park Geun-hye, leaves the Seoul Central District Court in Seoul, South Korea, on Tuesday. Choi, accused of manipulating South Korea's former president for personal gain, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for bribery and other crimes in the political scandal that triggered the country's first presidential impeachment and the conviction of an heir to the Samsung empire. Ducks sit on ice sheets on the Wannsee lake in Berlin on Tuesday. [Interactive content available online]
Subject: Convictions; Mardi Gras
Location: Port Au Prince Haiti United States--US Philippines Germany Washington DC Brazil Belgium Rio de Janeiro Brazil South Korea
People: Choi Soon-sil Wray, Christopher A
Company / organization: Name: Senate-Intelligence, Select Committee on; NAICS: 921120; Name: Federal Bureau of Investigation--FBI; NAICS: 922120
Publication title: Wall Street Journal (Online); New York, N.Y.
Pages: n/a
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 13, 2018
Section: Interactives
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York, N.Y.
Country of publication: United States, New York, N.Y.
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2001558270
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2001558270?accountid=4840
Copyright: (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Reproduced with permission of copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
Last updated: 2018-02-13
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Major Dailies
Document 99 of 474
LatAm Political, Economic Calendar -- Week Ahead
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]13 Feb 2018. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
(END)
February 13, 2018 09:30 ET (14:30 GMT)All dates are in local time Tuesday, February 13, 2018 Exp Prev Local/GMT/ET N/A BRA Brazil: Carnival holiday continues. Financial markets closed N/A VEN Venezuela: Carnival Tuesday. Financial markets closed N/A ARG Argentina: Martes de Carnaval. Financial markets closed Wednesday, February 14, 2018 Exp Prev Local/GMT/ET 1000/1500/1000 COL Dec Retail Trade Retail Sales, Y/Y% -1.2% 1000/1500/1000 COL Dec Industrial Production Indus Output, Y/Y% +0.3% 1000/1500/1000 COL Dec External Trade - Imports Imports, Y/Y% -4.3% Trade Balance (USD) -791.7M N/A BRA Brazil: Ash Wednesday special trading hours. Trading and registration in BM&FBOVESPA's markets begins at 13:00 local time Thursday, February 15, 2018 Exp Prev Local/GMT/ET 0800/1000/0500 BRA Banco Central do Brasil Monetary Policy Committee (Copom) Minutes 1100/1600/1100 COL Q4 GDP GDP, Y/Y% +2.0% 1600/1900/1400 ARG Jan CPI CPI, M/M% +3.1% 1600/1900/1400 ARG Jan PPI PPI, M/M% +1.8% N/A PER Dec Labour Market Situation in the Lima Metropolitan Area N/A PER Dec National Production Friday, February 16, 2018 Exp Prev Local/GMT/ET 0500/0700/0200 BRA Fipe 4-Week CPI 4-Week %Chg +0.25% 0830/1130/0630 CHI Banco Central de Chile Monetary Policy Meeting Minutes 1000/1600/1100 MEX Dec Mexico Leading Indicators
Subject: Monetary policy; Securities markets; Inflation
Location: Argentina Mexico Brazil Venezuela
Company / organization: Name: Banco Central de Chile; NAICS: 521110; Name: Banco Central do Brasil; NAICS: 521110
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 13, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2001667824
Document URL: https://login. proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2001667824?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Feb 13, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-14
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 100 of 474
LatAm Political, Economic Calendar -- Week Ahead
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]13 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
(END)
February 13, 2018 14:30 ET (19:30 GMT)All dates are in local time Tuesday, February 13, 2018 Exp Prev Local/GMT/ET N/A BRA Brazil: Carnival holiday continues. Financial markets closed N/A VEN Venezuela: Carnival Tuesday. Financial markets closed N/A ARG Argentina: Martes de Carnaval. Financial markets closed Wednesday, February 14, 2018 Exp Prev Local/GMT/ET 1000/1500/1000 COL Dec Retail Trade Retail Sales, Y/Y% -1.2% 1000/1500/1000 COL Dec Industrial Production Indus Output, Y/Y% +0.3% 1000/1500/1000 COL Dec External Trade - Imports Imports, Y/Y% -4.3% Trade Balance (USD) -791.7M N/A BRA Brazil: Ash Wednesday special trading hours. Trading and registration in BM&FBOVESPA's markets begins at 13:00 local time Thursday, February 15, 2018 Exp Prev Local/GMT/ET 0800/1000/0500 BRA Banco Central do Brasil Monetary Policy Committee (Copom) Minutes 1100/1600/1100 COL Q4 GDP GDP, Y/Y% +2.0% 1600/1900/1400 ARG Jan CPI CPI, M/M% +3.1% 1600/1900/1400 ARG Jan PPI PPI, M/M% +1.8% N/A PER Dec Labour Market Situation in the Lima Metropolitan Area N/A PER Dec National Production Friday, February 16, 2018 Exp Prev Local/GMT/ET 0500/0700/0200 BRA Fipe 4-Week CPI 4-Week %Chg +0.25% 0830/1130/0630 CHI Banco Central de Chile Monetary Policy Meeting Minutes 1000/1600/1100 MEX Dec Mexico Leading Indicators
Subject: Monetary policy; Securities markets; Inflation
Location: Argentina Mexico Brazil Venezuela
Company / organization: Name: Banco Central de Chile; NAICS: 521110; Name: Banco Central do Brasil; NAICS: 521110
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 13, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2001674970
Document URL: https://login. proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2001674970?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Feb 13, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-14
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 101 of 474
Brazil crime and narcotics roundup 14 February 2018
Publication info: BBC Monitoring Americas ; London [London]14 Feb 2018.
Abstract:
By BBC Monitoring Rio de Janeiro State Rio mobilises 17,000 military police officers to cope with violence After a wave of violence in the middle of Carnival with a series of robberies and assaults in Ipanema, the Rio state government's promise to reinforce street security with 17,000 military police officers had finally been fulfilled, Rio de Janeiro-based daily O Globo reported. On the waterfront, on 13 February, the beaches of Copacabana, Ipanema and Leblon were taken over by policemen from the Lagos Region, Baixada Fluminense, Campos and even by members of the battalion unit of the Rocinha slum, where a war between drug trafficking gangs had been going on for the last five months.Full text: By BBC Monitoring Rio de Janeiro State Rio mobilises 17,000 military police officers to cope with violence After a wave of violence in the middle of Carnival with a series of robberies and assaults in Ipanema, the Rio state government's promise to reinforce street security with 17,000 military police officers had finally been fulfilled, Rio de Janeiro-based daily O Globo reported. On the waterfront, on 13 February, the beaches of Copacabana, Ipanema and Leblon were taken over by policemen from the Lagos Region, Baixada Fluminense, Campos and even by members of the battalion unit of the Rocinha slum, where a war between drug trafficking gangs had been going on for the last five months. Military police officer killed in northern Rio Sergeant Fabio Miranda Silva, 41, member of the Military Police was killed on 13 February on Tompson Flores Street in Meier, Rio's northern zone, Brazilian daily O Globo reported. Miranda had been with the force since 2002. Mato Grosso do Sul State Federal Revenue agents seize weapons, drugs on BR-277 highway Federal Revenue agents and members of the Border Police stopped on 13 February a bus for tourism with plates of Caxias do Sul and found seven rifles, 16 chargers, five pistols, 58 kg of marijuana, and 77,500 packages of illegal cigarettes hidden inside, Campo Grande-based daily Correio do Estado reported. The police also arrested the bus driver. Border police seize 53 kg of marijuana near Amambai Police officers of the Border Operations Department, DOF, stopped a VW Saveiro pickup on Highway MS-156 that linked Amambai with Caarapo and found in a false bottom of the vehicle 53 kg of marijuana, Dourados News reported. The police arrested the driver identified as Maycon Gomes Pereira, 22, who lived in Marilia, Sao Paulo. BBC Monitoring in Portuguese 2003 gmt 14 Feb 18
Subject: Robbery; Military police; Marijuana
Location: Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil
Publication title: BBC Monitoring Americas; London
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 14, 2018
Dateline: BRAZIL
Publisher: BBC Worldwide Limited
Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Political Science
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2002022221
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2002022221?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright BBC Worldwide Limited Feb 14, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-14
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 102 of 474
Rio Carnival Is Marred by Violence as City’s Security Troubles Worsen
Publication info: New York Times (Online) , New York: New York Times Company. Feb 14, 2018.
Abstract:
The governor of the state of Rio acknowledged that there were not enough police officers patrolling the streets of Rio de Janeiro for the celebrations.
Full text: RIO DE JANEIRO — Muggings, armed robberies and confrontations during Carnival celebrations in Rio de Janeiro are underscoring the deteriorating security situation in the city. The television network TV Globo on Wednesday showed video of gunfire between rival drug gangs, teenagers punching tourists in areas usually considered relatively safe and a police officer narrowly escaping after several people attacked him in front of his home. Gov. Luiz Fernando Pezão of the state of Rio acknowledged there were not enough police officers on hand during the first couple days of Carnival, though more than 17,000 officers worked in Rio State each day during the festivities. “We were not prepared,” Mr. Pezão said. “There was a failure on the first two days, and then we brought backup for police. I think there has been a mistake in our part.” Statistics from the Friday to Tuesday festivities have not yet been released. Mr. Pezão said the number of firearms confiscated by the authorities was “incredible.” A year after hosting the 2016 Olympics, Rio is experiencing a spike in violence. Days before Carnival, rival drug gangs closed major transportation arteries of the city. Last year Rio used almost 12,000 police officers during Carnival, and also counted on the help of 9,000 members of the country’s armed forces. This time there was no federal aid during the festivities. Politicians avoided Rio during one of the most political Carnivals in Brazil’s history, with revelers singling out for criticism Mr. Pezão, President Michel Temer and especially Mayor Marcelo Crivella, an evangelical bishop who is no fan of Carnival and left the city for Europe. The samba school Beija-Flor de Nilópolis won the parade title on Wednesday in Rio’s Sambadrome using corruption as a theme. One of its floats portrayed a rat below the building of the state oil company Petrobras, which is at the center of a corruption scandal that has engulfed politicians across Latin America. Credit: The Associated Press
Subject: Violence; Robbery; Carnivals
Location: Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil Latin America Europe
People: Temer, Michel
Company / organization: Name: Petroleos Brasileiro SA; NAICS: 211111
Identifier / keyword: Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) Crime and Criminals Carnival (Pre-Lenten)
Publication title: New York Times (Online); New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 14, 2018
Section: world
Publisher: New York Times Company
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Blogs, Podcasts, & Websites
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2002056765
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2002056765?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright 2018 The New York Times Company
Last updated: 2018-02-27
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 103 of 474
Thousands of Desperate Venezuelans Flee to Brazil Even Having to Live in the Streets
Author: Anonymous
Publication info: Brazzil ; Los Angeles (Feb 14, 2018): N_A.
Abstract:
Officials in northern Brazil are demanding federal aid to help manage the influx of people seeking food and shelter. Venezuelan President, Nicolas Maduro, has sought to consolidate power as the country's economy collapses under the weight of a severe recession and hyper-inflation that topped 700 percent last year and could more than triple that figure in 2018.Full text: Officials in northern Brazil are demanding federal aid to help manage the influx of people seeking food and shelter. The president promised help while vowing that the country wouldn't turn its back on the Venezuelans. Brazil's president promised to provide whatever aid is necessary to the country's northern state of Roraima, which has been overwhelmed by tens of thousands of desperate Venezuelans fleeing their country's collapsing economy and political turmoil. Venezuelan President, Nicolas Maduro, has sought to consolidate power as the country's economy collapses under the weight of a severe recession and hyper-inflation that topped 700 percent last year and could more than triple that figure in 2018. Some 40,000 Venezuelans have poured into the Roraima capital, Boa Vista, overwhelming local government agencies and infrastructure in the city of 400,000. Many of the displaced Venezuelans are living in the streets. Brazilian President Michel Temer interrupted his Carnival vacation to fly to Roraima on Monday, where he promised a federal task force will work with the state to resolve the crisis situation. "I will not rest until we have solved the problems of Roraima," Temer said during a meeting with the governor and various state and federal officials. "All necessary resources will be sent to solve this Venezuelan question." The president suggested that some migrants could be moved to other states, but insisted that Brazil would not turn its back on the people fleeing misery. A List of Demands Defense minister Raul Jungmann later said that the army would set up a field hospital along the border and work with local officials to build triage centers, the G1 news portal reported. There are growing fears among local residents that the Venezuelans will take jobs away from Brazilians, who are concerned about their own country's lackluster economy. Two residences housing Venezuelans were set alight last week - five people were injured. A local man has been arrested in connection with the attack. The Roraima government gave federal officials a list of demands last week, including equipment, vehicles and its own security forces. Temer's government has so far agreed to double the number of federal security forces at the border to 200. Many of those entering from crisis-hit Venezuela have walked hundreds of kilometers to reach Boa Vista, but have largely been leftto sleep in public squares and other precarious parts of the city. After his meeting with local officials Temer reaffirmed that the government will not block Venezuelans from entering but it may try to organize the flow.
Subject: Presidents
Location: Brazil Roraima Venezuela
People: Maduro, Nicolas Temer, Michel
Ethnicity: Multi-Ethnic
Publication title: Brazzil; Los Angeles
Pages: N_A
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Oct 14, 2017
Publisher: Brazzil
Place of publication: Los Angeles
Country of publication: United States, Los Angeles
Publication subject: Multi-Ethnic, Ethnic Interests
ISSN: 15244997
Source type: Magazines
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2007441417
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2007441417?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Brazzil Feb 14, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-23
Database: Ethnic NewsWatch
Document 104 of 474
Rio Carnival Is Tarnished By Violence: [Foreign Desk]
Publication info: New York Times , Late Edition (East Coast); New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]15 Feb 2018: A.8.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: RIO DE JANEIRO -- Muggings, armed robberies and confrontations during Carnival celebrations in Rio de Janeiro are underscoring the deteriorating security situation in the city. The television network TV Globo on Wednesday showed video of gunfire between rival drug gangs, teenagers punching tourists in areas usually considered relatively safe and a police officer narrowly escaping after several people attacked him in front of his home. Gov. Luiz Fernando Pezão of the state of Rio acknowledged there were not enough police officers on hand during the first couple days of Carnival, though more than 17,000 officers worked in Rio State each day during the festivities. "We were not prepared," Mr. Pezão said. "There was a failure on the first two days, and then we brought backup for police. I think there has been a mistake in our part." Statistics from the Friday to Tuesday festivities have not yet been released. Mr. Pezão said the number of firearms confiscated by the authorities was "incredible." A year after hosting the 2016 Olympics, Rio is experiencing a spike in violence. Days before Carnival, rival drug gangs closed major transportation arteries of the city. Last year Rio used almost 12,000 police officers during Carnival, and also counted on the help of 9,000 members of the country's armed forces. This time there was no federal aid during the festivities. Politicians avoided Rio during one of the most political Carnivals in Brazil's history, with revelers singling out for criticism Mr. Pezão, President Michel Temer and especially Mayor Marcelo Crivella, an evangelical bishop who is no fan of Carnival and left the city for Europe. The samba school Beija-Flor de Nilópolis won the parade title on Wednesday in Rio's Sambadrome using corruption as a theme. One of its floats portrayed a rat below the building of the state oil company Petrobras, which is at the center of a corruption scandal that has engulfed politicians across Latin America. Credit: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Subject: Violence; Crime; Law enforcement; Robbery; Festivals; Carnivals
Location: Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil Latin America Europe
People: Temer, Michel
Company / organization: Name: Petroleos Brasileiro SA; NAICS: 211111
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/14/world/americas/brazil-rio-de-janeiro-carnival-violence.html
Publication title: New York Times , Late Edition (East Coast); New York, N.Y.
Pages: A.8
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 15, 2018
Section: A
Publisher: New York Times Company
Place of publication: New York, N.Y.
Country of publication: United States, New York, N.Y.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
ISSN: 03624331
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2002102402
Document URL: https://login. proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2002102402?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright New York Times Company Feb 15, 2018
Last updated: 2018-11-07
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 105 of 474
Brazil: Violence during Rio Carnival Spotlights Security Woes
Publication info: Asia News Monitor ; Bangkok [Bangkok]16 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: A series of muggings, armed robberies and confrontations during Rio de Janeiro's Carnival celebrations are underscoring the deteriorating security situation in the city. TV Globo on Wednesday showed videos of gunfire between rival drug gangs, teenagers punching tourists in areas usually considered relatively safe and a policeman narrowly escaping after several people attacked him in front of his home. Rio state Gov. Luiz Fernando Pezao acknowledged there weren't enough police on hand during the first couple days of Carnival, though more than 17,000 policemen worked in Rio state each day during the festivities. "We were not prepared. There was a failure on the first two days, and then we brought backup for police. I think there has been a mistake in our part,'' Pezao said. Statistics from the Friday to Tuesday bash have not yet been released. However, Pezao said the number of firearms confiscated by authorities was "incredible.'' A year after hosting the 2016 Olympics, Rio is experiencing a spike in violence. Days before Carnival, rival drug gangs closed key arteries of the city. Last year Rio used almost 12,000 policemen during Carnival, but it also counted on the help of 9,000 members of the country's armed forces. This time there was no federal aid during the bash. Politicians avoided Rio during one of the most political Carnivals in Brazil's history, with revelers targeting Pezao, President Michel Temer and especially Mayor Marcelo Crivella, an evangelical bishop who is no fan of the party and left the city for Europe. Beija-Flor de Nilopolis won the samba-school parade title on Wednesday in Rio's Sambadrome using corruption as a theme. One of its floats portrayed a rat below the building of state-oil Petrobras, which is at the center of a corruption scandal that has engulfed politicians across Latin America. Crowd favorite Paraiso do Tuiuti finished in a surprising second place, likely because of its political tone. The samba-school's anti-slavery theme attacked Temer's labor reform and the president himself. One of Tuiuti's floats featured a vampire wearing a presidential sash. Next week Temer, whose popularity is at single-digits, wants to push through a reform of Brazil's pension system. Analysts have said bill is unlikely to pass with October's presidential election approaching. The Carnival atmosphere did not help the president make his case for austerity. - VOA
Subject: Robbery; Carnivals
Location: Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil Latin America Europe
People: Temer, Michel
Company / organization: Name: Petroleos Brasileiro SA; NAICS: 211111
Publication title: Asia News Monitor; Bangkok
Publication year: 2018
Publicationdate: Feb 16, 2018
Section: General News
Publisher: Thai News Service Group
Place of publication: Bangkok
Country of publication: Thailand, Bangkok
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--Philippines, General Interest Periodicals--Vietnam, General Interest Periodicals--Thailand
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2002166295
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2002166295?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Thai News Service Group Feb 16, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-15
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 106 of 474
Brazil Army to Take Over Security in Rio de Janeiro Amid Violent Crime Wave; City saw 2,125 violent deaths in 2017--a 37% increase since 2014
Author: Kiernan, Paul
Publication info: Wall Street Journal (Online) ; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]16 Feb 2018: n/a.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: RIO DE JANEIRO--Brazil's military will take over public security in Rio de Janeiro until the end of the year in an unprecedented intervention that highlights the famed seaside city's struggle to contain violent crime. President Michel Temer signed a decree Friday making Rio's state police and security authorities subordinate to an Army general who will report directly to him. The general, Walter Braga Netto, previously oversaw a temporary force of federal troops sent here last year to support local police. The move comes amid increasingly frequent reports of shootouts and robberies across the state's eponymous capital, which hosted
South America's first Olympic Games in 2016. The city of Rio saw 2,125 violent deaths last year, a 37% increase since 2014, including several heartbreaking cases of children and other innocent bystanders killed by stray bullets. This year's Carnival festivities earlier this week were marred by gunbattles and mass robberies. "Organized crime is a metastasis spreading through the country and threatening the tranquility of our people," Mr. Temer said in a speech alongside Rio Gov. Luiz Fernando "Pezão" de Souza and other officials. "I know it's an extreme measure, but many times Brazil demands extreme measures to impose order." Brasília has occasionally sent federal troops
to Rio and other states during flare-ups of violence, or to assist local police during major events. But pundits noted that handing over total control of law enforcement to the military is without precedent in the three decades since Brazil's 1964-85 military dictatorship ended. Mr. Braga Netto, who just returned from vacation, didn't provide details on whether the roughly 10,000 troops sent to Rio last July would be ramped up. He said the goal of the decree is to streamline management of the various security and law-enforcement bodies operating in the state. Rio's crime woes reflect an epic fiscal crisis in the state government, which is responsible for most policing, as well as a mass downsizing by its largest corporate employer, government-run Petróleo Brasileiro SA, in response to a corruption scandal. The state, home to 17 million people, shed more than half a million formal jobs in the past three years. Despite the recent uptick in crime, however, Rio's homicide rate of around 32 per 100,000 residents remains far below its 1990s peak. It is also far lower than that of several other Brazilian states, leading some observers to speculate that the decree was designed to distract attention from Mr. Temer's losing battle to push a social-security reform bill through Congress this month. "It's not a decision that was informed by hard evidence," said Rafael Alcadipani da Silveira, a public-security expert at Fundação Getúlio Vargas in São Paulo. He said the decree was likely influenced by the ruling party's desire to capitalize on growing public concern with crime in an election year, noting that Brazil's largest media company, Globo, is based in Rio and has focused its news coverage heavily on crime here. A spokesman for Mr. Temer said the move was justified by the high concentration of heavy weapons in the hands of Rio gangs, as well as the fact that Rio's fiscal crisis is among the worst in Brazil. Mr. Silveira and others also expressed skepticism about the decree's chances of success. Rio's homicide rate rose through 2017 even after Brasília sent troops to the state. Extrajudicial killings by police officers
, meanwhile, soared 22% to 1,124 incidents. "The problem is that this intervention is just a temporary fix to a problem that will plague Rio and other states for years to come," said Silvio Cascione, a political analyst at political-risk consultancy Eurasia Group, noting that rising payroll burdens and limited revenue streams are pressuring Brazilian state budgets across the board. "In the meantime, organized crime, mostly associated with drug trafficking, has become more powerful and more entrenched in local institutions." Michelle Fonseca, a 29-year-old resident of Rocinha, one of Rio's largest favelas, or slums, said heavily armed soldiers and SWAT teams have been patrolling her neighborhood for months, to little effect. More people see crime as the only way to make a living, she said. "The only things that are going to improve the situation are education and jobs," Ms. Fonseca said, eyeing a ragged-looking teenager wandering the streets in front of the shop where she works. "I think for anything to change, the government needs to change first." Paulo Trevisani contributed to this article. Write to Paul Kiernan at [email protected] Read More * Brazil Seeks to Reassure Olympics Visitors About Security
* Thousands of Brazilian Soldiers Enter Rio Slums to Curb Violence
* Brazil Authorities Arrest Rio Police on Bribery Allegations
Credit: By Paul Kiernan
Subject: Law enforcement; Violent crime
Location: South America Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil
People: Temer, Michel
Company / organization: Name: Eurasia Group; NAICS: 523930
Publication title: Wall Street Journal (Online); New York, N.Y.
Pages: n/a
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 16, 2018
Section: World
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York, N.Y.
Country of publication: United States, New York, N.Y.
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2002478380
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2002478380?accountid=4840
Copyright: (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Reproduced with permission of copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permissio n.
Last updated: 2018-11-12
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Major Dailies
Document 107 of 474
BBCM Latin America Watchlist for 16 February
Publication info: BBC Monitoring Americas ; London [London]16 Feb 2018.
Abstract:
Please contact Monitoring's News Desk at Caversham (+44-118-9486555) for queries or more information Brazil president decrees federal military takeover of Rio de Janeiro state to combat crime Brazilian President Michel Temer decided to order the country's armed forces to take over security in Rio de Janeiro, following a "wave of violence" that occurred in the city and surrounding state during the recent Carnival, Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo reported on 16 February. Brazilian media had reported a spate of robberies, attacks and murders during the recent 2018 Carnival in Rio. https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dou5ig Brazilian General Walter Souza Braga Netto, who heads the country's Eastern Military Command, has been chosen to lead the federal military intervention of Rio de Janeiro state, in which the armed forces will take over the civilian and military police of the state to deal with growing violence there, Brazilian news website G1 reported on 16 February. https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dou5om Miami will file an Explainer on the federal government's security intervention in Rio. In each of the three attacks, which occurred between 02:00 and 03:00 local time [0500 and 0600 GMT], pamphlets referring to the Coordinadora Arauco Malleco (CAM) Mapuche indigenous land rights group were found. https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dou5zc Mexico security chief says opioids-trafficking to US drives surge in violence The head of Mexico's National Security Commission said the recent spike in violence in the country had been triggered by an ongoing fight between drug cartels for control of opioids-trafficking into the United States, Mexican newspaper Reforma reported on 16 February.Full text: By BBC Monitoring Stories being covered today by BBC Monitoring from Latin American broadcast, press and social media sources. Please contact Monitoring's News Desk at Caversham (+44-118-9486555) for queries or more information Brazil president decrees federal military takeover of Rio de Janeiro state to combat crime Brazilian President Michel Temer decided to order the country's armed forces to take over security in Rio de Janeiro, following a "wave of violence" that occurred in the city and surrounding state during the recent Carnival, Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo reported on 16 February. "President Michel Temer decided to decree intervention in the Public Security of Rio de Janeiro," the newspaper said. "With this, the Armed Forces will assume the security activities of the state," Folha added. It said the idea was that this measure would last until December 2018, although the details of the decree would be defined on 16 February. Brazil's Congress would have to approve the measure within 10 days. Brazilian media had reported a spate of robberies, attacks and murders during the recent 2018 Carnival in Rio. https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dou5ig Brazilian General Walter Souza Braga Netto, who heads the country's Eastern Military Command, has been chosen to lead the federal military intervention of Rio de Janeiro state, in which the armed forces will take over the civilian and military police of the state to deal with growing violence there, Brazilian news website G1 reported on 16 February. https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dou5om Miami will file an Explainer on the federal government's security intervention in Rio. Chile: 25 trucks torched, destroyed in south-central regions; pamphlets from Mapuche indigenous group found In the early hours of 16 February, 25 trucks were set on fire and destroyed in south central Chile by unidentified assailants in three separate incidents in the Araucania and Bio Bio regions, Chilean Radio Cooperativa reported on its website. In each of the three attacks, which occurred between 02:00 and 03:00 local time [0500 and 0600 GMT], pamphlets referring to the Coordinadora Arauco Malleco (CAM) Mapuche indigenous land rights group were found. https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dou5zc Mexico security chief says opioids-trafficking to US drives surge in violence The head of Mexico's National Security Commission said the recent spike in violence in the country had been triggered by an ongoing fight between drug cartels for control of opioids-trafficking into the United States, Mexican newspaper Reforma reported on 16 February. It quoted Renato Sales, who heads the commission within the interior ministry tasked with defining crime-fighting policies, as saying that the increase in violent crime had been seen "particularly in the states with border-crossings" into the US and in regions producing "opium poppy", the basis for opioids. "[Drug cartels fight] to control the sales of these drugs [synthetic drugs produced from the opium poppy]. A similar case [of a region where violence peaked due to drug cartel turf wars] is happening in [western state] Colima, in its port city of Manzanillo, where chemical precursors are sent for the production of synthetic drugs, particularly of fentanyl," Sales said. https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c1dou5vg Coming Up On 4 March, El Salvador holds parliamentary elections. On 11 March, President-elect Sebastian Pinera will be sworn in Chile On 11 March, Colombia holds legislative elections. BBC Monitoring
Subject: Local elections; Violence; Presidents; Cartels; Brochures; Armed forces; Narcotics
Location: Mexico United States--US Latin America Chile Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil El Salvador Colombia
People: Pinera, Sebastian Temer, Michel
Publication title: BBC Monitoring Americas; London
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 16, 2018
Dateline: LATAM
Publisher: BBC Worldwide Limited
Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Political Science
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2002500964
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2002500964?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright BBC Worldwide Limited Feb 16, 2018
Last updated: 2018-11-12
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 108 of 474
Brazil’s Military Is Put in Charge of Security in Rio de Janeiro
Author: Londoño, Ernesto; Darlington, Shasta
Publication info: New York Times (Online) , New York: New York Times Company. Feb 16, 2018.
Abstract:
President Michel Temer’s security order for Rio is the first such military intervention in a Brazilian state since democracy returned in the 1980s.
Full text: RIO DE JANEIRO — After months of escalating violence in Rio de Janeiro that included television coverage of tourists being chased and beaten by robbers during the famed Carnival festivities, Brazil’s president on Friday ordered the military to take control of public security in the state. It is the first federal intervention in a state since Brazil’s return to democracy in the 1980s, and it is seen by some as a bid by the president , Michel Temer, to improve his favorability ratings rather than as a measure to tackle crime. The decree signed by Mr. Temer on Friday afternoon falls short of a full intervention in the state government. While the military will take control of security, Gov. Luiz Fernando Pezão will continue to run the state government of Rio de Janeiro. “This decision is motivated more by politics than sound public administration,” said Kennedy Alencar, a political commentator and blogger in Brasília, Brazil’s capital. “Now the focus of news will be on the president’s federal intervention to address an issue that concerns the whole country.” The decision was made two days after the end of Carnival, when about 1.5 million tourists descended on Rio, Brazil’s second-largest city, for the annual parades and partying. But this year the festivities were marred by mass robberies, the looting of stores and shootouts between the police and drug gangs. The decree confers broad authority on the military to restore order. It also places police forces, which have had shortages of personnel and equipment, under the command of a general, Walter Souza Braga Netto, who oversees military operations in the eastern part of the country. “Together, the police and the armed forces will combat and confront those who have kidnapped our cities,” Mr. Temer said at the signing ceremony in Brasília. “Prison cells will no longer be thieves’ personal offices. Public squares will no longer be the reception halls for organized crime.” Experts questioned the timing and motivation of the decision. It comes as Mr. Temer, who took office after his predecessor was impeached in 2016, has been weighing whether he has a chance of being elected president in October, despite his single-digit approval numbers. According to a poll last month, 38 percent of Brazilians said public security was a major concern as they considered whom to vote for. In Rio de Janeiro, violent crime, after gradually declining for almost a decade, has surged in the past two years . In 2017, there were 6,731 violent deaths in the state of Rio, or 40 per 100,000 residents — the highest level in eight years. Carjackings, robberies of cellphones and kidnappings also increased. The decree not only shows Mr. Temer being tough on crime, it also delays a vote on an unpopular legislative proposal on pensions that looked increasingly doomed to failure. Under the Constitution, Brazilian lawmakers are barred from making broad legal changes during a military intervention imposed by decree. “On the political level, Temer might be killing two birds with one stone,” said Christopher Harig, an expert on civilian-military relations in Brazil at King’s College London. “At the same time he creates an excuse for not being able to pass the social security reform.” Mr. Temer, who announced that he would travel to Rio on Saturday for a meeting on security, insisted that the pension overhaul could still be voted on by temporarily lifting the decree. Brazil’s military leaders have expressed deep concern as the federal government has increasingly turned to the armed forces to quell outbreaks of violence around the country. Gen. Eduardo Villas Bôas, the country’s top military commander, said recently that the armed forces could not be expected to solve a security crisis rooted in longstanding problems that other government agencies had failed to meaningfully address. “Combating organized crime requires effective action by the government in economic and social spheres, in order to make drug trafficking less appealing in areas where a large segment of the population is grappling with unemployment,” General Bôas wrote in an email. “Even as the military has been called to act in different areas, sometimes for lengthy periods,” he added, “we don’t observe considerable changes due to lack of engagement by government agencies responsible for other areas.” After Brazil was selected to host the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, officials adopted an ambitious plan to transform poor districts that had long been hubs for drug gangs by adopting a community policing model that was supposed to pave the way for better schools, sanitation, health care and jobs. Those plans fell short amid pervasive corruption, and Brazil entered a long recession that left the state of Rio de Janeiro bankrupt. General Bôas also warned that permanently deploying military personnel to the front lines of Rio’s drug wars increased the risk that soldiers might become complicit in organized crime. “These criminal structures, especially those linked to drug trafficking with international ties, make it far more likely that institutions will become tainted,” he said in his email. “There’s a possibility that troops could become tainted.” In Mexico, the use of the military to fight organized crime has produced mixed results. Since 2006, when Felipe Calderón, then the president, first authorized the use of the military, more than 200,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence, according to official statistics, prompting the United Nations to declare that “there is an urgent need to decrease the involvement of the military in policing.” In Rio, as the police have lost control of large areas, well-armed drug gangs have acted as the de facto authority in several teeming communities known as favelas. Critics accuse the police of using heavy-handed tactics, limiting their effectiveness, and say some members of the force have colluded with criminal organizations. For Rita de Cassia Santos de Silva, a 53-year-old street cleaner, the military would be an improvement over the police. “I’m afraid of the police,” she said. “They go in and take whatever they want. I think people really only obey the army.” But Raquel da Silva, a newspaper vendor, said she did not have high expectations. “The situation is out of control,” she said. “People are getting killed for a cellphone. But it’s not up to the police or the army — the problem lies much higher up. For us in poor communities, it’s just going to get worse.” This is the first time such a decree has been issued since the Constitution was formed in 1988, at the end of Brazil’s military dictatorship, although the armed forces have become something of a fixture in Rio. They have been called in to support the police during special events like the Summer Olympics in 2016, when more than 80,000 officers, soldiers, traffic officers and firefighters provided security for the Games. “We have seen the effect of using military to police Rio,” said Jurema Werneck, executive director of Amnesty International Brazil. “There was a significant increase in human rights violations, especially in the case of young black men.” Under the Constitution, military intervention in a state can be decreed for a number of reasons, including when a foreign country invades Brazil, when the government wants to prevent secession or when there is a “serious” threat to public order. Over the past few days, Brazilian television stations have broadcast images of bloody shootouts in the city’s favelas, and of Carnival tourists being chased down Ipanema Beach and beaten by robbers. Governor Pezão acknowledged that the deployment of 17,000 police officers was not enough. “We weren’t prepared,” he told TV Globo. The decree will be sent to Congress and requires approval by a simple majority in both houses within 10 days before it can be implemented. According to news media reports, the armed forces will be in charge of security until Dec. 31. Credit: Ernesto Londoño and Shasta Darlington
Subject: Organized crime; Professional soccer; Shortages; Armed forces
Location: Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil
People: Temer, Michel
Identifier / keyword: Defense and Military Forces Organized Crime Drug Abuse and Traffic Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) Temer, Michel (1940- )
Publication title: New York Times (Online); New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 16, 2018
Section: world
Publisher: New York Times Company
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Blogs, Podcasts, & Websites
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2002508624
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2002508624?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright 2018 The New York Times Company
Last updated: 2018-02-27
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 109 of 474
Brazil crime and narcotics roundup 16 February 2018
Publication info: BBC Monitoring Americas ; London [London]16 Feb 2018.
Abstract:
Roraima State Government doubles military presence in Roraima near Venezuelan border The administration of Brazilian Presiednt Michel Temer would double the presence of military troops in Roraima and would send humanitarian aid to the region to help the state cope with the situation of Venezuelan immigrants, Valor Economico reported. Mato Grosso do Sul State Federal Police officers seize 420 kg of cocaine near Campo Grande Federal Police [PF] officers arrested a truck driver who was carrying 420 kg of cocaine under a bulk shipment of soybean on Highway MS-040, near Campo Grande, Brazilian daily Correio do Estado reported. According to the Military Police, 174 weapons had been seized so far this year, which represented an average of four guns seized daily.Full text: By BBC Monitoring Rio de Janeiro State Defence Minister Jungmann: Violence scenes in Rio carnival 'unacceptable' The surge of violence in the City of Rio de Janeiro during carnival with barbaric acts taped first by city residents and tourists and then disseminated over the social media provoked a crisis within the State Public Security Secretariat, Brazilian daily O Globo reported. Images of three sweeping mass robberies carried out in Ipanema and the looting of a supermarket in Leblon provoked uneasiness within the Secretariat and led Defence Minister Raul Jungmann to promise new measures to fight crime in Rio. Jungmann said that he had not received any request for reinforcing military patrols in the city and noted that he would visit the city by the weekend to assess the situation. He said: "those scenes are unacceptable. It became quite clear that the situation during the carnival in Rio, as the governor himself acknowledged, was unfortunate. Those events shocked the government and new measures will have to be adopted". On 14 February, Rio Governor Luiz Fernando Pezao reiterated that errors made in the police strategy provoked uneasiness not only at the Secretariat but also within the Military Police command. Roraima State Government doubles military presence in Roraima near Venezuelan border The administration of Brazilian Presiednt Michel Temer would double the presence of military troops in Roraima and would send humanitarian aid to the region to help the state cope with the situation of Venezuelan immigrants, Valor Economico reported. President Temer made the above decisions, including the issuing of a provisional measure, during a cabinet meeting held on 14 February. Defence Minister Jungmann said that the government would increase the number of troops in Roraima from 100 to 200. Jungmann said: "we will set up a fully equipped field hospital and will check on motorcycles to tighten border security in Pacaraima. A division general will coordinate this action". Justice Minister Torquato Jardim said the president would sign a provisional measure to provide the necessary federal aid. Mato Grosso do Sul State Federal Police officers seize 420 kg of cocaine near Campo Grande Federal Police [PF] officers arrested a truck driver who was carrying 420 kg of cocaine under a bulk shipment of soybean on Highway MS-040, near Campo Grande, Brazilian daily Correio do Estado reported. When ordered to stop, the driver tried to escape through a back road but the truck got stuck and he was arrested. The value of the drugs had been estimated at 11 million reals (3.4m US dollars). The truck driver said he was taking the drugs to Santos in the state of Sao Paulo. Border Police seize 12 kg of cocaine, arrest driver on MS-295 highway On 14 February, Border Operations Department (DOF) officers arrested a 26-year-old man for carrying 12.010 kg of cocaine inside a false bottom of a Citroen C3 car on Highway MS-295, www.douradosnews.com.br reported. The driver told police that he had picked up the car with the drugs at a service station in Ponta Pora and that he was taking them to Novo Hamburgo, located in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. Minas Gerais State Federal Police arrest man carrying hashish and MDMA On 14 February, Federal Police officers arrested a man in Belo Horizonte for carrying 5 kg of hashish and 4.1 kg of MDMA (3.4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine) on a bus going from Belem, in the state of Para, to Rio de Janeiro, the PF News Agency reported. The man told police that he was hired to take the drugs from Belem to Rio de Janeiro and that the person who hired him paid for all of his travel expenses. Sao Paulo State Police arrest seven passengers with 60 kg of cocaine at Sao Paulo airport In separate actions, Federal Police officers arrested seven passengers between 9 and 13 February trying to fly out of the Sao Paulo International Airport in Guarulhos carrying a total of 60 kg of cocaine, PF News Agency reported. During the above period, the officers arrested a Greek man with 30 kg of cocaine; an Angolan woman carrying 8 kg of cocaine to Johannesburg; two Angolan men carrying 7 kg and 12 kg of cocaine, respectively, to Johannesburg; a Venezuelan man carrying more than 1 kg of cocaine to Ethiopia; a Nigerian refugee carrying 1 kg of cocaine and a South African woman carrying 2 kg of cocaine. Federal District Police destroyed 8 tonnes of drugs in Federal District in 2017 According to the Civil Police, nearly eight tonnes of drugs were destroyed in the Federal District in 2017, Correio Braziliense reported. According to the Military Police, 174 weapons had been seized so far this year, which represented an average of four guns seized daily. In January alone, military police officers seized 227 kg of marijuana, crack, and cocaine; and 165 LSD, ecstasy, and rohypnol microdots. BBC Monitoring in Portuguese 1715 gmt 16 Feb 18
Subject: Government agencies; Military police; Cocaine; Drugs; Automobiles; Robbery
Location: Roraima United States--US Ethiopia Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil Rio Grande do Sul Brazil
People: Temer, Michel
Company / organization: Name: Citroen; NAICS: 336111, 336112
Publication title: BBC Monitoring Americas; London
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 16, 2018
Dateline: BRAZIL
Publisher: BBC Worldwide Limited
Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Political Science
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2002512912
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2002512912?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright BBC Worldwide Limited Feb 16, 2018
Last updated: 2019-04-11
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 110 of 474
Army to Take Over Security in Rio -- Update
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]16 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
RIO DE JANEIRO -- Brazil's military will take over public security in Rio de Janeiro until the end of the year in an unprecedented intervention that highlights the famed seaside city's struggle to contain violent crime.
President Michel Temer signed a decree Friday making Rio's state police and security authorities subordinate to an Army general who will report directly to him. The general, Walter Braga Netto, previously oversaw a temporary force of federal troops sent here last year to support local police.
The move comes amid increasingly frequent reports of shootouts and robberies across the state's eponymous capital, which hosted South America's first Olympic Games in 2016. The city of Rio saw 2,125 violent deaths last year, a 37% increase since 2014, including several heartbreaking cases of children and other innocent bystanders killed by stray bullets. This year's Carnival festivities earlier this week were marred by gunbattles and mass robberies.
"Organized crime is a metastasis spreading through the country and threatening the tranquility of our people," Mr. Temer said in a speech alongside Rio Gov. Luiz Fernando "Pezão" de Souza and other officials. "I know it's an extreme measure, but many times Brazil demands extreme measures to impose order."
Brasília has occasionally sent federal troops to Rio and other states during flare-ups of violence, or to assist local police during major events. But pundits noted that handing over total control of law enforcement to the military is without precedent in the three decades since Brazil's 1964-85 military dictatorship ended.
Mr. Braga Netto, who just returned from vacation, didn't provide details on whether the roughly 10,000 troops sent to Rio last July would be ramped up. He said the goal of the decree is to streamline management of the various security and law-enforcement bodies operating in the state.
Rio's crime woes reflect an epic fiscal crisis in the state government, which is responsible for most policing, as well as a mass downsizing by its largest corporate employer, government-run Petróleo Brasileiro SA, in response to a corruption scandal. The state, home to 17 million people, shed more than half a million formal jobs in the past three years.
Despite the recent uptick in crime, however, Rio's homicide rate of around 32 per 100,000 residents remains far below its 1990s peak. It is also far lower than that of several other Brazilian states, leading some observers to speculate that the decree was designed to distract attention from Mr. Temer's losing battle to push a social-security reform bill through Congress this month.
"It's not a decision that was informed by hard evidence," said Rafael Alcadipani da Silveira, a public-security expert at Fundação Getúlio Vargas in São Paulo. He said the decree was likely influenced by the ruling party's desire to capitalize on growing public concern with crime in an election year, noting that Brazil's largest media company, Globo, is based in Rio and has focused its news coverage heavily on crime here.
A spokesman for Mr. Temer said the move was justified by the high concentration of heavy weapons in the hands of Rio gangs, as well as the fact that Rio's fiscal crisis is among the worst in Brazil.
Mr. Silveira and others also expressed skepticism about the decree's chances of success. Rio's homicide rate rose through 2017 even after Brasília sent troops to the state. Extrajudicial killings by police officers, meanwhile, soared 22% to 1,124 incidents.
"The problem is that this intervention is just a temporary fix to a problem that will plague Rio and other states for years to come," said Silvio Cascione, a political analyst at political-risk consultancy Eurasia Group, noting that rising payroll burdens and limited revenue streams are pressuring Brazilian state budgets across the board. "In the meantime, organized crime, mostly associated with drug trafficking, has become more powerful and more entrenched in local institutions."
Michelle Fonseca, a 29-year-old resident of Rocinha, one of Rio's largest favelas, or slums, said heavily armed soldiers and SWAT teams have been patrolling her neighborhood for months, to little effect. More people see crime as the only way to make a living, she said.
"The only things that are going to improve the situation are education and jobs," Ms. Fonseca said, eyeing a ragged-looking teenager wandering the streets in front of the shop where she works. "I think for anything to change, the government needs to change first."
--Paulo Trevisani contributed to this article.
Write to Paul Kiernan at [email protected]
(END)
February 16, 2018 16:18 ET (21:18 GMT)By Paul Kiernan
Subject: Organized crime
Location: South America Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil Eurasia
People: Temer, Michel
Company / organization: Name: Eurasia Group; NAICS: 523930
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 16, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2002595769
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2002595769?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Feb 16, 2018
Last updated: 2018-11-12
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 111 of 474
Brazil Army Takes Control of Rio Security in Election Year
Author: Iglesias, Simone; Adghirni, Samy; Biller, David
Publication info: Bloomberg Wire Service ; New York [New York]16 Feb 2018.
Abstract:
Brazil’s President Michel Temer justified putting an Army general in charge of Rio de Janeiro’s security forces to contain a rising tide of violence by saying that the circumstances required extreme measures. [...]Lower House Speaker Rodrigo Maia said the decree that would be put to a vote in both houses of Congress over the next few days would make a vote on the pension reform more difficult. Public opinion surveys show security to be among Brazilians’ main concerns ahead of the October presidential elections.Full text: (Bloomberg) -- Brazil’s President Michel Temer justified putting an Army general in charge of Rio de Janeiro’s security forces to contain a rising tide of violence by saying that the circumstances required extreme measures. In a televised address on Friday evening, Temer explained the decree he had signed earlier in the day which puts the state’s police forces under military control. The intervention, which requires congressional approval, will last until the end of the year, according to the decree. "We will not accept passively the deaths of the innocent," he said. "Our prisons will no longer be offices for thieves, our public squares party halls for organized crime." The move, the first of its kind since Brazil returned to democracy in 1985, is a response to growing demands ahead of the October general elections for a crackdown on crime and violence. It may also provide an excuse not to vote an unpopular pension bill, because by law changes to the Constitution can’t be made while a military intervention is in effect. Indeed, Lower House Speaker Rodrigo Maia said the decree that would be put to a vote in both houses of Congress over the next few days would make a vote on the pension reform more difficult. The government still lacks the votes needed for the bill investors had hoped would put public finances back on track, Maia said. “It’s an extreme moment and this is a very serious decision,” Maia told reporters in Brasilia on Friday morning. “Under those circumstances, that’s the way to reestablish order,” he said in reference to a growing sense of insecurity. Violence and crime have been soaring in Rio de Janeiro in the aftermath of a deep recession that has left the state lacking funds to invest in its police, and to pay salaries. Public opinion surveys show security to be among Brazilians’ main concerns ahead of the October presidential elections. Jair Bolsonaro, a Rio de Janeiro legislator and former army captain with a hard line against crime, polls second. ‘It’s part of Temer’s effort to find a positive agenda in the elections, something he can point to to show the people he’s doing something," said Mauricio Santoro, a political scientist at the Rio de Janeiro State University. "Bolsonaro has grown a lot in the polls among other reasons because of insecurity.” Shootings and mass robberies plagued Rio during the recent Carnival celebrations, when scores of tourists visit the city. Rio de Janeiro Governor Luiz Fernando Pezao admitted the state’s security has failed and asked for federal help, according to local media. The rate of violent deaths in the state jumped to 40 per 100,000 residents, the highest since 2009. Brazil returned to democracy in 1985, after 21 years of military dictatorship, and intervention remains a sensitive topic in the country. (Updates with Temer’s TV address on Friday evening in first, second and third paragraphs.) --With assistance from Matthew Malinowski To contact the reporters on this story: Simone Iglesias in Brasília at [email protected], Samy Adghirni in Brasilia Newsroom at [email protected], David Biller in Rio de Janeiro at [email protected] To contact the editors responsible for this story: Vivianne Rodrigues at [email protected], Walter Brandimarte, Bruce Douglas ©2018 Bloomberg L.P.
Subject: Public opinion surveys; Violence; State elections; Presidential elections
Location: Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil
People: Bolsonaro, Jair Temer, Michel
Publication title: Bloomberg Wire Service; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 16, 2018
Publisher: Bloomberg LP
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2007452562
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2007452562?accountid=4840
Copyright: ©2018 Bloomberg L.P.
Last updated: 2018-11-12
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 112 of 474
A carnival of living dangerously
Author: Schipani, Andres
Publication info: FT.com ; London (Feb 16, 2018).
Abstract:
A return to growth, markets on the up, and following the latestlegal rulingagainst former president Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva, growing hopes of a market-friendly candidate winning this October’s presidential election: it ought to have made for a buoyant mood at Brazil’s unique annual series of carnivals, which came to a close this week. Drug gang violence has increased because of a dispute between criminal factions and a fight for market share, analysts say. Chart of the week Soyabean prices hit a seven-month high on Argentinadrought worries What we’re reading Americas Quarterly: Venezuela should consider dollarization The New Yorker: Introducing New York to the first Brazilian modernist El País: Zapatero, el mediador imaginario en Venezuela Piauí: Conflito com Rede Globo é chave para candidatura de Huck Buenos Aires Times: Crime and Punishment The New York Times: Los últimos campesinos de Santa Fé Credit: Andres SchipaniFull text: A return to growth, markets on the up, and following the latestlegal rulingagainst former president Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva, growing hopes of a market-friendly candidate winning this October’s presidential election: it ought to have made for a buoyant mood at Brazil’s unique annual series of carnivals, which came to a close this week. But the mood didn’t look so upbeat in Rio de Janeiro, where millions took to the streets for the bacchanalia to dance their grievances away. Yes, revellers danced at blocos, or block parties, mocking or supporting politicians. But among the glitter, the drums and tambours, the smiley faces and nipple tassels, the bullets were flying in poor areas of the cidade maravilhosa. The samba schools competed against each other in the sambadrome, featuring victims of stray bullets, armed gangs and, of course, corrupt politicians depicted as wolves in sheep’s clothing with bills falling out of their pockets. A drummer who lives for drumming grumbled he couldn’t play in his hometown of Cidade de Deus, a sprawling tough area in Rio’s western suburbs, because gang infighting is now ferocious. “The situation today is catastrophic, it’s a war,” an acquaintance who works with gangs in the favelas said. “There used to be a time when violence paused during carnival, now it is not.” The images of violence are “unacceptable”, charged the defence minister. Amid this violence, Brazil’s military on Friday took control of public security in the state of Rio de Janeiro. Reports of shootings topped 317 since the beginning of the month, said Fogo Cruzado, a group tracking armed violence in Rio. Three policemen were reportedly killed. Drug gang violence has increased because of a dispute between criminal factions and a fight for market share, analysts say. Earlier, strolling with an escort in the hillside favelas, I spotted pockets of young gang members brandishing semi-automatic rifles. I have been flanked by guerrillas in Colombia and welcomed at gunpoint by , but this felt much more unnerving. Political weakness, the product of a stream of corruption scandals, has created a vacuum and the criminal gangs seem to be trying to fill it. Rio feels like a microcosm of Brazil's most serious problems. There is a general disenchantment with the political class, reflected in representations of the unpopular President Michel Temer dressed as a vampire in the streets of Rio. Corruption scandals and violence in Rio are hardening public attitudes on law and order, providing traction to candidates likeJair Bolsonaro, a rightwing congressman and former army captain who thinks gun ownership should be widespread. In São Paulo, sympathy towards him was evident when revellers unveiled a block party themed after the police intelligence agency that tortured dissidents during Brazil's 1964-85 military dictatorship. A recent poll by Datafolha showed Bolsonarotrailing only behind Lula. Meanwhile, in a block party in Rio, Lula supporters gyrated to the tune “where’s the legal proof?”, claiming a court ruling for graft was part of a ploy to stop the former president from winning a third term. One night, amid “pre-carnival” celebrations I listened to the lyrics of Chico Buarque. The turquoise-eyed leftist troubadour is a sort of tropical Bob Dylan who over decades has created a musical heritage that still resonates — critics say — among the carioca gauche caviar, or Rio’s champagne left. Inevitably, there were deafening choruses of “Olé, Olá, Lula” expressing support for the former trade unionist, who once was Brazil's most popular politician. Afterwards, in a taxi, the driver argued bandido bom é bandido morto while singing the praises of Bolsonaro. As the summer breeze wafted through the window, I closed my eyes, recalling what my favela acquaintance said: “Violence in Rio is a colossal problem exerting enormous pressure on the people.” Only if the fog of Rio’s war dissipates do Brazil’s problems have a chance of being addressed after this election, and the next carnival will perhaps be (more) peaceful. Quote of the week "We run the risk of becoming digital tribes and returning to the Middle Ages via the back door” —Alejandro Santos, director of Colombia’s leading news weekly Semana, following a stream of attacks on social media launched against politicians across the political spectrum ahead of general elections. Chart of the week Soyabean prices hit a seven-month high on Argentinadrought worries What we’re reading Americas Quarterly: Venezuela should consider dollarization The New Yorker: Introducing New York to the first Brazilian modernist El País: Zapatero, el mediador imaginario en Venezuela Piauí: Conflito com Rede Globo é chave para candidatura de Huck Buenos Aires Times: Crime and Punishment The New York Times: Los últimos campesinos de Santa Fé Credit: Andres Schipani
Subject: Politics; Corruption; Carnivals; Violent crime; Gangs; Elections
Location: New York Venezuela Americas Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil Colombia
People: Dylan, Bob Temer, Michel
Company / organization: Name: New York Times Co; NAICS: 511110, 511120, 515112, 515120; Name: New Yorker Magazine Inc; NAICS: 511120
Publication title: FT.com; London
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 16, 2018
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Trade Journals
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2121959656
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2121959656?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Feb 16, 2018
Last updated: 2018-10-18
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 113 of 474
Brazil's military to take over security in violence-scarred Rio de Janeiro
Author: Lopes, Marina
Publication info: The Washington Post ; Washington, D.C. [Washington, D.C]17 Feb 2018: A.9.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: SAO PAULO, Brazil - Brazil's military will take over security in Rio de Janeiro after a spike in violence tainted the city's Carnival celebration, President Michel Temer announced Friday. The military intervention, the first of its kind since the end of Brazil's military dictatorship in 1988, will be in effect until December. Brazil's Congress is expected to ratify the measure early next week. In a televised speech, Temer labeled the intervention an "extreme measure" necessary to crack down on organized crime and drug trafficking that have overtaken the city of 6.5 million people, the country's second-most populous. "Enough," he declared. "We won't allow them to kill our present and assassinate our future." Rio's secretary of security resigned after the announcement. Gen. Walter Souza Braga Netto, who coordinated security in Rio during the 2016 Summer Olympics, will be at the helm of the intervention. Infamous for its spells of violence, Rio saw a four-year respite in homicides at the start of the decade. But as Brazil sank into its worst recession on record, the city's police budget dried up, and areas that were once heavily policed were left to the mercy of warring gangs. The surge in crime has had serious repercussions for residents. In the past year, homicides, assaults and thefts in the city have spiked to levels not seen in 15 years. Nearly 400 schools canceled classes at various times last year because of violence, and 70 percent of the city's residents have contemplated moving to escape the situation, according to a 2017 poll. The chaos came to a head this week when gunfire, assaults on tourists and mass muggings marred the city's largest event, Carnival. Rio's mayor and the state governor were widely criticized for skipping town as 6 million people gathered for the week-long party that has become synonymous with the city. "The failure to restore public security is due in part to a fundamental lack of leadership from the state governor and the mayor. They have shown no interest or appetite to mount a serious response," Robert Muggah, director of the Igarapé Institute, a Rio-based think tank that specializes in security issues, told The Washington Post. "The [state's] disastrous handling of public security during this year's Carnival is symptomatic of deep, systematic neglect," he said. Luiz Fernando Pezão, governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro, told local media that the state miscalculated the amount of policing the city would require during the holiday. "We were not prepared," he said. Violence is on the rise in Brazil as a whole; the national murder rate ranks among the dozen highest in the world. Security woes have propelled tough-on-crime candidates, such as former military officer Jair Bolsonaro, to the fore in this year's presidential race. Temer's deeply unpopular government hopes the military intervention in Rio will address voter concerns about violence ahead of the October elections. Residents of Rio are used to soldiers patrolling their streets. The measure would mark the 13th time that the city has called for the military to help with chronic security issues. But past interventions were widely limited to special events, notably the Olympics and the 2014 soccer World Cup. For many, the military takeover brings back unwelcome reminders of Brazil's dictatorship - the last time the military was in charge of the day-to-day operations of Rio's security forces. Gen. Eduardo Villas Bôas, the head of the army, criticized the increased use of military intervention to quell security crises throughout Brazil. "Public security needs to be a priority of the states," he tweeted in December. While the details of the intervention have yet to be hashed out, the government hopes that a heftier budget and access to national resources will help get the city under control. "Residents will see a more robust security system, with a larger operational capacity and more integrated intelligence," said Defense Minister Raul Jungmann. "We hope that people will feel safer." Alternate social text Social cards Credit: Marina Lopes
Subject: Olympic games; Local elections; Dictators; Professional soccer; Intervention; Violence; Governors; Murders & murder attempts
Location: Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil
People: Bolsonaro, Jair Temer, Michel
Publication title: The Washington Post; Washington, D.C.
First page: A.9
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 17, 2018
Dateline: SAO PAULO, BRAZIL -
Section: A-SECTION
Publisher: WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post
Place of publication: Washington, D.C.
Country of publication: United States, Washington, D.C.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
ISSN: 01908286
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2002592035
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2002592035?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post Feb 17, 2018
Last updated: 2018-11-12
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 114 of 474
Brazil Puts Military in Charge of Security in Rio de Janeiro: [Foreign Desk]
Author: Londoño, Ernesto; Darlington, Shasta
Publication info: New York Times , Late Edition (East Coast); New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]17 Feb 2018: A.10.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: RIO DE JANEIRO -- After months of escalating violence in Rio de Janeiro that included television coverage of tourists being chased and beaten by robbers during the famed Carnival festivities, Brazil's president on Friday ordered the military to take control of public security in the state. It is the first federal intervention in a state since Brazil's return to democracy in the 1980s, and it is seen by some as a bid by the president, Michel Temer, to improve his favorability ratings rather than as a measure to tackle crime. The decree signed by Mr. Temer on Friday afternoon falls short of a full intervention in the state government. While the military will take control of security, Gov. Luiz Fernando Pezão will continue to run the state government of Rio de Janeiro. "This decision is motivated more by politics than sound public administration," said Kennedy Alencar, a political commentator and blogger in Brasília, Brazil's capital. "Now the focus of news will be on the president's federal intervention to address an issue that concerns the whole country." The decision was made two days after the end of Carnival, when about 1.5 million tourists descended on Rio, Brazil's second-largest city, for the annual parades and partying. But this year the festivities were marred by mass robberies, the looting of stores and shootouts between the police and drug gangs. The decree confers broad authority on the military to restore order. It also places police forces, which have had shortages of personnel and equipment, under the command of a general, Walter Souza Braga Netto, who oversees military operations in the eastern part of the country. "Together, the police and the armed forces will combat and confront those who have kidnapped our cities," Mr. Temer said at the signing ceremony in Brasília. "Prison cells will no longer be thieves' personal offices. Public squares will no longer be the reception halls for organized crime." Experts questioned the timing and motivation of the decision. It comes as Mr. Temer, who took office after his predecessor was impeached in 2016, has been weighing whether he has a chance of being elected president in October, despite his single-digit approval numbers. According to a poll last month, 38 percent of Brazilians said public security was a major concern as they considered whom to vote for. In Rio de Janeiro, violent crime, after gradually declining for almost a decade, has surged in the past two years. In 2017, there were 6,731 violent deaths in the state of Rio, or 40 per 100,000 residents -- the highest level in eight years. Carjackings, robberies of cellphones and kidnappings also increased. The decree not only shows Mr. Temer being tough on crime, it also delays a vote on an unpopular legislative proposal on pensions that looked increasingly doomed to failure. Under the Constitution, Brazilian lawmakers are barred from making broad legal changes during a military intervention imposed by decree. "On the political level, Temer might be killing two birds with one stone," said Christopher Harig, an expert on civilian-military relations in Brazil at King's College London. "At the same time he creates an excuse for not being able to pass the social security reform." Mr. Temer, who announced that he would travel to Rio on Saturday for a meeting on security, insisted that the pension overhaul could still be voted on by temporarily lifting the decree. Brazil's military leaders have expressed deep concern as the federal government has increasingly turned to the armed forces to quell outbreaks of violence around the country. Gen. Eduardo Villas Bôas, the country's top military commander, said recently that the armed forces could not be expected to solve a security crisis rooted in longstanding problems that other government agencies had failed to meaningfully address. "Combating organized crime requires effective action by the government in economic and social spheres, in order to make drug trafficking less appealing in areas where a large segment of the population is grappling with unemployment," General Bôas wrote in an email. "Even as the military has been called to act in different areas, sometimes for lengthy periods," he added, "we don't observe considerable changes due to lack of engagement by government agencies responsible for other areas." After Brazil was selected to host the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, officials adopted an ambitious plan to transform poor districts that had long been hubs for drug gangs by adopting a community policing model that was supposed to pave the way for better schools, sanitation, health care and jobs. Those plans fell short amid pervasive corruption, and Brazil entered a long recession that left the state of Rio de Janeiro bankrupt. General Bôas also warned that permanently deploying military personnel to the front lines of Rio's drug wars increased the risk that soldiers might become complicit in organized crime. "These criminal structures, especially those linked to drug trafficking with international ties, make it far more likely that institutions will become tainted," he said in his email. "There's a possibility that troops could become tainted." In Mexico, the use of the military to fight organized crime has produced mixed results. Since 2006, when Felipe Calderón, then the president, first authorized the use of the military, more than 200,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence, according to official statistics, prompting the United Nations to declare that "there is an urgent need to decrease the involvement of the military in policing." In Rio, as the police have lost control of large areas, well-armed drug gangs have acted as the de facto authority in several teeming communities known as favelas. Critics accuse the police of using heavy-handed tactics, limiting their effectiveness, and say some members of the force have colluded with criminal organizations. For Rita de Cassia Santos de Silva, a 53-year-old street cleaner, the military would be an improvement over the police. "I'm afraid of the police," she said. "They go in and take whatever they want. I think people really only obey the army." But Raquel da Silva, a newspaper vendor, said she did not have high expectations. "The situation is out of control," she said. "People are getting killed for a cellphone. But it's not up to the police or the army -- the problem lies much higher up. For us in poor communities, it's just going to get worse." This is the first time such a decree has been issued since the Constitution was formed in 1988, at the end of Brazil's military dictatorship, although the armed forces have become something of a fixture in Rio. They have been called in to support the police during special events like the Summer Olympics in 2016, when more than 80,000 officers, soldiers, traffic officers and firefighters provided security for the Games. "We have seen the effect of using military to police Rio," said Jurema Werneck, executive director of Amnesty International Brazil. "There was a significant increase in human rights violations, especially in the case of young black men." Under the Constitution, military intervention in a state can be decreed for a number of reasons, including when a foreign country invades Brazil, when the government wants to prevent secession or when there is a "serious" threat to public order. Over the past few days, Brazilian television stations have broadcast images of bloody shootouts in the city's favelas, and of Carnival tourists being chased down Ipanema Beach and beaten by robbers. Governor Pezão acknowledged that the deployment of 17,000 police officers was not enough. "We weren't prepared," he told TV Globo. The decree will be sent to Congress and requires approval by a simple majority in both houses within 10 days before it can be implemented. According to news media reports, the armed forces will be in charge of security until Dec. 31. Credit: ERNESTO LONDOÑO and SHASTA DARLINGTON; Ernesto Londoño reported from Rio de Janeiro, and Shasta Darlington from São Paulo, Brazil. Lis Moriconi contributed reporting from Rio de Janeiro.Photograph
Subject: Government agencies; Olympic games; State government; Drug trafficking; Violence; Organized crime; Presidents; Robbery; Military personnel; Gangs; Armed forces
Location: Mexico Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil France
People: Temer, Michel
Company / organization: Name: United Nations--UN; NAICS: 928120; Name: Kings College-London England; NAICS: 611310; Name: Amnesty International; NAICS: 813311
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/16/world/americas/brazil-rio-military-security.html
Publication title: New York Times, Late Edition (East Coast); New York, N.Y.
Pages: A.10
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 17, 2018
Section: A
Publisher: New York Times Company
Place of publication: New York, N.Y.
Country of publication: United States, New York, N.Y.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
ISSN: 03624331
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2002598062
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2002598062?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright New York Times Company Feb 17, 20 18
Last updated: 2018-11-12
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 115 of 474
Brazil puts military in charge of Rio security; Intervention comes after violence during Carnival celebration
Author: Lopes, Marina
Publication info: South Florida Sun - Sentinel ; Fort Lauderdale, Fla. [Fort Lauderdale, Fla]17 Feb 2018: A.8.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: SAO PAULO, Brazil - Brazil's military will take over security in Rio de Janeiro after a spike in violence tainted the city's Carnival celebration, President Michel Temer announced Friday. The military intervention, the first of its kind since the end of Brazil's military dictatorship in 1988, will be in effect until December. Brazil's Congress is expected to ratify the measure next week. In a televised speech, Temer labeled the intervention an "extreme measure" necessary to crack down on organized crime and drug trafficking that have overtaken the city of 6.5 million people, the country's second most populous. "Enough," he declared. "We won't allow them to kill our present and assassinate our future." Rio's secretary of security resigned following the announcement. Gen. Walter Souza Braga Netto, who coordinated security in Rio during the 2016 Summer Olympics, will be at the helm of the intervention. Infamous for its spells of violence, Rio enjoyed a four-year respite in homicides at the start of the decade. But as Brazil sank into its worst recession on record, the city's police budget dried up, leaving areas that were once heavily policed at the mercy of warring gangs. The surge in crime has had serious repercussions for residents. In the past year, homicides, assaults and thefts in the city spiked to levels not seen in 15 years. Nearly 400 schools canceled classes because of violence last year, and 70 percent of the city's residents have contemplated moving. The chaos came to a head this week when gunfire, assaults on tourists and mass muggings marred the city's largest event, Carnival. Both Rio's mayor and the state governor were widely criticized for skipping town, as 6 million people gathered for the weeklong party that has become synonymous with the city. "The failure to restore public security is due in part to a fundamental lack of leadership from the state governor and the mayor. They have shown no interest or appetite to mount a serious response," Robert Muggah, director of the Igarape Institute, a Rio-based think tank that specializes in security issues, told The Washington Post. "The (state's) disastrous handling of public security during this year's Carnival is symptomatic of deep, systematic neglect." Luiz Fernando Pezao, governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro, told local media that the state miscalculated the amount of policing the city would require during the holiday. "We were not prepared," he said. Violence is on the rise in Brazil as a whole. Security woes have propelled tough-on-crime candidates, such as former military officer Jair Bolsonaro, to the fore in this year's presidential race. Temer's deeply unpopular government hopes the military intervention in Rio will address voter concerns about violence ahead of the October elections. Residents of Rio are used to soldiers patrolling their streets. The measure would mark the 13th time that the city has called for the military to help with chronic security issues. Credit: By Marina Lopes - The Washington Post Caption: Brazil's government is putting Rio de Janiero's police force under military control after a spike in violence. Eraldo Peres/AP
Subject: Violence; Olympic games; Local elections; Governors; Murders & murder attempts
Location: Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil
People: Bolsonaro, Jair Temer, Michel
Publication title: South Florida Sun - Sentinel; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
First page: A.8
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 17, 2018
Publisher: Tribune Interactive, LLC
Place of publication: Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Country of publication: United States, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United Sta tes
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2002599229
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2002599229?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright © 2018 South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Last updated: 2018-11-12
Database: US Southeast Newsstream
Document 116 of 474
Brazil puts military in charge of Rio security; Intervention comes after violence during Carnival celebration
Author: Lopes, Marina
Publication info: Daily Press ; Newport News, Va. [Newport News, Va]17 Feb 2018: A.15.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: SAO PAULO, Brazil - Brazil's military will take over security in Rio de Janeiro after a spike in violence tainted the city's Carnival celebration, President Michel Temer announced Friday. The military intervention, the first of its kind since the end of Brazil's military dictatorship in 1988, will be in effect until December. Brazil's Congress is expected to ratify the measure next week. In a televised speech, Temer labeled the intervention an "extreme measure" necessary to crack down on organized crime and drug trafficking that have overtaken the city of 6.5 million people, the country's second most populous. "Enough," he declared. "We won't allow them to kill our present and assassinate our future." Rio's secretary of security resigned following the announcement. Gen. Walter Souza Braga Netto, who coordinated security in Rio during the 2016 Summer Olympics, will be at the helm of the intervention. Infamous for its spells of violence, Rio enjoyed a four-year respite in homicides at the start of the decade. But as Brazil sank into its worst recession on record, the city's police budget dried up, leaving areas that were once heavily policed at the mercy of warring gangs. The surge in crime has had serious repercussions for residents. In the past year, homicides, assaults and thefts in the city spiked to levels not seen in 15 years. Nearly 400 schools canceled classes because of violence last year, and 70 percent of the city's residents have contemplated moving. The chaos came to a head this week when gunfire, assaults on tourists and mass muggings marred the city's largest event, Carnival. Both Rio's mayor and the state governor were widely criticized for skipping town, as 6 million people gathered for the weeklong party that has become synonymous with the city. "The failure to restore public security is due in part to a fundamental lack of leadership from the state governor and the mayor. They have shown no interest or appetite to mount a serious response," Robert Muggah, director of the Igarape Institute, a Rio-based think tank that specializes in security issues, told The Washington Post. "The (state's) disastrous handling of public security during this year's Carnival is symptomatic of deep, systematic neglect." Luiz Fernando Pezao, governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro, told local media that the state miscalculated the amount of policing the city would require during the holiday. "We were not prepared," he said. Violence is on the rise in Brazil as a whole. Security woes have propelled tough-on-crime candidates, such as former military officer Jair Bolsonaro, to the fore in this year's presidential race. Temer's deeply unpopular government hopes the military intervention in Rio will address voter concerns about violence ahead of the October elections. Residents of Rio are used to soldiers patrolling their streets. The measure would mark the 13th time that the city has called for the military to help with chronic security issues. Credit: By Marina Lopes - The Washington Post Caption: Brazil's government is putting Rio de Janiero's police force under military control after a spike in violence. Eraldo Peres/AP
Subject: Violence; Olympic games; Local elections; Governors; Murders & murder attempts
Location: Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil
People: Bolsonaro, Jair Temer, Michel
Publication title: Daily Press; Newport News, Va.
First page: A.15
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 17, 2018
Publisher: Tribune Interactive, LLC
Place of publication: Newport News, Va.
Country of publication: United States, Newport News, Va.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2002601546
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2002601546?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright © 2018 Daily Press
Last updated: 2018-11-12
Database: US Southeast Newsstream
Document 117 of 474
Brazil puts military in charge of Rio security; Intervention comes after violence during Carnival celebration
Author: Lopes, Marina
Publication info: Orlando Sentinel ; Orlando, Fla. [Orlando, Fla]17 Feb 2018: A.9.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: SAO PAULO, Brazil - Brazil's military will take over security in Rio de Janeiro after a spike in violence tainted the city's Carnival celebration, President Michel Temer announced Friday. The military intervention, the first of its kind since the end of Brazil's military dictatorship in 1988, will be in effect until December. Brazil's Congress is expected to ratify the measure next week. In a televised speech, Temer labeled the intervention an "extreme measure" necessary to crack down on organized crime and drug trafficking that have overtaken the city of 6.5 million people, the country's second most populous. "Enough," he declared. "We won't allow them to kill our present and assassinate our future." Rio's secretary of security resigned following the announcement. Gen. Walter Souza Braga Netto, who coordinated security in Rio during the 2016 Summer Olympics, will be at the helm of the intervention. Infamous for its spells of violence, Rio enjoyed a four-year respite in homicides at the start of the decade. But as Brazil sank into its worst recession on record, the city's police budget dried up, leaving areas that were once heavily policed at the mercy of warring gangs. The surge in crime has had serious repercussions for residents. In the past year, homicides, assaults and thefts in the city spiked to levels not seen in 15 years. Nearly 400 schools canceled classes because of violence last year, and 70 percent of the city's residents have contemplated moving. The chaos came to a head this week when gunfire, assaults on tourists and mass muggings marred the city's largest event, Carnival. Both Rio's mayor and the state governor were widely criticized for skipping town, as 6 million people gathered for the weeklong party that has become synonymous with the city. "The failure to restore public security is due in part to a fundamental lack of leadership from the state governor and the mayor. They have shown no interest or appetite to mount a serious response," Robert Muggah, director of the Igarape Institute, a Rio-based think tank that specializes in security issues, told The Washington Post. "The (state's) disastrous handling of public security during this year's Carnival is symptomatic of deep, systematic neglect." Luiz Fernando Pezao, governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro, told local media that the state miscalculated the amount of policing the city would require during the holiday. "We were not prepared," he said. Violence is on the rise in Brazil as a whole. Security woes have propelled tough-on-crime candidates, such as former military officer Jair Bolsonaro, to the fore in this year's presidential race. Temer's deeply unpopular government hopes the military intervention in Rio will address voter concerns about violence ahead of the October elections. Residents of Rio are used to soldiers patrolling their streets. The measure would mark the 13th time that the city has called for the military to help with chronic security issues. Credit: By Marina Lopes - The Washington Post Caption: PHOTO: Brazil's government is putting Rio de Janiero's police force under military control after a spike in violence. Eraldo Peres/AP
Subject: Violence; Olympic games; Local elections; Governors; Murders & murder attempts
Location: Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil
People: Bolsonaro, Jair Temer, Michel
Publication title: Orlando Sentinel; Orlando, Fla.
First page: A.9
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 17, 2018
Publisher: Tribune Interactive, LLC
Place of publication: Orlando, Fla.
Country of publication: United States, Orlando, Fla.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2002602148
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2002602148?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright © 2018 Orlando Sentinel
Last updated: 2018-11-12
Database: US Southeast Newsstream
Document 118 of 474
World News: Brazil Army to Take Over Security in Rio de Janeiro
Author: Kiernan, Paul
Publication info: Wall Street Journal , Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]17 Feb 2018: A.18.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: RIO DE JANEIRO -- Brazil's military will take over public security in Rio de Janeiro until the end of the year in an unprecedented intervention that highlights the famed seaside city's struggle to contain violent crime. President Michel Temer signed a decree on Friday making Rio's state police and security authorities subordinate to an Army general who will report directly to him. The general, Walter Braga Netto, previously oversaw a temporary force of federal troops sent here last year to support local police. The move comes amid increasingly frequent reports of shootouts and robberies across the state's eponymous capital, which hosted South America's first Olympic Games in 2016. The city of Rio saw 2,125 violent deaths last year, a 37% increase since 2014, including several heartbreaking cases of children and other innocent bystanders killed by stray bullets. This year's Carnival festivities this week were marred by gunbattles and mass robberies. Pundits noted that handing over total control of law enforcement to the military is without precedent in the three decades since Brazil's 1964-85 military dictatorship ended. Mr. Braga Netto, who just returned from vacation, didn't provide details on whether the roughly 10,000 troops sent to Rio this past July would be ramped up. He said the goal of the decree is to streamline management of the various security and law-enforcement bodies operating in the state. Rio's crime woes reflect an epic fiscal crisis in the state government, which is responsible for most policing, as well as a mass downsizing by its largest corporate employer, government-run Petroleo Brasileiro SA, in response to a corruption scandal. The state, home to 17 million people, shed more than half a million formal jobs in the past three years. Despite the recent uptick in crime, however, Rio's homicide rate of around 32 per 100,000 residents remains far below its 1990s peak. It is also far lower than that of several other Brazilian states, leading some observers to speculate that the decree was designed to distract attention from Mr. Temer's losing battle to push a social-security reform bill through Congress this month. "It's not a decision that was informed by hard evidence," said Rafael Alcadipani da Silveira, a public-security expert at Fundacao Getulio Vargas in Sao Paulo. He said the decree was likely influenced by the ruling party's desire to capitalize on growing public concern with crime in an election year, noting that Brazil's largest media company, Globo, is based in Rio and has focused its news coverage heavily on crime here.
Credit: By Paul Kiernan
Subject: Public safety; Armed forces
Location: South America Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil
People: Temer, Michel Braga Netto, Walter
Publication title: Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.
Pages: A.18
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 17, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York, N.Y.
Country of publication: United States, New York, N.Y.
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance
ISSN: 00999660
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2002603215
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2002603215?accountid=4840
Copyright: (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Reproduced with permission of copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
Last updated: 2018-02-19
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Major Dailies
Document 119 of 474
Brazil puts military in charge of Rio security: Intervention comes after violence during Carnival celebration
Author: Lopes, Marina
Publication info: Chicago Tribune ; Chicago, Ill. [Chicago, Ill]17 Feb 2018: 5.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Brazil's military will take over security in Rio de Janeiro after a spike in violence tainted the city's Carnival celebration, President Michel Temer announced Friday. The military intervention, the first of its kind since the end of Brazil's military dictatorship in 1988, will be in effect until December. Brazil's Congress is expected to ratify the measure next week. In a televised speech, Temer labeled the intervention an "extreme measure" necessary to crack down on organized crime and drug trafficking that have overtaken the city of 6.5 million people, the country's second most populous. "Enough," he declared. "We won't allow them to kill our present and assassinate our future." Rio's secretary of security resigned following the announcement. Gen. Walter Souza Braga Netto, who coordinated security in Rio during the 2016 Summer Olympics, will be at the helm of the intervention. Infamous for its spells of violence, Rio enjoyed a four-year respite in homicides at the start of the decade. But as Brazil sank into its worst recession on record, the city's police budget dried up, leaving areas that were once heavily policed at the mercy of warring gangs. The surge in crime has had serious repercussions for residents. In the past year, homicides, assaults and thefts in the city spiked to levels not seen in 15 years. Nearly 400 schools canceled classes because of violence last year, and 70 percent of the city's residents have contemplated moving. The chaos came to a head this week when gunfire, assaults on tourists and mass muggings marred the city's largest event, Carnival. Both Rio's mayor and the state governor were widely criticized for skipping town, as 6 million people gathered for the weeklong party that has become synonymous with the city. "The failure to restore public security is due in part to a fundamental lack of leadership from the state governor and the mayor. They have shown no interest or appetite to mount a serious response," Robert Muggah, director of the Igarape Institute, a Rio-based think tank that specializes in security issues, told The Washington Post. "The (state's) disastrous handling of public security during this year's Carnival is symptomatic of deep, systematic neglect." Luiz Fernando Pezao, governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro, told local media that the state miscalculated the amount of policing the city would require during the holiday. "We were not prepared," he said. Violence is on the rise in Brazil as a whole. Security woes have propelled tough-on-crime candidates, such as former military officer Jair Bolsonaro, to the fore in this year's presidential race. Temer's deeply unpopular government hopes the military intervention in Rio will address voter concerns about violence ahead of the October elections. Residents of Rio are used to soldiers patrolling their streets. The measure would mark the 13th time that the city has called for the military to help with chronic security issues. CAPTION: Photo: Brazil's government is putting Rio de Janiero's police force under military control after a spike in violence. ERALDO PERES/AP CREDIT: By Marina Lopes, The Washington Post
Subject: Violence; Olympic games; Local elections; Governors; Murders & murder attempts
Location: Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil
People: Bolsonaro, Jair Temer, Michel
Publication title: Chicago Tribune; Chicago, Ill.
First page: 5
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 17, 2018
Dateline: SAO PAULO, Brazil
Section: News
Publisher: Tribune Interactive, LLC
Place of publication: Chicago, Ill.
Country of publication: United States, Chicago, Ill.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
ISSN: 10856706
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2002614259
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2002614259?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Tribune Interactive, LLC Feb 17, 2018
Last updated: 2018-11-12
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 120 of 474
BRAZIL: Ibovespa Closes Slightly Higher With Expiring Options, Foreign Scene
Publication info: RTTNews ; Williamsville [Williamsville]17 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: (RTTNews) - Ibovespa, the benchmark stock index in Brazil, closed slightly higher (+0.28%) at 84,524.58 points Friday after showing volatility throughout the trading session ahead of the expiration of stock options on Monday, while investors still monitor the U.S. stock markets. In the domestic scene, the market still awaits a definition of the government on the pension reform bill. In the week, even with the Carnival holiday, the Ibovespa accumulated 4.48%. According to Carlos Alberto Bifulco, a partner at Bifulco Associados, the next few days of expiring options expiration "are always days of volatility," and we must await news after this week's U.S. indicators have calmed the market against the fear of more aggressive rate hikes in the country. According to H. Commcor operations manager Ari Santos, pension reform also has some potential to bring volatility in the next few days if the market fears further declines in Brazil's rating if it is not approved. However, he points out that it is still necessary to keep up with North American data. Meanwhile, the locally traded U.S. dollar closed down by 0.37%, quoted at R$ 3.224, influenced by a more favorable external environment regarding risky assets. Emerging currencies were favored by the positive flow of resources that contributed to the appreciation of oil prices abroad. For comments and feedback: contact [email protected] Copyright(c) 2018 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved
Publication title: RTTNews; Williamsville
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 17, 2018
Section: Business
Publisher: Global Network Content Services LLC, DBA Noticias Financieras LLC
Place of publication: Williamsville
Country of publication: United States, Williamsville
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2002648141
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search. proquest.com/docview/2002648141?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright (c) 2018 RTT News
Last updated: 2018-02-17
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 121 of 474
Brazil - Politics at play as Temer hands control of Rio police to army
Author: FRANCE 24
Publication info: France 24 , English ed.; Paris Paris: SyndiGate Media Inc. (Feb 17, 2018)
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Brazilian President Michel Temer signed a decree on Friday handing the military full control of security in Rio de Janeiro, in the wake of a rise in crime and violence in the state. The measure comes after Rio de Janeiro's famous annual carnival, which is considered the biggest carnival in the world, was marred by violence this week. In their Wednesday programming, broadcast network TV Globo showed videos of fighting between rival gangs and tourists being punched and falling victim to armed robberies. Rio State Governor Luiz Fernando Pezao was forced to apologise in response to the images, saying that the 17,000 police officers who were deployed were not enough. "We were not ready," he told media. "There were mistakes in the first days and we reinforced the patrols." However, Joana Monteiro, the chief executive of Rio's Security Institute, said that early data suggests that the 2018 festival was not necessarily more violent than previous years. This year, 5,865 incidents were reported by the police during Carnival week, including 86 homicides, more than 1,000 instances of pickpocketing, and 262 seizures of drugs. Last year there were 5,773 reported incidents. This has not stopped President Temer from acting to crack down on the criminal violence across the city. "I am taking these extreme measures because circumstances demand it," Temer said after signing the decree to combat seemingly endless waves of gang-driven violence. Congress is expected to ratify it within 10 days. "The government will give tough and firm answers, taking all necessary measures to eradicate organised crime," he added. He described organised crime as "a metastasis that spreads through the country and threatens the tranquillity of our people." Army patrols are already used in Rio's gang-ruled favelas, but this decree will now give the military full control of security operations in Rio state, including authority over state police. This is the first time the country has taken such a step since its return to democracy in 1985, after two decades of military rule. Defense Minister Raul Jungmann declared last month that "the security system is broken," but in the same speech specified that the army would not replace the police on the ground, but instead provide logistical support in their fight against the drug lords. Military reinforcements ... for political gain
But some think that the move is driven by political motivations. A measure like this is considered a "federal intervention" in the eyes of the law, and amendments to the constitution cannot be made while a federal intervention is underway. This conveniently lets Temer off the hook from pushing through a vote on an unpopular pension reform that could damage his public reputation even further. The reform needs 308 votes to pass, and it is expected that Temer's government can only scrape together around 270. Temer is unwilling to suffer such a defeat with the general election coming up in October this year. With his approval rating currently in single figures and general elections on the horizon, Temer is keen to avoid unpopular public policy. A poll last month showed that 38 per cent of Brazilians said public security was a major concern in whom they would vote for. Temer taking a tough-on-crime attitude would play well with voters. Responsibility for security in Rio will now fall to General Walter Souza Braga Neto, who was the man in charge of coordinating security when the city hosted the 2016 Olympic Games. The army's mission will last until the end of Temer's term as president, December 31. (FRANCE 24 with news wires) © 2006 - 2018 Copyright FRANCE 24. All rights reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info). Credit: FRANCE 24
Subject: Organized crime; Violence; Local elections; Robbery; Murders & murder attempts
Location: Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil
People: Temer, Michel
Publication title: France 24, English ed.; Paris
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 17, 2018
Publisher: SyndiGate Media Inc
Place of publication: Paris
Country of publication: United States, Paris
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--France
Source type: Other Sources
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2002663693
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2002663693?accountid=4840
Copyright: © 2006 - 2018 Copyright FRANCE 24. All rights reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).
Last updated: 2018-11-13
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 122 of 474
Liston "Worm" Fahie has an appetite for art
Author: Abbotts, Lori
Publication info: TCA Regional News ; Chicago [Chicago]17 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Feb. 17--ST. THOMAS -- Safari vans with personalized artwork can be admired on practically every street corner in downtown Charlotte Amalie. Gleaming with bright colors and intricate designs, each safari bus is truly a work of art. Meet Liston "Worm" Fahie, airbrush artist extraordinaire, one of only a handful of artists that can make any car, van or any other vehicle a masterpiece on wheels. His artwork has certainly been gaining popularity. Everyone is interested in the myriad of projects Worm has completed, but first, what's with the strange nickname? Worm. How exactly did he end up with that one? "Everybody asks that," he said, laughing. "At first, everyone thought it was from my dancing, but it's actually because I can eat a lot and not get fat. One of my best friends and I had an eating contest at McDonald's and I won it. And I was like the smallest guy. We would make a bet to see who could eat the most and they all said 'Man, you must have worms inside you' and that's how I inherited the name. Later on, I used to break dance and everybody thought that was my break dancing name so I just kept it." So, Worm it is. You'll see the name scribbled on artwork everywhere on St. Thomas, on a safari, on a mural, on a T-shirt. You'll definitely be seeing the name time and again during the Carnival festivities. Since elementary school, Worm experimented with every medium available to him. In junior high, he entered (and won) his first art competition, and he came in second in another before graduating from Charlotte Amalie High School in 1982. Worm gets much of his inspiration from other local artists, particularly another local airbrusher, EBass. "When I saw him doing it for the first time, I said 'Whoa! I have got to get into this.' So, he was my first inspiration," Said Worm. "It's not just the school that I went to, but it's a lot of artists that I've been around that amaze me with their work. I kind of collaborate some of their ideas with mine and then bring out my own style." For Worm, it pays to do the research. He bought books on airbrushing and learned everything he could about it, from fingernail work to T-shirts to cars, how to fix them and how to take them apart. He practiced and practiced until he perfected it and learned everything he possibly could. Beside cars and vans, which he can usually complete in a day or two, Worm also does portraits and murals. Where he really excels is in his work during Carnival. Those who attended the 2018 Prince and Princess presentation enjoyed his 1950s themed jukebox backdrop and cutouts. At least a dozen booths in the Carnival Village will feature his artwork. He has had up to 22 booths to complete for the same Carnival Village, and stays up day and night until they're done. Word of his talent has spread, and his work can also be seen on St. John, St. Croix, St. Maarten and even in Rio de Janeiro. "Right now, I'm working with a guy from Trinidad named Felix, and he does amazing work with his hands," said Worm. "When we put our heads together, it's like Batman and Robin. We work together and blend my work with his work." The dynamic duo creates backdrops, costumes for Carnival parades and designs cultural costumes for the queen competition. "One time we had to dress a young lady and the dress actually lit up. We put animations on the dress also so there was actually a tramp going around her dress." What's next for this ever-growing artist? He plans to take a trip to Japan to experience whatever new technology he can find and new art techniques to bring back to the Virgin Islands. When it comes to art, I don't like to limit myself," he said. "I love my work. I love doing it. Anything that comes to me, I get so excited. The world changes as it spins and new things come out every day. Finding those, that's how you stay ahead of the game." CREDIT: By Lori Abbotts
Subject: Artists; Art
Location: Rio de Janeiro Brazil Japan
Publication title: TCA Regional News; Chicago
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 17, 2018
Publisher: Tribune Content Agency LLC
Place of publication: Chicago
Country of publication: United States, Chicago
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2002726175
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2002726175?accountid=4840
Copyright: (c)2018 The Virgin Islands Daily News (St. Thomas, VIR) Visit The Virgin Islands Daily News (St. Thomas, VIR) at www.virginislandsdailynews.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Last updated: 2018-02-18
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 123 of 474
Brazil Army to Take Over Security in Rio de Janeiro -- WSJ
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]17 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
This article is being republished as part of our daily reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S. print edition of The Wall Street Journal (February 17, 2018).
RIO DE JANEIRO -- Brazil's military will take over public security in Rio de Janeiro until the end of the year in an unprecedented intervention that highlights the famed seaside city's struggle to contain violent crime.
President Michel Temer signed a decree Friday making Rio's state police and security authorities subordinate to an Army general who will report directly to him. The general, Walter Braga Netto, previously oversaw a temporary force of federal troops sent here last year to support local police.
The move comes amid increasingly frequent reports of shootouts and robberies across the state's eponymous capital, which hosted South America's first Olympic Games in 2016. The city of Rio saw 2,125 violent deaths last year, a 37% increase since 2014, including several heartbreaking cases of children and other innocent bystanders killed by stray bullets. This year's Carnival festivities earlier this week were marred by gunbattles and mass robberies.
"Organized crime is a metastasis spreading through the country and threatening the tranquility of our people," Mr. Temer said in a speech alongside Rio Gov. Luiz Fernando "Pezão" de Souza and other officials. "I know it's an extreme measure, but many times Brazil demands extreme measures to impose order."
Brasília has occasionally sent federal troops to Rio and other states during flare-ups of violence, or to assist local police during major events. But pundits noted that handing over total control of law enforcement to the military is without precedent in the three decades since Brazil's 1964-85 military dictatorship ended.
Mr. Braga Netto, who just returned from vacation, didn't provide details on whether the roughly 10,000 troops sent to Rio last July would be ramped up. He said the goal of the decree is to streamline management of the various security and law-enforcement bodies operating in the state.
Rio's crime woes reflect an epic fiscal crisis in the state government, which is responsible for most policing, as well as a mass downsizing by its largest corporate employer, government-run Petróleo Brasileiro SA, in response to a corruption scandal. The state, home to 17 million people, shed more than half a million formal jobs in the past three years.
Despite the recent uptick in crime, however, Rio's homicide rate of around 32 per 100,000 residents remains far below its 1990s peak. It is also far lower than that of several other Brazilian states, leading some observers to speculate that the decree was designed to distract attention from Mr. Temer's losing battle to push a social-security reform bill through Congress this month.
"It's not a decision that was informed by hard evidence," said Rafael Alcadipani da Silveira, a public-security expert at Fundação Getúlio Vargas in São Paulo. He said the decree was likely influenced by the ruling party's desire to capitalize on growing public concern with crime in an election year, noting that Brazil's largest media company, Globo, is based in Rio and has focused its news coverage heavily on crime here.
A spokesman for Mr. Temer said the move was justified by the high concentration of heavy weapons in the hands of Rio gangs, as well as the fact that Rio's fiscal crisis is among the worst in Brazil.
Mr. Silveira and others also expressed skepticism about the decree's chances of success. Rio's homicide rate rose through 2017 even after Brasília sent troops to the state. Extrajudicial killings by police officers, meanwhile, soared 22% to 1,124 incidents.
"The problem is that this intervention is just a temporary fix to a problem that will plague Rio and other states for years to come," said Silvio Cascione, a political analyst at political-risk consultancy Eurasia Group, noting that rising payroll burdens and limited revenue streams are pressuring Brazilian state budgets across the board. "In the meantime, organized crime, mostly associated with drug trafficking, has become more powerful and more entrenched in local institutions."
Michelle Fonseca, a 29-year-old resident of Rocinha, one of Rio's largest favelas, or slums, said heavily armed soldiers and SWAT teams have been patrolling her neighborhood for months, to little effect. More people see crime as the only way to make a living, she said.
"The only things that are going to improve the situation are education and jobs," Ms. Fonseca said, eyeing a ragged-looking teenager wandering the streets in front of the shop where she works. "I think for anything to change, the government needs to change first."
--Paulo Trevisani contributed to this article.
Write to Paul Kiernan at [email protected]
(END)
February 17, 2018 02:32 ET (07:32 GMT)By Paul Kiernan
Subject: Organized crime
Location: South America Brazil United States--US Rio de Janeiro Brazil Eurasia
People: Temer, Michel
Company / organization: Name: Eurasia Group; NAICS: 523930; Name: Wall Street Journal; NAICS: 511110
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 17, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2002728134
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2002728134?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Feb 17, 2018
Last updated: 2018-11-12
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 124 of 474
Temer: Rio Intervention Also Shows Concern with Other States
Publication info: Brazil Business News ; Sydney [Sydney]17 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Feb. 17 -- President Michel Temer held a meeting on Saturday (17) with more than 80 public authorities, including deputies, senators, representatives of the justice system and members of the Rio de Janeiro government, to discuss actions after the federal intervention decree. In addition to returning Rio de Janeiro to its people, "the government is committed to guaranteeing the rights of citizens," said Moreira Franco, head of the General Secretariat of the Presidency. Ministry "It is the history of criminality in Rio de Janeiro, which in fact is not exclusive to Rio. This is our concern, but it spreads through several Brazilian states," Temer said. That, he stressed, is what justifies the need for more forceful measures. The president has also decided to create an extraordinary ministry for the area to coordinate public safety actions throughout the country. Autonomy Temer also stressed that the intervention is partial, since it is concentrated in the area of public safety and does not affect other sectors of the state government. "We did something very light-touching, but necessary, indispensable," Temer said. History "[Criminality] always creates a sense of insecurity throughout the country, in addition to creating a negative image for the country abroad," Temer said. Since the Olympic Games in the city, the Federal Government has transferred resources and agents to the region. In 2016, the president had already signed a Guarantee of Law and Order (GLO) decree that made it possible to send federal troops to Rio to support police actions. Organised crime "Criminality did not cease. And it wasn't isolated actions, but organized criminality, which bred criminal gangs and factions that fight among themselves, that dispute territories among themselves, and that created very serious problems for the population of Rio de Janeiro," he pondered. In the wake of increased criminality (especially during Carnival) and the request for federal support made by the government of Rio de Janeiro, a decree was signed ordering federal intervention in the state. Pension Reform "Pension reform may have to leave the voting docket, but it will not leave the political agenda," the president said. He added that the emergency scenario experienced by Rio de Janeiro justified the measure taken by the government. Source: BrazilGovNews, Federal Government of Brazil Copyright 2017 Contify.com
Subject: Presidents; Public safety
Location: Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil
People: Temer, Michel
Publication title: Brazil Business News; Sydney
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 17, 2018
Publisher: Athena Information Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
Place of publication: Sydney
Country of publication: India, Sydney
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2120871785
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2120871785?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright 2017 Contify.com
Last updated: 2018-10-17
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 125 of 474
Brazilian military to take control of security in Rio de Janeiro
Author: Schipani, Andres
Publication info: FT.com ; London (Feb 17, 2018).
Abstract:
Ahead of uncertain presidential elections in October, opinion polls show that security is a top priority and there is a sense that criminal violence is spinning out of control. Residents and gang members blame police brutality for the growing violence, while others say the stumbling economy has been forcing Brazil’s dominant criminal factions to fight for a share of the drugs market. Maurício Santoro, a political scientist with Rio de Janeiro State University, believed that the measure “has a wider repercussion for the presidential election itself, for national politics”, as the security situation could well play into the hands ofJair Bolsonaro, a rightwing politician and former army captain, who is running second in opinion polls.Full text: The Brazilian military is to take control of security in Rio de Janeiroamid a vicious crime wavethat has hit the city’s famous carnival in what is the first intervention of the armed forces since Latin America’s largest country returned to democracy three decades ago. President Michel Temer, who signed the decree on Friday that will be in place until the end of the year, called it an “extreme measure”. “You know that organised crime has almost taken over the state of Rio de Janeiro,” Mr Temer said in a televised speech. “It is a metastasis that spreads around the country.” Roberto Sá, Rio state’s secretary of security, resigned after the announcement, and General Walter Souza Braga, who co-ordinated security during the city’s 2016 Olympics, will be in charge of the intervention. Rio is facing a sharp deterioration in public security, with levels of homicide, assault, and theft in 2017 and early 2018 reaching levels not seen in more than a decade. Ahead of uncertain presidential elections in October, opinion polls show that security is a top priority and there is a sense that criminal violence is spinning out of control. This concern was highlighted during the carnival parades this week, whensamba schoolsfeatured victims of stray bullets, armed gangs, and even a child’s coffin after a three-year-old girl was killed in an attempted robbery. Shoot-outs are increasingly common in the city’s vast favelas, having topped 317 since the beginning of the month, said Fogo Cruzado, a group tracking armed violence. Residents and gang members blame police brutality for the growing violence, while others say the stumbling economy has been forcing Brazil’s dominant criminal factions to fight for a share of the drugs market. “There used to be a time when violence paused during carnival,” said José Pereira de Oliveira of Afroreggae, an organisation working in the favelas rehabilitating gang members. Luiz Fernando Pezão, the governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro, admitted that policing efforts during a holiday in which more than 6m revellers take to the streets, were insufficient. “We were not prepared,” he told Globo. Acorruption scandalcentred onPetrobras, the state-owned oil company based in Rio, and falling oil prices have nearly bankrupted the state government, leading to cuts in security budgets. Meanwhile, former state governors and businessmen have been jailed for corruption. Many saycriminal gangsare taking advantage of such political paralysis. “There was a palatable sense of insecurity in Rio over the past month, especially during carnival,” said Robert Muggah of security think-tank Igarapé Institute. With Mr Temer’s popularity in single-digits, “a ‘tough on crime’ approach plays well with the public, and bolsters the credentials of like-minded presidential and state-level candidates.” Maurício Santoro, a political scientist with Rio de Janeiro State University, believed that the measure “has a wider repercussion for the presidential election itself, for national politics”, as the security situation could well play into the hands ofJair Bolsonaro, a rightwing politician and former army captain, who is running second in opinion polls. Analysts also believe the security decree, which is expected to be ratified by Congress early next week, was driven by other political calculations. With general elections approaching, legislators want to avoid an unpopular overhaul of thepensions system, that economists and investors see as crucial to Brazil’s long-term fiscal prosperity. This requires 308 votes as it would require an amendment to the constitution. But congressional insiders say the government has between 270-280 votes and Mr Temer would not risk defeat before securing the votes needed. Lawmakers were expected to discuss the pension reform soon, but “the constitution has a rule that prevents amendments to it while a federal intervention is in force”, like in Rio, said Oscar Vilhena of the FGV Direito law school. “My interpretation is that they can continue handling it, but it can not be approved.” Mr Muggah of Igarapé Institute added: “Real security concerns in Rio de Janeiro and real politicking in Brasília are shaping the decision to put the military in charge of public security. “It is the equivalent of a public policy ‘Hail Mary’ and the results are far from certain.” Credit: Andres Schipani in São Paulo
Subject: Violence; Local elections; Election results; State elections; Presidential elections; Murders & murder attempts
Location: Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil Latin America
People: Temer, Michel
Company / organization: Name: Rio de Janeiro State University; NAICS: 611310
Publication title: FT.com; London
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 17, 2018
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Trade Journals
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2121977906
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2121977906?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Feb 17, 2018
Last updated: 2018-11-13
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 126 of 474
Brazil puts military in charge of Rio security: Intervention comes after violence during Carnival celebration
Author: Lopes, Marina
Publication info: Chicago Tribune ; Chicago, Ill. [Chicago, Ill]18 Feb 2018: 27.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Brazil's military will take over security in Rio de Janeiro after a spike in violence tainted the city's Carnival celebration, President Michel Temer announced Friday. The military intervention, the first of its kind since the end of Brazil's military dictatorship in 1988, will be in effect until December. Brazil's Congress is expected to ratify the measure next week. In a televised speech, Temer labeled the intervention an "extreme measure" necessary to crack down on organized crime and drug trafficking that have overtaken the city of 6.5 million people, the country's second most populous. "Enough," he declared. "We won't allow them to kill our present and assassinate our future." Rio's secretary of security resigned following the announcement. Gen. Walter Souza Braga Netto, who coordinated security in Rio during the 2016 Summer Olympics, will be at the helm of the intervention. Infamous for its spells of violence, Rio enjoyed a four-year respite in homicides at the start of the decade. But as Brazil sank into its worst recession on record, the city's police budget dried up, leaving areas that were once heavily policed at the mercy of warring gangs. The surge in crime has had serious repercussions for residents. In the past year, homicides, assaults and thefts in the city spiked to levels not seen in 15 years. Nearly 400 schools canceled classes because of violence last year, and 70 percent of the city's residents have contemplated moving. The chaos came to a head this week when gunfire, assaults on tourists and mass muggings marred the city's largest event, Carnival. Both Rio's mayor and the state governor were widely criticized for skipping town, as 6 million people gathered for the weeklong party that has become synonymous with the city. "The failure to restore public security is due in part to a fundamental lack of leadership from the state governor and the mayor. They have shown no interest or appetite to mount a serious response," Robert Muggah, director of the Igarape Institute, a Rio-based think tank that specializes in security issues, told The Washington Post. "The (state's) disastrous handling of public security during this year's Carnival is symptomatic of deep, systematic neglect." Luiz Fernando Pezao, governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro, told local media that the state miscalculated the amount of policing the city would require during the holiday. "We were not prepared," he said. Violence is on the rise in Brazil as a whole. Security woes have propelled tough-on-crime candidates, such as former military officer Jair Bolsonaro, to the fore in this year's presidential race. Temer's deeply unpopular government hopes the military intervention in Rio will address voter concerns about violence ahead of the October elections. Residents of Rio are used to soldiers patrolling their streets. The measure would mark the 13th time that the city has called for the military to help with chronic security issues. CAPTION: Photo: Brazil's government is putting Rio de Janiero's police force under military control after a spike in violence. ERALDO PERES/AP CREDIT: By Marina Lopes, The Washington Post
Subject: Violence; Olympic games; Local elections; Governors; Murders & murder attempts
Location: Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil
People: Bolsonaro, Jair Temer, Michel
Publication title: Chicago Tribune; Chicago, Ill.
First page: 27
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 18, 2018
Dateline: SAO PAULO, Brazil
Section: News
Publisher: Tribune Interactive, LLC
Place of publication: Chicago, Ill.
Country of publication: United States, Chicago, Ill.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
ISSN: 10856706
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2002748389
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2002748389?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Tribune Interactive, LLC Feb 18, 2018
Last updated: 2018-11-12
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 127 of 474
Brazil: Brazil Orders Army to Take Over Security in Rio de Janeiro
Publication info: Asia News Monitor ; Bangkok [Bangkok]19 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Brazil's president has ordered the army to take over command of police forces in Rio de Janeiro, saying drug gangs have virtually taken over the city. I am taking these extreme measures because circumstances demand it, President Michel Temer said after signing the decree Friday at his Planalto palace in the capital, Brasilia. The decree affects the entire state of Rio, including Rio de Janeiro's metropolitan area of 12 million people. He said organized crime threatens the tranquility of our nation. For that reason, we have just called for a federal intervention in the public security for Rio de Janeiro. We will not accept a passive response to the death of innocent people. What is intolerable is that we are burying fathers and mothers and workers and police and young people and children, he added. Brazil's army forces already patrol in parts of Rio de Janeiro, but Friday's decree gives the military full control of security operations in Rio state. Military generals were previously in charge of securing the city when it hosted the 2016 Olympic Games. Defense Minister Raul Jungmann has said the army will not replace local or state police on the ground but will provide logistical support in their fight against drug lords. Brazil's Congress is expected to ratify the decree within 10 days. The violence in Rio was highlighted during Carnival celebrations that ended Wednesday in which images of gangs robbing tourists were repeatedly broadcast on national television. Rio state has been hit hard by Brazil's recession and a downturn in oil markets in recent years. - VOA
Location: Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil
People: Temer, Michel
Publication title: Asia News Monitor; Bangkok
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 19, 2018
Section: General News
Publisher: Thai News Service Group
Place of publication: Bangkok
Country of publication: Thailand, Bangkok
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--Philippines, General Interest Periodicals--Vietnam, General Interest Periodicals--Thailand
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2002785143
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2002785143?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Thai News Service Group Feb 19, 2018
Last updated: 2018-11-13
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 128 of 474
Brazil media question 'risky' Rio security move by Temer
Publication info: BBC Monitoring Americas ; London [London]19 Feb 2018.
Abstract:
Move seen as 'rushed' Brazilian media noted that the ordered military takeover of security in Rio de Janeiro state and its capital city followed a spate of army operations in recent months launched in support of civilian police hunting arms and drugs in the city. The analyst saw a list of potential problems with the initiative, including funding issues, since the "government is highly indebted", widespread distrust between politicians and the military, and the absence of agreement on what to do with Rio's own military police, which de Souza's article alleged was itself involved in criminal activities. Security is not an isolated issue, and its degradation in the case of Rio is the result of a combination of many factors - administrative irresponsibility, collusion with organised crime, widespread corruption, franchising out of the state [of Rio] to delinquents of all kinds, and social apathy. [...]a public safety type of intervention until December 31st of this year, as established in the decree, will only scratch the surface of the problem," O Estado said.Full text: By BBC Monitoring Brazil's media questioned the motives and potential effectiveness of President Michel Temer's move to put the federal armed forces in charge of security in crime-plagued Rio de Janeiro until the end of 2018. The decreed security intervention in the city of Rio and its surrounding state, which was announced on 16 February, still has to be ratified by the country's Congress. The initiative, which gives an army general command of security operations in Rio, followed an upsurge in violence and murders during the recently-ended Carnival in the Brazilian city, many of whose sprawling 'favelas' (slums) have been under the control of drug-trafficking gangs for years. "Although Rio's chaos is unquestionable, the intervention raises doubts about its motivation and effectiveness," Folha de Sao Paul newspaper wrote in a "What Folha thinks" opinion piece published on 19 February. The Folha editorial asked whether the move might also require similar military interventions elsewhere in the nation. "This is undoubtedly a risky move. If the gravity of the situation in Rio is unquestionable, the [intervention] measure opens up precedents for similar actions in other regions of the country - in Pernambuco [state], for example, crime has also advanced alarmingly, with even worse indicators [than Rio]," Folha wrote. Move seen as 'rushed' Brazilian media noted that the ordered military takeover of security in Rio de Janeiro state and its capital city followed a spate of army operations in recent months launched in support of civilian police hunting arms and drugs in the city. "The only novelty of the intervention is the intervention. It was rushed," commentator Janio de Freitas wrote in Folha on 18 February. Another columnist, Josias de Souza, writing on news website UOL on 18 February, also saw a lack of planning in the move. "[President] Michel Temer found in astrology, palm-reading or tarot the optimism" to take the decision to launch the military intervention to combat the violence in Rio, de Souza said. The analyst saw a list of potential problems with the initiative, including funding issues, since the "government is highly indebted", widespread distrust between politicians and the military, and the absence of agreement on what to do with Rio's own military police, which de Souza's article alleged was itself involved in criminal activities. "Some [military police] battalion commanders are partners of organised crime in Rio," Roberto Sa, a former Security Secretary for Rio de Janeiro state, was quoted as saying in de Souza's article. "It is worth asking: with what authority will General Braga Netto, who is a puppet of Temer, expel the corrupt police?", de Souza's article asked, referring to General Walter Souza Braga Netto, who was named to head the federal security intervention in Rio. The general had helped coordinate the security for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. Divided views in Congress TV Globo reported that Brazilian politicians seemed divided over the Rio security intervention ahead of the Congress vote on it in the coming days. "I will vote in favour," conservative Congressman Miro Teixeira was quoted as saying on 16 February. However, senators and lawmakers from the left-wing opposition Workers' Party, who are fiercely critical of Temer, would "vote against the decree", TV Globo reported. Just 'scratching the surface'? Debate raged across Brazil's media over the wisdom of the federal security measure for Rio. In a 17 February editorial, conservative daily O Estado de Sao. Paulo, which normally supports Temer's decisions, called it "unjustifiable". "This violence [in Rio] is intolerable, but a federal intervention will not solve the problem. Security is not an isolated issue, and its degradation in the case of Rio is the result of a combination of many factors - administrative irresponsibility, collusion with organised crime, widespread corruption, franchising out of the state [of Rio] to delinquents of all kinds, and social apathy. Thus, a public safety type of intervention until December 31st of this year, as established in the decree, will only scratch the surface of the problem," O Estado said. But there were those who welcomed the initiative. Journalist Reinaldo Azevedo, from Rede TV, said on 17 February that the government "made the right decision". He said the intervention was "needed and legal under the Constitution". Azevedo criticised those who described the federal security takeover as a military occupation of Rio. Debate over 'dictatorship' The intervention decree caused much uproar on social media as well. The hashtag #TemerDitador (Temer Dictator) trended in Brazil on 18 February. "After this military intervention [in Rio], we entered the anteroom of dictatorship," one Brazilian tweeted. "Some say that Temer is a dictator, but they also support the dictatorship in Venezuela, how hypocritical," another Twitter user wrote, taking aim at left-wing critics of Temer. BBC Monitoring in Portuguese 2014 gmt 19 Feb 18
Subject: Social networks; Organized crime; Violence; Dictators; Intervention
Location: Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil Venezuela
People: Temer, Michel
Company / organization: Name: Twitter Inc; NAICS: 519130
Publication title: BBC Monitoring Americas; London
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 19, 2018
Dateline: BRAZIL
Publisher: BBC Worldwide Limited
Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Political Science
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2003098801
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2003098801?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright BBC Worldwide Limited Feb 19, 2018
Last updated: 2018-11-12
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 129 of 474
Brazil politics: Temer orders army onto streets of Rio de Janeiro
Publication info: EIU ViewsWire ; New York [New York]19 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Brazil politics: Temer orders army onto streets of Rio de Janeiro
On February 16th the government of the president, Michel Temer, issued an emergency decree declaring that the federal government would take over public security in the crime-ridden state of Rio de Janeiro. He has appointed an army general, Walter Souza Braga Netto, who oversaw security during the 2016 Olympic Games in the city of Rio de Janeiro, as the head of public security. The army will take over the civilian police's operations and remain in the city of Rio until December 31st. A stronger security presence through military intervention will probably improve security conditions in the short term, although broader public policy solutions are needed for longer-term rectification. Crime is a decades-long problem in Rio de Janeiro, reflecting social marginalisation, ineffective law enforcement and administrative mismanagement. During Brazil's 2004-12 economic boom crime in Rio fell, but it has been on the rise ever since then, reaching worrying proportions. The collapse in public security came as the state's public finances were hit by the end of a period of high oil prices. Rampant corruption is another contributing factor that has eroded institutional effectiveness. In fact, the former governor of the state, Sergio Cabral, and the previous leader of the local assembly, Jorge Picciani, both of Mr Temer's Movimento Democrático Brasiliero, are in prison serving corruption sentences. Efforts that began in 2010 to bring security to the hundred or so favelas, or shantytowns, that dot the city of Rio and which are dominated by criminal gangs active in drug-trafficking and extortion, petered out owing to a lack of funding, poor planning, poor policing, and collusion between corrupt police and the gangs. Moreover, there was not enough emphasis on socioeconomic development initiatives that could lead to lasting security gains. The federal government's intervention in February came shortly after Rio de Janeiro's carnival celebrations were marred by yet more acts of criminal violence that made its inhabitants even more despondent about the lack of security and the future of their "marvellous city". Among the incidents, hordes of youths were captured on video beating up tourists with impunity on the beach of Ipanema, and one of the drum queens of a samba school was held up at gunpoint by criminals on her way to the Sambadrome stadium where the parade is held. Full details of the army's presence are still unclear, but it is likely that the military will seek to pin back the criminal gangs in the favelas and improve security in the rest of the city, rather than going into the favelas themselves. Mr Temer takes a political gamble
Altough the intervention was around one year in the making, this was a bold and calculated political move by Mr Temer-and his main chance of reducing a disapproval rating of 70%, according to an end-January survey by a local pollster, Datafolha. Despite his unpopularity, Mr Temer still harbours a desire to run for re-election in October, or at least to influence the outcome of the elections. An economic recovery currently under way should help to lift his popularity, but not by much. Improving public security is a high priority for many Brazilians, and a firm response to the crisis-and tangible improvements in security, should they materialise-would serve to boost his standing somewhat. Mr Temer is also planning to create a new ministry for public security at the national level. The timing of the decree is also significant. It will now be put to a vote in Congress, which has ten days to approve it. The Economist Intelligence Unit considers that it is likely to be approved, but the vote will be complicated by the fact that the Supreme Court will also make a ruling on the legality of the decree, after a request for an injunction launched by an activist lawyer. Moreover, according to Brazilian law, constitutional amendments cannot be voted on by Congress while such a decree is in force. This makes it even more unlikely that Congress will vote on pension reform by end-February, after when it will become politically unfeasible to do so given the approach of the campaigns before elections in October. As such, Mr Temer has an excuse for not putting the pension reform to a vote as he has pledged he would, thereby saving himself a political defeat. If approval was on the cards, he would surely have delayed the security decree by a week or so until after the pensions vote. The takeover of Rio de Janeiro's security by the federal government and the army will influence the upcoming election campaigns. Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing populist who is leading in the polls of eligible presidential candidates partly because of his law and order discourse, has criticised the measure for not being sufficient. But by taking control of the public security agenda in this way, Mr Temer is stealing Mr Bolsonaro's thunder, and the president's political capital would benefit if there are palpable gains in public security. Conversely, should security improvements fail to materialise, this would damage Mr Temer's political standing, delivering a blow to his aspirations to run for re-election or to influence the standing of whomever he chooses to support. As for Rio de Janeiro, the presence of the military, even if it leads to improvements in public security, will be a short-term palliative move rather than a longer-term solution.
Subject: Politics
Location: Brazil Latin America
Publication title: EIU ViewsWire; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 19, 2018
Publisher: The Economist Intelligence Unit N.A., Incorporated
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Political Science--International Relations
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2003237769
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2003237769?accountid=4840
Copyright: (c) 2018 The Economist Intelligence Unit Ltd. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. No further reproduction is permitted.
Last updated: 2019-03-04
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 130 of 474
Experience the Thrill of a True Brazilian Festival at Yas Mall Dubai
Publication info: Al Bawaba ; London [London]20 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Yas Mall, in partnership with the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce and the Brazilian Embassy in Abu Dhabi, is set to entertain visitors and give an experience of a true Brazilian Festival this February. The spectacular event, which will be held at Abu Dhabi’s largest mall from 22nd – 25th February, will showcase lively samba performances and colourful pop-ups offering artistic Brazilian gifts and the tastiest Latin American food at the Town Square. Yas Mall has everything you need to enjoy a spectacular 4-day Brazilian festival which aims to bridge the gap between the Arab nations and Brazil through social and cultural interactions. Yas Mall is bringing the best of the South American nation straight to the capital! The famous Unidos De Vila Maria Samba School has travelled especially to Yas Mall to showcase their award-winning samba skills to visitors every day during the festival. Known for their energetic and passionate style, the Brazilian dancers are guaranteed to bring some fun to Abu Dhabi and entice everyone to move to the rhythm. A first in the region, the Brazilian equivalent of Mickey Mouse, cartoon character Monica & Friends will visit Yas Mall to amuse children of all ages with their imaginative and funny performances. Joining Monica will be local children’s favourite character, Majid, proving friendship between these nations can begin from childhood. For those who want to bring home a memento of Brazil, the vibrant Brazilian pop-ups at Town Square will be filled with Brazilian products from vendors such as cosmetic products from Solari, Flora Brasil, and Sweetez, as well as contact lens provider Solotica. There will also be arts souvenirs from MZArtes. Brazilian journalist Lu Braga, who lives in Lebanon will also have a kiosk to promote her blog. Fernando Luis Lemos Igreja, Brazilian Ambassador to the UAE, said: "It is a wonderful opportunity to have in Abu Dhabi such significant representation of the Brazilian culture: festival, sports and Turma da Mônica, among the presence of important companies of different sectors. I am sure this event will give Abu Dhabi some taste of our Brazilian culture." Rubens Hannun, President of the Arab-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, added: “We are proud to partner with Yas Mall in bringing Brazil closer to the Middle East through these lively activities which will surely entertain visitors and allow them to experience a slice of the Brazilian culture. We are positive that such initiatives create an atmosphere of friendship and camaraderie that is essential to maintain good relations especially in countries like the UAE which enjoy a wide variety of culture from many nationalities.” Commenting Saoud Khoory, General Manager of Yas Mall, said, ‘The Brazilian Carnival is known all over the world for its amazing dances, colourful costumes and pulsating atmosphere. At Yas Mall we wanted to inject some more fun and entertainment into our 2018 calendar. We are proud to be working with the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce and the Brazilian Embassy in Abu Dhabi to show our visitors what an authentic Brazilian Festival is like.’ CAPTION: Crowds at Yas Mall
Subject: Friendship; Brazilian culture; Diplomatic & consular services; Chambers of commerce; Festivals
Location: Abu Dhabi United Arab Emirates Middle East Brazil Lebanon Dubai United Arab Emirates
Publication title: Al Bawaba; London
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 20, 2018
Section: Goods and Services
Publisher: Albawaba (London) Ltd.
Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--Jordan
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2003317316
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2003317316?accountid=4840
Copyright: © 2000 - 2018 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com) Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).
Last updated: 2018-02-20
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 131 of 474
Brazil Army to Take Over Security in Rio de Janeiro -- WSJ
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]20 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
This article is being republished as part of our daily reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S. print edition of The Wall Street Journal (February 17, 2018).
RIO DE JANEIRO -- Brazil's military will take over public security in Rio de Janeiro until the end of the year in an unprecedented intervention that highlights the famed seaside city's struggle to contain violent crime.
President Michel Temer signed a decree Friday making Rio's state police and security authorities subordinate to an Army general who will report directly to him. The general, Walter Braga Netto, previously oversaw a temporary force of federal troops sent here last year to support local police.
The move comes amid increasingly frequent reports of shootouts and robberies across the state's eponymous capital, which hosted South America's first Olympic Games in 2016. The city of Rio saw 2,125 violent deaths last year, a 37% increase since 2014, including several heartbreaking cases of children and other innocent bystanders killed by stray bullets. This year's Carnival festivities earlier this week were marred by gunbattles and mass robberies.
"Organized crime is a metastasis spreading through the country and threatening the tranquility of our people," Mr. Temer said in a speech alongside Rio Gov. Luiz Fernando "Pezão" de Souza and other officials. "I know it's an extreme measure, but many times Brazil demands extreme measures to impose order."
Brasília has occasionally sent federal troops to Rio and other states during flare-ups of violence, or to assist local police during major events. But pundits noted that handing over total control of law enforcement to the military is without precedent in the three decades since Brazil's 1964-85 military dictatorship ended.
Mr. Braga Netto, who just returned from vacation, didn't provide details on whether the roughly 10,000 troops sent to Rio last July would be ramped up. He said the goal of the decree is to streamline management of the various security and law-enforcement bodies operating in the state.
Rio's crime woes reflect an epic fiscal crisis in the state government, which is responsible for most policing, as well as a mass downsizing by its largest corporate employer, government-run Petróleo Brasileiro SA, in response to a corruption scandal. The state, home to 17 million people, shed more than half a million formal jobs in the past three years.
Despite the recent uptick in crime, however, Rio's homicide rate of around 32 per 100,000 residents remains far below its 1990s peak. It is also far lower than that of several other Brazilian states, leading some observers to speculate that the decree was designed to distract attention from Mr. Temer's losing battle to push a social-security reform bill through Congress this month.
"It's not a decision that was informed by hard evidence," said Rafael Alcadipani da Silveira, a public-security expert at Fundação Getúlio Vargas in São Paulo. He said the decree was likely influenced by the ruling party's desire to capitalize on growing public concern with crime in an election year, noting that Brazil's largest media company, Globo, is based in Rio and has focused its news coverage heavily on crime here.
A spokesman for Mr. Temer said the move was justified by the high concentration of heavy weapons in the hands of Rio gangs, as well as the fact that Rio's fiscal crisis is among the worst in Brazil.
Mr. Silveira and others also expressed skepticism about the decree's chances of success. Rio's homicide rate rose through 2017 even after Brasília sent troops to the state. Extrajudicial killings by police officers, meanwhile, soared 22% to 1,124 incidents.
"The problem is that this intervention is just a temporary fix to a problem that will plague Rio and other states for years to come," said Silvio Cascione, a political analyst at political-risk consultancy Eurasia Group, noting that rising payroll burdens and limited revenue streams are pressuring Brazilian state budgets across the board. "In the meantime, organized crime, mostly associated with drug trafficking, has become more powerful and more entrenched in local institutions."
Michelle Fonseca, a 29-year-old resident of Rocinha, one of Rio's largest favelas, or slums, said heavily armed soldiers and SWAT teams have been patrolling her neighborhood for months, to little effect. More people see crime as the only way to make a living, she said.
"The only things that are going to improve the situation are education and jobs," Ms. Fonseca said, eyeing a ragged-looking teenager wandering the streets in front of the shop where she works. "I think for anything to change, the government needs to change first."
--Paulo Trevisani contributed to this article.
Write to Paul Kiernan at [email protected]
(END)
February 20, 2018 15:25 ET (20:25 GMT)By Paul Kiernan
Subject: Organized crime
Location: South America Brazil United States--US Rio de Janeiro Brazil Eurasia
People: Braga Netto, Walter Temer, Michel
Company / organization: Name: Eurasia Group; NAICS: 523930; Name: Wall Street Journal; NAICS: 511110
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 20, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2006689798
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2006689798?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Feb 20, 2018
Last updated: 2018-11-12
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 132 of 474
Geography Professor Completes 12th Around-the-World Educational Tour
Publication info: Targeted News Service ; Washington, D.C. [Washington, D.C]20 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Western Kentucky University issued the following news: Dr. David Keeling, Distinguished University Professor of Geography in WKU's Department of Geography and Geology, returned recently from his 12th circumnavigation of the planet, completing a three-week around-the-world tour of Asia, Africa and South America, covering about 30,000 miles and representing WKU and the American Geographical Society as part of a geographic educational outreach program. The educational tour began in Kyoto, Japan, with discussions about Japanese demographics and the growing challenge of an ageing population that is likely to see Japan's population fall by over 30 million within a generation or two. Dr. Keeling also talked about the short-term prospects of continued economic growth for modern Japan as it faces a declining workforce. In Vietnam, the group visited Hoi An and the Champa ruins of My Son, a site that was carpet-bombed by U.S. forces in 1969 during the Vietnam War, destroying many of the temples. Vietnam faces the opposite demographic challenge of Japan, with few elderly people and a bulging youth population that requires education, health and economic opportunities. Vietnam is a welcoming country for Americans and the people are optimistic and hopeful about their future role in the Southeast Asian region. In the idyllic islands of the Maldives, off the coast of Sri Lanka and India, Dr. Keeling lectured about Island Geographies and the challenges faced by small island communities in the face of sea-level rise and coral bleaching. Twenty years ago, the Maldives government aimed to become a totally "green" society, but recent governments have decided that money generated by tourism is much more critical to the future of the island country. Islands have been sold off to foreign investors, indigenous residents have been relocated or threatened with relocation, and the government aims to increase the current number of visitors from 1.5 million to 8 million over the coming decade. Can the vulnerable island society sustain and survive such a radical shift in economic and environmental priorities? On the flight across the Indian Ocean and East Africa to Rwanda, he lectured about the Rwandan genocide and the political-economic causes of the conflict. Rwanda has recovered significantly from those nightmare events in 1993, with new investments in gorilla tourism, commitments to environmental sustainability (plastic bags are banned), and monthly community workgroups to clean the environment and resolve local conflicts. The group participated in a gorilla trek to experience the amazing Virunga Mountain gorillas, made internationally famous by Dian Fossey's research and the film Gorillas in the Mist. Flying across Africa to the group's next destination, Casablanca in Morocco, Dr. Keeling introduced everyone to the distinctive sounds and rhythms of Moroccan music. The group visited the Hassan II mosque, the third largest in the Islamic world, and enjoyed a festive dinner at Rick's Cafe, made famous by the Bogart/Bergman movie, Casablanca. The restaurant is a faithful reconstruction of the location featured in the movie (actually a set on a Hollywood backlot), financed and run by an American couple, and it features a lively jazz band that always plays "You must remember this...." On the flight across the Atlantic to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Dr. Keeling lectured on the urban redevelopment challenges of the 2016 Rio Olympics and explained some of the infrastructural successes and failures experienced by this metropolis of 13 million people. The group experienced the preparations for Carnival, which was just a week away after our visit, and enjoyed a sunrise breakfast at the statue of Christ on Corcovado mountain. On the penultimate leg across South America to the Galapagos Islands, Dr Keeling lectured on the life and research of Charles Darwin and his contributions to modern biology and biogeography. The expedition concluded with a four-day exploration of several Galapagos islands experiencing the ecologically naive wildlife for which the archipelago is famous. The primary mission of the both the department and the American Geographical Society's educational travel programs is to focus attention on some of the planet's most pressing problems, such as the social implications of climate change for island communities, ongoing ethnic and environmental tensions in Asia, Africa and Latin America, and the challenges for emerging societies in engaging with an increasingly Westernized global economy. A secondary mission is to demonstrate how geographers address these issues and to promote a broader geographic perspective on sustainable development issues. "Learning about environmental challenges first-hand by examining, for example, island communities and their vulnerability to changing resource economies within a local and global development context really helps people to understand the issues of sustainability and global change and puts the challenges we face as a global society into sharper focus," Dr. Keeling said. One of the benefits for WKU, Dr. Keeling said, is that the university's growing international reputation is further enhanced through his participation in these educational tours, as the guests have included diplomats, former ambassadors, Fortune 500 corporate leaders and successful business entrepreneurs. Students also benefit from the knowledge gained from these experiences and subsequently shared in the classroom and through research projects and study abroad programs. Past educational expeditions have led to successful departmental study abroad programs to Argentina, Tanzania, Turkey, Iceland, Hawaii, and Australia, among other destinations, with an upcoming program planned for the Bahamas (Winter 2019) in partnership with Harvard University and the Global Health Division of Massachusetts General Hospital. MSTRUCK-6175032 MSTRUCK
Subject: Study abroad; Diplomatic & consular services; Tourism; Islands; Geography; Society
Location: Iceland Turkey Latin America Australia Africa Argentina Indian Ocean Hawaii Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil Maldives Asia Galapagos Islands Bahamas Morocco United States--US Massachusetts India Vietnam Rwanda South America Sri Lanka East Africa Japan Tanzania
People: Fossey, Dian Hassan II
Company / organization: Name: Harvard University; NAICS: 611310; Name: Western Kentucky University; NAICS: 611310
Publication title: Targeted News Service; Washington, D.C.
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 20, 2018
Dateline: BOWLING GREEN, Kentucky
Publisher: Targeted News Service
Place of publication: Washington, D.C.
Country of publication: United States, Washington, D.C.
Publication subject: Public Administration
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2006820813
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2006820813?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright © Targeted News Service. All Rights Reserved.
Last updated: 2019-04-02
Database: US Southeast Newsstream
Document 133 of 474
Brazil: Rio Could Be 'Laboratory' for Solving Brazil's Crime Crisis
Publication info: Asia News Monitor ; Bangkok [Bangkok]21 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Brazilian leaders said Monday that the use of the military to combat rising violence in Rio de Janeiro could serve as a model for other violent areas of Brazil. The armed forces officially took over Rio's police on Friday under a decree signed by President Michel Temer. The measure still requires congressional approval, and the lower house was scheduled to debate it Monday evening. But an opposition party asked the Supreme Court to suspend the vote before the session got under way, saying Temer had not followed the rules for issuing such a decree and saying the move had "political and electoral motivations." It was not immediately clear if that would affect the planned debate. Temer's extraordinary decree came after Rio's governor asked for federal help following an exceptionally violent Carnival. During the holiday, there were several muggings, armed robberies and violent confrontations. Temer met Monday with ministers and lawmakers to discuss the intervention. "It's important to understand that Rio de Janeiro is a laboratory," Institutional Security Minister Sergio Etchegoyen said after the meeting. "It's the outward manifestation of a structural crisis." According to the Brazilian Forum of Public Security, Rio de Janeiro isn't the most dangerous state in Brazil: In terms of violent intentional killings per 100,000 people, it ranked 11th in 2016. But Rio is in many ways Brazil's face to the world and carries major weight within the country as home to much of its media and entertainment industries. Secretary-General Wellington Moreira Franco, a key Temer adviser, said what happens in Rio will hopefully spread throughout Brazil. "I believe that this is one more step along the road of being able to restore security, order and, above all, confidence to residents of Rio de Janeiro state," Franco said. "This spirit is being mobilized so that ... this conversation, this methodology can spread throughout Brazil." The security situation in Rio has been deteriorating for at least two years as the state experiences a deep fiscal crisis, often resulting in late or no payments to its police officers. The slide began just before the city hosted the 2016 Olympics, ahead of which it had ramped up policing. Those efforts, which focused on the hillside slums that are often controlled by drug traffickers, had some success. But since the Games, battles among gangs and between gangs and the police have intensified. Major avenues are occasionally blocked for hours in shootouts and the number of people killed by stray bullets has risen dramatically. But putting the military in charge also raises concerns about the heavy-handed tactics police have used. Amnesty International has already said that the decision to use soldiers would reinforce past mistakes by police. Rio is already the state with the most deaths during police operations. Those concerns were fanned Monday when Defense Minister Raul Jungmann said that the authorities would seek a broader kind of search warrant that, instead of specifying an address, might list an entire street or even neighborhood where a suspect is believed to be living. Temer and his ministers have gone to great lengths to emphasize that the president is ultimately in charge of the operation, providing civilian oversight of the military. That reflects deep unease in a society where many still remember the 1964-1985 military regime. - VOA
Subject: Laboratories; Search warrants; Robbery
Location: Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil
People: Temer, Michel
Company / organization: Name: Amnesty International; NAICS: 813311
Publication title: Asia News Monitor; Bangkok
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 21, 2018
Section: General News
Publisher: Thai News Service Group
Place of publication: Bangkok
Country of publication: Thailand, Bangkok
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--Philippines, General Interest Periodicals--Vietnam, General Interest Periodicals--Thailand
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2003915663
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2003915663?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Thai News Service Group Feb 21, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-20
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 134 of 474
Brazil armed forces intervene in Rio prison after riot
Publication info: BBC Monitoring Americas ; London [London]21 Feb 2018.
Abstract:
On 20 February, Brazil's Congress approved the 16 February presidential decree ordering that the federal armed forces take over responsibility for security in Rio de Janeiro state, following an upsurge in violence during the recent Carnival in the capital city Rio, where drug-trafficking groups control many 'favela' slums. According to the Brazilian National Justice Council, the Milton Dias Moreira Penitentiary had the nominal capacity to house 884 prisoners, but actually had 2,027 inmates incarcerated there in January 2018.Full text: Summary of report in Portuguese by leading Brazilian daily Folha de Sao Paulo website on 21 February Brazil's armed forces and Rio de Janeiro's State Penitentiary Administration Secretariat (Seap) conducted the first joint intervention in a prison following the military takeover of the state's security operations, Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo reported on 21 February. The joint operation took place at the Milton Dias Moreira Penitentiary, located in the municipality of Japeri, where a riot occurred on 18 February following a failed escape attempt. The purpose of the operation was to conduct a detailed search of the prison to look for unauthorised items such as weapons, drugs and mobile phones. Nearly 250 military personnel were deployed around the prison's perimeter, while 100 penitentiary inspectors and more than 30 members of the Seap's Tactical Intervention Group were also involved in the operation, Folha said. On 20 February, Brazil's Congress approved the 16 February presidential decree ordering that the federal armed forces take over responsibility for security in Rio de Janeiro state, following an upsurge in violence during the recent Carnival in the capital city Rio, where drug-trafficking groups control many 'favela' slums. According to the Brazilian National Justice Council, the Milton Dias Moreira Penitentiary had the nominal capacity to house 884 prisoners, but actually had 2,027 inmates incarcerated there in January 2018. Brazilian authorities said they were aiming to halt further escape attempts and prevent disturbances in Rio's prison system, which had approximately 51,000 inmates in jails that had a stated capacity to hold only 31,000, Folha said. CREDIT: Folha de Sao Paulo website (www.folha.com.br), Sao Paulo, in Portuguese 1414 gmt 21 Feb 18
Subject: Prisons; Prisoners; Armed forces
Location: Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil
Company / organization: Name: Congress; NAICS: 921120
Publication title: BBC Monitoring Americas; London
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 21, 2018
Dateline: BRAZIL
Publisher: BBC Worldwide Limited
Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Political Science
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2006824258
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2006824258?accountid=4840
Copyright: Folha de Sao Paulo website (www.folha.com.br), Sao Paulo, in Portuguese 1414 gmt 21 Feb 18/BBC Monitoring/© BBC
Last updated: 2018-02-21
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 135 of 474
Brazil: Brazil's 'What a Shot' Music Video Stirs Debate Amid Violent Crime Wave
Publication info: Asia News Monitor ; Bangkok [Bangkok]22 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: A viral music video called "What a shot" is stirring debate in Brazil about the glamorization of crime and freedom of expression, as surging crime in Rio de Janeiro has led the government to put troops in charge of security in the tourist city. The hit by Jordana Gleise de Jesus Menezes - known as JoJo Todynho - has spawned myriad parody videos on YouTube since it was released in December. The clips often show children and adults collapsing to the ground as a shot rings out following the lyrics "What a shot," before the person stands up and begins to dance as the music picks up. The spoofs have revived debate about whether the popular dance music genre from Rio de Janeiro, known as funk, glamorizes violence. On Friday, Brazil's government ordered the army to take over command of police forces in Rio de Janeiro state to curb violence after killings increased by nearly 8 percent last year to 6,731. A petition to outlaw funk music because of its explicit treatment of violence, sex and drugs gained more than 20,000 signatures last year but has failed to gain traction in Congress. In a population of around 210 million people, the government recorded 59,080 gun deaths in 2015, putting it in the top 10 World Bank list of the most murderous countries. In a music video featuring images of coffins and the faces of young children killed by stray bullets in Rio, rapper Gabriel O Pensador, also from Rio, Brazil's second-largest city, objected to the parodies. "What a shot? No, I'm not going to fall to the floor ... I'm a joker too, but joking has a time and a place," he raps. "The Rio that we love celebrates carnival and this violence is terrifying." A city in the northeastern state of Alagoas tried to ban the song being played during Carnival this month, arguing it incited violence. Authorities sought to impose a fine of 2,000 reais ($616) for each violation, but a court stopped the city from punishing musicians before a final ruling is reached, media reports said. Todynho, 21, whose artistic name refers to a popular brand of chocolate milk, is from Rio's tough western neighborhood of Bangu. She said the phrase is used to mean "how cool," in a song mostly about sambaing with your girlfriends. The official music video, with over 136 million views, made the rounds as national attention was focused on violence during the Carnival festivities in Rio, with images of gangs robbing tourists en masse repeatedly broadcast on national TV. Performers of funk music often say they are only reflecting the harsh reality of Rio de Janeiro and the country at large. The music has also been toned down as it has moved from the favelas to the mainstream. Todynho herself has lashed back at her detractors. "First of all, don't talk about what you haven't lived through," she said on Instagram, referring to rampant violence in the shanty towns of the city of six million people. "I would never make music encouraging violence." - VOA
Subject: Funk music; Violence; Music videos
Location: Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil
Company / organization: Name: International Bank for Reconstruction & Development--World Bank; NAICS: 928120; Name: Congress; NAICS: 921120; Name: YouTube Inc; NAICS: 519130
Publication title: Asia News Monitor; Bangkok
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 22, 2018
Section: General News
Publisher: Thai News Service Group
Place of publication: Bangkok
Country of publication: Thailand, Bangkok
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--Philippines, General Interest Periodicals--Vietnam, General Interest Periodicals--Thailand
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2006812954
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2006812954?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Thai News Service Group Feb 22, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-21
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 136 of 474
Brazil: Temer's Failure on Brazil Pension Reform Leaves Tricky Task to Successor
Publication info: Asia News Monitor ; Bangkok [Bangkok]22 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: President Michel Temer's decision to throw in the towel on reforming Brazil's loss-making pension system leaves the unpopular measure as a campaign issue for October's elections and a major headache for his successor. Monday's announcement that Temer was abandoning an overhaul of the social security system - billed as the centerpiece of his efforts at fiscal reform - sparked immediate concern from credit rating agencies that Latin America's largest economy was failing to put its financial house in order. Brazil's generous pension system is at the heart of budget deficit that ballooned from 3 percent of GDP in 2013 to a massive 10 percent in 2015, before edging back to 8 percent last year as the $1.8 trillion economy emerged from recession. The official reason for dropping the pension bill was a military intervention in crime-plagued Rio de Janeiro state, decreed on Friday after unprecedented violence during Carnival. Constitutional amendments such as the pension bill are blocked during federal intervention of a state. Deploying the army in Rio will go down well with voters in a nation where polls show public safety is the top concern. Brazil has 60,000 murders a year and its cities are among the world's most dangerous. Temer's critics, however, said he merely found a pretext to avoid acknowledging an embarrassing defeat. While Temer, 77, came close to the super majority needed to pass the bill last year, he lost political capital fighting off corruption charges and the government soon discovered it had run out of time, as lawmakers seeking re-election this year refused to back the unpopular legislation. "Now the government does not have to admit it lost the battle for pension reform," said Fabio Sousa, a congressman for the centrist Brazilian Social Democratic Party, which backed the reform. "The next president will have to do the fiscal adjustment, which is fine, because he will have a mandate from voters to do something about it," Sousa said in an interview. "The good thing is that pension reform will now be an election campaign issue." Markets relaxed Temer, a former vice president, replaced impeached leftist Dilma Rousseff in 2016. But he has single-digit approval ratings that rule out a presidential bid of his own. Brazilian markets were stable Tuesday, with Sao Paulo's BOVESPA stock index gaining 1.2 percent in mid-afternoon as investors had largely expected an already watered-down pension reform to sink in Congress. In an effort to reassure investors, Temer's cabinet on Monday announced plans to accelerate 15 other policies - ranging from tax breaks to privatizing Brazil's largest utility and strengthening the central bank's autonomy. Yet Moody's Investors Service promptly warned on Tuesday that the government's pension decision was credit negative and would restrict its ability to comply with a spending ceiling approved last year. The government is expected to meet its 2018 deficit target but it is doubtful it can do so in 2019, as a sluggish recovery from Brazil's worst recession on record has left tax revenues struggling. According to the main industry lobby, the CNI, the reform would have saved government coffers about 1 trillion reais ($308 billion) over the next decade. Brazil's gross public debt already stands at 4.9 trillion reais ($1.5 trillion) or 75 percent of GDP - relatively high for an emerging economy. Without steps to reduce heavy mandatory spending, it will continue climbing, said Felipe Salto, head of the Independent Fiscal Institute, a bipartisan Senate office that aims at transparency in government accounts. Government projections have the debt stabilizing in 2020 at 80 percent of GDP, but without pension reform that is in doubt. "You have to show investors it will stabilize. If there is no horizon of stabilization, the market will see a risk of insolvency and higher interest rates will be needed to finance a snowballing debt," Salto said. - VOA
Subject: Investments; Budget deficits; Rating services; Economic development; Gross Domestic Product--GDP
Location: Latin America Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil
People: Rousseff, Dilma Temer, Michel
Company / organization: Name: Moodys Investors Service Inc; NAICS: 522110, 523930, 561450; Name: Democratic Party; NAICS: 813940; Name: Senate; NAICS: 921120
Publication title: Asia News Monitor; Bangkok
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 22, 2018
Section: General News
Publisher: Thai News Service Group
Place of publication: Bangkok
Country of publication: Thailand, Bangkok
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--Philippines, General Interest Periodicals--Vietnam, General Interest Periodicals--Thailand
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2006814624
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2006814624?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Thai News Service Group Feb 22, 2018
Last updated: 2018-11-12
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 137 of 474
Global Equities Roundup: Market Talk
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]22 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
The latest Market Talks covering Equities. Published exclusively on throughout the day.
0750 GMT - The FTSE 100 is expected to open 71 points lower at 7210, according to London Capital Group, after Wednesday's U.S. Federal Reserve minutes revealed an expectation of stronger growth and raised the possibility of faster rate rises, pushing U.S. stocks lower. Earnings will again be in focus, with Barclays reporting a pretax profit for 2017 of GBP3.54 billion, while other major companies reporting results include BAE Systems, British American Tobacco, Centrica and Anglo American. London Capital Group analyst Jasper Lawler notes several stocks go ex-dividend, including HSBC, GlaxoSmithKline, Diageo and Carnival. The second estimate of U.K. 4Q GDP is due at 0930 GMT. ([email protected])
0746 GMT - AAC Technologies has maintained the same net profit margin over the past 5 years on phenomenal growth in revenue that looks set to continue, says Smartkarma analyst Henry Soediarko, discounting the impact of looser credit terms. The expansion overseas of Chinese smartphone brands such as Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo and Huawei is offsetting a weaker home market, suggesting continued support for earnings, he says. AAC is down 0.7% late Thursday versus the benchmark Hang Seng's 1.1% drop. ([email protected])
0716 GMT - While demand for Indian retail real estate remains weak, commercial overall is seeing strength. It's clearly visible in offices with rents in cities of Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune rising a further 5-10% last year and vacancy rates remaining below 10%, says ICICI Securities. Technology-services-related businesses continued to make up the largest share of office space across major Indian cities. But co-working spaces have emerged as an added demand driver in recent months. This as ICICI believes India may see its first REIT listing this year as most procedural issues have been sorted out. ([email protected])
0713 GMT - Chinese stocks were expected to rise strongly after the week-long Lunar New Year break considering gains seen elsewhere, and they didn't disappoint. Clawing back some of early February's slump, the Shanghai Composite climbed 2.2% today on the back of transportation and retail-related stocks. Other Chinese benchmarks also rose about 2%. Leading the gains were the big 3 Chinese airlines, with Air China jumping the 10% daily limit while Shanghai International Airport popped 6.4%. Elsewhere, dairy-product maker Inner Mongolia Yili climbed 6.2% in Shanghai and liquor producer Wuliangye advanced 4.6% in Shenzhen. ([email protected]; @joannechiuhk)
0701 GMT - As South Korean stocks fell today like most in the region, Samsung again provided pressure to the country's market. The Kospi fell 0.6% to 2414.28 as Samsung shed a further 1.1%; it's now halved last week's bounce. Meanwhile, the securities sector slid 2.2% today while telecom and utilities each fell 1.2%. But banks were a rare bright spot in rising 1.3%. ([email protected])
0655 GMT - Henderson Land didn't pay over the odds for 2 Kai Tak residential sites from HNA Group, though how Henderson develops their potential is the key factor, says Daiwa. Together with its ample farmland landbank, the Hong Kong developer is showing determination to expand into prime urban areas, Daiwa says. Kai Tak could become a new luxury residential zone pricing at a wide range (HK$20,000-50,000/sq ft), but it depends on effective marketing and execution, it adds. The stock edges 0.9% lower late Thursday, in line with the Hang Seng. ([email protected])
0617 GMT - Shares of Chinese Estates turned sharply lower after the midday break's release of 2017 results. The release included the Hong Kong-based property firm having an unrealized gain on its 6.3% stake in Evergrande of HK$9.93 billion ($1.27 billion). It noted it pay consider selling some of that "as and when" shares hit "a satisfactory and attractive" price level. Evergrande's stock soared 458% last year and have eased 11% this year, including 3% today. Chinese Estates is down 5.5%, all but erasing its 2018 gain. ([email protected])
0550 GMT - Taiwan stocks fell amid the region's broader weakness, but still maintained most of yesterday's post-holiday surge. The Taiex fell 0.5% to 10662.38 after a 2.8% jump--the best day in 2 1/2 years--on Wednesday. Lens maker Largan Precision pulled back 2.7% after yesterday's pop and Taiwan Semiconductor fell 1.2%. Financial names ticked higher, with Cathay climbing 0.4%. ([email protected]; @chester_yung)
0542 GMT - After a combined Y875.5 billion ($8.15 billion) of net selling, foreign investors bought a net Y127.1 billion of Japanese stocks last week as the global equities market rebounded. "The correction is done" with foreign investors returning to rebuild positions, says Takahiro Sekido, Japan strategist Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ. The selling peaked on Feb. 6 at Y430 billion. He says watch for Japanese investors who may change positions not only in stocks but also investment trusts. ([email protected]; @SuryatapaB)
0539 GMT - Macau casino stocks are falling more than the broader market today as visitation growth slowed at the end the Lunar New Year holiday. There was a 10% increase for the first 4 days through Sunday, including 18% for mainlanders. But the figures for the full week through yesterday, growth slowed to 6.5% and 12%, respectively, according to the tourism office of the Chinese gambling city. Nonetheless, analysts are expecting overall Macau gaming revenue to log near-10% growth for all of February. Sands China and Wynn Macau are down more than 1.5%. ([email protected])
0534 GMT - Australian stocks saw another up-and-down session amid a still-heavy batch of financial results, but the market was able to buck the region's broader weakness. Following a midday fade, the S&P/ASX 200 finished up 0.1% at 5959.9, its highest close in more than 2 weeks. The consumer-discretionary sector led with a jump of 1.1% as Crown Resorts, Flight Centre and Nine Entertainment were each lifted by earnings reports. Likewise, Qantas Airways jumped 5.9%. Meanwhile, the heavily weighted major banks managed gains, countering weakness in the energy sector as oil futures slipped further in Asian trading. ([email protected]; @RobbMStewart)
0509 GMT - The fate of Sembcorp Marine's future in light of its parent's ongoing portfolio review isn't the only long-running unknown for the Singapore-based rigbuilder. There's still the internal investigation launched in 2015 over allegations of illegal payments to win some contracts in Brazil. In yesterday's 4Q report, the company said it's not aware of any employees being implicated by any authorities regarding the longstanding corruption probe that's reached the highest levels of Brazil's corporate and political worlds. Two months ago, larger rival Keppel announced a $422 million settlement with U.S., Brazilian and Singaporean authorities over a bribery probe into its Brazilian dealings. ([email protected]; @journosaurabh)
(END)
February 22, 2018 02:50 ET (07:50 GMT)
Subject: Stocks; Investments; Profits
Location: United States--US India United Kingdom--UK Singapore Mongolia Hong Kong Brazil Macao Taiwan Japan
Company / organization: Name: London Capital Group Ltd; NAICS: 523110; Name: Sands China; NAICS: 721120; Name: Qantas Airways Ltd; NAICS: 481111; Name: British American Tobacco PLC; NAICS: 312230; Name: HNA Group; NAICS: 523910, 551112; Name: Air China; NAICS: 481111; Name: GlaxoSmithKline PLC; NAICS: 325412
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 22, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2007296393
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2007296393?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Feb 22, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-23
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 138 of 474
Brazil’s Jewish history celebrated at Rio Carnival
Publication info: The American Israelite ; Cincinnati [Cincinnati]22 Feb 2018.
Abstract:
RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — The saga of the European Jewish refugees who established the first synagogue in the New World and eventually also North America’s first congregation was celebrated in Rio’s Carnival parade. A group of 80 Jewish community members joined more than 3,000 Portela samba school performers on Monday night as they paraded along the half-mile street telling the story of the Jews expelled from Portugal, their temporary religious freedom and prosperity in a Dutch-ruled Brazilian region, and their second expulsion leading them to found the Shearith Israel synagogue in New York.Full text: RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — The saga of the European Jewish refugees who established the first synagogue in the New World and eventually also North America’s first congregation was celebrated in Rio’s Carnival parade. A group of 80 Jewish community members joined more than 3,000 Portela samba school performers on Monday night as they paraded along the half-mile street telling the story of the Jews expelled from Portugal, their temporary religious freedom and prosperity in a Dutch-ruled Brazilian region, and their second expulsion leading them to found the Shearith Israel synagogue in New York. “To us it is very important when someone values the Jewish presence and influence in Brazilian history. It’s a sign of gratitude,” said the Rio Jewish federation’s president, Herry Rosenberg, prior to the parade. Rosenberg had carefully followed preparations for the parade for the federation, which served as a consultant for the performance. Plush colorful floats and costumes narrated the Jews’ arrival in Recife, where they met Brazil’s northeastern landscape, including typical crops and animals such as sugar cane, crabs and goats. Striking allegories featured the local architecture and atmosphere, including Kahal Zur Israel, the first synagogue established in the Americas, founded by the newly arrived Jews.
Subject: Synagogues; Jews
Location: Portugal Brazil New York Israel Americas North America
Publication title: The American Israelite; Cincinnati
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 22, 2018
Section: News
Publisher: The American Israelite
Place of publication: Cincinnati
Country of publication: United States, Cincinnati
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2007691977
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2007691977?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The American Israelite Feb 22, 2018
Last updated: 2018-03-06
Database: Ethnic NewsWatch
Document 139 of 474
Q4 2017 Copa Holdings SA Earnings Call - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]22 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Presentation OPERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Copa Holdings Fourth Quarter Earnings Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this call is being webcast and recorded on February 22, 2017. Now I will now turn the conference over to Raul Pascual, Director of Investor Relations. Sir, you may begin. RAUL PASCUAL, DIRECTOR OF IR, COPA HOLDINGS, S.A.: Thank you, Carmen. Welcome, everyone, to our fourth quarter earnings call. Joining us today are Pedro Heilbron, CEO of Copa Holdings; and Jose Montero, our CFO. First, Pedro will start with our fourth quarter and full year highlights; followed by Jose who will discuss our financial results. Immediately after, we will open up the call for questions from analysts. Copa Holdings financial reports have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards. In today's call, we will discuss non-IFRS financial measures. A reconciliation of the non-IFRS to IFRS financial measures can be found in our earnings release, which has been posted on the company's website, copa.com. In addition, our discussion will contain forward-looking statements not limited to historical facts that reflect the company's current beliefs, expectations and/or intentions regarding future events and results. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially and are based on assumptions that are subject to change. Many of these risks and uncertainties are discussed in our annual report filed with the SEC. Now I'd like to turn the call over to our CEO, Mr. Pedro Heilbron. PEDRO HEILBRON, CEO AND DIRECTOR, COPA HOLDINGS, S.A.: Thank you, Raul. Good morning to all, and thank you for participating in our fourth quarter and full year 2017 Earnings Call. First of all, I want to congratulate all of our coworkers for their efforts during the quarter and throughout the year. Your ongoing dedication and commitment keeps us at the forefront of Latin American aviation. Our fourth quarter results were a strong finish to a very good year. Despite an increase in oil prices that put pressure in operating expenses, we delivered a very solid fourth quarter load factor and stronger yields, resulting in the highest unit revenues in more than 2 years and a significant year-over-year operating margin expansion. Among the main highlights for the quarter: passenger traffic grew a solid 11% year-over-year, outpacing our capacity growth of 9%. This resulted in a very strong 83.2% load factor, 1.6 percentage points higher than the fourth quarter of 2016. Yields increased 1.2% year-over-year. Due to our higher load factor and yields, unit revenues or RASM improved almost 3% year-over-year to $0.111. On the costs side, ex-fuel unit costs came in at $0.065. As a result, our operating margin came in at 17.8%, more than 6 percentage points above the fourth quarter of 2016. On the operational front, Copa Airlines delivered an on-time performance of 87% and a completion factor of 99.6%, again, amongst the best in the world. Now turning to our main highlights for the full year 2017. I'm pleased to say that we reached an operating margin of 17.4% for the year or 5 percentage points higher than 2016. This came as a result of improving unit revenues, our highest since 2014, and record low unit cost as a result of the many cost-saving initiatives we have implemented over the years. Unit revenues came in close to 5% higher year-over-year driven by 2.8 percentage point increase in load factor and a 1.5% increase in yields. CASM ex-fuel decreased 1.7% to $0.063, amongst the lowest for a full service airline, and the lowest we have recorded to date on a full year basis. As for our network expansion, during 2017, we added 2 new destinations, Mendoza in Argentina; and Denver, ending the year with 75 destinations in North, Central, South America and the Caribbean, strengthening our position as the most complete and convenient hub in Latin America. In terms of fleet, during 2017, we took delivery of 2 Boeing 737-800s and returned 1 Embraer-190, ending the year with 100 aircraft, 1 more than at the end of 2016. We also continued working on several important projects that should contribute significantly to our results over the next couple of years, including upgrading our reservation system currently in user testing, which will enable us to make the most of new ancillary revenue opportunity; migrating to a new unified MRO solution, which was successfully completed in October and will allow us to more efficiently manage our maintenance programs for both the Boeing and Embraer fleet, resulting in lower costs; and a company-wide project over the last 2 years that achieved more than $40 million in annual savings. On the operational front, we delivered an on-time performance of 86.7% for the year and were recently recognized by FlightStats for the fifth consecutive year as the most on-time airline in Latin America and by OAG as the fourth most on-time airline in the world. Finally, Wingo, although a very small 2% of our revenues, did much better than expected both operationally and financially. Earlier this month, Wingo flew its 1 millionth passenger and is quickly positioning itself as the best LCC option in Colombia, thanks to its low fares and very reliable service. So overall, we had a strong fourth quarter and a very solid year. Turning now to 2018. We expect the air travel demand environment in our region to remain healthy and are seeing good booking patterns for the first quarter of 2018. In fact, last week, we released our load factor for the month of January, a very strong 84%. In terms of fleet, we already received 1 737-800 in January. We expect to return 1 Embraer-190 upon its lease expiration in March and take delivery of our last 737-800 in April. In the second half of the year, we expect to receive 5 737 MAX 9s to end the year with a consolidated fleet of 106 aircraft. We're looking forward to the arrival of our first MAX 9s, which will deliver both revenue opportunities and cost efficiencies. In regards to our network, we recently announced 3 new destinations starting in July. Fortaleza and Salvador, our eighth and ninth destinations in Brazil; and Bridgetown, Barbados, our 16th destination in the Caribbean. After these additions, Copa will provide service to 78 destinations in 32 countries in North, Central, South America and the Caribbean. To summarize, as laid out in our 2016 path to higher margins plans, we have benefited from the many cost and revenue initiatives implemented over the past 2 years and have seen our financial results improve accordingly. We're off to a good start in 2018 and expect to continue seeing a healthy demand environment throughout the year. We continue growing and strengthening our network, the most complete and convenient hub for intra-Latin America travel. Our team continues to deliver world-class operational performance while achieving industry-leading unit costs. And we continue focusing on several cost and revenue initiatives that are aimed at further increasing our margins. Lastly, we're as confident as ever in our business model and our financial position. We have the strongest network for travel within the Americas, an extremely flexible fleet plan, the lowest unit costs, a very strong liquidity position with low leverage, and a highly committed team. Now I'll turn it over to Jose who will go over our financial results in more detail. JOSE MONTERO, CFO, COPA HOLDINGS, S.A.: Thank you, Pedro. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us. As always, let me begin by joining Pedro in congratulating our entire team for all their outstanding achievements during 2017. Now our highlights for the year. We decreased our ex-fuel unit cost by 1.7% to $0.063, amongst the lowest in the world for a full-service carrier. Despite significant capacity growth in 2017, we delivered our highest yearly load factor of 83.2%, and operating revenues increased close to 14% year-over-year. Reported net income for full year 2017 came in at $370 million, which translates to earnings per share of $8.72 and an operating margin of 17.4%, 5 percentage points higher than 2016. Excluding special items, mainly a fuel hedge mark-to-market gain of $2.8 million, adjusted net income came in at $367.2 million or adjusted earnings per share of $8.66, 82% higher than the adjusted net income of $201.4 million or adjusted earnings per share of $4.75 in 2016. Now turning to our fourth quarter results. We grew capacity by 9.2% year-over-year, while revenue passenger miles increased 11.3% year-over-year, which resulted in a consolidated load factor of 83.2%, a 1.6 percentage point increase versus Q4 2016. Passenger yields came in 1.2% stronger year-over-year, which combined with a higher load factor resulted in a unit revenue increase of 2.9% from $0.107 in Q4 2016 to $0.111 in Q4 2017. Consolidated revenues increased 12.4% to over $676 million. On the expense side, our fourth quarter operating expenses increased 4.6% year-over-year on the 9.2% capacity growth, which resulted in a cost per available seat mile decreasing 4% to $0.091. Our effective oil and fuel price increased 3.5% from $1.96 per gallon in Q4 2016 to $2.03 per gallon in Q4 2017. The cost per available seat mile, excluding fuel, ex-fuel CASM decreased 6.7% from $0.069 in Q4 2016 to $0.065 in Q4 2017, mainly as a result of a noncash adjustment in our aircraft useful life assumptions, which we made in Q4 2016 and significantly increased the depreciation expense in that quarter. However, even without this adjustment, our ex-fuel CASM came in almost 4% below that of 4 -- Q4 2016. Consolidated operating earnings for the quarter came in at $120.4 million resulting in an operating margin of 17.8%, 6.1 percentage points higher than the 11.7% generated in Q4 2016. Looking at nonoperating income and expense. Fourth quarter generated a net nonoperating expense of $9.3 million mainly driven by a $5.7 million foreign currency translational loss. In terms of net results, net earnings for the quarter came in at $100.8 million or earnings per share of $2.38. When excluding extraordinary items, mainly the fuel hedge mark-to-market gain of $539,000 for a quarter, underlying net income came in at $100.3 million or earnings per share of $2.36, 83% higher than the adjusted net income of $54.7 million or adjusted earnings per share of $1.29 reported in Q4 of 2016. Turning to the balance sheet. We closed the quarter with a very strong financial position. Assets totaled $4.3 billion or an increase of over $400 million versus the end of 2016. Owners' equity totaled $2.1 billion. Debt plus capitalized leases totaled approximately $2 billion, and our adjusted net debt-to-EBITDA ratio came in at a very strong 1.4x, by far the lowest in our peer group and one of the best in the industry. We closed the quarter with approximately $1.2 billion in debt, more than 60% of which is fixed with a blended rating, including fixed and floating-rate debt of approximately 2.7%. In regards to cash, short- and long-term investments, we closed the quarter with approximately $1 billion, about $200 million more than at the end of the fourth quarter of 2016. Our cash balance at the end of the quarter represents approximately 40% of last 12 months' revenues. In terms of fleet, we took delivery of 2 Boeing 737-800s during 2017 and returned 1 leased Embraer-190, ending the year with 100 aircraft: 80 Boeing 737s and 20 Embraer 190s. For 2018, we already received 1 Boeing 737-800. We're scheduled to return 1 leased Embraer-190 in March, and we expect to receive another 737-800 in April. During the second half of the year, we expect to receive our first 5 Boeing 737 MAX 9s to end the year with a total of 106 aircraft. It is important to note, we have already secured the financing for all of our aircraft delivery in 2018. Finally, I'm pleased to announce that our Board of Directors has approved a quarterly dividend of $0.87 per share, corresponding to our dividend policy of 40% to prior year's adjusted net income. The first quarterly dividend will be paid on March 15 to all shareholders of record as of March 5. So going back to our results and to recap, we delivered very strong financial results for the year in accordance with our plan to return to higher margins. We continue to actively manage capacity, while selectively capturing market opportunities. For 2018, we expect demand for air travel in our region to remain healthy. We continue in our path to improve our revenues and reduce our costs. We have one of the strongest balance sheets in the industry, and we continue to return value to our shareholders. Today, we're also providing guidance for 2018 based on our operating plan and expectations for air travel demand for the year. We're maintaining our capacity growth in terms of ASMs at approximately 9%. And even though we're now assuming a higher fuel price for the year, we are reaffirming our operating margin range of 17% to 19%. Our 2018 full year guidance is based on the following assumptions: load factor of approximately 83%; RASM of approximately $0.109; CASM ex-fuel of approximately $0.063; and an effective fuel price per gallon, including into-plane of approximately $2.05. So we expect better results during 2018, supported by a healthy demand environment and the many initiatives we have continued working on to strengthen our competitive and financial position. Thank you. And with that, we'll open the call to some questions. Questions and Answers OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) And our first question comes from the line of Michael Linenberg with Deutsche Bank. MICHAEL JOHN LINENBERG, MD AND SENIOR COMPANY RESEARCH ANALYST, DEUTSCHE BANK AG, RESEARCH DIVISION: I guess a couple of questions here. Your -- Jose, on your operating margin guidance, the 17% to 19%, previously, when you had provided that, we didn't have all of the underlying costs, and I don't believe we have the cost and revenue forecast. So what has changed? Obviously, fuel prices are higher, and yet, you're keeping the same number. So it suggests that is it the cost outlook coming in better? Or is it all revenue? So maybe it's a mix of both. What has changed since you initially gave the guidance a few months ago, 3 months ago? JOSE MONTERO: Yes, Mike, I think it's both. I think -- as I mentioned earlier, we are working very diligently in terms of our cost position and ensuring that we have -- we deliver our lowest cost that we can. And we have embarked on this program to reduce our costs. We've achieved already over $40 million of savings. But also, yes, the fact that the economies we're seeing still a recovering environment, and so, therefore, there is also a bump-up in our unit revenues and our kind of guidance for the year related to that. MICHAEL JOHN LINENBERG: Okay. And then just on the bump-up in revenues. Is it because there's better pricing in the market? Or is it better volumes? And I'm highlighting the volume piece because your load factors are running very, very high during what is seasonally some of the more periods where you'd see lower loads. PEDRO HEILBRON: So hi, Mike, this is Pedro. In most markets, we're seeing a combination of better loads, and you've seen our load factors, which have kept on improving, and also better yields. So it's slightly better yields with slightly better load factors make for healthy better PRASM numbers in most markets. MICHAEL JOHN LINENBERG: Okay, in most markets. And then just lastly on your -- if you look at your cash position to sales, you're back all the way up to 40%, and I suspect that internally, the right number for you is probably somewhere between 25% and 30%. I -- as I recall, I know you had a share repurchase program out there, which I think you had exhausted. You were done with that. What are your thoughts on what you think that right number is? And are you running a pretty high surplus? JOSE MONTERO: Mike, the first thing is that we have -- first of all, we are -- we want to keep a very strong balance sheet and a very strong cash position. This is -- given the industry we're in, et cetera, but I'd say that also, we have a significant number of investments coming up our way in the next couple of years in terms of aircraft deliveries. This year, we have 7 aircraft deliveries. And next year, we have 8 aircraft deliveries. So there's a quite a bit of investments going forward and pre-delivery deposits related to that. But also, we've also increased our dividend. Our dividend at $0.87 per share is up from last year, so we are returning more cash to our investors as well. So I think that the way to frame it is really related to the significant number of investments that the company is going to have in the next couple of years. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Savi Syth with Raymond James. SAVANTHI NIPUNIKA SYTH, AIRLINES ANALYST, RAYMOND JAMES & ASSOCIATES, INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: It's just -- my first one is just a follow-up on Mike's question for a little bit of clarity on the revenue side. As you think about it, it looks like roughly 3% revenue, and I understand that's just based on the current environment. Should we think about that as relatively steady? And with maybe second half, getting more of a contribution from ancillary revenue initiatives? Or would you kind of expect similar contribution from ancillary revenue? Or are you even considering that in your kind of outlook? PEDRO HEILBRON: Yes, this is Pedro first, and then I'll let Jose add anything. But obviously, in our guidance in our revenue -- unit revenue guidance, we have embedded a increase or improvement in ancillary revenues. So that started last year, and we expect that improvement to continue this year. That's already in our numbers. And I would say that over all, we are expecting a steady number throughout the year, knowing that there's seasonal variations. So not every quarter is going to be the same. JOSE MONTERO: Yes. And indeed, I think that in terms of ancillaries we're talking here, I think last year, during the Investor Day, we were talking a figure of around $20 million, and we're kind of in that sense around that in terms of ancillaries for the year. And we've rolled out last year our seat program or purchase of seats. We recently modified slightly our baggage policy, so there's some of the items that we had been planning to do, we started to roll them up in these last couple of months. SAVANTHI NIPUNIKA SYTH: Helpful. And Pedro, I think you alluded to this a little bit, but I was wondering now that Wingo has been up and running for a year, if you can kind of talk about the progress there and your thinking on, one, when that gets to profitability; and two, if you're still kind of planning to keep Wingo the size that it is today or if there's an opportunity to kind of either grow or shrink that? PEDRO HEILBRON: Yes. So we're very happy with how Wingo has developed. It's been flying now for 12 months, a little bit over 12 months. And it has reduced our Colombian losses significantly, which was kind of the first objective with Wingo was replacing a traditional legacy service on a network, a Colombian network that require more of a low-cost offering. And that's what we did with Wingo, and that has worked out very well. Wingo performs with very high reliability and very low cost and pricing at the same time, which is a unique combination that is not found in just any LCC or ULCC. And we're seeing improving results accordingly. We're not reporting Wingo separately, but we see this year off to a good start. And the number should be better than last year where, again, we reduced losses significantly. So I think breaking even, if things continue the way they are, are in the not too far away horizon for Wingo. And obviously, Wingo's performance is already included in our guidance. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Duane Pfennigwerth with Evercore ISI. DUANE THOMAS PFENNIGWERTH, SENIOR MD & FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCH ANALYST, EVERCORE ISI, RESEARCH DIVISION: Just following up on ancillary. I wonder if you could disclose an ancillary revenue per passenger and what it contributed in terms of RASM growth in 2017. And maybe how many points of the 3 points you're assuming it will contribute in '18. PEDRO HEILBRON: So I don't think we can share the specifics that you're asking for, Duane. But what we promised when we presented our path to higher margins plan in 2016 was that we were going to produce $30 million over -- $20 million to $30 million over the next 2 to 3 years, and we're in that path. I think we're about half of that already. JOSE MONTERO: Yes. And again, just to again restate, Duane, we have -- I'd say the biggest buckets there are our seat program, our selling of seat that we rolled out last year; baggage, our baggage allowance that we've kind of recently refurbished; and loyalty as well as the air program that you would argue is part of that kind of $20 million to $30 million figure for the first -- for the next couple of years. And we're, I think, well on track to achieve that. We're pretty confident of that figure overall. DUANE THOMAS PFENNIGWERTH: And then just a follow-up, you mentioned a comment about your res system upgrade is in testing. When do you plan to go live with that? Is it a sort of cutover from one system to the next? Or how are you planning on that migration? PEDRO HEILBRON: Yes. So call centers and city ticket offices are going to go live in August -- that's the plan -- and airports in October. But as Jose mentioned, we have advanced some of the ancillary initiatives with our current tools. So we found workarounds with our current tools. But once we launch the new upgraded system in August and October, it will just facilitate things, and we'll be able to do more and do it more effectively. JOSE MONTERO: And by the way, the launch of these modules is not kind of flipping of a switch. It will be on a gradual basis that we feel minimizes any sort of risk related to the system change. So that's kind of the approach that we're taking here. PEDRO HEILBRON: Right. And as we've mentioned, it's improvements to our current system. DUANE THOMAS PFENNIGWERTH: That's great. And then just for my last question, how would you frame gross CapEx, so not cash CapEx but gross CapEx, for 2018 and 2019? JOSE MONTERO: Yes, Duane, so for 2018, we're talking about around $500 million in total CapEx. And then 2019, call it, about $600 million. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Helane Becker with Cowen. CONOR T. CUNNINGHAM, ASSOCIATE, COWEN AND COMPANY, LLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: This is actually Conor, in for Helane. So you kind of answered this with Mike's question, but I was curious if you could provide a little detail on the unit revenue and like specifically which markets it's coming in. So some other carriers have talked about Brazilian revenue being flattish now and the Caribbean improving. We're just curious on what you guys are seeing currently. PEDRO HEILBRON: Yes. So I would say most markets are positive and except for mainly Brazil. Brazil is flattish to slightly negative after a strong unit revenue improvement or growth in most of 2017, and it's due mostly to additional capacity from all airlines. Capacity in the first quarter of this year for Brazil is up over 25% year-over-year. Most of it between Brazil and North America and the U.S., most of it. Some other markets are also up in capacity. So that has affected unit revenues, and again, those were flattish to slightly negative. CONOR T. CUNNINGHAM: Okay, great. And then, so given the fact that you have had a solid recovery over the past year and margins are returning to like historical levels, has there been any discussion about reinvesting in the product? Maybe adding WiFi or power in the seats? I would think that WiFi would actually benefit your ancillary strategy as well, and maybe you can talk if that's included in the $20 million to $30 million you just referred to. PEDRO HEILBRON: Okay. So our kind of strategy or philosophy over the years is to try to be as consistent as we can, which means not cutting important stuff during tough times and then adding a bunch of unnecessary stuff during good times. And in a way, the fact that we also have consistent positive financial results or steady financial results, we've been able to maintain that philosophy, that thinking. So we -- we're never in a position where we have to add stuff that we've cut in the past for lack of financial resources, and that we feel it's an advantage. Having said that, we always look for opportunities. I think there's a day where probably 90% of the fleet in the world will have WiFi. It's not where we are right now. We have no plan -- no immediate plan to implement WiFi. But when we think that it's good for the business and that it's going to be positive in every sense of the world, we will be ready to do it. But it's not where we are right now. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Hunter Keay with Wolfe Research. HUNTER KENT KEAY, MD AND SENIOR ANALYST OF AIRLINES, AEROSPACE & DEFENSE, WOLFE RESEARCH, LLC: You mentioned the CapEx, I think, of $500 million this year and $600 million next year. And I think, Jose, you also said 8 deliveries for aircraft next year, I think you said. If you go back and look at the fleet plan from early 2017, I think you show you were down like 4 shelves in 2019. Obviously, that's changed. But so what is the fleet plan for net fleet growth in 2019? And can you bracket in sort of a low and a high end capacity figure as you're thinking about it now, assuming this recovery continues? JOSE MONTERO: Yes, Hunter. So for next year, I think you can plan -- first of all, I have to say I have to introduce my answer by saying that we pride ourselves in having a very, very flexible fleet plan. I think it's one of the key strengths that our company strategy has. For next year, we have a net growth of 4 aircraft. So we will go from 106 airplanes in 20 -- at the end of 2018 to 110 in 2019. And so we will take delivery of 8 737 MAXs in 2019. And currently -- we currently have a 4 leased airplanes, 4 leased 737-800s that are planning to be returned. However, having said that, that is not a final written in stone plan. We still have flexibility to extend leases. We have that option in case the market conditions are favorable for doing that. So as it is right now, I'd say that the growth for next year is, you could argue, it's probably in the high single digits, but it could probably be as much as low double digits as well. But again, I have to restate how important the flexibility portion of our fleet plan is in terms of our overall strategy. HUNTER KENT KEAY: Yes, makes sense. And then a little bit of an oddball question for Pedro, but I think, this is your -- Pedro, your 30th year as CEO. I'd be curious to know kind of what you've learned over that time frame and what you would think is sort of the single most important guiding light for Copa that you think is core to the airline's success now and going forward. If you had to pick one thing. PEDRO HEILBRON: Okay. I think we only have 1 hour for this call, so -- but I'll give you a simple answer. Copa's success is based on its people and its culture. I know it's easy to say that, and probably most airlines in any industry say that, but we do have a very highly committed team, dedicated and committed team with a great company culture. I think that makes us different than many other airlines. We have, as you know, high executives that come from other airlines all over the world, and I think that's one of the things that surprised them the most about Copa. So I would say that's our 1 not secret but key formula for consistent success over the years. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Ricardo Alves with Morgan Stanley. RICARDO L. ALVES, EQUITY ANALYST, MORGAN STANLEY, RESEARCH DIVISION: Just a couple of questions for me. With the 5 MAXs and the other 8 you mentioned for next year, just help if you could talk a little bit about your expectation in terms of fuel burn improvement? Maybe if you could, I don't if it's possible, to quantify that a little bit. I know that's one of the major drivers in terms of cost cutting for the next couple of years. So if you can give a little bit more perspective or maybe quantify it, that would be helpful. And then kind of related, we noticed you're closing 2017 with no further hedge contracts. So if you could provide a little bit more color on your strategy on the hedge side, fuel hedge side going forward. PEDRO HEILBRON: Yes. This is -- yes, thank you, Ricardo. It's Pedro. I will talk first, and then I'll let Jose talk about fuel hedges. So it's 5 MAXs -- MAX 9s this year, 8 next year and so on. We will -- actually, the number goes up in 2020 and beyond. That aircraft is going to come with a few benefits: one is lower fuel consumption, and the other one is more seats. So we're going to have much -- in terms of fuel, I think it's around 14%, the fuel consumption improvement. And then the additional seats are also going to allow us to, let's say, produce lower ex-fuel -- I mean, lower total CASM numbers and ex-fuel CASM numbers. So on both sides, we're going to be able to deliver better numbers with the MAX 9. But it's only 5 this year, 8 next year. I think it's going to take maybe 3 years before the MAX 9 starts having a significant impact in our CASM and ex-fuel CASM number. I do not have a specific impact number to share with you right now, but it's going to be meaningful. It's not something that we will ignore. It's going to be noticed once we have 20-plus MAX 9s in our fleet. JOSE MONTERO: So Ricardo, this is Jose here. And talking about the hedges, we haven't entered into new hedges. We were hedge positioned since July of 2015. As you know, we -- over the last several years, we lost over $20 million in kind of these financial instruments, so we've decided not to pursue any more hedges. And to be honest with you, the economies in Latin America are commodity-based economies. So you would argue that there is a correlation, a favorable correlation between fuel price strength and the strength of some of the currencies that we're operating. And I think that a good way of looking at it is that we just increased our fuel price assumption for the year for -- by $0.20 and reaffirmed our operating margin guidance. So it kind of tells you a little bit about how we see it in terms of the revenue impact or the revenue -- the way that revenue reacts to fuel. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Dan McKenzie with Buckingham Research. DANIEL J. MCKENZIE, RESEARCH ANALYST, THE BUCKINGHAM RESEARCH GROUP INCORPORATED: Just a couple of questions here. With the move of Aeromexico to go the route of a joint venture with Delta, I'm just wondering how your thought process is evolving here, if at all. And is it potentially an opportunity for Copa? And then just related to that, what IT challenges might exist, if any? PEDRO HEILBRON: Yes. So as you know, we have a long-standing and very strong and close commercial alliance with United. And it's not a JV, but we code share. We have frequent -- full frequent flyer reciprocity, not only through Star Alliance but also through our alliance, which has been in place... JOSE MONTERO: 20 years. PEDRO HEILBRON: Close to 20 years now. It will be 20 years in May of this year. So that has provided us with some of the advantages of a JV in many aspects, and in that sense, we feel very comfortable. But if a JV is the way to go in the future, we -- that's something that will be considered by both airlines, and it's an option that we always have. DANIEL J. MCKENZIE: Okay. And then, I guess, a second question here. It's pretty early to be looking at second quarter booking data, but it is available, at least the GDS. I've got a partial sample of what I'm looking at here. And there is some -- demand is looking pretty strong overall, but you do have some countries that are weaker, some that are quite stronger. And for those countries that are a little bit weaker --I'm looking at Chile and Costa Rica -- I'm just wondering what you can share; if we should read anything into that at this point, or if that's just perhaps a revenue management system on your part, just given strength elsewhere across the system. PEDRO HEILBRON: Yes, it's hard to read that data accurately so early. We have a -- for one, we have a shift in Holy Week, and where it falls. Carnival fell earlier in the year. Holy Week is going to fall earlier also, so that always affects bookings from 1 month to the other. And then there are -- of course, as you well mentioned, revenue management tactics, which adjust to whatever happened the year before or the season before. So it might be that 1 year, we're open to sale too early and lose some yield opportunities there. And then the following year, we may be a little bit tighter earlier on. And so it's hard from the outside to see that and to see what's happening by just looking at booking data, especially, again, 3 or 4 months before. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Stephen Trent with Citi. STEPHEN TRENT, DIRECTOR, CITIGROUP INC, RESEARCH DIVISION: Just two quick questions for me. First is Tocumen Airport, if you could give us a view on how the build out's going there as well as whether they have implemented any procedural changes. I believe a few months ago, after there was a power failure that created some disruptions. And then the other question, I'm not sure if I heard you correctly, but I thought I heard you say something about centralizing MRO operations. And if you could elaborate, that would be great. PEDRO HEILBRON: Okay. So in terms of the airport, we're not (technical difficulty) expecting. And it seems like a date that we can trust to a high degree is to start partial operations in the new airport by the end of this year, by the end of the fourth quarter. So it will be the use of a few gates in the -- towards the end of November and then more gates early 2019; and a kind of an increase in operations until sometime between April and May where we'd be fully operational. But we should have a few gates available by the end of this year. So that's good news. And in terms of the power outage they had in September of last year, they've hardened their system. They've brought in people. They brought in technicians from the Panama Canal. And from what we've seen, they've done a very good job in improving their systems and avoiding this happening in the future. JOSE MONTERO: And in terms of the maintenance capabilities, there are a couple of items. One, last year, we upgraded our maintenance IT platform, and that came out very successfully. And more importantly, we are in the process of constructing an expanded hangar in Tocumen that more than double our current capacity in terms of ability to perform heavy checks here locally. So -- and that we expect to be completed by, I want to say, the fourth quarter of this year. So we will have that expanded capability in the latter part of this year. STEPHEN TRENT: Okay. Great. And Jose, any chance that the MRO might eventually even be extended to third-party servicing? JOSE MONTERO: For now, I think that we're comfortable with our own needs, and I think the plan in the immediate future is just simply to cater to our own requirements in terms of maintenance. OPERATOR: And our last question comes from the line of Lucas Barbosa with UBS. LUCAS BARBOSA, ANALYST, UBS INVESTMENT BANK, RESEARCH DIVISION: My question is actually a follow-up on the unit revenue question. So you see unit revenue improving further into the rest of the year. Is that the right interpretation? And are you seeing supply increase only in Brazil? Or in other markets, too? So that's my questions. PEDRO HEILBRON: So yes, the answer to the first part of your question is yes, we see unit revenues improving this year, year-over-year over 2017. And Brazil is not the only market where we're seeing some softness, again, due to increased capacity, but it's by far the main market. The other market where we're seeing some softness is Argentina, and -- but there, we've grown ourselves quite a bit. So the minute we put in more capacity, there's going to be more lower fares available to sell. So that's kind of expected. That's not surprising. It's normal. It's part of growing. We've grown quite a bit the last number of months. So to us, that's okay. OPERATOR: Thank you, and that concludes our Q&A session for today. I would like to turn the call back to Pedro Heilbron for his final remarks. PEDRO HEILBRON: Yes. Okay. Thank you, all. This concludes our earnings call, so thank you for being with us, and thank you for your continued support. Have a great day and a great weekend. OPERATOR: And ladies and gentlemen, with that, we thank you for participating in today's conference. This concludes the presentation. You may disconnect, and have a wonderful day. [Thomson Financial reserves the right to make changes to documents, content, or other information on this web site without obligation to notify any person of such changes. In the conference calls upon which Event Transcripts are based, companies may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding a variety of items. Such forward-looking statements are based upon current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those stated in any forward-looking statement based on a number of important factors and risks, which are more specifically identified in the companies' most recent SEC filings. Although the companies may indicate and believe that the assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements are reasonable, any of the assumptions could prove inaccurate or incorrect and, therefore, there can be no assurance that the results contemplated in the forward-looking statements will be realized. THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN EVENT TRANSCRIPTS IS A TEXTUAL REPRESENTATION OF THE APPLICABLE COMPANY'S CONFERENCE CALL AND WHILE EFFORTS ARE MADE TO PROVIDE AN ACCURATE TRANSCRIPTION, THERE MAY BE MATERIAL ERRORS, OMISSIONS, OR INACCURACIES IN THE REPORTING OF THE SUBSTANCE OF THE CONFERENCE CALLS. 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User may not reproduce or redistribute the material except for user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon Thomson Financial's or ASC's copyright or other proprietary rights or interests in the material; provided, however, that members of the news media may redistribute limited portions (less than 250 words) of this material without a specific license from Thomson Financial and ASC so long as they provide conspicuous attribution to Thomson Financial and ASC as the originators and copyright holders of such material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation.]
Subject: Aircraft; Copyright; Airlines; Earnings; International finance; Cost reduction; Cost control
Location: Latin America
Company / organization: Name: Thomson Financial; NAICS: 511210, 518210, 519190; Name: Boeing Co; NAICS: 336411, 336413, 336414
Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 22, 2018
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: Linthicum
Country of publication: United States, Linthicum
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Law--Corporate Law
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2011639372
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2011639372?accountid=4840
Copyright: 2018 Thomson Financial and ASC LLC
Last updated: 2018-03-27
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 140 of 474
Feature and TV films
Author: Compiled by Ed Stockly
Publication info: Los Angeles Times (Online) , Los Angeles: Tribune Interactive, LLC. Feb 23, 2018.
Abstract:
Four Star Films, Box Office Hits, Indies and Imports, Movies A - Z FOUR STAR FILMS Top rated movies and made-for-TV films airing the week of the week of Feb. 25 - March 3 Close Encounters of the Third Kind 1977 Sundance Sun. 7 a.m. Top Hat 1935 TCM Sun. 7 a.m. The Thin Man 1934 TCM Sun. 9 a.m. Psycho 1960 Encore Sun. 11:30 a.m., 9 p.m. 12 Years a Slave 2013 BET Sun. 12:30 p.m. Mutiny on the Bounty 1935 TCM Sun. 5 p.m. All Quiet on the Western Front 1930 TCM Sun. 7:30 p.m. The Thing 1982 Starz Mon. 12:30 a.m., 4 p.m., Encore Sun. 12:30 a.m. The Magnificent Ambersons 1942 TCM Mon. 5 a.m. Libeled Lady 1936 TCM Mon. 11 a.m. Pulp Fiction 1994 AMC Mon. 12:30 p.m., OVA Fri. 4 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m. The Best Years of Our Lives 1946 TCM Mon. 5 p.m. The Godfather 1972 AMC Mon. 6 p.m., Tue. 11:30 a.m. Almost Famous 2000 Encore Mon. 6:30 p.m. Mrs. Miniver 1942 TCM Mon. 8 p.m. Grand Hotel 1932 TCM Mon. 10:30 p.m. It Happened One Night 1934 TCM Tue. 12:30 a.m. 42nd Street 1933 TCM Tue. 2:30 a.m. The Ox-Bow Incident 1943 TCM Tue. 8 a.m. Forrest Gump 1994 PARMOUNT Tue. 11:30 a.m., 11 p.m. On the Waterfront 1954 TCM Tue. 5 p.m. Hamlet 1948 TCM Tue. 9 p.m. Around the World in 80 Days 1956 TCM Tue. 11:30 p.m. West Side Story 1961 HBO Wed. 4:30 a.m. Grand Illusion 1937 TCM Wed. 4:30 a.m. Ninotchka 1939 TCM Wed. 8:30 a.m. WALL-E 2008 Starz Wed. 9:30 a.m. Rocky 1976 Showtime Wed. 11 a.m. Dances With Wolves 1990 Cinemax Wed. 11 a.m., Sun. 6 a.m. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid 1969 Cinemax Wed. 2:30 p.m. Father of the Bride 1950 TCM Wed. 3 p.m. The Bridge on the River Kwai 1957 TCM Wed. 5 p.m., Thur. 5 p.m. Patton 1970 TCM Wed. 8 p.m., Thur. 8 p.m., Sundance Sat. 2 p.m., Sun. 1 a.m. Casablanca 1942 TCM Thur. 1 a.m., Fri. 1 a.m. Aliens 1986 HBO Thur. 2 a.m. Chinatown 1974 Sundance Thur. 3 a.m. The Crowd 1928 TCM Thur. 3 a.m. Double Indemnity 1944 TCM Thur. 8 a.m. The Pride of the Yankees 1942 TCM Thur. 12:30 p.m. Sounder 1972 TCM Thur. 3 p.m. The Dark Knight 2008 Cinemax Thur. 9 p.m. Lost Horizon 1937 TCM Fri. 4:30 a.m. Annie Hall 1977 TCM Fri. 5 p.m. Jaws 1975 AMC Fri. 7 p.m., Sat. 4 p.m. Kramer vs. Kramer 1979 TCM Fri. 7 p.m. Alien: Directors Cut 1979 HBO Fri. 8 p.m. A Man for All Seasons 1966 TCM Fri. 9 p.m. The Great Ziegfeld 1936 TCM Fri. 11 p.m. Tootsie 1982 Encore Sat. 4 a.m. Coming Home 1978 EPIX Sat. 5:30 a.m. The Yearling 1946 TCM Sat. 2:30 p.m. Gandhi 1982 TCM Sat. 5 p.m. Saving Private Ryan 1998 Encore Sat. 7 p.m. Ben-Hur 1959 TCM Sat. 11:30 p.m. ------------ Four Star Films, Box Office Hits, Indies and Imports, Movies A - Z BOX OFFICE HITS Movies that scored big at the box office, airing the week of the week of Feb. 25 - March 3 The Natural 1984 Starz Sun. 6:30 a.m. X-Men Origins: Wolverine 2009 HBO Sun. 7 a.m. The Patriot 2000 Encore Sun. 7 a.m., 6 p.m., Tue. 1 a.m., 9:30 a.m. Scream 1996 IFC Sun. 7 a.m., Mon. 1:30 a.m. Con Air 1997 Showtime Sun. 8 a.m., TMC Thur. 8 p.m. Spider-Man 3 2007 Syfy Sun. 8 a.m., Wed. 1:30 p.m. The Birdcage 1996 Starz Sun. 8:30 a.m. Short Circuit 1986 OVA Sun. 9 a.m. Basic Instinct 1992 IFC Sun. 9:30 a.m. Hulk 2003 Showtime Sun. 10 a.m. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire 2013 TBS Sun. 11 a.m. Psycho 1960 Encore Sun. 11:30 a.m., 9 p.m. Mission: Impossible 2 2000 Starz Sun. 11:30 a.m., Wed. 3:30 p.m., 11 p.m., Thur. 8:30 a.m. Steel Magnolias 1989 OVA Sun. 1:30 p.m., Mon. 10:30 p.m., Tue. 6:30 p.m. Boyz N the Hood 1991 VH1 Sun. 1:30 p.m., Wed. 1 a.m., 2:30 p.m. The Help 2011 BET Sun. 4 p.m., E! Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 4 p.m. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End 2007 Syfy Sun. 4 p.m. Enemy of the State 1998 IFC Sun. 5 p.m., 8 p.m. The Lion King 1994 Freeform Sun. 5 p.m. The Karate Kid 1984 OVA Sun. 7 p.m., Mon. 4 p.m. Ratatouille 2007 Freeform Sun. 7 p.m., Mon. 6 p.m. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides 2011 Syfy Sun. 7:30 p.m., Mon. 4:30 p.m. Avengers: Age of Ultron 2015 TBS Sun. 8 p.m. The Flintstones 1994 Freeform Sun. 9:30 p.m. Backdraft 1991 OVA Sun. 10 p.m., Mon. 1 p.m. Big Momma's House 2000 Encore Sun. 10:30 p.m., Mon. 5:30 a.m., 2 p.m. Sleepless in Seattle 1993 KCOP Mon. midnight, POP Mon. 10:30 p.m., Tue. 8 p.m. Ghost 1990 Encore Mon. 2 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 11 p.m. My Best Friend's Wedding 1997 Starz Mon. 7:30 a.m., 2 p.m. While You Were Sleeping 1995 Showtime Mon. 8:30 a.m. Black Hawk Down 2001 AMC Mon. 9:30 a.m. Pulp Fiction 1994 AMC Mon. 12:30 p.m., OVA Fri. 4 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m. Clash of the Titans 2010 PARMOUNT Mon. 12:30 p.m. The Da Vinci Code 2006 IFC Mon. 12:30 p.m., 11 p.m., Freeform Fri. 7:30 p.m., Sat. 2 p.m. The Color Purple 1985 Sundance Mon. 3:30 p.m., Tue. 1 a.m. Men in Black II 2002 Encore Mon. 3:30 p.m. The Best Years of Our Lives 1946 TCM Mon. 5 p.m. The Godfather 1972 AMC Mon. 6 p.m., Tue. 11:30 a.m. The Karate Kid Part II 1986 OVA Mon. 8 p.m., Tue. 4 p.m. Mrs. Miniver 1942 TCM Mon. 8 p.m. The Goonies 1985 Freeform Mon. 8:30 p.m., Tue. 5:30 p.m., VH1 Fri. 9 p.m., Sat. 2:30 p.m. Bad Boys II 2003 Cinemax Mon. 11 p.m. Star Trek 2009 EPIX Tue. midnight, 10 a.m., 5:30 p.m. Top Gun 1986 Starz Tue. midnight, 9 a.m. La Bamba 1987 Encore Tue. 7:30 a.m., 4 p.m., 11 p.m. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe 2005 HBO Tue. 8 a.m. 48 HRS. 1982 Sundance Tue. 10:30 a.m., 2:30 p.m. The Firm 1993 Starz Tue. 10:30 a.m. Forrest Gump 1994 PARMOUNT Tue. 11:30 a.m., 11 p.m. Back to School 1986 Sundance Tue. 12:30 p.m., Wed. 3 a.m., POP Thur. 10 p.m., Fri. 12:30 a.m. Legally Blonde 2001 Encore Tue. 12:30 p.m., 7 p.m., Wed. 8:30 a.m. The Last Boy Scout 1991 Cinemax Tue. 2 p.m. Hancock 2008 FX Tue. 2:30 p.m., 11:30 p.m. Ted 2012 FXX Tue. 3 p.m., Wed. 11:30 a.m. S.W.A.T. 2003 Cinemax Tue. 4 p.m. Under Siege 1992 AMC Tue. 5:30 p.m., 11:30 p.m. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian 2009 HBO Tue. 5:30 p.m. Cool Runnings 1993 Sundance Tue. 7 p.m., Wed. 1 a.m. Armageddon 1998 AMC Tue. 8 p.m., Wed. 4:30 p.m. Bruce Almighty 2003 Sundance Tue. 9 p.m., Wed. 1 p.m., AMC Thur. 10:30 p.m., Fri. 5 p.m. Despicable Me 2010 Freeform Tue. 9 p.m., Wed. 6 p.m. Heaven Can Wait 1978 Cinemax Tue. 9:30 p.m. Around the World in 80 Days 1956 TCM Tue. 11:30 p.m. Big Daddy 1999 Freeform Wed. midnight, 9 p.m., Comedy Central Sat. 8 p.m., 10 p.m. The First Wives Club 1996 Encore Wed. 12:30 a.m., noon, 7 p.m. True Lies 1994 AMC Wed. 2 a.m., 1:30 p.m. Face/Off 1997 Starz Wed. 3:30 a.m., Encore Sun. 2:30 a.m. The Mummy Returns 2001 Cinemax Wed. 3:30 a.m. West Side Story 1961 HBO Wed. 4:30 a.m. Home Alone 2: Lost in New York 1992 Encore Wed. 4:30 a.m. Casper 1995 TMC Wed. 6 a.m. Maverick 1994 Cinemax Wed. 9 a.m., 9:30 p.m. WALL-E 2008 Starz Wed. 9:30 a.m. Auntie Mame 1958 TCM Wed. 10:30 a.m. Rocky 1976 Showtime Wed. 11 a.m. Dances With Wolves 1990 Cinemax Wed. 11 a.m., Sun. 6 a.m. Gone in 60 Seconds 2000 HBO Wed. noon Brewster's Millions 1985 OVA Wed. 1:30 p.m. Planes, Trains and Automobiles 1987 Encore Wed. 1:30 p.m. The Witches of Eastwick 1987 OVA Wed. 6:30 p.m. Ghostbusters 1984 LOGO Wed. 7 p.m., Thur. 12:30 a.m. Iron Man 2 2010 FX Wed. 7:30 p.m., Thur. 4:30 p.m. The Green Mile 1999 AMC Wed. 8 p.m., Thur. 1:30 p.m. Dangerous Minds 1995 Cinemax Wed. 8 p.m. Patton 1970 TCM Wed. 8 p.m., Thur. 8 p.m., Sundance Sat. 2 p.m., Sun. 1 a.m. Remember the Titans 2000 USA Wed. 9:30 p.m. Ghostbusters II 1989 LOGO Wed. 9:30 p.m., Thur. 3 a.m. From Here to Eternity 1953 TCM Wed. 11 p.m., Thur. 11 p.m. A Few Good Men 1992 AMC Thur. midnight, 10:30 a.m. Aliens 1986 HBO Thur. 2 a.m. The Mummy 1999 Cinemax Thur. 2:30 a.m. RoboCop 1987 IFC Thur. 3 a.m., 6 a.m., 10:30 a.m. Bird on a Wire 1990 HBO Thur. 7 a.m. Stripes 1981 Encore Thur. 10:30 a.m., 10:30 p.m. Scrooged 1988 Encore Thur. noon, 7 p.m., Fri. 9:30 a.m. Dirty Dancing 1987 PARMOUNT Thur. 12:30 p.m., 11:30 p.m. Tango & Cash 1989 OVA Thur. 4 p.m. Uncle Buck 1989 AMC Thur. 5:30 p.m., Fri. 2:30 p.m. The Waterboy 1998 Freeform Thur. 6 p.m., Fri. midnight Dr. Seuss' the Lorax 2012 FXX Thur. 6 p.m., Fri. 4 p.m. Demolition Man 1993 OVA Thur. 6:30 p.m. Rush Hour 1998 BET Thur. 7:30 p.m., Fri. 5:30 p.m. The Blair Witch Project 1999 Cinemax Thur. 8 p.m. The Princess Diaries 2001 Nickelodeon Thur. 8 p.m. Groundhog Day 1993 Encore Thur. 9 p.m., Fri. 4:30 p.m. Any Which Way You Can 1980 OVA Thur. 9 p.m., Fri. 1:30 p.m. The Dark Knight 2008 Cinemax Thur. 9 p.m. Moonstruck 1987 EPIX Thur. 10 p.m., Fri. 10:30 a.m., 6 p.m. Cheech & Chong's Next Movie 1980 IFC Thur. 11 p.m., Fri. 2 a.m. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 2000 Starz Fri. 1:30 a.m. Space Jam 1996 VH1 Fri. 2 a.m., 4:30 p.m. Hot Shots!Full text:
Four Star Films, Box Office Hits, Indies and Imports, Movies A - Z FOUR STAR FILMS Top rated movies and made-for-TV films airing the week of the week of Feb. 25 - March 3 Close Encounters of the Third Kind 1977 Sundance Sun. 7 a.m. Top Hat 1935 TCM Sun. 7 a.m. The Thin Man 1934 TCM Sun. 9 a.m. Psycho 1960 Encore Sun. 11:30 a.m., 9 p.m. 12 Years a Slave 2013 BET Sun. 12:30 p.m. Mutiny on the Bounty 1935 TCM Sun. 5 p.m. All Quiet on the Western Front 1930 TCM Sun. 7:30 p.m. The Thing 1982 Starz Mon. 12:30 a.m., 4 p.m., Encore Sun. 12:30 a.m. The Magnificent Ambersons 1942 TCM Mon. 5 a.m. Libeled Lady 1936 TCM Mon. 11 a.m. Pulp Fiction 1994 AMC Mon. 12:30 p.m., OVA Fri. 4 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m. The Best Years of Our Lives 1946 TCM Mon. 5 p.m. The Godfather 1972 AMC Mon. 6 p.m., Tue. 11:30 a.m. Almost Famous 2000 Encore Mon. 6:30 p.m. Mrs. Miniver 1942 TCM Mon. 8 p.m. Grand Hotel 1932 TCM Mon. 10:30 p.m. It Happened One Night 1934 TCM Tue. 12:30 a.m. 42nd Street 1933 TCM Tue. 2:30 a.m. The Ox-Bow Incident 1943 TCM Tue. 8 a.m. Forrest Gump 1994 PARMOUNT Tue. 11:30 a.m., 11 p.m. On the Waterfront 1954 TCM Tue. 5 p.m. Hamlet 1948 TCM Tue. 9 p.m. Around the World in 80 Days 1956 TCM Tue. 11:30 p.m. West Side Story 1961 HBO Wed. 4:30 a.m. Grand Illusion 1937 TCM Wed. 4:30 a.m. Ninotchka 1939 TCM Wed. 8:30 a.m. WALL-E 2008 Starz Wed. 9:30 a.m. Rocky 1976 Showtime Wed. 11 a.m. Dances With Wolves 1990 Cinemax Wed. 11 a.m., Sun. 6 a.m. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid 1969 Cinemax Wed. 2:30 p.m. Father of the Bride 1950 TCM Wed. 3 p.m. The Bridge on the River Kwai 1957 TCM Wed. 5 p.m., Thur. 5 p.m. Patton 1970 TCM Wed. 8 p.m., Thur. 8 p.m., Sundance Sat. 2 p.m., Sun. 1 a.m. Casablanca 1942 TCM Thur. 1 a.m., Fri. 1 a.m. Aliens 1986 HBO Thur. 2 a.m. Chinatown 1974 Sundance Thur. 3 a.m. The Crowd 1928 TCM Thur. 3 a.m. Double Indemnity 1944 TCM Thur. 8 a.m. The Pride of the Yankees 1942 TCM Thur. 12:30 p.m. Sounder 1972 TCM Thur. 3 p.m. The Dark Knight 2008 Cinemax Thur. 9 p.m. Lost Horizon 1937 TCM Fri. 4:30 a.m. Annie Hall 1977 TCM Fri. 5 p.m. Jaws 1975 AMC Fri. 7 p.m., Sat. 4 p.m. Kramer vs. Kramer 1979 TCM Fri. 7 p.m. Alien: Directors Cut 1979 HBO Fri. 8 p.m. A Man for All Seasons 1966 TCM Fri. 9 p.m. The Great Ziegfeld 1936 TCM Fri. 11 p.m. Tootsie 1982 Encore Sat. 4 a.m. Coming Home 1978 EPIX Sat. 5:30 a.m. The Yearling 1946 TCM Sat. 2:30 p.m. Gandhi 1982 TCM Sat. 5 p.m. Saving Private Ryan 1998 Encore Sat. 7 p.m. Ben-Hur 1959 TCM Sat. 11:30 p.m. ------------
Four Star Films, Box Office Hits, Indies and Imports, Movies A - Z BOX OFFICE HITS Movies that scored big at the box office, airing the week of the week of Feb. 25 - March 3 The Natural 1984 Starz Sun. 6:30 a.m. X-Men Origins: Wolverine 2009 HBO Sun. 7 a.m. The Patriot 2000 Encore Sun. 7 a.m., 6 p.m., Tue. 1 a.m., 9:30 a.m. Scream 1996 IFC Sun. 7 a.m., Mon. 1:30 a.m. Con Air 1997 Showtime Sun. 8 a.m., TMC Thur. 8 p.m. Spider-Man 3 2007 Syfy Sun. 8 a.m., Wed. 1:30 p.m. The Birdcage 1996 Starz Sun. 8:30 a.m. Short Circuit 1986 OVA Sun. 9 a.m. Basic Instinct 1992 IFC Sun. 9:30 a.m. Hulk 2003 Showtime Sun. 10 a.m. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire 2013 TBS Sun. 11 a.m. Psycho 1960 Encore Sun. 11:30 a.m., 9 p.m. Mission: Impossible 2 2000 Starz Sun. 11:30 a.m., Wed. 3:30 p.m., 11 p.m., Thur. 8:30 a.m. Steel Magnolias 1989 OVA Sun. 1:30 p.m., Mon. 10:30 p.m., Tue. 6:30 p.m. Boyz N the Hood 1991 VH1 Sun. 1:30 p.m., Wed. 1 a.m., 2:30 p.m. The Help 2011 BET Sun. 4 p.m., E! Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 4 p.m. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End 2007 Syfy Sun. 4 p.m. Enemy of the State 1998 IFC Sun. 5 p.m., 8 p.m. The Lion King 1994 Freeform Sun. 5 p.m. The Karate Kid 1984 OVA Sun. 7 p.m., Mon. 4 p.m. Ratatouille 2007 Freeform Sun. 7 p.m., Mon. 6 p.m. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides 2011 Syfy Sun. 7:30 p.m., Mon. 4:30 p.m. Avengers: Age of Ultron 2015 TBS Sun. 8 p.m. The Flintstones 1994 Freeform Sun. 9:30 p.m. Backdraft 1991 OVA Sun. 10 p.m., Mon. 1 p.m. Big Momma's House 2000 Encore Sun. 10:30 p.m., Mon. 5:30 a.m., 2 p.m. Sleepless in Seattle 1993 KCOP Mon. midnight, POP Mon. 10:30 p.m., Tue. 8 p.m. Ghost 1990 Encore Mon. 2 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 11 p.m. My Best Friend's Wedding 1997 Starz Mon. 7:30 a.m., 2 p.m. While You Were Sleeping 1995 Showtime Mon. 8:30 a.m. Black Hawk Down 2001 AMC Mon. 9:30 a.m. Pulp Fiction 1994 AMC Mon. 12:30 p.m., OVA Fri. 4 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m. Clash of the Titans 2010 PARMOUNT Mon. 12:30 p.m. The Da Vinci Code 2006 IFC Mon. 12:30 p.m., 11 p.m., Freeform Fri. 7:30 p.m., Sat. 2 p.m. The Color Purple 1985 Sundance Mon. 3:30 p.m., Tue. 1 a.m. Men in Black II 2002 Encore Mon. 3:30 p.m. The Best Years of Our Lives 1946 TCM Mon. 5 p.m. The Godfather 1972 AMC Mon. 6 p.m., Tue. 11:30 a.m. The Karate Kid Part II 1986 OVA Mon. 8 p.m., Tue. 4 p.m. Mrs. Miniver 1942 TCM Mon. 8 p.m. The Goonies 1985 Freeform Mon. 8:30 p.m., Tue. 5:30 p.m., VH1 Fri. 9 p.m., Sat. 2:30 p.m. Bad Boys II 2003 Cinemax Mon. 11 p.m. Star Trek 2009 EPIX Tue. midnight, 10 a.m., 5:30 p.m. Top Gun 1986 Starz Tue. midnight, 9 a.m. La Bamba 1987 Encore Tue. 7:30 a.m., 4 p.m., 11 p.m. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe 2005 HBO Tue. 8 a.m. 48 HRS. 1982 Sundance Tue. 10:30 a.m., 2:30 p.m. The Firm 1993 Starz Tue. 10:30 a.m. Forrest Gump 1994 PARMOUNT Tue. 11:30 a.m., 11 p.m. Back to School 1986 Sundance Tue. 12:30 p.m., Wed. 3 a.m., POP Thur. 10 p.m., Fri. 12:30 a.m. Legally Blonde 2001 Encore Tue. 12:30 p.m., 7 p.m., Wed. 8:30 a.m. The Last Boy Scout 1991 Cinemax Tue. 2 p.m. Hancock 2008 FX Tue. 2:30 p.m., 11:30 p.m. Ted 2012 FXX Tue. 3 p.m., Wed. 11:30 a.m. S.W.A.T. 2003 Cinemax Tue. 4 p.m. Under Siege 1992 AMC Tue. 5:30 p.m., 11:30 p.m. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian 2009 HBO Tue. 5:30 p.m. Cool Runnings 1993 Sundance Tue. 7 p.m., Wed. 1 a.m. Armageddon 1998 AMC Tue. 8 p.m., Wed. 4:30 p.m. Bruce Almighty 2003 Sundance Tue. 9 p.m., Wed. 1 p.m., AMC Thur. 10:30 p.m., Fri. 5 p.m. Despicable Me 2010 Freeform Tue. 9 p.m., Wed. 6 p.m. Heaven Can Wait 1978 Cinemax Tue. 9:30 p.m. Around the World in 80 Days 1956 TCM Tue. 11:30 p.m. Big Daddy 1999 Freeform Wed. midnight, 9 p.m., Comedy Central Sat. 8 p.m., 10 p.m. The First Wives Club 1996 Encore Wed. 12:30 a.m., noon, 7 p.m. True Lies 1994 AMC Wed. 2 a.m., 1:30 p.m. Face/Off 1997 Starz Wed. 3:30 a.m., Encore Sun. 2:30 a.m. The Mummy Returns 2001 Cinemax Wed. 3:30 a.m. West Side Story 1961 HBO Wed. 4:30 a.m. Home Alone 2: Lost in New York 1992 Encore Wed. 4:30 a.m. Casper 1995 TMC Wed. 6 a.m. Maverick 1994 Cinemax Wed. 9 a.m., 9:30 p.m. WALL-E 2008 Starz Wed. 9:30 a.m. Auntie Mame 1958 TCM Wed. 10:30 a.m. Rocky 1976 Showtime Wed. 11 a.m. Dances With Wolves 1990 Cinemax Wed. 11 a.m., Sun. 6 a.m. Gone in 60 Seconds 2000 HBO Wed. noon Brewster's Millions 1985 OVA Wed. 1:30 p.m. Planes, Trains and Automobiles 1987 Encore Wed. 1:30 p.m. The Witches of Eastwick 1987 OVA Wed. 6:30 p.m. Ghostbusters 1984 LOGO Wed. 7 p.m., Thur. 12:30 a.m. Iron Man 2 2010 FX Wed. 7:30 p.m., Thur. 4:30 p.m. The Green Mile 1999 AMC Wed. 8 p.m., Thur. 1:30 p.m. Dangerous Minds 1995 Cinemax Wed. 8 p.m. Patton 1970 TCM Wed. 8 p.m., Thur. 8 p.m., Sundance Sat. 2 p.m., Sun. 1 a.m. Remember the Titans 2000 USA Wed. 9:30 p.m. Ghostbusters II 1989 LOGO Wed. 9:30 p.m., Thur. 3 a.m. From Here to Eternity 1953 TCM Wed. 11 p.m., Thur. 11 p.m. A Few Good Men 1992 AMC Thur. midnight, 10:30 a.m. Aliens 1986 HBO Thur. 2 a.m. The Mummy 1999 Cinemax Thur. 2:30 a.m. RoboCop 1987 IFC Thur. 3 a.m., 6 a.m., 10:30 a.m. Bird on a Wire 1990 HBO Thur. 7 a.m. Stripes 1981 Encore Thur. 10:30 a.m., 10:30 p.m. Scrooged 1988 Encore Thur. noon, 7 p.m., Fri. 9:30 a.m. Dirty Dancing 1987 PARMOUNT Thur. 12:30 p.m., 11:30 p.m. Tango & Cash 1989 OVA Thur. 4 p.m. Uncle Buck 1989 AMC Thur. 5:30 p.m., Fri. 2:30 p.m. The Waterboy 1998 Freeform Thur. 6 p.m., Fri. midnight Dr. Seuss' the Lorax 2012 FXX Thur. 6 p.m., Fri. 4 p.m. Demolition Man 1993 OVA Thur. 6:30 p.m. Rush Hour 1998 BET Thur. 7:30 p.m., Fri. 5:30 p.m. The Blair Witch Project 1999 Cinemax Thur. 8 p.m. The Princess Diaries 2001 Nickelodeon Thur. 8 p.m. Groundhog Day 1993 Encore Thur. 9 p.m., Fri. 4:30 p.m. Any Which Way You Can 1980 OVA Thur. 9 p.m., Fri. 1:30 p.m. The Dark Knight 2008 Cinemax Thur. 9 p.m. Moonstruck 1987 EPIX Thur. 10 p.m., Fri. 10:30 a.m., 6 p.m. Cheech & Chong's Next Movie 1980 IFC Thur. 11 p.m., Fri. 2 a.m. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 2000 Starz Fri. 1:30 a.m. Space Jam 1996 VH1 Fri. 2 a.m., 4:30 p.m. Hot Shots! 1991 Starz Fri. 3:30 a.m. Cast Away 2000 Starz Fri. 5 a.m., 4 p.m. The English Patient 1996 Cinemax Fri. 6 a.m. Airplane! 1980 AMC Fri. 10:30 a.m. The Mask of Zorro 1998 Starz Fri. 1:30 p.m. The Guns of Navarone 1961 TCM Fri. 2 p.m. Jaws 1975 AMC Fri. 7 p.m., Sat. 4 p.m. Kramer vs. Kramer 1979 TCM Fri. 7 p.m. Speed 1994 Cinemax Fri. 8 p.m., 11:30 p.m. Meet the Parents 2000 IFC Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 1 a.m. Wayne's World 1992 Comedy Central Fri. 9 p.m., Sat. 5:30 p.m. Coming to America 1988 Encore Fri. 9 p.m., Sat. 6 a.m., 12:30 p.m. Jaws 2 1978 AMC Fri. 10 p.m., Sat. 7 p.m. Meet the Fockers 2004 IFC Fri. 10:30 p.m., Sat. 3:30 a.m. Tootsie 1982 Encore Sat. 4 a.m. How to Train Your Dragon 2010 HBO Sat. 7 a.m. Rocky III 1982 Showtime Sat. 7:30 a.m. Jurassic Park III 2001 PARMOUNT Sat. 9 a.m., 5 p.m. Honey, I Shrunk the Kids 1989 HBO Sat. 10 a.m. Conan the Barbarian 1982 AMC Sat. 10:30 a.m., Sun. 3 a.m. Jurassic Park 1993 PARMOUNT Sat. 11 a.m., 7 p.m. Alice in Wonderland 2010 Freeform Sat. 11:30 a.m. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 2005 HBO Sat. 1 p.m. The Lost World: Jurassic Park 1997 PARMOUNT Sat. 2 p.m., 10 p.m. Gandhi 1982 TCM Sat. 5 p.m. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan 1982 Encore Sat. 5 p.m. Shrek 2001 TNT Sat. 6 p.m. Django Unchained 2012 BET Sat. 6 p.m. Saving Private Ryan 1998 Encore Sat. 7 p.m. Fast & Furious 6 2013 FX Sat. 8 p.m. Grown Ups 2010 FXX Sat. 8 p.m., 10 p.m. Maleficent 2014 TNT Sat. 8 p.m. Captain America: The First Avenger 2011 Freeform Sat. 8 p.m. Braveheart 1995 TCM Sat. 8:30 p.m. Beverly Hills Cop 1984 CMT Sat. 11 p.m. The Prince of Tides 1991 OVA Sat. 11 p.m. Ben-Hur 1959 TCM Sat. 11:30 p.m. Iron Man 2008 EPIX Sun. midnight ------------
Four Star Films, Box Office Hits, Indies and Imports, Movies A - Z BRAVO, IFC & SUNDANCE IN PRIMETIME Bravo, IFC & Sundance in primetime, airing the week of the week of Feb. 25 - March 3 The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift 2006 MTV Sun. 4:30 p.m., 10 p.m., IFC Thur. 5:30 p.m., 7:30 p.m. Enemy of the State 1998 IFC Sun. 5 p.m., 8 p.m. A Bronx Tale 1993 Sundance Sun. 7 p.m., 9:30 p.m., AMC Mon. 3:30 p.m., Tue. 12:30 a.m., 9 a.m. The Notebook 2004 Sundance Mon. 7 p.m., 10 p.m., WE Wed. 6 p.m., 9 p.m., MTV Sat. 10 a.m., 8 p.m. Bruce Almighty 2003 Sundance Tue. 9 p.m., Wed. 1 p.m., AMC Thur. 10:30 p.m., Fri. 5 p.m. Underworld: Evolution 2006 Syfy Wed. 4:30 p.m., Thur. 1:30 a.m., IFC Sat. 7:30 p.m. Fury 2014 IFC Wed. 8 p.m., OVA Sat. 8 p.m. Patton 1970 TCM Wed. 8 p.m., Thur. 8 p.m., Sundance Sat. 2 p.m., Sun. 1 a.m. Meet the Parents 2000 IFC Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 1 a.m. Meet the Fockers 2004 IFC Fri. 10:30 p.m., Sat. 3:30 a.m. Baby Mama 2008 Bravo Sat. 9 p.m., 11 p.m. ------------
Four Star Films, Box Office Hits, Indies and Imports, Movies A - Z THIS WEEK'S MOVIES A-Z An alphabetical listing of movies on TV the week of the week of Feb. 25 - March 3 a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z ------------ A Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
Abandon (2002) Katie Holmes, Benjamin Bratt. A detective discovers new facts regarding the disappearance of a collegian's boyfriend two years earlier. (PG-13) 1 hr. 39 mins. HBO Mon., February 26, 12 p.m.
Abduction (2011) Taylor Lautner, Lily Collins. A young man must run for his life soon after learning that the folks who raised him are not his real parents. (PG-13) 1 hr. 46 mins. Freeform Fri., March 2, 11:30 p.m.
Act of Valor (2012) Roselyn Snchez, Jason Cottle. During a mission to rescue a kidnapped CIA agent, Navy SEALs uncover a worldwide terrorist plot against the U.S. (R) 1 hr. 51 mins. FX Mon., February 26, 9:30 a.m. FX Tues., February 27, 6:30 a.m.
Adam Sandler's Eight Crazy Nights (2002) Voices of Adam Sandler, Jackie Titone. Animated. During Hanukkah, a temperamental lout drinks, gets in trouble with the law and performs community service. (PG-13) 1 hr. 16 mins. HBO Thur., March 1, 5:30 a.m.
Adam (2009) Hugh Dancy, Rose Byrne. A tentative romance begins between a young man with Asperger syndrome and a new neighbor, whose parents are apprehensive about the relationship. (PG-13) 1 hr. 37 mins. Cinemax Tues., February 27, 5:30 a.m.
Adaptation (2002) Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep. A screenwriter asks his identical twin, who is in the same profession, for advice on a story about a serial killer. (R) 1 hr. 54 mins. Cinemax Mon., February 26, 8 a.m.
After Earth (2013) Jaden Smith, Will Smith. With his father trapped in the wreckage of their spacecraft, a youth treks across Earth's now-hostile terrain to recover their rescue beacon and signal for help. (PG-13) 1 hr. 39 mins. FX Wed., February 28, 6:30 a.m.
Aftermath (2017) Arnold Schwarzenegger, Scoot McNairy. Two strangers' lives become inextricably bound together after an error by an air traffic controller causes the death of a construction foreman's wife and daughter. (R) 1 hr. 32 mins. EPIX Mon., February 26, 12 a.m. EPIX Mon., February 26, 4 a.m. EPIX Mon., February 26, 4 p.m.
Airplane II: The Sequel (1982) Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty. The first commercial space shuttle sends loony Ted and his former girlfriend on a trip to the moon. (PG) 1 hr. 25 mins. AMC Fri., March 2, 8:30 a.m.
Airplane! (1980) Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty. A pilot afraid to fly follows his stewardess ex-girlfriend and must take over for the poisoned crew. (PG) 1 hr. 28 mins. AMC Fri., March 2, 10:30 a.m.
Alice in Wonderland (2010) Johnny Depp, Mia Wasikowska. Now a teenager, Alice returns to Underland, where she must find her destiny and put an end to the Red Queen's reign of terror. (PG) 1 hr. 49 mins. Freeform Sat., March 3, 11:30 a.m.
Alien: Covenant (2017) Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston. Crew members of the colony ship Covenant encounter a hostile alien life-form after traveling to a dark and dangerous planet on the far side of the galaxy. (R) 2 hrs. 2 mins. HBO Sat., March 3, 8 p.m. HBO Sun., March 4, 2:30 a.m.
Alien: Directors Cut (1979) Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver. Crewmembers aboard an interstellar freighter encounter a merciless monster that crawls around their ship's dark corridors and service ducts as it kills them one by one. (R) 1 hr. 56 mins. HBO Fri., March 2, 8 p.m.
Aliens (1986) Sigourney Weaver, Carrie Henn. On planet LV-426, Ripley and a dwindling number of Marines battle an almost-unstoppable army of monstrous predators which wiped out an entire colony of humans, save for one little girl. (R) 2 hrs. 17 mins. HBO Thur., March 1, 2 a.m.
Alien vs. Predator (2004) Sanaa Lathan, Raoul Bova. Members of an expedition discover two vicious extraterrestrial species dueling to the death in the Antarctic. (PG-13) 1 hr. 40 mins. HBO Sun., February 25, 4:30 p.m.
Ali (2001) Will Smith, Jamie Foxx. Muhammad Ali battles Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier and George Foreman and raises controversy outside the ring. (R) 2 hrs. 38 mins. Starz Fri., March 2, 11 p.m. Starz Sat., March 3, 12 p.m.
All About Steve (2009) Sandra Bullock, Thomas Haden Church. After a blind date leaves her breathless, a crossword-puzzle creator follows a news cameraman around the country in a bid for his undying love. (PG-13) 1 hr. 39 mins. Cinemax Thur., March 1, 6:30 a.m.
All Eyez on Me (2017) Demetrius Shipp Jr., Danai Gurira. The true and untold story of prolific rapper, actor, poet and activist Tupac Shakur, from his early days in New York to his status as one of the world's most recognized and influential voices. (R) 2 hrs. 20 mins. HBO Wed., February 28, 9:30 p.m.
All Nighter (2017) J.K. Simmons, Emile Hirsch. When his daughter disappears in Los Angeles, a tough-minded businessman recruits her awkward ex-boyfriend to help him find her. (R) 1 hr. 26 mins. Starz Tues., February 27, 7:30 a.m.
All of My Heart: Inn Love (2017) Lacey Chabert, Brennan Elliott. Brian and Jenny are preparing for the grand opening of their bed and breakfast, Emily's Country Inn, when a big storm hits Buck County. Brian agrees to go back to Wall Street to boost their funds, while Jenny scrambles to keep the opening on track. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Hallmark Fri., March 2, 4 p.m.
All of My Heart (2015) Lacey Chabert, Brennan Elliott. After inheriting half of a house, a young woman develops an unexpected friendship with her co-owner. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Hallmark Fri., March 2, 2 p.m.
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim. A German youth eagerly enters World War I, but his enthusiasm wanes as he gets a firsthand view of the horror. (NR) 2 hrs. 13 mins. TCM Sun., February 25, 7:30 p.m.
All the King's Men (1949) Broderick Crawford, Joanne Dru. Power and ambition corrupt an idealistic Southern politician. Winner of three Oscars, including best picture. (NR) 1 hr. 49 mins. TCM Tues., February 27, 7 p.m.
Almost Famous (2000) Billy Crudup, Frances McDormand. An aspiring teenage rock journalist gets his big break when he follows an up-and-coming band on its tour. (R) 2 hrs. 2 mins. Encore Mon., February 26, 6 p.m.
Alone in Berlin (2016) Emma Thompson, Brendan Gleeson. A German couple lose their son in WWII, prompting them to become secretly anti-Nazi. (R) 1 hr. 43 mins. Showtime Sat., March 3, 5:30 a.m. Showtime Tues., February 27, 5:30 p.m. Showtime Tues., February 27, 8:30 a.m.
Along Came Polly (2004) Ben Stiller, Jennifer Aniston. A man finds solace with another woman after his wife cheats on him during their honeymoon. (PG-13) 1 hr. 30 mins. VH1 Fri., March 2, 7 p.m.
Alpha and Omega 4: The Legend of the Saw Tooth Cave (2014) Voices of Dee Dee Greene, Ben Diskin. Animated. When Runt sneaks off to explore a haunted cave, he finds a wolf who has been driven from her pack and tries to help her. (NR) 45 mins. HBO Sat., March 3, 6 a.m.
Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007) Jason Lee, David Cross. Live action/animated. Musical but mischievous chipmunks Alvin, Simon and Theodore wreak havoc in the life of songwriter Dave Seville. (PG) 1 hr. 31 mins. Nickelodeon Fri., March 2, 8 p.m. Nickelodeon Sat., March 3, 7 a.m.
Amelia (2009) Hilary Swank, Richard Gere. In the summer of 1937, famed aviatrix Amelia Earhart journeys into history in her attempt to become the first woman to circumnavigate the globe. (PG) 1 hr. 51 mins. Cinemax Fri., March 2, 2:30 p.m.
American Outlaws (2001) Colin Farrell, Scott Caan. Jesse James and his gang rob banks in order to foil a railroad baron who forces people from their homesteads. (PG-13) 1 hr. 33 mins. TMC Tues., February 27, 6 p.m.
American Ultra (2015) Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart. When his secret past comes back to haunt him, a small-town stoner must use his latent, deadly skills to prevent the CIA from taking him out. (R) 1 hr. 36 mins. TBS Mon., February 26, 1:30 a.m.
Anatomy of a Murder (1959) James Stewart, Lee Remick. A Michigan lawyer and his colleague defend an Army lieutenant who killed the man who raped the officer's wife. (NR) 2 hrs. 40 mins. TCM Tues., February 27, 11:30 a.m.
Anchors Aweigh (1945) Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly. Two sailors on leave in Hollywood help an actress get her big break. (NR) 2 hrs. 23 mins. TCM Thur., March 1, 10 a.m.
The Angriest Man in Brooklyn (2014) Robin Williams, Mila Kunis. After learning that a brain aneurysm will kill him in about 90 minutes, a perpetually unhappy man struggles to come to terms with his fate and make amends with everyone he has ever hurt. (R) 1 hr. 24 mins. Starz Thur., March 1, 2 p.m.
Annie Hall (1977) Woody Allen, Diane Keaton. A New York comedian recalls his lost love, a kooky singer with a style all her own. (PG) 1 hr. 33 mins. TCM Fri., March 2, 5 p.m.
Any Which Way You Can (1980) Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke. A bare-knuckle brawler battles crooks with his orangutan, girlfriend, buddy and mother. (PG) 1 hr. 56 mins. OVA Fri., March 2, 1:30 p.m. OVA Thur., March 1, 9 p.m.
Apocalypto (2006) Rudy Youngblood, Raoul Trujillo. As the end of the Mayan civilization draws near, a man makes a desperate bid to escape being a human sacrifice and return to his family and the woman he loves. (R) 2 hrs. 17 mins. BBC America Sun., February 25, 8 p.m. BBC America Sun., February 25, 10:30 p.m.
Arbitrage (2012) Richard Gere, Tim Roth. Desperate to sell his empire, a hedge-fund magnate seeks help from a former associate to cover up a critical error. (R) 1 hr. 40 mins. POP Fri., March 2, 9 a.m.
Armageddon (1998) Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton. A NASA rep recruits an oil driller and his team of mavericks to save Earth from an oncoming asteroid. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 30 mins. AMC Tues., February 27, 7:30 p.m. AMC Wed., February 28, 4 p.m.
Around the World in 80 Days (1956) David Niven, Cantinflas. Victorian Phileas Fogg bets members of his London club that he and his valet, Passepartout, can circle the globe in 80 days. (G) 2 hrs. 50 mins. TCM Tues., February 27, 11:30 p.m.
Assassination Tango (2002) Robert Duvall, Ruben Blades. While on assignment in Argentina, an aging hit man begins a tentative romance with a charismatic dancer. (R) 1 hr. 54 mins. TMC Mon., February 26, 5 a.m. TMC Sun., February 25, 4:30 p.m.
Assassin's Creed (2016) Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard. A descendant of the mysterious secret society known as the Assassins uses his newfound knowledge and physical skills to battle the power-hungry Templar Order. (PG-13) 1 hr. 56 mins. HBO Sat., March 3, 6 p.m.
ATM (2012) Alice Eve, Josh Peck. A murderous assailant traps three people in a small kiosk containing an automatic teller machine. (R) 1 hr. 30 mins. TMC Wed., February 28, 7:30 a.m.
Atomic Shark (2016) Rachele Brooke Smith, Jeff Fahey. A lifeguard assembles an unlikely team to embark on a suicide mission to save the west coast from a dangerous anomaly. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Syfy Fri., March 2, 8:30 a.m. Syfy Sat., March 3, 4 a.m.
Attack of the Killer Donuts (2016) Kayla Compton, Justin Ray. A chemical accident turns ordinary donuts into bloodthirsty killers. Now it's up to a group of friends to save their town from the fried fiends. (NR) 1 hr. 38 mins. TMC Wed., February 28, 10 p.m.
Auntie Mame (1958) Rosalind Russell, Forrest Tucker. A bohemian socialite survives the market crash of 1929, marries a millionaire and teaches her nephew how to live. (NR) 2 hrs. 23 mins. TCM Wed., February 28, 10 a.m.
Australia (2008) Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman. An English aristocrat and a cattleman drive a herd across the Australian Outback to save her ranch from a hostile takeover. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 45 mins. HBO Mon., February 26, 1 p.m.
The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016) Emile Hirsch, Brian Cox. When father and son coroners investigate the death of a beautiful ``Jane Doe,'' they find increasingly bizarre clues. (R) 1 hr. 26 mins. TMC Tues., February 27, 2:30 a.m.
Avatar (2009) Sam Worthington, Voice of Zoe Saldana. On an alien planet, a former Marine falls in love with a blue-skinned warrior and sides with her people against humankind's encroachment on their lush world. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 42 mins. TBS Sun., February 25, 4 p.m.
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth. When Tony Stark's jumpstart of a dormant peacekeeping program goes awry, the Avengers must reassemble to battle a terrifying technological villain hell-bent on human extinction. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 21 mins. TBS Sun., February 25, 8 p.m.
The Avengers (2012) Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Nick Fury recruits a team of superheroes to pull the world back from the brink of disaster when an unexpected enemy threatens global security. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 23 mins. FX Sun., February 25, 4:30 p.m.
Awake (2007) Hayden Christensen, Jessica Alba. A young man who is undergoing surgery experiences anesthesia awareness, which leaves him alert but paralyzed and unable to warn his doctors. (R) 1 hr. 24 mins. TMC Tues., February 27, 11 a.m. ------------ B Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
Babe (1995) James Cromwell, Magda Szubanski. A piglet unexpectedly becomes a champion sheepherder with training from his adoptive canine mother. (G) 1 hr. 34 mins. TMC Sat., March 3, 6:30 a.m.
Baby Mama's Club (2010) Tommy Ford, Miko Defoor. Randall becomes a father at the same time that his buddy James has his 17th child. The men begin an eccentric style of counseling to help them in their relationships. (R) 1 hr. 36 mins. EPIX Fri., March 2, 6:30 a.m.
Baby Mama (2008) Tina Fey, Amy Poehler. A battle of wills breaks out when a working-class gal moves in with the high-powered executive who hired her to be a surrogate mother. (PG-13) 1 hr. 39 mins. Bravo Sat., March 3, 9 p.m. Bravo Sat., March 3, 10:30 p.m.
Backdraft (1991) Kurt Russell, William Baldwin. Two brothers fight each other and an outbreak of arson as Chicago firefighters. (R) 2 hrs. 17 mins. OVA Mon., February 26, 12:30 p.m. OVA Sun., February 25, 10 p.m.
Back to School (1986) Rodney Dangerfield, Sally Kellerman. An earthy self-made man divorces his no-good wife and buys his way into his son's college. (PG-13) 1 hr. 36 mins. POP Fri., March 2, 12:30 a.m. POP Thur., March 1, 9 p.m. Sundance Tues., February 27, 12:30 p.m. Sundance Wed., February 28, 2:30 a.m.
Bad Ass 2 : Bad Asses (2014) Danny Trejo, Danny Glover. Frank Vega teams up with his agoraphobic buddy Bernie Pope to clean up Los Angeles' crime-infested streets. (R) 1 hr. 31 mins. TMC Tues., February 27, 12:30 p.m.
Bad Ass (2012) Danny Trejo, Charles S. Dutton. A decorated Vietnam War veteran takes justice into his own hands when his best friend is murdered and the police are slow to solve the case. (R) 1 hr. 45 mins. TMC Sun., March 4, 3 a.m.
Bad Boys II (2003) Martin Lawrence, Will Smith. Two detectives uncover a conspiracy involving a drug kingpin while trying to stop the trafficking of Ecstasy in Miami. (R) 2 hrs. 26 mins. Cinemax Mon., February 26, 10:30 p.m.
Bad Boys (1995) Martin Lawrence, Will Smith. Undercover Miami detectives switch lives while investigating murders linked to stolen heroin. (R) 1 hr. 58 mins. MTV Mon., February 26, 12 a.m. MTV Sun., February 25, 2 p.m. PARMOUNT Fri., March 2, 11 p.m. PARMOUNT Fri., March 2, 12 p.m.
Bad Grandmas (2017) Florence Henderson, Randall Batinkoff. Four grandmothers accidentally kill a con man and must cover it up when his partner arrives. (NR) 1 hr. 32 mins. Showtime Sat., March 3, 11:30 a.m.
Bad Moms (2016) Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell. Pushed beyond their limits, three overworked and stressed-out mothers go wild after ditching their daily routines. (R) 1 hr. 41 mins. Showtime Wed., February 28, 5 p.m.
Bad Tutor (2018) Vanessa Marcil, Alex Frnka. Single mom Karen is focused on getting daughter Emily graduated and off to college. When she hires Devin to boost Emily's grades, the tutor becomes dangerously obsessed. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Lifetime Sat., March 3, 8 p.m. Lifetime Sun., March 4, 12 a.m.
La Bamba (1987) Lou Diamond Phillips, Esai Morales. Mexican-American Ritchie Valens becomes a rock 'n' roll star, then dies at 17 in a 1959 plane crash. (PG-13) 1 hr. 48 mins. Encore Tues., February 27, 11 p.m. Encore Tues., February 27, 4 p.m. Encore Tues., February 27, 7:30 a.m.
Band Aid (2017) Zoe Lister-Jones, Adam Pally. A bickering couple make one last effort to save their marriage by turning their arguments into songs and forming a band. (R) 1 hr. 34 mins. Showtime Mon., February 26, 12:30 p.m. Showtime Thur., March 1, 10:30 a.m.
Barbershop: The Next Cut (2016) Ice Cube, Cedric the Entertainer. With the barbershop now coed, Calvin, Eddie and the rest of the gang come up with a plan to save the neighborhood from crime. (PG-13) 1 hr. 52 mins. EPIX Sun., February 25, 8 p.m. EPIX Mon., February 26, 7:30 a.m. EPIX Mon., February 26, 2 p.m.
Basic Instinct (1992) Michael Douglas, Sharon Stone. An erotic writer toys with a San Francisco detective who thinks she might be an ice-pick killer. (R) 2 hrs. 7 mins. IFC Sun., February 25, 9:30 a.m.
Battlefield Earth (2000) John Travolta, Barry Pepper. A young man takes a courageous stand against an alien leader and his cohorts hoarding natural resources on Earth in the year 3000. (PG-13) 1 hr. 57 mins. TMC Wed., February 28, 11 p.m.
Battle: Los Angeles (2011) Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez. After the world's great cities fall, a Marine staff sergeant and his platoon make a last stand against alien invaders. (PG-13) 1 hr. 56 mins. Syfy Sun., February 25, 11 a.m. Syfy Mon., February 26, 12:30 a.m.
Battleship (2012) Taylor Kitsch, Alexander Skarsgard. An epic adventure unfolds across the high seas, as American sailors go to war against an army of invading aliens. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 11 mins. FX Sun., February 25, 11 a.m.
Baywatch (2017) Dwayne Johnson, Zac Efron. When a dangerous crime wave hits the beach, Mitch Buchannon leads his elite squad of lifeguards on a mission to prove that you don't have to wear a badge to save the bay. (R) 1 hr. 59 mins. EPIX Sat., March 3, 8 p.m. EPIX Sun., March 4, 5 a.m.
B&B (2017) Tom Bateman, Paul McGann. A gay couple seek revenge against a hotel owner after they are turned away. (NR) 1 hr. 27 mins. TMC Mon., February 26, 3:30 a.m.
Beatriz at Dinner (2017) Salma Hayek, John Lithgow. Holistic healer Beatriz receives a friendly invitation to stay for a business dinner after her car breaks down. She soon finds herself in an escalating war of words with a ruthless real estate mogul who cares more about money than people. (R) 1 hr. 23 mins. EPIX Wed., February 28, 10:30 p.m. EPIX Thur., March 1, 12:30 p.m. EPIX Thur., March 1, 6:30 p.m.
Bedtime Stories (2008) Adam Sandler, Keri Russell. A hotel handyman tries to make the most of the situation when he learns that the outlandish tales he tells his niece and nephew are coming true. (PG) 1 hr. 39 mins. Starz Wed., February 28, 2 a.m. Starz Wed., February 28, 7:30 a.m. Starz Wed., February 28, 5 p.m.
Being Evel (2015) Filmmaker Daniel Junge examines the life, career and legacy of Evel Knievel, the young man from Montana who stared death in the face to become a legendary daredevil. (NR) 1 hr. 42 mins. REELZ Mon., February 26, 4:30 p.m.
Ben-Hur (1959) Charlton Heston, Jack Hawkins. An enslaved Judean prince meets his Roman betrayer, a former friend, in a chariot race. (G) 3 hrs. 32 mins. TCM Sat., March 3, 11:30 p.m.
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) Fredric March, Myrna Loy. A disabled serviceman and two other veterans have difficulty adjusting to civilian life after World War II. (NR) 2 hrs. 52 mins. TCM Mon., February 26, 5 p.m.
Beverly Hills Cop (1984) Eddie Murphy, Judge Reinhold. A hip Detroit detective drives out to Los Angeles and shows local police how to catch a killer. (R) 1 hr. 45 mins. CMT Sat., March 3, 11 p.m.
Bewitched (2005) Nicole Kidman, Will Ferrell. An actual witch and a neurotic movie star land the lead roles in a television remake of the 1960s sitcom. (PG-13) 1 hr. 40 mins. Encore Wed., February 28, 11 p.m. Encore Wed., February 28, 3:30 p.m. Encore Wed., February 28, 6:30 a.m.
Big Business (1988) Bette Midler, Lily Tomlin. Mismatched at birth, two sets of twins meet as opposites in Manhattan and confuse a corporate deal. (PG) 1 hr. 37 mins. Cinemax Tues., February 27, 9 a.m.
Big Daddy (1999) Adam Sandler, Joey Lauren Adams. Hoping to lure back his exasperated girlfriend, a goofy slacker gains custody of a 5-year-old boy. (PG-13) 1 hr. 33 mins. Comedy Central Sat., March 3, 10 p.m. Comedy Central Sat., March 3, 8 p.m. Freeform Tues., February 27, 11:30 p.m. Freeform Wed., February 28, 9 p.m.
Big Miracle (2012) John Krasinski, Drew Barrymore. A reporter in small-town Alaska and his former lover, an environmentalist, try to form an international coalition to rescue three ice-trapped whales. (PG) 1 hr. 47 mins. HBO Fri., March 2, 9:30 a.m.
Big Momma's House 2 (2006) Martin Lawrence, Nia Long. An FBI agent reprises his disguise as a corpulent old lady and takes a job as a nanny in a crime suspect's house. (PG-13) 1 hr. 39 mins. BET Mon., February 26, 7 p.m. BET Tues., February 27, 4:30 p.m.
Big Momma's House (2000) Martin Lawrence, Nia Long. To protect a woman and her son from a robber, a male FBI agent assumes the guise of a large grandmother. (PG-13) 1 hr. 38 mins. Encore Mon., February 26, 2 p.m. Encore Mon., February 26, 5:30 a.m. Encore Sun., February 25, 10:30 p.m.
The Birdcage (1996) Robin Williams, Gene Hackman. In Miami Beach a gay couple pretend to be man and wife when a son's future father-in-law and family visit. (R) 1 hr. 59 mins. Starz Sun., February 25, 8 a.m.
Bird on a Wire (1990) Mel Gibson, Goldie Hawn. An FBI-relocated witness and his ex-girlfriend from the '60s are chased by the drug thug he sent to prison. (PG-13) 1 hr. 50 mins. HBO Thur., March 1, 7 a.m.
The Birds (1963) Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren. A San Francisco playgirl follows a bachelor to Bodega Bay where, for no apparent reason, flocks of birds begin killing the populace. (PG-13) 1 hr. 59 mins. Encore Wed., February 28, 10 a.m. Encore Wed., February 28, 8 p.m.
The Birth of a Nation (2016) Nate Parker, Armie Hammer. On Aug. 21, 1831, Baptist preacher Nat Turner leads a violent and historic rebellion to free himself and other slaves in Southampton County, Va. (R) 1 hr. 58 mins. Cinemax Wed., February 28, 5:30 p.m.
Bitter Harvest (2017) Max Irons, Aneurin Barnard. A young man's life is changed forever when the burgeoning Soviet Union's ambition leads to Stalin's army spilling into rural Ukraine. (R) 1 hr. 43 mins. EPIX Wed., February 28, 9:30 a.m.
Black Hawk Down (2001) Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor. U.S. soldiers take heavy fire while trying to capture a warlord's associates in Mogadishu, Somalia. (R) 2 hrs. 24 mins. AMC Mon., February 26, 9 a.m.
The Blair Witch Project (1999) Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams. A filmmaking crew hikes into Maryland's Black Hills Forest seeking clues about a legendary witch. (R) 1 hr. 27 mins. Cinemax Thur., March 1, 8 p.m.
Bleed for This (2016) Miles Teller, Aaron Eckhart. With help from trainer Kevin Rooney, champion boxer Vinny Pazienza tries to make a comeback after breaking his neck in a car accident. (R) 1 hr. 56 mins. Showtime Wed., February 28, 12 p.m.
The Blind Side (2009) Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw. A well-to-do white family takes in a homeless black teen and helps him realize his potential on and off the football field. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 8 mins. E! Sat., March 3, 7 p.m. E! Sat., March 3, 10 p.m.
Blue Streak (1999) Martin Lawrence, Luke Wilson. A jewel thief returns to a construction site to retrieve his cache and finds a police station on the spot. (PG-13) 1 hr. 34 mins. Starz Fri., March 2, 7 p.m. Starz Sat., March 3, 2:30 p.m. Starz Sat., March 3, 4 a.m.
Blurt (2018) Jace Norman, JoJo Siwa. When Jeremy puts on virtual reality glasses, he loses his ``inside voice'' and starts speaking every thought out loud. Desperate to get back to normal, Jeremy and his sister must figure out how to convince his brain that he can speak up for himself. (NR) Nickelodeon Sun., February 25, 4 p.m. Nickelodeon Mon., February 26, 6 p.m.
Boiler Room (2000) Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel. Eager to win the approval of his demanding father, a young man begins working for a dubious stock firm. (R) 2 hrs. Cinemax Mon., February 26, 3 a.m.
Bond of Silence (2010) Kim Raver, Charlie McDermott. Katy McIntosh seeks answers when her husband dies while trying to subdue teenage partygoers. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Lifetime Sat., March 3, 11:30 a.m.
Boo! A Madea Halloween (2016) Tyler Perry, Cassi Davis. Cranky, fast-talking Madea finds herself under attack from ghosts, ghouls and zombies after breaking up a fraternity's Halloween party. (PG-13) 1 hr. 43 mins. EPIX Fri., March 2, 8 p.m. EPIX Sat., March 3, 9:30 a.m. EPIX Sat., March 3, 2:30 p.m.
The Book of Love (2016) Jason Sudeikis, Maisie Williams. Hoping to find her long-lost father, a troubled teen asks a widowed architect to build her a raft that can sail across the ocean. (PG-13) 1 hr. 44 mins. Encore Thur., March 1, 12:30 a.m. Encore Thur., March 1, 8:30 a.m.
The Boondock Saints (1999) Willem Dafoe, Sean Patrick Flanery. Two brothers, believing themselves to be on a mission from God, begin killing members of Boston's underworld. (R) 1 hr. 50 mins. TMC Sun., February 25, 8 p.m.
Boyz N the Hood (1991) Larry Fishburne, Ice Cube. Three boys become men, one guided by his father, in their racially divided Los Angeles neighborhood. (R) 1 hr. 52 mins. VH1 Sun., February 25, 1:30 p.m. VH1 Wed., February 28, 1 a.m. VH1 Wed., February 28, 2:30 p.m.
Braveheart (1995) Mel Gibson, Sophie Marceau. Enraged by the killing of his wife, Scotsman William Wallace leads a revolt against the tyrannical English king in the 13th century. (R) 2 hrs. 57 mins. TCM Sat., March 3, 8:30 p.m.
Brewster's Millions (1985) Richard Pryor, John Candy. A minor-league pitcher inherits $300 million but must spend $30 million in 30 days to get it. (PG) 1 hr. 37 mins. OVA Wed., February 28, 1:30 p.m.
Bridal Wave (2015) Arielle Kebbel, Andrew W. Walker. A woman planning for her wedding at a resort meets a charming local right before the ceremony and has to choose between the man who can care for her financially or the man who truly understands her. (NR) Hallmark Sat., March 3, 10:30 a.m.
Bridge of Spies (2015) Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance. During the Cold War, a CIA operative recruits New York lawyer James Donovan to negotiate a prisoner exchange for captured U.S. pilot Francis Gary Powers. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 21 mins. Showtime Tues., February 27, 3 p.m. Showtime Wed., February 28, 4 a.m.
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) William Holden, Alec Guinness. A British POW colonel orders his men to build their Japanese captor a railway bridge in the jungle. (PG) 2 hrs. 41 mins. TCM Thur., March 1, 5 p.m. TCM Wed., February 28, 5 p.m.
Bridge to Terabithia (2007) Josh Hutcherson, AnnaSophia Robb. A boy and his new friend, the class outsider, create an imaginary world in which they rule as king and queen. (PG) 1 hr. 36 mins. Syfy Mon., February 26, 7 a.m.
Bring It On (2000) Kirsten Dunst, Eliza Dushku. An urban cheerleading squad accuses a champion team's captain of stealing its choreography on the eve of a national competition. (PG-13) 1 hr. 38 mins. Bravo Sat., March 3, 1 p.m. Bravo Sat., March 3, 4:30 p.m.
Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935) Jack Benny, Eleanor Powell. A Broadway columnist feuds with a producer whose upstate girlfriend poses as a Paris star. (NR) 1 hr. 45 mins. TCM Wed., February 28, 6 a.m.
A Bronx Tale (1993) Robert De Niro, Chazz Palminteri. The son of an honest bus driver looks up to a local mob boss amid racial tension in 1960s New York. (R) 2 hrs. 2 mins. AMC Mon., February 26, 3 p.m. AMC Tues., February 27, 12 a.m. AMC Tues., February 27, 8:30 a.m. Sundance Sun., February 25, 7 p.m. Sundance Sun., February 25, 9 p.m.
Brothers (2009) Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal. After his brother is presumed dead in Afghanistan, a drifter and his sister-in-law are drawn together through their grief and unexpected attraction. (R) 1 hr. 44 mins. EPIX Fri., March 2, 12 a.m. EPIX Fri., March 2, 4 p.m.
Bruce Almighty (2003) Jim Carrey, Morgan Freeman. After a bad day at work, a frustrated reporter meets God, who endows him with divine powers for one week. (PG-13) 1 hr. 41 mins. AMC Fri., March 2, 4:30 p.m. AMC Thur., March 1, 10 p.m. Sundance Tues., February 27, 9 p.m. Sundance Wed., February 28, 1 p.m.
The Bucket List (2007) Jack Nicholson, Morgan Freeman. Two terminally ill men leave their hospital ward and set out to complete a list of things they want to do before they die. (PG-13) 1 hr. 37 mins. Lifetime Sun., February 25, 10 a.m.
Bugsy (1991) Warren Beatty, Annette Bening. New York gangster Bugsy Siegel goes Hollywood with a tan, a mistress and a mad vision of Las Vegas. (R) 2 hrs. 15 mins. TMC Sun., February 25, 2 p.m.
Bulletproof (1996) Damon Wayans, Adam Sandler. A mobster's goons pursue a fugitive underling turning state's evidence to an undercover policeman he once shot. (R) 1 hr. 24 mins. TMC Fri., March 2, 12 a.m.
Burning Bodhi (2015) Kaley Cuoco, Meghann Fahy. A young man returns home to New Mexico after learning about the death of his best friend from high school. (R) 1 hr. 33 mins. TMC Mon., February 26, 2:30 p.m.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) Paul Newman, Robert Redford. When a persistent posse threatens two outlaws' romp through Wyoming, they decide to take their act to Bolivia. (PG) 1 hr. 50 mins. Cinemax Wed., February 28, 2 p.m.
The Bye Bye Man (2017) Douglas Smith, Lucien Laviscount. A couple and their friend stumble upon the horrific origins of the Bye Bye Man, a mysterious figure that they discover is the root cause of the evil behind the most unspeakable acts. (PG-13) 1 hr. 36 mins. Showtime Mon., February 26, 4 p.m. ------------ C Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
The Cabin in the Woods (2011) Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth. Two unseen scientists manipulate the gory goings-on at a backwoods cabin inhabited by a group of unsuspecting college friends. (R) 1 hr. 35 mins. Syfy Sat., March 3, 2 p.m.
Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell. After an experimental program turns him into a supersoldier, Steve Rogers, now known as Captain America, leads the fight against Red Skull's evil HYDRA organization. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 4 mins. Freeform Sat., March 3, 8 p.m.
Captain Blood (1935) Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland. A British doctor sold into slavery becomes a dashing Caribbean pirate and fights a duel with a French pirate to win a woman. (NR) 1 hr. 59 mins. TCM Sat., March 3, 4 a.m.
Captains Courageous (1937) Spencer Tracy, Freddie Bartholomew. Portuguese fishermen pick up a rich man's son who has fallen overboard. (NR) 1 hr. 57 mins. TCM Tues., February 27, 6 a.m.
Carol (2015) Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara. Therese Belivet spots the beautiful, elegant Carol perusing the doll displays in a 1950s Manhattan department store. The two women develop a fast bond that becomes a love with complicated consequences. (R) 1 hr. 58 mins. TMC Mon., February 26, 6 p.m. Showtime Thur., March 1, 12:30 p.m.
Casablanca (1942) Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman. A cynical nightclub owner protects an old flame and her husband from Nazis in Morocco. (PG) 1 hr. 42 mins. TCM Fri., March 2, 12:30 a.m. TCM Thur., March 1, 1 a.m.
Casino (1995) Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone. A New York bookie and his pal turn a Las Vegas casino into an empire, then one's money-hungry wife helps bring it down. (R) 2 hrs. 57 mins. VH1 Fri., March 2, 11:30 p.m. VH1 Sat., March 3, 10:30 a.m.
Casper (1995) Christina Ricci, Bill Pullman. A teen who lost her mother befriends friendly ghost Casper while staying at a mean heiress's haunted mansion. (PG) 1 hr. 40 mins. TMC Wed., February 28, 6 a.m.
Cast Away (2000) Tom Hanks, Helen Hunt. After a plane crash at sea, a Federal Express engineer survives on a remote island for four years in complete isolation. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 23 mins. Starz Fri., March 2, 4 p.m. Starz Fri., March 2, 4:30 a.m.
Catch and Release (2007) Jennifer Garner, Timothy Olyphant. A woman struggles to rebuild her life in the wake of her fiance's untimely death and the discovery of secrets he kept from her. (PG-13) 1 hr. 51 mins. Encore Fri., March 2, 4 a.m.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman. Two brothers, one an alcoholic who resents his devoted wife, visit their dying millionaire father in the South. (NR) 1 hr. 48 mins. TCM Mon., February 26, 3 p.m.
Certain Women (2016) Kristen Stewart, Laura Dern. Three strong-willed women strive to forge their own paths amidst the wide-open plains of the American Northwest. (R) 1 hr. 47 mins. Showtime Thur., March 1, 2:30 p.m.
Charlie Wilson's War (2007) Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts. A congressman, a socialite and a CIA agent are instrumental to the funding of freedom fighters working against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. (R) 1 hr. 42 mins. Showtime Tues., February 27, 12:30 p.m.
Cheech & Chong's Next Movie (1980) Cheech Marin, Thomas Chong. Two sloppy pot smokers wander around Los Angeles and wind up in outer space. (R) 1 hr. 33 mins. IFC Fri., March 2, 1:30 a.m. IFC Thur., March 1, 10:30 p.m.
Chinatown (1974) Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway. A 1930s gumshoe named Jake sticks his nose into a sordid mess over Los Angeles land and water. (R) 2 hrs. 11 mins. Sundance Thur., March 1, 3 a.m.
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) Tilda Swinton, Georgie Henley. Children join forces with the lion mystic Aslan to free the land of Narnia from the White Witch's wintry spell. (PG) 2 hrs. 20 mins. HBO Tues., February 27, 8 a.m.
The Chronicles of Riddick (2004) Vin Diesel, Colm Feore. On the run from mercenaries, a fugitive lands on a planet endangered by an invading ruler and his bloodthirsty army. (PG-13) 1 hr. 59 mins. Syfy Thur., March 1, 8 p.m. Syfy Fri., March 2, 6 p.m.
Chuck (2016) Liev Schreiber, Elisabeth Moss. Liquor salesman and part-time prizefighter Chuck Wepner gets the chance to take on Muhammad Ali in a highly publicized title fight, launching him to sudden fame. (R) 1 hr. 41 mins. Showtime Tues., February 27, 1:30 a.m.
Cimarron (1931) Richard Dix, Irene Dunne. Husband-and-wife homesteaders join the Oklahoma land rush of 1889 and stay on to build an empire. (NR) 2 hrs. 11 mins. TCM Mon., February 26, 12:30 a.m.
A Cinderella Story: If the Shoe Fits (2016) Sofia Carson, Jennifer Tilly. A subservient stepdaughter hopes to compete in a musical competition to become a pop star. (PG) 1 hr. 32 mins. Freeform Sun., February 25, 8:30 a.m.
Cinderella (2015) Cate Blanchett, Lily James. A cruel stepmother reduces her dead husband's only child to the role of scullery maid, but a kindly beggar woman and some helpful mice bring about a change in the young woman's fortunes. (PG) 1 hr. 45 mins. TNT Sat., March 3, 10 p.m.
Clash of the Titans (2010) Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson. Perseus, the son of Zeus, embarks on a dangerous mission to prevent Hades from toppling the king of the gods and laying waste to Earth. (PG-13) 1 hr. 46 mins. PARMOUNT Mon., February 26, 12:30 p.m.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) Richard Dreyfuss, Franois Truffaut. An Indiana lineman and other UFO-sighters, beleaguered by earlier incidents, finally have documented contact with space aliens. (PG) 2 hrs. 12 mins. Sundance Sun., February 25, 7 a.m.
Cloverfield (2008) Michael Stahl-David, Mike Vogel. A video camera records the horrific events that unfold as a monstrous creature attacks New York, leaving death and destruction in its wake. (PG-13) 1 hr. 25 mins. IFC Sun., February 25, 12:30 p.m. IFC Mon., February 26, 10:30 a.m.
Clueless (1995) Alicia Silverstone, Stacey Dash. A Beverly Hills teen plays matchmaker for teachers, transforms a bad dresser and examines her own existence. (PG-13) 1 hr. 37 mins. Encore Fri., March 2, 10:30 p.m. Encore Fri., March 2, 3 p.m. Encore Sat., March 3, 9:30 a.m.
Coach Carter (2005) Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Ri'chard. A high-school basketball coach turns a losing team around, then faces criticism for pushing the athletes to put grades first. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 16 mins. VH1 Sun., February 25, 10:30 a.m. VH1 Mon., February 26, 1 a.m.
Cold Mountain (2003) Jude Law, Nicole Kidman. During the Civil War, a wounded Confederate soldier abandons his duties to make his way home to his sweetheart. (R) 2 hrs. 35 mins. Showtime Fri., March 2, 2 p.m.
Cold Souls (2009) Paul Giamatti, Dina Korzun. In a world where human souls are regularly extracted and exchanged, an actor receives the soul of a Russian poet to help him nail the lead role in ``Uncle Vanya.'' (PG-13) 1 hr. 41 mins. TMC Sat., March 3, 8 a.m.
Collide (2016) Nicholas Hoult, Felicity Jones. A desperate man races against time to save his captive girlfriend from the vengeful drug lord he crossed. (PG-13) 1 hr. 39 mins. Showtime Sun., February 25, 2:30 p.m.
Colombiana (2011) Zoe Saldana, Jordi Moll. A professional killer carries out hits for her uncle and dreams of taking revenge on the mobster who murdered her parents. (PG-13) 1 hr. 47 mins. A&E Sun., February 25, 3:30 p.m.
The Color Purple (1985) Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover. A black Southern woman struggles to find her identity after suffering years of abuse from her father and others over 40 years. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 32 mins. Sundance Mon., February 26, 3:30 p.m. Sundance Tues., February 27, 12:30 a.m.
The Comedian (2016) Robert De Niro, Leslie Mann. Sentenced to community service for accosting an audience member, an aging comic icon develops a strong bond with the daughter of a sleazy real estate mogul. (R) 2 hrs. Starz Wed., February 28, 1 p.m.
Comet (2014) Justin Long, Emmy Rossum. A cynical lad and a young woman begin a 6-year relationship after meeting by chance during a meteor shower. (R) 1 hr. 30 mins. TMC Thur., March 1, 4:30 a.m. TMC Wed., February 28, 4:30 p.m.
Coming Home (1978) Jane Fonda, Jon Voight. A Marine captain's wife loves a Vietnam veteran in a wheelchair. (R) 2 hrs. 6 mins. EPIX Sat., March 3, 4:30 a.m.
Coming to America (1988) Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall. Pampered Prince Akeem of Zamunda comes to New York with his royal sidekick to find a true-love bride. (R) 1 hr. 56 mins. Encore Fri., March 2, 9 p.m. Encore Sat., March 3, 12:30 p.m. Encore Sat., March 3, 6 a.m.
Con Air (1997) Nicolas Cage, John Cusack. A wrongly convicted parolee on a flight with a group of vicious prisoners tries to stop their violent hijacking. (R) 1 hr. 55 mins. Showtime Sun., February 25, 7 a.m. TMC Thur., March 1, 8 p.m.
Conan the Barbarian (1982) Arnold Schwarzenegger, James Earl Jones. Pit fighter Conan sets out with a Mongol and a queen to take his father's sword from a snake king. (R) 2 hrs. 9 mins. AMC Sat., March 3, 10 a.m. AMC Sun., March 4, 2:30 a.m.
Conan the Barbarian (2011) Jason Momoa, Rachel Nichols. The Cimmerian warrior slashes his way across Hyboria on a mission that begins as a personal vendetta but turns into an epic battle against a supernatural evil. (R) 1 hr. 53 mins. Syfy Sun., February 25, 1:30 p.m.
Conan the Destroyer (1984) Arnold Schwarzenegger, Grace Jones. An evil queen wants Conan to fetch a jewel-encrusted horn that can awaken the dead. (PG) 1 hr. 41 mins. AMC Sat., March 3, 1 p.m.
Concert for George (2003) Tom Hanks, Eric Clapton. Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and others celebrate the music of George Harrison. (PG-13) 1 hr. 44 mins. KVCR Sat., March 3, 6:30 p.m.
The Condemned (2007) Steve Austin, Vinnie Jones. A death-row inmate from a Central American jail is among the prisoners taken to a remote island for a to-the-death match broadcast live over the Internet. (R) 1 hr. 53 mins. USA Wed., February 28, 1 p.m.
The Condemned 2 (2015) Randy Orton, Eric Roberts. A former bounty hunter lands in a tournament where convicts fight to the death for an online audience. (R) 1 hr. 30 mins. Syfy Wed., February 28, 2 a.m. Syfy Wed., February 28, 9:30 a.m.
The Conjuring 2 (2016) Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga. In 1977, paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren travel to north London to help a single mother of four and her possessed daughter. (R) 2 hrs. 13 mins. Cinemax Thur., March 1, 1 p.m.
Contagion (2011) Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon. The world panics as doctors race to find a cure for a rapidly spreading virus that kills those contaminated within days. (PG-13) 1 hr. 46 mins. Syfy Mon., February 26, 3 a.m. Syfy Mon., February 26, 9:30 a.m.
Contraband (2012) Mark Wahlberg, Kate Beckinsale. A former smuggler finds himself back in the game to settle his brother-in-law's debt to a ruthless drug lord. (R) 1 hr. 50 mins. FX Mon., February 26, 6:30 a.m.
The Convenient Groom (2016) Vanessa Marcil, David Sutcliffe. When a celebrity marriage counselor is left high and dry at the altar, her contractor steps in as the groom to help her save face. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Hallmark Sat., March 3, 3 p.m.
The Cookout (2004) Ja Rule, Tim Meadows. After her son signs a contract with an NBA team, a woman invites friends and family to a wild barbecue at his new mansion. (PG-13) 1 hr. 28 mins. BET Wed., February 28, 5 p.m. BET Wed., February 28, 9:30 p.m.
Cool Runnings (1993) Leon, Doug E. Doug. Two Jamaicans make their way to Calgary as long-shot bobsledders in the 1988 Olympics. (PG) 1 hr. 37 mins. Sundance Tues., February 27, 7 p.m. Sundance Wed., February 28, 12:30 a.m.
Cool World (1992) Kim Basinger, Gabriel Byrne. Live action/animated. A cartoonist is seduced by Holli Would, a curvy doodle who wants to be human. (PG-13) 1 hr. 42 mins. EPIX Mon., February 26, 3 a.m.
The Core (2003) Aaron Eckhart, Hilary Swank. In order to save mankind, scientists and astronauts must set off a nuclear device at the center of the Earth. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 16 mins. Cinemax Sun., March 4, 3:30 a.m.
Country Strong (2010) Gwyneth Paltrow, Tim McGraw. Personal demons, complicated romantic entanglements and the demands of fame threaten to derail the comeback tour of a country-music superstar. (PG-13) 1 hr. 57 mins. CMT Mon., February 26, 12 a.m.
A Country Wedding (2015) Jesse Metcalfe, Autumn Reeser. Sparks fly when an engaged country-music star reconnects with a childhood friend. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Hallmark Wed., February 28, 3:30 p.m.
Couples Retreat (2009) Vince Vaughn, Jason Bateman. Four couples find that paradise comes at a price when they must participate in therapy sessions at a tropical resort. (PG-13) 1 hr. 54 mins. E! Tues., February 27, 8 p.m. E! Tues., February 27, 10 p.m.
The Cove (2009) Hayden Panettiere, Isabel Lucas. A former dolphin trainer, Richard O'Barry becomes an activist to end the slaughter of dolphins in Japan, especially in Taiji, where the marine mammals are routinely trapped and killed. (PG-13) 1 hr. 34 mins. EPIX Wed., February 28, 6 a.m.
Coyote Ugly (2000) Piper Perabo, Adam Garcia. A woman finds her dreams of singing sidelined by the notoriety she receives as a New York City barmaid. (PG-13) 1 hr. 40 mins. CMT Fri., March 2, 11 p.m. CMT Fri., March 2, 7 p.m.
Cradle Swapping (2017) Amanda Clayton, Brandon Barash. A young couple discover their baby was swapped at the hospital. During the search for their true child, they uncover an underworld child trafficking ring. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Lifetime Sun., February 25, 2 p.m.
The Craft (1996) Robin Tunney, Fairuza Balk. Teen misfits befriend a suicidal newcomer and strike back at tormentors with witchcraft in Los Angeles. (R) 1 hr. 40 mins. Encore Thur., March 1, 4:30 a.m.
Crank: High Voltage (2009) Jason Statham, Amy Smart. Powered by an artificial heart, Chev Chelios embarks on a frantic chase through Los Angeles to find the thief who stole his own, nearly indestructible, one. (R) 1 hr. 37 mins. EPIX Mon., February 26, 1:30 a.m.
Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011) Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling. A self-styled Lothario teaches a suddenly single 40-something how to be a hit with the ladies. (PG-13) 1 hr. 58 mins. CMT Tues., February 27, 10:30 p.m. CMT Tues., February 27, 8 p.m.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh. A 19th-century martial arts master gives a sword called Green Destiny to his beloved, then the two must recover it from female thieves. (PG-13) 2 hrs. Starz Fri., March 2, 1:30 a.m.
The Crowd (1928) Eleanor Boardman, James Murray. Silent. A young couple struggle to make the most of their life in the heart of a large, impersonal city. (NR) 1 hr. 44 mins. TCM Thur., March 1, 3 a.m.
A Cure for Wellness (2016) Dane DeHaan, Jason Isaacs. After traveling to a remote location in the Swiss Alps, a Wall Street stockbroker unravels the terrifying secrets of a mysterious spa where guests never leave. (R) 2 hrs. 26 mins. Cinemax Thur., March 1, 5 p.m.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett. Benjamin Button is born an old man in 1918 New Orleans and ages in reverse and, in so doing, becomes intimately familiar with the natures of love and death. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 47 mins. EPIX Sun., February 25, 5 p.m.
Cursed to Kill (2016) Anney Reese, Brett Brooks. A paraplegic woman is tormented and cursed by malevolent spirits. Anyone who hears her voice will die, unless she offers the soul of her nephew in place of her own. (NR) 1 hr. 34 mins. TMC Tues., February 27, 9:30 a.m.
Cursed (2005) Christina Ricci, Joshua Jackson. Siblings hunt for the werewolf that attacked them and transformed them into lycanthropes. (PG-13) 1 hr. 37 mins. Cinemax Fri., March 2, 4 a.m. ------------ D Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
Daddy's Home (2015) Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg. An insecure man competes for the affection of his stepchildren when their freewheeling father breezes back into town. (PG-13) 1 hr. 36 mins. EPIX Fri., March 2, 9:30 p.m. EPIX Sat., March 3, 11 a.m. EPIX Sat., March 3, 6 p.m.
Dancer (2000) Julie Walters, Jamie Bell. A working-class youngster in 1984 England discovers a hidden talent for dance with the help of a hard-bitten teacher. (R) 1 hr. 50 mins. Starz Mon., February 26, 3:30 a.m.
Dances With Wolves (1990) Kevin Costner, Mary McDonnell. Costner's epic vision of the American frontier as seen through the eyes of a 19th-century U.S. Cavalry officer. (PG-13) 3 hrs. Cinemax Sun., March 4, 5:30 a.m. Cinemax Wed., February 28, 11 a.m.
Dangerous Minds (1995) Michelle Pfeiffer, George Dzundza. An ex-Marine English teacher uses karate, drug talk and bribes to get through to her class of urban delinquents. (R) 1 hr. 39 mins. Cinemax Wed., February 28, 8 p.m.
Dante's Peak (1997) Pierce Brosnan, Linda Hamilton. A volcanologist and his new love flee a deadly eruption in the Pacific Northwest. (PG-13) 1 hr. 48 mins. Starz Sun., March 4, 5 a.m.
The Darkest Hour (2011) Emile Hirsch, Max Minghella. After an alien attack devastates Moscow, survivors search for a way to fight back against the deadly invaders. (PG-13) 1 hr. 29 mins. Showtime Tues., February 27, 7 a.m.
The Dark Knight (2008) Christian Bale, Heath Ledger. Batman has to keep a balance between heroism and vigilantism to fight a vile criminal known as the Joker, who would plunge Gotham City into anarchy. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 32 mins. Cinemax Thur., March 1, 9 p.m.
Dark Shadows (2012) Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer. Turned into a vampire by a vengeful witch, Barnabas Collins escapes from his tomb after 200 years and finds 1972 Collinsport, Maine, a very different place. (PG-13) 1 hr. 52 mins. Freeform Fri., March 2, 12 p.m.
Dark Victory (1939) Bette Davis, George Brent. An heiress with only months to live embarks on a social whirl, then marries her doctor. (NR) 1 hr. 46 mins. TCM Mon., February 26, 1 p.m.
Dater's Handbook (2016) Kristoffer Polaha, Meghan Markle. After reading a book about dating and changing her personality to find a lover, a woman realizes the man she wants is right in front of her. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Hallmark Thur., March 1, 2 p.m.
The Da Vinci Code (2006) Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou. A murder in the Louvre Museum and clues in paintings by Leonardo lead to the discovery of a religious mystery that could rock the foundations of Christianity. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 29 mins. IFC Mon., February 26, 12:30 p.m. IFC Mon., February 26, 11 p.m. Freeform Fri., March 2, 7:30 p.m. Freeform Sat., March 3, 2 p.m.
Daybreakers (2009) Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe. Faced with a critical blood shortage, a vampire hematologist joins forces with humans to perfect a cure for his problem. (R) 1 hr. 38 mins. EPIX Fri., March 2, 11 p.m. EPIX Sat., March 3, 4:30 p.m. EPIX Sat., March 3, 7:30 a.m.
Deadly Lessons (2017) Christie Ann Burson, Christina Cox. A college girl quits school to run away with her charismatic professor She slowly learns that he is a controlling man with a dark, violent past. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Lifetime Sat., March 3, 1:30 p.m.
Deep Blue Sea (1999) Thomas Jane, Saffron Burrows. A marine biologist and her staff become the prey of scientifically altered sharks that have a hunger for human flesh. (R) 1 hr. 45 mins. OVA Tues., February 27, 9 p.m.
Dj Vu (2006) Denzel Washington, Val Kilmer. A time-folding federal agent falls in love with a New Orleans woman who is targeted to be murdered. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 8 mins. Sundance Sun., February 25, 11 a.m.
Deliver Us From Eva (2003) LL Cool J, Gabrielle Union. In order to get a breather from their meddling sister-in-law, three men pay a playboy $5,000 to romance her. (R) 1 hr. 45 mins. Starz Sat., March 3, 10 a.m.
Delta Farce (2007) Larry the Cable Guy, Bill Engvall. An Army officer mistakes three buddies for Army Reservists and deploys them to Iraq, but their vehicle is prematurely ejected over Mexico. (PG-13) 1 hr. 30 mins. TMC Wed., February 28, 6:30 p.m.
Demolition Man (1993) Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes. The police defrost an imprisoned ex-officer to catch an escaped convict in 2032 San Angeles. (R) 1 hr. 54 mins. OVA Thur., March 1, 6 p.m.
The Departed (2006) Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon. In Boston an undercover cop gains a gangland chief's trust, while a career criminal infiltrates the police force for the mob. (R) 2 hrs. 32 mins. USA Wed., February 28, 3:30 p.m.
Despicable Me (2010) Voices of Steve Carell, Jason Segel. Animated. As he tries to execute a fiendish plot to steal the moon, a supervillain meets his match in three little orphan girls who want to make him their dad. (PG) 1 hr. 35 mins. Freeform Tues., February 27, 9 p.m. Freeform Wed., February 28, 6 p.m.
The Devil Wears Prada (2006) Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway. A recent college graduate lands a job working for a famous and diabolical editor of a New York fashion magazine. (PG-13) 1 hr. 49 mins. AMC Fri., March 2, 12 a.m. AMC Thur., March 1, 7:30 p.m.
Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star (2003) David Spade, Mary McCormack. Hoping to make a comeback, a man stays with a suburban family to prepare for the lead role in a Rob Reiner film. (PG-13) 1 hr. 39 mins. IFC Fri., March 2, 7 a.m. IFC Fri., March 2, 1 p.m.
Die Hard 2 (1990) Bruce Willis, Bonnie Bedelia. The sequel's police hero spots military terrorists while waiting for his wife at a Washington, D.C., airport. (R) 2 hrs. 4 mins. HBO Sat., March 3, 2 a.m.
Different Flowers (2017) Emma Bell, Hope Lauren. A young woman embarks on an adventure with her free-spirited sister after leaving her fiance at the altar. (PG-13) 1 hr. 39 mins. TMC Mon., February 26, 4 p.m.
Dirty Dancing (1987) Jennifer Grey, Patrick Swayze. A doctor's teenage daughter gets slinky with the dance teacher at a Catskills resort in the summer of 1963. (PG-13) 1 hr. 40 mins. PARMOUNT Thur., March 1, 12 p.m. PARMOUNT Thur., March 1, 11 p.m.
Dirty Grandpa (2016) Robert De Niro, Zac Efron. One week before his wedding, an uptight lawyer finds himself driving his foulmouthed grandfather to Daytona Beach, Fla., for a wild spring break that includes frat parties, bar fights and an epic night of karaoke. (R) 1 hr. 42 mins. EPIX Tues., February 27, 2 a.m. EPIX Tues., February 27, 6:30 a.m. EPIX Tues., February 27, 4 p.m.
Dirty Teacher (2013) Josie Davis, Cameron Deane Stewart. After a high school senior learns her boyfriend is having an affair with a teacher, she becomes the victim of an elaborate frame-up. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Lifetime Sat., March 3, 4 p.m.
Divergent (2014) Shailene Woodley, Theo James. In a future society, people are divided into factions based on their personalities. After a young woman learns she is a Divergent and will never fit into any one group, she uncovers a conspiracy to destroy all those like her. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 20 mins. TNT Sat., March 3, 1 p.m.
Django Unchained (2012) Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz. A former slave joins forces with the German bounty hunter who freed him and helps hunt down the South's most-wanted criminals, all in the hope of finding his long-lost wife. (R) 2 hrs. 45 mins. BET Sat., March 3, 6 p.m.
Doc Hollywood (1991) Michael J. Fox, Julie Warner. An upstart plastic surgeon gets stuck in a one-doctor Southern town and falls in love with a local. (PG-13) 1 hr. 43 mins. Cinemax Sat., March 3, 5:30 a.m.
The Doctor (1991) William Hurt, Christine Lahti. An aloof California surgeon becomes a cancer patient and begins to see things differently. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 5 mins. HBO Thur., March 1, 9 a.m.
Domestic Disturbance (2001) John Travolta, Vince Vaughn. A troubled boy claims he witnessed his new stepfather commit a murder, prompting his father to investigate. (PG-13) 1 hr. 29 mins. HBO Thur., March 1, 4 p.m.
Don't Knock Twice (2016) Katee Sackhoff, Lucy Boynton. A mother looking to reconnect with her estranged daughter attracts the attention of a demonic witch. (R) 1 hr. 33 mins. TMC Mon., February 26, 11 p.m.
Doom (2005) The Rock, Karl Urban. Soldiers use heavy firepower to battle mutants at a high-tech research facility on Mars. (NR) 1 hr. 53 mins. IFC Mon., February 26, 8:30 a.m.
Double Indemnity (1944) Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck. An insurance man helps a platinum blonde kill her husband, but all does not go as planned. (NR) 1 hr. 46 mins. TCM Thur., March 1, 8 a.m.
Downfall (2004) Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara. As the Third Reich crumbles around them, Adolf Hitler's secretary witnesses the final 10 days of the Nazi dictator's life. (R) 2 hrs. 34 mins. TMC Thur., March 1, 1 p.m.
Dracula Untold (2014) Luke Evans, Sarah Gadon. Vlad III, prince of Wallachia, trades his humanity for the power to defend his land and people from the ruthless forces of the Ottoman Empire. (PG-13) 1 hr. 32 mins. FX Thur., March 1, 9 a.m.
Draft Day (2014) Kevin Costner, Jennifer Garner. On the day of the NFL Draft, the general manager of the Cleveland Browns must decide what he's willing to sacrifice as he angles for the number-one pick. (PG-13) 1 hr. 49 mins. AMC Wed., February 28, 8:30 a.m.
Dragon Blade (2015) Jackie Chan, John Cusack. An exiled Chinese general offers shelter to a renegade Roman and his legion, then becomes involved in the soldier's dispute with Rome's villainous consul. (R) 1 hr. 43 mins. Syfy Fri., March 2, 3:30 p.m. Syfy Sat., March 3, 10 a.m.
Dragonheart (1996) Dennis Quaid, David Thewlis. A medieval dragon-slayer teams up with his intelligent prey to rid the land of a tyrant who betrayed them. (PG-13) 1 hr. 43 mins. OVA Fri., March 2, 11 a.m. OVA Thur., March 1, 2 p.m.
Drop Dead Sexy (2004) Jason Lee, Crispin Glover. When a financial scam goes awry, a group of would-be criminals turns to kidnapping and blackmail. (R) 1 hr. 40 mins. EPIX Fri., March 2, 5 a.m.
Dr. Seuss' the Lorax (2012) Voices of Danny DeVito, Ed Helms. Animated. To find the one thing that will win him the girl of his dreams, a boy delves into the story of a grumpy forest creature who fights to protect his world. (PG) 1 hr. 26 mins. FXX Thur., March 1, 6 p.m. FXX Fri., March 2, 3:30 p.m.
Drumline: A New Beat (2014) Alexandra Shipp, Leonard Roberts. A young woman aspires to become a trailblazing leader in her school's marching band. (NR) 1 hr. 45 mins. VH1 Sat., March 3, 10:30 p.m.
Drumline (2002) Nick Cannon, Zoe Saldana. A young man from Harlem joins a Southern university's marching band but antagonizes the musical director and its leader. (PG-13) 1 hr. 58 mins. VH1 Sat., March 3, 8 p.m.
Due Date (2010) Robert Downey Jr., Zach Galifianakis. Desperate to reach his pregnant wife, a high-strung architect takes a road trip home with an annoying stranger. (R) 1 hr. 35 mins. IFC Tues., February 27, 9:30 a.m.
The Duel (2016) Woody Harrelson, Liam Hemsworth. A Texas Ranger investigates a series of murders in an Old West town that's run by a former Confederate officer. (R) 1 hr. 56 mins. EPIX Tues., February 27, 4:30 a.m.
Duplicity (2009) Julia Roberts, Clive Owen. Spies for rival corporations carry on a clandestine love affair while trying to find the formula for a product that will earn a fortune for the company that patents it first. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 5 mins. Cinemax Tues., February 27, 12 p.m. ------------ E Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
Eat, Play, Love (2017) Jen Lilley, Jason Cermak. Veterinarian Dr. Carly Monroe secretly loves Dan, the owner of a dog shelter. Unfortunately, Dan is about to marry his glamorous girlfriend and move to New York. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Hallmark Mon., February 26, 3:30 p.m.
Employee of the Month (2006) Dane Cook, Jessica Simpson. The chance of a date with a beautiful new cashier sends two store clerks into fierce competition for a coveted award. (PG-13) 1 hr. 43 mins. Showtime Thur., March 1, 3 a.m.
Enchanted (2007) Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey. Live action/animated. Banished by an evil queen, a princess from a fairy-tale world lands in modern Manhattan, where music, magic and ``happily ever after'' are sorely lacking. (PG) 1 hr. 48 mins. MTV Sat., March 3, 1 p.m.
Encino Man (1992) Sean Astin, Brendan Fraser. Teenage California buddies groom a thawed-out caveman and pass him off as a cool transfer student. (PG) 1 hr. 29 mins. Showtime Wed., February 28, 7:30 a.m.
Enemy of the State (1998) Will Smith, Gene Hackman. A former NSA operative aids the innocent victim of a politically motivated assassination cover-up. (R) 2 hrs. 7 mins. IFC Sun., February 25, 5 p.m. IFC Sun., February 25, 8 p.m.
The English Patient (1996) Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche. A Hungarian count's fling with a British newlywed leads to tragedy in World War II North Africa. (R) 2 hrs. 42 mins. Cinemax Fri., March 2, 6 a.m.
Enough (2002) Jennifer Lopez, Billy Campbell. After running away fails, a terrified woman empowers herself in order to battle her abusive husband. (PG-13) 1 hr. 54 mins. E! Thur., March 1, 11:30 p.m. E! Thur., March 1, 8 p.m.
Envy (2004) Ben Stiller, Jack Black. A man becomes jealous after his best friend's invention, a spray that dissolves animal feces, brings him wealth. (PG-13) 1 hr. 39 mins. Cinemax Mon., February 26, 6 p.m.
Epic (2013) Voices of Colin Farrell, Josh Hutcherson. Animated. Magically transported to a secret realm, a teenage girl joins an ongoing battle between the forces of good, which keep the natural world vital, and the forces of evil, which want to destroy it. (PG) 1 hr. 43 mins. FXX Thur., March 1, 1:30 p.m. FXX Fri., March 2, 11:30 a.m.
Equity (2016) Anna Gunn, Sarah Megan Thomas. An investment banker tries to work her way up the Wall Street ladder while a prosecutor keeps an eye out for corrupt practices. (R) 1 hr. 40 mins. Starz Thur., March 1, 2:30 a.m.
Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars (2017) Eric Clapton. Eric Clapton is widely renowned as one of the greatest performers of all time. His isolated pursuit of his craft, and fear of selling out, served as a catalyst for his evolution as an artist. (NR) 2 hrs. 15 mins. Showtime Tues., February 27, 5 a.m. Showtime Fri., March 2, 9:30 a.m.
Evan Almighty (2007) Steve Carell, Morgan Freeman. A newly elected congressman faces a crisis of biblical proportions when God commands him to build an ark. (PG) 1 hr. 36 mins. AMC Fri., March 2, 12:30 p.m. AMC Fri., March 2, 2:30 a.m. Sundance Tues., February 27, 11 p.m. Sundance Wed., February 28, 11 a.m.
Everything, Everything (2017) Amandla Stenberg, Nick Robinson. Confined to her house due to an illness, a smart and imaginative 18-year-old develops a budding romance with the teen who lives next door. (PG-13) 1 hr. 36 mins. HBO Wed., February 28, 7 a.m.
Evil Dead 2 (1987) Bruce Campbell, Sarah Berry. Cabin visitors fight protean spirits of the dead with a chainsaw, a shotgun and Egyptian incantations. (R) 1 hr. 25 mins. Starz Thur., March 1, 1 a.m.
Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014) Christian Bale, Joel Edgerton. Raised as an Egyptian prince | and the favorite of Pharaoh Seti | Moses learns of his actual Hebrew heritage and vows to free his people from bondage, even if it destroys his brotherly bond with Seti's son, Ramses. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 30 mins. TNT Sun., February 25, 11 p.m.
Extraction (2015) Kellan Lutz, Bruce Willis. A government analyst launches his own rescue mission when terrorists kidnap his father, a retired CIA operative. (R) 1 hr. 23 mins. Starz Sat., March 3, 11:30 p.m.
The Eyes (2017) Nicholas Turturro, Vincent Pastore. When six strangers who have unspeakable pasts wake up imprisoned in a warehouse, they discover they are being forced to participate in an evil experiment in which five must die, and only one can live. They have two hours to decide who survives. (NR) 1 hr. 35 mins. TMC Thur., March 1, 11:30 a.m. ------------ F Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
Fabric of Time (2007) Science and religion come together to uncover a mystery. (NR) 58 mins. KTBN Sun., March 4, 12:30 a.m.
Face/Off (1997) John Travolta, Nicolas Cage. An FBI agent and a violent terrorist switch identities. (R) 2 hrs. 18 mins. Encore Sun., March 4, 2 a.m. Starz Wed., February 28, 3 a.m.
The Faculty (1998) Jordana Brewster, Clea DuVall. High-school students gradually begin to suspect that their teachers are from another planet. (R) 1 hr. 42 mins. Encore Sat., March 3, 2 a.m.
The Family I Had (2017) A mother recounts how her seemingly ideal family was shattered after her brilliant son committed a violent act. (NR) 1 hr. 17 mins. ID Sun., February 25, 11 a.m.
Family Plot (1976) Bruce Dern, Karen Black. Two frauds seeking a woman's heir cross paths with another couple planning a kidnapping scheme for diamonds. (PG) 2 hrs. Encore Tues., February 27, 8 p.m.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016) Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston. Magizoologist Newt Scamander, two sisters and a No-Maj battle dark forces while tracking down magical creatures set free in the wizarding world of 1926 New York. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 13 mins. HBO Fri., March 2, 5 p.m.
Fantastic Four (2015) Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan. Mr. Fantastic, the Thing, the Human Torch and the Invisible Woman must harness their new superhuman abilities to prevent Doctor Doom from destroying the Earth. (PG-13) 1 hr. 40 mins. FXX Sat., March 3, 3:30 p.m.
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006) Lucas Black, Zachery Ty Bryan. An American street racer in Japan learns an exciting but dangerous new style and goes head-to-head with a local champion who has ties to the Yakuza. (PG-13) 1 hr. 44 mins. MTV Sun., February 25, 4 p.m. MTV Sun., February 25, 10 p.m. IFC Thur., March 1, 5:30 p.m. IFC Thur., March 1, 7:30 p.m.
Faster (2010) Dwayne Johnson, Billy Bob Thornton. A veteran cop and an assassin track an ex-convict who is on a mission to take revenge on his brother's killers. (R) 1 hr. 38 mins. Syfy Sat., March 3, 6 p.m.
Fast & Furious 6 (2013) Vin Diesel, Paul Walker. Agent Hobbs offers Dom Toretto and his crew a full pardon if they help him nab a gang of lethally skilled mercenary drivers whose second-in-command is someone they all know. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 10 mins. FX Sat., March 3, 8 p.m.
The Fate of the Furious (2017) Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson. Members of the globe-trotting crew face an unexpected challenge when a mysterious woman named Cipher forces Dom to betray them all. Now, they must unite to bring home the man who made them a family and stop her from unleashing chaos. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 16 mins. HBO Sun., February 25, 6 p.m. HBO Thur., March 1, 8 p.m.
Father of the Bride (1950) Spencer Tracy, Elizabeth Taylor. An overwhelmed patriarch sums up his daughter's wedding, from engagement to reception. (NR) 1 hr. 33 mins. TCM Wed., February 28, 3 p.m.
The Fault in Our Stars (2014) Shailene Woodley, Ansel Elgort. Two teenage cancer patients begin a life-affirming journey to visit a reclusive author in Amsterdam. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 6 mins. FXX Sat., March 3, 8:30 a.m. FXX Sat., March 3, 11:30 p.m.
A Few Good Men (1992) Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson. Navy lawyers defend two Marines accused of killing a private at the naval station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. (R) 2 hrs. 18 mins. AMC Thur., March 1, 10:30 a.m. AMC Wed., February 28, 11:30 p.m.
15 Minutes (2001) Robert De Niro, Edward Burns. A homicide detective and an arson investigator track two European killers who film their murders. (R) 2 hrs. Cinemax Sun., February 25, 11 a.m.
The Fifth Element (1997) Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman. A New York City cabdriver tries to save 2259 Earth from impact with an onrushing anti-life force. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 7 mins. Syfy Thur., March 1, 5:30 p.m.
50 First Dates (2004) Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore. A veterinarian tries to make a woman who has short-term memory loss fall in love with him. (PG-13) 1 hr. 36 mins. TBS Sat., March 3, 9 a.m.
54 (1998) Ryan Phillippe, Salma Hayek. A blue-collar New Jerseyite seeks fame with a surrogate family at Manhattan's Studio 54. (R) 1 hr. 32 mins. TMC Fri., March 2, 6 p.m.
Final Destination 2 (2003) Ali Larter, A. J. Cook. Death returns to claim the lives of those who did not die in a horrible highway calamity as they were meant to do. (R) 1 hr. 30 mins. Encore Fri., March 2, 1:30 p.m. Encore Sat., March 3, 12 a.m.
Finding Neverland (2004) Johnny Depp, Kate Winslet. Writer J.M. Barrie befriends a widow and her four sons who inspire him to create the character Peter Pan. (PG) 1 hr. 46 mins. HBO Tues., February 27, 10:30 a.m.
The Firm (1993) Tom Cruise, Jeanne Tripplehorn. A law-school grad uncovers a sinister secret about the Tennessee firm that made him an offer he couldn't refuse. (R) 2 hrs. 34 mins. Starz Tues., February 27, 10:30 a.m.
The First Wives Club (1996) Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler. Three 50-ish college friends plot revenge after their husbands dump them for younger women. (PG) 1 hr. 42 mins. Encore Wed., February 28, 12 p.m. Encore Wed., February 28, 12:30 a.m. Encore Wed., February 28, 7 p.m.
Fist Fight (2017) Charlie Day, Ice Cube. Fired from his teaching job for losing his cool, a disgruntled man challenges the colleague who snitched on him to a fight after school. (R) 1 hr. 31 mins. Cinemax Wed., February 28, 12:30 a.m.
Five Star Final (1931) Edward G. Robinson, H.B. Warner. A sensationalistic newspaper causes tragedy for several innocent people with ruthless reporting and distorted facts. (NR) 1 hr. 29 mins. TCM Fri., March 2, 3 a.m.
The 5th Wave (2016) Chlo Grace Moretz, Nick Robinson. With help from a mysterious young man, a desperate teenager tries to find her younger brother as a series of deadly alien attacks decimate the Earth. (PG-13) 1 hr. 52 mins. FXX Sun., February 25, 8 p.m. FXX Sun., February 25, 10:30 p.m. FXX Sat., March 3, 5:30 p.m.
The Five-Year Engagement (2012) Jason Segel, Emily Blunt. Career plans and other obstacles stand in the way of two lovers who run into trouble each time they try to set a wedding date. (R) 2 hrs. 4 mins. FX Fri., March 2, 6:30 a.m.
Flight 7500 (2013) Ryan Kwanten, Leslie Bibb. A supernatural force terrorizes airline passengers. (PG-13) 1 hr. 37 mins. Syfy Fri., March 2, 11:30 a.m. Syfy Thur., March 1, 2 p.m.
The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (2000) Mark Addy, Stephen Baldwin. Young Fred Flintstone courts heiress Wilma Slaghoople, while Barney Rubble romances Betty O'Shale during a weekend in Rock Vegas. (PG) 1 hr. 30 mins. Freeform Sun., February 25, 11:30 p.m.
The Flintstones (1994) John Goodman, Elizabeth Perkins. Betty's Barney helps Wilma's Fred move up the ladder at Slate & Co. in Stone Age Bedrock. (PG) 1 hr. 32 mins. Freeform Sun., February 25, 9:30 p.m.
Focus (2001) William H. Macy, Laura Dern. An immigrant befriends a Brooklyn couple mistaken for Jews by anti-Semites during World War II. (PG-13) 1 hr. 46 mins. TMC Sun., February 25, 7 a.m.
Focus (2015) Will Smith, Margot Robbie. A veteran con man is thrown off his game when his former lover and protege unexpectedly appears and interferes with his latest | and very dangerous | scheme. (R) 1 hr. 45 mins. IFC Sun., February 25, 2:30 p.m. IFC Sun., February 25, 11 p.m. IFC Thur., March 1, 8 a.m. IFC Thur., March 1, 2:30 p.m.
For Better or for Worse (2014) Lisa Whelchel, Kim Fields. A widow who coordinates weddings meets a lawyer who specializes in divorces. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Hallmark Tues., February 27, 3:30 p.m.
Foreign Correspondent (1940) Joel McCrea, Laraine Day. A political assassination plunges an American reporter into international intrigue in pre-World War II Europe. (NR) 1 hr. 59 mins. TCM Fri., March 2, 12 p.m.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) Jason Segel, Kristen Bell. In Hawaii struggling to get over a bad breakup, a musician encounters his former lover and her new boyfriend. (R) 1 hr. 52 mins. WGN A Wed., February 28, 4 p.m.
The Forgotten (2004) Julianne Moore, Dominic West. Grieving over the death of her son, a woman sets out to disprove her psychiatrist's shocking revelation that he never existed. (PG-13) 1 hr. 31 mins. Syfy Sun., March 4, 4 a.m.
Formosa Betrayed (2009) James Van Der Beek, Tzi Ma. A murder investigation takes a federal agent to the victim's native Taiwan. (R) 1 hr. 48 mins. KCOP Sun., February 25, 11:30 a.m.
Forrest Gump (1994) Tom Hanks, Robin Wright. JFK, LBJ, Vietnam, Watergate and other history unfold through the perspective of an Alabama man with an IQ of 75. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 22 mins. PARMOUNT Tues., February 27, 11:30 a.m. PARMOUNT Tues., February 27, 11 p.m.
48 HRS. (1982) Nick Nolte, Eddie Murphy. A rumpled detective gets a slick convict released into his custody for two days to help him find a murderer in San Francisco. (R) 1 hr. 37 mins. Sundance Tues., February 27, 10 a.m. Sundance Tues., February 27, 2:30 p.m.
47 Ronin (2013) Keanu Reeves, Hiroyuki Sanada. Forty-seven leaderless samurai must turn to a mixed-blood outcast for help in defeating the treacherous overlord who killed their master and banished them. (PG-13) 1 hr. 59 mins. FXX Mon., February 26, 3:30 p.m. FXX Tues., February 27, 12 a.m.
42nd Street (1933) Ruby Keeler, Warner Baxter. An understudy gets a shot at stardom when a Broadway performer is sidelined with a twisted ankle. (NR) 1 hr. 29 mins. TCM Tues., February 27, 2 a.m.
1408 (2007) John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson. A writer who specializes in debunking supernatural phenomena experiences true terror when he spends a night in a reputedly haunted room of a hotel. (NR) 1 hr. 52 mins. IFC Mon., February 26, 5:30 a.m.
Framed by My Fianc (2017) Katrina Bowden, Jason-Shane Scott. Following a deadly car crash in which her fianc was driving, a woman wakes up to learn that she is being charged with manslaughter as the driver of the vehicle. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Lifetime Sun., February 25, 6 p.m.
Free State of Jones (2016) Matthew McConaughey, Gugu Mbatha-Raw. In Jones County, Miss., Newt Knight joins forces with other farmers and a group of runaway slaves to lead a violent rebellion against the Confederacy. (R) 2 hrs. 19 mins. TMC Tues., February 27, 7:30 p.m.
The Free World (2016) Boyd Holbrook, Elisabeth Moss. Released from prison for a crime he didn't commit, a man goes on the run with a woman who's suspected of killing her abusive husband. (R) 1 hr. 40 mins. Showtime Thur., March 1, 9 a.m.
The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981) Meryl Streep, Jeremy Irons. The relationship of actors in a movie production parallels that of their Victorian roles. (R) 2 hrs. 3 mins. EPIX Wed., February 28, 7:30 a.m.
Friday Night Lights (2004) Billy Bob Thornton, Derek Luke. A high-school football coach in Odessa, Texas, tries to lead his players to the state championship. (PG-13) 1 hr. 57 mins. CMT Sat., March 3, 3 p.m. CMT Sat., March 3, 8 p.m.
Friends With Benefits (2011) Justin Timberlake, Mila Kunis. Friends naively believe that adding sex to their relationship will not lead to complications. (R) 1 hr. 49 mins. MTV Sat., March 3, 11 p.m. MTV Sat., March 3, 3:30 p.m.
Friends With Kids (2011) Jennifer Westfeldt, Adam Scott. Complications arise after buddies agree to a have baby but remain just pals. (R) 1 hr. 40 mins. POP Mon., February 26, 9:30 a.m.
Fright Night (2011) Anton Yelchin, Colin Farrell. A high-school student suspects that his charismatic new neighbor is a vampire and, when no one believes him, must try to destroy the bloodsucker himself. (R) 1 hr. 46 mins. TBS Mon., February 26, 3 a.m.
From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) Harvey Keitel, George Clooney. Desperado brothers kidnap a preacher and his kids, commandeer their RV and wind up in a Mexican strip joint where vampires lurk. (R) 1 hr. 47 mins. Encore Sun., February 25, 1:30 p.m.
From Here to Eternity (1953) Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift. While a Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor looms, an Army sergeant, a former boxer and an officer's wife become entangled with others at an Army base on Oahu. (NR) 1 hr. 58 mins. TCM Wed., February 28, 11 p.m. TCM Thur., March 1, 11 p.m.
From Straight A's to XXX (2017) Haley Pullos, Judd Nelson. A college student endures cyberbullying and even death threats when it is revealed that she has chosen to become a porn star under a pseudonym to pay off her sizable tuition expenses. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Lifetime Sat., March 3, 6 p.m.
Frozen in Love (2018) Rachael Leigh Cook, Niall Matter. When struggling bookstore owner Mary and Adam, a bad boy of professional hockey, are teamed together to help facilitate an image makeover for the other, they soon realize that opposites attract, and they find themselves unexpectedly frozen in love. (NR) 2 hrs. Hallmark Sat., March 3, 9 p.m.
Funny People (2009) Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen. A gravely ill comic takes a struggling performer under his wing, then gets a chance to re-evaluate his life when his disease goes into remission. (R) 2 hrs. 26 mins. Cinemax Fri., March 2, 12 p.m.
Fury (2014) Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf. During World War II, a battle-hardened Army sergeant leads the crew of a Sherman tank on a deadly mission behind enemy lines to strike at the heart of Nazi Germany. (R) 2 hrs. 14 mins. IFC Wed., February 28, 8 p.m. OVA Sat., March 3, 8 p.m. ------------ G Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
Gamer (2009) Gerard Butler, Michael C. Hall. A death-row inmate is caught between the inventor of a deadly online game and a group that opposes the inventor's high-tech slavery. (R) 1 hr. 35 mins. Syfy Fri., March 2, 1:30 p.m. Syfy Thur., March 1, 3:30 p.m.
Gandhi (1982) Ben Kingsley, Candice Bergen. Richard Attenborough's Oscar-winning portrait of the man whose policy of nonviolence won India's independence. (PG) 3 hrs. 8 mins. TCM Sat., March 3, 5 p.m.
Gangs of New York (2002) Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis. During the era of Tammany Hall's sway, a young man vows vengeance on the vicious gangster who killed his father. (R) 2 hrs. 48 mins. Encore Sun., February 25, 3 p.m. IFC Wed., February 28, 9 a.m. IFC Wed., February 28, 4 p.m. IFC Wed., February 28, 10:30 p.m.
Gaslight (1944) Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman. A Scotland Yard detective figures out why a schizoid Victorian is trying to drive his wife mad. (NR) 1 hr. 54 mins. TCM Sun., February 25, 10:30 a.m.
Get Hard (2015) Will Ferrell, Kevin Hart. The prison-bound manager of a hedge fund asks a black businessman | who has never been to jail | to prepare him for life behind bars. (R) 1 hr. 39 mins. TNT Tues., February 27, 3 p.m.
Get Out (2017) Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams. A young photographer uncovers a dark secret when he meets his girlfriend's seemingly friendly parents for the first time at their posh estate. (R) 1 hr. 44 mins. HBO Mon., February 26, 8 p.m.
Get Smart (2008) Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway. A newly promoted field agent, partnered with veteran Agent 99, blends inexperience, enthusiasm and ineptitude as he battles against KAOS. (PG-13) 1 hr. 51 mins. Cinemax Tues., February 27, 6 p.m.
Ghostbusters II (1989) Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd. Now the parapsychologists are trying to rid New York of stress-related pink slime. (PG) 1 hr. 48 mins. LOGO Thur., March 1, 3 a.m. LOGO Wed., February 28, 9:30 p.m.
Ghostbusters (1984) Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd. Armed with proton packs, four paranormal investigators battle mischievous ghouls in New York. (PG) 1 hr. 47 mins. LOGO Thur., March 1, 12 a.m. LOGO Wed., February 28, 7 p.m.
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009) Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner. Spirits of jilted lovers take a photographer on an odyssey through his many failed relationships to find out what made him such a cad, and if there is any hope for true love. (PG-13) 1 hr. 40 mins. Freeform Tues., February 27, 12 a.m.
Ghosts of Mississippi (1996) Alec Baldwin, Whoopi Goldberg. A Mississippi prosecutor and the widow of Medgar Evers crusade to retry a white racist for the 1963 murder of the NAACP leader. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 10 mins. Sundance Mon., February 26, 12:30 p.m.
Ghost (1990) Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore. A slain Manhattan yuppie reaches out to his lover, with a medium as his middlewoman. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 7 mins. Encore Mon., February 26, 11 p.m. Encore Mon., February 26, 2 a.m. Encore Mon., February 26, 9:30 a.m.
Gifted (2017) Chris Evans, Mckenna Grace. A man wages a legal battle against his mother for custody of his orphaned niece, a young mathematics prodigy who wants to live with him. (PG-13) 1 hr. 41 mins. HBO Sun., February 25, 12:30 p.m. HBO Thur., March 1, 5:30 p.m.
G.I. Jane (1997) Demi Moore, Viggo Mortensen. A female Navy SEALs recruit completes rigorous training under a tough officer's command. (R) 2 hrs. 4 mins. Showtime Wed., February 28, 3 p.m.
G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013) Dwayne Johnson, Bruce Willis. The G.I. Joe team faces threats both from COBRA and from within the U.S. government. (PG-13) 1 hr. 50 mins. Syfy Wed., February 28, 11 p.m. Syfy Wed., February 28, 6:30 p.m.
Girl, Interrupted (1999) Winona Ryder, Angelina Jolie. A young woman with a borderline personality disorder stays in a 1960s mental institution for 18 months. (R) 2 hrs. 7 mins. Encore Fri., March 2, 2 a.m.
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011) Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara. A disgraced journalist and an investigator for a security firm probe a 40-year-old murder. (R) 2 hrs. 38 mins. TNT Fri., March 2, 8 p.m. TNT Fri., March 2, 11:30 p.m.
Gloria (2013) Paulina Garca, Sergio Hernndez. An aging divorcee embarks on an intense affair with a man she picked up at a disco. (R) 1 hr. 49 mins. EPIX Fri., March 2, 3 a.m.
The Godfather (1972) Marlon Brando, Al Pacino. Crime boss Vito Corleone and his sons rule their New York empire with Mafia justice. (R) 2 hrs. 57 mins. AMC Mon., February 26, 5:30 p.m. AMC Tues., February 27, 11 a.m.
Going in Style (2017) Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine. Desperate for money, three lifelong buddies hatch a scheme to rob the bank that took away their pension funds. (PG-13) 1 hr. 36 mins. HBO Mon., February 26, 10:30 p.m.
The Golden Compass (2007) Nicole Kidman, Dakota Blue Richards. In a parallel world, a girl sets out on an epic quest to save her best friend and other kidnapped children from the magisterium's evil experiments. (PG-13) 1 hr. 58 mins. HBO Mon., February 26, 7 a.m.
Gone in 60 Seconds (2000) Nicolas Cage, Angelina Jolie. A former thief must agree to steal 50 cars in one night to save his brother from being killed by a vehicle smuggler. (PG-13) 1 hr. 57 mins. HBO Wed., February 28, 11:30 a.m.
Good Advice (2001) Charlie Sheen, Denise Richards. An out-of-work stockbroker causes problems when he takes over his girlfriend's relationship-advice column. (R) 1 hr. 33 mins. TMC Fri., March 2, 4:30 a.m. TMC Thur., March 1, 10 a.m.
The Good Mistress (2014) Annie Heise, Kendra Anderson. A woman's one-night stand turns out to be her friend's husband, and a local political candidate. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Lifetime Sat., March 3, 10 p.m. Lifetime Sun., March 4, 2 a.m.
The Goonies (1985) Sean Astin, Josh Brolin. Coastal Oregon kids follow the treasure map of pirate One-Eyed Willie past his deadly traps to gold. (PG) 1 hr. 51 mins. Freeform Mon., February 26, 8 p.m. Freeform Tues., February 27, 5:30 p.m. VH1 Fri., March 2, 9 p.m. VH1 Sat., March 3, 2:30 p.m.
Grand Hotel (1932) Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford. A ballerina, baron, stenographer, bookkeeper and tycoon check into Berlin's Grand Hotel. (NR) 1 hr. 55 mins. TCM Mon., February 26, 10:30 p.m.
Grand Illusion (1937) Pierre Fresnay, Erich von Stroheim. World War I French fliers become captives of a German aristocrat who considers one of them his equal. (NR) 1 hr. 57 mins. TCM Wed., February 28, 4:30 a.m.
Gran Torino (2008) Clint Eastwood, Christopher Carley. An unlikely friendship forms between a bigoted war veteran and an Asian boy who tried to steal the man's treasured automobile. (R) 1 hr. 57 mins. HBO Tues., February 27, 8 p.m.
Gravy (2015) Michael Weston, Jimmi Simpson. On Halloween night, three misfits dress up in costumes and force the employees of a Mexican cantina to engage in depraved gluttony. (NR) 1 hr. 35 mins. TMC Thur., March 1, 1:30 a.m.
The Great Dictator (1940) Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard. A Jewish barber looks like Adenoid Hynkel, dictator of Tomania, who meets Benzino Napaloni, dictator of Bacteria. (G) 2 hrs. 8 mins. TCM Fri., March 2, 9:30 a.m.
The Great Wall (2016) Matt Damon, Jing Tian. Imprisoned within the Great Wall of China, a mercenary warrior joins forces with an elite army to battle an onslaught of marauding monsters. (PG-13) 1 hr. 44 mins. HBO Thur., March 1, 11 a.m. HBO Fri., March 2, 12:30 a.m.
The Great Ziegfeld (1936) William Powell, Luise Rainer. The life and times of Broadway showman Florenz Ziegfeld and his two wives. (NR) 2 hrs. 54 mins. TCM Fri., March 2, 11 p.m.
The Green Mile (1999) Tom Hanks, David Morse. In 1935 a head prison guard realizes a man on death row may be innocent and have a supernatural ability to heal others. (R) 3 hrs. 9 mins. AMC Thur., March 1, 1 p.m. AMC Wed., February 28, 7:30 p.m.
The Grey (2012) Liam Neeson, Frank Grillo. A pack of hungry wolves pursues survivors of a plane crash, who are trekking through the Alaskan wilderness to find civilization. (R) 1 hr. 57 mins. IFC Sat., March 3, 5 p.m. IFC Wed., February 28, 7 a.m. IFC Wed., February 28, 1:30 p.m.
Groundhog Day (1993) Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell. February 2nd keeps repeating for a cynical TV weatherman sent to watch the groundhog in Punxsutawney, Pa. (PG) 1 hr. 43 mins. Encore Fri., March 2, 4:30 p.m. Encore Thur., March 1, 8:30 p.m.
Grown Ups 2 (2013) Adam Sandler, Kevin James. Lenny Feder moves his family back to his hometown to be with his old friends and finds out that he didn't leave the crazy life behind in Los Angeles. (PG-13) 1 hr. 40 mins. FX Sat., March 3, 3 p.m.
Grown Ups (2010) Adam Sandler, Kevin James. Friends and former teammates learn that age does not, necessarily, equal maturity when they reunite to honor the memory of their basketball coach. (PG-13) 1 hr. 42 mins. FXX Sat., March 3, 8 p.m. FXX Sat., March 3, 10 p.m.
The Guilt Trip (2012) Barbra Streisand, Seth Rogen. Pressured into taking his overbearing mother along for the ride, a man embarks on the road trip of a lifetime. (PG-13) 1 hr. 35 mins. FXX Sun., February 25, 7 a.m.
Gulliver's Travels (2010) Jack Black, Jason Segel. While a man is on assignment in the Bermuda Triangle, a vortex transports him to Lilliput, a magic land of little people. (PG) 1 hr. 25 mins. Syfy Wed., February 28, 4 a.m.
The Guns of Navarone (1961) Gregory Peck, David Niven. Allied commandos try to knock out a Nazi fortress over the Aegean. (NR) 2 hrs. 37 mins. TCM Fri., March 2, 2 p.m. ------------ H Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
Hamlet (1948) Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons. A young Danish prince wrestles with his conscience when he is confronted with questions of treachery and madness. (NR) 2 hrs. 33 mins. TCM Tues., February 27, 9 p.m.
Hancock (2008) Will Smith, Charlize Theron. A scruffy superhero protects the citizens of Los Angeles but leaves horrendous collateral damage in the wake of every well-intentioned feat. (PG-13) 1 hr. 32 mins. FX Tues., February 27, 2 p.m. FX Tues., February 27, 11:30 p.m.
Hannibal Rising (2007) Gaspard Ulliel, Gong Li. The trauma of World War II and events that followed transform the young Hannibal Lecter into a dangerous, but brilliant, psychopath. (R) 2 hrs. 1 mins. IFC Tues., February 27, 2 a.m.
Happy Gilmore (1996) Adam Sandler, Christopher McDonald. A powerful swing convinces a hockey player he can join the PGA tour and win back his grandmother's repossessed house. (PG-13) 1 hr. 32 mins. Golf Tues., February 27, 5 p.m. Golf Tues., February 27, 6:30 p.m.
Hardball (2001) Keanu Reeves, Diane Lane. A sports junkie agrees to coach Little League Baseball in Chicago in order to pay his gambling debts. (PG-13) 1 hr. 46 mins. TMC Sat., March 3, 5 p.m. TMC Sun., March 4, 5 a.m.
Hard to Kill (1990) Steven Seagal, Kelly LeBrock. A policeman, who was pronounced dead but lived, eventually recovers with the help of a gorgeous nurse, and years later he seeks revenge. (R) 1 hr. 35 mins. AMC Tues., February 27, 3 p.m. AMC Wed., February 28, 11 a.m.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint. Signs of Voldemort's return emerge as Harry's friends help him prepare for a tournament with Europe's best student wizards. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 37 mins. HBO Sat., March 3, 1 p.m.
Harvest Moon (2015) Jessy Schram, Jesse Hutch. After her family goes bankrupt, a city woman travels to the country to fix up a struggling pumpkin farm that her father bought as an investment. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Hallmark Wed., February 28, 2 p.m.
Head Over Heels (2001) Monica Potter, Freddie Prinze Jr. A New Yorker living with four models falls for a neighbor who may be a murderer. (PG-13) 1 hr. 26 mins. Cinemax Tues., February 27, 7:30 a.m.
Heartbreakers (2001) Sigourney Weaver, Jennifer Love Hewitt. Mother and daughter con-artists try to swindle a cigarette tycoon, but things go wrong when one falls in love. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 3 mins. POP Mon., February 26, 8 p.m. POP Sun., February 25, 9 p.m.
The Heat (2013) Sandra Bullock, Melissa McCarthy. An arrogant, methodical FBI agent must join forces with a foul-mouthed, erratic Boston detective to bring down a ruthless drug lord. (R) 1 hr. 57 mins. FXX Thur., March 1, 12 a.m. FXX Wed., February 28, 4:30 p.m.
Heaven Can Wait (1978) Warren Beatty, Julie Christie. Heavenly executive Mr. Jordan allows an angry quarterback, taken before his time, to return to Earth as a millionaire. (PG) 1 hr. 41 mins. Cinemax Tues., February 27, 9 p.m.
Heist (2015) Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Robert De Niro. When their attempt to rob a gangster's casino goes awry, a desperate man and his partner hijack a city bus to escape from the police and a maniacal thug. (R) 1 hr. 30 mins. EPIX Tues., February 27, 11 p.m.
Hell or High Water (2016) Jeff Bridges, Chris Pine. With a Texas Ranger hot on their tail, an ex-convict and his brother plan a series of heists against the bank that's about to foreclose on their family ranch. (R) 1 hr. 42 mins. Showtime Wed., February 28, 11:30 p.m.
The Help (2011) Viola Davis, Emma Stone. Determined to become a writer, a 1960s Mississippi society girl turns her small town on its ear by interviewing black women who work for prominent white families. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 26 mins. BET Sun., February 25, 4 p.m. E! Fri., March 2, 8 p.m. E! Sat., March 3, 4 p.m.
Hercules (2014) Dwayne Johnson, Ian McShane. Now a traveling mercenary, Hercules must once again become a hero to help the benevolent king of Thrace protect his people from a powerful warlord. (PG-13) 1 hr. 37 mins. TNT Sun., February 25, 3 p.m.
Hereafter (2010) Matt Damon, Ccile de France. An American construction worker, a French journalist and a London schoolboy set out on a spiritual journey after death touches their lives in different ways. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 9 mins. HBO Fri., March 2, 2:30 p.m.
High Plains Drifter (1973) Clint Eastwood, Verna Bloom. A mysterious stranger forces cowardly citizens of Lago to prepare a garish welcome for three escaped convicts. (R) 1 hr. 45 mins. Cinemax Wed., February 28, 7 a.m.
High School Musical 2 (2007) Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens. During summer vacation, Troy gets a job at Sharpay's resort but doesn't realize she has an ulterior motive for hiring him. (NR) 1 hr. 51 mins. Disney Sun., February 25, 7:30 p.m.
High School Musical (2006) Zac Efron, Vanessa Anne Hudgens. Students conspire to prevent a basketball star and a shy newcomer from singing in a stage production. (NR) 1 hr. 36 mins. Disney Sun., February 25, 6 p.m.
The Holiday (2006) Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet. Two women, one from America and one from England, swap homes at Christmastime after bad breakups with their boyfriends. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 12 mins. Lifetime Mon., February 26, 6:30 p.m. Lifetime Tues., February 27, 1:30 a.m.
Holy Man (1998) Eddie Murphy, Jeff Goldblum. Sales skyrocket when a burnt-out TV programmer puts a guru on his home shopping network. (PG) 1 hr. 54 mins. HBO Sat., March 3, 4 a.m.
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci. Once again left behind by his family, the boy hero lands in Manhattan and battles two burglars he faced before. (PG) 2 hrs. Encore Wed., February 28, 4:30 a.m.
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989) Rick Moranis, Matt Frewer. An inventor's ray gun zaps his son, his daughter and a neighbor's boys down to pea-size in his jungle of a lawn. (PG) 1 hr. 30 mins. HBO Sat., March 3, 9:30 a.m.
Hoosiers (1986) Gene Hackman, Barbara Hershey. A college basketball coach leaves the Navy in 1951 and becomes coach of an underdog Indiana high-school team. (PG) 1 hr. 54 mins. HBO Tues., February 27, 2:30 p.m.
Hope Floats (1998) Sandra Bullock, Harry Connick Jr. After learning about her husband's infidelity, a woman returns to her hometown and finds romance with a handyman. (PG-13) 1 hr. 54 mins. CMT Mon., February 26, 8 p.m. CMT Mon., February 26, 11 p.m. CMT Sun., February 25, 2:30 p.m. CMT Sun., February 25, 8 p.m.
Hop (2011) James Marsden, Voice of Russell Brand. Live action/animated. Reluctant to take over his father's job, the son of the Easter Bunny runs away to Los Angeles, where he tricks an unemployed slacker into taking care of him. (PG) 1 hr. 35 mins. Freeform Sun., February 25, 6:30 a.m.
Hostel Part II (2007) Lauren German, Roger Bart. Three American women traveling abroad take a weekend excursion and become pawns in a grisly game designed to entertain privileged deviants. (R) 1 hr. 34 mins. TMC Sat., March 3, 10:30 p.m. TMC Sun., March 4, 1:30 a.m.
Hostel (2006) Jay Hernandez, Derek Richardson. Backpackers find that their decision to stay at a Slovakian hostel is a gruesome mistake. (R) 1 hr. 35 mins. TMC Sat., March 3, 9 p.m. TMC Sun., March 4, 12 a.m.
Hot Shots! (1991) Charlie Sheen, Cary Elwes. A top-gun pilot keeps up with his rival and re-creates Hollywood love scenes with his girlfriend. (PG-13) 1 hr. 25 mins. Starz Fri., March 2, 3:30 a.m.
House of Sand and Fog (2003) Jennifer Connelly, Ben Kingsley. Mistakenly evicted from her house, a woman tries to reobtain it from the new owner. (R) 2 hrs. 6 mins. Cinemax Mon., February 26, 12:30 a.m.
House of the Dead 2 (2005) Emmanuelle Vaugier, Ed Quinn. Special forces battle a ravenous zombie horde on a college campus while searching for a special blood sample from which a cure can be created. (R) 1 hr. 35 mins. Cinemax Sun., March 4, 2 a.m.
House of the Dead (2003) Jonathan Cherry, Tyron Leitso. Party-bound young people encounter bloodthirsty zombies on an island. (R) 1 hr. 30 mins. Cinemax Sat., March 3, 2:30 a.m.
The House (2017) Will Ferrell, Amy Poehler. Desperate for money, a couple and their neighbor start an underground casino in their quiet suburban neighborhood. As the money rolls in and the good times fly, they soon learn that they may have bitten off more than they can chew. (R) 1 hr. 28 mins. HBO Mon., February 26, 4 a.m. HBO Thur., March 1, 12:30 a.m. HBO Sat., March 3, 12:30 a.m.
How High (2001) Method Man, Redman. Two stoners get into Harvard University after magic marijuana enables them to ace their tests. (R) 1 hr. 33 mins. HBO Fri., March 2, 2 a.m.
How to Be a Latin Lover (2017) Eugenio Derbez, Salma Hayek. Forced to live with his sister after his wife dumps him, a desperate man hatches a scheme to seduce a widowed billionaire and live the high life once again. (PG-13) 1 hr. 55 mins. EPIX Sun., February 25, 9 a.m. EPIX Sun., February 25, 3 p.m.
How to Train Your Dragon (2010) Voices of Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler. Animated. A misfit Viking teenager sees a chance to change the course of his clan's future when he befriends an injured dragon. (PG) 1 hr. 38 mins. HBO Sat., March 3, 7 a.m.
Hulk (2003) Eric Bana, Jennifer Connelly. Scientist Bruce Banner transforms into a powerful brute after his experiment goes awry. Directed by Ang Lee. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 18 mins. Showtime Sun., February 25, 10 a.m.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013) Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson. After their unprecedented victory in the 74th Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark embark on a Victors Tour. Katniss senses rebellion is stirring, but a cruel change in the upcoming 75th Hunger Games may change Panem forever. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 26 mins. TBS Sun., February 25, 11 a.m.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 (2014) Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson. After shattering the games forever, Katniss finds herself in District 13, fighting to save Peeta and a nation moved by her courage. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 3 mins. TBS Sun., February 25, 2 p.m.
The Hunted (2003) Tommy Lee Jones, Benicio Del Toro. Aided by the FBI, a retired combat-trainer searches for a former student who is killing civilians in Oregon. (R) 1 hr. 34 mins. Cinemax Mon., February 26, 3 p.m.
The Hunting Party (2007) Richard Gere, Terrence Howard. A reporter, his former colleague and a rookie search for Bosnia's most-wanted war criminal. (R) 1 hr. 43 mins. TMC Mon., February 26, 1:30 a.m. TMC Thur., March 1, 3 a.m.
The Hurt Locker (2008) Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie. Members of a bomb-disposal unit in Baghdad face increasingly perilous situations as their tour-of-duty winds down. (R) 2 hrs. 7 mins. OVA Sun., February 25, 4 p.m.
Hustle & Flow (2005) Terrence Howard, Anthony Anderson. A pimp in Memphis, Tenn., sees rap music as the way to escape his dead-end existence and achieve something meaningful. (R) 1 hr. 55 mins. EPIX Sun., February 25, 11 a.m. ------------ I Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (1932) Paul Muni, Glenda Farrell. An innocent man is sent to a prison farm, where he endures the dehumanizing effects of a cruel criminal justice system. (NR) 1 hr. 33 mins. TCM Wed., February 28, 3 a.m.
I Am David (2004) Ben Tibber, Joan Plowright. In 1952 a Bulgarian boy escapes from a Stalinist labor camp and begins a dangerous trek to Denmark. (PG) 1 hr. 32 mins. TMC Mon., February 26, 1 p.m.
I Am Number Four (2011) Alex Pettyfer, Timothy Olyphant. One of nine living on Earth, an alien with extraordinary abilities poses as an ordinary teenager in the hope of evading those sent to kill him. (PG-13) 1 hr. 50 mins. Showtime Wed., February 28, 7 p.m.
Identity (2003) John Cusack, Ray Liotta. A killer terrorizes people stranded at a remote Nevada hotel during a torrential rainstorm. (R) 1 hr. 30 mins. Cinemax Mon., February 26, 11:30 a.m.
I, Frankenstein (2014) Aaron Eckhart, Bill Nighy. Still alive in modern times, Frankenstein's creature becomes caught in the middle, as gargoyles and demons wage war for the souls of mankind. (PG-13) 1 hr. 33 mins. Syfy Sat., March 3, 12:30 p.m. Syfy Sun., March 4, 1:30 a.m.
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell (2009) Matt Czuchry, Jesse Bradford. A selfish cad jeopardizes his relationship with two close friends after throwing one of them a particularly decadent bachelor party. (R) 1 hr. 46 mins. Showtime Thur., March 1, 1 a.m. Showtime Sun., March 4, 3 a.m.
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009) Heath Ledger, Christopher Plummer. After a carnival troupe saves his life, a man agrees to help its immortal leader collect five souls and win a bet with the devil. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 2 mins. TMC Sat., March 3, 3 p.m.
Independence Day: Resurgence (2016) Liam Hemsworth, Jeff Goldblum. Using recovered extraterrestrial technology, the nations of Earth collaborate on an immense defense program to protect the planet. When the aliens attack with unprecedented force, only the ingenuity of a few brave men and women can save the world. (PG-13) 2 hrs. Cinemax Mon., February 26, 7:30 p.m.
Insurgent (2015) Shailene Woodley, Theo James. Fugitives Tris and Four search for allies and answers among the ruins of Chicago while arduously trying to evade Jeanine, leader of the Erudites. (PG-13) 1 hr. 58 mins. TNT Sat., March 3, 3:30 p.m.
The Internship (2013) Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson. Two old-school, unemployed salesmen finagle internships at Google, then must compete with younger, smarter candidates for prime positions. (PG-13) 1 hr. 59 mins. FX Sat., March 3, 12 p.m.
The Intern (2015) Robert De Niro, Anne Hathaway. Dissatisfied with retirement, a 70-year-old widower becomes an intern at an online fashion site and develops a special bond with his young boss. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 1 mins. TBS Sat., March 3, 11:30 a.m.
Interstellar (2014) Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway. As mankind's time on Earth comes to an end, a group of explorers begins the most important mission in human history: traveling beyond the galaxy to discover if there is a future for man among the stars. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 45 mins. FXX Sat., March 3, 11 a.m.
Intruders (2015) Beth Riesgraf, Martin Starr. Anna suffers from a severe case of agoraphobia and cannot escape from her house when three people break in. The intruders think they will get away easily, until Anna's other psychosis' break free. (R) 1 hr. 30 mins. TMC Mon., February 26, 7:30 a.m.
Iron Man 2 (2010) Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow. With the world now aware that he is Iron Man, billionaire inventor Tony Stark must forge new alliances and confront a powerful new enemy. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 4 mins. FX Wed., February 28, 7:30 p.m. FX Thur., March 1, 4 p.m.
Iron Man (2008) Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard. A wealthy industrialist builds an armored suit and uses it to defeat criminals and terrorists. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 6 mins. EPIX Sun., March 4, 12 a.m.
I Saw the Light (2015) Tom Hiddleston, Elizabeth Olsen. Singer and songwriter Hank Williams rises to fame in the 1940s, but alcohol abuse and infidelity take a toll on his career and marriage to fellow musician Audrey Mae Williams. (R) 2 hrs. 3 mins. Encore Mon., February 26, 7:30 a.m.
I Survived a Zombie Holocaust (2014) Harley Neville, Jocelyn Christian. Wesley's first day as a low-budget film's runner gets really bad when something in the local water supply turns the extras into zombies. (NR) 1 hr. 32 mins. TMC Wed., February 28, 2 a.m.
The Italian Job (2003) Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron. A master thief and his crew plan to steal back a fortune in gold bullion after they lose it to a double-crossing gang member. (PG-13) 1 hr. 51 mins. Freeform Sat., March 3, 5 p.m.
It Happened One Night (1934) Claudette Colbert, Clark Gable. A newsman rides a bus and shares a cabin with a tycoon's runaway daughter. (NR) 1 hr. 45 mins. TCM Tues., February 27, 12:30 a.m.
Ivanhoe (1952) Robert Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor. Back from a Crusade, the knight hero of Sir Walter Scott's novel fights for courtly love and Saxon honor. (NR) 1 hr. 46 mins. TCM Sat., March 3, 6:30 a.m. ------------ J Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
Jack and Jill (2011) Adam Sandler, Katie Holmes. The life of a successful, happy ad executive descends into chaos when his needy, passive-aggressive twin sister (also Sandler) makes her annual Thanksgiving visit. (PG) 1 hr. 30 mins. Comedy Central Sun., March 4, 12 a.m.
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016) Tom Cruise, Cobie Smulders. Investigator Jack Reacher goes on the lam to uncover the truth behind a major government conspiracy that involves the death of U.S. soldiers. (PG-13) 1 hr. 58 mins. EPIX Sat., March 3, 10 p.m.
Jason Bourne (2016) Matt Damon, Tommy Lee Jones. Living off the grid for 10 years, former CIA operative Jason Bourne finds himself back in action battling a sinister network that utilizes terror and technology to maintain unchecked power. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 3 mins. Cinemax Sun., February 25, 9 a.m. Cinemax Sun., February 25, 8 p.m. Cinemax Thur., March 1, 12:30 a.m.
Jaws the Revenge (1987) Lorraine Gary, Lance Guest. A huge white shark harasses a New England widow and her marine-biologist son in the Bahamas. (PG-13) 1 hr. 29 mins. AMC Sat., March 3, 11:30 p.m.
Jaws 3 (1983) Dennis Quaid, Bess Armstrong. An engineer and a marine biologist face a mother white shark at a Florida sea park. (PG) 1 hr. 37 mins. AMC Sat., March 3, 9 p.m.
Jaws 2 (1978) Roy Scheider, Lorraine Gary. Amity's citizens and police chief dread another tourist season with a huge white shark near the beach. (PG) 1 hr. 57 mins. AMC Fri., March 2, 9:30 p.m. AMC Sat., March 3, 7 p.m.
Jaws (1975) Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw. A New England police chief, a shark hunter and a scientist have a showdown with a huge white shark. (PG) 2 hrs. 4 mins. AMC Fri., March 2, 6:30 p.m. AMC Sat., March 3, 3:30 p.m.
Jeepers Creepers 2 (2003) Ray Wise, Jonathan Breck. A winged creature terrorizes basketball players, coaches and cheerleaders who have become stranded on a highway. (R) 1 hr. 44 mins. Syfy Mon., February 26, 10:30 p.m. Syfy Tues., February 27, 9 a.m.
Jenny's Wedding (2015) Katherine Heigl, Tom Wilkinson. When Jenny decides to marry a woman, her conventional family must accept who she is or risk losing her forever. (PG-13) 1 hr. 34 mins. TMC Fri., March 2, 9 p.m.
Joe Kidd (1972) Clint Eastwood, Robert Duvall. A land baron's gunman joins a rebel fighting for Spanish land grants in 1900 New Mexico. (PG) 1 hr. 28 mins. Cinemax Wed., February 28, 4:30 a.m.
John Carpenter's Escape From L.A. (1996) Kurt Russell, Stacy Keach. The fascist U.S. president enlists a jailed war hero to retrieve a top-secret device stolen by his daughter on island Los Angeles in 2013. (R) 1 hr. 41 mins. Encore Sat., March 3, 11 a.m. Encore Sat., March 3, 10:30 p.m.
Johnson Family Vacation (2004) Cedric the Entertainer, Vanessa L. Williams. Disaster strikes when a man takes his wife and three unruly children on a road trip from Los Angeles to Missouri. (PG-13) 1 hr. 37 mins. HBO Wed., February 28, 10 a.m.
John Tucker Must Die (2006) Jesse Metcalfe, Sophia Bush. Three popular gals from different cliques join forces for revenge after discovering that the school stud is stringing them along. (PG-13) 1 hr. 27 mins. Encore Sat., March 3, 8 a.m.
Julie & Julia (2009) Meryl Streep, Amy Adams. A woman in Queens, N.Y., sets a deadline of one year to prepare all 524 recipes in Julia Child's famous cookbook, ``Mastering the Art of French Cooking.'' (PG-13) 2 hrs. 4 mins. Encore Wed., February 28, 2:30 a.m.
June in January (2014) Brooke D'Orsay, Wes Brown. When her fiance receives a job offer, a woman must suddenly plan her wedding in three weeks. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Hallmark Mon., February 26, 1:30 p.m.
Juno (2007) Ellen Page, Michael Cera. Unforeseen complications arise when a precocious teenager chooses an upscale couple to adopt her unborn baby. (PG-13) 1 hr. 36 mins. MTV Sun., March 4, 3 a.m.
Jurassic Park III (2001) Sam Neill, William H. Macy. A paleontologist and a couple outrun cloned dinosaurs after their plane crashes on an island. (PG-13) 1 hr. 31 mins. PARMOUNT Sat., March 3, 5 p.m. PARMOUNT Sat., March 3, 9 a.m.
Jurassic Park (1993) Sam Neill, Laura Dern. An entrepreneur invites scientists, a mathematics theorist and others to his jungle theme-park featuring dinosaurs regenerated from DNA. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 6 mins. PARMOUNT Sat., March 3, 11 a.m. PARMOUNT Sat., March 3, 7 p.m.
Jurassic School (2017) Gabriel Bennett, Amber Patino. A nerdy middle school student successfully clones a baby dinosaur for a science fair project. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. TMC Tues., February 27, 7:30 a.m.
Just Friends (2005) Ryan Reynolds, Amy Smart. A music executive tries to woo his high-school crush while keeping his suspicious ex-girlfriend at bay. (PG-13) 1 hr. 34 mins. MTV Sat., March 3, 6 p.m. MTV Sun., March 4, 1 a.m. ------------ K Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
The Karate Kid Part II (1986) Ralph Macchio, Noriyuki ``Pat'' Morita. Mr. Miyagi returns to Okinawa with his karate student and meets an old foe's challenge to a duel. (PG) 1 hr. 53 mins. OVA Mon., February 26, 8 p.m. OVA Tues., February 27, 4 p.m.
The Karate Kid (1984) Ralph Macchio, Noriyuki ``Pat'' Morita. A New Jersey teen moves to California, meets bullies and learns karate from a handyman, Mr. Miyagi. (PG) 2 hrs. 6 mins. OVA Mon., February 26, 4 p.m. OVA Sun., February 25, 7 p.m.
Keanu (2016) Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele. A man and his cousin pose as ruthless gangsters to recover a stolen kitten. (R) 1 hr. 40 mins. Cinemax Wed., February 28, 4 p.m.
Kicks (2016) Jahking Guillory, Christopher Meyer. A 15-year-old recruits his two best friends to help him retrieve his stolen Air Jordan sneakers from a neighborhood thug. (R) 1 hr. 24 mins. Cinemax Mon., February 26, 10 a.m.
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu. Awaking from a coma, an assassin seeks vengeance against her former boss and his ruthless gang. (R) 1 hr. 50 mins. OVA Fri., March 2, 7:30 p.m. OVA Sat., March 3, 1:30 p.m.
Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004) Uma Thurman, David Carradine. Before confronting her former boss, an assassin goes after the man's younger brother and her one-eyed counterpart. (R) 2 hrs. 17 mins. OVA Fri., March 2, 10 p.m. OVA Sat., March 3, 4 p.m.
King Kong (2005) Naomi Watts, Jack Black. Members of a film crew encounter prehistoric beasts and a gigantic ape on mysterious Skull Island. (PG-13) 3 hrs. 7 mins. A&E Sun., February 25, 12 p.m.
Kingpin (1996) Woody Harrelson, Randy Quaid. A one-handed salesman, an Amish farm boy and a pretty con artist pull bowling scams to get to a $1 million tournament in Reno. (PG-13) 1 hr. 53 mins. TMC Wed., February 28, 8 p.m.
Kings Row (1942) Ann Sheridan, Ronald Reagan. Sin surrounds a Freudian doctor, his playboy buddy and the buddy's girlfriend in a circa-1900 town. (NR) 2 hrs. 7 mins. TCM Tues., February 27, 2:30 p.m.
Knock Knock (2015) Keanu Reeves, Ana de Armas. Two nubile, stranded women reveal a sinister agenda after they spend the night with a married architect. (R) 1 hr. 39 mins. EPIX Fri., March 2, 1:30 a.m.
Knowing (2009) Nicolas Cage, Rose Byrne. A professor and his son obtain an encoded time-capsule document that lists every major disaster over the past 50 years and predicts a future global calamity. (PG-13) 1 hr. 55 mins. Syfy Mon., February 26, 11:30 a.m. Syfy Tues., February 27, 6 a.m.
Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep. A New York adman fights for custody of his son after his wife walks out. (PG) 1 hr. 44 mins. TCM Fri., March 2, 7 p.m. ------------ L Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
The Lake House (2006) Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock. A lonely doctor and a frustrated architect begin exchanging letters, then discover that they are living two years apart. (PG) 1 hr. 39 mins. POP Fri., March 2, 8 p.m. POP Sat., March 3, 1 a.m.
Lakeview Terrace (2008) Samuel L. Jackson, Patrick Wilson. A police officer, the self-proclaimed watchdog of his neighborhood, becomes increasingly hostile toward the interracial couple next door. (PG-13) 1 hr. 46 mins. BET Sat., March 3, 3:30 p.m.
Land of the Lost (2009) Will Ferrell, Anna Friel. A time-space vortex sucks a scientific has-been and his companions into an alternate dimension populated by dinosaurs and painfully slow creatures called Sleestaks. (PG-13) 1 hr. 42 mins. Cinemax Sun., February 25, 2 p.m.
Last Action Hero (1993) Arnold Schwarzenegger, Austin O'Brien. A golden ticket handed down from Houdini puts a boy in the middle of a Hollywood superstar's world. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 11 mins. TMC Thur., March 1, 10 p.m.
The Last Boy Scout (1991) Bruce Willis, Damon Wayans. An ex-Secret Service agent plays private eye with an ex-quarterback on a case of sports gambling and murder. (R) 1 hr. 45 mins. Cinemax Tues., February 27, 2 p.m.
The Last House on the Left (2009) Tony Goldwyn, Monica Potter. After their daughter is assaulted and left for dead, a couple take revenge on the assailants, who have taken shelter at the couple's house. (R) 1 hr. 50 mins. Cinemax Fri., March 2, 12:30 a.m.
Last Night (2010) Keira Knightley, Sam Worthington. Temptation creeps into a marriage when a man takes a business trip with an attractive colleague and his wife encounters a former lover. (R) 1 hr. 32 mins. TMC Fri., March 2, 9:30 a.m. TMC Fri., March 2, 8 p.m.
The Last Wagon (1956) Richard Widmark, Felicia Farr. Six teens from a wagon train survive an Indian attack with a trapper wanted for murder. (NR) 1 hr. 39 mins. Encore Sun., February 25, 9:30 a.m.
Lawless (2012) Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy. A sadistic Chicago lawman comes to 1931 Virginia to shut down the Bondurant brothers' bootlegging business. (R) 1 hr. 55 mins. Sundance Mon., February 26, 12 a.m. Sundance Sun., February 25, 4:30 p.m.
The Lawnmower Man (1992) Jeff Fahey, Pierce Brosnan. A scientist uses a mentally impaired man to test virtual reality, the computer simulation of the real. (R) 1 hr. 48 mins. TMC Thur., March 1, 6 p.m.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003) Sean Connery, Shane West. Allan Quatermain, Capt. Nemo, Dorian Gray, Dr. Jekyll, Tom Sawyer and others unite to stop a mad bomber. (PG-13) 1 hr. 50 mins. OVA Tues., February 27, 1:30 p.m. OVA Wed., February 28, 9 p.m.
Lean on Me (1989) Morgan Freeman, Robert Guillaume. Principal Joe Clark goes to bat against drugs, crime and bad grades in his Paterson, N.J., high school. (PG-13) 1 hr. 48 mins. VH1 Sat., March 3, 5 p.m. VH1 Sun., March 4, 1 a.m.
Legally Blonde (2001) Reese Witherspoon, Luke Wilson. A sorority queen enrolls in Harvard to prove to her former boyfriend that she has more than good looks. (PG-13) 1 hr. 36 mins. Encore Tues., February 27, 12:30 p.m. Encore Tues., February 27, 7 p.m. Encore Wed., February 28, 8:30 a.m.
The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000) Will Smith, Matt Damon. A golf caddy shows a disillusioned young war veteran how to master challenges and find meaning in life. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 6 mins. TMC Fri., March 2, 10:30 a.m. TMC Sat., March 3, 4 a.m.
The Legend of Hercules (2014) Kellan Lutz, Scott Adkins. Exiled and sold into slavery because of a forbidden love, Hercules must use his formidable powers to fight his way back to his rightful kingdom. (PG-13) 1 hr. 38 mins. Syfy Sun., February 25, 10:30 p.m. Syfy Mon., February 26, 2 p.m.
Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen (2010) Donnie Yen, Qi Shu. Chen fakes his death and returns as a caped crime fighter. (R) 1 hr. 45 mins. TMC Fri., March 2, 3 a.m.
Legion (2010) Paul Bettany, Lucas Black. A battle for the future of mankind unfolds when the archangel Michael arrives at a roadside diner to protect a waitress whose unborn child is humanity's last hope. (R) 1 hr. 44 mins. Starz Mon., February 26, 2 a.m. Starz Mon., February 26, 9:30 a.m. Starz Mon., February 26, 8:30 p.m. Starz Wed., February 28, 6 a.m. Starz Wed., February 28, 7 p.m.
The LEGO Batman Movie (2017) Voices of Will Arnett, Michael Cera. Animated. There are big changes brewing in Gotham, but if Batman wants to save the city from the Joker's hostile takeover, he may have to drop the lone vigilante thing, try to work with others and maybe, just maybe, learn to lighten up. (PG) 1 hr. 46 mins. HBO Sat., March 3, 11:30 a.m.
Let's Be Cops (2014) Jake Johnson, Damon Wayans Jr. Two buddies dress as police officers for a costume party, then must put their fake badges on the line after they become entangled with a real web of crooks and dirty detectives. (R) 1 hr. 44 mins. FX Fri., March 2, 9:30 a.m. FX Sat., March 3, 8 a.m.
The Letter (1940) Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall. A woman claiming self-defense for the murder of her lover is threatened by an incriminating letter. (NR) 1 hr. 35 mins. TCM Tues., February 27, 4 a.m.
Libeled Lady (1936) Jean Harlow, Spencer Tracy. An editor's fiancee and a lawyer help him trick an heiress suing his paper. (NR) 1 hr. 38 mins. TCM Mon., February 26, 11 a.m.
Liberty Stands Still (2002) Linda Fiorentino, Wesley Snipes. Perched in a building, a sniper threatens to kill the wife of a gun manufacturer if she hangs up the phone. (R) 1 hr. 36 mins. TMC Sun., February 25, 10 a.m.
Life (2017) Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson. Terror strikes when astronauts aboard the International Space Station discover a rapidly evolving life-form from Mars that threatens Earth. (R) 1 hr. 43 mins. Starz Tues., February 27, 3:30 a.m. Starz Tues., February 27, 7 p.m.
The Light Between Oceans (2016) Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander. A lighthouse keeper and his wife raise a baby after finding her in a rowboat but must make a life-changing decision when they meet the child's biological mother on the mainland. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 13 mins. Showtime Mon., February 26, 9:30 a.m. Showtime Thur., March 1, 4:30 p.m. Showtime Fri., March 2, 3 a.m.
The Limey (1999) Terence Stamp, Peter Fonda. An ex-con investigates his daughter's death, which leads him to an older man with whom she had an affair. (R) 1 hr. 30 mins. Cinemax Mon., February 26, 5 a.m.
The Lion King II: Simba's Pride (1998) Voices of Matthew Broderick, Neve Campbell. Animated. Kiara, the daughter of Simba and Nala, loves the son of exiled lioness Zira, who is out for revenge. (G) 1 hr. 15 mins. Freeform Sun., February 25, 10:30 a.m.
The Lion King (1994) Voices of Matthew Broderick, Jeremy Irons. Animated. After the death of his royal father, a young lion returns to battle his scheming uncle for the jungle throne. (G) 1 hr. 27 mins. Freeform Sun., February 25, 5 p.m.
A Little Chaos (2014) Kate Winslet, Matthias Schoenaerts. In 17th-century France, King Louis XIV's chief landscape architect makes an unusual decision to hire a woman to create a lavish garden at Versailles. (R) 1 hr. 56 mins. Cinemax Fri., March 2, 8:30 a.m.
The Little Hours (2017) Alison Brie, Dave Franco. A young servant fleeing from his master takes refuge at a dysfunctional convent in medieval Tuscany, disguising himself as a deaf-mute. (R) 1 hr. 30 mins. EPIX Thur., March 1, 12 a.m. EPIX Thur., March 1, 6:30 a.m. EPIX Thur., March 1, 5 p.m.
Little Women (1994) Winona Ryder, Gabriel Byrne. Louisa May Alcott's classic story of the lives, loves and triumphs of four sisters in Civil War-era New England. (PG) 1 hr. 58 mins. OVA Tues., February 27, 10:30 a.m.
Live Free or Die Hard (2007) Bruce Willis, Justin Long. John McClane grapples with a villain who plans to shut down the United States by attacking the country's vulnerable computer infrastructure. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 9 mins. CMT Wed., February 28, 11 p.m.
The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935) Gary Cooper, Franchot Tone. British officers rescue their colonel's son from vicious captors in colonial India. (NR) 1 hr. 49 mins. TCM Mon., February 26, 7 a.m.
The Lone Ranger (2013) Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer. Fate brings together Native American spirit warrior Tonto and white lawman John Reid to join forces in the never-ending battle against corruption and greed. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 29 mins. Syfy Mon., February 26, 7:30 p.m. Syfy Tues., February 27, 11 a.m.
The Longest Yard (2005) Adam Sandler, Chris Rock. At a Texas penitentiary, jailed NFL veterans train their fellow inmates for a football game against the guards. (PG-13) 1 hr. 53 mins. PARMOUNT Fri., March 2, 6 p.m. Sundance Tues., February 27, 4:30 p.m. Sundance Wed., February 28, 7:30 a.m.
Looper (2012) Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt. A mob hit man comes to the chilling realization that his latest assignment is his older self, sent back in time by his bosses. (R) 1 hr. 59 mins. FX Thur., March 1, 7 a.m. FX Wed., February 28, 9 a.m.
The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond (2008) Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Evans. Romance, jealousy and suspicion come into play after a rebellious heiress loses a costly earring while in the company of a man she hired to escort her to a party. (PG-13) 1 hr. 42 mins. KCOP Sat., March 3, 2:30 p.m.
Lost Horizon (1937) Ronald Colman, Jane Wyatt. An airplane crash results in a British diplomat and other Westerners being taken to Shangri-La, the Tibetan utopia of a dying lama. (NR) 2 hrs. 12 mins. TCM Fri., March 2, 4 a.m.
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore. Mercenaries and scientists pursue genetically engineered dinosaurs inhabiting a Costa Rican island. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 14 mins. PARMOUNT Sat., March 3, 2 p.m. PARMOUNT Sat., March 3, 10 p.m.
Love Blossoms (2017) Shantel VanSanten, Victor Webster. A perfume maker wants to finish a formula left behind by her late father. She gets help from an inexperienced botanist with an uncanny sense of smell. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Hallmark Sun., February 25, 11 a.m.
Love by Chance (2016) Ben Ayers, Beau Garrett. Claire, the owner of a new restaurant, is too busy to focus on relationships. Her mother decides to fix this by finding Claire the perfect man | without telling Claire. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Hallmark Sun., February 25, 9 a.m.
Love in Paradise (2016) Luke Perry, Emmanuelle Vaugier. When an actor who makes Westerns visits a Montana dude ranch, a woman realizes that he's actually a city slicker who knows nothing about being a cowboy. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Hallmark Thur., March 1, 4 p.m.
Love on Ice (2017) Julie Berman, Andrew W. Walker. A former figure skating champion gets an improbable second shot to reclaim glory when a young coach sees greatness in her. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Hallmark Sat., March 3, 7 a.m.
Love on the Slopes (2018) Katrina Bowden, Thomas Beaudoin. Alex, a copy editor from New York, is sent to an extreme sports outpost to write a story for a travel writing competition. Cole, a sports enthusiast, reluctantly agrees to be Alex's guide as she faces her fears. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Hallmark Sun., February 25, 1 p.m. Hallmark Tues., February 27, 1:30 p.m.
Love the Coopers (2015) Alan Arkin, John Goodman. A man and his estranged wife welcome their two children and four generations of extended family into their home for an annual Christmas Eve celebration. (PG-13) 1 hr. 47 mins. TMC Mon., February 26, 9 p.m.
Loving (2016) Joel Edgerton, Ruth Negga. In 1967, Richard and Mildred Loving take their case to the Supreme Court after violating a Virginia law that prohibits interracial marriage. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 3 mins. Cinemax Sat., March 3, 7:30 a.m.
Lucas (1986) Corey Haim, Kerri Green. School bullies pick on a scrawny 14-year-old in front of his 16-year-old summer dream-girl. (PG-13) 1 hr. 40 mins. HBO Fri., March 2, 11:30 a.m.
Lucky in Love (2014) Jessica Szohr, Benjamin Hollingsworth. A woman must adjust to her new, seemingly perfect life when her pranks on April Fools' Day come true. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Hallmark Sat., March 3, 9 a.m. ------------ M Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
Madea's Family Reunion (2006) Tyler Perry, Blair Underwood. A Southern matriarch deals with a host of personal and family issues while planning her clan's upcoming reunion. (PG-13) 1 hr. 47 mins. Showtime Mon., February 26, 5 a.m.
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron. Fortified in a massive, armored truck, loner Mad Max joins Imperator Furiosa and her band of rebels as they try to outrun a warlord and his henchmen in a deadly high-speed chase through the Wasteland. (R) 2 hrs. USA Wed., February 28, 7 p.m.
Maggie (2015) Arnold Schwarzenegger, Abigail Breslin. After his daughter is infected with a virus that transforms her into a zombie, a small-town farmer will stop at nothing to save her. (PG-13) 1 hr. 34 mins. Syfy Thur., March 1, 11:30 a.m. Syfy Fri., March 2, 1:30 a.m.
Magic Mike XXL (2015) Channing Tatum, Matt Bomer. Three years after retiring from stripping, Mike Lane reunites with the rest of the Kings of Tampa for one final, outrageous performance in Myrtle Beach, S.C. (R) 1 hr. 55 mins. TNT Wed., February 28, 10 p.m.
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) Joseph Cotten, Tim Holt. Orson Welles' tale of an eccentric Indiana family clinging to tradition during a time of rapid change. (NR) 1 hr. 28 mins. TCM Mon., February 26, 5 a.m.
Major League (1989) Tom Berenger, Charlie Sheen. Lackluster baseball players hear their Cleveland team's new owner is counting on them to lose. (R) 1 hr. 47 mins. Starz Fri., March 2, 7 a.m. Starz Thur., March 1, 10:30 a.m.
Maleficent (2014) Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning. Maleficent rises to protect her peaceful forest kingdom from invaders, but a terrible betrayal turns her pure heart to stone and twists her into a creature bent on revenge. (PG) 1 hr. 38 mins. TNT Sat., March 3, 8 p.m.
Mamma Mia! (2008) Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan. Hoping to meet her real father and have him walk her down the aisle, a bride secretly invites three men from her mother's past to come to the wedding. (PG-13) 1 hr. 49 mins. Cinemax Mon., February 26, 6:30 a.m.
A Man for All Seasons (1966) Paul Scofield, Robert Shaw. Sir Thomas More opposes Henry VIII's appointing himself head of the Church of England. (G) 2 hrs. TCM Fri., March 2, 9 p.m.
Maps to the Stars (2014) Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikowska. Driven by an intense need for fame and validation, members of a dysfunctional Hollywood dynasty have lives as dramatic as any movie. (R) 1 hr. 52 mins. Cinemax Thur., March 1, 3 p.m.
Marnie (1964) Tippi Hedren, Sean Connery. A man struggles to break the thieving habits of his kleptomaniac wife and restore harmony to their marriage. (PG) 2 hrs. 9 mins. Encore Tues., February 27, 4 a.m.
The Mask of Zorro (1998) Antonio Banderas, Anthony Hopkins. The fabled avenger trains an uncouth protege to drive a Spanish tyrant out of California once and for all. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 16 mins. Starz Fri., March 2, 1:30 p.m.
Matilda (1996) Mara Wilson, Danny DeVito. A little girl develops extraordinary mental abilities, despite neglectful parents and a brutal headmistress. (PG) 1 hr. 33 mins. Freeform Fri., March 2, 3 p.m. Freeform Sun., February 25, 3 p.m. Freeform Thur., March 1, 9 p.m.
Maverick (1994) Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster. A lawman, a lady and a gambler head to a poker championship, where conning is the name of the game. (PG) 2 hrs. 9 mins. Cinemax Wed., February 28, 9 a.m. Cinemax Wed., February 28, 9:30 p.m.
Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015) Dylan O'Brien, Kaya Scodelario. Thomas and his fellow teenage Gladers battle the powerful organization WCKD while facing the perils of the Scorch, a desolate landscape filled with dangerous obstacles and crawling with the virus-infected Cranks. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 11 mins. FX Mon., February 26, 8 p.m. FX Mon., February 26, 11 p.m.
The Maze Runner (2014) Dylan O'Brien, Kaya Scodelario. A teen awakes within a massive maze with other teens, with no memory of his past other than dreams about an organization known as WCKD. He hopes to escape by piecing together fragments of his past and clues he discovers in the labyrinth. (PG-13) 1 hr. 53 mins. FX Mon., February 26, 5 p.m.
Mean Girls (2004) Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams. Attending high school for the first time, a teenager becomes friends with three popular but manipulative students. (PG-13) 1 hr. 37 mins. Bravo Sat., March 3, 12:30 a.m. Bravo Sat., March 3, 7 p.m.
The Medallion (2003) Jackie Chan, Lee Evans. Killed by a villain's henchmen, a Hong Kong detective comes back to life with supernatural abilities. (PG-13) 1 hr. 28 mins. Cinemax Sat., March 3, 9:30 p.m.
The Meddler (2015) Susan Sarandon, Rose Byrne. After the death of her husband, a woman moves from New Jersey to Los Angeles to be closer to her daughter. (PG-13) 1 hr. 40 mins. Encore Thur., March 1, 3:30 p.m.
Meet the Fockers (2004) Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller. A man fears the worst when he accompanies his fiancee's uptight father and mother to meet his free-spirited mom and dad. (PG-13) 1 hr. 55 mins. IFC Fri., March 2, 10:30 p.m. IFC Sat., March 3, 3:30 a.m.
Meet the Parents (2000) Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller. When a woman brings her boyfriend home for her sister's wedding, her father, a former CIA agent, takes an instant dislike to him. (PG-13) 1 hr. 48 mins. IFC Fri., March 2, 8 p.m. IFC Sat., March 3, 1 a.m.
Men at Work (1990) Charlie Sheen, Emilio Estevez. Two goofy garbagemen find a politician's corpse in a can, and a toxic-waste scheme behind it. (PG-13) 1 hr. 38 mins. Starz Thur., March 1, 12 p.m.
Men in Black II (2002) Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith. Two interstellar agents try to stop an alien disguised as a lingerie model from destroying the world. (PG-13) 1 hr. 28 mins. Encore Mon., February 26, 3:30 p.m.
Mercy (2014) Chandler Riggs, Joel Courtney. Two brothers move into their dying grandmother's house and experience disturbing phenomena that they believe to be the work of an ancient, evil witch. (R) 1 hr. 19 mins. Starz Sat., March 3, 2:30 a.m.
The Mexican (2001) Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts. A bungling gangster must reform to please his girlfriend but still has one last job to fulfill. (R) 2 hrs. 3 mins. Encore Thur., March 1, 6:30 a.m.
Mickey Blue Eyes (1999) Hugh Grant, James Caan. After his girlfriend accidentally kills a mafioso's son, a man helps her mobster father try to pin the blame on a rival crime family. (PG-13) 1 hr. 43 mins. Cinemax Tues., February 27, 8 p.m.
Mickey's Great Clubhouse Hunt (2007) Voices of Wayne Allwine, Tony Anselmo. Animated. Mickey Mouse must save his friends after his clubhouse mysteriously disappears. (NR) 48 mins. Disney Thur., March 1, 8:30 a.m.
Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life (2016) Griffin Gluck, Lauren Graham. Live action/animated. After transferring to a new school, an imaginative student and his mischievous friend concoct schemes to drive their tyrannical principal crazy. (PG) 1 hr. 32 mins. Showtime Wed., February 28, 9 a.m.
The Midnight Meat Train (2008) Bradley Cooper, Leslie Bibb. A photographer descends into the realm of pure evil when he becomes fascinated with a serial killer who preys on late-night subway commuters. (R) 1 hr. 40 mins. Cinemax Tues., February 27, 1 a.m.
Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (2016) Zac Efron, Adam Devine. Two hard-partying brothers bring two wild and uncontrollable women to their sister's wedding in Hawaii. (R) 1 hr. 38 mins. Cinemax Thur., March 1, 11 a.m.
Mildred Pierce (1945) Joan Crawford, Jack Carson. A woman makes personal sacrifices in order to please her ungrateful daughter. (NR) 1 hr. 49 mins. TCM Wed., February 28, 1 p.m.
Miles Ahead (2015) Don Cheadle, Ewan McGregor. In the 1970s, down-and-out jazz trumpeter Miles Davis tries to recover his new session tape from music producers. (R) 1 hr. 40 mins. Encore Fri., March 2, 7:30 a.m. Encore Thur., March 1, 2 p.m.
Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation (2015) Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner. Ethan Hunt and his team take on their most impossible mission yet to eradicate the Syndicate | a highly skilled, international organization dedicated to creating a new world order via a series of terrorist attacks. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 11 mins. FX Sun., February 25, 8 p.m. FX Sun., February 25, 11 p.m.
Mission: Impossible 2 (2000) Tom Cruise, Dougray Scott. IMF agent Ethan Hunt and his team try to stop a former agent from unleashing a deadly, engineered virus. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 3 mins. Starz Sun., February 25, 11:30 a.m. Starz Thur., March 1, 8 a.m. Starz Wed., February 28, 3:30 p.m. Starz Wed., February 28, 11 p.m.
Mississippi Burning (1988) Gene Hackman, Willem Dafoe. Two FBI agents face racism while investigating the disappearance of three civil rights activists in 1964 Mississippi. (R) 2 hrs. 5 mins. EPIX Sat., March 3, 3 a.m.
Money Monster (2016) George Clooney, Julia Roberts. After losing money on a stock tip, a disgruntled investor holds a Wall Street guru and a producer hostage on live television. (R) 1 hr. 38 mins. Encore Fri., March 2, 6 a.m. Encore Thur., March 1, 5:30 p.m.
Monster Trucks (2016) Lucas Till, Jane Levy. Live action/animated. A high school senior befriends a strange subterranean creature after building a monster truck from bits and pieces of scrapped cars. (PG) 1 hr. 45 mins. EPIX Tues., February 27, 8 p.m. EPIX Wed., February 28, 11:30 a.m. EPIX Wed., February 28, 6 p.m.
Moonraker (1979) Roger Moore, Lois Chiles. Agent 007 meets Hugo Drax, a tycoon out to nerve-gas Earth to make room for his space-bred master race. (PG) 2 hrs. 6 mins. EPIX Fri., March 2, 2 p.m. EPIX Fri., March 2, 8 a.m. EPIX Thur., March 1, 8 p.m.
Moonstruck (1987) Cher, Nicolas Cage. An Italian-American widow, engaged to a reticent suitor, falls in love with his brother. (PG) 1 hr. 41 mins. EPIX Fri., March 2, 10 a.m. EPIX Fri., March 2, 6 p.m. EPIX Thur., March 1, 10 p.m.
Mother's Day (2016) Jennifer Aniston, Kate Hudson. As Mother's Day draws near, a single mom learns that her ex-husband is marrying a younger woman, while a recently widowed man struggles to raise his two daughters. (PG-13) 1 hr. 58 mins. TMC Sat., March 3, 2:30 a.m.
Moulin Rouge (2001) Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor. In 1890s France a courtesan falls in love with a young writer but strings along a duke who can finance improvements to the night spot. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 6 mins. Encore Thur., March 1, 2 a.m.
Mr. Brooks (2007) Kevin Costner, Demi Moore. A detective dogs a serial killer's trail, while the killer's voyeuristic neighbor blackmails him into continuing his deadly hobby. (R) 2 hrs. 1 mins. Starz Sun., March 4, 1:30 a.m.
Mrs. Miniver (1942) Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon. William Wyler's Oscar-winning classic about the tensions faced by a family of hard-working Brits in war-torn England. (NR) 2 hrs. 14 mins. TCM Mon., February 26, 8 p.m.
Mr. Woodcock (2007) Billy Bob Thornton, Seann William Scott. A young author learns that his mother is marrying his former gym teacher, a man who made his life hell during high school. (PG-13) 1 hr. 27 mins. IFC Fri., March 2, 6 p.m.
Mud (2013) Matthew McConaughey, Tye Sheridan. On a Mississippi River island, two young friends encounter a fugitive whose wild tales about a beautiful woman and a line of bounty hunters come true. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 10 mins. AMC Thur., March 1, 2:30 a.m. Sundance Fri., March 2, 12 p.m. Sundance Sat., March 3, 1:30 a.m.
The Mummy Returns (2001) Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz. Two evil forces believe the 9-year-old son of adventurer Rick O'Connell is the key to the reincarnation of Isis. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 9 mins. Cinemax Wed., February 28, 3:30 a.m.
The Mummy (1999) Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz. A young man opens a tomb unleashing a mummy seeking revenge for a curse laid upon him 3,000 years earlier. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 4 mins. Cinemax Thur., March 1, 2:30 a.m.
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008) Brendan Fraser, Jet Li. After his son is tricked into awakening a cursed Chinese emperor, Rick O'Connell and his family seek a way to send the megalomaniac and his 10,000 warriors back to their graves. (PG-13) 1 hr. 52 mins. Cinemax Thur., March 1, 5 a.m.
Murder by Numbers (2002) Sandra Bullock, Ryan Gosling. Two young men engage in a battle of wits with a homicide detective who is investigating grisly strangulations. (R) 2 hrs. Cinemax Sat., March 3, 11 p.m.
The Music Man (1962) Robert Preston, Shirley Jones. A librarian hears a sour note when a charming rogue convinces Iowa townspeople to start a boys marching band. (G) 2 hrs. 31 mins. TCM Sat., March 3, 11:30 a.m.
Music Within (2007) Ron Livingston, Melissa George. After losing most of his hearing in the Vietnam War, Richard Pimentel becomes a motivational speaker and a driving force behind the Americans With Disabilities Act. (R) 1 hr. 35 mins. TMC Thur., March 1, 6:30 a.m.
Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) Charles Laughton, Clark Gable. First mate Mr. Christian and his 18th-century shipmates overthrow cruel Capt. Bligh and set him adrift in the Pacific. (NR) 2 hrs. 12 mins. TCM Sun., February 25, 5 p.m.
Mutiny on the Bounty (1962) Marlon Brando, Trevor Howard. First mate Fletcher Christian leads his 18th-century shipmates in revolt against odious Captain Bligh. (NR) 2 hrs. 59 mins. TCM Sat., March 3, 8:30 a.m.
My Best Friend's Wedding (1997) Julia Roberts, Dermot Mulroney. A writer realizes that she is in love with her best friend and tries to stop him from marrying another woman, a guileless heiress. (PG-13) 1 hr. 45 mins. Starz Mon., February 26, 7:30 a.m. Starz Mon., February 26, 2 p.m.
My Dead Boyfriend (2016) Heather Graham, Kate Moennig. A woman goes on a manic quest to learn the truth about her boyfriend after she finds him dead on their couch. (R) 1 hr. 30 mins. EPIX Thur., March 1, 1:30 a.m.
Mystic Pizza (1988) Julia Roberts, Annabeth Gish. Three teenage girls come of age one summer working in a pizza parlor in Mystic, Conn. (R) 1 hr. 42 mins. EPIX Sat., March 3, 1 p.m.
My Summer Prince (2016) Taylor Cole, Jack Turner. When a prince who is heir to the throne lands in hot water for his partying ways, a PR consultant is hired by the royal family to perform some damage control. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Hallmark Sun., February 25, 7 a.m. ------------ N Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
National Security (2003) Martin Lawrence, Steve Zahn. Two Los Angeles security guards try to stop a criminal mastermind and his gang of robbers. (PG-13) 1 hr. 28 mins. HBO Mon., February 26, 5 a.m.
The Natural (1984) Robert Redford, Robert Duvall. The almost mythical ability of a middle-aged baseball player rockets a major-league team toward the 1939 pennant. (PG) 2 hrs. 14 mins. Starz Sun., February 25, 6 a.m.
Naughty Marietta (1935) Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy. An incognito French princess flees to New Orleans and flirts with an Indian scout. (G) 1 hr. 46 mins. TCM Sat., March 3, 2 a.m.
Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2016) Seth Rogen, Zac Efron. A man, his pregnant wife and their former neighbor clash with wild and rebellious sorority sisters. (R) 1 hr. 32 mins. Cinemax Fri., March 2, 10:30 a.m.
The Nice Guys (2016) Russell Crowe, Ryan Gosling. A down-on-his-luck private eye works with a hired enforcer to investigate the disappearance of a young woman in 1977 Los Angeles. (R) 1 hr. 56 mins. Cinemax Sat., March 3, 12 p.m.
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009) Ben Stiller, Robin Williams. Larry Daley joins forces with Teddy Roosevelt, Amelia Earhart and others to prevent four of history's worst villains from conquering the world. (PG) 1 hr. 45 mins. HBO Tues., February 27, 5:30 p.m.
Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (2014) Ben Stiller, Robin Williams. Upon learning that the museum's magic is disappearing, night watchman Larry Daley sets out on an epic quest to the British Museum in London to save his friends one last time. (PG) 1 hr. 37 mins. TBS Sat., March 3, 2 a.m.
Ninotchka (1939) Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas. A playboy charms a Russian envoy sent to fetch three wayward comrades in Paris. (NR) 1 hr. 50 mins. TCM Wed., February 28, 8:30 a.m.
Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer (2016) Richard Gere, Lior Ashkenazi. A financial schemer finds himself in the middle of an international scandal after he becomes a political adviser to the new prime minister of Israel. (R) 1 hr. 58 mins. Starz Thur., March 1, 3:30 a.m.
The Notebook (2004) Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams. A man tells a story to a woman about two young people who become lovers in 1940s North Carolina. (NR) 2 hrs. 15 mins. WE Wed., February 28, 6 p.m. WE Wed., February 28, 9 p.m.
The Notebook (2004) Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams. A man tells a story to a woman about two young people who become lovers in 1940s North Carolina. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 4 mins. MTV Sat., March 3, 10 a.m. MTV Sat., March 3, 8 p.m. Sundance Mon., February 26, 10 p.m. Sundance Mon., February 26, 7 p.m.
Notes From the Field (2018) Anna Deavere Smith. Anna Deavere Smith's portrayal of 18 real-life characters dramatizes the accounts of students, parents, teachers and administrators who are caught up in America's school-to-prison pipeline. (NR) 1 hr. 29 mins. HBO Sun., February 25, 3 p.m. HBO Wed., February 28, 8:30 a.m. HBO Wed., February 28, 8 p.m. HBO Thur., March 1, 2:30 p.m.
The Nun's Story (1959) Audrey Hepburn, Peter Finch. The daughter of a Belgian surgeon enters a convent in hopes of serving God as a nursing nun in the Congo. (NR) 2 hrs. 29 mins. TCM Fri., March 2, 7 a.m.
The Nut Job (2014) Voices of Will Arnett, Brendan Fraser. Animated. A mischievous squirrel and his sidekick assemble a ragtag animal crew to get inside their town's nut shop and steal enough food for the winter. (PG) 1 hr. 26 mins. Nickelodeon Wed., February 28, 8 p.m. ------------ O Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
Office Christmas Party (2016) Jason Bateman, Olivia Munn. Hoping to close a sale and save their jobs, two co-workers must rally their colleagues to throw an epic Christmas party. (R) 1 hr. 45 mins. Showtime Tues., February 27, 7 p.m. Showtime Wed., February 28, 2 a.m. Showtime Fri., March 2, 5 p.m. Showtime Sat., March 3, 3:30 a.m.
One for the Money (2012) Katherine Heigl, Jason O'Mara. A rookie bounty hunter goes after a bail jumper and murder suspect who just happens to be the guy who seduced and dumped her back in high school. (PG-13) 1 hr. 31 mins. KTLA Sun., February 25, 1:30 p.m.
One Winter Weekend (2018) Taylor Cole, Jack Turner. Burned out on dating, Cara, a magazine writer, decides to go on a dating detox. She plans a ski getaway with her best friend, but the resort mistakenly double-books them with two eligible men, including Ben, an entrepreneur. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Hallmark Sun., February 25, 5 p.m.
On the Waterfront (1954) Marlon Brando, Eva Marie Saint. A conscience-stricken ex-boxer stands up to a corrupt union boss after unwittingly participating in a fellow longshoreman's murder. (NR) 1 hr. 48 mins. TCM Tues., February 27, 5 p.m.
Open Water 3: Cage Dive (2017) Joel Hogan, Megan Peta Hill. Three friends from California head to the rugged Australian coast for a cage-dive encounter with great white sharks. When a massive wave suddenly destroys their boat, they find themselves floating in the ocean with a swarm of hungry man-eaters. (R) 1 hr. 20 mins. Syfy Fri., March 2, 12 a.m. Syfy Fri., March 2, 10 a.m.
Operation Condor (1991) Jackie Chan, Carol ``Do Do'' Cheng. Hired by a Spanish baron, a mercenary and his entourage seek Nazi gold buried in the Sahara Desert. (PG-13) 1 hr. 29 mins. Showtime Thur., March 1, 5 a.m. TMC Sat., March 3, 10 a.m.
Osama (2003) Marina Golbahari, Arif Herati. Desperate for money, an Afghan widow dresses her daughter like a boy so she can work for a shopkeeper. (PG-13) 1 hr. 22 mins. TMC Tues., February 27, 4:30 a.m.
Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016) Elizabeth Reaser, Annalise Basso. A sance scam leads to terror when an evil spirit possesses a widow's youngest daughter in 1967 Los Angeles. (PG-13) 1 hr. 39 mins. HBO Tues., February 27, 12:30 a.m.
Outlaws and Angels (2016) Chad Michael Murray, Francesca Eastwood. In 1887, three violent fugitives hold a couple and their children hostage in their isolated New Mexico farmhouse. (R) 2 hrs. EPIX Wed., February 28, 1:30 p.m.
Overcome (2008) Aaron U. Brown, Jaycee Lynn. A rebellious teenager re-evaluates his lifestyle after an accident. (NR) 1 hr. 25 mins. KTBN Sat., March 3, 8:30 p.m.
Owning Mahowny (2003) Philip Seymour Hoffman, Minnie Driver. A casino manager preys on a compulsive gambler who had kept his obsession a secret from his girlfriend. (R) 1 hr. 44 mins. Cinemax Sat., March 3, 4 a.m.
The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews. Walter Van Tilburg Clark's novel inspires an account of a lynch mob that seeks revenge for a rancher's murder. (NR) 1 hr. 15 mins. TCM Tues., February 27, 8 a.m. ------------ P Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
The Pacifier (2005) Vin Diesel, Lauren Graham. A Navy SEAL faces the ultimate test when he must care for five children and protect them from their father's enemies. (PG) 1 hr. 35 mins. TBS Sat., March 3, 7 a.m.
Paranormal Activity 4 (2012) Kathryn Newton, Matt Shively. A teenager bears witness to terrifying events that occur when she and her family become the temporary caretakers of a creepy neighbor boy. (R) 1 hr. 27 mins. IFC Sat., March 3, 8 a.m.
Passengers (2016) Jennifer Lawrence, Chris Pratt. Awakened from their hibernation pods 90 years early, two space travelers enjoy the pleasures of a budding romance until they discover that their ship is in imminent danger. (PG-13) 1 hr. 56 mins. Starz Thur., March 1, 6:30 a.m. Starz Thur., March 1, 5 p.m.
The Patriot (2000) Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger. A pacifist farmer of South Carolina reluctantly joins the Revolutionary War and fights alongside his son. (R) 2 hrs. 44 mins. Encore Sun., February 25, 6 p.m. Encore Sun., February 25, 7 a.m. Encore Tues., February 27, 1 a.m. Encore Tues., February 27, 9:30 a.m.
Patton (1970) George C. Scott, Karl Malden. Flamboyant Gen. George S. Patton receives accolades and censure as he fights World War II. (PG) 2 hrs. 49 mins. Sundance Sat., March 3, 2 p.m. Sundance Sun., March 4, 1 a.m. TCM Thur., March 1, 8 p.m. TCM Wed., February 28, 8 p.m.
Pel: Birth of a Legend (2016) Kevin de Paula, Vincent D'Onofrio. Under guidance from manager Vicente Feola, young Pel utilizes his street soccer skills to lead Brazil to the World Cup in 1958. (PG) 1 hr. 47 mins. TMC Mon., February 26, 9 a.m.
Penguins of Madagascar (2014) Voices of Benedict Cumberbatch, John Malkovich. Animated. Plucky penguins Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private join forces with a savvy spy to thwart a tentacled villain's plans to take over the world. (PG) 1 hr. 32 mins. FXX Thur., March 1, 3:30 p.m. FXX Fri., March 2, 1:30 p.m.
Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010) Logan Lerman, Brandon T. Jackson. After learning he is the son of Poseidon, a youth must prevent a war among the gods and rescue his mother from Hades, king of the underworld. (PG) 1 hr. 59 mins. TBS Fri., March 2, 11:30 p.m.
Personal Shopper (2016) Kristen Stewart, Lars Eidinger. A young American in Paris works as a personal shopper for a celebrity. She seems to have the ability to communicate with spirits, like her recently deceased twin brother. Soon, she starts to receive ambiguous messages from an unknown source. (R) 1 hr. 45 mins. Showtime Mon., February 26, 2 p.m.
Picnic (1955) William Holden, Kim Novak. A handsome drifter provokes explosive emotions in citizens of a small Kansas town at a Labor Day festival. Based on William Inge's play. (PG) 1 hr. 55 mins. TCM Sun., February 25, 3 p.m.
Pineapple Express (2008) Seth Rogen, James Franco. A stoner who witnessed a murder flees with his dealer when a drug lord and crooked cop trace a rare strain of marijuana back to them. (R) 1 hr. 52 mins. IFC Tues., February 27, 1 p.m. IFC Tues., February 27, 11 p.m. IFC Wed., February 28, 1 a.m.
The Pink Panther (2006) Steve Martin, Kevin Kline. A bumbling French inspector investigates the murder of a famous soccer coach and the theft of his priceless pink diamond. (PG) 1 hr. 33 mins. HBO Mon., February 26, 8:30 a.m.
The Pirates of Somalia (2017) Evan Peters, Al Pacino. In 2008, rookie Canadian journalist Jay Bahadur's impulsive plan to embed himself among the pirates of Somalia provides the first close-up look at who these men are, how they live, and the forces that drive them. (R) 1 hr. 58 mins. Showtime Fri., March 2, 7:30 a.m.
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007) Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom. While the Flying Dutchman ghost ship wreaks havoc on the Seven Seas, Will, Elizabeth and Barbossa unite to save Jack Sparrow from Davy Jones' locker. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 48 mins. Syfy Sun., February 25, 4 p.m.
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011) Johnny Depp, Penlope Cruz. Capt. Jack Sparrow encounters a woman from his past, who forces him to go aboard Blackbeard's ship on a quest to find the legendary Fountain of Youth. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 16 mins. Syfy Sun., February 25, 7 p.m. Syfy Mon., February 26, 4 p.m.
Pitch Perfect 2 (2015) Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson. When a scandal threatens to derail the Barden Bellas, the women must get their act together and redeem themselves at the world championships in Copenhagen, Denmark. (PG-13) 1 hr. 55 mins. FXX Wed., February 28, 6:30 p.m. FXX Wed., February 28, 9 p.m.
Pitch Perfect (2012) Anna Kendrick, Skylar Astin. When a new student joins her college's female a cappella group, she takes the women out of their comfort zone of traditional pieces and introduces them to innovative arrangements. (PG-13) 1 hr. 52 mins. CMT Thur., March 1, 7 p.m. CMT Thur., March 1, 11 p.m.
Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987) Steve Martin, John Candy. An ad exec and a shower-curtain-ring salesman become co-travelers on the way to Thanksgiving in Chicago. (R) 1 hr. 32 mins. Encore Wed., February 28, 1:30 p.m.
The Players Club (1998) LisaRaye, Bernie Mac. A single mother attending college moonlights as a stripper in a rowdy nightclub in order to pay for her tuition. (R) 1 hr. 44 mins. BET Thur., March 1, 4:30 p.m. BET Wed., February 28, 7 p.m.
Pocket Listing (2015) Rob Lowe, Burt Reynolds. When a power player and his sultry wife hire a disgraced property broker to discreetly market and sell their Malibu villa, double crosses, adultery, murder and revenge ensue. (R) 1 hr. 32 mins. EPIX Wed., February 28, 3 p.m.
Poetic Justice (1993) Janet Jackson, Tupac Shakur. A beauty-salon worker goes from South Central Los Angeles to Oakland in a mail truck with a guy she cannot stand. (R) 1 hr. 50 mins. Starz Tues., February 27, 5 a.m.
Pokmon: The Rise of Darkrai (2007) Voices of Sarah Natochenny, Bill Rogers. Anime. A powerful battle emerges when an ominous fog prevents people from leaving their town. (NR) 1 hr. 40 mins. Disney XD Tues., February 27, 5:30 p.m.
Practical Magic (1998) Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman. Raised by their aunts, two sisters use different means to avoid a family legacy of witchcraft. (PG-13) 1 hr. 45 mins. Cinemax Sun., February 25, 3 p.m.
Predators (2010) Adrien Brody, Topher Grace. On an alien planet, a mercenary and his ragtag band of fighters struggle to survive against an onslaught of fearsome warriors who hunt them for sport. (R) 1 hr. 47 mins. Syfy Sat., March 3, 8:30 p.m.
Pretty Persuasion (2005) Evan Rachel Wood, Ron Livingston. A manipulative teenager and her two friends conspire to falsely accuse a teacher of molesting them. (R) 1 hr. 50 mins. TMC Fri., March 2, 4:30 p.m.
The Pride of the Yankees (1942) Gary Cooper, Teresa Wright. Lou Gehrig leads the New York baseball team for years and then, slowly dying, retires with a stadium farewell. (NR) 2 hrs. 7 mins. TCM Thur., March 1, 12:30 p.m.
The Prince of Tides (1991) Nick Nolte, Barbra Streisand. Family wounds are healed by a Southerner's affair with his suicidal sister's New York psychiatrist. (R) 2 hrs. 12 mins. OVA Sat., March 3, 11 p.m.
Princes of the Palace (2016) Exclusive interviews with biographers and commentators give an insider's view on the lives of Philip, Charles, William and Harry. (NR) 1 hr. 28 mins. KOCE Sun., February 25, 10 p.m. KPBS Sun., February 25, 10:30 p.m.
The Princess Diaries (2001) Julie Andrews, Anne Hathaway. A woman gives etiquette lessons to her reluctant granddaughter who is heir apparent to a throne. (G) 1 hr. 55 mins. Nickelodeon Thur., March 1, 8 p.m.
Problem Child 2 (1991) John Ritter, Michael Oliver. Unruly Junior meets wild Trixie and together they try to match his father with her mother. (PG-13) 1 hr. 31 mins. Sundance Thur., March 1, 1 p.m.
Problem Child (1990) John Ritter, Michael Oliver. An eager yuppie and his wife adopt a little boy, Junior, who's totally out of control. (PG) 1 hr. 21 mins. Sundance Thur., March 1, 11 a.m.
The Psycho She Met Online (2017) Charity Shea, Chelsea Hobbs. When her husband is hospitalized due to a car accident, a woman decides to rent out spare rooms in their new, expensive house to help defray costs. All goes well until she begins to suspect that something is off with their newest ``guest.'' (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Lifetime Sun., February 25, 4 p.m.
Psycho (1960) Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh. A woman on the run stops at a 12-cabin motel with showers, run by mother-fixated Norman Bates. (R) 1 hr. 49 mins. Encore Sun., February 25, 11:30 a.m. Encore Sun., February 25, 9 p.m.
Puerto Ricans in Paris (2015) Luis Guzmn, Edgar Garcia. Two New York detectives work under cover in Paris to catch a thief who's threatening to flood the fashion market with bootlegged handbags. (R) 1 hr. 22 mins. Cinemax Wed., February 28, 2 a.m.
Pulp Fiction (1994) John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson. Two hit men, a boxer, a crime boss and others meet their fates over the course of two days. (R) 2 hrs. 33 mins. OVA Fri., March 2, 4 p.m. OVA Sat., March 3, 10 a.m.
Pulp Fiction (1994) John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson. Two hit men, a boxer, a crime boss and others meet their fates over the course of two days. (R) 2 hrs. 48 mins. AMC Mon., February 26, 12 p.m.
Pure Country (1992) George Strait, Lesley Ann Warren. An amiable country singer struggles to free himself of the hollow trappings of commercial stardom. (PG) 1 hr. 52 mins. CMT Sun., February 25, 12 p.m. CMT Sun., February 25, 5:30 p.m. ------------ R Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
Raintree County (1957) Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor. A New Orleans belle lures a man away from his sweetheart and into marriage during the Civil War. (NR) 2 hrs. 48 mins. KCET Fri., March 2, 7:30 p.m. KCET Sat., March 3, 3 p.m.
Rango (2011) Voices of Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher. Animated. In the grip of an identity crisis, a sheltered chameleon accidentally winds up as the sheriff of a frontier town. (PG) 1 hr. 45 mins. Nickelodeon Tues., February 27, 8 p.m.
Rapture-Palooza (2013) Craig Robinson, Anna Kendrick. Left behind after the Rapture, a young woman and her boyfriend set out to prevent the Antichrist from taking her as his unholy bride. (R) 1 hr. 24 mins. EPIX Sun., March 4, 4 a.m.
Ratatouille (2007) Voices of Patton Oswalt, Ian Holm. Animated. A Parisian rat who enjoys fine food lives beneath a famous restaurant and longs to be a great chef. (G) 1 hr. 51 mins. Freeform Mon., February 26, 6 p.m. Freeform Sun., February 25, 7 p.m.
Real Steel (2011) Hugh Jackman, Evangeline Lilly. A small-time boxing promoter and his estranged son reluctantly join together to build and train a robot fighter of championship caliber. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 7 mins. TBS Sun., March 4, 3 a.m.
Red Dawn (2012) Chris Hemsworth, Josh Peck. After foreign troops seize control of an American town, a group of young people takes refuge in the surrounding woods and launches guerrilla attacks against the enemy. (PG-13) 1 hr. 33 mins. TBS Fri., March 2, 8 p.m.
Red Dragon (2002) Anthony Hopkins, Edward Norton. A former FBI agent asks Dr. Hannibal Lecter for help in stopping a serial killer who slaughters families. (R) 2 hrs. 4 mins. TMC Sat., March 3, 6:30 p.m.
Remember the Titans (2000) Denzel Washington, Will Patton. A Virginia high school hires a black football coach after undergoing integration in 1971. (PG) 1 hr. 53 mins. USA Wed., February 28, 9:30 p.m.
The Rendezvous (2016) Stana Katic, Raza Jaffrey. A Jewish doctor and a Muslim State Department employee unwittingly become involved in a mystery that could change the future of the world. (NR) 1 hr. 32 mins. Showtime Sun., February 25, 6 a.m.
The Replacements (2000) Keanu Reeves, Gene Hackman. A football coach and his team's owner recruit a ragtag band of has-beens and wannabes after failed negotiations lead to a strike. (PG-13) 1 hr. 58 mins. CMT Sat., March 3, 1 p.m. CMT Sat., March 3, 5:30 p.m.
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016) Milla Jovovich, Iain Glen. Alice travels to the Hive in Raccoon City to prevent the evil Umbrella Corp. from wiping out the last remaining survivors of the zombie apocalypse. (R) 1 hr. 46 mins. Starz Sun., March 4, 3:30 a.m.
The Resurrection of Gavin Stone (2017) Brett Dalton, Anjelah Johnson-Reyes. Sentenced to perform 200 hours of community service, a former child star learns valuable new lessons after landing the lead role of Jesus Christ in a stage production by his hometown church. (PG) 1 hr. 32 mins. HBO Mon., February 26, 10 a.m.
Return to Me (2000) David Duchovny, Minnie Driver. A heart-transplant recipient meets the donor's lonely widower in a chance encounter. (PG) 1 hr. 53 mins. TMC Tues., February 27, 6 a.m.
Richie Rich (1994) Macaulay Culkin, John Larroquette. The boy zillionaire saves his parents and Rich Industries from a scheming executive. (PG) 1 hr. 35 mins. HBO Fri., March 2, 8 a.m.
Ride Along (2014) Ice Cube, Kevin Hart. A veteran cop and his future brother-in-law, a fast-talking trainee, tangle with Atlanta's most-dangerous criminal. (PG-13) 1 hr. 39 mins. FX Fri., March 2, 10 p.m. FX Fri., March 2, 8 p.m.
Risen (2016) Joseph Fiennes, Tom Felton. Looking to disprove rumors of a risen Messiah, a Roman military tribune and his aide investigate the mystery of what happened to Jesus following the Crucifixion. (PG-13) 1 hr. 48 mins. Encore Tues., February 27, 2 p.m.
A Rising Tide (2015) Hunter Parrish, Ashley Grace. A young chef grows up quickly after Hurricane Sandy destroys his family's restaurant. (NR) 1 hr. 50 mins. TMC Fri., March 2, 6 a.m.
The River Wild (1994) Meryl Streep, Kevin Bacon. Strangers threaten a former river guide, her husband and their son on a white-water rafting trip in the West. (PG-13) 1 hr. 51 mins. IFC Sun., March 4, 2:30 a.m.
RoboCop 3 (1993) Robert John Burke, Nancy Allen. The cyborg policeman takes to the air to defend a run-down neighborhood from a Japanese tycoon. (PG-13) 1 hr. 44 mins. IFC Sat., March 3, 10 a.m. IFC Sat., March 3, 6 a.m.
RoboCop (1987) Peter Weller, Nancy Allen. Scientists use the mangled remains of a dead police officer to create the ultimate crime-fighter | an indestructible cyborg. (R) 1 hr. 42 mins. IFC Thur., March 1, 10:30 a.m. IFC Thur., March 1, 3 a.m. IFC Thur., March 1, 5:30 a.m.
The Rocker (2008) Rainn Wilson, Christina Applegate. Twenty years after his band mates gave him the boot, a failed drummer gets a second shot at fame as a member of his teenage nephew's band. (PG-13) 1 hr. 42 mins. IFC Fri., March 2, 11 a.m. IFC Fri., March 2, 3:30 p.m.
Rocky III (1982) Sylvester Stallone, Mr. T. Old foe Apollo Creed trains ex-boxing champ Rocky Balboa for a rematch with brutish Clubber Lang. (PG) 1 hr. 39 mins. Showtime Sat., March 3, 7:30 a.m.
Rocky (1976) Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire. Heavyweight champ Apollo Creed gives Philadelphia club fighter Rocky Balboa a title shot. (PG) 1 hr. 59 mins. Showtime Wed., February 28, 10:30 a.m.
Romeo Must Die (2000) Jet Li, Aaliyah. While seeking vengeance for his brother's murder, a former Hong Kong policeman falls for his foe's daughter. (R) 1 hr. 55 mins. Cinemax Sat., March 3, 7:30 p.m.
Rough Night (2017) Scarlett Johansson, Jillian Bell. Jess is an engaged politician who reunites with three of her college friends for a wild bachelorette weekend in Miami. The night of hard partying soon lands them in hot water when a male stripper accidentally dies at their beach house. (R) 1 hr. 41 mins. Starz Tues., February 27, 2:30 p.m. Starz Tues., February 27, 9:30 p.m.
Rounders (1998) Matt Damon, Edward Norton. The release of his debt-ridden pal from jail spurs a law student to resume high-stakes gambling. (R) 2 hrs. Starz Fri., March 2, 11:30 a.m. Starz Thur., March 1, 7:30 p.m.
Royal Hearts (2018) Cindy Busby, James Brolin. Montana rancher Hank learns that he's the last heir of the late King of Merania and has inherited the throne. His daughter Kelly convinces the reluctant royal to step in as king so the country can keep its independence. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Hallmark Sun., February 25, 6:30 p.m. Hallmark Sat., March 3, 7 p.m.
A Royal Winter (2017) Merritt Patterson, Jack Donnelly. A woman flees to Europe for some soul searching and meets a handsome playboy prince who exposes her to a world she has never before known. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Hallmark Sat., March 3, 1 p.m.
Rudy (1993) Sean Astin, Ned Beatty. With heart and determination an Illinois youth tackles shortcomings to play Notre Dame football. (PG) 1 hr. 53 mins. Starz Sat., March 3, 8 a.m.
Ruggles of Red Gap (1935) Charles Laughton, Mary Boland. Old West Americans win an earl's butler in a Paris poker game and bring him home. (NR) 1 hr. 32 mins. TCM Sun., March 4, 5 a.m.
Rumor Has It ... (2005) Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Costner. A woman sets out to find the truth after learning that the movie ``The Graduate'' may have been based on her family. (PG-13) 1 hr. 37 mins. POP Thur., March 1, 12 a.m. POP Wed., February 28, 9:30 a.m.
Run the Tide (2016) Taylor Lautner, Constance Zimmer. When his drug-addicted mother leaves prison, a man kidnaps his younger brother and flees to the California coast for a better life. (PG-13) 1 hr. 40 mins. EPIX Tues., February 27, 12:30 p.m.
Rush Hour 3 (2007) Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker. The assassination of a Chinese ambassador reunites Lee and Carter, who tangle with Triad gangsters in France. (PG-13) 1 hr. 31 mins. BET Fri., March 2, 7:30 p.m. BET Sat., March 3, 11 a.m.
Rush Hour (1998) Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker. A Hong Kong detective and a wisecracking L.A.P.D. detective choose to work together to find the missing daughter of a Chinese diplomat. (PG-13) 1 hr. 38 mins. BET Fri., March 2, 5 p.m. BET Thur., March 1, 7:30 p.m.
Rush: Time Stand Still (2016) Narrated by Paul Rudd, Geddy Lee. Rush grants filmmakers exclusive behind-the-scenes access and candid interviews as their final tour comes to a crescendo in Los Angeles. (NR) 1 hr. 37 mins. TMC Sat., March 3, 1 p.m. ------------ S Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
Saban's Power Rangers (2017) Dacre Montgomery, Naomi Scott. Teenagers who have been chosen to protect the world from aliens do it by morphing into superheroes and piloting giant robots. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 4 mins. EPIX Sun., February 25, 7 a.m. EPIX Sun., February 25, 1 p.m.
Safe Haven (2013) Josh Duhamel, Julianne Hough. Dark secrets intrude on the blossoming romance between a widowed merchant and a new arrival in a small North Carolina town. (PG-13) 1 hr. 55 mins. USA Tues., February 27, 6:30 a.m.
Salt (2010) Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber. After a defector accuses her of spying for the Russians, a CIA officer goes on the run and tries to come up with a way to establish her innocence. (PG-13) 1 hr. 40 mins. Syfy Sat., March 3, 4 p.m.
San Andreas (2015) Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino. When the San Andreas fault triggers a magnitude 9 earthquake, a search-and-rescue helicopter pilot must navigate the destruction from Los Angeles to San Francisco to bring his estranged wife and daughter to safety. (PG-13) 1 hr. 54 mins. TNT Sun., February 25, 7:30 p.m.
Saved! (2004) Jena Malone, Mandy Moore. A student at a Baptist school faces ostracism and demonization after becoming pregnant. (PG-13) 1 hr. 32 mins. EPIX Wed., February 28, 3 a.m.
Saving Mr. Banks (2013) Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks. Walt Disney pulls out all the stops to get the movie rights to ``Mary Poppins'' from its prickly author, P.L. Travers. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 5 mins. TNT Sun., March 4, 12 a.m.
Saving Private Ryan (1998) Tom Hanks, Edward Burns. A World War II captain and his squad risk all to locate and send home a soldier whose three brothers died in combat. (R) 2 hrs. 49 mins. Encore Sat., March 3, 7 p.m.
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead. After meeting the gal of his dreams, a charming slacker must contend with an army of her ex-boyfriends, wanting to get rid of him. (PG-13) 1 hr. 52 mins. HBO Tues., February 27, 12 p.m.
Scream (1996) Neve Campbell, David Arquette. A psycho killer targets a past victim's daughter, while a tabloid TV reporter homes in on his identity. (R) 1 hr. 51 mins. IFC Mon., February 26, 1 a.m. IFC Sun., February 25, 7 a.m.
Scrooged (1988) Bill Murray, Karen Allen. A ruthless TV-network chief meets the ghosts of Christmases past, present and yet to come. (PG-13) 1 hr. 41 mins. Encore Fri., March 2, 9:30 a.m. Encore Thur., March 1, 12 p.m. Encore Thur., March 1, 7 p.m.
Season of the Witch (2011) Nicolas Cage, Ron Perlman. Knights escort an accused witch to a remote abbey, where monks will perform a ritual in the hope of ending the pestilence ravaging Europe. (PG-13) 1 hr. 35 mins. Syfy Tues., February 27, 2 p.m. Syfy Wed., February 28, 11:30 a.m.
Secret Window (2004) Johnny Depp, John Turturro. Mysterious events plague a troubled author after a menacing stranger accuses him of plagiarism. (PG-13) 1 hr. 35 mins. KCOP Sat., March 3, 12:30 p.m.
Seraphim Falls (2006) Liam Neeson, Pierce Brosnan. In 1868 a determined hunter and four hired gunmen relentlessly pursue an injured man across Nevada. (R) 1 hr. 55 mins. TMC Wed., February 28, 12:30 a.m.
Serendipity (2001) John Cusack, Kate Beckinsale. A man and a woman try to find each other after spending one night together 10 years earlier. (PG-13) 1 hr. 30 mins. Cinemax Thur., March 1, 9:30 a.m. HBO Tues., February 27, 6:30 a.m.
Se7en (1995) Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman. A meticulous detective and the young officer about to replace the veteran probe serial murders based on the seven deadly sins. (R) 2 hrs. 5 mins. Sundance Sun., February 25, 1:30 p.m.
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) Howard Keel, Jane Powell. When an Oregon trapper decides to marry, his six rowdy brothers aim to follow suit, though not one has a sweetheart yet. (G) 1 hr. 43 mins. TCM Sun., February 25, 1 p.m.
Seventh Son (2014) Jeff Bridges, Julianne Moore. A supernatural champion has little time to train a new apprentice for a battle against a malevolent and vengeful witch. (PG-13) 1 hr. 42 mins. Syfy Sat., March 3, 2 a.m. Syfy Sat., March 3, 7:30 a.m.
Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989) James Spader, Andie MacDowell. An impotent man with a video camera visits a yuppie lawyer who has both a wife and a lover. (R) 1 hr. 41 mins. TMC Wed., February 28, 3 p.m.
Sex Tape (2014) Cameron Diaz, Jason Segel. Married for a decade, a couple decide to record themselves in all the positions of ``The Joy of Sex,'' then they panic when they discover that their most intimate moments have gone public via the Internet. (R) 1 hr. 34 mins. FXX Sun., February 25, 9 a.m.
Shaft (2000) Samuel L. Jackson, Vanessa L. Williams. A detective and a narcotics cop track a sociopath out to kill a woman who can testify that he committed murder. (R) 1 hr. 38 mins. Encore Mon., February 26, 12:30 a.m. Encore Mon., February 26, 5 p.m.
The Shallows (2016) Blake Lively, scar Jaenada. Stranded on a giant rock 200 yards from shore, an injured surfer must fight for her life as a great white shark circles her in its feeding ground. (PG-13) 1 hr. 27 mins. Encore Tues., February 27, 6 a.m. Encore Tues., February 27, 5:30 p.m. Starz Thur., March 1, 4 p.m.
Shanghai Noon (2000) Jackie Chan, Owen Wilson. A Chinese Imperial Guardsman teams up with a robber to rescue a princess, taken to the Old West by the guard's former captain. (PG-13) 1 hr. 50 mins. A&E Sun., February 25, 9 a.m.
Shark Lake (2015) Dolph Lundgren, Sara Malakul Lane. A policewoman and a biologist spring into action when sharks go on a deadly rampage in Lake Tahoe. (NR) 1 hr. 32 mins. KCOP Sun., February 25, 2 p.m.
Shooter (2007) Mark Wahlberg, Michael Pea. Reluctantly pressed into service again, a former military sniper plots revenge against his powerful foes after being betrayed and wounded. (R) 2 hrs. 6 mins. PARMOUNT Wed., February 28, 7 p.m. USA Thur., March 1, 6 p.m. USA Thur., March 1, 10 p.m.
Short Circuit 2 (1988) Fisher Stevens, Michael McKean. Harmless military robot No. 5 goes to the city, where people see him as a marketable novelty item. (PG) 1 hr. 50 mins. OVA Sun., February 25, 11 a.m.
Short Circuit (1986) Ally Sheedy, Steve Guttenberg. After a lightning bolt gives it human emotions and intelligence, a military robot escapes and finds refuge at the home of an animal-loving pacifist. (PG) 1 hr. 38 mins. OVA Sun., February 25, 9 a.m.
Shrek (2001) Voices of Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy. Animated. In order to save his home, a monster with a donkey makes a deal with a mean lord to rescue a beautiful princess. (PG) 1 hr. 29 mins. TNT Sat., March 3, 6 p.m.
Sicario (2015) Emily Blunt, Benicio Del Toro. Members of a government task force travel back-and-forth across the U.S.-Mexican border, using one cartel boss to flush out a bigger one. (R) 2 hrs. 1 mins. EPIX Mon., February 26, 10 a.m. EPIX Mon., February 26, 5:30 p.m. EPIX Sun., February 25, 9:30 p.m.
Silence (2016) Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver. Two 17th-century Portuguese missionaries face the ultimate test of faith when they travel to Japan to find their missing mentor. (R) 2 hrs. 41 mins. EPIX Thur., March 1, 8 a.m. EPIX Thur., March 1, 2 p.m. EPIX Wed., February 28, 8 p.m.
Sinister (2012) Ethan Hawke, Vincent D'Onofrio. A true-crime novelist and his family become the targets of a supernatural entity when he uses found footage to unravel the murders of his home's previous occupants. (R) 1 hr. 49 mins. Syfy Tues., February 27, 12:30 a.m.
Sister (2014) Barbara Hershey, Reid Scott. After Susan is tragically widowed, she can no longer care for Nikki, her delinquent daughter. Nikki is sent to live with her brother Billy, and the two begin forging a healthy bond until her mental troubles persist. (NR) 1 hr. 53 mins. TMC Thur., March 1, 7 a.m. TMC Thur., March 1, 4 p.m.
Six Degrees of Separation (1993) Stockard Channing, Will Smith. Married New Yorkers question the motives of an overnight guest who pretends to be someone else. (R) 1 hr. 51 mins. EPIX Sun., March 4, 2 a.m.
Sleepless in Seattle (1993) Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan. A recently engaged newswoman becomes obsessed with meeting a grieving widower she heard on a late-night radio call-in show. (PG) 1 hr. 44 mins. KCOP Sun., February 25, 11:30 p.m. POP Mon., February 26, 10:30 p.m. POP Tues., February 27, 8 p.m.
Sleepless (2017) Jamie Foxx, Michelle Monaghan. An undercover Las Vegas police officer must race against time to save his kidnapped son from a crew of murderous gangsters. (R) 1 hr. 35 mins. Showtime Mon., February 26, 5:30 p.m. Showtime Tues., February 27, 3 a.m.
Slow Burn (2005) Ray Liotta, LL Cool J. A district attorney must sort out conflicting stories when his assistant DA and sometime lover claims that the dead man in her bed tried to rape her, but a witness tells a different tale. (R) 1 hr. 33 mins. TMC Sun., February 25, 6 p.m. TMC Wed., February 28, 1:30 p.m.
Smilin' Through (1932) Norma Shearer, Leslie Howard. A Victorian Englishman's niece and her suitor resemble his long-dead bride and tragic rival. (NR) 1 hr. 37 mins. TCM Thur., March 1, 4:30 a.m.
Smoke Signals (1998) Adam Beach, Evan Adams. A geeky American Indian travels from Idaho to Phoenix with a stoic companion whose father died. (PG-13) 1 hr. 28 mins. TMC Sun., February 25, 9 a.m.
Snakes on a Plane (2006) Samuel L. Jackson, Kenan Thompson. An FBI agent must contend with a swarm of deadly serpents that have been released aboard an airliner to kill the witness he is escorting to trial. (R) 1 hr. 45 mins. BET Sat., March 3, 10 p.m.
Sniper: Legacy (2014) Tom Berenger, Chad Michael Collins. After several military leaders are assassinated, Brandon hears his father was one of the people killed. As he hunts the killers, Brandon learns his father is not dead, and he is being used as bait. (R) 1 hr. 35 mins. TMC Fri., March 2, 12:30 p.m.
Sniper 3 (2004) Tom Berenger, Denis Arndt. Hired to kill a suspected terrorist, a sniper learns his target is an old friend. (R) 1 hr. 30 mins. TMC Fri., March 2, 3 p.m.
Snowden (2016) Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley. Former CIA employee Edward Snowden becomes a fugitive after leaking classified information from the National Security Agency. (R) 2 hrs. 14 mins. TMC Sun., February 25, 11 p.m. TMC Wed., February 28, 9 a.m.
Solace (2015) Anthony Hopkins, Colin Farrell. A psychic and a federal agent hunt a serial killer. (R) 1 hr. 41 mins. EPIX Thur., March 1, 11 a.m.
The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010) Nicolas Cage, Jay Baruchel. A wizard trains a reluctant protege in the art of magic to help him protect Manhattan from a powerful adversary. (PG) 1 hr. 48 mins. Freeform Fri., March 2, 5 p.m. Freeform Sat., March 3, 8:30 a.m.
Soul Men (2008) Samuel L. Jackson, Bernie Mac. Old animosities re-emerge when two estranged singers travel cross-country to perform in a tribute concert for their late band leader. (R) 1 hr. 40 mins. BET Sat., March 3, 1 p.m.
Sounder (1972) Cicely Tyson, Paul Winfield. A sharecropper's wife keeps the family together after he goes to prison in 1930s Louisiana. (G) 1 hr. 45 mins. TCM Thur., March 1, 3 p.m.
Southland Tales (2006) Dwayne Johnson, Seann William Scott. In a dystopian future, the destinies of four people become intertwined with all of mankind as new technology threatens to destroy the world. (R) 2 hrs. 24 mins. TMC Tues., February 27, 2 p.m.
Spaceballs (1987) Mel Brooks, John Candy. President Skroob pits evil Dark Helmet against Lone Starr and the half-man, half-dog Barf. (PG) 1 hr. 32 mins. IFC Fri., March 2, 3:30 a.m. IFC Fri., March 2, 9 a.m. IFC Thur., March 1, 1 p.m. IFC Tues., February 27, 11:30 a.m. IFC Tues., February 27, 7 a.m. IFC Wed., February 28, 3:30 a.m.
The Space Between Us (2017) Gary Oldman, Asa Butterfield. On his maiden voyage to Earth, the first human born on Mars experiences the joys and wonders of a new world while trying to unravel the mysteries of his existence. (PG-13) 2 hrs. Showtime Fri., March 2, 7 p.m.
Space Cowboys (2000) Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones. Four aging astronauts who never made it into space agree to go up and repair a 1950s satellite. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 9 mins. Cinemax Tues., February 27, 3:30 a.m.
Space Jam (1996) Michael Jordan, Wayne Knight. Live action/animated. Bugs Bunny recruits NBA star Michael Jordan to help the good Looney Tunes squad take on the bad Monstars in a basketball game. (PG) 1 hr. 27 mins. VH1 Fri., March 2, 2 a.m. VH1 Fri., March 2, 4:30 p.m.
Speed (1994) Keanu Reeves, Dennis Hopper. A SWAT team ace must keep the speed of a Santa Monica bus above 50 mph, or a madman's bomb will explode. (R) 1 hr. 55 mins. Cinemax Fri., March 2, 11:30 p.m. Cinemax Fri., March 2, 8 p.m.
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) Tom Holland, Michael Keaton. Under the watchful eye of mentor Tony Stark, high school student Peter Parker starts to embrace his newfound identity as Spider-Man to battle the evil Vulture. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 13 mins. Starz Tues., February 27, 11:30 p.m. Starz Wed., February 28, 11 a.m. Starz Wed., February 28, 9 p.m. Starz Sat., March 3, 6 a.m. Starz Sat., March 3, 5:30 p.m.
Spider-Man 3 (2007) Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst. Peter Parker undergoes an ominous transformation when his Spider-Man suit turns black and brings out the dark, vengeful side of his personality. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 19 mins. Syfy Sun., February 25, 8 a.m. Syfy Wed., February 28, 1:30 p.m.
The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004) Voices of Tom Kenny, Bill Fagerbakke. Animated. SpongeBob and Patrick head for Shell City to retrieve King Neptune's stolen crown and save the life of Mr. Krabs. (PG) 1 hr. 27 mins. Nickelodeon Mon., February 26, 8 p.m.
Spring Breakdown (2009) Parker Posey, Amy Poehler. Three 30-something gal pals shake up their tragically unsophisticated lives with a vacation to a South Padre Island hot spot for the college crowd. (R) 1 hr. 24 mins. Cinemax Thur., March 1, 8:30 a.m.
The Spy Next Door (2010) Jackie Chan, Amber Valletta. A CIA operative must protect his girlfriend's children from a Russian terrorist after one kid mistakenly downloads a top-secret formula. (PG) 1 hr. 32 mins. EPIX Wed., February 28, 4:30 a.m.
Stage Door (1937) Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers. New York chorus girls room at a theatrical boardinghouse while waiting for their big break. (NR) 1 hr. 32 mins. TCM Thur., March 1, 6 a.m.
Stalked by My Ex (2017) Yves Bright, Tamara Braun. After learning that her abusive ex-husband is about to be released from prison, a woman flees with her teenage daughter back to her old hometown. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Lifetime Sun., February 25, 10 p.m. Lifetime Mon., February 26, 2 a.m.
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy. Kirk, Spock and the Enterprise crew battle an old foe who blames Kirk for the death of his wife. (PG) 1 hr. 53 mins. Encore Sat., March 3, 5 p.m.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy. Adm. Kirk, Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy and crew embark in the overhauled Enterprise to find an intelligent entity called VGER. (G) 2 hrs. 12 mins. Encore Sat., March 3, 2:30 p.m. Encore Sun., March 4, 4 a.m.
Star Trek (2009) Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto. Young James T. Kirk, Spock and the rest of the Enterprise crew embark on a collision course with a vengeful Romulan. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 6 mins. EPIX Mon., February 26, 11:30 p.m. EPIX Tues., February 27, 5:30 p.m. EPIX Tues., February 27, 9:30 a.m.
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (2005) Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman. Seduced by the dark side, Anakin Skywalker turns against his mentor, Obi-Wan Kenobi and becomes Darth Vader. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 20 mins. TNT Mon., February 26, 6 p.m.
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999) Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor. As an enemy threatens the peaceful Galactic Republic, 9-year-old Anakin Skywalker comes under the tutelage of young Obi-Wan Kenobi and Jedi master Qui-Gon Jinn. (PG) 2 hrs. 13 mins. TNT Mon., February 26, 3 p.m.
Steel Magnolias (1989) Sally Field, Dolly Parton. Based on the play about six Southern women who become close friends despite their eccentricities and complicated lives. (PG) 1 hr. 58 mins. OVA Mon., February 26, 10 p.m. OVA Sun., February 25, 1:30 p.m. OVA Tues., February 27, 6 p.m.
Step Brothers (2008) Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly. Two lazy, immature men become rivals when the marriage of one's mother and the other's father forces them to live as siblings in the same house. (R) 1 hr. 35 mins. TNT Wed., February 28, 2 a.m.
The Stepford Wives (2004) Nicole Kidman, Matthew Broderick. A man and his wife move to a quaint suburb where most of the women seem to have the same bland personality. (PG-13) 1 hr. 33 mins. Showtime Sat., March 3, 9:30 a.m.
Stigmata (1999) Patricia Arquette, Gabriel Byrne. An atheist's visions and manifestations of wounds like those of the crucified Christ prompt the Vatican to send an investigator. (R) 1 hr. 43 mins. Starz Fri., March 2, 9 a.m. Starz Thur., March 1, 10:30 p.m.
Storm in a Teacup (1937) Vivien Leigh, Rex Harrison. A Scottish magistrate's daughter falls for a reporter who makes her father's dog decree big news. (NR) 1 hr. 27 mins. KCET Fri., March 2, 10:30 p.m.
Straight Outta Compton (2015) O'Shea Jackson Jr., Corey Hawkins. In 1988, N.W.A revolutionizes music and pop culture with their brutally honest depiction of life in Southern Los Angeles. (R) 2 hrs. 27 mins. FX Thur., March 1, 6:30 p.m. FX Thur., March 1, 11:30 p.m.
Strange Days (1995) Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett. A black-marketeer who sells virtual-reality experiences tries to save his ex-flame from a sadistic gangster in 1999 Los Angeles. (R) 2 hrs. 25 mins. Cinemax Sun., February 25, 5 p.m.
Strange Magic (2015) Voices of Alan Cumming, Evan Rachel Wood. Animated. A king who hates love orders the destruction of primroses, an essential ingredient of love potions; however, a feisty fairy princess challenges everything he believes. (PG) 1 hr. 39 mins. Disney Sat., March 3, 8 p.m.
Stretch and Bobbito: Radio That Changed Lives (2015) Common, El-P. In the 1990s, Stretch and Bobbito became unlikely legends of hip-hop radio. With a blend of offbeat humor and fresh music, the late-night program introduced the world to artists like Nas, Wu-Tang and Eminem. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. TMC Wed., February 28, 4 a.m.
Stripes (1981) Bill Murray, Harold Ramis. A lazy New York cabby quits his job and convinces his bored buddy they should join the Army. (R) 1 hr. 45 mins. Encore Thur., March 1, 10 a.m. Encore Thur., March 1, 10:30 p.m.
Sugar Daddies (2014) Taylor Gildersleeve, Peter Strauss. Kara, a bright college student, enters into a murky arrangement with Grant, a 55-year-old man. She exchanges favors for money and tries to keep their relationship a secret until her two worlds collide, causing damage to her family and future. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Lifetime Sun., February 25, 12 p.m.
Suicide Squad (2016) Will Smith, Jared Leto. Deadshot, Harley Quinn, Captain Boomerang, Killer Croc and other armed supervillains unite to battle a mysterious and powerful entity, while the diabolical Joker launches an evil agenda of his own. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 3 mins. HBO Wed., February 28, 5 p.m.
Sully (2016) Tom Hanks, Aaron Eckhart. After landing US Airways Flight 1549 in New York's Hudson River, Capt. Chesley ``Sully'' Sullenberger faces an investigation that threatens to destroy his career and reputation. (PG-13) 1 hr. 36 mins. Cinemax Mon., February 26, 1 p.m.
Summer of Dreams (2016) Debbie Gibson, Robert Gant. A fading pop star who is on the verge of losing everything finds inspiration when she relocates to suburban Ohio and begins teaching music to a talented group of misfit children. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Hallmark Fri., March 2, 6 p.m.
The Sundowners (1960) Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum. Irish sheepherders roam with their son and helper, making a living in 1920s Australia. (NR) 2 hrs. 13 mins. TCM Tues., February 27, 9:30 a.m.
Super 8 (2011) Kyle Chandler, Elle Fanning. A series of unexplained events follows a horrifying train derailment, leading some young filmmakers to suspect that the catastrophe was not an accident. (PG-13) 1 hr. 52 mins. FX Mon., February 26, 2:30 p.m. FX Tues., February 27, 9 a.m.
Superhero Movie (2008) Drake Bell, Sara Paxton. A teenage loser transforms into a caped crusader when a bite from a genetically altered bug gives him superhuman abilities. (PG-13) 1 hr. 25 mins. Showtime Mon., February 26, 7 a.m.
S.W.A.T. (2003) Samuel L. Jackson, Colin Farrell. A Los Angeles Special Weapons and Tactics team must protect a criminal after he offers $100 million to his prospective rescuers. (PG-13) 1 hr. 56 mins. Cinemax Tues., February 27, 4 p.m. ------------ T Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
Table 19 (2017) Anna Kendrick, Craig Robinson. Dumped by the best man, an ex-maid of honor must sit with a group of strangers during her friend's wedding reception. (PG-13) 1 hr. 27 mins. Cinemax Tues., February 27, 10:30 a.m.
The Talk of the Town (1942) Cary Grant, Jean Arthur. A framed anarchist hides out with a schoolteacher whose other tenant teaches law. (NR) 1 hr. 58 mins. TCM Mon., February 26, 9 a.m.
Tango & Cash (1989) Sylvester Stallone, Kurt Russell. Framed and sent to prison, rival Los Angeles police detectives must work together to clear themselves. (R) 1 hr. 44 mins. OVA Thur., March 1, 4 p.m.
Taxi (2004) Queen Latifah, Jimmy Fallon. A bumbling policeman enlists the aid of a skillful cabdriver to chase Brazilian bank robbers through New York. (PG-13) 1 hr. 37 mins. Cinemax Mon., February 26, 4:30 p.m.
Ted 2 (2015) Mark Wahlberg, Voice of Seth MacFarlane. Teddy bear Ted seeks legal help from a young lawyer and a legendary, civil-rights attorney when the law declares him to be property and not a person. (R) 1 hr. 55 mins. FXX Tues., February 27, 5:30 p.m. FXX Wed., February 28, 2 p.m.
Ted (2012) Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis. Thirty years after his childhood wish brought his beloved teddy bear to life, a man's close attachment to the talking toy prevents him from making the emotional leap from boyhood to adulthood. (R) 1 hr. 46 mins. FXX Tues., February 27, 2:30 p.m. FXX Wed., February 28, 11:30 a.m.
Tekken: Kazuya's Revenge (2014) Gary Daniels, Kane Kosugi. A criminal organization kidnaps a young man with amnesia and turns him into a ruthless assassin. (NR) 1 hr. 29 mins. TMC Tues., February 27, 4:30 p.m.
10 Things I Hate About You (1999) Heath Ledger, Julia Stiles. A pretty, popular student can't date until her rebellious older sister gets a suitor of her own. (PG-13) 1 hr. 37 mins. Bravo Sat., March 3, 3 p.m. Bravo Sun., March 4, 1 a.m.
Terminator Genisys (2015) Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Clarke. Kyle Reese goes back to 1984 to save Sarah Connor and emerges in an alternate timeline in which Sarah has been raised as a warrior by a Terminator guardian. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 6 mins. FX Sun., February 25, 2 p.m.
Terminator Salvation (2009) Christian Bale, Sam Worthington. As the machines prepare for a final attack, John Connor and a mysterious stranger delve into the heart of Skynet and uncover a terrible secret involving the annihilation of mankind. (PG-13) 1 hr. 56 mins. HBO Sat., March 3, 4 p.m.
Test Pilot (1938) Clark Gable, Myrna Loy. A famous test pilot meets his dream-girl after making a forced landing in a Kansas cornfield. (NR) 1 hr. 58 mins. TCM Mon., February 26, 2:30 a.m.
That's My Boy (2012) Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg. A groom's world comes crashing down when his estranged father | who is desperate to reconnect with his son | shows up on the eve of the young man's wedding. (R) 1 hr. 56 mins. FXX Sun., February 25, 11 a.m.
Thelma & Louise (1991) Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis. An Arkansas waitress and a housewife shoot a rapist and take off in a '66 Thunderbird. (R) 2 hrs. 9 mins. EPIX Sat., March 3, 1 a.m.
They're Out of the Business (2011) Eric Schaeffer, Donal Lardner Ward. A decade after their friendship fell apart, indie filmmakers Splick and Jason grapple with mid-life crises due to stalled careers and relationships. (NR) 1 hr. 29 mins. TMC Sat., March 3, 1 a.m.
Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead (1995) Andy Garcia, Christopher Lloyd. Five former criminals are targeted for death when a simple extortion scheme for a paralyzed mobster goes awry. (R) 1 hr. 54 mins. Encore Wed., February 28, 5 p.m.
The Thing (1982) Kurt Russell, A. Wilford Brimley. Antarctic outpost men fight a slimy alien able to assume the form of life it engulfs. (R) 1 hr. 48 mins. Encore Sun., March 4, 12:30 a.m. Starz Mon., February 26, 12:30 a.m. Starz Mon., February 26, 4 p.m.
The Thin Man (1934) William Powell, Myrna Loy. Sophisticated Nick and Nora Charles solve a murder mystery with their wire-haired terrier, Asta. (NR) 1 hr. 33 mins. TCM Sun., February 25, 9 a.m.
The Thin Red Line (1998) Sean Penn, Adrien Brody. The men of Charlie Company try to take Guadalcanal Island from the Japanese in World War II. (R) 2 hrs. 50 mins. Cinemax Sun., February 25, 10 p.m.
This Christmas (2007) Delroy Lindo, Idris Elba. A matriarch assembles her brood for their first holiday reunion in four years, but secrets come to light and family ties become strained. (PG-13) 1 hr. 57 mins. BET Mon., February 26, 9:30 p.m. BET Tues., February 27, 7 p.m.
This Is the End (2013) James Franco, Jonah Hill. Cabin fever and dwindling supplies threaten to tear apart six friends who are trapped in a house together after cataclysmic events devastate Los Angeles. (R) 1 hr. 47 mins. FXX Sun., February 25, 1 p.m.
The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) Steve McQueen, Faye Dunaway. The mastermind of a Boston bank caper falls in love with the insurance sleuth on his trail. (R) 1 hr. 42 mins. EPIX Mon., February 26, 6:30 a.m.
Thor: The Dark World (2013) Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman. Thor forms an alliance with treacherous Loki to save Earth and the Nine Realms from an ancient enemy that predates the universe itself. (PG-13) 1 hr. 51 mins. FX Tues., February 27, 7:30 p.m. FX Wed., February 28, 4:30 p.m.
300: Rise of an Empire (2014) Sullivan Stapleton, Eva Green. Greek Gen. Themistocles leads the charge to fight invading Persian forces led by the god Xerxes | once a mortal | and Artemisia. (R) 1 hr. 43 mins. TNT Sun., February 25, 5 p.m.
The Three Musketeers (2011) Matthew MacFadyen, Milla Jovovich. A young swordsman joins three of France's finest warriors in a quest to foil a plot against the crown. (PG-13) 1 hr. 50 mins. Freeform Sat., March 3, 6:30 a.m.
Tin Cup (1996) Kevin Costner, Rene Russo. A curvy customer and a smarmy golf-pro pal motivate a down-and-out Texas driving-range owner to try for the U.S. Open. (R) 2 hrs. 13 mins. Cinemax Sat., March 3, 9:30 a.m.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) Gary Oldman, Kathy Burke. Called back from retirement, veteran British spy George Smiley must ferret out a mole in MI6, who has been feeding vital information to the Soviets. (R) 2 hrs. 7 mins. Showtime Thur., March 1, 7 a.m.
Tommy's Honour (2016) Peter Mullan, Jack Lowden. Tom and Tommy Morris, father and son pioneers of professional golf, relied on skill, business acumen and working-class street smarts to make Tommy one of the world's first sports superstars and found the modern game of golf. (PG) 1 hr. 52 mins. EPIX Mon., February 26, 12 p.m.
Too Many Highballs (1933) Lloyd Hamilton, Marjorie Beebe. A man lies to his wife to go to a boxing match. (NR) 20 mins. TCM Sun., March 4, 3:30 a.m.
Tooth Fairy (2010) Dwayne Johnson, Ashley Judd. As penance for dashing a child's hopes, a rough-and-tumble hockey player must serve time as a genuine tooth fairy. (PG) 1 hr. 42 mins. Freeform Sun., February 25, 12:30 p.m.
Tootsie (1982) Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange. The Oscar-winning tale of a temperamental actor who becomes a sensation while posing as a woman on a hit TV soap opera. (PG) 1 hr. 56 mins. Encore Sat., March 3, 4 a.m.
Top Gun (1986) Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis. A hot-shot Navy jet pilot tangles with MiGs and flirts with a civilian astrophysicist. (PG) 1 hr. 49 mins. Starz Tues., February 27, 12 a.m. Starz Tues., February 27, 9 a.m.
Top Hat (1935) Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers. A woman believes that an enamored dancer is her best friend's husband. (NR) 1 hr. 39 mins. TCM Sun., February 25, 7 a.m.
Torn Curtain (1966) Paul Newman, Julie Andrews. A top U.S. physicist defects to East Germany seeking information about Soviet nuclear missiles. (PG) 2 hrs. 8 mins. Encore Mon., February 26, 11 a.m. Encore Mon., February 26, 8:30 p.m.
Toxic Shark (2017) Christina Masterson, Kabby Borders. A monstrous, acid-spewing shark stalks an island retreat. (NR) 1 hr. 27 mins. Syfy Fri., March 2, 6 a.m.
Traffic Stop (2017) A 26-year-old teacher from Austin, Texas, is violently arrested during a routine traffic stop. (NR) 30 mins. HBO Sun., February 25, 12 p.m. HBO Tues., February 27, 4:30 p.m.
Trainwreck (2015) Amy Schumer, Bill Hader. A promiscuous magazine writer considers monogamy for the first time when she starts to fall in love with the charming sports doctor she's profiling. (R) 2 hrs. 5 mins. FX Fri., March 2, 3 p.m. FX Sat., March 3, 1 a.m.
Transpecos (2016) Gabriel Luna, Johnny Simmons. For three U.S. Border Patrol agents, the contents of one car reveal an insidious plot within their own ranks; the next 24 hours may cost them their lives. (NR) 1 hr. 26 mins. EPIX Thur., March 1, 3 a.m.
The Transporter (2002) Jason Statham, Shu Qi. A mercenary changes his mind-set after the package he is supposed to deliver turns out to be a gagged woman. (PG-13) 1 hr. 32 mins. USA Mon., February 26, 1 a.m.
Transporter 3 (2008) Jason Statham, Natalya Rudakova. Mob courier Frank Martin and the subject of his assignment, a cynical Ukrainian woman, are fitted with shackles that will explode if they wander too far from his car. (PG-13) 1 hr. 45 mins. TMC Sun., February 25, 12 p.m. TMC Sun., February 25, 10 p.m.
Transporter 2 (2005) Jason Statham, Amber Valletta. A former Special Forces operative springs into action to save the kidnapped son of an anti-drug czar. (PG-13) 1 hr. 28 mins. PARMOUNT Thur., March 1, 1:30 a.m.
Trouble No More (2017) Bob Dylan, Michael Shannon. Bob Dylan performs gospel music during his 1980 tour. (NR) Cinemax Mon., February 26, 10 p.m.
True Lies (1994) Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis. A Washington wife discovers her computer-salesman husband is a spy out to stop nuclear terrorists. (R) 2 hrs. 21 mins. AMC Wed., February 28, 1 p.m. AMC Wed., February 28, 1:30 a.m.
T2 Trainspotting (2017) Ewan McGregor, Jonny Lee Miller. Mark Renton reunites with old buddies Spud, Sick Boy and Begbie after returning to the only place that he can ever call home. (R) 1 hr. 57 mins. Starz Mon., February 26, 5:30 a.m. Starz Tues., February 27, 2 a.m. Starz Tues., February 27, 4 p.m.
12 Rounds (2009) John Cena, Aidan Gillen. A cop must navigate through an elaborate series of traps and puzzles to save his kidnapped fiancee from a vengeful criminal. (PG-13) 1 hr. 48 mins. HBO Fri., March 2, 6 a.m.
12 Years a Slave (2013) Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender. In the pre-Civil War United States, Solomon Northup, a free black man of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., is kidnapped and sold into slavery to a malevolent owner in the South. (R) 2 hrs. 14 mins. BET Sun., February 25, 12:30 p.m.
25th Hour (2002) Edward Norton, Philip Seymour Hoffman. The day before he begins a prison sentence, a New York drug dealer spends time with his father and friends. (R) 2 hrs. 14 mins. Showtime Sun., February 25, 12 p.m.
22 Jump Street (2014) Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum. Officers Jenko and Schmidt begin to question their partnership after each infiltrates different cliques while undercover at a local college. (R) 1 hr. 52 mins. FX Sat., March 3, 5 p.m.
2012 (2009) John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor. A man tries to lead his family to safety, as the world collapses around them. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 38 mins. Starz Sat., March 3, 8 p.m.
Two Weeks Notice (2002) Sandra Bullock, Hugh Grant. A millionaire confronts his feelings for his lawyer, who is quitting after five years of service. (PG-13) 1 hr. 41 mins. OVA Wed., February 28, 4 p.m. ------------ U Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
U-571 (2000) Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton. American servicemen sneak aboard a disabled German sub to steal an encryption device they hope will help the Allies win the war. (PG-13) 1 hr. 56 mins. Showtime Thur., March 1, 8 p.m. Showtime Fri., March 2, 1 a.m.
Ultraviolet (2006) Milla Jovovich, Cameron Bright. As worldwide civil war looms, a superhuman woman becomes the protector of a boy who is perceived as a threat to humanity. (PG-13) 1 hr. 28 mins. Encore Mon., February 26, 4 a.m.
Uncle Buck (1989) John Candy, Amy Madigan. Chicago parents in a pinch have a bachelor uncle baby-sit their teenage daughter and little ones. (PG) 1 hr. 40 mins. AMC Fri., March 2, 2 p.m. AMC Thur., March 1, 5:30 p.m.
Under Siege (1992) Steven Seagal, Tommy Lee Jones. Two military madmen hijack a nuclear-armed Navy battleship with a SEAL commando on board as a cook. (R) 1 hr. 42 mins. AMC Tues., February 27, 11 p.m. AMC Tues., February 27, 5 p.m.
Undertow (2004) Jamie Bell, Josh Lucas. In possession of gold coins, a teenager and his sickly brother flee from their violent uncle. (R) 1 hr. 47 mins. TMC Mon., February 26, 11 a.m.
Underworld: Awakening (2012) Kate Beckinsale, Stephen Rea. Vampire warrior Selene escapes from her long imprisonment to find that humans have discovered the existence of vampires and lycans and are trying to wipe them out. (R) 1 hr. 29 mins. IFC Sun., March 4, 12 a.m.
Underworld: Evolution (2006) Kate Beckinsale, Scott Speedman. Vampire warrior Selene and her werewolf lover trace the origins of the ancient feud between their races. (R) 1 hr. 45 mins. IFC Sat., March 3, 7 p.m. Syfy Thur., March 1, 1:30 a.m. Syfy Wed., February 28, 4:30 p.m.
Unleashing Mr. Darcy (2016) Ryan Paevey, Cindy Busby. When Elizabeth decides to show her dog in competition, she clashes with the arrogant, complicated judge Donovan Darcy. (NR) Hallmark Fri., March 2, 8 p.m.
Urge (2015) Justin Chatwin, Ashley Greene. An island getaway turns deadly when a mysterious nightclub owner introduces a group of friends to a drug that can't be taken more than one time. (NR) 1 hr. 25 mins. EPIX Wed., February 28, 1:30 a.m.
U.S. Marshals (1998) Tommy Lee Jones, Wesley Snipes. A chief deputy and his team pursue an escaped fugitive accused of killing two government agents. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 13 mins. Cinemax Fri., March 2, 4:30 p.m. ------------ V Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
Vampire in Brooklyn (1995) Eddie Murphy, Angela Bassett. A Caribbean vampire seeks the half-vampire, half-human New York homicide detective destined to be his bride. (R) 1 hr. 41 mins. TMC Sat., March 3, 11:30 a.m.
Van Helsing (2004) Hugh Jackman, Kate Beckinsale. A monster-hunter joins forces with a beautiful woman to battle Dracula and otherworldly creatures in Transylvania. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 12 mins. PARMOUNT Sun., March 4, 1 a.m.
Volcano (1997) Tommy Lee Jones, Anne Heche. A Los Angeles emergency official takes charge when earthquakes and erupting lava ravage the city. (PG-13) 1 hr. 42 mins. Cinemax Sat., March 3, 2 p.m. ------------ W Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
A Walk Among the Tombstones (2014) Liam Neeson, Dan Stevens. A private detective agrees to help a drug trafficker find the people who kidnapped and murdered his wife. (R) 1 hr. 54 mins. TNT Mon., February 26, 2 a.m.
Walk the Line (2005) Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon. Johnny Cash forms an enduring bond with June Carter and struggles with drug addiction on the way to music stardom. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 16 mins. Encore Fri., March 2, 11 a.m. Encore Fri., March 2, 6 p.m.
WALL-E (2008) Voice of Ben Burtt, Voice of Elissa Knight. Animated. After years of tidying up an Earth devoid of humanity, a robot janitor meets a mechanical scout and chases her across the galaxy. (G) 1 hr. 37 mins. Starz Wed., February 28, 9:30 a.m.
Wanderlust (2012) Paul Rudd, Jennifer Aniston. Overstressed New Yorkers think they've found the answer to their problems when they join a counterculture community where the only rule is to be oneself. (R) 1 hr. 38 mins. TNT Thur., March 1, 12:30 a.m.
The Wash (2001) Dr. Dre, Snoop ``Doggy'' Dogg. Two roommates who work at a car wash must save their kidnapped boss in order to keep their jobs. (R) 1 hr. 36 mins. HBO Fri., March 2, 4 a.m.
The Waterboy (1998) Adam Sandler, Kathy Bates. A water boy's temper tantrums spur an addled football coach to sign him on as defensive tackle. (PG-13) 1 hr. 28 mins. Freeform Fri., March 2, 12 a.m. Freeform Thur., March 1, 5:30 p.m.
The Water Diviner (2014) Russell Crowe, Olga Kurylenko. Four years after the Battle of Gallipoli in World War I, an Australian farmer travels to Turkey to scour the battlefield for the bodies of his three missing sons. (R) 1 hr. 52 mins. Sundance Sun., March 4, 4:30 a.m.
Wayne's World (1992) Mike Myers, Dana Carvey. Metal-head friends Wayne and Garth sell their basement cable-access TV show to a city slicker. (PG-13) 1 hr. 35 mins. Comedy Central Fri., March 2, 8 p.m. Comedy Central Sat., March 3, 5:30 p.m.
Wedding March 3: Here Comes the Bride (2018) Jack Wagner, Josie Bissett. It's a full Valentine's Day weekend at the inn when Olivia and Mick host their families. Things get chaotic when Mick's sister decides to have her wedding at the inn that weekend and Mick's daughter announces plans to drop out of college. (NR) 2 hrs. Hallmark Sun., February 25, 3 p.m.
The Wedding Plan (2016) Noa Koler, Amos Tamam. After her fiance calls off their wedding a month before the ceremony, a woman decides to keep the reservation and trusts God will provide her with a husband. (PG) 1 hr. 50 mins. EPIX Mon., February 26, 10 p.m. EPIX Tues., February 27, 8 a.m. EPIX Tues., February 27, 2 p.m. EPIX Fri., March 2, 12 p.m.
We're the Millers (2013) Jennifer Aniston, Jason Sudeikis. Indebted to a big-time drug lord, a pot dealer travels to Mexico with a fake family and a camper to pick up a large shipment and smuggle it into the U.S. (R) 1 hr. 50 mins. TNT Wed., February 28, 8 p.m.
West Side Story (1961) Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer. Rival New York City gangs affect the love of a young man and woman from each side. (NR) 2 hrs. 31 mins. HBO Wed., February 28, 4 a.m.
We Were Soldiers (2002) Mel Gibson, Madeleine Stowe. A lieutenant colonel and approximately 400 U.S. troops battle 2,000 North Vietnamese in 1965. (R) 2 hrs. 17 mins. Showtime Fri., March 2, 10 p.m. Showtime Fri., March 2, 12 p.m. TMC Tues., February 27, 9:30 p.m.
What Happens in Vegas (2008) Cameron Diaz, Ashton Kutcher. Following a night of wild partying, two strangers awake and find that they have married each other and won a jackpot. (PG-13) 1 hr. 39 mins. Lifetime Mon., February 26, 11 p.m.
What to Expect When You're Expecting (2012) Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez. Pregnancy hormones wreak havoc on a baby-crazy author in one of five intertwined tales about the challenges of impending parenthood. (PG-13) 1 hr. 50 mins. POP Mon., February 26, 12:30 a.m.
When in Rome (2010) Kristen Bell, Josh Duhamel. Magic coins bring an assortment of odd suitors to a disillusioned woman, but a persistent reporter may hold the promise of real romance. (PG-13) 1 hr. 31 mins. Freeform Thur., March 1, 12 a.m.
Where the Wild Things Are (2009) Catherine Keener, Max Records. Sent to bed without supper, a mischievous boy enters a land that grows out of his imagination and becomes king of the fantastic creatures who live there. (PG) 1 hr. 41 mins. HBO Thur., March 1, 12:30 p.m.
While You Were Sleeping (1995) Sandra Bullock, Bill Pullman. A lonely Chicago subway clerk falls for the brother of a comatose man she adored from afar. (PG) 1 hr. 43 mins. Showtime Mon., February 26, 8:30 a.m.
Whispers in the Dark (1992) Annabella Sciorra, Jamey Sheridan. A New York psychiatrist falls for the kinky partner of her patient, who is soon found slain. (R) 1 hr. 43 mins. Cinemax Fri., March 2, 2:30 a.m.
Whitney: Can I Be Me (2017) Narrated by Nick Broomfield. Four years after her death, filmmaker Nick Broomfield goes in search of the forces that made and then destroyed the singer who has been described as having one of the greatest voices of the last 50 years. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Showtime Tues., February 27, 11:30 a.m. Showtime Fri., March 2, 5 a.m.
Wild Hogs (2007) Tim Allen, John Travolta. Looking for adventure, frustrated suburbanites hit the open road and encounter rough-and-tumble bikers. (PG-13) 1 hr. 39 mins. FX Fri., March 2, 5:30 p.m. FX Sat., March 3, 10:30 a.m.
Win a Date With Tad Hamilton! (2004) Kate Bosworth, Topher Grace. Secretly in love with his friend, a supermarket manager becomes jealous when she meets a famous actor. (PG-13) 1 hr. 36 mins. HBO Fri., March 2, 1 p.m.
Wings (1927) Clara Bow, Charles ``Buddy'' Rogers. Silent. Two World War I pilots woo a young woman and fight the Germans. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 19 mins. TCM Sun., February 25, 10 p.m.
Winter's Dream (2018) Dean Cain, Kristy Swanson. When a former ski champion re-enters the competitive world after a 16-year-old downhill racer asks for help, she finds a new love and reawakens an old passion. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Hallmark Sat., March 3, 5 p.m.
The Witches of Eastwick (1987) Jack Nicholson, Cher. Three witchy New England women innocently conjure up the perfect man, who is much more than he seems. (R) 2 hrs. 2 mins. OVA Wed., February 28, 6 p.m.
The Wolfman (2010) Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins. A nobleman contends with an ancient curse, scouring his childhood homeland for his missing brother, while a bloodthirsty beast prowls the moors. (R) 1 hr. 42 mins. Syfy Wed., February 28, 7:30 a.m.
A Woman, a Part (2016) Maggie Siff, Dagmara Dominczyk. A workaholic actress abruptly quits her role on a successful television show to return to New York to reinvent herself. (NR) 1 hr. 37 mins. TMC Mon., February 26, 8 p.m.
Wonder Woman (2017) Gal Gadot, Chris Pine. After leaving her all-female island for the first time, Wonder Woman discovers her full powers and true destiny while fighting alongside men in a war to end all wars. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 21 mins. HBO Mon., February 26, 4:30 p.m. HBO Wed., February 28, 2:30 p.m.
Word Is Bond (2017) Sacha Jenkins explores lyricism and the artists that practice the art form in hip-hop music. (NR) 1 hr. 27 mins. Showtime Wed., February 28, 10 p.m.
Wrath of the Titans (2012) Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson. Perseus enlists the aid of Queen Andromeda, Hephaestus and Poseidon's son to rescue Zeus from the underworld, defeat the Titans and save mankind. (PG-13) 1 hr. 39 mins. TNT Sun., February 25, 1 p.m.
The Wrong Crush (2017) Vivica A. Fox, Ricardo Hoyos. A high school track star with a troubled past meets a new admirer who has recently transferred to the school. As his advances becomes more and more forceful, she begins to fear that her past has come back to haunt her in a very dangerous way. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Lifetime Sun., February 25, 8 p.m. Lifetime Mon., February 26, 12 a.m.
Wyatt Earp (1994) Kevin Costner, Dennis Quaid. The portrait traces him from Southern boy to Western lawman defending boomtowns with his brothers and Doc Holliday. (PG-13) 3 hrs. 11 mins. HBO Tues., February 27, 3 a.m. ------------ X Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
X-Men: First Class (2011) James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender. Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr work with other mutants to prevent a nuclear nightmare, but a situation soon tears the close friends apart. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 10 mins. FX Tues., February 27, 4 p.m. FX Wed., February 28, 1:30 p.m. Freeform Sat., March 3, 10:30 p.m.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber. Explores Wolverine's violent past, the death of his lover and his complex relationship with Victor Creed. (PG-13) 1 hr. 48 mins. HBO Sun., February 25, 7 a.m. ------------ Y Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
The Yearling (1946) Gregory Peck, Jane Wyman. A pet deer changes a boy and his parents, pioneering farmers in Florida after the Civil War. (G) 2 hrs. 8 mins. TCM Sat., March 3, 2:30 p.m.
Year One (2009) Jack Black, Michael Cera. Two lazy primitives begin an epic journey through the ancient world after they are banished from their village. (PG-13) 1 hr. 37 mins. Encore Fri., March 2, 12:30 a.m.
You, Me and Him (2017) David Tennant, Lucy Punch. Two female lovers, one a lawyer and the other a fun, pot smoking layabout, meet a flirtatious neighbor. Despite planning to never have children, the female lovers both become pregnant and are forced to evaluate their relationship and their future. (NR) 1 hr. 39 mins. TMC Fri., March 2, 11 p.m.
Young Adult (2011) Charlize Theron, Patton Oswalt. A writer unexpectedly bonds with a former classmate after she returns home to relive her glory days and steal her now-married high-school sweetheart. (R) 1 hr. 34 mins. KDOC Sun., February 25, 7:30 p.m.
Young Guns (1988) Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland. An English aristocrat hires Billy the Kid and five other outcasts to guard his New Mexico ranch. (R) 1 hr. 42 mins. TMC Wed., February 28, 11:30 a.m. ------------ Z Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008) Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks. Two lifelong friends decide to make an adult film to solve their cash problems. (R) 1 hr. 41 mins. Showtime Wed., February 28, 12 a.m.
Zombieland (2009) Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg. Survivors of a zombie apocalypse use creative means to dispatch the undead as they make their way toward a rumored safe haven in Los Angeles. (R) 1 hr. 27 mins. Starz Mon., February 26, 11 a.m. Starz Mon., February 26, 6 p.m.
Zombies (2018) Milo Manheim, Meg Donnelly. A zombie and a cheerleader work together to show the town of Seabrook what they can achieve when they embrace their differences and celebrate what makes them a community. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Disney Wed., February 28, 8 p.m. Disney Fri., March 2, 7 p.m. Credit: Compiled by Ed Stockly
Subject: Motion pictures
Company / organization: Name: Syfy; NAICS: 515210; Name: Cinemax; NAICS: 515210
Publication title: Los Angeles Times (Online); Los Angeles
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 23, 2018
Section: Entertainment - Tv - Showtracker
Publisher: Tribune Interactive, LLC
Place of publication: Los Angeles
Country of publication: United States, Los Angeles
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Blogs, Podcasts, & Websites
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2007713441
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2007713441?accountid=4840
Copyright: Co pyright Tribune Interactive, LLC Feb 23, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-24
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 141 of 474
Q4 2017 Dof ASA Earnings Call - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]23 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Presentation MONS SVENDAL AASE, CEO AND MD, DOF ASA: (technical difficulty) Quarter 4 presentation for DOF. So we have achieved an EBITDA of NOK 649 million. So we said in quarter 3 that we will deliver a bit better in quarter 4, which we do. So -- and also then meeting our target within our target for the full year. We have done a new -- I don't know what we're going to call it, but we have increased our ownership in DOF Subsea through a private placement in DOF Subsea of NOK 500 million. And we have raised then NOK 700 million in DOF ASA, whereof NOK 500 million has gone into DOF Subsea. We also extended then the maturity of bond in DOF Subsea and the NOK 3.8 billion facility in DOF Rederi. So that is all done now, and the repair issue was done in this month and closed with around NOK 200 million in replacement. For quarter 4, we have had an average utilization of 76%. And looking at the market, we are fairly happy with that, of course, compared to the average for the industry. And Darwin started on its 5-year contract with Shell on the Prelude field. And then, so far, the feedback is good, so happy we're having a long-term contract. Backlog for 2018 firm is NOK 5 billion. And I guess, in percentage, that depends on what the turnover is going to be. But if you look at the turnover in '17, of course, this is close to 70%, and -- but we expect a bit higher turnover in '18. So a decent backlog for '18. So we are -- of course, we are very happy with DOF ASA increasing the ownership in DOF Subsea. Now we own 65%. And of course, the pre-money pricing of DOF Subsea was NOK 1.26 billion, compared to a big value of NOK 6 billion. And of course, we believe that DOF Subsea has a great future and the market is slowly turning, and a very healthy long-term fleet and a lot of upside in the IRM fleet and on the organization around the globe. So happy with that, and we think that is a good deal for DOF ASA. This is how it looks. So a true global player, and one in only a few in the subsea space that is a true global player. So as you see, around 4,000 people, NOK 23 billion in backlog and 67 vessels. And if we talk about -- we can talk a bit about the market when we look at the map. And of course, North Sea is -- looks a bit promising for the summer season in both in U.K. and Norway. So we see, of course, that the right levels for term charters are picking up. Of course, not fantastic, but quite a decent uptick from what we saw last year. And Brazil is also moving a bit. There is a lot of tenders, both on the anchor handling side and on the, what we call, ROV support vessels. As I said, there are probably 5, 6 live tenders on each of these categories. And what is interesting is, of course, that we saw -- see also a much more limited number of bidders on these tenders than we saw a few years back. So on some or a lot we have been the only bidder, which is interesting. So we do expect that we will be able to roll over at least most of the fleet in Brazil that is coming off this year. So it looks like it will go according to plan. Then this is you have seen before, so not much new on this one since earlier. You see the split of the fleet and, of course, the main values are in Subsea and on the anchor handling side. Then we have just an overview of the backlog. I maybe mentioned that on a highlight, NOK 5 billion this year. And of course, most of that are on the, of course, on the high-end assets, the big subsea boats, the big anchor handlers. And so it's, as we said, it's -- I will assume it's between 60% and 70% of the turnover for '18. Then on the contract side. We have -- on the supply side, we have been able -- we have -- we had -- the ambition was to avoid the spot market in November, December and January and February, and we have succeeded partly with that with a few short-term contracts in Black Sea and around the globe. And what is interesting is, of course, that the pipeline of new contracts is looking very good. So I think we're going to see the backlog on the DOF Supply fleet increase quite nicely during next month or so. So we sent a release this morning on a Frame Agreement with Statoil on Skandi Vega, and so I think that is only the start of quite a few new contracts now. So it looks fairly okay for the next -- let's say, for the summer season and into the fall and a bit longer on the DOF Supply fleet. So the first renewal in Brazil was the Admiral, and she was renewed on the same rate as we have had before. So it's flat on the rate for this renewal. So now it's February '19. And of course, that is the strategy. We don't fix longer than a year or so in today's rate levels. So we do expect that the uptick will continue, so that's at least our strategy on that. Sold a few old boats and of course, built in '98 and '96. So consider our -- the reason for selling. That means, of course, that we don't believe they have a home in the market in the near future or in the medium-term future. So boats built in '98 and '96, we think they are a lost case in money sense. And of course, that is also when you have a look at the lay-up fleet, it's interesting to see how many of these are in that age and the spec and so on. So as we said, we are a bit more optimistic after studying that in detail. On the Subsea side, we have, as we mentioned, started the Darwin contract, which has been a decent earner for us in many years. We have been able to -- on the North Sea fleet, we have been able to keep 3 out of 4 boats going with close to 100% coverage in quarter 1, which, of course, compared to last year, is much better. So the Neptune and Constructor here in the North Sea, and Skansen has been in Libya for -- since November, so we're very happy with that. Also, in the Harvey Deep Sea and the Achiever, has -- working in the U.S. has had a very good backlog for quarter 1. So a good start to the year in the U.S. as well. In Singapore, out of Singapore (inaudible), it's -- we have won a few contract. But of course, it's a challenging market in APAC at the moment, where the market demand is just too little to get the full utilization. But we -- so in February we had -- we have had a weak January, but February and March looks okay. So on average, it's not that bad [over there], but it's a struggle in the market, so activity is not picking up fast enough down there. Niteroi Brazil, 2 months contract at a very nice rate. So actually, we have a very conservative budget for those so that the 1-month job covers the full budget for 2018. So anything and everything else will be upside on the forecast. So -- and so I don't mention all of it. Of course, the latter one here 2 ROEs on 2 boats. Of course, we have had -- it's important for us, so expanding the Subsea side in Brazil a bit. So what we see that, our France and Petrobras, they want to have ROE on the high-end kind, which is good for the combined business. On the newbuilding side, it is according to plan -- not plan, but the revised plan. And so the Recife is on sea trials now, and they are going well, so we expect delivery done during April, first part of May. So according to plan. And Olinda, as we say, early '19. So it's good to see these boats coming to an end of their construction phase. Then this has been showed before, but of course, we are -- we like -- we think these deals are good for DOF. As you know, this is off balance, we have like a small commitment to pay some interest on the loans, and then we have an option to buy them at the outstanding debt, which is then 50%, 60% of the newbuilding price. And of course, Darwin started on a 5-year contract here on building in the North Sea spot, and we expect that market to be decent during the season. I think it's going to start in April time, and we believe that market will pick up. Then Hilde will do the money side of it. HILDE DRøNEN, CFO, DOF ASA: Yes. Just to repeat, the transaction we did in December and completed in February, which we are very happy about; it -- well, first of all, we did a private placement in DOF ASA, which was oversubscribed in November. And then DOF Subsea refinanced their bond debt and extended the maturity from NOK 100 million until October 2019 and NOK 408 million until May 2020. But the most important regarding DOF Subsea is that we increased our ownership from 51% to 65% by doing a share issue, a loan of NOK 500 million. Then we agreed with the banks in the DOF Rederi facility to extend the soft terms, meaning, 25% of normal installments, until under maturity in 2021. And the estimated cash impact of that is approximately NOK 550 million. And then we extended our credit facility at the holding level until 2021. And then finally, we completed, it was actually registered 2 days ago, the new shares in the repair issue of NOK 202 million in DOF ASA. And at the bottom, you see who is contributing on the EBITDA this quarter. And you see 70% from the Subsea segment, and 24% from the Brazilian activity and 6% from the supply vessels, basically, PSVs and anchor handlers, and all of them outside Brazil. If you split in DOF Supply and DOF Subsea, that means DOF Supply, that means the numbers from DOF Rederi and Norskan, the Brazilian activity, combined with the DOF Rederi, mainly PSVs and anchor handler and a few subsea vessels. And there, you see DOF Subsea, they have -- they contribute with 62% of the EBITDA compared to 38% of the 2 other subsidiaries. Quite impressive utilization this quarter, 67 -- 76% in total; seeing at the PSVs at 82%, we had one vessel in lay-up this quarter; and 67% from anchor handler, where we have 4 vessels in lay-up currently; and then 80% from the subsea segment in total, of which 75% in the project. And if you see who contributes here, you see the DOF Subsea EBITDA was NOK 402 million, and the remaining was NOK 247 million. If you look at the gross number, the revenue is slightly higher than it was last year. If you look at the EBITDA, it's NOK 649 million, compared to NOK 738 million. But bear in mind that included in the 2016 number is a gain from sale of our subsea vessel. If you take the full year, the EBITDA is NOK 2.458 billion, compared to NOK 3.193 billion, of which NOK 171 million is gain from sale of assets in 2016. If you see on the operational side, on the PSVs, we have had stable utilization, 82% already mentioned and 1 vessels in lay-up by end fourth quarter. On the anchor handler side, stable earnings and utilization in Brazil, but reduced from the spot market in North Sea and low utilization in Asia Pacific. We have done an impairment of NOK 340 million, compared to NOK 413 million last year. And you see the full year, it's NOK 1.3 billion, compared to NOK 1.9 billion. If you see the total -- if you take the total group fleet value, there is no changes compared to September. But then, you have some currency impacts. But where we have seen a substantial drop this quarter is from the oldest PSVs and the small, medium-sized anchor handlers and a few small Subsea assets. The big assets, the Brazilian assets, has the more -- the same valuation as last quarter. But that means that we had to do an impairment this quarter as well. If you look at financial costs, you see that the interest cost NOK 321 million, compared to NOK 337 million, is more or less in line as last year, and NOK 1.8 billion, compared to NOK 1.12 billion for a full year. No major events on currency this quarter, and the same goes for last year. But I would like to mention that the tax cost is negative at NOK 203 million, and that looks quite odd because we have a loss, but one reason for that is that, in Brazil, we actually earn money, so we pay tax in Brazil, and the other is that we have done some reversals of tax-deferred losses. If you look at segments, you see -- I only take the EBITDA, you see the PSVs, it's NOK 36 million, compared to NOK 59 million. And we sold 2 old ladies in fourth quarter, not very impressive gain, but they were built in '96 and '98. So we -- in our view, it was the right decision to sell those vessels. And if you look at the anchor handler, it's NOK 150 million compared to NOK 218 million. And the utilization outside Brazil is -- has actually been quite low, especially the joint venture, DOF Deepwater. But the numbers has also been impacted by class stockings, planned class stockings in Brazil. If you look at the Subsea, it's NOK 425 million compared to NOK 418 million, giving a total EBITDA of NOK 610 million. If we look at the balance sheet, this is comparing the full year and what has happened in 2017. We have had 2 newbuilds delivered, that was Skandi Buzios, who started on our 8-year contract with Petrobras in first half, and then we had Skandi Vinland who was delivered in June, July who started on a 10-year contract with Husky Energy. We have sold 3 vessel, and that's 2 PSVs and one anchor handlers, 3 old ladies. If we look at the operating cash flow for the full year, the operating cash has been close to NOK 1.2 billion. And we have invested NOK 1.3 billion, and the finance activity is a plus of NOK 218 million. And that is, of course, impacted by the private placement that we did in fourth quarter. On non-long-term debt, we have 2 loans drawn on delivery of the mentioned newbuilds, and there is a bond in DOF Subsea of USD 175 million, which was drawn in February and matures in 2022. And of course, the long-term debt and short-term part of the long-term debt has been impacted by a postponed maturity of the bond loan. The remaining part of the short-term interest-bearing debt, that is amortization, planned amortization for 2019, which is close to NOK 2 billion, and credit facilities. And we have no balloons that matures before 2019. I will come back to the debt structure, which you see here. Here, you see the development on the group's debt from 2016 until fourth quarter 2017. And of course, you see the blue one, that is DOF excluding DOF Subsea, and the gray one is DOF Subsea. And of course, the impact in 2016 was, of course, the restructuring that we did on debt and new equity. But what is mostly interesting here is that, while you can see that the DOF after the refinancing, we have gradually reduced our debt. But it is more interesting to look at DOF Subsea, because even they have -- even that they have delivered 2 newbuilds and increased the debt, Skandi Buzios and Skandi Vinland, they have -- the debt has been reduced quarter by quarter. If you look what has happened in 2017, the DOF Group has paid approximately NOK 1.8 billion in normal amortization, representing 80% of the normal amortization. So where we have a refinancing our debt, that is on the supply part, the DOF Rederi, where we have agreed to pay 25% of normal installment until end of maturity. But still, we pay 80%, actually more than 80%, of normal amortization. So then, it's about DOF Subsea. MONS SVENDAL AASE: So this slide we have shown before. So it's the [YoY] report of Subsea in 2 segments, Subsea IRM Projects and long-term chartering. So for '17, we had NOK 3.1 billion in turnover in the IRM segment and EBITDA of NOK 323 million. It's worth mentioning that we had some one-offs in North America and APAC. In '17, we lost more than NOK 100 million in EBITDA in the U.S., and of course, we have fixed that. No change to chartering side on the boats chartered in, and of course, from August last year, we have made money in the U.S., and we expect to do that. So of course, if we didn't have these one-offs, the margin wouldn't have been -- would have been 20% instead of 10%. So hopefully, already in '18, we would see higher margins on the IRM segment. So back -- for a backlog in that segment of NOK 3.7 billion. And on the long chartering, the turnover is less, NOK 1.4 billion, but close to 80% margin, with close to NOK 1.1 billion, of course, a very high backlog of NOK 12.4 billion. And growing, of course. As you saw, we have 2 boats, one delivery this year and one next year, and which will be very nice contributor to the earnings in DOF Subsea. This is just showing a backlog on the long-term side. And of course, as mentioned, Niteroi, booked in January. I think we have a few leads on her. But we have a conservative forecast on her, but hopefully, we will be able to find something for her. So longer term, of course, there is a very interesting [FPCI] market in Brazil coming from '19 onwards with a lot of projects, Statoil, Chevron, Total and so on. So there's quite a few interesting projects that our partner, Technip, are fronting where these boats can and will be used. Then on the IRM side. Of course, we -- of course, here, it's development. And of course, it's been strongly influenced by the weak market. But of course, we expect that the maintenance side in the market will gradually pick up. So perhaps not that much in '18, but '19 onwards, of course, we are much more optimistic on the IRM and Subsea side in the DOF Group. So hopefully, there is quite a decent upside when the market start to normalize on this side. Then, of course, this shows the backlog development. And of course, still a quite high backlog in DOF Subsea. And comparing between '14 and '16, we actually had a book-to-bill of 1. And of course, the backlog is 3x the revenue, almost, so it's still a very healthy backlog in DOF Subsea. On the outlook. So in February last year, we said going to deliver an EBITDA of NOK 2.4 billion to NOK 2.8 billion, and we deliver -- almost -- NOK 2.457 billion. So we are within the range, and we have NOK 5 billion in backlog for '18. The refinancing we did, now and completed in February, of course, has extended runway. And of course, we can face challenging market a bit longer than we could before. And we, of course, have increased the ownership in DOF Subsea that we think is the most interesting part of the DOF Group. Two newbuilds, one in '18, one in '19, they are on schedule. And then we see in the market increased tendering activity and signs of high activity within some regions and some segments. So it's not exactly the same happening in all places, but we see, in general, that the activity are starting to pick up. Of course, it's a big question on how far the rates will go on and so on, but -- so that remains to be seen. Then on -- of course, it's difficult to guide these days, but our best estimate today is an operational EBITDA between NOK 2.4 billion and NOK 2.8 billion. And for those of you who read the report, we say that we accept -- expect a slightly high operational EBITDA in '18 compared to '17, so then you can discuss what's slightly is these days. But -- so that is the outlook, then we can take a few questions, if you have. Questions and Answers TURNER HOLM, DIRECTOR, CLARKSONS PLATOU SECURITIES AS, RESEARCH DIVISION: Turner Holm from Clarksons Platou. Mons, you said you did an analysis on the laid up fleet, PSVs in the North Sea, and you found it encouraging. Can you tell us a little bit more about that? MONS SVENDAL AASE: Yes. I have -- we can find, I don't know if we have that on the webcast, these slides, but I have -- this is the -- I have 2 slides for this, it's the anchor handling side. And so it shows, of course, that it's a big lay-up fleet in percentage of the total fleet. But of course, the lay-up fleet, it's wrong to call that the North Sea fleet because a lot of the fleet that is in lay-up in Europe has come from other places over the world. And then, of course, very interesting, of course, is the split between in class and out of class, and we see that around 60% is out of class. And then we also, and then, of course, that is a very good question. And so what is the -- what spec is the minimum spec to come back to the market in Norway and U.K.? And then we said -- so what we said, too, here is the filter for Norwegian sector. So built off that 2005 and [230-ton] (inaudible). And of course, if you look at the active fleet in Norway today, I think that filter is more or less correct. But of course, we can argue what will happen, and so on and so on, but if you use that, and of course, you can find whatever filter you want to use. But then you see there is a very limited number of boats that with saying that this is the correct. You need to be attractive on the Norwegian sector, not always be the last choice. Then you see it's only 4, 5 boats that actually out of the lay-up fleet that come back to Norway, which is interesting. And then, of course, we look the same for the U.K. side. And of course, we had long discussion internally, the guys -- our chartering guys in the U.K. Of course, they didn't think this filter was too kind, that the spec and the age should be higher. But even if you use this, let's say, a very optimistic filter for the lay-up fleet, you see there is 10 boats in class that can come out and will meet these criterias. And of course, then if you take a filter class, it's more. So what is interesting is, of course, is that if you look at this, look at the spec, look at the age of the anchor handler fleet in lay-up. The threat of that fleet is not as high as we thought before we had a close look at it. Because, if you look at only the number of boats sitting, you get scared. But if you go in and analyze, it's -- a lot of them are -- it might not be coming back due to age or to spec. And of course, we also saw -- but of course, that's a longer analyze, but we also saw now on a tender in Brazil, [TST] tender they call it. Petrobras built after 2002 for one class and after 2005 for the other class on 3-year contracts. And of course, that also means that a lot of these boats never will go back to Brazil again. So but of course, yes, we don't have the answer. So of course, you can get whatever answer you want if you change these filters. But at least, it's interesting to see that if you believe on this, it's a very limited fleet of the lay-up fleet that can't come back to the market. But I emphasize, this might be completely wrong. But at least, this is how we view the market. And of course, I saw at Clarksons you -- I have right here analyzed it as well and I have studied that as well. So I think -- what happened now? So I saw your 1 and, of course, it's not very different conclusion you got from what we get. And of course, you can argue, it's a lot of factors on this, but at least, we got a bit optimistic when we studied this carefully. On the PSV side, we did the same. Of course, on the PSV side, the fleet in lay-up, of course, compared to the working fleet is less. And of course, that's because a lot of the PSV fleet work on production and not only exploration. And you see around 70% of the fleet in lay-up is out of class. And then if you use -- you say for Norway, and of course, this might be wrong. We say built off the 2007, and of course, in terms of Norway, I think that this is more or less correct and about 900 square meter deck, which I think is correct for Norway. Then you see there is -- I don't remember, but 7, 8 boats that can come out of that lay-up fleet into the Norwegian market. But of course, whether that filter is correct, I don't know. If you look at U.K., anyway, that's a big discussion. We -- I think 700 square meter also is a bit too nice towards the lay-up fleet. The guys in U.K., they thought a bit new around 800 square meter deck to really be able to complete out of. But also, there you see, it's not that many boats that are in class. So of course, if this is correct, then, of course, one of the conclusion is that -- and of course, if you go and look at boat by boat through the lay-up fleet, one conclusion is that medium-sized PSVs, UT 755s, VS 470s, they -- that's the segment where you don't want to own. There's a lot of the PSV fleet in lay-up on that. So see it's just -- and as I say, you can study this, you get then your answer and you can (inaudible) how the charters will react if -- when the market picks up if they will accept lower spec boats and so on, you can discuss to that. But if you use our filters on the anchor handling side and on the PSV side, there is reason to be not that scared of the lay-up fleet. And of course, we are working on this. We have our people in APAC having a look at it. We have our people in Brazil having a look at it, and I don't know if we get more out of it. But of course, it is also interesting to see on the anchor and I saw how many of these boats we actually think can go back to Brazil again and so on. But of course -- so it's very -- it was an interesting situation. And the short version is that we got in a better mood after doing the exercise than before. But I've always emphasized that we might be completely wrong on the filters we have used. So that's the work we have done. We have, of course, much more slides, but that's the 2 of them. TURNER HOLM: Now last question for me. There has been some media articles recently about potential contracts down in Brazil for the diving vessels. MONS SVENDAL AASE: Yes, yes. TURNER HOLM: What's sort of the status on that work, if you can say anything? MONS SVENDAL AASE: Of course, Petrobras came on a tender. They have 2 diving boats owned today, owned by (inaudible), been working there for a long time. And we bid, and they bid, and we had on the -- when they open their commercial envelope, #1, 2 and 3. And so we have had a couple of meetings with Petrobras after that, and so let's see. It can be 0 boats on contract with them, 1 or 2. So -- but I think that will be -- the carnival is over, and hopefully, within the not-that-distant future, there will be a conclusion out. But of course, it's promising when you are -- have the best offer. And of course, for us, it will be nice. Of course, it's -- especially the Skandi Achiever, has not been contributing much on the earnings the last few years, so it would be good to get her on a long-term decent contract. But you don't drink that champagne before the deal is done. So -- and we have been in Brazil for a long time, so a deal is not done in Brazil before you have signed it. HILDE DRøNEN: Okay? MONS SVENDAL AASE: Thank you. [Thomson Financial reserves the right to make changes to documents, content, or other information on this web site without obligation to notify any person of such changes. In the conference calls upon which Event Transcripts are based, companies may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding a variety of items. Such forward-looking statements are based upon current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties. 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Subject: Copyright
Location: Brazil
Company / organization: Name: Thomson Financial; NAICS: 511210, 518210, 519190
Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 23, 2018
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: Linthicum
Country of publication: United States, Linthicum
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Law--Corporate Law
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2011993696
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2011993696?accountid=4840
Copyright: 2018 Thomson Financial and ASC LLC
Last updated: 2018-03-28
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 142 of 474
The world this week
Author: Anonymous
Publication info: The Economist ; London Vol. 426, Iss. 9080, (Feb 24, 2018): 5-6.
Abstract:
Several news around world are presented.
Full text: Politics The Syrian army bombarded Eastern Ghouta, a rebel-held suburb of Damascus, killing hundreds of people, according to observers. Meanwhile, pro-government militias moved into the Kurdish enclave of Afrin, where they attempted to join Kurdish forces defending the region from Turkish troops, who entered the area last month. An aide to Binyamin Netanyahu turned state's witness in a case involving allegations of corruption at Bezeq, an Israeli telecoms giant. It is one of several investigations encircling Mr Netanyahu, who denies wrongdoing. Police also accused a former spokesman for the prime minister of trying to bribe a judge into dropping a fraud case against Mr Netanyahu's wife. Cyril Ramaphosa was sworn in as president of South Africa. A new budget reminded voters just what a fiscal mess he has inherited from his predecessor, Jacob Zuma, under whom graft and cronyism thrived. Dozens of schoolgirls were missing after an attack on a village in north-eastern Nigeria by jihadists from Boko Haram. The group's abduction of 270 girls in 2014 from a school in Chibok sparked international outrage; over 200 are still held captive. The UN warned of a humanitarian disaster in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where millions of people have been displaced by fighting between militias and government forces. Rusty armed forces A parliamentary report in Germany disclosed that much of the country's military equipment is defective. At the end of last year, it said, not one of the navy's six submarines was operational. Germany spends only 1.2% of its gdp on defence, far below the 2% to which nato countries are committed. Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, dubbed by some as the "miniMerkel", was appointed secretary-general of Germany's ruling Christian Democratic Union, possibly a sign that she is being groomed as Angela Merkel's eventual successor. On the streets Brazil's president, Michel Temer, ordered the army to take control of security in the state of Rio de Janeiro after shoot-outs during Carnival festivities. Some say the military intervention, the first of this scale since Brazil's return to democracy in the 1980s, is a ploy to boost Mr Temer's rock-bottom popularity. It also halts a controversial pensionreform bill, as the constitutional changes it requires are forbidden during army interventions. The head of an anti-corruption mission in Honduras sponsored by the Organisation of American States resigned. He complained of a lack of support from the Honduran government and from the oas. Venezuela's government launched an oil-backed digital currency, the petro, in an attempt to circumvent foreign sanctions imposed by America and to raise cash during a dire economic crisis. Meanwhile, the main opposition coalition announced it would not take partin hastily scheduled presidential elections in April, claiming that the vote will be rigged. A court in Peru ruled that Alberto Fujimori, a former president, could be tried for his alleged role in the death-squad killings of six people in 1992. Late last year Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, the current president, pardoned Mr Fujimori, who had been convicted of another crime. Nothing fake about this The Russian government denied that it had meddled in the American presidential election of 2016. Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating Russian influence in the campaign, had earlier issued indictments against13 Russian citizens, laying out in detail the extent to which they had tried to sway the election using social media. Following the mass shooting at a school in Florida, Donald Trump issued an order to ban bump-stocks, devices that convert some weapons into fully automatic rifles. Pennsylvania's highest court redrew the boundaries of the state's congressional districts, having ruled last month that the map drawn by the Republican legislature was a clear case of partisan gerrymandering. The new boundaries make a handful of seats in the state more competitive. Mitt Romney announced that he would run for a Senate seat in Utah. The former Republican presidential candidate declared that Utah welcomes legal immigrants, in contrast to the "message of exclusion" sent from Washington. Mr Trump endorsed his candidacy, though their truce is unlikely to hold. In 2016 Mr Trump described Mr Romney as one of the "dumbest" candidates in Republican history. Mr Romney called Mr Trump a "fraud". So close, and yet so far The White House said that Mike Pence, America's vicepresident, had planned to meet senior North Korean officials at the Winter Olympics in South Korea, but that the North Koreans had pulled out at the last minute. The parliament of the Maldives voted to extend by 30 days the 15-day state of emergency declared earlier this month by Abdulla Yameen, the president. But not enough lawmakers were present to make a quorum. The prosecutor-general declared the vote illegal. A Malaysian court declined to hear challenges to proposed new parliamentary constituencies, even though they would further skew elections in favour of the ruling coalition. The opposition won 51% of votes at the most recent election, but only 40% of seats. Deaths of newborn babies in African and Asian countries are still distressingly common, according to a report from unicef. In some poor countries the neonatal death rate (when a child dies within 28 days of being born) is 50 times higher than it is in some rich countries. In Pakistan one in 20 newborn babies dies within a month; in Japan it is one in 1,000. Each year 2.6m infants do not survive a month. unicef says 80% of cases could be averted with better health-care provision and education. Some 1m babies draw their last breath on the same day as their first. Business The governor of Latvia's central bank denied claims that he had accepted bribes, saying he had been smeared in an attempt to throw his anti-corruption campaign off course. Ilmars Rimsevics has headed the Bank of Latvia since 2001. The Baltic country has a reputation as a money-laundering hub for Russians; America recently banned Latvia's thirdlargest lender from operating in the country for allegedly laundering billions of dollars. Latvia's defence ministry suggested that the allegations against Mr Rimsevics were part of a "massive information operation" directed from another country (ie, Russia). The release of the minutes from the Federal Reserve's latest meeting indicated its approach to raising interest rates is more hawkish than had been thought, which drove the yield on the ten-year American Treasury bond to its highest level in four years. Germany wants the top spot Luis de Guindos, Spain's economy minister, secured the job as the next vice-president of the European Central Bank. Three other appointments to the ecb's six-member executive board are to be made over the nexti8 months, including a replacement for Mario Draghi, the president. In the week that Stuart Gulliver retired after seven years as chief executive, hsbc reported a big rise in pre-tax profit for 2017, to $i7.2bn. It also took a charge in part related to bad loans that were probably made to Carillion, a bankrupt government contractor. The head of Ford's North American business was sacked after the company investigated allegations of misconduct made against him. Raj Nair had worked at the carmaker for three decades. Online accounting Investors took fright at Walmart's announcement that its online sales have slowed considerably, sending its share price down by 10%. The retailer has made a big push into e-commerce to counter competition from Amazon, but online revenue in America grew by 23% in its latest quarter, much slower than the more than 50% chalked up in previous quarters. E-commerce accounts for a tiny part of Walmart's sales. It hopes to increase that by focusing on its Walmart-branded website rather than the Jet.com site that it acquired in 2016. Amazon's existential threat to conventional bricks-andmortar supermarkets was also a factor behind the decision by Albertsons to buy the parts of the Rite Aid pharmacy chain that are not being acquired by Walgreens. Albertsons, which operates in 35 states and counts the Safeway and Vons brands among its assets, hopes that putting Rite Aid's drug counters in its stores will bring in more shoppers, who might then be tempted to buy the food it sells. Buoyed by a healthy underlying six-month profit, bhp Billiton slapped down a proposal from Elliott, an activist hedge fund, to end its dual listing in London and Sydney and list solely in Australia. For months Elliott has been putting pressure on the mining giant over its corporate structure. It reckons a sole listing could reap $22bn in savings, but Andrew Mackenzie, bhp's chief executive, is pointing to the risks, such as being booted out of the ftse ioo index. Glencore's annual net profit soared to $5.8bn and it announced a big payout to shareholders. The mining and commodities trading company has benefited from rising prices for metals and minerals, such as copper, coal and cobalt. Qualcomm raised its bid for NXP Semiconductors to $44bn, an offer that was accepted by those hedge funds with stakes in NXP that had pressed Qualcomm to increase its price. Qualcomm wants to buy NXP in order to expand its chip business, which has focused on smartphones, towards the new smart technologies found in cars and security systems. A deal would also fortify its defences against a hostile takeover attempt from Broadcom. Output per hour in Britain, the main measure of the Office for National Statistics for labour productivity, increased by 0.8% in the final quarter of 2017; the last six months of the year saw the strongest growth in productivity since the economic downturn of 2008. The unemployment rate increased slightly, to 4.4%, which the ons suggested might become a trend as people previously defined as "inactive" register as unemployed, and fewer people drop out of the labour market and become inactive. What a fowl-up Kentucky Fried Chicken closed two-thirds of its outlets in Britain when it ran out of hens. It has switched its logistics contract to DHL, which failed to deliver the poultry. Fans of kfc were in a flap. Some thought that Amazon's drones would have done a betterjob, but most were left asking DHL: Why didn't the chickens traverse the road?
Subject: Politics; War; Shootings
Location: Brazil Latvia Germany United Kingdom--UK Utah
Company / organization: Name: Qualcomm Inc; NAICS: 334220, 511210; Name: Rite Aid Corp; NAICS: 446110; Name: Walmart Inc; NAICS: 452112, 452910, 454111
Publication title: The Economist; London
Volume: 426
Issue: 9080
Pages: 5-6
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 24, 2018
Publisher: The Economist Intelligence Unit N.A., Incorporated
Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United States, London
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Economic Systems And Theories, Economic History, Business And Economics--Economic Situation And Conditions
ISSN: 00130613
Source type: Magazines
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2014421208
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2014421208?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Economist Intelligence Unit N.A., Incorporated Feb 24, 2018
Last updated: 2018-03-17
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 143 of 474
Retire at 55? In Brazil, It’s the Norm. But Can the Good Times Last?
Author: Darlington, Shasta
Publication info: New York Times (Online) , New York: New York Times Company. Feb 25, 2018.
Abstract:
Brazil has one of the most generous social security systems in the world, but politicians across the spectrum have long seen it as unsustainable.
Full text: SÃO PAULO, Brazil — In much of the world, workers would find it hard to imagine being able to retire at 55, earning 70 percent of their final salary for the rest of their lives. But in Brazil, that has been the norm for decades, which helps explain the abundance of silver-haired joggers along Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro at 11 a.m. on a recent weekday. It also accounts for about a third of all government spending in Brazil, and contributed to a record budget deficit in 2016. Analysts and politicians across the political spectrum have long recognized that the pension system is unsustainable and a major factor in the country’s continuing economic struggles. “Brazil has one of the most generous systems in the world,” said Chris Garman, managing director of the Americas for the Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy. But without a pension overhaul, he added, “Brazil is heading for insolvency and debt crisis.” A jarring reminder of that came last month when Standard & Poor’s downgraded the credit rating of Brazil, Latin America’s largest economy, sending it even further into so-called junk territory, or below investment grade. The downgrade came amid dimming hopes that Brazil’s Congress would reform the country’s social security system during this election year. It turns out the ratings agency was right. President Michel Temer and Congress have now officially given up on trying to pass any pension legislation — handing off the problem until after the October election. On Friday, Fitch Ratings followed suit, also cutting Brazil’s credit rating. Mr. Temer had vowed that pension reform would be one of his signature achievements when he was sworn in after the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff in 2016. But instead of enacting what he had billed as a business-friendly agenda, his presidency has been notable for its turbulence and scandals. The Temer administration worked with Congress to create pension overhaul legislation for both public- and private-sector workers that, among other changes, would set the minimum retirement age at 65 for men and 62 for women. Currently, there is no minimum retirement age. Mr. Temer sought to build support for the proposal with a simple, bleak warning plastered across government websites and promoted in a social media campaign: “Everyone for social security reform so Brazil doesn’t go bankrupt.” But despite Mr. Temer’s stated determination, a decision he made this month effectively blocked any further movement on the pension proposal. He signed a decree to put the military in charge of security in Rio de Janeiro to rein in violent crime, and under Brazil’s Constitution, lawmakers are barred from making broad legal changes during any military intervention. Mr. Temer initially insisted the pension overhaul could still be voted on by temporarily lifting the security decree. But the dire warning about bankruptcy disappeared from government websites this past week, and both the president of the Senate, Eunício Oliveira, and the political affairs minister, Carlos Marun, have since said the bill has been shelved. “After debating and consulting with judges from the Supreme Court, the conclusion is that the reform is suspended as a result of the decree for intervention,” Mr. Marun told journalists last week. The court’s opinion was not the only factor. Mr. Marun conceded that “we don’t have the votes to approve the reform — I couldn’t guarantee the government that we would have them by the end of February.” Even some of Mr. Temer’s supporters said that the president had issued the security decree, in part, to avoid an embarrassing loss in Congress. “It was an excuse to avoid the vote — the nail in the coffin of pension reform,” said Congressman Alex Canziani, a member of the governing coalition. The timing of the pension debate could hardly have been worse for supporters of an overhaul. With elections in the fall, few lawmakers are willing to tell voters they will have to work longer and then get less money in their golden years. Selling that message to the electorate is especially hard given how unpopular the country’s political elite has become amid an avalanche of corruption scandals and growing scrutiny of the high salaries and generous perks that lawmakers and other federal employees enjoy. “It doesn’t fly when voters are angry at politicians,” Mr. Garman, the political consultant, said. Voter reaction, he added, has been one of outrage: “‘You’re stealing from us and now you expect us to work more?’” Elisabete Lopes Santos, 57 and retired, agrees. “Everyone contributed to the pension system — how could it be broke? The money was siphoned off,” she said. Brazilians have taken to the streets to vent their anger, not only in protests and strikes, but also in Carnival parades. Union groups in São Paulo put the following words to a catchy samba beat : “Mr. Congressman, Mr. Senator, beware, look at the rebellion. If you vote for Temer’s reform, you won’t be back!” On average, men in Brazil retire at 56 and women at 53, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which concluded that the system was unsustainable. The longer someone works, the more they earn in retirement. Retirees receive an average of 70 percent of their pre-retirement salary, and the amount is indexed to a constantly climbing minimum wage. When pension recipients die, widows and widowers may inherit the full pension of their spouse and add it to their own. Pension spending in Brazil rose to 8.2 percent of gross domestic product in 2016 from 4.6 percent in 2014. Brazil’s population is comparatively young compared to the global median, and pension spending could soar to 17 percent of its G.D.P. by 2060 if the rules remain unchanged. The Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Congress, repeatedly watered down the extent of the proposed changes and delayed a vote in hopes that more political factions would come onboard. But the latest tallies show the government is still at least 40 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed for approval. The bill appeared to be gathering momentum until May, when Mr. Temer was implicated in the broadening corruption scandal and charged in two criminal cases. Getting allies in Congress to block the cases from moving forward exhausted much of Mr. Temer’s political capital, significantly setting back his broader agenda. After postponing a pension vote in December, the government switched tactics, with a new campaign focusing on inequities in the system and targeting big earners in the public sector. “Pension reform is aimed at combating privileges,” Mr. Temer said, pointing to the benefits politicians and high-level civil servants get. “What the reform does is protect the poor who pay for those who earn a lot in the public sector.” Mr. Temer was perhaps not the ideal figure to champion that message. The president has been collecting a pension for more than two decades, having retired as a state prosecutor at 58, which has significantly padded his earnings as an elected official. But regardless of the president’s own pension history, the government tried to tap into the widespread anger and frustration over inequality in Brazil, pointing out that the pensions of the well-off have been subsidized largely by the working poor. Pension distribution is highly unequal, according to the World Bank , with 35 percent of pension subsidies — the part of the pension that isn’t accrued worker contributions — paid out to the richest 20 percent. The poorest 20 percent receive just 4 percent of pension subsidies. “I know there won’t be enough money to cover my retirement if the government doesn’t do something,” said Edmilson Santos, a 28-year-old Uber driver. “But I don’t have any faith that they won’t just keep helping the same politicians and public workers that have always benefited.” Credit: Shasta Darlington
Subject: Budget deficits; Politics; Subsidies; Legislators; Federal employees; Presidents; Retirement; Congressional elections; Public sector; Gross Domestic Product--GDP
Location: Americas Latin America Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil Copacabana Beach Eurasia
People: Rousseff, Dilma Temer, Michel
Company / organization: Name: International Bank for Reconstruction & Development--World Bank; NAICS: 928120; Name: Fitch Inc; NAICS: 523930; Name: Senate; NAICS: 921120; Name: Eurasia Group; NAICS: 523930
Identifier / keyword: Brazil Pensions and Retirement Plans Temer, Michel (1940- ) Law and Legislation Corruption (Institutional) Politics and Government Fitch Ratings Standard & Poor's Corp
Publication title: New York Times (Online); New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 25, 2018
Section: world
Publisher: New York Times Company
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Blogs, Podcasts, & Websites
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2007872234
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2007872234?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright 2018 The New York Times Company
Last updated: 2018-11-12
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 144 of 474
Brazilian president orders military intervention in Rio
Publication info: University Wire ; Carlsbad [Carlsbad]25 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Publication: The Signal, College of New Jersey, Ewing Township NJ. By Cassie Sokoloff Correspondent
Brazilian President Michel Temer ordered military control of Rio de Janeiro on Feb. 16, just days after the city’s famous Carnival celebration was tainted by an increase in crime and violence in the area, according to The Washington Post.
Police and military forces target crime in Rio. (AP Photo)
The mandate, which will expire in December, gives extensive control to the Brazilian military with the goal of reestablishing security. Command of police forces was given to General Walter Souza Barag Netto, who coordinated security in Rio at the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, according to The Washington Post.
Carnival, the city’s largest and most culturally identifying event, was the scene of muggings, assaults on tourists and drug trafficking. According to The Washington Post, violent crime in the city has reached a 15-year high.
At the signing ceremony, Temer reassured the public that the military and police will work together to reclaim the city, which has a population of 6.5 million.
“Together, the police and armed forces will combat and confront those who have kidnapped our cities,” Temer said, according to The New York Times. “Prison cells will no longer be thieves’ personal offices. Public squares will no longer be the reception halls for organized crime.”
There has not been federal military intervention in state affairs in Brazil since the nation ended its 21-year long military dictatorship in 1985. Brazil’s congress approved Temer’s orders on Feb. 20, according to ABC News.
The order comes at a time of economic crisis. The country has been in a deep economic recession in the last decade, and Rio’s police budget began to dwindle as the city went bankrupt. Areas that were previously heavily policed were overtaken by organized crime and gang violence, according to The Washington Post.
The public’s response to the military intervention has been mixed. Some believe military intervention would benefit the city, while other residents are unsure if their involvement will bring permanent change. Given the upcoming presidential elections, some are especially suspicious of the order being used as a means of increasing Temer’s reputation, according to BBC.
“I’m afraid of the police,” said Rita de Cassia Santos de Silva, a 53-year-old Rio native, according to The New York Times. “They go in and take whatever they want. I think people really only obey the army.”
Despite skepticism from the public, Temer aims to eradicate Rio’s position as one of the most dangerous cities in the world.
“We were not ready. There were mistakes in the first days and we reinforced the patrols,” Temer said, according to BBC. “The government will give tough and firm answers, taking all necessary measures to eradicate organized crime.”
Related
Brazil
military
Rio
Subject: Organized crime; Local elections; Violent crime; Cities
Location: Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil New York
People: Temer, Michel
Company / organization: Name: New York Times Co; NAICS: 511110, 511120, 515112, 515120; Name: College of New Jersey; NAICS: 611310; Name: ABC Inc; NAICS: 515120
Publication title: University Wire; Carlsbad
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 25, 2018
Section: News
Publisher: Uloop, Inc.
Place of publication: Carlsbad
Country of publication: United States, Carlsbad
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2007892636
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2007892636?accountid=4840
Copyright: © 2018 UWIRE, a division of Uloop
Last updated: 2018-02-25
Database: Social Science Premium Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 145 of 474
Retire at 55? In Brazil, It's the Norm, but It's Creating a Fiscal Crisis: [Foreign Desk]
Author: Darlington, Shasta
Publication info: New York Times , Late Edition (East Coast); New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]26 Feb 2018: A.8.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: SÃO PAULO, Brazil -- In much of the world, workers would find it hard to imagine being able to retire at 55, earning 70 percent of their final salary for the rest of their lives. But in Brazil, that has been the norm for decades, which helps explain the abundance of silver-haired joggers along Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro at 11 a.m. on a recent weekday. It also accounts for about a third of all government spending in Brazil, and contributed to a record budget deficit in 2016. Analysts and politicians across the political spectrum have long recognized that the pension system is unsustainable and a major factor in the country's continuing economic struggles. "Brazil has one of the most generous systems in the world," said Chris Garman, managing director of the Americas for the Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy. But without a pension overhaul, he added, "Brazil is heading for insolvency and debt crisis." A jarring reminder of that came last month when Standard & Poor's downgraded the credit rating of Brazil, Latin America's largest economy, sending it even further into so-called junk territory, or below investment grade. The downgrade came amid dimming hopes that Brazil's Congress would reform the country's social security system during this election year. It turns out the ratings agency was right. President Michel Temer and Congress have now officially given up on trying to pass any pension legislation -- handing off the problem until after the October election. On Friday, Fitch Ratings followed suit, also cutting Brazil's credit rating. Mr. Temer had vowed that pension reform would be one of his signature achievements when he was sworn in after the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff in 2016. But instead of enacting what he had billed as a business-friendly agenda, his presidency has been notable for its turbulence and scandals. The Temer administration worked with Congress to create pension overhaul legislation for both public- and private-sector workers that, among other changes, would set the minimum retirement age at 65 for men and 62 for women. Currently, there is no minimum retirement age. Mr. Temer sought to build support for the proposal with a simple, bleak warning plastered across government websites and promoted in a social media campaign: "Everyone for social security reform so Brazil doesn't go bankrupt." But despite Mr. Temer's stated determination, a decision he made this month effectively blocked any further movement on the pension proposal. He signed a decree to put the military in charge of security in Rio de Janeiro to rein in violent crime, and under Brazil's Constitution, lawmakers are barred from making broad legal changes during any military intervention. Mr. Temer initially insisted the pension overhaul could still be voted on by temporarily lifting the security decree. But the dire warning about bankruptcy disappeared from government websites this past week, and both the president of the Senate, Eunício Oliveira, and the political affairs minister, Carlos Marun, have since said the bill has been shelved. "After debating and consulting with judges from the Supreme Court, the conclusion is that the reform is suspended as a result of the decree for intervention," Mr. Marun told journalists last week. The court's opinion was not the only factor. Mr. Marun conceded that "we don't have the votes to approve the reform -- I couldn't guarantee the government that we would have them by the end of February." Even some of Mr. Temer's supporters said that the president had issued the security decree, in part, to avoid an embarrassing loss in Congress. "It was an excuse to avoid the vote -- the nail in the coffin of pension reform," said Congressman Alex Canziani, a member of the governing coalition. The timing of the pension debate could hardly have been worse for supporters of an overhaul. With elections in the fall, few lawmakers are willing to tell voters they will have to work longer and then get less money in their golden years. Selling that message to the electorate is especially hard given how unpopular the country's political elite has become amid an avalanche of corruption scandals and growing scrutiny of the high salaries and generous perks that lawmakers and other federal employees enjoy. "It doesn't fly when voters are angry at politicians," Mr. Garman, the political consultant, said. Voter reaction, he added, has been one of outrage: "'You're stealing from us and now you expect us to work more?"' Elisabete Lopes Santos, 57 and retired, agrees. "Everyone contributed to the pension system -- how could it be broke? The money was siphoned off," she said. Brazilians have taken to the streets to vent their anger, not only in protests and strikes, but also in Carnival parades. Union groups in São Paulo put the following words to a catchy samba beat: "Mr. Congressman, Mr. Senator, beware, look at the rebellion. If you vote for Temer's reform, you won't be back!" On average, men in Brazil retire at 56 and women at 53, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which concluded that the system was unsustainable. The longer someone works, the more they earn in retirement. Retirees receive an average of 70 percent of their pre-retirement salary, and the amount is indexed to a constantly climbing minimum wage. When pension recipients die, widows and widowers may inherit the full pension of their spouse and add it to their own. Pension spending in Brazil rose to 8.2 percent of gross domestic product in 2016 from 4.6 percent in 2014. Brazil's population is comparatively young compared to the global median, and pension spending could soar to 17 percent of its G.D.P. by 2060 if the rules remain unchanged. The Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Congress, repeatedly watered down the extent of the proposed changes and delayed a vote in hopes that more political factions would come onboard. But the latest tallies show the government is still at least 40 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed for approval. The bill appeared to be gathering momentum until May, when Mr. Temer was implicated in the broadening corruption scandal and charged in two criminal cases. Getting allies in Congress to block the cases from moving forward exhausted much of Mr. Temer's political capital, significantly setting back his broader agenda. After postponing a pension vote in December, the government switched tactics, with a new campaign focusing on inequities in the system and targeting big earners in the public sector. "Pension reform is aimed at combating privileges," Mr. Temer said, pointing to the benefits politicians and high-level civil servants get. "What the reform does is protect the poor who pay for those who earn a lot in the public sector." Mr. Temer was perhaps not the ideal figure to champion that message. The president has been collecting a pension for more than two decades, having retired as a state prosecutor at 55, which has significantly padded his earnings as an elected official. But regardless of the president's own pension history, the government tried to tap into the widespread anger and frustration over inequality in Brazil, pointing out that the pensions of the well-off have been subsidized largely by the working poor. Pension distribution is highly unequal, according to the World Bank, with 35 percent of pension subsidies -- the part of the pension that isn't accrued worker contributions -- paid out to the richest 20 percent. The poorest 20 percent receive just 4 percent of pension subsidies. "I know there won't be enough money to cover my retirement if the government doesn't do something," said Edmilson Santos, a 28-year-old Uber driver. "But I don't have any faith that they won't just keep helping the same politicians and public workers that have always benefited." This is a more complete version of the story than the one that appeared in print. Credit: SHASTA DARLINGTON; Lis Moriconi contributed reporting from Rio de Janeiro.
Subject: Early retirement; Government subsidies; Budget deficits; Politics; Legislators; Federal employees; Presidents; Economic conditions; Congressional elections; Retirement; Pensions; Gross Domestic Product--GDP; Public sector; Social security
Location: Latin America Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil
People: Rousseff, Dilma Temer, Michel
Company / organization: Name: International Bank for Reconstruction & Development--World Bank; NAICS: 928120; Name: Senate; NAICS: 921120; Name: Eurasia Group; NAICS: 523930; Name: Standard & Poors Corp; NAICS: 511120, 523999, 541519, 561450
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/25/world/americas/brazil-pension-michel-temer.html
Publication title: New York Times, Late Edition (East Coast); New York, N.Y.
Pages: A.8
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 26, 2018
Section: A
Publisher: New York Times Company
Place of publication: New York, N.Y.
Country of publication: United States, New York, N.Y.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
ISSN: 03624331
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2007909701
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2007909701?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright New York Times Company Feb 26, 2018
Last updated: 2018-11-12
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 146 of 474
Q4 2017 Hypera SA Earnings Call - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]26 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Presentation OPERATOR: Good morning, and welcome to Hypera Pharma's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2017 Results Conference Call. Today with us, we have Mr. Claudio Bergamo, CEO; and Mr. Breno Oliveira, CFO and IRO. We would like to inform you in addition that this event is being recorded. (Operator Instructions) We'd also like to inform you that questions can only be asked by telephone. So if you are connected through the webcast, please send your e-mail directly to our IR team at [email protected] Today's live webcast can also be accessed through the company's Investor Relations website at www.hypera.com.br/ir. In addition, we'd like to inform that some statements made during this conference call may represent forward-looking statements based on the company's future expectations. Such statements are subject to both known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which might lead the company's expectations not to materialize or to be considerably different from those expected. Now I'll turn the floor over to Mr. Bergamo, who will begin the presentation. Mr. Bergamo, you have the floor. CLAUDIO BERGAMO DOS SANTOS, CEO, PRESIDENT OF PHARMA AND DIRECTOR, HYPERA S.A.: Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our conference call to discuss results for the fourth quarter 2017 and also the full year 2017. The year 2017 was marked by a transition in the company. We have moved to a company which is pure pharma. To celebrate this new phase, we changed our corporate brand, which is now called Hypera Pharma. It's worth remembering that Hypera Pharma emerges as a leading company international pharmaceutical market, with something close to 10% of market participation in retail, which is the company's focus. It's also worth mentioning that in 2017, the company was awarded the prize of the largest pharma company by EXAME magazine, also by Valor News. We're also awarded the best company in pharma marketing and the largest advertiser in the pharma media. Hypera Pharma is the only company in the industry, which is present in a relevant manner across all pharma markets, including OTC, prescription products, food supplements, nutraceuticals, dermocosmetics and generic products. In 2017, we also implemented a series of changes, with objective of maintaining a new growth cycle for the company. Among those initiatives, we can highlight, we have finalized the segmentation of our organization, and there's 3 large business units, which are: Consumer Health, Branded Prescription Products and Generics. They are now fully autonomous in all their strategic and innovative functions and also marketing and sales, and they are responsible for their own respective results. We started the operation of our new innovation center called Hynova, which is equipped with the most state-of-the-art technologies available and also count on highly specialized professionals. We have also improved our business development area, having concluded new partnerships with several companies both internally and abroad. We have also started a program to increase our production capacity as it refers to our operations and in our Anápolis site, which should boost our production capacity by 50% in the coming 2 to 3 years. We also launched several new products for different markets, which allowed us to increase our innovation index to a record historical level. We have also increased our sales, marketing, trading and medical visitations areas with new field teams. We have improved therefore our execution, which led to productivity gains. We once again increased our marketing investments with an increase in our participation in digital media, among others. At the same time, the company continues to invest heavily in development -- in developing rather its pipeline for new products across our business lines. That includes several launches scheduled for 2018 and for the years to come. All of those changes aimed at strengthening our business platform in the mid- to the long run so that we'll have the necessary conditions to continue to grow sustainably, profitably and generating cash. Still, the company has already started reaping the benefits of the actions which we have implemented. As an example, we have now rejuvenated market portfolios, we have improved our executions, and we have already several success cases to show. We closed the year with a growth in demand on the same basis at around 14.7% when we use the PPP criteria, that accounts for 3.4 percentage points above the market level, which grew in our segments 11.3% in 2017. Our bat easing (inaudible) line -- our objective, which is to grow from 2 to 3 percentage points above the market base in the mid to long run. In the fourth quarter, that growth pace was kept, an increase in demand of 13.8% as opposed to 10.4%, as seen in the market, accounting for a difference of 3.4% when we compare ourselves with the market. Despite this growth having occurred in a very horizontal area across all -- the way across all our areas, it's worth mentioning our exceptional performance in our Prescription Products and Consumer Health divisions. For Prescription Products, for example, I can highlight the continued success of Addera D3, which is a leading market for the D vitamin market, which reached something close to BRL 300 million in demand, a growth of 26% in the year. Another example coming from the same division was our Alivium brand. We launched this year the gel caps version, which also grew by 24%, reaching BRL 110 million in terms of demand throughout the year. And for Consumer Health, it's worth mentioning the growth of our leading brand, Benegrip, which grew 34% in 2017, reaching over BRL 200 million in demand. Another example still was our flu medicine, Coristina D, which grew 32% in the year, reaching a demand of something close to BRL 100 million in 2017. As we can see, we have gathered several success cases due mainly to better execution due to our focus on business and other initiatives we have implemented across all business divisions. In terms of financial results, we had a good year as well. The company's sales reached BRL 3.6 billion, accounting for an increase of 12.7% when compared to the previous year. We closed the year with an EBITDA of BRL 1,232,000,000, very much in line with our guidance for the year, which was around BRL 1.2 billion. We closed the year with a net income of BRL 1.1 billion in continued operations, which accounted for 30.5% of our net revenues. In terms of cash generation, the company generated throughout the year BRL 932.6 million. Shareholders received BRL 1.8 billion throughout the year, which represents BRL 2.87 per share. That number already accounts for the interest capital which was paid out early this year in January. Even after that payout, the company started the year with a net cash which is positive of BRL 265 million. For 2018, the company intends to continue on its payout policy. The company remains firm in its growth but without putting aside profitability and cash generation concerns. Given the historical moment we are going through now, we believe in a transparent communication with the market. For 2018, the company will add to its guidance for EBITDA in continued operations, also a guidance for net income for continued operations, just as we have in other more mature markets. In that respect, given the current conditions, we believe that for the company's continued operations, we'll be able to close the year 2018 with an EBITDA of around BRL 1,350,000,000 and a net income of BRL 1.1 billion. Thank you very much. I'll now give the floor over to Breno Oliveira, who will be detailing our figures for the fourth quarter. Thank you again. BRENO TOLEDO PIRES DE OLIVEIRA, CHIEF IR OFFICER AND TREASURY DIRECTOR, HYPERA S.A.: Good morning, everyone. Before we move on to the numbers, I'd like to say that starting this quarter, we have improved our accounting practices in terms of acknowledging sales receivables, so we start accounting that as they -- we receive the payment, not as before. That has not impacted the company's results significantly, but there is a shift in revenues across the different quarters. On Table 19, we see that our income statement would have dropped in quarter because of our new accounting practice. This will serve as a comparison basis for 2018 and also the income statement for 2017 based on the previous accounting practice. So there is a difference there in terms of comparison. If we move now to Page #3, we see that the growth in net revenue for continued operations was 17.6%, with the highlight for the units concerned were Consumer Health and Prescription Products. For the -- based on the previous practice, that revenue would have grown 100% in the quarter. The gross margin sat at 74.5%, an increase of 1.6 percentage points when compared to the fourth quarter of the previous year, mainly due to a better sale performance with a higher concentration on branded products. Operating expenses continue to be 1.4 percentage points for the growth of EBITDA margin, with gains coming from marketing and sales entries. With that, the company's EBITDA reached BRL 365 million, a growth of 35.3%, a margin of 35.3% -- an increase of 2.7% (sic) [27.4%] when compared to the fourth quarter of 2016. In the fourth quarter of 2016, you saw a tax impact relative to interest on capital, which led us to file a positive number of BRL 112 million in the income line -- income tax line. This way, our net income from continued operations reached BRL 462 million, 118% above last year. Discontinued operations presented a net result, which was negative at BRL 3.9 million (sic) [BRL 16.9 million] in the quarter, due mainly to noncash expenses, with the write-off of assets which were not included in the sales of some products. So the net income for the company reached BRL 445 million in the quarter. The next slide. For 2017, the growth in net revenue was 12.7% due mainly to the growth in volume, with the highlight for the business units concerning Consumer Health and prescribe -- Prescription Products. Based on the previous accounting practice, the growth would have been up 10.4%. Gross margin moved up 0.6% when compared to last year due to a more favorable sales mix. Commercial expenses increased 0.2% due mainly to an increase in R&D expenses and higher corporate expenses after we sold our Disposable Products unit. So the company's EBITDA for continued operations reached BRL 1,200,000,000, a growth of 12.9% when compared to previous year and a gain of 0.1 percentage point in terms of margins. Based on the previous accounting practice, the EBITDA would have been BRL 1,224,000,000, and both cases reaching the guidance of BRL 1.2 billion, which was set for 2016. Financial result was positive at BRL 53 million, and leading to a net -- leading net income to reach BRL 1,112,000,000, a growth of 72% when compared to the previous year. In the year, the company's results for discontinued operations was negative at BRL 147 million, leading the total company's net income to finish the year at BRL 964 million. Moving to Page #5. We have our cash conversion cycle based on the new accounting practice, which is approximately 10 days shorter than before. In the fourth quarter of 2019 (sic) [2017], the cash conversion cycle is at 147 days, the same level of the previous year. And the working capital as a percentage of net revenues closed the year at 33%, as you can see on both graphs on the slide. On the next slide, Slide 6, the cash flow reached BRL 208 million in the fourth quarter, a growth of about 16% when compared to the previous year. In the year, cash generation reached BRL 916 million, a growth of 6% when compared to the previous year, impacted by an anticipation of media expenses, which in 2017 was BRL 18 million above what we had in 2016 mainly due to the payment of our football broadcast advertisement. Without considering that, our growth would have been 15% in 2017. Free cash flow before the sale of assets was BRL 720 million in the year, a growth of 8%, impacted mainly by advancements, which was made and was mentioned before. If we exclude that effect, we would have seen a growth of 20%. And the free cash flow saw a drop of 53% mainly due to fewer receivables coming from the sale of assets. On Page 7, we see our company's cash position, closing at the net cash level of BRL 846 million. If we consider interest on capital paid in January, we closed at BRL 581 million, in line with the company's strategy of keeping a cash position slightly positive. On Page 8, income on capital paid in January, BRL 0.92 per share, represented a payout of approximately 60%, a growth of 42% when compared to dividends paid out in 2017 and an average growth of 36% if we include 2016 when we started paying out dividends. And our strategy is to continue to pay our dividends to our shareholders at those levels. Moving on to the next slide. With the growth of our profitability and the reduction in capital which occurred last year, our return on equity doubled, reaching a level of 14% in 2017. Lastly, as Claudio has already mentioned, we are introducing a new guidance for net income for the continuing operations. This way, for 2018, our guidance is for EBITDA around BRL 1,350,000,000 and for net income for continuing operations around BRL 1.1 billion. The guidance for net income is close to the net income we filed in 2017 because of a lower cash balance and also because of reductions in capital that we saw in 2017 and also a better interest rate expected for last -- for this year when compared to last year and also due to a better tax incentive because, again, of the cash, the capital reduction and also because of better TJLP rates. Without those effects, our net income would grow approximately 10% when compared to 2017 if we consider the same base of comparison. We'd like to thank you all for your attention, and we can move on to the Q&A session. Questions and Answers OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Mr. Robert Ford from Bank of America. ROBERT ERICK FORD AGUILAR, MD IN EQUITY RESEARCH, BOFA MERRILL LYNCH, RESEARCH DIVISION: Claudio, why did you change the way you recognize the revenues? And also, you were more -- seem to have been more conservative in that period in the fourth quarter when we see the numbers and compare, you seem to have been more conservative. What can you tell us about that? CLAUDIO BERGAMO DOS SANTOS: Well, Breno is going to be talking about the recognition of revenues, and I'll address your second question. BRENO TOLEDO PIRES DE OLIVEIRA: Bob, thank you. As this change in accounting practices, that is an improvement we're always seeking to implement. In this particular case, we had been discussing this for some time. We have been looking for opportunity to improve our practices. And also, in 2018, a new CPC, CPC 47 will be enforced. And so we decided to anticipate our change and implement that now so that we can be better prepared for when the change is really enforced, the change in CPC. So we already have an idea of how those numbers compare when you work with different comparison bases. Really, that's basically the driver for that change. As I said, no major impacts were felt in our statements. It was basically a reallocation of revenues throughout or across the quarters. In the mid-run, no major effect will be felt. So I'll give the floor now back to Claudio. CLAUDIO BERGAMO DOS SANTOS: Thank you. As for the fourth quarter, Bob, it's worth mentioning that, as I mentioned in my initial remarks, in terms of the sellout demand, we still see a very positive trend going forward. In the quarter, we saw a growth of 13.8% in the quarter, which was relatively horizontal, if I may, when we compare the different divisions. Now within that quarter, on the one hand, we chose a selling commercial policy, which was more moderate, if you will, in the fourth quarter given the trend that we saw to our business. And in the specific case of Neo Química, we had a lack of products, and the worse, demand was higher than the offer or than the supply. And that kept us from selling something around BRL 35 million within that quarter because there was a drop-in capacity basically. Had it not been for that effect, we would have seen a growth of around 10%, which would be more in line with what we had for the remainder of the year. And of course, I'm talking about the previous accounting practice, right? We are already working in terms of increasing our capacity in the short run. We have several initiatives in place so that we can improve our production levels. We also have a new management at a plant, which took over 3 months ago. So we are now very optimistic in terms of resuming higher levels of production in the short run. So as I said, those initiatives should impact productivity levels very positively. At the same time, we are working on an expansion program, we are building a new site, a new plant within our Anápolis complex, which will, of course, lead to an increase in production in the mid- to long run. Again, it's important to remember that we have a positive trend on our sellout front that's driven, as I said, by several initiatives we have mentioned before. And this will allow us to, as I said, grow sustainably looking forward. BRENO TOLEDO PIRES DE OLIVEIRA: Okay. Still on the fourth quarter, we are working hard, Bob, to continue with the good results. Since this is a production problem, not a demand issue, unfortunately for this quarter, we had the collective vacation period, the maintenance shutdown period. We had, of course, carnival, holidays that, of course, dragged the number of working days down, of course. So -- and it's a shorter quarter because according to the new methodology, we have to place the order by the 10th of the month to be able to include them in the quarter. So it's a shorter quarter as this is the first one in the new methodology. So because of all that, we are working hard to maintain those numbers up, but I have to wait and see the end of the quarter. But in any event, throughout the year, I remain quite optimistic that we will be able to lead demand, making supply in the case of Neo Química. It is in a -- and we can look at it as a good problem to have, right? Neo Química, of course, has shown it has grown to be a very solid, robust brand. We have also improved our distribution system for that. And so that -- there is also good news. As I said, it's a good problem for us to try and solve. ROBERT ERICK FORD AGUILAR: And Claudio, could you talk to us about your efforts to establish new partnerships in terms of licensing? What products do you have in your horizon? How is that being played out? And how is your pipeline for additional business, if you will? CLAUDIO BERGAMO DOS SANTOS: We have a very large range of partnerships, which has come up since we started to invest in our business development units. And those partnerships are really important for us that will give us enough leverage to grow in the short run, of course. So there is a very, I could say, very positive combination in that respect. I can say that about 1/3 of our current pipeline -- but I think I mentioned in a previous call, today, our pipeline, considering the projection for the fifth year, we're talking about BRL 3.9 billion, which is now in development phase, of which about BRL 1.3 billion, about 1/3 is what I call the short-term pipeline. In other words, pipeline which is about to be launched or which has been already filed at the national agency, the ANVISA and just sitting and waiting for the federal approval. In 2018, where we have more than 20 launches and in 2017 where we can already anticipate numbers, the launch, for example, of [Crinida], which is similar to Anitta, which will be the first product in the market after the Anitta. We'll be the first one to use -- to launch that product in the market circuit, to doctors, the doctors' community, we have been working intensely with the doctors. We, of course, there was this work to challenge the patent. We managed to prove that the patent could be challenged, and we won that in court. And we'll be the first company to be able to launch that product ahead of every other competitor. So that's one example of work conducted by the business development units. Along with a novel front, they have to work together, of course. And that is a good example of what we're doing. And it is, of course, great news that I can share. There are others, but this is one which is worth mentioning and highlighting. OPERATOR: Mr. Thiago Macruz from Itaú has a question. THIAGO CAPUCCI MACRUZ, RESEARCH ANALYST, ITAú CORRETORA DE VALORES S.A., RESEARCH DIVISION: My question is a follow-up from Bob's question. Could you tell us your expectations about the innovation index? What would be reasonable to expect? How far can that innovation index go? Could it stay around 28%? Or would you say that throughout the next years, we could have even higher figures? So that we can have a better idea in terms of looking at your pipeline and looking forward. CLAUDIO BERGAMO DOS SANTOS: Thiago, as I said, we have been working to continuously renew our pipeline. The innovation index has a very strong correlation with our above-market growth. What I can tell you now is that in our budget for 2018, if everything happens according to plan, we would be leading -- taking that index up to 31%, from 28% to 31%. From '16 to '17, we gained 4%. From '17 to '18, again, if everything goes according to plan, we're expecting to improve another 3%. As I said, we're talking about another 20 launches, very good launches. I'm talking about products which are quite distinguishing in the market. So we could expect that number to go up to 31%. OPERATOR: Mr. Tobias Stingelin from Crédit Suisse has a question. TOBIAS STINGELIN, DIRECTOR, CRéDIT SUISSE AG, RESEARCH DIVISION: In terms of the capacity expansion, Claudio mentioned 50% in the next 3 years. In terms of CapEx, could you give us a breakdown? You also were considering selling a property. In other words, how can we expect CapEx to play out in the next 3 years? This probably had in the fourth quarter for capacity, you had that before. So that has happened, and that could happen again, so the CapEx expansion will be addressing that problem. Am I right in my understanding? CLAUDIO BERGAMO DOS SANTOS: Yes. Every now and again, we face the issue as I mentioned. But I think that this problem we had in 2017 is being addressed with the new management at the plant. We are focused on capacity building in Anápolis, but there is -- on the current assets that we have, with this new management work, I think I believe we should improve our level, I'd say, at above 10% throughout 2018. That's the target, an improvement in 10% with the current asset base. Now we have to recognize that throughout 2017, we saw several changes in the brand's leadership. Of course, that also hinders growth. But now we have a new management in place that will remain in place in the mid-run, so I do believe that, that 10% target in terms of production gain throughout the year is a good feasible target. At the same time, we are also closing the final details for the expansion project. We have hired NORDICA, which is a renowned company, to help us in this expansion. We are now, as I said, detailing the project. We are advance in that project. As it happens with any new factory, a new plant, we're talking about complex issues. I said I was going to bring figures, but I'd like to ask you for your patience to bear with us for another quarter. But I'd say that we are talking about BRL 500 million tops for 2 to 3 years for a new plant, and that's a number we see as a limit, BRL 500 million. And when the time comes, this will amortize with the sale value of our Goiânia warehouse, which estimate now at BRL 250 million, give or take, depending on the market at the time. We are not going to set without having a clear idea of what the market is situating itself at the time. So -- but again, we're talking about BRL 250 million for that warehouse. It's an additional CapEx we're talking about, which is quite reasonable. TOBIAS STINGELIN: Okay. One more question. I remember that for the year, you've already mentioned the sell-in and the sell-out for the quarter. But for the year, how do you see your different categories performing, where do you need to improve, where you are faring well? CLAUDIO BERGAMO DOS SANTOS: Well, in terms of categories -- well, not categories, divisions, right, Prescription Products, Consumer Health, Generics, as we've seen the numbers, I think the Prescription Products divisions and Consumer Health division, they are doing well. They do not depend so much on production; they depend on demand generation. And they also depend, of course, on the success of future launches. Just to give you a better idea, today, 1/3 of our production is dedicated to those 2 business units, and 2/3 is dedicated to Neo Química. Neo Química is a higher-volume front. So again, 1/3 of the revenues come from Sul Química and 2/3 the other way around. And also, of course, we prioritize our brand, of course, so that we can -- how can I put it? To gain better efficiency on both fronts, the ones who harm Sul Química or Neo Química, so there is new production increase in program. We want all fronts to benefit. So 10% of that target will be, of course, directed to Neo Química. The idea is to better associate demand and supply. In other words, the idea is to address the bottleneck that we now see at Neo Química. So as I said, the demand for generics is really good. TOBIAS STINGELIN: But you have this demand capacity, right? CLAUDIO BERGAMO DOS SANTOS: Exactly, exactly. It's not enough -- it's not an isolated fact; it is a trend. We are doing well in generics. Throughout '17, we worked well with our inventories. But when our inventory is finished, we are not able to replace the safety or the security inventory at the pace we need to. But when you have a very low safety inventory, you are subject to short-term contingencies. OPERATOR: Mr. Venicio Zeibedo from Bradesco BB (sic) [Bradesco BBI]. LUCIANO T. CAMPOS, RESEARCH ANALYST, BRADESCO S.A. CORRETORA DE TíTULOS E VALORES MOBILIáRIOS, RESEARCH DIVISION: Claudio, Breno, actually, this is Luciano speaking actually. My first question is the following. You mentioned an interesting number of launches that you have going forward, important launches. Could you just -- could you give us some more color in terms of what might happen in terms of investments in marketing, in points of sale to support all those launches? What kind of a breakdown in terms of percentage can you share with us? Of course, that growth will need some support. That's the first question. CLAUDIO BERGAMO DOS SANTOS: Luciano, very good question, thank you. Actually, as we launch new products and as we move from a level to another, investments in marketing and sales, of course, need to follow suit. And we as managers, we need to be able to do that in a way to minimize the effect or possible effects on our income on our statements. So you're right, it is a constant challenge for us. Throughout the year, we increase gradually some sales efforts. We increased our marketing teams, so the impact is not that important, that high. And the same thing will happen in 2018. We invested at Globo, the TV network. The idea is not to see a very high impact of a one-off investment. The investment in Globo is very good, and we expect, of course, great returns from that. And for Prescription Products, we are planning an increase in terms of our medical visit teams. We want to do it in a way that the impact is minimum. LUCIANO T. CAMPOS: Just one more question in terms of capacity. You have already mentioned that before, but just as a refresher, you've talked about having a specific site or plant to make Hynova even more efficient than it already is but without affecting the Goiás plant. Do you have a timing for this new plant, for Hynova? And how does that affect your production capacity in Goiás for the next 2 years if it affects at all? You talked about an additional CapEx that you mentioned just now in the other question. CLAUDIO BERGAMO DOS SANTOS: Luciano, are you talking about our pilot plant? LUCIANO T. CAMPOS: Yes, exactly, yes, the pilot plant. CLAUDIO BERGAMO DOS SANTOS: The pilot plant has no influence or effect whatsoever in production. That's something totally separate. It is part of this new investment program that I mentioned to Tobias. We are trying to decide where to put that pilot plant. But we already have a pilot plant in Anápolis, and it doesn't have the best possible technology, but it already serves our purposes satisfactorily. In the short run, of course, our objective is to have a plant to meet our objective in the long run, and that is part of our investment package. Going forward, we are now talking about the details of the plant, as I mentioned before, to build this new plant. OPERATOR: Mr. Joseph Giordano from JP Morgan has a question. JOSEPH GIORDANO, SENIOR LATAM HEALTHCARE ANALYST, JP MORGAN CHASE & CO, RESEARCH DIVISION: I'd like to talk about demand a little bit. Last year, we talked about a need to finance clients or to fund clients in talking about small and midsize retail chains. How do you see that market today in terms of credit? And a second question. Do you see effects of a more normal seasonality going forward in terms of inflation or vis-à-vis inflation, how do you see that market going forward? CLAUDIO BERGAMO DOS SANTOS: As for credit, it remains in historical levels in the fourth quarter. We were slightly exposed to high pharma and some other clients for generics with some isolated effect but nothing, nothing major. I'm talking about isolated issues that will emerge within our brand. But it's worth mentioning that one of the strategies that the company had is to increasingly have control of the sales at the other end. When we started this process back in 2011, we were talking about 15% to 20% of the control of the sales in retail, so they were moving to 65% of this control level. And this year, part of our investment, and so then trade is to increase even further our OL teams so that we can have even more control. So the tendency is for us to increase that every year little by little so that we'll have increasingly more control at the end. Of course, you know that we sell directly to larger chains. And in the regional channel, we have a system where we have a semi-direct sales. And once we have salespeople for regional retail, they place the orders, and those orders are channeled to larger distributing companies, which in turn take care of the logistics and delivery. For that midsize segment, where we have 50% of our demand, so the tendency is to have higher numbers on that front. We are increasing those sales forces in the market. OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) Mr. Guilherme Assis from Brasil Plural has a question. GUILHERME ASSIS, ANALYST, BRASIL PLURAL CORRETORA DE CAMBIO, TITULOSE VALORES MOBILIáRIOS S.A., RESEARCH DIVISION: I have a question about the growth you've been showing. I think it's clear that you've been successful in some efforts in terms of an expansion and other products. Claudio mentioned really well the 20% to 30% growth. I'd like to try and match that with a question which was asked before. My impression is that there was or there are some specific brands, which are super brands, but when I look at the company's growth, more in line with the market if we talk about the year's growth. It seems that there are some categories performing really well, such as generics. But I'd like to know from you if only the generics are able to do that. Since you have other assets growing above market ever since, what kind of categories can we see performing well? CLAUDIO BERGAMO DOS SANTOS: Guilherme, I say that today, the main driver is the capacity demand in the market vis-à-vis the restriction in capacity we had at Neo Química for generics. We're talking about a segment where capacity demand is much more dynamic, if you will, we have Química as a competitor. But in this case, in this segment, we have more Química if you compare it with any others. So it's a slightly more tense, if you will, market, but still, we have higher demand than supply. But once we normalize that, we will have generics performing as well as the other categories. GUILHERME ASSIS: Okay. And any other category, Claudio, that you could mention that is now seeing a drop-in performance? So you only talk about Generics as showing a poorer performance. CLAUDIO BERGAMO DOS SANTOS: In our pharmaceutical portfolio, we have products which are more mature than others. It has to do with the cycle of the product. So it's important to know and to realize the average age of your portfolio. That's an important piece of information. So as you have younger or newer portfolios, you will have higher amounts of brands and products, which still have room to grow to be reached maturity. And of course, for older portfolios, you have brands declining. That's very clear in the pharmaceutical segment. Depending on the category, that time period goes from 5 to 10 years. But it's important to realize that the brand is one thing, but the portfolio is another. We have a strong brand. You may have a mature product but not a mature market. Doril, for example, we had a demand of around BRL 35 million, with further dropping year-on-year. When we launched Doril Enxaqueca for migraine, we tripled our demand. We reached something close to BRL 90 million. That means that, that rationale works because the brand is important, the brand is robust. So we need to understand the dynamics to be able to invest in marketing and sales correctly. Today, looking forward, I have 5 years of pipeline for Doril, and that's the period we work on. OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) The Q&A session is now closed. I'd like to turn the floor back over to Mr. Bergamo for his final remarks. Mr. Bergamo, you have the floor. CLAUDIO BERGAMO DOS SANTOS: Once again, thank you all for participating in our call. Our IR area remains available. If you have more questions, more comments, feel free. And have a nice day, everyone. OPERATOR: Hypera Pharma's conference call is now over. Thank you all for participating. Have a nice day. [Thomson Financial reserves the right to make changes to documents, content, or other information on this web site without obligation to notify any person of such changes. In the conference calls upon which Event Transcripts are based, companies may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding a variety of items. Such forward-looking statements are based upon current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those stated in any forward-looking statement based on a number of important factors and risks, which are more specifically identified in the companies' most recent SEC filings. Although the companies may indicate and believe that the assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements are reasonable, any of the assumptions could prove inaccurate or incorrect and, therefore, there can be no assurance that the results contemplated in the forward-looking statements will be realized. 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Subject: Innovations; Copyright; Marketing; Production capacity; Success; Webcasting; Generic products
Company / organization: Name: Thomson Financial; NAICS: 511210, 518210, 519190
Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 26, 2018
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: Linthicum
Country of publication: United States, Linthicum
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Law--Corporate Law
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Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2012920617
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Document 147 of 474
Royal Dutch Shell PLC LNG Outlook Webcast - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]26 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Presentation GEORGES MENANE: Hi. Good afternoon, and welcome, everyone, here in the room in London and online on the webcast. My name is Georges Menane from Royal Dutch Shell Investor Relations, and it's a pleasure to welcome you to the second presentation on LNG outlook. The purpose of this presentation is to give you Shell's perspective on general outlook for the LNG markets, and it is the second year we do that, picking up on what we thought was an excellent practice by BG. Today, we have Steve Hill, leading the presentation and answering your questions after that. Steve is the Executive Vice President for Shell Energy, and Shell Energy is the entity in charge of our global marketing and trading for gas, power, LNG and carbon. Without further ado, Steve, over to you. STEVE HILL: Thank you very much, Georges, and good afternoon everybody. I'm going to spend probably about 40, 45 minutes taking you through the presentation, and I'll welcome your questions, we've had a few today. So hopefully, we're well rehearsed on that, but we'll see if you can come up with some new ones to challenge our thinking. But I look forward to this opportunity. So I'll start with the -- start with -- trying to find a way to get the clicker to -- if we could click forward to Slide 5, that would be great. Stop there, sorry. There's 3 messages that we're going to deliver today or 3 sections in the presentation. We're going to talk about how the external environment is very helpful and very complementary to the gas industry at the moment in general and the LNG specifically. We don't always do a great job in the gas business of telling our story, so we thought we'd take the opportunity to tell you about some of the structural and fundamental things happening that are supporting the growth in gas demand. We're going to talk in quite detail about what specifically happened in the LNG markets in 2017, and we're going to talk about one of the challenges that we see in the industry that needs to be unlocked to enable continued growth in the industry going forward. So those of you that are familiar with Shell presentations will be familiar with the energy challenge. We're in an environment today where the population has grown rapidly from about 7 billion people to 9 billion people by the middle of the century. The combination of more people and more people living in cities and (inaudible) and we expect energy demand to increase by about 30% over the next 25 years. And therefore, we see a requirement for increased supply to meet that demand. However, we're in an environment where climate change concerns and air quality concerns are -- they're of a growing importance. And therefore, the existing solutions to meet that demand aren't going to be sufficient on their own, and we're in a world of probably unprecedented change within the energy mix. So this story is going to tell you the LNG story within that context. Just to focus on that, the -- this chart looks at the air quality issue in particular. So the chart on the left tells you that the areas in the world today which have the biggest air quality issues, typically in South and East Asia. And the chart on the right shows you the areas in the world today which have the biggest growth in energy demand, and they're the same places, it's China and India. They're the countries with the worst air quality issues, with the highest coal penetration in the energy mix today and where there's the biggest air quality issues that needs to be resolved. And that creates a unique challenge, which we will talk about as we go forward. So this chart talks about some of the policies that are responding to this environment. And we're not going to take you through all the different policies in detail. What we're really trying to highlight here is the cumulative effect of many different policies coming from many layers of organizations across the world, which are all very complementary and aligned either in directly supporting gas and LNG or indirectly supporting them through making coal or nuclear or other energy supplies more challenging. Globally, we've seen G20 being very supportive, the IEA; not listed here, but the IMO is continuing to implement changes to the fueling specifications for LNG shipping -- for all shipping from 2020, which we think will create significantly more demand for LNG, which we'll talk about later. In Europe, we've now seen 12 countries announce the phasing out of coal from their energy supply mix. In China and in Korea, we've seen very strong government-led initiatives, particularly the coal-to-gas switching initiatives in China, which are already resulting in near-term growth in gas and LNG demand in those countries. And we're also seeing places where sometimes when the national governments aren't taking the lead, then local governments are stepping in. An example we use here is in Berlin, whereas while the German government doesn't really have any policies that are pushing coal out of the energy mix in Germany, Berlin as a city has decided that it doesn't want coal in its energy mix and is therefore, taking its own actions to make that change. We only got as far as the [Bs] in terms of the local examples, but Delhi is another example that pushed out the coal and coke for the energy mix there and there's many, many other examples around the world. So what does this mean to the overall energy supply mix going forward? The first chart here shows that we expect energy demand to grow by about 1% a year on a compound annual growth rate and that we expect gas to take the biggest share of that growth. Clearly, renewables is growing the fastest in terms of the rate of growth for that specific energy source, but it has grown from a very small base, and it is very focused in the power sector, whereas when you look at energy mix as a whole, we see gas as being the biggest portion of the growth. And therefore, you can see in the second sector, the blue chart, that actually gas is forecast to grow twice as fast as overall energy demand at 2% a year. And almost half of that growth is expected to come from the power sector and we -- there's a lot of debates clearly about what future power mixes will be around the world. But more importantly, more than half of the gas demand growth is expected to come from other sources of demand other than power. And we think gas is particularly robust in those markets because there will still be pressure in those markets to provide cleaner sources of energy. And in energy, demand sectors, which are difficult to electrify than gas, is clearly the cleanest realistic option. And then the final chart, going back to the theme about Asia, shows that gas demand in Asia is forecast to grow faster than overall at 3% a year. And that's driven by some of these air quality issues that we see and the fact that energy demand is growing faster in Asia overall than in other markets. And this will lead to a very positive story about LNG because LNG is particularly well positioned to supply gas demand growth in Asia compared to other markets simply as a result of geography. The gas supplies in the markets tend to be further apart in Asia than in other regions. So looking at power in particular. We don't -- clearly, renewables is growing rapidly in power markets and will play a very key role in the development of power markets. We don't see this as a threat to gas, we see that as an opportunity to gas. Gas is very complementary and supportive of renewables. Renewables provides clean power, and it provides competitive power. What it doesn't provide is reliable power. And it's the combination of gas and renewables that provides the clean, competitive and reliable power. So the first example we're going to show you here is California, and these lines are the power demand in California after the renewable supply has been taken into account. So it's the power demand for nonrenewable supply. And as we've seen a very big penetration of solar in California over the last few years, you have seen the power demand for fossil fuel decline by approximately half in the middle of the day, in the time in the day when the sun is shining. But what you also see is a trend at the end of the day, when the sun goes in and the solar power disappears, where the demand increases rapidly, and that's due to people coming home from work, plugging in their cars, turning on the air conditioning and therefore, the mismatch between when the renewable power is being generated and when power is being consumed. And it's the flexibility of gas that allows that renewable solutions be complementary with reliable power. So while California isn't an LNG market, it is an example of how renewables change the requirement for other sources of power generation and how that is very complementary for gas' advantages due to its low capital cost and flexibility. And then the right-hand chart looks at Brazil. Brazil is a market where 90% of the power generation comes from hydropower, assuming there's sufficient rain, there's enough water in rivers and behind the dams. But when there's not enough rain, then Brazil needs a lot of -- an alternative source of power at short notice, and gas is ideally suited to provide that flexibility, and that gas supply to Brazil comes from LNG. So these are 2 examples where the complementary nature of LNG and renewables can clearly be seen. So when we look at power markets overall, we look at -- we split this into 2 because we've seen different characteristics today in OECD countries and non-OECD countries. In the OECD today, we see a growth in both renewables and in gas-fired power generation. So again, the 2 don't compete with each other, they compete together in a complementary way to take out -- to take demand away from coal. And last year was the first year since the Industrial Revolution when gas supplied more of the power mix than coal did in these specific markets. In fact, in April last year, we saw the first day in the U.K. with no coal fire generation since 1882. If you look at the right-hand side, you see quite a different pattern. You still see coal as being the dominant source of power generation. But the growth in coal in the energy mix has halted over the last few years. And in many ways, the shape of the coal curve is -- looks a bit like what we saw in the OECD maybe 30 years ago. So we now have expectations that we will see a similar growth in power from gas and renewables in non-OECDs and take on coal in that space. There's clearly a big opportunity for the combination of gas and renewables. But I also mentioned earlier on that over half of the expected growth in gas demand is expected to come from nonpower demand uses. And a great example of that was China last year. Gas demand in China grew by 15% last year, so very, very strong growth in demand, up to about 240 bcm. Now the government's target for gas in the Chinese energy mix is between 350 and 380 bcm by 2020, so another 50% increase from where we are today. Whether that's reached or not, we will see. But clearly, we expect very strong continued growth in gas demand in China. And the right-hand side of the chart here is particularly interesting because that growth in gas demand we saw in China last year didn't come from power at all, it came from other sources of demand. It particularly came from the industrial sector and the residential and commercial heating sector. It basically came from replacing boilers in small industrial facilities and in district heating facilities from coal-fired boilers to gas-fired boilers. And this is very important for us because this is a structural demand change. We don't expect to see those sources of demand switching back to coal and replacing their gas-fired infrastructure with new coal-fired infrastructure to keep having coal trucks on the roads and all sorts of stuff -- this we see as one-off structural change, and we see it as continuing. The heating system -- the heating season in China basically starts on the 15th of November. People don't necessarily control their own heating in China, they're part of community housing, and it's only when the community switches on the heating that people get heat. And we only have 6 weeks benefits of the 40-odd thousand boilers that were converted last year in these demand figures, so we expect to see continued strong demand in gas -- continued strong gas demand growth in China going forward. And then another interesting fact for China, we see transport actually starting to become a material source of gas demand. Last year, there was 70,000 new LNG fuel trucks came onto the roads in China, increasing the number of trucks -- LNG fuel trucks in China to about 300,000. So again, lots of strong structural changes in China, driven by government policies supporting coal-to-gas switching. So now if we focus on LNG. LNG is the fastest-growing segment of the gas supply mix. It represents a bit over 10% of the overall gas mix today but is expected to represent over 30% of the growth in LNG demand going forward over the next 20 years, and that again is driven by Asia. As you can see on the right-hand chart, Asia, which is a particularly important market for LNG, is expected to account for over half of the growth in LNG demand over the coming 20 years, although we do see growth in all the key LNG markets and LNG being a truly global industry. So some of the changes that we've seen last year have in many ways changed our perspective on the role of LNG in the energy mix. LNG was always seen as providing energy security, where it provided energy security through long-term contracts. And what we are seeing now is a much more flexible market, which is much more responsive to changes in the gas market, changes in demand from other sources of energy and responsive to buyers' needs. And therefore, LNG played a particularly significant role in addressing the uncertainties that we saw in the gas market last year, be they supply uncertainties on other sources of gas or uncertainties in gas demand. At the same time, while the LNG market faced its own challenges, it was very resilient to those challenges and was able to provide a reliable and flexible supply when called upon by the market. So LNG is -- has always provided energy security, but it's starting to provide energy security in multiple ways. So that's the introduction. I'll now move on to the 2017 details. So we saw a strong growth in new supply in 2017, that was very much expected. This is very much driven by the wave of new supply that's coming on stream from Australia and from the United States. And now about half of that new supply is actually on stream and has been absorbed by the markets quite comfortably. In fact, when we dig into that in a bit more detail, what we see is that the LNG market actually grew by more than expected in 2017. When we did the outlook last year, we presented what happened in the previous year. This year, we're doing that, but we're also comparing it to the expectations that we're -- the people were forecasting for 2017 a year ago. And what we can see is that the market grew by almost 30 million tonnes in 2017, which is about 30% more than was forecasted at the start of the year, and that was basically driven by supplies from existing projects in Africa. The new supply from Australia and the United States came on pretty much as forecast. But in addition to that, LNG projects in Africa, particularly in Angola and Nigeria, which have been struggling for various challenges in the previous few years, actually performed much closer to capacity. And therefore, we saw a greater increase in supply than expected. That increase in supply, that 29 million tonnes of supply growth, was comfortably absorbed by the markets. And most of the supply growth was absorbed by the North Asian market, and we also saw a material increase into Southern Europe. What was different than expectation is that market mix. It was expected that the market would absorb those volumes but that a lot of that growth would be delivered into the Northern Europe flexible markets, the markets where you basically push LNG into where it has nowhere else to go, whereas in reality, what we actually saw was the markets that needed LNG, pulling LNG, so the North Asian and Southern Europe markets taking the LNG -- to take in the growth that came into the industry. So if we look at that in a bit more detail, what we saw is various markets where we saw significant demand growth and many different factors behind that increase. So in China, we saw strong coal-to-gas switching, driving demand growth, as I've discussed before. In Korea, the growth was driven by government policies and in particular, a lot of issues in the nuclear issue -- industry and reliability of nuclear plants in Korea. In Turkey, the demand growth was driven by new capacity -- new import capacities coming online, the new FSO used in operation and therefore, simply the ability to import more LNG. In Spain, the demand growth was driven by low amounts of hydropower. And France, again, also had the nuclear issues. So many different factors driving the LNG demand growth. So obviously, the fact that many markets grew by more than expected, some markets grew by less than expected. And again, if you look at where those markets were, it's the U.K., Belgium, Netherlands, not that there was any problem with those markets, it's just that those are the balancing markets, the places where you could put LNG if you don't have another home for it. And the fact that actually LNG imports reduced into those markets shows the continued strength of the industry. So now we'll look at China in a bit more detail. I mentioned before that the Chinese gas market grew by about 15% last year. The Chinese LNG market grew by almost 50%. And as you can see, it's almost doubled in the last 2 years. A couple of implications of that. First of all, there had been a concern over the last few years about whether China was oversupplied with LNG and whether it will be able to accommodate all its contracted volumes. That risk is clearly behind us now, and China can easily absorb its contracted volumes and needs some incremental volumes and buys considerable amounts of spot LNG on top of that. And secondly, I think the growth in China, both the volume growth and the seasonality growth that goes with it, is a further reinforcement of the flexibility of the LNG market today. So the chart at the -- on the right-hand side here shows how the LNG market deals with seasonality. So this is where cargoes go by month over the last few years. And China is the yellow section at the bottom. And what you will see is a seasonality with higher demand in the winter and the summer and also strong demand growth over 2017. If you add onto that the other East Asian demand from Japan, Korea and Taiwan, you'll get to the top of the black bars. And again, what we see here is strong seasonality driven by China and Korea particularly, which means that as markets, they require more LNG in the winter than in the summer. However, that's very much offset by the brown bar columns, which is demand outside North Asia and outside Europe. And what we see is a strong offset between the seasonal demand in North Asia and the counter-seasonal markets. So this is places like the Middle East, where they have strong demand in our summer driven by air conditioning, and the counter-seasonal heating markets, places like Argentina, which have strong demand in their winter, which happens to be our summer. So there is a natural offset between different markets where different buyers have different needs at different times of the year which allows LNG to be very flexible to accommodate the different needs of different markets. And actually, Northwest Europe, which was historically provided the flexibility of the markets, we now see -- takes a very small portion of LNG and isn't providing the flexibility that it historically did to the market, but it isn't actually needed either because there is this natural offset elsewhere. So again, if we move on to prices, and we show prices because -- not because we want to talk about whether prices are higher or low, but spot LNG prices, we think, are a strong indicator of the nature of the market. Whether the market's oversupplied or balanced or tight, we still read many articles that suggest there is an oversupply in the LNG industry. The consensus -- the sentiment that way isn't as strong a year ago, but we still read it, and we don't see any evidence of that in practice. I've explained how the demand is growing as quickly as the supply over the last year. And then again, when you look at pricing, commodity prices have increased over 2017, as you know. But when you look at spot LNG prices, the best way to look at the strength of the market in relationship to oil, what you actually see is a very similar price pattern in 2017 to what we observed in 2016 and in fact, to what we've observed every year so far this decade. So this would suggest to us that the market is basically operating at a balance at its usual level of competitiveness and there's no particular weakness or oversupply in the markets. Obviously, there were some changes in the market in 2017. We saw a very material growth in supply, and we also saw an increase in the amount of LNG sold under spot contracts. So that represents about 1,100 cargoes of spot cargoes delivered in 2017, which is getting close to about 30% of the overall LNG markets. And we also saw a significant increase in the amount of financial trading done around the LNG business. It's still tiny in relation to the overall scale of the business, but it is growing materially compared to 2016 and provides buyers with more options in how to manage price risk and hedge their cargoes. So this raises the question, "Well, why do people keep foreseeing and predicting an LNG oversupply, but it never actually occurs in reality?" And the best explanation we have for that is that LNG supply growth is very transparent. It's projects which are well publicized, they cost billions of dollars or tens of billions of dollars, they take 5 years to construct and they're announced and well publicized so everybody can see LNG supply growth coming 5 years ahead of time. Historically, LNG demand growth was quite similar. It was often driven by new investments in new terminals, new power plants, but that's changed over recent years. LNG demand growth is a lot less transparent today. It tends to come from 2 things which are harder to see. First of all is increased utilization through existing facilities. And because you don't have the investments, you don't have the announcements, you don't have the triggers that create that publicity. And secondly, a lot of LNG demand growth comes from floating regas solutions. Floating regas solutions are very complementary for developing new gas markets because they can be brought on stream in less than a year compared to 4 or 5 years for a conventional LNG import terminal. But when you're predicting demand 2 or 3 years ahead of time, you don't often see these coming. So a lot of the markets which have driven a lot of the growth in recent years have been markets which people haven't been predicting that are going to be coming in the years ahead. And this technology lowers the barriers to entry for new markets, both on -- in terms of the cost of their facility and the amounts of volumes you need to import through a facility to make it economic. So what will be the next change in demand? And an area where we're particularly focused on at the moment is in the LNG for transport sector. Historically, this was not at all material, but we think there's various things happening today, which will make this much more material going forward. To put this in context, transport represents just over 1/4 of energy demand today, and half of that is cars, but the other half of that is effectively heavy-duty transport, basically trucks and ships, which is basically transport demand, which is much, much harder to electrify than cars because of the high energy content, the heavy duty, the long distances travel, the high energy requirements. And therefore, we think LNG would be much more competitive in this sector. And just, for example, the LNG bunker market today is as big as -- sorry, the global bunker market today is as big as the overall energy markets, and the trucking market is many multiples of that. So in the shipping bunker market, we're seeing a lot of changes related to the change in the specification for ship fuel, which is being driven by the IMO and which comes into effect from 2020. Historically, virtually all ships in the world have been powered by high sulfur fuel oil. That won't be an option going forward unless ships invest in scrubber technology, which hasn't really taken off. The alternatives are either diesel or low sulfur fuel oil or LNG. And LNG, historically, has struggled to compete with high sulfur fuel oil but is much, much more competitive against diesel or low sulfur fuel oil. So when you look at the different sectors in the shipping industry, we're starting to see a lot of progress. 7 of the 10 biggest container shipping companies in the world have said that scrubbers is not going to be their choice of technology going forward. Some have already ordered LNG-fueled ships, others have announced that they will. Some have already contracted LNG. CMA CGM, one container ship company, recently ordered 9 LNG-fueled container ships, which will have a combined annual LNG demand of 0.3 million tonnes, which is basically equivalent of a new market, a new country when it enters the LNG market for the first time. In the cruise sector, Carnival has now ordered 8 LNG-fueled cruise ships. Shell is now committed to using LNG-fueled tankers, which we have chartered from Sovcomflot. And then many other sectors in the shipping industry, these are -- they're also starting to see a conversion to LNG. And then similarly in the road transport, this has been particularly successful in China. As I mentioned before, there's 300,000 LNG-fueled trucks in China. There's 2,000 LNG fueling stops in China. And we're starting to see some penetration in Europe as well where there's 100 different fueling stations across Europe where you can buy LNG today. So this is one of the opportunities for growth that we are focused on going forward. So I'm now going to talk about -- a little bit about the growth in the industry and what are the challenges that we see going forward. Hopefully, by now, I have conveyed quite a positive view on the potential for gas and the potential for LNG demand going forward. That should be a very positive story, and this chart on the left shows the opportunity. The area in red is the LNG projects that are under operation today. Obviously, over time, the production from the existing facilities declines as they start to run out of gas. The area in yellow are the projects that are under construction today, where as we go into the next decade, we expect LNG demand to continue to grow for all the reasons I've articulated already. And therefore, new supply is, obviously, needed in order to meet that potential demand. The chart on the right shows the amounts of new supply that has been committed to by the industry over the last few years. And after a period of very strong growth, we have seen 2 years where we've made, as an industry, hardly any investments in new LNG supplies, about 7 million tonnes of total capacity, new total capacity committed in the last 2 years compared to about 50 million tonnes in demand growth over the same period. That's sustainable over a short period of time as supply growth and demand growth aren't always going to be perfectly in sync and there's some timing mismatches that the industry can accommodate. But at some stage, more new LNG supply is clearly needed in order to meet this potential demand growth. So that should be a great opportunity. What's holding us back? And I don't think there is a pricing challenge. I think, today, the price levels that are viable for new projects and the price levels that are needed by the markets are quite compatible. What we actually see is a contracting challenge. The chart on the left shows the type of market that is importing LNG. And historically, LNG demand growth was driven by markets that if you wanted gas, you have to have LNG because that was the only option, countries like Japan. And they were challenging markets because when you create new gas demand growth, you have to put all the infrastructure in place at the same time. The receiving terminals, the pipelines, the power plants, the other uses of gas, but they enabled the growth of the industry. What we're seeing now in yellow are markets where LNG is not supplying growth in gas demand, but it's actually replacing decline in domestic production in existing gas markets. And in many ways, these markets should be easier to launch because the industry -- the infrastructure barrier is lower that if you put an LNG import terminal in place, everything else is there. You have existing pipelines supplying existing customers, existing demand. And once gas captures demand, it does a really, really good job on holding onto demand. Gas very rarely loses demand. But the challenge for the industry is that these markets typically are in developing countries, where the credit isn't as strong as some of the traditional LNG buyers. And the right-hand side shows that the market structure in LNG importer markets. So historically, 2/3 of LNG was effectively sold into markets where you had strong, typically government-owned, dominant players, often monopolies, who were driven by security of supply and had a strong ability to pass on commercial terms to captive end users. But what we're now seeing is that in existing LNG markets, we are seeing a lot of changes in downstream markets, the introduction of competition. And that means buyers are facing bigger risks going forward when they sign long-term contracts. Because they don't have a captive downstream market, they have to be sure that, that -- the terms of that long-term contract will be competitive in their downstream market over time. So as a result of these 2 changes, we are seeing a change in the types of LNG contracts that are being contracted. And basically, in short, LNG contracts are typically getting shorter, they're typically getting smaller, and the credit strength of LNG buyers is typically getting lower. Now the industry has done a good job over the last few years in continuing to grow the market, supply customers, meet customer needs despite these challenges. But this is creating an issue in terms of the developments of new projects. And this is a kind of mismatch between the needs of buyers and the needs of producers. Buyers, as I say, are looking for shorter, smaller contracts and buyers often don't have as much credit or as much government backing as in the past. But the developers of new LNG projects often require project financing, and the developers themselves and the financiers are used to seeing long-term contracts to creditworthy buyers in order to make their funding and investment decisions. And therefore, there is a bit of mismatch that's occurring between the needs of new producers and the needs of buyers. And this, I think, is the biggest challenge facing the industry -- the biggest thing that's inhibiting growth of the industry at the moment. And what we see on the left-hand side of this chart is that, that is already being compensated in some way by the introduction of new business models and new players in the markets. So if you go back a decade, about 80% of LNG contracts with direct contracts between producers and importers or end users. Today, that's reduced to about 50%, and the likes of portfolio players like Shell and traders have taken up much of the gap because they have the skill set to match the different needs of producers and buyers and meet the needs of both. So going forward, we continue to see a very positive outlook for gas and LNG. We think the external environment is very favorable to our business at the moment. Clearly, multiple layers of government policies are very supportive of both gas demand and LNG demand. And gas benefits from its inherent advantages of flexibility, which allows it to be very complementary to renewable generation and because it simply provides the cleanest fuel option for nonpower energy supply needs. In 2017, we saw a strong increase in supply, stronger-than-expected increase in supply, but we saw that the market easily absorbed those volumes and accommodated those volumes. And we did see an increase in the spot business and the physical and the financial liquidity in the market. And going forward, we have a lot of confidence in the continued growth of the industry. But there is an issue that requires resolving in order to fully meet that potential growth in demand, and that's not a physical issue. There's plenty of gas in the world, there's plenty of demand, there's plenty of capability to build everything that's needed. This is much more of a risk allocation issue, determining who's going to take what risk as the buyers' needs and the sellers' needs need to be bridged. So that's the formal presentation. I thank you for your attention and like to welcome any questions. Questions and Answers OPERATOR: (inaudible) UNIDENTIFIED PARTICIPANT: You mentioned that the cost for new projects was now essentially compatible with the existing gas price structure globally, but there's only been 2 LNG projects that have been sanctioned since '15 and one of them was floating. So I'm just trying to get an idea for what cost structure now looks like for new liquefaction given there aren't really any true market examples. And in the tonnes -- dollars per tonne of throughput or breakeven price, either one would be useful. STEVE HILL: Yes. So the most transparent part of LNG pricing is the cost of U.S. export projects. So if you take a view of the U.S. at the moment, people will predict Henry Hub prices may be around $3, probably below $4. There's potentially an awful lot of gas in North America below $4. You can then add on the liquefaction costs, which are quite widely publicized in the market, add on the shipping cost. You get to a price in North Asia of around $8, maybe a little bit more. If you take an oil price assumption of $60 to $70 and apply typically oil index formula, you get to a similar price range. So I think the price level in the market is quite clear. Obviously, sellers always want higher prices, buyers want lower prices. But I don't think there's a mismatch in pricing needs that's holding the industry back. I think the bigger challenge is just the uncertainty of what the world looks like in the future. So people have uncertainty over future energy mixes, renewables. They have uncertainty over government policies. They have uncertainty over oil pricing or commodity pricing. So I don't think it's the price level today that is the challenge. I think people are struggling to commit to long-term contracts without -- in a world of more uncertainty. And I think equally, people are struggling to commit to big investment decisions without long-term contracts. So it's not the price level itself, it's some of the broadest uncertainty around indexes and broader energy supply mix questions that's holding people back today. JONATHON RIGBY, MD, HEAD OF OIL RESEARCH, AND LEAD ANALYST, UBS INVESTMENT BANK, RESEARCH DIVISION: It's Jon Rigby from UBS. A couple of questions. The first is simultaneous with this sort of expansion of supply, the oil price level (inaudible) by even now, almost by half. So we're in the 60s, it was $120. So I just wondered to what degree, what we just see, is natural price elasticity of demand for gas? And to what degree that's threatened if oil prices were to rise or underlying gas prices were to rise, whether you can -- able to disaggregate that? And the second is on the future supply. What do you think the factors are that will determine what goes ahead? I mean, in the old days, I would have imagined that buyers would be, obviously, interested in price, but also somewhat concerned and want to look at things like political risk and longevity and the ability to participate in the upstream, blah, blah, blah. So what do you think are the things that are going to sort of tick the box that makes the next wave of projects go ahead? STEVE HILL: Yes. Okay. So in terms of your first question, the inhibitors, I think -- we've clearly been through a period were following the oil price crash people changed their prioritization quite quickly. So there was a increased focus on cost discipline, preserving cash. At the same time, there was a lot of new supply coming into the market, so the buyers felt quite comfortable that they didn't need to commit to long-term contracts and prices were falling, so it wasn't obviously the right time to commit to long-term contracts. So there were many different reasons 2 years ago why projects weren't being developed. But it basically comes down to -- the buyers didn't need to contract and the producers didn't need to sanction projects. A lot of those inhibitors have been eliminated over the last 2 years. So the industry has not -- has taken the advantage of the lack of investments to really do a good job, to really focus on cost. So the priority for the industry now is to develop the lowest-cost most competitive projects rather than just developing things as quickly as possible. At the same time, buyers have started to work through some of the significant growth in supply that's come into the market and have actually seen that the market has absorbed that quite successfully. So compared to 2 years ago, there is clearly more of a need for people to do deals now than then. So again, what's holding people back? It's the uncertainty rather than the lack of desire. I think there are buyers who want to do deals, I think there are producers who want to do deals. It's this uncertainty, which is the challenge. And this is just a risk-allocation challenge, which is different to the industry's faced in the past, so we need to develop a new solution to that. In terms of what's important going forward, I believe, absolutely, what's most important is being competitive. I think there's always been a -- some people have had a view that if you have an LNG project, you just have to wait for your turn and the market will come round and at some stage you'll go. I think that we are in a world where you clearly need to be competitive. And actually, the introduction of U.S. suppliers has shown what that means because if you can't compete with the U.S., then you know, by definition, you're not competitive. But the point we're trying to make is, it's not just competitiveness that matters today because there are competitive projects that [aren't] being sanctioned today. And they're being sanctioned by this disconnect. And therefore the other thing the industry needs is a commercial model that allows the competitive project to be sanctioned. And that is basically somebody taking the risk, either producers and financiers sanctioning projects with more uncertainty over the long-term sales mix. Or buyers, recognizing that the ideal -- optimal portfolio is a mixture of long-term purchases, which enables new supply and short-term purchases, which gives them the flexibility they need or people stepping in the middle of the chain and actually bridging the two or some combination of all three. But it's different to the historic model of how projects were sanctioned. UNIDENTIFIED PARTICIPANT: Steve, I just want to talk about China. You talked very positively about the demand surprise in China. So I'd like to know Shell's ability to push further into that. Are you too big in China already? Are you dealing with PetroChina, CNOOC? Or can you start to deal with other buyers of LNG inside China? Is that possible? And then secondly, arbitrage, I know you used to do quite a bit in BG. And as you come in to Shell, is it still arbitrage available? But specifically, as you say there's more traders, more companies coming in here trading around the edges, is that an -- is arbitrage still available to Shell or are some of these new competitors taking it as well? STEVE HILL: They're both quite Shell-specific questions, and the objective of today is that -- to be the one day of the year where we talk about everybody else and not ourselves, so I'll try to answer them as generically as I can. And I think China is still a massive opportunity for the industry. It is a market where there is tremendous growth in energy demand, where gas is coming from a very, very small penetration, and where there's strong government support to increase gas' share in the mix. So the combination of increased energy demand and gas' increased share of it creates a big, big opportunity for LNG. Also, there's very little gas storage in China today, so China doesn't just have growing demand, it has a lot of seasonality. So LNG is particularly well placed to provide that flexibility to meet both the uncertainty and the growth in China's energy needs and the flexibility to deal with the seasonality issues. I think the China market is evolving, so that -- historically, there's been 3 dominant importers. Over time there will be more importers. And I don't see any reason why suppliers will not deal with whoever the importers are in any markets. We've seen that in other markets, which have transitioned from having a single government importer to multiple importers, then companies that have supplied the traditional importer have also supplied the new importers, so I don't see a constraint in that. So it's a big opportunity for the business. In terms of arbitrage, the LNG market is becoming more flexible and therefore there is a need for people to sit in the middle of [chain] to make that work rather than the model where long-term contracts for LNG supply in different markets. LNG can play its most valuable role by meeting short-term demand response, needs and meeting the needs of different markets over different times. That requires the trading model in order to fully provide that service to the market and to optimize it. People in that space benefit from price dislocations and they also benefit from efficiencies of scale and logistics. Shell is well placed, that we have a lot of scale, a lot of flexibility that allows us to be competitive in that space. So the amount of arbitrage will depend on market conditions. But I feel quite confident in our ability to compete in that market, but also to provide reliability and flexibility to our customers. Again, because of the same scale and flexibility that we have, so it's a market that's evolving, but I think it's still very complementary to our business. LUCAS HERRMANN, HEAD OF EUROPEAN OIL AND GAS, DEUTSCHE BANK AG, RESEARCH DIVISION: Steve, it's Lucas Herrmann at Deutsche. Two or three, if I might. You've lived through cycles before you lived through the cycle of excess supply and the fall in pricing in 2009 through (inaudible) Customer behavior through period of excess supply, taking down to minimum contracted quantities. What -- if you go back, if I think about -- well, I guess, first question is, how much flexibility typically does a customer have in contract to take down to a minimum level? What is minimum level? And when go -- when you think of your own experience historically, what did you see through the 2009, '11 period? The reason I'm asking is very simply a view there is [over] supply still, spot prices through summer at least are a lot lower. Does that afford an opportunity for people to take down on contract (inaudible)? Therefore is there a (inaudible) on that? Well, that's a simple first question. Second one was on just demand in Europe. Your demand in Europe for gas, which is -- which last year was, I'd say, remarkably robust. But have you got any observations as to why demand was as strong as it was and I think more importantly, going forward, what one's expectations might be? I'm sorry, I have got a third and it's on modular LNG. Just if you could just talk around advantages, disadvantages, both (inaudible) timing with that (inaudible). STEVE HILL: Okay. I think customer behavior is what it's always been. Customers have tried to look after their interest in the same way as suppliers try to look after their interest. I think the points we're trying to make, we're trying to highlight now is that customers have more challenges than in the past. Because they're not just trying to do the best deal in the LNG market, they're trying to make sure that the deals that they're doing in the LNG markets are compatible with their business in the downstream markets, where they're typically not able to lock in long-term demand. So that's just putting an extra challenge and an extra constraints on the customer. In terms of this year, prices have gone down recently because prices always go down as you go out of the winter. I don't think there's any sign of any weakness in the market yet. We've just demonstrated how in 2017 we saw strong demand growth and typical pricing. We've just been through a winter where we've seen very high spot prices. Obviously, as you go from February pricing to April, there's a drop, probably, less steep than last year. But I think in the near term, the market looks quite strong. The inventories are quite low at the end of a cold winter. While there's a lot of new supply coming in 2018, it's very much weighted towards the end of 2018, so I think out of the all the new supply projects due on stream this year, you have [one trading code points in] the small [boats in] the liquefaction train in Cameron in the first half of the year. All the other new suppliers due to come on in the second half of the year. So in the near term, the market looks just fine for us. But customers will always try to look after their interests. I think that an issue that's got a lot of publicity over the last couple of years, probably more than it might deserve, is renegotiation of contracts. And I think what's tended to happen is, whenever there's been renegotiation, one side has talked to the press a lot more than the other side and therefore it's been perceived as one side has won and the other side has lost, whereas I think the actual deals that are being done have been a lot more balanced. And clearly, if there has been a price change, somebody has won on price, but the other side has probably won on volume or other commercial terms. So the industry is still very good at solving its problems through people sitting down and solving problems together. In terms of Europe, there was strong demand for gas in 2017. A lot of that was the issues in southern Europe that drove the extra LNG imports, so -- unreliability of nuclear plants, lack of, whatever the sun or wind or whatever it is that drives solar generation. I think [I expect] at some time more LNG will need to come back to Europe. People forecasted it was going to happen in 2016, it didn't, they forecasted in '17, it didn't. It may or may not happen in 2018, but I think Europe is clearly able to accommodate the LNG volumes that it may need to whenever it does come. In terms of modular LNG, I have not seen any evidence that it gives you a cost advantage. I think the bigger driver for modular LNG is the challenge we've discussed in terms of getting enough demand together in one go to launch a new conventional project or even a train. So getting 5 million tonnes or 10 million tonnes of demand for grassroots LNG project is very challenging today. So modular LNG is I think being looked at because it lowers the barriers to entry to get a new project off the ground rather than it actually provides an economic -- better solution. LUCAS HERRMANN: (inaudible) STEVE HILL: I think the -- again, I think it depends on the specific situation. But normally, the critical path for an LNG plant is the storage tank. So if the modular solution requires a new storage tank, then it doesn't really save you any time. If it benefits from existing import terminal, for example, then maybe it can be a bit quicker. LUCAS HERRMANN: I'm sorry, just to come back on the first one. What typically across the industry are [MCQ] terms? STEVE HILL: I don't really think this is kind of an event to talk about contract returns. This is how we see the industry evolving, and we haven't seen that specific term evolve in the last year, so. GORDON M. GRAY, GLOBAL HEAD OF OIL AND GAS EQUITY RESEARCH, HSBC, RESEARCH DIVISION: Steve, when you think -- Gordon Gray, HSBC. When you are thinking about the long-term outlook for gas demand and LNG demand specifically, one of the things you pointed out was the reliability issue relative to renewables. Can you talk about the place of power storage in all of this? And how you think developments of storage threaten gas via the rates of growth of renewables over time? STEVE HILL: Yes. I don't think we compared the reliability of gas to renewables. What we said is gas and renewables together are very, very complementary because the combination gives you a reliable source of power that renewables on its own doesn't give you. Now clearly, there's potential for battery technology to replace gas in that equation. But I think that depends also on the length of the storage. So to imagine a battery store -- storage that's in a sunny place, where most of the power demand happens in the daytime to get you through the night is quite conceivable. To come up with a renewable storage solution that gets -- takes the sun (inaudible) in the summer and allows you to heat (inaudible) in the winter is completely unforeseeable. So I think it depends very much on the predictability of the demand and the length of time you need to have the storage full. So again, solar may be a better fit for than wind for storage as a backup because solar is more predictable than wind. So I think you get lots of different solutions in different cases. Renewables is part of the solution, batteries will be an increasing part of solution. We still think that in order to meet reliable, competitive, clean, flexible energy demand, there's still a very big place for gas in the power mix for -- not forever but for quite a long time to come. And it will always be sources of energy demand, which simply can't be electrified. And again, we think gas is going to be the cleanest solution for those markets. CHRISTOPHER KUPLENT, HEAD OF EUROPEAN ENERGY EQUITY RESEARCH, BOFA MERRILL LYNCH, RESEARCH DIVISION: Steve, it's Chris Kuplent from Bank of America. As you've laid out, it looks like -- there's obviously been a dearth of new liquefaction developments gotten underway, and you yourself described the change of demand means that smaller players or smaller projects get underway. Do you think there is a risk that we'll see a number of more years of only tiny, small [SLNG] projects here or there getting developed before we see the next big cycle? Because this 10 mtpa big multi-train projects feels a little too soon right now to FID, even though we all know there are a number of them in the pipeline? So just wanted to hear your views on the next cycle or... STEVE HILL: I think there's clearly a risk that will happen. And that's actually why we've highlighted the risk today. It's one of the key messages of the presentation. It's not our expectation as to what will happen. Our expectation is that the industry will solve this problem and new projects will be developed. We've seen a lot of positive developments already this year. We have seen Mozambique and Papua New Guinea talk very positively about the potential for their developments. We've seen long-term deals done recently from Mozambique into Europe from the U.S. into China, small deals. So there's a long way to go between people making positive statements to the press and doing 1 million tonne deals, but we're starting to see some of the building blocks and some of the intent being put in place. So our expectation is the industry will solve this problem and gas demand will be satisfied. But there is, obviously, a risk that it doesn't happen and, as I said, that's why we have flagged it today. UNIDENTIFIED PARTICIPANT: Two quick questions. The first one is, as you highlighted, one of the big changes in the LNG market has been the emergence of the liquid spot market with potentially JKM being the index. How do you see the likelihood in the next few years that you will have long-term contracts based on JKM that gets funding from the banks and that therefore some of the new builders of LNG could use this one as a way to get financing without leaving too much risk with the buyers? And secondly, thinking about low cost new LNG, clearly, Qatar is at the very bottom of that cost curve. How quickly do you think they can get new supply on? STEVE HILL: Yes, let me take the second one first because it's probably the easier question. I think it's how quick do they want to put the new supply on. The technical timeline is quite clear, the time it takes to build a new LNG project. So the Qataris clearly will be a competitive supplier and will be very credible in the market when they choose to go when that is, I don't know so you'll need to ask them. And in terms of asking them, maybe I should ask you, we have probably several banks represented in the room, whether banks will lend based on a JKM contract, I would welcome your opinions. It hasn't happened yet. I think that as the liquidity of the market increases and the confidence in the index increases, then there is increased potential for that to happen. But it takes a long time for markets to transition from being predominantly oil index market to spot index markets. We saw in Europe, it took 20 years for spot prices to become the dominant source of pricing in the market from when there were credible option. So it's not -- something that happens at all quickly. LYDIA ROSE EMMA RAINFORTH, DIRECTOR AND EQUITY ANALYST, BARCLAYS BANK PLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: It's Lydia from Barclays. I've got three, hoping those will be three questions. The first one is, how much in terms of long-run demand forecast is sensitive to carbon pricing within that? The second one, what utilization rate you actually are seeing for the [basins] going forward? And is there areas of potential surprise like Egypt coming back on stream that's within forecast? And then finally just relates to probably some of the questions asked earlier, how important is it to have market share in shipping fleet for LNG to take advantages from some of the opportunities? STEVE HILL: Again, let me take them in reverse. I think the LNG shipping industry is becoming increasingly commoditized. So again, if you go back 15 years, if you wanted LNG ships, you pretty much had to build them yourself or at least contract for them long term yourself. Today, it is a much more liquid market, so ships are typically available. The mix of shipping [new ones] versus what's owned versus long-term charters versus what's spotted, it's -- again, it's a risk management decision, it's -- do you want to be exposed to spot charter rates or not. And that's a commercial decision for companies. In terms of the utilization, that will be very much driven by project-by-project issues. The -- some projects have very good utilization, others -- the LNG projects are very reliable, but they have gas supply constraints and other projects are now quite old and challenging, so the assumptions will have different -- there's not a generic assumption applied to all projects in the world. I'm sorry, I forgot your third question? LYDIA ROSE EMMA RAINFORTH: It's on regarding the sensitivity of the [gas amounts] that -- or going to get carbon pricing. How is it? And how those numbers on demand? STEVE HILL: Again, I have to -- the -- a lot of these forecasts are presentation and interpretation of third-party data, so I don't have that by market in my head. GEORGES MENANE: Just a reminder that online participants can also ask questions. Operator, if you can remind us of the procedure to follow. OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) GEORGES MENANE: I think we've got no question online so far, so back to the room again. UNIDENTIFIED PARTICIPANT: Steve, a couple of questions for me. So going back to the longer-term supply outlook and the FID outlook. Again, we haven't seen a lot of FIDs over the last couple of years, but you've got a lot of companies talking about FID projects over the next year or two. In the U.S. alone, probably a couple hundred million tonnes and then probably 100 million tonnes outside of the U.S. Now I get that you need contracts to push those projects forward. But I just want to see, from the other side of it, what do you see the risk of oversupply coming into the market? And on -- with all those other projects, how competitive -- do you feel about pushing forward projects in that environment? And then the second one, just going back to China. I think the market's been surprised by the growth you've seen in China, but I think one of the other interesting things is the -- you haven't seen much evidence of China coming out with new LNG because of the supply contracts. So the lack of new LNG supply contracts that you've seen signed by China over the last couple of years, what do you put that down to? And do you expect a big acceleration in China signing, kind of, tens of millions of tonnes of contracts? And if so, on what kind of basis do you expect that? STEVE HILL: Yes. So while I think we're a long way away from worrying about an overinvestment in the industry at the moment, I think that -- in many ways, the reason we started this outlook last year is that the market was concerned that there had been an overinvestment and the market wouldn't be able to absorb all the volumes, and we saw the disconnect between how people were talking about the industry and what we actually observed, and that's why we started communicating this story. There needs to be more investments. Historically, the industry does have a bit of a track record of projects going in waves. If there is a wave that comes in the future, then I think we might be talking about it in a years' time or in 2 years' time, but there's no sign of it being something to worry about today. I think the U.S. -- a lot of those projects in the U.S. have a lot of challenges to get going today. We have just seen a million tonne sale from the U.S. recently. There's probably a train, which might get to be sanctioned quite soon, but new grassroots projects to be launched in the U.S., there's still some pretty big hurdles to be overcome. But I think the U.S. -- the latent supply in the U.S. is very beneficial for the industry because it does give buyers confidence that LNG supplies can be made available and brought online if they are needed by the market there's, obviously, a timeline required. But the fact that there is a lot more gas in the U.S. than is ever likely to be needed in the U.S., the fact that the cost structure in the U.S. is very transparent, the fact that the U.S. regulatory environment stays very supportive of LNG exports, the fact that there's many different players in the U.S. market, so there's not one single government agency that's controlling the rate of developments means that the U.S. -- the availability of LNG from the U.S. gives the market confidence there will always be more supply there in the future in order to meet demand -- ongoing demand and demand growth. There's just a timeline required in order to enable it. And there's still a lot of uncertainty as well over which projects will go next and that. In terms of China -- the question was on growth, sorry? UNIDENTIFIED PARTICIPANT: You haven't seen new contracts being signed by China. So should we expect the heatwave of new contracts (inaudible)? STEVE HILL: I think you'll see more. I think there's been a combination of -- there's been quite a negative sentiment in the industry over the last couple of years where people have perceived there's a lot of LNG available and prices are falling and therefore there's no need to enter into contracts. I think we're moving out of that environment today. And I think Chinese buyers have historically been very keen to try to call the market. Sometimes they've been successful, sometimes been unsuccessful. But I think there is a cultural mindset that people want to buy at the bottom of the market rather than assume the market will do whatever it does and therefore buy in over -- slices over time and kind of self-hedge that way. So I'd expect to see an increase, but it's an increase from a very low base as you say over the last couple of years. How big it is we'll discuss next year. UNIDENTIFIED PARTICIPANT: In terms of pricing -- pricing do you think they'll be looking at, is it mainly oil-linked or (inaudible)? STEVE HILL: Yes. I think the oil is still probably the most prevalent pricing structure discussed for new LNG contracts at the moment. UNIDENTIFIED PARTICIPANT: Just going back to the question asked before just to explore a little bit further. On risk to supply, is there a perception that by contracting with U.S. supply, you are taking on -- this is from the buyers side, you're taking on, sort of, risk that is different to the risk that sits around other, sort of, traditional LNG supply either because of the underlying commodity risk rather than oil at Henry Hub. And although everybody have got very comfortable with Henry Hub, 2 or 3x historically they've been historically very wrong. And then secondly, so just politically as well, it's this sort of disaggregated model where you've got underlying market, maybe a third party who's running the plant and then sort of other players intervening, is that seen as being a slightly different risk profile? STEVE HILL: I don't think so. Yes. I think that the political risk for the U.S. is probably seen bizarrely as being lower today than a decade ago. When the U.S. first entered the market, there was a lot of debate over whether the U.S. would limit the amounts of gas it exported. I think there was an attitude at the time that cheap gas was a competitive advantage the U.S. had over the rest of the world and did it want to export its competitive advantage to its competitors. I think the U.S. has moved beyond that now and is very supportive of LNG exports. But if you buy from any specific project, then you always take the risk associated with that specific projects, whether it's the operational risk of the facility or the political risk of the country. I think that's one of the benefits we offer our customers as Shell that when you're buying from Shell, you're buying from Shell. And we have many different supply sources, and therefore, we're able to provide reliability or flexibility because of the scale and flexibility of our own portfolio, whether that is either derisking the start dates of deliveries, because you're not dependent on the timing of a new project, [we're just] ongoing managing operational risk for the portfolio. I think it is one of the benefits to the customer of the portfolio model. Some customers are very, very keen to avoid timing risk on new projects and will clearly choose to buy from suppliers like Shell. Some other customers prefer to deal directly with the projects because -- I don't know many different reasons, probably, mostly historical. UNIDENTIFIED PARTICIPANT: Can I go back to one thing that you said that most of the contracts are linked to oil? What are the other most common contracts that you see on the market, Henry Hub? Are there any other interesting pricing that is emerging? STEVE HILL: I think Henry Hub will be the next most significant in terms of the volume. I think that there are various different other indexes that are being discussed, whether they are other gas market references or other references to LNG markets using customs data and average prices and stuff. There's a few different constructs that people talk about, but in terms of material volumes, it's very much dominated by crude oil and then Henry Hub, next. UNIDENTIFIED PARTICIPANT: I know you mentioned we're a long way from over investments specifically related to the U.S. coming on. What about Russia, though? They have big ambitions. We've just been up to (inaudible) and seen a very successful on time, on budget project and they're talk -- Russia's taking it up. Novatec and Gazprom, could we be missing something where Putin just says, we're going to do this and there's lot of gas and there's a lot of volumes come within a 5, 6 -- 5, 10-year period? STEVE HILL: Maybe. There is a lot more LNG demand required. I showed the chart in the presentation, which had the demand outlook to 2030, 2035. And there is a hole of potentially 200 million tonnes by the end of that profile. So 25 million tonnes from Qatar, another 20 million tonnes from Russia, a few trains in the U.S. It takes quite a few world-scale, big projects to fill that hole. Now we've got quite a bit of time to fill it as well. But -- can -- that doesn't strike me as being one of the things the industry needs to worry about today. Once we've kind of solved the near-term problem, which is making sure we start getting some projects, then we can maybe focus on making sure we don't get too many. But it's not an imminent problem that I see. UNIDENTIFIED PARTICIPANT: (inaudible) you referenced that 30% of '17's transactions were done for the spot market. Is that primarily because of European buyers being able to redirect cargoes? Or is this just a natural evolution where that's the percentage of market that is uncontracted? And then do you still look at the LNG market as being essentially a 2 basin market? Or are you seeing a lot more interconnectivity and more of the global market as a result of all this spot flow? STEVE HILL: I think the spot market is -- growth is ultimately driven by LNG providing flexibility to gas markets as well as long-term security to gas markets. So we've highlighted a lot of cases where LNG provides solutions which long-term LNG contracts in their historic model don't typically provide. So again, Brazil needing LNG when it happens to be dry. It's very hard to go and sign a long-term contract that manages that requirement. So it's not simply a case of LNG cargoes without places to go because as you point out, some of these cargoes are sold under term contracts and then resold under spot contracts, so we look at the final deliveries in the chain when we come up with the 30% estimate. But it's a combination of more markets, different needs in the markets and changes in the commercial structure along the chain where you've got more intermediaries in the middle, which have the ability to sell cargoes on a spot basis. In the past, there may have been opportunities when cargoes were needed in one place, but the inefficiency of the industry prevented that from happening. The other question was -- sorry? UNIDENTIFIED PARTICIPANT: Whether you're now looking at the market as being fairly liquid global market? Or is it still Atlantic and Pacific basin market? STEVE HILL: I think there is an increase in connectivity in general, but the markets do diverge over time. So a lot of the time, you can -- the price relationships between different markets make a lot of sense based on logistic costs. But when things happen, and you get strong demand in one region or very short-term need, then you can get price dislocations. So the premium for Asia over Europe certainly increased in the middle winter when the demand was very strong. So it's more consistency as a general trend, but it's not always perfect. UNIDENTIFIED PARTICIPANT: A question about who are going to be the next round of buyers. You've got obviously a kind of tension here between the ultimate buyer wanting better terms from their perspective. And then you're saying also that we're kind of falling into the trap of not having enough projects. So one thing that kind of fills that gap is a big portfolio player who can come and take a very large lump, if you like, of demand and then find a way to get it into the market. And if you're worried that that's going to happen, I presume that's something which you would be prepared to do or you and other big portfolio players take a very large project in terms of all those volumes? STEVE HILL: Yes. So clearly, buyers want better terms. But sometimes they enable better terms by making the commitment that enable new projects to be developed. So while buying on the spot market is the lowest-risk option for buyers, basically, buyers in the spot market takes the flexibility out of the market, whereas a long-term contract allows new project sanction, which brings new supply into the markets is in the interest of the -- certainly the buyers overall. And I think a lot of buyers are quite aware of that inconsistency and the challenge they have is, how do they solve their problem rather than everybody else's problem. It's clearly in the buyers' interest to enable more supply. But buyer doesn't want to be the person who enables the supply for the competitors to benefit from it. So how do they manage around that? In terms of the portfolio players, clearly, Shell is fortunate to be well positioned within this market structure. Obviously, we designed our business models around the way we see the market, but we have the ability to succeed in this market from a couple of perspectives. First of all, we're probably less reliant on third-party financing to sanction new projects than many of our competitors. And also we are less reliant on needing to secure long term -- new long-term sales than many of our competitors to launch new projects because we have the ability in our own portfolio of existing sales and trading positions and market access to absorb supply. But equally, everybody benefits from the growth of the industry and the success of the industry. It's not in Shell's interest or anybody's interest to have a supply crunch when no new supply is developed and prices spike and demand gets destroyed. We're very keen for the industry to solve this problem in order to meet demand growth and to further continue healthy growth of the business. But equally, we also need to look after our own interest. So while we could solve this problem on behalf of the industry, we also need to make sure we do the right commercial decision for Shell. So that's not just developing the projects the market needs, it's developing the right projects at the right time, at the right commercial structure to make sure if we are going to take risk between supply and the market, we are compensated appropriately for them. GEORGES MENANE: We have time for a couple of questions. UNIDENTIFIED PARTICIPANT: Do you think the contract market -- the long-term contract market is positive in pricing terms? There is more awareness around buyers that the market -- it's tied to China being I suspect a bit of a surprise for the market [by and large constraint that we see in the year]. STEVE HILL: Yes. I don't see a lot of upside in a short, pithy statement on that. I think the evidence of falling prices doesn't exist anymore, whether it's going up or -- laps or what, it takes time to establish. UNIDENTIFIED PARTICIPANT: So you don't see signs of prices plummeting (inaudible) STEVE HILL: I don't think prices are plummeting today. I think prices have stabilized, yes. GEORGES MENANE: We still don't have questions on the phone, so we'll ask question here in the room? UNIDENTIFIED PARTICIPANT: When do you think Saudi starts buying LNG? STEVE HILL: I don't have a specific opinion on that. Obviously, we are delighted to finish last year with the biggest sale in the industry during 2017 into Kuwait. I think there's many similarities between Kuwait and Saudi, so it's a logical thing to happen at some stage, but I don't have a specific view on the timing. All right. Thanks very much everybody. I really appreciate your interest and also the questions and your time. So let's see what happens this year. GEORGES MENANE: Thank you very much all, and (inaudible) OPERATOR: That concludes today's conference call. We thank you all for joining us. 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Subject: Copyright; Energy; LNG; Webcasting; Climate change; Quality; Coal
Location: Kuwait China
Company / organization: Name: Royal Dutch Shell PLC; NAICS: 213112, 221210, 324110; Name: Thomson Financial; NAICS: 511210, 518210, 519190
Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 26, 2018
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: Linthicum
Country of publication: United States, Linthicum
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Law--Corporate Law
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2012927410
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2012927410?accountid=4840
Copyright: 2018 Thomson Financial and ASC LLC
Last updated: 2018-03-14
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 148 of 474
Event Brief of Royal Dutch Shell PLC LNG Outlook Webcast - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]26 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: CORPORATE PARTICIPANTS . Georges Menane . Steve Hill CONFERENCE CALL PARTICIPANTS . Christopher Kuplent - BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division,Head of European Energy Equity Research . Gordon M. Gray - HSBC, Research Division,Global Head of Oil and Gas Equity Research . Jonathon Rigby - UBS Investment Bank, Research Division,MD, Head of Oil Research, and Lead Analyst . Lucas Herrmann - Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division,Head of European Oil and Gas . Lydia Rose Emma Rainforth - Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division,Director and Equity Analyst OVERVIEW Co. provided LNG outlook. PRESENTATION SUMMARY - LNG Outlook Update (S.H.) 1. External Environment Creating Opportunities for Gas & LNG: 1. In an environment currently where: 1. Population grew rapidly from about 7b people to 9b by middle of century. 1. Expects energy demand to increase by about 30% over next 25 years. 2. Sees requirement for increased supply to meet this demand. 2. Climate change concerns and air quality concerns are of ever-growing importance. 1. Existing solutions to meet that demand are not going to be sufficient on their own. 2. In world of probably unprecedented change within energy mix. 2. Areas of world which have biggest air quality issues are typically in South and East Asia. 1. Areas in world currently having biggest growth in energy demand, China and India. 1. They are the countries with worst air quality issues with highest coal penetration in energy mix. 3. Cumulative effect of many different policies coming from many layers of organizations worldwide are complementary and aligned either in directly supporting gas and LNG or indirectly supporting them through making coal or nuclear or other energy supplies more challenging. 1. Globally, sees G20 being supportive, IEA, but IMO is continuing to implement changes to fueling specifications for shipping from 2020, which Co. believes will create significantly more demand for LNG. 2. Europe: 1. 12 countries announced phasing out of coal from their energy supply mix. 3. China & Korea: 1. Seen strong government-led initiatives, particularly coal-to-gas switching initiatives in China which are already resulting in near-term growth in gas and LNG demand in those countries. 4. Seeing places where sometimes national governments aren't taking lead, local governments are stepping in. 5. German government doesn't really have any policies pushing coal out of energy mix. 1. Berlin as a city has decided it doesn't want coal in its energy mix and is therefore taking its own actions to make that change. 6. Delhi pushed out petroleum coke from energy mix. 4. Expects energy demand to grow by about 1% a year CAGR. 1. Expects gas to take biggest share of this growth. 2. Renewables is growing fastest in terms of rates of growth for that specific energy source. 1. Grown from small base. 2. Focused in power sector. 3. Looking at energy mix as a whole, sees gas as being biggest portion of growth. 4. Gas is forecast to grow twice as fast as overall energy demand at 2% a year. 1. Almost half of that growth is expected to come from power sector. 5. More than half of gas demand growth is expected to come from other sources of demand other than power. 5. Believes gas is particularly robust in those markets because there will still be pressure in those markets to provide cleaner sources of energy. 1. In energy demand sectors which are difficult to electrify, gas is clearly the cleanest and realistic option. 2. Gas demand in Asia is forecast to grow faster than overall at 3% a year, driven by some of the air quality issues and fact that energy demand is growing faster in Asia overall than in other markets. 1. This will lead to positive story about LNG, because LNG is particularly well positioned to supply gas demand growth in Asia vs. other markets due to geography. 3. Gas supplies in market tend to be further apart in Asia than in other regions. 6. Renewables is growing rapidly in power markets and will play key role in development of power market. 1. Does not see this as a threat to gas. 2. Sees this as an opportunity to gas. 3. Gas is complementary and supportive of renewables. 4. Renewables: 1. Provides clean power and competitive power. 2. Does not provide reliable power. 5. Combination of gas and renewables provides clean, competitive and reliable power. 7. California: 1. Seen big penetration of solar in California over last few years. 1. Power demand for fossil fuel declined by approx. half in middle of day (time of day when sun is shining). 2. Sees a trend, at end of day, when sun goes in and solar power disappears, demand increases rapidly. 3. Flexibility of gas allows renewable solution to be complementary due to reliable power. 4. Is not LNG market. 1. Example of how renewables change requirement for other sources of power generation and how that is complementary for gas' advantages due to its lower capital cost and flexibility. 8. Brazil: 1. 90% of power generation comes from hydro power. 2. When there is not enough rain, needs lot of alternative source of power at short notice. 1. Gas ideally suited to provide that flexibility. 3. Gas supply into Brazil comes from LNG. 9. OECD: 1. Seen growth in renewables and gas-fired power generation. 2. These two don't compete with each other, they compete together in complementary way to take demand away from coal. 3. Last year was the first year since industrial revolution when gas supplied more of power mix than coal did in these specific markets. 4. In April last year, saw first day in UK with no coal-fired generation since 1882. 10. Non-OECD: 1. Coal, dominant source of power generation. 2. Growth in coal in energy mix has halted over last few years. 3. In many ways, shape of coal curve looks a bit like what was seen in OECD maybe 30 years ago. 4. Expects seeing similar growth in power from gas and renewables in non-OECDs and take on coal in that space. 5. Big opportunity for combination of gas and renewables. 11. China: 1. Over half of expected growth in gas demand is expected to come from non-power demand uses. 2. Last year, gas demand grew 15%. 1. Up to about 240 BCM. 3. Government target for gas in Chinese energy mix is 350-380 BCM by 2020. 1. 50% increase from current state. 4. Expects strong and continued growth in gas demand. 5. Growth in gas demand seen last year did not come from power at all, it came from other sources of demand. 1. It particularly came from industrial sector and residential and commercial heating sector. 2. It came from replacing boilers in small industrial facilities and district heating facilities from coal-fired boilers to gas-fired boilers. 3. This is important for Co. because this is a structural demand change. 4. Does not expect to see those sources of demand switching back to coal and replacing their gas-fired infrastructure with new coal-fired infrastructure having coal trucks on road and mix seen is a one-off structural change. 5. Sees this continuing. 6. Heating season basically starts from Nov. 15. 1. People don't control their own heating in China. 2. They are part of community housing and is only when community switches on the heating that people get heat. 7. Had [six weeks of benefits of 40 of 1000] boilers that were converted last year in demand figures. 1. Expects continued strong gas demand growth going forward. 8. Transport, starting to become material source of gas demand. 1. Last year, there were 70,000 new LNG fueled trucks came on to roads, increasing number of LNG fueled trucks in China to about 300,000. 9. Lots of strong structural changes driven by government policies, supporting coal-to-gas switching. 12. LNG is fastest growing segment of gas supply mix. 1. Represents a bit over 10% of overall gas mix. 2. Expected to represent over 30% of growth in LNG demand going forward over next 20 years, driven by Asia. 3. Asia, which is a particularly important market for LNG is expected to account for over half of growth in LNG demand over coming 20 years, although Co. sees growth in all key LNG markets and LNG being truly global industry. 13. Some changes seen last year have in many ways changed that perspective on role of LNG in energy mix. 1. LNG was always seen as providing energy security. 1. Providing LNG through long-term contracts. 2. Seeing more flexible market, which is much more responsive to changes in gas market, changes in demand from other sources of energy and responsive to buyers' needs. 1. LNG played particularly significant role in addressing uncertainties seen in gas market last year; supply uncertainties on other sources of gas or uncertainties in gas demand. 3. LNG market: 1. Faced own challenges. 2. Resilient to chose challenges and was able to provide reliable, flexible supply when called upon by market. 4. LNG always provided energy security. 1. Starting to provide energy security in multiple ways. 2. Strong LNG Fundamentals Exceeded 2017 Expectations: 1. Saw strong growth in new supply in 2017 driven by wave of new supply that's coming on stream from Australia and US. 1. About half of new supply is actually on stream and has been absorbed by markets. 2. LNG market grew more than expected in 2017. 1. When Co. did outlook last year, presented what happened in previous year. 1. This year, comparing it to expectations people were forecasting for 2017 a year-ago. 3. Markets grew almost 30m tonnes in 2017, which is about 30% more than forecasted at start of year, basically driven by supplies from existing projects in Africa. 4. New supply from Australia and US came on pretty much as forecast. 1. LNG projects in Africa particularly, in Angola and Nigeria, which have been struggling for various challenges in previous few years performed much closely to capacity. 2. Saw greater increase in supply than expected. 3. 29m tonnes of supply growth was comfortably absorbed by market. 1. Most of supply growth was absorbed by North Asian market. 4. Saw material increase into Southern Europe. 5. Expected market would absorb those volumes, but a lot of that growth would be growth would be delivered into Northern Europe flexible markets, markets where LNG is pushed into where it has nowhere else to go. 1. Markets that needed LNG pulling LNG. 2. North Asian and Southern Europe markets took growth that came into industry. 6. Saw significant demand growth in various markets, driven by many different factors. 1. China: 1. Strong coal-to-gas switching drove demand growth. 2. Korea growth driven by government policies. 1. In particular, lot of issues in nuclear industry and reliability of nuclear plants in Korea. 3. Turkey demand growth, driven by new import capacity coming on line and new (inaudible) and therefore simply ability to import more LNG. 4. Spain demand growth was driven by low amount of hydro power. 5. France had nuclear issues. 7. Many markets grew more than expected. 1. Some markets grew less than expected; UK, Belgium, and Netherlands. 2. Not that there was any problem with those markets. 1. Those are balancing markets for places where LNG can be put if it doesn't have another home. 3. LNG imports reduced into those markets showed continued strength on industry. 8. China: 1. Gas market grew about 15% last year. 2. LNG market grew almost 50%. 1. Almost double in last two years. 3. There had been a concern over last few years about whether China was over-supplied with LNG and whether it will be able to accommodate all its contracted volumes. 1. Risk is behind now. 2. China can easily absorb its contracted volumes and needs incremental volumes and buys considerable amounts of spot energy on top of that. 4. Volume and seasonality growth that goes with it, further reinforcement of flexibility of LNG market. 5. Seasonality with higher demand in [winter than] summer and strong demand growth over 2017. 1. Strong seasonality, driven by China and Korea; as markets they require more LNG in winter than in summer. 6. Offset by demand outside North Asia and Europe. 1. Seeing strong offset between seasonal demand in North Asia and counter-seasonal markets. 2. These are places like Middle East, where they have strong demand in summer, driven by air conditioning and counter-seasonal heating markets, places like Argentina, which have strong demand in winter. 7. There is a natural offset between different markets, where different buyers have different needs at different times of year, which allows LNG to be flexible to accommodate different needs of different markets. 8. Northwest Europe has historically provided flexibility of market. 1. Takes small portion of LNG. 2. Is not providing flexibility that it historically did to market. 3. It is not actually needed either because there is this natural offset elsewhere. 9. Spot LNG prices Co. believes are strong indicator of nature of market, whether market is over-supplied or balanced or tight. 1. Many articles suggest there is over-supply in LNG industry. 2. Sentiment that way isn't as strong as year ago. 1. Does not see any evidence of that in practice. 10. Commodity prices increased over 2017. 1. Looking at spot LNG prices, sees similar price pattern in 2017 to what was observed in 2017 and in fact what was observed every year so far this decade. 2. Market is basically operating at balanced at its usual level of competitiveness. 1. There is no particular weakness or over-supply in markets. 11. There were some changes in markets in 2017. 1. Saw material growth in supply. 2. Saw increased amount of LNG sold under spot contracts. 3. Represents about 1,100 cargos of spot cargos delivered in 2017. 1. Getting close to about 30% of overall LNG market. 4. Saw significant increase in amount of financial trading done around in LNG business. 1. It's tiny in relation to overall business scale. 2. Growing materially vs. 2016 and provides buyers with more options in how to manage price risk and hedge their cargos. 12. People keep foreseeing and predicting LNG oversupply but it never actually occurs in reality. 1. LNG supply growth is transparent. 2. Projects which are well publicized that cost billions of dollars or tens of billions of dollars that take five years to construct and they are announced and well publicized. 1. Everybody can see LNG supply growth coming five years ahead of time. 3. Historically, LNG demand growth was quite similar. 1. It was often driven by new investments in new terminals, new power plants. 13. Aforementioned changed over recent years. 1. LNG demand growth is lot less transparent currently. 2. It tends to come from two things which are harder to see. 1. Increased utilization through existing facilities. 2. Lot of LNG demand growth comes from floating regas solutions. 3. Floating regas solutions are complementary for developing new gas markets, because they can be brought on stream in less than a year vs. four or five years for conventional energy import terminal. 1. While predicting demand two or three years ahead of time, doesn't often see these coming. 4. Lot of markets which have driven lot of growth in recent years have been markets, which people haven't been predicting that are going to be coming in years ahead. 5. Technology lowers barriers to entry for new markets on terms of cost of their facility and amount of volumes needed to import for a facility to make it economic. 14. Area where Co. is particularly focused on is in LNG for transport sector. 1. Historically, this was not at all material. 1. Believes various things happening today, which will make this much more material going forward. 2. Transport represents just over 25% of energy demand currently. 1. Half of that is cars. 2. Other half of that is effectively heavy-duty transport, basically trucks and ships. 3. Basically transport demand which is much harder to electrify than cars because of high energy content, heavy-duty and long distances travel, high energy requirements. 4. Believes LNG would be much more competitive in this sector. 3. LNG global bunker market currently is as big as overall energy market. 1. Trucking market is many multiples of that. 4. In shipping bunker market, Co. is seeing lot of changes related to change in specification for ship fuel, which is being driven by IMO and which comes into effect from 2020. 1. Historically, virtually all ships in world have been powered by high sulfur fuel oil. 2. That won't be option going forward unless ships invest in scrubber technology, which hasn't taken off. 3. Alternatives are either diesel or low-sulfur fuel oil or LNG. 4. LNG historically has struggled to compete with high-sulfur fuel oil, but is much more competitive against diesel or low-sulfur fuel oil. 5. Looking at different sectors in shipping industry, starting to see lot of progress. 1. Seven of 10 biggest container shipping companies in world have said that scrubbers is not going to be their choice of technology going forward. 2. Some have already ordered LNG-fueled ships. 3. Others have announced that they will. 4. Some have already contracted LNG. 5. CMA CGM, container ship co. recently ordered nine LNG-fueled container ships, which will have combined annual LNG demand of 0.3m tonnes; equivalent to new market, new country when it enters LNG market for first time. 6. In cruise sector, Carnival ordered eight LNG-fueled cruise ships. 7. Co. is committed to using LNG fuel tankers, which it has charted from (inaudible). 8. Many other sectors in shipping industry are starting to see conversion to LNG. 15. In road transport, particularly successful in China. 1. 300,000 LNG-fueled trucks in China. 2. There is 2,000 LNG fueling stops in China. 3. Starting to see some penetration in Europe, where there is 100 different fueling stations across Europe, where one LNG can be bought. 4. One of the opportunities for growth that Co. is focused on going forward. Supply Investment Required to Meet Long-Term Demand Growth (S.H.) 1. Highlights: 1. LNG projects that are under operation today: 1. Over time, production from existing facilities decline is based ought to run out of gas. 2. Going into next decade, expects LNG demand to continue to grow for all aforementioned reasons. 1. New supply is needed to meet that potential demand. 3. Amount of new supply that has been committed to by industry over last few years: 1. After period of strong growth, seen two years where Co. has made as industry hardly any investments in new LNG supplies; about 7m tonnes of new total capacity committed in last two years vs. about 50m tonnes in demand growth over same period. 1. That's sustainable over short period of time as supply growth and demand growth are until was going to be perfectly in sync and some timing mismatches that industry can accommodate. 2. At some stage, more new LNG supply is clearly needed to meet this potential demand growth. 4. Does not think there is pricing challenge. 1. Today, price levels that are viable for new projects and price levels that are needed by markets are quite compatible. 2. Sees contracting challenge. 3. Historically, LNG demand growth was driven by markets that if one wanted gas, one has to have LNG because that was only option; countries like Japan. 1. They were challenging markets, because when one creates new gas demand growth, one has to put all infrastructure in place at the same time; receiving terminals, pipelines, power plants, other uses of gas, but they enabled the growth of industry. 4. Seeing markets where LNG is not supplying growth in gas demand, but it's replacing decline in domestic production in existing gas markets. 1. In many ways, these markets should be easier to launch because infrastructure barrier is lower. 2. If one puts LNG import terminal price, everything else is there; has existing pipelines, supplying existing customers existing demand. 3. Once gas catches demand, there is good job on holding onto demand; gas rarely loses demand. 5. Challenge for industry is that aforementioned markets typically are in developing countries, where credit isn't as strong as some of the traditional LNG buyers. 5. Historically, two-thirds of LNG was effectively sold into markets where one had strong typically government-owned dominant players who were driven by security of supply and had strong ability to pass on commercial terms to captive end users. 1. What Co. is now seeing is in existing LNG markets, it is seeing lot of changes in downstream markets, the introduction of competition. 1. Buyers are facing bigger risks going forward when they sign long-term contracts. 2. Because buyers don't have captive downstream market, buyers have to be sure that terms of that long-term contract will be competitive in their downstream market over time. 2. Due to aforementioned two changes, seeing change in types of LNG contracts that are being contracted. 1. LNG contracts are typically getting shorter, typically getting smaller and credit strength of LNG buyers is typically getting lower. 2. Industry has done good job over last few years in continuing to grow market. 3. Supply customers meet customer needs despite aforementioned challenges but this is creating issue in terms of development of new projects. 4. This is kind of mismatch between needs of buyers and needs of producers. 5. Buyers are looking for shorter, smaller contracts and buyers often don't have as much credit or as much government backing as in past. 6. Developers of new energy projects often require project financing and developers and finances are used to seeing long-term contracts to creditworthy buyers to make funding and investment decisions. 7. There is bit of mismatch that's occurring between needs of new producers and needs of buyers. 8. This Co. believes is biggest challenge facing industry, biggest thing that's inhibiting growth of industry at the moment. 3. Aforementioned is already being compensated in some way by introduction of new business models and new players in market. 1. Going back a decade, about 80% of LNG contracts were direct contracts between producers and importers or end users. 2. Today, that's reduced to about 50%. 3. Likes of portfolio players like Co. and traders have taken up much of the gap, because they have skill sets to match different needs of producers and buyers and meet the needs of both. 2. Summary: 1. Going forward, continues to see positive outlook for gas and LNG. 1. Believes external environment is favorable to business at the moment. 2. Multiple layers of government policies are supportive of gas demand and LNG demand. 3. Gas benefits from its inherent advantages of flexibility, which allows it to be complementary to renewable generation and because it simply provides cleanest fuel option for non-power energy supply needs. 2. In 2017, saw stronger-than-expected increase in supply. 1. Saw market easily absorbed those volumes and accommodated those volumes. 2. Saw increase in spot business and physical and financial liquidity in market. 3. Going forward, has lot of confidence in continued growth of industry. 1. There is issue that requires resolving to fully meet that potential growth in demand. 1. That's not physical issue. 2. There is plenty of gas in world, there is plenty of demand, there is plenty of capability to build everything that's need. 3. This is much more of risk allocation issue, determining whose going to take what risk as buyers needs and sellers needs need to be bridged. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS OPERATOR: (inaudible) UNIDENTIFIED PARTICIPANT: You mentioned that the cost for new projects was now essentially compatible with the existing gas price structure globally, but there's only been 2 LNG projects that have been sanctioned since '15 and one of them was floating. So I'm just trying to get an idea for what cost structure now looks like for new liquefaction given there aren't really any true market examples. And in the tonnes -- dollars per tonne of throughput or breakeven price, either one would be useful. STEVE HILL: Yes. So the most transparent part of LNG pricing is the cost of U.S. export projects. So if you take a view of the U.S. at the moment, people will predict Henry Hub prices may be around $3, probably below $4. There's potentially an awful lot of gas in North America below $4. You can then add on the liquefaction costs, which are quite widely publicized in the market, add on the shipping cost. You get to a price in North Asia of around $8, maybe a little bit more. If you take an oil price assumption of $60 to $70 and apply typically oil index formula, you get to a similar price range. So I think the price level in the market is quite clear. Obviously, sellers always want higher prices, buyers want lower prices. But I don't think there's a mismatch in pricing needs that's holding the industry back. I think the bigger challenge is just the uncertainty of what the world looks like in the future. So people have uncertainty over future energy mixes, renewables. They have uncertainty over government policies. They have uncertainty over oil pricing or commodity pricing. So I don't think it's the price level today that is the challenge. I think people are struggling to commit to long-term contracts without -- in a world of more uncertainty. And I think equally, people are struggling to commit to big investment decisions without long-term contracts. So it's not the price level itself, it's some of the broadest uncertainty around indexes and broader energy supply mix questions that's holding people back today. JONATHON RIGBY, MD, HEAD OF OIL RESEARCH, AND LEAD ANALYST, UBS INVESTMENT BANK, RESEARCH DIVISION: It's Jon Rigby from UBS. A couple of questions. The first is simultaneous with this sort of expansion of supply, the oil price level (inaudible) by even now, almost by half. So we're in the 60s, it was $120. So I just wondered to what degree, what we just see, is natural price elasticity of demand for gas? And to what degree that's threatened if oil prices were to rise or underlying gas prices were to rise, whether you can -- able to disaggregate that? And the second is on the future supply. What do you think the factors are that will determine what goes ahead? I mean, in the old days, I would have imagined that buyers would be, obviously, interested in price, but also somewhat concerned and want to look at things like political risk and longevity and the ability to participate in the upstream, blah, blah, blah. So what do you think are the things that are going to sort of tick the box that makes the next wave of projects go ahead? STEVE HILL: Yes. Okay. So in terms of your first question, the inhibitors, I think -- we've clearly been through a period were following the oil price crash people changed their prioritization quite quickly. So there was a increased focus on cost discipline, preserving cash. At the same time, there was a lot of new supply coming into the market, so the buyers felt quite comfortable that they didn't need to commit to long-term contracts and prices were falling, so it wasn't obviously the right time to commit to long-term contracts. So there were many different reasons 2 years ago why projects weren't being developed. But it basically comes down to -- the buyers didn't need to contract and the producers didn't need to sanction projects. A lot of those inhibitors have been eliminated over the last 2 years. So the industry has not -- has taken the advantage of the lack of investments to really do a good job, to really focus on cost. So the priority for the industry now is to develop the lowest-cost most competitive projects rather than just developing things as quickly as possible. At the same time, buyers have started to work through some of the significant growth in supply that's come into the market and have actually seen that the market has absorbed that quite successfully. So compared to 2 years ago, there is clearly more of a need for people to do deals now than then. So again, what's holding people back? It's the uncertainty rather than the lack of desire. I think there are buyers who want to do deals, I think there are producers who want to do deals. It's this uncertainty, which is the challenge. And this is just a risk-allocation challenge, which is different to the industry's faced in the past, so we need to develop a new solution to that. In terms of what's important going forward, I believe, absolutely, what's most important is being competitive. I think there's always been a -- some people have had a view that if you have an LNG project, you just have to wait for your turn and the market will come round and at some stage you'll go. I think that we are in a world where you clearly need to be competitive. And actually, the introduction of U.S. suppliers has shown what that means because if you can't compete with the U.S., then you know, by definition, you're not competitive. But the point we're trying to make is, it's not just competitiveness that matters today because there are competitive projects that [aren't] being sanctioned today. And they're being sanctioned by this disconnect. And therefore the other thing the industry needs is a commercial model that allows the competitive project to be sanctioned. And that is basically somebody taking the risk, either producers and financiers sanctioning projects with more uncertainty over the long-term sales mix. Or buyers, recognizing that the ideal -- optimal portfolio is a mixture of long-term purchases, which enables new supply and short-term purchases, which gives them the flexibility they need or people stepping in the middle of the chain and actually bridging the two or some combination of all three. But it's different to the historic model of how projects were sanctioned. UNIDENTIFIED PARTICIPANT: Steve, I just want to talk about China. You talked very positively about the demand surprise in China. So I'd like to know Shell's ability to push further into that. Are you too big in China already? Are you dealing with PetroChina, CNOOC? Or can you start to deal with other buyers of LNG inside China? Is that possible? And then secondly, arbitrage, I know you used to do quite a bit in BG. And as you come in to Shell, is it still arbitrage available? But specifically, as you say there's more traders, more companies coming in here trading around the edges, is that an -- is arbitrage still available to Shell or are some of these new competitors taking it as well? STEVE HILL: They're both quite Shell-specific questions, and the objective of today is that -- to be the one day of the year where we talk about everybody else and not ourselves, so I'll try to answer them as generically as I can. And I think China is still a massive opportunity for the industry. It is a market where there is tremendous growth in energy demand, where gas is coming from a very, very small penetration, and where there's strong government support to increase gas' share in the mix. So the combination of increased energy demand and gas' increased share of it creates a big, big opportunity for LNG. Also, there's very little gas storage in China today, so China doesn't just have growing demand, it has a lot of seasonality. So LNG is particularly well placed to provide that flexibility to meet both the uncertainty and the growth in China's energy needs and the flexibility to deal with the seasonality issues. I think the China market is evolving, so that -- historically, there's been 3 dominant importers. Over time there will be more importers. And I don't see any reason why suppliers will not deal with whoever the importers are in any markets. We've seen that in other markets, which have transitioned from having a single government importer to multiple importers, then companies that have supplied the traditional importer have also supplied the new importers, so I don't see a constraint in that. So it's a big opportunity for the business. In terms of arbitrage, the LNG market is becoming more flexible and therefore there is a need for people to sit in the middle of [chain] to make that work rather than the model where long-term contracts for LNG supply in different markets. LNG can play its most valuable role by meeting short-term demand response, needs and meeting the needs of different markets over different times. That requires the trading model in order to fully provide that service to the market and to optimize it. People in that space benefit from price dislocations and they also benefit from efficiencies of scale and logistics. Shell is well placed, that we have a lot of scale, a lot of flexibility that allows us to be competitive in that space. So the amount of arbitrage will depend on market conditions. But I feel quite confident in our ability to compete in that market, but also to provide reliability and flexibility to our customers. Again, because of the same scale and flexibility that we have, so it's a market that's evolving, but I think it's still very complementary to our business. LUCAS HERRMANN, HEAD OF EUROPEAN OIL AND GAS, DEUTSCHE BANK AG, RESEARCH DIVISION: Steve, it's Lucas Herrmann at Deutsche. Two or three, if I might. You've lived through cycles before you lived through the cycle of excess supply and the fall in pricing in 2009 through (inaudible) Customer behavior through period of excess supply, taking down to minimum contracted quantities. What -- if you go back, if I think about -- well, I guess, first question is, how much flexibility typically does a customer have in contract to take down to a minimum level? What is minimum level? And when go -- when you think of your own experience historically, what did you see through the 2009, '11 period? The reason I'm asking is very simply a view there is [over] supply still, spot prices through summer at least are a lot lower. Does that afford an opportunity for people to take down on contract (inaudible)? Therefore is there a (inaudible) on that? Well, that's a simple first question. Second one was on just demand in Europe. Your demand in Europe for gas, which is -- which last year was, I'd say, remarkably robust. But have you got any observations as to why demand was as strong as it was and I think more importantly, going forward, what one's expectations might be? I'm sorry, I have got a third and it's on modular LNG. Just if you could just talk around advantages, disadvantages, both (inaudible) timing with that (inaudible). STEVE HILL: Okay. I think customer behavior is what it's always been. Customers have tried to look after their interest in the same way as suppliers try to look after their interest. I think the points we're trying to make, we're trying to highlight now is that customers have more challenges than in the past. Because they're not just trying to do the best deal in the LNG market, they're trying to make sure that the deals that they're doing in the LNG markets are compatible with their business in the downstream markets, where they're typically not able to lock in long-term demand. So that's just putting an extra challenge and an extra constraints on the customer. In terms of this year, prices have gone down recently because prices always go down as you go out of the winter. I don't think there's any sign of any weakness in the market yet. We've just demonstrated how in 2017 we saw strong demand growth and typical pricing. We've just been through a winter where we've seen very high spot prices. Obviously, as you go from February pricing to April, there's a drop, probably, less steep than last year. But I think in the near term, the market looks quite strong. The inventories are quite low at the end of a cold winter. While there's a lot of new supply coming in 2018, it's very much weighted towards the end of 2018, so I think out of the all the new supply projects due on stream this year, you have [one trading code points in] the small [boats in] the liquefaction train in Cameron in the first half of the year. All the other new suppliers due to come on in the second half of the year. So in the near term, the market looks just fine for us. But customers will always try to look after their interests. I think that an issue that's got a lot of publicity over the last couple of years, probably more than it might deserve, is renegotiation of contracts. And I think what's tended to happen is, whenever there's been renegotiation, one side has talked to the press a lot more than the other side and therefore it's been perceived as one side has won and the other side has lost, whereas I think the actual deals that are being done have been a lot more balanced. And clearly, if there has been a price change, somebody has won on price, but the other side has probably won on volume or other commercial terms. So the industry is still very good at solving its problems through people sitting down and solving problems together. In terms of Europe, there was strong demand for gas in 2017. A lot of that was the issues in southern Europe that drove the extra LNG imports, so -- unreliability of nuclear plants, lack of, whatever the sun or wind or whatever it is that drives solar generation. I think [I expect] at some time more LNG will need to come back to Europe. People forecasted it was going to happen in 2016, it didn't, they forecasted in '17, it didn't. It may or may not happen in 2018, but I think Europe is clearly able to accommodate the LNG volumes that it may need to whenever it does come. In terms of modular LNG, I have not seen any evidence that it gives you a cost advantage. I think the bigger driver for modular LNG is the challenge we've discussed in terms of getting enough demand together in one go to launch a new conventional project or even a train. So getting 5 million tonnes or 10 million tonnes of demand for grassroots LNG project is very challenging today. So modular LNG is I think being looked at because it lowers the barriers to entry to get a new project off the ground rather than it actually provides an economic -- better solution. LUCAS HERRMANN: (inaudible) STEVE HILL: I think the -- again, I think it depends on the specific situation. But normally, the critical path for an LNG plant is the storage tank. So if the modular solution requires a new storage tank, then it doesn't really save you any time. If it benefits from existing import terminal, for example, then maybe it can be a bit quicker. LUCAS HERRMANN: I'm sorry, just to come back on the first one. What typically across the industry are [MCQ] terms? STEVE HILL: I don't really think this is kind of an event to talk about contract returns. This is how we see the industry evolving, and we haven't seen that specific term evolve in the last year, so. GORDON M. GRAY, GLOBAL HEAD OF OIL AND GAS EQUITY RESEARCH, HSBC, RESEARCH DIVISION: Steve, when you think -- Gordon Gray, HSBC. When you are thinking about the long-term outlook for gas demand and LNG demand specifically, one of the things you pointed out was the reliability issue relative to renewables. Can you talk about the place of power storage in all of this? And how you think developments of storage threaten gas via the rates of growth of renewables over time? STEVE HILL: Yes. I don't think we compared the reliability of gas to renewables. What we said is gas and renewables together are very, very complementary because the combination gives you a reliable source of power that renewables on its own doesn't give you. Now clearly, there's potential for battery technology to replace gas in that equation. But I think that depends also on the length of the storage. So to imagine a battery store -- storage that's in a sunny place, where most of the power demand happens in the daytime to get you through the night is quite conceivable. To come up with a renewable storage solution that gets -- takes the sun (inaudible) in the summer and allows you to heat (inaudible) in the winter is completely unforeseeable. So I think it depends very much on the predictability of the demand and the length of time you need to have the storage full. So again, solar may be a better fit for than wind for storage as a backup because solar is more predictable than wind. So I think you get lots of different solutions in different cases. Renewables is part of the solution, batteries will be an increasing part of solution. We still think that in order to meet reliable, competitive, clean, flexible energy demand, there's still a very big place for gas in the power mix for -- not forever but for quite a long time to come. And it will always be sources of energy demand, which simply can't be electrified. And again, we think gas is going to be the cleanest solution for those markets. CHRISTOPHER KUPLENT, HEAD OF EUROPEAN ENERGY EQUITY RESEARCH, BOFA MERRILL LYNCH, RESEARCH DIVISION: Steve, it's Chris Kuplent from Bank of America. As you've laid out, it looks like -- there's obviously been a dearth of new liquefaction developments gotten underway, and you yourself described the change of demand means that smaller players or smaller projects get underway. Do you think there is a risk that we'll see a number of more years of only tiny, small [SLNG] projects here or there getting developed before we see the next big cycle? Because this 10 mtpa big multi-train projects feels a little too soon right now to FID, even though we all know there are a number of them in the pipeline? So just wanted to hear your views on the next cycle or... STEVE HILL: I think there's clearly a risk that will happen. And that's actually why we've highlighted the risk today. It's one of the key messages of the presentation. It's not our expectation as to what will happen. Our expectation is that the industry will solve this problem and new projects will be developed. We've seen a lot of positive developments already this year. We have seen Mozambique and Papua New Guinea talk very positively about the potential for their developments. We've seen long-term deals done recently from Mozambique into Europe from the U.S. into China, small deals. So there's a long way to go between people making positive statements to the press and doing 1 million tonne deals, but we're starting to see some of the building blocks and some of the intent being put in place. So our expectation is the industry will solve this problem and gas demand will be satisfied. But there is, obviously, a risk that it doesn't happen and, as I said, that's why we have flagged it today. UNIDENTIFIED PARTICIPANT: Two quick questions. The first one is, as you highlighted, one of the big changes in the LNG market has been the emergence of the liquid spot market with potentially JKM being the index. How do you see the likelihood in the next few years that you will have long-term contracts based on JKM that gets funding from the banks and that therefore some of the new builders of LNG could use this one as a way to get financing without leaving too much risk with the buyers? And secondly, thinking about low cost new LNG, clearly, Qatar is at the very bottom of that cost curve. How quickly do you think they can get new supply on? STEVE HILL: Yes, let me take the second one first because it's probably the easier question. I think it's how quick do they want to put the new supply on. The technical timeline is quite clear, the time it takes to build a new LNG project. So the Qataris clearly will be a competitive supplier and will be very credible in the market when they choose to go when that is, I don't know so you'll need to ask them. And in terms of asking them, maybe I should ask you, we have probably several banks represented in the room, whether banks will lend based on a JKM contract, I would welcome your opinions. It hasn't happened yet. I think that as the liquidity of the market increases and the confidence in the index increases, then there is increased potential for that to happen. But it takes a long time for markets to transition from being predominantly oil index market to spot index markets. We saw in Europe, it took 20 years for spot prices to become the dominant source of pricing in the market from when there were credible option. So it's not -- something that happens at all quickly. LYDIA ROSE EMMA RAINFORTH, DIRECTOR AND EQUITY ANALYST, BARCLAYS BANK PLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: It's Lydia from Barclays. I've got three, hoping those will be three questions. The first one is, how much in terms of long-run demand forecast is sensitive to carbon pricing within that? The second one, what utilization rate you actually are seeing for the [basins] going forward? And is there areas of potential surprise like Egypt coming back on stream that's within forecast? And then finally just relates to probably some of the questions asked earlier, how important is it to have market share in shipping fleet for LNG to take advantages from some of the opportunities? STEVE HILL: Again, let me take them in reverse. I think the LNG shipping industry is becoming increasingly commoditized. So again, if you go back 15 years, if you wanted LNG ships, you pretty much had to build them yourself or at least contract for them long term yourself. Today, it is a much more liquid market, so ships are typically available. The mix of shipping [new ones] versus what's owned versus long-term charters versus what's spotted, it's -- again, it's a risk management decision, it's -- do you want to be exposed to spot charter rates or not. And that's a commercial decision for companies. In terms of the utilization, that will be very much driven by project-by-project issues. The -- some projects have very good utilization, others -- the LNG projects are very reliable, but they have gas supply constraints and other projects are now quite old and challenging, so the assumptions will have different -- there's not a generic assumption applied to all projects in the world. I'm sorry, I forgot your third question? LYDIA ROSE EMMA RAINFORTH: It's on regarding the sensitivity of the [gas amounts] that -- or going to get carbon pricing. How is it? And how those numbers on demand? STEVE HILL: Again, I have to -- the -- a lot of these forecasts are presentation and interpretation of third-party data, so I don't have that by market in my head. GEORGES MENANE: Just a reminder that online participants can also ask questions. Operator, if you can remind us of the procedure to follow. OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) GEORGES MENANE: I think we've got no question online so far, so back to the room again. UNIDENTIFIED PARTICIPANT: Steve, a couple of questions for me. So going back to the longer-term supply outlook and the FID outlook. Again, we haven't seen a lot of FIDs over the last couple of years, but you've got a lot of companies talking about FID projects over the next year or two. In the U.S. alone, probably a couple hundred million tonnes and then probably 100 million tonnes outside of the U.S. Now I get that you need contracts to push those projects forward. But I just want to see, from the other side of it, what do you see the risk of oversupply coming into the market? And on -- with all those other projects, how competitive -- do you feel about pushing forward projects in that environment? And then the second one, just going back to China. I think the market's been surprised by the growth you've seen in China, but I think one of the other interesting things is the -- you haven't seen much evidence of China coming out with new LNG because of the supply contracts. So the lack of new LNG supply contracts that you've seen signed by China over the last couple of years, what do you put that down to? And do you expect a big acceleration in China signing, kind of, tens of millions of tonnes of contracts? And if so, on what kind of basis do you expect that? STEVE HILL: Yes. So while I think we're a long way away from worrying about an overinvestment in the industry at the moment, I think that -- in many ways, the reason we started this outlook last year is that the market was concerned that there had been an overinvestment and the market wouldn't be able to absorb all the volumes, and we saw the disconnect between how people were talking about the industry and what we actually observed, and that's why we started communicating this story. There needs to be more investments. Historically, the industry does have a bit of a track record of projects going in waves. If there is a wave that comes in the future, then I think we might be talking about it in a years' time or in 2 years' time, but there's no sign of it being something to worry about today. I think the U.S. -- a lot of those projects in the U.S. have a lot of challenges to get going today. We have just seen a million tonne sale from the U.S. recently. There's probably a train, which might get to be sanctioned quite soon, but new grassroots projects to be launched in the U.S., there's still some pretty big hurdles to be overcome. But I think the U.S. -- the latent supply in the U.S. is very beneficial for the industry because it does give buyers confidence that LNG supplies can be made available and brought online if they are needed by the market there's, obviously, a timeline required. But the fact that there is a lot more gas in the U.S. than is ever likely to be needed in the U.S., the fact that the cost structure in the U.S. is very transparent, the fact that the U.S. regulatory environment stays very supportive of LNG exports, the fact that there's many different players in the U.S. market, so there's not one single government agency that's controlling the rate of developments means that the U.S. -- the availability of LNG from the U.S. gives the market confidence there will always be more supply there in the future in order to meet demand -- ongoing demand and demand growth. There's just a timeline required in order to enable it. And there's still a lot of uncertainty as well over which projects will go next and that. In terms of China -- the question was on growth, sorry? UNIDENTIFIED PARTICIPANT: You haven't seen new contracts being signed by China. So should we expect the heatwave of new contracts (inaudible)? STEVE HILL: I think you'll see more. I think there's been a combination of -- there's been quite a negative sentiment in the industry over the last couple of years where people have perceived there's a lot of LNG available and prices are falling and therefore there's no need to enter into contracts. I think we're moving out of that environment today. And I think Chinese buyers have historically been very keen to try to call the market. Sometimes they've been successful, sometimes been unsuccessful. But I think there is a cultural mindset that people want to buy at the bottom of the market rather than assume the market will do whatever it does and therefore buy in over -- slices over time and kind of self-hedge that way. So I'd expect to see an increase, but it's an increase from a very low base as you say over the last couple of years. How big it is we'll discuss next year. UNIDENTIFIED PARTICIPANT: In terms of pricing -- pricing do you think they'll be looking at, is it mainly oil-linked or (inaudible)? STEVE HILL: Yes. I think the oil is still probably the most prevalent pricing structure discussed for new LNG contracts at the moment. UNIDENTIFIED PARTICIPANT: Just going back to the question asked before just to explore a little bit further. On risk to supply, is there a perception that by contracting with U.S. supply, you are taking on -- this is from the buyers side, you're taking on, sort of, risk that is different to the risk that sits around other, sort of, traditional LNG supply either because of the underlying commodity risk rather than oil at Henry Hub. And although everybody have got very comfortable with Henry Hub, 2 or 3x historically they've been historically very wrong. And then secondly, so just politically as well, it's this sort of disaggregated model where you've got underlying market, maybe a third party who's running the plant and then sort of other players intervening, is that seen as being a slightly different risk profile? STEVE HILL: I don't think so. Yes. I think that the political risk for the U.S. is probably seen bizarrely as being lower today than a decade ago. When the U.S. first entered the market, there was a lot of debate over whether the U.S. would limit the amounts of gas it exported. I think there was an attitude at the time that cheap gas was a competitive advantage the U.S. had over the rest of the world and did it want to export its competitive advantage to its competitors. I think the U.S. has moved beyond that now and is very supportive of LNG exports. But if you buy from any specific project, then you always take the risk associated with that specific projects, whether it's the operational risk of the facility or the political risk of the country. I think that's one of the benefits we offer our customers as Shell that when you're buying from Shell, you're buying from Shell. And we have many different supply sources, and therefore, we're able to provide reliability or flexibility because of the scale and flexibility of our own portfolio, whether that is either derisking the start dates of deliveries, because you're not dependent on the timing of a new project, [we're just] ongoing managing operational risk for the portfolio. I think it is one of the benefits to the customer of the portfolio model. Some customers are very, very keen to avoid timing risk on new projects and will clearly choose to buy from suppliers like Shell. Some other customers prefer to deal directly with the projects because -- I don't know many different reasons, probably, mostly historical. UNIDENTIFIED PARTICIPANT: Can I go back to one thing that you said that most of the contracts are linked to oil? What are the other most common contracts that you see on the market, Henry Hub? Are there any other interesting pricing that is emerging? STEVE HILL: I think Henry Hub will be the next most significant in terms of the volume. I think that there are various different other indexes that are being discussed, whether they are other gas market references or other references to LNG markets using customs data and average prices and stuff. There's a few different constructs that people talk about, but in terms of material volumes, it's very much dominated by crude oil and then Henry Hub, next. UNIDENTIFIED PARTICIPANT: I know you mentioned we're a long way from over investments specifically related to the U.S. coming on. What about Russia, though? They have big ambitions. We've just been up to (inaudible) and seen a very successful on time, on budget project and they're talk -- Russia's taking it up. Novatec and Gazprom, could we be missing something where Putin just says, we're going to do this and there's lot of gas and there's a lot of volumes come within a 5, 6 -- 5, 10-year period? STEVE HILL: Maybe. There is a lot more LNG demand required. I showed the chart in the presentation, which had the demand outlook to 2030, 2035. And there is a hole of potentially 200 million tonnes by the end of that profile. So 25 million tonnes from Qatar, another 20 million tonnes from Russia, a few trains in the U.S. It takes quite a few world-scale, big projects to fill that hole. Now we've got quite a bit of time to fill it as well. But -- can -- that doesn't strike me as being one of the things the industry needs to worry about today. Once we've kind of solved the near-term problem, which is making sure we start getting some projects, then we can maybe focus on making sure we don't get too many. But it's not an imminent problem that I see. UNIDENTIFIED PARTICIPANT: (inaudible) you referenced that 30% of '17's transactions were done for the spot market. Is that primarily because of European buyers being able to redirect cargoes? Or is this just a natural evolution where that's the percentage of market that is uncontracted? And then do you still look at the LNG market as being essentially a 2 basin market? Or are you seeing a lot more interconnectivity and more of the global market as a result of all this spot flow? STEVE HILL: I think the spot market is -- growth is ultimately driven by LNG providing flexibility to gas markets as well as long-term security to gas markets. So we've highlighted a lot of cases where LNG provides solutions which long-term LNG contracts in their historic model don't typically provide. So again, Brazil needing LNG when it happens to be dry. It's very hard to go and sign a long-term contract that manages that requirement. So it's not simply a case of LNG cargoes without places to go because as you point out, some of these cargoes are sold under term contracts and then resold under spot contracts, so we look at the final deliveries in the chain when we come up with the 30% estimate. But it's a combination of more markets, different needs in the markets and changes in the commercial structure along the chain where you've got more intermediaries in the middle, which have the ability to sell cargoes on a spot basis. In the past, there may have been opportunities when cargoes were needed in one place, but the inefficiency of the industry prevented that from happening. The other question was -- sorry? UNIDENTIFIED PARTICIPANT: Whether you're now looking at the market as being fairly liquid global market? Or is it still Atlantic and Pacific basin market? STEVE HILL: I think there is an increase in connectivity in general, but the markets do diverge over time. So a lot of the time, you can -- the price relationships between different markets make a lot of sense based on logistic costs. But when things happen, and you get strong demand in one region or very short-term need, then you can get price dislocations. So the premium for Asia over Europe certainly increased in the middle winter when the demand was very strong. So it's more consistency as a general trend, but it's not always perfect. UNIDENTIFIED PARTICIPANT: A question about who are going to be the next round of buyers. You've got obviously a kind of tension here between the ultimate buyer wanting better terms from their perspective. And then you're saying also that we're kind of falling into the trap of not having enough projects. So one thing that kind of fills that gap is a big portfolio player who can come and take a very large lump, if you like, of demand and then find a way to get it into the market. And if you're worried that that's going to happen, I presume that's something which you would be prepared to do or you and other big portfolio players take a very large project in terms of all those volumes? STEVE HILL: Yes. So clearly, buyers want better terms. But sometimes they enable better terms by making the commitment that enable new projects to be developed. So while buying on the spot market is the lowest-risk option for buyers, basically, buyers in the spot market takes the flexibility out of the market, whereas a long-term contract allows new project sanction, which brings new supply into the markets is in the interest of the -- certainly the buyers overall. And I think a lot of buyers are quite aware of that inconsistency and the challenge they have is, how do they solve their problem rather than everybody else's problem. It's clearly in the buyers' interest to enable more supply. But buyer doesn't want to be the person who enables the supply for the competitors to benefit from it. So how do they manage around that? In terms of the portfolio players, clearly, Shell is fortunate to be well positioned within this market structure. Obviously, we designed our business models around the way we see the market, but we have the ability to succeed in this market from a couple of perspectives. First of all, we're probably less reliant on third-party financing to sanction new projects than many of our competitors. And also we are less reliant on needing to secure long term -- new long-term sales than many of our competitors to launch new projects because we have the ability in our own portfolio of existing sales and trading positions and market access to absorb supply. But equally, everybody benefits from the growth of the industry and the success of the industry. It's not in Shell's interest or anybody's interest to have a supply crunch when no new supply is developed and prices spike and demand gets destroyed. We're very keen for the industry to solve this problem in order to meet demand growth and to further continue healthy growth of the business. But equally, we also need to look after our own interest. So while we could solve this problem on behalf of the industry, we also need to make sure we do the right commercial decision for Shell. So that's not just developing the projects the market needs, it's developing the right projects at the right time, at the right commercial structure to make sure if we are going to take risk between supply and the market, we are compensated appropriately for them. GEORGES MENANE: We have time for a couple of questions. UNIDENTIFIED PARTICIPANT: Do you think the contract market -- the long-term contract market is positive in pricing terms? There is more awareness around buyers that the market -- it's tied to China being I suspect a bit of a surprise for the market [by and large constraint that we see in the year]. STEVE HILL: Yes. I don't see a lot of upside in a short, pithy statement on that. I think the evidence of falling prices doesn't exist anymore, whether it's going up or -- laps or what, it takes time to establish. UNIDENTIFIED PARTICIPANT: So you don't see signs of prices plummeting (inaudible) STEVE HILL: I don't think prices are plummeting today. I think prices have stabilized, yes. GEORGES MENANE: We still don't have questions on the phone, so we'll ask question here in the room? UNIDENTIFIED PARTICIPANT: When do you think Saudi starts buying LNG? STEVE HILL: I don't have a specific opinion on that. Obviously, we are delighted to finish last year with the biggest sale in the industry during 2017 into Kuwait. I think there's many similarities between Kuwait and Saudi, so it's a logical thing to happen at some stage, but I don't have a specific view on the timing. All right. Thanks very much everybody. I really appreciate your interest and also the questions and your time. So let's see what happens this year. GEORGES MENANE: Thank you very much all, and (inaudible) OPERATOR: That concludes today's conference call. We thank you all for joining us. [Thomson Financial reserves the right to make changes to documents, content, or other information on this web site without obligation to notify any person of such changes. In the conference calls upon which Event Briefs are based, companies may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding a variety of items. Such forward-looking statements are based upon current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those stated in any forward-looking statement based on a number of important factors and risks, which are more specifically identified in the companies' most recent SEC filings. Although the companies may indicate and believe that the assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements are reasonable, any of the assumptions could prove inaccurate or incorrect and, therefore, there can be no assurance that the results contemplated in the forward-looking statements will be realized. THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN EVENT BRIEFS REFLECTS THOMSON FINANCIAL'S SUBJECTIVE CONDENSED PARAPHRASE OF THE APPLICABLE COMPANY'S CONFERENCE CALL AND THERE MAY BE MATERIAL ERRORS, OMISSIONS, OR INACCURACIES IN THE REPORTING OF THE SUBSTANCE OF THE CONFERENCE CALLS. IN NO WAY DOES THOMSON FINANCIAL OR THE APPLICABLE COMPANY ASSUME ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY INVESTMENT OR OTHER DECISIONS MADE BASED UPON THE INFORMATION PROVIDED ON THIS WEB SITE OR IN ANY EVENT BRIEF. USERS ARE ADVISED TO REVIEW THE APPLICABLE COMPANY'S CONFERENCE CALL ITSELF AND THE APPLICABLE COMPANY'S SEC FILINGS BEFORE MAKING ANY INVESTMENT OR OTHER DECISIONS.] [Copyright: Content copyright 2018 Thomson Financial. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Electronic format, layout and metadata, copyright 2018 ASC LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No license is granted to the user of this material other than for research. User may not reproduce or redistribute the material except for user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon Thomson Financial's or ASC's copyright or other proprietary rights or interests in the material; provided, however, that members of the news media may redistribute limited portions (less than 250 words) of this material without a specific license from Thomson Financial and ASC so long as they provide conspicuous attribution to Thomson Financial and ASC as the originators and copyright holders of such material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation.]
Subject: Fossil fuels; Flexibility; Copyright; Energy; LNG; Equity; Climate change; Coal; Competition
Location: Kuwait China California Brazil Asia
Company / organization: Name: Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development; NAICS: 928120; Name: Thomson Financial; NAICS: 511210, 518210, 519190
Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 26, 2018
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: Linthicum
Country of publication: United States, Linthicum
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Law--Corporate Law
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2012949248
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2012949248?accountid=4840
Copyright: 2018 Thomson Financial and ASC LLC
Last updated: 2018-03-14
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 149 of 474
LiveXLive Expands Into Country, Adding Country 500 To Music Festival Livestreaming Lineup
Publication info: PR Newswire ; New York [New York]28 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Investor Contacts: Alex Wellins, The Blueshirt Group, [email protected], (415) 217-5861; OR Chris Tyson, MZ North America, [email protected], 949-491-8235; OR Media Contact: Kristi Mexia, Beck Media & Marketing, [email protected], (310) 300-4800 BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- LiveXLive Media, Inc. (NASDAQ: LIVX) ("LiveXLive"), a global digital media company focused on live entertainment, partnered with Country 500, a country music festival on the grounds of the world-famous Daytona International Speedway, in a multiyear agreement brokered by AEG Global Partnerships. The partnership names LiveXLive the festival's official livestreaming and video-on-demand (VOD) partner. Country 500 takes place Memorial Day weekend, May 25-27, and features some of the top names in country music, including Toby Keith, Chris Stapleton, Dierks Bentley, Sugarland, and more. This is LiveXLive's first livestream of a country music festival and builds on its livestreaming festival slate, which includes Bumbershoot, Seattle; Rock in Rio, Rio de Janeiro; and Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival, San Francisco; among others. "Expanding into the country music scene is a natural extension for LiveXLive and adds to our growing festival lineup," said Rob Ellin, CEO and chairman of LiveXLive. "Country 500 hosts some of the biggest names in the genre, and we can't wait to share the performances from this festival to fans across the globe." During Country 500, LiveXLive's industry-leading production and content teams will exclusively film set performances across stages from some of the most popular country performers today. LiveXLive will also produce both the livestream(s) and original behind-the-scenes content, including artist interviews and other festival exclusives, offering fans around the world an immersive viewing experience of Country 500 from nearly any connected screen. Daytona International Speedway President Chip Wile said, "We are thrilled to be working with LiveXLive this year to bring the experience and excitement of Country 500 beyond the festival grounds." This partnership is the latest in a series of recent livestreaming announcements for LiveXLive, underscoring the desire for world-class music events to drive live digital audiences and viral views for their festival or concert. In addition to the traditional livestream format, LiveXLive will also have integrations with its LiveXLive Influencer division, creating an interactive space for fans to participate in live chats, polling and contests throughout the festival via www.livexlive.com. Fans will also be able to access the live audio and video streams as well as all LiveXLive original content from the festival through the LiveXLive website, certain LiveXLive owned channels and apps as well as select third party affiliations. In addition, the audio will be available through music streaming and personalized radio subscription service, Slacker Radio. About LiveXLive Media About Country 500 Forward-Looking Statements SOURCE LiveXLive Media, Inc. CREDIT: LiveXLive Media, Inc.
LiveXLive Media, Inc. (NASDAQ: LIVX) is a global digital media company dedicated to music and live entertainment. The company operates one of the only video streaming services for live music and original music-related content, LiveXLive, which creates a social, community-oriented experience for music lovers. The LiveXLive platform, and app, deliver premium live-streamed and on-demand video content from some of the world's top music festivals and concerts, including Rock in Rio, Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival, Hangout Music Festival, and more, with featured live performances from world-renowned artists such as Rihanna, Katy Perry, Radiohead, Chance The Rapper, Bruce Springsteen, Maroon 5 and Major Lazer. Alongside the many live-streamed music events, LiveXLive also gives audiences access to premium original content, artist exclusives and industry interviews. LiveXLive Media is headquartered in Beverly Hills, CA, and its business also includes social influencer network, LiveXLive Influencers and internet radio service Slacker Radio (www.slacker.com). For more information, visit www.livexlive.com and follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter at @livexlive.
Also called "The Great American Music Fest at Daytona," the Country 500 festival features the biggest stars in country music spread over three days and nights, programmed on multiple performance stages—specially designed and built for the festival. Country 500 takes place on the infield of the world-famous Daytona International Speedway, a mega-music festival inside the hallowed grounds of one of the most iconic motorsports venues in America. Just as it is for the great races at the Speedway, Country 500 allows fans to actually camp out in the infield, literally inside the festival. A full-range of camping opportunities is available for virtually any budget, from pitching a tent to deluxe RV locations. Fans at the festival also have the opportunity to get up close and personal with some of their favorite country stars at artist meet-and-greets located in the garages. Numerous other features—a select festival menu sold from food booths and food trucks; carnival rides; arcade games; cooling water elements; country-and-western merchandise; and more—will all be a part of the festival, as Country 500 transforms racing's greatest venue into a festival-goer's dream.
All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this press release are "forward-looking statements." These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. These factors include uncertainties as to identifying, acquiring, securing and developing content, ability to attract and retain users, successfully implementing LiveXLive Media's and Slacker's growth strategy, including relating to their technology platforms and applications, management's relationships with industry stakeholders, changes in economic conditions, competition, and other risks including, but not limited to, those described from in LiveXLive Media's Registration Statement on Form S-1, Amendment No. 5, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on December 15, 2017 (the "SEC") and other filings and submissions with the SEC. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof and LiveXLive Media disclaims any obligations to update these statements except as may be required by law.
View original content with multimedia: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/livexlive-expands-into-country-adding-country-500-to-music-festival-livestreaming-lineup-300605446.html
Subject: Arts festivals; Digital broadcasting; Music festivals; Country music
Location: North America Rio de Janeiro Brazil San Francisco California
People: Keith, Toby Perry, Katy Springsteen, Bruce Stapleton, Chris Bentley, Dierks
Company / organization: Name: Nasdaq Stock Market Inc; NAICS: 523210; Name: Twitter Inc; NAICS: 519130; Name: Maroon5; NAICS: 711130; Name: Radiohead; NAICS: 711130; Name: Daytona International Speedway; NAICS: 711212; Name: Securities & Exchange Commission; NAICS: 926150; Name: Facebook Inc; NAICS: 518210, 519130; Name: Global Partnerships; NAICS: 813211
Publication title: PR Newswire; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 28, 2018
Dateline: BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., Feb. 28, 2018
Publisher: PR Newswire Association LLC
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2008834021
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2008834021?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright PR Newswire Association LLC Feb 28, 2018
Last updated: 2018-02-28
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 150 of 474
Press Release: LiveXLive Expands Into Country, Adding Country 500 To Music Festival Livestreaming Lineup
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]28 Feb 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
LiveXLive Expands Into Country, Adding Country 500 To Music Festival Livestreaming Lineup
PR Newswire
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., Feb. 28, 2018
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- LiveXLive Media, Inc. (NASDAQ: LIVX) ("LiveXLive"), a global digital media company focused on live entertainment, partnered with Country 500, a country music festival on the grounds of the world-famous Daytona International Speedway, in a multiyear agreement brokered by AEG Global Partnerships. The partnership names LiveXLive the festival's official livestreaming and video-on-demand (VOD) partner. Country 500 takes place Memorial Day weekend, May 25-27, and features some of the top names in country music, including Toby Keith, Chris Stapleton, Dierks Bentley, Sugarland, and more. This is LiveXLive's first livestream of a country music festival and builds on its livestreaming festival slate, which includes Bumbershoot, Seattle; Rock in Rio, Rio de Janeiro; and Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival, San Francisco; among others.
"Expanding into the country music scene is a natural extension for LiveXLive and adds to our growing festival lineup," said Rob Ellin, CEO and chairman of LiveXLive. "Country 500 hosts some of the biggest names in the genre, and we can't wait to share the performances from this festival to fans across the globe."
During Country 500, LiveXLive's industry-leading production and content teams will exclusively film set performances across stages from some of the most popular country performers today. LiveXLive will also produce both the livestream(s) and original behind-the-scenes content, including artist interviews and other festival exclusives, offering fans around the world an immersive viewing experience of Country 500 from nearly any connected screen.
Daytona International Speedway President Chip Wile said, "We are thrilled to be working with LiveXLive this year to bring the experience and excitement of Country 500 beyond the festival grounds."
This partnership is the latest in a series of recent livestreaming announcements for LiveXLive, underscoring the desire for world-class music events to drive live digital audiences and viral views for their festival or concert. In addition to the traditional livestream format, LiveXLive will also have integrations with its LiveXLive Influencer division, creating an interactive space for fans to participate in live chats, polling and contests throughout the festival via www.livexlive.com. Fans will also be able to access the live audio and video streams as well as all LiveXLive original content from the festival through the LiveXLive website, certain LiveXLive owned channels and apps as well as select third party affiliations. In addition, the audio will be available through music streaming and personalized radio subscription service, Slacker Radio.
About LiveXLive Media
LiveXLive Media, Inc. (NASDAQ: LIVX) is a global digital media company dedicated to music and live entertainment. The company operates one of the only video streaming services for live music and original music-related content, LiveXLive, which creates a social, community-oriented experience for music lovers. The LiveXLive platform, and app, deliver premium live-streamed and on-demand video content from some of the world's top music festivals and concerts, including Rock in Rio, Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival, Hangout Music Festival, and more, with featured live performances from world-renowned artists such as Rihanna, Katy Perry, Radiohead, Chance The Rapper, Bruce Springsteen, Maroon 5 and Major Lazer. Alongside the many live-streamed music events, LiveXLive also gives audiences access to premium original content, artist exclusives and industry interviews. LiveXLive Media is headquartered in Beverly Hills, CA, and its business also includes social influencer network, LiveXLive Influencers and internet radio service Slacker Radio (www.slacker.com). For more information, visit www.livexlive.com and follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter at @livexlive.
About Country 500
Also called "The Great American Music Fest at Daytona," the Country 500 festival features the biggest stars in country music spread over three days and nights, programmed on multiple performance stages--specially designed and built for the festival. Country 500 takes place on the infield of the world-famous Daytona International Speedway, a mega-music festival inside the hallowed grounds of one of the most iconic motorsports venues in America. Just as it is for the great races at the Speedway, Country 500 allows fans to actually camp out in the infield, literally inside the festival. A full-range of camping opportunities is available for virtually any budget, from pitching a tent to deluxe RV locations. Fans at the festival also have the opportunity to get up close and personal with some of their favorite country stars at artist meet-and-greets located in the garages. Numerous other features--a select festival menu sold from food booths and food trucks; carnival rides; arcade games; cooling water elements; country-and-western merchandise; and more--will all be a part of the festival, as Country 500 transforms racing's greatest venue into a festival-goer's dream.
Forward-Looking Statements
All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this press release are "forward-looking statements." These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. These factors include uncertainties as to identifying, acquiring, securing and developing content, ability to attract and retain users, successfully implementing LiveXLive Media's and Slacker's growth strategy, including relating to their technology platforms and applications, management's relationships with industry stakeholders, changes in economic conditions, competition, and other risks including, but not limited to, those described from in LiveXLive Media's Registration Statement on Form S-1, Amendment No. 5, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on December 15, 2017 (the "SEC") and other filings and submissions with the SEC. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof and LiveXLive Media disclaims any obligations to update these statements except as may be required by law.
View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/livexlive-expands-into-country-adding-country-500-to-music-festival-livestreaming-lineup-300605446.html
SOURCE LiveXLive Media, Inc.
/CONTACT: Investor Contacts: Alex Wellins, The Blueshirt Group, [email protected], (415) 217-5861; OR Chris Tyson, MZ North America, [email protected], 949-491-8235; OR Media Contact: Kristi Mexia, Beck Media & Marketing, [email protected], (310) 300-4800
/Web site: https://www.livexlive.com
(END)
February 28, 2018 08:00 ET (13:00 GMT)
Subject: Arts festivals; Digital broadcasting; Music festivals; Country music
Location: North America Rio de Janeiro Brazil San Francisco California
People: Keith, Toby Perry, Katy Springsteen, Bruce Stapleton, Chris Bentley, Dierks
Company / organization: Name: PR Newswire; NAICS: 518210, 519110; Name: Nasdaq Stock Market Inc; NAICS: 523210; Name: Twitter Inc; NAICS: 519130; Name: Maroon5; NAICS: 711130; Name: Radiohead; NAICS: 711130; Name: Daytona International Speedway; NAICS: 711212; Name: Securities & Exchange Commission; NAICS: 926150; Name: Facebook Inc; NAICS: 518210, 519130; Name: Global Partnerships; NAICS: 813211
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Feb 28, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2009136839
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2009136839?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Feb 28, 2018
Last updated: 2018-03-01
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 151 of 474
AB InBev Boosts Profit but U.S. Struggles Continue; Shares rise after brewing giant sounds an upbeat tone about future growth
Author: Allen, Nathan; Walker, Ian
Publication info: Wall Street Journal (Online) ; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]01 Mar 2018: n/a.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Anheuser-Busch InBev SA, the world's largest brewer, posted a strong rise in fourth-quarter net profit Thursday, but its key beer brands continued to struggle in the U.S. Shares in the company rose more than 5% after it said it expects strong earnings growth in 2018, boosted by expected synergies of just over $1 billion in the next two to three years related to its acquisition of SABMiller
. The robust results were driven by a rebound in Brazil, the company's second-biggest market. However, it said the first quarter is likely to be weak, in part because of an early end to Carnival season in the Latin American country. The Belgian brewer's Budweiser and Bud Light brands lost further market share, further illustrating the challenge AB InBev faces in turning them around. Both brands have struggled
amid a shift across the U.S. toward craft beers, Mexican imports, wine and spirits. In response, AB InBev has invested heavily in small-brewery beers it brands as craft, as well as foreign labels like Stella Artois and its higher-end light lager Michelob Ultra. Analysts were nevertheless optimistic on the company's outlook and performance. Liberum and Jefferies analysts reiterated their buy ratings, pointing to management's confident tone and dividend payment. "The country that delivered an outstanding performance was Brazil, where AB InBev's business recovered well throughout the year and delivered its strongest results in the fourth quarter," analysts at Bryan Garnier said. AB InBev said its net profit for the fourth quarter was $3.04 billion, compared with $400 million a year earlier, when the company was hit by an increase in the cost of debt related to the SABMiller deal. Revenue rose to $14.60 billion from $14.20 billion. Total volumes sold rose 1.6% in the quarter to 146 million hectoliters, with own-beer volumes 2.3% higher at 126.8 million hectoliters. Among AB InBev's major brands, global revenue from Budweiser grew 4.1% in 2017, while Stella Artois and Corona posted gains of 13% and 20%, respectively, the company said. The board announced an unchanged final dividend of [euro]2 ($2.44) a share, taking the total payout for the year to [euro]3.60 a share. Concerns that the brewer may need to cut its dividend to reduce leverage ahead of its proposed acquisition of Turkey's Efes are overblown, according Liberum, which says the company's cash flow is sufficient to increase the payout to shareholders in the coming years. Write to Ian Walker at [email protected] Credit: By Nathan Allen and Ian Walker
Subject: Breweries; Beer
Location: Brazil Turkey United States--US
Company / organization: Name: Stella Artois; NAICS: 312120; Name: Anheuser-Busch InBev; NAICS: 312120
Publication title: Wall Street Journal (Online); New York, N.Y.
Pages: n/a
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 1, 2018
Section: Business
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York, N.Y.
Country of publication: United States, New York, N.Y.
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2009174200
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2009174200?accountid=4840
Copyright: (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Reproduced with permission of copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
Last updated: 2018-03-01
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Major Dailies
Document 152 of 474
WEEKEND WATCH
Author: Kaltenbach, Chris
Publication info: The Baltimore Sun ; Baltimore, Md. [Baltimore, Md]01 Mar 2018: T.2.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: 'Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban' in Concert The third installment in the Harry Potter canon, with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra playing John Williams' score live. 8 p.m. Friday and 3 p.m. Sunday at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, 1212 Cathedral St. $45-$95. Also 3 p.m. Saturday at the Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane in North Bethesda. $45-$85. bsomusic.org. Maryland Home & Garden Show Take your mind off winter with a visit to a veritable warm(er) weather wonderland, filled with flowers, landscaping ideas, outdoor decorations and all sorts of wondrous crafts. Plus seminars, demonstrations, a petting zoo and, on the second weekend, an orchid show and sale. 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Saturday and March 10, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday and March 11, plus 10 a.m.-6 p.m. next Friday at the Maryland State Fairgrounds, 2200 York Road in Timonium. $3-$12, free for kids under 6. mdhomeandgarden.com/spring. MammoJam Music FestivalPerformancesfrom The Ursula Ricks' Project, Roses n Rust, 33 West, The Reserves and others, with proceeds benefiting breast cancer awareness, prevention, diagnosis and treatment programs. 6:30 p.m. Saturday at The 8x10, 8 E. Cross St. $45. mammojam.org. Spring Fever Concert and BachFestBach in Baltimore anticipates spring with a program featuring Bach's Cantata 149 and Orchestral Suite, No. 3 in D major, with soloists Stephanie Kruskol Batchelder (soprano), Claire Galloway Weber (alto) and Michael Dodge (tenor). 4 p.m. Sunday at the Church of the Redeemer, 5603 N. Charles St. $20-$22. Followed at 6 p.m. by the 8th annual BachFest gala and silent auction, featuring drinks and hors d'oeuvres to go with the music and bidding. $25. bachinbaltimore.org. Cherish the LadiesStart this year's St. Paddy's partying a little early with this Cellar Stage concert, featuring a Grammy-nominated group of Irish-American women, led by All-Ireland flute and whistle champion Joanie Madden. 8 p.m. Friday at the Timonium United Methodist Church, 2300 Pot Spring Road in Timonium. $25. uptownconcerts.com. 'My Fair Lady' Linguistics professor Henry Higgins tries to teach flower peddler Eliza Doolittle how to speak properly, all in the name of winning a bet - until romance enters the picture. The great Lerner & Loewe musical, performed by Harford Community College's Phoenix Festival Theater. 7 p.m. Friday, Saturday and March 9, 2 p.m. Sunday and March 10-11 at the Chesapeake Theater at HCC, 401 Thomas Run Road in Bel Air. $16-$20. harford.edu. Viva Brasil! Carnival Dance Party! A hot time is guaranteed, with live samba, forro, dance lessons, DJs, costumed Carnival dancers and more. Plus caipirinha drink specials, which can only help. 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Creative Alliance, 3134 Eastern Ave. in Highlandtown. $15-$21. creativealliance.org. Kurt Elling The Baltimore Chamber Jazz Society launches its 2018 concert season with vocalist Elling, winner of the DownBeat Critics Poll for 14 straight years and eight-time "Male Singer of the Year" as chosen by the Jazz Journalists Association. 5 p.m. Sunday at the Baltimore Museum of Art, 10 Art Museum Drive. $53-$55. baltimorechamberjazz.org. 'Oy Oy Oy Gevalt! Jews and Punk'Author Michael Croland's book looks at the intersection of Jewish and punk culture, which may cover more than you think. This multimedia presentation (plus acoustic renditions of Jewish punk tunes, performed by Na Nach Oi!) begins at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Jewish Museum of Maryland, 15 Lloyd St. $4-$10 museum admission, free for kids under 4. jewishmuseummd.org. - Chris Kaltenbach Credit: By Chris Kaltenbach - - Chris Kaltenbach Caption: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images MURRAY CLOSE/Associated Press Baltimore Sun Media Group
Subject: Art galleries & museums; Orchestras; Musical performances; Jews
Location: Maryland Baltimore Maryland Ireland
Company / organization: Name: Baltimore Sun Media Group; NAICS: 511110; Name: Jewish Museum of Maryland; NAICS: 712110; Name: Baltimore Museum of Art; NAICS: 712110; Name: Jazz Journalists Association; NAICS: 813920; Name: United Methodist Church; NAICS: 813110; Name: Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; NAICS: 711130
Publication title: The Baltimore Sun; Baltimore, Md.
First page: T.2
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 1, 2018
Publisher: Tribune Interactive, LLC
Place of publication: Baltimore, Md.
Country of publication: United States, Baltimore, Md.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
ISSN: 19439504
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2009224041
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2009224041?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright © 2018 The Baltimore Sun
Last updated: 2018-03-01
Database: US Southeast Newsstream
Document 153 of 474
HAPPENINGS
Publication info: The Baltimore Sun ; Baltimore, Md. [Baltimore, Md]01 Mar 2018: T.4.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: To submit an event for the calendars, go to events.baltimoresun.com/events/new. Fair/Festival Baltimore Washington International Pen Show: Features over 120 vendors of fountain pens, ink, paper and more. Fountain pen nib repair services and pen restoration experts will be on site. Events include handwriting and calligraphy classes, a live auction of vintage pens and kid-friendly activities. Friday-Sunday at Baltimore Marriott Inner Harbor Hotel, 110 S. Eutaw St. $10-$20. 301-770-7367. B'More Healthy Expo: A variety of health and wellness exhibits and activities, tasty samples and more. 10 a.m. Saturday at Baltimore Convention Center, 1 W. Pratt St. Free. 410-649-7000. Bridges to the World International Film Festival: For the 10th anniversary, films from Estonia, Paraguay, Jordan, South Africa and Bulgaria will be presented in six venues across Maryland, including Towson University. A post-screening discussion follows. Through March 9 at Van Bokkelen Hall, Towson University, 8000 York Road, Towson. Free. 410-704-2787. Fundraiser 10th Annual Walk A Mile in Her Shoes: St Baldrick's is a not-for-profit organization with the aim of raising funds to help find cures for children with cancer. Participants raise funds which culminate in the the participants shaving their heads to show solidarity with children who often lose their hair when having cancer treatment. 1 p.m. Sunday at O'Loughlin's Restaurant, 1013 Shore Acres Road, Arnold. Free. 410-974-0136. 26th Annual Penn-Mar Black Tie Gala: Penn-Mar Human Services presents its 26th annual gala, with the goal of raising $600,000 to help sustain its mission of "transforming life into living" for hundreds of men and women with intellectual and developmental disabilities in Maryland and Pennsylvania. 6 p.m. Saturday at Delta Hotels Baltimore Hunt Valley, 245 Shawan Road, Cockeysville. $200. 410-343-1069. Annual Pancake Breakfast: Celebrate the end of the sugar season at the Oregon Ridge Lodge with the Annual Pancake Breakfast Fundraiser. There will be raffles and music along with flower, honey and maple syrup sales. 8 a.m. Saturday, 8 a.m. Sunday at Oregon Ridge Nature Center, 13555 Beaver Dam Road, Cockeysville. $8 for adults, $4 for children ages 2-8. 410-887-1815. Capitol Steps: The Capitol Steps comedy troupe returns to St. John's with their irreverent political satire along all party lines. Join friends after the show for a "Meet the Performers" champagne reception. Proceeds will benefit student financial aid. 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Francis Scott Key Auditorium, St. John's College, 60 College Avenue, Annapolis. $55-$65. 410-972-4505. Pajama Run for the Fuel Fund: A pajama-themed fundraising event to support families with children who struggle with their heating and utility costs. All proceeds will go to the Fuel Fund of Maryland. 10 a.m. Saturday at Druid Hill Park, Latrobe Pavilion, 900 Druid Park Lake Drive. $25. 410-868-7950. Small Foods Party: This event is part culinary competition and part party, with a dose of performance art thrown in. Competitors serve up their petite offerings while attendees taste and vote for the best. Categories of competition include "International" and "Bad Idea." 7 p.m. Saturday at American Visionary Art Museum, 800 Key Highway. $5-$10. 410-244-1900. Literature CCPL and A Likely Story Bookstore Present: Brad Meltzer: In celebration of the 20th anniversary of No. 1 New York Times bestselling author Brad Meltzer's first book, he has a brand new thriller, packed with little-known American history and unforgettable characters. A book signing will follow. 7 p.m. Wednesday at Carroll Community College, 1601 Washington Road., Westminster. $30. 410-386-4500. CCPL Presents: Melanie Benjamin: Carroll Community College kicks off the Penguin Random House Book Fair with New York Times best-selling author Melanie Benjamin. Benjamin will talk about her latest book, which focuses on the friendship between two of Hollywood's earliest female legends: screenwriter Frances Marion and superstar Mary Pickford. 7 p.m. Friday at Carroll Community College, 1601 Washington Road., Westminster. $25. 410-386-4500. Elliot Ackerman: Dark at the Crossing: This National Book Award finalist is a timely and unsettling novel set on the Turkish border with Syria. 7 p.m. Wednesday at The Ivy Bookshop, 6080 Falls Road. Free. 410-377-2966. G Milton: Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: From the internationally best-selling author of narrative nonfiction, "Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: The Mavericks Who Plotted Hitler's Defeat" is the story of a top-secret organization whose purpose was to plot the destruction of Hitler's war machine, through spectacular acts of sabotage. 7 p.m. Tuesday at The Ivy Bookshop, 6080 Falls Road. Free. 410-377-2966. Kill Me Now by Timmy Reed: Local author and teacher Timmy Reed joins to discuss and sign his bracing new book, "Kill Me Now." "Kill Me Now" is a coming-of-age tale that conjures the abrasive voice of Holden Caulfield if he had a skateboard and an iPhone. 7 p.m. Thursday at Barnes and Noble at Johns Hopkins, 3330 St. Paul St. Free. 410-662-5850. Oy Oy Oy Gevalt: Michael Croland will give a multimedia presentation based on his book, "Oy Oy Oy Gevalt Jews and Punk." Na Nach Oi! (featuring Yishai Romanoff of Moshiach Oi!) will perform acoustic renditions of Jewish punk songs. 3 p.m. Sunday at Jewish Museum of Maryland, 15 Lloyd St. Included with regular admission. 410-732-6400. Readings with Ralphie: Rafael Alvarez will be joined by writers Eric D. Goodman (author of "Womb: A Novel in Utero"), Erin J. Mullikin (founding editor of the online literary journal NightBlock and the small literary press Midnight City Books) and Jeff Richards (author of "Open Country: A Civil War Novel in Stories"). 7 p.m. Tuesday at Bird in Hand, 11 E. 33rd St. Free. 410-377-2966. Todd Miller and Nasim Chatha in Conversation at Red Emma's: The U.S. government has a substantial role in building prison and border walls internationally. With more people on the move as a result of global warming and displacement, the business of containing them - border fortification - is booming. Todd Miller shows how the world is preparing for mass displacement by fortifying borders in his new book, "Storming the Wall: Climate Change, Migration and Homeland Security." Joining him in discussion is Nasim Chatha of Alliance for Global Justice. 7:30 p.m. Friday at Red Emma's, 30 W. North Ave. Free. 443-602-7585. Special Events Free Family Sundays: Hands-on art activities for the entire family. 2 p.m. Sundays at Baltimore Museum of Art, 10 Art Museum Drive. Free. 443-573-1700. Viva Brasil! Carnival Dance Party: Brasilian mid-winter dance party returns for its 12th hipmoving year with live samba, forro, dance lessons, DJ's, a full-costumed Carnival performance and more. With JP Silva, Samba Trovao, Rose Moraes, DJ's Luiz Luoco and Miguel de Amor, plus costumed dancers, caipirinha drink specials, and so much more. 7:30 p.m. Saturday at The Patterson/Creative Alliance, 3134 Eastern Ave. $15-$18. 410-276-1651. Credit: - THE BALTIMORE SUN Caption: The Capitol Steps perform an evening of political satire at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
Subject: Writers; Art galleries & museums; Books; Community colleges; Climate change; Fund raising; Novels; Bookstores; Jews
Location: Estonia Paraguay Maryland Pennsylvania Syria Baltimore Maryland United States--US South Africa New York Bulgaria Oregon
People: Key, Francis Scott (1779-1843) Ackerman, Elliot Benjamin, Melanie
Company / organization: Name: Jewish Museum of Maryland; NAICS: 712110; Name: Towson University; NAICS: 611310; Name: Carroll Community College; NAICS: 611310; Name: New York Times Co; NAICS: 511110, 511120, 515112, 515120; Name: Baltimore Museum of Art; NAICS: 712110; Name: Penguin Random House; NAICS: 511130
Publication title: The Baltimore Sun; Baltimore, Md.
First page: T.4
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 1, 2018
Publisher: Tribune Interactive, LLC
Place of publication: Baltimore, Md.
Country of publication: United States, Baltimore, Md.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
ISSN: 19439504
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2009224176
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2009224176?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright © 2018 The Baltimore Sun
Last updated: 2018-03-01
Database: US Southeast Newsstream
Document 154 of 474
Anheuser-Busch InBev 2017 - results data
Author: Wehring, Olly
Publication info: just - drinks global news ; Bromsgrove [Bromsgrove]01 Mar 2018.
Abstract:
At the start of March, Anheuser-Busch InBev released its results for the 12 months of 2017. Sales in the year came in 5.1% up on 2016, with the fourth quarter jumping by 8.2%. Here, just-drinks breaks down A-B InBev's figures for the full-year by region. [...]US sales for the brewer in 2017 were down by 2%.Much as Budweiser saw "improved brand health", Bud Light "continues to face challenges", despite "encouraging signs" for the brand towards the end of the year.[...]the UK shone in Western Europe, increasing sales in 2017 by double digits; not bad, for a heavily developed beer market.
Full text: At the start of March, Anheuser-Busch InBev released its results for the 12 months of 2017. Sales in the year came in 5.1% up on 2016, with the fourth quarter jumping by 8.2%. Here, just-drinks breaks down A-B InBev's figures for the full-year by region.
An incredibly strong final quarter gave A-B InBev an upbeat finish to the year. With sales in the three months to the end of December rising in organic terms (the figures in the chart are reported) by just over 8%, the brewer built on the growth reported in the prior three quarters - Q1 was up 3.7%, Q2 rose 5% and Q3 increased 3.6%. A-B InBev will be hoping its end of year performance continues into 2018. Indeed, in its FY 2017 results announcement, the group said it "expects to continue to deliver strong revenue ... growth in FY18". North America
- Sales -1.8%, volumes -3.3% Latin America West
- Sales +7.5%, volumes +1.6% Latin America North
- Sales +6.1%, volumes -0.3% Latin America South
- Sales +26.1%, volumes +5.9% Europe, Middle East & Africa
- Sales +6.3%, volumes +0.9% Asia-Pacific
- Sales +7.5%, volumes +0.5% Country & Brand Highlights
With an estimated decline in industry sales-to-retailers last year of 1.4%, A-B InBev had a tougher time than most in the US
, with its STRs down 3%. The group's sales-to-wholesalers in the country also fell, by 3.5%. Consequently, US sales for the brewer in 2017 were down by 2%. Michelob Ultra
continues to do well, with volumes up by double-digits. Earlier this week, a new variant, Michelob Ultra Pure Gold
, was launched in the country. Stella Artois
had a "solid" 2017 in the US, gaining share each quarter. It was in the premium and premium light segments, however, where A-B InBev's US business struggled. Much as Budweiser
saw "improved brand health", Bud Light
"continues to face challenges", despite "encouraging signs" for the brand towards the end of the year. Overall, in the US, the group said it was "not satisfied" with its performance. "We will continue to focus on expanding and reshaping our portfolio of brands to meet consumer needs across a wide spectrum of occasions." In Mexico
, meanwhile, sales were up by high-single-digits, with the group's "full brand portfolio" performing well. While Victoria
and Corona
both earned special mention, Bud Light
also got a look-in, thanks to improved volumes in the country last year. Sales growth in Colombia
- +4.5% last year - was driven by the company's non-beer volumes, which were up by over 10%. Beer volumes in the country, however, were down by just over 4%, however, due to "a challenging macroeconomic environment" in the country, as well as a tough comparable in the first half of the year. Brazil
was the standout market for A-B InBev, with full-year sales increasing by 5.6%. Volumes in the country were flat, meaning the group's premium portfolio had a good 2017 in Brazil, "especially Budweiser
". In the near-term, the country is likely to provide a "difficult first quarter" for the brewer, due to an earlier carnival and poor weather since the start of 2018. Down in South Africa
, the recent "seeding" of Budweiser
helped push full-year sales for A-B InBev up 6%. High hopes were voiced for Castle Free
, a zero alcohol beer launched in the country in the fourth quarter. China
grew sales by just over 7%, with the company's premiumisation strategy proving successful - volumes were up by only 1% in the country. "Our super premium portfolio, led by Corona
, Hoegaarden
and Franziskaner
, accelerated its growth throughout the year, with volumes almost doubling versus last year," A-B InBev said. "We are now the market leader in all super-premium beer styles in China." Eastern Europe
was one of the few blots on the brewer's copybook. A low-single-digit dip in sales from the region in 2017 was blamed predominantly on "the ongoing headwind of the large PET ban in Russia
", which took effect at the start of the year. Finally, the UK
shone in Western Europe, increasing sales in 2017 by double digits; not bad, for a heavily developed beer market. This article was originally published on just-drinks.com on 1 March 2018. For authoritative and timely drinks business information visit http://www.just-drinks.com. Credit: Olly Wehring
Subject: Breweries; Beer; Financial performance
Location: Western Europe Middle East Mexico Russia United States--US South Africa North America United Kingdom--UK Latin America Africa China Brazil Eastern Europe Asia Colombia Europe
Company / organization: Name: Stella Artois; NAICS: 312120; Name: Anheuser-Busch InBev; NAICS: 312120
Publication title: just - drinks global news; Bromsgrove
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 1, 2018
Publisher: Aroq Limited
Place of publication: Bromsgrove
Country of publication: United Kingdom, Bromsgrove
Publication subject: Beverages, Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2009238617
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2009238617?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Aroq Limited Mar 1, 2018
Last updated: 2018-03-18
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 155 of 474
Brazil: Basic data
Publication info: EIU ViewsWire ; New York [New York]01 Mar 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Brazil: Basic data
Land area
8,547,400 sq km. Population
206.1m (2016 estimate) Main cities
Population at last census (2012 official estimate; m) São Paulo: 11.4 Rio de Janeiro: 6.4 Salvador: 2.7 Brasília (capital): 2.6 Fortaleza: 2.5 Belo Horizonte: 2.4 Climate
Mainly tropical and sub-tropical; mild on the southern coast and in the higher regions Weather in São Paulo (altitude 760 metres)
Hottest month, December, 23-30°C; coldest month, June, 15-22°C, average monthly minimum and maximum; driest month, August; wettest month, February Language
Portuguese Measures
Metric system Currency
Real (R); average exchange rate in 2016: R3.5:US$1 Time
The states along the coast, as well as eastern Pará, Brasília-DF, Minas Gerais, Goiás and Tocantins, are three hours behind GMT (official time in Brazil); the states of Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Rondônia, most of Amazonas, Roraima and western Pará are four hours behind GMT; the states of Acre and the south-western part of Amazonas are five hours behind GMT Public holidays
January 1st (New Year's Day); February 10th-14th (Carnival); March 30th (Good Friday); April 21st (Tiradentes); May 1st (Labour Day); September 7th (Independence Day); October 12th (Nossa Senhora Aparecida, the patron saint of Brazil; also Children's Day); November 2nd (All Saints' Day); November 15th (Proclamation of the Republic); December 25th (Christmas Day)
Subject: Economic conditions; Economic indicators; Background
Location: Brazil Latin America
Publication title: EIU ViewsWire; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 1, 2018
Publisher: The Economist Intelligence Unit N.A., Incorporated
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Political Science--International Relations
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2009399162
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2009399162?accountid=4840
Copyright: (c) 2018 The Economist Intelligence Unit Ltd. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. No further reproduction is permitted.
Last updated: 2018-03-02
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 156 of 474
AB InBev Boosts Profit but U.S. Struggles Continue -- Update
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]01 Mar 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
Anheuser-Busch InBev SA, the world's largest brewer, posted a strong rise in fourth-quarter net profit Thursday, but its key beer brands continued to struggle in the U.S.
Shares in the company rose more than 5% after it said it expects strong earnings growth in 2018, boosted by expected synergies of just over $1 billion in the next two to three years related to its acquisition of SABMiller.
The robust results were driven by a rebound in Brazil, the company's second-biggest market. However, it said the first quarter is likely to be weak, in part because of an early end to Carnival season in the Latin American country.
The Belgian brewer's Budweiser and Bud Light brands lost further market share, further illustrating the challenge AB InBev faces in turning them around. Both brands have struggled amid a shift across the U.S. toward craft beers, Mexican imports, wine and spirits.
In response, AB InBev has invested heavily in small-brewery beers it brands as craft, as well as foreign labels like Stella Artois and its higher-end light lager Michelob Ultra.
Analysts were nevertheless optimistic on the company's outlook and performance. Liberum and Jefferies analysts reiterated their buy ratings, pointing to management's confident tone and dividend payment.
"The country that delivered an outstanding performance was Brazil, where AB InBev's business recovered well throughout the year and delivered its strongest results in the fourth quarter," analysts at Bryan Garnier said.
AB InBev said its net profit for the fourth quarter was $3.04 billion, compared with $400 million a year earlier, when the company was hit by an increase in the cost of debt related to the SABMiller deal. Revenue rose to $14.60 billion from $14.20 billion.
Total volumes sold rose 1.6% in the quarter to 146 million hectoliters, with own-beer volumes 2.3% higher at 126.8 million hectoliters.
Among AB InBev's major brands, global revenue from Budweiser grew 4.1% in 2017, while Stella Artois and Corona posted gains of 13% and 20%, respectively, the company said.
The board announced an unchanged final dividend of EUR2 ($2.44) a share, taking the total payout for the year to EUR3.60 a share.
Concerns that the brewer may need to cut its dividend to reduce leverage ahead of its proposed acquisition of Turkey's Efes are overblown, according Liberum, which says the company's cash flow is sufficient to increase the payout to shareholders in the coming years.
Write to Ian Walker at [email protected]
(END)
March 01, 2018 06:38 ET (11:38 GMT)By Nathan Allen and Ian Walker
Subject: Breweries; Beer
Location: Brazil Turkey United States--US
Company / organization: Name: Stella Artois; NAICS: 312120; Name: Anheuser-Busch InBev; NAICS: 312120
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 1, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2009467505
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2009467505?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Mar 1, 2018
Last updated: 2018-03-02
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 157 of 474
Global Equities Roundup: Market Talk
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]01 Mar 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
The latest Market Talks covering Equities. Published exclusively on throughout the day.
1232 GMT - AB InBev is the biggest gainer on Belgium's BEL 20 index after posting a sharp rise in fourth-quarter net profit and issuing an upbeat forecast for 2018. Despite guiding for "strong revenue and Ebitda growth in 2018," the brewer said it expects a "softer" first quarter, due to tough comparison effects after the company outperformed industry growth in the first quarter of 2017. Increased marketing expenditure ahead of the upcoming FIFA World Cup, Chinese inventory effects and lower revenues in Brazil after an early end to Carnival will exacerbate the comparison, says a spokesman from the brewer. AB InBev trades 3.8% higher at EUR90.83. ([email protected])
1130 GMT - US stock futures slide as traders await Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's testimony to a Senate panel following his House appearance on Tuesday. Investors are looking to see if the new central bank chief makes any attempt to walk back some of the bullish statements on the economy that led the market to price in the possibility of a faster pace for rate increases. Stocks are coming off there worst monthly performance since January 2016 as the long grind higher was interrupted by the return of volatility in February. Treasurys strengthen, along with the dollar, as the 10-year yield slips back to 2.83%. S&P futures fall 7 points. ([email protected])
1231 GMT - Adecco's shares slump on Thursday, even though the staffing giant posted pretty good revenue growth last quarter. Analysts at UBS say gross profit came in about 1.5% below consensus while adjusted Ebita was almost 6% below consensus. On the plus side, the 7% rise in fourth-quarter organic revenues topped expectations of 6%. Sales were up 5% organically in the first two months of 2018, "which is in line with our expectation and does not offer any material surprises to save the day," the analysts say. Similarly, the 4% rise in dividend was "insufficient to save the day." Adecco shares last down 8.3%. ([email protected])
1159 GMT - Tesco's pending merger with Booker isn't expected to increase earnings for the enlarged group in the short-term, Shore Capital says. The deal does, however, bring the "remarkably talented" Charles Wilson to Tesco. The supermarket group said Booker CEO Mr. Wilson will run Tesco's core U.K and Ireland retail business after the takeover. Shore Capital says Mr. Wilson's contribution to Tesco will grow over time and that he, along with Booker's free cash flow and expected synergies, will help Tesco reduce its debt. This would lift dividends and help fund potential acquisitions, Shore Capital says. ([email protected])
1154 GMT - Investors should take note of WPP's weak performance, since the world's largest advertising company offers insight about the broader economy due to its scale and geographic reach, AJ Bell Investment Director Russ Mould says. "Advertisers are seen as good bellwethers for the economy because companies will increase spending on ads when they are feeling positive and scale back during tougher times," Mr. Mould says. Shares in WPP fall 14% to GBP11.96 following its forecast of flat organic revenue and sales for 2018. According to Mr. Mould, the question for WPP is whether the problems it faces are cyclical, as its managers suggest, or reflect wider structural shifts in the industry. ([email protected])
1147 GMT - Liberum says that Costain's technology-driven business stands to gain from planned government infrastructure spending. The broker notes that U.K. government investment in productivity--for example in its National Productivity Investment Fund, which increased to GBP31 billion from GHBP23 billion in November--centers around technology where Costain has a focus. And even if the investment doesn't come, the infrastructure sector is set to transform, says the broker. Liberum suggests that Costain shouldn't be compared to other constructors, but rather to engineering-services businesses, and when comparing its enterprise value to EBIT ratio to these, it looks cheap. Shares trade up 6.2% at 470 pence. ([email protected])
1143 GMT - London shares fall as WPP results disappoint, though its U.K. business benefited from a digital boost. The FTSE 100 Index drops 0.7%, or 48 points to 7183.73 after the advertising and marketing group cut earnings targets. Still, the U.K. business had a significantly stronger second half than the first half, driven by new business wins in digital & interactive activities. Shares slide 14%. Rentokil shares also lose nearly 5% after a profit warning. But Russian steel-maker Evraz jumps nearly 7% after swinging to a net profit in 2017. ([email protected])
1139 GMT - Falls in equity markets and prices of oil and copper, combined with broad gains in the U.S. dollar, push commodity-linked currencies to multi-week lows. The Australian dollar falls to a two-month low against the U.S. dollar of 0.7712, and the New Zealand dollar falls to a three-week low of 0.7185. The oil-linked Canadian dollar also drops, lifting USD/CAD to a 10-week high of 1.2858. Analysts say weak Australian capital expenditure data for 4Q is also weighing on the Australian currency. RBC says this "may see GDP forecasts nudged down slightly." ([email protected])
1139 GMT - ITV PLC's 2017 results were disappointing, and uncertainty clouds the U.K. free-to-air broadcaster's prospects, says Barclays, which cuts the stock to equal-weight from over-weight. Barclays says it doesn't see many positives in the results, with earnings only in line rather than ahead as in previous years. New Chief Executive Carolyn McCall's "strategic refresh might end up being eminently sensible, but we won't know its financial impact until, at best, interim results [end of July] or until September's investor day," says the bank. "Unless advertising accelerates significantly from June onwards, we struggle to see where momentum would come from," it says. Barclays cuts its price target to 180 pence from 200 pence. Shares fall 2.75%. ([email protected])
1127 GMT - Burberry appointing Givenchy's Riccardo Tisci as chief creative officer is a good fit for the British high-fashion label due to his expertise across womenswear, menswear, leather and accessories, says Royal Bank of Canada. Mr. Tisci and new Burberry CEO Marco Gobbetti worked well together when Mr. Gobbetti was CEO of Givenchy, which increases the chances of a successful partnership at Burberry, RBC says. Mr. Tisci will be able to present his first collection in September, which could positively impact sales in 2H 2019, minimizing the creative void following the last show from his predecessor Christopher Bailey in February, the bank says.([email protected])
1128 GMT - Wizz Air Holdings's 10-year plan includes reaching 300 aircraft and carrying 100 million passengers a year, and macroeconomic indicators in central and eastern Europe will be key for growth, says Goodbody. Unemployment rates in CEE countries, Wizz Air's main areas of operation, are currently low, and the area's average GDP growth rate is 3.7% compared with 1.9% in Western Europe, says the brokerage. Goodbody says while CEE residents' propensity to travel remains far below that of Western European residents, it has increased more than threefold since 2008 and should rise further as CEE countries' economies improve. ([email protected])
1115 GMT - While Carrefour's 2017 results were in line with expectations, HSBC says the company's outlook for 2018 is marred by adverse currency effects, higher amortization and weak underlying momentum. The bank says 2018 will be an important year for Carrefour to lay the foundations of its transformation plan, although it may not see the benefits immediately because management has suggested that any cost-reduction benefits would be almost entirely reinvested to support competitiveness. HSBC says Carrefour's transformation strategy is sensible, well aimed and well intentioned. Carrefour shares trade down 6.2% at EUR17.79. ([email protected])
(END)
March 01, 2018 07:32 ET (12:32 GMT)
Subject: Currency; Corporate profits; Investments; Breweries; Capital expenditures; American dollar; Economic development; Gross Domestic Product--GDP
Location: Western Europe Ireland United Kingdom--UK Brazil Europe New Zealand United States--US Belgium
People: Wilson, Charles
Company / organization: Name: Carrefour SA; NAICS: 445110; Name: Royal Bank of Canada; NAICS: 522110; Name: ITV PLC; NAICS: 515120; Name: Senate; NAICS: 921120; Name: Anheuser-Busch InBev; NAICS: 312120; Name: Federation Internationale de Football Association--FIFA; NAICS: 813990; Name: UBS AG; NAICS: 522110, 523110, 523120, 523920, 523930; Name: Wizz Air; NAICS: 481111; Name: LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton; NAICS: 312130, 315210, 316998, 325620, 339910
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 1, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2009475786
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2009475786?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Mar 1, 2018
Last updated: 2018-03-02
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 158 of 474
AB InBev Leads BEL 20 Gains After Bullish Guidance -- Market Talk
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]01 Mar 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
1232 GMT - AB InBev is the biggest gainer on Belgium's BEL 20 index after posting a sharp rise in fourth-quarter net profit and issuing an upbeat forecast for 2018. Despite guiding for "strong revenue and Ebitda growth in 2018," the brewer said it expects a "softer" first quarter, due to tough comparison effects after the company outperformed industry growth in the first quarter of 2017. Increased marketing expenditure ahead of the upcoming FIFA World Cup, Chinese inventory effects and lower revenues in Brazil after an early end to Carnival will exacerbate the comparison, says a spokesman from the brewer. AB InBev trades 3.8% higher at EUR90.83. ([email protected])
(END)
March 01, 2018 07:32 ET (12:32 GMT)
Subject: Breweries
Location: Brazil Belgium
Company / organization: Name: Anheuser-Busch InBev; NAICS: 312120; Name: Federation Internationale de Football Association--FIFA; NAICS: 813990
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 1, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2009476885
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2009476885?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Mar 1, 2018
Last updated: 2018-03-02
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 159 of 474
Global Equities Roundup: Market Talk
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]01 Mar 2018. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
The latest Market Talks covering Equities. Published exclusively on throughout the day.
0806 ET - The Stoxx Europe 600 falls 1% as U.K.-listed shares dominate and more comments from new U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell loom. The pan-European index drops 3.8 points to 375.84 as advertising and marketing agency WPP PLC cut earnings targets and reported a slow start to 2018, sending its shares down 12%. U.K. aerospace and defense engineer Cobham gains 11.5% after reporting a swing to 2017 pretax profit and unchanged expectations for 2018. U.S. traders prepare for a wave of economic data and another testimony from Jerome Powell, with the central bank chief expected to reiterate his hawkish, pro-US economy comments from Tuesday. "No wonder the Dow Jones is threatening to fall below 25000 after the bell," says Connor Campbell at Spreadex. ([email protected])
0757 ET - Don't expect any big changes from the ECB, and don't expect a change in guidance in March, says Nordea. The Nordic bank says that the ECB's guidance "will likely be left unchanged at the March meeting, especially as the latest developments show that the inflation outlook continues to be fragile." If the ECB were to change guidance it would alter the wording that says that QE could still be increased. "Every step the ECB takes in scaling down its stimulus measures will only be a baby step." The recovery may be mature, but an adult monetary policy remains in the distance, it seems. ([email protected]; @ToddBuell)
0752 ET - Harley-Davidson is betting an accelerated push into electric vehicles can help it get younger riders into motorcycling and broaden its customer base. Harley said its electric bike debut would come in 2019, as part of its announcement it had bought a stake for an undisclosed amount in California-based electric motorcycle maker Alta Motors. Harley first rolled out its electric bike prototype in 2014, part of an effort called Project LiveWire. Harley shares are up 1% in pre-market trading. ([email protected]; @AndrewTangel)
0747 ET - WPP PLC's U.K. business got a boost in 2017 from the country's vote to leave the EU as clients tried to offset the impact of Brexit uncertainty by investing more in marketing. U.K. constant currency revenue was up 11.2% in the final quarter and like-for-like up 8.4%, the strongest quarter of the year after a strong performance in its digital business. "The paradox is that with the uncertainty, Brexit is helping us," Chief Executive Martin Sorrell said in an interview. "Rather than investing in fixed investment, clients are investing in variable investment, and they invest in marketing to try to tickle up the top line." WPP shares last down 13.2%. ([email protected]; [email protected])
0739 ET - Brazil is celebrating its first GDP expansion in three years, and the fastest in four years, after the official statistic agency said the economy grew 1% in 2017, leaving behind two consecutive contractions of 3.5% each. Economists forecast growth as fast as 3% in 2018, but warn that a widening budget shortfall curbs future expansion and can only be fixed if generous pension benefits are ended. A major pension reform, however, has been stuck in Congress for a year with little chances of passing before 2019. ([email protected]; @ptrevisani)
0732 ET - AB InBev is the biggest gainer on Belgium's BEL 20 index after posting a sharp rise in fourth-quarter net profit and issuing an upbeat forecast for 2018. Despite guiding for "strong revenue and Ebitda growth in 2018," the brewer said it expects a "softer" first quarter, due to tough comparison effects after the company outperformed industry growth in the first quarter of 2017. Increased marketing expenditure ahead of the upcoming FIFA World Cup, Chinese inventory effects and lower revenues in Brazil after an early end to Carnival will exacerbate the comparison, says a spokesman from the brewer. AB InBev trades 3.8% higher at EUR90.83. ([email protected])
0730 ET - US stock futures slide as traders await Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's testimony to a Senate panel following his House appearance on Tuesday. Investors are looking to see if the new central bank chief makes any attempt to walk back some of the bullish statements on the economy that led the market to price in the possibility of a faster pace for rate increases. Stocks are coming off there worst monthly performance since January 2016 as the long grind higher was interrupted by the return of volatility in February. Treasurys strengthen, along with the dollar, as the 10-year yield slips back to 2.83%. S&P futures fall 7 points. ([email protected])
0731 ET - Adecco's shares slump on Thursday, even though the staffing giant posted pretty good revenue growth last quarter. Analysts at UBS say gross profit came in about 1.5% below consensus while adjusted Ebita was almost 6% below consensus. On the plus side, the 7% rise in fourth-quarter organic revenues topped expectations of 6%. Sales were up 5% organically in the first two months of 2018, "which is in line with our expectation and does not offer any material surprises to save the day," the analysts say. Similarly, the 4% rise in dividend was "insufficient to save the day." Adecco shares last down 8.3%. ([email protected])
0659 ET - Tesco's pending merger with Booker isn't expected to increase earnings for the enlarged group in the short-term, Shore Capital says. The deal does, however, bring the "remarkably talented" Charles Wilson to Tesco. The supermarket group said Booker CEO Mr. Wilson will run Tesco's core U.K and Ireland retail business after the takeover. Shore Capital says Mr. Wilson's contribution to Tesco will grow over time and that he, along with Booker's free cash flow and expected synergies, will help Tesco reduce its debt. This would lift dividends and help fund potential acquisitions, Shore Capital says. ([email protected])
0654 ET - Investors should take note of WPP's weak performance, since the world's largest advertising company offers insight about the broader economy due to its scale and geographic reach, AJ Bell Investment Director Russ Mould says. "Advertisers are seen as good bellwethers for the economy because companies will increase spending on ads when they are feeling positive and scale back during tougher times," Mr. Mould says. Shares in WPP fall 14% to GBP11.96 following its forecast of flat organic revenue and sales for 2018. According to Mr. Mould, the question for WPP is whether the problems it faces are cyclical, as its managers suggest, or reflect wider structural shifts in the industry. ([email protected])
0647 ET - Liberum says that Costain's technology-driven business stands to gain from planned government infrastructure spending. The broker notes that U.K. government investment in productivity--for example in its National Productivity Investment Fund, which increased to GBP31 billion from GHBP23 billion in November--centers around technology where Costain has a focus. And even if the investment doesn't come, the infrastructure sector is set to transform, says the broker. Liberum suggests that Costain shouldn't be compared to other constructors, but rather to engineering-services businesses, and when comparing its enterprise value to EBIT ratio to these, it looks cheap. Shares trade up 6.2% at 470 pence. ([email protected])
0643 ET - London shares fall as WPP results disappoint, though its U.K. business benefited from a digital boost. The FTSE 100 Index drops 0.7%, or 48 points to 7183.73 after the advertising and marketing group cut earnings targets. Still, the U.K. business had a significantly stronger second half than the first half, driven by new business wins in digital & interactive activities. Shares slide 14%. Rentokil shares also lose nearly 5% after a profit warning. But Russian steel-maker Evraz jumps nearly 7% after swinging to a net profit in 2017. ([email protected])
(END)
March 01, 2018 08:06 ET (13:06 GMT)
Subject: Marketing; Investments; Economic development; Central banks; Profits; Breweries; Advertising agencies
Location: Ireland United States--US United Kingdom--UK California Brazil Belgium Europe
People: Wilson, Charles Sorrell, Martin
Company / organization: Name: Senate; NAICS: 921120; Name: Anheuser-Busch InBev; NAICS: 312120; Name: Harley-Davidson Inc; NAICS: 336111, 336213, 336214, 336991; Name: Federation Internationale de Football Association--FIFA; NAICS: 813990; Name: UBS AG; NAICS: 522110, 523110, 523120, 523920, 523930
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 1, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2009478275
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2009478275?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Mar 1, 2018
Last updated: 2018-11-12
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 160 of 474
Global Equities Roundup: Market Talk
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]01 Mar 2018. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
The latest Market Talks covering Equities. Published exclusively on throughout the day.
0833 ET - The package of tax cuts enacted in December is starting to show up in US economic data. The Commerce Department says after-tax, or disposable, personal income jumped 0.9% in January from the prior month. That matched the largest one-month rise since December 2012. The personal-saving rate also jumped in the first month of 2018, hitting 3.2% after bottoming out in December at 2.5%. The agency says both increases "mostly result from a decrease in personal current taxes, which reflect the effects of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act." Commerce also says it adjusted up wage and salary income in January by $30B to account for one-time bonuses announced in the wake of the tax bill. Keep in mind, these are preliminary estimates and subject to later revision as more information becomes available. ([email protected]; @BenLeubsdorf)
0829 ET - Monster Beverage shares are down 7.3% premarket, as the company posted disappointing 4Q results and slower sales growth abroad after the bell Wednesday. Executives from the energy-drink company told analysts on an earnings call Wednesday that some overseas distributors temporarily reduced inventory and the company had excess inventory after misjudging demand for its drinks in China. Susquehanna writes that while some of the issues are one-offs that will rebound, they raise questions about Monster's 2018 momentum, which depends largely on international growth. Monster shares are up 51% over the past year. ([email protected]; @CaraRLombardo)
0824 ET - Ferragamo is likely to reveal its new CEO or a succession plan on March 8, Deutsche Bank says as it downgrades the company to hold from buy. Following the departure of Eraldo Poletto, the bank's analysts say one of the Ferragamo siblings could serve as interim CEO while a successor is appointed, or until a--potential--announcement that the company's up sale. DB thinks if such a sale were to take place, it would be a straightforward positive for Ferragamo's shares, while the appointment of a new CEO risks more disruptions and delays in the company's turnaround. Shares trade up 0.5% at EUR23.26. ([email protected])
0809 ET - China's insurance regulator is rolling out new rules to get insurers to better balance their assets and liabilities. The commission said at a briefing Thursday that if would start a trial period for the regulations and in the next year or so would separate insurance firms into four categories of riskiness. Depending on how insurers get classified, they will face certain preferential policies or restrictions, it said. "Some or a few insurance companies" have asset-liability mismatches and "this can bring liquidity risk," Jia Biao, a deputy director general at the regulator, says. "This is an important point we are looking at." He wouldn't say how he viewed Anbang Insurance Group, which the government recently seized control of. ([email protected])
0807 ET - U.K. equities took the brunt of the global stock market sell-off in February as the impact of uncertainty caused by the country's vote to leave the EU weighed on sentiment, says investment manager Architas. Investors sought the safety of the US dollar and Japanese yen whilst the euro also rose against the pound as focus on Brexit negotiations returned at the end of the month. "This all meant U.K. investors saw the full impact of the market sell-off hit their U.K. and sterling-quoted investments the hardest as they offered no currency protection," says Architas Investment Director Adrian Lowcock. ([email protected])
0806 ET - The Stoxx Europe 600 falls 1% as U.K.-listed shares dominate and more comments from new U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell loom. The pan-European index drops 3.8 points to 375.84 as advertising and marketing agency WPP PLC cut earnings targets and reported a slow start to 2018, sending its shares down 12%. U.K. aerospace and defense engineer Cobham gains 11.5% after reporting a swing to 2017 pretax profit and unchanged expectations for 2018. U.S. traders prepare for a wave of economic data and another testimony from Jerome Powell, with the central bank chief expected to reiterate his hawkish, pro-US economy comments from Tuesday. "No wonder the Dow Jones is threatening to fall below 25000 after the bell," says Connor Campbell at Spreadex. ([email protected])
0757 ET - Don't expect any big changes from the ECB, and don't expect a change in guidance in March, says Nordea. The Nordic bank says that the ECB's guidance "will likely be left unchanged at the March meeting, especially as the latest developments show that the inflation outlook continues to be fragile." If the ECB were to change guidance it would alter the wording that says that QE could still be increased. "Every step the ECB takes in scaling down its stimulus measures will only be a baby step." The recovery may be mature, but an adult monetary policy remains in the distance, it seems. ([email protected]; @ToddBuell)
0752 ET - Harley-Davidson is betting an accelerated push into electric vehicles can help it get younger riders into motorcycling and broaden its customer base. Harley said its electric bike debut would come in 2019, as part of its announcement it had bought a stake for an undisclosed amount in California-based electric motorcycle maker Alta Motors. Harley first rolled out its electric bike prototype in 2014, part of an effort called Project LiveWire. Harley shares are up 1% in pre-market trading. ([email protected]; @AndrewTangel)
0747 ET - WPP PLC's U.K. business got a boost in 2017 from the country's vote to leave the EU as clients tried to offset the impact of Brexit uncertainty by investing more in marketing. U.K. constant currency revenue was up 11.2% in the final quarter and like-for-like up 8.4%, the strongest quarter of the year after a strong performance in its digital business. "The paradox is that with the uncertainty, Brexit is helping us," Chief Executive Martin Sorrell said in an interview. "Rather than investing in fixed investment, clients are investing in variable investment, and they invest in marketing to try to tickle up the top line." WPP shares last down 13.2%. ([email protected]; [email protected])
0739 ET - Brazil is celebrating its first GDP expansion in three years, and the fastest in four years, after the official statistic agency said the economy grew 1% in 2017, leaving behind two consecutive contractions of 3.5% each. Economists forecast growth as fast as 3% in 2018, but warn that a widening budget shortfall curbs future expansion and can only be fixed if generous pension benefits are ended. A major pension reform, however, has been stuck in Congress for a year with little chances of passing before 2019. ([email protected]; @ptrevisani)
0732 ET - AB InBev is the biggest gainer on Belgium's BEL 20 index after posting a sharp rise in fourth-quarter net profit and issuing an upbeat forecast for 2018. Despite guiding for "strong revenue and Ebitda growth in 2018," the brewer said it expects a "softer" first quarter, due to tough comparison effects after the company outperformed industry growth in the first quarter of 2017. Increased marketing expenditure ahead of the upcoming FIFA World Cup, Chinese inventory effects and lower revenues in Brazil after an early end to Carnival will exacerbate the comparison, says a spokesman from the brewer. AB InBev trades 3.8% higher at EUR90.83. ([email protected])
0730 ET - US stock futures slide as traders await Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's testimony to a Senate panel following his House appearance on Tuesday. Investors are looking to see if the new central bank chief makes any attempt to walk back some of the bullish statements on the economy that led the market to price in the possibility of a faster pace for rate increases. Stocks are coming off there worst monthly performance since January 2016 as the long grind higher was interrupted by the return of volatility in February. Treasurys strengthen, along with the dollar, as the 10-year yield slips back to 2.83%. S&P futures fall 7 points. ([email protected])
(END)
March 01, 2018 08:33 ET (13:33 GMT)
Subject: Appointments & personnel changes; Corporate profits; Investments; Tax cuts; Breweries; EU membership; Marketing; Inventory; Economic development; Central banks; Economic indicators; Stock exchanges
Location: United Kingdom--UK Brazil Europe United States--US China California Belgium
People: Sorrell, Martin
Company / organization: Name: Senate; NAICS: 921120; Name: Anheuser-Busch InBev; NAICS: 312120; Name: Anbang Insurance Group Co Ltd; NAICS: 524126; Name: Harley-Davidson Inc; NAICS: 336111, 336213, 336214, 336991; Name: Federation Internationale de Football Association--FIFA; NAICS: 813990; Name: Deutsche Bank AG; NAICS: 522110, 551111
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 1, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2009480219
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2009480219?accountid=48 40
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Mar 1, 2018
Last updated: 2018-11-12
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 161 of 474
Q4 2017 Anheuser Busch Inbev NV Earnings Call - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]01 Mar 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Presentation OPERATOR: Welcome to the Anheuser-Busch InBev Full Year 2017 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. Hosting the call today from AB InBev are Mr. Carlos Brito, Chief Executive Officer; and Mr. Felipe Dutra, Chief Financial and Technology Officer. To access the slides accompanying today's call, please visit AB InBev's website now at www.ab-inbev.com and click on the Investors tab and the Reports and filings page. Today's webcast will be available for on-demand playback later today. (Operator Instructions) Some of the information provided during the conference call may contain statements of future expectations and other forward-looking statements. These expectations are based on management's current views and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. It is possible that AB InBev's actual results and financial condition may differ, possibly materially, from the anticipated results and financial conditions indicated in these forward-looking statements. For a discussion of some of the risks and important factors that could affect AB InBev's future results, see risk factors in the company's latest annual report on Form 20-F filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on the 22nd of March 2017. AB InBev assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information provided during the conference call and shall not be liable for any action taken in reliance upon such information. It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to Mr. Carlos Brito. Sir, you may begin. CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO, CEO & MEMBER OF EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT BOARD, ANHEUSER-BUSCH INBEV SA/NV: Thank you, Maria. And good morning, good afternoon, everyone. And welcome to our Full Year 2017 Earnings Call. Today, I'll be taking you through the results and highlights of our first full year as a combined company following the combination with SAB. I'd like to spend some time on our enhanced global footprint and brand portfolio then introduce you to our category expansion framework that we have adapted from SAB and implemented across all markets this year. This is one of the intellectual synergies resulting from the combination and something we believe will enable us to grow the global beer category. I'll then spend a few minutes on our Better World initiatives. Finally, Felipe will discuss our earnings, cash flow and capital allocation. As a result, we will spend more time discussing our strategy going forward and will not go into all of the details of our regional performances. We therefore encourage you to refer to the press release we published earlier this morning. And we'll be happy to answer any questions on our markets during the Q&A portion of today's call. 2017 was a landmark year for our company. Not only did we deliver our best results in the last 3 years, but we are well on our way to achieving our most successful business integration ever following the combination with SAB. Strong performances came from all around the globe, with revenue growth in 9 out of our top 10 markets. Of note, Mexico delivered high single digits revenue growth, with healthy growth coming from both our core and premium brand portfolios through impactful brand executions. Additionally, Europe delivered top line growth for the fourth straight year, with Western Europe growing revenue by high single digits as a result of leveraging our premium brands. Our global brands revenue was up by 9.8%. We saw highly successful scale-ups of our global brand portfolio in our new markets, especially Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, South Africa and Australia. Our passion for brewing was evident in the 191 awards we won around the world this year, making us the most-awarded brewer at major international beer competitions. We'll continue to focus on creating the highest-quality beers to meet consumer needs across a wide variety of occasions. Our EBITDA grew by double digits, thanks to our top line growth; and enhanced by synergy capture in markets, including Africa, Latin America and Australia, as well as healthy margin expansion in China. While we delivered solid results in 2017, this is only the beginning of our combined company's journey for the next 100 years and beyond. For the 5 years ending 2017, our revenue CAGR of 4.6% exceeded that of all our global FMCG peers. The structural change in our global footprint resulting from the combination with SAB positions us towards higher-growth markets, as evidenced by the accelerating -- accelerated momentum in 2017 with revenue growth of 5.1%. In full year 2017, we accelerated our revenue growth, with top line up by a 5.1%. Revenue per hectoliter grew by 5.1% as well both on organic and constant geographic basis. Our global brands grew revenue by almost 10%, which I will discuss in more detail shortly, which means volume growth of 0.2% as a result of beer volume growth of 0.6% which was partially offset by a decline in our nonbeer volume of 3.1%. Especially strong volumes were recorded in Argentina, with beer volumes growing by double digits and soft drinks achieving the best result in more than 6 years; as well as Africa, outside of South Africa, which grew on beer volumes in the mid teens. EBITDA grew by 13.4% with margin expansion of 288 bps to 39.1%. The U.S. was a strong contributor to EBITDA this year with growth of 1.9% and margin expansion of 159 bps to 41.2%. Additionally, the U.S. gross profit margin expanded for the eighth straight year, growing 66 bps to 61.4%. Normalized earnings per share increased by 42.8% on a reported basis to $4.04 from $2.83 mainly driven by a higher profit. Lastly, the board has proposed a final dividend of EUR 2 per share for fiscal year 2017, bringing the total dividend for the year to EUR 3.60, in line with the prior year. We finished the year with an especially strong fourth quarter, growing revenue by 8.2%; with revenue per hectoliter growth of 6.6%, and 6.7% on a constant geographic basis. All 6 of our regions contributed by growing revenue. Our global brands had their best quarter of the year, with revenue up by 17.8%. Total volumes grew 1.6%, driven by beer volume growth of 2.3%, though our nonbeer volumes declined by 3.6%. EBITDA for the quarter was up by more than 20%, with margin expansion of 446 bps to 42.4%. And our normalized earnings per share grew by 141.9% on a reported basis. In Brazil, we rebounded in the second half, growing EBITDA by 20.4% after declining 19.7% in the first half of the year. Following the combination with SAB, we have increased our exposure to emerging markets that are positioned to -- for accelerated future growth. Emerging markets now contribute to more than 70% of our volumes and almost 60% of our revenue. And you just see on Slide 9 our geographic diversity provides us with a natural hedge against geopolitical volatility in any given market. In other words, we're not overly exposed nor dependent on any single market. Additionally, this mix will likely evolve over time as a consequence of varying growth rates among the markets. Our broad geographic footprint is enhanced by our portfolio of over 500 global, international and local brands, which provide a wide selection for our consumers around the world, addressing their needs across a variety of occasions. This past year, we were recognized for having 7 of the top 10 most valuable beer brands in the world by BrandZ, which provides us with the best-in-class portfolio to scale across our markets. 3 of those 7 brands make up our global brand portfolio: Budweiser, Stella Artois and Corona. The home markets for each brand are the U.S. for Budweiser, Belgium for Stella Artois and Mexico for Corona. Outside of their home markets, the global brands capture higher revenue per hectoliter as well as higher margins. They are also growing faster outside of their home markets, with revenue up 16.8% in 2017. This past year, all 3 global brands contributed to more than 17% of our total beer volumes and almost 20% of our total beer revenue. More than half of both the volume and revenue contribution comes from outside of their home markets. In total, including the home markets, revenues of our global brands grew by 9.8%, well ahead of the growth of our total portfolio. Each brand accelerated growth rate versus 2016. Budweiser revenues grew by 4.1%, extending its lead as the #1 beer brand in ex domestic sales volume. The growth was driven by strong performances in China, Brazil and the U.K. Stella Artois revenue grew by 12.8% with solid performances in Argentina, the U.S. and Australia. The brand continued its partnership with Water.org and Matt Damon this year, providing 1 million people with access to clean water. Corona led the way as revenue grew by 19.9% driven by Mexico, China, Australia and Colombia. The brand's global image is enhanced through platforms such as its partnership with the World Surf League; and the Corona SunSets music festivals, of which over 7,000 were executed in 2017. This result is underpinned and fueled by consistent global messaging and market activation. We believe this portfolio of complementary brands has the strength to be marketed worldwide, capitalizing on common values and experiences that appeal to consumers across borders. I'd now like to introduce you to the category expansion framework. The category expansion framework was created at SAB before the combination with intention to grow the global beer category for the long term. We believe that insights derived will enable our company to achieve further growth across our diversed geographic footprint at different levels of maturity. Beer is the #1 alcohol beverage category in the world by volume as well as penetration. The advantages of beer are many, including that it's the beverage of moderation as well as that it's the most accessible and inclusive. The global beer category continues to grow in volume and value. However, volume growth is decelerating in recent years, driven by -- driven primarily by mature developed markets. We understand why the category faces challenges, as traditional beer occasions become less prevalent when markets mature. And consumers have an increasingly wide variety of beverage choices for different occasions. We also understand where there are growth opportunities not just in emerging markets but in mature markets as well. As markets evolve, we see beer occasions evolve too, moving from primarily male-dominated socializing in the on premise to more in-home, mixed-gender occasions and consumption with meals. To address consumer preference across occasions, this framework defines our strategy to grow the global beer category as well as provide us with insights to grow our share of beer. This best practice excited our management teams around the world, has since been fully integrated into our global strategy and was used to frame our current 3-year plan. This is a great example of how we combine the best of both by bringing together category-level thinking and global execution. This framework incorporates our 4 commercial priorities. It positions us to develop our global strategy to ensure we are both bringing new consumers into the beer category as well as offering our existing consumers new opportunities to engage with a wide range of product offerings for new and different occasions. The framework considers the maturity of a market using a host of different variables, for example disposable income. Different markets around the world can be then segmented into groups where growth trends are similar. This facilitates the transfer of learnings between comparable markets, allowing us to leverage our global scale and manage a complex geographic footprint. It also helps to structure portfolios that are designed to capture future growth driven by [margin] trends. This is not a quick fix. We still need to build brands based on consumer insights and segmented channel management, as we always have. However, we're very excited by a new common language for all of our markets. It has made us far more strategic about how and where to invest behind our brands. I'd now like to take a few minutes to explain it in a bit more detail. At the center of the category expansion framework lies core lager, the heart of our business. In many of our markets, both developed and emerging, our largest brand is the local core lager. Therefore, it's important that we defend this part of the beer category. We have begun segmenting our core lagers in 2 types: easy drinking lagers and classic lagers. Easy drinking lagers tend to be lighter liquid, that it's tailored to more easygoing, mixed-gender occasions. Classic lagers are more full bite and positioned for more traditional beer occasions such as sporting events. By differentiating between these 2 types of core lagers, we're able to reduce cannibalization and strengthen the positioning of our brands. For example, in Argentina we have taken bold moves to strengthen the portfolio by differentiating between Quilmes, a classic lager; and Brahma, an easy drinking lager, resulting in the successful improvement of both brands in 2017. In many emerging markets, a large percentage of alcohol consumed is illegal and illicit alcohol. This is often a consequence of lack of affordable options for consumers with limited disposable income. This represents an opportunity for us to provide consumers with affordable, high-quality branded alternatives. Some of our businesses in Africa have achieved this by pioneering the use of local crops to create new beer brands at appealing price points with healthy margins. We look forward to potential opportunities to further scale these learnings. On the other side of the price spectrum, there exists an opportunity in both emerging and developed markets for premiumization, as many consumers are trading up to more high-end beers in a wide variety of occasions. With our portfolio of a complementary global brands, we are well positioned for this trend. Furthermore, we recently launched our High End Company, a business unit made up of our global, specialty and craft brands. It is now established in 22 markets of ours that account for approximately 70% of the high-end opportunity worldwide. Our specialized teams are dedicated to accelerating our growth rate, with revenue of $4.6 billion in 2017 and almost 26% growth versus 2016. In addition to offering consumers a variety of options across many price points, a further way to grow the category is through flavored beer. Like easy drinking lagers, flavored beer provides an option for mixed-gender occasions as well as entering new occasions that have historically been owned by other alcohol beverage categories. We have seen success with many of our brands in this segment in both emerging and developed markets. In South Africa, Flying Fish grew volumes by more than 60% by recruiting females and younger LDA consumers into the beer category and taking share from cider. In Western Europe, our innovation Cubanisto, a rum-flavored premium beer, grew top line by more than 40% this year by successfully competing against spirits in the night life occasion. In addition to flavored beer, other beer styles beyond lagers allows us to compete in a wider set of occasions. One of the biggest opportunities for this is in the meal occasion, where our craft portfolio as well as our international brands enable us to engage consumers through beer and food pairings. We're leveraging this in many of our mature markets, such as in France with Leffe, which has become the #1 beer brand by penetration in that country. We continue to invest in the global craft and high-end space to offer more choice of beer styles across our footprints. The category expansion frameworks defines different portfolio priorities for each market based on the maturity of the market. For instance, in emerging markets there is a bigger focus on classic lagers and affordable brands as we are first and foremost trying to introduce more consumers to the beer category. In developed markets the emphasis lies on broadening the set of occasions in which beer has a role to play. Going forward, we'll be discussing the strategy in more detail and look forward to sharing our plans and results. We're excited about the opportunities coming from this intellectual synergy and the possibilities it opens for future growth. I'd now like to move on to our initiatives that fuel our dream to bring people together for a better world. Sustainability is not just related to our business. It is our business. Brewing our beers is reliant on a healthy natural environment. Therefore, this past year, we are committed to securing 100% of our purchased electricity from renewable sources across our global operations by 2025. This is an ambitious goal, but it's an important one that aligns very well with our dream. We also leverage our brands to promote sustainable initiatives, such as Corona's new partnership with Parley for the Oceans to protect 100 islands by 2020 and Stella Artois' continued campaign with Water.org to bring clean water to people in the developing world. Part of our dream for a better world is this plan to make every experience with beer a positive one. Through our Global Smart Drinking Goals launched in 2015, we aim to reduce the harmful use of alcohol and foster a culture of smart drinking and road safety globally. The AB InBev Foundation was established to support us in achieving these goals. We have also expanded our offerings of no- and low-alcohol beer products around the world to provide consumers with added choices in more occasions, in line with our commitment to have no- and low-alcohol beers represent 20% of our global beer volumes by 2025. With operations in more than 50 countries, we're dedicated to improving the lives in the communities of which we are a part, as well as supporting the farmers and small retailers in our value chain to help them be more productive. In 2017, we donated almost 3 million cans of water to areas affected by natural disasters in the U.S. and donated the proceeds from 3 million limited-edition Corona cans to people impacted by the severe earthquakes in Mexico. In summary, we're focused on conserving natural resources, promoting smart drinking and road safety and supporting our communities. In 2017, we reached all of our previous sustainability goals, which expired at the end of this past year. Later this month, we'll be announcing our 2025 sustainability goals. These goals will focus on 4 areas: agricultural development, energy and carbon, water stewardship and package. And we look forward to sharing them with you soon. I'd now like to hand over to Felipe, who will take you through our 2017 earnings, cash flow and capital allocation. Felipe? FELIPE DUTRA, CHIEF FINANCIAL & TECHNOLOGY OFFICER AND MEMBER OF EXECUTIVE BOARD OF MANAGEMENT, ANHEUSER-BUSCH INBEV SA/NV: Thank you, Brito. And good morning, good afternoon, everyone. Let's start with an update on the synergies. In the fourth quarter, we delivered $381 million of synergies, bringing the total for fiscal year 2017 to just over $1.3 billion. And the total synergies captured to date are over $2.1 billion. Our total synergy guidance remains at $3.2 billion to be delivered within the 4-year period following the close of the combination. This number is inclusive of the $1.05 billion of cost savings previously identified by SAB. As a reminder: These synergies do not include any top line or working capital synergies. We continue to expect the synergy capture to require approximately $1 billion of one-off cash costs to be incurred in the first 3 years after closing and of which $588 million have been spent to date. Net finance costs in the year were over $5.8 billion compared to over $5.2 billion in 2016. This increase was driven primarily by the interest expenses on the legacy debt of SAB, generalization of the bonds issued in 2016 to fund for the combination with SAB as well as currency and other hedging results. The increase was partially offset by lower mark-to-market losses linked to the hedging of our share-based payment programs of $291 million compared to a loss of $384 million in 2016. Our normalized effective tax rate for the fourth quarter was 32.1%, up from 28.6% in the fourth quarter of 2016, resulting from higher profit and the timing of certain deductions during the year. In 2017, our normalized effective tax rate was 22.9%, as compared to 20.9% in 2016. I would also like to update you on the impact of the recent U.S. tax reform and legislation. With over 18,000 U.S. employees and significant tax payments in the U.S. since 2009, we are proud to be the leading employer and taxpayer in the country. We believe a tax reform bill that lowers the corporate tax rate and incentivizes domestic investments will benefit American workers. We are hopeful that this tax reform will spur innovation and growth in the economy. In terms of the impacts on the company's taxes, during the fourth quarter, we recognized a one-off cash -- or noncash gain, will be cash in the future but noncash gain, of $1.8 billion, which is primarily driven by the remeasurement of deferred tax liabilities resulting from the reduction in the U.S. statutory corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. As we complete our analysis of this new legislation, it is possible that we will make adjustments to this provisional amount. As of 2018, we do not expect to see a benefit of the lower U.S. corporate tax rate in our effective tax rate, as the U.S. tax reform introduces a broader tax base and new limitations on certain business deductions, which offset the impact of the reduced rate. For the group, the effective tax rate guidance for the full year 2018 is in the range of 24% to 26%, which again excludes the impacts of any future gains and losses related to the hedging of our share-based payment programs. Moving on now to the earnings per share. Normalized earnings per share increased by 42.8% from $2.83 in 2016 to $4.04 in 2017. This was largely driven by a $2.66 increase in normalized EBIT linked to the organic growth and benefiting from earnings of the retained SAB business and partially offset by an increase in income tax expense and dilution due to the increased number of shares. We closed fiscal year 2017 with $15.4 billion of cash flow from operations, EBITDA margin of 39.1% and converting 27.3% of our net revenue into cash, well ahead of our beer growth in all 3 dimensions. Moving to core working capital, another important dimension for cash flow generation. Core working capital consists of those elements of working capital which we consider fundamental to the operation of our business. It excludes certain items which management has little or no ability to influence, for example payroll-related payables. In 2017, we reached an average level of negative 13.4% of net revenues. The decline reported in '17 was a direct consequence of the SAB consolidation, which was at much less-efficient level of core working capital as a percentage of net revenue. It is another area of synergy potential when applying our traditional company cash conversion efficiencies in the combined footprint. I will now spend some time discussing our debt profile. On Slide 34, you see that our debt maturity profile is well distributed across the next several years. A strong cash flow generation provides us with sufficient cushion to repay or refinance outstanding debt without being dependent on capital market transactions to meet our short-term funding needs. In addition, we maintain over $20 billion of liquidity composed of cash and revolving credit lines, as shown on this slide. The weighted average coupon of our debt is 3.7%, with a weighted average tenor of slightly more than 10 years. 93% of our debt portfolio is locked into fixed interest rates, reducing our exposure to markets volatility. 58% of our debt is denominated in U.S. dollars, while roughly 33% is linked to the euro. We use the euro currency as a proxy for the emerging market basket of currencies that are relevant to our EBITDA and cash flow generation. The euro has a strong correlation with our main emerging market currencies and has the advantage of providing access to bond markets with significantly higher liquidity and lower costs. In order to further balance our currency mix, we have also been issuing more debt in alternative currencies such as the Canadian dollar, the Australian dollar and the British pound. Moving now to our dividend. The board is proposing, subject to shareholders' approval, a final dividend of EUR 2 per share, which combined with the interim dividend of EUR 1.6 per share paid towards the end of last year will lead to a total dividend payment for fiscal year 2017 of EUR 3.6 per share. As you can see from Slide 36, we have maintained a dividend payment at the same level in the last 2 years and consistent with our commitment to deleveraging. Expected dividend payment dates for each of our listings are shown on Page 19 of our press release. Our net debt-to-EBITDA ratio decreased from 5.5x on a reported basis in 2016 to 4.8x in 2017, or 4.7x when adjusted for the closing of pending disposals and for the foreign exchange time mismatch between the balance sheet and the P&L translation. And we are tracking in line with our internal deleveraging targets. Our optimal capital structure remains a net debt-to-EBITDA ratio of around 2x, and our capital allocation objectives remain unchanged. Our first priority for the use of cash will always be to invest behind our brands and to take full advantage of the organic growth opportunities in our business. Deleveraging to around 2x remains our commitment, and we will prioritize debt repayment in order to meet this objective. M&A remains a core competency. And we will always be ready to look at opportunities when and if they arise, subject to our strict financial discipline and deleveraging commitment. Our goal is for dividends to be a growing flow over time consistent with the noncyclical nature of our business. However, as we have said before, given our emphasis on deleveraging, dividend growth is expected to be modest in the short term. And with that, I'll hand back to Maria to begin the Q&A section. Thank you. Questions and Answers OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Edward Mundy of Jefferies. EDWARD BRAMPTON MUNDY, EQUITY ANALYST, JEFFERIES LLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: I've got one question and one follow-up. Brito, I think in your opening remarks you flagged that the emerging markets are positioned for accelerated future growth. Are you able to provide a whistle-stop tour of the key emerging market regions and your degree of confidence in acceleration in 2018? CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO: I mean I think the comment was much more -- again, this is the first year, 2017 was the first year of our combined company. And the idea is that we gave you in that opening a little bit of our split between emerging markets and more mature markets. And in our view, I mean, we come, we came -- we all come from emerging markets. And we know it's volatile at times, but it provides lots of growth and opportunity for value creation. So -- and if you go to our outlook, we also say that while recognized volatility, as said before, we expect to continue to deliver strong revenue, EBITDA growth in fiscal year '18 driven by our performance -- I mean our portfolio, our footprint and our commercial plans. So I mean this is all tied together. We're very happy with the footprint we have. And this footprint, as I said before, is one that should deliver growth ahead of our CAGR of 5 years as we shared with you today. And for example, this year, it already did. It's more diversified and less dependent on any one single market. That was the message. EDWARD BRAMPTON MUNDY: Very clear. And the follow-up is more of a philosophical question. And I really appreciate the discussion on the category expansion model. You seem to -- talked about (inaudible) taking a less-siloed approach to that business by combining both hot and cold nonalcoholic drinks. Brito, do you think about the market for consumer lens based on consumer needs rather than a traditional manufacturer-led approach largely based on beer? Is there not more logic in combining beer and spirits together over the medium term as you think about the next 100 years? CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO: Well, at this point, we see lots of opportunities that were unveiled to us by this model. And we are really surprised that, every time we go to adjacencies with beer or with near beer, we tend to do well. I mean, if you look at our styles, they go more to food occasions, for example, or consumers that want a different experience. They are doing very well, growing ahead of our average portfolio. If you go to the left side, flavored beer, we don't have many examples, but the few we have are doing very well. And so we feel that's affordability with what we learned with our new colleagues. Some I mean -- and premiumization everywhere; and in core lager, the heart of our business. So I mean, if you look at all those points, I mean, there's so much more beer can accomplish. It's just a question of -- instead of fighting just for share of beer, of steering the category in directions and occasions where beer can play a role and start planting seeds today that could be part of the portfolio of the future as trends evolve and consumers change. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Robert Ottenstein of Evercore. ROBERT EDWARD OTTENSTEIN, SENIOR MD, HEAD OF GLOBAL BEVERAGES RESEARCH & FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCH ANALYST, EVERCORE ISI, RESEARCH DIVISION: Just a few related questions on the global brands. There's been some controversy on the relative profitability. And you mentioned they had higher margins, but could you be specific? Is -- are you talking about gross margin or EBITDA margin in terms of the global brands in their out-of-home markets? And then related to that, Corona doing extremely well. Can you -- a rough sense of how many markets. And I know this -- you may not have the precise number but rough sense of how many markets Corona is growing double digit and you think can have a meaningful presence. And then as a follow-on, just some more details about the High End Company that you discussed in terms of the structure of that company. CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO: Well, okay. So first, profitability. I mean that's an easy one. I mean these high-end brands, these global brands or craft brands or specialty brands, they have way higher margins than our average margins after -- even after sales and marketing investments. You can see that in many ways. You can see that because of our mix effects have been growing year after year even in the U.S. You can see that in our outlook. We've signaled that we expect our revenue per hectoliter to grow ahead of inflation, and that's not because of rates. That's because of the fact that mix is becoming more and more important in our net revenue per hectoliter. So at the end, it's all about dollars per hectoliter, when it's all said and done. So net-net, it's a great business. And that's why, Robert, we decided to invest, in your other question, in the High End Company. Because it deserves a special group of people that are trained, that have a special profile to make, of course, use of what the mother company offers but be very focused on those brands that feel maybe less of volume. They have a more qualified distribution, but they have amazing margins and amazing potential. And they travel well. They have global platforms. And we have a portfolio of brands, not only 1 or 2. We have a portfolio of brands that are complementary. And the most important things, among other things, is that these brands enter new occasions. So when you look at Corona or Coronita and how well it does with women with different occasions where beer normally wouldn't enter, when you look at Stella in the meal occasion, when you look at Budweiser in sports and the Americana in the bottle that travels so well like any American brands. So it is very profitable, when it's all said and done, so much so that we decided to specialize people in the company to do just that. And in terms of Corona, I think I've said that in calls before. These are all product numbers. If you look at Corona in most of our markets, it represents less than l% share of total market in terms of beer. On the other hand, you have markets of ours in which Corona is already 2% to 6% of share of total market. So you can only run some numbers. And Corona is our higher-price beer from our global brands. So amazing margins and growing amazing well in places like China and growing 39% outside of Mexico. So I mean it's all good story in global brands with an amazing profitability. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Olivier Nicolai of Morgan Stanley. JEAN-OLIVIER NICOLAI, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MORGAN STANLEY, RESEARCH DIVISION: Brito, Felipe, just, well, first question, for Felipe. You have refinanced some bonds at the beginning of the year at a much more favorable interest rate. Now looking at the next 2 years, a few of your U.S. dollar bonds with higher interest will reach maturity. And I was just wondering if you are confident that the 3.7% average interest rate that you gave for the group is going to stay beyond 2018. And just a follow-up on the net working capital chart, where I think it was showing your net working capital at minus 13%: Should we assume a bigger contribution on your cash flow from working capital in 2018 versus 2017, considering that you have still probably some synergies to do on the SAB market and that you've said obviously going to grow? CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO: First one was repaying bonds... FELIPE DUTRA: So on the bond market, the expected coupon rate of around 3.7%, the kind of around 3.7%, you have to be mindful about the outstanding debt, which is at this point around $104 billion. As we recycle and retire and amortize and pay, depending on the decision to repay or refinance and given the fact that this primarily fix the interest rates, there may have some room for this coupon to go down but depending on what happens to interest rates in the future. But I do not expect that -- a material swing, for example, in 2018 in terms of the weighted average coupon, the -- being around the 3.7%. On the core working capital, the slide shows that from the former ABI side we have been improving net -- core working capital as a percentage of net revenues by 1, sometimes 2 percentage points. Year-over-year, this trend continues. And when you see the decline of the 15.2% to 13.4%, you should expect former ABI to continue to improve. And then as we added former SAB at low to mid-single digits negative core working capital as a percentage of total revenues -- so that is the 13.4%. From that point, we expect the combined company to continue to expand. We expect to do faster on the former SAB side. There is no reason why former SAB should not come to similar levels of former ABI. I'm not detailing here market by market, but overall I see us both similar, comparable companies then. And therefore, core working capital should be an area of relevant contribution for the overall cash flow. And the buildup in the negative territory is, the more we grow revenues, more cash it generates, right? And we extract from that. So that should continue to be an important cash flow contribution going forward. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Tristan Van Strien of Redburn Partners. RAOUL-TRISTAN VAN STRIEN, RESEARCH ANALYST, REDBURN (EUROPE) LIMITED, RESEARCH DIVISION: Yes, 2 questions or a question and a follow-on. Just first, on your dividend, can -- you talk about a growing flow of dividends. Can you just confirm that is in euros? And would you consider scrip dividends? Or it's just cash. And just to follow up on -- I guess, on both the high end and the category framework. I mean you're really looking at a longer time frame, 3 to 10 years, to build brands and portfolios. How does that work with your 0-based budgeting framework? I mean, do you have to change that a bit? Do you ring-fence money year-over-year? Just how you think about that going forward. CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO: Tristan, let me take the first one on your question. We've always been a company of and not or. So we're used to do top line and be efficient in cost. So much so that we have a term we use inside the company called cost-connect-win, which says let's be efficient on cost so we can connect with more consumers so we can win more business. And that's exactly one of the charts we showed in which we compare ourselves to other companies, the FMCG. And if you put those 2 charts together, you'll see that we have a better EBITDA margin and we have a higher top line growth. So I think those things show that over a period of time, 5 years, we can accomplish both. We can be efficient while having a best-in-class and generate cash. So I think that's what we try to do as a company in the end, I don't see a conflict, quite the opposite. When you say about building brands for 10 years, let's not forget that when I talk about portfolio of today and portfolio of the future, sometimes it's about developing one brand of today that can be bigger tomorrow. It's not all about new brands. It's about getting resourceful location done in a different way so you can get a brand that's growing and accelerate that growth. So most of it is about brands that exist either in that market or brands that are global or international that can be introduced in that market. So it's not about okay, your brands will take 10 years to perform. And on the first question? FELIPE DUTRA: Yes, let me pick up on the dividend piece. We have to look at both at the end of the day. So most of our cash flow generation is in U.S. dollars. We report in U.S. dollars. At the same time, we are a Belgian based company, primarily leasing in Belgium share price are quoted trading in euros. And therefore, it is a legal requirement to declare dividend in euros. So in euros, so we have to think of both and again what makes more sense for the company in terms of capital allocation, deleveraging commitments and so on and so forth. So in the event there is a big detach in terms of FX rates between euros and dollars, we'll have to review what makes sense again. But for now, the 3.6 is something that fits within our commitment. RAOUL-TRISTAN VAN STRIEN: To Brito, maybe just a follow-up and this maybe a bit esoteric. In same way in ZX Ventures you have different incentive systems for these guys and there are much more softer targets rather than hard KPIs, I guess, is the same applicable for your high-end unit or are the guys in charge really changing the categories because there's a much more a longer timeframe rather than just hard numbers? Do you measure them differently? CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO: Yes, sure. I mean, the incentive system is very similar, but the KPIs are different. Because as I said, I mean, we're building high-end brands. The distribution has to be qualified. The execution has to be Premium, right? The pricing discipline has to be 100%. The global platforms and execution have to be very well coordinated on Global Brands. For example, the specialty brands are developed through group hubs and different experiences. So it's a different kind of activation in the marketplace. But we can measure with KPIs in the same way we measure for the core business and we can use of the same incentive system just based on different KPI. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Simon Hales of Citi. SIMON LYNSAY HALES, MD, CITIGROUP INC, RESEARCH DIVISION: I've got a couple of questions. First one really just around how we think about your cost base, particularly input costs around 2018, I appreciate there's obviously FX transactional moves impacting, but that aside. Can you talk about maybe some of the big moving headwinds or tailwinds you may be seeing. And specifically, in that regard, with regards to the U.S., number of your FMCG peers have been flagging the tightening of trucking capacity of late. Is that something that you're seeing and is it having any impact on your business and thoughts there? And then, secondly, Brito, with regard to your comment around low- and no-alcohol, you're clearly on track to your 20% by 2020 throughout 2025, how should we think about the build towards that? I mean, how much of your business is already in that low- and no-alcohol segment and how rapidly should we expect it to grow over the next couple of years? CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO: I'll tackle the second question first. Today, we are around 8% of our portfolio. We want to get to 20% by 2025. So we're not starting from 0, quite the opposite. The big thing that will accelerate this, in my view, is 2 things. First, the category expansion model because it's showing us that there are opportunities in adjacencies and easy drinking and the flavor liquids that we can explore. And the second one is that now, we already have 5 of our main countries in which NABLAB or non-alcohol beer and low-alcohol beer represents more than 20% and in some, even 30%, right? And what we see is that this product has come -- even with higher margin if done correctly. So I think this is going to be a big motivation for our people because they're going to be inspired. They can visit those countries. They can see how it was done. There's a toolkit that they share with other countries. And again, we're not starting from 0. The margins are very interesting and category expansion show us the way on how to use some of those products to enter new categories or new occasions. And we have already 5 countries that are already beyond 20%, beyond 20% and 30%. And on the first question on cost, I mean, we have here, we have here in our outlook in terms of overall performance, we say that --where is the cost base here -- oh, yes, we say premiumization revenue management initiatives towards the end of the first paragraph while keeping costs below inflation. So here, we try to answer your question with this outlook, part of the outlook for the total company, not for any market specifics saying that we'll continue to manage cost below inflation. SANDER VAN OORT, ANALYST, KEMPEN & CO. N.V., RESEARCH DIVISION: Can you comment specifically at all around that trucking capacity issue in the U.S. that others have been talking about? CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO: Yes, there is some tracking capacity issues in the U.S. The economy, of course, is heated. But because we have some inventory and some flexibility, we can avoid peak times. And we know what the peak times are. At the end of the month, a lot of the company shipping things or big events for e-commerce, like Black Friday and things like that, that for beer doesn't make any sense. I mean, we can work around those holidays and work around those peak times that were generated by e-commerce and try to manage that. But you're right, there is some pressure there in terms of trucking. It's also true that a lot of companies are buying more trucks in response to that. So like any market, price goes up, more people come in. This pressure of course is not new. It started already in the second half of last year and should continue during the first half. So there will be some cycling. But there's already some of it in the base. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Trevor Stirling of Bernstein. TREVOR J. STIRLING, SENIOR ANALYST, SANFORD C. BERNSTEIN & CO., LLC., RESEARCH DIVISION: Two questions, most likely. Brito, in the fourth quarter, there was a significant acceleration in revenue per hectoliter in Lat Am North, in Mexico, in Asia Pacific. Could you give us a bit more color what actually lay behind that? Was it easy comps? And how exactly were you achieving that acceleration? And the second question, first of all, for Felipe. Looking at the associates, Felipe, that rose significantly in the quarter. It's a bit over $200 million. Is that the new norm that we should be expecting, plus or minus, or there are some one-offs from that? CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO: Trevor, Brito here, I'll tackle the first one. I mean, I think what you're saying is net revenue per hectoliter in the fourth quarter, right, compared to the rest of the year. For example, if you look at North America -- let's take the U.S., which is 90% of the zone -- I mean, Q1, our net revenue per hectoliter increased by 2.2%, Q2, 0.9%; Q3, 0.9%; and Q4, 2.1%. So for an average of the year, 1.5%. So yes. But you see that it's not only Q4. There is some ups and downs depending on price increases, on mix of shipments, on many things. So you see it started a 2.2%, went up to 0.9%, came back to 2.1%. So I'll consider that normal course of business. Latin America and West, I'm seeing here, 9.5% for the fourth quarter, for full year of around 6%, I think, or 9 months of 4.9%. So that was mainly revenue management in Colombia. In Colombia, as we flag through the whole year, revenue, I mean, volumes were slightly negative. The consumers had a VAT increase of 15% on the overall economy. So our guys tried with some discounts to move volume. When they saw it was not happening, they kind of re-thought their discount strategy. So that, I would say, was mostly of what happened in the fourth quarter. In [North], that was really easy comps on the fourth quarter. If you remember, in 2016, or maybe you don't know remember, but in 2016, the net revenue per hectoliter was negative in the fourth quarter by 4.6% negative. So the 10% should be viewed in that context. And then in the other zones, I don't see -- oh, yes, then in APAC, there was the repatriation of Corona. That impacted the third and especially the fourth quarter in APAC, in Australia mainly. So those are the big things that could explain the variations. FELIPE DUTRA: Hi, Trevor, Let me take the share of associates. First, kind of explain that here that the share of associates as well as minorities are 2 lines that are not normalized. It's really as reported. And secondly, there is no reference dates for them, but when you compare full year '17 versus '16 in the '16, we only have 3 months of those. Which should not impact the comparisons for the quarter. The comparison for the quarter is impacted by -- year-over-year -- is impacted by basically 2 things. First, the severity gain of the integration. Some of the profits recognition in the fourth quarter '16 shifted into the first quarter '17, causing the first or the fourth quarter '16 to be, let's say, abnormally low. In addition to that, we do a lot of the accruals based on estimates and there is a true-up towards the year-end, which caused the fourth quarter '16 to recognize incremental profits that were incurred throughout the year. So when you compare fourth quarter year-over-year, you have this big mismatch. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Brett Cooper of Consumer Edge Research. BRETT YOUNG COOPER, SENIOR ANALYST OF BEVERAGES & MANAGING PARTNER, CONSUMER EDGE RESEARCH, LLC: I was wondering if we can get a little bit more specific on the category framework. And if we take a look at the U.S., I mean, you've been trying to expand your portfolio in flavored beers. You've been doing premiumization, and that's obviously going well, you've been expanding styles. But it's been unable to drive growth in that market. I'm just trying to figure out what changes, going forward, versus what we've seen over the last several years as you apply this framework to your business. CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO: Well, Brad, we've seen that in other markets, right? And then look at Australia. When Australia decided to shift resources or to start accelerating some brands, it does take a while for things to compensate because some big things and the other ones are small. So the big things are declining. The smaller things are growing. And it takes a while for one to grow to size to compensate for the other. But the direction is set. So we think some of our brands in the U.S. will be -- will remain very important to our portfolio. But albeit at the lower size, at the smaller size. And some others will continue to grow and will be more of a bigger brand within our portfolio. That happens all the time in all markets. If you look at Brazil, the same happened. If you look at Argentina, the same happened. In which at some point a brand -- the client in other brands grows and the portfolio the -- the important thing is that it should be margin accretive, right? And that's what we've been trying to do in the U.S. Our value in the U.S. has always been to stabilize or to have both, right, the end, share stabilization and profitability. So if you look at our gross profit margin in the U.S., now for 8 years in a row, it has gone up. And if you look at our portfolio in the U.S., we've been trying to rejig it, trying to add new things that we think our engine -- growth engine, for the future. And I think we're now, with the category expansion framework and with the new leadership in the U.S., I think we now are at a very important point to really start making all those kind of things kind of connect the dots. Not going to happen overnight. But we're brewers for 600 years, so we're here for the long-term and we'll do what's best for the long-term. You have to remember that the shift issue we have in the U.S. was created by our results. When we came to the U.S., we said, we like to share position, not the share composition. It's too much based on low macro brands, low profitability brands. We don't think that creates a great business for the future. We're here for the long-term. We're willing to take the pain to rejig this portfolio. It is true that it's taking a bit longer than we thought. But again, the direction has been set from the very beginning. We've learned along the way, adjusted here and there. But the direction is pretty much set, and that is we want to develop Bud and Bud Light in a box. And that's the direction we're headed. Interesting enough, if you look at the first 10 years or 9 years in the U.S., our financial performance has been way ahead of our plan. EBITDA almost doubled, cash flow, more than 3x. And volume was below what our plan was. And now for the second 10 years, I think we have a great base to start connecting these dots. Like we did in Western Europe, where for many years we couldn't grow. The last four years, was in Europe has been growing top line and bottom line consistently 4 years in a row. Now we have the same thing in Australia. And now, and this all serves as inspiration and reasons to believe that we can do the same thing in the U.S. Further, in the U.S., I mean, Michelob Ultra is already 10% of our business and it's the fastest growing brand now for almost 3 years in a row, almost 12 quarters in a row, the biggest share gain in the U.S. And if you look at the big share gain in brand in the U.S., out of the 6 brands, we have 3, which is Michelob Ultra -- according to IRI -- Michelob Ultra, Stella Artois and Bud Light. We have brands that are growing. Have, of course, to do a better job on Bud Light specifically and continue to accelerate like we did in the fourth quarter the brands that are growing. And if you look at our fourth quarter, our share performance was better than our second quarter and third quarter, and that was across the board. Not only the brands that are growing accelerated, but the brands that were declining, declined less. Back to 55 bps of share losses as opposed to 80 bps share loss. Again, it's one quarter, but we've been learning a lot and applying those learnings in the marketplace. BRETT YOUNG COOPER: If I can add one follow-up. Is there a reason why we've seen less of the no- and low-alcohol beer in the U.S. as opposed to other markets, especially in light of, as you mentioned, volume struggle that you've had here? CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO: That's a good point, I think we have our plates full in the U.S. We've been testing some of the things in other markets so as not to distract them. But of course, our guys in the U.S. but of course, with the learnings, you can be sure that some of those things will be migrated to the U.S. pretty soon. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Komal Dhillon of JPMorgan. KOMAL DHILLON, HEAD OF EUROPEAN BEVERAGES, JP MORGAN CHASE & CO, RESEARCH DIVISION: Just 2 questions, please. One on the Global Brands, the slide on that growth, of those brands is very helpful. But can you comment on the underlying volume growth rates on these brands like [home] market and I mean excluding the one-offs from bringing distribution back in house like Corona in Australia? And then just a follow-up on that working capital synergies question, please. So you're expected to take former SAB to former ABI levels, the core working cap, the sales. But is the current lack of cash flow synergies from the SAB so far due to difficulties, in changing terms, with supplies in Africa? Just can you give us some more color on what's going on in the first 15 months of integration please? FELIPE DUTRA: So on the -- hi, Komal, this is Felipe. On the co-working capital side, we have been progressing across the SAB territory. And as I said before, there was a, I think, a question on that where we see no reason why former SAB shouldn't get to similar levels of former ABI, quite frankly. And that is where we are heading to. And the first 15 maps that was not an exception. CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO: Well, Komal, I think your first question was, let me see if I understood it correctly, you want to know what Global Brands are having -- what kind of growth they're having in their home markets, right? KOMAL DHILLON: Yes, in volume terms, please? And extra distribution, like taking back distribution in-house like for Corona in Australia, could you just underline what could we expect in the future? CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO: Yes, I mean, what I know -- I don't have the exact number in front of me -- but what I know is that Stella Artois is back to growth in Belgium, what I know is that Corona is growing in Mexico -- and Lauren can confirm the numbers afterwards to you -- and what I know is that Budweiser is declining 35 bps in terms of share last quarter in the U.S. So Lauren, [indiscernible]. KOMAL DHILLON: So what X -- so what ex home markets, in the growth markets. CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO: Well, that I had in my -- I had that in my speech. Oh, here. We have that on page, what's the page, 11 of our script. So if you look at Global Brands outside of home markets, they are growing at 60.8% for 2017 -- revenue growth, right? And then if you go now for Page 12, you see that Stella Artois or better saying Corona, is growing revenue 39% -- 39.9% outside of Mexico, Budweiser, 10.8% outside of the U.S. and Stella Artois -- we'll have to get to you that number. But it should be very close to the 12.8% because Belgium is growing very, very slightly. So around 12% outside of the home market. So those are the numbers. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Mark Swartzberg of [Franklin] (sic) [Stifel]. MARK D. SWARTZBERG, MD, STIFEL, NICOLAUS & COMPANY, INCORPORATED, RESEARCH DIVISION: It's Stifel Financial. Brito, on the U.S., really building on Brett's questions. You drew attention to this focus on hyper-local execution. So question one is how important might that be? What are you seeing from these test markets that might be encouraging for the larger performance in the U.S? And then, secondly, you also drew attention to quality messaging and innovation for Bud Light. And you've been seeing encouraging signs for Bud Light for a number of years. Is there any reason to think that the quality messaging will be more impactful to improving the share transfer of the brand? CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO: Yes, Mark, I think on Bud Light, it's interesting. We've had a lot of positive feedback from Bud Light drinkers on our -- essentially ingredients contained. Because it had been a while since the last time we spoke about ingredients, what goes into the beer and quality of Bud Light and the special process and everything. So that was something that was very well-received. And we'll continue to make that part of our Bud Light communication. So we made it a priority for Bud Light [for this time] with quality credentials for sure. And we'll continue to highlight the power and mostly the simplicity. We see that some consumers are a bit tired of the complexity of the category that it became with all crafts and all different liquids that are very hard to understand. And Bud Light is a simple beer with efficient ingredients, fresh. And that appeals to a lot of consumers. And Dilly Dilly, on the other hand, put Bud Light back into pop culture, #1 topic in conversation in terms of beer and social media. It's something that brought Bud Light a lot of what made Bud Light big is being in tune with young people, young adults and also being topical in terms of conversation. So I think Dilly Dilly, I think, quality message and the continued execution -- and some of these sites from the category expansion model in terms of easy drinking will make a difference for Bud Light. Your first question was... MARK D. SWARTZBERG: About the hyper-local execution. You've had some test markets in '17. How encouraging are they for what might happen nationally in '18. CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO: Yes, I think one thing we did in the U.S. is we centralized maybe too much and we have too many programs that are national. And the fact is that the U.S., like China and Brazil, is a continent in itself. And you have many different U.S.'s within the U.S. So states are very different from the heartland to the coasts, to more Hispanics, to all sorts of different Hispanics, some are Mexicans, some Cubans, some Dominicans. And we have brands that appeal to all those different ethnicities. But when you have a national program, it's very hard to execute as per different markets' make-up. So I've been traveling the U.S. for the past 3 weeks with the new leadership, Michelle Brendan, Marcel -- and what we see is that there is an opportunity to really go back to many years ago when we had more regional events and we had different portfolio make-ups slightly different per region because again, in some place, you have Dominicans represented the #1 by far in the Dominican Republic. Then if you have Mexicans, again, Bud Light is the #1 beer with Hispanics. But we need to tailor the message to the Hispanic consumer and also invest behind Estrella Jalisco which, by the way, this year will be a big year for it because it's a sponsor of the World Cup and the Mexican national team in the U.S, and so on and so forth. And so I think it's something we need to do better. You go to Miami, Becks, for example, has a strong following. So I mean, there are many different things that could be hidden jewels. Not to talk about craft and specialties that go better here and there. Places where you have more events than others. So different things that we're trying more and more to tackle in this huge continent called the U.S, as we do in China, as we do in Brazil. So nothing new. Just we have to apply to the U.S. as well. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Mitchell Collett of Goldman Sachs. MITCHELL JOHN COLLETT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: In the outlook statement, you say that you expect to deliver net revenue per hectoliter ahead of inflation. And do you think you achieved that in F'17? And does that imply revenue per hectoliter growth can accelerate in F'18? And if it does, would you expect that to be offset by volume being slightly softer? And then I just wanted to come back to the U.S. where you've said that a few times that you want to get the right balance between share and profitability. This year, your gross margin went up 90 basis points more than your EBITDA margin. What would be the right balance between profitability and market share within the U.S.? CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO: Well, let's start from the second question. I mean, in terms of the U.S., what we have is in is a market with very strong cash flow, very strong margins, hard currency and an amazing scale. So we want to keep that. Of course, we want to grow that. But more than growing, we want to first keep and then grow as we did, by the way, in 2017, in which we grew EBITDA by 1.9%. We want to continue to grow cash flow, as we did, by the way in 2017 in North America. But we have to get that share profitability right. We're -- we mentioned -- I mentioned here with Mark and Brit, many of the things we're doing in the U.S. and that we want to do it the right way. So it's sustainable, so it's profitable, so it's accretive. So that's our intention in the U.S. In terms of the -- your first question. Our inflation, implied inflation for our footprint was 4% or between 3.5% and 4% last year and we grew top line by 5.1%. So what we said for the outlook was already achieved last year and prior to that, and that is done through mix mostly, okay? So yes, just one example, '17 was a good example. MITCHELL JOHN COLLETT: Okay. I guess, as a follow-up to that. Given the shift you've highlighted in your business towards growth markets and given the acceleration for your Global Brands as well as your category management initiative, do you think the 5-year CAGR is the right starting point when we think about your kind of revenue growth for the next 2 or 3 years? Or could it be slightly higher than that? CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO: Well, '17 was higher. And SAB brought us markets that are more growth oriented by the very nature of these markets. So I'm not giving any guidance here. But, of course, we'll continue to work to beat that 5-year CAGR going forward. With that, you can be sure. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Pablo Zuanic of SIG. PABLO ERNESTO ZUANIC, SENIOR ANALYST, SUSQUEHANNA FINANCIAL GROUP, LLLP, RESEARCH DIVISION: One for Felipe and one for Brito. Felipe, just remind us by how much did EBITDA margins actually increase over the last 5 years. And the reason I ask for that refresher is just, if you can, give us some color in terms of where were margins for the beer business in Colombia, Peru and South Africa when you took over that business? Obviously, we have the SAB numbers at the regional level in consolidated but we don't have that (inaudible) granularity. So that would help. And the second one, Brito for you. Obviously, great quarter, great year, lots of momentum in the beer business. So much to do, so much opportunity. And even in the U.S., you talk about the next 10 years. So I guess, my question is when I hear Felipe in every call tell us that M&A remains a core competency for the company and here we are all of us on the buy and sell side thinking okay, there's nothing else for Anheuser Busch to buy in the beer industry, pretty much, that's sizable and relevant for them. So you're going to have to get out of beer and go into other categories. And I guess, I'm asking just help us think through that because you've done so well in beer. You do have an opportunity there. See, there's this risk looming that you have to enter a new category. How should we think about that? CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO: Well, Pablo, well, thanks. At this point, we're really focused on finish our integration. Let's just remember we did a huge combination business, business combination. We're far from done. We had a very good start. 2017 was our first full year. Integrations normally take 2, 3 years to be fully done in terms of synergies, integration, best practices, best of both. So I wouldn't just write off what we're doing now as okay it's done, next. We also have deleveraging that we need to do before we can think of anything else. And so -- and 99.9% of our people in the company, of our 200,000 colleagues are always, not now, but always, focused on the organic business at hand. And only a few people are looking for market opportunities, and we don't do that every day. So our business is really to grow what we have. We don't need to do anymore acquisitions. We have an amazing portfolio. We have leading positions in 9 out of the 10 top markets for beer, for beer today and where growth are going to come from in the future. We operate in 50 markets. As you saw in the 2 charts, we have leading top line and cash conversion and EBITDA margin compared to FMCG. We want to do better than that. We can do better than that. So we have lots to do. Very happy with the year 1 of integration, but it's not done yet. So too soon to think of anything other than that at this point. FELIPE DUTRA: On the first one, for -- for decisions announced as part of the Montejo transaction that would imply an EBITDA margin expansion in the mid-teens. And they capture in 3 years. 3 years are well behind and the business continues to expand margin showing that yes, there is a big wave that comes together with synergies and then for the combination of keeping net revenues growing ahead of inflation while cost moving below inflation that should write further margin expansion compounded by balance growth. So that is that. On the SAB transactions, it's no different when you apply the $3.2 billion on the former SAB EBITDA prior to the combination, that would imply margin expansions in the mid teens. And therefore, that should be captured across all SAB markets as synergies are captured. I hope that gives you a sense on what is (inaudible). PABLO ERNESTO ZUANIC: Brito, if I can ask just a quick follow up? In the U.S., I mean, obviously, Corona is doing great overseas like you described. It's also doing very well in the U.S., right? And so far, your Mexican brand, Montejo Estrella, haven't really tackled Corona. I would argue that Corona is a more lifestyle brand that supports the growth there than necessarily the Hispanic side of it, although it also helps. My question is, you have Kona in your portfolio that, in my opinion, a very strong potential direct competitor of Corona. But your distribution is not doing much with it. When I say you have it, I mean obviously belongs to another company, but you are the distributor for it. I think you could be doing a lot more with the brand and maybe challenging Corona more directly in lifestyle. CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO: Yes, I think the category expansion model opening our eyes to many opportunities. I'm not going to comment anything specifically because it is competitive sensitive. But I think it's something that we are applying to the U.S., our main market. And it's interesting to see how some insights are sometimes not the obvious ones. So again, we have an amazing portfolio. We have brands that, as you said, can be activated more intensely in segments or regions. We have to be more region specific because the U.S. is a continent. We're going to do that, by the way, in Brazil. If you go to Brazil and you look at what they do in the Northeast compared to the Southeast, the programs are very different. Of course when you have a World Cup or a Carnival, that's across the country. But the rest of the year, the programs are very different. If you go to China, same thing. And if you go to Guangdong, if you go to Szechuan, the programs of course -- some are national -- but a lot of them are very, very localized. And in the U.S., for some reason, we took that empowerment from the regions and now we're giving it back. Of course, we tested the last 2 years and we're giving some of that back because we see opportunities with zip code analysis of database that we have now with big data with lots of things that were not available before and that are now are available. We also enhanced our leadership to be able to have that kind of empowerment to make those kind of decisions on a local level. And the wholesalers that are now closer to us and vice versa are also amazing partners in deciding or helping us decide how to best tailor programs to different regions. They've been there for generations. They have a vested interest, 90% of their volume, or close to it, is our products, and they're very, very loyal to our brands and very interested in succeeding. It's a win-win for both of us. So we're going to be working more closely with the panel in our win-together program with wholesalers that we started 2 years ago. And that's going very well. So that's all part of this logic of more localization. OPERATOR: Our final question will come from Sanjeet Aujla of Credit Suisse. SANJEET AUJLA, EUROPEAN BEVERAGES ANALYST, CRéDIT SUISSE AG, RESEARCH DIVISION: On the category expansion framework, please. If my memory serves me correct, this was a 5- to 10-year plan for SAB. How quickly do you think it can have a visible impact on your results? Do you think it should be sooner than that? Secondly, do you think you've got enough people from SAB to help you execute on the capital expansion framework and embed in that across the organization? And thirdly, just specifically on refreshing and segmenting core market brands between classic and easy drinking, is something you give the example of having done it in Argentina. Are you planning to implement that across all markets? And will that be happening over the next 12 to 18 months? CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO: It's a very good question because what we see in many of our markets is that because core lager has always been the center of gravity of our business, most of our business, most of our strong brands are in that box. Sometimes we've been not very accurate in positioning brands in different domains in consumer minds. And sometimes they are just on top of each other. And what the category framework showed us is that these brands can be better positioned and therefore have less cannibalization and appeal to different locations and different consumer needs if done correctly according to the model. So for example, in Argentina, we had the example of Quilmas and Brahma being right on top of each other and consumers didn't know exactly why I should pick one or the other. And last year, we did -- was the first country where we took the learnings -- even before the year started because we learned about that in 2016 -- and executed that and separated in terms of communication, packaging, every touch point, you separate more between core lager or classic lager and easy drinking. And the results are very good, were very good. So we are very excited about going to markets where we have similar issues, including the U.S. where Bud and Bud Light sometimes sit very close to each other, including Brazil, where Skol and Brahma for a long time have used some properties that are the same or very close, are executed in the same, displays in the supermarket and all that, and try to really get the personalities of these brands to really be more accentuated so they appeal to different occasions, different customer needs and therefore, more complementary than cannibalistic, okay? In terms of people, yes, we have the people. Our new colleagues from SAB, most of them that work with the category expansion model and most of them that we invited to stay, that embrace our new dream of the new company, stayed. So we're very excited, very proud to have -- to be called their partners, very proud to have them with us. So yes, as I said at the very beginning of the call, the category expansion has been adopted last year in our 3-year plan, in 1-year plan and it became company language. It's not a marquee language, it's a company language, right? So thank you. So if there are no more further questions, Maria, let me summarize the call. So in summary, 2017 was a transformational year for our company. Integration with SAB is our most successful ever. This is the first and foremost, due to our people, who have continued to amaze us throughout this process. We're also very excited about intellectual synergies that have arisen from the combination, such as for example, the category expansion framework we just discussed. Additionally, we achieved our best performance the last 3 years, grew revenue in 9 out of top 10 markets and achieving double-digit EBITDA growth. We'll continue to work hard to grow the global beer category while evolving our brand portfolio to ensure we're rising to every occasion to capture future growth. We're very excited about '18, 2018, knowing that the first quarter will be soft. And the reasons for that are very simple. First, phasing of sales and marketing initiatives, largely due to the World Cup year. If you go back to 2010 and 2014, the 2 last World Cups, you'll see that our first quarters or first half of the year are normally more charged in terms of sales and marketing because of all the promotions we do leading to the World Cup. So this year will be no different. But the other reason is that there is a soft top line start in Brazil. So not only Carnival was earlier this year; second, we had very poor weather since mid-December in Brazil, which again affected sales. And we also have a tough comp because last year in the first quarter, our Brazilian business, beer Brazil business grew ahead of the industry, 5.5 percentage points ahead of industry. So gain share big time last quarter. So weather, Carnival, tough comp. And there's also some inventory in China that moved because of Chinese New Year just like Carnival moving in the calendar year. So again -- but again, we're very excited about 2018. As we said in our outlook, we remain excited and committed to deliver strong revenue and EBITDA growth in the year knowing that the first quarter will be soft as a result of everything I said. So again, thank you very much for joining the call. And Dilly Dilly to all of you. Thanks so much. Bye-bye. OPERATOR: Thank you. This does conclude today's earnings conference call and webcast. Please disconnect your lines at this time, and have a wonderful day. 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Subject: Dividends; Copyright; Chief executive officers; Corporate profits; Breweries; Earnings per share; Webcasting
Location: Africa Australia South Africa United States--US
Company / organization: Name: Thomson Financial; NAICS: 511210, 518210, 519190; Name: Anheuser-Busch InBev; NAICS: 312120
Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 1, 2018
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: Linthicum
Country of publication: United States, Linthicum
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Law--Corporate Law
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2014064988
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2014064988?accountid=4840
Copyright: 2018 Thomson Financial and ASC LLC
Last updated: 2018-03-17
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 162 of 474
Event Brief of Q4 2017 Anheuser Busch Inbev NV Earnings Call - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]01 Mar 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: CORPORATE PARTICIPANTS . Carlos Alves de Brito - Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV,CEO & Member of Executive Management Board . Felipe Dutra - Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV,Chief Financial & Technology Officer and Member of Executive Board of Management CONFERENCE CALL PARTICIPANTS . Brett Young Cooper - Consumer Edge Research, LLC,Senior Analyst of Beverages & Managing Partner . Edward Brampton Mundy - Jefferies LLC, Research Division,Equity Analyst . Jean-Olivier Nicolai - Morgan Stanley, Research Division,Executive Director . Komal Dhillon - JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division,Head of European Beverages . Mark D. Swartzberg - Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated, Research Division,MD . Mitchell John Collett - Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division,Executive Director . Pablo Ernesto Zuanic - Susquehanna Financial Group, LLLP, Research Division,Senior Analyst . Raoul-Tristan Van Strien - Redburn (Europe) Limited, Research Division,Research Analyst . Robert Edward Ottenstein - Evercore ISI, Research Division,Senior MD, Head of Global Beverages Research & Fundamental Research Analyst . Sander van Oort - Kempen & Co. N.V., Research Division,Analyst . Sanjeet Aujla - Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division,European Beverages Analyst . Simon Lynsay Hales - Citigroup Inc, Research Division,MD . Trevor J. Stirling - Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division,Senior Analyst OVERVIEW Co. reported 2017 normalized EPS of $4.04. FINANCIAL DATA 1. 2017 normalized EPS = $4.04. 2. 2017 YoverY revenue growth = 5.1%. PRESENTATION SUMMARY - 2017 Business Review (C.B.) 1. Highlights: 1. Will be reporting results and highlights of ABI's first full-year as a combined co. for combination with SAB. 2. 2017, landmark year for Co. 1. Not only did Co. deliver it's best results in the last three years but were well on its way to achieving most successful business integration ever following the combination with SAB. 3. Strong performances came from all around the globe with revenue growth in nine out of top ten markets. 2. Note: 1. Mexico delivered high-single digit revenue growth with healthy growth coming from core and premium brand portfolios through impactful brand executions. 2. Europe delivered top-line growth for the fourth straight year with Western Europe growing revenue by high-single digits as a result of leveraging premium brands. 3. Global brands revenue up by 9.8%; saw highly successful scale ups of global brand portfolio in new markets especially: 1. Columbia. 2. Peru. 3. Ecuador. 4. South Africa. 5. Australia. 4. Passion for brewing was evidenced in 191 awards won around the world this year. 1. Making Co. the most awarded brewery at major international beer competition. 2. Continues to focus on creating highest quality beers to meet consumer needs across wide variety of occasions. 5. EBITDA grew by double-digits. 1. Due to topline growth and enhanced by synergy capture, the markets including Africa, Latin America and Australia and healthy margin expansion in China. 6. Delivered solid results in 2017, this is only the beginning of combined company's journey for the next 100 years and beyond. 7. For the five-years ending 2017, revenue CAGR of 4.6% exceeded that of all global FMCG peers. 1. Structural change in Co.'s global footprint resulting from the combination with SAB positions it towards higher-growth markets, as evidenced by the accelerated momentum in 2017 with revenue growth of 5.1%. 8. In full-year 2017, accelerated revenue growth with topline up by 5.1%. 1. Revenue per hectoliter grew by 5.1% as well, both on organic and constant geographic basis. 9. Global brands grew revenue by almost 10%. 10. [Experienced] volume growth of 0.2% as a result of beer volume growth of 0.6% partially offset by a decline in non-beer volume of 3.1%. 1. Especially strong volumes are recorded in Argentina with beer volumes growing by double-digits and soft drinks achieving the best result in more than six years; and Africa, outside of South Africa, which grew own beer volumes in the mid-teens. 11. EBITDA grew by 13.4% with margin expansion of 288 bps to 39.1%. 1. US, strong contributor to EBITDA this year with growth of 1.9% and margin expansion of 169m bps to 41.2%. 2. US gross profit margin expanded for eighth straight year, growing 66 bps to 61.4%. 3. Normalized EPS increased by 42.8% on a reported basis to $4.04 from $2.83 mainly driven by higher profit. 12. Board has proposed a final dividend of EUR2.00 per share for FY17. 1. Bringing the total dividend for the year to [EUR3.60] in line with prior year. 13. Finished the year with especially strong 4Q growing revenue by 8.2%. 1. Revenue per hectoliter growth of 6.6% and 6.7% on a constant geographic basis. 1. All six of regions contributed by growing revenue. 3. Global Brands: 1. Had best qtr. of the year, with revenue up by 17.8%. 2. Total volumes grew 1.6%; driven by beer volume growth of 2.3% though Co.'s non-beer volumes decline by 3.6%. 3. EBITDA for the qtr. was up by more than 20% with margin expansion of 446 bps to 42.4%. 4. Normalized EPS grew by 141.9% on a reported basis. 5. In Brazil, Co. rebounded in 2H. 1. Growing EBITDA by 20.4% after declining 19.7% in 1H of the year. 6. Following the combination with SAB, has increased Co.'s exposure to emerging markets that are positioned for accelerated future growth. 1. Emerging markets now contribute to more than 70% of volumes and almost 60% of Co.'s revenue. 7. Geographic Diversity: 1. Provided Co. with a natural hedge against geopolitical volatility in any given market. 2. Neither overly exposed nor dependent on any single market. 1. This mix will likely evolve over time as a consequence of varying growth rates among markets. 8. Broad geographic footprint is enhanced by portfolio of over 500 global, international and local brands, which provide a wide selection for consumers around the world, addressing their needs across a variety of occasions. 9. This past year, recognized for having seven of the top ten most valuable beer brands in the world by BrandZ, which provides Co. with best-in-class portfolio to scale across markets. 1. Three of those seven brands make up Co.'s global brand portfolio: 1. Budweiser. 2. Stella Artois. 3. Corona. 2. Home markets for each brand are: 1. US for Budweiser. 2. Belgium for Stella Artois. 3. Mexico for Corona. 3. Outside of their home markets, the global brands capture higher revenue per hectoliter and higher margins. 1. Growing faster outside of their home markets, with revenue up 16.8% in 2017. 4. This past year, all three global brands contributed to more than 17% of total beer volumes and almost 20% of Co.'s total beer revenue. 1. More than half of both volume and revenue contribution comes from outside of their home markets. 10. In total, including home markets, revenues of global brands grew by 9.8%, well ahead of growth of Co.'s total portfolio. 1. Each brand accelerated growth rate vs. 2016. 11. Budweiser revenues grew by 4.1%, extending its lead as Number 1 beer brand in ex-domestic sales volume. 1. Growth was driven by strong performances in: 1. China. 2. Brazil. 3. UK. 4. Results: 1. Stella Artois revenue grew by 12.8% with solid performances in: 1. Argentina. 2. US. 3. Australia. 2. Brand continued its partnership with Water.org and Matt Damon this year, providing 1m people with access to clean water. 3. Corona led the way as revenue grew by 19.9% driven by: 1. Mexico. 2. China. 3. Australia. 4. Colombia. 4. Brand's global image is enhanced through platforms like it's partnership with World Surf League; and Corona SunSets music festivals, of which over 7,000 were executed in 2017. 1. Aforementioned result is underpinned and fueled by: 1. Consistent global messaging. 2. Market activation. 2. Believe this portfolio of complementary brands has the strength to be marketed worldwide, capitalizing on common values and experiences that appeal to consumers across borders. 5. Category Expansion Framework: 1. Was created at SAB before the combination with intention to grow the global beer category for long term. 2. Believes that insights derived will enable ABI to achieve further growth across Co.'s diverse geographic footprint at different levels of maturity. 3. Beer is the Number 1 alcohol beverage category in the world by volume and penetration. 4. Global beer category continues to grow in volume and value. 1. Volume growth is decelerating in recent years, driven primarily by mature developed markets. 2. Understand why the category faces challenges, as traditional beer occasions become less prevalent when markets mature and consumers have an increasingly wide variety of beverage choices for different occasions. 5. Understands where there are growth opportunities not just in emerging markets but in mature markets as well. 1. As markets evolve, sees beer occasions evolve too, moving from primarily male-dominated socializing in the on premise to more in-home, mixed-gender occasions and consumption with meals. 6. Addresses consumer preference across occasions, this framework defines Co.'s strategy to grow the global beer category and provide it with insights to grow share of beer. 1. This best practice excited Co.'s management teams worldwide, has since been fully integrated into global strategy and was used to frame current three-year plan. 7. Framework incorporates four commercial priorities. 1. Positions to develop global strategy to ensure both bringing new consumers into the beer category. 1. Offering existing consumer's new opportunities to engage with a wide range of product offerings for new and different occasions. 2. Considers the maturity of a market using a host of different variables; disposable income. 8. Different markets around the world can be then segmented into groups where growth trends are similar. 1. This facilitates the transfer of learnings between comparable markets, allowing Co. to leverage its global scale and manage a complex geographic footprint. 2. Helps to structure portfolios that are designed to capture future growth driven by [margin] trends. 3. Still needs to build brands based on consumer insights and segmented channel management, as Co. always have. 9. Excited by new common language for all of markets. 1. It has Co. far more strategic about how and where to invest behind brands. 6. Core Lager: 1. In many of markets, both developed and emerging, Co.'s largest brand is the local core lager. 2. Begun segmenting core lagers in two types: 1. Easy drinking lagers. 2. Classic lagers. 3. Easy drinking lagers tend to be lighter liquid, that it's tailored to more easygoing, mixed-gender occasions. 4. Classic lagers are more full [bite] and positioned for more traditional beer occasions like sporting events. 5. By differentiating between these two types of core lagers, able to reduce cannibalization and strengthen the positioning of brands. 1. In Argentina has taken bold moves to strengthen the portfolio by differentiating between Quilmes, a classic lager; and Brahma, an easy drinking lager, resulting in the successful improvement of both brands in 2017. 6. In many emerging markets, a large percentage of alcohol consumed is illegal and illicit alcohol. 1. This is often a consequence of lack of affordable options for consumers with limited disposable income. 2. Represents an opportunity for Co. to provide consumers with affordable, high-quality branded alternatives. 7. Some of Co.'s businesses in Africa have achieved this by pioneering the use of local crops to create new beer brands at appealing price points with healthy margins. 8. Exists an opportunity in both emerging and developed markets for premiumization, as many consumers are trading up to more high-end beers in a wide variety of occasions. 9. Recently launched High End Company, a business unit made up of global, specialty and craft brands. 1. Now established in 22 markets that account for approx. 70% of high-end opportunity worldwide. 10. Specialized teams are dedicated to accelerating Co.'s growth rate, with revenue of $4.6b in 2017 and almost 26% growth vs. 2016. 11. Offering consumers a variety of options across many price points, a further way to grow the category is through flavored beer. 1. Like easy drinking lagers, flavored beer provides an option for mixed-gender occasions and entering new occasions that have historically been owned by other alcohol beverage categories. 2. Seen success with many of brands in this segment in emerging and developed markets. 12. In South Africa, Flying Fish grew volumes by more than 60% by recruiting females and younger LDA consumers into the beer category and taking share from cider. 13. In Western Europe, innovation Cubanisto, a rum-flavored premium beer, grew topline by more than 40% this year by successfully competing against spirits in the night life occasion. 1. In addition to flavored beer, other beer styles beyond lagers allow Co. to compete in a wider set of occasions. 1. One of the biggest opportunities for this is in the meal occasion, where craft portfolio and international brands enable Co. to engage consumers through beer and food pairings. 2. Leveraging this in many of mature markets, like France with Leffe, which has become Number 1 beer brand by penetration in that country. 1. Continues to invest in global craft and high-end space to offer more choice of beer styles across footprints. 14. In emerging markets there is a bigger focus on classic lagers and affordable brands as Co. is first and foremost trying to introduce more consumers to the beer category. 1. In developed markets the emphasis lies on broadening the set of occasions in which beer has a role to play. 7. Healthier World: 1. Sustainability is not just related to Co.'s business, it is its business. 1. Brewing beers is reliant on healthy natural environment. 1. This past year, committed to securing 100% of purchased electricity from renewable sources across global operations by 2025. 2. This is an ambitious goal, but it's an important one that aligns very well with Co.'s dream. 2. Leverages brands to promote sustainable initiatives, like: 1. Corona's new partnership with Parley for the Oceans to protect 100 islands by 2020. 2. Stella Artois' continued campaign with Water.org to bring clean water to people in the developing world. 3. Part of Co.'s dream for a better world is this plan to make every experience with beer a positive one. 1. Through Global Smart Drinking Goals launched in 2015, aimed to reduce the harmful use of alcohol and foster a culture of smart drinking and road safety globally. 2. AB InBev Foundation was established to support Co. in achieving these goals. 1. Have also expanded Co.'s offerings of no-and low-alcohol beer products worldwide to provide consumers with added choices in more occasions, in line with commitment to have no-and low-alcohol beers represent 20% of global beer volumes by 2025. 4. With operations in more than 50 countries, dedicated to improving the lives in the communities of which Co. is a part. 1. Supporting the farmers and small retailers in value chain to help them be more productive. 5. In 2017, donated almost 3m cans of water to areas affected by natural disasters in US. 1. Donated the proceeds from 3m limited-edition Corona cans to people impacted by the severe earthquakes in Mexico. 8. Summary: 1. Focused on conserving natural resources, promoting smart drinking and road safety and supporting communities. 2. In 2017, reached all of previous sustainability goals, which expired at the end of this past year. 1. Later this month, will be announcing Co.'s 2025 sustainability goals. 3. Goals will focus on four areas: 1. Agricultural development. 2. Energy and carbon. 3. Water stewardship. 4. Package. 4Q17 Financials (F.D.) 1. Synergies: 1. Delivered $381m. 1. Bringing the total for FY17 to just over $1.3b. 2. Total synergies captured to-date is over $2.1b. 2. Total synergy guidance remains at $3.2b to be delivered within the four-year period following the close of the combination. 1. This number is inclusive of $1.05b of cost savings previously identified by SAB. 2. Does not include any topline or working capital synergies. 3. Continues to expect synergy capture to require approx. $1b of one-off cash costs to be incurred in the first three years after closing and of which $588m has been spent to-date. 4. Net finance costs in the year were over $5.8b vs. to over $5.2b in 2016. 1. Increase was driven primarily by interest expenses on legacy debt of SAB, generalization of bonds issued in 2016 to fund for the combination with SAB and currency and other hedging results. 2. Increase was partially offset by lower mark-to-market losses linked to the hedging of share-based payment programs of $291m vs. loss of $384m in 2016. 5. Normalized effective tax rate 32.1%. 1. Up from 28.6% in 4Q16. 1. Resulting from higher profit and the timing of certain deductions during the year. 2. In 2017, normalized effective tax rate 22.9% vs. 20.9% in 2016. 2. US Tax Reform Legislation: 1. With over 18,000 US employees and significant tax payments in UUS since 2009, proud to be the leading employer and taxpayer in the country. 2. Believes tax reform bill that lowers the corporate tax rate and incentivizes domestic investments will benefit American workers. 1. Hopes that this tax reform will spur innovation and growth in the economy. 3. In terms of impacts on Co.'s taxes, recognized one-off cash or non-cash gain will be cash in the future but non-cash gain of $1.8b, primarily driven by the remeasurement of deferred tax liabilities resulting from the reduction in US statutory corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. 1. Completes ABI analysis of this new legislation, it is possible that Co. will make adjustments to this provisional amount. 4. As of 2018, does not expect to see a benefit of lower US corporate tax rate in effective tax rate. 1. US tax reform introduces a broader tax base and new limitations on certain business deductions, which offset the impact of reduced rate. 5. For the group, the effective tax rate guidance for full-year 2018 is in the range of 24-26%, which again excludes the impacts of any future gains and losses related to the hedging of share-based payment programs. 6. EPS: 1. Normalized EPS increased by 42.8% from $2.83 in 2016 to $4.04 in 2017. 1. Largely driven by $2.66 increase in normalized EBIT linked to the organic growth and benefiting from earnings of retained SAB business. 2. Partially offset by an increase in income tax expense and dilution due to the increased number of shares. 7. Closed FY17 with $15.4b of cash flow from operations. 1. EBITDA margin of 39.1%. 2. Converting 27.3% of net revenue into cash, well ahead of Co.'s beer growth in all three dimensions. 3. Core Working Capital: 1. Consists of those elements of working capital which Co. considers fundamental to the operation of business. 1. Excludes certain items which management has little or no ability to influence; payroll-related payables. 2. In 2017, reached an avg. level of negative 13.4% of net revenues. 1. Decline reported in 2017 was a direct consequence of SAB consolidation, which was at much less-efficient level of core working capital as a percentage of net revenue. 2. Another area of synergy potential when applying Co.'s traditional company cash conversion efficiencies in the combined footprint. 4. Debt Maturity Profile: 1. Well distributed across the next several years. 2. Strong cash flow generation provides Co. with sufficient cushion to repay or refinance outstanding debt. 1. Without being dependent on capital market transactions to meet short-term funding needs. 3. Maintains over $20b of liquidity composed of cash and revolving credit lines. 4. Weighted avg. coupon of debt is 3.7%, with weighted avg. tenor of slightly more than 10 years. 1. 93% of debt portfolio is locked into fixed interest rates, reducing Co.'s exposure to markets volatility. 2. 58% of debt is denominated in US dollars. 3. Roughly 33% is linked to euro. 4. Used euro currency as a proxy for emerging market basket of currencies that are relevant to EBITDA and cash flow generation. 5. Euro has a strong correlation with main emerging market currencies and has advantage of providing access to bond markets with significantly higher liquidity and lower costs. 1. In order to further balance Co.'s currency mix, it have also been issuing more debt in alternative currencies like: 1. Canadian dollar. 2. Australian dollar. 3. British pound. 5. Dividend: 1. Board is proposing, subject to shareholders' approval, a final dividend of EUR2.0 per share, which combined with the interim dividend of EUR1.6 per share paid towards the end of last year. 1. Will lead to a total dividend payment for FY17 of EUR3.6 per share. 2. Have maintained dividend payment at the same level in last two years in consistent with commitment to deleveraging. 3. Net debt-to-EBITDA ratio decreased from 5.5 times on reported basis in 2016 to 4.8 times in 2017. 1. 4.7 times when adjusted for the closing of pending disposals and for FX time mismatch between the balance sheet and the P&L translation. 2. Optimal capital structure remains a net debt-to-EBITDA ratio of around 2 times. 3. Capital allocation objectives remain unchanged. 4. Co.'s first priority for the use of cash will always be to invest behind its brands and to take full advantage of the organic growth opportunities in business. 1. Deleveraging to around 2 times remains Co.'s commitment, and will prioritize debt repayment in order to meet this objective. 5. M&A remains a core competency and will always be ready to look at opportunities when and if they arise, subject to strict financial discipline and deleveraging commitment. 1. Co.'s goal is for dividends to be a growing flow over time consistent with the non-cyclical nature of business. 6. Dividend growth is expected to be modest in the short-term. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Edward Mundy of Jefferies. EDWARD BRAMPTON MUNDY, EQUITY ANALYST, JEFFERIES LLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: I've got one question and one follow-up. Brito, I think in your opening remarks you flagged that the emerging markets are positioned for accelerated future growth. Are you able to provide a whistle-stop tour of the key emerging market regions and your degree of confidence in acceleration in 2018? CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO, BUSCH INBEV SA/NV - CEO & MEMBER OF EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT BOARD, ANHEUSER: I mean I think the comment was much more -- again, this is the first year, 2017 was the first year of our combined company. And the idea is that we gave you in that opening a little bit of our split between emerging markets and more mature markets. And in our view, I mean, we come, we came -- we all come from emerging markets. And we know it's volatile at times, but it provides lots of growth and opportunity for value creation. So -- and if you go to our outlook, we also say that while recognized volatility, as said before, we expect to continue to deliver strong revenue, EBITDA growth in fiscal year '18 driven by our performance -- I mean our portfolio, our footprint and our commercial plans. So I mean this is all tied together. We're very happy with the footprint we have. And this footprint, as I said before, is one that should deliver growth ahead of our CAGR of 5 years as we shared with you today. And for example, this year, it already did. It's more diversified and less dependent on any one single market. That was the message. EDWARD BRAMPTON MUNDY: Very clear. And the follow-up is more of a philosophical question. And I really appreciate the discussion on the category expansion model. You seem to -- talked about (inaudible) taking a less-siloed approach to that business by combining both hot and cold nonalcoholic drinks. Brito, do you think about the market for consumer lens based on consumer needs rather than a traditional manufacturer-led approach largely based on beer? Is there not more logic in combining beer and spirits together over the medium term as you think about the next 100 years? CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO: Well, at this point, we see lots of opportunities that were unveiled to us by this model. And we are really surprised that, every time we go to adjacencies with beer or with near beer, we tend to do well. I mean, if you look at our styles, they go more to food occasions, for example, or consumers that want a different experience. They are doing very well, growing ahead of our average portfolio. If you go to the left side, flavored beer, we don't have many examples, but the few we have are doing very well. And so we feel that's affordability with what we learned with our new colleagues. Some I mean -- and premiumization everywhere; and in core lager, the heart of our business. So I mean, if you look at all those points, I mean, there's so much more beer can accomplish. It's just a question of -- instead of fighting just for share of beer, of steering the category in directions and occasions where beer can play a role and start planting seeds today that could be part of the portfolio of the future as trends evolve and consumers change. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Robert Ottenstein of Evercore. ROBERT EDWARD OTTENSTEIN, SENIOR MD, HEAD OF GLOBAL BEVERAGES RESEARCH & FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCH ANALYST, EVERCORE ISI, RESEARCH DIVISION: Just a few related questions on the global brands. There's been some controversy on the relative profitability. And you mentioned they had higher margins, but could you be specific? Is -- are you talking about gross margin or EBITDA margin in terms of the global brands in their out-of-home markets? And then related to that, Corona doing extremely well. Can you -- a rough sense of how many markets. And I know this -- you may not have the precise number but rough sense of how many markets Corona is growing double digit and you think can have a meaningful presence. And then as a follow-on, just some more details about the High End Company that you discussed in terms of the structure of that company. CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO: Well, okay. So first, profitability. I mean that's an easy one. I mean these high-end brands, these global brands or craft brands or specialty brands, they have way higher margins than our average margins after -- even after sales and marketing investments. You can see that in many ways. You can see that because of our mix effects have been growing year after year even in the U.S. You can see that in our outlook. We've signaled that we expect our revenue per hectoliter to grow ahead of inflation, and that's not because of rates. That's because of the fact that mix is becoming more and more important in our net revenue per hectoliter. So at the end, it's all about dollars per hectoliter, when it's all said and done. So net-net, it's a great business. And that's why, Robert, we decided to invest, in your other question, in the High End Company. Because it deserves a special group of people that are trained, that have a special profile to make, of course, use of what the mother company offers but be very focused on those brands that feel maybe less of volume. They have a more qualified distribution, but they have amazing margins and amazing potential. And they travel well. They have global platforms. And we have a portfolio of brands, not only 1 or 2. We have a portfolio of brands that are complementary. And the most important things, among other things, is that these brands enter new occasions. So when you look at Corona or Coronita and how well it does with women with different occasions where beer normally wouldn't enter, when you look at Stella in the meal occasion, when you look at Budweiser in sports and the Americana in the bottle that travels so well like any American brands. So it is very profitable, when it's all said and done, so much so that we decided to specialize people in the company to do just that. And in terms of Corona, I think I've said that in calls before. These are all product numbers. If you look at Corona in most of our markets, it represents less than l% share of total market in terms of beer. On the other hand, you have markets of ours in which Corona is already 2% to 6% of share of total market. So you can only run some numbers. And Corona is our higher-price beer from our global brands. So amazing margins and growing amazing well in places like China and growing 39% outside of Mexico. So I mean it's all good story in global brands with an amazing profitability. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Olivier Nicolai of Morgan Stanley. JEAN-OLIVIER NICOLAI, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MORGAN STANLEY, RESEARCH DIVISION: Brito, Felipe, just, well, first question, for Felipe. You have refinanced some bonds at the beginning of the year at a much more favorable interest rate. Now looking at the next 2 years, a few of your U.S. dollar bonds with higher interest will reach maturity. And I was just wondering if you are confident that the 3.7% average interest rate that you gave for the group is going to stay beyond 2018. And just a follow-up on the net working capital chart, where I think it was showing your net working capital at minus 13%: Should we assume a bigger contribution on your cash flow from working capital in 2018 versus 2017, considering that you have still probably some synergies to do on the SAB market and that you've said obviously going to grow? CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO: First one was repaying bonds... FELIPE DUTRA, BUSCH INBEV SA/NV - CHIEF FINANCIAL & TECHNOLOGY OFFICER AND MEMBER OF EXECUTIVE BOARD OF MANAGEMENT, ANHEUSER: So on the bond market, the expected coupon rate of around 3.7%, the kind of around 3.7%, you have to be mindful about the outstanding debt, which is at this point around $104 billion. As we recycle and retire and amortize and pay, depending on the decision to repay or refinance and given the fact that this primarily fix the interest rates, there may have some room for this coupon to go down but depending on what happens to interest rates in the future. But I do not expect that -- a material swing, for example, in 2018 in terms of the weighted average coupon, the -- being around the 3.7%. On the core working capital, the slide shows that from the former ABI side we have been improving net -- core working capital as a percentage of net revenues by 1, sometimes 2 percentage points. Year-over-year, this trend continues. And when you see the decline of the 15.2% to 13.4%, you should expect former ABI to continue to improve. And then as we added former SAB at low to mid-single digits negative core working capital as a percentage of total revenues -- so that is the 13.4%. From that point, we expect the combined company to continue to expand. We expect to do faster on the former SAB side. There is no reason why former SAB should not come to similar levels of former ABI. I'm not detailing here market by market, but overall I see us both similar, comparable companies then. And therefore, core working capital should be an area of relevant contribution for the overall cash flow. And the buildup in the negative territory is, the more we grow revenues, more cash it generates, right? And we extract from that. So that should continue to be an important cash flow contribution going forward. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Tristan Van Strien of Redburn Partners. RAOUL-TRISTAN VAN STRIEN, RESEARCH ANALYST, REDBURN (EUROPE) LIMITED, RESEARCH DIVISION: Yes, 2 questions or a question and a follow-on. Just first, on your dividend, can -- you talk about a growing flow of dividends. Can you just confirm that is in euros? And would you consider scrip dividends? Or it's just cash. And just to follow up on -- I guess, on both the high end and the category framework. I mean you're really looking at a longer time frame, 3 to 10 years, to build brands and portfolios. How does that work with your 0-based budgeting framework? I mean, do you have to change that a bit? Do you ring-fence money year-over-year? Just how you think about that going forward. CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO: Tristan, let me take the first one on your question. We've always been a company of and not or. So we're used to do top line and be efficient in cost. So much so that we have a term we use inside the company called cost-connect-win, which says let's be efficient on cost so we can connect with more consumers so we can win more business. And that's exactly one of the charts we showed in which we compare ourselves to other companies, the FMCG. And if you put those 2 charts together, you'll see that we have a better EBITDA margin and we have a higher top line growth. So I think those things show that over a period of time, 5 years, we can accomplish both. We can be efficient while having a best-in-class and generate cash. So I think that's what we try to do as a company in the end, I don't see a conflict, quite the opposite. When you say about building brands for 10 years, let's not forget that when I talk about portfolio of today and portfolio of the future, sometimes it's about developing one brand of today that can be bigger tomorrow. It's not all about new brands. It's about getting resourceful location done in a different way so you can get a brand that's growing and accelerate that growth. So most of it is about brands that exist either in that market or brands that are global or international that can be introduced in that market. So it's not about okay, your brands will take 10 years to perform. And on the first question? FELIPE DUTRA: Yes, let me pick up on the dividend piece. We have to look at both at the end of the day. So most of our cash flow generation is in U.S. dollars. We report in U.S. dollars. At the same time, we are a Belgian based company, primarily leasing in Belgium share price are quoted trading in euros. And therefore, it is a legal requirement to declare dividend in euros. So in euros, so we have to think of both and again what makes more sense for the company in terms of capital allocation, deleveraging commitments and so on and so forth. So in the event there is a big detach in terms of FX rates between euros and dollars, we'll have to review what makes sense again. But for now, the 3.6 is something that fits within our commitment. RAOUL-TRISTAN VAN STRIEN: To Brito, maybe just a follow-up and this maybe a bit esoteric. In same way in ZX Ventures you have different incentive systems for these guys and there are much more softer targets rather than hard KPIs, I guess, is the same applicable for your high-end unit or are the guys in charge really changing the categories because there's a much more a longer timeframe rather than just hard numbers? Do you measure them differently? CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO: Yes, sure. I mean, the incentive system is very similar, but the KPIs are different. Because as I said, I mean, we're building high-end brands. The distribution has to be qualified. The execution has to be Premium, right? The pricing discipline has to be 100%. The global platforms and execution have to be very well coordinated on Global Brands. For example, the specialty brands are developed through group hubs and different experiences. So it's a different kind of activation in the marketplace. But we can measure with KPIs in the same way we measure for the core business and we can use of the same incentive system just based on different KPI. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Simon Hales of Citi. SIMON LYNSAY HALES, MD, CITIGROUP INC, RESEARCH DIVISION: I've got a couple of questions. First one really just around how we think about your cost base, particularly input costs around 2018, I appreciate there's obviously FX transactional moves impacting, but that aside. Can you talk about maybe some of the big moving headwinds or tailwinds you may be seeing. And specifically, in that regard, with regards to the U.S., number of your FMCG peers have been flagging the tightening of trucking capacity of late. Is that something that you're seeing and is it having any impact on your business and thoughts there? And then, secondly, Brito, with regard to your comment around low- and no-alcohol, you're clearly on track to your 20% by 2020 throughout 2025, how should we think about the build towards that? I mean, how much of your business is already in that low- and no-alcohol segment and how rapidly should we expect it to grow over the next couple of years? CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO: I'll tackle the second question first. Today, we are around 8% of our portfolio. We want to get to 20% by 2025. So we're not starting from 0, quite the opposite. The big thing that will accelerate this, in my view, is 2 things. First, the category expansion model because it's showing us that there are opportunities in adjacencies and easy drinking and the flavor liquids that we can explore. And the second one is that now, we already have 5 of our main countries in which NABLAB or non-alcohol beer and low-alcohol beer represents more than 20% and in some, even 30%, right? And what we see is that this product has come -- even with higher margin if done correctly. So I think this is going to be a big motivation for our people because they're going to be inspired. They can visit those countries. They can see how it was done. There's a toolkit that they share with other countries. And again, we're not starting from 0. The margins are very interesting and category expansion show us the way on how to use some of those products to enter new categories or new occasions. And we have already 5 countries that are already beyond 20%, beyond 20% and 30%. And on the first question on cost, I mean, we have here, we have here in our outlook in terms of overall performance, we say that --where is the cost base here -- oh, yes, we say premiumization revenue management initiatives towards the end of the first paragraph while keeping costs below inflation. So here, we try to answer your question with this outlook, part of the outlook for the total company, not for any market specifics saying that we'll continue to manage cost below inflation. SANDER VAN OORT, ANALYST, KEMPEN & CO. N.V., RESEARCH DIVISION: Can you comment specifically at all around that trucking capacity issue in the U.S. that others have been talking about? CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO: Yes, there is some tracking capacity issues in the U.S. The economy, of course, is heated. But because we have some inventory and some flexibility, we can avoid peak times. And we know what the peak times are. At the end of the month, a lot of the company shipping things or big events for e-commerce, like Black Friday and things like that, that for beer doesn't make any sense. I mean, we can work around those holidays and work around those peak times that were generated by e-commerce and try to manage that. But you're right, there is some pressure there in terms of trucking. It's also true that a lot of companies are buying more trucks in response to that. So like any market, price goes up, more people come in. This pressure of course is not new. It started already in the second half of last year and should continue during the first half. So there will be some cycling. But there's already some of it in the base. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Trevor Stirling of Bernstein. TREVOR J. STIRLING, SENIOR ANALYST, SANFORD C. BERNSTEIN & CO., LLC., RESEARCH DIVISION: Two questions, most likely. Brito, in the fourth quarter, there was a significant acceleration in revenue per hectoliter in Lat Am North, in Mexico, in Asia Pacific. Could you give us a bit more color what actually lay behind that? Was it easy comps? And how exactly were you achieving that acceleration? And the second question, first of all, for Felipe. Looking at the associates, Felipe, that rose significantly in the quarter. It's a bit over $200 million. Is that the new norm that we should be expecting, plus or minus, or there are some one-offs from that? CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO: Trevor, Brito here, I'll tackle the first one. I mean, I think what you're saying is net revenue per hectoliter in the fourth quarter, right, compared to the rest of the year. For example, if you look at North America -- let's take the U.S., which is 90% of the zone -- I mean, Q1, our net revenue per hectoliter increased by 2.2%, Q2, 0.9%; Q3, 0.9%; and Q4, 2.1%. So for an average of the year, 1.5%. So yes. But you see that it's not only Q4. There is some ups and downs depending on price increases, on mix of shipments, on many things. So you see it started a 2.2%, went up to 0.9%, came back to 2.1%. So I'll consider that normal course of business. Latin America and West, I'm seeing here, 9.5% for the fourth quarter, for full year of around 6%, I think, or 9 months of 4.9%. So that was mainly revenue management in Colombia. In Colombia, as we flag through the whole year, revenue, I mean, volumes were slightly negative. The consumers had a VAT increase of 15% on the overall economy. So our guys tried with some discounts to move volume. When they saw it was not happening, they kind of re-thought their discount strategy. So that, I would say, was mostly of what happened in the fourth quarter. In [North], that was really easy comps on the fourth quarter. If you remember, in 2016, or maybe you don't know remember, but in 2016, the net revenue per hectoliter was negative in the fourth quarter by 4.6% negative. So the 10% should be viewed in that context. And then in the other zones, I don't see -- oh, yes, then in APAC, there was the repatriation of Corona. That impacted the third and especially the fourth quarter in APAC, in Australia mainly. So those are the big things that could explain the variations. FELIPE DUTRA: Hi, Trevor, Let me take the share of associates. First, kind of explain that here that the share of associates as well as minorities are 2 lines that are not normalized. It's really as reported. And secondly, there is no reference dates for them, but when you compare full year '17 versus '16 in the '16, we only have 3 months of those. Which should not impact the comparisons for the quarter. The comparison for the quarter is impacted by -- year-over-year -- is impacted by basically 2 things. First, the severity gain of the integration. Some of the profits recognition in the fourth quarter '16 shifted into the first quarter '17, causing the first or the fourth quarter '16 to be, let's say, abnormally low. In addition to that, we do a lot of the accruals based on estimates and there is a true-up towards the year-end, which caused the fourth quarter '16 to recognize incremental profits that were incurred throughout the year. So when you compare fourth quarter year-over-year, you have this big mismatch. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Brett Cooper of Consumer Edge Research. BRETT YOUNG COOPER, SENIOR ANALYST OF BEVERAGES & MANAGING PARTNER, CONSUMER EDGE RESEARCH, LLC: I was wondering if we can get a little bit more specific on the category framework. And if we take a look at the U.S., I mean, you've been trying to expand your portfolio in flavored beers. You've been doing premiumization, and that's obviously going well, you've been expanding styles. But it's been unable to drive growth in that market. I'm just trying to figure out what changes, going forward, versus what we've seen over the last several years as you apply this framework to your business. CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO: Well, Brad, we've seen that in other markets, right? And then look at Australia. When Australia decided to shift resources or to start accelerating some brands, it does take a while for things to compensate because some big things and the other ones are small. So the big things are declining. The smaller things are growing. And it takes a while for one to grow to size to compensate for the other. But the direction is set. So we think some of our brands in the U.S. will be -- will remain very important to our portfolio. But albeit at the lower size, at the smaller size. And some others will continue to grow and will be more of a bigger brand within our portfolio. That happens all the time in all markets. If you look at Brazil, the same happened. If you look at Argentina, the same happened. In which at some point a brand -- the client in other brands grows and the portfolio the -- the important thing is that it should be margin accretive, right? And that's what we've been trying to do in the U.S. Our value in the U.S. has always been to stabilize or to have both, right, the end, share stabilization and profitability. So if you look at our gross profit margin in the U.S., now for 8 years in a row, it has gone up. And if you look at our portfolio in the U.S., we've been trying to rejig it, trying to add new things that we think our engine -- growth engine, for the future. And I think we're now, with the category expansion framework and with the new leadership in the U.S., I think we now are at a very important point to really start making all those kind of things kind of connect the dots. Not going to happen overnight. But we're brewers for 600 years, so we're here for the long-term and we'll do what's best for the long-term. You have to remember that the shift issue we have in the U.S. was created by our results. When we came to the U.S., we said, we like to share position, not the share composition. It's too much based on low macro brands, low profitability brands. We don't think that creates a great business for the future. We're here for the long-term. We're willing to take the pain to rejig this portfolio. It is true that it's taking a bit longer than we thought. But again, the direction has been set from the very beginning. We've learned along the way, adjusted here and there. But the direction is pretty much set, and that is we want to develop Bud and Bud Light in a box. And that's the direction we're headed. Interesting enough, if you look at the first 10 years or 9 years in the U.S., our financial performance has been way ahead of our plan. EBITDA almost doubled, cash flow, more than 3x. And volume was below what our plan was. And now for the second 10 years, I think we have a great base to start connecting these dots. Like we did in Western Europe, where for many years we couldn't grow. The last four years, was in Europe has been growing top line and bottom line consistently 4 years in a row. Now we have the same thing in Australia. And now, and this all serves as inspiration and reasons to believe that we can do the same thing in the U.S. Further, in the U.S., I mean, Michelob Ultra is already 10% of our business and it's the fastest growing brand now for almost 3 years in a row, almost 12 quarters in a row, the biggest share gain in the U.S. And if you look at the big share gain in brand in the U.S., out of the 6 brands, we have 3, which is Michelob Ultra -- according to IRI -- Michelob Ultra, Stella Artois and Bud Light. We have brands that are growing. Have, of course, to do a better job on Bud Light specifically and continue to accelerate like we did in the fourth quarter the brands that are growing. And if you look at our fourth quarter, our share performance was better than our second quarter and third quarter, and that was across the board. Not only the brands that are growing accelerated, but the brands that were declining, declined less. Back to 55 bps of share losses as opposed to 80 bps share loss. Again, it's one quarter, but we've been learning a lot and applying those learnings in the marketplace. BRETT YOUNG COOPER: If I can add one follow-up. Is there a reason why we've seen less of the no- and low-alcohol beer in the U.S. as opposed to other markets, especially in light of, as you mentioned, volume struggle that you've had here? CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO: That's a good point, I think we have our plates full in the U.S. We've been testing some of the things in other markets so as not to distract them. But of course, our guys in the U.S. but of course, with the learnings, you can be sure that some of those things will be migrated to the U.S. pretty soon. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Komal Dhillon of JPMorgan. KOMAL DHILLON, HEAD OF EUROPEAN BEVERAGES, JP MORGAN CHASE & CO, RESEARCH DIVISION: Just 2 questions, please. One on the Global Brands, the slide on that growth, of those brands is very helpful. But can you comment on the underlying volume growth rates on these brands like [home] market and I mean excluding the one-offs from bringing distribution back in house like Corona in Australia? And then just a follow-up on that working capital synergies question, please. So you're expected to take former SAB to former ABI levels, the core working cap, the sales. But is the current lack of cash flow synergies from the SAB so far due to difficulties, in changing terms, with supplies in Africa? Just can you give us some more color on what's going on in the first 15 months of integration please? FELIPE DUTRA: So on the -- hi, Komal, this is Felipe. On the co-working capital side, we have been progressing across the SAB territory. And as I said before, there was a, I think, a question on that where we see no reason why former SAB shouldn't get to similar levels of former ABI, quite frankly. And that is where we are heading to. And the first 15 maps that was not an exception. CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO: Well, Komal, I think your first question was, let me see if I understood it correctly, you want to know what Global Brands are having -- what kind of growth they're having in their home markets, right? KOMAL DHILLON: Yes, in volume terms, please? And extra distribution, like taking back distribution in-house like for Corona in Australia, could you just underline what could we expect in the future? CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO: Yes, I mean, what I know -- I don't have the exact number in front of me -- but what I know is that Stella Artois is back to growth in Belgium, what I know is that Corona is growing in Mexico -- and Lauren can confirm the numbers afterwards to you -- and what I know is that Budweiser is declining 35 bps in terms of share last quarter in the U.S. So Lauren, [indiscernible]. KOMAL DHILLON: So what X -- so what ex home markets, in the growth markets. CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO: Well, that I had in my -- I had that in my speech. Oh, here. We have that on page, what's the page, 11 of our script. So if you look at Global Brands outside of home markets, they are growing at 60.8% for 2017 -- revenue growth, right? And then if you go now for Page 12, you see that Stella Artois or better saying Corona, is growing revenue 39% -- 39.9% outside of Mexico, Budweiser, 10.8% outside of the U.S. and Stella Artois -- we'll have to get to you that number. But it should be very close to the 12.8% because Belgium is growing very, very slightly. So around 12% outside of the home market. So those are the numbers. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Mark Swartzberg of [Franklin] (sic) [Stifel]. MARK D. SWARTZBERG, MD, STIFEL, NICOLAUS & COMPANY, INCORPORATED, RESEARCH DIVISION: It's Stifel Financial. Brito, on the U.S., really building on Brett's questions. You drew attention to this focus on hyper-local execution. So question one is how important might that be? What are you seeing from these test markets that might be encouraging for the larger performance in the U.S? And then, secondly, you also drew attention to quality messaging and innovation for Bud Light. And you've been seeing encouraging signs for Bud Light for a number of years. Is there any reason to think that the quality messaging will be more impactful to improving the share transfer of the brand? CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO: Yes, Mark, I think on Bud Light, it's interesting. We've had a lot of positive feedback from Bud Light drinkers on our -- essentially ingredients contained. Because it had been a while since the last time we spoke about ingredients, what goes into the beer and quality of Bud Light and the special process and everything. So that was something that was very well-received. And we'll continue to make that part of our Bud Light communication. So we made it a priority for Bud Light [for this time] with quality credentials for sure. And we'll continue to highlight the power and mostly the simplicity. We see that some consumers are a bit tired of the complexity of the category that it became with all crafts and all different liquids that are very hard to understand. And Bud Light is a simple beer with efficient ingredients, fresh. And that appeals to a lot of consumers. And Dilly Dilly, on the other hand, put Bud Light back into pop culture, #1 topic in conversation in terms of beer and social media. It's something that brought Bud Light a lot of what made Bud Light big is being in tune with young people, young adults and also being topical in terms of conversation. So I think Dilly Dilly, I think, quality message and the continued execution -- and some of these sites from the category expansion model in terms of easy drinking will make a difference for Bud Light. Your first question was... MARK D. SWARTZBERG: About the hyper-local execution. You've had some test markets in '17. How encouraging are they for what might happen nationally in '18. CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO: Yes, I think one thing we did in the U.S. is we centralized maybe too much and we have too many programs that are national. And the fact is that the U.S., like China and Brazil, is a continent in itself. And you have many different U.S.'s within the U.S. So states are very different from the heartland to the coasts, to more Hispanics, to all sorts of different Hispanics, some are Mexicans, some Cubans, some Dominicans. And we have brands that appeal to all those different ethnicities. But when you have a national program, it's very hard to execute as per different markets' make-up. So I've been traveling the U.S. for the past 3 weeks with the new leadership, Michelle Brendan, Marcel -- and what we see is that there is an opportunity to really go back to many years ago when we had more regional events and we had different portfolio make-ups slightly different per region because again, in some place, you have Dominicans represented the #1 by far in the Dominican Republic. Then if you have Mexicans, again, Bud Light is the #1 beer with Hispanics. But we need to tailor the message to the Hispanic consumer and also invest behind Estrella Jalisco which, by the way, this year will be a big year for it because it's a sponsor of the World Cup and the Mexican national team in the U.S, and so on and so forth. And so I think it's something we need to do better. You go to Miami, Becks, for example, has a strong following. So I mean, there are many different things that could be hidden jewels. Not to talk about craft and specialties that go better here and there. Places where you have more events than others. So different things that we're trying more and more to tackle in this huge continent called the U.S, as we do in China, as we do in Brazil. So nothing new. Just we have to apply to the U.S. as well. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Mitchell Collett of Goldman Sachs. MITCHELL JOHN COLLETT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: In the outlook statement, you say that you expect to deliver net revenue per hectoliter ahead of inflation. And do you think you achieved that in F'17? And does that imply revenue per hectoliter growth can accelerate in F'18? And if it does, would you expect that to be offset by volume being slightly softer? And then I just wanted to come back to the U.S. where you've said that a few times that you want to get the right balance between share and profitability. This year, your gross margin went up 90 basis points more than your EBITDA margin. What would be the right balance between profitability and market share within the U.S.? CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO: Well, let's start from the second question. I mean, in terms of the U.S., what we have is in is a market with very strong cash flow, very strong margins, hard currency and an amazing scale. So we want to keep that. Of course, we want to grow that. But more than growing, we want to first keep and then grow as we did, by the way, in 2017, in which we grew EBITDA by 1.9%. We want to continue to grow cash flow, as we did, by the way in 2017 in North America. But we have to get that share profitability right. We're -- we mentioned -- I mentioned here with Mark and Brit, many of the things we're doing in the U.S. and that we want to do it the right way. So it's sustainable, so it's profitable, so it's accretive. So that's our intention in the U.S. In terms of the -- your first question. Our inflation, implied inflation for our footprint was 4% or between 3.5% and 4% last year and we grew top line by 5.1%. So what we said for the outlook was already achieved last year and prior to that, and that is done through mix mostly, okay? So yes, just one example, '17 was a good example. MITCHELL JOHN COLLETT: Okay. I guess, as a follow-up to that. Given the shift you've highlighted in your business towards growth markets and given the acceleration for your Global Brands as well as your category management initiative, do you think the 5-year CAGR is the right starting point when we think about your kind of revenue growth for the next 2 or 3 years? Or could it be slightly higher than that? CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO: Well, '17 was higher. And SAB brought us markets that are more growth oriented by the very nature of these markets. So I'm not giving any guidance here. But, of course, we'll continue to work to beat that 5-year CAGR going forward. With that, you can be sure. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Pablo Zuanic of SIG. PABLO ERNESTO ZUANIC, SENIOR ANALYST, SUSQUEHANNA FINANCIAL GROUP, LLLP, RESEARCH DIVISION: One for Felipe and one for Brito. Felipe, just remind us by how much did EBITDA margins actually increase over the last 5 years. And the reason I ask for that refresher is just, if you can, give us some color in terms of where were margins for the beer business in Colombia, Peru and South Africa when you took over that business? Obviously, we have the SAB numbers at the regional level in consolidated but we don't have that (inaudible) granularity. So that would help. And the second one, Brito for you. Obviously, great quarter, great year, lots of momentum in the beer business. So much to do, so much opportunity. And even in the U.S., you talk about the next 10 years. So I guess, my question is when I hear Felipe in every call tell us that M&A remains a core competency for the company and here we are all of us on the buy and sell side thinking okay, there's nothing else for Anheuser Busch to buy in the beer industry, pretty much, that's sizable and relevant for them. So you're going to have to get out of beer and go into other categories. And I guess, I'm asking just help us think through that because you've done so well in beer. You do have an opportunity there. See, there's this risk looming that you have to enter a new category. How should we think about that? CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO: Well, Pablo, well, thanks. At this point, we're really focused on finish our integration. Let's just remember we did a huge combination business, business combination. We're far from done. We had a very good start. 2017 was our first full year. Integrations normally take 2, 3 years to be fully done in terms of synergies, integration, best practices, best of both. So I wouldn't just write off what we're doing now as okay it's done, next. We also have deleveraging that we need to do before we can think of anything else. And so -- and 99.9% of our people in the company, of our 200,000 colleagues are always, not now, but always, focused on the organic business at hand. And only a few people are looking for market opportunities, and we don't do that every day. So our business is really to grow what we have. We don't need to do anymore acquisitions. We have an amazing portfolio. We have leading positions in 9 out of the 10 top markets for beer, for beer today and where growth are going to come from in the future. We operate in 50 markets. As you saw in the 2 charts, we have leading top line and cash conversion and EBITDA margin compared to FMCG. We want to do better than that. We can do better than that. So we have lots to do. Very happy with the year 1 of integration, but it's not done yet. So too soon to think of anything other than that at this point. FELIPE DUTRA: On the first one, for -- for decisions announced as part of the Montejo transaction that would imply an EBITDA margin expansion in the mid-teens. And they capture in 3 years. 3 years are well behind and the business continues to expand margin showing that yes, there is a big wave that comes together with synergies and then for the combination of keeping net revenues growing ahead of inflation while cost moving below inflation that should write further margin expansion compounded by balance growth. So that is that. On the SAB transactions, it's no different when you apply the $3.2 billion on the former SAB EBITDA prior to the combination, that would imply margin expansions in the mid teens. And therefore, that should be captured across all SAB markets as synergies are captured. I hope that gives you a sense on what is (inaudible). PABLO ERNESTO ZUANIC: Brito, if I can ask just a quick follow up? In the U.S., I mean, obviously, Corona is doing great overseas like you described. It's also doing very well in the U.S., right? And so far, your Mexican brand, Montejo Estrella, haven't really tackled Corona. I would argue that Corona is a more lifestyle brand that supports the growth there than necessarily the Hispanic side of it, although it also helps. My question is, you have Kona in your portfolio that, in my opinion, a very strong potential direct competitor of Corona. But your distribution is not doing much with it. When I say you have it, I mean obviously belongs to another company, but you are the distributor for it. I think you could be doing a lot more with the brand and maybe challenging Corona more directly in lifestyle. CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO: Yes, I think the category expansion model opening our eyes to many opportunities. I'm not going to comment anything specifically because it is competitive sensitive. But I think it's something that we are applying to the U.S., our main market. And it's interesting to see how some insights are sometimes not the obvious ones. So again, we have an amazing portfolio. We have brands that, as you said, can be activated more intensely in segments or regions. We have to be more region specific because the U.S. is a continent. We're going to do that, by the way, in Brazil. If you go to Brazil and you look at what they do in the Northeast compared to the Southeast, the programs are very different. Of course when you have a World Cup or a Carnival, that's across the country. But the rest of the year, the programs are very different. If you go to China, same thing. And if you go to Guangdong, if you go to Szechuan, the programs of course -- some are national -- but a lot of them are very, very localized. And in the U.S., for some reason, we took that empowerment from the regions and now we're giving it back. Of course, we tested the last 2 years and we're giving some of that back because we see opportunities with zip code analysis of database that we have now with big data with lots of things that were not available before and that are now are available. We also enhanced our leadership to be able to have that kind of empowerment to make those kind of decisions on a local level. And the wholesalers that are now closer to us and vice versa are also amazing partners in deciding or helping us decide how to best tailor programs to different regions. They've been there for generations. They have a vested interest, 90% of their volume, or close to it, is our products, and they're very, very loyal to our brands and very interested in succeeding. It's a win-win for both of us. So we're going to be working more closely with the panel in our win-together program with wholesalers that we started 2 years ago. And that's going very well. So that's all part of this logic of more localization. OPERATOR: Our final question will come from Sanjeet Aujla of Credit Suisse. SANJEET AUJLA, EUROPEAN BEVERAGES ANALYST, CRéDIT SUISSE AG, RESEARCH DIVISION: On the category expansion framework, please. If my memory serves me correct, this was a 5- to 10-year plan for SAB. How quickly do you think it can have a visible impact on your results? Do you think it should be sooner than that? Secondly, do you think you've got enough people from SAB to help you execute on the capital expansion framework and embed in that across the organization? And thirdly, just specifically on refreshing and segmenting core market brands between classic and easy drinking, is something you give the example of having done it in Argentina. Are you planning to implement that across all markets? And will that be happening over the next 12 to 18 months? CARLOS ALVES DE BRITO: It's a very good question because what we see in many of our markets is that because core lager has always been the center of gravity of our business, most of our business, most of our strong brands are in that box. Sometimes we've been not very accurate in positioning brands in different domains in consumer minds. And sometimes they are just on top of each other. And what the category framework showed us is that these brands can be better positioned and therefore have less cannibalization and appeal to different locations and different consumer needs if done correctly according to the model. So for example, in Argentina, we had the example of Quilmas and Brahma being right on top of each other and consumers didn't know exactly why I should pick one or the other. And last year, we did -- was the first country where we took the learnings -- even before the year started because we learned about that in 2016 -- and executed that and separated in terms of communication, packaging, every touch point, you separate more between core lager or classic lager and easy drinking. And the results are very good, were very good. So we are very excited about going to markets where we have similar issues, including the U.S. where Bud and Bud Light sometimes sit very close to each other, including Brazil, where Skol and Brahma for a long time have used some properties that are the same or very close, are executed in the same, displays in the supermarket and all that, and try to really get the personalities of these brands to really be more accentuated so they appeal to different occasions, different customer needs and therefore, more complementary than cannibalistic, okay? In terms of people, yes, we have the people. Our new colleagues from SAB, most of them that work with the category expansion model and most of them that we invited to stay, that embrace our new dream of the new company, stayed. So we're very excited, very proud to have -- to be called their partners, very proud to have them with us. So yes, as I said at the very beginning of the call, the category expansion has been adopted last year in our 3-year plan, in 1-year plan and it became company language. It's not a marquee language, it's a company language, right? So thank you. So if there are no more further questions, Maria, let me summarize the call. So in summary, 2017 was a transformational year for our company. Integration with SAB is our most successful ever. This is the first and foremost, due to our people, who have continued to amaze us throughout this process. We're also very excited about intellectual synergies that have arisen from the combination, such as for example, the category expansion framework we just discussed. Additionally, we achieved our best performance the last 3 years, grew revenue in 9 out of top 10 markets and achieving double-digit EBITDA growth. We'll continue to work hard to grow the global beer category while evolving our brand portfolio to ensure we're rising to every occasion to capture future growth. We're very excited about '18, 2018, knowing that the first quarter will be soft. And the reasons for that are very simple. First, phasing of sales and marketing initiatives, largely due to the World Cup year. If you go back to 2010 and 2014, the 2 last World Cups, you'll see that our first quarters or first half of the year are normally more charged in terms of sales and marketing because of all the promotions we do leading to the World Cup. So this year will be no different. But the other reason is that there is a soft top line start in Brazil. So not only Carnival was earlier this year; second, we had very poor weather since mid-December in Brazil, which again affected sales. And we also have a tough comp because last year in the first quarter, our Brazilian business, beer Brazil business grew ahead of the industry, 5.5 percentage points ahead of industry. So gain share big time last quarter. So weather, Carnival, tough comp. And there's also some inventory in China that moved because of Chinese New Year just like Carnival moving in the calendar year. So again -- but again, we're very excited about 2018. As we said in our outlook, we remain excited and committed to deliver strong revenue and EBITDA growth in the year knowing that the first quarter will be soft as a result of everything I said. So again, thank you very much for joining the call. And Dilly Dilly to all of you. Thanks so much. Bye-bye. OPERATOR: Thank you. This does conclude today's earnings conference call and webcast. Please disconnect your lines at this time, and have a wonderful day. 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Subject: Dividends; Corporate profits; Copyright; Emerging markets; Breweries; Beverages; Beer; Earnings per share
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Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 1, 2018
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Document 163 of 474
Q4 2017 Multiplan Empreendimentos Imobiliarios SA Earnings Call (Portuguese) - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]01 Mar 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Presentation OPERATOR: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to -- welcome, everyone, to Multiplan's Fourth Quarter of '17 Earnings Conference Call. Today with us we have Mr. José Isaac Peres, CEO; Mr. Armando d'Almeida Neto, CFO and IRO; Mr. Marcello Barnes, CIO; Mr. Hans Melchers, Investor Relations and Planning Director; and Mr. Franco Carrion, IR Manager. We would like to inform you that the presentation that will be made will be available for download at ir.multiplan.com.br. (Operator Instructions). Before proceeding, we would like to mention that forward-looking statements that might be made during this call relating to the business perspectives of the company, operating and financial projections and targets are beliefs and assumptions on the part of Multiplan's management as well as information currently available to the company. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance. They involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Therefore, they refer to future events and therefore they depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors should understand that general economic conditions, industry conditions and other operating factors may affect the future results of the company and lead to results that differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. Now, we would like to turn the conference over to Mr. José Isaac Peres, CEO, and he will start the presentation. Mr. Peres, you may proceed. JOSé ISAAC PERES, PRESIDENT DIRECTOR, CEO AND PRESIDENT, MULTIPLAN EMPREENDIMENTOS IMOBILIáRIOS S.A.: Good morning. Good morning, everyone. Ladies and gentlemen, it's a great pleasure to be with you, again. I will try to read more slowly because we have simultaneous translation. And I'm not going to leave my text. I have a few changes here, but afterwards, we will talk about that. And I am just mentioning this because normally or very often I say things that are not in my prepared text and that I deem convenient, but I will have more discipline this time. And we will have simultaneous translation in English for the benefit of our international investors. So what I wanted to say was the following: 2017, as we had anticipated, would be a year of recovery taking into account the radical change in politics, much better structured for the rebound of the economy and fiscal equilibrium. Therefore -- or nevertheless in 2017 some dismal political facts happened and they were published in a very sensationalist and reckless fashion in my opinion. And therefore, they hindered the economic growth that already was showing some recovery. Just to show you how the Brazilian economy was affected, I can mention the impact of that on the retail sector, in which we include ourselves. We started 2017 with 2-digit growth or 12% in March and 11% in April. And after the public prosecutor's office demonstration, the economy came to halt and we dropped to 1 digit and we only started, again, to feel an acceleration of the economy in the last quarter. And in spite of all this turbulence, the sales in the Multiplan shopping centers obtained a 7% growth and rental revenue growing by 8.4%. And the company obtained net income amounting to BRL 370 million, 18.4% higher than the previous year in spite of the major political crisis that took the country by storm as of May. And for this year, we expect a more robust economic result due to the fact that we find ourselves in a more adjusted economy with an inflation rate of about 3% and an unprecedented interest rate in the country that is, to say, 6.75%. We are always seeking new investments, new opportunities, as you know. And in 2017, we invested BRL 450 million in expansions and new projects. And another important fact that I would like to mention is that, for many years, we have already been developing technology, seeking a higher operating efficiency and also looking for digital models. And to increase our efficiency in 2017, we started negotiations with an IT company, which is very much focused on e-commerce. And in a sense, we established a partnership by acquiring a 20% stake in the company, and we could go up to 30%. And we are talking about [Solab], a company that has as its main activity the development of technological solutions applied to digital retail. We are integrating the expertise of Multiplan's digital innovation team with the knowledge, tools and technologies developed by highly experienced professionals in e-commerce. And our objectives will always be to deliver more convenience and more services to our customers and tenants as well. And ultimately, what we want us to bring to the homes of our consumers, all the retail array that we have in our shopping center always focusing on real trade commerce. And we believe that growth of retail going from real to virtual could accelerate sales in shopping centers themselves because technology and e-commerce will change the result that we obtain. And we know that we are giving very important steps and that will bring more comfort, more ease to our consumers. And we understand that the shopping centers will sell more because of this digital technology. And I would like to mention also that the model that we are building in Brazil -- or have been building in Brazil for a long time is a product that is totally different from the others that exists abroad, mainly the United States. These are projects that are focused on pleasure and give our consumers an appealing environment making them much more of a meeting point, a safe meeting point where they can carry out many activities. And we add more and more services. We recently, in June last year, we inaugurated a ribbon opening to a shopping with 32 clinics, a medical center and we are renewing our vision applying all our current knowledge of the constriction of ParkShopping Canoas supported by a tripod, nature, entertainment and shopping. And in Canoas, we inaugurated that with a spectacular success to the extent that we were worried because of the size of our parking facilities. And the first 30 days were fantastic, sales higher than our estimates. And now I would like to mention the fact that we started to build the shopping center in 2015, and we inaugurated in 2017 when we were braving the biggest economic crisis in the history of this country. And I want to mention that because we want to reiterate that we opened the shopping center with 90% of the stores already in operation. And it was a record, when no shopping center inaugurated in this country in the last 3 years was capable of such feat. Thus motivated by the results obtained, we made a decision to start, still in 2017, as we had already announced, and I would like to reiterate that it was very good to start this in 2017. But I want to say that in December we already started to build these facilities. And we estimate this to be concluded in the next 24 months. And finally, my friends, I would like to mention that in this country, if we were to wait for the crisis to go away, we wouldn't have done practically anything, because in the last 50 years, at least, which I have been living, we have had over 10 different crises of different dimensions and proportions and nature. But what is really important is that Brazil continues steadfast as a nation and as a democracy growing. And thanks to the efforts made by the current administration today, we find ourselves in a country that was able to recover the confidence of both Brazilian and international investors. And we hope that Brazilians, in the next elections, will be able to choose a new Congress and a President that are sufficiently sensible and committed to the development and also to the reforms that were and remain to be made in order to guarantee a sustainable economic growth and a socially more equitable society. I would like to thank the Multiplan team for the very hard work done this year, which helped us to deliver this outstanding result. I would like to thank all the investors that have placed their trust in us. And now I would like to give the floor to Armando who will be talking about our figures. ARMANDO D'ALMEIDA NETO, VP BOARD OF EXECUTIVE OFFICERS, VICE CEO AND CFO & IR OFFICER, MULTIPLAN EMPREENDIMENTOS IMOBILIáRIOS S.A.: Thank you, Peres. Good morning, everyone. With the announcement of the results of the fourth quarter, we realize that we are already in a new year and with the country resuming economic growth, and this brings us a lot of satisfaction because we see the results reached in 2017. And by the way, with a lot of satisfaction, we see that sales in our centers continue to grow in all quarters, even during the last few years when the country was braving a very strong crisis and the company remained profitable, delivered extremely high financial and operating margins and did not stop investing and improved even further properties, acquiring interests and developing new areas. It looks like we have made it. While many said that this should not -- could not be done during the worst of the crisis, Multiplan delivered a new shopping center plus 5 expansions between 2015 and 2017. We exchanged approximately 1,100 stores corresponding to an area of 106,000 square meters, maintaining a high occupancy rate in our portfolio. Recently, in January, 2018, we disclosed the preliminary data for the fourth quarter. And we heard that growth was lower than expected, and we certainly respect everybody's opinions. However, I would like to present our opinions here. What would be better to have a lower comparison base in the fourth quarter of 2016 to show a higher percentage growth in 2017, certainly, we do not consider this as right. As we said, we grew in all quarters in 2017, '16 and also '15, '14, '13 and this was what happened since we became a listed company in 2007. 43 quarters delivering growing shopping center sales, and we are very proud of that. And another point would be (inaudible) is that very often analyses focus only on same-store sales neglecting the daily tasks of property management and change of mix reflecting same area sales. In 2017, sales grew by 6.8%, same-store sales 5.2%, over 2.5x what we had in 2016, and same area sales growing 6.6%, twice what was obtained in 2016, and consumer inflation was 2.95%. And this growth is real, it is strong and it was obtained over a very high base already. Our shopping centers had 97.4% average occupancy rate, opening 57,600 square meters in the year, basically, concentrated in the fourth quarter. And the occupancy cost was stable at 12.9%, delinquency went down and the gross revenue of the company grew by 3.9% with rental revenue being the biggest part representing 77.1% of the overall gross revenue. Rental revenue grew by 8.3% with same-store rent 7.1%, however, you increase over the effect of the IGP-DI adjustment that was 6.5% in 2017. And this increase would be even higher when compared directly to the IGP-DI of 2017, that was negative by 0.4%. In the fourth quarter, we had the biggest real growth because this -- it went back real growth. That didn't happen in 2016, that was 2% and expenses were BRL 40.2 million higher or 12.9%. And basically, the effect of the mark-to-market of phantom stock options and expenses with new projects as well. Here, concentrated in the opening of the ParkShopping Canoas, there are expenses related to the launch of new areas, as you know, that cannot be activated causing a distortion in the quarterly result. And the headquarter expenses and shopping center expenses were lower by 4.4% and 0.4%, respectively. In relation to the shopping center expenses, I would like to reminder you that we grew GLA by 7% and even in spite of that we were able to get this small reduction. And commenting about the result, the NOI was 8.4% higher with a margin increase to 87.6%, exceeding BRL 1 billion. EBITDA grew 0.9% due to one-off nonrecurring expenses, as I said a while ago. If, for analysis purposes, these expenses were to be excluded, EBITDA would grow 5.7%. FFO and net income grew very steeply, 15.3% and 18.4%, respectively. In 2017, FFO reached BRL 558.5 million and net income, as Mr. Peres said, BRL 369.4 million, both with a good performance in our margin. And the strong increase is due mainly to operating growth and a drop in interest rates and also the payment of interest on equity. In 2017, we returned to our shareholder the highest amount ever paid out BRL 440 million, representing also the highest percentage over the net income which was 68.3%. In 2017, we invested BRL 449.6 million, allocated mainly to the development of new areas. Together with that, we had the distribution of results that I have just mentioned, and it is evident, our continued strategy to optimize capital allocation. And this has made possible due to the stable financial situation and strong cash generation that Multiplan has. Net debt corresponded at the end of 2017 to 2.34x EBITDA, very far from the covenant and representing only 11.3% of the fair value of our properties. In the last 2 years, we accelerated our borrowings back to CDI, which allowed us to better take advantage of the drop in interest rates. And the average weighted cost of our gross debt is 8.24% a year, with an average maturity of 49 months. The amortization schedule is distributed over the years with no major concentrations, and they are, up to now, lower than the cash generation measured by the FFO of 2017, not considering our cash position that we have in our balance sheet. We have an in-house habit in which Peres' speech, when he inaugurates a new shopping, starts with in spite of the crisis. Well, in Canoas, this was more than deserved, and we are very proud for having launched and delivered a new shopping center during the biggest crisis in the country. And what seemed almost impossible became reality as a result of our strategy, our effort and the dedication and capacity to invest. We inaugurated the most modern shopping center in the country, integrated nature to entertainment and shopping. We opened with 90% of the area already in operation and the figure has already gone up. And at the end of January, it was already 93.4%. And before closing, a brief note about the performance of our shares going up 19.4% in 2017 with a high liquidity with the average daily trading volume of BRL 52.1 million, 32% higher than in 2016. And during these 10 years, as a listed company, Multiplan implemented its growth strategy with a clear focus on what is best for the company in the long run. Now I think you for your attention and your trust. And I would like to open for questions now. Thank you much. Questions and Answers OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) Mr. Gustavo from BTG Pactual. GUSTAVO CAMBAUVA, RESEARCH ANALYST, BANCO BTG PACTUAL S.A., RESEARCH DIVISION: I have 2 questions. The first one is about how you see the possibility of increasing what you charge for parking. In 2017, you didn't make any increases in this price and it was flat. So is there a possibility or intention on your part to increase the price for parking in some of your parking center -- some of your shopping centers? And about Mr. Peres' initial remarks, I would like to know your outlook for new greenfields today? I know you announced (inaudible) and on one hand, the economy is improving, but on the other hand, we see quite a lot of area being added to shopping centers. And now with the challenge of e-commerce, I would like to understand whether you are still bullish to continue building new greenfield shopping centers with the scenario? UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE: I will answer your question. Parking is not the object of the company and parking is only charged in this country. Nobody ever did that before. If I do not explain the context, you will not understand the answer. Parking lots were franchised and we had a lot of problems with theft in the cars. And because of that, we came to the conclusion that we had to have a higher control and give more security. And because of the situation that we have in the country regarding public security, we had to create parking facilities and charge for that so that we could give our tenants and everybody a higher degree of safety. And I can say to you that part of what is charged for parking is shared in order to reduce the cost of operation of the shopping center. So I would like you to understand that parking is not an end, it's just a need. And it would be great if we could not charge anything and that Brazil were a country like some others that don't charge and they only have 2 security people, and we have about 200 people doing this kind of protection. So this is the first point. About increases. There were some very small cases, but let's not give a bigger step, because we are about to leave a crisis. We are leaving the crisis behind. And for this year, we expect a higher recovery and the figures are improving. And I think this year will be better. And we have (inaudible) as a greenfield shopping center for 40,000 meters of gross leasable area. And in Canoas, as you know, our focus [wasn't] on entertaining and nature and shopping, and this is a model to mitigate the fact that current society, mainly youngsters, are becoming more and more interactive, and they look for more and more interaction. So we have to think about shopping centers in a different way because shopping centers are the place where the person -- it was -- it used to be a place where people just went there to buy something specific, but now it is much more of a meeting point. People like to go there, and there are movie houses, and they go there to eat and to have fun. And this is the model that we're building in Brazil. Recently, we had a workshop with some international consultants, and I was very pleased to hear from them that had the Americans made shopping centers like the ones that we are doing in Brazil, they would not be facing a crisis today. I don't know whether I have answered your question, but we are going to do many things, expansions, we have not announced yet, but we will do this. I don't know whether I have answered your question or not. OPERATOR: Mr. Marcelo from JPMorgan. MARCELO GARALDI MOTTA, RESEARCH ANALYST, JP MORGAN CHASE & CO, RESEARCH DIVISION: I have 2 questions. Could you give us some additional color about (inaudible), CapEx and relevant investment for the next few years in order to have this integration with Multiplan? And will this generate an increase in sales? And do you have a target for that? And could you talk about the scenario? In view, I know it's too early to say, but have you perceived any changes in traffic -- in visitors' traffics in your shopping centers? JOSé ISAAC PERES: Marcelo, visitor flow has been increasing in the first months, exception made to February because we had Carnival in February and last year it was in March. But in spite of Carnival, visitor flow was positive. And Rio, as everybody knows, is under a federal intervention. And in a way, it was positive for Rio. In spite of the fact that he has not the highest criminality rate in the whole country, there are many other cities and states that have worse rates than Rio. Our problem in the Rio is that the publicity that is given to criminality not always corresponds to the real fact, but those who are not in Rio, those who are outside of Rio, they have the sensation that they will come to Rio and they will have to wear a bulletproof vest and a helmet and that is -- there is a war being waged, but this is not the reality. Even in the United States there are regions where cities are more or less like that. But, of course, with the economic crisis, in Rio, this became deeper and not paying policemen salaries is a big problem. I would like to tell you that, we have already been through many crises in the states with higher rates of violence. And I think that from now on we will be recovering this and overcoming violence and Rio will, once again, be seen as the beautiful city that it is, it's attracting tourists, et cetera. Today, traffic in Rio is better and subway comes to the Barra region much easily. And if it were not for this very unpleasant situation of safety in Rio and also due to the fact that the state is broke, it went down to drain because of the oil situation when the barrel reached $40, in a way all the revenue of the state was reduced. But this year, we believe that there will be a better level of fiscal equilibrium, and we hope the situation improves in Rio. And our figures are not bad for Rio. And it is important to mention that when we talk about Rio, you have, I don't know, how many square kilometers. But we are concentrated on the west zone of Rio. This is a fastest growing region in Rio. I mean, we have BarraShopping, we have VillageMall in (inaudible). So maybe Armando could mention this, but we want to show you that Rio is not as bad as people think. Rio grew more than our average in Sao Paolo and in Belo Horizonte as an average. When we look at the individual growth, we see 10.3%, and (inaudible) Campo Grande is 16.8%. So it's quite the opposite. Our performance in Rio was very good in spite of what has already been said. Last year, we started to talk with some people in e-commerce, and we have our digital innovation team in-house. And we have an independent company that works for a third party and a lucrative company, a profitable company. And so we decided to make this investment in this company, initially, a 20% stake and possibility going up to 30%. It was an investment of BRL 7 million, it was not a big one, but very important in terms of placing our team closer to e-commerce professionals and bringing more knowledge, more market knowledge and the way it operates. And my feeling about real commerce and virtual commerce is the following: Many companies started with e-commerce, and they decided to go to real commerce, and it has to do with distribution centers, which is one of the big problems that some of these companies face. And many of these companies, e-commerce companies, present results much based on the expectation of future results, and with a price profit ratio of 200 or 300. We understand that having real commerce so something very good, but human nature is not going to change. The need for contact, the need for human warmth and being together with other people, and we have the feeling that by having a cell phone, you have the feeling that you have lots of people around you. What I feel now is that people are suffering, in fact, and what we want to give is joy, is happiness. And I welcome the opportunity to tell you that, of course, we want to grow in real commerce as well. But with e-commerce, we want to bring to the homes consumers the whole array of products and services and maybe later on delivery, but this will represent a real increase of about 10% to 15% in our shopping centers. Of course, it's not going to be quantum leap. This is not the way things happen and it's easier to go from real to virtual than the other way around, okay? OPERATOR: Enrico from Itaú. ENRICO TROTTA, VP OF LATAM REAL ESTATE, ITAú CORRETORA DE VALORES S.A., RESEARCH DIVISION: Mr. Peres and Armando, I have 2 questions. You talked about the maturity of contracts. And looking at 2018, the expectation is that about 11% of the contracts, in terms of gross leasable area, would come to an end. So how much do they represent, not in gross leasable area but in terms of revenues? And could you talk about your expectation about renewing, when we talk about the rent per square meter? And the second question has to do with debt. You have about 35% concentrated in (inaudible) lines and the cost of debt is higher than the CDI lines. So I believe you still have room to decrease your exposure from the TR or the reference related to the CDI. So I would like to understand a little bit of this side of opportunity for further reductions for the cost of debt? ARMANDO D'ALMEIDA NETO: This is Armando speaking. Thank you for participating in the call. I am sorry for the delay in my answer because I was looking for the page where you can find this information, the relevance of that. And in 2018, 52 of the -- 11.2% of the GLA coming to an end, 14.4% of our overall revenue. So there is no big distortion. And our expectations of contract renew is positive. We see shopping centers quite full of consumers and some stores and some tenants with expansion plans. And I think you saw that thousands of stores are planning to open and this is being announced by the tenant's club of (inaudible). And talking with major operators, we see that they want to improve the portfolio and increase space, together with an occupancy rate that, during all these challenging years, remained very high, as you saw in our presentation. And the renew of these operations will be by means of new business models and new segments such as we have been doing over the years. In relation to borrowing, financing, your view is correct. When you look at the average cost in base ATR is 9.2% something like that. And when we look at the Selic at 6.175%, it seems to exist a very good opportunity. But when you look at the curve of interest rates and pre-fixed for 5 years and 7 years, they will give you a duration more similar to the contract that we have in TR. And when you look at that, you can see that they are at 9.7%, 9.5% depending on the duration. So the path is not so clear if you take this into account. So if the company believes that the drop in interest rates will accelerate even further, and as you can see, when you look 2, 3 years ago, the drop in financing. We were able to cross a period of high interest rates with our financing in TR,, and so the average -- or the weighted gross average debt would be -- was lower than the CDI, and there we had a big gap between this and the CDI. And now with 12, 18 months duration, we were able to get a very strong reduction in this cost and taking advantage of the lower interest rates. We are always assessing opportunities. We are assessing many opportunities right now, but exchanging the TR for the CDI right now doesn't seem to be something that would be good in the extremely short run. OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) Thank you very much. And there are no more questions. I would like to turn the floor to Mr. José Isaac Peres for his closing remarks. Mr. Peres, you may proceed. JOSé ISAAC PERES: Once again, I would like to thank you for patience in listening to us. And I would like to stress that the fact that we have to speak slowly, sometimes I think about things that I would like to say and then all of a sudden, because of simultaneous translation into English, outside what we say with the written script could make it difficult for simultaneous translation purposes. I felt a little bit constrained due to the fact that I had to follow a prepared text. But anyway, I thank you very much for your patience and your attention. OPERATOR: Thank you very much. Multiplan's conference call for the fourth quarter of 2017 results is closed. Thank you very much. And please disconnect your lines now. Thank you. [Thomson Financial reserves the right to make changes to documents, content, or other information on this web site without obligation to notify any person of such changes. In the conference calls upon which Event Transcripts are based, companies may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding a variety of items. 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User may not reproduce or redistribute the material except for user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon Thomson Financial's or ASC's copyright or other proprietary rights or interests in the material; provided, however, that members of the news media may redistribute limited portions (less than 250 words) of this material without a specific license from Thomson Financial and ASC so long as they provide conspicuous attribution to Thomson Financial and ASC as the originators and copyright holders of such material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation.]
Subject: Copyright; Shopping centers; Electronic commerce
Location: Brazil
Company / organization: Name: Thomson Financial; NAICS: 511210, 518210, 519190
Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 1, 2018
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: Linthicum
Country of publication: United States, Linthicum
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Law--Corporate Law
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2014334262
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2014334262?accountid=4840
Copyright: 2018 Thomson Financial and ASC LLC
Last updated: 2018-03-17
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 164 of 474
Q4 2017 Ambev SA Earnings Call - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]01 Mar 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Presentation OPERATOR: Good morning, and thank you for waiting. We would like to welcome everyone to Ambev's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2017 Results Conference call. Today with us we have Mr. Bernardo Paiva, CEO for Ambev; and Mr. Ricardo Rittes, CFO and Investor Relations Officer. We would like to inform you that this event is being recorded, and all participants will be in listen-only mode during the Company's presentation. (Operator Instructions) Before proceeding, let me mention that forward-looking statements are being made under the Safe Harbor of the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1996. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of Ambev's management, and on information currently available to the company. They involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions because they relate to future events, and therefore depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. Investors should understand that general economic conditions, industry conditions, and other operating factors could also affect the future results of Ambev, and could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. I would also like to remind everyone that, as usual, the percentage changes that will be discussed during today's call are both organic and normalized in nature, and, unless otherwise stated, percentage changes refer to comparisons with Q4 or full year 2017 results. Normalized figures refer to performance measures before exceptional items, which are either income or expenses that do not occur regularly as part of Ambev's normal activities. As normalized figures are non-GAAP measures, the company discloses the consolidated profit, EPS, EBIT, and EBITDA on a fully reported basis in the earnings release. Now I'll turn the conference over to Mr. Ricardo Rittes, CFO and Investor Relations Officer. Mr. Rittes, you may begin your conference. RICARDO RITTES DE OLIVEIRA SILVA PAIVA, CHIEF FINANCIAL & IR OFFICER AND MEMBER OF EXECUTIVE BOARD OF OFFICERS, AMBEV S.A.: Thank you very much. Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining our 2017 fourth quarter and full year earnings call. I will guide you through our operational highlights of Brazil, CAC, LAS, and Canada, including our below-the-line items and cash flow. After that, Bernardo will give you more details about the evolution of our commercial platforms in Brazil. Starting with the main highlights of our consolidated figures, our results have steadily evolved throughout 2017. After a challenging first half, we posted robust results in the second half of the year, especially in Q4, our strongest quarter. It is important to highlight that [the] Q4 is the most important quarter in the beer business, representing roughly 36% of the EBITDA in the year. On a consolidated basis, top line was up 14.7% in the quarter. In the full year, top line rose by 9.6%, with volumes growing by 0.9% and net revenue per hectoliter by 8.5%. EBITDA was up 22% in the quarter. That corresponds to organic growth of BRL1.3 billion compared to the fourth quarter of 2016. In the full year, EBITDA grew by 7.9%, reaching BRL20.1, with an EBITDA margin of 42.1%. Net profit was down 31.7% in the quarter, while, on a normalized basis, net profit was up 23.2%. The main difference between reported and normalized profit is a non-cash financial expense of BRL836 million related to foreign exchange translation losses and intra-group lows that were historically reported in [equity] and were recycled to profit-and-loss account in the fourth quarter of 2017. In the full year, net profit was down 40%, while adjusted by exceptional items, net profit was up 2.1%. Along with the negative financial impact in the fourth quarter that I just mentioned we had for the year, first, the swap of assets carried out with ABI at the end of 2016, pursuant to which we agreed to transfer of business in Columbia, Peru, and Ecuador in exchange for the Panamanian business originally owned by SABMiller. [Such] transaction resulted in a BRL1.2 billion non-cash gain in the fourth quarter of 2016, creating a hard comparable. And number two, the adherence to Brazilian [federal] tax [regularization] program that resulted in the recognition of a tax expense of BRL2.8 billion in the third quarter of 2017. Cash flow from operating activities reached BRL8.9 billion in the quarter and BRL17.9 billion in the full year, which represents an increase of BRL5.5 billion, or 44.8% compared to 2016. Now moving to our divisional results, in Brazil, our EBITDA was up 24.3% in the quarter and 0.6% in the full year, while our results in the first half of 2017 were still impacted by expected negative drivers, we lacked most of the drivers in the second half of the year, returning to [a] pattern of growth. Brazil beer top line was up 15.2% in the quarter, and 6.3% in the full year. Our beer volumes were up 5.1% in the quarter and 0.7% in the full year, outperforming the industry. Net revenues per hectoliter in beer increased by a robust 9.6% in Q4, mainly driven by our revenue management initiatives implemented during the third quarter. In the full year, net revenue per hectoliter was up 5.6%. Now talking about Brazil, CSD and NANC, the top line was up 6.7% in the quarter and up 1.6% in the full year. Volumes were down 3.7% in the quarter, in line with the industry, while, in the full year, volumes declined by 4.3%, [lagging] the industry, as the adverse consumer environment continued to drive consumers away from CSD to low-cost powder juices, or even to tap water. Net revenue per hectoliter in the CSD and NANC business was up 10.8% in the quarter and 6.2% in the full year, driven by our price management initiatives implemented during the year. Brazil cash COGS grew by 0.7% in the quarter, while, on a per-hectoliter basis, declined by 2.2%, benefited by a favorable FX. In the second half of 2017, Brazil cash COGS per hectoliter was up 1.0%, which is in line with our guidance of flattish to low single digits up. In the full year, Brazil cash COGS and cash COGS per hectoliter increased by 9.8% and 10.4% respectively. Brazil cash SG&A was up 19.9% in the quarter as higher administrative expenses due to variable compensation accruals was partially offset by below-inflation sales and marketing expenses. In the full year, cash SG&A was up 5.5%. As a result, Brazil EBITDA was up 24.3% in the quarter and 0.6% in the full year. Moving now to Central America and the Caribbean region. In CAC, we deliver another solid year. Our performance was marked by great results in our new operations in Panama, now the second largest market in the region after the Dominican Republic. Going to more details, in the fourth quarter, top line in CAC increased by 15% and EBITDA by 25.2%, with another quarter of margin expansion. In the full year, top line grew by 8.8%, leading to an EBITDA of BRL1.8 billion, an increase of 23.3% when compared to the full year of 2016, with a robust margin expansion of 500 basis points to 38.9%. In U.S. dollars, reported EBITDA grew more than 40% in the quarter and 30% in the full year, reaching almost $600 million. While we're still impacted by the severe hurricane season that affected the region in the third quarter, we were able to deliver solid organic volume growth of 4.3% in Q4, driving a 1.9% volumes decrease in the full year. Reported volumes increased by 30.1% in the quarter and by 26.9% in the full year, benefiting from the recent swap of assets carried out with ABI and our operations in Panama. The integration with Panama continued to be executed as planned, and our portfolio of brands that comprise Atlas Golden Light and Stella Artois, among others, achieved great results in the year, contributing to double-digits organic volume growth and significant market share gain in the country. Further, we benefited from our financial discipline in the whole region, leveraging both costs and expenses, leading to an EBITDA margin expansion for the fifth year in a row. Going forward, we continue to be enthusiastic, with top line and EBITDA growth potential from our current operations as well as with [non-organic] opportunities, being confident that we are in the right track to keep delivering solid results in the region and to reach our $1 billion EBITDA dream for that region. Turning to Latin America South. Top line in that region was up 22.6%, and EBITDA grew by 23.6% in the quarter. In the full year, top line increased by 26.1%, and EBITDA by 24%, reaching BRL4.9 billion with margin contraction of 80 basis points to 45.2%, mainly due to negative impact of FX on our costs in Argentina. Volumes were up 5.8% in Q4, driven by growth in both beers, CSD, and NANC. Specifically regarding beer, we had a remarkable performance in, number one, Argentina, as double-digit volume growth was supported by our complete portfolio in the country from the mainstream segment with Brahma that grew more than 20%, with [profits trending up]; coupled with Quilmes, with the launch of Quilmes Classic, which was a great success; and also premium, with the Stella Artois and Patagonia leading the way. Second, Paraguay, led by the successful implementation of 340 mL returnable glass bottle strategy, and third, Uruguay, driven by execution improvement and a strong industry. In the full year, volumes were up 5.9%, supported by double-digit increase of beer volumes Argentina, and by the performance of all global brands in the region that presented growth versus last year, enabling us to achieve our all-time high volume mark for beer in LAS. As we move forward, we're encouraged by the rebound of volumes in Argentina, where we have a particularly positive outlook for 2018, being confident that we are well-positioned to keep posting strong results in the region. Moving now to Canada. EBITDA in Canada declined by 2.3% in the quarter as inorganic top line growth of 1.3% was impacted by higher costs and expenses. In the full year, top line was flattish, and EBITDA grew by 0.9%, reaching BRL2 billion, with margin expansion of 20 basis points to 33.9%. Volumes were down 0.7% in Q4, driven by poor weather that led to another quarter of industry contraction. In the full year, volumes declined by 1.3%, in line with the industry. Despite the tough industry, our main brands performed particularly well, with Bud Light being the fastest-growing brand in the country, and Stella Artois and our portfolio of local craft beer that include Archibald, Stanley Park, Mills Street, among others, outperforming the industry. Going forward, we remain committed to pursuing proven results in Canada, supported by our strong brands and by our leading market position. Now moving to below EBITDA, net financial results totaled an expense of BRL1.2 billion in the quarter. In the full year, net financial results reached an expense of BRL3.5 billion, which includes 2 exceptional financial expenses, debt total BRL977 million. Those 2 items are, number one, BRL836 million with no cash impact related to foreign exchange translation losses on intra-group loans that were historically reported in equity and were recycled in the fourth quarter to profit and loss account upon reimbursement of these loans; and BRL141 million paid in connection with the Brazilian federal tax regularization program. Excluding such exceptional expenses, net financial results total an expense of BRL412 million in the quarter and BRL2.5 billion in the full year, which represents a decline of 32% compared to 2016. Moving to more details. (inaudible) financial expenses in the year were, first, interest income of BRL459 million, driven by our cash balance essentially in Brazilian reis, U.S. dollars, and Canadian dollars; second, interest expense of BRL1.6 billion that include the accrual of around BRL600 million related to the put option associated with our investment in Dominican Republic. As announced on January 18, 2018, we increased our participation in the CND business from 55% to 85%. With that, we continue our partnership with the Leon Jimenes Company, but with a larger stake. Third, BRL543 million of loss on derivative instruments, mainly driven by the carry cost of our FX (inaudible), primarily linked to our COGS exposure in Brazil and Argentina. Important to mention that losses on derivatives instruments declined by almost 65% when compared to the full year of 2016, as low interest rates in Brazil contributed for the reduction of carry costs. Fourth, losses on loan derivative instruments of BRL112 million mainly related to FX translation. Fifth, tax and financial transactions in the amount of BRL180 million; and sixth, BRL572 million of other financial expenses mainly driven by interest and contingencies. The effective tax rate was up in the quarter for 9.9% to 34.3%, mainly due to an exception non-cash tax adjustment of approximately BRL510 million related to the tax effects of the foreign exchange variation linked to the intra-group loans that, as I just mentioned, were historically reported in equity and were recycled to profit and loss account upon the reimbursement of those loans. In the full year, effective tax rate was 39.3% versus 2.4% in 2016, as we not only faced a tough comparable, but were also impacted by the exceptional tax adjustment of BRL2.8 billion related to the Brazilian federal tax regularization program that we announced in the third quarter. Adjusted by those exceptional items, the effective tax rate was 23.9% in the quarter and 12.8% in the full year. Finally, CapEx totaled BRL3.2 billion in 2017, declining 22.5%. On top of that, during the year, we returned approximately BRL8.5 billion to equity holders in dividends and interest on capital. This figure does not include a dividend payment of approximately BRL1.1 billion announced on December 21, 2017 and made as of February 22, 2018. Thank you very much. I will now hand over to Bernardo before going to Q&A. BERNARDO PINTO PAIVA, CEO & MEMBER OF EXECUTIVE BOARD OF OFFICERS, AMBEV S.A.: Thank you, Ricardo. Hello, everyone. As mentioned by Ricardo, we ended 2017 with a solid fourth quarter, delivering on a consolidated basis an EBITDA growth of more than 20%. In Brazil, where I will concentrate my comments on, our beer business consistently [evolved] throughout the year. Particularly in the last quarter, we posted strong top line, driven by a healthy net revenue per hectoliter increase and solid volumes, driving [BTA] growth of 27.5% and margin expansion of 500 basis points. Beer volumes were up 5.1%, way above the industry that was flattish, outperforming the market in all the segments, core, core-plus, and premium. In the full year, our beer volumes were up 0.7% while the industry was slightly negative due to a still-weak consumer environment. In this context, even though the macro in Brazil continued very challenged, we were able to strength of our market position and return to growth. In addition during the year, we also continued to [proudly explore] our beer expertise, offering to consumers a unique portfolio of high-quality beers [meaning to] fulfill different needs and based on different occasions. We granted to consumers the power of choice, as beer is like happiness - everyone has its own recipe. Having said that, we are confident that all these achievements were fueled by the initiatives taken under our growth platforms. (inaudible), our first and most relevant platform, in 2017, we implemented the most significant package improvements of [Brahma and Skol's] history, (inaudible) to our consumers in (inaudible). Further, we kept progressing with our marketing strategy, exploring the connection with the core consumer, differentiating and innovating our brands. As I mentioned in our third quarter earnings call, Skol, our easy-drinking lager, launched in October at both campaign (inaudible) the summer season and evoking, once again, (inaudible) signature, exploring the round-versus square expression, (inaudible) people to be more open, connected, and respectful to each other. This campaign comprised 8 different TV ads, new trade materials, and strong digital activation. The results were great, with the best consumer valuation we've seen in Skol campaigns during the recent years, [putting] the brand in a positive momentum. Such momentum has been enforced by the remarkable activations during Carnival [of] this year. Once again, Skol took a leading role in promoting the most important street parties in Brazil, such as Sao Paolo, Salvador, (inaudible), providing free entertainment for the population. Now talk about Brahma, our classic lager. Brahma had an amazing 2017, growing strongly quarter-after-quarter. As mentioned in our last call, Brahma's new [VBI] generating notable results, with consumers' purchase intention growing quite significantly. This (inaudible) [perception] of the new visual brand identity of Brahma was boosted by the (inaudible) campaign, a very successful one. As we move to 2018, we are confident that Brahma is in a good position to maintain 2017 growth trend, supported by a strong (inaudible) division during the 2018 FIFA World Cup [Russia]. [Still on] Brahma's family, but (inaudible) was one of the main highlights of the year, providing consumers with access to a variety of beer styles, showing that food and beer can go along very well in making gastronomy something accessible to everyone. In the full year, Brahma [S. A] almost doubled its volume, definitely consolidating in the core-plus segment in Brazil. Finally, Antarctica. Antarctica has a very relevant regional role, especially in Rio and Brasilia. In 2017, its major highlight was the results of the innovative Web series format, (inaudible) in reality, being close to the consumer's life and their everyday life, the series continued to deliver great numbers, reaching more than 50 million views. In 2018, (inaudible) has maintained its consistency, promoting the Carnival in Rio and Brazil, and, during the first quarter, bring another very important moment - the launch of its new visual brand identity. Following the results and learnings we had with both Skol and Brahma, Antarctica's new VBI is expected to be a major success, exploring brand's tradition and quality. Now moving to premium, consumers are increasing trading up, and the complete portfolio of premium brands has proven to be key to capture all the benefits arising from this trend. In the fourth quarter, our premium portfolio of global and domestic brands experienced a great acceleration. All the brands grew substantially, driving positive mix and EBITDA margin expansion. In the full year, our premium volumes also presented amazing results, growing double-digits and accounting for more than 10% of our total beer volumes. We are proud that Budweiser was the leading brand of the premium segment for the third year in a row, growing more than 30% while continuing to build its connection to consumers with meaningful and impactful [message], such as the award (inaudible) NBA and the Latin [Say] campaigns. We are also proud to say that Colorado became in 2017 the number one crafted brand in Brazil, inviting consumers to experience different tastes and the wide variety of ingredients, showing to all of us that more than 10,000 years of beer history was marked by diversity, and we will continue to convey this legacy. Looking ahead into 2018, we are confident that we have a very powerful portfolio to provide consumers with a wide diversity of premium brands while bringing memorable experiences. Moving to different occasions and starting with [being] home, RGBs continue to be a big focus for this year, carrying our core brands and having an affordable proposition. We have evolved with the penetration of returnable glass bottle and (inaudible) [channel], bringing affordability to consumers with a higher profitability. In 2017, returnable glass bottles accounted for 29% of our beer volumes in the retail, which includes supermarkets, mom-and-pops, pit stops, among others. With the 300 mL bottles, the main presentation in this channel growing double-digits year-over-year. (inaudible) in-home, we also implemented new trade programs during the year to boost the shop experience in all different size and formats of stores with the off-trade channel. Turning now to [other] formal occasion. The on-trade continues to be the most relevant channel in Brazil, representing the most of our volume. We've been segmenting even more this channel, and, with that, designing and implementing [pre]-programs to each subsegment of the on-trade that increase the effectiveness of our investment and the output of volumes. Regarding excellence in client service, as a service-oriented company, enhance our [route] to market and our service level is at the core of our priorities. For instance, we are [still] expanding a number of [box] served by the company. We are also strengthening our relationship with our clients through the improvement of our tele-sales capabilities, what is [resulting] in increasing clients' satisfaction. On top of that, we are also continue to further develop our B2B platforms, particularly for the off-trade channel and VIP clients, and to invest behind new technologies, striving towards the best-in-class level service. Finally, moving to CSD and NANC, in the fourth quarter, in spite of the volumes going down 3.7%, in line with the industry, we were able to deliver top line growth in CSD and NANC contributing to a [DD] margin expansion. In the full year, our volumes were down 4.3%, outperforming the industry. Regardless of the pressure in the traditional CSD industry, our (inaudible) volume we see in CSD and NANC, which comprise Fusion, H2OH, Lipton, Gatorade, and [Dubane], delivered strong results in 2017. H2OH and Lipton grew by double digits, where Fusion by high single digits. On top of that, Dubane volumes increased by more than 100%, supported by the launch of the new line, [Dubane Tologia]. Such premium brands reached together almost 10% of our CSD and NANC volumes in the full year. Before closing, I would also like to highlight that 2017 was marked by the evolution of our Better World platform. We want to be here for the next 100 years, and our commitment to sustainability is at the core of our priorities, as well. For instance, in the beginning of 2017, we launched AMA, a mineral water for which 100% of the profit goes to projects for access to potable water in the semi-arid region of Brazil. AMA already benefited more than 7,000 people and has demonstrated great potential to continue to grow. [We're also involved] in our road safety project, such as the (inaudible) that saved more than 420 lives in 67 counties in the state of Sao Paolo, and Brazil (inaudible) Segura, that in one year saved more than 130 lives in the federal district. These are only a few examples and, going forward, we will keep [advancing] behind our Better World platform, supporting areas to continue to enhance not only our business, but the whole society. In summary, 2017 was an important year in which we reached an inflection point, resuming growth and strengthening the fundamentals of our business. As we move to 2018, we will continue to be consistent with our strategy, but expect a challenge first quarter for Brazil beer, especially in terms of volume due to, first, a hard-com in the first quarter of 2017 when we outperform the industry by 5.5%; and second, a soft industry that's expected to be impacted by the earlier Carnival and very poor weather. Nonetheless, we have a positive outlook for the rest of the year, even though the consumer environment remains volatile. Lower inflation and declining unemployment rate and a gradual increase in disposable income as the year progress as well as the FIFA World Cup, should be supported for the industry. On top of that, we are very confident that we have a powerful portfolio and a solid plan to further accelerate EBITDA growth. We believe Brazil continues to be a unique market that we have experience, and we will keep pursuing growth and profitability. In this contest, a consistent execution of our growth platforms as well as our passion for bringing the best quality beers in the world, will continue to be of paramount importance. We can go now to the Q&A. Thank you. Questions and Answers OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) Luca Cipiccia, Goldman Sachs. LUCA CIPICCIA, RESEARCH ANALYST, GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: Congratulations on the strong finish, and I guess on carrying the torch of optimism for Brazil consumers. And I would actually want to ask about the 2018 outlook. Arguably, there is a lot of optimism in your speeches, it seems to be the case. It also seems that a lot of investments, some of them more painful than others in the last couple of years, are starting to bear fruit. You talk about premium. You talk about returnable, and I think that's great for the setup for this year. But surprisingly, your guidance is somewhat light on details this time around. And my question is, first, very simply, why that is the case as compared to the past. And then, assuming that you're not going to give us that many more details now in the call, maybe if you can help us understand how the volume, price mix, balance should play out, particularly for beer Brazil, in 2018. Are you seeing elements that make you more comfortable that, realistically, with consumers trading up, with inflation in [food] still being very favorable, we could see an even stronger revenue per hectoliter growth, at least a bigger delta between revenue and COGS per hectoliter as we progress through maybe after a more difficult first quarter? So that would be my question, if you can maybe give us some context for the balance between volume and price in 2018. BERNARDO PINTO PAIVA: Luca, thanks for the question. I will start here, and Ricardo Rittes, maybe you can [answer] later a little bit. So I think that, first, talking about Brazil and the prospects for 2018, [in that] important to remind that we have been consistent in executing the growth platforms, the strategy that we have. And yes, we're starting to reap the benefits of the investments that we've done in the last years. And I think the fundamentals of our business are evolving in a much better place, and I think that the country will be in a better place as well in 2018, [and it compares] to any (inaudible) prospects are good, seeing that the team is really solid in terms of focus and executing the plan that we have. And as we have the FIFA World Cup that [we will activate] strongly with 2 brands, one core brand, that's Brahma, and the premium is Budweiser. So the plans are really, really strong. So having said that, the first quarter, volume might be a little bit tough, as I said, because of the tough comps, because they're -- I mean, last quarter, the first quarter of 2017, we outperformed the industry in 5.5 percentage points, so it was a tough comp. and secondly, weather sees basically December -- December's not helping at all, and thus affects the industry. But the good news, that the plans are strong, so the weather will be better, for sure, have World Cup, strong plan, and again, have been consistent with the strategy that we have I'm mentioned there, not only in looking for the short-term, but for the medium-, long-term, as well. So that's my view for 2018. That's why it's a positive view. So Ricardo, want to comment anything more? RICARDO RITTES DE OLIVEIRA SILVA PAIVA: Like to just start to say that Ambev, out of the 3 main players in Brazil, was the only one who used to give guidance, driving to an asymmetrical value dynamic. Last year, we decided to provide the cash COGS per hectoliter. I think we have, because of the volatility that we had in that specific line. But if you look to our guidance in 2010, you see that we varied a lot in the level of quantitative guidance provided to the market. What we are trying to do is to compensate somehow with the qualitative view, as you pointed out, with a more detailed -- you called [us] optimistic about Brazil. We call realistic about the operations, and even providing more color about the first quarter, like Bernardo just said. LUCA CIPICCIA: Understood. Maybe just on the receptiveness of the consumer to price increases, and maybe your comments about premium, can you comment about the speed of that improvement? Is that surprising you? Was that encouraging you maybe to be more assertive on pricing as we move towards the year? Is there any additional maybe qualification on that? BERNARDO PINTO PAIVA: I think that every time that we do a price increase, like we do in third quarter of last year, the first quarter, the quarter that we do that, the [partners] suffer, we lose share. I think that the way that we implemented the price increase looking for the full mix the portfolio and so on, understand that (inaudible) can help us, the returnable waters, and those [tricks] can do that, assuring that we would maintain the most important price points per channel. Our, I'll say, intelligence, and our (inaudible) sales intelligence, all the technology that have been put in to understand the subsegments per channel, understanding that (inaudible) should be here and there, it's helping us to mitigate the impact of a price increase. And I think that's why the fourth quarter was -- one of the reasons was that as well, took [out of the] portfolio (inaudible) that. But the way that we implemented, I think it was very, very good, so good learnings for the years to come. And I think that people are starting [out]. Brazil will be out of this, and disposable income will come back. And why I think that the fundamentals will help us, because when disposable income back on track, and it will be back on track in Brazil, our portfolio will be much stronger, the premium much, much stronger. It's very, very important to say that the last quarter, not only Budweiser grew a lot. All our brands did the same, so Stella, Corona, [Originale], so the domestic premium as well. So I think that's very, I would say, excited about the opportunities of the premium segment, but our first big focus continues to be the core, because the core brands represent the bulk of our business, great brands, historical brands, brands that people like a lot. And [we will] continue to invest in every touch point of those brands, of people that taste and drink brand (inaudible) in an everyday basis here in Brazil. OPERATOR: Isabella Simonato, Bank of America Merrill Lynch. ISABELLA SIMONATO, VP, BOFA MERRILL LYNCH, RESEARCH DIVISION: Two quick questions. First of all, in Brazil on the price mix for the quarter, which was very strong, can you exclude the positive impact on the price mix growth from the tax effect? And should that continue towards 2018? And the second on Latin America South, with SG&A growing well below inflation, can you elaborate a little bit more between the selling and G&A lines? And looking for the good prospect for volume growth this year, if you could give us an indication of how that line should perform this year? Thank you. RICARDO RITTES DE OLIVEIRA SILVA PAIVA: So just to give you in terms of order of magnitude, the impact of the tax change, if you will, is 1/15th of the total growth that we had in that net revenue per hectoliter. So is not the main fact. It's less than 10%, so that was not the biggest change. And when you look at SG&A, I would ask Bernardo to go through very quickly. BERNARDO PINTO PAIVA: I think that, as you know, we have been steadily proving the market effectiveness and doing the way that we can optimize the campaigns and the [media] vehicles and testing more the media mix. And then we also know that the World Cup, it's important investment, but what we're doing is really channeling or prioritizing as well the investment, doing the World Cup, because it's a very important key selling moment, and to build brands, as well. So we don't expect a significant SG&A increase due to the marketing investment during the World Cup. Again, want to invest in better media mix, be more effective on that. We will do a strong activation during the World Cup, but we don't expect -- and not giving any guidance, but we don't expect a big swing in terms of the marketing and sales investments during this year. OPERATOR: Antonio Gonzalez, Goldman Sachs (sic) [Credit Suisse]. ANTONIO GONZALEZ ANAYA, SENIOR ANALYST OF LATIN AMERICAN EQUITY RESEARCH, CRéDIT SUISSE AG, RESEARCH DIVISION: I wanted to ask on the category expansion framework, ABI did a lot of emphasis on their conference call this morning. And I wanted to see if you can elaborate on how maybe supplying this. Obviously to some extent, you've been working in Brazil already over the last few years in RGB when it comes to affordability and premium with (inaudible) and the rest of the brands, et cetera. But I wanted to ask how do these category expansion framework accelerate the deployment of these initiatives in Brazil. Do you see any upside between implementing easy drinking and classic lager occasionals, or any other initiatives in particular in Brazil? And then, secondly, there were some comments on Argentina in this framework in particular on the ABI call. I want to see how quickly can you deploy this framework across your countries. Do you think this can be implemented all throughout this year, or start only in 2019? And how relevant do you think it can be for them, (inaudible) markets for Ambev? BERNARDO PINTO PAIVA: So I think that, first, the category expansion framework, it's really good. [I've] been learning a lot. And all of the good things that confirmed as well some initiatives in terms of the group platforms that you know, [whether it be] the cores, the premium, so on, that we have been doing here. So I think that what give us a [frame], we have to understand the portfolio that we have, the opportunities in terms of the needs, and positioning each brand that we have in the right spot, and really differentiate the brands for each consumer target have been helping a lot in that portfolio design. But also, we know that had been [learning us] good with the (inaudible) SABs, the maturity market more then, because Brazil is not only one country. We have different countries here. So have been understanding what regions of the countries, we can have more learnings from U.S. market, or just from the African experience that our partners have there, as well. So both things have been very, very important for us, for a source of learning, but confirms as well the [paths] that have been talking the last 3, 4 years in terms of the platforms that have conveyed to you. I think that the strategy, the growth platforms, I mean, (inaudible) volume, again, that the category expansion framework help us so [to define] better. And the [state of the] regions that you have in Brazil, the mature market framework help us as well. But adding that, the occasions, that's very, very important because if we understand how it can execute a brand, position of a brand in different occasions, in different touchpoints, it's very key at helping doing that in terms of the [shaping] (inaudible) boosting our (inaudible). So that just, I would say, complements all the category (inaudible) expansion, all the maturity market things that we have been doing confirm the paths that we have been implementing in the last 3, 4 years. And on top of that, I think that -- we think that it also is very, very important to have a view of the cost of the point of sale, because at the end of the day, to provide those experience in bringing this portfolio to life, that defines (inaudible) in the (inaudible) expansion model, we need to bring this to life, and the (inaudible) is very, very important. The point of sales are very, very important, not only for selling more, but for the experience we reflect for each brand. So I think that, again, in summary, I think that the (inaudible) expansion model helped us a lot, helped us to assure that we are in the right path in terms of learnings, as well. And we guess we can [cascade] use for other countries, as I said, and ABI [Co] Argentina is another example. The same (inaudible) have been differentiating (inaudible) in the last 3 years in terms of Skol, (inaudible) easy drinking. So not only the easy drinking part in terms of the functionality of the liquid, but the emotional part as well. I mean, it's a [young] brand. It's [youth]. It's [edgy]. So is Skol easy drinking. Brahma class lager, same thing we are doing there. So (inaudible) and Brahma, they are -- so think that we are doing this as we speak. Our partners are doing that. And I'm confident that the (inaudible) expansion, the framework expansion, the (inaudible) model, together are the things that we have been implementing in terms of the overall for our growth strategy here. It's very powerful. And I think that we will reap the benefits in the future, as well. And we have the mindset to be consistent to do that, and not only think about one year or 6 months, but being consistent. Another example here, all the package improvements and investment that we've done [for] Brahma and Skol [as well], (inaudible) to assure that we have a clear role [further] packaging for Skol and for Brahma, a clear differentiation. We start to do that 2 years ago, and we start to having the benefits now. So I think that's the model that can help us and [build on] in the things that we have been working in the last years in Brazil. ANTONIO GONZALEZ ANAYA: Would you be able to comment whether these new framework have been formally incorporated into the business plans of the different countries and regions, KPIs, compensation metrics, and so on? Or that's still, I guess, work in progress? BERNARDO PINTO PAIVA: I think I'll not comment in details, Antonio, but I would say that it's formally included in our business cycle, in our [lives], so it's -- for our plans. So we adopted very, very fast. And again, in Brazil, what's very -- the adoption was almost instantaneous, one, because we have been working in this path even before. So I think that we adopted very, very fast, not only Brazil but in other countries, as well. OPERATOR: Lauren Torres, UBS. LAUREN ELAINE TORRES, LATIN AMERICAN FOOD AND BEVERAGE SENIOR ANALYST, UBS INVESTMENT BANK, RESEARCH DIVISION: My question relates to channel trends. Bernardo, you did talk about on- and off-premise behavior, but I was curious, in light of the consumer getting a bit better, and I know it's a gradual process, but are you seeing better on-premise trends? I understand I guess in the first quarter with Carnival, that could be skewed, but are you seeing just generally better restaurant bar consumption? And how does that make you think differently about your investment spend this year? I know you've spent a fair amount on RGBs. It is a large percent of your beer volume in retail. So in order to maintain that, does the investment still stay behind that particular format, or based on how consumers -- or where they consume -- will you redirect that spend this year? BERNARDO PINTO PAIVA: I think that -- talk about the channels. Yes, the off-trade channel in Brazil is gaining [ways], over time. But even though the on-trade is still the most important relevant channel here in Brazil, not only in terms of volume but in terms of brand-building, as well, in any case -- and keep in mind that we have the plans for both channels. And more than ever, think about being a more service-oriented company, consumer-centric company, even more. So just as an example, so (inaudible) understanding a lot about the in-home, the consumption at home. And knowing how the product could arrive there and what kind of experience you're having -- must do in the off-trade channel to assure that the product do arrive in the right way and provide the nice experience there. So as I said, that understand the sub-channels of the off-trade is very, very important, and we will continue to work very, very hard with the big accounts, that we will continue to do that, and category management, increasing the shopper experience. But understanding how those small format works as well, and translating to them some of this knowledge is very, very important. And then, I think that we have been doing this. So understanding how [significantly] better the off-trade can assure that, in the off-trade, we could have -- including better margins in the future. Just we know the segments more. We know how to (inaudible) more better the brands will be, the assortment will be the right ones per specific sub-channel. In terms of the on-trade, I think that not only important for building brands, and you have trade [programs], understanding the sub-segments as well. And we found that (inaudible) sales in each of these that we have put in place. There is a lot of (inaudible) to the root market strategy that's helping the on-trade, because (inaudible) in more (inaudible) it's more (inaudible) in more countries in Brazil, more areas in Brazil in the suburbs, and (inaudible) even better. Most of those box are the on-trade. So (inaudible) direct(inaudible) be able to activate demand in those places. And then, we will be able to further the on-trade will continue to be a strong segment for the future. So in summary, I think that we have strategies and plans for both channels, and the route to market plans that have been put in place actually are helping a lot the very small box, and most of them are in the on-trade segment. And in the end, the profitability of both channels today are very, very similar for many, many reasons. One of those reasons, in the case of the off-trade, (inaudible) the implementation of the boost of the RGB, that today represents 29% of our volume in the off-trade channel. LAUREN ELAINE TORRES: Brazil's quite different than other parts of the world as far as people consuming out of the house versus in the house. And coming off a soft environment in Brazil, do you think that could change over time, meaning a greater percentage of volume could go to at-home consumption? Or just directionally, Brazil's a market where more on-premise consumption will always be that much more relevant? BERNARDO PINTO PAIVA: Yes. I think that I know (inaudible). I agree with you. I think that we can [tap] 2 ways to deliver trend like that, really in just way that we're not doing. Understanding the trend of the in-home and do it, and I'll say taking advantage of this trade and trying to shape in a better way to the extent that the sub-channels of this off-trade, of how the products arrives there, (inaudible) have a good example of the pit stops, so that's a franchise business that we have that's growing a lot. I'll just say that we know that the in-home will grow, but we have ways to assure that this trend will grow in the right path for the industry. In terms of the on-trade, yes, but have to bear in mind that, in Brazil, people like to go to a bar, because -- and beer is like -- it's unify people. People really drink beer with their friends in a bar. If you serve better, and you are doing that, the bars, these smaller ones, not only are you creating jobs for the country so [one] that you are activating demand and assuring that the on-trade, you will continue to have [an importance] in the long-term. Yes, you can say it's (inaudible) [against] the trend. Yes, it is [likely against] the trend, but I think that if a good (inaudible) market, a good service level, so one, yes, we can assure that the number of [box] in Brazil will not go down in the on-trade, will not be [shrinked] as you see in other countries. OPERATOR: Jose Yordan, Deutsche Bank. JOSé JUAN YORDáN, RESEARCH ANALYST, DEUTSCHE BANK AG, RESEARCH DIVISION: My question's on the SG&A in Brazil. It grew almost 20%. And I think that was significantly above -- I guess not your guidance, but certainly my expectations. And I was just wondering how much of that 20% growth was due to perhaps catch-up bonus accruals and how much was due to increased marketing spend to support the price increase. RICARDO RITTES DE OLIVEIRA SILVA PAIVA: All of it is due to variable compensation for management. Remember that the year before, variable compensation was essentially 0, and this year, as we had growth for the business, more accelerated and skewed towards the last quarter, last 6 months but especially towards the last quarter, that's where the accrual of the bonus happened. JOSé JUAN YORDáN: So in terms of marketing spend, there was no unusual growth year-on-year? RICARDO RITTES DE OLIVEIRA SILVA PAIVA: Actually it was down. OPERATOR: Thiago Duarte, BTG. THIAGO CALLEGARI L. DUARTE, ANALYST, BANCO BTG PACTUAL S.A., RESEARCH DIVISION: I would like to have a follow-up question actually on Lauren's question and this discussion regarding the on-trade channel versus the off-trade channel. I guess to you, Bernardo, my question would be do you think you can be as profitable in the off-trade as you are probably historically in the on-trade? Because it seems that, as you look at the most important revenue initiatives and growth channels that you guys have been exploring, they all seem to pursue this growth in the in-home consumption and in the off-trade in performance. And if you look at the EBITDA margins that you guys made in the fourth quarter and you compare to what you eventually achieved a few years ago, even considering the adjustments for FX and hedges and so on and so forth, you're still below where you were in terms of Brazil beer profitability a few years ago. So I wonder whether this is related to this migration to the off-trade as opposed to the on-trade channel. I think that would be interesting to hear on that. And second, back to the SG&A, just wondering, I know you guys are not providing a guidance anymore for the year, but when you look at the Brazil operations as a whole, you used to have SG&A over sales close to 28%, 29% of sales. This figure is now as high as 32% or so. Is it reasonable, in your view, to assume that this figure will eventually go back to 31%, 30%, eventually 29%, 28% again, or do you think it's fair for us, for modeling purposes, let's put it this way, to assume that this figure might stay higher for a little bit longer? Thank you. BERNARDO PINTO PAIVA: I think that I will touch again in the on-trade and off-trade issue, and then Ricardo will (inaudible) the other question. I think that your question is you think that the off-trade could be as profitable as the on-trade. The answer is yes, we think. And reasons to believe is that not only are increasingly capabilities that we have to operate in the off-trade, understand the right assortment, understanding the revenue management initiatives, the logistics system to get there, because including the drop side [is] higher, so if the drop side is higher, the logistics is lower. And the last point, understanding the sub-segments we think [there are] (inaudible), how we can serve better, because off-trade is much bigger than a big chain or a big store with 20-plus checkouts. Actually, the off-trade that's growing more for us are the small formats and the pit stops. That's franchise business that's off-trade alternative as well. So understanding again the subsegments of the off-trade, how profitable they can be, and on top of that revenue management, right assortment, premium growth, have to bear in mind that, in the off-trade, the premium [weight] is much higher than the on-trade, as well, because all of this, yes, we think that the off-trade could be as profitable of the on-trade. And actually, in some areas of Brazil, they already are in the same level. RICARDO RITTES DE OLIVEIRA SILVA PAIVA: And now going specifically to the margin, the way we see it, we do have a high water mark. But if you look at the historic evolution of our margins in the last 15 years, you see that the direction, the clear direction towards higher margins. And of course, they are like short-term volatility, but we continue to believe that we can improve our business and improve the profitability of our business. And when you specifically talk about SG&A, and you are right on your numbers, for example, if you look at 2010 SG&A as a percentage of net turnover, it was around 25.6%, and it evolved consistently over time. Around '13, it was over 26% to a point in which, in '16, it reached 29.2%, and in '17, again, 29.2%. So for some time it has been on a upwards trend, and then it has stabilized when you look in a year-over-year, even though in 2017 we had bonus accrual and in 2016 we didn't. So when you account for that difference, there's already a reduction on a year-per-year basis. And of course, if you project Brazil in the medium-term to grow again in terms of volume and et cetera, so you [gather] dilution of some of those costs, and you should naturally see a positive evolution over time. OPERATOR: Due to the constraints of time, this will be the final question. Robert Ottenstein, Evercore. ROBERT EDWARD OTTENSTEIN, SENIOR MD, HEAD OF GLOBAL BEVERAGES RESEARCH & FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCH ANALYST, EVERCORE ISI, RESEARCH DIVISION: Can you talk a little bit about the -- it's been a number of years now. The impact of Heineken on the market, a world-class marketer compared to the more local competitors that you faced and still face now? They seem to be doing very well. They're gaining share. So how has that changed the market? How has that changed your strategy? And are you doing anything now in other markets to prepare for a possible entrance by Heineken? BERNARDO PINTO PAIVA: I think as you know, and [now] have been following us for a long time, the Brazilian industry has always been very competitive. It's true. And as you already know, again, we don't speak about competitors, and we'll continue to focus on the business that we have [and let] nothing change for us in this sense. What I could say is that we have been focused a lot in building a strong portfolio of brands and be consistent in (inaudible) strategy that have been conveying to you in the last 3, 4 years, and doing things on that, on the fundamentals of the business, our core brands, for example, all the packaging that we've done, all of the differentiation in terms of our easy drinking at Skol, our classic lager there, it's Brahma. The brands are performing well. And we are focused a lot in the core and in the premium segment. So we are gaining share. We gained share last year. We don't participate in the value segment. We participate in a smart way with the returnable bottles from core brands. I think that we have a different mix than other companies in the market, that most of their volume is value, so that's not our case. So our focus is really core and premium. And I think that we are -- and are gaining share because of core and premium, because they're losing in the value segment. And because of that, I'm bullish that the portfolio that we have, the plans that you have, and the, I would say, competition that we have, that's always good. That push us to do even better. We'll put our business in a much better place a year from now, as it was today, a better place than a year ago because the fundamentals are better because we have been consistently now in strategy that I have been talking to in every call and every (inaudible) the last 3, 4 years. And again, and when Brazil back, I think that people that trade down a lot for the value segment, that's not the most of our volume. It'd be the competitor's volume, most is value. It's not our case. I think that will be more -- have more benefit to have a stronger core in premium portfolio in (inaudible). ROBERT EDWARD OTTENSTEIN: So on that point, if you segment the market value core, mainstream, and premium, obviously the premium's been growing, has over the last couple of years. How much share has the value segment gotten in the market in 2017 and '16? BERNARDO PINTO PAIVA: I think that in the last years, because of the crisis in Brazil, the value segment grew because of the disposable income issue, but this will come back. We have taken a slightly better [fit that] in the right way because of the returnable bottles in the core brands of a very good market. Having said that, we don't disclose our market share per segment. What I can say that, in the core segment and in the premium segment, market share for us, it's not an issue. And because of that, overall, we gain market share last year, which means that overall market share as well is not an issue. We continue to work hard to gain more market share and to fight every day, but it's not an issue. I think that I'm very confident in the portfolio, in the [approach] (inaudible) for the occasions, in the (inaudible) for the [box], that what this could bring and continue bringing for the future in terms of benefits for our core and premium portfolio. OPERATOR: This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Bernardo Paiva for any closing remarks. BERNARDO PINTO PAIVA: Okay, so thanks, Gary. Before finish our call, I would like to highlight that we are very pleased with our fourth quarter results and with the evolution of our business for [all] 2017 is a consequence of being consistent in our growth platforms in the last years. Going forward, remain optimists with the develop of our growth platforms, as I said before, and we believe that we have a solid plan and fundamentals to drive for the EBITDA growth. Have a great day, and enjoy the rest of your day. Thank you. RICARDO RITTES DE OLIVEIRA SILVA PAIVA: Thank you. 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Subject: Copyright; Corporate profits; Cash flow; Earnings per share
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Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
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Q4 2017 Multiplan Empreendimentos Imobiliarios SA Earnings Call - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]01 Mar 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Presentation OPERATOR: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to -- welcome, everyone, to Multiplan's Fourth Quarter of '17 Earnings Conference Call. Today with us we have Mr. José Isaac Peres, CEO; Mr. Armando d'Almeida Neto, CFO and IRO; Mr. Marcello Barnes, CIO; Mr. Hans Melchers, Investor Relations and Planning Director; and Mr. Franco Carrion, IR Manager. We would like to inform you that the presentation that will be made will be available for download at ir.multiplan.com.br. (Operator Instructions). Before proceeding, we would like to mention that forward-looking statements that might be made during this call relating to the business perspectives of the company, operating and financial projections and targets are beliefs and assumptions on the part of Multiplan's management as well as information currently available to the company. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance. They involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Therefore, they refer to future events and therefore they depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors should understand that general economic conditions, industry conditions and other operating factors may affect the future results of the company and lead to results that differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. Now, we would like to turn the conference over to Mr. José Isaac Peres, CEO, and he will start the presentation. Mr. Peres, you may proceed. JOSé ISAAC PERES, PRESIDENT, CEO, CHAIRMAN OF BOARD OF EXECUTIVE OFFICERS & DIRECTOR, MULTIPLAN EMPREENDIMENTOS IMOBILIáRIOS S.A.: Good morning. Good morning, everyone. Ladies and gentlemen, it's a great pleasure to be with you, again. I will try to read more slowly because we have simultaneous translation. And I'm not going to leave my text. I have a few changes here, but afterwards, we will talk about that. And I am just mentioning this because normally or very often I say things that are not in my prepared text and that I deem convenient, but I will have more discipline this time. And we will have simultaneous translation in English for the benefit of our international investors. So what I wanted to say was the following: 2017, as we had anticipated, would be a year of recovery taking into account the radical change in politics, much better structured for the rebound of the economy and fiscal equilibrium. Therefore -- or nevertheless in 2017 some dismal political facts happened and they were published in a very sensationalist and reckless fashion in my opinion. And therefore, they hindered the economic growth that already was showing some recovery. Just to show you how the Brazilian economy was affected, I can mention the impact of that on the retail sector, in which we include ourselves. We started 2017 with 2-digit growth or 12% in March and 11% in April. And after the public prosecutor's office demonstration, the economy came to halt and we dropped to 1 digit and we only started, again, to feel an acceleration of the economy in the last quarter. And in spite of all this turbulence, the sales in the Multiplan shopping centers obtained a 7% growth and rental revenue growing by 8.4%. And the company obtained net income amounting to BRL 370 million, 18.4% higher than the previous year in spite of the major political crisis that took the country by storm as of May. And for this year, we expect a more robust economic result due to the fact that we find ourselves in a more adjusted economy with an inflation rate of about 3% and an unprecedented interest rate in the country that is, to say, 6.75%. We are always seeking new investments, new opportunities, as you know. And in 2017, we invested BRL 450 million in expansions and new projects. And another important fact that I would like to mention is that, for many years, we have already been developing technology, seeking a higher operating efficiency and also looking for digital models. And to increase our efficiency in 2017, we started negotiations with an IT company, which is very much focused on e-commerce. And in a sense, we established a partnership by acquiring a 20% stake in the company, and we could go up to 30%. And we are talking about [Solab], a company that has as its main activity the development of technological solutions applied to digital retail. We are integrating the expertise of Multiplan's digital innovation team with the knowledge, tools and technologies developed by highly experienced professionals in e-commerce. And our objectives will always be to deliver more convenience and more services to our customers and tenants as well. And ultimately, what we want us to bring to the homes of our consumers, all the retail array that we have in our shopping center always focusing on real trade commerce. And we believe that growth of retail going from real to virtual could accelerate sales in shopping centers themselves because technology and e-commerce will change the result that we obtain. And we know that we are giving very important steps and that will bring more comfort, more ease to our consumers. And we understand that the shopping centers will sell more because of this digital technology. And I would like to mention also that the model that we are building in Brazil -- or have been building in Brazil for a long time is a product that is totally different from the others that exists abroad, mainly the United States. These are projects that are focused on pleasure and give our consumers an appealing environment making them much more of a meeting point, a safe meeting point where they can carry out many activities. And we add more and more services. We recently, in June last year, we inaugurated a ribbon opening to a shopping with 32 clinics, a medical center and we are renewing our vision applying all our current knowledge of the constriction of ParkShopping Canoas supported by a tripod, nature, entertainment and shopping. And in Canoas, we inaugurated that with a spectacular success to the extent that we were worried because of the size of our parking facilities. And the first 30 days were fantastic, sales higher than our estimates. And now I would like to mention the fact that we started to build the shopping center in 2015, and we inaugurated in 2017 when we were braving the biggest economic crisis in the history of this country. And I want to mention that because we want to reiterate that we opened the shopping center with 90% of the stores already in operation. And it was a record, when no shopping center inaugurated in this country in the last 3 years was capable of such feat. Thus motivated by the results obtained, we made a decision to start, still in 2017, as we had already announced, and I would like to reiterate that it was very good to start this in 2017. But I want to say that in December we already started to build these facilities. And we estimate this to be concluded in the next 24 months. And finally, my friends, I would like to mention that in this country, if we were to wait for the crisis to go away, we wouldn't have done practically anything, because in the last 50 years, at least, which I have been living, we have had over 10 different crises of different dimensions and proportions and nature. But what is really important is that Brazil continues steadfast as a nation and as a democracy growing. And thanks to the efforts made by the current administration today, we find ourselves in a country that was able to recover the confidence of both Brazilian and international investors. And we hope that Brazilians, in the next elections, will be able to choose a new Congress and a President that are sufficiently sensible and committed to the development and also to the reforms that were and remain to be made in order to guarantee a sustainable economic growth and a socially more equitable society. I would like to thank the Multiplan team for the very hard work done this year, which helped us to deliver this outstanding result. I would like to thank all the investors that have placed their trust in us. And now I would like to give the floor to Armando who will be talking about our figures. ARMANDO D'ALMEIDA NETO, VICE CEO, CFO, CHIEF IR OFFICER & VICE CHAIRMAN OF BOARD OF EXECUTIVE OFFICERS, MULTIPLAN EMPREENDIMENTOS IMOBILIáRIOS S.A.: Thank you, Peres. Good morning, everyone. With the announcement of the results of the fourth quarter, we realize that we are already in a new year and with the country resuming economic growth, and this brings us a lot of satisfaction because we see the results reached in 2017. And by the way, with a lot of satisfaction, we see that sales in our centers continue to grow in all quarters, even during the last few years when the country was braving a very strong crisis and the company remained profitable, delivered extremely high financial and operating margins and did not stop investing and improved even further properties, acquiring interests and developing new areas. It looks like we have made it. While many said that this should not -- could not be done during the worst of the crisis, Multiplan delivered a new shopping center plus 5 expansions between 2015 and 2017. We exchanged approximately 1,100 stores corresponding to an area of 106,000 square meters, maintaining a high occupancy rate in our portfolio. Recently, in January, 2018, we disclosed the preliminary data for the fourth quarter. And we heard that growth was lower than expected, and we certainly respect everybody's opinions. However, I would like to present our opinions here. What would be better to have a lower comparison base in the fourth quarter of 2016 to show a higher percentage growth in 2017, certainly, we do not consider this as right. As we said, we grew in all quarters in 2017, '16 and also '15, '14, '13 and this was what happened since we became a listed company in 2007. 43 quarters delivering growing shopping center sales, and we are very proud of that. And another point would be a fact that -- is that very often analyses focus only on same-store sales neglecting the daily tasks of property management and change of mix reflecting same area sales. In 2017, sales grew by 6.8%, same-store sales 5.2%, over 2.5x what we had in 2016, and same area sales growing 6.6%, twice what was obtained in 2016, and consumer inflation was 2.95%. And this growth is real, it is strong and it was obtained over a very high base already. Our shopping centers had 97.4% average occupancy rate, opening 57,600 square meters in the year, basically, concentrated in the fourth quarter. And the occupancy cost was stable at 12.9%, delinquency went down and the gross revenue of the company grew by 3.9% with rental revenue being the biggest part representing 77.1% of the overall gross revenue. Rental revenue grew by 8.3% with same-store rent 7.1%, however, you increase over the effect of the IGP-DI adjustment that was 6.5% in 2017. And this increase would be even higher when compared directly to the IGP-DI of 2017, that was negative by 0.4%. In the fourth quarter, we had the biggest real growth because this -- it went back real growth. That didn't happen in 2016, that was 2% and expenses were BRL 40.2 million higher or 12.9%. And basically, the effect of the mark-to-market of phantom stock options and expenses with new projects as well. Here, concentrated in the opening of the ParkShopping Canoas, there are expenses related to the launch of new areas, as you know, that cannot be activated causing a distortion in the quarterly result. And the headquarter expenses and shopping center expenses were lower by 4.4% and 0.4%, respectively. In relation to the shopping center expenses, I would like to reminder you that we grew GLA by 7% and even in spite of that we were able to get this small reduction. And commenting about the result, the NOI was 8.4% higher with a margin increase to 87.6%, exceeding BRL 1 billion. EBITDA grew 0.9% due to one-off nonrecurring expenses, as I said a while ago. If, for analysis purposes, these expenses were to be excluded, EBITDA would grow 5.7%. FFO and net income grew very steeply, 15.3% and 18.4%, respectively. In 2017, FFO reached BRL 558.5 million and net income, as Mr. Peres said, BRL 369.4 million, both with a good performance in our margin. And the strong increase is due mainly to operating growth and a drop in interest rates and also the payment of interest on equity. In 2017, we returned to our shareholder the highest amount ever paid out BRL 440 million, representing also the highest percentage over the net income which was 68.3%. In 2017, we invested BRL 449.6 million, allocated mainly to the development of new areas. Together with that, we had the distribution of results that I have just mentioned, and it is evident, our continued strategy to optimize capital allocation. And this has made possible due to the stable financial situation and strong cash generation that Multiplan has. Net debt corresponded at the end of 2017 to 2.34x EBITDA, very far from the covenant and representing only 11.3% of the fair value of our properties. In the last 2 years, we accelerated our borrowings back to CDI, which allowed us to better take advantage of the drop in interest rates. And the average weighted cost of our gross debt is 8.24% a year, with an average maturity of 49 months. The amortization schedule is distributed over the years with no major concentrations, and they are, up to now, lower than the cash generation measured by the FFO of 2017, not considering our cash position that we have in our balance sheet. We have an in-house habit in which Peres' speech, when he inaugurates a new shopping, starts with in spite of the crisis. Well, in Canoas, this was more than deserved, and we are very proud for having launched and delivered a new shopping center during the biggest crisis in the country. And what seemed almost impossible became reality as a result of our strategy, our effort and the dedication and capacity to invest. We inaugurated the most modern shopping center in the country, integrated nature to entertainment and shopping. We opened with 90% of the area already in operation and the figure has already gone up. And at the end of January, it was already 93.4%. And before closing, a brief note about the performance of our shares going up 19.4% in 2017 with a high liquidity with the average daily trading volume of BRL 52.1 million, 32% higher than in 2016. And during these 10 years, as a listed company, Multiplan implemented its growth strategy with a clear focus on what is best for the company in the long run. Now I think you for your attention and your trust. And I would like to open for questions now. Thank you much. Questions and Answers OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) Mr. Gustavo from BTG Pactual. GUSTAVO CAMBAUVA, RESEARCH ANALYST, BANCO BTG PACTUAL S.A., RESEARCH DIVISION: I have 2 questions. The first one is about how you see the possibility of increasing what you charge for parking. In 2017, you didn't make any increases in this price and it was flat. So is there a possibility or intention on your part to increase the price for parking in some of your parking center -- some of your shopping centers? And about Mr. Peres' initial remarks, I would like to know your outlook for new greenfields today? I know you announced Jacarepaguá and on one hand, the economy is improving, but on the other hand, we see quite a lot of area being added to shopping centers. And now with the challenge of e-commerce, I would like to understand whether you are still bullish to continue building new greenfield shopping centers with the scenario? UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE: I will answer your question. Parking is not the object of the company and parking is only charged in this country. Nobody ever did that before. If I do not explain the context, you will not understand the answer. Parking lots were franchised and we had a lot of problems with theft in the cars. And because of that, we came to the conclusion that we had to have a higher control and give more security. And because of the situation that we have in the country regarding public security, we had to create parking facilities and charge for that so that we could give our tenants and everybody a higher degree of safety. And I can say to you that part of what is charged for parking is shared in order to reduce the cost of operation of the shopping center. So I would like you to understand that parking is not an end, it's just a need. And it would be great if we could not charge anything and that Brazil were a country like some others that don't charge and they only have 2 security people, and we have about 200 people doing this kind of protection. So this is the first point. About increases. There were some very small cases, but let's not give a bigger step, because we are about to leave a crisis. We are leaving the crisis behind. And for this year, we expect a higher recovery and the figures are improving. And I think this year will be better. And we have Jacarepaguá as a greenfield shopping center for 40,000 meters of gross leasable area. And in Canoas, as you know, our focus [wasn't] on entertaining and nature and shopping, and this is a model to mitigate the fact that current society, mainly youngsters, are becoming more and more interactive, and they look for more and more interaction. So we have to think about shopping centers in a different way because shopping centers are the place where the person -- it was -- it used to be a place where people just went there to buy something specific, but now it is much more of a meeting point. People like to go there, and there are movie houses, and they go there to eat and to have fun. And this is the model that we're building in Brazil. Recently, we had a workshop with some international consultants, and I was very pleased to hear from them that had the Americans made shopping centers like the ones that we are doing in Brazil, they would not be facing a crisis today. I don't know whether I have answered your question, but we are going to do many things, expansions, we have not announced yet, but we will do this. I don't know whether I have answered your question or not. OPERATOR: Mr. Marcelo from JPMorgan. MARCELO GARALDI MOTTA, RESEARCH ANALYST, JP MORGAN CHASE & CO, RESEARCH DIVISION: I have 2 questions. Could you give us some additional color about Fulllab, CapEx and relevant investment for the next few years in order to have this integration with Multiplan? And will this generate an increase in sales? And do you have a target for that? And could you talk about the scenario? In view, I know it's too early to say, but have you perceived any changes in traffic -- in visitors' traffics in your shopping centers? JOSé ISAAC PERES: Marcelo, visitor flow has been increasing in the first months, exception made to February because we had Carnival in February and last year it was in March. But in spite of Carnival, visitor flow was positive. And Rio, as everybody knows, is under a federal intervention. And in a way, it was positive for Rio. In spite of the fact that he has not the highest criminality rate in the whole country, there are many other cities and states that have worse rates than Rio. Our problem in the Rio is that the publicity that is given to criminality not always corresponds to the real fact, but those who are not in Rio, those who are outside of Rio, they have the sensation that they will come to Rio and they will have to wear a bulletproof vest and a helmet and that is -- there is a war being waged, but this is not the reality. Even in the United States there are regions where cities are more or less like that. But, of course, with the economic crisis, in Rio, this became deeper and not paying policemen salaries is a big problem. I would like to tell you that, we have already been through many crises in the states with higher rates of violence. And I think that from now on we will be recovering this and overcoming violence and Rio will, once again, be seen as the beautiful city that it is, it's attracting tourists, et cetera. Today, traffic in Rio is better and subway comes to the Barra region much easily. And if it were not for this very unpleasant situation of safety in Rio and also due to the fact that the state is broke, it went down to drain because of the oil situation when the barrel reached $40, in a way all the revenue of the state was reduced. But this year, we believe that there will be a better level of fiscal equilibrium, and we hope the situation improves in Rio. And our figures are not bad for Rio. And it is important to mention that when we talk about Rio, you have, I don't know, how many square kilometers. But we are concentrated on the west zone of Rio. This is a fastest growing region in Rio. I mean, we have BarraShopping, we have VillageMall in Campo Grande. So maybe Armando could mention this, but we want to show you that Rio is not as bad as people think. Rio grew more than our average in Sao Paolo and in Belo Horizonte as an average. When we look at the individual growth, we see 10.3%, and (inaudible) Campo Grande is 16.8%. So it's quite the opposite. Our performance in Rio was very good in spite of what has already been said. Last year, we started to talk with some people in e-commerce, and we have our digital innovation team in-house. And we have an independent company that works for a third party and a lucrative company, a profitable company. And so we decided to make this investment in this company, initially, a 20% stake and possibility going up to 30%. It was an investment of BRL 7 million, it was not a big one, but very important in terms of placing our team closer to e-commerce professionals and bringing more knowledge, more market knowledge and the way it operates. And my feeling about real commerce and virtual commerce is the following: Many companies started with e-commerce, and they decided to go to real commerce, and it has to do with distribution centers, which is one of the big problems that some of these companies face. And many of these companies, e-commerce companies, present results much based on the expectation of future results, and with a price profit ratio of 200 or 300. We understand that having real commerce so something very good, but human nature is not going to change. The need for contact, the need for human warmth and being together with other people, and we have the feeling that by having a cell phone, you have the feeling that you have lots of people around you. What I feel now is that people are suffering, in fact, and what we want to give is joy, is happiness. And I welcome the opportunity to tell you that, of course, we want to grow in real commerce as well. But with e-commerce, we want to bring to the homes consumers the whole array of products and services and maybe later on delivery, but this will represent a real increase of about 10% to 15% in our shopping centers. Of course, it's not going to be quantum leap. This is not the way things happen and it's easier to go from real to virtual than the other way around, okay? OPERATOR: Enrico from Itaú. ENRICO TROTTA, VP OF LATAM REAL ESTATE, ITAú CORRETORA DE VALORES S.A., RESEARCH DIVISION: Mr. Peres and Armando, I have 2 questions. You talked about the maturity of contracts. And looking at 2018, the expectation is that about 11% of the contracts, in terms of gross leasable area, would come to an end. So how much do they represent, not in gross leasable area but in terms of revenues? And could you talk about your expectation about renewing, when we talk about the rent per square meter? And the second question has to do with debt. You have about 35% concentrated in (inaudible) lines and the cost of debt is higher than the CDI lines. So I believe you still have room to decrease your exposure from the TR or the reference related to the CDI. So I would like to understand a little bit of this side of opportunity for further reductions for the cost of debt? ARMANDO D'ALMEIDA NETO: This is Armando speaking. Thank you for participating in the call. I am sorry for the delay in my answer because I was looking for the page where you can find this information, the relevance of that. And in 2018, 52 of the -- 11.2% of the GLA coming to an end, 14.4% of our overall revenue. So there is no big distortion. And our expectations of contract renew is positive. We see shopping centers quite full of consumers and some stores and some tenants with expansion plans. And I think you saw that thousands of stores are planning to open and this is being announced by the tenant's club of (inaudible). And talking with major operators, we see that they want to improve the portfolio and increase space, together with an occupancy rate that, during all these challenging years, remained very high, as you saw in our presentation. And the renew of these operations will be by means of new business models and new segments such as we have been doing over the years. In relation to borrowing, financing, your view is correct. When you look at the average cost in base ATR is 9.2% something like that. And when we look at the Selic at 6.175%, it seems to exist a very good opportunity. But when you look at the curve of interest rates and pre-fixed for 5 years and 7 years, they will give you a duration more similar to the contract that we have in TR. And when you look at that, you can see that they are at 9.7%, 9.5% depending on the duration. So the path is not so clear if you take this into account. So if the company believes that the drop in interest rates will accelerate even further, and as you can see, when you look 2, 3 years ago, the drop in financing. We were able to cross a period of high interest rates with our financing in TR,, and so the average -- or the weighted gross average debt would be -- was lower than the CDI, and there we had a big gap between this and the CDI. And now with 12, 18 months duration, we were able to get a very strong reduction in this cost and taking advantage of the lower interest rates. We are always assessing opportunities. We are assessing many opportunities right now, but exchanging the TR for the CDI right now doesn't seem to be something that would be good in the extremely short run. OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) Thank you very much. And there are no more questions. I would like to turn the floor to Mr. José Isaac Peres for his closing remarks. Mr. Peres, you may proceed. JOSé ISAAC PERES: Once again, I would like to thank you for patience in listening to us. And I would like to stress that the fact that we have to speak slowly, sometimes I think about things that I would like to say and then all of a sudden, because of simultaneous translation into English, outside what we say with the written script could make it difficult for simultaneous translation purposes. I felt a little bit constrained due to the fact that I had to follow a prepared text. But anyway, I thank you very much for your patience and your attention. OPERATOR: Thank you very much. Multiplan's conference call for the fourth quarter of 2017 results is closed. Thank you very much. And please disconnect your lines now. Thank you. [Thomson Financial reserves the right to make changes to documents, content, or other information on this web site without obligation to notify any person of such changes. In the conference calls upon which Event Transcripts are based, companies may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding a variety of items. Such forward-looking statements are based upon current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those stated in any forward-looking statement based on a number of important factors and risks, which are more specifically identified in the companies' most recent SEC filings. Although the companies may indicate and believe that the assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements are reasonable, any of the assumptions could prove inaccurate or incorrect and, therefore, there can be no assurance that the results contemplated in the forward-looking statements will be realized. THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN EVENT TRANSCRIPTS IS A TEXTUAL REPRESENTATION OF THE APPLICABLE COMPANY'S CONFERENCE CALL AND WHILE EFFORTS ARE MADE TO PROVIDE AN ACCURATE TRANSCRIPTION, THERE MAY BE MATERIAL ERRORS, OMISSIONS, OR INACCURACIES IN THE REPORTING OF THE SUBSTANCE OF THE CONFERENCE CALLS. 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User may not reproduce or redistribute the material except for user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon Thomson Financial's or ASC's copyright or other proprietary rights or interests in the material; provided, however, that members of the news media may redistribute limited portions (less than 250 words) of this material without a specific license from Thomson Financial and ASC so long as they provide conspicuous attribution to Thomson Financial and ASC as the originators and copyright holders of such material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation.]
Subject: Copyright; Shopping centers; Electronic commerce
Location: Brazil
Company / organization: Name: Thomson Financial; NAICS: 511210, 518210, 519190
Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 1, 2018
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: Linthicum
Country of publication: United States, Linthicum
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Law--Corporate Law
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2014377281
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2014377281?accountid=4840
Copyright: 2018 Thomson Financial and ASC LLC
Last updated: 2018-10-15
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 166 of 474
HAPPENINGS
Publication info: The Baltimore Sun ; Baltimore, Md. [Baltimore, Md]02 Mar 2018: T.4.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: To submit an event for the calendars, go to events.baltimoresun.com/events/new. Fair/Festival Baltimore Washington International Pen Show: Features over 120 vendors of fountain pens, ink, paper and more. Fountain pen nib repair services and pen restoration experts will be on site. Events include handwriting and calligraphy classes, a live auction of vintage pens and kid-friendly activities. Friday-Sunday at Baltimore Marriott Inner Harbor Hotel, 110 S. Eutaw St. $10-$20. 301-770-7367. B'More Healthy Expo: A variety of health and wellness exhibits and activities, tasty samples and more. 10 a.m. Saturday at Baltimore Convention Center, 1 W. Pratt St. Free. 410-649-7000. Bridges to the World International Film Festival: For the 10th anniversary, films from Estonia, Paraguay, Jordan, South Africa and Bulgaria will be presented in six venues across Maryland, including Towson University. A post-screening discussion follows. Through March 9 at Van Bokkelen Hall, Towson University, 8000 York Road, Towson. Free. 410-704-2787. Fundraiser 10th Annual Walk A Mile in Her Shoes: St Baldrick's is a not-for-profit organization with the aim of raising funds to help find cures for children with cancer. Participants raise funds which culminate in the the participants shaving their heads to show solidarity with children who often lose their hair when having cancer treatment. 1 p.m. Sunday at O'Loughlin's Restaurant, 1013 Shore Acres Road, Arnold. Free. 410-974-0136. 26th Annual Penn-Mar Black Tie Gala: Penn-Mar Human Services presents its 26th annual gala, with the goal of raising $600,000 to help sustain its mission of "transforming life into living" for hundreds of men and women with intellectual and developmental disabilities in Maryland and Pennsylvania. 6 p.m. Saturday at Delta Hotels Baltimore Hunt Valley, 245 Shawan Road, Cockeysville. $200. 410-343-1069. Annual Pancake Breakfast: Celebrate the end of the sugar season at the Oregon Ridge Lodge with the Annual Pancake Breakfast Fundraiser. There will be raffles and music along with flower, honey and maple syrup sales. 8 a.m. Saturday, 8 a.m. Sunday at Oregon Ridge Nature Center, 13555 Beaver Dam Road, Cockeysville. $8 for adults, $4 for children ages 2-8. 410-887-1815. Capitol Steps: The Capitol Steps comedy troupe returns to St. John's with their irreverent political satire along all party lines. Join friends after the show for a "Meet the Performers" champagne reception. Proceeds will benefit student financial aid. 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Francis Scott Key Auditorium, St. John's College, 60 College Avenue, Annapolis. $55-$65. 410-972-4505. Pajama Run for the Fuel Fund: A pajama-themed fundraising event to support families with children who struggle with their heating and utility costs. All proceeds will go to the Fuel Fund of Maryland. 10 a.m. Saturday at Druid Hill Park, Latrobe Pavilion, 900 Druid Park Lake Drive. $25. 410-868-7950. Small Foods Party: This event is part culinary competition and part party, with a dose of performance art thrown in. Competitors serve up their petite offerings while attendees taste and vote for the best. Categories of competition include "International" and "Bad Idea." 7 p.m. Saturday at American Visionary Art Museum, 800 Key Highway. $5-$10. 410-244-1900. Literature CCPL and A Likely Story Bookstore Present: Brad Meltzer: In celebration of the 20th anniversary of No. 1 New York Times bestselling author Brad Meltzer's first book, he has a brand new thriller, packed with little-known American history and unforgettable characters. A book signing will follow. 7 p.m. Wednesday at Carroll Community College, 1601 Washington Road., Westminster. $30. 410-386-4500. CCPL Presents: Melanie Benjamin: Carroll Community College kicks off the Penguin Random House Book Fair with New York Times best-selling author Melanie Benjamin. Benjamin will talk about her latest book, which focuses on the friendship between two of Hollywood's earliest female legends: screenwriter Frances Marion and superstar Mary Pickford. 7 p.m. Friday at Carroll Community College, 1601 Washington Road., Westminster. $25. 410-386-4500. Elliot Ackerman: Dark at the Crossing: This National Book Award finalist is a timely and unsettling novel set on the Turkish border with Syria. 7 p.m. Wednesday at The Ivy Bookshop, 6080 Falls Road. Free. 410-377-2966. G Milton: Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: From the internationally best-selling author of narrative nonfiction, "Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: The Mavericks Who Plotted Hitler's Defeat" is the story of a top-secret organization whose purpose was to plot the destruction of Hitler's war machine, through spectacular acts of sabotage. 7 p.m. Tuesday at The Ivy Bookshop, 6080 Falls Road. Free. 410-377-2966. Kill Me Now by Timmy Reed: Local author and teacher Timmy Reed joins to discuss and sign his bracing new book, "Kill Me Now." "Kill Me Now" is a coming-of-age tale that conjures the abrasive voice of Holden Caulfield if he had a skateboard and an iPhone. 7 p.m. Thursday at Barnes and Noble at Johns Hopkins, 3330 St. Paul St. Free. 410-662-5850. Oy Oy Oy Gevalt: Michael Croland will give a multimedia presentation based on his book, "Oy Oy Oy Gevalt Jews and Punk." Na Nach Oi! (featuring Yishai Romanoff of Moshiach Oi!) will perform acoustic renditions of Jewish punk songs. 3 p.m. Sunday at Jewish Museum of Maryland, 15 Lloyd St. Included with regular admission. 410-732-6400. Readings with Ralphie: Rafael Alvarez will be joined by writers Eric D. Goodman (author of "Womb: A Novel in Utero"), Erin J. Mullikin (founding editor of the online literary journal NightBlock and the small literary press Midnight City Books) and Jeff Richards (author of "Open Country: A Civil War Novel in Stories"). 7 p.m. Tuesday at Bird in Hand, 11 E. 33rd St. Free. 410-377-2966. Todd Miller and Nasim Chatha in Conversation at Red Emma's: The U.S. government has a substantial role in building prison and border walls internationally. With more people on the move as a result of global warming and displacement, the business of containing them - border fortification - is booming. Todd Miller shows how the world is preparing for mass displacement by fortifying borders in his new book, "Storming the Wall: Climate Change, Migration and Homeland Security." Joining him in discussion is Nasim Chatha of Alliance for Global Justice. 7:30 p.m. Friday at Red Emma's, 30 W. North Ave. Free. 443-602-7585. Special Events Free Family Sundays: Hands-on art activities for the entire family. 2 p.m. Sundays at Baltimore Museum of Art, 10 Art Museum Drive. Free. 443-573-1700. Viva Brasil! Carnival Dance Party: Brasilian mid-winter dance party returns for its 12th hipmoving year with live samba, forro, dance lessons, DJ's, a full-costumed Carnival performance and more. With JP Silva, Samba Trovao, Rose Moraes, DJ's Luiz Luoco and Miguel de Amor, plus costumed dancers, caipirinha drink specials, and so much more. 7:30 p.m. Saturday at The Patterson/Creative Alliance, 3134 Eastern Ave. $15-$18. 410-276-1651. Caption: The Capitol Steps perform an evening of political satire at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
Subject: Writers; Art galleries & museums; Books; Community colleges; Climate change; Fund raising; Novels; Bookstores; Jews
Location: Estonia Paraguay Maryland Pennsylvania Syria Baltimore Maryland United States--US South Africa New York Bulgaria Oregon
People: Key, Francis Scott (1779-1843) Ackerman, Elliot Benjamin, Melanie
Company / organization: Name: Jewish Museum of Maryland; NAICS: 712110; Name: Towson University; NAICS: 611310; Name: Carroll Community College; NAICS: 611310; Name: New York Times Co; NAICS: 511110, 511120, 515112, 515120; Name: Baltimore Museum of Art; NAICS: 712110; Name: Penguin Random House; NAICS: 511130
Publication title: The Baltimore Sun; Baltimore, Md.
First page: T.4
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 2, 2018
Publisher: Tribune Interactive, LLC
Place of publication: Baltimore, Md.
Country of publication: United States, Baltimore, Md.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
ISSN: 19439504
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2009544086
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2009544086?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright © 2018 The Baltimore Sun
Last updated: 2018-03-02
Database: US Southeast Newsstream
Document 167 of 474
WEEKEND WATCH
Author: Kaltenbach, Chris
Publication info: The Baltimore Sun ; Baltimore, Md. [Baltimore, Md]02 Mar 2018: T.2.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: 'Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban' in Concert The third installment in the Harry Potter canon, with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra playing John Williams' score live. 8 p.m. Friday and 3 p.m. Sunday at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, 1212 Cathedral St. $45-$95. Also 3 p.m. Saturday at the Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane in North Bethesda. $45-$85. bsomusic.org. Maryland Home & Garden Show Take your mind off winter with a visit to a veritable warm(er) weather wonderland, filled with flowers, landscaping ideas, outdoor decorations and all sorts of wondrous crafts. Plus seminars, demonstrations, a petting zoo and, on the second weekend, an orchid show and sale. 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Saturday and March 10, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday and March 11, plus 10 a.m.-6 p.m. next Friday at the Maryland State Fairgrounds, 2200 York Road in Timonium. $3-$12, free for kids under 6. mdhomeandgarden.com/spring. MammoJam Music FestivalPerformancesfrom The Ursula Ricks' Project, Roses n Rust, 33 West, The Reserves and others, with proceeds benefiting breast cancer awareness, prevention, diagnosis and treatment programs. 6:30 p.m. Saturday at The 8x10, 8 E. Cross St. $45. mammojam.org. Spring Fever Concert and BachFestBach in Baltimore anticipates spring with a program featuring Bach's Cantata 149 and Orchestral Suite, No. 3 in D major, with soloists Stephanie Kruskol Batchelder (soprano), Claire Galloway Weber (alto) and Michael Dodge (tenor). 4 p.m. Sunday at the Church of the Redeemer, 5603 N. Charles St. $20-$22. Followed at 6 p.m. by the 8th annual BachFest gala and silent auction, featuring drinks and hors d'oeuvres to go with the music and bidding. $25. bachinbaltimore.org. Cherish the LadiesStart this year's St. Paddy's partying a little early with this Cellar Stage concert, featuring a Grammy-nominated group of Irish-American women, led by All-Ireland flute and whistle champion Joanie Madden. 8 p.m. Friday at the Timonium United Methodist Church, 2300 Pot Spring Road in Timonium. $25. uptownconcerts.com. 'My Fair Lady' Linguistics professor Henry Higgins tries to teach flower peddler Eliza Doolittle how to speak properly, all in the name of winning a bet - until romance enters the picture. The great Lerner & Loewe musical, performed by Harford Community College's Phoenix Festival Theater. 7 p.m. Friday, Saturday and March 9, 2 p.m. Sunday and March 10-11 at the Chesapeake Theater at HCC, 401 Thomas Run Road in Bel Air. $16-$20. harford.edu. Viva Brasil! Carnival Dance Party! A hot time is guaranteed, with live samba, forro, dance lessons, DJs, costumed Carnival dancers and more. Plus caipirinha drink specials, which can only help. 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Creative Alliance, 3134 Eastern Ave. in Highlandtown. $15-$21. creativealliance.org. Kurt Elling The Baltimore Chamber Jazz Society launches its 2018 concert season with vocalist Elling, winner of the DownBeat Critics Poll for 14 straight years and eight-time "Male Singer of the Year" as chosen by the Jazz Journalists Association. 5 p.m. Sunday at the Baltimore Museum of Art, 10 Art Museum Drive. $53-$55. baltimorechamberjazz.org. 'Oy Oy Oy Gevalt! Jews and Punk'Author Michael Croland's book looks at the intersection of Jewish and punk culture, which may cover more than you think. This multimedia presentation (plus acoustic renditions of Jewish punk tunes, performed by Na Nach Oi!) begins at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Jewish Museum of Maryland, 15 Lloyd St. $4-$10 museum admission, free for kids under 4. jewishmuseummd.org. - Chris Kaltenbach Credit: By Chris Kaltenbach - THE BALTIMORE SUN - - Chris Kaltenbach Caption: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images MURRAY CLOSE/Associated Press Baltimore Sun Media Group
Subject: Art galleries & museums; Orchestras; Musical performances; Jews
Location: Maryland Baltimore Maryland Ireland
Company / organization: Name: Baltimore Sun Media Group; NAICS: 511110; Name: Jewish Museum of Maryland; NAICS: 712110; Name: Baltimore Museum of Art; NAICS: 712110; Name: Jazz Journalists Association; NAICS: 813920; Name: United Methodist Church; NAICS: 813110; Name: Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; NAICS: 711130
Publication title: The Baltimore Sun; Baltimore, Md.
First page: T.2
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 2, 2018
Publisher: Tribune Interactive, LLC
Place of publication: Baltimore, Md.
Country of publication: United States, Baltimore, Md.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
ISSN: 19439504
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2009580327
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2009580327?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright © 2018 The Baltimore Sun
Last updated: 2018-03-02
Database: US Southeast Newsstream
Document 168 of 474
Military crackdown in Rio sparks fears of police brutality
Author: Prengaman, Peter; Dilorenzo, Sarah
Publication info: Philadelphia Tribune ; Philadelphia, Pa. [Philadelphia, Pa]02 Mar 2018: 4B.
Abstract:
Rio's police force is already one of the most deadly in the world: 925 people were killed during police operations in 2016, according to the think tank Brazilian Public Security Forum, and initial tallies by human rights groups put the 2017 number over 1,000. [...]the intervention, slated to last all year, is heavy on promises to crack down on criminals but light on details. Since it was announced Feb. 16, there have been several operations involving the military. Raul Jungmann - who at the time was the defense minister but has since been named to lead the new public security minister - shocked some when he said the government was analyzing the use of "collective" search warrants that would allow searches of whole streets or even neighborhoods, rather than a single address.Full text: RIO DE JANEIRO - One by one, three Black Brazilian men matter-of-factly give tips for interacting with police that sound very much like "the talk" that many Black Americans have with their sons. Don't carry a long umbrella. Don't make any sudden movements. Don't leave home without receipts for anything valuable you're carrying. Those are three of the many suggestions offered in the popular video that was posted online in mid-February amid a military takeover of Rio de Janeiro's security forces. It underscores fears that the intervention will trample the civil rights of poor people, particularly Blacks, and lead to more police brutality. It also exposes a deep divide between Rio residents in affluent parts of the city and those who live in marginalized neighborhoods -who are both the primary victims of criminal violence and the attempts to crack down on it. Rio's police force is already one of the most deadly in the world: 925 people were killed during police operations in 2016, according to the think tank Brazilian Public Security Forum, and initial tallies by human rights groups put the 2017 number over 1,000. The intervention "will not solve criminality or drug trafficking," said Spartakus Santiago, a 23-year-old who works in advertising in Rio and is one of the video's creators. "It will increase the fear of people who live in these communities, innocent people who are not involved with crime." On the rise for at least two years, violence in Rio appeared to reach a tipping point during Carnival celebrations this month, when thieves were caught on film chasing and beating victims along the city's picturesque beachfront. The governor pleaded for federal help, and President Michel Temer issued a decree that put a military commander in charge of Rio's police. The measure has already put thousands of soldiers in the streets and is expected to sharply increase operations against drug-trafficking gangs that largely operate in favelas, or poor areas. Whether such a measure is necessary is the focus of a heated debate. Congress overwhelmingly approved Temer's decree, though opposition leaders accused him of using the measure to improve his popularity - he currently has a 9 percent approval rating - ahead of elections later this year. Temer denies that. Security experts point out that many cities and states in Brazil have even higher levels of violence than Rio. Gen. Walter Braga Netto, the man overseeing the military intervention, sent mixed signals when, upon being named, he downplayed the violence in Rio by saying there were "a lot of media" covering each development. "Rio is facing a grave state of violence, but we are not in a war," said Renata Neder from Amnesty International Brazil. She said characterizing the situation as a war, as many politicians have in recent months, adds to the idea that more police-related deaths will be justified. So far, the intervention, slated to last all year, is heavy on promises to crack down on criminals but light on details. Since it was announced Feb. 16, there have been several operations involving the military. As with previous troop deployments in Rio, however, soldiers have had a secondary role, setting up checkpoints and perimeters but not leading attempts to arrest armed traffickers. Fears of police excesses were heightened when soldiers were seen searching the backpacks of young school children and taking photos and gathering information of residents of some favelas. Raul Jungmann - who at the time was the defense minister but has since been named to lead the new public security minister - shocked some when he said the government was analyzing the use of "collective" search warrants that would allow searches of whole streets or even neighborhoods, rather than a single address. Jovacy Peter Filho, a criminal defense attorney, said broad warrants have occasionally been used in the past, and can easily be abused. "If there is no suspicion that someone is committing a crime, any violation of his residence, of his privacy, are violations of a citizen's fundamental right," said Peter Filho. There are also fears that the intervention will have profound secondary effects, such as sharply increasing the number of prisoners in already overpopulated prisons and exacerbating gang wars. Juliana Melo, an anthropology professor and prison expert, says the intervention will likely strengthen the Primeiro Comando da Capital, the country's most powerful gang, which operates much of its drug trade from prisons. The Sao Paulo-based gang has been working to expand nationwide, including in Rio, where another gang, Comando Vermelho, controls much of the city. "The result (of the intervention) will be an increase in crime and a rise in the mortality and incarceration rates of Black people," she said. Still, the biggest question mark is the future of the police force, which Gen. Braga Netto is expected to overhaul. Changing the police culture will be a gargantuan task, particularly in the ranks of military police, whose members are not soldiers, despite the name, and normally answer to state governors. Military police, in charge of patrols and operations, are widely feared in Rio, particularly among favela residents. Officers are often accused of shooting first and asking questions later, and many are believed to have links to drug traffickers or militias, armed groups that control parts of Rio and conduct summary executions. Even Justice Minister Torquato Jardim last year acknowledged that some military police leaders are partners in organized crime. At the same time, being an officer is an extremely dangerous job. Last year, 134 were killed in Rio state, many hunted and gunned down while off duty. The economic crisis of recent years has meant many police are paid late, are using dilapidated equipment and are often outgunned by traffickers. Military police officials did not respond to requests for comment for this story. Glaucia dos Santos, who is Black and lost her 17-year-old son in a military police shooting in 2014, says she fears the intervention will lead to more police violence against Blacks. Seventy-six percent of the people killed during police operations in Brazil between 2015 and 2016 were Black, according to the Brazilian Public Security Forum, while just over 50 percent of the population identifies as Black or mixed race. "Are they going to Copacabana?" she said, referring to a touristy and affluent part of Rio. "No. Just to the favelas." - (AP)
Subject: Violence; Local elections; African Americans; Search warrants; Military personnel; Police brutality; Military police
Location: Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil
People: Braga Netto, Walter Temer, Michel
Company / organization: Name: Amnesty International; NAICS: 813311
Ethnicity: African American/Caribbean/African
Publication title: Philadelphia Tribune; Philadelphia, Pa.
Pages: 4B
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Nov 10, 2017
Publisher: Philadelphia Tribune
Place of publication: Philadelphia, Pa.
Country of publication: United States, Philadelphia, Pa.
Publication subject: African American/Caribbean/African, Ethnic Interests
ISSN: 0746956X
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2011587034
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/logi n?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2011587034?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Philadelphia Tribune Mar 2, 2018
Last updated: 2018-11-12
Database: Ethnic NewsWatch
Document 169 of 474
Q4 2017 Cia Hering Earnings Call - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]02 Mar 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Presentation OPERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, thanks for waiting and welcome to the conference call to discuss the earnings of the fourth quarter 2017 of Hering. (Operator Instructions) Before moving on, we would like to let you know that any statements made during this conference call relative to the company's business outlooks, as well as projections, operating and financial goals are forward-looking statements based on the company's expectations. Forward-looking statements highly depend on the domestic market conditions, the country's general economic performance and our international markets, and therefore are subject to changes. Today with us in São Paulo are Fabio Hering, the company's CEO; and Rafael Bossolani, Finance and Investor Relations officer. The executives are going to make an initial introduction, and then we'll answer to your questions. We are going to turn the call now to Mr. Fabio Hering. Please, Mr. Herring, you may go on. FABIO HERING, CEO, ADVISOR, MEMBER OF EXECUTIVE BOARD & DIRECTOR, CIA. HERING: Hello, I would like to greet everyone, and welcome you all to our conference call to discuss the earnings of the fourth quarter in the year of 2017. Before turning the call to Rafael that is going to make the presentation and talk about the results of the fourth quarter and the year as a whole, I would like to bring to you the message of how management saw the year of 2017. As for our businesses, we have important developments. I would mention, among others, the breakdown by channels that we introduce, dividing commercial management that was devoted exclusively to multi-brand and the foreign market and other management to focus our mono brand stores. That is our own stores and also our franchisees, as well as electronic commerce that has been growing strongly. With that, we created a taste and agility in the company that is a lot better, and that reflects on our day-to-day. And we believe that from now on, we are going to be faster in restructuring our strategy terms -- in terms of products, stores and distribution channel. The year of '17 was a year in which we were not able to pick up growth in revenues and sales. We just have some growth, but by means of better management, we were able to do recover some of our margins in quite an expressive manner, to tell you the truth. So we get to the end of the year with better results [potential] of gross of margins gross -- of gross and net margins compared to the year of 2016. Well, very well then, these were my initial remarks, and now I'm going to turn the call to Rafael that is going to make the presentation itself. Later on, we are going to open for Q&A. RAFAEL BOSSOLANI, CFO, IR OFFICER & MEMBER OF EXECUTIVE BOARD, CIA. HERING: Well, thanks, Fabio. Good morning, everyone. I'm going to start on Slide #3 of the presentation, talking a bit about our financial performance. The fourth quarter gross revenues totaled 527 million, growth of 4.4% against the same period last year, and the highlight is the performance of our own stores and web store that had very good performance. In 2017, in the total of the year, gross revenues exceeded BRL 1.8 billion, an increase of 5.3% year-on-year, also favored by the accelerated growth of our own and web stores in addition to the recovery in the year of our multi-brand sales. Also, a highlight is the growth of every brand in the year, which is a reflect of our efforts to improve our products and also consistently deliver good collections. Another highlight is the positive performance of our foreign markets, both in the quarter and in the year, influenced by better penetration of our product in South America and Central America markets. Going on to Slide #4. I'm going to talk a bit about our Hering Store network. The sellout sales had a reduction of 0.8% in the quarter, 0.9% in the year, totaling gross revenues in '17 of BRL 1.4 billion. This results remained influenced by the franchise channels results, with the reduction of the 30 points of sales that were closed in the last 12 months. On the other hand, the stores operated by the company-owned stores had growth of 18% in the quarter and 21.5% in the whole of '17, basically because of an improvement in the same-store sales of the stores, and also the opening of 3 stores in the last 12 months. Still in the same-store sales performance, we have the retraction of sales of 1.1% in the quarter, 0.7% in the year, and the highlight here is the volatility of performance in the quarter and a high dispersion in the performance in between stores. Along the year, we also implemented some improvements in our refurbishment process basically to have better product exposure at putting the product as protagonists in our stores with higher flexibility. And with that, we closed the year of '17 with 3 stores that were remodeled as per this new format. Going to Slide #5, I'm still talking a bit about our financial performance. Our gross profit reached more than BRL 199 million in the fourth quarter and BRL 619 million in the year, and the highlight here is the gain of gross margin of 3.3 percentage points in the fourth quarter and 4.7 percentage points in 2017. This extension of gross margin was basically influenced by the lower volume of tax season collections, a better promotional control and a better control of costs at the manufacturing, as well as operational [after tax] and the exclusion of [ISGNS] from the tax fiscal theme calculation basis, which generated savings of 1 million along the year. The growth of sales and expansion of gross margin, as I mentioned, more than offsets the increase of operational expenses that we had in the year, especially because of a larger number of own stores and the provision of the profit-sharing program of BRL 25 million, which didn't happen in 2016. Consequently, the EBITDA of the quarter reached BRL 81 million, an increase of 33.7%. And in the whole of the year of 2017, a growth of 27 -- 25.7% with BRL 268 million. Going to Slide #6, we can see our growth of 68% in our net income in the fourth quarter and an increase of 32.3% in the year, reaching BRL 263.8 million net income. Again, these results had a positive impact of the reversal of financial expenses of approximately BRL 17 million in the fourth quarter '16 coming from a lawsuit of Eletrobrás that dated back 1990s. Also, we have the positive impact of the tax brackets, a result of deductions of divestments and the declaration of interest on equity, as we do -- the statement of interest on equity that we have every year. As for investments, we have a drop of 34% in the quarter that was influenced basically because of lower investments in stores in 2016. We have the refurbishment project that needed -- added investments in the year. And in 2017, investment grew by about 14%, mostly directed to improvements in our manufacturing and logistics complex. That is also investments in information technology for us to bid our omni channel project platform. Now moving onto Slide #7, a little bit about our cash flow. Free cash generation in the quarter was about BRL 31 million, with highlight to the reduction and subsequent partial normalization of our inventory levels in 2017. Free cash generation was BRL 140 million, BRL 69 million less lower than 2016, and the reason was primarily the greater need for working capital, especially for suppliers and inventories besides the resumption of our sales growth. Slide #8. In 2017, the company distributed BRL 185 million in dividend and on capital, and that represented 70% of the payout. This reinforces our commitment of returning value to our shareholders. And finally, our last slide brings some prospects of the company for the coming months. We have been following economic indicators and seeing a gradual improvement in the consumer environment, consumer confidence levels. However, there might be some volatility in our sales just like we saw in 2017. We are now focused on the execution of our strategic fronts for product in-store with some advances implemented in the development of our collection and better execution at the point-of-sale. The resumption of the sales growth and (inaudible) of the margins are very important to improve our results, and our efforts are now focused on resuming same-store-sales growth and expanding our sales across channels, a healthier inventory management with subsequent reduction in price remarking. This will all contribute to the maintenance of our growth margin throughout the year, and this is very important to improve the sustainability of our business. Regarding working capital, we will continue to focus on working capital optimization and subsequent cash cycle reduction. And finally, we will keep our commitment to reducing our expenses to solid cash generation and conservative capital structure. And based on our differentiated business model and our strong renounced brands, we expect to have a good year. So now, I'd like to pass the floor to the operator, and we will start our question-and-answer session. Questions and Answers OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) The first question is from Mr. Guilherme from Brasil Plural. GUILHERME ASSIS, ANALYST, BRASIL PLURAL CORRETORA DE CAMBIO, TITULOSE VALORES MOBILIáRIOS S.A., RESEARCH DIVISION: I'd like to know a little more about the growth dynamics of your channels, especially the Hering Store. With the information you provided, we see that it's still very low that's why you have negative numbers for the quarter. But we see some slightly more positive indicators especially for the service, business service, which grew in the second quarter with positive growth and acceleration of this growth and the average price. So what is your conclusion from that information? Because it seems to me that the fact that your PA is increasing and your average price per unit is also increasing, this report is what you said about well-accepted collection. But on the other hand, traffic seems to be bad or store movement seems to be down. Isn't this a communication problem? Shouldn't you improve communication in order to bring consumers to the store? Couldn't it help change the scenario maybe foster same-store sales for the next quarter? FABIO HERING: So I'll go first, and then Rafael can add something he wants. The challenge in 2017 is the number of customers service at the store. We have some slow markers in our stores that allows to measure conversion, and we conclude that conversion is stable. It hasn't been dropping. What we saw in 2017 was a drop in flow. A great part of our network is located in shopping malls in Brazil, and the drop in flow was not necessarily in the shopping mall. They could be in the shopping mall, but they could be there to have a meal, for example, and not shop specifically, and I think that the current scenario helped aggravating the situation of the flow in our stores. Also, our stores are very mature, and we haven't seen any significant extension in the number of stores. It's 16 or 17. So sales increment will not be based in maturation of the stores because our stores are already very mature. The data that we disclosed are for own stores. We do not include the data for the webstore, which saw great growth, both in terms of visits and conversion, sales growth but the data will be disposed separately for the web store. We have been able to extenuate the decrease in the number of customer service with an increase in our average price and RPA, which will consequently increase the average ticket, and this has been done not effectively by increasing prices. The prices -- the price increase has not been significant. What we have been doing to increase the average ticket through the PA and average price is through our product mix throughout 2017, both in the winter and summer season in the -- or in the first and second half of the year. In our shopping bed composition, we were able to introduce higher added-value products in our mix, which is very positive. But we know and we can see clearly that we need to fight this drop in the number of customer service in our stores by improving flow. Communication, as you said, which means media, advertising, these are tools that we can use for sure. We have been focusing our budget on digital media today. We could say that we have some instruments in digital media that we'll target to the point-of-sale, and we have been using these tools strongly and more and more over time, and our goal is that, in 2018, we will focus our efforts even more in that direction. Today, when we talk about our SSS increment target as our priority #1, our priority #1 is to increase flow in our stores, to increase the number of customer service. That's what we need to do in order to resume sales growth in our stores. GUILHERME ASSIS: Thank you, Fabio. It's very clear. Just one follow-up question regarding the same topic. Could you tell us a little bit more about your marketing strategies? You touched on the channel then social media and digital media, but could you give us a little more information about your marketing strategies and the return that you have been seeing in terms of sales growth, what do you exactly want -- intend to do for '18? FABIO HERING: Well, last year, we launched a communication strategy for Hering brand, and I'm going just to talk about Hering brand. I'm not going to talk about other brands right now. But for the Hering brands, we have a concept that is called basically it, and we see this potential of associating Hering to the concept of basic. And not only the basic in terms of products, per se, but basic almost as an institution, as something that remain along the lives of users since they are little kids until they become adults and also something that is quite democratic because it can reach all social tiers, which is a strength that very few brands have. Hering is one of the few brands that really can penetrate all social strata of the population. So this is our communication. It's based on this idea of the basic, which is something that is very strong about the brand, and we do that based on market survey. Hering is a brand that is loved by Brazilian consumers. And with this campaign, we have been really encouraging people's desires that is to make the brand to increasingly appealing to be always refreshed among the younger targets. The digital media is a reality that is here to stay in the communication strategy of any sector of brands, and we have really deepened and concentrated investment in these kinds of media. For 2018, we have already prepared and designed still some campaigns. As you know, the first quarter brings quite impactful events, which is Mother's Day and Valentine's Day for Brazil, which is carried out in June. We have a very good campaign for both Mother's Day and Valentine's Day. I cannot advance what it's going to be like. What I can say, it brings new content in production, and again, keeping this idea of basically it. And it has a media strategy that is more concentrated and directed to bringing customer flow to stores, including by the use of media that have revenues tied to consumers actually going to stores by means of mobile phone mapping. GUILHERME ASSIS: Okay. Very clear, Fabio. I have just one final point. Could we have an idea of how you have been measuring all that because you're saying that this is a campaign that is already in effect. So do you have any metrics or how are you assessing the impact on sales just for us to know if there's any performance analysis on the campaigns? FABIO HERING: Well, we have seen a long 2017. Once again, I'm talking about recorded performance. There was an increase that was quite positive in conversions based on new product lines that were brought since autumn fall last year, as the line basic cool. Again, it's not same old plain Hering white tees. You're talking about an extensive line, which is basic, but not plain adult. That is it's not just a white no print category of clothing items. And with that, we evolved with this idea of basic, which brought quite positive results in the line. We saw the performance of this line going quite well, even driving 2 of the positive indicators that we have, which was average ticket and parts for service. What it hasn't dropped so far is an increased serve flow, and therefore, an increase of services through conversion. This is a bit difficult for you to say was due -- or something in a positive or negative manner, especially because in 2017, we have quite challenging environment in the country as a whole. Our flow -- well, most of our network is located in shopping malls, and shopping mall flow certainly has an influence on all that. We have some stores that are located in the streets, open stores. And these are what we call much more destination stores than natural flow stores. That is when you were in the mall, you have the natural flow of the mall aisles. Anyway, what I can say is that the campaign did bring us very good awareness levels. It reinforced to the brand. It brought to consumers that actually visited the stores, a new view on product lines, which have been quite appealing to them. And what we are going to focus from now on is precisely to focus on the increased flow inside stores. And I think that somehow we have a much better macroeconomic scenario for the country. Although we are having a slow recovery, it's not really a peak, but we see signs of recovery and probably we are going to resume consumption. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from Ruben Couto from Itaú BBA. RUBEN COUTO, RESEARCH ANALYST, ITAú CORRETORA DE VALORES S.A., RESEARCH DIVISION: I would like to hear from you about the company's inventory levels, both for your own stores and franchisees. Same-store sales, it was a bit below expected, but it makes sense to imagine that you had a higher level of inventory in the fourth quarter? And what are the impacts of that, that we could expect for gross margins in the beginning of the year? RAFAEL BOSSOLANI: Rafael here. Well, we did have a reduction in the frontline inventory levels for franchisees and for own stores. That was about 8% to 9% in terms of number of items. And not only a reduction in the level of inventory, but also the current inventory has a better quality than what we saw in the end of 2016. So we see a better share in inventory of current collections, which is a healthier inventory composition. And what we saw in the fourth quarter was a higher share of sales, especially high summer compared to other sales compared to the last quarter of '16. So a bit healthier inventory in the frontline will probably mean a lesser need to mark down prices for our franchisees and for our stores. For the company itself, and I can explore inventories a bit better here, the quality of inventory, and I'm talking about current inventory levels inside the company, not at stores, is also quite better in terms of quality. What I mean here is I'm talking about either perennial product -- or products from more recent collections compared to what we had in the end of 2016. So we are keeping our position of stability in terms of margins. Obviously, the greatest challenge, as we always say, is what is missing and what is left over, which can always bring some volatility. But as we have mentioned before in the past, we expect to have margins that are very much aligned to what we saw in 2017, but Fabio is going to add to the question. FABIO HERING: Yes, I'll try to add to the question. Just with a piece of information that I believe is quite interesting and important, indeed, moving as you mentioned. The same store at the last quarter was below what we have prepared for, and therefore, in principle, so that should mean that we have an increased inventory level. However, as Rafael mentioned, the main collection for the fourth quarter, which is the collection that is after -- in Christmas and December period is the high summer. And indeed, the stores and the franchises, the goth items was the [prospect] of having more sales than what we have. However, inventory levels were low. And if there is something that we did quite well, along the whole of the year of '17, was to control our inventory levels, not only in our stores, but also in the franchisee network. And with that, the leftover that we have in high summer didn't have that much impact because, again, the network had inventories even below [BIDL] or optimum level. And therefore, after Christmas, that is as of December 28, which is a traditional sales period, we already could see a scenario that was quite different from the previous year. This year, we have some weeks less in between Christmas and Carnival, which is our sales period traditionally in Brazil. And so what we did is that we concentrated to the sale period that is it was shorter, and we got (inaudible) with a quite balance to metric in terms of inventory levels. As Rafael very well put it, we have inventory of good quality of collection that are either in effect or are perennial items. And if you are to observe today, perhaps, we are not the only, but we are one of the few networks that have already fall collection in our stores. If you go around in shopping malls today, even after Christmas -- after Carnival, I'm sorry, you see lots of sales going on. And we did have the sale, and we kept it. But just for the inside of store, that is our shop windows are bringing the new fall collection. And February, also we have this calendar effect compared to last year. Last year, we had almost the whole of February on sale because Carnival offs was February 28 in '17. And again, when you are comparing months and months, it is complicated. But on the other hand, we had very good January with growth. So that's the comment I have to add. OPERATOR: The next question is by Olivia Petronilho from JPMorgan. OLIVIA B. PETRONILHO, ANALYST, JP MORGAN CHASE & CO, RESEARCH DIVISION: Actually, I have 2 questions. The first one is about a project that is presented yesterday about new formats that could increase store expansion. So is this something that you will roll out this year? Will this be done through the franchise stores, own stores? When should we start seeing this expansion contributing to your revenue? And the second question is about multi-brand. We continue to see a marked drop in the number of consumers in multi-brand, and we were expecting by now to see an extenuation of this drop because of a better economic environment in the country. So what is the trend that you see? Do you think that the financial crisis is still affecting consumers? And when do you expect to see them back in the multi-brand stores? FABIO HERING: Olivia, this is Fabio. You were cutting up a little bit, so let me see if I understand. Your first question is about on network project like new format. In addition to the network project, as you know, we inaugurated 4 pilot stores with an evolution of our architectural projects. In this evolution, there were some major changes that improved flexibility in our stores. We are also able to improve the density, and this has been showing some very positive results in our 3 first pilots because the fourth pilot is very recent. We just inaugurated that fourth, so we can't really measure. But in the first 3, it was very positive. And we are starting 2018 with a very strong intention to expand this project for at least for addition of other stores. And specifically, about the network project, your question about the network project, it is now in its final stage of completion. The goal is to extract from the project new formats that could, on one hand, improve the capillarity in our penetration in the national market using perhaps more contact format. And it also creates a very interesting potential in large capital cities and regions with more space available. We can't really give you more information at this point first because the project has not yet been completed, and second because this is part of our strategy keeping this more confidential information. Your question about multi-brand, I think Rafael can answer that better. RAFAEL BOSSOLANI: Olivia, well, in the sector multi-brand, what we saw throughout the year and up to the first half, the end of the first half, the performance was significant, and then in the third, in Q3, it became more difficult and then Q4 followed the same trend of a performance drop. We saw that we somehow raised the bar in terms of quality of customers, so we ended up canceling many orders, many clients, because of default basically. We don't have the statistics, but our field service point to sellout, a weaker sellout, in Q3 and Q4 for our multi-brand customers, which ended up affecting the replenishment of our stores with our products. Some segments have been more aggressive in terms of prices, especially for the basic channels, which has also been increasing difficulty for the multibrand channel. But it's also important to mention the segmentation of our multi-market channel. Qualified retail, which represents about 10% of our client base, this segment had better results in comparison with the other multibrand customers that we have. The vectors for 2018 that we have been working on with these channels and are important for our business are first to improve the client base, but with good quality. We want good quality customers, and we want to turn our good multibrand clients into qualified retailer and also the average orders and this is also important. We had a growth of about 8% in Q4. The average ticket of our customers grew about 8%, so our productivity increased, and consequently, there was a reduction in the churn or loss of customers that we already have in our client base. These are the 3 main factors that we are seeking to improve in order to ensure the growth of this channel. OLIVIA B. PETRONILHO: I just want to add, when you say that you are revising your client base because of default, have you completed that for office or is it still ongoing? FABIO HERING: No, I think this is a focal effort. We have this list of orders that ended up being canceled. After these orders are received, they are canceled because of default. Default is an important point for the company. This has to be very well controlled, and is well-controlled in the company, and we will keep this good control. But I don't think this is something that we will continue to see from now on. I think this was a focal effort, who can sell orders from clients at default, and it affected the performance of that specific quarter. OPERATOR: Next question is by Gustavo Oliveira. GUSTAVO PIRAS OLIVEIRA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, HEAD OF LATAM RESEARCH, AND LATIN AMERICA CONSUMER ANALYST, UBS INVESTMENT BANK, RESEARCH DIVISION: I have a few questions. First, I'd like to know, Pablo, because of Hering Kids, they were weaker in Q3 and Q4. We were expecting more -- a stronger growth in the last year, so what happened in Q4 with Hering Kids? RAFAEL BOSSOLANI: Hello, this is Rafael. Hering Kids was impacted by the low performance of our multibrand channel. This is the most direct answer I can give you. For the other channel, the performance was reasonably good for the year and all the other channels, but we have a carryover of the impact of the multibrand channel results, affecting more directly the brand Hering Kids. Also, about the working capital, your accounts payable also dropped, and I don't understand your explanation for that. RAFAEL BOSSOLANI: Well, it happened with our supplier. There's an impact from international sourcing. We have different supply sources, and there was a greater share of our international sourcing, not just because of strategic issues, but there was an increase in the share on international sourcing and the time frame is relatively shorter than those that we see for our national supplier. So this is one of the reasons. The second is a procurement mix, and also this is also part of our business. Our procurement mix or our raw material mix also had a different share and different time frame, so we were able to reduce the purchase of fabrics in comparison with the previous quarter, and the payment terms are longer than the average that we see in our other raw materials. So this raw material mix was one of the reasons. We have some important initiatives in the company to focus on our suppliers and the delivery time in order to optimize our cash conversion cycle. So this was more related to a raw material mix than through productivity loss. GUSTAVO PIRAS OLIVEIRA: So two more questions. Fabio said on the Investor Day, he was talking about what you're doing or what can be implemented this year, and the second question, if you allow me, is again a follow-up from the Investor Day. You said that you would expedite your international presence, especially focusing on -- in Argentina, and I would like to know what the strategy is like. FABIO HERING: Well, this is Fabio speaking. With regards to the commercial model, what we implemented and introduced is a different way to manage our franchises. So the growth of the franchise consultants that is a Herring employee that has this position of franchise consultants, they're providing services to franchisee, and what we did was that we made some changes. The commercial parts of compensation to franchises have changed. The variable compensation is directly connected to sellout and not sell-in. That is our sales to the franchisees is no longer a component. And in the management of franchisees, we brought a new model with different controls to see the performance of each store from each franchise. So there are many details. It's a bit complicated to just describe them now, but this is a new management model that is already in operation in the beginning of 2018. As for your second question, which is our international expansion, well, the answer is yes. We are looking into the possibility of going back after many years to the Argentinian market. We, today, are present in the so-called Mercosur countries only in Uruguay and Paraguay. That's a good presence if we are going to see Uruguay has 3 million inhabitants, and we sell about 700,000 to 800,000 items a year, so just quite good presence. It's been in the country for many years. The Uruguayan store network performs very well. And so with the prospects of going back to the Argentinian market, it's interesting. In foreign trade, Argentina is once again opening the country for the exchange of products. Licenses are being eliminated. That were barriers for us before. And also although Argentina also went through a very deep recession, it is showing signs of becoming a more stable market and picking up growth. So it's just a country that interests us more objectively in the month of January. I, myself, together with our foreign market teams, visited Buenos Aires for some prospecting, and we are designing a plan. So yes, we still have this intention of going back to Argentina, although for now, it is just an intention. And this is basically our main focus for international expansion. If you remember 10 years ago, Hering had huge volume of businesses overseas. We have more than 100 stores as franchises in Argentina as a whole, and that's it. GUSTAVO PIRAS OLIVEIRA: Well, just to understand the commercial model a bit better, those new initiatives and you're saying that there are several details about them. Are they to have immediate rollout or are you going to have a pilot project? FABIO HERING: No, they have already been introduced. It's not really a rollout. It's just a little change. When we talk about -- we changed the compensation portion of the franchise model. All these is connected to sellout of franchisees now. So this is something that was changed, and that's it, change and implemented. Now when you talk about the managed model, sub-consultants to working with stores with franchisees, that is still ongoing. We are developing teams. We are training teams. We are enhancing the model, but anyway, everything is already in operation. OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) The next question comes from (inaudible) from HSBC. UNIDENTIFIED ANALYST: Fabio, Rafael, I just have a follow-up about e-commerce. I would like to have a bit more color on e-commerce performance, especially on sales for the fourth quarter. Was there anything specific for the strong deceleration in sales and in more aggressive competitors? And how do you see the performance of this channel now in the beginning of the year? FABIO HERING: This is Fabio speaking. Well, the fourth quarter was below expectations. It was the best outside -- did what we have planned for. But if you think of the whole of the year, it had very steep growth even above market averages. Basically, what we see in the beginning of this year is that we are picking up growth. We already see some improvements in the beginning of the year. What I would like to talk about e-commerce, and I think this is very important to say, is that e-commerce is no longer a separate source of revenue. We are more and more working with the concepts of omni channels. So we introduced still as a pilot project in the end of last year in some stores. The click-and-collect model that is you buy electronically and you go to the physical store to pick your purchase. And another thing that we started, and I think, personally, that is a fantastic tool, which we call show rooming. That is you're able to be in the brick-and-mortar store, and you ask for the product to be delivered at your home. So you buy electronically, which was a very good accomplishment that we have last year. That is to build systems to support those, the click-and-collect and our showroom model in the different franchises because you know you have different corporate taxpayers, neighbors, names. You have tax systems, and we were able to build a system that supports all that. So we are very optimistic, and we believe we are going to have the rollout of those omni channel models, click-and-collect, show rooming in a fast manner. We still do not have very defined targets, but we know that, that will bring us together with the high popular network that we have with hundreds of stores because if you consider the Hering Store network and the other networks, you're talking about 800 stores. You're talking about 800 points of sales with different inventories, and then the idea is to provide those services both physically and electronically in all of them. So those are the updates that we have in terms of electronic commerce. OPERATOR: Since there are no further questions, we are now closing Hearing's Conference Call. We thank you very much for attending, and wish you a good day. Thank you very much. [Thomson Financial reserves the right to make changes to documents, content, or other information on this web site without obligation to notify any person of such changes. In the conference calls upon which Event Transcripts are based, companies may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding a variety of items. Such forward-looking statements are based upon current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those stated in any forward-looking statement based on a number of important factors and risks, which are more specifically identified in the companies' most recent SEC filings. Although the companies may indicate and believe that the assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements are reasonable, any of the assumptions could prove inaccurate or incorrect and, therefore, there can be no assurance that the results contemplated in the forward-looking statements will be realized. THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN EVENT TRANSCRIPTS IS A TEXTUAL REPRESENTATION OF THE APPLICABLE COMPANY'S CONFERENCE CALL AND WHILE EFFORTS ARE MADE TO PROVIDE AN ACCURATE TRANSCRIPTION, THERE MAY BE MATERIAL ERRORS, OMISSIONS, OR INACCURACIES IN THE REPORTING OF THE SUBSTANCE OF THE CONFERENCE CALLS. IN NO WAY DOES THOMSON FINANCIAL OR THE APPLICABLE COMPANY OR THE APPLICABLE COMPANY ASSUME ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY INVESTMENT OR OTHER DECISIONS MADE BASED UPON THE INFORMATION PROVIDED ON THIS WEB SITE OR IN ANY EVENT TRANSCRIPT. USERS ARE ADVISED TO REVIEW THE APPLICABLE COMPANY'S CONFERENCE CALL ITSELF AND THE APPLICABLE COMPANY'S SEC FILINGS BEFORE MAKING ANY INVESTMENT OR OTHER DECISIONS.] [Copyright: Content copyright 2018 Thomson Financial. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Electronic format, layout and metadata, copyright 2018 ASC LLC (www.ascllc.net) ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No license is granted to the user of this material other than for research. User may not reproduce or redistribute the material except for user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon Thomson Financial's or ASC's copyright or other proprietary rights or interests in the material; provided, however, that members of the news media may redistribute limited portions (less than 250 words) of this material without a specific license from Thomson Financial and ASC so long as they provide conspicuous attribution to Thomson Financial and ASC as the originators and copyright holders of such material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation.]
Subject: Copyright; Corporate profits; Electronic commerce; Executives
Company / organization: Name: Thomson Financial; NAICS: 511210, 518210, 519190; Name: Central Intelligence Agency--CIA; NAICS: 928110, 928120
Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 2, 2018
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: Linthicum
Country of publication: United States, Linthicum
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Law--Corporate Law
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2014392697
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=htt ps://search.proquest.com/docview/2014392697?accountid=4840
Copyright: 2018 Thomson Financial and ASC LLC
Last updated: 2018-03-17
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 170 of 474
BRAZILIAN BREWERS CELEBRATE CARNIVAL
Author: Cortez, Mario A
Publication info: La Prensa San Diego ; San Diego, Calif. [San Diego, Calif]02 Mar 2018: 6.
Abstract:
Local beer lovers could experience a bit of Brazil this Saturday as Novo Brazil Brewing celebrated its second annual carnival event at its Eastlake headquarters. The family-friendly event featured live Brazilian bands, arts and crafts for kids, food vendors, samba dancers, and of course, the great beer Novo Brazil has become known for. Novo Brazil founding partner and brewer Eduardo Pentagna spoke with La Prensa San Diego about the event and the new beers joining their award-winning taplist.
Full text: Local beer lovers could experience a bit of Brazil this Saturday as Novo Brazil Brewing celebrated its second annual carnival event at its Eastlake headquarters. The family-friendly event featured live Brazilian bands, arts and crafts for kids, food vendors, samba dancers, and of course, the great beer Novo Brazil has become known for. Novo Brazil founding partner and brewer Eduardo Pentagna spoke with La Prensa San Diego about the event and the new beers joining their award-winning taplist. "The idea is to show Americans a little bit of our Brazilian culture and who we are proud to be," said Pentagna. "We are an American brewery run by Brazilians, and we want to show to everyone the love from Brazil." Some of that love from Brazil comes in the form of the coconut lager, a special brew made exclusively for Saturday's carnival. "We have a lot of coconuts in Brazil, so we wanted to make this beer," said Pentagna. "It has some sweet notes and its refreshing." Other new arrivals were the Novo Kings Hazy IPA, a collaboration with Rancho Cucamonga-based King's Brewing, Jobim Double IPA, and a new batch of last year's smash hit Pool Party IPA. Novo Brazil also officially unveiled its new toucan logos and updated image as a part of the celebration. "We wanted to show off our new branding today," Pentagna said. "We are evolving, we are growing with Chula Vista, but most importantly, we just wanna have fun." Novo Brazil Brewing is located at 901 Lane Avenue in Chula Vista.
Subject: Breweries; Festivals
Location: Brazil
Ethnicity: Hispanic
Publication title: La Prensa San Diego; San Diego, Calif.
Volume: 42
Issue: 9
First page: 6
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 2, 2018
Section: Arts + Culture
Publisher: La Prensa San Diego, Arturo Castañares
Place of publication: San Diego, Calif.
Country of publication: United States, San Diego, Calif.
Publication subject: Ethnic Interests, Hispanic
ISSN: 07389183
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2162710365
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2162710365?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright La Prensa San Diego, Arturo Castañares Mar 2, 2018
Last updated: 2019-01-03
Database: Ethnic NewsWatch
Document 171 of 474
Diversity celebrated at 'International Culture Night'
Author: Grant, Noah
Publication info: TCA Regional News ; Chicago [Chicago]03 Mar 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: March 03--Sanford houses many different cultures and they were on display Thursday night at the Dennis A. Wicker Civic Center for El Refugio's second annual International Culture Night. The center came alive as hundreds gathered to celebrate the diversity of the area. More than 20 countries, ranging from Brazil, Thailand, Mexico and France were represented at tables all around the venue. Some tables featured food from the country while others focused on art and facts about the respective culture. Caroline Oliveira, a Brazil native, decorated her section for Carnival, an annual festival that marks the beginning of Lent. The night gave people like Oliveira an opportunity to teach others about their home countries and themselves. "I was born and raised in Brazil and I grew up in a different environment, in a different scenario," Oliveira said. "In Brazil, I think life is a lot easier. I used to live in a house with a big backyard and a pool, two streets away from the beach -- you can't complain, right? That's life. Coconut water everywhere, like real coconut water, not from the can." Oliveira served brigadeiro, which she said is a dish found at "every single birthday party in Brazil" that's made of condensed milk, cocoa powder and butter. The sweet treat is shaped into small spheres and topped off with sprinkles. South and Central American countries were well-represented, along with Asia. Isaraporn Phusit represented Thailand at her table, serving pad thai and thai tea and telling visitors what the Southeast Asian country had to offer. "(Pad thai is) made from rice noodles mixed with special thai sauce with eggs, and you can put either shrimp or chicken in there with a variety of vegetables," she said. Phusit, much like Oliveira, was proud of her heritage and the culture she carries with her in America. "We have our own language," Phusit said. "We have our own very unique identity. We have (a) very beautiful culture that we respect the elderly and gratitude." El Refugio put the event together with the help of Central Carolina Community College, the Lee County Arts Council and CCCC Foundation. Oscar Hernandez of El Refugio wanted the children of the organization to be showcased, so their artwork was presented prominently in front of the stage. Children populated the room, with some dressed in traditional garments from their respective country. People from all walks of life attended, further exhibiting the diverse nature of the area. Hernandez wanted people to "come in with an open mind" and to leave with knowledge of a country they didn't have before. Hernandez said the event went along with the organization's mission to foster positive relationships in the community. "We'd like to let the community know that we as citizens of Sanford and the Lee County area are open to learning from other people's culture and background," he said. "We are not tied to one culture, one religion, one background. We would like to learn from all of them because we understand that that's what makes us better." Reach Staff Writer Noah Grant at 919-718-1229 and on Twitter at @NoahGrantHerald. CREDIT: By Noah Grant
Location: Thailand Mexico Brazil France Asia
Company / organization: Name: Central Carolina Community College; NAICS: 611210; Name: Twitter Inc; NAICS: 519130
Publication title: TCA Regional News; Chicago
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 3, 2018
Publisher: Tribune Content Agency LLC
Place of publication: Chicago
Country of publication: United States, Chicago
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2009873688
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=http s://search.proquest.com/docview/2009873688?accountid=4840
Copyright: (c)2018 The Sanford Herald (Sanford, N.C.) Visit The Sanford Herald (Sanford, N.C.) at www.sanfordherald.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Last updated: 2018-03-03
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 172 of 474
Inside Brazil's Drag Revolution
Author: Assunção, Muri
Publication info: Billboard ; New York Vol. 130, Iss. 6, (Mar 3, 2018): 25.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: In a country rife with anti-LGBTQ violence, queens like Pabilo Vittar and Aretuza Lovi are the face of a movement trying to change the culture AFTER FIVE DAYS OF THE INTENSE party marathon that takes over Brazil during Carnival, drag queen Pabilo Vittar is exhausted. The 23-year-old phenom, who kicked the internet into overdrive in February after making out with Diplo in her music video for "Entăo Vai," can finally take off her high heels, put her wigs away and reflect on her accomplishments: The country with the worst rate of anti-LGBTQviolence in the world has chosen her - a man - as its pop queen. Homophobia remains one of Brazil's most serious problems. Grupo Gay da Bahia (GGB), Brazil's oldest LGBTQ/ights organization, estimates that violent deaths of LGBTQBrazilians hit an all-time high in 2017: at least 387 people were killed, an increase of 30 percent from the previous year. But a collective of drag queens - with Vittar at the forefront - is helping increase Brazil's acceptance of the LGBTQ_community, using music and performance as their means. "I'm very happy that I have this space and an opportunity to lend my voice to the cause, and to represent my sisters," says Vittar, whose videos for "Corpo Sensual" and "K.O." have collectively earned over 500 million YouTube views. "Knowing other people will grow by having more examples and people that can inspire them is wonderful." Some performers, like Vittar's frequent collaborator Aretuza Lovi, faced homophobia at лоте before entering the world of drag. "When my dad realized I was gay," says Lovi, "he treated me horribly [and] beat me up. I was afraid to breathe next to him." She started doing drag as a joke with some friends, but when her career took off she felt empowered, and now she uses drag as a platform. The response has been sizable: Her latest single, "Joga Bunda," garnered over -_o million YouTube views in a month. For Gloria Groove, who also features on "Bunda," drag culture - and hip-hop, which influences much of the queens' music - is her way to "use my voice to point out what's wrong [in Brazil]," says Groove. "I'm queer, effeminate, a non-white drag queen, and I always put myself out there in a country with the highest number of LGBTQ/nurders in the world." "Every kid who's different and non-hetero has experienced bullying in school," adds drag sister Lia Clark, who says that she has also experienced it in her career. Clark's first single, 2016's "Trava Trava (Shake Shake)," reached the second spot on Spotify's viral chart, but the success of "Boquetáxi" (a play on the words "blow job" and "taxi") in 2017 was stifled by YouTube when it classified the video as "restricted." It's a question of equal rights, she says: "If mine was blocked, then others should be blocked, too," she says, referring to sexually suggestive videos featuring straight artists. Even so, this new generation of artists is using its unprecedented visibility to confront Brazil's deep-rooted machismo. "We are making a tiny dent in the history of music in Brazil and that is really cool," says Lovi. " [I want] our music to be a lot more revolutionary than what it is." ОHeadnote
Sidebar
Subject: Music; Gays & lesbians
Location: Brazil
Company / organization: Name: YouTube Inc; NAICS: 519130; Name: Spotify AB; NAICS: 519130
Publication title: Billboard; New York
Volume: 130
Issue: 6
Pages: 25
Number of pages: 1
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 3, 2018
Publisher: Prometheus Global Media
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: New York
Publication subject: Sound Recording And Reproduction, Music
ISSN: 00062510
Source type: Trade Journals
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2036275348
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2036275348?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Prometheus Global Media Mar 3, 2018
Last updated: 2018-05-09
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 173 of 474
Yellow Fever Circles Brazil’s Huge Cities
Author: Darlington, Shasta; McNeil, Donald G, Jr
Publication info: New York Times (Online) , New York: New York Times Company. Mar 5, 2018.
Abstract:
With an outbreak in its second year, officials are trying to vaccinate 23 million people against the virus. The government was slow to act, critics say.
Full text: SÃO PAULO — “Good morning!” a loudspeaker blared recently in the working class São Paulo suburb called Jardim Monte Alegre. “We’ve got your yellow fever vaccine, and today we’re going house to house! You better wake up because mosquitoes never sleep!” Twenty health workers piled out of cars. Though they laughed and chatted with locals, their mission was deadly serious. Brazil is suffering its worst outbreak of yellow fever in decades. The virus, which kills 3 percent to 8 percent of those who are infected, is now circling the megacities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, threatening to become this country’s first-blown urban epidemic since 1942. Although there have been only 237 deaths since the hot season began , the fatality rate will explode if the virus reaches the slums and the clouds of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes swarming there. A. aegypti — known for centuries as the fearsome “ yellow fever mosquito ” — is also the chief spreader of Zika, dengue and chikungunya. It breeds in drinking water barrels and street garbage puddles, hides in the dark corners of houses and often bites several humans before laying eggs. To head off a catastrophe, health officials are struggling to vaccinate 23 million people. But the effort has been slowed by what critics call a series of government missteps and the spread of false rumors about the vaccine. “When they stopped coming to us, we started going to them,” said Nancy Marçal Bastos, health and sanitation director for northern São Paulo. “People have a lot of excuses for why they haven’t gotten the vaccine yet, but when we show up, it’s usually easy to convince them.” Toting coolers full of vaccines, health workers stop in the corner bar and the local gym, demanding: “Who hasn’t been vaccinated yet? Line up!” The workers jab extended arms and fill out forms with surprising speed, then start moving house to house. The challenges are daunting. In early 2016, the yellow fever virus broke out of its usual pattern: limited spread by forest mosquito species from monkeys to loggers, hunters, farmers and other residents of the Amazon basin. Instead, the virus began moving south and east, following forest corridors inhabited by monkeys toward the big coastal cities and triggering a public health emergency . Panicky Brazilians started shooting, clubbing and poisoning monkeys in the belief that this could slow the spread. Actually, authorities said, that hurt efforts to track the virus, because monkey deaths are used as an indicator of its direction. Last year, it did not quite reach the cities — cases faded out by July as cooler weather set in. Global health authorities sighed with relief, hoping intense vaccination efforts would snuff the outbreak. But that didn’t happen, said Dr. Sylvain Aldighieri, chief of epidemic response for the Pan American Health Organization. “There was lab-confirmed transmission during the winter,” he said. “So the amount of virus around at the beginning of the summer was already huge.” The resurgent virus is now lunging forward more than a mile a day, he said, and efforts to stop an epidemic have become a race between the virus and the vaccinators. This year’s caseload is 26 percent higher than at this time last year, and with more hot, rainy months ahead, the figure is destined to increase. This year yellow fever — named for the jaundiced eyes and skin that are its most common symptom — began killing foreign tourists, including visitors to Ilha Grande, a tropical island south of Rio. Two Chileans and a Swiss citizen died, and visitors from France, the Netherlands and Romania fell seriously ill. In January, just before Carnival season, another tourism lure, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention raised its alert level , advising Americans headed for Rio, São Paulo and several other areas to be vaccinated first. Brazil makes its own vaccine through a subsidiary of its Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, and much of this year’s chaos could have been averted if the government had acted faster, critics said. Low oil prices have hurt every sector of the economy, and the country has had a series of distracting political crises. “Brazil’s public health response was very delayed,” said Dr. Karin A. Nielsen, an infectious disease expert at the University of California, Los Angeles, who does research in Brazil. “Monkeys were dying in the wild two to three years ago.” Dr. Jessé Reis Alves, a travel medicine specialist here, said the vaccination campaign should have been launched “in a calm moment between outbreaks.” Instead, he said, “they waited for a new outbreak.” In September, vaccinations were given to people living around forests near São Paulo where dead monkeys were found; the suburbs were targeted only in November. Initially, long lines formed at clinics, and 85,000 shots were given in one weekend. Then, on Facebook , YouTube and other social media platforms, anti-vaccine activists — who previously found little footing in Brazil — began spreading terrifying rumors. “Some people began trashing the vaccine, saying, ‘It’s going to kill you’,” said Dr. Ernesto T.A. Marques Jr., an expert in mosquito-borne diseases at the University of Pittsburgh. “It was picked up in the media.” The vaccine, invented in the 1930s, is highly effective — one dose normally provides lifetime protection. But it is not harmless. It cannot be given to newborns or anyone with a compromised immune system. It is given to people older than 60, pregnant women, or children younger than 8 months only when the risk of infection is high. About one recipient in 100,000 suffers a dangerous reaction like jaundice, hepatitis or encephalitis, Dr. Marques said, and about one in a million dies. “If you vaccinate 30 million people, you’ll get about 30 deaths,” he said. But if yellow fever infected 30 million people, two million could die. So, with the disease moving rapidly forward, health authorities announced that they hoped to inoculate 95 percent of the population in 77 cities and towns in the virus’s path — a total of 23 million people, including 12 million in this city alone. But “they didn’t have 12 million shots to give us,” said Dr. Wilson M. Pollara, São Paulo’s health secretary. “So we’re doing it in phases — two million at a time.” The global vaccine stockpile, overseen by the World Health Organization, normally contains only six million doses, made by only four manufacturers, including the Cruz foundation. But Brazil has scaled up its production to about 5 million doses per month and will soon be able to double that, said Dr. William Perea, the W.H.O.’s epidemic control coordinator. That should easily cover Brazil’s needs for now, he said, so the global stockpile will not be drawn down. If necessary, it can be replenished; the four makers together can turn out 100 million doses a year in an emergency, he said. Meanwhile, to stretch the vaccine it initially had on hand, Brazil gave out one-fifth doses. That provides protection for at least a year and can be used in emergencies, the W.H.O. says. Thus far, however, only 5.5 million people have been vaccinated. Despite those low numbers, the Health Ministry has pushed back against critics, insisting it followed international procedures. “I don’t think there were mistakes or delays,” said Dr. Renato Vieira Alves, the ministry’s communicable disease coordinator. “You can’t launch new vaccination campaigns in an instant.” While the caseload is higher than last year’s, it is only a fraction of the population at risk, he argued. “Most of these new cases are occurring in areas where, until now, we didn’t recommend immunization,” he said. To overcome suspicion of the vaccine and frustration with long lines at clinics, vaccinators have begun going door-to-door or using tents shifted from one neighborhood to another. There, they hope face-to-face chats will succeed where other efforts have failed. Lucia Elena de Paula, 36, explained her fears to a nurse, saying, “I saw a video on WhatsApp with a girl who said she was paralyzed after taking the vaccine.” But after a few soothing words from a staff member, she agreed to get the shot. After dragging her 10-year-old grandson into a gym where the vaccines sat on an exercise bench, Aparecida Caldeira, 61, explained why she had hesitated. “When we went to the clinic in January, the lines were just too long,” she said. “I’m so grateful they came here. But that’s just typical in Brazil — waiting to do everything at the last minute.” Credit: Shasta Darlington and Donald G. McNeil Jr.
Subject: Fatalities; Vaccines; Disease; Epidemics; Social networks; Public health; Fever; Mosquitoes
Location: Netherlands United States--US Romania Ilha Grande California Brazil Los Angeles California Rio de Janeiro Brazil France
Company / organization: Name: YouTube Inc; NAICS: 519130; Name: Pan American Health Organization; NAICS: 923120; Name: University of Pittsburgh; NAICS: 611310; Name: Centers for Disease Control & Prevention--CDC; NAICS: 923120; Name: World Health Organization; NAICS: 923120; Name: Facebook Inc; NAICS: 518210, 519130
Identifier / keyword: Vaccination and Immunization Epidemics Yellow Fever Mosquitoes Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) Pan American Health Organization World Health Organization Brazil Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) Sao Paulo (Brazil) Monkeys and Apes
Publication title: New York Times (Online); New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 5, 2018
Section: health
Publisher: New York Times Company
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Blogs, Podcasts, & Websites
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2010395047
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2010395047?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright 2018 The New York Times Company
Last updated: 2018-03-09
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 174 of 474
Fast-Moving Yellow Fever Circles Brazil's Cities: [Science Desk]
Author: Darlington, Shasta; Mcneil, Donald G, Jr
Publication info: New York Times , Late Edition (East Coast); New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]06 Mar 2018: D.1.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: SÃO PAULO -- "Good morning!" a loudspeaker blared recently in the working class São Paulo suburb called Jardim Monte Alegre. "We've got your yellow fever vaccine, and today we're going house to house! You better wake up because mosquitoes never sleep!" Twenty health workers piled out of cars. Though they laughed and chatted with locals, their mission was deadly serious. Brazil is suffering its worst outbreak of yellow fever in decades. The virus, which kills 3 percent to 8 percent of those who are infected, is now circling the megacities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, threatening to become this country's first-blown urban epidemic since 1942. Although there have been only 237 deaths since the hot season began, the fatality rate will explode if the virus reaches the slums and the clouds of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes swarming there. A. aegypti -- known for centuries as the fearsome "yellow fever mosquito" -- is also the chief spreader of Zika, dengue and chikungunya. It breeds in drinking water barrels and street garbage puddles, hides in the dark corners of houses and often bites several humans before laying eggs. To head off that catastrophe, health officials are struggling to vaccinate 23 million people. But the effort has been slowed by what critics call a series of government missteps and the spread of false rumors about the vaccine. "When they stopped coming to us, we started going to them," said Nancy Marçal Bastos, health and sanitation director for northern São Paulo. "People have a lot of excuses for why they haven't gotten the vaccine yet, but when we show up, it's usually easy to convince them." Toting coolers full of vaccines, health workers stop in the corner bar and the local gym, demanding: "Who hasn't been vaccinated yet? Line up!" The workers jab extended arms and fill out forms with surprising speed, then start moving house to house. The challenges are daunting. In early 2016, the yellow fever virus broke out of its usual pattern: limited spread by forest mosquito species from monkeys to loggers, hunters, farmers and other residents of the Amazon basin. Instead, the virus began moving south and east, following forest corridors inhabited by monkeys toward the big coastal cities and triggering a public health emergency. Panicky Brazilians started shooting, clubbing and poisoning monkeys in the belief that this could slow the spread. Actually, authorities said, that hurt efforts to track the virus, because monkey deaths are used as an indicator of its direction. Last year, it did not quite reach the cities -- cases faded out by July as cooler weather set in. Global health authorities sighed with relief, hoping intense vaccination efforts would snuff the outbreak. But that didn't happen, said Dr. Sylvain Aldighieri, chief of epidemic response for the Pan American Health Organization. "There was lab-confirmed transmission during the winter," he said. "So the amount of virus around at the beginning of the summer was already huge." The resurgent virus is now lunging forward more than a mile a day, he said, and efforts to stop an epidemic have become a race between the virus and the vaccinators. This year's caseload is 26 percent higher than at this time last year, and with more hot, rainy months ahead, the figure is destined to increase. This year yellow fever -- named for the jaundiced eyes and skin that are its most common symptom -- began killing foreign tourists, including visitors to Ilha Grande, a tropical island south of Rio. Two Chileans and a Swiss citizen died, and visitors from France, the Netherlands and Romania fell seriously ill. In January, just before Carnival season, another tourism lure, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention raised its alert level, advising Americans headed for Rio, São Paulo and several other areas to be vaccinated first. Brazil makes its own vaccine through a subsidiary of its Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, and much of this year's chaos could have been averted if the government had acted faster, critics said. Low oil prices have hurt every sector of the economy, and the country has had a series of distracting political crises. "Brazil's public health response was very delayed," said Dr. Karin A. Nielsen, an infectious disease expert at the University of California, Los Angeles, who does research in Brazil. "Monkeys were dying in the wild two to three years ago." Dr. Jessé Reis Alves, a travel medicine specialist here, said the vaccination campaign should have been launched "in a calm moment between outbreaks." Instead, he said, "they waited for a new outbreak." In September, vaccinations were given to people living around forests near São Paulo where dead monkeys were found; the suburbs were targeted only in November. Initially, long lines formed at clinics, and 85,000 shots were given in one weekend. Then, on Facebook, YouTube and other social media platforms, anti-vaccine activists -- who previously found little footing in Brazil -- began spreading terrifying rumors. "Some people began trashing the vaccine, saying, 'It's going to kill you'," said Dr. Ernesto T.A. Marques Jr., an expert in mosquito-borne diseases at the University of Pittsburgh. "It was picked up in the media." The vaccine, invented in the 1930s, is highly effective -- one dose normally provides lifetime protection. But it is not harmless. It cannot be given to newborns or anyone with a compromised immune system. It is given to people older than 60, pregnant women, or children younger than 8 months only when the risk of infection is high. About one recipient in 100,000 suffers a dangerous reaction like jaundice, hepatitis or encephalitis, Dr. Marques said, and about one in a million dies. "If you vaccinate 30 million people, you'll get about 30 deaths," he said. But if yellow fever infected 30 million people, two million could die. So, with the disease moving rapidly forward, health authorities announced that they hoped to inoculate 95 percent of the population in 77 cities and towns in the virus's path -- a total of 23 million people, including 12 million in this city alone. But "they didn't have 12 million shots to give us," said Dr. Wilson M. Pollara, São Paulo's health secretary. "So we're doing it in phases -- two million at a time." The global vaccine stockpile, overseen by the World Health Organization, normally contains only six million doses, made by only four manufacturers, including the Cruz foundation. But Brazil has scaled up its production to about 5 million doses per month and will soon be able to double that, said Dr. William Perea, the W.H.O.'s epidemic control coordinator. That should easily cover Brazil's needs for now, he said, so the global stockpile will not be drawn down. If necessary, it can be replenished; the four makers together can turn out 100 million doses a year in an emergency, he said. Meanwhile, to stretch the vaccine it initially had on hand, Brazil gave out one-fifth doses. That provides protection for at least a year and can be used in emergencies, the W.H.O. says. Thus far, however, only 5.5 million people have been vaccinated. Despite those low numbers, the Health Ministry has pushed back against critics, insisting it followed international procedures. "I don't think there were mistakes or delays," said Dr. Renato Vieira Alves, the ministry's communicable disease coordinator. "You can't launch new vaccination campaigns in an instant." While the caseload is higher than last year's, it is only a fraction of the population at risk, he argued. "Most of these new cases are occurring in areas where, until now, we didn't recommend immunization," he said. To overcome suspicion of the vaccine and frustration with long lines at clinics, vaccinators have begun going door-to-door or using tents shifted from one neighborhood to another. There, they hope face-to-face chats will succeed where other efforts have failed. Lucia Elena de Paula, 36, explained her fears to a nurse, saying, "I saw a video on WhatsApp with a girl who said she was paralyzed after taking the vaccine." But after a few soothing words from a staff member, she agreed to get the shot. After dragging her 10-year-old grandson into a gym where the vaccines sat on an exercise bench, Aparecida Caldeira, 61, explained why she had hesitated. "When we went to the clinic in January, the lines were just too long," she said. "I'm so grateful they came here. But that's just typical in Brazil -- waiting to do everything at the last minute." Like the Science Times page on Facebook. | Follow @NYTHealth on Twitter. Credit: SHASTA DARLINGTON and DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.; Shasta Darlington reported from São Paulo, and Donald G. McNeil Jr. from New York.Photograph
Subject: Fatalities; Vaccines; Epidemics; Social networks; Mosquitoes
Location: Netherlands New York United States--US Romania Ilha Grande Nubia California Brazil Los Angeles California Rio de Janeiro Brazil France
Company / organization: Name: New York Times Co; NAICS: 511110, 511120, 515112, 515120; Name: Twitter Inc; NAICS: 519130; Name: YouTube Inc; NAICS: 519130; Name: Pan American Health Organization; NAICS: 923120; Name: University of Pittsburgh; NAICS: 611310; Name: Centers for Disease Control & Prevention--CDC; NAICS: 923120; Name: World Health Organization; NAICS: 923120; Name: Facebook Inc; NAICS: 518210, 519130
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/05/health/brazil-yellow-fever.html
Publication title: New York Times, Late Edition (East Coast); New York, N.Y.
Pages: D.1
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 6, 2018
column: Global Health
Section: D
Publisher: New York Times Company
Place of publication: New York, N.Y.
Country of publication: United States, New York, N.Y.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
ISSN: 03624331
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2010642214
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2010642214?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright New York Times Company Mar 6, 2018
Last updated: 2018-11-08
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 175 of 474
BRAZIL: Temer's Disapproval Rate Falls Slightly But Remains High, Says CNT/MDA
Publication info: RTTNews ; Williamsville [Williamsville]06 Mar 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: (RTTNews) - Brazilian president Michel Temer managed to pare its administration's disapproval rate by a slight amount since the second half of 2017, but still faces a great deal of rebuff from voters, according to a CNT/MDA survey. The rejection rate on Temer's administration fell from 75.6% in September to 73.3% currently, while the approval rate rose from 3.4% to 4.3%. Temer as an individual also became a little less unpopular in that period - his rejection rate fell from 84.5% to 83.6%, while the approval rate increased from 10.1% to 10.3%. Surveyed voters were also less pessimistic regarding the economic recovery. The prospect of better employment increased from 25.7% to 28.9%, while those who believe that the situation will worsen decreased from 35.4% to 31%. Regarding public safety, the percentage of those who believe in improvement has gone from 16.6% to 25.3%, while those who believe in worsening conditions fell from 45.7% to 37.4%. Last month, Temer ordered a federal military intervention in public safety in Rio de Janeiro after the wave of violence during Carnival and said that the measure could be extended to other states with a critical situation in the area. For comments and feedback: contact [email protected] Copyright(c) 2018 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved
Publication title: RTTNews; Williamsville
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 6, 2018
Section: Business
Publisher: Global Network Content Services LLC, DBA Noticias Financieras LLC
Place of publication: Williamsville
Country of publication: United States, Williamsville
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2011003382
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search .proquest.com/docview/2011003382?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright (c) 2018 RTT News
Last updated: 2018-03-06
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 176 of 474
#MeToo finds mixed reception outside US: By David Crary
Author: The Associated Press
Publication info: Florida Times Union ; Jacksonville, Fla. [Jacksonville, Fla]07 Mar 2018: 1.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Thanks to the vast reach of social media and the prevalence of sexual misconduct in virtually every society, the #MeToo movement has proven itself a genuinely global phenomenon. Yet its impact varies widely from country to country, from potentially momentous to inconsequential.No other nation has experienced anything close to the developments in the United States, the movements birthplace, where scores of prominent men -- among them politicians, media stars and movie moguls -- have lost jobs and reputations after facing sexual misconduct allegations.As the global womens movement prepares for International Womens Day on Thursday, its clear the record elsewhere is mixed.In Western Europe, some VIPs have been discredited and some new anti-harassment laws are in the works. Worldwide, the fallout includes backlashes against women who speak out, divisions within feminist ranks and minimal repercussions for accused harassers. And in many countries, the U.S. included, the movement has consisted primarily of well-educated professionals, largely leaving out working-class and poor women. Some skeptics have coined the hashtag #WeFew.In some countries where the movement hasnt caught fire, analysts have suggested that resistance to American cultural trends is among the factors.I wish it hadnt started in the U.S., said Anne Marie Goetz, a professor of global affairs at New York University and a former United Nations adviser on womens issues.The fastest way to discredit any womens rights struggle is to say it comes from somewhere else, Goetz said. Thats been a longstanding putdown of feminist movements all around the world.In China, discussion of #MeToo has sometimes been censored on social media and branded as a destabilizing foreign movement. To thwart the censors, social media users have made creative use of hashtags such as #RiceBunny -- a phrase which in China is pronounced me too.The hashtags, and womens accounts of harassment, proliferated in January after Luo Xixi, an academic now based in the U.S., accused a renowned Beijing-based professor of sexual misconduct when she was a graduate student. Other women lodged similar allegations, and the professor was fired. But questions linger as to whether a feminist movement can gain greater clout in the face of government resistance.In India, sexual misconduct allegations against more than 60 academics sparked divisions among feminists. A crowdsourced list of alleged harassers was posted on Facebook by a U.S.-based law student, with contributions from students in India. But the list contained few details about the allegations or accusers, and was criticized by some women as unfair.India passed a law in 2013 to combat workplace sexual harassment, but gender-equality activist Sudarshana Kundu said many women remain hesitant to speak up.There is culture of silencing that is prevalent, she said by email. Organizations are worried about their credibility and counsel their women employees to not report instances and instead seek conciliation.Perhaps no country has had a more complex reaction to #MeToo than France, long identified as a haven for romance. The government is preparing new legislation on sexual violence and harassment, and some lawmakers want to impose fines for sexist catcalls. Yet despite sexual misconduct allegations against several prominent men, they have maintained their jobs and status. French feminist ranks, meanwhile, have experienced divisions, notably when actress Catherine Deneuve co-signed a letter depicting #MeToo accusers as puritanical, only to apologize after facing a backlash.In Britain, organizers decided to discontinue an annual men-only charity gala after a Financial Times investigation found that female hostesses, required to wear short skirts and high heels, were groped by some of the hundreds of senior executives who attended the event in January.It is quite extraordinary to me that in the 21st century allegations of this kind are emerging, Education Minister Anne Milton told the House of Commons. Women have the right to feel safe wherever they work.Harassment allegations last year led to one high-level resignation, of Defense Secretary Michael Fallon, and prompted political leaders to propose a new grievance procedure for people working in Parliament.Even in Nordic countries ranked high for gender equality, there has been #MeToo turmoil. In Iceland and Sweden, women in numerous professional sectors mounted social media campaigns to raise awareness about widespread sexual misconduct; the Swedish government has proposed tightening its rape law to stipulate that explicit consent is required before sexual contact.In many parts of the world, including Africa and much of Latin America, the #MeToo movement has had only modest impact. Many countries in those regions have weak support systems for women who do report sexual assault.Many Brazilian women chose to push back against sexual harassment during this years Carnival celebrations, with block parties of all-female musicians, plus shirts, necklaces and crowns with messages like my breasts, my rules, and several anti-harassment campaigns. But overall, the movement has not caught on in Brazil, which has one of the worlds highest homicide rates for women.In South Africa, also plagued by a high rate of violence against women, feminists are frustrated by the almost total lack of repercussions for prominent men linked to sexual misconduct.We need more hashtags and awareness, but more importantly we need action and accountability, wrote Shaazia Ebrahim in an opinion piece. If we continue to allow sexism on the highest platforms in South Africa, we shouldnt be shocked about our gender-based violence statistics.The fatalism of some South African women was reflected in recent interviews conducted by Norwegian student activists working in Johannesburg.Sebatso Mafisa, 24, said many South African men did not consider groping to be wrong.Its the culture, she said. Theres nothing you as a woman can do about it.Anne Marie Goetz, the NYU professor, said #MeToos future may depend on how effectively it surmounts dividing lines.Its about solidarity across all kinds of boundaries -- rich or poor, black or white, North or South, she said. If you get an explosion of #MeToo, you start getting the protection of numbers, and a growing mass of evidence that theres a real problem -- not just one individual making this up.Cynthia Enloe, who teaches gender studies at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, and works with feminists in many countries, is convinced that #MeToo will have staying power as more women in developing nations gain formal employment.Maybe the hashtag version will fade, but not the energy behind guaranteeing womens respect in the workplace, Enloe said by phone from Iceland. Its not about Hollywood and celebrities; its about whether your boss stands up for you when someone else in the workplace tries to treat you as a sex toy. FILE - In this Feb. 3, 2018 file photo, women in animal costumes take part in the block party Maria vem com as outras, or Maria, join the other women, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In Brazil, many woman chose to push back against sexual harassment during this years Carnival celebrations, with block parties of all-female musicians, shirts, necklaces and crowns with messages like my breasts, my rules and several campaigns to report and crackdown on harassment. But overall, the movement has not caught on in Brazil, which has one of the worlds highest homicide rates for women. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo, File) FILE - In this Oct. 29, 2017 file photo, demonstrators hold placards reading "Sexism, that is not my gender" and "125 women killed in 2016", right, during a demonstration against sexual abuse and harassment across the country under the #MeToo movement, in Marseille, southern France. Perhaps no country has had more complex reaction to #MeToo than France - long identified as a haven for romance. The government is preparing new legislation on sexual violence and harassment, and some lawmakers want to impose fines for sexist catcalls. Yet despite sexual misconduct allegations against several prominent men, they haven't lost their jobs or reputations. Meanwhile, French feminists ranks have experienced divisions. (AP Photo/Claude Paris, File) A woman talks during a debate as part of a demonstration to support the wave of testimonies denouncing cases of sexual harassment across the country under the #MeToo movement, Oct. 29 in Lyon, France. [Laurent Cipriani/The Associated Press] FILE - In this Oct. 12, 2017, file photo, Britain's Defense Secretary, Michael Fallon, addresses members of the media during a joint UK/Poland press conference in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London. Harassment allegations last year led to Fallon's resignation and prompted political leaders to propose a new grievance procedure for people working in Parliament. (Leon Neal/Pool Photo via AP, File) FILE - In this Oct. 27, 2017, file photo, Shiori Ito, a Japanese freelance journalist, who says was raped by a prominent TV newsman in 2015, talks about her ordeal and the need for more awareness and support for the victims in Japan, during an interview in Tokyo. Even before #MeToo exploded in the U.S., Ito was widely criticized after going public last year with rape allegations against a leading TV journalist. There is widespread reluctance among victims in Japan to report assaults; a 2015 government survey found that about three quarters of rape victims had never told anyone, and just over 4 percent had gone to police. (AP Photo/Mari Yamaguchi, File) FILE - In this Jan. 20, 2018, file photo, Lillian Kight holds a U.S. flag with the #MeToo hashtag on her back as she marches with other demonstrators during the Chattanooga Women's March in Chattanooga, Tenn. Thanks to the vast reach of social media and the prevalence of sexual misconduct in virtually every society, the #MeToo movement has proven itself a genuinely global phenomenon. Yet its impact varies widely from country to country, from momentous to inconsequential. No other nation has experienced anything close to the developments in the United States, the movement's birthplace, where scores of prominent men have lost jobs and reputations after facing sexual misconduct allegations. (Doug Strickland/Chattanooga Times Free Press via AP, File)Illustration
Subject: Resignations; Feminism; Victims of crime; Assaults; Sexual harassment; Political leadership; Gender; Social networks; Violence; Sexism; Grievance procedures; Women; Sex crimes; Reputations
Location: United States--US South Africa India United Kingdom--UK China Brazil France Japan
Publication title: Florida Times Union; Jacksonville, Fla.
First page: 1
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 7, 2018
Publisher: Florida Times Union
Place of publication: Jackso nville, Fla.
Country of publication: United States, Jacksonville, Fla.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
ISSN: 07402325
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2013071871
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2013071871?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Florida Times Union Mar 7, 2018
Last updated: 2018-03-13
Database: US Southeast Newsstream
Document 177 of 474
Meet candidates running in Putin's Russia
Author: Dorell, Oren
Publication info: USA TODAY ; McLean, Va. [McLean, Va]08 Mar 2018: A.6.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Russian President Vladimir Putin, soaring in popularity as he boasts of the country's international power, is all but assured to win re-election in this month's vote. The Kremlin barred opposition leader Alexey Navalny from the presidential election, a move that gives Putin an added boost at the polls. Navalny called the election a farce in January: "It will feature only Putin and the candidates which he has personally selected." Yet people do run against Putin -- some of them serious, some not. None garners more than 8% in Russian pre-election polling. Here's who is on the ballot: Ksenia Sobchak The former journalist and reality TV star accused Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of holding on to power for almost two decades to benefit their business associates. "I'm not afraid of Putin, so I go and challenge him in the election," Sobchak said, naming her campaign "No Fear." The 36-year-old liberal candidate from St. Petersburg was a presenter and head judge on Russia's version of America's Next Top Model. During a visit to Washington last month, Sobchak said she wants to show Russians they have a choice other than Putin. Polls give her 1.6% of the vote. Sobchak vowed to cooperate with the United States, NATO and the European Union if she is elected. During an appearance at the National Press Club in Washington, she implored Russians to reject corruption and treat the Crimea Peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014 as a Ukrainian territory. Sunday, a staff member for the Moscow City Council doused her with water and knocked her to the ground after she threw water on candidate Vladimir Zhirinovsky during a debate, the Associated Press reported. Putin and his associates suppress the political opposition, which often does not have free access to major media outlets "because (the media outlets) all belong to the state," Sobchak said. "The only way to be heard is to go to the presidential campaign." Sergei Baburin A candidate of the Russian All-People's Union, Baburin, 59, proposed in 2007 that the government pay each Russian citizen $150,000 as compensation for privatizing formerly state-owned enterprises after the fall of the Soviet Union. He supports a return to Soviet-style social programs. He wants to strengthen Russia's grip on Crimea through economic development. Baburin vowed to expand Russia's role in an economic system with countries such as Brazil, India and China, so Russia isn't subjected to U.S. and European sanctions. Polls give Baburin less than 1% of the vote. Pavel Grudinin Grudinin, 57, owns a majority stake in the Lenin State Farm, a cooperative near Moscow. The industrial farm is Russia's largest strawberry producer and a rare remnant of the 27,000 state-owned collectives established during the Soviet era. Grudinin describes the socialist model as an antidote to corruption in modern Russia. The Communist Party candidate ridicules Putin's reliance on "people everyone knows should've been in prison long ago," according to The Washington Post. Grudinin told The Christian Science Monitor in September that his company's executives invest in their employees' schools, kindergartens and a medical clinic. Polls give Grudinin nearly 8% of the vote, according to Kremlin news agency Tass. Vladimir Zhirinovsky Zhirinovsky, 71, has touted some bizarre views as a career politician. When he ran for the presidency in 1993, he pledged Russian men would get cheaper vodka, Russian women would get better underwear and the nation would rebuild its empire. During his 29-year political tenure, he vowed to create a dictatorship and reduce crime through summary executions, as well as to expand Russia's borders to include Alaska and Finland and to blow radioactive waste into the Baltic states, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica. Zhirinovsky leads the far-right Liberal Democratic Party of Russia. In 2002, the nationalist used coarse language to attack President George W. Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and women in general. He called political rival Ksenia Sobchak "a whore" after she doused him with water during a challengers' debate broadcast Feb. 28. Polls give Zhirinovsky nearly 6% of the vote. Vladimir Putin Putin, 65, wants to secure a fourth term as Russia's president. As a KGB spy during the Soviet era, Putin maintained ties to organized crime, according to Karen Dawisha, author of Putin's Kleptocracy; Who Owns Russia? As Russia's president and leader since 2000, he made himself one of the wealthiest men in the world, building an estimated net worth of tens of billions of dollars, according to U.S. intelligence. Putin, an economist with a judo blackbelt, cultivated a tough-guy image as he rode shirtless on horseback, helped treat a tranquilized tiger and a polar bear and flew in an ultralight with migratory birds. Many of his critics and political opponents have died in mysterious circumstances. After his first two four-year terms as president, Putin was appointed prime minister in 2008, then returned as president in 2012. The length of the presidential terms were then changed from four years to six. Putin recently boasted about his new intercontinental ballistic missile and other nuclear weapons under development. Putin's aggressive policies in Ukraine, Syria and at home have made Russia the target of international sanctions, which hurts the economy. Polls give Putin, an independent, nearly 70% of the vote. Maxim Suraikin The leader of the little-known Communists of Russia party, Suraikin, 39, called for a defense alliance styled on the Soviet-era Warsaw Pact. He wants to raise the minimum wage and pensions, according to the Moscow Times. He was trained as an engineer, ran a small computer company and ran for governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region in 2014, when he won 2% of the vote, the AP reported. Polls give Suraikin less than 1% of the vote. Boris Titov Titov, 57, told The Spectator he doesn't expect to win, but he hopes to use his candidacy to press Putin for better economic policies. He's the chairman of the pro-business Party for Growth, which aims to protect the right of Russia's growing middle class, according to the Sputnik news agency. As the Russian government's presidential commissioner for entrepreneurs' rights, Titov worked to repatriate Russian businessmen who were accused of crimes in Russia and fled to Britain to avoid prosecution. He asked Putin to allow four of 16 people on the "London list" to return after they pay "compensation" to the government. On Tuesday, he said more people have asked to be added to the list, Tass reported. Titov said he wants government to be more efficient. He seeks to eliminate regulations and inspections that he calls unnecessary and that present opportunities for bribes. He wants an economic stimulus that involves huge government spending. Polls give Titov less than 1% of the vote. Grigory Yavlinsky A liberal economist and former prime minister from the Yabloko Party, Yavlinsky opposed Russia's annexation of Crimea and garnered death threats from nationalists who called him a traitor, according to the Times of Israel. Yavlinsky, 65, called the election a carnival show and "electoral Halloween" because of the cast of characters on the ballot. He said he wants an honest government, in which the president's favorite billionaires no longer enjoy favoritism in the media, access to economic spoils and legal immunity. Polls give Yavlinsky less than 1% of the vote. Credit: Oren Dorell USA TODAY
Subject: Politics; Presidents; Candidates; Local elections; State elections
Location: Baltic states Russia Alaska Crimea United Kingdom--UK Brazil Syria Ukraine United States--US India Union of Soviet Socialist Republics--USSR China Finland
People: Navalny, Alexei Medvedev, Dmitri Zhirinovsky, Vladimir Titov, Boris Bush, George W Rice, Condoleezza Dawisha, Karen Putin, Vladimir
Company / organization: Name: Times of Israel; NAICS: 519130; Name: Democratic Party; NAICS: 813940; Name: North Atlantic Treaty Organization--NATO; NAICS: 928120; Name: European Union; NAICS: 926110, 928120
Publication title: USA TODAY; McLean, Va.
Pages: A.6
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 8, 2018
Section: NEWS
Publisher: USA Today, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network, Inc.
Place of publication: McLean, Va.
Country of publication: United States, McLean, Va.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
ISSN: 07347456
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2011499468
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2011499468?accountid=4840
Copyright: (Copyright (c) 2018 USA Today. All Rights Reserved.)
Last updated: 2018-03-08
Database: US Southeast Newsstream
Document 178 of 474
Rio grand - Crook student given £7,000 to study Brazilian carnival scene
Author: MacFarlane, Katie
Publication info: Northern Echo ; Darlington (UK) [Darlington (UK)]08 Mar 2018.
Abstract:
A TEENAGER is set to study the Brazilian Carnival scene first-hand after being awarded a grant for the a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. [...]the Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College music student was officially named as a recipient by the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, which runs the scheme, today. Mr Ward-Hardy has been playing guitar since he was about eight before developing an interest in Brazilian music after his uncle, Paddy Burton, set up a samba band at the Jack Drum Arts centre, an arts company in Crook, when he was 11.Full text: A TEENAGER is set to study the Brazilian Carnival scene first-hand after being awarded a grant for the a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Sam Ward-Hardy, a student and musician from Crook, County Durham, will be travelling to Brazil to research Brazilian carnival arts and their communities. The 18-year-old has been awarded about £7,000 for the trip through the Churchill Fellowships. The prestigious scheme offers a recipients the chance to travel the world and research cutting-edge solutions to important topical issues. And the Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College music student was officially named as a recipient by the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, which runs the scheme, today. He said: "I'm excited. It's going to be amazing. I'm probably going to have to learn Portuguese but I will be able to share what I have learned with people when I come back." Mr Ward-Hardy has been playing guitar since he was about eight before developing an interest in Brazilian music after his uncle, Paddy Burton, set up a samba band at the Jack Drum Arts centre, an arts company in Crook, when he was 11. The teenager said he plans to study religious music while visiting parts of Brazil including Rio de Janeiro, El Salvador and Sao Paulo. While studying the music, he will also get the chance to explore the country's culture and work with young people. He was also inspired to apply by his mum, Helen Ward, and aunty Julie Ward, who have both taken part in the scheme in the past. He said: "They are very proud as I'm following what they did." Mr Ward-Hardy plans to leave for his adventure in November and hopes to go on to study music at university. He is one of four North-East candidates to secure a place on the scheme including Lynne Hindmarch and Allison Sykes, both from Newcastle and David Robinson, from Houghton-le-Spring. Together they will receive grants totalling more than £25,000 and are among 150 people selected from more than 1,000 applicants. Laura Emerson Roberts, lead arts and music worker at Jack Drum Arts, said she was "delighted" for the youngster who has developed into an "exceptional musician and smashing young man" through the centre's Youth Music programme. She said: "Sam is incredibly passionate about Brazilian percussion and the tremendous amount of hard-work he puts into his personal development is reflected in his growing talent. I can’t think of anyone more deserving of this opportunity and I know that Sam will make the most of it, not only for himself but for our community when he returns to share everything he has learned. Well done Sam." “Churchill Fellows search the world for ways to improve their communities and professions,” added Julia Weston, chief executive of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust. “This life-changing opportunity is open to everyone, with our next round of grants opening on April 27.” * For more information visit wcmt.org.uk Credit: Katie MacFarlane, @EchoKatieR, Reporter (Teesdale)
Subject: Music; Musicians & conductors; Scholarships & fellowships
Location: Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil El Salvador
People: Churchill, Winston Leonard Spencer (1874-1965)
Publication title: Northern Echo; Darlington (UK)
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 8, 2018
Publisher: Newsquest (North East) Ltd.
Place of publication: Darlington (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, Darlington (UK)
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--Great Britain
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2012339072
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2012339072?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Newsquest (North East) Ltd. Mar 8, 2018
Last updated: 2018-03-10
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 179 of 474
Q4 2017 Azul SA Earnings Call - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]08 Mar 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Presentation OPERATOR: Hello, everyone, and welcome to Azul's Fourth Quarter 2017 Results Conference Call. My name is Gabriella, and I'll be your operator for today. This event is being recorded. (Operator Instructions) I would like to turn the presentation over to Andrea Böttcher, Investor Relations Manager. Please proceed. ANDREA BöTTCHER: Thank you, Gabriella, and welcome all to Azul's Fourth Quarter Earnings Call. The results that we announced this morning, the audio of this call and the slides that we'll reference are available on our IR website. Presenting today will be David Neeleman, Azul's Founder and Chairman; and John Rodgerson, CEO. Alex Malfitani, our CFO; and Abhi Shah, our Chief Revenue Officer, are also here for the Q&A session. Before I turn the call over to David, I'd like to caution you regarding our forward-looking statements. Any matters discussed today that are not historical facts, including comments regarding the company's future plans, objectives and expected performance, constitute forward-looking statements. These statements are based on a range of assumptions that the company believes are reasonable, that are subject to uncertainties and risks that are discussed in detail in our CVM and SEC filings. Also, during the course of this call, we will discuss non-IFRS performance measures, which should not be considered in isolation. With that, I'll turn the call over to David. David? DAVID GARY NEELEMAN, CHAIRMAN, AZUL S.A.: Thanks, Andrea. Thank you, everybody, for joining us on our fourth quarter earnings call. As hopefully you've all had the chance to read the earnings press release and we're absolutely thrilled with the results. And first of all, I'd like to thank our crew members who work hard every single day providing our customers with the best travel experience in the industry. And thanks to their dedication, we had an outstanding year. I believe strongly that strong operational performance drives strong financial results, and thanks to our people that really happened in this quarter and will continue happening in the future. About a year ago, we embarked on a roadshow for our initial public offering. And as we went and probably had 78 meetings during the month of March, we talked about margin expansion. That was really the theme of our roadshow that we -- our business was set up in such a way that we would continue to increase margins over the next several years. I'm really proud to report that a year later, we're delivering on our promises by reaching an operating margin last year of 11.1% in the year, which was -- 11.1%, which is above our guidance that we had -- above our guidance and above 5.2% we had last year, so obviously more than double on the operating side. So going forward, we expect to continue executing on our margin plan consisting of the 3 pillars that we talked about on the roadshow. Obviously, the main pillar and the most important pillar that we have is introducing a larger, more fuel-efficient aircraft. As John will go into more detail, these aircraft that we're flying, the A320neos, burn about the same amount of fuel (inaudible), and we're gaining all these extra seats. And so we ended last year with 12 A320neos. We'll end 2018 with 20, but we'll try to push that number up a little bit, we always are, and in 2018, it will represent almost 30% of our capacity -- of our domestic capacity. Now the second -- so that's very important and that will continue. And John is going to talk a lot more about that in his remarks. Now the second pillar is, obviously, growing our wholly owned loyalty program. TudoAzul maintained strong growth pace in 2017, reaching over 9 million members. Now that's up 2 million members more than in 2016, which was our fastest growth in our history. So we're very pleased with that. And John, of course, will give you more details on those numbers and how the revenues are growing. The third pillar is expanding our ancillary revenues, which includes cargo, baggage fees and our travel packaging business. Now our 2017 results are just the beginning of our margin expansion. As I told you, we're looking forward and, as you'll see in our presentation, we're going to actually increase our margin guidance for 2018 and expect to do that for the next several years. And so we're on track. We're excited. We're happy to kind of exceed the top end of our margin guidance, and we'll continue to work hard and make sure we do that in the future. Now we also -- as I mentioned, we have a great operation, and again, thank our crew members for this. We couldn't do it without them. We were #1 in Brazil in on-time -- in all -- every single on-time category, and we're the most on-time low-cost carrier in the Americas. And so -- and because of this great service, we were recognized by TripAdvisor, which named Azul the third best airline in the world. We also won Skytrax award for the best low-cost carrier in Latin America and South America for the seventh year in a row. And then for the second year in a row, we were also voted with the best airline staffing service. So like I said, great operational performance obviously drives great financial, and you can't have one without the other. So in summary, we're delivering on our promise. We will continue to strive to improve our financial results, operating performance and customer satisfaction beyond 2017. We're not satisfied with where we're at. We want to do better, and we're going to remain focused on being the best airline for our crew members, customers and shareholders. I would also be remiss if I didn't mention the great job that John Rodgerson is doing as he took over the position of President of the company and doing a wonderful job. And so with that little bit of thanks to John, I'll turn the time over to him, and he can go over the fourth quarter results in more detail. JOHN PETER RODGERSON, CEO & MEMBER OF BOARD OF EXECUTIVE OFFICERS, AZUL S.A.: Thanks, David, and welcome, everyone. I also want to start out by congratulating our crew members for their exceptional performance in 2017. Their dedication and commitment is the driving force behind our great fourth quarter results. When I take you to Slide 4, you can see the very strong fourth quarter that we had. Even with a 16% increase in jet fuel during the period, we delivered an operating margin of 13.9% and an EBITDA margin of 30.7%, one of the highest margins in the industry. We grew capacity by 10% in the fourth quarter while also expanding our top line revenue by 21% year-over-year. Our full year CASK ex fuel went down 3.7%. And in 2018, we expect to continue to see a decrease in CASK ex fuel as we add more efficient aircraft to our fleet. Our fourth quarter CASK ex fuel went up slightly due to the A320 ramp-up cost and the higher profit-sharing provision resulting from better-than-expected results. Excluding these effects, it would have been down year-over-year. Net interest expense went down 34% year-over-year due to the significant deleveraging that took place during 2017. Net income came in at a strong BRL 304 million, which includes a gain of BRL 154 million. This gain is related to the expiration of a call option on the TAP bonds we own. As a result, Azul now will be the single beneficiary of this bond, which is convertible into 41.25% of the equity value of TAP. TAP continues to improve its financial and operational performance, and we're excited to be part of that success story. Moving on to the next slide. Abhi's team has done a fantastic job on the revenue front. Thanks to our network and strong travel demand in Brazil, our RASK grew 9.4% in the fourth quarter. This is even more impressive considering that our stage length went up. Adjusting for this increase, our RASK was up 15% on a stage length adjusted basis. Our average fare continues to be the highest in the country, increasing 17% to BRL 345, and our load factor was 82.7%. You can clearly see our network needed the A320s. They complement our network very well, and we've been able to add capacity while increasing RASK and load factor at the same time. Moving on to Slide 6. We're very excited about the next couple of years. As David mentioned earlier, we're going through a significant fleet transformation process as we replace older generation aircraft with next-generation aircraft, namely the A320neos and the Embraer E2. In addition to being extremely fuel-efficient, these aircraft have more seats than the older-generation aircraft they will be replacing, contributing to a significant increase in margins going forward. Our A320s have the lowest CASK in Brazil and are currently flying, on average, 14 hours a day. The neos have a 29% CASK advantage over our current E-Jet and are expected to represent 27% of our total ASK in 2018, and that will go up to 41% in 2020. We also have an order for 33 E2, which have a 26% lower CASK compared to the current generation E-Jets, supporting our fleet strategy going forward. Our wholly owned loyalty program, TudoAzul -- I've now moved on to Slide 7, folks -- maintained a strong growth pace, as David mentioned, reaching more than 9 million members. This represents an addition of 2 million members over the last 12 months. Gross billings ex Azul went up 34% in 2017, with the majority of this increase coming from sales to banking partners, further increasing our share of the Brazilian loyalty market. We now have 16% gross billing share, up from 13%, but the pie in the entire industry is growing. And we are still well below our fair market share. So we expect this business to continue to grow and gain share over the next couple of years. And I want to remind everybody that unlike other airlines in Brazil, TudoAzul is 100% owned by the company. This means that we have no tax inefficiency and benefit 100% from the cash flow generated by this high-growth, high-margin business. Moving on to the next slide. You can see that our ancillary revenues grew 22% in the fourth quarter, representing 14% of total revenue. We're now getting BRL 56 per passenger from other revenues. Our cargo revenue increased an impressive 60% in the fourth quarter, mostly driven by the larger cargo compartments of the A320neos and the growth of our international capacity. As announced in December, Azul and Correios, the Brazilian Postal Service, signed an MOU for the creation of a private integrated logistics company. Once approved by Brazilian authorities, this new company will further strengthen our cargo results. Keep in mind that we have not included any upside gain related to this joint venture in our 2018 guidance. Moving on to the balance sheet. I'm proud to report that we ended the quarter with a solid liquidity position of BRL 3.6 billion at the end of the quarter, representing 46% of last 12 months revenue. We repaid BRL 2.2 billion of debt during the year while raising BRL 1.6 billion of lower-cost debt with a longer maturity. As a result, we ended the quarter with a debt position of BRL 3.5 billion and adjusted net debt EBITDA of 3.9x compared to 5.7x in 2016. This is a standard calculation for leverage, which capitalizes all of our leases at 7x and includes all of our debt. In terms of our foreign currency exposure, 99% of our working capital debt was denominated in local currency at the end of the quarter, which means that we are much less exposed to foreign currency volatility. We recently swapped the BRL 400 million bond we issued in October, resulting in an all-in interest rate in local currency below the risk-free rate, with the highest cash position in South America and the lowest leverage ratio in the region. Moving on to our 2018 guidance on Slide 10. We expect to grow our total ASK between 17% and 20% in 2018. Domestic capacity will be growing between 8% and 10%. As we've been telling you, our domestic capacity growth will be low risk, non-predatory, driven by replacing smaller aircraft with larger aircraft on routes we already serve. On the international front, our growth will mostly come from increasing flight frequencies and connecting the dots between destinations. On the cost side, we expect ex fuel to go down by 2% to 4% year-over-year. As you know, we have a multiyear margin expansion strategy that David talked about, and we expect to grow our EBIT margin by 1 to 2 margin points per year over the next few years. Consistent with this trend, our EBIT guidance for 2017 was 9% to 11% and our guidance for 2018 will be 11% to 13%. This estimate does not take into consideration any impact related to aircraft sales or the joint venture with the Brazilian Post Office. We are confident about the future of the Brazilian aviation market, and we believe that we're best positioned to continue growing our business while delivering superior operating and financial results. With that, Alex and Abhi are also here with us and so we turn the call over to the operator for questions. Questions and Answers OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Mrs. Savanthi Syth from Raymond James. SAVANTHI NIPUNIKA SYTH, AIRLINES ANALYST, RAYMOND JAMES & ASSOCIATES, INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: I wonder if you could provide a little color about -- I know you won't give a lot of detail in terms of domestic versus international revenue performance, but just generally, color on the trend as you exited the year and what you're seeing on the 2 segments generally. ABHI MANOJ SHAH, CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER & MEMBER OF BOARD OF EXECUTIVE OFFICERS, AZUL S.A.: Savi, this is Abhi. So yes, I mean, I think for the fourth quarter of the year, domestic was strong, there's no question about it, especially corporate demand. Closing revenue was better than in 2016. So that was -- I would say, that was mostly the driver of kind of the improvement. International was still very good in the quarter, but in terms of the changes from what we've seen in the previous quarters, I would say, the domestic demand that has picked up pretty nicely in the quarter. And then really, October, November, the first 2 weeks of December especially were very, very strong on the corporate side, with very good revenue inside 7 days, inside 14 days. So international continues to be strong, but it was steady as it was throughout the year. I would say, the part that picked up more, if you will, towards the latter half of last year was domestic. And the A320s were just perfectly positioned to take advantage of that. So we had the right aircraft in those big trunk routes between our hubs and our focused cities, and we're really able to take advantage of that increased domestic demand with the 320. SAVANTHI NIPUNIKA SYTH: Is that what you're seeing so far in the quarter as well, Abhi? ABHI MANOJ SHAH: Yes. I mean, it's -- the first quarter is a little bit more leisure because of January and then Carnival; Carnival was earlier in the year. But it was a good leisure quarter as well. Demand was good. International continues to be good. And as we exited Carnival, it seems like domestic demand is back. It's strong. Closing demand is good. So yes, I mean, I think if you remember back to sort of the middle part of last year, I said that the industry overall the conditions are right to take advantage of a rebound in demand. And I think the industry has done that in the second half of last year, fourth quarter of last year. And I think it continues to do that as we start 2018 as well. So the signs are positive. We're optimistic. And of course, we have the A320s that we're just beginning the process. To give you an idea, the A320s are currently in only 32 of our nonstop routes, and Azul has almost 250 nonstop routes. So still very much a long way to go in putting in the 320s, and that's just going to be really exciting as we go forward. SAVANTHI NIPUNIKA SYTH: All right. Great. And just talking about the fleet, my last question is, is there any kind of concern about timing of the deliveries? And just is there a little bit more that you still want to do with the E-Jets? Or is kind of the plan that you outlined in the release -- is that pretty solid here? JOHN PETER RODGERSON: Savi, I think everybody is struggling with the engine manufacturers, both Pratt and GE. We're actually blessed that we've got GE, and the engines are performing quite nicely. But Airbus has had some delays. And so David pushes me on a daily basis to get aircraft quicker and faster and to kind of exit older aircraft. But we're pretty confident what we've put in our plan for this year, and we're working on a daily basis with Airbus to ensure the deliveries come in time for our peak in July. So we're fairly confident that we'll able to mitigate any of the delivery delays. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from Mr. Lucas Barbosa from UBS. LUCAS BARBOSA, ANALYST, UBS INVESTMENT BANK, RESEARCH DIVISION: So I have a question on use. It's actually a little bit of a follow-up on the first question. So first, did Azul already fully pass through the oil price increase? Or should we expect a further ticket price increase in the first quarter '18? And in addition, how are you seeing use in international routes? I know that you don't have much competition, but players are starting to increase capacity in international routes in Brazil. Do you think that may affect Azul? ABHI MANOJ SHAH: Lucas, this is Abhi. I'll take it. So in terms of oil prices and increasing fares, one thing that I always say is, we don't need a reason to increase fares. If demand is good, we will increase fares. And I also believe that if demand is good, the industry will increase fares. And so I would say that given the demand environment, given the disciplined capacity environment and given the disciplined fare environment, I think the industry overall has been able to pass through the increase in oil prices. Certainly, in the fourth quarter compared to the third quarter, we did. And as I look into first quarter as well, I'm seeing that also. Azul has specific advantages given our route network. So I think we're able to do that better, and we're able to do it faster compared to our competitors. But we don't need a reason to do that. That's our job every day, and we're always looking to raise fares or maximize revenue really, given the demand environment. But overall, the demand environment is healthy, and the market conditions are healthy for the industry and for us especially, given our network strength to pass through this increase in fuel. JOHN PETER RODGERSON: But I think I would add that fuel was up quarter-to-quarter over 20%. And so when we entered the fourth quarter, we thought we would be flattish to what we did in the third quarter because fuel was up so big. And so I think the ability of Abhi and his team to be able to pass through that and to kind of extract as much revenue as possible really shows the strength of the team and the network that we've built. ABHI MANOJ SHAH: And Lucas, in terms of the international yields, yes, I have heard some of the commentary from some of the other carriers. But I think our international model is different. We don't operate out of highly competitive in routes. We're pretty much alone in all of the routes that we serve other than competition once a week maybe from some players. We have unparalleled connectivity, both in Brazil and beyond. Something that they've always said about our international network is, we're going to fly from where we are strong to where our partners are strong. For example, we just announced this morning that we're going to have a second daily VCP-Lisbon starting the northern summer of Europe. And so again, this makes complete sense given how strong we are in Campinas and how strong TAP is in Lisbon. So we, obviously, were watching it very closely. The first quarter still looks good. We're seeing -- even with the high ASK increase, we have new markets in Belem-Fort Lauderdale, Belo Horizonte-Orlando. We're seeing positive yields and positive unit revenues. So obviously, I'm watching it closely. But I think in terms of the market differentiation and our strategic advantages we have, I think we're seeing a little bit different than what the other airlines are seeing. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from Mr. Michael Linenberg from Deutsche Bank. MATTHEW VERNON FALLON, RESEARCH ASSOCIATE, DEUTSCHE BANK AG, RESEARCH DIVISION: This is actually Matt on for Mike. So what are the next steps in regards to the U.S.-Brazil open skies agreement that the Brazilian Senate approved last night? ABHI MANOJ SHAH: As you know, the Senate has approved it. So the next step for us is it's kind of the logical, which is to get together with our partners United and start talking JV. We have had some initial discussions, and so now we need to accelerate that and put together a commercial deal that we can submit to the DOT for joint venture. Looking at U.S.-Brazil, Azul is to the point where we are about 4 to 5 daily widebodies to the U.S. United has also got 5 widebodies U.S.-Brazil. And the great thing about this partnership and the great thing overall about our partnership with United is we have no overlap. So it's a lot of synergies, lots of ways that we can work together. The networks are very, very complementary. So to answer your question very specifically, to get together with our partners and start talking about JV terms, start talking about a JV contract and get with the DOT and start the approval process. MATTHEW VERNON FALLON: Great. And this is a follow-up. You guys, obviously, have a very strong cash position. I'm just wondering what do you plan to do with the cash that you're currently sitting on? ALEXANDRE WAGNER MALFITANI, CFO, IR OFFICER & MEMBER OF BOARD OF EXECUTIVE OFFICERS, AZUL S.A.: Matt, it's Alex here. So part of it is by our strategy of being the airline with highest liquidity, the lowest exposure to foreign exchange and highest margin. We're very confident with Brazil. It looks like macroeconomic figures are coming in stronger. Brazil is starting to recover. But you always need to be prepared for a downturn. And I think with having a higher cash position than the competition is part of the strategy. Now with the IPO and the bond that we issued last year, our cost of capital has gone down significantly. So now we have the option to start potentially using that capital to reduce our operating expense, right? So we will be looking at investing more on spare parts ourselves. And in the future, when we have our own aircraft deliveries, we will also increase the number of owned aircraft compared to today. So that's the plan overall. MATTHEW VERNON FALLON: Great. And one more. Do you have any kind of rational actors in the market? Any deeply discounted fares or excessive capacity additions? Or things look pretty solid for the most part? ABHI MANOJ SHAH: Yes. I think, overall, airlines are playing where they're strong. And I think this is something important for the industry overall that I think we've learned over the last 18 months is that airlines are really focusing on where they are strong. And that's made the airlines stronger. So overall, I'm not seeing anything indisciplined in terms of capacity or fares. I think airlines are really focusing where they're strong and what works for them. And I think that's driving really good results for the industry overall. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from Mr. Roberto Otero from Bank of America. ROBERTO OTERO, ASSOCIATE, BOFA MERRILL LYNCH, RESEARCH DIVISION: My question is regarding the MOU with the Brazilian Postal Office. So if you could share with us the next steps and eventually any sense or expectation on how profitable and sizable this could be once it enters into operation. That's pretty much it. JOHN PETER RODGERSON: Yes, so we're going through the CADE process in Brazil, which is the antitrust process. We're actually working through all the government approvals as well. We think it is a very exciting solution for Brazil overall. We can deliver a significant savings to the Brazilian Post Office by carrying the belly of our aircraft and the excess capacity that we have. We think of this business very much like TudoAzul, where Azul still operates the aircraft but uses the excess capacity that we have. And so -- I think this is something that we'll be able to provide more details with over the next quarter. But so far so good. I think this is good for Brazil. It's good for Azul. It's good for the Correios. And e-commerce is big all around the world. It needs to get a lot bigger in Brazil. And I think we're right to kind of set up a great logistics solution for Brazil, so we're very excited about it. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from Mr. Victor Mizusaki from Bradesco BBI. VICTOR MIZUSAKI, RESEARCH ANALYST, BRADESCO S.A. CORRETORA DE TíTULOS E VALORES MOBILIáRIOS, RESEARCH DIVISION: I have 2 questions here. The first one, how do we take a look on your guidance for international capacity? We can see a very high growth of 55% to 60%. Don't know if you can give any detail about what is related to new destinations and new -- any additional frequencies. And I mean, just a follow-up on the open skies. If I mean -- as you said, I mean, this potential JV with United Airlines, how this can affect your guidance for this year? And the second question with regards to the convertible bonds. If I'm not wrong, HNA could exercise the option to acquire 1/3 of these convertibles by the end of last year, but apparently, they did not exercise. So I don't know if you can comment about this. ABHI MANOJ SHAH: Victor, I'll start with the first 2 topics. International capacity continues to be a small base. So that's why, the percentage growth numbers are high. In terms of the routing, I can tell you exactly what it is. It's all things that we started end of last year and some announced that we've already made. And all of them are between our hubs and where our partners are strong. So for example, we started Belem-Fort Lauderdale in December of last year. So that comes full circle this year. We started Belo Horizonte-Orlando in December of last year. We've also upguaged our Belo Horizonte-Buenos Aires service from Embraers to A320s. That also happened in December, so it's coming full circle. We're going to start Recife-Fort Lauderdale in May, and we just announced the second Lisbon now starting in June. So it's just -- it's those kinds of markets, and the effect really is that a lot of the adds happened very, very late last year, and some of them are happening early this year, and that's driving the big increase in the percentage terms on a small base. So I continue to think that it's low risk, and it's all routes that we're very, very strong in, in Brazil, and we're connecting to our strong partners in the U.S. or Europe. In terms of open skies and JV, it takes time, honestly, to get these things negotiated. And it takes even longer to get them approved by the DOT, so I'm not expecting any impact in 2018 regarding any potential JVs. We'll have to see how the process goes. But typically, these things take at least a year to get approved. So it's going to be a while before they have meaningful impact to our business. JOHN PETER RODGERSON: Victor, as for our ownership in TAP, as I stated, we now own 41.25%. So HNA did have an option to buy that. It wasn't a priority for them to exercise their call option at the end of last year, and we're benefiting from that. And as we look at our ownership in TAP, completely unlevered, 100% ownership into Azul, completely unlevered, all the cash flows are coming to us. And I remind everybody, we also have BRL 1.2 billion on the balance sheet of deposits and maintenance reserves. So you kind of take these 3 huge assets that are very, very beneficial to us on a going forward basis, and so we're pretty excited. But specifically, TAP is going really well right now. And so the leadership at TAP today is former Azul crew members who're all great friends. And so to see those guys succeed over there and that we get the right part of that benefit is just a great thing for Azul and all the Azul shareholders. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from Mr. Daniel McKenzie from Buckingham Research. DANIEL J. MCKENZIE, RESEARCH ANALYST, THE BUCKINGHAM RESEARCH GROUP INCORPORATED: John, I guess, or Abhi, versus the IPO a year ago, it seems there has been some incremental growth that was added. And with respect to Azul's march towards a 15% operating margin, has the timing for achieving that been moved back? And just kind of as you sit here today, what are the bigger impediments for achieving that goal? JOHN PETER RODGERSON: Absolutely not, Dan. We're -- if anything, we're ahead of schedule. We guided to a 9% to 11%, delivered 11.1%. We're guiding to 11% to 13%. We told you we were looking to increase beyond that. I think we're growing a little bit faster than we said at the IPO a bit because David is all over me to get A320s because they're working so well. I mean, when you look, Dan, at what Abhi was able to deliver in revenue performance in the fourth quarter while adding capacity, it's a no-brainer. We should continue to add the A320s into the network. And so if anything, we're ahead of schedule and where we want to be, fueled up from when we went public, but we've been able to pass through all of that in fare. And I think you're seeing a very positive macro environment in Brazil. I think all of the competitors are behaving themselves, and everybody is in it to make money. And so we're actually -- we're as bullish as we've ever been, Dan. DANIEL J. MCKENZIE: Very good. And the bigger impediments, John, from where you sit today? And then I guess, just related to that, just given the growth, what is the appetite to potentially accelerate growth even further from where we sit today? JOHN PETER RODGERSON: Dan, we're in an election year in Brazil, so we need to recognize that. Alex mentioned our very high cash position that we have. And so if things get a little dicey because we're in an election year and there's currency fluctuations, we feel very comfortable with the cash cushion that we have. So that's one of the things that could be an impediment. But as we talk about growth and furthering the growth, as you take a look at our fleet schedule, Dan, it's one aircraft out, one aircraft in. And so it's very low-risk growth and so -- as quickly as we can do that. But it's a strength of the organization. There's no doubt about it. When we're cycling people from the E-Jet into the A320s or into the A330s, there's a lot of training. Again, we have mentioned on the last call that 50% of our pilots are going through a major training event over a 2-year period. And so that cost and that burden is already in our numbers and is already expected. And so we will do it as quickly as we possibly can to get next-generation aircraft into the fleet, and that's what we're continuing to do. DANIEL J. MCKENZIE: If I could just squeeze one last one in. Just going back to the JV with the logistics company and the Brazilian government here, the implication in the opening remarks, John, seems to be that there could be some upside from it in 2018. And I appreciate it's small, but the fact that you're mentioning suggests that maybe could be material. I'm just wondering if you could help us size it. And if all goes well, what could it mean to the year? JOHN PETER RODGERSON: Dan, we're not really giving numbers on it yet, and so we're not going to count our chickens before they hatch. And so I think you are seeing a more conservative management team when it comes to communicating to the market. And so we want to over-deliver. So for that reason, we're kind of holding back on what that could potentially mean. Let's make sure that it's approved and ready to go before we start to communicate with you. But Dan, you'll be my first call, I promise. OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) JOHN PETER RODGERSON: I think with that, we look forward to seeing you at conferences. And we've built a great business, and we're going to continue to deliver for our shareholders. And so if there's any follow-up questions, we look forward to speaking with you. And again, we really appreciate your support, and you'll never find a management team that's more dedicated and passionate about what they're building. So thanks, everybody. OPERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude the Azul's audio conference for today. Thank you very much for your participation, and have a good day. 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Subject: Aircraft; Copyright; Stockholders; Airlines
Company / organization: Name: Thomson Financial; NAICS: 511210, 518210, 519190
Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 8, 2018
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Place of publication: Linthicum
Country of publication: United States, Linthicum
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Law--Corporate Law
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Language of publication: English
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ProQuest document ID: 2016547412
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Last updated: 2018-03-23
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Document 180 of 474
Q4 2017 Arezzo Industria e Comercio SA Earnings Call - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]08 Mar 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Presentation OPERATOR: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the conference call sharing the results of the fourth quarter of 2017 of Arezzo & Co. (Operator Instructions) This conference call is being simultaneously translated into English and questions may be asked normally by participants connected abroad. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder to journalists and other press professionals, this conference call is exclusive for professional of the financial market and current and a potential shareholders. Questions should be sent to our press release -- or to our press services professionals.(inaudible) Our contact is available on the company's website at the address: www.arezzoco.com.br. This conference call along with the slide deck is being simultaneously translated over the Internet and may be accessed through the company's website. If you do not have a copy of Arezzo & Co press release published yesterday, Wednesday, March 7, you may look it up at the company's website. Again, as a reminder, this conference call is being recorded and the slide deck and the audio facility will be available after the end of the conference call. Before proceeding, statements made during this conference call relative to the company's business prospects, operational and financial projections and goals relative to the growth potential are released on assumptions based on the company's management expectations regarding the future of Arezzo & Co. Forward-looking statements are highly dependent on conditions of the domestic market and generally economic of the country and international markets, and therefore, they are subject to change. Now I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Alexandre Birman. Please, Mr. Birman, you may start. ALEXANDRE CAFE BIRMAN, CEO AND MEMBER OF BOARD OF EXECUTIVE OFFICERS, AREZZO INDúSTRIA E COMéRCIO S.A.: Good morning, everyone, and I would like to thank everyone participating in our conference call. Here with me, I have Daniel Levy, our CFO and IRO; and Aline Penna, our Investor Relations manager. It's a great pleasure to share with you our results, our challenges and also our strategies. The year of 2017 was very special. It was marked by continuous evolution of our company that celebrated in that year, the brand of 45 years of existence. I would like to highlight the new organizational structure that permitted us to grow. Thanks to our capacity of forming and attracting talents, our new government that has also paved the way for our long life and also very special highlights. The new age that everyone is familiar with, and we are already leaders in our industry, which is digital transformation, which is as seen that I have been trying to invest a lot of time, my time, the time of people in my company, I have had the opportunity at the invitation of Maurício Bastos, our Strategy and Innovation Director, I took a course, and it make it very clear for me that the evolution of our roles over the next few years will be much faster than we can think. In order to do that, we are leaders and we have launched for the end of the year, Arezzo Bay, the area that we call Hub 2154, and it's going to introduce many innovations for Arezzo & Co. In December, we already founded or rather we opened a new group called Schutz business store with some important concepts. And the most interesting things that have, based on our sales considerably, so we have remote checkout with a better purchasing experience for our customers. I'm here with RFID where consumers may get shoe samples of [kid] shoes, foot growth, (inaudible) and then it will automatically show possible clothing and combination that they can wear with long shoes. And also there's a large touchscreen for online on e-commerce and also excess foot (inaudible) that we have in our inventory in this manner. Our sales for women may sell items that are on our physical stores and also in our online stores. And we also have a hologram into existing products that are still being developed but generally being sold. All of this is part of a concept that we believe is very important that we call frictionless, meaning no friction, experiences more seamless. An important point that we have seen that -- but we still have a lot to evolve, for example, waiting times for our customers in our stores. We want to connect more and more the products that are displayed in our stores and them being connected to the inventory and so they can (technical difficulty) that sale is in new order. Now e-commerce has also started its investments in managing the relationship with consumers, in the consumer's journey. So this project that we implemented in 2017 and has evolved greatly, more than 6 million customers already registered, thousands of contacts per week, there's their history. We need to have the right product at the right time to the right customer. So this path of digital transformation has just started, but we are sure that we are ready. We have a team and potential to make transformations. Now following our strategic plan, we know that there are 6 main pillars on which we work. New brands, new channels and new geographies, rather 3 pillars. So I would like to take the opportunity to highlight the main opportunities of our company for 2018 and more strategically speaking. So we'll be consolidating our brand Fiever, you can be sure that sneaker business is very strong. This is the reality for all brands, this is part of our research team in Europe Selfridges in London. And I have a chance of meeting there the CEO of [indiscernible] manages Selfridges, and they have remodeled almost 30% of the store to sell sneakers only and then they have been increasing the larger share of their sales. So we have another new brand only. The evolution of our operations in U.S., which is very fairly important, and the continuous expansion as I said before of our OWME concept for e-commerce that will account 10% of our revenues. But there are many challenges too. The main challenges that we have are: the continuous evolution of our franchising model that we had started in 2016 and 2017. We were able to collect excellent results from that. We've reduced our default rates. We are aware that we still have a lot to do, so that we all work together, focusing on our consumers, focusing on sellout. Now there's a new pilot for the Schutz brand for the second quarter, and we believe that this is a continuing process of evolution. Additionally, the computerization of our businesses that is becoming more and more digital. So we implemented our project of the sales management, SAP, and we need to really make a better connection between customer demands and the management of our inventory. And there is a continuous growth of our business, all our brands in all our channels that has been getting better and better every quarter. I would also like to highlight some significant projects that will support our business strategies that I have just mentioned. And they include a project of culture. We are bringing an important consultant with wide experience in very successful companies that will help us to solidify our organizational structure to increase engagement in our team. And we have most of the opportunity that we have to just, for example, we still improve our physical structure of facilities, especially in the city of Sao Paulo. We're investing in that in 2018 and the project also more dedicated to sustainability. Obviously, we are a sustainable company otherwise we wouldn't be 45 years in the business, but we're going to formalize our actions with a project called Itaúna, that all with continued growth of our margin. So our expectations are very high as you can see, and I'm sure that we have a team that is ready for that. Now speaking more specifically about the results. For the fourth quarter of 2017 and the year, we have the feeling of mission accomplished, that's very important. Our opinion is that we had an excellent year. Our top line growth was almost ended in around 10%, based greatly in growth and volume, which in our opinion is the healthier growth because it increases your market share from more products being sold to more people. Store. Increasing the number of stores, especially at the end of the year, which gives us a greater base for growth in 2018, and consequently, we have a strong increase in our margin reaching very healthy levels for our company, especially expanding in our net profit, which as we will highlight, will leverage our ROI. For the fourth quarter, what really makes the wheels turn, which is the sellout. If you look at the results, only the naked figures, they can be considered okay. However, I would like to highlight a few important aspects that make us have a different view of this result. First, the comparison base that we have with the fourth quarter of 2016 in which we achieved a growth of high-single digits. Also, it's worth breaking down this fourth quarter into 3 months. October, we had a greater growth in that year, high growth of the category for the tomboys, which had a higher price range and really leveraged the sales. After November 2017, we had better results than the previous month. One other thing that I would like to highlight is our growth in volume and number of tickets was much higher than our total revenue growth showed in the fourth quarter. Because there was a change in the mix. High summer of 2017 was marked by sales in slippers and sandals, which usually have a lower ticket. So the total mix of our business had an average price lower than previous year, but it generated more volume and more tickets. And this issue of mix is something that we have to be prepared for to meet the demand of the consumers at the right time. Highlight for the first quarter of 2018. We have a shift, for example, boots is selling very well and this will mean an increase of the average consolidated price. It doesn't mean that like-for-like and the same products will have a price adjustment. December of 2017, we had the lowest leftovers in our history, which is one of the greatest indicators that how vital our business is. And this result enabled us to advance the winter collection budget, launching pre-fall in the beginning -- on 17th of January and winter collection right after carnival on February 20. The results are excellent. We had up till yesterday the highest turnover in this period in our history. And also, we achieved all our selling goals for the winter season 2018, which gives us a good visibility of how this -- these first years (sic) [months] of the year will be. I would like also to talk about our communication, which generates value to our brands. Highlights for [Shizel] at Arezzo. She's an icon. We have a 17-minute -- second video that is being broadcasted, and it's generating visibility to our brand. Schutz is very into relationship with their consumers. We launched something and heard us, we launched the flagship store at Oscar Freire. Fiever, we just launched jog, which is a very nice. Anacapri continues to be very engaging. I would like to invite you now to invite you to our green collection at Anacapri today and also Alexandre Birman has a strong launching overseas on Sunday. The actress Lupita was wearing her Alexandre Birman shoes when she won the Oscar. Our [promise] is higher than 20%, which gives us confidence that we are on the right track and digital transformation for the omnichannel. And this year, we launched for the multibrands store owners on February 21, the brand OWME, and which gave them the assurance that new -- they will have new products for April 24. We're going to have the opening of our flagship store for e-commerce and multi-data. At the end of the call, I will give you more details about this new brand OWME. I would also like to highlight our operations in the United States. We have good outlook for 2018. And throughout this call, we will also talk about that. Alexandre Birman brand, a very important expansion inside the United States, opening our showrooms in the city of Milan as well. We're focusing on New York now. And now going back to the fourth quarter, I would like to conclude with a few comments, and then afterwards, I will pass the floor to Daniel, who will give us more details about our financial highlights. You all know that all the investments mentioned here are in our P&L as expenses, so they're naturally growing our margins down. All of these projects are choices but are part of our strategy. And it's very happy for our team's capacity to carry them out because we have many projects, if you remember in the past, Anacapri, the launching of e-commerce, launching handbags that gave us opportunities to continue to grow our business. We are in line with our plan, which even generated good bonuses for our team which makes me very proud. In terms of financial performance, we had a strong reduction of our inventory and an indicator, as I said before, that is very important. We have low default rates, strong cash generation and excellent increase of our ROIC, which was above 27%. Saying all this, we have great outlook for 2018 and we count with your continuous interaction because they make us always think and go deeper in the knowledge of our business. I would now like to pass the floor to our CFO and my friend, Daniel Levy. DANIEL LEVY, CORPORATE VP, CFO, IRO & MEMBER OF BOARD OF EXECUTIVE OFFICERS, AREZZO INDúSTRIA E COMéRCIO S.A.: Thank you, Alexandre, good morning, everyone. Continuing with our presentation, I would now like to go to Page 4. Let me go deeper into our analysis of results of the fourth quarter of 2017. We can see, on the left side of chart, that the gross revenue where the company achieved BRL 448 million in the period, a 6.8% growth year-over-year. In the domestic, market we grew 6.7%, and in the foreign market, our expansion was 7.8% in Brazilian reals. Our gross revenue achieved BRL 1,679,000,000, a 8% increase year-over-year with increase of 8.7% in the domestic market and 1.5% in the foreign market. On the next page, we see the opening of the gross revenue in the domestic market with achieved BRL [400,000 million] in 4Q '17 with highlights to Arezzo, Anacapri and the (inaudible). Arezzo branch showed a growth of 8.2% in the quarter year-over-year, boost especially by the expansion of the multichannel brand, Chanel, with an increase of 38.4% in web commerce, a 34.2% increase. Also, the revenue of franchise channel expanded 4% in 4Q '17. We highlight this comparison base in the franchise channels, where the multibrand grew more than 20% 4Q '16, showing how challenging the results were. Schutz presented a drop of 6.2% in the domestic market revenue, impacted by the success obtained in 2016 with the tomboys and sneakers and with high -- products with a higher average price than the sandals sold in 2017. The good news is that with the built already arising and then the high-summer products, in November, it was -- we already saw a presuming of the increase of sales. We now have the United States with 33.5%, which are now important brands in the market. In the third quarter, Anacapri growth revenue has had a significant evolution of 26.1% as compared to the same period in 2016. They brought new accounts for 12.3% of the growth revenue as compared to 10.4% in 2016. These results consolidated performance of last quarters as results of an increasingly more assertive product mix and investment in market. It's important to highlight we're opening 25 franchises of the brand, and important -- which helped to drive the performance of the channel that grew 31.5%. The brand efficiency payment has also had a strong performance in terms of revenue in that period with an expansion of 43% in Q4 '16 with a highlight of sales in the domestic market with a high of 66.4%. These returning its presence in domestic market has had an increasing revenue of 14% in Q4 '17, driven by our owned stores and web commerce. As a reminder, their brand has had a significant growth of 115% in the year of 2017. Now moving to Page 6, you can see the gross revenue per sales channel. You can see that the result in the fourth quarter of 2017 was driven by the strong growth of 17.1% in our commerce channel and 10.8% in our multibrand channel. In our owned store, there was a bound of 3.1% because of the greater representativeness of the shoes in this channel. In terms of sellout, our own chain of stores including franchise own started a record -- has had an evolution of 5.5%, reflecting a significant result in online channel and the opening of brick-and-mortar stores in the year of 2017 in addition to the 2.8% same-store sales in the quarter. The franchise channel accounted for 51.6% in origin co-domestic sales with the selling same-store sales of 1.2%. And in the period with a level offering the project is appropriate with the continued capture of gross margin in next work or in the chain of store. As a reminder, in Q4 '16, the company has had a significant expansion of selling same-store sales up 17.9%. Lastly, the multibrand channel has had an evolution of 10.8% in the quarter as a reflection of some of the company's actions in terms of winning new customers, more cross-sell between all the 5 brands as compared to the same period last year. The number of customers in the multibrand channels increased 8.1%, thereby, reflecting the recovery and the confidence and the (inaudible) power of small business people. On Page 7, there's an evolution of the number of our own stores and franchise as are reflected in terms of total square feet with growth this quarter, 618 stores, 611 of them in Brazil and 7 overseas. We opened our 42 stores, 24 Anacapri, 13 Arezzo and 5 Schutz new stores. Now on Page 8, you can see on the left-hand side, the gross profit of the quarter that reached BRL 169.6 million, an evolution of 10.7% as compared to the same period in 2016 and a gross margin of 46.6%. The growth in the quarter of 140 basis points in gross margin is explained by the effect that I'm going to list here, the most important to the least important. Number one, improvement of gross margin in a foreign market and increase of each representative in the company's mix. Two, improvement in the gross margin in the channels of our owned stores and web commerce and also the exclusion of ICMS, with (inaudible) of Brazilian taxes and also a greater share of the web commerce channel in the company's revenues. Still on this page, on the right-hand side, as you can see the fourth quarter EBITDA was BRL 54.5 million with a margin of 15% and which represents a growth of 1.1% as compared to Q4 '16. In spite of the 140 bps of expansion in the gross margin in the quarter, there were an investment of 12% in our commercial expenses as a result of additional provisions of profit sharing, considering that we will retain our growth for the period, and there will be also discretionary expenses in innovation processes, strategic processes and the advanced launch of OWME, our 6 brands and the acceleration of international expansion of our brand in Alexandre Birman for our Q1 '17. Even so, we were able to raise the level of profitability and EBITDA margin by a 90 point in the year of 2017. On Page 9, you can see that the net income for the quarter has reached BRL 55.3 million, a net margin of 15.2% and an expansion of 54.5% as compared to the same period this year. As I highlighted in the 4Q -- quarter of 2017, the company has obtained an injunction as that determines the exclusion -- permanent exclusion of our obligation to pay income taxes in CSLL over our tax -- over the benefit that we had on the ICMS, which may have a total gain of BRL 21.9 million. We should highlight that in 2017, our net income grew 33%, totaling BRL 154.5 million but an increase of 200 basis points in the net margin. Now moving to Page 10, you can see the company's operational cash, which was BRL 45.9 million in the quarter in line with what we had in Q4 '16. In the year of 2017, the same cash generation reached BRL 174 million, 71% greater than what we had in 2016. On Page 11, on the left-hand side, you can see the CapEx for the quarter of BRL 7.6 million, and that amount includes, especially, system integration, integrating the systems of e-commerce and SAP, our new operational system and in our private-label stores and some expansion and net renovations. We closed the quarter with a net cash close to BRL 156 million, which is very good. And lastly, on Page 12, you can see that the return on invested capital for the comp on ROIC, once again had a significant growth in the fourth quarter of 2017 reaching the level of 27.4% that is 630 basis points above fourth quarter of 2016. Some of the factors accounting for these improvement is the 31.4% growth in our operational results, better working capital and also reduction of our fixed assets. So these were the comments we had to make about the fourth quarter of 2017. And now I would now like to open our questions and answers session. Thank you very much. Questions and Answers OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) Our first question is from Mr. Ruben Couto, Itaú BBA. RUBEN COUTO, RESEARCH ANALYST, ITAú CORRETORA DE VALORES S.A., RESEARCH DIVISION: I would like to know your opinion for Schutz in 2018. From what we understood, the brand has a good increase in the quarter. I would like to understand if this expense for the entire first quarter? Or it just improvement throughout the year and something that we would find going forward and why? And what are you doing to bring Schutz back to the growth levels in line with the other brands? If you could also talk about the rollout plans for the new Schutz plan, what you're going to do throughout 2018 to deliver these renovations? ALEXANDRE CAFE BIRMAN: Hello, Ruben. It's Alexandre speaking. Thank you for your question. Schutz, I personally am biased to talk about it. You know that 26 years ago, when I was 18, I opened this brand, and we're all in couple (inaudible) of here, there's a tradeshow here called (inaudible). And in March 1995, at the same trade show that we heard about the anatomic info that made Schutz be born at (inaudible), and today, they are exposing again, they're exhibiting this info again after 3 decades. So it's a brand that has a very important strategic assumption for Arezzo & Co. Schutz is always our star. What do I mean by that? It's always in front of all the others. I'll give you some important examples. It was the first brand to have e-commerce that was at the end of 2011, and today, it accounts for 11% of that brand sell. It was the first to have handbags and now, that accounts for 20% of the brand sales. It was also the first brand that had strategic tally for growth and with the multibrand bringing big support for the rollout plan, which took place with a lot of success. And now we have 2 new plans. We started one a few years ago, so we had -- which is the international expansion focusing on the United States. So I would like to highlight that we will open, in May, a pop-up store at Soho, which will be important to establish the brand with other types of consumers, and in August, probably we will open this store and focusing on the profitability at Iguatemi Mall in Miami, so it's a regular mall store. And also digital transformation, and about your question, we saw that Schutz project since 2018 had to be revisited, and we needed a new store. So that's why we're calling Schutz digital store, and it has all that innovation and shopping experience, as I said when we open our call, focusing on dynamic, service, actual omniexperience, e-commerce, and you have only one cart for the brick-and-mortar store and the online store. You can see the products through RFID. We have holograms and the remote checkout, which is, I think, every retailer should have, which is not that easy due to fiscal issues in Brazil. But we were able to advance greatly. That's why Schutz give us a good confidence that 2018 will be an important year to resume growth. And about the rollout of this concept, our goal is to close 2018 with about 50% of the chain already renovated. So we have great advances in that sense and to speed even more the process. The franchise for Schutz, which is or has a small representativeness in the brand's revenue, we're going to have a pilot store with our franchise based on sellout, which we believe that will bring more fluidity to boost our sales. RUBEN COUTO: I was going to ask about the renovations of 50% of your stores. How much do you intend to invest in CapEx? And if the store that you're going to open in the U.S. in August is going to be the same format? Or if you're going to change anything for that market? ALEXANDRE CAFE BIRMAN: Our investments for our own stores and franchise -- the franchise needs might have some support in terms of lines of credit with banks. But with low interest rates, it's interesting. These stores will grow in sales. Just to give you an idea, the Iguatemi store has a little bit more than 20% increase so that increase was just due to the renovation. The 2 stores were done with CapEx higher than the average because they were done very quickly, and secondly, it's a new concept of retail that we're betting on and we saw this a lot in our research travel to Europe. We don't want you to have the feeling that you're at a retail store. We want to make the store more cozy. And also, the customer will feel more comfortable and more embraced in her shopping experience, and also, with all the technology. So at the moment, we're going deep with our suppliers to really have the best cost feasibility. We will open, in March, our store at JK Shopping center, which will already be a replication of the rollout model. And I will have better details closer to that date, but it's part of our budget for our CapEx for 2018 approved by our board. OPERATOR: Our next question is from Tobias Stingelin from Credit Suisse. TOBIAS STINGELIN, DIRECTOR, CRéDIT SUISSE AG, RESEARCH DIVISION: You mentioned a little bit about the pop-up store in the United States and Iguatemi Mall. If you could give us more detail. If there's anything else going on into the American markets specifically? And how we should see that development? I remember that you were going to stop last year to start this project again. I don't know if it's too early for an update, but if you could talk to us about that American market. And just -- it's a further question. This credit that you had specifically, and we're familiar with this subvention for the investment, and you can get that reduction. Despite having the suspension for investment, you got this injunction now. How comfortable are you with this injunction because -- and what are the other cases that you have in that regards? And what you think about the tax bracket going forward? ALEXANDRE CAFE BIRMAN: It's Alexandre. Thank you for question. I'm going to split the answer in two. The first is about the United States, I'm going to talk to you, and then afterwards Daniel will answer about the tax and fiscal issues. About the United States, it's worth pointing out that our operations of Arezzo & Co. in that market has 2 brands, Schutz and Alexandre Birman. I'm going to start to talk about Schutz. In addition to what I mentioned, now in February, we already renovated our store at Madison Square Garden with this new concept of digital store, and the growth has been amazing. In March, we had more than 30% of same-store sales at that store, sell-in was also very good. So Schutz had that concept, which fits well with the American market. We also, in addition to those news, we're going to open this store at Soho. With earning pop-up, it means that the lease time is a little bit shorter, but it will really help with brand awareness and show the potential of that region in Soho, so that then we can define the size and the exact location of the permanent store. And the store at Iguatemi Mall aims at being a test of the economic feasibility of our retail stores there. It will also -- our investments will be in July on the new digital platform and new e-commerce that will really give our consumers an experience, at least, the same or better than we have here, which is already excellent. And I'm sure that we will have a very strong growth of e-commerce in the United States and mentioning the work that we have been doing in the wholesales channel. About Alexandre Birman, it really is hitting great highlights. As you can see with the figures, this is taking place. The brand in the United States already have an amazing recall. And to speed even more our growth, we should probably open a store -- a flagship store, although it's not large, it's a small store. In terms -- and in terms of shopping experience, you will feel that you are in your bedroom closet. So it's a great closet, a shoe closet, but it's a whole -- in a block at Madison that you have great competitors like [Globalson], and it's great to position the brand. We will also launch e-commerce, and probably, we're negotiating a store in Bal Harbour because that mall has a great result for the brand. So it's the continuous growth, continuous learning, and throughout 2018, we will be more aware of the actual potential and everything that we're doing and the learning that we get from the United States. I hope I answered your question. I would like to pass the word to Daniel to talk about the second part of your question. TOBIAS STINGELIN: Thank you very much, Alexandre. Just a follow-up, we were talking about Aventura Mall store, so we are going to use it as a basis for your future expansion. What changes in your mindset with regards to that store compares to the other stores you already have? ALEXANDRE CAFE BIRMAN: Well, not changes in the expense of our occupation or our flagship stores, we have 2 now. They have locations where the cost of occupancy is very, very high, even in the malls that for Brazilian is very well known, high traffic. The rental -- the cost of the rent per square immediately goes way down, and we know that traffic and, probably, top line will be very similar or even greater than what we have today. So the natural equation of that is really a very positive bottom line. DANIEL LEVY: Good morning, Tobias. This is Daniel Levy. As to the injunctions that we were granted at the end of the year or waving as -- as a waiver for us to pay taxes as the nature of the tax benefit is to fund our operations, which wouldn't make much sense according to the legal opinions that we have to tax, a tax benefit. Since you're getting a tax benefit to tax it on the other end, it wouldn't make much sense. So many other companies were already doing that and they already had initiatives of excluding, so they are based on the assumption that this benefit cannot be used today and dividend -- for the payout of dividends, it's part of the equity. So following those rules, we waited for this injunction to then grow on with this accounting adjustment. This injunction, according to the legal opinions that we have had so far and the way that Schutz has been evolving, and we were one of the first companies who won this type of injunction formerly. We've been seeing that the tax thinking in those lines is for this too. First thing, you're continuing the future because of the nature of the tax benefit that are being given. So the nature of tax benefits, once again, the incentive for these regions, for operations in our case, specifically, in the state of Espírito Santo and we renew them, we can renew it every year. And we have the guarantee that at least for the next 5 years, we will have the scenario without any major modifications. TOBIAS STINGELIN: So what about the year? DANIEL LEVY: Well, if we are finalizing our strategy, we believe that from that we will be talking about 7 to 8 percentage points in terms of benefit in our final quote. This is not our final number, but this is a more significant change in terms of our tax liabilities for 2018. So it's about 8 percentage points decrease in our tax rate for 2018. OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from Irma Sgarz from Goldman Sachs. IRMA SGARZ, EQUITY ANALYST, GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: I would like to go back to e-commerce. The amazing growth that you've been delivering over the past few years and the outlook on how much this sales channel is important for you in your brand? So when you look into the future, and we've been seeing a strong growth in your marketplace, in many different platforms, how do think the balance between sending through your own website or through third party websites? What do you -- how do you see that? You have been doing it a little bit such as fixed websites, but when you look into the future, what is the way you see in the future for your brand? Are you leaning more towards one-brand website to more multiliner or more multibrand stores? ALEXANDRE CAFE BIRMAN: Thank you for your question, Irma. I'm going to start from the end because the strategy of our online distribution, and I will hear you have a (inaudible) as you mentioned [fitch], we don't operate with fitch . And you -- they're only asking who's remaining from a time in 2015 when we used to sell Anacapri as a test. And then we decided to launch a single brand e-commerce. You will see some of our products in some fashion e-commerce that are very specific, but we didn't have a very high positioning in Brazil. But there are very few multibrand stores. E-commerce -- in e-commerce that sale are -- I mean, they are very specific, more in the segment of fashion. Our main strategy is through our own brands because we believe there's a large difference. When you talk about marketplace, there's a big difference, a fundamental difference in our opinion and this is a reality. Not just in our vision, but also it happens in countries where e-commerce is more mature. When you work with brands in the marketplace, fashion brands, it's not the thinking if you work with products there. Almost like commodities, in the brands, it's also important when you want a TV, refrigerator, and you want the product, you don't you want a brand. You want its cost effectiveness. Most of those brands are good and it's not different, no one will -- and I want to buy LG, well, Samsung has a better price, certainly, it sell Samsung. So I want to buy the black scarf, I'm with generic; if it's Arezzo, whoa! If it's too expensive, you buy a different brand, but you go to Arezzo. This is the main thing for us of being in the marketplace. And when we think of fashion, where brand is very important, even more important than the product in itself. I mean, you don't just want black shoes, you want an Arezzo shoe of whatever brands. So that's why we have such a strong strategy, that's why we're focused so much with our operational actions including technology, logistics, management, and finally, because we believe that this is the way to go. We are testing our store for our brands to sell our remaining stock of our collections. It's like an Outstore, an outlet for the remaining collections, but it will be exclusive for our brands focusing just on that. So 2017 and '18, there was a strong growth. In the first quarter of 2018, we really have to be consumable, really more confined will buying online, there's more efficiency. And we have really amazing phases in terms of sales such as the one we have hundreds of thousands, the customer bought a sneaker that had a zipper. We didn't know whether it was just for a decoration, she didn't like it, she got in contact with us and then we (inaudible) a functional zipper sneakers for her. And we developed a special sneakers and we gave to her. She was in a wheelchair. So this is our main focus. Thank you all very much for this evening, and we are very excited about that. OPERATOR: Excuse me, but if there are no further questions, I would like to hand the conference back over to Mr. Birman for his closing remarks. ALEXANDRE CAFE BIRMAN: I would like to take the chance to thank you all for your participation. I count on your attention for us to finalize with some issues that we find important. But before I would really like to congratulate all women attending this call, there are millions of women that are consumers of Arezzo & Co. in Brazil and in the world. Please, let's give them a hand for all women in the world. And so talking a little bit about OWME. So it will take a while before Brazilians learn how to speak it. The abbreviation of OWME. So OWME. So if a more mature women, women who know what they want, they are speaking for balance and beauty, so it's like OWME. So (inaudible) comfort segment have seen -- these consumers do not value so much beauty or the looks. So we are working more in comfort. And in our opinion, we have managed, and we should all go check our brands. Instagram, you'll be seeing some products to go live, it's going to be on April 24. So the target is women about 35 years of age and so [60 AB1] classes, there are anatomical shoes adjusting to the curve of your feet and then the timing for collections will be different to our very fast cycle for other brands. We'll be focusing more on replacement of dead selling items. And also, it has PSS, which is this essence -- or the insoles and the lining of the comfort that the brand offers is unheard of. We're opening our flagship store on April 24 and launching simultaneously our e-commerce and our multibrand, and the flagship (inaudible) is already under construction, and it will be a very interesting experience. It will have one focus on gastronomy and one in wellness. So it will be a unique environment in which you will be offered a fresh towel for your hands, iced tea, and it's going to be an experience. We will have nature noises, and it will be a unique experience. So I would like to invite you all to go there on April 24 to see our new store OWME. I would also like to talk about our principles, which is the foundation of our every day. A goal met is at the base for the next goal, and that's why we met the goals of 2017 and started 2018 our entire team focusing on meeting the goals for the year. I would like to thank our team. It's thousands and thousands of people who dedicate their -- themselves. They struggle and really embrace our business. And one of the important thing about our board that really support our governance and to help us to keep on track and that has been very important and continuous evolution with our Board of Directors. So let's go towards [20 54] and have a great 2018. Thank you very much. OPERATOR: This call is concluded. Thank you for participating, and have a nice day. Thank you so much. 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Company / organization: Name: Thomson Financial; NAICS: 511210, 518210, 519190; Name: Selfridges; NAICS: 452111
Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 8, 2018
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Place of publication: Linthicum
Country of publication: United States, Linthicum
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Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2016578683
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Last updated: 2018-03-23
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Document 181 of 474
Place 5 of 52: Island-Hopping on Vibrant Trinidad and Lush St. Lucia
Author: Yuan, Jada
Publication info: New York Times (Online) , New York: New York Times Company. Mar 13, 2018.
Abstract:
The first half of our 52 Places Traveler’s trip around the Caribbean brings her to Trinidad and its famous Carnival, and to St. Lucia, where she had a relaxing stop.
Full text: One doesn’t have to look very far to find Carnival in Port of Spain, the capital of the dual-island state of Trinidad and Tobago — it will find you. That became clear when my taxi took a right turn toward the city center, and smack into what might be the most entertaining traffic jam I’ve ever experienced. Within seconds, hundreds of revelers, many of them wearing sparkling bikinis, elaborate feather headdresses — and little else — had engulfed our car, streaming down the street in the opposite direction. One woman in a sequined, beige one-piece flashed a cheeky smile and began “ wining ” with our front bumper. (That’s a dance that typically involves a woman and man standing back-to-front and “winding” their hips against one another.) [READ MORE: 52 Places Traveler — The Suffering and Spirit of San Juan ] To my left a shirtless young man was grinding up against my window, while a woman behind him smacked his rear end. I was sharing the cab with three Londoners I’d met at the airport, and the woman among them burst out laughing: “I brought way too many clothes.” Trinidad’s Carnival is second in reputation only to Brazil’s for both beauty and debauchery. The massive, joyous street party I’d experienced upon arrival, I soon found out, was actually an off night. The real action would begin the next day, with serious celebrants in serious costumes hitting the street as early as 8 a.m. and dancing until dawn on Ash Wednesday. “You can’t come to Trinidad and not play mas!” said Linda Wells, a Trinidad-born nurse living in Brooklyn who’s been coming back to her home country every year for 20 years to celebrate. She was using the nickname for “masquerade,” a tradition that dates back to 18th-century balls that French plantation owners used to throw (and their slaves mimicked) to let loose before the asceticism of Lent. Ms. Wells is 56 but looks about 30 years younger, with a long blonde braid springing from the top of her head and the rest of her hair shaved off underneath. I had run into her and her girlfriends — an accountant, a bank manager, a former publicist — getting ready near Queen’s Park Savannah, where “bands,” or costumed groups, go to compete for prizes. (A shocking number of Carnival-goers I met were Trinis from New York City.) The custom-designed dress Ms. Wells was to wear, she showed me, was flesh colored, with an intricate pattern of green sequins and a train of green feathers, and would have put everyone at the Oscars to shame. She’d be adding a “backpack” of flowing green and blue fabric, splayed out to look like a peacock’s tail that was so heavy it required the help of two young men to get it on. Then she would dance all day in it. “I’m with the K2K band. You have to follow us. We’re going to be fabulous!” she said, and sent me down to the park under the protection of her husband, Earl Wells, a field surveyor who was wearing an antlered headdress, face paint and head-to-toe tie-dye. Soon I was in the midst of several hundred people twirling around in elaborate fabric wings, or getting down to soca music with sparkling suns on sticks attached to their backs that shot up 20 feet in the air. Karen and Kathy Norman, Trinidad-born twin sisters living in New Jersey, designed all of the band’s costumes, and to join, all Ms. Wells had to do was sign up and pay for her costume in advance. This was her second year with K2K and she was sure she’d be back. “They’re so different. In Trinidad, you mostly see people in two-piece bikinis. But K2K, it’s about the fashion. You don’t see anyone wearing anything like that. I like the elegance, and you’re covered up! We’re old. We need it!” Technically, Trinidad had not been on the original itinerary of the yearlong, worldwide trip I’m on for The Times, visiting each place on the 52 Places to Go in 2018 list . In an effort to convey to readers that the Caribbean, large swaths of which had been hit by two hurricanes last year, shouldn’t be avoided as a travel destination, my editors had put the entire region at No. 4. Working with data scientists from Kayak, the online booking site, we crafted an itinerary that would take me to two islands that hadn’t been affected by the hurricanes (Trinidad and St. Lucia) and one that very much had (Puerto Rico, which I’ll be writing about next week). That lineup scratched a few itches: the desire to experience Carnival; to island hop (to me, another defining Caribbean experience); and to go somewhere that had sustained damage and see for myself what being “back open for business” really looked like. What would it mean to be a responsible visitor to such a place, and how could I both encourage tourism while accurately conveying the situation? What followed was a visit to the Caribbean at a breakneck pace that I would advise no sane person to mimic. For complicated logistical and cost-related reasons that made sense at the time, I’d mapped out a plan with Kayak to go to St. Lucia, then to Trinidad and back, then off to San Juan — all in four days. Traveling to Trinidad during Carnival turns out to be stressful even when you’re not on a 24-hour, please-don’t-try-this-at-home marathon. The Brits I shared my taxi with showed up only to find out that their hotel had given away their reservation (common, apparently), so they came to my place, President’s Inn , where we all encountered the surprise that the front desk only took cash. (For me, that meant a trip to an A.T.M. on a dark and isolated street. Our heroic taxi driver refused to let me go alone.) Still, as simple as our hotel was, it was in an ideal location close to the action. Just three blocks away, I found a calypso show called Pandemonium in a dirt lot and featuring incredible steel-pan players from as far away as Paris. I had good luck finding that show, and the K2K band, while walking around, but nearly everyone I ran into seemed horrified to see me on my own. When I strayed from the show to look for something to eat, a young man raced up behind me. His name was Kadeem and he wanted to warn me that I had just narrowly escaped a robber who had been casing me, and who was blocking my way back to the show. “Be careful of that guy. He’s not a nice guy,” he said. “He won’t bother you, but he looked like he wanted to get someone at the corner.” Later, back at the show, I befriended a female pan player named Lenitia Solomon who happened to be a police officer in another part of town. “Trinidad is not safe, especially around Carnival. A lot of phone snatchers. Believe me, I’ve seen it all. Be aware of who’s around you,” she said, before telling me the story of a Japanese pan-player friend of hers who had been murdered at last year’s Carnival. She insisted on taking me back to my hotel with a male friend who had come to walk her back to the show. Despite such warnings, Trinidad was vibrant and colorful and edgy, and I loved every minute of it. But I also wouldn’t trade the serenity of the brief time I got to spend in St. Lucia. A volcanic island known for its twin mountains, the Pitons, it has a kind of rugged charm one doesn’t normally associate with Caribbean luxury. (It’s also the only island I got to spend any time on during my one previous visit to the Caribbean, on a friend’s sailing trip more than 10 years ago, and has always held special memories for me.) The hurricanes largely skipped the island, though Judith Verity, who owns the Mango Beach Inn , where I stayed, kept mentioning how much more beautiful her incredibly beautiful garden had been before the storm. “We are blessed people. God loves us,” said my taxi driver, Barry Augustin, of why the jungle paradise where he’s lived his whole life had been spared. “In St. Lucia, the economy is already so hard, so God protects his children.” While I missed most of St. Lucia’s best attractions — a hike up the Pitons, the sulfur hot springs — I did get to experience some of its lush beauty. There are banana plantations everywhere. On the side of the busy Micoud highway, Mr. Augustin pulled over at a family-run roadside stand he calls the Creole Bread Place (real name: Golden Palace) that he claims makes the best baked goods on the island. A gray-bearded man named Mango was pulling spiral loaves out of a wood-fired oven with a wooden paddle, while Seco, his daughter, split them open and filled them with curried, shredded fish, and his son, Earl Joseph, who turned out to be the owner, handled the money. Though there are far more luxurious places to stay — Mr. Augustin has a second job at one, the Ladera resort — I was charmed by Mango Beach Inn. There’s no way to get to its location, in an old building on Marigot Bay on the northwest side of the island, other than by ferry, and one day I came in to see that the maid had decorated my mosquito netting with rose petals. Down the stairs was Hassey’s Waterside Bar , which just might be the perfect vacation lounge, flush with the bay and covered in strings of lights. I met a 21-year-old beach worker named Jamal Felix, who described his job: “I put the beach lounges down, I go fishing, I climb the coconut trees, I use the swing on the coconut trees and fall in the water, I go swimming.” I felt completely at odds with everyone else on the island, from the natives (like Mr. Felix) whose jobs included regular swim breaks, to the many couples on romantic vacations who were spending their days on hikes or boat rides. I mainly stressed out about how to squeeze in this ridiculous Trinidad idea, or sat in Mango Beach Inn’s lovely common room overlooking the bay and wrote. As my taxi driver, Domitiana René, saw me frantically trying to post to Instagram on my way back to the airport, she told me not to worry. The island would still be there. It was blessed. It was paradise. I could always come back to check out St. Lucia’s Carnival in June and July. It was her favorite time of year. “I think we are becoming more and more like Trinidad,” she said. “Every year I’m noticing people wearing less and less clothes.” Jada Yuan will be traveling to every place on this year’s 52 Places to Go list. Follow her on Instagram @alphajada. Previous dispatches: 1: New Orleans 2: Chattanooga, Tenn. 3. Montgomery, Ala. 4. Disney Springs, Fla. Next dispatch: San Juan, Puerto Rico Credit: Jada Yuan
Subject: Clothing
Location: Puerto Rico
Identifier / keyword: Trinidad and Tobago St Lucia Caribbean Area Travel and Vacations
Publication title: New York Times (Online); New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 13, 2018
Section: travel
Publisher: New York Times Company
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Blogs, Podcasts, & Websites
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2013122968
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2013122968?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright 2018 The New York Times Company
Last updated: 2018-06-13
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 182 of 474
What to do for Spring Break?  
Publication info: University Wire ; Carlsbad [Carlsbad]13 Mar 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Publication: The Lion's Pride, Saint Leo University, Saint Leo FL. Harrison, a sophomore, biology major, plans to head back home to Port St. Lucie to chill with friends and go to the beach. Meanwhile, senior Mckenzie Wallace will be busy working as a teaching intern as a requirement for her elementary education major. Sophomore and computer science major Tracey Macleavy will be heading home to Jamaica this spring break to participate in annual University of the West Indies Carnival. Aaliyah Effs, a freshman majoring in criminal justice, plans to chill here on campus. Have no plans? No problem! In lieu of this extended vacation, here is a list of top three things to do during Spring Break.
In the number three spot, check out new movies.
Starting March 9 to March 18, a lot of movies will be premiering. From historical dramas to even action-adventure films, here is a list of some featured films:
Dramedy-“Love, Simon,” a movie about a 17-year-old boy who has fallen in love with an anonymous classmate online. Meanwhile, he has been keeping his sexuality a secret from his family and friends.
Horror-“The Strangers: Prey at Night”: three masked teens target a family in their mobile home park.
Adult Fiction/Science Fantasy-Disney’s “A Wrinkle in Time”: Accompanied by three magical creatures, a young girl embarks on an out-of-this-world journey to rescue her father.
Historical dramedy -“The Death of Stalin”: A satirical comedy, about the chain of events that took place amongst the U.S. and Russian political body after the death of Joseph Stalin.
Action-adventure-“Tomb Raider”: This movie is modeled after the action-adventure game with the same title. In the film, a missing adventurer’s daughter faces a sequence of challenges as she finds herself on the island her father disappeared on.
A cheaper alternative to going to the theaters would be to catch up on some series or even starting a new one.
Number two on the list is to attend an event or go site seeing. From the 12th to the 16th of March, there will be an array of exciting events. One, along with her/his significant other or friends, can simply full up the tank and plan to road trip to another major city. Top cities to road trip to include Orlando, Key West, Fort Lauderdale and not to mention Miami. Upcoming events, such as Gasparilla International Film Festival, the UniverSoul Circus or even a sporting game, are a must. Places to site see are endless; some include The Everglades National Park, Florida Caverns State Park, Crystal River and more.
The number one thing to do is to head to the beach. What is spring break without a beach trip? According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the state of Florida has over 500 beaches. A few of the top beaches include Clearwater Beach, Siesta Beach and Gulf Islands National Seashore, according to 10best.com. Or if those are too out of the way, head on down to Fort de Soto.
For the very adventurous ones, some honorable mentions include a trip to Brazil, the Bahamas or even Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. Travel according to one’s budget. It’s one week, so be smart and stay safe!
Subject: Adventure; Motion pictures; Beaches
Location: United States--US Jamaica Dominican Republic Gulf Islands National Seashore Crystal River Everglades Brazil Florida Bahamas
People: Aaliyah (1979-2001) Stalin, Joseph Vissarionovich (1879-1953)
Company / organization: Name: UniverSoul Circus; NAICS: 711190; Name: Environmental Protection Agency--EPA; NAICS: 924110; Name: Everglades National Park; NAICS: 712190; Name: University of the West Indies; NAICS: 611310
Publication title: University Wire; Carlsbad
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 13, 2018
Section: Campus-News
Publisher: Uloop, Inc.
Place of publication: Carlsbad
Country of publication: United States, Carlsbad
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2013464968
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2013464968?accountid=4840
Copyright: © 2018 UWIRE, a division of Uloop
Last updated: 2018-03-14
Database: Social Science Premium Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 183 of 474
Hot-air balloons back in Pampanga for 5th LIBMF 2018
Publication info: Business Mirror ; Makati City [Makati City]13 Mar 2018.
Abstract:
Hot-air balloons of all shapes and sizes will once again dot the skies over this fast-developing town, as the Lubao International Balloon and Music Festival (LIBMF) 2018 at the Pradera Verde here gets set for another weekend of fun and music from March 23 to 25. At least 31 hot-air balloons, from 19 countries including 10 special shape balloons, will fly in the event that will also feature musical extravaganzas by popular bands and talents, among them singer, actress and record producer Sarah Geronimo and rock-band vocalist Bamboo Mañalac.Full text: Hot-air balloons of all shapes and sizes will once again dot the skies over this fast-developing town, as the Lubao International Balloon and Music Festival (LIBMF) 2018 at the Pradera Verde here gets set for another weekend of fun and music from March 23 to 25. At least 31 hot-air balloons, from 19 countries including 10 special shape balloons, will fly in the event that will also feature musical extravaganzas by popular bands and talents, among them singer, actress and record producer Sarah Geronimo and rock-band vocalist Bamboo Mañalac. During a news conference at the Pradera Verde in Barangay Prado Siongco here over the weekend, event chairman Noel Castro said there are also plenty of activities that are suited for all ages such as skydiving and paragliding, fireworks displays and magic shows. 'As we embark on our fifth year, we promise you that we are going to offer more ground activities and more aerial activities this time,' Castro said. 'We all know that the LIBMF is the other balloon festival here in Pampanga but we are the biggest balloon festival in Southeast Asia in terms of balloon attendance,' he added. Two years ago the LIBMF set a record of 45 hot-air balloons, the biggest in Southeast Asia. The ground and aerial activities will keep spectators entertained throughout the three-day festival, Castro assured. A motor exhibition, car show, as well as off-road and rally cross will also be featured in the three-day event, he added. Capt. Eric Tan and Capt. Robert Aguilar of Ultra-Light Flying School said that, for the first time, ultra-light aircraft will showcase their aerial maneuvers and even take in passengers during the event. Paulo Vellarda and Rolf King of Outdoor Challenge Philippines said they will be conducting 4×4 off-road races throughout the day during the event where spectators can actually participate. Ramon Bautista is designated safety officer, while Rambo Ortega of Forthinker Inc. is the event organizer. Ortega said this time will be a bigger and more exciting event. as some 100,000 people are expected to attend. He added food and souvenir bazaars will also be set up, as well as carnival rides to make the event more entertaining. Assistant Event Director South Korean Eugene Lee said one of the special shaped balloons is the famous 'Christ the Redeemer' from Brazil. Among the participating countries are France, Belgium, Australia, Brazil, Spain, Japan, Thailand, the US, the Netherlands, Korea, India, Malaysia, Turkey, the UK, Taiwan, Brazil, Canada, Colombia and Vietnam. The LIBMF is the annual flagship program of the municipality of Lubao.
Subject: Balloons; Record producers; Festivals
Location: Southeast Asia Thailand Turkey Spain Netherlands United States--US Canada India Philippines Vietnam United Kingdom--UK Malaysia Australia Brazil Belgium France Taiwan Japan Colombia
Publication title: Business Mirror; Makati City
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 13, 2018
Publisher: AsiaNet Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd.
Place of publication: Makati City
Country of publication: Pakistan, Makati City
Publication subject: Business And Economics
ISSN: 19081189
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2013474742
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2013474742?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright 2018 Business Mirror
Last updated: 2018-03-14
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 184 of 474
CU Denver celebrates cultural diversity
Author: Ackerman, Allison
Publication info: University Wire ; Carlsbad [Carlsbad]14 Mar 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Publication: UCD Advocate, University of Colorado Denver, Denver CO. Photo: Erica Barillari
With a swipe of a student ID, doors were open to CU Denver’s fourth annual Cultural Diversity Festival held in the Tivoli Turnhalle on Feb. 27. The event, intended to celebrate the diversity of CU Denver’s campus and students, featured various performances and activities spearheaded by CU Denver students.
According to the university’s website, “58 percent of incoming freshmen in the Fall 2016 semester were students of color.” The campus is proud of its increase in diversity with international students and students coming from a myriad of backgrounds. Four years ago, the university started working with MyLynx student organizations such as the Student Government Association to put together the Cultural Diversity Festival. They wanted a way to educate their peers about cultures throughout the world, and the event became the perfect way of bringing students together for immersion, education, and celebration.
Upon entering the event, each student received a piece of paper with a list of participating student organizations. Attendees were asked to visit at least five of the various tables scattered throughout the Turnhalle and learn about the related organization.
Students representing each organization were ready to answer any questions regarding what they do. Among those contributing in the event were organizations like PAL, Association for International Students, Multi-Racial Bi-Racial Student Alliance, Center for Identity and Inclusion, CU Dreamers, and more. Juliana Arevalo-Mejia, a member of SGA, is a first-year student at CU Denver who was very excited to participate in coordinating the event.
“We wanted to represent all of the international and diverse students,” Arevalo-Mejia said. “We want students to be aware of the world and the beautiful cultures. That’s one of the things that CU Denver is very proud of; we differentiate ourselves for that. This [event] is to show how big the diversity is.”
After visiting student organizations, students received a sticker next to the corresponding organization listed on the paper they initially received. Once they accumulated five stars, students were allowed on the second floor of the Turnhalle, where they were able to choose between a free plate of traditional Indian, Spanish, or Thai food. The Cultural Diversity Festival was not only a great opportunity to learn about other cultures through student organizations, but a wonderful way to try food from different cultures for free.
Along with the resources and student organizations attendees had access to, there were many arts and crafts that represented a span of different cultures including lantern painting, origami folding, henna, and creating silletas. Students were invited to sit down at the crafts table and read the history of how the craft came to be so important to its corresponding culture.
Silletas are from Medellin, which is the second largest city in Columbia. Silletas are flowers made from Silleteros—flower vendors who carry their colorful wares down from small plots in the mountains around Medellin to sell in the market squares. Colombia is one of the world’s largest flower exporters. They hold the Medellin Flower Festival annually, and the Silleteros are the main attraction. Another table had henna tattoos provided by Leah Reddell, who is an internationally recognized henna artist.
“We were happy to come here and participate in this event,” Reddell said. “I think it’s important for students to understand cultures a little more. This is a really cool way of doing it. It’s also just fun to see college kids relax and forget their studies for a little bit.”
On the Turnhalle stage, there were dancers that represented Polynesian, Native American, and Brazilian cultures and more. Two young women performed a traditional Polynesian dance. The duo wore long, silk shirts with a belt of leaves around their hips, along with a plain black top that was accented with a white shell and beaded necklace. The clothing was clearly intended to emphasize the dancer’s hips and lower body.
“Polynesian stories are traditionally told through their movement of the body, especially the hips,” the female dancer said. After dancing to two songs, they asked for volunteers from the crowd to learn how to perform the traditional dance.
Following their performance were Native American dancers performing a social celebration dance. An elder woman, who was the leader of the Native American singing and drumming, announced, “This first dance will be a war dance that originated with the Plains Indians. The purpose of this dance is to stir emotions and fill the braves (male warriors) with a sense of purpose as they prepare for battle.”
With a strong, simple beat, the elder began the song as a man dressed as the Native American version of an eagle takes the stage.
“Now we have a second song for you that my daughter is going to perform,” the elder said after the war dance. “It is a swan dance that gives thanks to the creator and for people to be appreciative of what one has.” Her daughter graced the stage with the drums playing a much softer beat than before. In a bright pink shirt and dress, the daughter twirled around the stage with her arms spread wide. The fringe from her shawl lifted as she spun, making her look like a swan taking off for flight.
Succeeding the Native American performers was a Brazilian dancer that had two drummers playing traditional Brazilian repinique drums. They performed the Samba—traditional carnival rhythms that Brazil is known for. Dressed in all white (a symbol of good luck in Brazilian culture) the lead dancer performed with simplistic and repetitive movements that were infused with the festive drum beats.
The Cultural Diversity Festival was, once again, a success. Attendees had the opportunity to give feedback on a survey that asked what they enjoyed at the event and what could be improved for next year. Along with turning in the survey, students received a free goodie bag to take home.
CU Denver’s Cultural Diversity Festival is one school event that should not be missed. There are a multitude of opportunities to meet student organizations and those involved in them, and to see beautiful dancers representing countries from all around the world. Students are also able to take a break from their hectic school schedules and learn to make an origami crane or receive a henna tattoo. Next year’s Cultural Diversity Festival is another opportunity to gain exposure to the beautifully diverse world that is right here at CU Denver.
Credit: Allison Ackerman
Subject: Foreign students; Culture; Multiculturalism & pluralism; Student organizations; Dance; Learning; Festivals; Origami; Dancers & choreographers
Location: Brazil Colombia
Company / organization: Name: University of Colorado; NAICS: 611310
Publication title: University Wire; Carlsbad
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 14, 2018
Section: Leisure
Publisher: Uloop, Inc.
Place of publication: Carlsbad
Country of publication: United States, Carlsbad
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2013469624
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2013469624?accountid=4840
Copyright: © 2018 UWIRE, a division of Uloop
Last updated: 2018-03-14
Database: Social Science Premium Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 185 of 474
In Brazil, nostalgia grows for the dictatorship — not the brutality, but the law and order: A rising number of Brazilians see temporary military control as a fix for spiraling urban crime and widespread political corruption.
Author: Lopes, Marina
Publication info: The Washington Post (Online) , Washington, D.C.: WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post. Mar 14, 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: SAO PAULO, Brazil — The military dictatorship that ruled Brazil four decades ago maintained law and order through systematic brutality. Nearly 500 people were killed or simply disappeared. But at a political rally outside Sao Paulo last week, the air was thick with nostalgia for that era of terror. Several hundred people in army camouflage and police T-shirts shouted their admiration for the soldiers who carried out the kidnappings and murders authorized by the regime. "Thanks to you, Brazil did not become Cuba!" they chanted, some snapping salutes. "Brazil first, God above all." The dictatorship-era generals were also accused of deploying electric shocks, beatings and psychological torture in their two-decade-long effort to cement power and ward off communism. But as a crime wave rocks some of the country's largest cities and a corruption scandal engulfs its political elite, some Brazilians see them as the last champions of public order. "During the dictatorship, there was safety. That doesn't exist today," said Marcelo Freitas, a 42-year-old former army officer at the rally who said he was shot in the eye 10 years ago during a mugging. "If we want to clean up the country, we need the military." On average, seven people are violently killed every hour in Brazil, according to government figures. In 2016, the country registered a record rate of 29.9 homicides for every 100,000 people, nearly six times that of the United States. Freitas, who wore a leather patch over his blinded eye and a camouflage T-shirt, said he dreams of safer streets for his 5-year-old son and would support a return to a military regime. He is not alone. Nostalgia for the dictatorship is growing. An estimated 43 percent of the population supports a temporary revival of military control, according to a 2017 poll, up from 35 percent in 2016. The figure is especially high among young people, many of whom say they are disillusioned with democracy and with Brazil's scandal-tainted politicians. Brazil isn't the only country where democracy is losing its glow. In the United States, just 30 percent of people born in the 1980s say they believe it is "essential" to live in a democracy, as opposed to 72 percent of people born before World War II, according to a study published in the Journal of Democracy in 2016. Fear of violence, whether it be terrorism or street crime, has fueled support for authoritarian parties and bolstered populist leaders with tough-on-crime, anti-immigrant platforms around the world, from President Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines to Chancellor Sebastian Kurz in Austria. But the flirtation with authoritarianism may be especially ominous in Brazil, where wobbly democratic institutions are still recovering from the dictatorship that held the country in its grip from 1964 to 1985. Last month, President Michel Temer ordered the military to take over security in Rio de Janeiro after a spike in crime soured Carnival celebrations. The move was widely denounced as a dangerous precedent — although it was also seen as a smart response to the growing base of voters calling for law and order. "This sentiment is in the air and is being exploited. The intervention in Rio is an attempt by the president to explore that feeling — the nostalgia, the feeling that the military is an anti-political, tough, external body," said Pablo Ortellado, a public policy professor at the University of Sao Paulo. "Depending on how the intervention goes, if it succeeds in even appearing to reduce crime, it could generate a dangerous wave of militarism." For many of Brazil's millennials, disillusionment with democracy has resulted in a rejection of the leftist groups that governed Latin America for the past two decades, according to Renato Sérgio de Lima, president of the Brazilian Forum on Public Security. "The left is the only reference that [millennials] have for political power, because it has ruled for most of their politically conscious life. That government is being destroyed by corruption, so what is the alternative?" Lima said. Four years into a corruption investigation that has traced a local carwash kickback scheme up to the highest echelons of government, Brazilian democracy is facing its worst legitimacy crisis since the dictatorship. The scandal has tarnished more than 100 of the country's top politicians, including the current president and two former ones, and left few viable candidates for the presidential elections in six months. Jair Bolsonaro, an outspoken senator from a fringe party, has emerged as one of the only aspiring contenders with both charisma and a clean record. A former soldier, he became famous for challenging his rivals and the media to find proof that he has been involved in corruption. Bolsonaro has paired his unblemished record with a tough-on-crime platform and public statements of admiration for the dictatorship era. He is not calling for a return to military dictatorship, but he has done so in the past and talks up its law-and-order values. In 2016, he eulogized the late Col. Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra, a convicted torturer, as he cast his vote to impeach then-President Dilma Rousseff, who was jailed and tortured during the dictatorship. According to the latest polls, he has the backing of 18 percent of prospective voters, trailing only former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is at 37 percent but may be barred from running because of a corruption conviction. Bolsonaro has since made headlines for other brash statements, including calling a fellow senator not worthy of being raped and saying he could not love a gay son. The similarities to the style of the U.S. president are not lost on Bolsonaro, a self-proclaimed Trump supporter, or his fans. "They fought a crooked media in the United States and got Trump elected. We can do the same here!" Douglas Garcia, a 24 year-old international relations student, yelled into a megaphone at the rally. The crowd cheered. In February, Garcia planned a Carnival parade in honor of Sergio Fleury, a police officer accused of torturing and murdering prisoners during the dictatorship era. More than 1,600 people responded with interest on Facebook before a local judge shut the event down. For Garcia, the parade did not represent a call for a new military dictatorship but a celebration of standards of behavior that have been lost. "I recognize that under the military regime there was less impunity, more security," he said. Some supporters of Bolsonaro cite that same distinction, saying they see in him an opportunity to elect a military-style leader without an actual military intervention. "These kids hear their parents talking about the dictatorship and claim to support it, but they don't know what they are saying," said Maria Aparecida Carvalho, 67, who remembers the era well. "We've already been through that. I don't miss it." The retired mechanical engineer woke up at 5 a.m. to go and see Bolsonaro at last week's rally. "He supports Brazil's traditional values," she said. "The Judeo-Christian values of our people." Credit: By Marina Lopes
Subject: Law enforcement; Dictators; Politics; Corruption; Rape; International relations; Nostalgia; Kickbacks; Democracy; Murders & murder attempts; Millennials
Location: United States--US Philippines Latin America Cuba Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil Austria
People: Rousseff, Dilma Kurz, Sebastian Duterte, Rodrigo R Bolsonaro, Jair Temer, Michel
Company / organization: Name: University of Sao Paulo; NAICS: 611310; Name: Facebook Inc; NAICS: 518210, 519130
Publication title: The Washington Post (Online); Washington, D.C.
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 14, 2018
Dateline: 2018031418070000
Section: FOREIGN
Publisher: WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post
Place of publication: Washington, D.C.
Country of publication: United States, Washington, D.C.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
ISSN: 26419599
Source type: Blogs, Podcasts, & Websites
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2014092461
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2014092461?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post Mar 14, 2018
Last updated: 2019-06-03
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 186 of 474
VSU Hosts 42nd Annual International Dinner March 24
Publication info: Targeted News Service ; Washington, D.C. [Washington, D.C]14 Mar 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Valdosta State University issued the following news release: The Society of International Students at Valdosta State University will present its 42nd annual international dinner -- Carnival Edition -- at 6 p.m. on Saturday, March 24, in the Student Union Ballroom. Tickets are on sale now. Carnival Edition is an opportunity for VSU's international students to share part of their culture with the people of South Georgia. The celebration of cultural diversity will begin with appetizers, side dishes, entrees, and desserts prepared by students from Belize, Brazil, Colombia, India, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and Sweden. The meal will be served buffet style. Throughout the evening, guests will have an opportunity to experience henna body art. There will also be singing, dancing, musical performances, and more. Tickets for Carnival Edition are $10 for VSU students with a valid 1Card; $10 for area elementary, middle, and high school students; and $20 for VSU faculty and staff and the general public. Children under the age of 5 will be admitted free of charge. Tickets may be purchased online at http://bit.ly/2tAc03u or at VSU's Center for International Program, which is located at 204 Georgia Ave. and is open from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Fridays. VSU has more than 250 international students from more than 45 countries on campus this semester. Contact: Danielle Bacud, 229/333-7410, [email protected] MSTRUCK-6204318 MSTRUCK Danielle Bacud, 229/333-7410, [email protected]
Subject: Foreign students
Location: Sweden Brazil Russia Belize Saudi Arabia India South Georgia Colombia South Korea Georgia
Company / organization: Name: Valdosta State University; NAICS: 611310
Publication title: Targeted News Service; Washington, D.C.
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 14, 2018
Dateline: VALDOSTA, Georgia
Publisher: Targeted News Service
Place of publication: Washington, D.C.
Country of publication: United States, Washington, D.C.
Publication subject: Public Administration
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2014119074
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2014119074?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright © Targeted News Service. All Rights Reserved.
Last updated: 2018-03-16
Database: US Southeast Newsstream
Document 187 of 474
Nostalgia grows for dictatorship in Brazil
Author: Lopes, Marina
Publication info: The Washington Post ; Washington, D.C. [Washington, D.C]16 Mar 2018: A.6.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: SAO PAULO, Brazil - The military dictatorship that ruled Brazil four decades ago maintained law and order through systematic brutality. Nearly 500 people were killed or simply disappeared. But at a political rally outside Sao Paulo last week, the air was thick with nostalgia for that era of terror. Several hundred people in army camouflage and police T-shirts shouted their admiration for the soldiers who carried out the kidnappings and murders authorized by the regime. "Thanks to you, Brazil did not become Cuba!" they chanted, some snapping salutes. "Brazil first, God above all." The dictatorship-era generals were also accused of deploying electric shocks, beatings and psychological torture in their two-decade-long effort to cement power and ward off communism. But as a crime wave rocks some of the country's largest cities and a corruption scandal engulfs its political elite, some Brazilians see them as the last champions of public order. "During the dictatorship, there was safety. That doesn't exist today," said Marcelo Freitas, a 42-year-old former army officer at the rally who said he was shot in the eye 10 years ago during a mugging. "If we want to clean up the country, we need the military." On average, seven people are violently killed every hour in Brazil, according to government figures. In 2016, the country registered a record rate of 29.9 homicides for every 100,000 people, nearly six times that of the United States. Freitas, who wore a leather patch over his blinded eye and a camouflage T-shirt, said he dreams of safer streets for his 5-year-old son and would support a return to a military regime. He is not alone. Nostalgia for the dictatorship is growing. An estimated 43 percent of the population supports a temporary revival of military control, according to a 2017 poll, up from 35 percent in 2016. The figure is especially high among young people, many of whom say they are disillusioned with democracy and with Brazil's scandal-tainted politicians. Brazil isn't the only country where democracy is losing its glow. In the United States, just 30 percent of people born in the 1980s say they believe it is "essential" to live in a democracy, as opposed to 72 percent of people born before World War II, according to a study published in the Journal of Democracy in 2016. Fear of violence, whether it be terrorism or street crime, has fueled support for authoritarian parties and bolstered populist leaders with tough-on-crime, anti-immigrant platforms around the world, from President Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines to Chancellor Sebastian Kurz in Austria. But the flirtation with authoritarianism may be especially ominous in Brazil, where wobbly democratic institutions are still recovering from the dictatorship that held the country in its grip from 1964 to 1985. Last month, President Michel Temer ordered the military to take over security in Rio de Janeiro after a spike in crime soured Carnival celebrations. The move was widely denounced as a dangerous precedent - although it was also seen as a smart response to the growing base of voters calling for law and order. "This sentiment is in the air and is being exploited. The intervention in Rio is an attempt by the president to explore that feeling - the nostalgia, the feeling that the military is an anti-political, tough, external body," said Pablo Ortellado, a public policy professor at the University of Sao Paulo. "Depending on how the intervention goes, if it succeeds in even appearing to reduce crime, it could generate a dangerous wave of militarism." For many of Brazil's millennials, disillusionment with democracy has resulted in a rejection of the leftist groups that governed Latin America for the past two decades, according to Renato Sérgio de Lima, president of the Brazilian Forum on Public Security. "The left is the only reference that [millennials] have for political power, because it has ruled for most of their politically conscious life. That government is being destroyed by corruption, so what is the alternative?" Lima said. Four years into a corruption investigation that has traced a local carwash kickback scheme up to the highest echelons of government, Brazilian democracy is facing its worst legitimacy crisis since the dictatorship. The scandal has tarnished more than 100 of the country's top politicians, including the current president and two former ones, and left few viable candidates for the presidential elections in six months. Jair Bolsonaro, an outspoken senator from a fringe party, has emerged as one of the only aspiring contenders with both charisma and a clean record. A former soldier, he became famous for challenging his rivals and the media to find proof that he has been involved in corruption. Bolsonaro has paired his unblemished record with a tough-on-crime platform and public statements of admiration for the dictatorship era. He is not calling for a return to military dictatorship, but he has done so in the past and talks up its law-and-order values. In 2016, he eulogized the late Col. Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra, a convicted torturer, as he cast his vote to impeach then-President Dilma Rousseff, who was jailed and tortured during the dictatorship. According to the latest polls, he has the backing of 18 percent of prospective voters, trailing only former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is at 37 percent but may be barred from running because of a corruption conviction. Bolsonaro has since made headlines for other brash statements, including calling a fellow senator not worthy of being raped and saying he could not love a gay son. The similarities to the style of the U.S. president are not lost on Bolsonaro, a self-proclaimed Trump supporter, or his fans. "They fought a crooked media in the United States and got Trump elected. We can do the same here!" Douglas Garcia, a 24-year-old international relations student, yelled into a megaphone at the rally. The crowd cheered. In February, Garcia planned a Carnival parade in honor of Sergio Fleury, a police officer accused of torturing and murdering prisoners during the dictatorship era. More than 1,600 people responded with interest on Facebook before a local judge shut the event down. For Garcia, the parade did not represent a call for a new military dictatorship but a celebration of standards of behavior that have been lost. "I recognize that under the military regime there was less impunity, more security," he said. Some supporters of Bolsonaro cite that same distinction, saying they see in him an opportunity to elect a military-style leader without an actual military intervention. "These kids hear their parents talking about the dictatorship and claim to support it, but they don't know what they are saying," said Maria Aparecida Carvalho, 67, who remembers the era well. "We've already been through that. I don't miss it." The retired mechanical engineer woke up at 5 a.m. to go and see Bolsonaro at last week's rally. "He supports Brazil's traditional values," she said. "The Judeo-Christian values of our people." Ueslei Marcelino Reuters An inflatable doll representing politician and presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro stands outside the National Congress building in Brasilia. Bolsonaro, who has spoken admiringly of the military dictatorship, is running second in polls. Marina Lopes THE WASHINGTON POST Leandro Lima, 27, sings the Brazilian national anthem at a rally supporting Bolsonaro at Campinas International Airport outside Sao Paulo on March 8. Ueslei Marcelino Reuters Bolsonaro, pictured March 7, is one of the only aspiring contenders in the race with both charisma and a clean record. Alternate social text Social cards Credit: Marina Lopes
Subject: Law enforcement; Politics; Corruption; Rape; International relations; Democracy; Dictators; Nostalgia; Kickbacks; Presidential elections; Murders & murder attempts; Millennials
Location: Latin America Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil Austria United States--US Philippines Cuba
People: Rousseff, Dilma Kurz, Sebastian Duterte, Rodrigo R Bolsonaro, Jair Temer, Michel
Company / organization: Name: Facebook Inc; NAICS: 518210, 519130; Name: University of Sao Paulo; NAICS: 611310
Publication title: The Washington Post; Washington, D.C.
First page: A.6
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 16, 2018
Dateline: SAO PAULO, BRAZIL -
Section: A-SECTION
Publisher: WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post
Place of publication: Washington, D.C.
Country of publication: United States, Washington, D.C.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
ISSN: 01908286
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2014088536
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2014088536?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post Mar 16, 2018
Last updated: 2019-06-03
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 188 of 474
Margaret Mee: defending the Amazon with a brush and a gun
Author: Bruce, Jonny
Publication info: FT.com ; London (Mar 16, 2018).
Abstract:
Initially she found work as an art teacher at the British School in Sao Paulo, and it took her four years to embark on her first expedition to the Murutucum basin in the depths of the Amazon. Determined to share her experiences, and the spoils of the expeditions, Mee developed close connections with leading botanists and institutions, including theRoyal Botanical Gardens Kewin London and, perhaps most importantly, the Sao Paulo Botanical Garden. Just before her death a group of colleagues at Kew established the Margaret Mee Amazon Trust to promote “the ecology, botany and related matters of Brazilian Amazonia”, to purchase Mee’s collection of paintings and provide funds for Latin American students to study abroad.Full text: It was the Amazon’s warlike women that earned the world’s greatest river and forest their name. In the 16th century these indigenous women joined their male counterparts to defend their homes against European explorers with spear and arrow. The first Spanish conquistadors thus christened the river “Amazonas”, likening its defenders to the Amazonian queens of Hellenic myth. Today’s conservation battles for the protection of theAmazonare well known, yet in the late 20th century the rainforest found another female warrior in the unlikely form of a middle-aged Briton wielding a paintbrush. Margaret Mee was born in May 1909 in Chesham, Buckinghamshire into a conventional family where her artistic talents were encouraged. She trained at both Saint Martins and Camberwell School of Art in London, partly under the eye of the influential pioneer of abstraction, Victor Pasmore. Unlike her teacher, Mee remained committed to the depiction of reality and developed a love for botanical illustration. In 1951, struggling to find work and spurred by the need to visit her ailing sister (who had emigrated to South America a few years before), Mee, with her future husband Greville, boarded a plane to Sao Paulo, Brazil. Initially she found work as an art teacher at the British School in Sao Paulo, and it took her four years to embark on her first expedition to the Murutucum basin in the depths of the Amazon. Even by today’s standards this first adventure, accompanied only by one other female colleague, was daringly intrepid. Mee’s diaries are filled with accounts of sudden storms, stinging insects and near starvation. However, on returning to the “noise and bustle” of Sao Paulo airport she longed for “Murtucum, that haven of green peace”. It was a productive trip and they returned with baskets bulging with collected plants and sketchbooks full of paintings and botanical notes. This was the first of 15 such expeditions and the beginning of a love affair with the forest that would last more than 30 years. Mee’s slender frame and cascade of frizzy, greying hair belied her spirit. Even recurrent bouts of malaria, infectious hepatitis and, in her later years, two hip-replacement operations, could not dissuade her from adventuring. Of the 40,000 plant species to be found in the Amazon, it was the colourful and unusual that most appealed to Mee. In an account of her sixth expedition of 1970, she recalls the wonder of discovering the “marvellous” Cattleya violacea, its tantalising purple blooms dangling above the rushing waters of the river. These epiphytic (able to grow non-parasitically on other plants, usually without soil) orchids with their myriad colours and forms were a particular favourite. They were also often small enough to transport by canoe to base camp, where she could make more detailed studies. Another group of plants that captured Mee’s imagination were the Bromeliads. Like the Cattleya orchid, many Bromeliads are epiphytic and Brazil alone has more than 650 species. With their broad leaves, often dagger-like thorns and dramatic flower spikes they made wonderful subjects for her illustrations. Determined to share her experiences, and the spoils of the expeditions, Mee developed close connections with leading botanists and institutions, including theRoyal Botanical Gardens Kewin London and, perhaps most importantly, the Sao Paulo Botanical Garden. It was here that she established a collection of Bromeliads and worked with local botanical illustrators. A passion for Bromeliads was something Mee shared with her longtime friend, the renowned landscape architect,Roberto Burle Marx. They met in Rio de Janeiro where Marx was amassing his own prodigious collection of indigenous tropical plants. Mee would add many plants to this collection, driven by their mutual commitment to preserving the forest’s diversity. In the preface to Mee’s published diaries, Marx expressed his admiration for Mee as an artist “who seeks to portray the intricate beauty of the many plants which have so far passed unnoticed in a world where greed and ambition ruthlessly destroy our wonderful heritage”. With every passing expedition Mee was increasingly aware of the destruction in the Amazon. In the early years she was troubled by the “destructive interference of the civilizados”, the civilizados being primarily the ruthless rubber prospectors. Mee described the “sickening smell of crude rubber that lingered throughout” and feared for the wanton use of the insecticide DDT, which she blamed for the scarcity of her beloved epiphytes in these plantations. Later she was tortured by the sight of mass clearances for timber and cattle farming and her growing concern was expressed in her paintings. Botanical illustration is often described as an art in the service of science and as such adheres to strict guidelines. Plants, isolated on a white background, are depicted with all identifiable characteristics clearly shown with the taxonomical and botanical notes neatly inscribed below. Mee mostly conformed to this format but her later paintings increasingly included intricate forest backgrounds. As the eminent botanist Sir Ghillean Prance explained in an interview, Mee was using these unconventional backdrops to “draw attention to the rainforest itself and our struggles to protect it”. Through her paintings and conservation efforts Mee gained a platform from which to publicly criticise, even during the periods of military dictatorship in Brazil, governmental failings to tackle deforestation. She wasn’t short of courage. In an interview for American television in 1988 Mee recounted how, on one of her earlier expeditions, a gang of prospectors found her alone in her hut. One forced entry, she later explained: “He comes in, but I stick my revolver into his stomach, and that gave him a shock, I can tell you.” She went to say how after this event she was treated “like a queen”. Admired widely for her determination, in 1976 Mee was awarded an MBE by the British government for her contribution to Brazilian botany and three years later awarded the Order of the Southern Cross in Brazil, having already being granted honorary citizenship. However, the event most indicative of her public profile was at the 1994 Rio Carnival, where 3,000 dancers paraded to a Margaret Mee theme. As friend and botanist Simon Mayo asserts “there is no greater accolade in Brazil”. This year marks the 30th anniversary of Mee’s death. Having survived untold dangers in the Amazon, she was killed in a car crash near Leicester. She was 79 and had only recently returned from her 15th Amazonian expedition where she had attained a life ambition to paint the rare flowering of the epiphytic cactus, Selenicereus wittii. Its large white blooms only appear one night of the year and fade by morning, earning it the name Moonflower. This was the final painting of a body of work that continues to inspire botanical artists around the world but particularly in Latin America. The contemporary Brazilian illustrator Malena Barretto goes as far as to say that “Margaret paved the way for botanical art in Brazil”. Just before her death a group of colleagues at Kew established the Margaret Mee Amazon Trust to promote “the ecology, botany and related matters of Brazilian Amazonia”, to purchase Mee’s collection of paintings and provide funds for Latin American students to study abroad. The Trust itself closed in 1996 but a fellowship programme was created which, until 2007, regularly funded Brazilian botanical illustrators to travel to the UK to work at Kew. Mee is also remembered in a number of plants that bare her name such as Heliconia chartacea var. meeana, its vivid blue berries protruding from angular bracts, and the unusual vaselike Bromeliad, Aechmea polyantha — a new species that Mee herself discovered. The Amazon remains vulnerable but through her life and art Mee shone light on the threat of increasing deforestation. As she said herself: “I know my death won’t mean the end of my work. Wherever I may be, I’ll try to influence those who are destroying the planet for them to give nature a chance to survive.” Follow @FTProperty on Twitter to find out about our latest stories first. Subscribe to FT Life on YouTube for the latest FT Weekend videos Credit: Jonny Bruce
Subject: Study abroad; Plant sciences; Art; Diaries; Expeditions; Illustrators
Location: South America Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil United Kingdom--UK Latin America
Company / organization: Name: Twitter Inc; NAICS: 519130; Name: YouTube Inc; NAICS: 519130
Publication title: FT.com; London
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 16, 2018
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Trade Journals
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2122741086
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2122741086?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Mar 16, 2018
Last updated: 2019-06-26
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 189 of 474
Trinidad's Carnival and St. Lucia's Lush Beauty: [Travel Desk]
Author: Yuan, Jada
Publication info: New York Times , Late Edition (East Coast); New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]18 Mar 2018: TR.1.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: One doesn't have to look very far to find Carnival in Port of Spain, the capital of the dual-island state of Trinidad and Tobago -- it will find you. That became clear when my taxi took a right turn toward the city center, and smack into what might be the most entertaining traffic jam I've ever experienced. Within seconds, hundreds of revelers, many of them wearing sparkling bikinis, elaborate feather headdresses -- and little else -- had engulfed our car, streaming down the street in the opposite direction. One woman in a sequined, beige one-piece flashed a cheeky smile and began "wining" with our front bumper. (That's a dance that typically involves a woman and man standing back-to-front and "winding" their hips against one another.) To my left a shirtless young man was grinding up against my window, while a woman behind him smacked his rear end. I was sharing the cab with three Londoners I'd met at the airport, and the woman among them burst out laughing: "I brought way too many clothes." Trinidad's Carnival is second in reputation only to Brazil's for both beauty and debauchery. The massive, joyous street party I'd experienced upon arrival, I soon found out, was actually an off night. The real action would begin the next day, with serious celebrants in serious costumes hitting the street as early as 8 a.m. and dancing until dawn on Ash Wednesday. "You can't come to Trinidad and not play mas!" said Linda Wells, a Trinidad-born nurse living in Brooklyn who's been coming back to her home country every year for 20 years to celebrate. She was using the nickname for "masquerade," a tradition that dates back to 18th-century balls that French plantation owners used to throw (and their slaves mimicked) to let loose before the asceticism of Lent. Ms. Wells is 56 but looks about 30 years younger, with a long blonde braid springing from the top of her head and the rest of her hair shaved off underneath. I had run into her and her girlfriends -- an accountant, a bank manager, a former publicist -- getting ready near Queen's Park Savannah, where "bands," or costumed groups, go to compete for prizes. (A shocking number of Carnival-goers I met were Trinis from New York City.) The custom-designed dress Ms. Wells was to wear, she showed me, was flesh colored, with an intricate pattern of green sequins and a train of green feathers, and would have put everyone at the Oscars to shame. She'd be adding a "backpack" of flowing green and blue fabric, splayed out to look like a peacock's tail that was so heavy it required the help of two young men to get it on. Then she would dance all day in it. "I'm with the K2K band. You have to follow us. We're going to be fabulous!" she said, and sent me down to the park under the protection of her husband, Earl Wells, a field surveyor who was wearing an antlered headdress, face paint and head-to-toe tie-dye. Soon I was in the midst of several hundred people twirling around in elaborate fabric wings, or getting down to soca music with sparkling suns on sticks attached to their backs that shot up 20 feet in the air. Karen and Kathy Norman, Trinidad-born twin sisters living in New Jersey, designed all of the band's costumes, and to join, all Ms. Wells had to do was sign up and pay for her costume in advance. This was her second year with K2K and she was sure she'd be back. "They're so different. In Trinidad, you mostly see people in two-piece bikinis. But K2K, it's about the fashion. You don't see anyone wearing anything like that. I like the elegance, and you're covered up! We're old. We need it!" Technically, Trinidad had not been on the original itinerary of the yearlong, worldwide trip I'm on for The Times, visiting each place on the 52 Places to Go in 2018 list. In an effort to convey to readers that the Caribbean, large swaths of which had been hit by two hurricanes last year, shouldn't be avoided as a travel destination, my editors had put the entire region at No. 4. Working with data scientists from Kayak, the online booking site, we crafted an itinerary that would take me to two islands that hadn't been affected by the hurricanes (Trinidad and St. Lucia) and one that very much had (Puerto Rico, which I'll be writing about next week). That lineup scratched a few itches: the desire to experience Carnival; to island hop (to me, another defining Caribbean experience); and to go somewhere that had sustained damage and see for myself what being "back open for business" really looked like. What would it mean to be a responsible visitor to such a place, and how could I both encourage tourism while accurately conveying the situation? What followed was a visit to the Caribbean at a breakneck pace that I would advise no sane person to mimic. For complicated logistical and cost-related reasons that made sense at the time, I'd mapped out a plan with Kayak to go to St. Lucia, then to Trinidad and back, then off to San Juan -- all in four days. Traveling to Trinidad during Carnival turns out to be stressful even when you're not on a 24-hour, please-don't-try-this-at-home marathon. The Brits I shared my taxi with showed up only to find out that their hotel had given away their reservation (common, apparently), so they came to my place, President's Inn, where we all encountered the surprise that the front desk only took cash. (For me, that meant a trip to an A.T.M. on a dark and isolated street. Our heroic taxi driver refused to let me go alone.) Still, as simple as our hotel was, it was in an ideal location close to the action. Just three blocks away, I found a calypso show called Pandemonium in a dirt lot and featuring incredible steel-pan players from as far away as Paris. I had good luck finding that show, and the K2K band, while walking around, but nearly everyone I ran into seemed horrified to see me on my own. When I strayed from the show to look for something to eat, a young man raced up behind me. His name was Kadeem and he wanted to warn me that I had just narrowly escaped a robber who had been casing me, and who was blocking my way back to the show. "Be careful of that guy. He's not a nice guy," he said. "He won't bother you, but he looked like he wanted to get someone at the corner." Later, back at the show, I befriended a female pan player named Lenitia Solomon who happened to be a police officer in another part of town. "Trinidad is not safe, especially around Carnival. A lot of phone snatchers. Believe me, I've seen it all. Be aware of who's around you," she said, before telling me the story of a Japanese pan-player friend of hers who had been murdered at last year's Carnival. She insisted on taking me back to my hotel with a male friend who had come to walk her back to the show. Despite such warnings, Trinidad was vibrant and colorful and edgy, and I loved every minute of it. But I also wouldn't trade the serenity of the brief time I got to spend in St. Lucia. A volcanic island known for its twin mountains, the Pitons, it has a kind of rugged charm one doesn't normally associate with Caribbean luxury. (It's also the only island I got to spend any time on during my one previous visit to the Caribbean, on a friend's sailing trip more than 10 years ago, and has always held special memories for me.) The hurricanes largely skipped the island, though Judith Verity, who owns the Mango Beach Inn, where I stayed, kept mentioning how much more beautiful her incredibly beautiful garden had been before the storm. "We are blessed people. God loves us," said my taxi driver, Barry Augustin, of why the jungle paradise where he's lived his whole life had been spared. "In St. Lucia, the economy is already so hard, so God protects his children." While I missed most of St. Lucia's best attractions -- a hike up the Pitons, the sulfur hot springs -- I did get to experience some of its lush beauty. There are banana plantations everywhere. On the side of the busy Micoud highway, Mr. Augustin pulled over at a family-run roadside stand he calls the Creole Bread Place (real name: Golden Palace) that he claims makes the best baked goods on the island. A gray-bearded man named Mango was pulling spiral loaves out of a wood-fired oven with a wooden paddle, while Seco, his daughter, split them open and filled them with curried, shredded fish, and his son, Earl Joseph, who turned out to be the owner, handled the money. Though there are far more luxurious places to stay -- Mr. Augustin has a second job at one, the Ladera resort -- I was charmed by Mango Beach Inn. There's no way to get to its location, in an old building on Marigot Bay on the northwest side of the island, other than by ferry, and one day I came in to see that the maid had decorated my mosquito netting with rose petals. Down the stairs was Hassey's Waterside Bar, which just might be the perfect vacation lounge, flush with the bay and covered in strings of lights. I met a 21-year-old beach worker named Jamal Felix, who described his job: "I put the beach lounges down, I go fishing, I climb the coconut trees, I use the swing on the coconut trees and fall in the water, I go swimming." I felt completely at odds with everyone else on the island, from the natives (like Mr. Felix) whose jobs included regular swim breaks, to the many couples on romantic vacations who were spending their days on hikes or boat rides. I mainly stressed out about how to squeeze in this ridiculous Trinidad idea, or sat in Mango Beach Inn's lovely common room overlooking the bay and wrote. As my taxi driver, Domitiana René, saw me frantically trying to post to Instagram on my way back to the airport, she told me not to worry. The island would still be there. It was blessed. It was paradise. I could always come back to check out St. Lucia's Carnival in June and July. It was her favorite time of year. "I think we are becoming more and more like Trinidad," she said. "Every year I'm noticing people wearing less and less clothes." ______ Jada Yuan will be traveling to every place on this year's 52 Places to Go list. Follow her on Instagram @alphajada . Previous dispatches: 1: New Orleans 2: Chattanooga, Tenn. 3. Montgomery, Ala. 4. Disney Springs, Fla. Next dispatch: San Juan, Puerto Rico This is a more complete version of the story than the one that appeared in print.Photograph
Subject: Clothing
Location: Puerto Rico Spain New York Trinidad & Tobago
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/13/travel/trinidad-st-lucia-carnival-caribbean-52-places.html
Publication title: New York Times, Late Edition (East Coast); New York, N.Y.
Pages: TR.1
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 18, 2018
column: The 52 Places Traveler
Section: TR
Publisher: New York Times Company
Place of publication: New York, N.Y.
Country of publication: United States, New York, N.Y.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
ISSN: 03624331
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2014612125
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2014612125?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright New York Times Company Mar 18, 2018
Last updated: 2018-11-08
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 190 of 474
ANALYSIS - Hyundai future models Part 2
Author: Brooks, Glenn
Publication info: just - auto global news ; Bromsgrove [Bromsgrove]18 Mar 2018.
Abstract:
The second of two features which looks at the current and future models of Hyundai Motor Company is a focus on the brand's SUVs, minivans/MPVs, electrified passenger vehicles and a sole future pick-up. There is a choice of up to three powertrains, depending on the market: EV (electric vehicle, lithium ion cells) HEV (hybrid petrol electric) PHEV (plug-in petrol-electric hybrid) The HEV was the first to go on sale. The standard transmission is a six-speed automatic with Hyundai's Transmission-Mounted Electrical Device (TMED), a 50 kW electric motor, in place of a torque converter. A 2.0-litre Nu four-cylinder GDI engine coupled with the electric motor allows the Sonata Plug-in Hybrid to operate just like the Sonata Hybrid once the onboard battery charge is depleted.Full text: The second of two features which looks at the current and future models of Hyundai Motor Company is a focus on the brand's SUVs, minivans/MPVs, electrified passenger vehicles and a sole future pick-up. This follows the recent in-depth analysis of HMC's cars. MPVs/Minivans
The Starex
, the largest of Hyundai's MPVs, has multiple other names. This big front-wheel drive minivan premiered as the TQ
at the Seoul motor show in April 2007 and it looks like having what will perhaps be a 13-year lifecycle. An LCV version for Europe, the H300, premiered at the European Road Transport Show in Amsterdam six months later (though the TQ, H-1
, i800
and Satellite
names are or have been used in some markets, as well as Hui Yi
in China). All these versions of the same vehicle are the replacement for the Mitsubishi-derived Starex/H-1 minivan and commercial vans. Eight, nine, 11 or 12-seater minivan variants (Grand Starex
) compete with the Kia VQ (Grand Carnival). These went on sale in the home market in September 2007. The Australian importer announced the iMax
name for the passenger version of the Starex in February 2008. The most recent news for this big van was the arrival of a facelifted Grand Starex for the South Korean market in January 2018. The front- and all-wheel drive successor is expected in 2020. It should use the same architecture as the newly-announced Santa Fe. This dates to 2014 and the introduction of the current Kia Sedona/Carnival. SUVs
Formerly relatively weak when it came to crossovers and SUVs, no-one now accuse Hyundai of now being so. One of its latest models is the B segment Kona
. This 4,165mm long SUV is mainly for South Korea, China, Hyundai Motor Europe, Hyundai Motor America and Hyundai Motor India. It is similarly sized to the existing ix25 and Creta (see below). The styling, however, is quite different and is as radical as that of the Nissan Juke. In the PRC, the name is Encino. Sales started there only a short time ago. Hyundai Motor revealed the Kona to the media at an event in South Korea on 13 June 2017. Production had already started and the vehicle went on sale in the home market later that month. Euisun Chung said at the launch event that the firm anticipated selling 26,000 units of the Kona in South Korea during 2017 and an average of 45,000 per year from 2018. The US importer is being given just 40,000 cars in CY2018. In North America, the Kona is new for the 2018 model year, going on sale there only this month. Exports to Europe commenced in August 2017, with the sales target being 41,000 cars in a full year. The Kona introduced a Compact SUV platform, according to Hyundai. This architecture also supports electrified variants (see below). The Kona itself should be facelifted in 2021 and replaced in 2024. OS is the development code for what might come to sold as the Carlino
. This small SUV for India was previewed by the HND-14 Carlino, a design study which had its world premiere at the New Delhi auto expo in February 2016. As per the concept, the production model should be just under four metres in length so as to offer buyers a tax advantage. The Carlino would be positioned below the Creta. It should be revealed during the third quarter and be in production at HMIL's Chennai 2 plant by year-end. 'QXI' is said to be another code used for this model, while NU might be a related variant for China. The ix25
had its worldwide debut at the Chengdu motor show in August 2014. It was first hinted at by the HCD12 Curb (Crossover-Urban) concept which was displayed at the Detroit auto show in January 2011. A pre-production model, the ix25 concept, premiered at the Beijing motor show in April 2014. Hyundai added production of the Creta
, a renamed ix25, at its Indian subsidiary from mid-2015. Production was lifted to 13,000 cars a month in March 2016. This was due to demand from local buyers and those in certain export markets. HMIL ships the Creta to markets in Africa, the Middle East and some countries in the Americas. China's ix25 went on sale there in October 2014. It is available China with the choice of 1.6- and 2.0-litre petrol engines, while India's Creta offers the choice of 1.6-litre petrol and 1.4- and 1.6-litre diesels. Hyundai added production of the Creta at its St Petersburg plant in August 2016. The company announced at November 2016's Sao Paulo motor show that the Creta would go into production at its Piracicaba plant from 2017. The company also surprised many when it revealed a pick-up concept version at the show. This was called the Creta STC (Sport Truck Concept). Piracicaba supplies the Creta to Mexico, the only market in North America where the model is retailed. The Beijing Hyundai joint venture revealed a facelifted ix25 at the Chengdu motor show in August 2017. Both this model and the Creta should continue in production until 2021 at which time they should be replaced by one model which uses a more up to date architecture. There is an alternate scenario, however, which some insiders have spoken of: that the Creta will remain in production in Brazil and India until 2023 or 2024 after a facelift in 2020. One size up from these B segment SUVs and below the D segment Santa Fe is the Tucson
. The HL series model, which is the third generation, is 4,475mm long. It had its global debut at the Geneva motor show in March 2015. Unlike the previous model, the ix35 name is not used in any market. The current Tucson model went on sale first in South Korea three months after its premiere in Switzerland. Hyundai builds the Tucson at two locations in South Korea. The previous model was manufactured in the OEM's home market only at one of its Ulsan plants. A different Ulsan plant (the same one which makes the Elantra) had 50,000 units of its annual capacity allocated to the Tucson. Production by the Beijing Hyundai joint venture commenced in July 2015. One of HMIL's Chennai plants added CKD assembly of the Tucson during the second half of 2016. The current Tucson was new in North America for that region's 2016 model year. There were only minor changes for the 2017 model year and the same applied for the 2018 model year. There should be a facelift for the 2019 model year. Hyundai announced at November 2016's Sao Paulo motor show that its light commercial local partner, CAOA, would begin assembling the Tucson at its Anapolis plant from 2017. The fifth generation Tucson due out in 2021 will be slightly larger due to this request from Hyundai Motor USA. The fourth generation Santa Fe
was revealed in South Korea in February, a few weeks ahead of its public debut at the Geneva motor show. Production is due to start from May at three main locations: Ulsan (South Korea); West Point, Georgia (a Kia Motors America plant); and Beijing #3. This 4,770m long SUV uses the UM platform that was introduced by the Kia Sedona/Carnival in 2014. The styling is similar to the Kona, especially at the front. One major change in North America is the arrival of a diesel engine, although it won't in dealerships until 2019. This is a Federalised version of Hyundai Motor Group's 2.2-litre four-cylinder unit. In this region, a turbocharged 2.0-litre petrol or a non-turbo 2.4-litre engine - both with four cylinders - are the other choices. There will be two other engines for some countries: a 2.0-litre diesel and a 3.5-litre petrol V6. In North America, the outgoing Santa Fe Sport becomes the Santa Fe, while the seven-seater variants become the Santa Fe XL
. The TM series Santa Fe and Santa Fe XL will be new for the 2019 model year. There should be a facelift for this model in the last quarter of 2021. The fifth generation range should appear in 2024. Some insiders have suggested that the MaxCruz
and/or Veracruz
model names might be revived for another SUV, which Hyundai is developing. This model will have eight seats and be a rival for the Honda Pilot and others in that size class. It is not yet known if this big SUV will be made in the USA or South Korea. Its release date might be either during the latter part of 2018, although it might not be on sale until 2019. Pick-up
A forthcoming crossover/pick-up mashup was previewed by the Santa Cruz
. This prototype was revealed at the Detroit auto show in January 2015. The production version will be a rival for the Honda Ridgeline and is also expected to be offered in the US with a diesel engine. The model is likely to use the same front- and all-wheel drive platform as the Santa Fe. Originally expected to be released in 2018, the Santa Cruz is now said to be due to enter production in 2020, or possibly later. Some sources had believed that Kia would have its own version of the Santa Cruz from 2021 or 2022 but this is yet to be confirmed. Instead, it is now believed that Kia will instead have a ladder frame chassis pick-up to compete with the Ford Ranger. Given how successful body-on-frame pick-ups are in Australia, the local importer's COO Scott Grant told the media in May 2017 that he wants to see such a construction for the future model. It remains unclear whether or not the 5m long model will have a frame or, like the Ridgeline, a unibody architecture. It may well be that HMG eventually launches one of each, as FCA does by selling both the Fullback and Toro. The Santa Cruz will likely be manufactured either in the USA or perhaps at a yet to be announced plant in Thailand. Electrified models
The Ioniq
is Hyundai's attempt to take on the various models sold by Toyota under the Prius model name umbrella as well as the Nissan Leaf. This five-door hatchback was announced via a media release in December 2015 before being revealed to the media in South Korea in January 2016. Its European and North America premieres were at the Geneva and New York motor shows in March 2016. Hyundai says the Ioniq uses a dedicated platform, and this architecture is also the basis for the Niro, which unlike the Ioniq, is a crossover. There is a choice of up to three powertrains, depending on the market: EV (electric vehicle, lithium ion cells) HEV (hybrid petrol electric) PHEV (plug-in petrol-electric hybrid) The HEV was the first to go on sale. It is powered by a dedicated 1.6 GDI four-cylinder Kappa engine and a 32kW electric motor, which is fed by a Lithium-Ion polymer battery. The two powertrains have combined maximum output of 103.6kW (141PS) and 265Nm of torque. A specially developed six-speed dual-clutch transmission (6DCT) is standard. The EV was revealed at an event in South Korea in March 2016. Hyundai claims a maximum range of 180km on a single charge. The lithium-ion polymer battery has a storage capacity of 27 kilowatt-hours. Peak power is 88kW and maximum torque is quoted as 295Nm. The Ioniq EV takes four hours and 25 minutes for a full recharged. Fast charging, which is an 80% capacity recharge, takes 25 minutes. A version with a range of 300km is under development and will be released in 2018, Hyundai announced in November 2016. Hyundai Motor America stated in January 2016 that it would begin selling the Ioniq HEV in August (2016), to be followed on month later by the EV. These plans subsequently changed, and the cars did not go on sale until February 2017. The PHEV became available in the US and Canada from September 2017 for the 2018 model year. All Ioniq production takes place in South Korea at HMC's Ulsan 3 plant. An Ioniq AD
concept was revealed at the LA auto show in November 2016. This autonomous drive prototype was memorable for having its LiDAR mounted in the front bumper rather than on the roof. The company has not yet announced any firm plans to put the AD into production. A facelift for the Ioniq range should happen in the third quarter of 2019. The second generation models are expected from mid-2022. While the Ioniq takes care of demand in the B segment for electrified hatchbacks, when it comes to an electric SUV, Hyundai now offers the Kona EV
. This model was revealed to the media at an event in South Korea in February with its motor show premiere taking place earlier this month in Geneva. There are two powertrains for the Kona EV with claimed maximum ranges of 300km or 470km. The respective battery packs are 39.2kWh and 64kWh. Production at Ulsan will commence in May. Hyundai Motor India, meanwhile, told the local media in January that the Kona Electric would be locally assembled from 2019. In the C segment, Hyundai is expected to add an i30 PHEV
and an i30 EV
in many European countries from 2019. These cars will be manufactured at HME's Nosovice factory in the Czech Republic. The same powertrains will become available in the similarly sized Ceed also during 2019. The Ceed PHEV and EV will be built at the nearby Zilina plant in the northwest of Slovakia. Hyundai offers two petrol-electric sedans in the D/Mid-size segment. These are the Sonata Hybrid
and Sonata PHEV
. The former is manufactured at Asan and Beijing #2, while the plug-in hybrid is built only in South Korea. The second generation Hybrid, which is now only a year away from being replaced, is mainly for the US, Canadian, South Korean and Chinese markets. The current car was revealed to the media at an event in South Korea in December 2014 and went on sale locally soon afterwards. The Sonata Hybrid's motor show debut was at the NAIAS in January 2015. The car was new for North America's 2016 model year. For the 2017 model year, there was a new infotainment system and for the 2018 model year, a facelift. The facelifted Sonata Hybrid first appeared in the South Korean market in May 2017. The Sonata Hybrid is powered by a Nu 2.0-liter GDI mated to a 38kW electric motor. The engine delivers maximum power and torque of 156ps and 19.3 kg.m, up 4 percent and 5.5 percent respectively, compared to the previous model. The 38W electric motor also delivers 8.6 percent improved maximum power, with maximum torque of 20.9 kg.m (205Nm). The Beijing Hyundai joint venture plant began assembling the Sonata Hybrid in May 2016. This was the first time that the partners had produced a petrol-electric car. As for the Sonata plug-in Hybrid, it too had its world premiere at the Detroit auto show in January 2015. The PHEV can travel up to 22 miles on electric power and can recharge in two and a half hours with a Level 2 charger. The car went on sale in South Korea in July 2015. The car's 9.8 kWh lithium polymer battery pack is roughly five times larger than the Sonata Hybrid's battery. The standard transmission is a six-speed automatic with Hyundai's Transmission-Mounted Electrical Device (TMED), a 50 kW electric motor, in place of a torque converter. The 50kW motor is 32 per cent more powerful than the motor used in the Sonata Hybrid and allows EV operation at higher speeds. A 2.0-litre Nu four-cylinder GDI engine coupled with the electric motor allows the Sonata Plug-in Hybrid to operate just like the Sonata Hybrid once the onboard battery charge is depleted. The PHEV's Nu engine produces 154 horsepower and 140 lb. ft. of torque and the total system output is 202 horsepower at 6,000 rpm. The Sonata Plug-in Hybrid is available in California, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont. The car was new for North America's 2016 model year. While there were no changes for the 2017 model year, the 2018 Sonata Plug-In Hybrid had a facelift. At the recent Geneva motor show, Hyundai told the media that a Santa Fe Hybrid
and a Santa Fe PHEV
were on the way but did not say when they would become available in Europe or other markets. Each will likely be released during the final quarter of 2018. The Grandeur Hybrid
, a petrol-electric version of the big sedan which is sold mainly in South Korea, was a world premiere at the 2017 Seoul motor show. Hyundai said when revealing the car that it hoped to sell 10,000 units per annum in the domestic market. The Hybrid is powered by the combination of HMG's 2.4 MPi Theta II Atkinson cycle four-cylinder petrol engine and a 35kW (46hp) electric motor. This is the same powertrain as the similarly sized Kia K7 Hybrid. Hyundai gave the Grandeur and Grandeur Hybrid early facelifts in the Korean market, the updated cars going on sale there in October 2017. There should be another facelift in 2020. The next generation model is due in late 2022 and should again be manufactured as the Asan plant. A replacement for the Tucscon ix FCEV/ix35 Fuel Cell was revealed at CES in January. The Nexo, which is an SUV, went on sale in South Korea a few days ago. A preview of this model was seen for the first time at the next Geneva motor show in March 2014. This, the HED-9 Intrado concept, was said by its maker to have been built around a "super-lightweight structure made from a mixture of advanced materials and joined using a revolutionary technique that has the potential to change the way cars are constructed in the future". The concept also featured a so-called 'next-generation' hydrogen fuel cell drivetrain that was claimed to be both smaller and lighter than that powering the assembly-line-produced Hyundai ix35 Fuel Cell. The new model's fuel cell is smaller and requires less platinum in the catalyst. Meanwhile, the battery is larger and the electric motor is smaller and lighter but has a higher output. Hyundai told the South Korean media in August 2016 that its next fuel cell model would be priced from 60 million won or roughly 50% less than a Tucson Fuel Cell. The car's range would rise to 600km: the old one had a range of 415km. Another concept, the FE Fuel Cell, premiered at the Geneva motor show in March 2017. Hyundai said this prototype had a range of up to 800km. The Nexo's maximum power of 163PS is 20% more than that of its predecessor. Cold starting is also improved: getting fuel cell vehicles to work efficiently in temperatures below freezing point has been a major challenge for many OEMs. The vehicle can be started even at -30 degrees Celsius (22 degrees Fahrenheit). In addition to boosting the car's capabilities, the enhanced components - such as MEA (membrane electrode assembly) and bipolar plates - also helped to reduce production costs. The production model is due to go on sale in export markets later in the year. This includes the USA (California only at first) as well as European nations (Norway, France, Denmark, the UK and Germany). Hyundai stated at CES in January that the 'estimated target' range of the Nexo is 370 miles between refills. Also in January, Hyundai noted that it is working on Level 4 autonomous drive technology with Aurora, a specialist firm based in Silicon Valley. An Autonomous Nexo prototype is the first model to be used to test the specific systems. Hyundai wants to bring this technology to mass production by 2021. Successors for the Nexo and its AD variant are due to become available from 2023. Future model plan reports for other manufacturers can be viewed in the OEM product strategy summaries section of just-auto.com.
Future product program intelligence
More data on vehicle lifetime and future product plans is available in PLDB from QUBE. The next brand to have its current and future passenger vehicles looked at will be Genesis.
This article was originally published on just-auto.com on 16 March 2018. For authoritative and timely auto business information visit http://www.just-auto.com. Credit: Glenn Brooks
Subject: Automobile shows; Fuel cells; Sport utility vehicles; Automobile industry; Vehicles
Location: China Beijing China United States--US India North America Europe South Korea
Company / organization: Name: Hyundai Motor Co Ltd; NAICS: 336111
Publication title: just - auto glob al news; Bromsgrove
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 18, 2018
Publisher: Aroq Limited
Place of publication: Bromsgrove
Country of publication: United Kingdom, Bromsgrove
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Transportation--Automobiles
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2014665649
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2014665649?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Aroq Limited Mar 18, 2018
Last updated: 2018-03-18
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 191 of 474
LatAm hypothesis faces moment of truth
Author: Dwyer, Rob
Publication info: Euromoney ; London (Mar 19, 2018).
Abstract:
Yields on the JPMorgan EMBI global bond index (a composite index of EM dollar debt) rose by half those seen in 10-year US government bonds. The lower volatility was due to compression in EM credit spreads as US treasuries rose – a relative performance that shows a clear expression of confidence and positive investor sentiment about EM debt in the face of shifting US monetary policy. “If the [Brazilian presidential election] opinion polls are favourable to a market-orientated candidate by June, then we could have two years in one,” says one São Paulo-based debt capital markets professional. Rodrigo Gonzalez, head of debt capital markets for the Americas at Standard Chartered, says that international investors remain interested in credits from Latin America, but that supply has fallen as the commodity cycle, which peaked around 2012, has slowed economies and therefore loan demand.Full text: As US rate rises become a reality, Latin American markets face another home truth: have they actually become a standalone asset class, or is a sell-off inevitable? Deal volumes from Latin American issuers in the international capital markets soared last year and the same conditions that broke records – resurgent supply and positive investor flows into the asset classes – also saw the markets sprint into the first quarter of 2018. Last year’s $145 billion of debt issued in the international markets was a record from the region, while equity capital markets ($27.3 billion) and M&A ($176.9 billion) were the highest annual totals since 2013 and 2014 respectively, according to Dealogic. All three asset classes began the first quarter at a similar pace of activity (the return in force of Brazilian and Argentine issuance in the last 18 months has been a strong driver of supply) until the volatility imported from the US hit markets in mid February. That volatility, inspired by expectations of stronger than anticipated inflation and the spectre of higher US interest rates, saw a sell-off that rippled through Latin America. Markets in both Latin America and the US quickly shrugged off these falls, which are (for now) being interpreted by US analysts as a correction in the relentless bull market in equities and bonds. But in Latin America, it is being seen a little differently. “It is the beginning of a more fundamental shift,” says Chris Gilfond, head of debt and equity capital markets for Latin America at Citi, who has been covering Latin American markets since the early 1990s. “We have been in a multi-decade rally in EM [emerging markets], and it feels like now we are at a point when we are not just talking about the possibility of higher US rates – we are feeling them.” Gilfond says the market was caught “a little flat-footed” as 10-year US treasuries jumped to close to 3%. “We remain ‘risk-on’ and inflows are consistent, if at lower rates,” he says. “We have certainly not seen sustained outflows. But in the medium to longer term, higher US interest rates will test the assumption that EM is now a standalone global asset class for global allocators and not one reliant on relative value to DM [developed market] yields.” At the heart of Gilfond’s test is the composition of the funds that have been flowing unremittingly since 2015/16 into EM and Latin American risk. The Institute of International Finance tracks portfolio flows and says there was a large increase in allocation to EM fixed income in 2017 (equity flows remained stable and positive). If a high proportion of these flows turn out to be ‘cross-over’ money coming into the region to chase returns during times of extraordinary low bond yields in developed markets then the normalization of bonds in the US and Europe could have a big impact on the region. However, if the widely-held hypothesis among bankers is correct, and EM and Latin American debt is seen as mature and stable enough in its own right to be able to maintain exposure through the cycle, then higher rates elsewhere will have a lower impact. Gilfond believes the test will be passed. “There will be some movement out from cross-over investors at the margin, but I don’t think it will significantly change the critical mass of EM,” he says. “The stock of outstanding EM debt is approximately $1.5 trillion, which pays coupons and has amortizations; that is a self-sustaining block of money that is going to provide a lot of liquidity and investable dollars to keep the market moving forward.” Even if a bigger test is to come, the region passed the recent one well. Yields on the JPMorgan EMBI global bond index (a composite index of EM dollar debt) rose by half those seen in 10-year US government bonds. The lower volatility was due to compression in EM credit spreads as US treasuries rose – a relative performance that shows a clear expression of confidence and positive investor sentiment about EM debt in the face of shifting US monetary policy. A Morgan Stanley EM credit report noted that EM credit spreads widened by: “Only 20 to 30 basis points compared to the average widening of around 50bp in these types of sell-off”. Spreads also retraced about a third of that widening in the following week – another sign that the fundamental perception of the region’s risk has not changed. Not yet, anyway. At the moment the jury is still out, but most participants believe that, while we are not about to see the end of this multi-decade bull run, the recent volatility will nonetheless lead to a much more cautious approach to risk. That caution will maintain higher levels of differentiation seen in the region than in the post-2008 crisis years, when risk-on compressed all risk premia pretty much in unison. “We continue to see a lot of appetite for EM debt, but it is different from previous years when investors had large appetites for pretty much all debt coming out of Brazil and Latin America,” says Alexandre Castanheira, managing director at Morgan Stanley in São Paulo. “I think it’s a more criterious demand, but at the same time it doesn’t mean that demand is limited to the upper ends of the risk spectrum.” Castanheira points to a diversified deal flow to prove his point: strong sovereign issuance has been complemented by investment-grade companies, as well as single-B names. The bank led a deal for Brazilian steel company CSN (which was until recently rated triple-C) just before the market window shut for Brazil’s carnival, raising $350 million at 7.875% and demonstrating market access for all types of credits. “What is tough for us is the volatility rather than if the market is re-pricing,” says Castanheira. “Once it settles at its new level, people will adjust. Also, issuers tend to think of deals on an ‘all-in’ basis and there is the chance that spreads might compress a little more.” That view is echoed by another underwriter. “Clients keep asking me where I think US treasuries will be in June,” he says. “I say: who cares? The impact on your funding costs on an all-in basis will be marginal.” However, Castanheira, thinks there may still be a longer-term pricing impact from the recent volatility: “Some investors are starting to scratch their heads and asking has the compression in EM spreads come too far? After the volatility, investors realize that a move in treasuries will definitely affect the appetite for EM debt and especially when levels are so tight, so spreads will probably have to widen.” There is, however, a strong undercurrent of scepticism about the path of treasuries. Although constrained from going against their house view publicly, some bankers express doubt that the expected increases in the US Fed’s rates will materialize. “Treasuries went up 40bp, but they will come down,” says one, who has been passing these views on to clients. “Yes, we have had readings on inflation and employment that were particularly strong, but the impact of technology and AI [artificial intelligence] in my view substantially lowers the possibility of a heat-up in labour costs. That pressure on inflation won’t be sustainable – it will fade away, and I see treasuries going down, which will be another good opportunity for us.” Lisandro Miguens, head of Latin America debt capital markets at JPMorgan in New York, is confident in the future of the asset class. “We were tested last week and we continue to be tested,” he says, speaking in the week following the market volatility in the US. “I see enough empirical evidence to believe we will do well. The amount of liquidity pointed to Latin America and the macroeconomic dynamics in the regions make me confident about this cycle. Every sharp increase in US interest rates in the past has had a dramatic impact, but this time I think it will be different.” Roberto Sifon, who heads the Americas’ sovereign team for S&P Global Ratings, agrees. “Intuitively, if you have higher interest rates in the US then at some point it will have some impact, but I don’t think the people investing in Latin America, or EM for that matter, are comparing [their portfolio returns] with US treasuries,” says Sifon. “Also, higher US interest rates will be a product of the higher economic growth rates and – everything being constant – that will mean more demand for the region’s goods and services. It won’t be entirely negative.” Miguens also points to the region’s technical strength as a strong element of recent performance. Expectations of higher treasuries drove a lot of 2017 transactions with asset liability management trades. Amortizations for 2018 are low, given issuers avoided roll-over risk in a year that features presidential elections in Colombia, Mexico and Brazil. Also, sovereigns have already front-loaded this year’s funding requirements, with Argentina alone raising $9 billion in one transaction on January 4. Miguens also says that the $40 billion issued in the first six weeks of 2018 and the $145 billion record in 2017 were supported by a reallocation towards the region by funds that scaled back exposure to commodity-based credits. “Now the cycle is changing,” he says, “and they are asking themselves why they have so little exposure to the region. That, coupled with high levels of liquidity thanks to QE programmes, has resulted in increased inflows.” If market participants are largely dismissive of a negative exogenous impact on the region’s financial health (commodities, oil and China are the other big issues that are also generally dismissed as likely down-side risks in the near future), endogenous political risks are another matter. These start with Colombia’s first round presidential elections in May, with a run-off if needed in June, followed by Mexico’s on July 1, before moving on to Brazil in the fourth quarter. As a recent Morgan Stanley report points out: “LatAm sovereigns such as Mexico, Brazil and Chile have already revisited the markets and have met their 2018 external funding needs. Argentina is likely to revisit again but with a smaller tranche and we don’t expect Colombia to issue external debt in 2018.” “We are not expecting anything particularly troubling [coming from election results], but we do expect that issuers will look to de-risk in the first half of 2018 – and that’s, in part, driving the high pace of deals so far this year,” says Gilfond. “And even regardless to what happens in the elections,” he adds, “the second half of the year might be slower. Even if the elections all have market-friendly outcomes, I am not sure that there will be the demand for funding [to keep up the present rate of activity]. Although there is a chance that, with good election outcomes, issuers may double down and accelerate investment.” Brazil is a good example and a pertinent one as the country’s issuers represented $33.2 billion of the region’s international debt issuance last year, worth 22.8% of the total. It also dominated Latin America’s domestic DCM volume, with 283 deals worth $32.5 billion and a 61.2% market share. “If the [Brazilian presidential election] opinion polls are favourable to a market-orientated candidate by June, then we could have two years in one,” says one São Paulo-based debt capital markets professional. “The demand for all Brazilian risk continues to be very strong – it’s supply that’s the issue as companies are proving to be more cautious than investors and are waiting for clarity in the presidential election. But if that looks to be going well, they will begin to trigger 2019 investment plans and that will require debt and equity.” Companies pressing ahead with capex plans before the elections may seem exceptionally bullish, but political risk is abating in Brazil. There is a strange situation in the markets that, while no one knows who will be a candidate for this year’s election, there is a strong consensus that the result will be market-friendly. The most persuasive reason for this belief is that the early frontrunner, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has likely been barred from competing by a guilty verdict in a corruption trial. That decision effectively takes out a credible electoral threat from the left-leaning Workers Party and leaves a wide field of candidates all bunched around the centre ground. Also, the fiscal deterioration is so pronounced now that, combined with a recent constitutional amendment that caps federal spending, not taking action would likely be politically disastrous for whoever is Brazil’s president in January 2019. “For now, the failure of fiscal reform is being ignored by everyone,” says one banker. The development of strong and competitively priced local markets is one of the reasons, according to bankers, that supply from Mexican and Andean companies (and particularly from Chile) has been muted as the region’s volumes have roared back. Even in Brazil – where, despite a sharp fall, the base rate is still a relatively steep 6.75% and with high (although falling) FX hedging costs – the local markets are increasingly a source of corporate financing. However, bankers cite the recent flurry of first-time issuers from Brazil in the international markets as evidence that the local and international markets are likely to become complementary. “From a nominal point of view, the local markets might be the cheapest (for companies with local currency needs),” says Morgan Stanley’s Castanheira, “but in the recent crisis, CFOs saw it is healthy to diversify funding sources and they remember that; there is an increased desire for the qualities that come through international financing, such as tenor and covenants. “CFOs that have a strong desire to extend the duration of debt should go to the bond market, they can’t afford to have roll-over risk every two years. Even if it costs to extend, a blended strategy is often the way to go.” M&A financing could also begin to become a more prominent feature of both local and international capital markets issuance. “The stability in the markets is helping buyers and sellers of Latin American companies meet in respect to price expectations,” says Miguens. “That is triggering more M&A. We are seeing that in our pipeline. We are specially looking at private equity, which tend to be big consumers of acquisition finance and are coming to the region.” Castanheira points to Brazilian company Natura’s acquisition of the UK’s Body Shop as an example of M&A-driven deal flow. “We are starting to see discussions away from liability management exercises,” he says. The same mix of strong domestic markets and lack of investment is also impacting financial institution issuance. Rodrigo Gonzalez, head of debt capital markets for the Americas at Standard Chartered, says that international investors remain interested in credits from Latin America, but that supply has fallen as the commodity cycle, which peaked around 2012, has slowed economies and therefore loan demand. “The banks’ credit portfolios stopped growing as the commodity cycle died down,” he says, “so they don’t need as much capital as in the past, and many [Latin American] countries have pretty decent local markets that can absorb their needs.” However, regulatory capital-driven deals remain. Citi’s Gilfond believes that more regulatory-driven issuance will come from the region. Peru and Chile are moving to adopt Basel III ,and even unregulated financial institutions can optimize their balance sheet through hybrid transactions. Political risk has already shown up in pricing action for Mexico’s credits, says one head of DCM in New York, although he believes the political risk is more expressed through the FX as credit spreads remain pretty tight due to strong technical demand. “If it wasn’t for the uncertainty surrounding the Mexican elections – as well as Nafta – I think you would see the sovereign’s benchmark priced under 100bp over treasuries,” he says. “There is still strong demand for Mexican credits, and the recent deals we led for Pemex [a $6 billion-plus mix of new money, an exchange offer and an asset management component] saw a $26.9 billion book, which was Pemex’s biggest ever. One account alone bid for $1.25 billion, so the demand is there and the technicals are positive – the market had been waiting for Pemex to come.” Meanwhile, Argentina continues to animate the markets and draw investors into the region’s best improving credit story. Despite the country’s complete reliance on international financing and its large demand for it, investor appetite remains strong. “Every [Argentine] asset gets bought up in DCM without a problem,” says one banker who has been involved in many recent deals for Argentine issuers. “The only issue is that the sovereign absorbs much of the primary market’s liquidity, which reprices the whole risk. If the sovereign could abstain from the markets – which of course it cannot – it would be a completely different pricing story.” The Argentine government is trying to develop local market capability and can raise short-term (under one year) funding. But even a local capital markets reform bill, expected to be presented in March this year, will not change the reality that the country’s public sector will dominate financing needs from international investors in the years to come. Bankers tend to dismiss the signalling of the local markets deal. “A country can’t say it has domestic funding if that’s less than a year – you blink and a year goes by and that’s not removing refinancing risk,” says one. Despite the dominance of the sovereign, bankers believe corporate supply will not be crowded out – a pipeline of around $6 billion of infrastructure projects could come to market this year. “There are lots of PPPs and infrastructure financing to come – it’s by far the most positive country outlook in the region,” says a local banker. “The politics have been set aside [by president Mauricio Macri’s success in the 2017 mid-term elections] and investors aren’t worried about the politics.” However, in the recent volatility Argentina’s bonds sold off more than other countries’ – with the sovereign’s 10-year benchmark widening by 50bp more than Brazil before retracing. “That was a dramatic move and it is because the market is over-exposed to Argentina,” says one banker who has been involved in recent Argentine deals. “For the moment investors are relying on the [country’s] finance team and that they will continue to be able to meet the monumental challenge of revolutionizing the economy. “If you take a snapshot of the economy, the risks are clear. Day-to-day investors look through that snapshot to the trend, to the momentum story. But in times of volatility, the snapshot becomes more important again, and that’s why you see these more dramatic price moves.” Given Sifon’s rating agency perspective, he is less inclined to assess the trend and focuses more on today’s data. With that focus, the combination of the risks facing Argentina and the high level of demand for its debt leads him to believe that investors are “a very forgiving group of people”. He says he is confident his B+ rating reflects current risks: “We try to bring stability to our mindset – we didn’t get involved in the hype when Argentina came back to the international markets. Some people were asking us then when we were going to give it an investment grade! However, neither are we going to freak out if the debt-to-GDP ratio moves from 52% from 48%.” “Argentina always has the IMF as an option and investors know that,” says one banker, who declined to be named in relation to the IMF – an organization that still hits a raw nerve in the country. For now, and with good reason given recent progress, investors believe upside is more likely than downside and the yield on offer from the country is too good to miss. That will continue to give the country the financing space to address its financing deficit and lack of domestic capital markets. With Argentina and Brazil back and firing on debt issuance, the region is active again. Bankers hope that, once the obstacles of the presidential elections are out of the way this year, the region’s fundamentals will see a resurgence of capex and growth-dominated debt requirements. This supply could coincide with the latest test from higher US interest rates, but the region has passed its other recent tests, when recessions did not turn to crises and regional contagion was muted. At some point, if the region continues like this, the fears of collapse triggered by a new US monetary cycle might abate completely. Of course, that might be when the real risk materializes, but that will be a story for another decade. CREDIT: Rob DwyerThe banks’ credit portfolios stopped growing as the commodity cycle died down, so they don’t need as much capital as in the past, and many [Latin American] countries have pretty decent local markets that can absorb their needs
- Rodrigo Gonzalez, Standard Chartered
Subject: Treasuries; Investments; Interest rates; Hypotheses; Government bonds; Equity capital; Bond issues; Presidential elections; International finance; Volatility
Location: United States--US Latin America Argentina Brazil
Company / organization: Name: Morgan Stanley; NAICS: 523110, 523120, 523920
Publication title: Euromoney; London
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 19, 2018
Publisher: Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC
Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance
ISSN: 00142433
Source type: Trade Journals
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2028771425
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2028771425?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Euromoney Institutional Investor P LC Mar 19, 2018
Last updated: 2018-04-23
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 192 of 474
Birmingham Musicians Bring Samba Beats to International Gymnastics Competition
Publication info: Targeted News Service ; Washington, D.C. [Washington, D.C]21 Mar 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Birmingham City University issued the following news release: Six percussion students from Birmingham City University's Royal Birmingham Conservatoire will appear in front of a stadium crowd as they perform at the 2018 Gymnastics World Cup. Held in Arena Birmingham and part of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) World Cup Series, the global competition features nine women and nine men representing eight different countries as they aim to take home the prestigious titles. The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire's Millennial Percussion will perform in front of up to 15,800 spectators as part of the Gymnastics World Cup opening ceremonies on both Wednesday 21 and Thursday 22 March. The competition will also be broadcast across the BBC (BBC One, BBC Red Button, BBC Sport website and mobile app). Musical showcase Led by Sophie Hastings, Head of Drum Kit and World Percussion at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, the ensemble will perform an excerpt from 'Apex' by Golden Globe-nominated composer Ben Wallfisch, who has worked on more than 60 feature films over the last decade, including 'Blade Runner 2049', 'Dunkirk' and 'Hidden Figures'. Adrian Spillett, Head of Percussion, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, said: "It's a real buzz to see the students playing to so many people; what an experience for them! Let's hope the TV cameras capture some good shots. The exposure at the Gymnastics World Cup will showcase the Percussion Department's versatility whilst also presenting the students with a fantastic professional development opportunity. Brazil visit Millennial Percussion's Gymnastics World Cup showcase will also encourage audience participation during a samba compilation that will feature rhythms the students learnt during a recent trip to Brazil. In 2016, students from the Conservatoire's Percussion Department trained with GRES Portela in Rio de Janeiro during their Easter break, as well as visiting a unique educational programme in the country's north east. GRES Portela is the most successful samba school in Rio de Janeiro, winning 21 titles in the city's annual Carnival since 1932. Prior to this, the students visited the city of Salvador in the state of Bahia, where they visited a peer-to-peer learning initiative with the Bahia Orchestra Project - a pioneer initiative in Brazil modelled on the Venezuelan El Sistema programme. El Sistema aims to transform the lives of children in deprived communities through ensemble music making and Royal Birmingham Conservatoire works in partnership with its UK equivalent, In Harmony. Percussion sounds Millennial Percussion's performance at the Gymnastics World Cup will fill Arena Birmingham with the sounds of a vast array of instruments, including an opera gong, cymbals, apex drums, a taiko, surdos and a repinique. As the host nation, four British gymnasts will compete alongside the other nations in the Gymnastics World Cup. With the Commonwealth Games in April, this event offers the last chance to see some of the world's best gymnasts before they jet off to compete on Australia's Gold Coast. MSTRUCK-6215128 MSTRUCK
Subject: Tournaments & championships; Gymnastics; Students
Location: Australia Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil United Kingdom--UK
Company / organization: Name: International Gymnastics Federation; NAICS: 813990; Name: Birmingham City University; NAICS: 611310; Name: Bahia Orchestra Project; NAICS: 711130
Publication title: Targeted News Service; Washington, D.C.
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 21, 2018
Dateline: BIRMINGHAM, England
Publisher: Targeted News Service
Place of publication: Washington, D.C.
Country of publication: United States, Washington, D.C.
Publication subject: Public Administration
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2016554293
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2016554293?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright © Targeted News Service. All Rights Reserved.
Last updated: 2018-03-22
Database: US Southeast Newsstream
Document 193 of 474
NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT for March 22, 2018, PBS
Publication info: CEO Wire ; Waltham [Waltham]22 Mar 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: ANNOUNCER: This is NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT with Sue Herera and Bill Griffeth. BILL GRIFFETH, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT ANCHOR: Tariffs and technology. Those two big concerns for the market sense the Dow plunging more than 700 points. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have a tremendous intellectual property theft situation going on. (END VIDEO CLIP) SUE HERERA, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT ANCHOR: The president turns up the heat on China, announcing a new round of tariffs, sparking concerns of a trade war. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SHERYL SANDBERG, FACEBOOK COO: If we find misuse, we're going to tell people. (END VIDEO CLIP) GRIFFETH: Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg vows to better protect users. But is the next step regulation? Those stories and more tonight on NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT for this Thursday, March the 22nd. HERERA: Good evening, everyone, and welcome. A sell off on Wall Street. All 30 Dow components closed lower, about two- thirds of the stocks in that index fell more than 1 percent today. Half of the S&P 500 is now in correction territory. Investors became unnerved after the White House unveiled a new round of tariffs that some fear could threaten the trade war with China, the world's second largest economy. So, by the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had plunged 724 points to 23,957, a nearly 3 percent decline. The Nasdaq fell 178. And the S&P 500 lost 68. The biggest losers on the Dow were the major industrials like Caterpillar, Boeing, and 3M. Bob Pisani reports tonight on that selloff from the New York Stock Exchange. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BOB PISANI, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Stocks closed right around their worst levels of the session with the Dow down more than 700 points. That's right, 700 points. The markets are clearly concerned about two things. Number one, technology. And number two, trade. Two big issues. President Donald Trump announced he would be imposing tariffs of up to $60 billion on Chinese goods over the next few weeks. No details on which products will be taxed by how much yet. But he did say there would be a 30-day grace period to negotiate those terms. Shares of U.S. and other metals and mining stocks got slammed on news that Trump will be exempting a handful of allies from steel and aluminum tariffs, including the European Unions, South Korea and Brazil. In fact, U.S. steel is down 20 percent since those tariffs were first announced a few weeks ago. It looks like they are not as tough as some people thought they might be. Facebook is facing an existential crisis right now. In fact, the whole social media group is. And that's weighing heavily on all the other social media stocks. The stock market has lost its team leadership group, technology, and social media is part of that. And there's really nothing taking its place. The subsectors that powered tech high, which were semiconductors and the FANG names, your Facebook, your Apples, and your Amazons, they stopped advancing and in most cases, they reversed. So, once those FANG and semiconductor stocks stopped going up in the second week of March, the market stalled out because no other sector has stepped forward to lead the market higher. Industrials and materials are suffering from these trade war concerns. FANGs can't move higher without the help of higher volume. That's not happening. On top of that, drama in Washington is still on the front burner. Stocks did fall earlier on word in a John Dowd, President Trump's lead lawyer in the Russia probe had resigned. For NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, I'm Bob Pisani at the New York Stock Exchange. (END VIDEOTAPE) GRIFFETH: Mike Santoli is also at the New York Stock Exchange. He joins us tonight with some more insights on this decline. I think you were the one who coined the term tariff tantrum. Is that -- is that all we saw today, or was there more going on, do you think? MIKE SANTOLI, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: I don't take the blame or the credit for that one. Yes, I don't think it was all we were seeing today but I think that was the added element this morning, right at the outset, that came upon a market that also was already concerned about this general notion that interest rates are going up, this Fed is looking for opportunities to bring rates higher if they can, if the economic data allow for that. And then, you know, as Bob was saying, the loss of leadership from the big tech group, which a lot of investors I think were hiding in because it seems seemed like they could grow in almost any environment. But the tariff issue is a reminder that policy across a bunch of fronts, whether it is trade or monetary policy have turned a little bit less friendly than we got used to last year. HERERA: The volume, though, Mike. I mean, it didn't seem like they were just throwing stocks out the window today. Was that mostly the professionals who were selling? SANTOLI: Interesting. No, you are absolutely right, Sue. It was not a feeling of panic. It was not this mass liquidation of stocks. As a matter of fact, a couple of folks are pointing out that small cap stocks had outperformed the large cap indexes. So, the more domestically focused businesses seemed like they were not caught up in this selloff quite much. The volumes weren't that high. The volatility index definitely got up there, but not at levels we saw in early February. So, it was a somewhat lower intensity selloff than what we did see in early February. Whether that something that means that folks are more likely to buy it at this level or not is not clear, but it definitely was not indiscriminate. GRIFFETH: Mike Santoli at the New York Stock Exchange for us tonight -- thanks, Mike. SANTOLI: Thank you. HERERA: So, as we mentioned, the president did announce his toughest trade action to date. And as Kayla Tausche reports from Washington, there are fears of more to come. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) KAYLA TAUSCHE, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: President Trump signed an order that paved the way for steep tariffs on a wide range of Chinese imports. The move marks the end of its seven-month investigation into Chinese tactics to challenge U.S. technology dominance. TRUMP: We have a tremendous intellectual property situation going on. So, we're going to get it taken care of. And frankly, it's going to make us a much stronger, much richer nation. TAUSCHE: The action comes as the U.S. is imposing tariffs on all imports of steel and aluminum with certain allies and products exempted, and on top of tariffs on Chinese made solar panels. U.S. exporters including soybean farmers, pork producers, and aircraft maker Boeing are bracing for a counter-punch from China, which says it will take all necessary measures to safeguard its interests. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told lawmakers that kind of retaliation is unfair but doesn't change things. ROBERT LIGHTHIZER, U.S. TRADE REPRESENTATIVE: It's not possible to take the position that because we are soybean farmers, we're not going to stick up for our rights in a whole variety of ways and have hundreds of billions of dollars worth of exporters and domestic producers be punished because of unfair trade. TAUSCHE: There CEO of engine maker Cummins, Tom Linebarger, fears the administration's approach is leading to a trade war. TOM LINEBARGER, CEO CUMMINS: We agree there are challenges in China. We just want to address it in a different way, a way that's proven effective over many, many decades, as opposed to unilateral tariffs which have always proven ineffective. TAUSCHE: But Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross says those fears are overblown. WILBUR ROSS, COMMERCE SECRETARY: I think there will be some ultimate retaliation, but I don't think it's going to be the end of the earth. There may be some firing shots over the bow. But I believe at the end of the day, this will end up in a negotiated settlement. TAUSCHE: A senior administration official tells me this is just the kickoff to a set of multiple penalties against China and that further actions, namely restrictions on Chinese investments in the United States, could be unveiled in the coming days. For NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, I'm Kayla Tausche in Washington. (END VIDEOTAPE) GRIFFETH: And joining us right now to talk more about the new tariffs and the impact they could have on the markets and the economy, joining us tonight, Art Hogan. He's chief market strategist with B. Riley FBR. And Josh Feinman is global chief economist at Deutsche Asset Management. Good to see you both. JOSHUA FEINMAN, DEUTSCHE ASSET MANAGEMENT GLOBAL CHIEF ECONOMIST: Good to be here. GRIFFETH: Art, how do you -- do you step aside and let things clear out or do you see opportunities already presenting themselves as a result of these tariffs being imposed? ART HOGAN, B. RILEY FBR CHIEF MARKET STRATEGIST: That's such a good question. And I think you have to think about that three ways. Yes, I think we overdo the selloffs, and today was certainly overdone. Can it get worse before it gets better? I certainly think so. I think fundamentally this market is underpriced and certainly more underpriced today than it was yesterday. I think the problem with this is we don't know how far our government will go with tariffs down the road to trade wars versus using this as a negotiating tactic. And it really feels like -- I think -- you know, I think Secretary Ross just said that. We hope to get a negotiated settlement. That's the best case scenario. Unfortunately, unintended consequences can creep up on us. So, until something like that turns economic and actually slows the economy down. I'll give you a great example. NAFTA, if we walk away from those negotiations, we'll lose a half a percentage GDP growth this year. That's something we need to make sure we accomplish. And the same thing would be true we got an extended trade war. That would be very bad for the economy. HERERA: Josh, weigh in on that if you would, because you say that although a benign outcome is certainly is not guaranteed, the realistic economic impact may be smaller than perhaps what Wall Street is fearing. FEINMAN: Yes, you look at the move today, while I think ill-advised, it affects a very small part of the U.S. economy. You are talking about less than less than three-tenths of 1 percent of GDP, even if you get some retaliatory measures from China and not likely to have big macro repercussions. And if this is just a negotiating gambit, OK, it will be fine. The worry, though, is that it could escalate into something more and it also that reflects a protectionist mindset, this view that somehow trade is a zero sum game, trade deficits are a sign of weakness and foreign malfeasance. And I think that's deeply misguided view and one that ignores the tremendous benefits that it accrued from the post-World War II free trade order, and the damage that could be done undermining that, and the damage that has been done in the past from protectionist forays. So, that's the worry that I have. GRIFFETH: Josh, at this point, we have not had the kind of inflation that the Fed might be hoping for oddly enough as they start to raise interest rates. If we impose these tariffs down the road, that could bring the inflation back, don't you think? FEINMAN: It could. It depends on the scope of the tariffs and so forth. It would likely be a short-term bump up, though. What -- not likely to have the kind of lasting effects on inflation to get inflation back up to 2 percent by itself. HERERA: So, Art, if you have a long term time horizon as an investor, you have a confluence of events that are going on, where you have the tariffs going into effect. You have Facebook and social media under fire possibly facing some regulation. What do you do? Do you put new money to work in those sectors because they come down so much or not? HOGAN: I think you asked the question the best way we should ask that question. If your time horizon is as a long term investor, a lot of this is noise and we won't be talking about it next year. Unfortunately, you know, in the news cycle that we're in, we're going to be talking about these things on a minute by minute basis. So, for example, I think we will see an administration that says these trade wars or these tariffs have adversely affected the economy and the market. Remember, they like use the market as a score card and you will see a pull back from that. I think regulation is probably good for social media. I think it's the Wild Wild West. I think it needs some. I think we'll see those valuations get replaced by perhaps the more normal towards what they're doing and I think we'll be fine with that. Right now, there is going to be volatility. There is more volatility this year than we have seen in any given year for the last ten years, right? So, if that makes you stay up at night, then your exposure of the market is probably a little too high and you should think about ratcheting it down. GRIFFETH: And quickly, Josh, if this is a headwind for the economy, does the Fed have to rethink its plan for raising interest rates later this year? FEINMAN: If it were a serious headwind, yes. I think based on what we've seen so far, it's likely not to turn into that. But that's the risk. And we'll just have to be watching it very carefully. When you rattle trade savers, you know, you run the risk of unleashing the adverse economic consequences. GRIFFETH: Josh Feinman with Deutsche Asset Management, Art Hogan with B. Riley FBR -- thank you both for joining us tonight. FEINMAN: Thank you. HOGAN: Thank you. HERERA: In Washington, the House passed a $1.3 trillion spending bill, the 2,200-page legislation will fund the government until October. It will increase military spending and a number of domestic programs. The measure now heads to the Senate where it is expected to pass with bipartisan support. And the president said that he will sign that bill once it reaches his desk. GRIFFETH: Meanwhile, a key congressional committee has asked Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify about that data scandal that improperly accessed personal information of about 50 million Facebook users. That pressured the stock again today. It's now down more than 10 percent over just the past week. Julia Boorstin talked to Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg today about the controversy and what she plans to do next. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JULIA BOORSTIN, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: With Facebook shares down 10 percent this week, chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg weighing in on the data privacy scandal that's raised concerns of users, investors, regulators, and advertisers. SANDBERG: This was a huge breach of trust. People come to Facebook every day and they depend upon us to protect their data. And I'm so sorry that we let so many people down. We spent the last few days trying to get to the bottom of what happened. Cambridge Analytica never should have had this data. They told us they deleted it. But it is our mistake that we did not verify that. Years ago, we changed platforms so apps get much less data. But that really wasn't enough. BOORSTIN: With advertiser Nestle today raising questions about consumer privacy, Sandberg stressed their business model does not put consumer data at risk. SANDBERG: We provide a free service. That's an ad-based business model. And in order to do that, we do not sell your data. We are able to show targeted advertising that's relevant to people. We're able to give advertisers aggregate anonymous reports, never telling them who you are. We believe that we can operate our service with our current business model, continue to provide a free service all around the world, and protect people's data. But we are going to have to earn that trust. BOORSTIN: Sandberg saying she wished that she and CEO Mark Zuckerberg had weighed in on this controversial issue sooner. She also said that they are laying out strong steps to prevent this from ever happening again and they are working to earn back consumers' trust. For NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, I'm Julia Boorstin in Menlo Park, California. (END VIDEOTAPE) HERERA: J.P. Eggers joins us now to discuss what a regulated Facebook would look like. He is a professor of management at New York University's Stern School of Business. Professor, welcome back. It's always good to have you here. J.P. EGGERS, PROFESSOR OF MANAGEMENT, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY'S STERN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS: Thank you very much. HERERA: You know, one of the clips that was not in Julia's piece was the question of regulation. And Ms. Sandberg basically was open to the concept of regulation, as was Mark Zuckerberg yesterday, which surprised a lot of people. It seems to me they think it is a foregone conclusion that that is coming their way. What do you think? EGGERS: Well, I think the recognition in a there is obviously been this -- as Ms. Sandberg said, kind of a breach of trust and the implications that the government and policymakers may want to try and weigh in on that and the implications of that, I think this becomes real question, can Facebook kind of help to co-create the regulations that would be put in place that would govern some degree of control over both advertising and the management of social media on line? To me, the real question is, you know, how deep those regulations would actually go if they were to be put in place, and how enforceable they would be. There's been discussions around things like transparency in advertising. But it's unclear how that would work, who would verify that, how that would be done in any way that would be reliable. Certainly, the government doesn't have the resources to go do that, and it's not on Facebook's interest to take on that responsibility. GRIFFETH: You anticipated my question, J.P., because I was going to ask what exactly you need to regulate. And Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged that it was transparency in advertising that he felt would be the target there. But it's not going to be just about Facebook. We're talking about perhaps all social media that would be subject to these regulations, right? EGGERS: Social media and just kind of online media in general. Look, I mean, Google is one -- Google is the biggest seller of advertising online. And if we are talking about ways to try and regulate transparency in advertising, it would certainly affect Google at least as much if not more than it would affect Facebook in this way. Obviously, those two big players are going to feel kind of a disproportionate volume of any sort of regulations that gets put in place because they are the main ones who are selling ads online. But, yes, I think this is the way in which Mark Zuckerberg is trying to push for this co-creation. You never want the regulators to come just after your business. You want them to be coming after the entire sector so that there's a level playing field as close as possible for all the firms. HERERA: Now, a number of these companies, obviously, do business globally and different countries have different rules about how they can function in their countries. The European models are much more conservative than the U.S. regulations. Might the companies try and avoid regulation by adopting some of those European regulations or European rules? EGGERS: I think certainly the risk would become that if -- if the companies resisted this sort of regulation, that the most stringent form available might be the one that's put in place, which would definitely be bad for their business. The ability to engage in micro-targeting, even if they're not selling data externally, but to help and facilitate micro- targeting for advertisers is a huge portion of what makes Facebook successful. And to the extent that there are data privacy limits that go beyond simply disclosure of how your data is used, but actual regulation of exactly how the data could and couldn't be used, that would be much more significant for Facebook's bottom line. HERERA: All right. J.P. Eggers, thanks so much for joining us again. EGGERS: Thank you. HERERA: J.P. is with the New York University's Stern School of Business. GRIFFETH: By the way, Commerce Bank and Mozilla are temporarily pulling their advertising from Facebook because of this user data controversy. Commerce Bank cited brand safety and data security. And in a blog post, browser maker Mozilla said despite promises from Facebook executives, it takes issue with the social media company's default privacy setting. Mozilla said that when Facebook takes stronger action in how it shares customer data, it will consider returning. HERERA: It is time to look at some of today's upgrades and downgrades. The auto parts maker Visteon was downgraded two notches to underweight from overweight at Morgan Stanley. That's Wall Street's only sell rating on the stock. The firm says Visteon could be an acquisition target but the level of insider selling suggests the deal is unlikely in the near term. Price target was cut to $110 a share. The shares dropped 6 percent to $113.45. Trivago shares were cut to underweight from neutral at J.P. Morgan. The analyst there says its hotel search business remains challenged. The price target is now $8. Trivago shares fell 5 percent to $7.40 -- Bill. GRIFFETH: J.P. Morgan also downgraded online car shopping service provider TrueCar to under weight from neutral. The firm is concerned about weak automotive industry trends overall and the price target, they cut down to $10 a share. The stock fell 1 percent to $9.80, just below that. Ralph Lauren's rating was raised to outperform from market perform at Cowen and Company. The analyst says that the luxury brand growth could accelerate as a result of its marketing and digital strategy. The price target was raised to $122 a share. Shares, though, were down along with the rest of the market, closing 1 percent lower to $107.66. HERERA: Still ahead, Nike just does it, reporting better than expected earnings. And that could set the tone for trading tomorrow. (MUSIC) GRIFFETH: Late today, cloud storage company Dropbox priced its IPO above expectations. According to CNBC, the highly anticipated offering priced at $21 a share. The range was anywhere between $18 and $20. Dropbox is expected to start trading tomorrow. It will be the largest tech IPO since Snap started trading more than a year ago -- Sue. HERERA: Bill, the Dow component Nike reported better than expected earnings and revenue fueled by growth in its international sales and its momentum in China. The CEO said he sees a sales slump though in the U.S. reversing. And that sent the stock initially higher in afterhours trading. Courtney Reagan has more on Nike's results. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) COURTNEY REAGAN, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Nike's strong third quarter results driven by strong international sales. Sales coming in stronger than expected in Europe, greater China, and Asia Pacific, though Nike's North America's sales disappoint. CEO Mark Parker says sales direct to consumers rather than through retail partner like a department store grew double digits internationally, with China leading the way. It is been a difficult week for Nike after Parker sent a memo to employees revealing allegations of inappropriate workplace behavior had been reported and two executives left in the wake of that announcement, though Nike didn't directly tie them to those allegations. For NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, I'm Courtney Reagan. (END VIDEOTAPE) GRIFFETH: Chip maker Micron beats expectations. And that's where we begin tonight's "Market Focus". After the bell, the company said that broad-based demand for its memory and storage products led to a strong quarter. The company expects that to continue. That's why it gave guidance for the current quarter above estimates. Shares were volatile in the after-hours. They finished the regular session, though, down more than 3 percent at $58.92. Higher selling prices helped earnings topped estimates at home builder KB Home. Orders rose and they were also stronger than expected. But investors focused on revenue which came in late. Shares were volatile in after-hours and finished the regular session down 3 percent at $28.84. Darden said that an increase in the number of restaurants in operation helped profits topped expectations. The owner of Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse said that it raised its earnings guidance for the rest of the year. Overall sales, though, were a sore spot for this quarter. They rose less than anticipated. Darden shares off nearly 8 percent today to $85.94. HERERA: New product launches helped G-III apparel grow sales and profit above street expectations. But the owner of brands like Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein gave guidance for 2019 that was below street estimates. Shares of G-III plunged 12 percent today to $33.01. Carnival said a rise onboard spending helped that cruise line topped both sales and profit expectations. The company said demand remains strong. Carnival shares fell 1 percent to $66.20. GRIFFETH: Coming up, AT&T spars with the U.S. government. At stake, $85 billion, and Time Warner. We head to court, next. (MUSIC) GRIFFEH: The biggest antitrust case in a generation is finally gotten underway. The Justice Department, as you know, is suing to block AT&T's $85 billion merger with Time Warner. Hampton Pearson is at the courthouse for us tonight -- Hampton. HAMPTON PEARSON, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bill, this was like really opening day of that long awaited legal battle between the Department of Justice antitrust and AT&T Time Warner. Opening arguments attended by, among others, AT&T's CEO Randall Stephenson, as well as his Time Warner colleague Jeff Bewkes. What they heard once they were in court is the government in essence saying that this merger would see consumers paying higher prices and less innovation going forward for all of the video however they choose to receive it, whether it's on a TV, smart phone, or tablet going forward. The lead government lawyer even said in court that AT&T would use Time Warner as a weapon against its competitors and to some degree against consumers in future negotiations going forward because Time Warner is considered to be must-have content. On the flip side, AT&T says the government has it backwards. They have to get in the game because of the likes of Facebook, Netflix, Amazon and Google that are getting more and more subscribers in their online formats and frankly twinning to win the war with advertisers. This trial is expected to last six to eight weeks. We're just getting started. GRIFFETH: All right. Hampton Pearson for us in Washington tonight -- thank you, Hampton. And there's more sad news from the Toys "R" Us world tonight. The founder of the toy retailer has passed away at the age of 84. The great Charles Lazarus, he founded the company 70 years ago. He rightly anticipated that the post-war baby boom would create demand for baby supplies and toys. Boy, was he right. He remained CEO of the company until 1994, and the man who succeeded him called Charles Lazarus the father of the toy business. HERERA: Before we go, here's another look at today's selloff on Wall Street. And it accelerated as we went into the close. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 724 points to 23,957. The Nasdaq lost 178, almost 179 points to 7,166. And the S&P lost 68 points. So, quite a day on the street. GRIFFETH: Indeed. HERERA: That does it for us tonight. I'm Sue Herera. Thanks for joining us. GRIFFETH: I'm Bill Griffeth. Have a great evening. See you tomorrow. END Nightly Business Report transcripts and video are available on-line post broadcast at http://nbr.com. The program is transcribed by ASC Services II Media, LLC. Updates may be posted at a later date. The views of our guests and commentators are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Nightly Business Report, or CNBC, Inc. Information presented on Nightly Business Report is not and should not be considered as investment advice. (c) 2018 CNBC, Inc. [Copy: Content and programming copyright 2018 CNBC, Inc. Copyright 2018 ASC Services II Media, LLC. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of ASC Services II Media, LLC. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.]
Subject: Investments; Tariffs; Dow Jones averages; War; Social networks; Copyright; Presidents; Stock exchanges
Location: United States--US New York China
People: Trump, Donald J Linebarger, Norman Thomas
Company / organization: Name: New York Stock Exchange--NYSE; NAICS: 523210; Name: Facebook Inc; NAICS: 518210, 519130; Name: AT & T Inc; NAICS: 517110, 517210
Publication title: CEO Wire; Waltham
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 22, 2018
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: Waltham
Country of publication: United States, Waltham
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2016989475
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2016989475?accountid=4840
Copyright: 2018 Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc.
Last updated: 2019-06-27
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 194 of 474
NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT for March 22, 2018, PBS
Publication info: Nightly Business Report ; Washington Washington: CQ Roll Call. (Mar 22, 2018)
Abstract: None available.
Full text: ANNOUNCER: This is NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT with Sue Herera and Bill Griffeth. BILL GRIFFETH, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT ANCHOR: Tariffs and technology. Those two big concerns for the market sense the Dow plunging more than 700 points. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have a tremendous intellectual property theft situation going on. (END VIDEO CLIP) SUE HERERA, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT ANCHOR: The president turns up the heat on China, announcing a new round of tariffs, sparking concerns of a trade war. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SHERYL SANDBERG, FACEBOOK COO: If we find misuse, we're going to tell people. (END VIDEO CLIP) GRIFFETH: Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg vows to better protect users. But is the next step regulation? Those stories and more tonight on NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT for this Thursday, March the 22nd. HERERA: Good evening, everyone, and welcome. A sell off on Wall Street. All 30 Dow components closed lower, about two- thirds of the stocks in that index fell more than 1 percent today. Half of the S&P 500 is now in correction territory. Investors became unnerved after the White House unveiled a new round of tariffs that some fear could threaten the trade war with China, the world's second largest economy. So, by the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had plunged 724 points to 23,957, a nearly 3 percent decline. The Nasdaq fell 178. And the S&P 500 lost 68. The biggest losers on the Dow were the major industrials like Caterpillar, Boeing, and 3M. Bob Pisani reports tonight on that selloff from the New York Stock Exchange. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BOB PISANI, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Stocks closed right around their worst levels of the session with the Dow down more than 700 points. That's right, 700 points. The markets are clearly concerned about two things. Number one, technology. And number two, trade. Two big issues. President Donald Trump announced he would be imposing tariffs of up to $60 billion on Chinese goods over the next few weeks. No details on which products will be taxed by how much yet. But he did say there would be a 30-day grace period to negotiate those terms. Shares of U.S. and other metals and mining stocks got slammed on news that Trump will be exempting a handful of allies from steel and aluminum tariffs, including the European Unions, South Korea and Brazil. In fact, U.S. steel is down 20 percent since those tariffs were first announced a few weeks ago. It looks like they are not as tough as some people thought they might be. Facebook is facing an existential crisis right now. In fact, the whole social media group is. And that's weighing heavily on all the other social media stocks. The stock market has lost its team leadership group, technology, and social media is part of that. And there's really nothing taking its place. The subsectors that powered tech high, which were semiconductors and the FANG names, your Facebook, your Apples, and your Amazons, they stopped advancing and in most cases, they reversed. So, once those FANG and semiconductor stocks stopped going up in the second week of March, the market stalled out because no other sector has stepped forward to lead the market higher. Industrials and materials are suffering from these trade war concerns. FANGs can't move higher without the help of higher volume. That's not happening. On top of that, drama in Washington is still on the front burner. Stocks did fall earlier on word in a John Dowd, President Trump's lead lawyer in the Russia probe had resigned. For NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, I'm Bob Pisani at the New York Stock Exchange. (END VIDEOTAPE) GRIFFETH: Mike Santoli is also at the New York Stock Exchange. He joins us tonight with some more insights on this decline. I think you were the one who coined the term tariff tantrum. Is that -- is that all we saw today, or was there more going on, do you think? MIKE SANTOLI, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: I don't take the blame or the credit for that one. Yes, I don't think it was all we were seeing today but I think that was the added element this morning, right at the outset, that came upon a market that also was already concerned about this general notion that interest rates are going up, this Fed is looking for opportunities to bring rates higher if they can, if the economic data allow for that. And then, you know, as Bob was saying, the loss of leadership from the big tech group, which a lot of investors I think were hiding in because it seems seemed like they could grow in almost any environment. But the tariff issue is a reminder that policy across a bunch of fronts, whether it is trade or monetary policy have turned a little bit less friendly than we got used to last year. HERERA: The volume, though, Mike. I mean, it didn't seem like they were just throwing stocks out the window today. Was that mostly the professionals who were selling? SANTOLI: Interesting. No, you are absolutely right, Sue. It was not a feeling of panic. It was not this mass liquidation of stocks. As a matter of fact, a couple of folks are pointing out that small cap stocks had outperformed the large cap indexes. So, the more domestically focused businesses seemed like they were not caught up in this selloff quite much. The volumes weren't that high. The volatility index definitely got up there, but not at levels we saw in early February. So, it was a somewhat lower intensity selloff than what we did see in early February. Whether that something that means that folks are more likely to buy it at this level or not is not clear, but it definitely was not indiscriminate. GRIFFETH: Mike Santoli at the New York Stock Exchange for us tonight -- thanks, Mike. SANTOLI: Thank you. HERERA: So, as we mentioned, the president did announce his toughest trade action to date. And as Kayla Tausche reports from Washington, there are fears of more to come. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) KAYLA TAUSCHE, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: President Trump signed an order that paved the way for steep tariffs on a wide range of Chinese imports. The move marks the end of its seven-month investigation into Chinese tactics to challenge U.S. technology dominance. TRUMP: We have a tremendous intellectual property situation going on. So, we're going to get it taken care of. And frankly, it's going to make us a much stronger, much richer nation. TAUSCHE: The action comes as the U.S. is imposing tariffs on all imports of steel and aluminum with certain allies and products exempted, and on top of tariffs on Chinese made solar panels. U.S. exporters including soybean farmers, pork producers, and aircraft maker Boeing are bracing for a counter-punch from China, which says it will take all necessary measures to safeguard its interests. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told lawmakers that kind of retaliation is unfair but doesn't change things. ROBERT LIGHTHIZER, U.S. TRADE REPRESENTATIVE: It's not possible to take the position that because we are soybean farmers, we're not going to stick up for our rights in a whole variety of ways and have hundreds of billions of dollars worth of exporters and domestic producers be punished because of unfair trade. TAUSCHE: There CEO of engine maker Cummins, Tom Linebarger, fears the administration's approach is leading to a trade war. TOM LINEBARGER, CEO CUMMINS: We agree there are challenges in China. We just want to address it in a different way, a way that's proven effective over many, many decades, as opposed to unilateral tariffs which have always proven ineffective. TAUSCHE: But Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross says those fears are overblown. WILBUR ROSS, COMMERCE SECRETARY: I think there will be some ultimate retaliation, but I don't think it's going to be the end of the earth. There may be some firing shots over the bow. But I believe at the end of the day, this will end up in a negotiated settlement. TAUSCHE: A senior administration official tells me this is just the kickoff to a set of multiple penalties against China and that further actions, namely restrictions on Chinese investments in the United States, could be unveiled in the coming days. For NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, I'm Kayla Tausche in Washington. (END VIDEOTAPE) GRIFFETH: And joining us right now to talk more about the new tariffs and the impact they could have on the markets and the economy, joining us tonight, Art Hogan. He's chief market strategist with B. Riley FBR. And Josh Feinman is global chief economist at Deutsche Asset Management. Good to see you both. JOSHUA FEINMAN, DEUTSCHE ASSET MANAGEMENT GLOBAL CHIEF ECONOMIST: Good to be here. GRIFFETH: Art, how do you -- do you step aside and let things clear out or do you see opportunities already presenting themselves as a result of these tariffs being imposed? ART HOGAN, B. RILEY FBR CHIEF MARKET STRATEGIST: That's such a good question. And I think you have to think about that three ways. Yes, I think we overdo the selloffs, and today was certainly overdone. Can it get worse before it gets better? I certainly think so. I think fundamentally this market is underpriced and certainly more underpriced today than it was yesterday. I think the problem with this is we don't know how far our government will go with tariffs down the road to trade wars versus using this as a negotiating tactic. And it really feels like -- I think -- you know, I think Secretary Ross just said that. We hope to get a negotiated settlement. That's the best case scenario. Unfortunately, unintended consequences can creep up on us. So, until something like that turns economic and actually slows the economy down. I'll give you a great example. NAFTA, if we walk away from those negotiations, we'll lose a half a percentage GDP growth this year. That's something we need to make sure we accomplish. And the same thing would be true we got an extended trade war. That would be very bad for the economy. HERERA: Josh, weigh in on that if you would, because you say that although a benign outcome is certainly is not guaranteed, the realistic economic impact may be smaller than perhaps what Wall Street is fearing. FEINMAN: Yes, you look at the move today, while I think ill-advised, it affects a very small part of the U.S. economy. You are talking about less than less than three-tenths of 1 percent of GDP, even if you get some retaliatory measures from China and not likely to have big macro repercussions. And if this is just a negotiating gambit, OK, it will be fine. The worry, though, is that it could escalate into something more and it also that reflects a protectionist mindset, this view that somehow trade is a zero sum game, trade deficits are a sign of weakness and foreign malfeasance. And I think that's deeply misguided view and one that ignores the tremendous benefits that it accrued from the post-World War II free trade order, and the damage that could be done undermining that, and the damage that has been done in the past from protectionist forays. So, that's the worry that I have. GRIFFETH: Josh, at this point, we have not had the kind of inflation that the Fed might be hoping for oddly enough as they start to raise interest rates. If we impose these tariffs down the road, that could bring the inflation back, don't you think? FEINMAN: It could. It depends on the scope of the tariffs and so forth. It would likely be a short-term bump up, though. What -- not likely to have the kind of lasting effects on inflation to get inflation back up to 2 percent by itself. HERERA: So, Art, if you have a long term time horizon as an investor, you have a confluence of events that are going on, where you have the tariffs going into effect. You have Facebook and social media under fire possibly facing some regulation. What do you do? Do you put new money to work in those sectors because they come down so much or not? HOGAN: I think you asked the question the best way we should ask that question. If your time horizon is as a long term investor, a lot of this is noise and we won't be talking about it next year. Unfortunately, you know, in the news cycle that we're in, we're going to be talking about these things on a minute by minute basis. So, for example, I think we will see an administration that says these trade wars or these tariffs have adversely affected the economy and the market. Remember, they like use the market as a score card and you will see a pull back from that. I think regulation is probably good for social media. I think it's the Wild Wild West. I think it needs some. I think we'll see those valuations get replaced by perhaps the more normal towards what they're doing and I think we'll be fine with that. Right now, there is going to be volatility. There is more volatility this year than we have seen in any given year for the last ten years, right? So, if that makes you stay up at night, then your exposure of the market is probably a little too high and you should think about ratcheting it down. GRIFFETH: And quickly, Josh, if this is a headwind for the economy, does the Fed have to rethink its plan for raising interest rates later this year? FEINMAN: If it were a serious headwind, yes. I think based on what we've seen so far, it's likely not to turn into that. But that's the risk. And we'll just have to be watching it very carefully. When you rattle trade savers, you know, you run the risk of unleashing the adverse economic consequences. GRIFFETH: Josh Feinman with Deutsche Asset Management, Art Hogan with B. Riley FBR -- thank you both for joining us tonight. FEINMAN: Thank you. HOGAN: Thank you. HERERA: In Washington, the House passed a $1.3 trillion spending bill, the 2,200-page legislation will fund the government until October. It will increase military spending and a number of domestic programs. The measure now heads to the Senate where it is expected to pass with bipartisan support. And the president said that he will sign that bill once it reaches his desk. GRIFFETH: Meanwhile, a key congressional committee has asked Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify about that data scandal that improperly accessed personal information of about 50 million Facebook users. That pressured the stock again today. It's now down more than 10 percent over just the past week. Julia Boorstin talked to Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg today about the controversy and what she plans to do next. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JULIA BOORSTIN, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: With Facebook shares down 10 percent this week, chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg weighing in on the data privacy scandal that's raised concerns of users, investors, regulators, and advertisers. SANDBERG: This was a huge breach of trust. People come to Facebook every day and they depend upon us to protect their data. And I'm so sorry that we let so many people down. We spent the last few days trying to get to the bottom of what happened. Cambridge Analytica never should have had this data. They told us they deleted it. But it is our mistake that we did not verify that. Years ago, we changed platforms so apps get much less data. But that really wasn't enough. BOORSTIN: With advertiser Nestle today raising questions about consumer privacy, Sandberg stressed their business model does not put consumer data at risk. SANDBERG: We provide a free service. That's an ad-based business model. And in order to do that, we do not sell your data. We are able to show targeted advertising that's relevant to people. We're able to give advertisers aggregate anonymous reports, never telling them who you are. We believe that we can operate our service with our current business model, continue to provide a free service all around the world, and protect people's data. But we are going to have to earn that trust. BOORSTIN: Sandberg saying she wished that she and CEO Mark Zuckerberg had weighed in on this controversial issue sooner. She also said that they are laying out strong steps to prevent this from ever happening again and they are working to earn back consumers' trust. For NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, I'm Julia Boorstin in Menlo Park, California. (END VIDEOTAPE) HERERA: J.P. Eggers joins us now to discuss what a regulated Facebook would look like. He is a professor of management at New York University's Stern School of Business. Professor, welcome back. It's always good to have you here. J.P. EGGERS, PROFESSOR OF MANAGEMENT, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY'S STERN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS: Thank you very much. HERERA: You know, one of the clips that was not in Julia's piece was the question of regulation. And Ms. Sandberg basically was open to the concept of regulation, as was Mark Zuckerberg yesterday, which surprised a lot of people. It seems to me they think it is a foregone conclusion that that is coming their way. What do you think? EGGERS: Well, I think the recognition in a there is obviously been this -- as Ms. Sandberg said, kind of a breach of trust and the implications that the government and policymakers may want to try and weigh in on that and the implications of that, I think this becomes real question, can Facebook kind of help to co-create the regulations that would be put in place that would govern some degree of control over both advertising and the management of social media on line? To me, the real question is, you know, how deep those regulations would actually go if they were to be put in place, and how enforceable they would be. There's been discussions around things like transparency in advertising. But it's unclear how that would work, who would verify that, how that would be done in any way that would be reliable. Certainly, the government doesn't have the resources to go do that, and it's not on Facebook's interest to take on that responsibility. GRIFFETH: You anticipated my question, J.P., because I was going to ask what exactly you need to regulate. And Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged that it was transparency in advertising that he felt would be the target there. But it's not going to be just about Facebook. We're talking about perhaps all social media that would be subject to these regulations, right? EGGERS: Social media and just kind of online media in general. Look, I mean, Google is one -- Google is the biggest seller of advertising online. And if we are talking about ways to try and regulate transparency in advertising, it would certainly affect Google at least as much if not more than it would affect Facebook in this way. Obviously, those two big players are going to feel kind of a disproportionate volume of any sort of regulations that gets put in place because they are the main ones who are selling ads online. But, yes, I think this is the way in which Mark Zuckerberg is trying to push for this co-creation. You never want the regulators to come just after your business. You want them to be coming after the entire sector so that there's a level playing field as close as possible for all the firms. HERERA: Now, a number of these companies, obviously, do business globally and different countries have different rules about how they can function in their countries. The European models are much more conservative than the U.S. regulations. Might the companies try and avoid regulation by adopting some of those European regulations or European rules? EGGERS: I think certainly the risk would become that if -- if the companies resisted this sort of regulation, that the most stringent form available might be the one that's put in place, which would definitely be bad for their business. The ability to engage in micro-targeting, even if they're not selling data externally, but to help and facilitate micro- targeting for advertisers is a huge portion of what makes Facebook successful. And to the extent that there are data privacy limits that go beyond simply disclosure of how your data is used, but actual regulation of exactly how the data could and couldn't be used, that would be much more significant for Facebook's bottom line. HERERA: All right. J.P. Eggers, thanks so much for joining us again. EGGERS: Thank you. HERERA: J.P. is with the New York University's Stern School of Business. GRIFFETH: By the way, Commerce Bank and Mozilla are temporarily pulling their advertising from Facebook because of this user data controversy. Commerce Bank cited brand safety and data security. And in a blog post, browser maker Mozilla said despite promises from Facebook executives, it takes issue with the social media company's default privacy setting. Mozilla said that when Facebook takes stronger action in how it shares customer data, it will consider returning. HERERA: It is time to look at some of today's upgrades and downgrades. The auto parts maker Visteon was downgraded two notches to underweight from overweight at Morgan Stanley. That's Wall Street's only sell rating on the stock. The firm says Visteon could be an acquisition target but the level of insider selling suggests the deal is unlikely in the near term. Price target was cut to $110 a share. The shares dropped 6 percent to $113.45. Trivago shares were cut to underweight from neutral at J.P. Morgan. The analyst there says its hotel search business remains challenged. The price target is now $8. Trivago shares fell 5 percent to $7.40 -- Bill. GRIFFETH: J.P. Morgan also downgraded online car shopping service provider TrueCar to under weight from neutral. The firm is concerned about weak automotive industry trends overall and the price target, they cut down to $10 a share. The stock fell 1 percent to $9.80, just below that. Ralph Lauren's rating was raised to outperform from market perform at Cowen and Company. The analyst says that the luxury brand growth could accelerate as a result of its marketing and digital strategy. The price target was raised to $122 a share. Shares, though, were down along with the rest of the market, closing 1 percent lower to $107.66. HERERA: Still ahead, Nike just does it, reporting better than expected earnings. And that could set the tone for trading tomorrow. (MUSIC) GRIFFETH: Late today, cloud storage company Dropbox priced its IPO above expectations. According to CNBC, the highly anticipated offering priced at $21 a share. The range was anywhere between $18 and $20. Dropbox is expected to start trading tomorrow. It will be the largest tech IPO since Snap started trading more than a year ago -- Sue. HERERA: Bill, the Dow component Nike reported better than expected earnings and revenue fueled by growth in its international sales and its momentum in China. The CEO said he sees a sales slump though in the U.S. reversing. And that sent the stock initially higher in afterhours trading. Courtney Reagan has more on Nike's results. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) COURTNEY REAGAN, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Nike's strong third quarter results driven by strong international sales. Sales coming in stronger than expected in Europe, greater China, and Asia Pacific, though Nike's North America's sales disappoint. CEO Mark Parker says sales direct to consumers rather than through retail partner like a department store grew double digits internationally, with China leading the way. It is been a difficult week for Nike after Parker sent a memo to employees revealing allegations of inappropriate workplace behavior had been reported and two executives left in the wake of that announcement, though Nike didn't directly tie them to those allegations. For NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, I'm Courtney Reagan. (END VIDEOTAPE) GRIFFETH: Chip maker Micron beats expectations. And that's where we begin tonight's "Market Focus". After the bell, the company said that broad-based demand for its memory and storage products led to a strong quarter. The company expects that to continue. That's why it gave guidance for the current quarter above estimates. Shares were volatile in the after-hours. They finished the regular session, though, down more than 3 percent at $58.92. Higher selling prices helped earnings topped estimates at home builder KB Home. Orders rose and they were also stronger than expected. But investors focused on revenue which came in late. Shares were volatile in after-hours and finished the regular session down 3 percent at $28.84. Darden said that an increase in the number of restaurants in operation helped profits topped expectations. The owner of Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse said that it raised its earnings guidance for the rest of the year. Overall sales, though, were a sore spot for this quarter. They rose less than anticipated. Darden shares off nearly 8 percent today to $85.94. HERERA: New product launches helped G-III apparel grow sales and profit above street expectations. But the owner of brands like Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein gave guidance for 2019 that was below street estimates. Shares of G-III plunged 12 percent today to $33.01. Carnival said a rise onboard spending helped that cruise line topped both sales and profit expectations. The company said demand remains strong. Carnival shares fell 1 percent to $66.20. GRIFFETH: Coming up, AT&T spars with the U.S. government. At stake, $85 billion, and Time Warner. We head to court, next. (MUSIC) GRIFFEH: The biggest antitrust case in a generation is finally gotten underway. The Justice Department, as you know, is suing to block AT&T's $85 billion merger with Time Warner. Hampton Pearson is at the courthouse for us tonight -- Hampton. HAMPTON PEARSON, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bill, this was like really opening day of that long awaited legal battle between the Department of Justice antitrust and AT&T Time Warner. Opening arguments attended by, among others, AT&T's CEO Randall Stephenson, as well as his Time Warner colleague Jeff Bewkes. What they heard once they were in court is the government in essence saying that this merger would see consumers paying higher prices and less innovation going forward for all of the video however they choose to receive it, whether it's on a TV, smart phone, or tablet going forward. The lead government lawyer even said in court that AT&T would use Time Warner as a weapon against its competitors and to some degree against consumers in future negotiations going forward because Time Warner is considered to be must-have content. On the flip side, AT&T says the government has it backwards. They have to get in the game because of the likes of Facebook, Netflix, Amazon and Google that are getting more and more subscribers in their online formats and frankly twinning to win the war with advertisers. This trial is expected to last six to eight weeks. We're just getting started. GRIFFETH: All right. Hampton Pearson for us in Washington tonight -- thank you, Hampton. And there's more sad news from the Toys "R" Us world tonight. The founder of the toy retailer has passed away at the age of 84. The great Charles Lazarus, he founded the company 70 years ago. He rightly anticipated that the post-war baby boom would create demand for baby supplies and toys. Boy, was he right. He remained CEO of the company until 1994, and the man who succeeded him called Charles Lazarus the father of the toy business. HERERA: Before we go, here's another look at today's selloff on Wall Street. And it accelerated as we went into the close. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 724 points to 23,957. The Nasdaq lost 178, almost 179 points to 7,166. And the S&P lost 68 points. So, quite a day on the street. GRIFFETH: Indeed. HERERA: That does it for us tonight. I'm Sue Herera. Thanks for joining us. GRIFFETH: I'm Bill Griffeth. Have a great evening. See you tomorrow. END Nightly Business Report transcripts and video are available on-line post broadcast at http://nbr.com. The program is transcribed by ASC Services II Media, LLC. Updates may be posted at a later date. The views of our guests and commentators are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Nightly Business Report, or CNBC, Inc. Information presented on Nightly Business Report is not and should not be considered as investment advice. (c) 2018 CNBC, Inc. [Copy: Content and programming copyright 2018 CNBC, Inc. Copyright 2018 ASC Services II Media, LLC. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of ASC Services II Media, LLC. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.]
Subject: Investments; Tariffs; Dow Jones averages; War; Social networks; Copyright; Presidents; Stock exchanges
Location: United States--US New York China
People: Trump, Donald J Linebarger, Norman Thomas
Company / organization: Name: New York Stock Exchange--NYSE; NAICS: 523210; Name: Facebook Inc; NAICS: 518210, 519130; Name: AT & T Inc; NAICS: 517110, 517210
Publication title: Nightly Business Report; Washington
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 22, 2018
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: Washington
Country of publication: United States, Washington
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Other Sources
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2016990317
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2016990317?accountid=4840
Copyright: 2018 Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc.
Last updated: 2019-06-27
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 195 of 474
Calendar: Highlights from around town
Author: Daily Pilot Staff
Publication info: Los Angeles Times (Online) , Los Angeles: Tribune Interactive, LLC. Mar 22, 2018.
Abstract:
The garden center is located at 2301 San Joaquin Hills Road, Corona del Mar. [...]APRIL 27 Witte Lectures The Newport Beach Public Library Foundation will hold the 21st annual Witte Lectures, featuring speakers David Frum, Masha Gessen and Maira Kalman from February through April. The events will be held at the library at 1000 Avocado Ave. For more information, visit www.nbplfoundation.org/content/The-Witte-Lectures.html. [...]MAY 30 Russell Pierce The work of famed artist Russell Pierce will be on display at the Community Art Project gallery at 260 Ocean Ave., on the second floor near the Wells Fargo building in Laguna Beach. For more information, visit www.caplaguna.org. [...]JUNE 21 California Impressionists The “Harmony of Light: Spring in California” exhibit will be displayed at the Irvine Museum of Collection at the University of California, Irvine, 18881 Von Karman Ave. The showcase features paintings from California impressionists depicting springtime in the state. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.oc-musicfest.com/. [...]AUG. 9 Rainforest Adventure A Rainforest Adventure exhibit is featured at Discovery Cube at 2500 N. Main St., Santa Ana.Full text: A roundup of community events throughout Orange County. To submit items, email [email protected] TILL MARCH 25 Roger’s Gardens Roger’s Gardens will be celebrating the Spring season with “display gardens” and various workshops. The garden center is located at 2301 San Joaquin Hills Road, Corona del Mar. It’s open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. TILL APRIL 27 Witte Lectures The Newport Beach Public Library Foundation will hold the 21st annual Witte Lectures, featuring speakers David Frum, Masha Gessen and Maira Kalman from February through April. The events will be held at the library at 1000 Avocado Ave. For more information, visit www.nbplfoundation.org/content/The-Witte-Lectures.html. TILL MAY 30 Russell Pierce The work of famed artist Russell Pierce will be on display at the Community Art Project gallery at 260 Ocean Ave., on the second floor near the Wells Fargo building in Laguna Beach. For more information, visit www.caplaguna.org. TILL JUNE 21 California Impressionists The “Harmony of Light: Spring in California” exhibit will be displayed at the Irvine Museum of Collection at the University of California, Irvine, 18881 Von Karman Ave. The showcase features paintings from California impressionists depicting springtime in the state. For more information, visit irvinemuseumcollection.uci.edu/event/harmony-light-spring-california/. MARCH 23 TILL APRIL 8 Bubblefest Bubblefest, which includes a variety of bubble-related activities, will be held at the Discovery Cube at 2500 N. Main St., Santa Ana. For more information, visit oc.discoverycube.org. MARCH 24 Mick Adams and the Stones Mick Adams and the Stones, a Rolling Stones tribute show, will be featured at 8 p.m. at the Newport Dunes Waterfront Resort at 1131 Back Bay Drive, Newport Beach. Standing tickets are $15 and $20 for seating. They can be purchased at http://bit.ly/2E9VMC3. MARCH 24 AND 25 La Bayadère The Ballet Repertory Theatre will perform “La Bayadère,” or the Temple Dancer, at 7 p.m. March 24 and 2 p.m. March 25 at the Golden West College theater at 15751 Gothard St., Huntington Beach. For more information, visit www.gwctheater.com. ‘Coppelia’ The Festival Ballet Theatre will present, “Coppelia,” a family-friendly romantic ballet, at 7 p.m. March 24 and 2 p.m. March 25 at Irvine Barclay Theatre at 4242 Campus Drive, Irvine. Tickets, ranging from $42 to $55, can be purchased at thebarclay.org or by calling (949) 854-4646, Ext. 1. MARCH 25 Orange County Wind Symphony The Orange County Wind Symphony will perform compositions, including Dmitri Shostakovich’s “Festive Overture” at 6:30 p.m. at Servite High School at 1952 W. LaPalma Ave., Anaheim. For more information, visit www.ocsymphony.org. Cristina Montes Mateo The Newport Beach Public Library will feature a performance by harpist Cristina Montes Mateo at 3 p.m. in the Central Library Friends Room at 1000 Avocado Ave., Newport Beach. It will include works by Spohr, Guridi, Grandjany, Saint-Saëns, Godefroid, Gombau and Falla. Lord of the Strings The Lord of the Strings concert series will be held at 3 p.m. at LCA Wine at SOCO at 3303 Hyland Ave., Costa Mesa. The show will feature Joe Scott and Hannah Alkire, also known as Acoustic Eidolon. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.lordofthestringsconcerts.com/schedule---tickets.html. Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation The Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation will be holding the Reaching for the Cure Marathon starting at 7 a.m. at Irvine Valley College at 5500 Irvine Center Drive, Irvine. For more information, visit www.facebook.com/events/227579234453573/. MARCH 31 Fundraiser The Western High School Pioneers Forever Alumni Assn. will hold a fundraiser featuring a series of local folkloric dance groups all day at the John F. Kennedy Performing Art Center, 8281 Walker St., La Palma. For tickets, visit www.bolsatickets.com. Easter Bunny The Easter Bunny will be available for photos from noon to 3 p.m. at Bella Terra at 7777 Edinger Ave., Huntington Beach. For more information, visit www.bellaterra-hb.com/. Easter Celebration An Easter celebration will be held from noon to 3 p.m. at the Outlets at San Clemente at Oak Tree Court, 101 W. Avenida Vista Hermosa, San Clemente. The free, family-friendly event will include live animal shows featuring bunnies, porcupines, alligators and a kinkajou, face painting, balloon artists, and crafts. For more information, visit www.outletsatsanclemente.com. Lido Marina Village Children’s crafts, a balloon artist, face painter and live music will be featured at a Spring celebration from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Lido Marina Village at 3434 Via Oporto, Newport Beach. Dean Torrence and the Vertikals Band Dean Torrence and the Vertikals Band will perform from 7 p.m. to midnight at the Hilton Orange County Airport at 18800 MacArthur Blvd., Irvine. The event, presented by the Lemondrop Club, costs $20. For more information, visit www.lemondropclub.com/. APRIL 5 Kavita Shah and Francois Moutin Vocalist Kavita Shah and bassist François Moutin will perform at 2 p.m. at Saddleback College at 28000 Marguerite Parkway, Mission Viejo. Admission is free. For more information, visit www.saddleback.edu/news/arts/concert-hour-francois-moutin-kavita-shah. APRIL 6 TILL 8 ‘The Little Dog Laughed’ The Golden West College Theater Arts Department will present the play, “The Little Dog Laughed,” at 7:30 p.m. April 6 and 7 and at 2 p.m. April 8 at the Golden West College Theater at 15751 Gothard St., Huntington Beach. General admission is $12 and $10 for seniors, veterans, and students. For more information, visit www.gwctheater.com. APRIL 6 TILL MAY 6 ‘Sister Act’ The Costa Mesa Playhouse will conclude 53 seasons of shows with the hit musical, “Sister Act.” Performances are 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays at the playhouse at 661 Hamilton St., Costa Mesa. For more information, visit www.costamesaplayhouse.com. APRIL 7 Music Festival Tickets are on sale for Sabroso’s Craft Beer, Taco and Music Festival, which will feature a variety of bands including the Offspring. The event will be held at Doheny State Beach in Dana Point. Tickets, starting at $45.50, can be purchased at sabrosotacofest.com/. APRIL 7 AND 8 The Creation! The Orange County Women’s Chorus and Men in Blaque will be celebrating their 20th anniversaries with collaborative performances of Haydn’s “The Creation!,” at 7 p.m. April 7 and 3 p.m. April 8 at St. Wilfrid of York Episcopal Church, 18631 Chapel Lane, Huntington Beach. For more information, visit www.ocwomenschorus.org. APRIL 12 Wild and Crazy Taco Night The 25th annual Wild and Crazy Taco Night will be held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Share Our Selves at 1550 Superior Ave., Costa Mesa. The event, which will feature beer, margaritas and tacos, costs $75 for general admission until April 1, when the price increases to $85. VIP tickets cost $150. To purchase tickets, visit www.shareourselves.org/events. National Library Week In celebration of National Library Week, the Newport Beach Public Library will host a program at 7 p.m. with Annie Spence, author of “Dear Fahrenheit 451: Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks: A Librarian’s Love Letters and Break Up Notes to the Books in Her Life.” For more information, visit www.newportbeachlibrary.org. APRIL 13 TO 15 Costa Mesa Bead and Design Show The Costa Mesa Bead and Design Show will run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day at the Hilton Costa Mesa at 3050 Bristol St. Artisans will be selling handcrafted products. Tickets are $8 in advance and $10 at the door. For more information, visit www.beadanddesign.com. APRIL 14 Micro-Brew Fest The eighth annual San Clemente Micro-Brew Fest will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. at Left Coast Brewing at 1245 Puerta Del Sol, San Clemente. The event will feature microbrews from all over Southern California, including Oggi’s Sports Brewhouse Pizza, the Bruery, and Four Sons Brewing Co. General admission presale tickets are $40, GA at the door is $45, and VIP is $50. APRIL 19 TILL APRIL 22 ‘Noises Off!’ The Huntington Beach Academy for the Performing Arts will feature the play “Noises Off!” at 7:30 p.m. each day with one show at 2 p.m. April 22 at the Historic Auditorium at Huntington Beach High School, 1905 Main St. Tickets are $22 for adults and $16 for students/seniors 65+. They are available at www.hbapa.org/see. APRIL 21 Project Self-Sufficiency Project Self-Sufficiency will hold their eighth annual Wine, Cheese and Chocolate Please auction at Mile Square Golf Course at 10401 Warner Ave., Fountain Valley. The program supports low-income parents in Orange County. For more information, visit www.winecheeseandchocolateplease.com/. TILL APRIL 25 Festival of Arts Exhibit The Festival of Arts is featuring a new exhibit at foaSOUTH showcasing the work of artist Bradford J. Salamon. The exhibit is located at 1006 S. Coast Highway, Laguna Beach. For more information, visit www.LagunaFestivalofArts.com. APRIL 27 Joey Alexander Trio Joey Alexander, a renowned teenage pianist, will be performing with his trio at 7:30 p.m. at Musco Center for the Arts at Chapman University at One University Drive, Orange. For more information, visit muscocenter.org/event/joey-alexander-trio/. MAY 4 TILL 6 OC Music Fest The Orange County Music Festival will be returning to Lakeview Park near Irvine Lake at 5305 E. Santiago Canyon Road, Orange. The weekend music and camping festival is returning after a three-year hiatus. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.oc-musicfest.com/. TILL AUG. 9 Rainforest Adventure A Rainforest Adventure exhibit is featured at Discovery Cube at 2500 N. Main St., Santa Ana. For more information, visit www.oc.discoverycube.org. MAY 18 Literacy Author Luncheon The 11th annual Gift of Literacy Author Luncheon, presented by Newport/Mesa ProLiteracy, will be held at 11:30 a.m. at the Pacific Club at 4111 MacArthur Blvd., Newport Beach. The luncheon will feature a speech from author Janelle Brown, who penned the novels, “Watch Me Disappear,” “All We Ever Wanted Was Everything,” and “This Is Where We Live.” Tickets cost $95 and include a copy of the book “Watch Me Disappear.” For more information, visit www.newportliteracy.org. MAY 18 TILL 20 Fiesta The Saint Edward Parish Fiesta will be held from 5 to 10 p.m. May 18, noon to 10 p.m. May 19 and noon to 8 p.m. May 20 at 33926 Calle La Primavera, Dana Point. The free event will feature carnival rides, games and live entertainment. For more information, visit www.stedwardfiesta.org. MAY 27 Natalia Lafourcade Grammy Award-winning musician Natalia Lafourcade will perform at 6 p.m. at Musco Center for the Arts at Chapman University at One University Drive, Orange. For more information, visit muscocenter.org/event/natalia-lafourcade/. JUNE 9 Children’s Bureau The Children’s Bureau, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit, will be holding a fundraiser for the prevention and treatment of child abuse from 6 to 9:30 p.m. at Oak Creek Golf Club at One Golf Club Drive, Irvine. A ticket costs $300. For more information, visit www.all4kids.org/soiree. JUNE 17 Matt Mauser Matt Mauser will perform a celebration of the music of Frank Sinatra from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Civic Center Green at 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach. The free concert is presented by the Newport Beach City Arts Commission as part of a Newport Beach concert series. JULY 15 The Springsteen Experience The Springsteen Experience will perform from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Civic Center Green at 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach. The free concert is presented by the Newport Beach City Arts Commission as part of a Newport Beach concert series. AUG. 6 Teeing for Tusks A golf tournament will be held to fund programs that support anti-poaching efforts in Africa. “Teeing for Tusks” will run from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at Monarch Beach Golf Links at 50 Monarch Beach Resort, Dana Point. A single golfer entree is $300 and a team of four is $1,200. Register at charityvalet.com/tusks18. AUG. 12 Tijuana Dogs The Tijuana Dogs will perform from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Civic Center Green at 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach. The free concert is presented by the Newport Beach City Arts Commission as part of a Newport Beach concert series. SEPT. 9 Desperado Eagles Tribute The Desperado Eagles Tribute will perform from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Civic Center Green at 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach. The free concert is presented by the Newport Beach City Arts Commission as part of a Newport Beach concert series. ONGOING Farmers’ Market The SOCO Farmers’ Market, held at 3315 Hyland Ave., Costa Mesa, is from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays and features coffee and pastry shops, home decor, and fashion. For more information, visit farmermark.com/soco. Wetlands tour Amigos de Bolsa Chica hosts a tour of the wetlands from 9 to 10:30 a.m. the first Saturday of every month, departing every 15 minutes from the footbridge in the south parking lot of the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve. The tour is led by docents and participants will learn about the birds, endangered species, history, ecology and restoration of the wetlands. For more information, call (714) 840-1575 or email [email protected]. Walking Club The Newport-Mesa Walking Club offers free walks at 9 a.m. and 7 pm. Mondays through Saturdays. For more information, call (949) 600-0966. Monthly Beach Cleanup Community beach cleanups are held on the first Saturday of the month from 10 a.m. to noon. In Laguna Beach, the cleanup locations with supplies are Hobie Sport, Thalia Surf, El Ranchito and United Studios of Self Defense. Participants can ask for “zero trash discounts.” For more information, email Chip McDermott at [email protected]. Hortense Miller Garden The Hortense Miller Garden covers 2 1/2 acres of the upper slopes of Boat Canyon and features a range of plants and small themed gardens. Tours through the garden and private residence are at 9:45 a.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, and must be scheduled two weeks in advance. For more information, call (949) 497-0716, ext. 6. Preschool Stories The Laguna Beach Public Library, 363 Glenneyre St., presents Preschool Story Time at 11 a.m. Wednesdays, followed by cookies and punch. For more information, call (949) 497-1733. Susi Q Needle Art Guild The Needle Art Guilt meets at the Susi Q Senior Center from 1 to 3:30 p.m. the last Friday of each month to create various items for local organizations, including Mission Hospital's oncology unit and the Friendship Shelter. All ages and levels of knitters and crocheters are welcome. In addition, a new needle art technique will be discussed each month. Yarn and monetary donations are always appreciated. This is a free activity. For more information, call (949) 497-2241. Newland House Tour The historic Newland House Museum, 19820 Beach Blvd., Huntington Beach, offers tours from local historians who provide information about the two-story Victorian home built in 1898. The museum is open from noon to 4 p.m. the first and third Saturday and Sunday of the month. Cost is $2 for adults, $1 for children. For information, call (714) 960-0055. Crafty Kids Club Huntington Beach Central Library hosts Crafty Kids Club at 2 p.m. Saturdays at the library, at 7111 Talbert Ave. Children about 5 through 9 years old are invited to enjoy stories and related crafts. Call (714) 375-5107. Press zero to speak with a librarian. Laptime Storytime The Huntington Beach Library presents Laptime Storytime at 9:15, 10 and 11 a.m. Tuesdays and 10 a.m. Saturdays at 7111 Talbert Ave. for children 18 months to 3 years old. The library's Preschool Storytime for children 3 to 5 are at 10 and 11 a.m. Fridays. Call (714) 375-5107. Bolsa Chica Walking Tour A two-hour walking tour of the Bolsa Chica mesa and wetlands is conducted at 10 a.m. on the third Sunday of every month by the Bolsa Chica Land Trust. This docent-led tour makes five stops along the walk bridge and loop trails of the wetlands. Meet in the south reserve parking lot on Pacific Coast Highway across from Bolsa Chica State Beach. Warm clothing, comfortable shoes and binoculars are recommended. Tours are free and open to the public. Call (714) 846-1001 or go to bolsachicalandtrust.org. Newport Beach Walking Club A Newport Beach walking club meets 7 to 8.30 p.m. Monday to Friday at the Union Bank parking lot on Jamboree and Bayside Road. To join call Loyda at (949) 600-0966. Tutoring People can volunteer to tutor children each week at El Morro Elementary School at 8681 N. Coast Highway, Laguna Beach. The tutoring sessions are provided by the Learning Club, which operates two afternoons a week from January to May. For more information, visit aauw2-lagunabeach.org. Photography Contest The Newport Beach City Arts Commission is holding a photography contest through April 15. Contestants can submit pictures of a series of new sculptures at Civic Center Park at 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach. Submissions should be emailed to [email protected]. For more information, visit www.newportbeachca.gov/culturalarts. Credit: Daily Pilot Staff
Subject: Tutoring; Public speaking; Medical research; Families & family life; Public libraries; Art; Walking; Theater; Pediatrics; Music festivals; Museums; Ballet
Location: Costa Mesa California Laguna Beach California Huntington Beach California California Newport Beach California San Clemente California Bolsa Chica
People: Shah, Kavita
Company / organization: Name: Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation; NAICS: 813211
Publication title: Los Angeles Times (Online); Los Angeles
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 22, 2018
Section: Socal - Daily Pilot - Entertainment
Publisher: Tribune Interactive, LLC
Place of publication: Los Angeles
Country of publication: United States, Los Angeles
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Blogs, Podcasts, & Websites
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2017 105072
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2017105072?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Tribune Interactive, LLC Mar 22, 2018
Last updated: 2019-03-01
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 196 of 474
NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT for March 22, 2018, PBS
Publication info: Technology Wire ; Lanham [Lanham]22 Mar 2018. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: ANNOUNCER: This is NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT with Sue Herera and Bill Griffeth. BILL GRIFFETH, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT ANCHOR: Tariffs and technology. Those two big concerns for the market sense the Dow plunging more than 700 points. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have a tremendous intellectual property theft situation going on. (END VIDEO CLIP) SUE HERERA, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT ANCHOR: The president turns up the heat on China, announcing a new round of tariffs, sparking concerns of a trade war. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SHERYL SANDBERG, FACEBOOK COO: If we find misuse, we're going to tell people. (END VIDEO CLIP) GRIFFETH: Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg vows to better protect users. But is the next step regulation? Those stories and more tonight on NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT for this Thursday, March the 22nd. HERERA: Good evening, everyone, and welcome. A sell off on Wall Street. All 30 Dow components closed lower, about two- thirds of the stocks in that index fell more than 1 percent today. Half of the S&P 500 is now in correction territory. Investors became unnerved after the White House unveiled a new round of tariffs that some fear could threaten the trade war with China, the world's second largest economy. So, by the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had plunged 724 points to 23,957, a nearly 3 percent decline. The Nasdaq fell 178. And the S&P 500 lost 68. The biggest losers on the Dow were the major industrials like Caterpillar, Boeing, and 3M. Bob Pisani reports tonight on that selloff from the New York Stock Exchange. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BOB PISANI, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Stocks closed right around their worst levels of the session with the Dow down more than 700 points. That's right, 700 points. The markets are clearly concerned about two things. Number one, technology. And number two, trade. Two big issues. President Donald Trump announced he would be imposing tariffs of up to $60 billion on Chinese goods over the next few weeks. No details on which products will be taxed by how much yet. But he did say there would be a 30-day grace period to negotiate those terms. Shares of U.S. and other metals and mining stocks got slammed on news that Trump will be exempting a handful of allies from steel and aluminum tariffs, including the European Unions, South Korea and Brazil. In fact, U.S. steel is down 20 percent since those tariffs were first announced a few weeks ago. It looks like they are not as tough as some people thought they might be. Facebook is facing an existential crisis right now. In fact, the whole social media group is. And that's weighing heavily on all the other social media stocks. The stock market has lost its team leadership group, technology, and social media is part of that. And there's really nothing taking its place. The subsectors that powered tech high, which were semiconductors and the FANG names, your Facebook, your Apples, and your Amazons, they stopped advancing and in most cases, they reversed. So, once those FANG and semiconductor stocks stopped going up in the second week of March, the market stalled out because no other sector has stepped forward to lead the market higher. Industrials and materials are suffering from these trade war concerns. FANGs can't move higher without the help of higher volume. That's not happening. On top of that, drama in Washington is still on the front burner. Stocks did fall earlier on word in a John Dowd, President Trump's lead lawyer in the Russia probe had resigned. For NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, I'm Bob Pisani at the New York Stock Exchange. (END VIDEOTAPE) GRIFFETH: Mike Santoli is also at the New York Stock Exchange. He joins us tonight with some more insights on this decline. I think you were the one who coined the term tariff tantrum. Is that -- is that all we saw today, or was there more going on, do you think? MIKE SANTOLI, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: I don't take the blame or the credit for that one. Yes, I don't think it was all we were seeing today but I think that was the added element this morning, right at the outset, that came upon a market that also was already concerned about this general notion that interest rates are going up, this Fed is looking for opportunities to bring rates higher if they can, if the economic data allow for that. And then, you know, as Bob was saying, the loss of leadership from the big tech group, which a lot of investors I think were hiding in because it seems seemed like they could grow in almost any environment. But the tariff issue is a reminder that policy across a bunch of fronts, whether it is trade or monetary policy have turned a little bit less friendly than we got used to last year. HERERA: The volume, though, Mike. I mean, it didn't seem like they were just throwing stocks out the window today. Was that mostly the professionals who were selling? SANTOLI: Interesting. No, you are absolutely right, Sue. It was not a feeling of panic. It was not this mass liquidation of stocks. As a matter of fact, a couple of folks are pointing out that small cap stocks had outperformed the large cap indexes. So, the more domestically focused businesses seemed like they were not caught up in this selloff quite much. The volumes weren't that high. The volatility index definitely got up there, but not at levels we saw in early February. So, it was a somewhat lower intensity selloff than what we did see in early February. Whether that something that means that folks are more likely to buy it at this level or not is not clear, but it definitely was not indiscriminate. GRIFFETH: Mike Santoli at the New York Stock Exchange for us tonight -- thanks, Mike. SANTOLI: Thank you. HERERA: So, as we mentioned, the president did announce his toughest trade action to date. And as Kayla Tausche reports from Washington, there are fears of more to come. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) KAYLA TAUSCHE, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: President Trump signed an order that paved the way for steep tariffs on a wide range of Chinese imports. The move marks the end of its seven-month investigation into Chinese tactics to challenge U.S. technology dominance. TRUMP: We have a tremendous intellectual property situation going on. So, we're going to get it taken care of. And frankly, it's going to make us a much stronger, much richer nation. TAUSCHE: The action comes as the U.S. is imposing tariffs on all imports of steel and aluminum with certain allies and products exempted, and on top of tariffs on Chinese made solar panels. U.S. exporters including soybean farmers, pork producers, and aircraft maker Boeing are bracing for a counter-punch from China, which says it will take all necessary measures to safeguard its interests. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told lawmakers that kind of retaliation is unfair but doesn't change things. ROBERT LIGHTHIZER, U.S. TRADE REPRESENTATIVE: It's not possible to take the position that because we are soybean farmers, we're not going to stick up for our rights in a whole variety of ways and have hundreds of billions of dollars worth of exporters and domestic producers be punished because of unfair trade. TAUSCHE: There CEO of engine maker Cummins, Tom Linebarger, fears the administration's approach is leading to a trade war. TOM LINEBARGER, CEO CUMMINS: We agree there are challenges in China. We just want to address it in a different way, a way that's proven effective over many, many decades, as opposed to unilateral tariffs which have always proven ineffective. TAUSCHE: But Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross says those fears are overblown. WILBUR ROSS, COMMERCE SECRETARY: I think there will be some ultimate retaliation, but I don't think it's going to be the end of the earth. There may be some firing shots over the bow. But I believe at the end of the day, this will end up in a negotiated settlement. TAUSCHE: A senior administration official tells me this is just the kickoff to a set of multiple penalties against China and that further actions, namely restrictions on Chinese investments in the United States, could be unveiled in the coming days. For NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, I'm Kayla Tausche in Washington. (END VIDEOTAPE) GRIFFETH: And joining us right now to talk more about the new tariffs and the impact they could have on the markets and the economy, joining us tonight, Art Hogan. He's chief market strategist with B. Riley FBR. And Josh Feinman is global chief economist at Deutsche Asset Management. Good to see you both. JOSHUA FEINMAN, DEUTSCHE ASSET MANAGEMENT GLOBAL CHIEF ECONOMIST: Good to be here. GRIFFETH: Art, how do you -- do you step aside and let things clear out or do you see opportunities already presenting themselves as a result of these tariffs being imposed? ART HOGAN, B. RILEY FBR CHIEF MARKET STRATEGIST: That's such a good question. And I think you have to think about that three ways. Yes, I think we overdo the selloffs, and today was certainly overdone. Can it get worse before it gets better? I certainly think so. I think fundamentally this market is underpriced and certainly more underpriced today than it was yesterday. I think the problem with this is we don't know how far our government will go with tariffs down the road to trade wars versus using this as a negotiating tactic. And it really feels like -- I think -- you know, I think Secretary Ross just said that. We hope to get a negotiated settlement. That's the best case scenario. Unfortunately, unintended consequences can creep up on us. So, until something like that turns economic and actually slows the economy down. I'll give you a great example. NAFTA, if we walk away from those negotiations, we'll lose a half a percentage GDP growth this year. That's something we need to make sure we accomplish. And the same thing would be true we got an extended trade war. That would be very bad for the economy. HERERA: Josh, weigh in on that if you would, because you say that although a benign outcome is certainly is not guaranteed, the realistic economic impact may be smaller than perhaps what Wall Street is fearing. FEINMAN: Yes, you look at the move today, while I think ill-advised, it affects a very small part of the U.S. economy. You are talking about less than less than three-tenths of 1 percent of GDP, even if you get some retaliatory measures from China and not likely to have big macro repercussions. And if this is just a negotiating gambit, OK, it will be fine. The worry, though, is that it could escalate into something more and it also that reflects a protectionist mindset, this view that somehow trade is a zero sum game, trade deficits are a sign of weakness and foreign malfeasance. And I think that's deeply misguided view and one that ignores the tremendous benefits that it accrued from the post-World War II free trade order, and the damage that could be done undermining that, and the damage that has been done in the past from protectionist forays. So, that's the worry that I have. GRIFFETH: Josh, at this point, we have not had the kind of inflation that the Fed might be hoping for oddly enough as they start to raise interest rates. If we impose these tariffs down the road, that could bring the inflation back, don't you think? FEINMAN: It could. It depends on the scope of the tariffs and so forth. It would likely be a short-term bump up, though. What -- not likely to have the kind of lasting effects on inflation to get inflation back up to 2 percent by itself. HERERA: So, Art, if you have a long term time horizon as an investor, you have a confluence of events that are going on, where you have the tariffs going into effect. You have Facebook and social media under fire possibly facing some regulation. What do you do? Do you put new money to work in those sectors because they come down so much or not? HOGAN: I think you asked the question the best way we should ask that question. If your time horizon is as a long term investor, a lot of this is noise and we won't be talking about it next year. Unfortunately, you know, in the news cycle that we're in, we're going to be talking about these things on a minute by minute basis. So, for example, I think we will see an administration that says these trade wars or these tariffs have adversely affected the economy and the market. Remember, they like use the market as a score card and you will see a pull back from that. I think regulation is probably good for social media. I think it's the Wild Wild West. I think it needs some. I think we'll see those valuations get replaced by perhaps the more normal towards what they're doing and I think we'll be fine with that. Right now, there is going to be volatility. There is more volatility this year than we have seen in any given year for the last ten years, right? So, if that makes you stay up at night, then your exposure of the market is probably a little too high and you should think about ratcheting it down. GRIFFETH: And quickly, Josh, if this is a headwind for the economy, does the Fed have to rethink its plan for raising interest rates later this year? FEINMAN: If it were a serious headwind, yes. I think based on what we've seen so far, it's likely not to turn into that. But that's the risk. And we'll just have to be watching it very carefully. When you rattle trade savers, you know, you run the risk of unleashing the adverse economic consequences. GRIFFETH: Josh Feinman with Deutsche Asset Management, Art Hogan with B. Riley FBR -- thank you both for joining us tonight. FEINMAN: Thank you. HOGAN: Thank you. HERERA: In Washington, the House passed a $1.3 trillion spending bill, the 2,200-page legislation will fund the government until October. It will increase military spending and a number of domestic programs. The measure now heads to the Senate where it is expected to pass with bipartisan support. And the president said that he will sign that bill once it reaches his desk. GRIFFETH: Meanwhile, a key congressional committee has asked Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify about that data scandal that improperly accessed personal information of about 50 million Facebook users. That pressured the stock again today. It's now down more than 10 percent over just the past week. Julia Boorstin talked to Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg today about the controversy and what she plans to do next. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JULIA BOORSTIN, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: With Facebook shares down 10 percent this week, chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg weighing in on the data privacy scandal that's raised concerns of users, investors, regulators, and advertisers. SANDBERG: This was a huge breach of trust. People come to Facebook every day and they depend upon us to protect their data. And I'm so sorry that we let so many people down. We spent the last few days trying to get to the bottom of what happened. Cambridge Analytica never should have had this data. They told us they deleted it. But it is our mistake that we did not verify that. Years ago, we changed platforms so apps get much less data. But that really wasn't enough. BOORSTIN: With advertiser Nestle today raising questions about consumer privacy, Sandberg stressed their business model does not put consumer data at risk. SANDBERG: We provide a free service. That's an ad-based business model. And in order to do that, we do not sell your data. We are able to show targeted advertising that's relevant to people. We're able to give advertisers aggregate anonymous reports, never telling them who you are. We believe that we can operate our service with our current business model, continue to provide a free service all around the world, and protect people's data. But we are going to have to earn that trust. BOORSTIN: Sandberg saying she wished that she and CEO Mark Zuckerberg had weighed in on this controversial issue sooner. She also said that they are laying out strong steps to prevent this from ever happening again and they are working to earn back consumers' trust. For NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, I'm Julia Boorstin in Menlo Park, California. (END VIDEOTAPE) HERERA: J.P. Eggers joins us now to discuss what a regulated Facebook would look like. He is a professor of management at New York University's Stern School of Business. Professor, welcome back. It's always good to have you here. J.P. EGGERS, PROFESSOR OF MANAGEMENT, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY'S STERN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS: Thank you very much. HERERA: You know, one of the clips that was not in Julia's piece was the question of regulation. And Ms. Sandberg basically was open to the concept of regulation, as was Mark Zuckerberg yesterday, which surprised a lot of people. It seems to me they think it is a foregone conclusion that that is coming their way. What do you think? EGGERS: Well, I think the recognition in a there is obviously been this -- as Ms. Sandberg said, kind of a breach of trust and the implications that the government and policymakers may want to try and weigh in on that and the implications of that, I think this becomes real question, can Facebook kind of help to co-create the regulations that would be put in place that would govern some degree of control over both advertising and the management of social media on line? To me, the real question is, you know, how deep those regulations would actually go if they were to be put in place, and how enforceable they would be. There's been discussions around things like transparency in advertising. But it's unclear how that would work, who would verify that, how that would be done in any way that would be reliable. Certainly, the government doesn't have the resources to go do that, and it's not on Facebook's interest to take on that responsibility. GRIFFETH: You anticipated my question, J.P., because I was going to ask what exactly you need to regulate. And Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged that it was transparency in advertising that he felt would be the target there. But it's not going to be just about Facebook. We're talking about perhaps all social media that would be subject to these regulations, right? EGGERS: Social media and just kind of online media in general. Look, I mean, Google is one -- Google is the biggest seller of advertising online. And if we are talking about ways to try and regulate transparency in advertising, it would certainly affect Google at least as much if not more than it would affect Facebook in this way. Obviously, those two big players are going to feel kind of a disproportionate volume of any sort of regulations that gets put in place because they are the main ones who are selling ads online. But, yes, I think this is the way in which Mark Zuckerberg is trying to push for this co-creation. You never want the regulators to come just after your business. You want them to be coming after the entire sector so that there's a level playing field as close as possible for all the firms. HERERA: Now, a number of these companies, obviously, do business globally and different countries have different rules about how they can function in their countries. The European models are much more conservative than the U.S. regulations. Might the companies try and avoid regulation by adopting some of those European regulations or European rules? EGGERS: I think certainly the risk would become that if -- if the companies resisted this sort of regulation, that the most stringent form available might be the one that's put in place, which would definitely be bad for their business. The ability to engage in micro-targeting, even if they're not selling data externally, but to help and facilitate micro- targeting for advertisers is a huge portion of what makes Facebook successful. And to the extent that there are data privacy limits that go beyond simply disclosure of how your data is used, but actual regulation of exactly how the data could and couldn't be used, that would be much more significant for Facebook's bottom line. HERERA: All right. J.P. Eggers, thanks so much for joining us again. EGGERS: Thank you. HERERA: J.P. is with the New York University's Stern School of Business. GRIFFETH: By the way, Commerce Bank and Mozilla are temporarily pulling their advertising from Facebook because of this user data controversy. Commerce Bank cited brand safety and data security. And in a blog post, browser maker Mozilla said despite promises from Facebook executives, it takes issue with the social media company's default privacy setting. Mozilla said that when Facebook takes stronger action in how it shares customer data, it will consider returning. HERERA: It is time to look at some of today's upgrades and downgrades. The auto parts maker Visteon was downgraded two notches to underweight from overweight at Morgan Stanley. That's Wall Street's only sell rating on the stock. The firm says Visteon could be an acquisition target but the level of insider selling suggests the deal is unlikely in the near term. Price target was cut to $110 a share. The shares dropped 6 percent to $113.45. Trivago shares were cut to underweight from neutral at J.P. Morgan. The analyst there says its hotel search business remains challenged. The price target is now $8. Trivago shares fell 5 percent to $7.40 -- Bill. GRIFFETH: J.P. Morgan also downgraded online car shopping service provider TrueCar to under weight from neutral. The firm is concerned about weak automotive industry trends overall and the price target, they cut down to $10 a share. The stock fell 1 percent to $9.80, just below that. Ralph Lauren's rating was raised to outperform from market perform at Cowen and Company. The analyst says that the luxury brand growth could accelerate as a result of its marketing and digital strategy. The price target was raised to $122 a share. Shares, though, were down along with the rest of the market, closing 1 percent lower to $107.66. HERERA: Still ahead, Nike just does it, reporting better than expected earnings. And that could set the tone for trading tomorrow. (MUSIC) GRIFFETH: Late today, cloud storage company Dropbox priced its IPO above expectations. According to CNBC, the highly anticipated offering priced at $21 a share. The range was anywhere between $18 and $20. Dropbox is expected to start trading tomorrow. It will be the largest tech IPO since Snap started trading more than a year ago -- Sue. HERERA: Bill, the Dow component Nike reported better than expected earnings and revenue fueled by growth in its international sales and its momentum in China. The CEO said he sees a sales slump though in the U.S. reversing. And that sent the stock initially higher in afterhours trading. Courtney Reagan has more on Nike's results. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) COURTNEY REAGAN, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Nike's strong third quarter results driven by strong international sales. Sales coming in stronger than expected in Europe, greater China, and Asia Pacific, though Nike's North America's sales disappoint. CEO Mark Parker says sales direct to consumers rather than through retail partner like a department store grew double digits internationally, with China leading the way. It is been a difficult week for Nike after Parker sent a memo to employees revealing allegations of inappropriate workplace behavior had been reported and two executives left in the wake of that announcement, though Nike didn't directly tie them to those allegations. For NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, I'm Courtney Reagan. (END VIDEOTAPE) GRIFFETH: Chip maker Micron beats expectations. And that's where we begin tonight's "Market Focus". After the bell, the company said that broad-based demand for its memory and storage products led to a strong quarter. The company expects that to continue. That's why it gave guidance for the current quarter above estimates. Shares were volatile in the after-hours. They finished the regular session, though, down more than 3 percent at $58.92. Higher selling prices helped earnings topped estimates at home builder KB Home. Orders rose and they were also stronger than expected. But investors focused on revenue which came in late. Shares were volatile in after-hours and finished the regular session down 3 percent at $28.84. Darden said that an increase in the number of restaurants in operation helped profits topped expectations. The owner of Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse said that it raised its earnings guidance for the rest of the year. Overall sales, though, were a sore spot for this quarter. They rose less than anticipated. Darden shares off nearly 8 percent today to $85.94. HERERA: New product launches helped G-III apparel grow sales and profit above street expectations. But the owner of brands like Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein gave guidance for 2019 that was below street estimates. Shares of G-III plunged 12 percent today to $33.01. Carnival said a rise onboard spending helped that cruise line topped both sales and profit expectations. The company said demand remains strong. Carnival shares fell 1 percent to $66.20. GRIFFETH: Coming up, AT&T spars with the U.S. government. At stake, $85 billion, and Time Warner. We head to court, next. (MUSIC) GRIFFEH: The biggest antitrust case in a generation is finally gotten underway. The Justice Department, as you know, is suing to block AT&T's $85 billion merger with Time Warner. Hampton Pearson is at the courthouse for us tonight -- Hampton. HAMPTON PEARSON, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bill, this was like really opening day of that long awaited legal battle between the Department of Justice antitrust and AT&T Time Warner. Opening arguments attended by, among others, AT&T's CEO Randall Stephenson, as well as his Time Warner colleague Jeff Bewkes. What they heard once they were in court is the government in essence saying that this merger would see consumers paying higher prices and less innovation going forward for all of the video however they choose to receive it, whether it's on a TV, smart phone, or tablet going forward. The lead government lawyer even said in court that AT&T would use Time Warner as a weapon against its competitors and to some degree against consumers in future negotiations going forward because Time Warner is considered to be must-have content. On the flip side, AT&T says the government has it backwards. They have to get in the game because of the likes of Facebook, Netflix, Amazon and Google that are getting more and more subscribers in their online formats and frankly twinning to win the war with advertisers. This trial is expected to last six to eight weeks. We're just getting started. GRIFFETH: All right. Hampton Pearson for us in Washington tonight -- thank you, Hampton. And there's more sad news from the Toys "R" Us world tonight. The founder of the toy retailer has passed away at the age of 84. The great Charles Lazarus, he founded the company 70 years ago. He rightly anticipated that the post-war baby boom would create demand for baby supplies and toys. Boy, was he right. He remained CEO of the company until 1994, and the man who succeeded him called Charles Lazarus the father of the toy business. HERERA: Before we go, here's another look at today's selloff on Wall Street. And it accelerated as we went into the close. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 724 points to 23,957. The Nasdaq lost 178, almost 179 points to 7,166. And the S&P lost 68 points. So, quite a day on the street. GRIFFETH: Indeed. HERERA: That does it for us tonight. I'm Sue Herera. Thanks for joining us. GRIFFETH: I'm Bill Griffeth. Have a great evening. See you tomorrow. END Nightly Business Report transcripts and video are available on-line post broadcast at http://nbr.com. The program is transcribed by ASC Services II Media, LLC. Updates may be posted at a later date. The views of our guests and commentators are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Nightly Business Report, or CNBC, Inc. Information presented on Nightly Business Report is not and should not be considered as investment advice. (c) 2018 CNBC, Inc. [Copy: Content and programming copyright 2018 CNBC, Inc. Copyright 2018 ASC Services II Media, LLC. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of ASC Services II Media, LLC. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.]
Subject: Investments; Tariffs; Dow Jones averages; War; Social networks; Copyright; Presidents; Stock exchanges
Location: United States--US New York China
People: Trump, Donald J Linebarger, Norman Thomas
Company / organization: Name: New York Stock Exchange--NYSE; NAICS: 523210; Name: Facebook Inc; NAICS: 518210, 519130; Name: AT & T Inc; NAICS: 517110, 517210
Publication title: Technology Wire; Lanham
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 22, 2018
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: Lanham
Country of publication: United States, Lanham
Publication subject: Technology: Comprehensive Works
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2017148913
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2017148913?accountid=4840
Copyright: 2018 Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc.
Last updated: 2019-06-27
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 197 of 474
NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT for March 22, 2018, PBS
Publication info: Finance Wire ; Lanham [Lanham]22 Mar 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: ANNOUNCER: This is NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT with Sue Herera and Bill Griffeth. BILL GRIFFETH, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT ANCHOR: Tariffs and technology. Those two big concerns for the market sense the Dow plunging more than 700 points. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have a tremendous intellectual property theft situation going on. (END VIDEO CLIP) SUE HERERA, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT ANCHOR: The president turns up the heat on China, announcing a new round of tariffs, sparking concerns of a trade war. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SHERYL SANDBERG, FACEBOOK COO: If we find misuse, we're going to tell people. (END VIDEO CLIP) GRIFFETH: Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg vows to better protect users. But is the next step regulation? Those stories and more tonight on NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT for this Thursday, March the 22nd. HERERA: Good evening, everyone, and welcome. A sell off on Wall Street. All 30 Dow components closed lower, about two- thirds of the stocks in that index fell more than 1 percent today. Half of the S&P 500 is now in correction territory. Investors became unnerved after the White House unveiled a new round of tariffs that some fear could threaten the trade war with China, the world's second largest economy. So, by the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had plunged 724 points to 23,957, a nearly 3 percent decline. The Nasdaq fell 178. And the S&P 500 lost 68. The biggest losers on the Dow were the major industrials like Caterpillar, Boeing, and 3M. Bob Pisani reports tonight on that selloff from the New York Stock Exchange. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BOB PISANI, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Stocks closed right around their worst levels of the session with the Dow down more than 700 points. That's right, 700 points. The markets are clearly concerned about two things. Number one, technology. And number two, trade. Two big issues. President Donald Trump announced he would be imposing tariffs of up to $60 billion on Chinese goods over the next few weeks. No details on which products will be taxed by how much yet. But he did say there would be a 30-day grace period to negotiate those terms. Shares of U.S. and other metals and mining stocks got slammed on news that Trump will be exempting a handful of allies from steel and aluminum tariffs, including the European Unions, South Korea and Brazil. In fact, U.S. steel is down 20 percent since those tariffs were first announced a few weeks ago. It looks like they are not as tough as some people thought they might be. Facebook is facing an existential crisis right now. In fact, the whole social media group is. And that's weighing heavily on all the other social media stocks. The stock market has lost its team leadership group, technology, and social media is part of that. And there's really nothing taking its place. The subsectors that powered tech high, which were semiconductors and the FANG names, your Facebook, your Apples, and your Amazons, they stopped advancing and in most cases, they reversed. So, once those FANG and semiconductor stocks stopped going up in the second week of March, the market stalled out because no other sector has stepped forward to lead the market higher. Industrials and materials are suffering from these trade war concerns. FANGs can't move higher without the help of higher volume. That's not happening. On top of that, drama in Washington is still on the front burner. Stocks did fall earlier on word in a John Dowd, President Trump's lead lawyer in the Russia probe had resigned. For NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, I'm Bob Pisani at the New York Stock Exchange. (END VIDEOTAPE) GRIFFETH: Mike Santoli is also at the New York Stock Exchange. He joins us tonight with some more insights on this decline. I think you were the one who coined the term tariff tantrum. Is that -- is that all we saw today, or was there more going on, do you think? MIKE SANTOLI, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: I don't take the blame or the credit for that one. Yes, I don't think it was all we were seeing today but I think that was the added element this morning, right at the outset, that came upon a market that also was already concerned about this general notion that interest rates are going up, this Fed is looking for opportunities to bring rates higher if they can, if the economic data allow for that. And then, you know, as Bob was saying, the loss of leadership from the big tech group, which a lot of investors I think were hiding in because it seems seemed like they could grow in almost any environment. But the tariff issue is a reminder that policy across a bunch of fronts, whether it is trade or monetary policy have turned a little bit less friendly than we got used to last year. HERERA: The volume, though, Mike. I mean, it didn't seem like they were just throwing stocks out the window today. Was that mostly the professionals who were selling? SANTOLI: Interesting. No, you are absolutely right, Sue. It was not a feeling of panic. It was not this mass liquidation of stocks. As a matter of fact, a couple of folks are pointing out that small cap stocks had outperformed the large cap indexes. So, the more domestically focused businesses seemed like they were not caught up in this selloff quite much. The volumes weren't that high. The volatility index definitely got up there, but not at levels we saw in early February. So, it was a somewhat lower intensity selloff than what we did see in early February. Whether that something that means that folks are more likely to buy it at this level or not is not clear, but it definitely was not indiscriminate. GRIFFETH: Mike Santoli at the New York Stock Exchange for us tonight -- thanks, Mike. SANTOLI: Thank you. HERERA: So, as we mentioned, the president did announce his toughest trade action to date. And as Kayla Tausche reports from Washington, there are fears of more to come. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) KAYLA TAUSCHE, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: President Trump signed an order that paved the way for steep tariffs on a wide range of Chinese imports. The move marks the end of its seven-month investigation into Chinese tactics to challenge U.S. technology dominance. TRUMP: We have a tremendous intellectual property situation going on. So, we're going to get it taken care of. And frankly, it's going to make us a much stronger, much richer nation. TAUSCHE: The action comes as the U.S. is imposing tariffs on all imports of steel and aluminum with certain allies and products exempted, and on top of tariffs on Chinese made solar panels. U.S. exporters including soybean farmers, pork producers, and aircraft maker Boeing are bracing for a counter-punch from China, which says it will take all necessary measures to safeguard its interests. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told lawmakers that kind of retaliation is unfair but doesn't change things. ROBERT LIGHTHIZER, U.S. TRADE REPRESENTATIVE: It's not possible to take the position that because we are soybean farmers, we're not going to stick up for our rights in a whole variety of ways and have hundreds of billions of dollars worth of exporters and domestic producers be punished because of unfair trade. TAUSCHE: There CEO of engine maker Cummins, Tom Linebarger, fears the administration's approach is leading to a trade war. TOM LINEBARGER, CEO CUMMINS: We agree there are challenges in China. We just want to address it in a different way, a way that's proven effective over many, many decades, as opposed to unilateral tariffs which have always proven ineffective. TAUSCHE: But Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross says those fears are overblown. WILBUR ROSS, COMMERCE SECRETARY: I think there will be some ultimate retaliation, but I don't think it's going to be the end of the earth. There may be some firing shots over the bow. But I believe at the end of the day, this will end up in a negotiated settlement. TAUSCHE: A senior administration official tells me this is just the kickoff to a set of multiple penalties against China and that further actions, namely restrictions on Chinese investments in the United States, could be unveiled in the coming days. For NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, I'm Kayla Tausche in Washington. (END VIDEOTAPE) GRIFFETH: And joining us right now to talk more about the new tariffs and the impact they could have on the markets and the economy, joining us tonight, Art Hogan. He's chief market strategist with B. Riley FBR. And Josh Feinman is global chief economist at Deutsche Asset Management. Good to see you both. JOSHUA FEINMAN, DEUTSCHE ASSET MANAGEMENT GLOBAL CHIEF ECONOMIST: Good to be here. GRIFFETH: Art, how do you -- do you step aside and let things clear out or do you see opportunities already presenting themselves as a result of these tariffs being imposed? ART HOGAN, B. RILEY FBR CHIEF MARKET STRATEGIST: That's such a good question. And I think you have to think about that three ways. Yes, I think we overdo the selloffs, and today was certainly overdone. Can it get worse before it gets better? I certainly think so. I think fundamentally this market is underpriced and certainly more underpriced today than it was yesterday. I think the problem with this is we don't know how far our government will go with tariffs down the road to trade wars versus using this as a negotiating tactic. And it really feels like -- I think -- you know, I think Secretary Ross just said that. We hope to get a negotiated settlement. That's the best case scenario. Unfortunately, unintended consequences can creep up on us. So, until something like that turns economic and actually slows the economy down. I'll give you a great example. NAFTA, if we walk away from those negotiations, we'll lose a half a percentage GDP growth this year. That's something we need to make sure we accomplish. And the same thing would be true we got an extended trade war. That would be very bad for the economy. HERERA: Josh, weigh in on that if you would, because you say that although a benign outcome is certainly is not guaranteed, the realistic economic impact may be smaller than perhaps what Wall Street is fearing. FEINMAN: Yes, you look at the move today, while I think ill-advised, it affects a very small part of the U.S. economy. You are talking about less than less than three-tenths of 1 percent of GDP, even if you get some retaliatory measures from China and not likely to have big macro repercussions. And if this is just a negotiating gambit, OK, it will be fine. The worry, though, is that it could escalate into something more and it also that reflects a protectionist mindset, this view that somehow trade is a zero sum game, trade deficits are a sign of weakness and foreign malfeasance. And I think that's deeply misguided view and one that ignores the tremendous benefits that it accrued from the post-World War II free trade order, and the damage that could be done undermining that, and the damage that has been done in the past from protectionist forays. So, that's the worry that I have. GRIFFETH: Josh, at this point, we have not had the kind of inflation that the Fed might be hoping for oddly enough as they start to raise interest rates. If we impose these tariffs down the road, that could bring the inflation back, don't you think? FEINMAN: It could. It depends on the scope of the tariffs and so forth. It would likely be a short-term bump up, though. What -- not likely to have the kind of lasting effects on inflation to get inflation back up to 2 percent by itself. HERERA: So, Art, if you have a long term time horizon as an investor, you have a confluence of events that are going on, where you have the tariffs going into effect. You have Facebook and social media under fire possibly facing some regulation. What do you do? Do you put new money to work in those sectors because they come down so much or not? HOGAN: I think you asked the question the best way we should ask that question. If your time horizon is as a long term investor, a lot of this is noise and we won't be talking about it next year. Unfortunately, you know, in the news cycle that we're in, we're going to be talking about these things on a minute by minute basis. So, for example, I think we will see an administration that says these trade wars or these tariffs have adversely affected the economy and the market. Remember, they like use the market as a score card and you will see a pull back from that. I think regulation is probably good for social media. I think it's the Wild Wild West. I think it needs some. I think we'll see those valuations get replaced by perhaps the more normal towards what they're doing and I think we'll be fine with that. Right now, there is going to be volatility. There is more volatility this year than we have seen in any given year for the last ten years, right? So, if that makes you stay up at night, then your exposure of the market is probably a little too high and you should think about ratcheting it down. GRIFFETH: And quickly, Josh, if this is a headwind for the economy, does the Fed have to rethink its plan for raising interest rates later this year? FEINMAN: If it were a serious headwind, yes. I think based on what we've seen so far, it's likely not to turn into that. But that's the risk. And we'll just have to be watching it very carefully. When you rattle trade savers, you know, you run the risk of unleashing the adverse economic consequences. GRIFFETH: Josh Feinman with Deutsche Asset Management, Art Hogan with B. Riley FBR -- thank you both for joining us tonight. FEINMAN: Thank you. HOGAN: Thank you. HERERA: In Washington, the House passed a $1.3 trillion spending bill, the 2,200-page legislation will fund the government until October. It will increase military spending and a number of domestic programs. The measure now heads to the Senate where it is expected to pass with bipartisan support. And the president said that he will sign that bill once it reaches his desk. GRIFFETH: Meanwhile, a key congressional committee has asked Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify about that data scandal that improperly accessed personal information of about 50 million Facebook users. That pressured the stock again today. It's now down more than 10 percent over just the past week. Julia Boorstin talked to Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg today about the controversy and what she plans to do next. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JULIA BOORSTIN, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: With Facebook shares down 10 percent this week, chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg weighing in on the data privacy scandal that's raised concerns of users, investors, regulators, and advertisers. SANDBERG: This was a huge breach of trust. People come to Facebook every day and they depend upon us to protect their data. And I'm so sorry that we let so many people down. We spent the last few days trying to get to the bottom of what happened. Cambridge Analytica never should have had this data. They told us they deleted it. But it is our mistake that we did not verify that. Years ago, we changed platforms so apps get much less data. But that really wasn't enough. BOORSTIN: With advertiser Nestle today raising questions about consumer privacy, Sandberg stressed their business model does not put consumer data at risk. SANDBERG: We provide a free service. That's an ad-based business model. And in order to do that, we do not sell your data. We are able to show targeted advertising that's relevant to people. We're able to give advertisers aggregate anonymous reports, never telling them who you are. We believe that we can operate our service with our current business model, continue to provide a free service all around the world, and protect people's data. But we are going to have to earn that trust. BOORSTIN: Sandberg saying she wished that she and CEO Mark Zuckerberg had weighed in on this controversial issue sooner. She also said that they are laying out strong steps to prevent this from ever happening again and they are working to earn back consumers' trust. For NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, I'm Julia Boorstin in Menlo Park, California. (END VIDEOTAPE) HERERA: J.P. Eggers joins us now to discuss what a regulated Facebook would look like. He is a professor of management at New York University's Stern School of Business. Professor, welcome back. It's always good to have you here. J.P. EGGERS, PROFESSOR OF MANAGEMENT, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY'S STERN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS: Thank you very much. HERERA: You know, one of the clips that was not in Julia's piece was the question of regulation. And Ms. Sandberg basically was open to the concept of regulation, as was Mark Zuckerberg yesterday, which surprised a lot of people. It seems to me they think it is a foregone conclusion that that is coming their way. What do you think? EGGERS: Well, I think the recognition in a there is obviously been this -- as Ms. Sandberg said, kind of a breach of trust and the implications that the government and policymakers may want to try and weigh in on that and the implications of that, I think this becomes real question, can Facebook kind of help to co-create the regulations that would be put in place that would govern some degree of control over both advertising and the management of social media on line? To me, the real question is, you know, how deep those regulations would actually go if they were to be put in place, and how enforceable they would be. There's been discussions around things like transparency in advertising. But it's unclear how that would work, who would verify that, how that would be done in any way that would be reliable. Certainly, the government doesn't have the resources to go do that, and it's not on Facebook's interest to take on that responsibility. GRIFFETH: You anticipated my question, J.P., because I was going to ask what exactly you need to regulate. And Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged that it was transparency in advertising that he felt would be the target there. But it's not going to be just about Facebook. We're talking about perhaps all social media that would be subject to these regulations, right? EGGERS: Social media and just kind of online media in general. Look, I mean, Google is one -- Google is the biggest seller of advertising online. And if we are talking about ways to try and regulate transparency in advertising, it would certainly affect Google at least as much if not more than it would affect Facebook in this way. Obviously, those two big players are going to feel kind of a disproportionate volume of any sort of regulations that gets put in place because they are the main ones who are selling ads online. But, yes, I think this is the way in which Mark Zuckerberg is trying to push for this co-creation. You never want the regulators to come just after your business. You want them to be coming after the entire sector so that there's a level playing field as close as possible for all the firms. HERERA: Now, a number of these companies, obviously, do business globally and different countries have different rules about how they can function in their countries. The European models are much more conservative than the U.S. regulations. Might the companies try and avoid regulation by adopting some of those European regulations or European rules? EGGERS: I think certainly the risk would become that if -- if the companies resisted this sort of regulation, that the most stringent form available might be the one that's put in place, which would definitely be bad for their business. The ability to engage in micro-targeting, even if they're not selling data externally, but to help and facilitate micro- targeting for advertisers is a huge portion of what makes Facebook successful. And to the extent that there are data privacy limits that go beyond simply disclosure of how your data is used, but actual regulation of exactly how the data could and couldn't be used, that would be much more significant for Facebook's bottom line. HERERA: All right. J.P. Eggers, thanks so much for joining us again. EGGERS: Thank you. HERERA: J.P. is with the New York University's Stern School of Business. GRIFFETH: By the way, Commerce Bank and Mozilla are temporarily pulling their advertising from Facebook because of this user data controversy. Commerce Bank cited brand safety and data security. And in a blog post, browser maker Mozilla said despite promises from Facebook executives, it takes issue with the social media company's default privacy setting. Mozilla said that when Facebook takes stronger action in how it shares customer data, it will consider returning. HERERA: It is time to look at some of today's upgrades and downgrades. The auto parts maker Visteon was downgraded two notches to underweight from overweight at Morgan Stanley. That's Wall Street's only sell rating on the stock. The firm says Visteon could be an acquisition target but the level of insider selling suggests the deal is unlikely in the near term. Price target was cut to $110 a share. The shares dropped 6 percent to $113.45. Trivago shares were cut to underweight from neutral at J.P. Morgan. The analyst there says its hotel search business remains challenged. The price target is now $8. Trivago shares fell 5 percent to $7.40 -- Bill. GRIFFETH: J.P. Morgan also downgraded online car shopping service provider TrueCar to under weight from neutral. The firm is concerned about weak automotive industry trends overall and the price target, they cut down to $10 a share. The stock fell 1 percent to $9.80, just below that. Ralph Lauren's rating was raised to outperform from market perform at Cowen and Company. The analyst says that the luxury brand growth could accelerate as a result of its marketing and digital strategy. The price target was raised to $122 a share. Shares, though, were down along with the rest of the market, closing 1 percent lower to $107.66. HERERA: Still ahead, Nike just does it, reporting better than expected earnings. And that could set the tone for trading tomorrow. (MUSIC) GRIFFETH: Late today, cloud storage company Dropbox priced its IPO above expectations. According to CNBC, the highly anticipated offering priced at $21 a share. The range was anywhere between $18 and $20. Dropbox is expected to start trading tomorrow. It will be the largest tech IPO since Snap started trading more than a year ago -- Sue. HERERA: Bill, the Dow component Nike reported better than expected earnings and revenue fueled by growth in its international sales and its momentum in China. The CEO said he sees a sales slump though in the U.S. reversing. And that sent the stock initially higher in afterhours trading. Courtney Reagan has more on Nike's results. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) COURTNEY REAGAN, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Nike's strong third quarter results driven by strong international sales. Sales coming in stronger than expected in Europe, greater China, and Asia Pacific, though Nike's North America's sales disappoint. CEO Mark Parker says sales direct to consumers rather than through retail partner like a department store grew double digits internationally, with China leading the way. It is been a difficult week for Nike after Parker sent a memo to employees revealing allegations of inappropriate workplace behavior had been reported and two executives left in the wake of that announcement, though Nike didn't directly tie them to those allegations. For NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, I'm Courtney Reagan. (END VIDEOTAPE) GRIFFETH: Chip maker Micron beats expectations. And that's where we begin tonight's "Market Focus". After the bell, the company said that broad-based demand for its memory and storage products led to a strong quarter. The company expects that to continue. That's why it gave guidance for the current quarter above estimates. Shares were volatile in the after-hours. They finished the regular session, though, down more than 3 percent at $58.92. Higher selling prices helped earnings topped estimates at home builder KB Home. Orders rose and they were also stronger than expected. But investors focused on revenue which came in late. Shares were volatile in after-hours and finished the regular session down 3 percent at $28.84. Darden said that an increase in the number of restaurants in operation helped profits topped expectations. The owner of Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse said that it raised its earnings guidance for the rest of the year. Overall sales, though, were a sore spot for this quarter. They rose less than anticipated. Darden shares off nearly 8 percent today to $85.94. HERERA: New product launches helped G-III apparel grow sales and profit above street expectations. But the owner of brands like Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein gave guidance for 2019 that was below street estimates. Shares of G-III plunged 12 percent today to $33.01. Carnival said a rise onboard spending helped that cruise line topped both sales and profit expectations. The company said demand remains strong. Carnival shares fell 1 percent to $66.20. GRIFFETH: Coming up, AT&T spars with the U.S. government. At stake, $85 billion, and Time Warner. We head to court, next. (MUSIC) GRIFFEH: The biggest antitrust case in a generation is finally gotten underway. The Justice Department, as you know, is suing to block AT&T's $85 billion merger with Time Warner. Hampton Pearson is at the courthouse for us tonight -- Hampton. HAMPTON PEARSON, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bill, this was like really opening day of that long awaited legal battle between the Department of Justice antitrust and AT&T Time Warner. Opening arguments attended by, among others, AT&T's CEO Randall Stephenson, as well as his Time Warner colleague Jeff Bewkes. What they heard once they were in court is the government in essence saying that this merger would see consumers paying higher prices and less innovation going forward for all of the video however they choose to receive it, whether it's on a TV, smart phone, or tablet going forward. The lead government lawyer even said in court that AT&T would use Time Warner as a weapon against its competitors and to some degree against consumers in future negotiations going forward because Time Warner is considered to be must-have content. On the flip side, AT&T says the government has it backwards. They have to get in the game because of the likes of Facebook, Netflix, Amazon and Google that are getting more and more subscribers in their online formats and frankly twinning to win the war with advertisers. This trial is expected to last six to eight weeks. We're just getting started. GRIFFETH: All right. Hampton Pearson for us in Washington tonight -- thank you, Hampton. And there's more sad news from the Toys "R" Us world tonight. The founder of the toy retailer has passed away at the age of 84. The great Charles Lazarus, he founded the company 70 years ago. He rightly anticipated that the post-war baby boom would create demand for baby supplies and toys. Boy, was he right. He remained CEO of the company until 1994, and the man who succeeded him called Charles Lazarus the father of the toy business. HERERA: Before we go, here's another look at today's selloff on Wall Street. And it accelerated as we went into the close. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 724 points to 23,957. The Nasdaq lost 178, almost 179 points to 7,166. And the S&P lost 68 points. So, quite a day on the street. GRIFFETH: Indeed. HERERA: That does it for us tonight. I'm Sue Herera. Thanks for joining us. GRIFFETH: I'm Bill Griffeth. Have a great evening. See you tomorrow. END Nightly Business Report transcripts and video are available on-line post broadcast at http://nbr.com. The program is transcribed by ASC Services II Media, LLC. Updates may be posted at a later date. The views of our guests and commentators are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Nightly Business Report, or CNBC, Inc. Information presented on Nightly Business Report is not and should not be considered as investment advice. (c) 2018 CNBC, Inc. [Copy: Content and programming copyright 2018 CNBC, Inc. Copyright 2018 ASC Services II Media, LLC. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of ASC Services II Media, LLC. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.]
Subject: Investments; Tariffs; Dow Jones averages; War; Social networks; Copyright; Presidents; Stock exchanges
Location: United States--US New York China
People: Trump, Donald J Linebarger, Norman Thomas
Company / organization: Name: New York Stock Exchange--NYSE; NAICS: 523210; Name: Facebook Inc; NAICS: 518210, 519130; Name: AT & T Inc; NAICS: 517110, 517210
Publication title: Finance Wire; Lanham
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 22, 2018
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: Lanham
Country of publication: United States, Lanham
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2017149037
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2017149037?accountid=4840
Copyright: 2018 Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc.
Last updated: 2019-06-27
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 198 of 474
Brazil/Venezuela: Northern Brazil Overwhelmed by Desperate, Hungry Venezuelans
Publication info: Asia News Monitor ; Bangkok [Bangkok]23 Mar 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Hungry and destitute, tens of thousands of victims of Venezuela's unrelenting political and economic crisis are trying their luck in Brazil - a country where they do not speak the language, conditions are often poor and there are few border towns to receive them. Many arrive to Brazil's northern border weak from hunger and with no money for a hotel, food or the $9 bus ride to Boa Vista, the capital of the Brazilian state of Roraima, known in Venezuelan circles as a place that offers three meals a day. In dozens of interviews over four days, many said they had not had more than one meal a day for the last year. Some wore baggy clothes, had emaciated faces and complained of medical issues ranging from children with measles to diabetics with no insulin. Kritce Montero tried to shush 6-month-old Hector, who cried from hunger even after breast-feeding while his family and several hundred other Venezuelans waited to be processed at the border. Montero, who said she lost 57 pounds (26 kilograms) the last year from eating just one meal a day, traveled with Hector and her 7-year-old daughter 18 hours by bus from Maturin, a city in northeast Venezuela. After spending the night sleeping on the ground in Pacaraima, a dusty border town in the Amazon, they took another bus 130 miles (210 kilometers) to Boa Vista. We are desperate. We could no longer buy food, said 33-year-old Montero, adding it had been months since Hector had any formula or diapers. While in recent years millions of Venezuelans have immigrated, until recently Brazil received relatively few of them. Hundreds of thousands have gone to Colombia, but authorities there and elsewhere in South America are tightening their borders. Portuguese-speaking Brazil has become the latest alternative for Venezuelans. But they are not finding much comfort there. On a recent day, Militza DonQuis, 38, sat under a tree on the side of the main road in Pacaraima. In the two months since she and her husband arrived from Puerto Cabello, they have not been able to find work. With no money, they can't take the bus to Boa Vista, so they sleep on the ground and scrounge for food during the day. This is horrible, said DonQuis through tears, adding that in two months she had been unable to send money home to her children, ages 12 and 14, who she left with a sister. With no money for a bus, Jose Guillen, 48, and wife July Bascelta, 44, decided to begin the journey to Boa Vista at night on foot, setting off with 9-year-old twins Angel and Ashley along a road surrounded by forest. God will provide, said Guillen when asked how the family would eat during a trip that can take five days. After walking 4 miles (6 kilometers), a Brazilian driver stopped agreed to give them a lift to Boa Vista, where the situation is arguably more desperate. Thousands of Venezuelans are living in the streets. They sleep in tents and on benches in central squares, have taken over abandoned buildings and cram dozens of people into small apartments. The largest of three shelters in the city, Tancredo, has 700 people despite being equipped for 200. Half-naked children roam the former gymnasium while groups of men and women chat about their hopes for finding work and worry about the families they left in Venezuela. Charlie Ivan Delgado, 30, said he came to Brazil several months ago with hopes of earning enough money so he and his high school sweetheart could finally afford a wedding. But each time he called home to El Tigre, he would hear the situation was getting worse, that their three children, ages 9, 5 and 1, were always hungry. So he decided to abandon wedding plans and bring his family. Kids in Venezuela today don't think about playing with their friends or what they might study in the university, said Delgado, sitting with his children and partner in a tent. It's more, 'What am I going to eat today?''' While the shelter offers three meals a day, the family's prospects are bleak. The soccer referee has only been able to officiate a handful of games in rural areas outside Boa Vista, the kids are not in school and it's hard to imagine how the family might leave the shelter. It's like Tarzan being in New York, said Delgado. Brazilian authorities estimate 40,000 Venezuelans are living in Boa Vista, accounting for over 12 percent of the population in a city that was already poor and unable to offer many opportunities to its residents. Most have arrived in the last several months, putting intense pressure on the public health system, the jails and volunteer organizations and churches that are carrying the largest burden when it comes to keeping Venezuelans fed. Police say Venezuelans are sometimes working for as little as $7 a day in everything from construction to yard work, putting downward pressure on wages. For many, even offering to work for less isn't enough: Several interviewed said many employers have told them flat out they won't hire Venezuelans. Milene da Souza, one of a group of volunteers who periodically serve food, said many Brazilians were increasingly angry at the situation. Brazil has many of its own problems, she said. Roraima has its own problems. Last month, fears of a backlash intensified when an arsonist set fire to two Boa Vista houses filled with Venezuelan immigrants, injuring dozens, several severely. A man originally from neighboring Guiana has been arrested, and police have said he was motivated by anger at Venezuelans in the city. On the Plaza Simon Bolivar, named after the South American independence leader who was the inspiration for late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez' socialist revolution throngs are camping in tents or simply sleeping on the grass. When trucks pull up with food, hundreds run toward them, elbowing each other in a mad scramble to get a meal before they run out. Tempers flare as men accuse women and children of using their advantage to get extra portions. Roraima's governor has declared a state of emergency to free up funds for overwhelmed public hospitals, where health officials estimate that 8 in 10 patients are Venezuelan. Last month, President Michel Temer canceled activities during Carnival to make an emergency trip to Boa Vista. But residents say the federal government's plans, which include building a field hospital in Pacaraima and relocating a few thousand immigrants to bigger cities, are not enough. Between Jan. 1 and March 7 of this year, 27,755 Venezuelans crossed into Brazil from Pacaraima. Authorities estimate at least 80,000 are currently in Brazil, most of them in Roraima state. During a meeting Tuesday with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, Temer said Venezuelan migration was having an unsettling effect on other nations in Latin America. Also Tuesday, the U.S. government announced that it was sending $2.5 million in emergency food and medicine assistance for Venezuelans in Colombia. Brazil, Latin America's largest nation, has one of the region's most inclusive immigration policies. Venezuelans are allowed to enter with just a national identification card, a lifeline for many who say that getting a passport in Venezuela has become impossible. Many immigrants who don't have identification cards but can show a birth certificate are allowed in if they request and are granted refugee status. Being designated refugees can be problematic because such immigrants can't return to Venezuela; Maduro has called them traitors of the state. Many say that as long as Maduro is in power they have no reason to return. Despite skyrocketing inflation and a collapse of many businesses, Maduro has refused to allow humanitarian aid to enter Venezuela. He denies there is a crisis and says international relief would lead to foreign intervention. Maduro's solution is that we just eat each other, said Diana Merida sarcastically while washing her clothes in a Boa Vista river. The 34-year-old from Maturin said she recently sent $3 home to her 16-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son, which would allow them to buy some rice. While it took her three days of selling coffee to earn that, it was more than she could earn in a month as a saleswoman in a clothes store back home. On the Plaza Simon Bolivar, Kritce Montero sits with baby Hector, who now has on a diaper and has spent the last two days gobbling up formula, all donated by volunteers. It's been two days since the family crossed the border in Pacaraima. The first night they slept under a tree in the plaza, but then the second night somebody offered them a tent because of the baby. At least here, I'm able to feed my kids, said Montero. Even if I'm living under a bridge, I would feel OK if my kids have food. - VOA
Subject: Food; Hunger; Families & family life; Meals; Identification documents
Location: Roraima United States--US New York Venezuela Latin America South America Brazil Colombia
People: Chavez, Hugo Temer, Michel Bolivar, Simon (1783-1830) Guillen, Jose
Publication title: Asia News Monitor; Bangkok
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 23, 2018
Section: General News
Publisher: Thai News Service Group
Place of publication: Bangkok
Country of publication: Thailand, Bangkok
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--Philippines, General Interest Periodicals--Vietnam, General Interest Periodicals--Thailand
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2016513384
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2016513384?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Thai News Service Group Mar 23, 2018
Last updated: 2019-02-20
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 199 of 474
Michel Temer, Brazil’s Deeply Unpopular President, Signals Run for a New Term
Author: Andreoni, Manuela
Publication info: New York Times (Online) , New York: New York Times Company. Mar 24, 2018.
Abstract:
President Michel Temer’s approval ratings have been in the single digits for months. But he says he has a legacy to defend. “It would be cowardly not to be a candidate,” he said.
Full text: RIO DE JANEIRO — Michel Temer, the deeply unpopular president of Brazil, signaled that he intends to seek a full term in October’s election, telling a newsmagazine in an interview published this weekend that “it would be cowardly not to be a candidate.” Mr. Temer took office in mid-2016 after helping lead the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff, for whom he served as vice president. But Mr. Temer, 77, a veteran politician of the center-right, has had a tumultuous presidency, spending much of the past year fending off criminal charges of corruption and obstruction of justice. Winning a new term would allow Mr. Temer to maintain the special legal standing afforded to senior government officials, which has so far shielded him from trial. On two occasions last year, Congress voted to protect him from facing charges before the Supreme Court. Mr. Temer had said as recently as last month that he did not intend to run. But in this weekend’s interview with the newsmagazine Istoé, Mr. Temer said that he came to believe that he needed to defend his legacy. “I’ve fixed a country that was broken,” said Mr. Temer, who leads the Brazilian Democratic Movement party. “I’m proud of what I’ve done and I need to show what’s being done. If I’m not in the fray, what’s going to happen is that all the candidates will go after me.” In the interview, Mr. Temer argued that he hadn’t been given credit for the country’s advancements since he took office in August 2016. The economy grew 1 percent last year, after shrinking almost 8 percent between 2015 and 2016. But Mr. Temer’s agenda, which has included an overhaul of labor laws that has weakened unions, has led critics to charge that he has usurped the will of voters who elected Ms. Rousseff, a leftist. And the horse trading that spared him from prosecution last year also turned him into a vilified figured. Brasília, the capital, is plastered with graffiti that says “Fora Temer,” or “Out With Temer.” A prominent samba school depicted him as a vampire in Rio de Janeiro’s carnival last month. In polls, Mr. Temer’s approval ratings have been mired in the single digits for many months. Mr. Temer’s remarks are the latest development in a volatile race. The front-runner, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, appears likely to go to jail before he can formally register his candidacy, as a result of a corruption conviction handed down last year. Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right lawmaker regarded as a fringe politician until recently, is running second in the polls. Prominent allies of Mr. Temer are also considering candidacies. They include Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles and House Speaker Rodrigo Maia, a key supporter of the president in Congress. Mr. Temer’s bid may complicate efforts of centrist parties to coalesce around a candidate. Fábio Wanderley Reis, a political scientist at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, said the president had little to lose by running. “I think this is an attempt to crawl out of the hole,” he said. “He is calculating that there is no danger that things can get any worse for him.” Allies of Mr. Temer had previously suggested that he would seek a high-ranking government position like an ambassadorship after leaving the presidency, as a way to retain his legal protection. Alberto Carlos Almeida, a political scientist who runs a polling organization, said that Mr. Temer may yet backtrack on his intention to run. The deadline to register a candidacy is August. “I think he is doing this to discourage candidacies from inside the government, or close to the government,” Mr. Almeida said. “It’s better to keep people close to the government than acting critically towards the government.” Mr. Temer’s remarks came about a month after he made a sudden decision to put the military in charge of security in Rio de Janeiro State, a step that critics called a political gimmick. While Rio de Janeiro has faced months of escalating violence, other states face worse conditions. There is little sign that the military intervention has helped. Marielle Franco, a popular city councilwoman who was critical of Mr. Temer and the federal intervention, was murdered this month . On Saturday, at least eight people died in a confrontation with the police in the Rocinha district of Rio de Janeiro. Credit: Manuela Andreoni
Subject: Presidents; Convictions; Politics; Elections
Location: Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil
People: Rousseff, Dilma Bolsonaro, Jair Temer, Michel
Company / organization: Name: Federal University of Minas Gerais; NAICS: 611310; Name: Brazilian Democratic Movement; NAICS: 813940
Identifier / keyword: Temer, Michel (1940- ) Brazil Politics and Government Federal University of Minas Gerais Rousseff, Dilma Da Silva, Luiz Inacio Lula Bolsonaro, Jair (1955- ) Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
Publication title: New York Times (Online); New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 24, 2018
Section: world
Publisher: New York Times Company
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Blogs, Podcasts, & Websites
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2019605916
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2019605916?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright 2018 The New York Times Company
Last updated: 2018-11-12
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 200 of 474
Brazil's Chief Hints at Bid, Despite Polls: [Foreign Desk]
Author: Andreoni, Manuela
Publication info: New York Times , Late Edition (East Coast); New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]25 Mar 2018: A.12.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: RIO DE JANEIRO -- Michel Temer, the deeply unpopular president of Brazil, signaled that he intends to seek a full term in October's election, telling a newsmagazine in an interview published this weekend that "it would be cowardly not to be a candidate." Mr. Temer took office in mid-2016 after helping lead the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff, for whom he served as vice president. But Mr. Temer, 77, a veteran politician of the center-right, has had a tumultuous presidency, spending much of the past year fending off criminal charges of corruption and obstruction of justice. Winning a new term would allow Mr. Temer to maintain the special legal standing afforded to senior government officials, which has so far shielded him from trial. On two occasions last year, Congress voted to protect him from facing charges before the Supreme Court. Mr. Temer had said as recently as last month that he did not intend to run. But in this weekend's interview with the newsmagazine Istoé, Mr. Temer said that he came to believe that he needed to defend his legacy. "I've fixed a country that was broken," said Mr. Temer, who leads the Brazilian Democratic Movement party. "I'm proud of what I've done and I need to show what's being done. If I'm not in the fray, what's going to happen is that all the candidates will go after me." In the interview, Mr. Temer argued that he hadn't been given credit for the country's advancements since he took office in August 2016. The economy grew 1 percent last year, after shrinking almost 8 percent between 2015 and 2016. But Mr. Temer's agenda, which has included an overhaul of labor laws that has weakened unions, has led critics to charge that he has usurped the will of voters who elected Ms. Rousseff, a leftist. And the horse trading that spared him from prosecution last year also turned him into a vilified figured. Brasília, the capital, is plastered with graffiti that says "Fora Temer," or "Out With Temer." A prominent samba school depicted him as a vampire in Rio de Janeiro's carnival last month. In polls, Mr. Temer's approval ratings have been mired in the single digits for many months. Mr. Temer's remarks are the latest development in a volatile race. The front-runner, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, appears likely to go to jail before he can formally register his candidacy, as a result of a corruption conviction handed down last year. Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right lawmaker regarded as a fringe politician until recently, is running second in the polls. Prominent allies of Mr. Temer are also considering candidacies. They include Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles and House Speaker Rodrigo Maia, a key supporter of the president in Congress. Mr. Temer's bid may complicate efforts of centrist parties to coalesce around a candidate. Fábio Wanderley Reis, a political scientist at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, said the president had little to lose by running. "I think this is an attempt to crawl out of the hole," he said. "He is calculating that there is no danger that things can get any worse for him." Allies of Mr. Temer had previously suggested that he would seek a high-ranking government position like an ambassadorship after leaving the presidency, as a way to retain his legal protection. Alberto Carlos Almeida, a political scientist who runs a polling organization, said that Mr. Temer may yet backtrack on his intention to run. The deadline to register a candidacy is August. "I think he is doing this to discourage candidacies from inside the government, or close to the government," Mr. Almeida said. "It's better to keep people close to the government than acting critically towards the government." Mr. Temer's remarks came about a month after he made a sudden decision to put the military in charge of security in Rio de Janeiro State, a step that critics called a political gimmick. While Rio de Janeiro has faced months of escalating violence, other states face worse conditions. There is little sign that the military intervention has helped. Marielle Franco, a popular city councilwoman who was critical of Mr. Temer and the federal intervention, was murdered this month. On Saturday, at least eight people died in a confrontation with the police in the Rocinha district of Rio de Janeiro. This is a more complete version of the story than the one that appeared in print.
Subject: Presidents; Convictions; Politics; Elections
Location: Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil
People: Rousseff, Dilma Bolsonaro, Jair Temer, Michel
Company / organization: Name: Federal University of Minas Gerais; NAICS: 611310; Name: Brazilian Democratic Movement; NAICS: 813940
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/24/world/americas/brazil-michel-temer.html
Publication title: New York Times, Late Edition (East Coast); New York, N.Y.
Pages: A.12
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 25, 2018
Section: A
Publisher: New York Times Company
Place of publication: New York, N.Y.
Country of publication: United States, New York, N.Y.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
ISSN: 03624331
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2017568319
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2017568319?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright New York Times Company Mar 25, 2018
Last updated: 2018-11-12
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 201 of 474
Killing of Woman Who Gave Voice to Rio's Poor Jars a Divided Brazil; City Councilor Marielle Franco had decried police approach to the city's violence-racked slums
Author: Pearson, Samantha; Magalhaes, Luciana
Publication info: Wall Street Journal (Online) ; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]25 Mar 2018: n/a.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: RIO DE JANEIRO--At the entrance to this city's biggest slum, Maré, burly guards for local drug gangs control access, lifting heavy steel girders set into holes in the road to let cars pass. Until she was gunned down last week, this was the longtime home to Marielle Franco, a prominent local politician and the only black woman on Rio's 51-member city council. Ms. Franco was being driven home from an event about empowering black women when her assailants pulled up alongside her car and fired four bullets through its tinted windows and into her skull. An investigation is under way, but officials haven't commented on whether they have established a motive or identified suspects. The execution-style killing has prompted nationwide protests and a bitter debate about the country's stark racial and social divides, with a focus on the issue Ms. Franco embraced with a passion that earned her powerful enemies: the role security forces play in slums, or favelas, like Maré. So far this year, state officials say about 30 officers have been killed in raids on Rio's favelas, where more than a million residents live. Favela residents die in far greater numbers at the hands of police. Last year, police in Rio state killed 1,124 people, the highest number in a decade, according to official data. Though that figure reflects deaths throughout the state, most of the dead were young black men. Ms. Franco denounced several alleged police killings over social media in the days before her death, including the death earlier this month of a black man, Matheus Melo, as he was leaving church. Four days before she was killed, she vilified a police unit in the slum of Acari as the "Battalion of Death." "What's happening now in Acari is absurd!" she wrote on Twitter. "Stop humiliating the population, stop killing our youth!" A representative for the police unit in Acari couldn't be reached. Other police units contacted either declined to comment or weren't immediately available. In the weeks before her death, the city councilor was also engaged in a bitter political conflict over President Michel Temer's decision a month ago to put the military in charge of public security in Rio. The army had already occupied her native Maré in 2014, fearful of the slum's proximity to the airport as the city prepared to receive thousands of visitors for that year's World Cup. Its presence had led not to more security, she said, but to more human-rights abuses. "People from the favela know exactly what it means to have your right to public security denied...to see the end of a gun's barrel, to hear the sound of tanks," Ms. Franco said in a video last month decrying the military intervention. Outside Maré's fortresslike gates is the Rio foreigners know well: the glamorous Olympic host city famous for its glistening coastline and sequin-studded carnival. But inside lies a city unto itself: about 140,000 largely dark-skinned Brazilians living under the control of drug gangs and militias, in ramshackle settlements with patchy access to electricity and clean water. Many residents of favelas work as maids and doormen for richer people in Rio, and the favelas play an outsize role in shaping the city's music and art scene. But another, more combustible form of contact between these worlds preoccupied Ms. Franco and her neighbors, as well as other city officials and security personnel: the bloody and constant battle in the favelas between police and drug gangs with war-grade weapons, including grenades and rocket launchers. Ms. Franco's younger sister, Anielle Silva, said their upbringing in Maré had been marked by violence from an early age. "There were days when we couldn't go to school because of shootouts or there were dead bodies outside our front door," the 33-year-old said. "We had to deal with this from when we were little kids." She said the police haven't revealed any details of their investigation, even to her family. Ms. Franco joined some favela residents and human-rights groups in accusing the police of torturing, robbing and killing innocent locals as they engaged in that fight. Complicating matters, shadowy militias, often made up of off-duty and retired police officers, also operate in the slums, say human-rights groups that accuse them of extorting money and carrying out extrajudicial killings. Many of Rio's middle-class and wealthy residents, fed up with living in a municipality with one of the world's highest murder rates, say police should have a free hand in dealing with gangs. "I'm in favor. Something has to be done to save this country," said Marcela, an elderly homemaker on Rio's Copacabana beach. Three-quarters of all Brazilians agree with her, according to a recent study by pollster Paraná Pesquisas. Security experts say the solution to police excesses lies in paying officers better and on time, providing better training and intelligence work, and funding community youth projects. Favela residents, meanwhile, say they want to be rid of the gangs, but community leaders say the Brazilian state should be curbing the criminals' power by providing jobs, social programs and education rather than by sending in heavy-handed police. In many ways, Ms. Franco, a lesbian single mother, was trying to bridge the city's divides as a slum leader who also had access to the city's corridors of power. Despite growing up in poverty, Ms. Franco, who was 38 when she died, got a scholarship to study sociology at Rio's Catholic PUC University and broke into politics with a landslide victory in 2016 as city councilor. She made a name for herself standing up for black and mixed-race Brazilians, who make up more than 50% of the country and a large part of her voter base. Many of Ms. Franco's supporters believe it was her criticism of police that led to her paying the ultimate price. Patricia Vianna, a fellow activist in Maré who had worked with Ms. Franco days before her killing to help favela residents bring police officers to justice for killing suspects, said while she can't be sure who killed her, she believes it was done to send a message. "We all took it as a warning for us to stop our fight. But whoever did it, they didn't expect the reaction this would get," she said. "This has only strengthened our battle." On a deserted Rio street just outside a Chevrolet repair shop, shattered glass and the remains of crime-scene tape mark the spot where Ms. Franco was shot. Nearby are flowers with handwritten messages, and sprayed on grimy walls are scores of colorful tributes to the dead councilwoman. One reads "Thank you for the ray of light in our lives and in our city." Paulo Trevisani contributed to this article. Write to Samantha Pearson at [email protected] and Luciana Magalhaes at [email protected]
Credit: By Samantha Pearson and Luciana Magalhaes
Subject: Social networks; Ghettos; Criminal investigations; Militia groups; Soccer
Location: Brazil
People: Temer, Michel
Company / organization: Name: Twitter Inc; NAICS: 519130
Publication title: Wall Street Journal (Online); New York, N.Y.
Pages: n/a
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 25, 2018
Section: World
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York, N.Y.
Country of publication: United States, New York, N.Y.
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2017607128
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2017607128?accountid=4840
Copyright: (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Reproduced with permission of copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
Last updated: 2018-06-28
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Major Dailies
Document 202 of 474
Killing of Woman Who Gave Voice to Rio's Poor Jars a Divided Brazil
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]25 Mar 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
RIO DE JANEIRO -- At the entrance to this city's biggest slum, Maré, burly guards for local drug gangs control access, lifting heavy steel girders set into holes in the road to let cars pass.
Until she was gunned down last week, this was the longtime home to Marielle Franco, a prominent local politician and the only black woman on Rio's 51-member city council. Ms. Franco was being driven home from an event about empowering black women when her assailants pulled up alongside her car and fired four bullets through its tinted windows and into her skull. An investigation is under way, but officials haven't commented on whether they have established a motive or identified suspects.
The execution-style killing has prompted nationwide protests and a bitter debate about the country's stark racial and social divides, with a focus on the issue Ms. Franco embraced with a passion that earned her powerful enemies: the role security forces play in slums, or favelas, like Maré.
So far this year, state officials say about 30 officers have been killed in raids on Rio's favelas, where more than a million residents live. Favela residents die in far greater numbers at the hands of police. Last year, police in Rio state killed 1,124 people, the highest number in a decade, according to official data. Though that figure reflects deaths throughout the state, most of the dead were young black men.
Ms. Franco denounced several alleged police killings over social media in the days before her death, including the death earlier this month of a black man, Matheus Melo, as he was leaving church. Four days before she was killed, she vilified a police unit in the slum of Acari as the "Battalion of Death."
"What's happening now in Acari is absurd!" she wrote on Twitter. "Stop humiliating the population, stop killing our youth!"
A representative for the police unit in Acari couldn't be reached. Other police units contacted either declined to comment or weren't immediately available.
In the weeks before her death, the city councilor was also engaged in a bitter political conflict over President Michel Temer's decision a month ago to put the military in charge of public security in Rio. The army had already occupied her native Maré in 2014, fearful of the slum's proximity to the airport as the city prepared to receive thousands of visitors for that year's World Cup. Its presence had led not to more security, she said, but to more human-rights abuses.
"People from the favela know exactly what it means to have your right to public security denied...to see the end of a gun's barrel, to hear the sound of tanks," Ms. Franco said in a video last month decrying the military intervention.
Outside Maré's fortresslike gates is the Rio foreigners know well: the glamorous Olympic host city famous for its glistening coastline and sequin-studded carnival. But inside lies a city unto itself: about 140,000 largely dark-skinned Brazilians living under the control of drug gangs and militias, in ramshackle settlements with patchy access to electricity and clean water.
Many residents of favelas work as maids and doormen for richer people in Rio, and the favelas play an outsize role in shaping the city's music and art scene.
But another, more combustible form of contact between these worlds preoccupied Ms. Franco and her neighbors, as well as other city officials and security personnel: the bloody and constant battle in the favelas between police and drug gangs with war-grade weapons, including grenades and rocket launchers.
Ms. Franco's younger sister, Anielle Silva, said their upbringing in Maré had been marked by violence from an early age. "There were days when we couldn't go to school because of shootouts or there were dead bodies outside our front door, the 33-year-old said. "We had to deal with this from when we were little kids."
She said the police haven't revealed any details of their investigation, even to her family.
Ms. Franco joined some favela residents and human-rights groups in accusing the police of torturing, robbing and killing innocent locals as they engaged in that fight. Complicating matters, shadowy militias, often made up of off-duty and retired police officers, also operate in the slums, say human-rights groups that accuse them of extorting money and carrying out extrajudicial killings.
Many of Rio's middle-class and wealthy residents, fed up with living in a municipality with one of the world's highest murder rates, say police should have a free hand in dealing with gangs. "I'm in favor. Something has to be done to save this country," said Marcela, an elderly homemaker on Rio's Copacabana beach. Three-quarters of all Brazilians agree with her, according to a recent study by pollster Paraná Pesquisas.
Security experts say the solution to police excesses lies in paying officers better and on time, providing better training and intelligence work, and funding community youth projects.
Favela residents, meanwhile, say they want to be rid of the gangs, but community leaders say the Brazilian state should be curbing the criminals' power by providing jobs, social programs and education rather than by sending in heavy-handed police.
In many ways, Ms. Franco, a lesbian single mother, was trying to bridge the city's divides as a slum leader who also had access to the city's corridors of power. Despite growing up in poverty, Ms. Franco, who was 38 when she died, got a scholarship to study sociology at Rio's Catholic PUC University and broke into politics with a landslide victory in 2016 as city councilor. She made a name for herself standing up for black and mixed-race Brazilians, who make up more than 50% of the country and a large part of her voter base.
Many of Ms. Franco's supporters believe it was her criticism of police that led to her paying the ultimate price. Patricia Vianna, a fellow activist in Maré who had worked with Ms. Franco days before her killing to help favela residents bring police officers to justice for killing suspects, said while she can't be sure who her killed her, she believes it was done to send a message.
"We all took it as a warning for us to stop our fight. But whoever did it, they didn't expect the reaction this would get," she said. "This has only strengthened our battle."
On a deserted Rio street just outside a Chevrolet repair shop, shattered glass and the remains of crime-scene tape mark the spot where Ms. Franco was shot. Nearby are flowers with handwritten messages, and sprayed on grimy walls are scores of colorful tributes to the dead councilwoman. One reads "Thank you for the ray of light in our lives and in our city."
--Paulo Trevisani contributed to this article.
Write to Samantha Pearson at [email protected] and Luciana Magalhaes at [email protected]
(END)
March 25, 2018 07:00 ET (11:00 GMT)By Samantha Pearson and Luciana Magalhaes
Subject: Social networks; Criminal investigations; Militia groups
Location: Brazil
People: Temer, Michel
Company / organization: Name: Twitter Inc; NAICS: 519130
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 25, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2017882262
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2017882262?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Mar 25, 2018
Last updated: 2018-03-26
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 203 of 474
World News: Killing of Activist Jars a Divided Brazil --- A prominent local politician, Marielle Franco had decried police's approach to Rio de Janeiro's violence-racked slums
Author: Pearson, Samantha; Magalhaes, Luciana
Publication info: Wall Street Journal , Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]26 Mar 2018: A.13.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: RIO DE JANEIRO -- At the entrance to this city's biggest slum, Mare, burly guards for local drug gangs control access, lifting heavy steel girders set into holes in the road to let cars pass. Until she was gunned down this month, this was the longtime home to Marielle Franco, a prominent local politician and the only black woman on Rio's 51-member city council. Ms. Franco was being driven home from an event about empowering black women when her assailants pulled up alongside her car and fired four bullets through its tinted windows and into her skull. An investigation is under way, but officials haven't commented on whether they have established a motive or identified suspects. The execution-style killing has prompted nationwide protests and a bitter debate about the country's stark racial and social divides, with a focus on the issue Ms. Franco embraced with a passion that earned her powerful enemies: the role security forces play in slums, or favelas, like Mare. So far this year, state officials say about 30 officers have been killed in raids on Rio's favelas, where more than a million residents live. Favela residents die in far greater numbers at the hands of police. Last year, police in Rio state killed 1,124 people, the highest number in a decade, according to official data. Though that figure reflects deaths throughout the state, most of the dead were young black men. Ms. Franco denounced several alleged police killings over social media in the days before her death, including the death this month of a black man, Matheus Melo, as he was leaving church. Four days before she was killed, she vilified a police unit in the slum of Acari as the "Battalion of Death." "What's happening now in Acari is absurd!" she wrote on Twitter. "Stop humiliating the population, stop killing our youth!" A representative for the police unit in Acari couldn't be reached. Other police units contacted either declined to comment or weren't immediately available. In the weeks before her death, the city councilor was also engaged in a bitter political conflict over President Michel Temer's decision a month ago to put the military in charge of public security in Rio. The army had already occupied her native Mare in 2014, fearful of the slum's proximity to the airport as the city prepared to receive thousands of visitors for that year's World Cup. Its presence had led not to more security, she said, but to more human-rights abuses. Outside Mare's fortresslike gates is the Rio foreigners know well: the glamorous Olympic host city famous for its glistening coastline and sequin-studded carnival. But inside lies a city unto itself: about 140,000 largely dark-skinned Brazilians living under the control of drug gangs and militias, in ramshackle settlements with patchy access to electricity and clean water. Many residents of favelas work as maids and doormen for richer people in Rio, and the favelas play an outsize role in shaping the city's music and art scene. But another, more combustible form of contact between these worlds preoccupied Ms. Franco and her neighbors, as well as other city officials and security personnel: the constant battle in the favelas between police and drug gangs with war-grade weapons. Ms. Franco joined some favela residents and human-rights groups in accusing the police of torturing, robbing and killing innocent locals as they engaged in that fight. Complicating matters, shadowy militias, often made up of off-duty and retired police officers, also operate in the slums, say human-rights groups that accuse them of extorting money and carrying out extrajudicial killings. Many of Rio's middle-class and wealthy residents, fed up with living in a municipality with one of the world's highest murder rates, say police should have a free hand in dealing with gangs. "I'm in favor. Something has to be done to save this country," said Marcela, an elderly homemaker on Rio's Copacabana beach. Three-quarters of all Brazilians agree with her, according to a recent study by pollster Parana Pesquisas. Security experts say the solution to police excesses lies in paying officers better and on time, providing better training and intelligence work, and funding community youth projects. Favela residents, meanwhile, say they want to be rid of the gangs, but community leaders say the Brazilian state should be curbing the criminals' power by providing jobs, social programs and education rather than by sending in heavy-handed police. Many of Ms. Franco's supporters believe it was her criticism of police that led to her paying the ultimate price. Patricia Vianna, a fellow activist in Mare who had worked with Ms. Franco days before her killing to help favela residents bring police officers to justice for killing suspects, said while she can't be sure who killed her, she believes it was done to send a message. "We all took it as a warning for us to stop our fight. But whoever did it, they didn't expect the reaction this would get," she said. "This has only strengthened our battle." --- Paulo Trevisani contributed to this article. --- City Councilor Was Raised in Poverty Marielle Franco, a lesbian single mother, in many ways was trying to bridge the city's divides as a slum leader who also had access to the corridors of power. Despite growing up in poverty, Ms. Franco got a scholarship to study sociology at Rio's Catholic PUC University and broke into politics with a landslide victory in 2016 as city councilor. She made a name for herself standing up for black and mixed-race Brazilians. Ms. Franco's younger sister, Anielle Silva, said their upbringing in Mare had been marked by violence. "There were days when we couldn't go to school because of shootouts or there were dead bodies outside our front door," the 33-year-old said.
Credit: By Samantha Pearson and Luciana Magalhaes
Subject: Social networks; Ghettos; Militia groups
Location: Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil
People: Temer, Michel
Company / organization: Name: Twitter Inc; NAICS: 519130
Publication title: Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.
Pages: A.13
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 26, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York, N.Y.
Country of publication: United States, New York, N.Y.
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance
ISSN: 00999660
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2017916961
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2017916961?accountid=4840
Copyright: (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Reproduced with per mission of copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
Last updated: 2018-03-26
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Major Dailies
Document 204 of 474
Killing of Activist Jars a Divided Brazil -- WSJ
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]26 Mar 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
A prominent local politician, Marielle Franco had decried police's approach to Rio de Janeiro's violence-racked slums
This article is being republished as part of our daily reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S. print edition of The Wall Street Journal (March 26, 2018).
RIO DE JANEIRO -- At the entrance to this city's biggest slum, Maré, burly guards for local drug gangs control access, lifting heavy steel girders set into holes in the road to let cars pass.
Until she was gunned down last week, this was the longtime home to Marielle Franco, a prominent local politician and the only black woman on Rio's 51-member city council. Ms. Franco was being driven home from an event about empowering black women when her assailants pulled up alongside her car and fired four bullets through its tinted windows and into her skull. An investigation is under way, but officials haven't commented on whether they have established a motive or identified suspects.
The execution-style killing has prompted nationwide protests and a bitter debate about the country's stark racial and social divides, with a focus on the issue Ms. Franco embraced with a passion that earned her powerful enemies: the role security forces play in slums, or favelas, like Maré.
So far this year, state officials say about 30 officers have been killed in raids on Rio's favelas, where more than a million residents live. Favela residents die in far greater numbers at the hands of police. Last year, police in Rio state killed 1,124 people, the highest number in a decade, according to official data. Though that figure reflects deaths throughout the state, most of the dead were young black men.
Ms. Franco denounced several alleged police killings over social media in the days before her death, including the death earlier this month of a black man, Matheus Melo, as he was leaving church. Four days before she was killed, she vilified a police unit in the slum of Acari as the "Battalion of Death."
"What's happening now in Acari is absurd!" she wrote on Twitter. "Stop humiliating the population, stop killing our youth!"
A representative for the police unit in Acari couldn't be reached. Other police units contacted either declined to comment or weren't immediately available.
In the weeks before her death, the city councilor was also engaged in a bitter political conflict over President Michel Temer's decision a month ago to put the military in charge of public security in Rio. The army had already occupied her native Maré in 2014, fearful of the slum's proximity to the airport as the city prepared to receive thousands of visitors for that year's World Cup. Its presence had led not to more security, she said, but to more human-rights abuses.
"People from the favela know exactly what it means to have your right to public security denied...to see the end of a gun's barrel, to hear the sound of tanks," Ms. Franco said in a video last month decrying the military intervention.
Outside Maré's fortresslike gates is the Rio foreigners know well: the glamorous Olympic host city famous for its glistening coastline and sequin-studded carnival. But inside lies a city unto itself: about 140,000 largely dark-skinned Brazilians living under the control of drug gangs and militias, in ramshackle settlements with patchy access to electricity and clean water.
Many residents of favelas work as maids and doormen for richer people in Rio, and the favelas play an outsize role in shaping the city's music and art scene.
But another, more combustible form of contact between these worlds preoccupied Ms. Franco and her neighbors, as well as other city officials and security personnel: the bloody and constant battle in the favelas between police and drug gangs with war-grade weapons, including grenades and rocket launchers.
Ms. Franco's younger sister, Anielle Silva, said their upbringing in Maré had been marked by violence from an early age. "There were days when we couldn't go to school because of shootouts or there were dead bodies outside our front door," the 33-year-old said. "We had to deal with this from when we were little kids."
She said the police haven't revealed any details of their investigation, even to her family.
Ms. Franco joined some favela residents and human-rights groups in accusing the police of torturing, robbing and killing innocent locals as they engaged in that fight. Complicating matters, shadowy militias, often made up of off-duty and retired police officers, also operate in the slums, say human-rights groups that accuse them of extorting money and carrying out extrajudicial killings.
Many of Rio's middle-class and wealthy residents, fed up with living in a municipality with one of the world's highest murder rates, say police should have a free hand in dealing with gangs. "I'm in favor. Something has to be done to save this country," said Marcela, an elderly homemaker on Rio's Copacabana beach. Three-quarters of all Brazilians agree with her, according to a recent study by pollster Paraná Pesquisas.
Security experts say the solution to police excesses lies in paying officers better and on time, providing better training and intelligence work, and funding community youth projects.
Favela residents, meanwhile, say they want to be rid of the gangs, but community leaders say the Brazilian state should be curbing the criminals' power by providing jobs, social programs and education rather than by sending in heavy-handed police.
In many ways, Ms. Franco, a lesbian single mother, was trying to bridge the city's divides as a slum leader who also had access to the city's corridors of power. Despite growing up in poverty, Ms. Franco, who was 38 when she died, got a scholarship to study sociology at Rio's Catholic PUC University and broke into politics with a landslide victory in 2016 as city councilor. She made a name for herself standing up for black and mixed-race Brazilians, who make up more than 50% of the country and a large part of her voter base.
Many of Ms. Franco's supporters believe it was her criticism of police that led to her paying the ultimate price. Patricia Vianna, a fellow activist in Maré who had worked with Ms. Franco days before her killing to help favela residents bring police officers to justice for killing suspects, said while she can't be sure who killed her, she believes it was done to send a message.
"We all took it as a warning for us to stop our fight. But whoever did it, they didn't expect the reaction this would get," she said. "This has only strengthened our battle."
On a deserted Rio street just outside a Chevrolet repair shop, shattered glass and the remains of crime-scene tape mark the spot where Ms. Franco was shot. Nearby are flowers with handwritten messages, and sprayed on grimy walls are scores of colorful tributes to the dead councilwoman. One reads "Thank you for the ray of light in our lives and in our city."
--Paulo Trevisani contributed to this article.
Write to Samantha Pearson at [email protected] and Luciana Magalhaes at [email protected]
(END)
March 26, 2018 02:32 ET (06:32 GMT)By Samantha Pearson and Luciana Magalhaes
Subject: Social networks; Ghettos; Criminal investigations; Militia groups
Location: Brazil United States--US Rio de Janeiro Brazil
People: Temer, Michel
Company / organization: Name: Twitter Inc; NAICS: 519130; Name: Wall Street Journal; NAICS: 511110
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 26, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2018461123
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2018461123?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Mar 26, 2018
Last updated: 2018-03-27
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 205 of 474
HK Bourse: Results Announcement From Hysan Development Co. Ltd. -5-
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]28 Mar 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
(MORE TO FOLLOW)
March 28, 2018 05:44 ET (09:44 GMT)reviewed included the contractor's safety management system, which focused on plant and equipment; subcontractors' method statement and safety work procedures' implementation. The review's result was satisfactory. There were 18 minor work-related injuries at the Lee Garden Three site in 2017. 13 Community Contributions Partnerships with Lee Gardens Association In 2016, Hysan was the driving force behind the establishment of Lee Gardens Association (LGA), an area association whose aim is to create a unified community of businesses to promote the Lee Gardens area to locals and overseas visitors. LGA's membership grew to include 16 members by the end of 2017, with a variety of retailers, mainly food and beverage outlets, forming the membership base. Not only has LGA hosted a number of popular and exciting events and activities in the area, it also became a platform for area businesses to share views and engage with government departments and the local District Council. Issues concerning local area traffic and hygiene were among those discussed, which in turn led to successful resolution by the relevant government departments. Among the events held by LGA in 2017 were: Mar July "EGGssentially Art!" Lee Gardens Suet Go Egglette Festival Chic Ice-Cream Festival - delighted thousands of ice-cream - attracted around 20,000 visitors fans on one of the hottest July days who enjoyed this traditional Hong in 2017 by offering different types Kong street snack in different of dairy dessert, and the event was flavours, as crafted by egglette complemented by musical experts as well as top restaurants. performances and handicraft workshops. 14 Hysan Corporate Responsibility Report 2017 Oct Nov Hong Kong Tennis Open Art Fun in Causeway Bay with Lee Gardens Street Night Parade Tennis - captured the imagination of tens of thousands who lined Lee Gardens - turned Lee Garden One driveway side streets to see their favourite into a mini tennis court and Roald Dahl characters. The most entertained crowds who watched successful version of this acclaimed top live matches on a big screen. event to date saw not only massive One of the tournament's stars, Elina crowds on the event night, but Svitolina, graced the event and strong media attention was given to attracted a huge crowd of fans. the pre-event activities. Fabulous Pak Sha Autumn Fiesta - Hosted by performing arts organisation AFTEC and supported by LGA, the event entertained thousands of children and their parents at Pak Sha Road and Hysan Place with art and games workshops. LGA also supported the CX/HSBC Rugby Sevens Fan Walk (see section on "Environmental and Healthy Living Promotions"), in partnership with Hysan. 15 Community Contributions Environmental and Healthy Living Promotions Hysan Place's Urban Farm remained one of Hong Kong's best-loved environmental attractions, with 16 local and international organisations visiting the rooftop facility in 2017. Our visitors ranged from Hong Kong-based hospitality professionals to students from Mainland China, United States, Switzerland and Taiwan. Other visitors included corporate governance experts from Brazil and the presenters of a French TV gardening programme. Over 300 urban farmers enjoyed sessions growing organic produce at Hysan Place, and around 400 children and parents participated in our Green Wonders programme to learn more about green building and urban farming. Hysan became one of the sponsors for Hong Kong's best known international sporting events, Cathay Pacific/HSBC Rugby Sevens, in 2017. We hosted the events' Fan Walk, which was a major street carnival that lasted three days. In addition to live transmission of all the principal matches, dozens of street performers roamed Yun Ping Road and Hysan Avenue to carry Sevens fervor well beyond Hong Kong Stadium. Games and food stalls also enlivened Lee Garden One's driveway while tens of thousands of revelers celebrated top quality rugby in the Lee Gardens area. Having learned much from the 2017 event, Hysan plans to work with Hong Kong Rugby Union and the other sponsors to deliver an even more original and exciting edition of the Rugby Sevens carnival at Hysan Avenue and beyond in 2018. There were two episodes of "Hysan Hike and Run" in 2017, since we added an "Island" run to the calendar. Although the March race in Tai Lam was nearly washed out by a storm, the November race literally ran from the seashore (Deep Water Bay) to one of Hong Kong's higher peaks (Violet Hill) in gorgeous weather. Among the hundreds of runners were around three dozen Hysan colleagues who enjoyed great camaraderie whilst racing up and down perhaps Hong Kong island's most scenic route. 16 Hysan Corporate Responsibility Report 2017 Arts and Culture Promotions The visit by Rachel Barton Pine, a top international violinist, was one of the highest profile performing art events ever held at Hysan Place. Not only did Ms. Barton Pine captivate a full-house audience at the mall, she also invited a number of Hysan's VIPs to a personal lunch, as well as a violin clinic whilst she was in Hong Kong. City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong was Hysan's partner for the event. Other major performances at Hysan's venues in 2017 included Po Leung Kuk's celebration of Hong Kong SAR's 20th anniversary and the Kuk's Education Services' 70th anniversary; the Lee Hysan Foundation-sponsored Sing Out musical preview; and two popular after-work concerts organised by Premiere Performances. The Hong Kong Institute of Architects Biennale Foundation's 2017 Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture turned Hysan Place's long escalators, as well as other parts of the building, into a striking artistic exhibition venue in December. Earlier in the year, Food Angel's Canstruction again had visitors thinking deeply about the issue of food wastage by presenting original artwork comprised of cans. 17 Community Contributions Other Venue Support Below is the list of community activities that took place at Hysan's venues in 2017: Jan Feb March WWF Hong Kong "Public St. James' Settlement Helping Hand "Cookie Campaign Engagement Programme" "Valentines Flower Charity Sale" Charity Sale" Young Artists Development Lok Sin Tong "Charity Candy Sale" Foundation "HK Territory-wide Youth Painting Day 2016 Award- The Hong Kong Institute of winning Painting Exhibition" Architects "Innovative Youth Housing Design Competition Helping Hand "Cookie Campaign Exhibition" Launching Ceremony" World Vision "Child Sponsorship Programme" June City Chamber Orchestra of Po Leung Kuk "Celebration Global Institute for Tomorrow Hong Kong "Rachel Barton Performances: The 20th
Subject: Tennis; Gardens & gardening; Architecture; Food; Corporate responsibility; Architects; Art; Rugby
Location: Switzerland United States--US China Hong Kong Brazil Taiwan
People: Dahl, Roald
Company / organization: Name: World Vision; NAICS: 813311; Name: Cathay Pacific Air ways Ltd; NAICS: 481111
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 28, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2019216420
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2019216420?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Mar 28, 2018
Last updated: 2018-03-29
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 206 of 474
Dividends Reported March 28
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]28 Mar 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
(END)
March 28, 2018 17:08 ET (21:08 GMT)Company Symbol Yld Per Amount Payable Record
Increased New Old Amdocs DOX 1.5 Q .25 .22 Apr 20 Mar 30 UDR UDR 3.6 Q .3225 .31 Apr 30 Apr 09 Initial Pacer WealthShield ETF PWS .0523 Mar 29 Mar 28 Reinhart Int Bd NextSh RPIBC .0356 Mar 29 Mar 28 Regular Atlantic American AAME 0.6 A .02 Apr 23 Apr 13 Buckle BKE 4.5 Q .25 Apr 27 Apr 13 Camden National CAC 2.2 Q .25 Apr 30 Apr 13 Gold Resource GORO 0.4 M .0017 Apr 23 Apr 11 Mackinac Financial MFNC 3.0 Q .12 Apr 18 Apr 10 NiSource NI 3.3 Q .195 May 18 Apr 30 Shoe Carnival SCVL 1.2 Q .075 Apr 23 Apr 09 Funds, Investment Cos. AGFiQ Hedged Div Incm Fd DIVA 11.1 Q .6543 Apr 03 Mar 29 Amplify Yield CWP Div DIVO 4.8 Q .3321 Apr 02 Mar 29 Amplify Yield Oil Hdg MLP AMLX 17.0 Q .4197 Apr 02 Mar 29 Amplify YieldShs Sr Loan YESR 6.0 M .1233 Apr 02 Mar 29 Cambria Core Equity ETF CCOR 1.3 Q .0787 Apr 06 Mar 29 Cambria Em Shareholder EYLD 0.4 Q .0331 Apr 06 Mar 29 Cambria Shareholder Yield SYLD 1.2 Q .1084 Apr 06 Mar 29 Cambria Sovereign HY Bd SOVB 2.5 Q .18 Apr 06 Mar 29 Cambria Tail Risk ETF TAIL 1.2 Q .0694 Apr 06 Mar 29 Cambria Value & Momentum VAMO 0.7 Q .0406 Apr 06 Mar 29 CWA Income ETF CWAI 3.0 M .0616 Mar 29 Mar 28 Dreyfus Alcentra Glb 2024 DCF 6.9 M .054 Apr 24 Apr 10 Elkhorn Lunt Low Vol Hi LVHB 0.9 Q .0716 Mar 29 Mar 28 Elkhorn S&P High Qual Pfd EPRF 4.7 M .0936 Mar 29 Mar 28 Fidelity Corporate Bd FCOR 3.7 M .152 Apr 02 Mar 28 Fidelity Limited Term Bd FLTB 2.0 M .084 Apr 02 Mar 28 Fidelity Total Bond ETF FBND 2.9 M .12 Apr 02 Mar 28 Inspire 100 ETF BIBL 0.9 Q .0611 Apr 04 Mar 29 Inspire Corp Bd Impact IBD 1.5 M .0316 Apr 04 Mar 29 Inspire Global Hope ETF BLES 0.9 Q .0655 Apr 04 Mar 29 Inspire Sml/MC Impact ISMD 0.4 Q .0281 Apr 04 Mar 29 Natixis Loomis Short Dur LSST 2.6 M .0536 Mar 29 Mar 28 OSh FTSE AsiaPac Qlty Div OASI 0.9 M .0205 Apr 03 Mar 29 O'Shares FTSE Russ Intl ONTL 2.3 M .0508 Apr 03 Mar 29 O'Shares FTSE Russ SC Qu OUSM 2.8 M .0594 Apr 03 Mar 29 OShs FTSE Eur Quality Div OEUR 2.0 M .0405 Apr 03 Mar 29 OShs FTSE US Quality Div OUSA 3.1 M .079 Apr 03 Mar 29 Pacer Gl Cash Cows Div GCOW 3.0 Q .223 Mar 29 Mar 28 Pacer Intl Cash Cows 100 ICOW 1.0 Q .0728 Mar 29 Mar 28 Pacer U.S. Cash Cows 100 COWZ 1.2 Q .0847 Mar 29 Mar 28 Pacer US SC Cash Cows 100 CALF 1.3 Q .0849 Mar 29 Mar 28 Spin Field UVA Uncons Med FFIU 2.5 M .05 Apr 02 Mar 29 Summit Water ETF WTRX 0.5 A .1503 Mar 29 Mar 28 Summit Water ETF WTRX 0.5 S 1.3774 Mar 29 Mar 28 Summit Water ETF WTRX 0.5 S .155 Mar 29 Mar 28 US Equity Cum Div 2027 IDIV 7.7 M .09 Apr 02 Mar 29 Foreign Arcos Dorados Holdings A ARCO 2.3 Q .05 Oct 05 Oct 02 Arcos Dorados Holdings A ARCO 2.3 Q .05 Apr 05 Apr 02 Brasil DistrGrupo Pao ADR CBD S .1064 Jun 04 Apr 06 Ecopetrol ADR EC S .6374 Apr 27 Apr 18 Nam Tai Property NTP 2.2 Q .07 Apr 20 Mar 31 Nokia ADR NOK 3.5 S .2364 Jun 18 Jun 01 PLDT ADR PHI S .5342 May 08 Apr 12 Stock Dividends and Splits Pct Ability ABIL 1:10 Reverse Split Source: SIX Financial Information
Subject: Stockholders
Location: United States--US
Company / organization: Name: NiSource Inc; NAICS: 221111, 221122, 221210; Name: Arcos Dorados Holdings Inc; NAICS: 722513; Name: Shoe Carnival Inc; NAICS: 448210; Name: SIX Financial Information; NAICS: 522320, 523110
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 28, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2019237545
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2019237545?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Mar 28, 2018
Last updated: 2018-03-29
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 207 of 474
Calendar: Highlights from around town
Author: Daily Pilot Staff
Publication info: Los Angeles Times (Online) , Los Angeles: Tribune Interactive, LLC. Mar 29, 2018. [Duplicate]
Abstract:
[...]APRIL 14 Huntington Beach Art Center The Huntington Beach Art Center will feature the annual exhibit, “Creative Visions,” with student art from Huntington Beach schools. The events will be held at the library at 1000 Avocado Ave. For more information, visit www.nbplfoundation.org/content/The-Witte-Lectures.html. [...]MAY 30 Russell Pierce The work of famed artist Russell Pierce will be on display at the Community Art Project gallery at 260 Ocean Ave., on the second floor near the Wells Fargo building in Laguna Beach. For more information, visit www.caplaguna.org. [...]JUNE 21 California Impressionists The “Harmony of Light: Spring in California” exhibit will be displayed at the Irvine Museum of Collection at the University of California, Irvine, 18881 Von Karman Ave. The showcase features paintings from California impressionists depicting springtime in the state. For more information, visit irvinemuseumcollection.uci.edu/event/harmony-light-spring-california/. [...]AUG. 9 Rainforest Adventure A Rainforest Adventure exhibit is featured at Discovery Cube at 2500 N. Main St., Santa Ana.Full text: A roundup of community events throughout Orange County. To submit items, email [email protected] MARCH 31 Fundraiser The Western High School Pioneers Forever Alumni Assn. will hold a fundraiser featuring a series of local folkloric dance groups all day at the John F. Kennedy Performing Art Center, 8281 Walker St., La Palma. For tickets, visit www.bolsatickets.com. Easter Bunny The Easter Bunny will be available for photos from noon to 3 p.m. at Bella Terra at 7777 Edinger Ave., Huntington Beach. For more information, visit www.bellaterra-hb.com/. Easter Celebration An Easter celebration will be held from noon to 3 p.m. at the Outlets at San Clemente at Oak Tree Court, 101 W. Avenida Vista Hermosa, San Clemente. The free, family-friendly event will include live animal shows featuring bunnies, porcupines, alligators and a kinkajou, face painting, balloon artists, and crafts. For more information, visit www.outletsatsanclemente.com. Lido Marina Village Children’s crafts, a balloon artist, face painter and live music will be featured at a Spring celebration from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Lido Marina Village at 3434 Via Oporto, Newport Beach. Dean Torrence and the Vertikals Band Dean Torrence and the Vertikals Band will perform from 7 p.m. to midnight at the Hilton Orange County Airport at 18800 MacArthur Blvd., Irvine. The event, presented by the Lemondrop Club, costs $20. For more information, visit www.lemondropclub.com/. APRIL 2 TILL 8 Kidstock Pretend City Children’s Museum will hold its inaugural Kidstock Music and Arts Family Festival for families. Live performances will run every day from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and art activities will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the museum at 29 Hubble, Irvine. For more information, visit www.pretendcity.org. APRIL 5 Kavita Shah and Francois Moutin Vocalist Kavita Shah and bassist François Moutin will perform at 2 p.m. at Saddleback College at 28000 Marguerite Parkway, Mission Viejo. Admission is free. For more information, visit www.saddleback.edu/news/arts/concert-hour-francois-moutin-kavita-shah. APRIL 5 TILL APRIL 26 GMUNK Laguna College of Art and Design’s BFA program in Graphic Design + Digital Media will present Miscellany, an exhibition showcasing a wide range of works by the talented designer and director GMUNK. It will include pieces from GMUNK’s infrared photography from places like Iceland and Alaska to a projection mapped sculptural display window. The gallery is located at 374 Ocean Ave., Laguna Beach. APRIL 6 TILL 8 ‘The Little Dog Laughed’ The Golden West College Theater Arts Department will present the play, “The Little Dog Laughed,” at 7:30 p.m. April 6 and 7 and at 2 p.m. April 8 at the Golden West College Theater at 15751 Gothard St., Huntington Beach. General admission is $12 and $10 for seniors, veterans, and students. For more information, visit www.gwctheater.com. APRIL 6 TILL MAY 6 ‘Sister Act’ The Costa Mesa Playhouse will conclude 53 seasons of shows with the hit musical, “Sister Act.” Performances are 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays at the playhouse at 661 Hamilton St., Costa Mesa. For more information, visit www.costamesaplayhouse.com. APRIL 7 Music Festival Tickets are on sale for Sabroso’s Craft Beer, Taco and Music Festival, which will feature a variety of bands including the Offspring. The event will be held at Doheny State Beach in Dana Point. Tickets, starting at $45.50, can be purchased at sabrosotacofest.com/. APRIL 7 AND 8 The Creation! The Orange County Women’s Chorus and Men in Blaque will be celebrating their 20th anniversaries with collaborative performances of Haydn’s “The Creation!,” at 7 p.m. April 7 and 3 p.m. April 8 at St. Wilfrid of York Episcopal Church, 18631 Chapel Lane, Huntington Beach. For more information, visit www.ocwomenschorus.org. APRIL 8 LOCA Fundraiser LOCA Arts Education will be holding a fundraising event in honor of its 25th anniversary from 4 to 7 p.m. at Kitchen in the Canyon at the Festival Center at 805-859 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach. For tickets, visit LOCAarts.org or call (949) 363-4700. TILL APRIL 8 Bubblefest Bubblefest, which includes a variety of bubble-related activities, will be held at the Discovery Cube at 2500 N. Main St., Santa Ana. For more information, visit oc.discoverycube.org. APRIL 12 Wild and Crazy Taco Night The 25th annual Wild and Crazy Taco Night will be held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Share Our Selves at 1550 Superior Ave., Costa Mesa. The event, which will feature beer, margaritas and tacos, costs $75 for general admission until April 1, when the price increases to $85. VIP tickets cost $150. To purchase tickets, visit www.shareourselves.org/events. National Library Week In celebration of National Library Week, the Newport Beach Public Library will host a program at 7 p.m. with Annie Spence, author of “Dear Fahrenheit 451: Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks: A Librarian’s Love Letters and Break Up Notes to the Books in Her Life.” For more information, visit www.newportbeachlibrary.org. APRIL 13 Molly Wood Workshop Gardening expert, Molly Wood, will host a free workshop at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. at Molly Wood Garden Design at 1660 Orange Ave., Costa Mesa. To RSVP, call (949) 548-1611. APRIL 13 TO 15 Costa Mesa Bead and Design Show The Costa Mesa Bead and Design Show will run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day at the Hilton Costa Mesa at 3050 Bristol St. Artisans will be selling handcrafted products. Tickets are $8 in advance and $10 at the door. For more information, visit www.beadanddesign.com. APRIL 14 Micro-Brew Fest The eighth annual San Clemente Micro-Brew Fest will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. at Left Coast Brewing at 1245 Puerta Del Sol, San Clemente. The event will feature microbrews from all over Southern California, including Oggi’s Sports Brewhouse Pizza, the Bruery, and Four Sons Brewing Co. General admission presale tickets are $40, GA at the door is $45, and VIP is $50. OASIS Senior Center The OASIS Senior Center will host a fundraiser with dinner, gaming, music and other entertainment from 5 to 9 p.m. at 801 Narcissus, Newport Beach. Proceeds will help fund equipment for classes, food and meals on wheels, bus drivers, entertainment for senior events and salary for two staff members. Tickets cost $45. San Juan Capistrano Garden Club The San Juan Capistrano Garden Club will open five private gardens up to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 27579 Paseo Castile. A donation of $20 is required. For more information, visit www.sanjuancapistranogardenclub.com. El Modena Branch Library The El Modena Branch Library will host an event about how to conduct genealogy research for Latino families at 10 a.m. Attendees can learn about resources available at the library and learn more about the Society of Hispanic Historical and Ancestral Research (SHHAR), a local organization that assists Hispanic/Latinos research their family history. It will be held in the community room at the library at 380 S. Hewes St., Orange. TILL APRIL 14 Huntington Beach Art Center The Huntington Beach Art Center will feature the annual exhibit, “Creative Visions,” with student art from Huntington Beach schools. The center is located at 538 Main St., Huntington Beach. For more information, visit www.huntingtonbeachartcenter.org/. APRIL 17 Kontrapunktus Neo-baroque ensemble, Kontrapunktus, will perform at 7 p.m. at St. John Vianney Chapel at 314 Marine Ave., Newport Beach. For tickets, visit www.kontrapunktus.com/events/an-evening-with-kontrapunktus-12. APRIL 19 TILL APRIL 22 ‘Noises Off!’ The Huntington Beach Academy for the Performing Arts will feature the play “Noises Off!” at 7:30 p.m. each day with one show at 2 p.m. April 22 at the Historic Auditorium at Huntington Beach High School, 1905 Main St. Tickets are $22 for adults and $16 for students/seniors 65+. They are available at www.hbapa.org/see. APRIL 21 Project Self-Sufficiency Project Self-Sufficiency will hold their eighth annual Wine, Cheese and Chocolate Please auction at Mile Square Golf Course at 10401 Warner Ave., Fountain Valley. The program supports low-income parents in Orange County. For more information, visit www.winecheeseandchocolateplease.com/. APRIL 23 Tilly’s Tilly’s will host their 11th Charity Golf Tournament at the Mission Viejo Country Club. All proceeds raised will be donated to the Tilly’s Life Center organization to help further the mission to empower teens. TILL APRIL 25 Festival of Arts Exhibit The Festival of Arts is featuring a new exhibit at foaSOUTH showcasing the work of artist Bradford J. Salamon. The exhibit is located at 1006 S. Coast Highway, Laguna Beach. For more information, visit www.LagunaFestivalofArts.com. APRIL 27 Joey Alexander Trio Joey Alexander, a renowned teenage pianist, will be performing with his trio at 7:30 p.m. at Musco Center for the Arts at Chapman University at One University Drive, Orange. For more information, visit muscocenter.org/event/joey-alexander-trio/. TILL APRIL 27 Witte Lectures The Newport Beach Public Library Foundation will hold the 21st annual Witte Lectures, featuring speakers David Frum, Masha Gessen and Maira Kalman from February through April. The events will be held at the library at 1000 Avocado Ave. For more information, visit www.nbplfoundation.org/content/The-Witte-Lectures.html. TILL MAY 30 Russell Pierce The work of famed artist Russell Pierce will be on display at the Community Art Project gallery at 260 Ocean Ave., on the second floor near the Wells Fargo building in Laguna Beach. For more information, visit www.caplaguna.org. TILL JUNE 21 California Impressionists The “Harmony of Light: Spring in California” exhibit will be displayed at the Irvine Museum of Collection at the University of California, Irvine, 18881 Von Karman Ave. The showcase features paintings from California impressionists depicting springtime in the state. For more information, visit irvinemuseumcollection.uci.edu/event/harmony-light-spring-california/. TILL AUG. 9 Rainforest Adventure A Rainforest Adventure exhibit is featured at Discovery Cube at 2500 N. Main St., Santa Ana. For more information, visit www.oc.discoverycube.org. MAY 4 TILL 6 OC Music Fest The Orange County Music Festival will be returning to Lakeview Park near Irvine Lake at 5305 E. Santiago Canyon Road, Orange. The weekend music and camping festival is returning after a three-year hiatus. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.oc-musicfest.com/. MAY 17 Newport Harbor Home and Garden Tour The 21st Annual Newport Harbor Home and Garden Tour will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The event will showcase six Newport Beach homes with ocean views and a variety of architectural and interior styles by local designers. For more information, visit newportharborhometour.com/. MAY 18 Literacy Author Luncheon The 11th annual Gift of Literacy Author Luncheon, presented by Newport/Mesa ProLiteracy, will be held at 11:30 a.m. at the Pacific Club at 4111 MacArthur Blvd., Newport Beach. The luncheon will feature a speech from author Janelle Brown, who penned the novels, “Watch Me Disappear,” “All We Ever Wanted Was Everything,” and “This Is Where We Live.” Tickets cost $95 and include a copy of the book “Watch Me Disappear.” For more information, visit www.newportliteracy.org. MAY 18 TILL 20 Fiesta The Saint Edward Parish Fiesta will be held from 5 to 10 p.m. May 18, noon to 10 p.m. May 19 and noon to 8 p.m. May 20 at 33926 Calle La Primavera, Dana Point. The free event will feature carnival rides, games and live entertainment. For more information, visit www.stedwardfiesta.org. MAY 27 Natalia Lafourcade Grammy Award-winning musician Natalia Lafourcade will perform at 6 p.m. at Musco Center for the Arts at Chapman University at One University Drive, Orange. For more information, visit muscocenter.org/event/natalia-lafourcade/. JUNE 9 Children’s Bureau The Children’s Bureau, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit, will be holding a fundraiser for the prevention and treatment of child abuse from 6 to 9:30 p.m. at Oak Creek Golf Club at One Golf Club Drive, Irvine. A ticket costs $300. For more information, visit www.all4kids.org/soiree. JUNE 17 Matt Mauser Matt Mauser will perform a celebration of the music of Frank Sinatra from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Civic Center Green at 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach. The free concert is presented by the Newport Beach City Arts Commission as part of a Newport Beach concert series. JULY 15 The Springsteen Experience The Springsteen Experience will perform from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Civic Center Green at 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach. The free concert is presented by the Newport Beach City Arts Commission as part of a Newport Beach concert series. AUG. 6 Teeing for Tusks A golf tournament will be held to fund programs that support anti-poaching efforts in Africa. “Teeing for Tusks” will run from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at Monarch Beach Golf Links at 50 Monarch Beach Resort, Dana Point. A single golfer entree is $300 and a team of four is $1,200. Register at charityvalet.com/tusks18. AUG. 12 Tijuana Dogs The Tijuana Dogs will perform from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Civic Center Green at 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach. The free concert is presented by the Newport Beach City Arts Commission as part of a Newport Beach concert series. SEPT. 9 Desperado Eagles Tribute The Desperado Eagles Tribute will perform from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Civic Center Green at 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach. The free concert is presented by the Newport Beach City Arts Commission as part of a Newport Beach concert series. ONGOING Farmers’ Market The SOCO Farmers’ Market, held at 3315 Hyland Ave., Costa Mesa, is from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays and features coffee and pastry shops, home decor, and fashion. For more information, visit farmermark.com/soco. Wetlands tour Amigos de Bolsa Chica hosts a tour of the wetlands from 9 to 10:30 a.m. the first Saturday of every month, departing every 15 minutes from the footbridge in the south parking lot of the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve. The tour is led by docents and participants will learn about the birds, endangered species, history, ecology and restoration of the wetlands. For more information, call (714) 840-1575 or email [email protected]. Walking Club The Newport-Mesa Walking Club offers free walks at 9 a.m. and 7 pm. Mondays through Saturdays. For more information, call (949) 600-0966. Monthly Beach Cleanup Community beach cleanups are held on the first Saturday of the month from 10 a.m. to noon. In Laguna Beach, the cleanup locations with supplies are Hobie Sport, Thalia Surf, El Ranchito and United Studios of Self Defense. Participants can ask for “zero trash discounts.” For more information, email Chip McDermott at [email protected]. Hortense Miller Garden The Hortense Miller Garden covers 2 1/2 acres of the upper slopes of Boat Canyon and features a range of plants and small themed gardens. Tours through the garden and private residence are at 9:45 a.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, and must be scheduled two weeks in advance. For more information, call (949) 497-0716, ext. 6. Preschool Stories The Laguna Beach Public Library, 363 Glenneyre St., presents Preschool Story Time at 11 a.m. Wednesdays, followed by cookies and punch. For more information, call (949) 497-1733. Susi Q Needle Art Guild The Needle Art Guilt meets at the Susi Q Senior Center from 1 to 3:30 p.m. the last Friday of each month to create various items for local organizations, including Mission Hospital's oncology unit and the Friendship Shelter. All ages and levels of knitters and crocheters are welcome. In addition, a new needle art technique will be discussed each month. Yarn and monetary donations are always appreciated. This is a free activity. For more information, call (949) 497-2241. Newland House Tour The historic Newland House Museum, 19820 Beach Blvd., Huntington Beach, offers tours from local historians who provide information about the two-story Victorian home built in 1898. The museum is open from noon to 4 p.m. the first and third Saturday and Sunday of the month. Cost is $2 for adults, $1 for children. For information, call (714) 960-0055. Crafty Kids Club Huntington Beach Central Library hosts Crafty Kids Club at 2 p.m. Saturdays at the library, at 7111 Talbert Ave. Children about 5 through 9 years old are invited to enjoy stories and related crafts. Call (714) 375-5107. Press zero to speak with a librarian. Laptime Storytime The Huntington Beach Library presents Laptime Storytime at 9:15, 10 and 11 a.m. Tuesdays and 10 a.m. Saturdays at 7111 Talbert Ave. for children 18 months to 3 years old. The library's Preschool Storytime for children 3 to 5 are at 10 and 11 a.m. Fridays. Call (714) 375-5107. Bolsa Chica Walking Tour A two-hour walking tour of the Bolsa Chica mesa and wetlands is conducted at 10 a.m. on the third Sunday of every month by the Bolsa Chica Land Trust. This docent-led tour makes five stops along the walk bridge and loop trails of the wetlands. Meet in the south reserve parking lot on Pacific Coast Highway across from Bolsa Chica State Beach. Warm clothing, comfortable shoes and binoculars are recommended. Tours are free and open to the public. Call (714) 846-1001 or go to bolsachicalandtrust.org. Newport Beach Walking Club A Newport Beach walking club meets 7 to 8.30 p.m. Monday to Friday at the Union Bank parking lot on Jamboree and Bayside Road. To join call Loyda at (949) 600-0966. Tutoring People can volunteer to tutor children each week at El Morro Elementary School at 8681 N. Coast Highway, Laguna Beach. The tutoring sessions are provided by the Learning Club, which operates two afternoons a week from January to May. For more information, visit aauw2-lagunabeach.org. Photography Contest The Newport Beach City Arts Commission is holding a photography contest through April 15. Contestants can submit pictures of a series of new sculptures at Civic Center Park at 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach. Submissions should be emailed to [email protected]. For more information, visit www.newportbeachca.gov/culturalarts. Credit: Daily Pilot Staff
Subject: Tutoring; National libraries; Photography; Families & family life; Librarians; Design; Public libraries; Art; Walking; Music festivals; Museums
Location: Costa Mesa California Laguna Beach California Huntington Beach California Newport Beach California San Clemente California Bolsa Chica
People: Shah, Kavita
Publication title: Los Angeles Times (Online); Los Angeles
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Mar 29, 2018
Section: Socal - Daily Pilot - Entertainment
Publisher: Tribune Interactive, LLC
Place of publication: Los Angeles
Country of publication: United States, Los Angeles
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Blogs, Podcasts, & Websites
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2019850038
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2019850038?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Tribune Interactive, LLC Mar 29, 2018
Last updated: 2019-03-01
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 208 of 474
CURRENCIES [Europe Region]
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]02 Apr 2018: 18.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Unitedhealth orporated 214.00 -4.50 -2.06 yte 83.33 -1.63 -1.92 Galliford Try 835.00 -30.50 -3.52 Prudential 1778.50 -60.50 -3.29 Ericsson, Telefonab. L M Ser. B 5.14 -0.10 -1.93 Akzo Nobel 76.74 -1.46 -1.87 Thb Kansai Electric Power ,orporated 1367.00 -12.00 -0.87 Tokio Marine Holdings,. 4735.00 -38.00 -0.80 Based on the constituents of the S&P500 Based on the constituents of the FTSE 350 index Based on the constituents of the FTSEurofirst 300 Eurozone index Based on the constituents of the Nikkei 225 index Carnival 4580.00 -2.2 -6.6 Admiral 1844.00 -2.1 -5.4 Renewi 75.00 -3.8 -27.2 Essentra 423.80 -6.2 -20.5 The Gym 227.50 -6.2 3.4 Oxford Biomedica 11.06 -6.3 17.3 Software & Computer Services 1648.24 0.3 -31.0 Travel & Leisure 9451.33 0.4 -7.2 Based on last week's performance. †Price at suspension. CURRENCIES DOLLAR EURO POUND Closing Day's Closing Day's Closing Day's Mar 29 Currency Mid Change Mid Change Mid Change DOLLAR EURO POUND Closing Day's Closing Day's Closing Day's Mar 29 Currency Mid Change Mid Change Mid Change DOLLAR EURO POUND Closing Day's Closing Day's Closing Day's Mar 29 Currency Mid Change Mid Change Mid Change DOLLAR EURO POUND Closing Day's Closing Day's Closing Day's Mar 29 Currency Mid Change Mid Change Mid Change Argentina Argentine Peso 20.1320 - 24.7593 - 28.2412 - Australia Australian DOLLAR 1.3037 - 1.6034 - 1.8288 - Bahrain Bahrainin Dinar 0.3770 - 0.4637 - 0.5289 - Bolivian Boliviano 6.9100 - 8.4982 - 9.6933 - Brazil Brazilian Real 3.3236 - 4.0875 - 4.6623 - Canada Canadian Dollar 1.2893 - 1.5856 - 1.8086 - Chilean Peso 603.5650 - 742.2920 - 846.6810 - China Chinese Yuan 6.2917 - 7.7378 - 8.8260 - Colombia Colombian Peso 2793.1000 - 3435.0828 - 3918.1621 - Costa Rica Costa Rican Colon 565.8550 - 695.9145 - 793.7814 - Czech Republic Czech Koruna 20.6407 - 25.3849 - 28.9548 - Denmark Danish Krone 6.0609 - 7.4540 - 8.5022 - Egypt Egyptian Pound 17.6620 0.0665 21.7215 0.0818 24.7763 0.0933 Hong Kong Hong Kong Dollar 7.8483 - 9.6522 - 11.0096 - Hungary Hungarian Forint 253.8359 - 312.1790 - 356.0809 - Indian Rupee 65.2217 - 80.2126 - 91.4930 - Indonesian Rupiah 13767.5000 - 16931.9050 - 19313.0726 - Israeli Shekel 3.5109 - 4.3178 - 4.9250 - Japanese Yen 106.3500 - 130.7941 - 149.1878 - ..One Month 106.3498 -0.0004 130.7941 0.0001 149.1877 -0.0002 ..Three Month 106.3494 -0.0013 130.7942 0.0002 149.1874 -0.0007 ..One Year 106.3471 -0.0058 130.7944 0.0007 149.1877 -0.0019 Kenyan Shilling 101.0000 - 124.2144 - 141.6828 - Kuwaiti Dinar 0.2996 - 0.3685 - 0.4203 - Malaysian Ringgit 3.8680 - 4.7570 - 5.4260 - Mexico Mexican Peson 18.2535 - 22.4490 - 25.6060 - New Zealand New Zealand Dollar 1.3862 - 1.7048 - 1.9445 - Nigeria Nigerian Naira 359.9500 - 442.6830 - 504.9379 - Norway Norwegian Krone 7.8510 - 9.6555 - 11.0133 - Pakistan Pakistani Rupee 115.4000 - 141.9242 - 161.8831 - Peruvian Nuevo Sol 3.2270 - 3.9687 - 4.5268 - Philippines Philippine Peso 52.1775 - 64.1703 - 73.1946 - Poland Polish Zloty 3.4253 - 4.2126 - 4.8050 - Romania Romanian Leu 3.7907 - 4.6619 - 5.3175 - Russian Ruble 57.5000 - 70.7161 - 80.6610 - SaudiArabia Saudi Riyal 3.7500 - 4.6119 - 5.2605 - Singapore Singapore DOLLAR 1.311.3 -1.6127 - 1.8395 - South Africa South African Rand 11.8488 - 14.5721 - 16.6214 - South Korea South Korean Won 1065.9000 - 1310.8928 - 1495.2446 - Sweden Swedish Krona 8.3748 - 10.2997 - 11.7482 - Switzerland Swiss Franc 0.9576 - 1.1777 - 1.3433 - Taiwan New Taiwan Dollar 29.1570 - 35.8586 - 40.9014 - Thailand Thai Baht 31.2700 - 38.4573 - 43.8656 - Tunisian Dinar 2.4003 - 2.9519 - 3.3671 - Turkey Turkish Lira 3.9614 - 4.8719 - 5.5571 - United Arab Emirates UAE Dirham 3.6730 - 4.5172 - 5.1525 - United Kingdom Pound Sterling 0.7129 ..- 0.8767 --..One Month 0.7130 0.0000 0.8766 0.0000 -- ..Three Month 0.7134 0.0000 0.8764 0.0000 - ..One Year 0.7151 - 0.8754 0.0000 -- United States United States Dollar ..- - 1.2298 - 1.4028 - ..One Month - 1.2296 -0.1730 1.4030 0.0000 ..Three Month - 1.2290 -0.1730 1.4033 0.0000 ..One Year - 1.2261 -0.1730 1.4050 - Venezuelan Bolivar Fuerte 49650.0000 350.0000 61061.8490 430.4461 69649.0194 490.9800 Vietnamese Dong 22809.5000 - 28052.2220 - 31997.2354 - European Union Euro 0.8131 --1.1406 - ..One Month 0.8128 0.0000 - 1.1406 0.0000 ..Three Month 0.8123 0.0000 - 1.1404 0.0000 ..One Year 0.8094 0.0000 - 1.1394 0.0000 Rates are derived from WM Reuters Spot Rates and MorningStar (latest rates at time of production). Some values are rounded. Currency redenominated by 1000. The exchange rates printed in this table are also available at www.FT.com/marketsdata MARKET DATA
Subject: Currency; Bond issues; International finance
Location: Czech Republic Denmark Canada Nigeria Egypt Australia Argentina Hong Kong Poland Pakistan Brazil Bahrain South Korea New Zealand Mexico Hungary South Africa Romania Philippines Singapore Costa Rica China Norway Colombia
Company / organization: Name: FT.com; NAICS: 511110; Name: Travel & Leisure; NAICS: 511120; Name: Tokio Marine Holdings Inc; NAICS: 524210; Name: European Union; NAICS: 926110, 928120
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 18
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Apr 2, 2018
Section: Companies and Markets
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2033531465
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2033531465?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Apr 2, 2018
Last updated: 2019-06-04
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 209 of 474
CURRENCIES
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]02 Apr 2018: 21.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Unitedhealth orporated 214.00 -4.50 -2.06 yte 83.33 -1.63 -1.92 Galliford Try 835.00 -30.50 -3.52 Prudential 1778.50 -60.50 -3.29 Ericsson, Telefonab. L M Ser. B 5.14 -0.10 -1.93 Akzo Nobel 76.74 -1.46 -1.87 Thb Kansai Electric Power ,orporated 1367.00 -12.00 -0.87 Tokio Marine Holdings,. 4735.00 -38.00 -0.80 Based on the constituents of the S&P500 Based on the constituents of the FTSE 350 index Based on the constituents of the FTSEurofirst 300 Eurozone index Based on the constituents of the Nikkei 225 index Carnival 4580.00 -2.2 -6.6 Admiral 1844.00 -2.1 -5.4 Renewi 75.00 -3.8 -27.2 Essentra 423.80 -6.2 -20.5 The Gym 227.50 -6.2 3.4 Oxford Biomedica 11.06 -6.3 17.3 Software & Computer Services 1648.24 0.3 -31.0 Travel & Leisure 9451.33 0.4 -7.2 Based on last week's performance. †Price at suspension. DOLLAR EURO POUND Closing Day's Closing Day's Closing Day's Mar 29 Currency Mid Change Mid Change Mid Change DOLLAR EURO POUND Closing Day's Closing Day's Closing Day's Mar 29 Currency Mid Change Mid Change Mid Change DOLLAR EURO POUND Closing Day's Closing Day's Closing Day's Mar 29 Currency Mid Change Mid Change Mid Change DOLLAR EURO POUND Closing Day's Closing Day's Closing Day's Mar 29 Currency Mid Change Mid Change Mid Change Argentina Argentine Peso 20.1320 - 24.7593 - 28.2412 - Australia Australian DOLLAR 1.3037 - 1.6034 - 1.8288 - Bahrain Bahrainin Dinar 0.3770 - 0.4637 - 0.5289 - Bolivian Boliviano 6.9100 - 8.4982 - 9.6933 - Brazil Brazilian Real 3.3236 - 4.0875 - 4.6623 - Canada Canadian Dollar 1.2893 - 1.5856 - 1.8086 - Chilean Peso 603.5650 - 742.2920 - 846.6810 - China Chinese Yuan 6.2917 - 7.7378 - 8.8260 - Colombia Colombian Peso 2793.1000 - 3435.0828 - 3918.1621 - Costa Rica Costa Rican Colon 565.8550 - 695.9145 - 793.7814 - Czech Republic Czech Koruna 20.6407 - 25.3849 - 28.9548 - Denmark Danish Krone 6.0609 - 7.4540 - 8.5022 - Egypt Egyptian Pound 17.6620 0.0665 21.7215 0.0818 24.7763 0.0933 Hong Kong Hong Kong Dollar 7.8483 - 9.6522 - 11.0096 - Hungary Hungarian Forint 253.8359 - 312.1790 - 356.0809 - Indian Rupee 65.2217 - 80.2126 - 91.4930 - Indonesian Rupiah 13767.5000 - 16931.9050 - 19313.0726 - Israeli Shekel 3.5109 - 4.3178 - 4.9250 - Japanese Yen 106.3500 - 130.7941 - 149.1878 - ..One Month 106.3498 -0.0004 130.7941 0.0001 149.1877 -0.0002 ..Three Month 106.3494 -0.0013 130.7942 0.0002 149.1874 -0.0007 ..One Year 106.3471 -0.0058 130.7944 0.0007 149.1877 -0.0019 Kenyan Shilling 101.0000 - 124.2144 - 141.6828 - Kuwaiti Dinar 0.2996 - 0.3685 - 0.4203 - Malaysian Ringgit 3.8680 - 4.7570 - 5.4260 - Mexico Mexican Peson 18.2535 - 22.4490 - 25.6060 - New Zealand New Zealand Dollar 1.3862 - 1.7048 - 1.9445 - Nigeria Nigerian Naira 359.9500 - 442.6830 - 504.9379 - Norway Norwegian Krone 7.8510 - 9.6555 - 11.0133 - Pakistan Pakistani Rupee 115.4000 - 141.9242 - 161.8831 - Peruvian Nuevo Sol 3.2270 - 3.9687 - 4.5268 - Philippines Philippine Peso 52.1775 - 64.1703 - 73.1946 - Poland Polish Zloty 3.4253 - 4.2126 - 4.8050 - Romania Romanian Leu 3.7907 - 4.6619 - 5.3175 - Russian Ruble 57.5000 - 70.7161 - 80.6610 - SaudiArabia Saudi Riyal 3.7500 - 4.6119 - 5.2605 - Singapore Singapore DOLLAR 1.311.3 -1.6127 - 1.8395 - South Africa South African Rand 11.8488 - 14.5721 - 16.6214 - South Korea South Korean Won 1065.9000 - 1310.8928 - 1495.2446 - Sweden Swedish Krona 8.3748 - 10.2997 - 11.7482 - Switzerland Swiss Franc 0.9576 - 1.1777 - 1.3433 - Taiwan New Taiwan Dollar 29.1570 - 35.8586 - 40.9014 - Thailand Thai Baht 31.2700 - 38.4573 - 43.8656 - Tunisian Dinar 2.4003 - 2.9519 - 3.3671 - Turkey Turkish Lira 3.9614 - 4.8719 - 5.5571 - United Arab Emirates UAE Dirham 3.6730 - 4.5172 - 5.1525 - United Kingdom Pound Sterling 0.7129 ..- 0.8767 --..One Month 0.7130 0.0000 0.8766 0.0000 -- ..Three Month 0.7134 0.0000 0.8764 0.0000 - ..One Year 0.7151 - 0.8754 0.0000 -- United States United States Dollar ..- - 1.2298 - 1.4028 - ..One Month - 1.2296 -0.1730 1.4030 0.0000 ..Three Month - 1.2290 -0.1730 1.4033 0.0000 ..One Year - 1.2261 -0.1730 1.4050 - Venezuelan Bolivar Fuerte 49650.0000 350.0000 61061.8490 430.4461 69649.0194 490.9800 Vietnamese Dong 22809.5000 - 28052.2220 - 31997.2354 - European Union Euro 0.8131 --1.1406 - ..One Month 0.8128 0.0000 - 1.1406 0.0000 ..Three Month 0.8123 0.0000 - 1.1404 0.0000 ..One Year 0.8094 0.0000 - 1.1394 0.0000 Rates are derived from WM Reuters Spot Rates and MorningStar (latest rates at time of production). Some values are rounded. Currency redenominated by 1000. The exchange rates printed in this table are also available at www.FT.com/marketsdata FTSE ACTUARIES SHARE INDICES UK SERIES www.ft.com/equities FT30 INDEX FTSE SECTORS: LEADERS & LAGGARDS FTSE 100 SUMMARY MARKET DATA
Subject: Currency; Bond issues; International finance
Location: Czech Republic Denmark Canada Nigeria Egypt Australia Argentina Hong Kong Poland Pakistan Brazil Bahrain South Korea New Zealand Sweden Mexico Hungary South Africa Romania Philippines Singapore Costa Rica China Norway Colombia
Company / organization: Name: FT.com; NAICS: 511110; Name: Travel & Leisure; NAICS: 511120; Name: Tokio Marine Holdings Inc; NAICS: 524210; Name: European Union; NAICS: 926110, 928120
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 21
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Apr 2, 2018
Section: Companies and Markets
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2033532769
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2033532769?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Apr 2, 2018
Last updated: 2018-05-03
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 210 of 474
BIG DEAL
Publication info: Business Traveller Middle East ; Dubai (Apr 3, 2018).
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Howdy, folks!” exclaims Big Tex, the giant 16-metre cowboy that has welcomed visitors like me to the annual State Fair of Texas for the past 65 years. Dressed in a Western shirt, jeans and the obligatory cowboy hat and boots, the statue has become the official mascot for the event as well as a cultural figureforbothDallasandTexas. Surrounded by storeys-high carnival rides, stalls selling massive bacon-wrapped turkey legs, and in the shadow of the enormous Cotton Bowl Stadium, one could hardly ask for a more apt demonstration of the catchphrase associated with America’s largest state: “Everything’s bigger in Texas”. True to form, since its establishment in 1886, it has become one of the largest state fairs in the US, welcoming some 2.2 million people in 2017. It’s also one of the longest, beginning on the last Friday of September and running for 24 consecutive days. The State Fair alone is an event that makes Dallas worth visiting. The grounds are replete with all manner of classic American fairground foods, from corn dogs to fried cheese curds. Screams overhead indicate the delight – and terror – from carnival-goers contending with the centrifugal force of Gravitron and the punishing pendulum swing of Rock It. There are also plenty of sideshow attractions such as basketball free- throwing for those not looking to lose their dinner. On the other side of the fairground is the Texas Auto Show – touted, of course, as one of the largest new car shows in the Southwest – with some 400 vehicles showcased to the public. Visitors can also head to the popular Chevrolet Ride and Drive to tear up the track in a Corvette or Camaro. For more family-friendly pursuits, the state’s rich heritage of livestock and agricultural farming is celebrated through educational seminars, shows, competitions and petting farms. Live music is another cornerstone of the fair, with scheduled performances on the Chevrolet Main Stage from international performers such as Flo Rida and country music stars like Maren Morris. Nightly parades with colourful f loats and live performers are also not to be missed, as are the fabulous firework displays. But for visitors whose trip to Dallas doesn’t coincide with the three-and-a-half weeks that the fair is open, the city offers plenty of other attractions. TOUR DE FORCE Perhaps the quickest ways to get a condensed overview of Dallas is with a city tour. Dallas City Tour’s “Combo Tour” offers a comprehensive look into the city in an efficient 90-minute time frame. The tour takes in 65 sites including Pioneer Plaza, a public park featuring 49 life-size bronze statues of longhorn cattle and three trail riders to commemorate the 19th-century cattle drives along the Shawnee Trail. The second half of the trip focuses on one of the most infamous moments in Dallas’s history – the 1963 assassination of US President John F Kennedy. The tour follows the route President Kennedy’s motorcade took through Downtown Dallas on the day of his assassination, before tracing the movements of the shooter, Lee Harvey Oswald, in the moments immediately after. Among the locations visited are the Texas School Book Depository on North Houston Street, from which Oswald fired the rifle that killed the President, to the rooming house in which he was staying, the interior of which the owner has maintained in the exact state that it was on November 22, 1963. While organised tours can sometimes feel too restrictive, the Kennedy segment was one of the most stimulating experiences I had in the city. The guides were highly knowledgeable regarding the events surrounding Kennedy’s assassination – even though I’m something of a history buff, there was plenty that I took away from the tour – and the accompanying video clips from events before, during and after the assassination shown on board the bus provide a comprehensive contextual overview. SOLO SIGHTSEEING Travellers preferring to go it alone, however, can make use of a number of initiatives and services designed to make exploring Dallas more accessible. Key among these is the Dallas City Pass, which provides admission to four of the city’s most popular attractions: the Perot Museum of Nature and Science; Reunion Tower Geo-Deck; a choice between The Sixth Floor Museum or Dallas Zoo; and either the George W Bush Presidential Library and Museum or the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden. The City Pass costs US$48 per person (US$32 for children) and is valid for nine consecutive days after the first use. A number of these tourist landmarks are located along the route taken by The McKinney Avenue Trolley, also known as the M-line Trolley, an overground tram system operated by vintage vehicles. Thanks to plenty of funding for the non-profit McKinney Avenue Transit Authority, the trams are completely free to use and run every day of the year. They operate on a loop that runs through McKinney Avenue in Uptown, with close to 50 stops to hop on and off, and pass a number of hotels in the area including The Ritz-Carlton, the Fairmont and the Sheraton. Travellers can also opt for the more comprehensive – but less scenic – Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) subway system that covers many of the city’s major neighbourhoods. BIG BITES Texas is home to some of the US’s most popular and familiar cuisines, from barbecue to Tex-Mex, and with some 12,000 restaurants Dallas is one of the best places to gorge on authentic Texan food. Located just a short distance east of Downtown, the neighbourhood Deep Ellum is known for both its live music and its culinary offerings. One of its most prominent residents is barbecue joint Pecan Lodge The quickest way to get an overview of Dallas is with Dallas City Tour’s “Combo Tour” (pecanlodge.com) on Main Street, which has won numerous awards since it opened in 2010. The restaurant describes its cuisine as “just like homemade but with slightly less cursing”. Expect to find ribs, macaroni and cheese, and Southern-fried chicken. Lockhart Smokehouse (lockhartsmokehouse.com) is another popular option for barbecue located in the Bishop Arts District southwest of Downtown. Meat here is generally ordered by the half-pound, and if you’re not sure what you fancy you can ask for a small slice as a taster. Meanwhile, if you’re on the lookout for some top-notch steak, head to Nick and Sam’s (nick-sams.com) on Maple Avenue in Uptown, whose 16oz rib-eye will go down as one of the best steaks I’ve ever tried. For Tex-Mex lovers, Mi Cocina (micocinarestaurants. com) offers a slightly more upscale take – it also has AVIATION HUB Along with its plentiful sights and activities, Dallas is also a major aviation centre, with Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) serving as one of the key hubs of national carrier American Airlines, particularly for its flights serving Asia-Pacific. “DFW is vital in American’s network as the premier connecting point between Asia and South America,” says Bimal Vadhani, senior manager of international operations at DFW. “The airport connects a large number of passengers from our China markets to Santiago [Chile] and Sao Paolo [Brazil] destinations. Cancun is also a popular destination for our customers from Seoul.” American Airlines’ commitment to the airport was displayed on October 25, 2017, when after a US$10 million investment it opened the first fully virtual Control Center in its network. The 10,000-square-foot (929 sqm) space sports a virtual wall providing a real-time view of the airline’s operations, which comprise close to 800 flights per day. “The facility is an investment for our team members and customers that will create a better experience across the board,” says Cedric Rockamore, vice president of American Airlines’ DFW Hub. “It’s exciting to see our hub changing for the better.” The carrier currently flies to five destinations in Asia from DFW: Shanghai (PVG), Beijing (PEK), Hong Kong (HKG), Tokyo (NRT) and Seoul (ICN). Rival US carrier Delta Air Lines also flies from DFW to Seoul (ICN). multiple locations around Dallas. Meanwhile, Meso Maya (mesomaya.com) on McKinney Avenue serves delicious, authentic dishes and is an ideal spot to grab a bite for visitors exploring the city using the M-Line Trolley. ARTS AND ACTION Another advantage of the M-line Trolley is that it goes directly through one of the city’s primary cultural hubs, the Dallas Arts District in Downtown – which claims to be the largest contiguous arts district in the US. The area is indeed impressive – it spans close to 28 hectares and 19 neighbouring blocks – and comprises, among many other buildings, the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House, the Morton H Meyerson Symphony Center, and the Dallas Museum of Art. The museum alone contains more than 22,000 artworks from across the globe – some stretching as far back as 5,000 years – and is one of the largest art museums in the US. If you prefer your art to be of the physical variety, sports fans would be remiss if they didn’t attempt to catch a game while in town. The American Airlines Center, located close to the centre of Dallas in Victory Park, is home to the Dallas Mavericks basketball team and the Dallas Stars ice hockey team. For those feeling a bit more adventurous, the AT&T Stadium located midway between Dallas and Fort Worth in Arlington is the home of the Dallas Cowboys American football team. Both stadiums regularly host concerts and other performances, along with tours that allow visitors to go behind the scenes. The massive AT&T stadium in particular is worth exploring: not only was the suspended HDTV display named the world’s largest by Guinness World Records in 2009, but the venue is also one of the largest National Football League (NFL) stadiums in the US. Reaching 98 metres from the pitch to the closing point of the retractable roof, the AT&T Stadium is reportedly able to fit the entirety of the Statue of Liberty within its grounds. As they say, everything is bigger in Texas. © Motivate Publishing. All rights reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).
Subject: Art galleries & museums; Presidents; Airlines; Fairs & exhibitions; Professional basketball; Assassinations & assassination attempts
Location: Texas United States--US
Company / organization: Name: National Football League--NFL; NAICS: 711211, 813990; Name: American Airlines Inc; NAICS: 481111
Publication title: Business Traveller Middle East; Dubai
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Apr 3, 2018
Publisher: SyndiGate Media Inc
Place of publication: Dubai
Country of publication: United States, Dubai
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Travel And Tourism
Source type: Magazines
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2020857838
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2020857838?accountid=4840
Copyright: © Motivate Publishing. All rights reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).
Last updated: 2019-03-08
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 211 of 474
Celebrate World Cocktail Day With Booking.com and Taste Signature Cocktails From Around the World
Publication info: PR Newswire ; New York [New York]04 Apr 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: +1-917-351-8600 NEW YORK, April 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Celebrate World Cocktail Day on May 13, 2018 in style by exploring signature cocktails from around the world. From the famous kick of rum and coconut in the Pina Colada of Puerto Rico to the uber-chic Manhattan in New York City to the pink-hued Singapore Sling, there are cocktails out for everyone's taste buds. Booking.com, the global leader in connecting travelers with the widest choice of places to stay, invites travelers to explore destinations around the world with the most iconic cocktails, and most importantly, where to go to try them! From intimate al fresco dining settings and skyscrapers with luxurious rooftop bars to lively beachfront inns, there is a Booking.com accommodation to please all cocktail lovers. The Dark 'n' Stormy - Bermuda Dreaming of powder-soft and pink-hued sands, cerulean waters and a laid back island lifestyle? Look no further than the secret hideaway of Bermuda and sample the island's signature cocktail The Dark 'N' Stormy. This cocktail is mixed with dark rum and ginger beer and served over ice and garnished with a slice of lime (although no true Bermudian would ever add lime juice to their Dark 'n' Stormy!) The Dark 'N' Stormy cocktail was first mixed over a hundred years ago when members of Bermuda's Royal Naval Officer's Club added a splash of the local dark rum to their spicy homemade ginger beer. After trying Bermuda's signature cocktail, do not forget to check out all the amazing hidden adventures on the island - from out of this world diving spots to Cooper's Island Nature Reserve to the Crystal Cave and Fantasy Cave. Where to stay: The luxurious Hamilton Princess & Beach Club A Fairmont Managed Hotel is perfectly situated overlooking the beautiful Hamilton Harbor with views of floating sun loungers and four first-class dining restaurants. Guests can take a short, sunny stroll to the heart of Hamilton where they can find an array of shopping, dining, nightlife and entertainment options. Grab a Dark 'N' Stormy at the hotel's Crown & Anchor Bar, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner in the restaurant or outside on the terrace. Guests will love the open kitchen, wood-burning grill and the traditional Bermudian fare created by celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson. Caipirinha - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Looking for a fun filled getaway? Then Rio de Janeiro will not disappoint. From its eccentric Carnival festivities to the famous Copacabana Beach and the array of lively bars, there's ample opportunity to enjoy a cocktail (or two)! Travelers must try the nation's famous Caipirinha cocktail made with sugarcane hard liquor and lime. Other items on the to-do list: snap a picture in front of the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue atop Mount Corcovado and take a cable car over the Sugarloaf Mountain for breath-taking views of Brazil's natural beauty. Where to stay: Situated on the iconic Copacabana beach, the Arena Copacabana Hotel boasts an unrivaled location. Guests can wake up to panoramic views of the pearl-dust beaches, turquoise-hued waters and a rooftop pool. At Fennel Restaurant, guests can enjoy a rich buffet breakfast with tropical foods, plus contemporary Brazilian and international dishes. Sip Brazil's signature cocktail at the poolside and indoor bars, where guests can order a selection of snacks and other exotic cocktails. Pina Colada - San Juan, Puerto Rico Travelers to San Juan will love the contrasting settings between the lively Isla Verde strip known for its bars, nightclubs and casinos to the cobblestoned Old San Juan full of Spanish colonial buildings. Cool down with the country's signature cocktail Pina Colada made with rum, coconut milk and pineapple or a rum tasting flight at Casa BACARDÍ, the iconic rum brand's distillery in San Juan. Afterwards, stop by the locals favorite La Placita de Santurce for salsa dancing, Congo drums and the ultimate street party. Where to stay: Settle in for an unforgettable stay at the chic 21st century La Concha Renaissance San Juan Resort, just a short walk from the gorgeous sandy beach of Condado. For breakfast and dinner guests can choose from a variety of onsite restaurants, offering poolside tapas and deliciously fresh seafood. Enjoy a Pina Colada or another refreshing cocktail from the poolside bar in the hot-tub or relaxing on a lounge bed at the sundeck. Manhattan - New York City, United States Revel in the hustle and bustle of New York City and travel to the big apple for the ultimate dining and shopping experiences, where the night is always young. Travelers to New York City must sample the iconic Manhattan cocktail. Made with whiskey, sweet vermouth and bitters, this elegant cocktail packs a kick. Famed as the city that never sleeps, travelers will love the ample selection of nightclubs, bars and restaurants that line the famous streets of New York City. Be sure to check out the swanky Please Don't Tell cocktail bar where customers enter through a phone booth and sip novel cocktails in the dark. Where to stay: The chic AKA Times Square apartments are located within just a block from the iconic neon lights of Times Square and the apartments feature fully-equipped kitchens and separate living rooms. Guests will love the fusion of historic architecture and modern design, plus the rich amenities from massage services to childcare. The AKA Times Square apartments are ideally situated just a five minute walk from popular attractions such as Bryant Park, Radio City Music Hall and the Rockefeller Center. Negroni - Florence, Italy Italy's signature cocktail, the Negroni, is made from gin, vermouth rosso, Campari and garnished with an orange peel. Legend has it that the first Negroni was mixed in Florence, Italy in 1919 at the Cafe Casoni by Count Camillo Negroni who ordered the bartender to strengthen his drink. After the success of the cocktail the Negroni family founded the Negroni Distillery in Treviso. Besides an amazing cocktail, Florence is also full of amazing buildings and its historic center. Where to stay: The charming country house of Marignolle Relais & Charme - Residenza d'Epoca offers an outdoor swimming pool overlooking the luscious rolling hillsides, picturesque rooms and a short drive from the historic center of Florence. Wake up to daily fresh breakfasts in the sunny gazebo by the swimming pool or take in the stunning panoramic vistas of the Tuscan Hills by visiting the Chianti wine region and medieval cities of Siena, Volterra and San Gimignano. Black Russian - Brussels, Belgium From the high fashion scene of Antwerp to the romantic fairy-tale like town of Bruges and bustling capital of Europe Brussels, there really is something for all types of travelers in Belgium. Oozing charm and culture, Belgium is a favorite amongst travelers looking for a city break. Visitors must try the country's signature cocktail the Black Russian, invented by a Belgian barman in 1949. With a mixture of vodka and coffee liqueur, this refreshing drink packs a punch. Sip this iconic drink in a range of settings from the little gem of Le Trappiste in Bruges -- hidden away from the main square down a steep set of steps with brick archways, set in a 13th century cellar and offering over 100 beers and tasting sessions. Or for something a little more, upbeat purchase tickets to the world-famous Tomorrow Land Festival or chill out with a drink at the modern Life is Beautiful cocktail bar in Brussels. Where to stay: The legend is that bartender Gustave Tops mixed the first Black Russian cocktail in 1949 for socialite Perle Mesta while working at the Hotel Metropole. Relax in luxury at this grand art deco hotel dating back from 1895 and perfectly set in the historical center of Brussels. The breakfast room has the same layout and design as the Akshardham Temple in Delhi, India. Check out Bar le 31 for a drink, then move on to the Café Metropole to enjoy a premium brasserie-style cuisine in Brussels typical tradition. Singapore Sling - Bukit Batok, Singapore Explore Singapore's vibrant culture, soak up the natural beauty and be in awe of the country's alternating worlds, from ancient temples and rows of skyscrapers to luxury penthouses and jungle treehouses. Discover the sandy white beaches, botanical gardens and Singapore's mouth-watering feast of flavors with its fusion of Chinese, Malay, Indian and Western cultures. When traveling to Singapore make sure to sample the nation's claim to mixology fame - the Singapore Sling. This gin based cocktail contains Cointreau, Dom Benedictine, Grenadine, lime, pineapple juice and cherry brandy, which gives it the famous pink hue. Sip this iconic cocktail at the Long Bar in Raffles Hotel, which is rumored to be where the first Singapore Sling was mixed in 1915, as an alternative to straight gin for ladies. Or for something a little more modern head to 1 Altitude rooftop bar for stunning 360 views of the city and party on Singapore's highest point, which claims to be the highest alfresco dining in the world. Where to stay: Housed in a beautifully restored colonial building, the iconic Raffles Hotel provides a relaxing getaway in the heart of the city. This luxurious hotel boasts an array of fine-dining options with an impressive fourteen restaurants and even a shopping arcade. Sample a fusion of cuisines at the Raffles hotel from French, Western, Asian and Chinese and try the legendary Singapore Sling at the hotel's Long Bar. Pampering body treatments are available at the Raffles Spa, while a fitness centrer allows guests to exercise and unwind. Other facilities include a Victorian-style theater,a 24-hour butler service and an outdoor pool with a bar, perfect for sipping a Singapore Sling on a hot Singapore day. About Booking.com Established in 1996 in Amsterdam, Booking.com B.V. has grown from a small Dutch start-up to one of the largest travel e-commerce companies in the world. Part of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: BKNG), Booking.com now employs more than 17,000 employees in 198 offices in 70 countries worldwide. With a mission to empower people to experience the world, Booking.com invests in digital technology that helps take the friction out of travel. At Booking.com, we connect travelers with the world's largest selection of incredible places to stay, including everything from apartments, vacation homes, and family-run B&Bs to 5-star luxury resorts, tree houses and even igloos. The Booking.com website and mobile apps are available in 43 languages, offer over 1.6 million properties, and cover more than 128,000 destinations in 228 countries and territories worldwide. Each day, more than 1.5 million room nights are reserved on our platform. So whether traveling for business or leisure, customers can instantly book their ideal accommodation quickly and easily with Booking.com, without booking fees and backed up by our promise to price match. Via our customer experience team, customers can reach Booking.com 24/7 for assistance and support in 43languages, any time of the day or night. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, like us on Facebook, and for the latest news, data and insights, please visit our global media room. CONTACT DETAILS FOR BOOKING.COM: For further information, contact the U.S. Booking.com Press Office: SOURCE Booking.com CREDIT: Booking.com
Subject: Distilleries; Nightclubs; Apartments; Hotels & motels; Restaurants; High rise buildings; Travel; Shopping; Beaches
Location: Italy United States--US New York Bermuda Singapore Puerto Rico Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil
Company / organization: Name: Raffles Hotel; NAICS: 721110
Publication title: PR Newswire; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Apr 4, 2018
Dateline: NEW YORK
Publisher: PR Newswire Association LLC
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2021264534
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2021264534?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright PR Newswire Association LLC Apr 4, 2018
Last updated: 2018-04-04
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 212 of 474
Press Release: Celebrate World Cocktail Day With Booking.com and Taste Signature Cocktails From Around the World
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]04 Apr 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
Celebrate World Cocktail Day With Booking.com and Taste Signature Cocktails From Around the World
PR Newswire
NEW YORK, April 4, 2018
NEW YORK, April 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --
Celebrate World Cocktail Day on May 13, 2018 in style by exploring signature cocktails from around the world. From the famous kick of rum and coconut in the Pina Colada of Puerto Rico to the uber-chic Manhattan in New York City to the pink-hued Singapore Sling, there are cocktails out for everyone's taste buds. Booking.com, the global leader in connecting travelers with the widest choice of places to stay, invites travelers to explore destinations around the world with the most iconic cocktails, and most importantly, where to go to try them! From intimate al fresco dining settings and skyscrapers with luxurious rooftop bars to lively beachfront inns, there is a Booking.com accommodation to please all cocktail lovers.
The Dark 'n' Stormy - Bermuda
Dreaming of powder-soft and pink-hued sands, cerulean waters and a laid back island lifestyle? Look no further than the secret hideaway of Bermuda and sample the island's signature cocktail The Dark 'N' Stormy. This cocktail is mixed with dark rum and ginger beer and served over ice and garnished with a slice of lime (although no true Bermudian would ever add lime juice to their Dark 'n' Stormy!) The Dark 'N' Stormy cocktail was first mixed over a hundred years ago when members of Bermuda's Royal Naval Officer's Club added a splash of the local dark rum to their spicy homemade ginger beer. After trying Bermuda's signature cocktail, do not forget to check out all the amazing hidden adventures on the island - from out of this world diving spots to Cooper's Island Nature Reserve to the Crystal Cave and Fantasy Cave.
Where to stay: The luxurious Hamilton Princess & Beach Club A Fairmont Managed Hotel is perfectly situated overlooking the beautiful Hamilton Harbor with views of floating sun loungers and four first-class dining restaurants. Guests can take a short, sunny stroll to the heart of Hamilton where they can find an array of shopping, dining, nightlife and entertainment options. Grab a Dark 'N' Stormy at the hotel's Crown & Anchor Bar, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner in the restaurant or outside on the terrace. Guests will love the open kitchen, wood-burning grill and the traditional Bermudian fare created by celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson.
Caipirinha - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Looking for a fun filled getaway? Then Rio de Janeiro will not disappoint. From its eccentric Carnival festivities to the famous Copacabana Beach and the array of lively bars, there's ample opportunity to enjoy a cocktail (or two)! Travelers must try the nation's famous Caipirinha cocktail made with sugarcane hard liquor and lime. Other items on the to-do list: snap a picture in front of the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue atop Mount Corcovado and take a cable car over the Sugarloaf Mountain for breath-taking views of Brazil's natural beauty.
Where to stay: Situated on the iconic Copacabana beach, the Arena Copacabana Hotel boasts an unrivaled location. Guests can wake up to panoramic views of the pearl-dust beaches, turquoise-hued waters and a rooftop pool. At Fennel Restaurant, guests can enjoy a rich buffet breakfast with tropical foods, plus contemporary Brazilian and international dishes. Sip Brazil's signature cocktail at the poolside and indoor bars, where guests can order a selection of snacks and other exotic cocktails.
Pina Colada - San Juan, Puerto Rico
Travelers to San Juan will love the contrasting settings between the lively Isla Verde strip known for its bars, nightclubs and casinos to the cobblestoned Old San Juan full of Spanish colonial buildings. Cool down with the country's signature cocktail Pina Colada made with rum, coconut milk and pineapple or a rum tasting flight at Casa BACARDÍ, the iconic rum brand's distillery in San Juan. Afterwards, stop by the locals favorite La Placita de Santurce for salsa dancing, Congo drums and the ultimate street party.
Where to stay: Settle in for an unforgettable stay at the chic 21(st) century La Concha Renaissance San Juan Resort, just a short walk from the gorgeous sandy beach of Condado. For breakfast and dinner guests can choose from a variety of onsite restaurants, offering poolside tapas and deliciously fresh seafood. Enjoy a Pina Colada or another refreshing cocktail from the poolside bar in the hot-tub or relaxing on a lounge bed at the sundeck.
Manhattan - New York City, United States
Revel in the hustle and bustle of New York City and travel to the big apple for the ultimate dining and shopping experiences, where the night is always young. Travelers to New York City must sample the iconic Manhattan cocktail. Made with whiskey, sweet vermouth and bitters, this elegant cocktail packs a kick. Famed as the city that never sleeps, travelers will love the ample selection of nightclubs, bars and restaurants that line the famous streets of New York City. Be sure to check out the swanky Please Don't Tell cocktail bar where customers enter through a phone booth and sip novel cocktails in the dark.
Where to stay: The chic AKA Times Square apartments are located within just a block from the iconic neon lights of Times Square and the apartments feature fully-equipped kitchens and separate living rooms. Guests will love the fusion of historic architecture and modern design, plus the rich amenities from massage services to childcare. The AKA Times Square apartments are ideally situated just a five minute walk from popular attractions such as Bryant Park, Radio City Music Hall and the Rockefeller Center.
Negroni - Florence, Italy
Italy's signature cocktail, the Negroni, is made from gin, vermouth rosso, Campari and garnished with an orange peel. Legend has it that the first Negroni was mixed in Florence, Italy in 1919 at the Cafe Casoni by Count Camillo Negroni who ordered the bartender to strengthen his drink. After the success of the cocktail the Negroni family founded the Negroni Distillery in Treviso. Besides an amazing cocktail, Florence is also full of amazing buildings and its historic center.
Where to stay: The charming country house of Marignolle Relais & Charme - Residenza d'Epoca offers an outdoor swimming pool overlooking the luscious rolling hillsides, picturesque rooms and a short drive from the historic center of Florence. Wake up to daily fresh breakfasts in the sunny gazebo by the swimming pool or take in the stunning panoramic vistas of the Tuscan Hills by visiting the Chianti wine region and medieval cities of Siena, Volterra and San Gimignano.
Black Russian - Brussels, Belgium
From the high fashion scene of Antwerp to the romantic fairy-tale like town of Bruges and bustling capital of Europe Brussels, there really is something for all types of travelers in Belgium. Oozing charm and culture, Belgium is a favorite amongst travelers looking for a city break. Visitors must try the country's signature cocktail the Black Russian, invented by a Belgian barman in 1949. With a mixture of vodka and coffee liqueur, this refreshing drink packs a punch. Sip this iconic drink in a range of settings from the little gem of Le Trappiste in Bruges -- hidden away from the main square down a steep set of steps with brick archways, set in a 13(th) century cellar and offering over 100 beers and tasting sessions. Or for something a little more, upbeat purchase tickets to the world-famous Tomorrow Land Festival or chill out with a drink at the modern Life is Beautiful cocktail bar in Brussels.
Where to stay: The legend is that bartender Gustave Tops mixed the first Black Russian cocktail in 1949 for socialite Perle Mesta while working at the Hotel Metropole. Relax in luxury at this grand art deco hotel dating back from 1895 and perfectly set in the historical center of Brussels. The breakfast room has the same layout and design as the Akshardham Temple in Delhi, India. Check out Bar le 31 for a drink, then move on to the Café Metropole to enjoy a premium brasserie-style cuisine in Brussels typical tradition.
Singapore Sling - Bukit Batok, Singapore
Explore Singapore's vibrant culture, soak up the natural beauty and be in awe of the country's alternating worlds, from ancient temples and rows of skyscrapers to luxury penthouses and jungle treehouses. Discover the sandy white beaches, botanical gardens and Singapore's mouth-watering feast of flavors with its fusion of Chinese, Malay, Indian and Western cultures. When traveling to Singapore make sure to sample the nation's claim to mixology fame - the Singapore Sling. This gin based cocktail contains Cointreau, Dom Benedictine, Grenadine, lime, pineapple juice and cherry brandy, which gives it the famous pink hue. Sip this iconic cocktail at the Long Bar in Raffles Hotel, which is rumored to be where the first Singapore Sling was mixed in 1915, as an alternative to straight gin for ladies. Or for something a little more modern head to 1 Altitude rooftop bar for stunning 360 views of the city and party on Singapore's highest point, which claims to be the highest alfresco dining in the world.
Where to stay: Housed in a beautifully restored colonial building, the iconic Raffles Hotel provides a relaxing getaway in the heart of the city. This luxurious hotel boasts an array of fine-dining options with an impressive fourteen restaurants and even a shopping arcade. Sample a fusion of cuisines at the Raffles hotel from French, Western, Asian and Chinese and try the legendary Singapore Sling at the hotel's Long Bar. Pampering body treatments are available at the Raffles Spa, while a fitness centrer allows guests to exercise and unwind. Other facilities include a Victorian-style theater,a 24-hour butler service and an outdoor pool with a bar, perfect for sipping a Singapore Sling on a hot Singapore day.
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April 04, 2018 08:09 ET (12:09 GMT)
Subject: Distilleries; Nightclubs; Hotels & motels; Restaurants; Shopping; Beaches
Location: Italy New York Bermuda Singapore Puerto Rico Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil
Company / organization: Name: Raffles Hotel; NAICS: 721110
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Apr 4, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2021626522
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2021626522?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Apr 4, 2018
Last updated: 2018-04-05
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 213 of 474
Brazil: Basic data
Publication info: EIU ViewsWire ; New York [New York]05 Apr 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Brazil: Basic data
Land area
8,547,400 sq km. Population
206.1m (2016 estimate) Main cities
Population at last census (2012 official estimate; m) São Paulo: 11.4 Rio de Janeiro: 6.4 Salvador: 2.7 Brasília (capital): 2.6 Fortaleza: 2.5 Belo Horizonte: 2.4 Climate
Mainly tropical and sub-tropical; mild on the southern coast and in the higher regions Weather in São Paulo (altitude 760 metres)
Hottest month, December, 23-30°C; coldest month, June, 15-22°C, average monthly minimum and maximum; driest month, August; wettest month, February Language
Portuguese Measures
Metric system Currency
Real (R); average exchange rate in 2017: R3.2:US$1 Time
The states along the coast, as well as eastern Pará, Brasília-DF, Minas Gerais, Goiás and Tocantins, are three hours behind GMT (official time in Brazil); the states of Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Rondônia, most of Amazonas, Roraima and western Pará are four hours behind GMT; the states of Acre and the south-western part of Amazonas are five hours behind GMT Public holidays
January 1st (New Year's Day); February 10th-14th (Carnival); March 30th (Good Friday); April 21st (Tiradentes); May 1st (Labour Day); September 7th (Independence Day); October 12th (Nossa Senhora Aparecida, the patron saint of Brazil; also Children's Day); November 2nd (All Saints' Day); November 15th (Proclamation of the Republic); December 25th (Christmas Day)
Subject: Economic conditions; Economic indicators; Background
Location: Brazil Latin America
Publication title: EIU ViewsWire; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Apr 5, 2018
Publisher: The Economist Intelligence Unit N.A., Incorporated
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Political Science--International Relations
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2022062151
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2022062151?accountid=4840
Copyright: (c) 2018 The Economist Intelligence Unit Ltd. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. No further reproduction is permitted.
Last updated: 2018-04-06
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 214 of 474
Ex-President ‘Lula’ of Brazil Surrenders to Serve 12-Year Jail Term
Author: Andreoni, Manuela; Londoño, Ernesto; Darlington, Shasta
Publication info: New York Times (Online) , New York: New York Times Company. Apr 7, 2018.
Abstract:
The imprisonment of the former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was a remarkable fall for a statesman who transformed Brazil — and who was leading in the polls for October’s presidential election.
Full text: CURITIBA, Brazil — After vowing for months that a conviction on corruption charges would not stand in the way of his bid for a third term as Brazil’s leader, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva surrendered to the police on Saturday evening to begin serving a 12-year sentence. His imprisonment was an ignominious turn in the remarkable political career of Mr. da Silva, the son of illiterate farmworkers who faced down Brazil’s military dictators as a union leader and helped build a transformational leftist party that governed Brazil for more than 13 years. His detention was also a momentous development in the coming election in Brazil, upending the race to replace President Michel Temer in October. Having carved out a sustained and ample lead in the polls, Mr. da Silva promised his followers that the Workers’ Party could once again wrest control of Brazil’s destiny, and prioritize policies to narrow the country’s steep inequality. Succeeding would have been a stunning comeback after the 2016 impeachment of Mr. da Silva’s handpicked successor, Dilma Rousseff. She was replaced by Mr. Temer, a deeply unpopular center-right politician who also stands accused of corruption. Mr. da Silva is the first former Brazilian president to be remanded into custody since democracy was restored in the mid-1980s and the first former president to have been convicted of corruption. His imprisonment represents perhaps the biggest triumph in the yearslong effort by a team of crusading judges and prosecutors to upend the endemic graft that has long been a staple of politics and deal making in Brazil. Before surrendering to federal police authorities, Mr. da Silva, 72, accused prosecutors and judges of knowingly pursuing a baseless case against him. “I do not forgive them for creating the impression that I am a thief,” an indignant Mr. da Silva, sounding hoarse, told a throng of gathered outside a metalworkers union headquarters outside of São Paulo. For hours on Saturday, in a tense standoff, his ardent supporters had physically blocked his surrender, before finally allowing him to leave. The prosecution, Mr. da Silva charged, was an effort to thwart his vision of a country in which ever more poor people could enroll in universities, go on vacation and buy cars and homes. “If that was the crime I committed, I want to say that I will continue being a criminal because we’re going to accomplish much more,” Mr. da Silva shouted to a crowd that had spent much of the morning chanting that he should not surrender. During his last hours of freedom, Mr. da Silva appeared to acknowledge that his political career is over — at least for now. “You will have to transform yourselves,” he told supporters. “They must know that the death of a combatant doesn’t end a revolution.” Months away from Election Day, Brazil’s political left now finds itself without an obvious standard-bearer. Mr. da Silva did not anoint a successor to take his place on the ballot, suggesting that Workers’ Party leaders have yet to decide who stands the best chance of filling the void. But, notably, he did single out for compliments two leftist presidential hopefuls from other parties who were with him on stage, Manuela d’Ávila and Guilherme Boulos. Other candidates who remain in the race include Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right lawmaker who has campaigned on a promise of resorting to harsh tactics to restore security in areas plagued by violence; and a former environmental minister, Marina Silva, who supports the judiciary’s crackdown on corruption and an overhaul of the political system. But by ending the presidential candidacy of a leader who remains beloved across much of the country, the move by judicial authorities may have called into question the fairness of the October election. Daniel Aarão Reis, a professor of contemporary history at Federal Fluminense University, said that while Mr. da Silva’s prosecution was procedurally sound, it is likely to further shake Brazilians’ faith in democracy, particularly if political rivals who also stand accused of wrongdoing, manage to escape accountability. “It worries me because, whether or not the people who provoked this situation meant it, it’s a blow to democracy,” he said. “Democracy is living a moment of very little prestige.” “No citizen is above the law, and no one, regardless of how important a leader he may have been, or what position he once held, is entitled to make a mockery of justice,” Brazil’s National Association of Prosecutors said in a statement issued Saturday night. “Institutions are the pillars of democracy.” Mr. Bolsonaro’s reaction to the arrest was minimalist: He tweeted an image of the Brazilian flag. Mr. da Silva left power in 2011 with extraordinarily high approval ratings at home and a reputation as an effective diplomatic mediator abroad. Washington initially viewed his rise with apprehension, but his rock star status appeared at its peak when President Obama, during a meeting of heads of state in London in 2009, called Mr. da Silva “the most popular politician on Earth.” Brazil appeared to be on a breathtaking rise when Mr. da Silva left office in 2011, poised to cash in on new, enormous oil reserves, and revel in the spotlight that the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro would cast on the country of almost 210 million people. But his party’s legacy was marred in 2014, when prosecutors began unraveling a giant, convoluted kickback scheme as part of an investigation that became known as Lava Jato, or Car Wash, that has so far resulted in the conviction of 120 people and billions of dollars in restitution payments. The investigation crippled the state-run oil company, Petrobras, and the giant construction firm, Odebrecht, and contributed to a devastating recession that paved the way for Ms. Rousseff’s impeachment, which deeply polarized Brazilians. The charges Mr. da Silva were convicted of were a small chapter in the annals of Lava Jato. He was found guilty last July of accepting a seaside apartment in return for contracts awarded to the construction company O.A.S. After a three-judge panel upheld the conviction in January, Mr. da Silva asked the country’s two top courts to allow him to remain free while other appeals were considered, but his petitions were rejected. Mr. da Silva is slated to start serving the sentence in a specially configured cell at the federal police headquarters in the southern city of Curitiba, a building he was on hand to inaugurate as president in 2007. Mr. da Silva’s legal team said Saturday night that he would continue to appeal his conviction before Brazil’s top courts. He is a defendant in at least seven other cases. Mr. da Silva will be detained in a small bedroom with a simple, wooden bed, a small table and two windows on the fourth floor of the building. As news of his arrest broke shortly before 7 p.m., some Brazilians who opposed his re-election celebrated across the country by setting off fireworks and honking horns. “Decent Brazilians are celebrating this historic moment. Justice has been served,” João Doria, a former mayor of São Paulo, who is believed to have presidential aspirations, said in a statement. Supporters saw his imprisonment as a tragic end of an era that had brought enormous hope and pride to Brazil. “Brazil went from having the pop star of international politics to having a supporting actor for a vampire film,” the former foreign minister Celso Amorim said, referring to a parody of Mr. Temer by a samba school during the recent Carnival parade in Rio de Janeiro. “We get really sad.” Opposing groups of protesters awaited Mr. da Silva’s arrival outside the building where he will be held in Curitiba. A few hundred supporters wearing the Workers’ Party trademark red chanted to the beat of drums “Free Lula,” and sang a jingle from his first presidential campaign in 1989. A smaller group of critics of the former president, meanwhile, beat pots and pans as they chanted: “Lula, you thief, your place is in prison.” Credit: Manuela Andreoni, Ernesto Londoño and Shasta Darlington
Subject: Politics; Corruption; Kickbacks; Convictions; Criminal investigations; Democracy; Imprisonment
Location: Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil
People: Rousseff, Dilma Bolsonaro, Jair Temer, Michel Obama, Barack
Company / organization: Name: Petroleos Brasileiro SA; NAICS: 211111
Identifier / keyword: Da Silva, Luiz Inacio Lula Brazil Elections Corruption (Institutional) Bolsonaro, Jair (1955- ) Temer, Michel (1940- )
Publication title: New York Times (Online); New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Apr 7, 2018
Section: world
Publisher: New York Times Company
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Blogs, Podcasts, & Websites
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2022687602
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2022687602?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright 2018 The New York Times Company
Last updated: 2018-04-08
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 215 of 474
Brazil's Ex-Chief Ends a Standoff To Report to Jail: [Foreign Desk]
Author: Andreoni, Manuela; Londoño, Ernesto; Darlington, Shasta
Publication info: New York Times , Late Edition (East Coast); New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]08 Apr 2018: A.1.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: CURITIBA, Brazil -- After vowing for months that a conviction on corruption charges would not stand in the way of his bid for a third term as Brazil's leader, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva surrendered to the police on Saturday evening to begin serving a 12-year sentence. His imprisonment was an ignominious turn in the remarkable political career of Mr. da Silva, the son of illiterate farmworkers who faced down Brazil's military dictators as a union leader and helped build a transformational leftist party that governed Brazil for more than 13 years. His detention was also a momentous development in the coming election in Brazil, upending the race to replace President Michel Temer in October. Having carved out a sustained and ample lead in the polls, Mr. da Silva promised his followers that the Workers' Party could once again wrest control of Brazil's destiny, and prioritize policies to narrow the country's steep inequality. Succeeding would have been a stunning comeback after the 2016 impeachment of Mr. da Silva's handpicked successor, Dilma Rousseff. She was replaced by Mr. Temer, a deeply unpopular center-right politician who also stands accused of corruption. Mr. da Silva is the first former Brazilian president to be remanded into custody since democracy was restored in the mid-1980s and the first former president to have been convicted of corruption. His imprisonment represents perhaps the biggest triumph in the yearslong effort by a team of crusading judges and prosecutors to upend the endemic graft that has long been a staple of politics and deal making in Brazil. Before surrendering to federal police authorities, Mr. da Silva, 72, accused prosecutors and judges of knowingly pursuing a baseless case against him. "I do not forgive them for creating the impression that I am a thief," an indignant Mr. da Silva, sounding hoarse, told a throng of gathered outside a metalworkers union headquarters outside of São Paulo. For hours on Saturday, in a tense standoff, his ardent supporters had physically blocked his surrender, before finally allowing him to leave. The prosecution, Mr. da Silva charged, was an effort to thwart his vision of a country in which ever more poor people could enroll in universities, go on vacation and buy cars and homes. "If that was the crime I committed, I want to say that I will continue being a criminal because we're going to accomplish much more," Mr. da Silva shouted to a crowd that had spent much of the morning chanting that he should not surrender. During his last hours of freedom, Mr. da Silva appeared to acknowledge that his political career is over -- at least for now. "You will have to transform yourselves," he told supporters. "They must know that the death of a combatant doesn't end a revolution." Months away from Election Day, Brazil's political left now finds itself without an obvious standard-bearer. Mr. da Silva did not anoint a successor to take his place on the ballot, suggesting that Workers' Party leaders have yet to decide who stands the best chance of filling the void. But, notably, he did single out for compliments two leftist presidential hopefuls from other parties who were with him on stage, Manuela d'Ávila and Guilherme Boulos. Other candidates who remain in the race include Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right lawmaker who has campaigned on a promise of resorting to harsh tactics to restore security in areas plagued by violence; and a former environmental minister, Marina Silva, who supports the judiciary's crackdown on corruption and an overhaul of the political system. But by ending the presidential candidacy of a leader who remains beloved across much of the country, the move by judicial authorities may have called into question the fairness of the October election. Daniel Aarão Reis, a professor of contemporary history at Federal Fluminense University, said that while Mr. da Silva's prosecution was procedurally sound, it is likely to further shake Brazilians' faith in democracy, particularly if political rivals who also stand accused of wrongdoing, manage to escape accountability. "It worries me because, whether or not the people who provoked this situation meant it, it's a blow to democracy," he said. "Democracy is living a moment of very little prestige." "No citizen is above the law, and no one, regardless of how important a leader he may have been, or what position he once held, is entitled to make a mockery of justice," Brazil's National Association of Prosecutors said in a statement issued Saturday night. "Institutions are the pillars of democracy." Mr. Bolsonaro's reaction to the arrest was minimalist: He tweeted an image of the Brazilian flag. Mr. da Silva left power in 2011 with extraordinarily high approval ratings at home and a reputation as an effective diplomatic mediator abroad. Washington initially viewed his rise with apprehension, but his rock star status appeared at its peak when President Obama, during a meeting of heads of state in London in 2009, called Mr. da Silva "the most popular politician on Earth." Brazil appeared to be on a breathtaking rise when Mr. da Silva left office in 2011, poised to cash in on new, enormous oil reserves, and revel in the spotlight that the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro would cast on the country of almost 210 million people. But his party's legacy was marred in 2014, when prosecutors began unraveling a giant, convoluted kickback scheme as part of an investigation that became known as Lava Jato, or Car Wash, that has so far resulted in the conviction of 120 people and billions of dollars in restitution payments. The investigation crippled the state-run oil company, Petrobras, and the giant construction firm, Odebrecht, and contributed to a devastating recession that paved the way for Ms. Rousseff's impeachment, which deeply polarized Brazilians. The charges Mr. da Silva were convicted of were a small chapter in the annals of Lava Jato. He was found guilty last July of accepting a seaside apartment in return for contracts awarded to the construction company O.A.S. After a three-judge panel upheld the conviction in January, Mr. da Silva asked the country's two top courts to allow him to remain free while other appeals were considered, but his petitions were rejected. Mr. da Silva is slated to start serving the sentence in a specially configured cell at the federal police headquarters in the southern city of Curitiba, a building he was on hand to inaugurate as president in 2007. Mr. da Silva's legal team said Saturday night that he would continue to appeal his conviction before Brazil's top courts. He is a defendant in at least seven other cases. Mr. da Silva will be detained in a small bedroom with a simple, wooden bed, a small table and two windows on the fourth floor of the building. As news of his arrest broke shortly before 7 p.m., some Brazilians who opposed his re-election celebrated across the country by setting off fireworks and honking horns. "Decent Brazilians are celebrating this historic moment. Justice has been served," João Doria, a former mayor of São Paulo, who is believed to have presidential aspirations, said in a statement. Supporters saw his imprisonment as a tragic end of an era that had brought enormous hope and pride to Brazil. "Brazil went from having the pop star of international politics to having a supporting actor for a vampire film," the former foreign minister Celso Amorim said, referring to a parody of Mr. Temer by a samba school during the recent Carnival parade in Rio de Janeiro. "We get really sad." Opposing groups of protesters awaited Mr. da Silva's arrival outside the building where he will be held in Curitiba. A few hundred supporters wearing the Workers' Party trademark red chanted to the beat of drums "Free Lula," and sang a jingle from his first presidential campaign in 1989. A smaller group of critics of the former president, meanwhile, beat pots and pans as they chanted: "Lula, you thief, your place is in prison." Credit: MANUELA ANDREONI, ERNESTO LONDOÑO and SHASTA DARLINGTON; Shasta Darlington reported from São Paulo, Ernesto Londoño from Rio de Janeiro, and Manuela Andreoni from Curitiba, Brazil.Photograph
Subject: Corruption in government; Politics; Criminal sentences; Kickbacks; Convictions; Sieges; Criminal investigations; Democracy; Imprisonment
Location: Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil
People: Rousseff, Dilma Lula da Silva, Luiz Inacio Bolsonaro, Jair Temer, Michel
Company / organization: Name: Petroleos Brasileiro SA; NAICS: 211111
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/07/world/americas/brazil-lula-surrenders-luiz-inac io-lula-da-silva-.html
Publication title: New York Times, Late Edition (East Coast); New York, N.Y.
Pages: A.1
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Apr 8, 2018
Section: A
Publisher: New York Times Company
Place of publication: New York, N.Y.
Country of publication: United States, New York, N.Y.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
ISSN: 03624331
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2022776673
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2022776673?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright New York Times Company Apr 8, 2018
Last updated: 2018-11-09
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 216 of 474
Calendar: Highlights from around town
Author: Daily Pilot Staff
Publication info: Los Angeles Times (Online) , Los Angeles: Tribune Interactive, LLC. Apr 10, 2018. [Duplicate]
Abstract:
The gallery is located at 374 Ocean Ave., Laguna Beach. [...]MAY 5 UC Irvine Art Student Exhibit The Newport Beach City Arts Commission will host “Uncommon Goods: Artist Book as Object,” a special exhibit featuring the work of 25 University of California Irvine art students, at the Newport Beach Public Library at 1000 Avocado Ave., Newport Beach TILL MAY 6 ‘Sister Act’ The Costa Mesa Playhouse will conclude 53 seasons of shows with the hit musical, “Sister Act.” [...]APRIL 14 Huntington Beach Art Center The Huntington Beach Art Center will feature the annual exhibit, “Creative Visions,” with student art from Huntington Beach schools. The events will be held at the library at 1000 Avocado Ave. For more information, visit www.nbplfoundation.org/content/The-Witte-Lectures.html. [...]MAY 30 Russell Pierce The work of famed artist Russell Pierce will be on display at the Community Art Project gallery at 260 Ocean Ave., on the second floor near the Wells Fargo building in Laguna Beach. For more information, visit www.caplaguna.org. [...]JUNE 21 California Impressionists The “Harmony of Light: Spring in California” exhibit will be displayed at the Irvine Museum of Collection at the University of California, Irvine, 18881 Von Karman Ave. The showcase features paintings from California impressionists depicting springtime in the state.Full text: A roundup of community events throughout Orange County. To submit items, email [email protected] TILL APRIL 26 GMUNK Laguna College of Art and Design’s BFA program in Graphic Design + Digital Media will present Miscellany, an exhibition showcasing a wide range of works by the talented designer and director GMUNK. It will include pieces from GMUNK’s infrared photography from places like Iceland and Alaska to a projection mapped sculptural display window. The gallery is located at 374 Ocean Ave., Laguna Beach. TILL MAY 5 UC Irvine Art Student Exhibit The Newport Beach City Arts Commission will host “Uncommon Goods: Artist Book as Object,” a special exhibit featuring the work of 25 University of California Irvine art students, at the Newport Beach Public Library at 1000 Avocado Ave., Newport Beach TILL MAY 6 ‘Sister Act’ The Costa Mesa Playhouse will conclude 53 seasons of shows with the hit musical, “Sister Act.” Performances are 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays at the playhouse at 661 Hamilton St., Costa Mesa. For more information, visit www.costamesaplayhouse.com. APRIL 12 Wild and Crazy Taco Night The 25th annual Wild and Crazy Taco Night will be held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Share Our Selves at 1550 Superior Ave., Costa Mesa. The event, which will feature beer, margaritas and tacos, costs $75 for general admission until April 1, when the price increases to $85. VIP tickets cost $150. To purchase tickets, visit www.shareourselves.org/events. National Library Week In celebration of National Library Week, the Newport Beach Public Library will host a program at 7 p.m. with Annie Spence, author of “Dear Fahrenheit 451: Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks: A Librarian’s Love Letters and Break Up Notes to the Books in Her Life.” For more information, visit www.newportbeachlibrary.org. APRIL 13 Molly Wood Workshop Gardening expert, Molly Wood, will host a free workshop at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. at Molly Wood Garden Design at 1660 Orange Ave., Costa Mesa. To RSVP, call (949) 548-1611. APRIL 13 TO 15 Costa Mesa Bead and Design Show The Costa Mesa Bead and Design Show will run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day at the Hilton Costa Mesa at 3050 Bristol St. Artisans will be selling handcrafted products. Tickets are $8 in advance and $10 at the door. For more information, visit www.beadanddesign.com. APRIL 14 Micro-Brew Fest The eighth annual San Clemente Micro-Brew Fest will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. at Left Coast Brewing at 1245 Puerta Del Sol, San Clemente. The event will feature microbrews from all over Southern California, including Oggi’s Sports Brewhouse Pizza, the Bruery, and Four Sons Brewing Co. General admission presale tickets are $40, GA at the door is $45, and VIP is $50. OASIS Senior Center The OASIS Senior Center will host a fundraiser with dinner, gaming, music and other entertainment from 5 to 9 p.m. at 801 Narcissus, Newport Beach. Proceeds will help fund equipment for classes, food and meals on wheels, bus drivers, entertainment for senior events and salary for two staff members. Tickets cost $45. San Juan Capistrano Garden Club The San Juan Capistrano Garden Club will open five private gardens up to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 27579 Paseo Castile. A donation of $20 is required. For more information, visit www.sanjuancapistranogardenclub.com. El Modena Branch Library The El Modena Branch Library will host an event about how to conduct genealogy research for Latino families at 10 a.m. Attendees can learn about resources available at the library and learn more about the Society of Hispanic Historical and Ancestral Research (SHHAR), a local organization that assists Hispanic/Latinos research their family history. It will be held in the community room at the library at 380 S. Hewes St., Orange. TILL APRIL 14 Huntington Beach Art Center The Huntington Beach Art Center will feature the annual exhibit, “Creative Visions,” with student art from Huntington Beach schools. The center is located at 538 Main St., Huntington Beach. For more information, visit www.huntingtonbeachartcenter.org/. APRIL 17 Kontrapunktus Neo-baroque ensemble, Kontrapunktus, will perform at 7 p.m. at St. John Vianney Chapel at 314 Marine Ave., Newport Beach. For tickets, visit www.kontrapunktus.com/events/an-evening-with-kontrapunktus-12. APRIL 18 H.B. Library Luncheon The Huntington Beach Central Library will host a luncheon with speeches from authors Dorothy Ralphs and Juliann Dorell at noon. RSVP at www.fotlhb.com or in person at the gift shop at the library at 7111 Talbert Ave. Reservations are $25 per person and the last day to register is April 14. APRIL 19 TILL APRIL 22 ‘Noises Off!’ The Huntington Beach Academy for the Performing Arts will feature the play “Noises Off!” at 7:30 p.m. each day with one show at 2 p.m. April 22 at the Historic Auditorium at Huntington Beach High School, 1905 Main St. Tickets are $22 for adults and $16 for students/seniors 65+. They are available at www.hbapa.org/see. APRIL 21 Project Self-Sufficiency Project Self-Sufficiency will hold their eighth annual Wine, Cheese and Chocolate Please auction at Mile Square Golf Course at 10401 Warner Ave., Fountain Valley. The program supports low-income parents in Orange County. For more information, visit www.winecheeseandchocolateplease.com/. Street Festival A street festival will be held from noon to 4 p.m. at Merrimac Way, between Harbor Boulevard and Fairview Road in Costa Mesa. The program, which is meant to celebrate street and sidewalk improvements, will have music, food trucks and games. For more information, visit http://gohumansocal.org/Pages/Explore-Merrimac.aspx. APRIL 22 Dali Ensemble L.A. The Newport Beach Public Library will host the Dali Ensemble L.A. at 3 p.m. in the Central Library Friends Room, 1000 Avocado Ave., Newport Beach. The group will perform western music spanning the Renaissance to modernity. Fundraiser for Wells in Uganda Wells of Life will hold their fourth annual fundraiser to help build sustainable water wells for villagers in Uganda, Africa. The event will be held at 8:30 a.m. at Laguna Niguel Regional Park at 28241 La Paz Road. For more information, visit www.wellsoflife.org. APRIL 23 Tilly’s Tilly’s will host their 11th Charity Golf Tournament at the Mission Viejo Country Club. All proceeds raised will be donated to the Tilly’s Life Center organization to help further the mission to empower teens. TILL APRIL 25 Festival of Arts Exhibit The Festival of Arts is featuring a new exhibit at foaSOUTH showcasing the work of artist Bradford J. Salamon. The exhibit is located at 1006 S. Coast Highway, Laguna Beach. For more information, visit www.LagunaFestivalofArts.com. APRIL 27 Joey Alexander Trio Joey Alexander, a renowned teenage pianist, will be performing with his trio at 7:30 p.m. at Musco Center for the Arts at Chapman University at One University Drive, Orange. For more information, visit muscocenter.org/event/joey-alexander-trio/. TILL APRIL 27 Witte Lectures The Newport Beach Public Library Foundation will hold the 21st annual Witte Lectures, featuring speakers David Frum, Masha Gessen and Maira Kalman from February through April. The events will be held at the library at 1000 Avocado Ave. For more information, visit www.nbplfoundation.org/content/The-Witte-Lectures.html. TILL MAY 30 Russell Pierce The work of famed artist Russell Pierce will be on display at the Community Art Project gallery at 260 Ocean Ave., on the second floor near the Wells Fargo building in Laguna Beach. For more information, visit www.caplaguna.org. TILL JUNE 21 California Impressionists The “Harmony of Light: Spring in California” exhibit will be displayed at the Irvine Museum of Collection at the University of California, Irvine, 18881 Von Karman Ave. The showcase features paintings from California impressionists depicting springtime in the state. For more information, visit irvinemuseumcollection.uci.edu/event/harmony-light-spring-california/. TILL AUG. 9 Rainforest Adventure A Rainforest Adventure exhibit is featured at Discovery Cube at 2500 N. Main St., Santa Ana. For more information, visit www.oc.discoverycube.org. MAY 4 TILL 6 OC Music Fest The Orange County Music Festival will be returning to Lakeview Park near Irvine Lake at 5305 E. Santiago Canyon Road, Orange. The weekend music and camping festival is returning after a three-year hiatus. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.oc-musicfest.com/. MAY 17 Newport Harbor Home and Garden Tour The 21st Annual Newport Harbor Home and Garden Tour will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The event will showcase six Newport Beach homes with ocean views and a variety of architectural and interior styles by local designers. For more information, visit newportharborhometour.com/. MAY 18 Literacy Author Luncheon The 11th annual Gift of Literacy Author Luncheon, presented by Newport/Mesa ProLiteracy, will be held at 11:30 a.m. at the Pacific Club at 4111 MacArthur Blvd., Newport Beach. The luncheon will feature a speech from author Janelle Brown, who penned the novels, “Watch Me Disappear,” “All We Ever Wanted Was Everything,” and “This Is Where We Live.” Tickets cost $95 and include a copy of the book “Watch Me Disappear.” For more information, visit www.newportliteracy.org. MAY 18 TILL 20 Fiesta The Saint Edward Parish Fiesta will be held from 5 to 10 p.m. May 18, noon to 10 p.m. May 19 and noon to 8 p.m. May 20 at 33926 Calle La Primavera, Dana Point. The free event will feature carnival rides, games and live entertainment. For more information, visit www.stedwardfiesta.org. MAY 27 Natalia Lafourcade Grammy Award-winning musician Natalia Lafourcade will perform at 6 p.m. at Musco Center for the Arts at Chapman University at One University Drive, Orange. For more information, visit muscocenter.org/event/natalia-lafourcade/. JUNE 9 Children’s Bureau The Children’s Bureau, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit, will be holding a fundraiser for the prevention and treatment of child abuse from 6 to 9:30 p.m. at Oak Creek Golf Club at One Golf Club Drive, Irvine. A ticket costs $300. For more information, visit www.all4kids.org/soiree. JUNE 17 Matt Mauser Matt Mauser will perform a celebration of the music of Frank Sinatra from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Civic Center Green at 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach. The free concert is presented by the Newport Beach City Arts Commission as part of a Newport Beach concert series. JULY 15 The Springsteen Experience The Springsteen Experience will perform from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Civic Center Green at 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach. The free concert is presented by the Newport Beach City Arts Commission as part of a Newport Beach concert series. AUG. 6 Teeing for Tusks A golf tournament will be held to fund programs that support anti-poaching efforts in Africa. “Teeing for Tusks” will run from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at Monarch Beach Golf Links at 50 Monarch Beach Resort, Dana Point. A single golfer entree is $300 and a team of four is $1,200. Register at charityvalet.com/tusks18. AUG. 12 Tijuana Dogs The Tijuana Dogs will perform from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Civic Center Green at 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach. The free concert is presented by the Newport Beach City Arts Commission as part of a Newport Beach concert series. SEPT. 9 Desperado Eagles Tribute The Desperado Eagles Tribute will perform from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Civic Center Green at 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach. The free concert is presented by the Newport Beach City Arts Commission as part of a Newport Beach concert series. ONGOING Farmers’ Market The SOCO Farmers’ Market, held at 3315 Hyland Ave., Costa Mesa, is from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays and features coffee and pastry shops, home decor, and fashion. For more information, visit farmermark.com/soco. Wetlands tour Amigos de Bolsa Chica hosts a tour of the wetlands from 9 to 10:30 a.m. the first Saturday of every month, departing every 15 minutes from the footbridge in the south parking lot of the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve. The tour is led by docents and participants will learn about the birds, endangered species, history, ecology and restoration of the wetlands. For more information, call (714) 840-1575 or email [email protected]. Walking Club The Newport-Mesa Walking Club offers free walks at 9 a.m. and 7 pm. Mondays through Saturdays. For more information, call (949) 600-0966. Monthly Beach Cleanup Community beach cleanups are held on the first Saturday of the month from 10 a.m. to noon. In Laguna Beach, the cleanup locations with supplies are Hobie Sport, Thalia Surf, El Ranchito and United Studios of Self Defense. Participants can ask for “zero trash discounts.” For more information, email Chip McDermott at [email protected]. Hortense Miller Garden The Hortense Miller Garden covers 2 1/2 acres of the upper slopes of Boat Canyon and features a range of plants and small themed gardens. Tours through the garden and private residence are at 9:45 a.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, and must be scheduled two weeks in advance. For more information, call (949) 497-0716, ext. 6. Preschool Stories The Laguna Beach Public Library, 363 Glenneyre St., presents Preschool Story Time at 11 a.m. Wednesdays, followed by cookies and punch. For more information, call (949) 497-1733. Susi Q Needle Art Guild The Needle Art Guilt meets at the Susi Q Senior Center from 1 to 3:30 p.m. the last Friday of each month to create various items for local organizations, including Mission Hospital's oncology unit and the Friendship Shelter. All ages and levels of knitters and crocheters are welcome. In addition, a new needle art technique will be discussed each month. Yarn and monetary donations are always appreciated. This is a free activity. For more information, call (949) 497-2241. Newland House Tour The historic Newland House Museum, 19820 Beach Blvd., Huntington Beach, offers tours from local historians who provide information about the two-story Victorian home built in 1898. The museum is open from noon to 4 p.m. the first and third Saturday and Sunday of the month. Cost is $2 for adults, $1 for children. For information, call (714) 960-0055. Crafty Kids Club Huntington Beach Central Library hosts Crafty Kids Club at 2 p.m. Saturdays at the library, at 7111 Talbert Ave. Children about 5 through 9 years old are invited to enjoy stories and related crafts. Call (714) 375-5107. Press zero to speak with a librarian. Laptime Storytime The Huntington Beach Library presents Laptime Storytime at 9:15, 10 and 11 a.m. Tuesdays and 10 a.m. Saturdays at 7111 Talbert Ave. for children 18 months to 3 years old. The library's Preschool Storytime for children 3 to 5 are at 10 and 11 a.m. Fridays. Call (714) 375-5107. Bolsa Chica Walking Tour A two-hour walking tour of the Bolsa Chica mesa and wetlands is conducted at 10 a.m. on the third Sunday of every month by the Bolsa Chica Land Trust. This docent-led tour makes five stops along the walk bridge and loop trails of the wetlands. Meet in the south reserve parking lot on Pacific Coast Highway across from Bolsa Chica State Beach. Warm clothing, comfortable shoes and binoculars are recommended. Tours are free and open to the public. Call (714) 846-1001 or go to bolsachicalandtrust.org. Newport Beach Walking Club A Newport Beach walking club meets 7 to 8.30 p.m. Monday to Friday at the Union Bank parking lot on Jamboree and Bayside Road. To join call Loyda at (949) 600-0966. Tutoring People can volunteer to tutor children each week at El Morro Elementary School at 8681 N. Coast Highway, Laguna Beach. The tutoring sessions are provided by the Learning Club, which operates two afternoons a week from January to May. For more information, visit aauw2-lagunabeach.org. Photography Contest The Newport Beach City Arts Commission is holding a photography contest through April 15. Contestants can submit pictures of a series of new sculptures at Civic Center Park at 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach. Submissions should be emailed to [email protected]. For more information, visit www.newportbeachca.gov/culturalarts. Credit: Daily Pilot Staff
Subject: Hispanic Americans; Tutoring; Branch libraries; National libraries; Museum exhibits; Photography; Roads & highways; Design; Librarians; Public libraries; Garden clubs; Art; Self sufficiency; Walking; Museums; Senior citizen centers
Location: Costa Mesa California Laguna Beach California Huntington Beach California Newport Beach California San Clemente California Uganda San Juan Capistrano California Bolsa Chica
Publication title: Los Angeles Times (Online); Los Angeles
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Apr 10, 2018
Section: Socal - Daily Pilot - Entertainment
Publisher: Tribune Interactive, LLC
Place of publication: Los Angeles
Country of publication: United States, Los Angeles
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Blogs, Podcasts, & Websites
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2024034564
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2024034564?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Tribune Interactive, LLC Apr 10, 2018
Last updated: 2019-03-01
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 217 of 474
What you need to know: The day in the markets [Asia Region]
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]12 Apr 2018: 20.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: ? Brent oil exceeds $73 a barrel as Middle East tension escalates ? Reports of missile interception over Riyadh follow Trump warning on Syria ? US and European stocks retreat ? Gold hits highest level since January Mounting concerns about the situation in the Middle East helped drive oil prices to their highest level in more than three years and made for a nervous session for US and European equities, with traditional havens such as gold, Treasuries and the yen all moving higher. Donald Trump heightened geopolitical worries as he warned Russia to "get ready" for US missiles to be sent to Syria in response to alleged chemical attacks. Market nerves intensified after reports that Saudi Arabia's air defences had intercepted a "rocket" above Riyadh — with Brent crude briefly pushing above $73 for the first time since December 2014, before easing back slightly. "The world is now on notice for US, and potentially allied, military strikes in Syria," said Chris Beauchamp, analyst at IG. "With Russia having pledged itself to the defence of Syrian bases, it looks like we have the makings of a confrontation." The rouble's slide continued, leaving the currency down 9 per cent against the dollar since the start of the week. Strategists at Morgan Stanley said that while there had been a hawkish personnel shift within the US administration, "the market's reaction to the April 2017 air strikes by the US in Syria did not have a lasting impact on risk appetite. "While the geopolitical risk premium has increased, as evidenced by higher oil prices, it will not necessarily derail the broader risk backdrop, in our view." Indeed, the S&P 500 equity index in New York pared an opening fall by midday — helped by a big rise for shares in the energy sector — while Treasury yields were well off the day's lows. Gold stood out as the metal hit its highest point since January. The escalating geopolitical tension overshadowed US consumer price data that showed the annual rate of "core" inflation rising above the Federal Reserve's 2 per cent target last month. "We think this makes it all the more likely that the Fed will hike [interest rates] three more times this year, although policymakers will also be watching closely to see how the recent trade escalations play out over the next few weeks," said James Smith, economist at ING. Dave Shellock Gold finds support from mounting geopolitical tension $ per ounce Source: Thomson Reuters Datastream 1,300 1,310 1,320 1,330 1,340 1,350 1,360 Jan 2018 Apr Markets update US Eurozone Japan UK China Brazil Stocks S&P 500 Eurofirst 300 Nikkei 225 FTSE100 Shanghai Comp Bovespa Level 2654.52 1475.34 21687.10 7257.14 3208.08 85122.45 % change on day -0.09 -0.60 -0.49 -0.13 0.56 0.72 Currency $ index (DXY) $ per € Yen per $ $ per £ Rmb per $ Real per $ Level 89.460 1.239 106.715 1.421 6.285 3.395 % change on day -0.142 0.324 -0.429 0.282 -0.173 -0.581 Govt. bonds 10-year Treasury 10-year Bund 10-year JGB 10-year Gilt 10-year bond 10-year bond Yield 2.795 0.513 0.030 1.404 3.722 9.719 Basis point change on day -1.010 1.100 0.090 -0.100 -0.700 3.800 World index, Commods FTSE All-World Oil - Brent Oil - WTI Gold Silver Metals (LMEX) Level 337.79 72.23 66.93 1338.95 16.49 3329.80 % change on day -0.04 1.83 2.07 0.53 0.92 1.65 Yesterday's close apart from: Currencies = 16:00 GMT; S&P, Bovespa, All World, Oil = 17:00 GMT; Gold, Silver = London pm fix. Bond data supplied by Tullett Prebon. Main equity markets S&P 500 index Eurofirst 300 index FTSE100 index ||| | | ||||||||||| Feb 2018 Apr 2560 2640 2720 2800 ||| | | ||||||||||| Feb 2018 Apr 1400 1440 1480 1520 ||| | | ||||||||||| Feb 2018 Apr 6880 7040 7200 7360 Biggest movers % US Eurozone UK UpS Hilton Worldwide Holdings 5.73 Mattel 5.62 Flowserve 4.13 Technipfmc 3.94 Concho Resources 3.55 Ses 2.19 Dt.telekom 2.18 Saipem 2.08 Norsk Hydro 1.90 Iberdrola 1.76 Tesco 7.18 Fresnillo 3.63 Randgold Resources Ld 2.62 Gkn 2.00 Intertek 1.80 % Downs Fastenal -6.36 W.w. Grainger -4.22 Republic Services -3.23 Affiliated Managers -2.56 Perrigo -2.12 Prices taken at 17:00 GMT Vopak -4.00 Exor -3.19 Airbus -3.13 Telecom Italia -2.89 Renault -2.77 Based on the constituents of the FTSE Eurofirst 300 Eurozone Coca-cola Hbc Ag -4.42 Centrica -2.56 Carnival -2.15 Int Consolidated Airlines S.a. -1.85 Easyjet -1.80 All data provided by Morningstar unless otherwise noted.
Subject: Currency; Gold; Geopolitics; Prices; Bond issues; International finance; Eurozone; Stock exchanges
Location: Riyadh Saudi Arabia Middle East Russia United Kingdom--UK Brazil Syria United States--US New York Saudi Arabia China Japan
People: Trump, Donald J
Company / organization: Name: Thomson Reuters; NAICS: 511110, 511140; Name: Renault SA; NAICS: 336111; Name: Tullett Prebon; NAICS: 523120; Name: Hilton Worldwide Inc; NAICS: 721110; Name: Morgan Stanley; NAICS: 523110, 523120, 523920; Name: Koninklijke Vopak NV; NAICS: 424690; Name: Sao Paulo Stock Exchange; NAICS: 523210; Name: Mattel Inc; NAICS: 336991, 339930
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 20
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Apr 12, 2018
Section: Companies and Markets
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2037865614
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://sea rch.proquest.com/docview/2037865614?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Apr 12, 2018
Last updated: 2018-05-13
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 218 of 474
What you need to know: The day in the markets
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]12 Apr 2018: 26.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: ? Brent oil exceeds $73 a barrel as Middle East tension escalates ? Reports of missile interception over Riyadh follow Trump warning on Syria ? US and European stocks retreat ? Gold hits highest level since January Mounting concerns about the situation in the Middle East helped drive oil prices to their highest level in more than three years and made for a nervous session for US and European equities, with traditional havens such as gold, Treasuries and the yen all moving higher. Donald Trump heightened geopolitical worries as he warned Russia to "get ready" for US missiles to be sent to Syria in response to alleged chemical attacks. Market nerves intensified after reports that Saudi Arabia's air defences had intercepted a "rocket" above Riyadh — with Brent crude briefly pushing above $73 for the first time since December 2014, before easing back slightly. "The world is now on notice for US, and potentially allied, military strikes in Syria," said Chris Beauchamp, analyst at IG. "With Russia having pledged itself to the defence of Syrian bases, it looks like we have the makings of a confrontation." The rouble's slide continued, leaving the currency down 9 per cent against the dollar since the start of the week. Strategists at Morgan Stanley said that while there had been a hawkish personnel shift within the US administration, "the market's reaction to the April 2017 air strikes by the US in Syria did not have a lasting impact on risk appetite. "While the geopolitical risk premium has increased, as evidenced by higher oil prices, it will not necessarily derail the broader risk backdrop, in our view." Indeed, the S&P 500 equity index in New York pared an opening fall by midday — helped by a big rise for shares in the energy sector — while Treasury yields were well off the day's lows. Gold stood out as the metal hit its highest point since January. The escalating geopolitical tension overshadowed US consumer price data that showed the annual rate of "core" inflation rising above the Federal Reserve's 2 per cent target last month. "We think this makes it all the more likely that the Fed will hike [interest rates] three more times this year, although policymakers will also be watching closely to see how the recent trade escalations play out over the next few weeks," said James Smith, economist at ING. Dave Shellock Gold finds support from mounting geopolitical tension $ per ounce Source: Thomson Reuters Datastream 1,300 1,310 1,320 1,330 1,340 1,350 1,360 Jan 2018 Apr Markets update US Eurozone Japan UK China Brazil Stocks S&P 500 Eurofirst 300 Nikkei 225 FTSE100 Shanghai Comp Bovespa Level 2654.52 1475.34 21687.10 7257.14 3208.08 85122.45 % change on day -0.09 -0.60 -0.49 -0.13 0.56 0.72 Currency $ index (DXY) $ per € Yen per $ $ per £ Rmb per $ Real per $ Level 89.460 1.239 106.715 1.421 6.285 3.395 % change on day -0.142 0.324 -0.429 0.282 -0.173 -0.581 Govt. bonds 10-year Treasury 10-year Bund 10-year JGB 10-year Gilt 10-year bond 10-year bond Yield 2.795 0.513 0.030 1.404 3.722 9.719 Basis point change on day -1.010 1.100 0.090 -0.100 -0.700 3.800 World index, Commods FTSE All-World Oil - Brent Oil - WTI Gold Silver Metals (LMEX) Level 337.79 72.23 66.93 1338.95 16.49 3329.80 % change on day -0.04 1.83 2.07 0.53 0.92 1.65 Yesterday's close apart from: Currencies = 16:00 GMT; S&P, Bovespa, All World, Oil = 17:00 GMT; Gold, Silver = London pm fix. Bond data supplied by Tullett Prebon. Main equity markets S&P 500 index Eurofirst 300 index FTSE100 index ||| | | ||||||||||| Feb 2018 Apr 2560 2640 2720 2800 ||| | | ||||||||||| Feb 2018 Apr 1400 1440 1480 1520 ||| | | ||||||||||| Feb 2018 Apr 6880 7040 7200 7360 Biggest movers % US Eurozone UK UpS Hilton Worldwide Holdings 5.73 Mattel 5.62 Flowserve 4.13 Technipfmc 3.94 Concho Resources 3.55 Ses 2.19 Dt.telekom 2.18 Saipem 2.08 Norsk Hydro 1.90 Iberdrola 1.76 Tesco 7.18 Fresnillo 3.63 Randgold Resources Ld 2.62 Gkn 2.00 Intertek 1.80 % Downs Fastenal -6.36 W.w. Grainger -4.22 Republic Services -3.23 Affiliated Managers -2.56 Perrigo -2.12 Prices taken at 17:00 GMT Vopak -4.00 Exor -3.19 Airbus -3.13 Telecom Italia -2.89 Renault -2.77 Based on the constituents of the FTSE Eurofirst 300 Eurozone Coca-cola Hbc Ag -4.42 Centrica -2.56 Carnival -2.15 Int Consolidated Airlines S.a. -1.85 Easyjet -1.80 All data provided by Morningstar unless otherwise noted.
Subject: Currency; Gold; Geopolitics; Prices; Bond issues; International finance; Eurozone; Stock exchanges
Location: Riyadh Saudi Arabia Middle East Russia United Kingdom--UK Brazil Syria United States--US New York Saudi Arabia China Japan
People: Trump, Donald J
Company / organization: Name: Thomson Reuters; NAICS: 511110, 511140; Name: Renault SA; NAICS: 336111; Name: Tullett Prebon; NAICS: 523120; Name: Hilton Worldwide Inc; NAICS: 721110; Name: Morgan Stanley; NAICS: 523110, 523120, 523920; Name: Koninklijke Vopak NV; NAICS: 424690; Name: Sao Paulo Stock Exchange; NAICS: 523210; Name: Mattel Inc; NAICS: 336991, 339930
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 26
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Apr 12, 2018
Section: Companies and Markets
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2037871086
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest. com/docview/2037871086?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Apr 12, 2018
Last updated: 2018-05-13
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 219 of 474
Calendar: Highlights from around town
Author: Daily Pilot Staff
Publication info: Los Angeles Times (Online) , Los Angeles: Tribune Interactive, LLC. Apr 14, 2018. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: A roundup of community events throughout Orange County. To submit items, email [email protected] TILL APRIL 26 GMUNK Laguna College of Art and Design’s BFA program in Graphic Design + Digital Media will present Miscellany, an exhibition showcasing a wide range of works by the talented designer and director GMUNK. It will include pieces from GMUNK’s infrared photography from places like Iceland and Alaska to a projection mapped sculptural display window. The gallery is located at 374 Ocean Ave., Laguna Beach. TILL MAY 5 UC Irvine Art Student Exhibit The Newport Beach City Arts Commission will host “Uncommon Goods: Artist Book as Object,” a special exhibit featuring the work of 25 University of California Irvine art students, at the Newport Beach Public Library at 1000 Avocado Ave., Newport Beach TILL MAY 6 ‘Sister Act’ The Costa Mesa Playhouse will conclude 53 seasons of shows with the hit musical, “Sister Act.” Performances are 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays at the playhouse at 661 Hamilton St., Costa Mesa. For more information, visit www.costamesaplayhouse.com. APRIL 15 Spring Festival Friendship Circle, an Orange County nonprofit that assists people with special needs, will hold a spring festival from 2 to 4 p.m. at Bonita Creek Park at 3010 La Vida, Newport Beach. The event will feature a bubble show, carnival games and face painting, among others. For more information, visit www.FriendshipOC.org. APRIL 17 Kontrapunktus Neo-baroque ensemble, Kontrapunktus, will perform at 7 p.m. at St. John Vianney Chapel at 314 Marine Ave., Newport Beach. For tickets, visit www.kontrapunktus.com/events/an-evening-with-kontrapunktus-12. APRIL 18 H.B. Library Luncheon The Huntington Beach Central Library will host a luncheon with speeches from authors Dorothy Ralphs and Juliann Dorell at noon. RSVP at www.fotlhb.com or in person at the gift shop at the library at 7111 Talbert Ave. Reservations are $25 per person and the last day to register is April 14. APRIL 18 TILL APRIL 22 Brain Science Conference The UC Irvine Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory will host 800 brain scientists for the 2018 International Conference on Learning and Memory at the Waterfront Beach Resort at 21100 Pacific Coast Highway, Huntington Beach. Scientists will present research on trending topics like depression and stress, among others. For a schedule of events, visit learnmem2018.org/overview/. APRIL 19 Corona del Mar Residents Assn. The Corona del Mar Residents Assn. Board of Directors will host a monthly meeting at 7:30 a.m. at the OASIS Senior Center at 801 Narcissus Ave., Corona del Mar. Southern California Edison officials will be at the meeting to discuss upgrades to electrical equipment around the community. For more information, visit www.Cdmra.org. APRIL 19 TILL APRIL 22 ‘Noises Off!’ The Huntington Beach Academy for the Performing Arts will feature the play “Noises Off!” at 7:30 p.m. each day with one show at 2 p.m. April 22 at the Historic Auditorium at Huntington Beach High School, 1905 Main St. Tickets are $22 for adults and $16 for students/seniors 65+. They are available at www.hbapa.org/see. APRIL 20 Women in Focus Conference at Chapman University Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts will host a Women in Focus Conference at 1:30 p.m. at the school at One University Drive, Orange. There will be a panel with successful women in the industry, including Dorothy Fortenberry, writer and producer on the second season of the Emmy Award-winning, “The Handmaid’s Tale.” For more information, visit www.chapman.edu/dodge/industry/women-focus.aspx. APRIL 21 Project Self-Sufficiency Project Self-Sufficiency will hold their eighth annual Wine, Cheese and Chocolate Please auction at Mile Square Golf Course at 10401 Warner Ave., Fountain Valley. The program supports low-income parents in Orange County. For more information, visit www.winecheeseandchocolateplease.com/. Street Festival A street festival will be held from noon to 4 p.m. at Merrimac Way, between Harbor Boulevard and Fairview Road in Costa Mesa. The program, which is meant to celebrate street and sidewalk improvements, will have music, food trucks and games. For more information, visit http://gohumansocal.org/Pages/Explore-Merrimac.aspx. APRIL 22 Dali Ensemble L.A. The Newport Beach Public Library will host the Dali Ensemble L.A. at 3 p.m. in the Central Library Friends Room, 1000 Avocado Ave., Newport Beach. The group will perform western music spanning the Renaissance to modernity. Fundraiser for Wells in Uganda Wells of Life will hold their fourth annual fundraiser to help build sustainable water wells for villagers in Uganda, Africa. The event will be held at 8:30 a.m. at Laguna Niguel Regional Park at 28241 La Paz Road. For more information, visit www.wellsoflife.org. Bella Terra Earth Day An Earth Day celebration will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Bella Terra shopping center at 7777 Edinger Ave., Huntington Beach. There will be sea animal tanks, displays and meet and greets with people acting as mermaids and pirates. For more information, visit www.bellaterra-hb.com/. APRIL 23 Tilly’s Tilly’s will host their 11th Charity Golf Tournament at the Mission Viejo Country Club. All proceeds raised will be donated to the Tilly’s Life Center organization to help further the mission to empower teens. TILL APRIL 25 Festival of Arts Exhibit The Festival of Arts is featuring a new exhibit at foaSOUTH showcasing the work of artist Bradford J. Salamon. The exhibit is located at 1006 S. Coast Highway, Laguna Beach. For more information, visit www.LagunaFestivalofArts.com. APRIL 26 Matt Costa Musician Matt Costa will be performing along with Casey Sullivan starting at 7 p.m. as part of an event organized by KROQ at Pacific City at 21010 Pacific Coast Highway, Huntington Beach. The free concert is part of the Ocean Summer Concert Series. For more information, visit www.gopacificcity.com/. APRIL 27 Joey Alexander Trio Joey Alexander, a renowned teenage pianist, will be performing with his trio at 7:30 p.m. at Musco Center for the Arts at Chapman University at One University Drive, Orange. For more information, visit muscocenter.org/event/joey-alexander-trio/. TILL APRIL 27 Witte Lectures The Newport Beach Public Library Foundation will hold the 21st annual Witte Lectures, featuring speakers David Frum, Masha Gessen and Maira Kalman from February through April. The events will be held at the library at 1000 Avocado Ave. For more information, visit www.nbplfoundation.org/content/The-Witte-Lectures.html. APRIL 30 Fashion Show Heritage Pointe, an assisted-living senior community in Mission Viejo, will be holding its 28th annual spring luncheon, fashion show and shopping boutique at 11:45 a.m. at the Irvine Marriott Hotel at 18000 Von Karman Ave. General admission tickets are $90. For more information, visit www.heritagepointe.org. TILL MAY 30 Russell Pierce The work of famed artist Russell Pierce will be on display at the Community Art Project gallery at 260 Ocean Ave., on the second floor near the Wells Fargo building in Laguna Beach. For more information, visit www.caplaguna.org. TILL JUNE 21 California Impressionists The “Harmony of Light: Spring in California” exhibit will be displayed at the Irvine Museum of Collection at the University of California, Irvine, 18881 Von Karman Ave. The showcase features paintings from California impressionists depicting springtime in the state. For more information, visit irvinemuseumcollection.uci.edu/event/harmony-light-spring-california/. TILL AUG. 9 Rainforest Adventure A Rainforest Adventure exhibit is featured at Discovery Cube at 2500 N. Main St., Santa Ana. For more information, visit www.oc.discoverycube.org. MAY 4 TILL 6 OC Music Fest The Orange County Music Festival will be returning to Lakeview Park near Irvine Lake at 5305 E. Santiago Canyon Road, Orange. The weekend music and camping festival is returning after a three-year hiatus. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.oc-musicfest.com/. MAY 5 HER Wellness Tea Hoag will host a women’s event, HER Wellness Tea, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Hoag for Her Center for Wellness at 500 Superior Ave., Suite 315, Newport Beach. Experts will discuss health, empowerment and relationships. Tickets are $25. To register, call 800-400-HOAG (4624). For more information, visit https://bit.ly/2xkS7xu. MAY 12 TILL AUG. 11 Farmer’s Market A farmer’s market will be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the second Saturday of each month at SOCO and the OC Mix at 3315 Hyland Ave., Costa Mesa. There will be live music, chef's demos and a variety of family-friendly activities. For more information, visit bit.ly/SOCOFarmers. MAY 17 Newport Harbor Home and Garden Tour The 21st Annual Newport Harbor Home and Garden Tour will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The event will showcase six Newport Beach homes with ocean views and a variety of architectural and interior styles by local designers. For more information, visit newportharborhometour.com/. MAY 18 Literacy Author Luncheon The 11th annual Gift of Literacy Author Luncheon, presented by Newport/Mesa ProLiteracy, will be held at 11:30 a.m. at the Pacific Club at 4111 MacArthur Blvd., Newport Beach. The luncheon will feature a speech from author Janelle Brown, who penned the novels, “Watch Me Disappear,” “All We Ever Wanted Was Everything,” and “This Is Where We Live.” Tickets cost $95 and include a copy of the book “Watch Me Disappear.” For more information, visit www.newportliteracy.org. MAY 18 TILL 20 Fiesta The Saint Edward Parish Fiesta will be held from 5 to 10 p.m. May 18, noon to 10 p.m. May 19 and noon to 8 p.m. May 20 at 33926 Calle La Primavera, Dana Point. The free event will feature carnival rides, games and live entertainment. For more information, visit www.stedwardfiesta.org. MAY 27 Natalia Lafourcade Grammy Award-winning musician Natalia Lafourcade will perform at 6 p.m. at Musco Center for the Arts at Chapman University at One University Drive, Orange. For more information, visit muscocenter.org/event/natalia-lafourcade/. JUNE 9 Children’s Bureau The Children’s Bureau, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit, will be holding a fundraiser for the prevention and treatment of child abuse from 6 to 9:30 p.m. at Oak Creek Golf Club at One Golf Club Drive, Irvine. A ticket costs $300. For more information, visit www.all4kids.org/soiree. JUNE 17 Matt Mauser Matt Mauser will perform a celebration of the music of Frank Sinatra from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Civic Center Green at 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach. The free concert is presented by the Newport Beach City Arts Commission as part of a Newport Beach concert series. JULY 15 The Springsteen Experience The Springsteen Experience will perform from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Civic Center Green at 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach. The free concert is presented by the Newport Beach City Arts Commission as part of a Newport Beach concert series. AUG. 6 Teeing for Tusks A golf tournament will be held to fund programs that support anti-poaching efforts in Africa. “Teeing for Tusks” will run from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at Monarch Beach Golf Links at 50 Monarch Beach Resort, Dana Point. A single golfer entree is $300 and a team of four is $1,200. Register at charityvalet.com/tusks18. AUG. 12 Tijuana Dogs The Tijuana Dogs will perform from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Civic Center Green at 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach. The free concert is presented by the Newport Beach City Arts Commission as part of a Newport Beach concert series. SEPT. 9 Desperado Eagles Tribute The Desperado Eagles Tribute will perform from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Civic Center Green at 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach. The free concert is presented by the Newport Beach City Arts Commission as part of a Newport Beach concert series. ONGOING Farmers’ Market The SOCO Farmers’ Market, held at 3315 Hyland Ave., Costa Mesa, is from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays and features coffee and pastry shops, home decor, and fashion. For more information, visit farmermark.com/soco. Wetlands tour Amigos de Bolsa Chica hosts a tour of the wetlands from 9 to 10:30 a.m. the first Saturday of every month, departing every 15 minutes from the footbridge in the south parking lot of the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve. The tour is led by docents and participants will learn about the birds, endangered species, history, ecology and restoration of the wetlands. For more information, call (714) 840-1575 or email [email protected]. Walking Club The Newport-Mesa Walking Club offers free walks at 9 a.m. and 7 pm. Mondays through Saturdays. For more information, call (949) 600-0966. Monthly Beach Cleanup Community beach cleanups are held on the first Saturday of the month from 10 a.m. to noon. In Laguna Beach, the cleanup locations with supplies are Hobie Sport, Thalia Surf, El Ranchito and United Studios of Self Defense. Participants can ask for “zero trash discounts.” For more information, email Chip McDermott at [email protected]. Hortense Miller Garden The Hortense Miller Garden covers 2 1/2 acres of the upper slopes of Boat Canyon and features a range of plants and small themed gardens. Tours through the garden and private residence are at 9:45 a.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, and must be scheduled two weeks in advance. For more information, call (949) 497-0716, ext. 6. Preschool Stories The Laguna Beach Public Library, 363 Glenneyre St., presents Preschool Story Time at 11 a.m. Wednesdays, followed by cookies and punch. For more information, call (949) 497-1733. Susi Q Needle Art Guild The Needle Art Guilt meets at the Susi Q Senior Center from 1 to 3:30 p.m. the last Friday of each month to create various items for local organizations, including Mission Hospital's oncology unit and the Friendship Shelter. All ages and levels of knitters and crocheters are welcome. In addition, a new needle art technique will be discussed each month. Yarn and monetary donations are always appreciated. This is a free activity. For more information, call (949) 497-2241. Newland House Tour The historic Newland House Museum, 19820 Beach Blvd., Huntington Beach, offers tours from local historians who provide information about the two-story Victorian home built in 1898. The museum is open from noon to 4 p.m. the first and third Saturday and Sunday of the month. Cost is $2 for adults, $1 for children. For information, call (714) 960-0055. Crafty Kids Club Huntington Beach Central Library hosts Crafty Kids Club at 2 p.m. Saturdays at the library, at 7111 Talbert Ave. Children about 5 through 9 years old are invited to enjoy stories and related crafts. Call (714) 375-5107. Press zero to speak with a librarian. Laptime Storytime The Huntington Beach Library presents Laptime Storytime at 9:15, 10 and 11 a.m. Tuesdays and 10 a.m. Saturdays at 7111 Talbert Ave. for children 18 months to 3 years old. The library's Preschool Storytime for children 3 to 5 are at 10 and 11 a.m. Fridays. Call (714) 375-5107. Bolsa Chica Walking Tour A two-hour walking tour of the Bolsa Chica mesa and wetlands is conducted at 10 a.m. on the third Sunday of every month by the Bolsa Chica Land Trust. This docent-led tour makes five stops along the walk bridge and loop trails of the wetlands. Meet in the south reserve parking lot on Pacific Coast Highway across from Bolsa Chica State Beach. Warm clothing, comfortable shoes and binoculars are recommended. Tours are free and open to the public. Call (714) 846-1001 or go to bolsachicalandtrust.org. Newport Beach Walking Club A Newport Beach walking club meets 7 to 8.30 p.m. Monday to Friday at the Union Bank parking lot on Jamboree and Bayside Road. To join call Loyda at (949) 600-0966. Tutoring People can volunteer to tutor children each week at El Morro Elementary School at 8681 N. Coast Highway, Laguna Beach. The tutoring sessions are provided by the Learning Club, which operates two afternoons a week from January to May. For more information, visit aauw2-lagunabeach.org. Photography Contest The Newport Beach City Arts Commission is holding a photography contest through April 15. Contestants can submit pictures of a series of new sculptures at Civic Center Park at 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach. Submissions should be emailed to [email protected]. For more information, visit www.newportbeachca.gov/culturalarts. Credit: Daily Pilot Staff
Subject: Tutoring; Earth Day; Museum exhibits; Donations; Photography; Roads & highways; Design; Neurosciences; Public libraries; Art; Self sufficiency; Walking; Friendship; Learning; Museums; Senior citizen centers; Festivals
Location: Costa Mesa California Laguna Beach California Huntington Beach California Newport Beach California Uganda Bolsa Chica
Company / organization: Name: Chapman University; NAICS: 611310
Publication title: Los Angeles Times (Online); Los Angeles
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Apr 14, 2018
Section: Socal - Daily Pilot - Entertainment
Publisher: Tribune Interactive, LLC
Place of publication: Los Angeles
Country of publication: United States, Los Angeles
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Blogs, Podcasts, & Websites
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2024988517
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2024988517?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Tribune Interactive, LLC Apr 14, 2018
Last updated: 2019-03-01
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 220 of 474
Calendar: Highlights from around town
Author: Daily Pilot Staff
Publication info: Los Angeles Times (Online) , Los Angeles: Tribune Interactive, LLC. Apr 19, 2018. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: A roundup of community events throughout Orange County. To submit items, email [email protected] APRIL 20 Women in Focus Conference at Chapman University Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts will host a Women in Focus Conference at 1:30 p.m. at the school at One University Drive, Orange. There will be a panel with successful women in the industry, including Dorothy Fortenberry, writer and producer on the second season of the Emmy Award-winning, “The Handmaid’s Tale.” For more information, visit www.chapman.edu/dodge/industry/women-focus.aspx. APRIL 21 Project Self-Sufficiency Project Self-Sufficiency will hold their eighth annual Wine, Cheese and Chocolate Please auction at Mile Square Golf Course at 10401 Warner Ave., Fountain Valley. The program supports low-income parents in Orange County. For more information, visit www.winecheeseandchocolateplease.com/. Street Festival A street festival will be held from noon to 4 p.m. at Merrimac Way, between Harbor Boulevard and Fairview Road in Costa Mesa. The program, which is meant to celebrate street and sidewalk improvements, will have music, food trucks and games. For more information, visit http://gohumansocal.org/Pages/Explore-Merrimac.aspx. Z Supply The Z Supply Pop-up at Fashion Island will have an Earth Day event from 1 to 3 p.m. at 401 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach. APRIL 22 Dali Ensemble L.A. The Newport Beach Public Library will host the Dali Ensemble L.A. at 3 p.m. in the Central Library Friends Room, 1000 Avocado Ave., Newport Beach. The group will perform western music spanning the Renaissance to modernity. Fundraiser for Wells in Uganda Wells of Life will hold their fourth annual fundraiser to help build sustainable water wells for villagers in Uganda, Africa. The event will be held at 8:30 a.m. at Laguna Niguel Regional Park at 28241 La Paz Road. For more information, visit www.wellsoflife.org. Bella Terra Earth Day An Earth Day celebration will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Bella Terra shopping center at 7777 Edinger Ave., Huntington Beach. There will be sea animal tanks, displays and meet and greets with people acting as mermaids and pirates. For more information, visit www.bellaterra-hb.com/. TILL APRIL 22 Brain Science Conference The UC Irvine Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory will host 800 brain scientists for the 2018 International Conference on Learning and Memory at the Waterfront Beach Resort at 21100 Pacific Coast Highway, Huntington Beach. Scientists will present research on trending topics like depression and stress, among others. For a schedule of events, visit learnmem2018.org/overview/. ‘Noises Off!’ The Huntington Beach Academy for the Performing Arts will feature the play “Noises Off!” at 7:30 p.m. each day with one show at 2 p.m. April 22 at the Historic Auditorium at Huntington Beach High School, 1905 Main St. Tickets are $22 for adults and $16 for students/seniors 65+. They are available at www.hbapa.org/see. APRIL 23 Tilly’s Tilly’s will host their 11th Charity Golf Tournament at the Mission Viejo Country Club. All proceeds raised will be donated to the Tilly’s Life Center organization to help further the mission to empower teens. APRIL 24 Laguna Greenbelt Documentary Premiere A documentary about the formation of the Laguna Greenbelt, a Laguna Beach-based environmental group, will premiere at 6:30 p.m. at the Suzie Q Community Center at 380 3rd St., Laguna Beach. For more information, visit lagunagreenbelt.org. TILL APRIL 25 Festival of Arts Exhibit The Festival of Arts is featuring a new exhibit at foaSOUTH showcasing the work of artist Bradford J. Salamon. The exhibit is located at 1006 S. Coast Highway, Laguna Beach. For more information, visit www.LagunaFestivalofArts.com. APRIL 26 Matt Costa Musician Matt Costa will be performing along with Casey Sullivan starting at 7 p.m. as part of an event organized by KROQ at Pacific City at 21010 Pacific Coast Highway, Huntington Beach. The free concert is part of the Ocean Summer Concert Series. For more information, visit www.gopacificcity.com/. TILL APRIL 26 GMUNK Laguna College of Art and Design’s BFA program in Graphic Design + Digital Media will present Miscellany, an exhibition showcasing a wide range of works by the talented designer and director GMUNK. It will include pieces from GMUNK’s infrared photography from places like Iceland and Alaska to a projection mapped sculptural display window. The gallery is located at 374 Ocean Ave., Laguna Beach. APRIL 27 Joey Alexander Trio Joey Alexander, a renowned teenage pianist, will be performing with his trio at 7:30 p.m. at Musco Center for the Arts at Chapman University at One University Drive, Orange. For more information, visit muscocenter.org/event/joey-alexander-trio/. TILL APRIL 27 Witte Lectures The Newport Beach Public Library Foundation will hold the 21st annual Witte Lectures, featuring speakers David Frum, Masha Gessen and Maira Kalman from February through April. The events will be held at the library at 1000 Avocado Ave. For more information, visit www.nbplfoundation.org/content/The-Witte-Lectures.html. APRIL 28 Doheny Wood Car Show The annual Doheny Wood woodie car show will be held from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Doheny State Beach at 25300 Dana Point Harbor Drive, Dana Point. The show is free but park admission is $15 — seniors cost $14. For more information, visit www.socalwoodies.com. Brent Green Visual artist and filmmaker Brent Green will feature an evening of his works, including “A Brief Spark Bookended by Darkness,” “Carlin,” “Paulina Hollers” and “Strange Fates.” The event will be held at 7:30 p.m. at Frida Cinema at 305 E. 4th St. #100, Santa Ana. For tickets, visit www.santaanasites.com. APRIL 30 Fashion Show Heritage Pointe, an assisted-living senior community in Mission Viejo, will be holding its 28th annual spring luncheon, fashion show and shopping boutique at 11:45 a.m. at the Irvine Marriott Hotel at 18000 Von Karman Ave. General admission tickets are $90. For more information, visit www.heritagepointe.org. TILL MAY 5 UC Irvine Art Student Exhibit The Newport Beach City Arts Commission will host “Uncommon Goods: Artist Book as Object,” a special exhibit featuring the work of 25 University of California Irvine art students, at the Newport Beach Public Library at 1000 Avocado Ave., Newport Beach TILL MAY 6 ‘Sister Act’ The Costa Mesa Playhouse will conclude 53 seasons of shows with the hit musical, “Sister Act.” Performances are 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays at the playhouse at 661 Hamilton St., Costa Mesa. For more information, visit www.costamesaplayhouse.com. TILL MAY 30 Russell Pierce The work of famed artist Russell Pierce will be on display at the Community Art Project gallery at 260 Ocean Ave., on the second floor near the Wells Fargo building in Laguna Beach. For more information, visit www.caplaguna.org. TILL JUNE 21 California Impressionists The “Harmony of Light: Spring in California” exhibit will be displayed at the Irvine Museum of Collection at the University of California, Irvine, 18881 Von Karman Ave. The showcase features paintings from California impressionists depicting springtime in the state. For more information, visit irvinemuseumcollection.uci.edu/event/harmony-light-spring-california/. TILL AUG. 9 Rainforest Adventure A Rainforest Adventure exhibit is featured at Discovery Cube at 2500 N. Main St., Santa Ana. For more information, visit www.oc.discoverycube.org. MAY 3 Nathan Turner Nathan Turner, an acclaimed designer, will be holding a book signing from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Newport Beach Design Shop at 3636 Newport Blvd. For more information and to RSVP, email [email protected] MAY 4 TILL 6 OC Music Fest The Orange County Music Festival will be returning to Lakeview Park near Irvine Lake at 5305 E. Santiago Canyon Road, Orange. The weekend music and camping festival is returning after a three-year hiatus. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.oc-musicfest.com/. MAY 5 HER Wellness Tea Hoag will host a women’s event, HER Wellness Tea, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Hoag for Her Center for Wellness at 500 Superior Ave., Suite 315, Newport Beach. Experts will discuss health, empowerment and relationships. Tickets are $25. To register, call 800-400-HOAG (4624). For more information, visit https://bit.ly/2xkS7xu. Kontrapunktus Kontrapunktus, a neo-baroque ensemble, will perform at 8 p.m. at Mission Basilica Catholic Church at 31520 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano. The program, “Mentors, Pupils and Scions,” will consist of music from legendary baroque composers. For more information, visit www.kontrapunktus.com. MAY 12 Like Totally Festival The third annual Like Totally Festival will be held from noon to 9 p.m. at Huntington State Beach. The event will feature bands from the 1980s. For more information, visit www.liketotallyfestival.com/event-information. Cuñao’s Canción del Inmigrante Cuñao’s Canción del Inmigrante — an outdoor evening of storytelling told through sound, puppetry, and community created folk art — will be held at 8 p.m. at the Bowers Museum at 2002 N. Main St., Santa Ana. The free, community-based production is a multimedia “opera” with puppetry, song and dance. For more information, visit www.santaanasites.com. MAY 12 TILL AUG. 11 Farmer’s Market A farmer’s market will be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the second Saturday of each month at SOCO and the OC Mix at 3315 Hyland Ave., Costa Mesa. There will be live music, chef's demos and a variety of family-friendly activities. For more information, visit bit.ly/SOCOFarmers. MAY 17 Newport Harbor Home and Garden Tour The 21st Annual Newport Harbor Home and Garden Tour will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The event will showcase six Newport Beach homes with ocean views and a variety of architectural and interior styles by local designers. For more information, visit newportharborhometour.com/. MAY 18 Literacy Author Luncheon The 11th annual Gift of Literacy Author Luncheon, presented by Newport/Mesa ProLiteracy, will be held at 11:30 a.m. at the Pacific Club at 4111 MacArthur Blvd., Newport Beach. The luncheon will feature a speech from author Janelle Brown, who penned the novels, “Watch Me Disappear,” “All We Ever Wanted Was Everything,” and “This Is Where We Live.” Tickets cost $95 and include a copy of the book “Watch Me Disappear.” For more information, visit www.newportliteracy.org. MAY 18 TILL 20 Fiesta The Saint Edward Parish Fiesta will be held from 5 to 10 p.m. May 18, noon to 10 p.m. May 19 and noon to 8 p.m. May 20 at 33926 Calle La Primavera, Dana Point. The free event will feature carnival rides, games and live entertainment. For more information, visit www.stedwardfiesta.org. MAY 27 Natalia Lafourcade Grammy Award-winning musician Natalia Lafourcade will perform at 6 p.m. at Musco Center for the Arts at Chapman University at One University Drive, Orange. For more information, visit muscocenter.org/event/natalia-lafourcade/. JUNE 9 Children’s Bureau The Children’s Bureau, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit, will be holding a fundraiser for the prevention and treatment of child abuse from 6 to 9:30 p.m. at Oak Creek Golf Club at One Golf Club Drive, Irvine. A ticket costs $300. For more information, visit www.all4kids.org/soiree. JUNE 17 Matt Mauser Matt Mauser will perform a celebration of the music of Frank Sinatra from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Civic Center Green at 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach. The free concert is presented by the Newport Beach City Arts Commission as part of a Newport Beach concert series. JULY 15 The Springsteen Experience The Springsteen Experience will perform from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Civic Center Green at 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach. The free concert is presented by the Newport Beach City Arts Commission as part of a Newport Beach concert series. AUG. 6 Teeing for Tusks A golf tournament will be held to fund programs that support anti-poaching efforts in Africa. “Teeing for Tusks” will run from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at Monarch Beach Golf Links at 50 Monarch Beach Resort, Dana Point. A single golfer entree is $300 and a team of four is $1,200. Register at charityvalet.com/tusks18. AUG. 12 Tijuana Dogs The Tijuana Dogs will perform from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Civic Center Green at 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach. The free concert is presented by the Newport Beach City Arts Commission as part of a Newport Beach concert series. SEPT. 9 Desperado Eagles Tribute The Desperado Eagles Tribute will perform from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Civic Center Green at 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach. The free concert is presented by the Newport Beach City Arts Commission as part of a Newport Beach concert series. ONGOING Farmers’ Market The SOCO Farmers’ Market, held at 3315 Hyland Ave., Costa Mesa, is from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays and features coffee and pastry shops, home decor, and fashion. For more information, visit farmermark.com/soco. Wetlands tour Amigos de Bolsa Chica hosts a tour of the wetlands from 9 to 10:30 a.m. the first Saturday of every month, departing every 15 minutes from the footbridge in the south parking lot of the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve. The tour is led by docents and participants will learn about the birds, endangered species, history, ecology and restoration of the wetlands. For more information, call (714) 840-1575 or email [email protected]. Walking Club The Newport-Mesa Walking Club offers free walks at 9 a.m. and 7 pm. Mondays through Saturdays. For more information, call (949) 600-0966. Monthly Beach Cleanup Community beach cleanups are held on the first Saturday of the month from 10 a.m. to noon. In Laguna Beach, the cleanup locations with supplies are Hobie Sport, Thalia Surf, El Ranchito and United Studios of Self Defense. Participants can ask for “zero trash discounts.” For more information, email Chip McDermott at [email protected]. Hortense Miller Garden The Hortense Miller Garden covers 2 1/2 acres of the upper slopes of Boat Canyon and features a range of plants and small themed gardens. Tours through the garden and private residence are at 9:45 a.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, and must be scheduled two weeks in advance. For more information, call (949) 497-0716, ext. 6. Preschool Stories The Laguna Beach Public Library, 363 Glenneyre St., presents Preschool Story Time at 11 a.m. Wednesdays, followed by cookies and punch. For more information, call (949) 497-1733. Susi Q Needle Art Guild The Needle Art Guilt meets at the Susi Q Senior Center from 1 to 3:30 p.m. the last Friday of each month to create various items for local organizations, including Mission Hospital's oncology unit and the Friendship Shelter. All ages and levels of knitters and crocheters are welcome. In addition, a new needle art technique will be discussed each month. Yarn and monetary donations are always appreciated. This is a free activity. For more information, call (949) 497-2241. Newland House Tour The historic Newland House Museum, 19820 Beach Blvd., Huntington Beach, offers tours from local historians who provide information about the two-story Victorian home built in 1898. The museum is open from noon to 4 p.m. the first and third Saturday and Sunday of the month. Cost is $2 for adults, $1 for children. For information, call (714) 960-0055. Crafty Kids Club Huntington Beach Central Library hosts Crafty Kids Club at 2 p.m. Saturdays at the library, at 7111 Talbert Ave. Children about 5 through 9 years old are invited to enjoy stories and related crafts. Call (714) 375-5107. Press zero to speak with a librarian. Laptime Storytime The Huntington Beach Library presents Laptime Storytime at 9:15, 10 and 11 a.m. Tuesdays and 10 a.m. Saturdays at 7111 Talbert Ave. for children 18 months to 3 years old. The library's Preschool Storytime for children 3 to 5 are at 10 and 11 a.m. Fridays. Call (714) 375-5107. Bolsa Chica Walking Tour A two-hour walking tour of the Bolsa Chica mesa and wetlands is conducted at 10 a.m. on the third Sunday of every month by the Bolsa Chica Land Trust. This docent-led tour makes five stops along the walk bridge and loop trails of the wetlands. Meet in the south reserve parking lot on Pacific Coast Highway across from Bolsa Chica State Beach. Warm clothing, comfortable shoes and binoculars are recommended. Tours are free and open to the public. Call (714) 846-1001 or go to bolsachicalandtrust.org. Newport Beach Walking Club A Newport Beach walking club meets 7 to 8.30 p.m. Monday to Friday at the Union Bank parking lot on Jamboree and Bayside Road. To join call Loyda at (949) 600-0966. Tutoring People can volunteer to tutor children each week at El Morro Elementary School at 8681 N. Coast Highway, Laguna Beach. The tutoring sessions are provided by the Learning Club, which operates two afternoons a week from January to May. For more information, visit aauw2-lagunabeach.org. Photography Contest The Newport Beach City Arts Commission is holding a photography contest through April 15. Contestants can submit pictures of a series of new sculptures at Civic Center Park at 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach. Submissions should be emailed to [email protected]. For more information, visit www.newportbeachca.gov/culturalarts. Credit: Daily Pilot Staff
Subject: Public speaking; Fashion shows; Donations; Photography; Roads & highways; Neurosciences; Visual artists; Documentary films; Museums; Festivals; Tutoring; Earth Day; Museum exhibits; Design; Public libraries; Art; Self sufficiency; Walking; Learning
Location: Huntington Beach California Mission Viejo California Newport Beach California Costa Mesa California Laguna Beach California Uganda Bolsa Chica
Company / organization: Name: Chapman University; NAICS: 611310
Publication title: Los Angeles Times (Online); Los Angeles
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Apr 19, 2018
Section: Socal - Daily Pilot - Entertainment
Publisher: Tribune Interactive, LLC
Place of publication: Los Angeles
Country of publication: United States, Los Angeles
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Blogs, Podcasts, & Websites
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2027677069
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2027677069?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Tribune Interactive, LLC Apr 19, 2018
Last updated: 2018-04-20
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 221 of 474
United States: Washington is the principal puppet master behind Syrian conflict, says envoy to China
Publication info: Asia News Monitor ; Bangkok [Bangkok]25 Apr 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Syria's ambassador to China has spoken to TASS about Western airstrikes on Syria and named major instigators of the Syrian crisis Nearly 500,000 people were killed during the Syrian crisis, which lasts for more than seven years. In an exclusive interview to TASS Syrian ambassador to China, His Excellency Dr Imad Moustapha, has disclosed true motives of the US, Great Britain and France trilateral airstrikes on Syria, named major instigators of the Syrian crisis and informed of ongoing reconstruction of the war-ravaged country. - Can you give us an official position of the Syrian government about the aggression of the US, Great Britain and France that took place last Saturday? - Well, of course Syrian government condemns this aggression. It was an act of aggression. It was violation of the international law and infringement on the Syrian territorial sovereignty, but it is not strange. We, in Syria, do not make any distinction on the attacks on Syria when they are done by proxies, or when the original masters and movers do them. They are the same. We do not care who is actually doing the attack. When they put explosives in a car and send it to the streets of Damascus or Aleppo, and the bombs get exploded, and people get killed. It is the same when the criminal groups use mortar shells to shell Damascus or Aleppo, it is the same when the US, France or Great Britain send their cruise missiles to bombard Syria. We do not make a distinction. All these actions are done by the same group with same mentality and ideology. I do not make any distinction between them. Nothing is new and they all have one objection. Which is to undermine the Syrian state. This is our position. - What was the impact of such moves to the situation in Syria and the region? - It is a complex question. Of course, they can use different terms and descriptions to describe their attack on Syria. However, the truth will not change. In reality, it is still a barbaric, criminal act against sovereign country in breach of UN laws, charter and regulations. Read also US, France, Britain begin operation against Syria Lavrov blasts US-led strike on Damascus for torpedoing progress in Syrian peace process Russia's OSCE envoy blasts US strikes on Syria as aggression Syrian air defenses intercept 70% of US cruise missiles Russia's ambassador to US comments on strikes against Syria In addition, it is a threat to international peace and security. However, it will have repercussions because when you undermine the international law, you do not know where it is going to stop. You cannot pick up and choose. You cannot say whether one day you want to undermine the international law and the next day you say to other countries in the world that they have to respect the international law. When you are doing this, France, Great Britain and the USA are giving a bad example to the whole world. That is really the law of the jungle. Moreover, as they say it in English: "Might is right". If we are powerful, we can do whatever we want. And if we do it, it is right. Of course, it is not a new thing. The whole history of the western powers was written on the principle of "might is right" and the law of the jungle. - Can you give us any examples? - Whether you want to mention the war in Libya or Iraq, or you want to go back in history and remember how France and Great Britain have sent their military forces to China and destroyed the Summer Palace in Beijing to force China to legalize opium trade. They would not legalize opium trade in Britain and France, and in the same time, they made war in China to force it to accept opium. This is the true, moral fabric of the Western countries. Nothing has changed through history. This recent attack on Syria is just the latest example of a very long series of atrocities and crimes against humanity committed by these countries. - US, France and Great Britain governments representatives said that they have launched this attack because of the Douma accident. Some UN countries, and Russia was among of them, said that at first investigation should take place and only then, any measures should be taken. Why do you think that airstrikes took place before the official investigation by the UN? - It is clear that they really want to attack Syria. If they wait for results of the so-called investigation, the investigation would confirm that there was no chemical attack. Then they would be embarrassed. What would they say? Therefore, they do not even want to show that they even care for any investigation. Their objective was simply to attack Syria. - What can you tell us about the Douma accident? - The story about the chemical attack in Douma is a fabricated story. It is not true. It never happened. This morning, I was reading two articles. One was written by renowned British journalist Robert Fisc, who went to Douma yesterday. And another one is from an American journalist. What do they say: "We interviewed all the people of Douma. All of them did not know that there was a chemical attack in their town". They never heard about the chemical attack. It was fabricated by the White Helmets. As you know, the organization of White Helmets was created by a British intelligence and it was used in the world media. So everybody in the world in Argentina, Singapore, Japan, India, Australia and other countries would think, that there was a chemical attack in Douma. However, the people in Douma never knew that there was a chemical attack, because it never happened. - What was it then? - It was a staged act done by the White Helmets, because they receive orders to do so. You need to remember when the Syrian army moved towards Douma the Russian military made an agreement with the criminal groups in Douma. The agreement was based on the premise that, they do not need to fight and cause death and destruction. If give up your arms, heavy arms, you can leave to the north of Syria. And they agreed, they signed the agreement brokered by Russia, as it was trying to save lives. Moreover, there was a cease-fire. So Syrian army was not shooting at them and they were not shooting at us. For two days it was calm and the buses entered Douma. People from their side started taking the busses and going out. It was very normal situation. Three busses had already left because the agreement had taken place. The next day nearly 20 buses entered, I am not sure about the precise number, and suddenly everything stopped. Nobody was going out in the buses. - Why? - They received the instructions from their sponsors, who said: "What are you doing? You are leaving Douma like this? At least give us a pretext to attack the Syrian military". And suddenly in the whole world reports surfaced about this staged chemical attack. It was on TV screens on CNN, BBC and Fox News. Then on the third day they resumed leaving Douma. But they were told to do this by their masters: you need to do something before you leave. You cannot leave like this. Claim that there was a chemical attack. Therefore, they claimed that there was a chemical attack. Now you ask me why the USA, France and Great Britain conducted the raid on Syria before the investigation even started. They did not care. In addition, they already knew that the investigation would say that there was no chemical attack. Now you know what they are saying today? They say that the Russians have cleaned the area so nobody will find any chemicals. It is hopeless. They are experts in lying. They have been lying for ages. They know exactly how to lie. And they have no moral compunction inside. They do not care. They can lie and tell stories, attack other nations and kill people. They do not care. This is the true face of western values and western civilization. - If such organization as White Helmets is just an instrument in their masters' hands, who is the true master? Who could give them such an order to stage a chemical attack? - You must make a distinction between two levels of powers and players who are trying to create all the disturbances in Syria. In such a way you can say, that, for example, the Saudi Arabia government did this because they are sponsoring the Islamic Army. The Qatar government did this because they are sponsoring The Battalions of the Merciful God. On the other hand, you can say it was Britain because British intelligence created the "White Helmets" and is using them for her purposes. However, I do not make any distinction because all of them are following one master player, which is the USA. So even if the US is not directly involved in planning something, it is responsible politically and morally for all the tragedies that took place before in Syria. It is the responsibility first and foremost of the USA. - Do you think that all political groups in the US are so hostile towards Syria? Or maybe there are some groups of elites who have another position? - The US is ruled by one single establishment. It is a military-industrial conglomerate that really controls America. And presidents in America come and go. The two parties in US exchange seats, but this establishment in reality rules the country. - Do you think that Donald Trump is a representative of this establishment? - In the United States of America you can have individuals like Donald Trump who are considered outsiders. Before he became the president he said that he wants to build good relations with Russia, he wants to end the US involvement in the conflict in Syria. He said: "Bashar al-Assad is not our enemy. The jihadi guys are our enemies". And the establishment laughed at him and said that he can say whatever he wants, because if he would become the president they will dictate the policy. And this was exactly what happened. Moreover, to be fair to Donald Trump, it happened not only with him. It happened with every president before him. Barack Obama used to say some things before he became the president. Once he became the president, he had to do what the establishment told him. It is not a new thing. In 1950-s the president of the USA was a military general Dwight Eisenhower. He was a republican, right-wing politician and he was a general. It was a very famous incident. When he finished his presidency, he wrote a farewell letter to the nation saying to the American citizens the following: "The most dangerous thing in America is that the military-industrial conglomerate is really controlling this country. And they keep pushing us from one war to another". When America is in war, they have to buy all these weapons and so the companies become very rich. In addition, the companies that produce weapons in USA are so rich that they pay to all the politicians. So the whole political establishment in the USA is controlled by this money. Eisenhower was not a journalist like you, and he was not a Syrian guy who doesn't like USA like me. He was not a poet. He was World War II general and he was a republican, right-wing American politician, but he told the truth. The US in reality is not a democracy. It is ruled by the powerful special interest groups that control the money. And this establishment is even more entrenched now, more powerful and more deeply rooted. They completely control the political system in the USA. - How do you estimate the involvement of other participants of the political process in Syria? For example the UN, Russia and China? - Well, we must make a distinction between the UN, Russia and China. They are not in the same category and they are not the same. Russia is providing an incredible and astounding assistance and help to Syria. The Syrian people now are very grateful to Russia. They feel that Russia had made a historic service to the Syrian people. We will never forget this in the future. We will never forget that Russia stood with us in our most difficult moment. So, when you talk about Russian involvement in Syria, for us it is very different. And, to be fair, Russia helped us during our most dangerous existential crisis. - What about China? - If you come to China, China is a friendly country. China has took a very positive political position towards Syria and the Syrian crisis. China has condemned the trilateral aggression against Syria. China is providing humanitarian assistance to the Syrian people and providing a lot of technical and financial assistance to the government of Syria. China is a very good friend and we are very grateful to China. Of course, we hope that China could take positions similar to Russia. However, we respect their position and we are happy with it. - What do you think about the UN involvement in the Syrian crisis? - The UN is a different story. The UN is an organization that represents the powers that are there. And most of those powers are either western countries or countries controlled by the West. So to be honest with you, even if our friends from Russia or China do not like what we say, we do not trust to the UN. We do not trust it. The UN Security Council agreed to the invasion of Iraq by the US. This was a historic crime. Therefore, what respect do we have to the UN? We do not have any respect to it. Our friends here in China and in Russia tell us that we should not say this. Nevertheless, we do not respect the UN. It is controlled by many players, but in the end the master of puppets who pulls all the strings in the UN is the USA. - But Syrian government is not opposing of the UN investigation in Douma? - No, of course not, but please, we only ask them to provide an unbiased objective investigation. You know what the previous UN investigation team did last time? They sent their investigators to Turkey. The "White Helmets" brought there tens of false witnesses people and they swore that the Syrian government used chemical weapons against them. Of course, there are opposition people in Syria who want to accuse the Syrian government. And the last UN mechanism, which was dismantled, agreed with their testimonies. We told them that they should visit the sites, but they never visited them. That is why a real investigation should be made. You cannot depend on witnesses provided by the White Helmets. They did not listen to us. Actually when they went to Damascus they said, that we are right. They said that they could not find any proof, that Syrian government was involved in chemical attacks. However, when they went back to New York they changed their reports. Moreover, they only used the testimonies, which were provided to them by White Helmets in Turkey. So, how can we trust such an investigation? We can trust it if it were objective, neutral and professional. It is against their interests to have a transparent, neutral and objective investigation. As far as the USA is concerned. The big proof to what that they have just rushed the attack even before the investigation in Douma had started. - Why do you think that the UN is not effective in the peace process and the investigation? - It is because the majority of players within the UN have their alliances with the Western powers. Therefore, they always deviate the UN from its Charter to serve the interests of the Western powers. - On what stage do you think is counter-terrorism operation in Syria is now? How far are we from peace process, from the reconstruction of Syria? - It is three different subjects. Let us talk about each one by itself. We cannot put them in one basket. First, Syria is 100% committed to fight every terrorist group. We will never compromise with terrorists groups. Some of them of course are supported and funded by Saudi Arabia. Some of them are supported by Qatar. Others are funded by France, Britain, USA. And there is a large number of terrorists groups which are supported and armed by Turkey. So these are the major supporters of the terrorist groups in Syria: Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, France, Great Britain and the US. Each one of them has its own terrorist groups. Moreover, sometimes these terrorists groups fight with each other. Sometimes they fight against the Syrian government, but other times they just kill each other. It is true. If you can read Arabic and go to their Facebook sites you can read what they tell about the fighting between themselves. They are fighting not only against us. They are warlords. Their true doctrine and ideology is money. It depends on who is paying them. However, this is not important. Our commitment to fight them is absolute. With the help of Russia we did achieve a great success particularly against ISIL or Daesh. However, we, in Syria, do not make any distinction between ISIL and other groups. What is the distinction between ISIL and the "Army of Islam" that was just kicked out from Douma? They are also extremely radical, extremely strict in their interpretation of the Islamic laws. They get their money from the Saudi Arabia and they follow Wahhabi model of Islam. Which is not the model accepted by the majority of the Muslim people across the world. Therefore, we do not make any distinction. All of those groups are terrorist groups and we are committed to fight them. However, any group that is willing to lay down their arms and accept to go back and resume normal life under the normal civil law of the Syrian state and government can get a presidential pardon, a grace that will allow them to resume the normal life, provided that they lay down arms. And provided that they have not committed atrocious and bloody crimes. Therefore, the door is open to any individual to reintegrate with the Syrian state. As you know with the help of Russia, many of these groups have already done this. - Are they willing to do so? - Many of them did. Others refused and they are still fighting us. However, there is no option for us. We will keep fighting them until either they are completely and totally eradicated or they reintegrate themselves with the Syrian state and surrender their arms. Regarding the political process, it is on one hand easy and on the other hand very difficult. Syria and our friends - Russia, China and Iran - are completely committed to a political process that will lead to a solution of the Syrian crisis. We have no objection at all. We are willing to engage in a political way with any Syrian political faction loyal or opposition. All of them are welcomed. That was the easy part of your question. - What is about the difficult one? - The difficult part is that the Western powers and oil-rich countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar, who supported the armed groups who are actually conducting violence in Syria, completely and totally refuse to engage in the political process. What they really want is to replace the Syrian government with a government made by them. Therefore, we are going back to the six players who are arming and financing these groups and who tell them what to do and what not to do. What to accept and what to reject. So how can you make a peace process with these groups? You cannot. However, if you are an ordinary Syrian citizen who is in opposition, who has political views different from my political views for example, you are absolutely welcomed to engage in a dialogue with the government which may lead to national unity government opened to different schools of thought and different streams of the political thinking. We have no objection to it and we believe that it is the way forward. - We have not talked about Israel. How do you estimate its role in the conflict? - Israel played a very negative and distractive role during this crisis not only by directly attacking Syria including last week, but also by taking advantage of the fact that Syrian military is busy with fighting more than 120,000 terrorists. Many of them are from outside of Syria. They took advantage of it. Moreover, and this is also very dangerous, control of some certain parts of Syria, border areas close to Israel was taken by the terrorist groups. And if the Syrian army approaches them to try to liberate this areas and kick them out of it the Israel supports them and bombard the Syrian army. So, they don't only take advantage of Syrian crisis, but also give protection to these terrorists groups particularly in the southern part of Syria. One of these groups is al-Nusra Front that is really Al-Qaida, which is listed by even the UN as a terrorist group, but Israel doesn't care. As far as Israel is concerned, they are fighting against the Syrian government so they are good people. - Can you tell us a few words about the role of Iran in the Syrian crisis settlement? - Iran was also very supportive towards Syria and we are also very grateful to Iran. And we believe that both Russia and Iran have played a crucial role in helping Syria to withstand a massive attack by three major powers. - Who are these powers? - These major powers are the following. First, is the extremely corrupt oil-rich Arab countries. They have a huge amount of money that they have spent to fuel the Syrian crisis. You need to know that the money they spent on their terrorist groups is many times more than the budget of the Syrian government. They have very large dispensable wealth, a lot of money that they can throw it around without any accountability. The second major power is extreme, radical ideology. We have seen it in Iraq, in Afghanistan and all over the world. This kind of ideology is a very powerful ideology. It attracts Jihadi people from across the world to Syria. This is why at one point we have ended up in Syria fighting with people from Chechnya, Xinjiang, Europe, America, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Tunisia etc. It is amazing. And the Western media call it the Syrian Civil War. A Civil War with 70,000 Jihadi people from all over the world. Do you understand? So, you have one group with a huge amount of money. The second group with radical extremists and fundamental interpretation of Islam. And the third power of course is the powerful Western countries who have their diplomatic and media arms. In addition, they control the United Nations and other International forums. All three groups together attacked my small country. To be honest with you, the help of such friendly countries as Russia and Iran was crucial for us. By the way, all of the three groups had one objective: to attack Syria, but they had different designs for Syria. As I usually say, they are like a three people sleeping in the same bed but they have different dreams. The Western powers want to have the Syrian government as one of their stooges, one of the countries that will have to listen to their instructions and orders. A so-called Western style democratic system. The oil-rich Arab countries want to have Syria as a Lebanon. As a country which they have a total control of. So, if they are unhappy with the Lebanon government, they can call the prime minister and put him in a jail in Saudi Arabia because they have lots of money. And the radical Islam wants to establish an Islamic, Wahhabi state in Syria. So all three groups have one objective, which is attacking us, but they have different designs for Syria. - What about reconstruction of Syria? When this process will start? - We are not waiting for the whole crisis in Syria to end to start reconstruction. Every town and village we liberate, get back and regain control of will be immediately engaged in reconstruction. We do not wait. I will tell you something. Do you remember the images of Aleppo a year and a half ago? All this distractions especially in the old town of Aleppo. This week one of the largest festivals to celebrate the National Day of Syria was held in Aleppo. I was watching it on the TV, in live streaming, and I was amazed. Old town of the Aleppo and the ancient castle were completely refurbished and redecorated. There were nice lights everywhere, songs, music. People in the tens of thousands were celebrating, living their normal lives. Nobody now can imagine the monstrosity and the destruction left by the terrorist groups. They caused a lot of harm to the Syrian cities and people. And they were supported by the Western countries. They were described as freedom fighters but they were real criminals and terrorists who made life miserable for all the people not only for the government. And the images on nowadays Aleppo were striking. It was beautiful. It was a real carnival. As I told you, women, children and man, everyone was celebrating in the castle of Aleppo. What I am trying to tell you is this. Wherever we go, even the countryside of Damascus - Ghouta, which was liberated by our troops recently, we bring reconstruction with us. The government of Syria has already appropriated funds for reconstruction. We cannot wait for the rest of the world to come and say: "OK, now after we have destroyed Syria maybe we will help you a little bit to rebuild it". We do not care for the Western powers. If our friends want to help us and we need their help, they are more than welcomed. However, even if they were not ready for immediate help, that's not a problem. However, we start immediately by ourselves. We are not waiting. Therefore, my answer to you is that reconstruction of Syria has already started. However, the task is enormous and we do need the support of our friends. Nevertheless, we will never accept the support and assistance of those who helped to destroy Syria. They are not welcomed. - Can you name any sides with whom you had any consultations about the reconstruction? Who is interested in reconstruction in Syria and in investing in infrastructure building projects? - Well, many big Chinese companies and state owned enterprises have already visited us here in the embassy and expressed their interests. Of course, they are waiting for the military operations to calm down. They expressed their interests very clearly. Other friendly countries like India, Russia, Belarus, even Brazil companies expressed very strong desire to come to Syria and work there to start major reconstruction projects. Although I said that we are not waiting and have already started, but they prefer to come once most of the regions are stabilized. Which is understandable. We have no problems with this. - As I understand, you cannot provide us with the names of the companies? - The reason I would not give you the names of the companies is the following. The US Treasury Department is looking under the microscope for them. They will immediately put under sanctions each company which will say that it wants to take part in the reconstruction process. As I told you before, those people have criminal mentality. I do not make any distinction between the administration of the USA and the leadership of the ISIL. They are the same guys with the different appearance and clothes but the same mentality. - Can you tell us more about the major projects of the reconstruction? - I will tell you the categories. The major projects, which Syria need now, are in the sector of power generation. The criminal armed groups during the past 7 years targeted particularly the power supplies and generation units. That is why Syria today has a very serious need for power generation projects. It is the first priority. The second one is housing units. Many Syrian cities were destroyed and major reconstruction of housing units is needed. The Chinese are particularly skilled in this area and we have already discussed it with many Chinese companies who are specialized in building housing units. And the third is major infrastructure projects such as bridges, highways, airports, seaports and etc. However, for us it is the third priority. The main priorities are the first two and specially the power generation stations. - How the Syrian government does invites the other parties to take part in the reconstruction process in Syria? - We are inviting every party, which took a fair and an objective position on Syria during the crisis and did not support criminal groups. We invite them to come and engage with us in the reconstruction process. We are not asking for assistance and charity. We are asking for a partnership based on the mutual benefits, a win-win partnership. We invite companies to come and invest in Syria. We believe that they will have good returns for their investments and they will help Syria to reconstruct. As I said, the desire and the will of the Syrian people to live is much stronger than the desires of the forces of darkness to destroy our country. During the past years the Syrian government despite all the difficulties kept on opening universities and hospitals, we kept providing free art, music, cultural and sports education to the children of Syria. Life continued as normal as possible wherever the government of Syria was in control However, in the same time the western media have glamorized the life in the areas, which were controlled by the terrorist groups. They said that they are fighters for freedom and democracy. In fact, these terrorist groups imposed strict Islam and Sharia law in many areas. They just closed the schools in many of them, so the children could not go to school anymore. And this was the middle-ages model which the Western countries have supported. Yes, they want freedom. They want the freedom not to send their children to schools. They want the freedom to put their women inside the house and never allow them to go out. This is how they are thinking about the freedom. Nevertheless, the Western media have not told the true story - Can you tell us a few words about how is Syria engaging in the China's "One belt, one road" initiative? - Of course, Syria historically was one of integral parts of the ancient Silk Road and when China launched its "One belt, one road" initiative we considered ourselves as a part of it. We had discussions with the Chinese government on all the aspects of the cooperation within the framework of this initiative. We believe that the vision of China towards the rest of the Asian continent and the rest of the World, in comparison with the vision of the western powers, has a very positive dimension. They provide you with aid and assistance without any political strings. - What do you mean? - For example, you can go to the World Bank and tell them that you want to build a dam on the river. I do not have enough money, can you lend me some money to build the dam? They say yes, but first we need to check all your economy, financial and monetary policies. And they also say that you should amend some laws in Syria or another country. And you need to do this and you need to do that. Afterwards they tell you that the value of your national currency is not right: you need to increase it or reduce it. They immediately start with a very long list of conditions. And they also tell you that they have a code of best practices and this is what your government should do to take the money from it. It is amazing because is the real system of how they control the other countries and how they use their financial muscles. China does not do this. You go to China and tell them: I want to build a dam on this river. I need a loan. And they discuss it with you based on the merits of the project. And if the project is okay they give you the money. They never go to other areas of your country, its economy and policy. In contrast the World Bank tries to tell you what you should do. Even in the education sector, they tell you that you cannot teach this or that in your schools and so on. (Russian News Agency)
Subject: Fatalities; Schools; Military air strikes; International law
Location: China Russia United States--US Syria France United Kingdom--UK
Company / organization: Name: International Bank for Reconstruction & Development--World Bank; NAICS: 928120
Publication title: Asia News Monitor; Bangk ok
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Apr 25, 2018
Section: General News
Publisher: Thai News Service Group
Place of publication: Bangkok
Country of publication: Thailand, Bangkok
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--Philippines, General Interest Periodicals--Vietnam, General Interest Periodicals--Thailand
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2029522125
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2029522125?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Thai News Service Group Apr 25, 2018
Last updated: 2018-04-24
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 222 of 474
Accenture PLC Investor and Analyst Conference - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]25 Apr 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Presentation UNIDENTIFIED PARTICIPANT: Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Accenture Managing Director, Head of Investor Relations, Angie Park. ANGIE PARK: Good morning. I'm Angie Park, Managing Director, Head of Investor Relations, and it is my pleasure to welcome all of you in the room, as well as those that are joining us via audiocast. The theme of today's conference is innovating in "the New". We have an excellent program lined up for you this morning, and I'm pleased to say that we have a number of our leaders here to share that story with you. Let me remind you of some of the matters we will discuss in today's conference, including our business outlook, are forward-looking, and as such are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, those factors set forth in our risk factors heading in our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and other documents filed and furnished to the Security and Exchange Commission. These risks and uncertainties may cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied during our presentation, and are not a guarantee of our actual results. As always, Accenture assumes no obligation to update any statements made in these presentations. I'd also like to remind you that we will not be providing you with an update for or making any comments related to our third quarter fiscal 2018. Also note, during the presentation today, we will reference certain non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe provide useful information for our investors and our analysts. You will be able to find materials from today's session, including a reconciliation to non-GAAP to GAAP measures, posted to the Investor Relations section of our website. So once again, thank you for being here. And it is now my pleasure to introduce our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Pierre Nanterme. PIERRE NANTERME, CHAIRMAN & CEO, ACCENTURE PLC: Thank you, Angie, and good morning, everyone. Needless to say that I am just delighted to be here with all of you and to have the opportunity, again, to meet with you more personally and to have the dialogue. To be honest, speaking from my heart, I've missed you a lot these last few months, and it's just a pleasure to be here. Delighted to welcome you to our Investor and Analyst Conference, I mean many of you mentioned that we didn't have one last year, and it's been now, probably, a couple of years. But as we said, it's good to have an analyst -- Investor and Analyst Conference when you have something to say and something to share. And I really hope and expect that you will see, with all the presentation, that indeed, we continue to change a lot this organization, and we have a lot to share with you, which I expect you will find relevant and interesting. It's absolutely fantastic to have so many of you with us today in New York, but I want as well to welcome those of you who are joining with audiocast, so you will be able to participate as well to this event. I'm going to start with sharing with you a dilemma I had a few days ago. To be totally transparent and honest, I was part of the French delegation with the President Macron, to meet with your President, Donald Trump. So I had a very perceived complex choice. Should I be in Washington, with President Trump and President Macron? Or should I be in New York with all of you? It has taken probably 2 seconds to solve the problem, and I'm just delighted to be in New York with you today and sharing what I'm absolutely passionate about, the strategy of Accenture and what it is we are doing to make this company leading in "the New" and leading in the marketplace. Moving to the agenda, our theme today is innovating in "the New", and I'm pleased to be joined by several members of the Accenture leadership who will bring this to life to you, and I'm sure they're going to be very passionate, convincing. They can drive massive energy because I know that they love their job. And they're always trying to do their best to serve for Accenture as well as for Vivo clients. Talking about innovation, I mean the name of the game today is clearly about innovation. And this morning, we're going to provide an update on how we apply innovation at an amazing scale across industries and across the world, as well as anticipate the next wave of technology disruption. So now let me start with the strategy we have been executing successfully for now about 5 years since 2013, a strategy we called Ambition 2020 at that time. At the time when we were starting the effort, we recognized that the technology revolution was starting to disrupt and transform companies and untie industries globally. And so we decided to take bold, strategic actions to drive our differentiation, not only to better serve our clients, but as also to meet our objective of growth in a new digital world. Today, simply said, our strategy has 3 key building blocks. First, and very important, is our end-to-end business architecture relying around distinct and highly-focused businesses, which you know now very well, Accenture Strategy, Accenture Consulting, Accenture Digital, Accenture Security, Accenture Technology, and Accenture Operations. We are competing at scale in each of these businesses and they are global leaders in their own right. From shaping strategy for the C-suite, to delivering cutting edge and leading-edge solution, to running operation on behalf of our clients. Only Accenture today has the full range of capabilities in an industry context to integrate and deliver end-to-end services and commit to a tangible business outcome for our clients. And this is why we build this pretty unique and powerful business architecture. Second, is our very rapid and successful rotation to "the New". Our definition of "the New" is very clear, it's all about digital, cloud and security-related services. Our growth in "the New" has truly been amazing. Just 3 years ago, in fiscal year '15, revenues from "the New" were $10 billion. This year, there will be well over $20 billion, approximately 60% of total revenue. Needless to say, that we've been rotating at an amazing speed, but as well as an amazing scale. Today we are market leader in digital, cloud and security, and the only provider operating at scale again, end-to-end in "the New", from creating digital experiences with Accenture Interactive, you will be -- hear more about this later, to mining data to create new business models with Accenture Applied Intelligence; to reinventing manufacturing through industry, Accenture Industry X.0, we launched recently, and we will present today; to building the most effective cloud solutions, and to create cyber trust through Accenture Security. Kelly Bissell will present later on this Accenture Security, and needless to say, that in the current context, creating trust in the digital environment has become a very important agenda for the society. With these broad capabilities, Accenture is uniquely positioned to support our clients in their digital transformation journey. The third building block of our strategy is innovation, which increasingly is at the heart of everything we do, every day, at Accenture. We're creating quite a unique innovation architecture, which does integrate our capabilities across research, ventures, labs and studios to pioneer new ways of collaborating with clients, co-creation, if you will, to develop and deliver disruptive innovations. And through our global network of now more than 100 world-class innovation centers around the world, we work side-by-side with our clients, with startups as well as with universities, every day, to co-create the innovative, digital solution of tomorrow. This is a very powerful approach, and we will, again, elaborate on this, this morning. So in areas like blockchain, extended reality, and quantum computing, we are already investing and executing on what we are calling the next new technologies. And you will see how we operate, in our core in what we're calling "the New", we scale rapidly, and we already anticipate what we're calling "the New" new or "the Next" new. Quite simply, our innovation architecture makes us extremely relevant to clients and position us to anticipate and capture future waves of growth to stay ahead of the curve in "the New", which is very important for us because when all these waves are coming at speed to you, it's very important you're taking the position of the market leader. You anticipate and you move ahead of the competition. In addition to the investments we have made to be innovation-led, I just mentioned, we have accelerated our strategy and strengthened our differentiation but stepping up our investment in strategic acquisition, we talked a lot about it; in building assets and solution, NIP, and in hiring and developing the most relevant talent. In the last 5 years, we have deployed $5 billion in about 90 strategic acquisitions. The majority of them in "the New", of course. And for Accenture, and this is from (inaudible), acquisitions are an engine to drive organic growth by adding key capabilities that enhance our differentiation in the marketplace. We also invest about $700 million a year in research and development, and Paul Daugherty later will mention always leveraging these investments to anticipate "the New" new. Our intellectual property is an important asset that drives differentiation and value, and we now have more than 6,000 patents and patent-pending applications in areas like Artificial Intelligence, cybersecurity, drones, virtual agents, Internet of Things, and other platforms. As a professional services company, our people ultimately make the difference in our success. And I'm particularly proud of the quality and depths of our leadership across our 7,000 managing directors. And in fiscal year '17, we made significant investment to even further strengthens our bench, promoting or hiring nearly 1,000 new managing directors with highly differentiated skills and expertise, especially in "the New". At the same time, to ensure that all of our people remain relevant, we invested more than $900 million a year on learning and professional development, including [super] central investment in reskilling. Again, this is something we will elaborate on later in the presentation. And I feel very privileged to lead our company of now 442,000 talented people working in 53 countries around the world, and I want to take this opportunity to thank each of them for bringing their unique knowledge, dedication, passion and energy to our clients and our business each and every day. We also elaborate our unique role in the technology ecosystem, to bring the best solutions to clients. Accenture is the largest independent technology services provider and the leading partner of all key players. And we work hard, very hard to continually strengthen those partnerships. Over the last 2 years, we have expanded our relationship with all of our largest ecosystem partners including Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Salesforce and SAP. In addition, we found a new partnership with Apple, including a dedicated iOS practice to drive innovative business solutions. So we have the right strategy of leading and innovating in "the New", delivering end-to-end services, supported by our investments and ecosystem partnerships. The final ingredient is our ability to deploy our services at scale in the most attractive industries and geographic markets around the world. With our broad capabilities and deep industry expertise across our 13 specialized industry group, we are well-positioned to operate at the core of our clients' businesses to deliver the most complex, mission-critical transformation program. Accenture, of course, has a large global footprint but yet, we have a particular focus on growing our largest markets. I'm thinking about the United States, the U.K., Japan, Italy, Germany, France, Australia, Spain and Brazil, which account for about 80% of total revenue. And I'm absolutely delighted to report to you this morning, that in every one of these countries, we have grown revenues in local currency at a double-digit or high single-digit compound annual rate for the last 3 fiscal years. And I'm especially pleased that Accenture is now the market leader in Europe as well as in the United States, and we are rapidly gaining market share in the growth market. So at the end of the day, our goal is to better serve our clients and the true test of the success of our strategy is the long and enduring client relationship we have built. Indeed, 98 of our 100 largest clients have been with us for at least 10 years. It's all about trust and confidence. And today, we are proud to work with more than 3/4 of the Fortune Global 500, including 95 of the top 100. But the best evidence of our relevance, differentiation and competitiveness, is our growing roster of Diamond clients. Our largest relationships with many of the world's most iconic brands. We keep adding more and more big clients. And now, we have a record 175 Diamonds compared with 138 4 years ago. And I would like, again, to take the opportunity to thank all of our clients for the trust and the confidence they have put in Accenture over the years. So in closing, we clearly have the right strategy and we have executed very well. In my country we would say we have executed reasonably well. And here in the U.S., and I can claim we have probably executed extremely well. We have achieved a dramatic transformation of our business, while consistently meeting our financial objectives, including delivering very substantial returns to our shareholders, David will comment on this, about our performance. But for the last 4 fiscal years, we have grown revenues significantly faster than the market, gaining market share, delivering strong earnings per share and free cash flow, and return $16 billion in cash to our shareholders. And as you listen, and you will listen to our leaders today, I know you will feel our commitment and passion for continuing to execute our strategy to serve our clients even better, and ultimately, to continue to deliver growth and value for our shareholders. So now, let me introduce my friend, partner, and colleague, Omar Abbosh, our Chief Strategy Officer. This gentleman is driving all the investments that keep us relevant and differentiated in the marketplace. So over to you, Omar. OMAR ABBOSH, CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER, ACCENTURE PLC: Thanks, Pierre. Thank you, Pierre, and good morning everyone. As Pierre said, I'm Accenture's Chief Strategy Officer, and in that role, responsible for Accenture's strategy and executing to make it happen through driving all our investments to differentiate Accenture in the marketplace. I've been in this role now for just over 3 years, and with a mandate -- a specific mandate from Pierre to help establish our leadership in "the New", and I'll get into that. And we do that through specific growth strategies in each of the units of our business and aligning our investments to those growth strategies. My growth and strategy team has members in each of our operating groups and each of our business units, and we work together to make sure, first and foremost, that we understand the trends in our clients' industry so we understand the sources of disruption and change, in those client industries. Secondly, I work very closely with Paul Daugherty, our Chief Technology and Innovation Officer, and you will hear from Paul later as well, to understand the technology trends and the emerging patterns. And in combination with the industry trends, start to form a view about what the real market growth opportunities are for Accenture in the new areas that we want to pursue. And then, finally, we align our organic and inorganic investments against those growth areas to drive our ultimate business results. So on leadership in "the New". We believe you know very well what we mean when we say "the New". And as Pierre just said, we're very pleased with our rotation to date, expecting more than $20 billion in revenues in fiscal '18 in "the New", representing approximately 60% of our total net revenues. So those capabilities are interactive, mobility, analytics, cloud and security. You're familiar with those. But what we learned is as we scale an area, "the New" itself evolves as well. So for example, in mobility, as app mobility became pervasive across all the technology work that we do in all of Accenture, we dove deeper into the Internet of Things part of mobility, combined it with product design with connected platforms, and have come up with a new business unit that we called Industry X.0 that Mike will talk about, that is all about digital in the industrial space, serving industrial clients with all the possibilities that digital brings. Similarly, analytics. We built it to scale on data, data science and algorithms. So evolving that capability to include new capabilities around machine learning and deep learning, helping our clients transform their business models with Artificial Intelligence in what we called applied intelligence, is just our next logical extension. So in future, when we discuss "the New", you can expect to hear us talk about interactive, Industry X.0, applied intelligence, cloud and security. So what do I mean by establishing leadership? I mean Pierre touched on this. First and foremost, there's 3 things. Relevance -- client relevance, how can we ensure that we're super relevant in these high-growth areas for our clients? And we achieve this through a very deep industry and technology domain knowledge that we bring through our strategy, consulting and digital teams. Secondly, it means major differentiation versus our competitors. And we do that through our innovation strength, by investment agenda and our ecosystem partnerships and relationships. And thirdly, it means scale, leading at scale. We want to be #1 in each of the domains that we choose as a priority growth area and we want to be able to have talented scale, we want to be able to deploy that best talent globally at scale, and then, the combination of the client relevance, the differentiation in the scale makes us incredibly competitive and allows us to compete very well in the markets that we choose so that we can lead. Underpinning all of this is our investments, and Pierre asked me to elaborate a little bit more on our investment approach for us today. So our overall capital allocation approach is super disciplined, very focused on maximizing value for our shareholders, and a key element of which is the investment strategy we put together for our organic and inorganic investments. So as mentioned, I focused on managing our investments, firstly, by working with our operating group chiefs on what we see the dynamics are in the industries, and then, with Paul and others on the technology patterns and emerging trends. And that helps us select the areas we want to invest in. But our investment strategy in targeting these new capabilities, we're constantly thinking about how do we build the capabilities and deepen industry domain experience, and manage the right balance across the geographic mix of our portfolio. So with inorganic investments, which I think you know we use as a trigger to stimulate organic growth in new areas, the way origination works, when we're looking for targets and deals to make, is we try really hard to work with targets ahead of time, in our client organizations testing the hypothesis that combining their capabilities and ours, is indeed valuable for customers. We also spend an inordinate amount of time to create real alignment with the founders and the key employees around the vision and the growth plans, and it's only when we're convinced about the market relevance of the combination and the alignment of the leadership, that we then proceed into our disciplined process around transacting and the whole approach led by our capital committee. This means of course that I work very closely with David, David Rowland, our CFO, on the deployment of our investment capital against our strategic priorities. And we focus on the business case of each and every target to ensure that we really believe that the economics are accretive to Accenture, that there's a strong cultural fit, and that we have a very strong operating approach, or how the thing will work in the market. Once the deal is done, our integration approach, again, is very, very disciplined. We think of it in 2 parts. The back-office part, again, is super detailed, and we can bring a company onto the Accenture platform in a matter of weeks if that's the right thing to do. Our primary focus, however, is on what we call the front office alignment. How will the go-to-market work? How will the services and products of the combination evolve for our clients over time? And how will we, most importantly of all, manage the energy, the vision, the motivation of the founders, and the key employees in the combination? So in the 3 years after a deal is consummated, we have what we call our look-back process, where we go -- where we ask the deal-sponsoring team to come back to the capital committee on a periodic basis, where we review our performance overall against the original economics of the business case, on cultural fit and on retention rates. So we're constantly trying very hard to learn the lessons and learn the best practices of what really works with all of the deals that we do over time, and bring that back into our investment process. And what we find is that this discipline holds us all to account, not just the deal teams themselves, but also all of us on the capital committee who are responsible for making the calls about whether or not we proceed on something. And that discipline keeps us grounded and honest. As you can imagine, this process that I'm describing to you is continual, it's dynamic. We're not sort of defining a multiyear plan, and then following it out that way. We're constantly adjusting to patterns and moves in the market, and rapidly rethinking about how we need to position Accenture. So for example, Brian will talk about Accenture Interactive, but if we go back in time, our initial acquisitions of Accenture Interactive were around eCommerce, Digital Marketing and content management. What we've evolved over time to say is, okay, experience is really important, and so design is important. So we do deals around companies like Fjord, Karmarama, and Rothco. Or product design with MATTER or immersive reality, new ways of visualization with Mackevision. Similarly, in the analytic space. Initially, we may have purchased companies with design tools like i4C, but then we go deeper in data science with OPS Rules, and Gapso. And then, with a wider spectrum of analytic and search technologies with Tecnilógica and Search Technologies. So as Pierre mentioned, over the last 5 years, we've completed 90 acquisitions, 9-0, 90 acquisitions, and deployed about $5 billion of capital in our priority areas. And this combination of very discrete growth plans in each of our areas, combined with a strong investment agenda, is indeed what is heavily behind Accenture's recent performance, and it fuels our organic growth. So on the organic side, we invest a lot organically as well, in our people, our tell and our offerings. So in fiscal '17 we invested $700 million in R&D and we invested $900 million on talent and professional development. We're investing in thought leadership, in new offerings and solutions for our customers, across our industry, technology, and functional practices. We invest in proprietary technology platforms and tools such as myWizard, that Bhaskar will talk about in the technology space. And all of this helps us drive efficiencies in our technology and operations businesses, using automation and AI. So you can be sure that each move that we make, we take our learnings and we keep bringing them back into our entire investment and strategy formulation process to make sure that Accenture, as we scale "the New", are constantly looking to evolve and think about what comes next, and "The Next" new, and Paul will describe this later. So I'm really pleased today to be joined by 3 of our awesome leaders, 3 of my friends, who will talk to you about their businesses and how they're driving each of them to become number #1 in their areas, and put color on what we mean about scaling and leading in "the New". So first there's Brian. Brian Whipple runs Accenture Interactive. He's been instrumental in taking this thing from inception through a massive growth phase that has made it a super successful digital agency, experienced agency that Brian will describe. I remember, when I very first met Brian, I thought to myself, "Okay. So this guy has ditched his suit." I think he was in a baseball cap in our meeting, and I knew that he was yanking us into the modern era and things were going to be different. So over to you, Brian. BRIAN WHIPPLE: All right. Thanks, Omar. Thanks. Thanks, Omar, and thank you, Pierre. I'm thrilled to be here for a few minutes to talk to you about Accenture Interactive. It's been a privilege to run that, on behalf of Accenture, for the last 7 or 8 years. I think I've been here around that long. I'll get right to it. So some of you, or probably most of you, are somewhat familiar with Accenture Interactive at this point, but there have been a number of things that have happened in the last, really, the last I would say, 2 to 3 years that have dramatically changed our landscape and given birth to such a massive opportunity. And I want to talk to you just a little bit about what those are. First of all, in terms of what a -- from a digital consumer, what the experience is and what their expectations are for a company to deliver to them. It used to be that, say, if you were a retail bank, that you would want to know what the next retail bank is doing and one up them. Or what this other financial institution is doing. That's not the case at all right now. What a retail bank wants to know is something like, how do I create an efficient, seamless experience, like Uber? Or like PayPal? Or like Amazon? So these innovations in broader industry regarding a consumer's relationship with the brand have permeated everywhere. So consumer expectations are very different. That's the first thing. The second thing that the convergence of marketing and technology has been massive and great, but it is also tremendously complicated. Many of you have probably seen [lunarscape] like charts of all the different players, whether it be online advertising, or eCommerce, or personalization, or a campaign. It is massively confusing for our clients, which of course, creates great opportunities for folks like us to help them. Thirdly, and if you remember one thing about what's different, this is what I would suggest. It used to be that brands are built through essentially push advertising. Advertising was created to create an emotive message that would resonate with someone to receive that message and over time, if that message was delivered consistently and numerically enough times, that, that message would be received. That's really much less the case today. And instead what's happened is that, brands are built through an amalgamation of where customers experience all those touch points, whether it be a website, a mobile app, an in-store experience, including television, radio and other traditional advertising vehicles. But it's an amalgamation of those touch points now. It's the holistic experience with a particular brand and the question of, is that brand true to what they say? That is now what is defining a brand. So these 3 things have given birth to this phenomena in the market and have changed very much what the overall opportunity is in CMO and broader marketing landscape, and that has given Genesis to what Accenture Interactive is focusing on now and has focused on in the last couple of years. We are essentially an experience agency. What does that mean? It means, yes, we focus on creative and have some of the best creative minds in the world, but you're also a very strong business consultancy, and also a technology powerhouse. It is the combination of those 3 things that creates the experienced agency that is addressing today's CMO market. This has borne significant fruit for Accenture Interactive. Some of you I've seen years ago at this conference, and we've grown up. It's a big play now. Yes, we are ranked as leaders in digital experiences in leading reports such as Gartner, Forrester and the like. We have creative awards now. Whether it be Cannes Lions or [Epi's] and things like that, if you're familiar with such things. We have that. We of course have top industry relationships with the top partners, whether that be Adobe, or Salesforce, or SAP Hybris, or IBM Watson, customer engagement. We are always at the top of those relationships from their perspective, and they are key to our growth as well. But it's not just that, as you probably know, we've been ranked in Ad Age for the last 2 years as the largest and fastest growing digital agency in the world. We now are more than 25,000 people strong in Accenture, delivering Accenture Interactive work around the globe. And in FY '17, we did about $6.5 billion in revenue for our clients. That represents a 35% year-over-year growth number over the year before and I think most of you have seen that is fairly consistent with the years before. So this is -- we're very pleased to take advantage of this market opportunity, and it's really because of that phenomenon of change in the marketplace that I described. So how are we different? Well, let me tell you a little bit about that. First of all, we are not -- we do not enter a client relationship to integrate a specific marketing technology or a cost takeout or a process redesign. We do not enter there. We enter by defining the experience. We are experience-led. So we have very large practices in commerce, in content, in design, and in marketing processes and campaigns. And they are successful in their own right. However, it is the tying of them together, in inventing what a new experience can be for our clients' customers that really defines us. We lead with what should the new experience be to research and buy a car, to try on clothes, to pursue a financial product for the purchase of a home, things like that. We start there and start initially technology agnostic and correspond our direction with what the client needs actually are. That's one. It's very different from other players. Secondly, and this is a huge point, we do this on the shoulders of Accenture. This is incredibly significant in that it could mean logistical things, like expanding in new markets in terms of real estate, in terms of legal arrangements with foreign governments, easier -- think about it, easier to start businesses in places like that because of the Accenture footprint. But most of all, it's really the stuff Pierre talked about, it's that Accenture is already a trusted business adviser for many of the top companies in the world. So bringing in something that may have been new to that client 4 or 5 years ago such as Accenture Interactive, we are already trusted by their executive suite, and that, frankly, makes my job a little bit easier. So being on the shoulders of Accenture is a critical thing for us. Third, point of differentiations. I talked about designing these experiences for our clients, and you know that we build and architect these experiences, which can be global and can be very complicated. But we are also in the business of running and managing these experiences for clients. And that is a significant point of differentiation for Accenture Interactive. So as you know we've, in some respects, raided the market of talent, and many -- I'm lucky to have many top talented executives come to Accenture Interactive over the last couple of years. So recently Nikki Mendonça has come to us, and she's going to tell you on video a little bit about the managing and the run component of these customer experiences. So we could roll the video, please. (presentation) BRIAN WHIPPLE: Well, thank you to Nikki for that. So she gave you a little flavor there for our perspective on actually managing these customer experiences intelligently, for our clients. So thank you, Nikki, for that. Many of you are familiar with many of the acquisitions that Omar and Pierre referred to briefly. And clearly, Accenture Interactive has been active in that space. I want to make it clear that in our -- from our perspective, we do not acquire any company for the purposes of adding revenue. That has never been, nor will ever be the case, and is not in our strategic road map to do so. We make acquisitions to spur organic growth, clearly, and there are really only 2 circumstances in which we do this; number one, we need to add a new capability; or and sometimes they're both, number two, we need to scale an existing capability, but perhaps in a new geography. And I can look at all these acquisitions, some 15 or so in the last maybe 3 years order of magnitude that we've done, and they all fit into, basically, the first bucket or the second bucket. And then, the idea is to grow them organically integrated with the rest of Accenture Interactive. We are one Accenture Interactive around the globe, one global team. An example of this would be when we bought Fjord about 5 years ago, our design company. They had about, in 2013, about [9 studios, approximately 200] (corrected by company after the call) designers.. Well, today we are more than 1,000 designers strong in 27 studios around the globe, and they do great service design work and are often the tip of the spear for other work in Accenture Interactive, and really work throughout Accenture. And that's an example of how we've grown that organically, and that's been a very successful play for us here at Accenture Interactive. So it's been a very successful few years, I believe we are very strongly positioned. Accenture Interactive is actively involved with 3/4 of the current Fortune 100, in terms of those client relationships. We have things like the experience agency for Maserati. That's fun. We do -- we are the experience agency for the Vatican, Ministry of Communications. Also fun, in a different way. And then with things like the innovation partner for Disney StudioLAB. So I'm very fortunate that we have great people from around the globe working at Accenture Interactive on these types of things, on the shoulders of Accenture, and it's been an awesome ride. Back to you, Omar. OMAR ABBOSH: Thanks, Brian. Thank you, Brian. As you see, Accenture Interactive is so successful, we have wonderful leaders like Brian. Let me bring up our next one. So Narendra Mulani runs Accenture Applied Intelligence, and this guy typically raises the IQ in any room by a few points whenever he walks in. So over to you, Narendra. NARENDRA MULANI: Thank you, Omar. I'm sure there are no lack of high IQ and EQ folks in this room today. So it's great to be here. As Omar said, I'm Narendra Mulani, the Chief Analytics Officer for Accenture. While Accenture Applied Intelligence is new, it's really been a natural evolution of the business I've helped shape since 2012. So let me start by talking a little bit about our scale, our capabilities and some of the recognition we have in the market. Accenture's deep understanding of industries and functions, when combined with data analytics and now Artificial Intelligence, has created a really unique business opportunity for us. It's fueling the experiences that Brian just talked about, and it's helping us work with our clients to reimagine many of the core processes that drive their businesses today. We call this business Applied Intelligence, and what fuels it really is the fact that we have 19,500 people focused on Applied Intelligence today, including 6,000 of them that are really deep in artificial intelligence technologies and data science, and the talent mix goes across our mix, which is consulting, engineering, data science. And we've been able to attract many PhDs and researchers to leverage our IP, which today consists of about 900 patents in the place, and which has helped us build 250 apps and solutions that I'll talk about shortly. We've been recognized, really, over the last couple of years as a market leader in this space by the industry analyst community, by Gartner and others, for our completeness of vision as well as the differentiation that we have been able to bring with scale in data and analytics. So you've all heard the hype around Artificial Intelligence, but what we see when we engage with our clients is a real hunger to apply these new capabilities, to be more competitive, either to open new markets, create new revenue streams or build new business models, and do all this with scale across the globe. So I'm going to bring this to life by bucketing it in 3 big areas and giving you some client examples. The first area, of course, is deeper insights, to drive and define new strategies. You're all aware of how competitive the retail marketplace is today, and in this very competitive environment, we're helping retailers understand what drives traffic to their various channels, whether it's the store, online or mobile. And the way we do this is by integrating today dozens of internal and external data sources, whether it's SKU data, geolocation data, web browsing data, et cetera, to be able to leverage machine learning to truly understand what's driving the patterns of traffic and help our clients and define strategies that will allow them to attract traffic in an extremely targeted manner. The second area is to create more effective and targeted outcomes for our clients. So today, the ability to understand individual preferences and behaviors is allowing businesses to move from looking at markets of millions, to looking at a million market of one, right? To be able to get to the real individual or the patient. And this opportunity for us crosses across health care, retail, banking and many other consumer-facing businesses. For example, our data science team helped an online insurance client reduce churn and improve profitable growth by building an algorithm that predicted the customer lifetime value of all their current clients as well as every potential client in their target market. After figuring out the customer lifetime value, we matched each customer with the right promotion and the right offer to attract the customer as well as drive profitable growth. The final, but probably the largest area, is going to be providing process efficiencies at scale through Artificial Intelligence. And this is best brought to life by one of my favorite examples, which is where we implemented an intelligent anti-money laundering and know your customer solution that leverages a combination of technologies, which is what applied intelligence is about: robotic process automation, Artificial Intelligence and analytics as a service, to help this bank increase compliance while reducing operating costs. And it helped, fundamentally, in 2 ways. It reduced costs. We took out $230 million of cost over a couple of years. But most importantly, reduced the false positives by about 60%, which really reduces human intervention, scales the process, makes it more reliable. And we really helped the bank hit both their cost structure as well as improved compliance globally for them. So with these examples, I want to talk about what makes us different and how we built our strategy, and we built it on 3 planks: solutions, talent and platforms. As I said before, we really understand the application -- where the application of AI can make a difference, and we've built intelligent -- what we call intelligent industry and functional solutions partnering with our OGs, our operating groups, as well as industries, and figure that out. And what we've done is build a set of cloud-based apps, algorithms and data models that all come together, say in health care or in retail, and we call this our intelligent industry solutions. They essentially embed our IP and allow us to focus on accelerating client value. The second, and the one I'm most proud of is our talent. Today we have over 3,000 data scientists that are deeply versed and constantly updating their skills in machine learning and AI, and most importantly, they are organized by global centers of excellence in major application areas across our functions and industries. And finally, we have invested in what we call the Accenture Insights Platform, which is a cloud-based platform that embeds our IP in those apps and intelligent solutions. Now what the platform essentially does is it takes care of the heavy lifting. Data injection, clean -- making sure the data is in the right way, applying machine learning, creating the visualization, creating workflows for apps et cetera, so we can get to client outcomes faster, and we can accelerate. AIP is our acceleration engine. And allows us to scale, as you can imagine. So we take all this, and just as Brian pointed out, we scale through Accenture's industry and geographic footprint. We have these intelligent solutions and apps. We've organized our talent with our 5 operating groups, and we have applied intelligence teams today in 34 countries. I believe we are unique in our depth and scale that creates value for our clients. And frankly, there's no better way to bring this to life than to hear from our Chief Data Scientist, Dr. Athina Kanioura, who's going to roll on the video. (presentation) NARENDRA MULANI: So I think Athina does a great job of bringing to life how we bring platforms, our industry and depth of knowledge, and most importantly, the talent that she stands for, to bring this to life and build the new business called Accenture Applied Intelligence. So thank you, Omar. Back to you. OMAR ABBOSH: Thanks, Narendra. Thank you. So it doesn't take tons of imagination to see that bringing the power of data analytics and AI into our clients to help them apply intelligence to transform all their business processes is a massive market opportunity for us. So next up, and last and certainly not least, is Kelly Bissell. It's been a very big pleasure for me, personally, to work with Kelly on helping build up our Accenture Security business. Kelly is highly knowledgeable, highly regarded in the industry itself, but more than that, Kelly is someone who cares passionately about really helping clients take on and solve cybersecurity risks. In other words, he's genuinely making a difference in helping the way the world works and lives. Kelly, over to you. KELLY BISSELL, MD OF ACCENTURE SECURITY, ACCENTURE PLC: Thanks, Omar. Thank you. Well, a little bit more than 2 years ago, we made security a strategic priority for the firm. And I'll tell you, this is why. As we help our clients move to that digital economy, it comes with those, those innovations. What comes with it is risk, in a different way. So as companies move from maybe one business model that's a broadcast sub-function and they move to interactive, it brings those technology risks. So let's fast-forward 2 years to today. We are more -- fast approaching $2 billion in revenue for security. And that's really incredible in that short amount of time. Not only that, we have more than 5,800 highly trained security practitioners that really help our clients be safe and secure. And we offer the full spectrum of security services. And underpinning all that, we're growing more than 3x the market for security. And how are we growing so fast? How are we doing this? Well, we did a little novel approach of listening to clients, understanding their problems. And here's what it is. They're really tired of buying off-the-shelf products from vendors, having to cobble together multiple solutions that don't really interact. And then really put Band-Aid solutions on it. So that's in even today's environment, much less helping them move to "the New". So we -- what we've done is we've come together and built really 3 areas of focus to help us -- help our clients. First thing, so we've disrupted the market by being global scale. We're not really a silo, we're not really an insular group, but really embedded in everything you've heard previously, with Brian's team, we get to leverage the great thinking of Narendra's team. And then we really work as 1 unified team. And that's very different from other providers in the marketplace, whether it be audit groups or boutiques that are local. And not only do we offer -- work on a global scale, but we industrialize this problem. So as our clients have a normal or a common 55 sort of different toolsets that they have to put together, we built a platform. We pulled the key vendors in the marketplace, integrated these things together, sprinkled some really important data analytics and machine learning around it from Narendra's team, and really, sort of, solving the problem better than their clients could ever do before. So that industrialization and global scale is super important. And the second thing. Not every industry is the same. The risks associated with each of these industry is different. So here's what we've done. We've divided by industry that aligns for the rest of Accenture. So let me give you 2 examples of -- that will make this make sense. If you look at oil and gas company, we have to really understand what happens not at just that corporate office, but what happens at the wellhead, the refinery plant, the trading system of energy and power and all the way to the gas pump. And if you're a pharmaceutical company, the risks are totally different. It is joint ventures, drug research, clinical trials, manufacturing, distribution, all the way to the consumer. So what we do in security is look at the entire value chain of the business. Makes sense, right? And then to understand the vulnerabilities associated with each step of the way. Now that's why industry really is important. And let me give you an example, a client example of how this works. So as we help clients transform to "the New", we -- well, I'll give you an example of the BBC, old broadcast business, and they moved to an interactive business. But with that, again, comes challenges. So we build in, not only all the interactive business that Brian's team and support talked through, but how do we make it safe? How do we make it secure? So this is where we get to be able to enable tens of millions of concurrent users signing on securely. We get to be able to really protect the client from all these attacks that might occur. And really keep the profile of the individual user safe. Their preferences, their credit card data. So this is how we enable the business to transform themselves into a new age. For me, it's pretty exciting as a security professional. So that's the second thing is industry. The third thing is around collective intelligence. So it's not just the team, the 5,000-some-odd security professionals working together. We don't stop there. We also team within our industry to build the next generation. So we have 5 labs around the world: we have Washington, D.C., Tel Aviv, Prague, Dublin and India. And this helps us really focus on various problems that we're going to solve, not Band-Aid, but truly solve in the marketplace for our clients. We also team with our integration partners, our vendor partners to create the next generation of security tools that actually work well and better. But again, we don't stop there. We also team with security-fault leaders around the world, our clients, academics and others to create a forum to talk through the big problems that we have. And then how do we, Accenture, take these and innovate solutions that don't just solve one client, but markets of clients. That's what we're here for. So it's pretty exciting that we get to be part of this solution and leverage the great power of Accenture. I think Brian said on the shoulders of Accenture. So this actually makes us different in the marketplace. So that CEOs, our clients, can have confidence that as we move -- help them move to "the New", we do it safely and securely. So thank you, Omar. Thanks. OMAR ABBOSH: Thank you. So there you have it. With Brian, Narendra and Kelly, we looked at 3 discrete growth strategies and how we line up investments against them to help us scale "the New". And that's hopefully putting a bit of color onto some of the comments that we made earlier. I hinted at the beginning that Paul Daugherty, our CTIO, is my blood brother in Accenture. And this guy and I, we're looking to try and understand the future of technology and what it means for Accenture. And for example, in a space like Artificial Intelligence, Paul wrote the book. And when I say, he wrote the book, I mean, he actually wrote the book. And hopefully, you all have a copy of that now. So Paul, why don't you come on up here? This -- when Pierre talks about Accenture bringing BizTech to help our clients, Paul brings the tech to my Biz, so 2 sides of the same coin. Over to you, Paul. PAUL DAUGHERTY, CHIEF TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION OFFICER, ACCENTURE PLC: Thanks, Omar. It's good to follow my virtual twin, Omar, and talk about what's coming next. That was really a great story and you can see from what Omar and the team talked about they were clearly in a strong position to scale "the New". And I'm really excited to spend a little bit of time with you talking about what's next, what's coming, and what "the Next" new looks like, and I'll do that with the help from a few friends. My role as Chief Technology and Innovation Officer is to look over the horizon and look for the technologies that are going to make a difference in the future and to predict the future better and faster than anyone else can, especially our competition. And I'm responsible -- in doing that, I'm responsible for directing our technology strategy, drive our technology R&D, managing our ecosystem of technology partners and then incubating the businesses that represent the new ways of growth that we expect to see in the marketplace. So that's what I do. And if you step back though and think about it, I'd ask you to think about one thing that really you have to keep in mind when you think about "the Next" new. And that's the fact that we're in a very different time right now. And there is no finish line for innovation. Innovation is the new normal. We live in an amazing time, marked by exponential, combinatorial advances in technology, creating magical new possibilities and the pace of change is accelerating. That's the world we live in. What does it mean for business? What does it mean for our business? It means that you can't just innovate once and get it right. As Pierre said earlier, you can't be a fast follower, that strategy won't work. In our business, what we believe you need to do is you need to embed innovation in the culture and capability of how we operate so that we lead in "the New", we invent the future and that's really what we're setting out to do at Accenture. And we do this at scale, support -- given that we're Accenture, we need to do this at scale. And you heard from Omar and Pierre what that means to do it at scale. So when you think about innovation "the Next" new, $700 million invested each year in research and development, that's scale. A massive innovation portfolio represented by over 6,000 patents and patents-pending, that's real innovation at scale. So how do you innovate at that scale? And how do you do that? And I just want to walk you through how we think about it a little bit. First, innovation may seem like magic, right? You see this innovation, it seems magical. But the process that you use to do it can't be magic, it can't be a mystery and it can't be ad-hoc. You need a systematic way to drive innovation, and that's what we've done at Accenture and the way we've engrained and embedded innovation into our business. And the way we think about it, the way I think about it, I'm an engineer, so I think about formulas. And I've got 3 parts to the formula, which may not surprise you if you follow Accenture. We have 3. Now we've got 3 parts of the formula that really allow us to innovate in the way that I'm describing and really always anticipate "the Next" new. The first part of the formula is the vision that we have. We have a vision of the future, we see where it's going, and we know where technology's headed. That's best represented in our Accenture Technology Vision that many of you get every year and we distribute widely to our clients. We also use that to predict the future for ourselves. Our vision predicts and anticipates the future of business and technology and where it's going. And we're widely recognized for both the foresight and the accuracy of the vision. And this is what helps us anticipate "the Next" new in our business. So that's Part 1. Part 2 of our formula is an industrialized approach to innovation through our innovation architecture, that Pierre talked a bit about earlier. And let me elaborate on this because I think it's really important to have a better understanding of the innovation architecture. It's unique. Others don't do this and it's really hard for others to build this type of capability. Our innovation architecture starts with Accenture Research, a team of over 250 researchers, top researchers in the industry, driving groundbreaking innovative thought leadership that makes a difference. An example of that is what Omar talked about, the book that we published recently, called Human + Machine, Reimagining Work in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. Representing work from Narendra's team as well as our Accenture researchers. A best seller in Artificial Intelligence, positioning Accenture as the thought leader and shaper of AI, as it applies to business. That's an example of Accenture Research thought leadership. We've Accenture Ventures, which is our vehicle for harnessing all the emerging innovation that's out there in the ecosystem. We track and have relationships with over 3,000 startups that we can curate and deliver the innovation -- deliver that innovation to our clients. We selectively invest strategically in some of those companies where we see an opportunity to accelerate our advantage in delivering innovation to the marketplace. We have 7 Accenture Labs around the world in all the innovation hotspots; Silicon Valley; Arlington, Virginia; Sophia Antipolis in France; Dublin; Bangalore; Beijing, all the innovation hotspots. And we've got a team of researchers that does applied research, and they're recognized as the leaders and luminaries in fields ranging from cybersecurity and virtual reality to AI and robotics. And that's what our labs does. Then we have the studios which -- Accenture Studios, which Pierre mentioned earlier. We work together with clients over 50 studios that we have. We come together with clients to co-innovate and co-create and build with agility and speed. So a client will come in with an idea to our studio on a Monday, work with our team and walk out days later with a minimum viable product. That's co-creation, co-innovation at speed through our studios. And finally, we have the network of over 100 innovation centers, a unique network that allows us to bring all that innovation together, [cultivate] with clients and really do it at our client's doorsteps. So that's the innovation architecture, which was Part 2. Part 3 of the innovation formula, it's important to understand, is the ecosystem. We have the most powerful ecosystem in our sector, and we know how to use it for our competitive advantage and for differentiation. We're the leader and the #1 provider for SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, Salesforce, Workday, IBM for the big platform companies. Google, Amazon, the emerging leaders and Unicorns, Splunk, [Doctor], Pivotal, who just did their IPO Friday. Accenture is the leader with all those. But it's not enough for us. And I'm not satisfied that we're #1. That's not enough and that's not what matters. What matters is being better and faster in "the New" and "the Next" new to innovate with each one of those partners. And that's what we do in the ecosystem with a unique formula we have and the relationships that we have, the earlier insights into where they're going and the -- an accelerated R&D that we do together with these partners to accelerate that innovation. And we put that all together into commercial constructs that are unique to Accenture that are very, very hard for our competitors to match. Think about Avanade, which is a joint venture with Microsoft, that's by far, far and away, the leader in Microsoft services for the enterprise in "the New" and "the Next" new. It's a unique JV with Microsoft. Or think about our Amazon Web services -- or Accenture Amazon Web Services business group. A joint initiative, joint investment with Amazon, the #1 services provider for services on the Amazon platform to enterprise clients. That's differentiated, commercial value and innovation for our clients. So those are the 3 parts of the formula. We've got the vision, we see where it's going. We've got the industrialized innovation architecture, we can make it happen. And we've got the ecosystem, so we can access innovation from everywhere. So if you step back and think about what that means, just to bring it home. The way I think about Accenture and the way I think we -- you also think about Accenture is we are the platform, the best platform for accessing the innovation, the best innovation across the tech sector. We're a platform, the best platform for enterprise tech innovation. There's no place better you can go to access the full range of everything innovative that's happening across the ecosystem, combined with deep industry insight that only Accenture can bring, combined with our own applied innovation and some of the things you've already heard about or will hear about through the rest of the day. That's what Accenture is, the platform for driving innovation at scale, faster, more effectively driving value better for our clients. So if you now want to dive into some more details. When we think about "the Next" new, we've got a lot of things that we're working on, ranging from advanced software engineering all the way through quantum computing. So I can talk about a lot of things, but really signal out 2 areas to highlight today with some friends that will join me. And the 2 areas are "the Next" new that we're going to talk about, our Industry X.0 and blockchain. So we'll start with Industry X.0, and I'll welcome up my friend and Mr. Digital is what we know him as, Mr. Digital, Mike Sutcliff, who's the shaper, leader and Chief Executive of Accenture Digital. And Mike will talk to us about Industry X.0. What it means for "the Next" new and how we're positioning. So... MICHAEL R. SUTCLIFF, GROUP CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF ACCENTURE DIGITAL, ACCENTURE PLC: Thanks, Paul, appreciate it very much. PAUL DAUGHERTY: Over to you. MICHAEL R. SUTCLIFF: So we formed Accenture Digital to find these new opportunities for Accenture and scale them. And you heard Brian and Narendra talk about some of the progress we've made with Accenture Interactive and our applied intelligence group. Now we're going to talk a little bit about the next part that we're focused on, Industry X.0. We think it's an exciting opportunity to grow for the future. Industry X.0 can broadly be defined as the application of digital tools, and we've got a wide range of digital tools, to the areas of production, manufacturing, operations and the next generation of product development. We think it's an exciting opportunity because it applies across industries, across industry boundaries around the world, different markets, different geographies. They're all struggling to see this collision of information and operations technology coming together and how it's going to allow them to anticipate new ways to create experiences for their clients, using products and value-added services around them. It's an important topic for our clients. They spend a lot of money developing new products, but the product life cycles are being compressed. Their long-held assumptions on how manufacturing and supply chain should operate globally are being disrupted as the manufacturing and the information technologies collide. And consumers have come to expect that the products will be smart. They'll be able to tune to the behaviors and the preferences of those individuals over time. So as you can imagine, our clients have some tough issues to face as they think about what the future might look like. So asking us to help in 5 ways. First of all, they're asking for us to help them design products and services which allow them to create personalized experiences. It impacts how the products are designed, how they're used and how companies gather information about those products and redesign the next generation over time. We've got an innovation that we're going to illustrate today with Faurecia which is focused on imagining what the cockpit of the future looks like in an autonomous vehicle, and how that might change in the future. You'll hear a little bit more about that in a couple of moments. Secondly, clients are asking us to help them create smart connected products and the value-added services around those products that complement them. Some products are, in fact, already emerging to be sold as services. And that creates a huge challenge from any of our industrial clients because now they need to form closer bonds with the end consumer, and they need to understand the entire product life cycle from initial requirements through service delivery and continuous monitoring, how those behavioral characteristics are changing and consumer expectations are changing, and how they adapt the product over time, sometimes with just software updates. A great example is how we're partnering with Schneider Electric at the moment to create a digital services factory that will build and scale new services in the areas of predictive maintenance, asset monitoring and energy optimization. And that complements their physical products. By combining real-time analytics and a connected technology IoT platform, we're helping them anticipate what the customer needs might be, and we're reducing the time to launch new digital services by about 80%. Third, we're having clients who're asking us to help design intelligent and adaptive production and operations capabilities. Our clients can create new efficiencies by creating new connections between humans, machines and systems in their production environments. In fact, we can use digital twins of products and simulations of manufacturing in operations environments and we can couple that with virtual or augmented reality to find and fix problems before a single atom is actually moved physically. We can apply Artificial Intelligence at a scale that humans cannot process to optimize manufacturing in real time. These capabilities can generate substantial reductions in costs for our clients and allow them to be highly flexible and adaptive as the demands of the market continue to change. The clients are also asking us to help them with workforce transformation. They're asking how we can help humans focus on the things that they are uniquely skilled to do. Paul's book talks about how humans and machines can come together. Employees in manufacturing and operations can be enabled in real time with Artificial Intelligence systems that are designed to support their decisions. And they can use conversational interfaces such as Alexa and Siri to initiate actions, and they can apply extended reality technologies to change what they see and how they work. A powerful example of this is the work that we've done with a small group at Airbus that is in the seat cabin installation process where they've improved productivity by about 500%. What we did is we created a digitally enabled industrial grade smart glass solution for those workers that uses contextual marketing instructions to help them place where the cabin floor needs to have holes drilled into and so that the seats can be installed exactly correctly. And that reduced the error rate in that process to zero and allowed them to do it incredibly quickly compared to the old processes. And finally, clients are asking us for help in creating open ecosystem of partners. Just like we think it's important for Accenture to have a powerful ecosystem, many of our clients are finding that the old days of closed proprietary manufacturing systems have fallen to the wayside. They need to have open, multi-partner systems that are collaborative. And we're helping them do that. We've got a big opportunity to develop new solutions for Industry X.0 working with those ecosystem partners. Paul mentioned that our innovation architecture produces predictable results as we partner with others in the ecosystem, and we're doing that with Dassault Systèmes, with GE, with Siemens, Schneider Electric, SAP, Microsoft, PTC and many others. As you can imagine, it's a slight extension of our footprint as we're working with many of those industrial partners, but we're finding that there's lots of room for improvement and we're making real progress on a rapid time line. In addition to working with those ecosystem partners, we are using ventures and acquisitions as a way to grow this business. We've previously acquired PLM and engineering capabilities such as PCO and PRION. We've done industrial and embedded software capabilities like with the evopro group. And more recently, we've announced the acquisition of Mackevision, which gives us a digital twin and visualization capabilities. And we've made a minority investment in Upskill to help us improve the experience of workers in an Industry X.0 environment. Our clients appreciate the opportunity to see this in action. So we've created Industry X.0 innovation centers where we can bring this to life in 24 different innovation centers around the world. For example, we have a center in -- focused on industrial IoT in Garching, Germany. We're now replicating that in Detroit for our U.S. business. We've got our latest connected factory, which is in Modena, the heart of the Italian motor industry, where we're demonstrating 3D printing in a real operational factory environment. And we're currently expanding our network with centers in Tokyo, Shanghai and Shenzhen to help support the growth in our Asia business. Our confidence that Accenture can be a major player in this Industry X.0 space is based on the client and industry analyst feedback. The recent reports ranked Accenture as a clear leader in Industry 4.0 and in IoT solutions in the European market. In fact, we were ranked best-in-class in 4 out of 5 reports across connected products, digital factory, smart energy, smart retail and smart transport. This is a great opportunity. We see tremendous growth in front, but we know we still have lots to do. We wanted to highlight a client example, so we've asked Mary Hamilton to take you through the work with Faurecia as they're imagining what the future might look like for one of their connected products. Let's roll the video. (presentation) MICHAEL R. SUTCLIFF: So as you can see from Mary's video, we've got a tremendous start. It always helps to get Pierre involved with clients. He's a great guy to get out there in the middle of the action. We're excited about this business. We think we've got great capabilities, a great start, a great future ahead of us, and we're looking forward to it. So back over to you, Paul. PAUL DAUGHERTY: Thanks, Mike. That's a really great story from Mike, and you heard from Mary as well. And I think it's evidence of that formula that I talked about earlier. As you hear from Mike, we're shaping the market, the Industry X.0 market. We've already established a leadership position, and we're well positioned with the foundation to scale our business as the market grows, so really a great story and a great example of the Next New. Now let's move on and talk about another area of the Next New that's also very important, which is blockchain, and we'll move into the blockchain market. I'd like to invite up a couple of our other leaders to join me on stage here. We're fortunate to have 2 recognized innovators and leaders in the blockchain community here at Accenture and here with us today. Let me just tell you a little bit about the 2 of them. Melanie Cutlan leads our blockchain operations. What I love about Melanie is she's not just great at talking about blockchain. Lots of people out there are talking about blockchain. Melanie really knows how to make blockchain work, and that's really important. Melanie is innovating new ways to implement and operate blockchain systems at scale, which is what's going to be important and what is important in the marketplace. And we also have David Treat joining us. David is the leader of our global blockchain business, and he's been at the heart of the blockchain ecosystem since the very start. He's the founder of -- founder and cofounder of a number of the important blockchain consortium organizations. And we're going to hear the story of blockchain from the 2 of them today. So why don't you join me on stage, Melanie and David. Thanks, Melanie. Thanks, David. So take it away, Melanie, and tell us about blockchain. MELANIE CUTLAN: All right. Thank you, Paul. And as he said, I am immersed in blockchain day in and day out. And my role is to help our clients understand how blockchain will change their business models, how it will help them plan for and manage the transformations that they need to undertake. I'll start by talking about blockchain and what it is. But first, let me just clarify, we're not talking about cryptocurrencies, but the underlying technology itself, which is blockchain. And blockchain is more generally known as the distributive ledger technology. It is a profoundly disruptive technology, and it's the foundation on which the next generation of business applications will be built. At its most basic level, blockchain is a new database architecture. It maintains and records data in a way that allows multiple stakeholders to confidently and securely share access to the same data and information. It massively simplifies today's complicated, costly and vulnerable systems. In 2018, blockchain is just beginning this pivot, moving from proof of concepts to early stages of production and client projects. And we at Accenture are ahead of the curve and well positioned to take even more than our share of growth as the market matures. Like the Internet, blockchain will reshape businesses and likely disrupt entire industries as it takes hold. Today, blockchain is roughly where the Internet was in the mid-1990s. It's difficult to estimate an early-stage market like blockchain, but our best view is that the services market is growing a CAGR of over 71% and will reach $11 billion by 2022. And these estimates are continually revised upwards, so you get a sense of the growth in the market. Blockchain will add powerful new capabilities to nearly every industry, from financial services, to health, to transportation and logistics and beyond. It will make things like managing our health and well-being easier across payers and providers. Blockchain will add greater transparency, efficiency and auditability across supply chain ecosystems. So that's what blockchain is. So how is Accenture going to win in the market? Well, we have 3 things, as you'd expect, where we think we're differentiated in the market and uniquely positioned to lead in blockchain. First, we're shaping the market. We've been involved as blockchain since the beginning, and we're continuously introducing new innovations that are shaping this market. Using the innovation architecture that Paul talks about, we're creating and developing and scaling new innovations and inventions that will disrupt and define this market, including introducing 35 new patents in blockchain; and through our Accenture Ventures, placing early minority investments in emerging players, like Digital Asset and Ripple. Second, we are leveraging the independent technology and our leadership position in the ecosystem. We're the only ones with that independent perspective, the relationships and the scale to combine the latest thinking, the right technologies and the right partners to really develop cutting-edge solutions with our clients. Third, we have unparalleled industry expertise and a breadth of capabilities. Blockchain is about reinventing industries, and you need industry experience to do that. So we are the only ones that have that industry experience, the deep knowledge of our clients' businesses and the ability to manage blockchain operations. We're well positioned in this new and emerging area to establish a leadership position. And we're ready to bring the breadth and power of Accenture together for our clients to bring those end-to-end services that our clients need to implement blockchain across the entire enterprise. And that's required to unlock its full potential. And with that, we'll bring up David Treat to illustrate the work we're doing with our clients. DAVID TREAT: Thanks, Melanie. In my role in leading Accenture's blockchain business globally, I've been working with other innovators and leaders from the very beginning to shape this market. As Paul mentioned, one of our first steps was to set Accenture in the position of being a founding member of the Linux Hyperledger Project, and later, the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance as 2 of the key technical consortium driving blockchain technology forward. As Melanie mentioned -- talked about our innovations and our investments in this space. I want to talk about how now we're going to turn that innovation into results and revenue for Accenture. Let me start by saying, there's a ton of noise and hype in this space with daily press releases about what's going on. The opportunities for blockchain are vast. But in reality, we're just at the beginning of what will be a large scale transformation of how business ecosystems work, enabled by blockchain in combination with other technologies. I'm going to go back to 3. So we are strategically focused on 3 key areas where we see immediate opportunity and the most value in the near term. We're going to use these 3 areas as a stronghold from which then we're going to expand our business. So those 3 areas are financial services infrastructure, supply chain and identity. Let me walk through each one of those. So in financial services infrastructure, we're focused on capital markets, payments and insurance, where each day trillions of dollars worth of transactions take place across the globe. And while the products, the financial instruments, have gotten much more sophisticated, the way we settle them hasn't really changed. We still have to message information back and forth, reconcile and confirm to be able to complete any transaction. And it's that change that is so central to what blockchain is. A great example of this is work that we're doing with the Monetary Authority of Singapore and The Association of Banks in Singapore to help in their journey to modernize the Singapore financial center. Let's roll a quick video to see the opportunity here. (presentation) DAVID TREAT: This was an amazing experience and a great piece of work. One of the takeaways from it is that collaboration across an ecosystem including regulators, banks and other participants, is key to what blockchain is all about. And it's happening now. Our second area of focus is supply chain in all forms, physical and digital. We've made a recent announcement with AB InBev, Accenture and several other organizations a consortium that has successfully tested a blockchain prototype that could eliminate the need for printed shipping documents and save the freight and logistics industry hundreds of millions of dollars annually. Our third area of focus is digital identity. We are very proud to have been the founding member of a groundbreaking public-private partnership called ID2020. In this organization now with us are various United Nations NGOs as well as key partners like Microsoft, where we together are focused on how do we deliver effective digital identity to the more than 1 billion people in this world who don't have any and who are effectively, therefore, excluded from modern society. This will be a life-changing step forward. We're taking those capabilities and we're also applying it with our client base to focus on anti-money laundering, know your customer, GDPR right to be forgotten regulations and issues associated with identity theft, tax fraud and traditional client relationship management challenges. So in summary, we believe that we are very well positioned to capitalize on the Next New in blockchain. We're shaping the market. We're focused on key areas that will drive revenue. And most importantly, blockchain's all about what Accenture does best. It requires the combination of deep industry, technology and ecosystem capabilities to do it right. I have an amazing team. We're fired up to be the best in the Next New. Paul, back to you. PAUL DAUGHERTY: Fantastic. It's a great story. Thanks, David. So what you heard from David and Melanie, I think, is another great story. I mean, simply put, blockchain is the future of business and technology architecture. And you can see we're already there with the Next New today, shaping and leading in that market. And you got a glimpse of where that's going and why that's important in the future. Now I can stand up here and talk for a lot longer the rest of the day about all the other areas of Next New we're working on. But I'm going to get the hook soon, so I'll just wrap up and really give you a few points to summarize across everything that I just talked about and the team talked about here. The first is I'd ask you to take away this view that innovation is the new normal. There's no finish line. You can't be a fast follower. You have to continually innovate. That's the name of the game today in business. The second point is we've got a point of view, we've got a vision, we see the future -- we can see the future and we're anticipating the Next New and making the right bets and investments today. And the third point is we've got an industrialized view on innovation to how to make this real, which is very hard to replicate. We know how to turn ideas to innovation and turn research into revenues, which is, at the end of the day, what matters. So this is an exciting time. There's never been a more exciting time in technology with all the amazing possibilities. And if you look at Accenture and how we're positioned, we're in a fantastic position to continue to lead and capitalize on everything that's happening around the Next New. So that's the story on the Next New. Now what's -- the next thing that's important that we need to talk about is how do we deploy the New. How do we take all this and deploy it to our industries, leveraging industry -- leveraging technology and talents in our geographies and all the other parts of Accenture. So to take us into that next part of the agenda, I'm pleased to welcome my friend, Sander van't Noordende, who's going to join us, the Chief Executive of Products and also fellow New Yorker, although I'd say you have more of a New Amsterdam accent. ALEXANDER M. VAN'T NOORDENDE, GROUP CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF PRODUCTS, ACCENTURE PLC: Thank you. Thank you, very much, Paul. And Paul and I are buddies on the Avanade board, so we know each other very well. We get to spend a lot of time in Seattle. Let me get something out of the way first. I really had no dilemma being here today. First of all, I'm Dutch, so I was not even invited to the state dinner. Secondly, Pierre told me to be here. Thirdly, I live about 5 blocks away from here, so it was also clear from that perspective, I was not going to get away with a video. So now that I'm here, let's make the best of it. I mean, you've heard Omar and team talk about how we lead to scale -- how we invest to lead and scale in "the New". You've heard Paul and team talk about how we anticipate the Next New. Our role in Products, and I'm heading up Products, is to work with our clients to transform at scale, to deploy at scale all the good stuff that Accenture has to offer. And in Products, we look after 5 industries. We look after consumer goods, retail, travel, life sciences and industrial. And I must say at a $10 billion revenue is probably this year and the [more than 10%] (corrected by company after the call) CAGR over the past 4 years, it's been a pretty good ride. So some of you have asked me, "So Sander, what's the secret formula there? What are you guys doing?" And it's really actually quite straightforward what we're doing. Because first of all, we start with a clear vision inspired by Pierre and the strategy of Accenture. And that is we create "the New" with our clients and their customers in an increasingly digital world: Customers, be they consumers, shoppers, patients, travelers, drivers, all of them. And from there, then it's clear. If you want to create a new, you always have to lead with innovation. Lead with innovation and transform from there, again, at scale to have the maximum impact on our client's business. Then we have a relentless client focus. In Products today we have 46 Diamond clients, and each of those Diamond clients has a dedicated client account leader. And this is a very senior leader in Accenture who wakes up every morning just thinking about that client, about the client's industry, about the client's agenda, about how am I going to build relationships with the client and, of course, how am I or how are we, as Accenture, going to make sure the client is going to get the best of Accenture, again, for maximum impact at scale. Then third, we have to be relevant. We have to be super relevant, I would almost say. And in Products, it's really about 4 things these days. And the good thing about Products is that these 4 things, they work together in a very nice way. They reinforce each other. And the first one really is our clients want to engage, again, with their consumer, patient, shopper, traveler, in a more inspiring, digital, personalized way. And here, for instance, we're working with Carnival Cruises to create a totally new and different, frictionless and personalized client's experience onboard of their ships. Second, if our clients have physical products, they want to make those products smarter, they want to make those products connected and they want to sell them as a service, and they want to reduce their time to market. And as you've heard from Mike Sutcliff, that's what we call Industry X.0. Third, to afford investments in those 2 main areas, the consumer engagement and the product, they need the money. And the money is coming from running their business in the most efficient way possible. That is all about cost reduction, zero-based budgeting, it's about shared services in HR, procurement, finance. It's about supply chain optimization. And Campbell Soup is just one of the many companies that we have helped save hundreds of millions to either bring to the bottom line, that's generally what you guys like, but what we like is to reinvest in digital capabilities. And then last but not least, to enable all that, our clients need smart and agile technologies. And for us in Products, it's very much about the platforms, SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, Salesforce, sometimes in combination with more bespoke architectures, connecting to mega-platforms or industry platforms. For instance, with Roche, we're helping them to bring a totally new set of health -- digital health services to their diabetes patients, leveraging a platform that connects patients, nurses, doctors, clinics and hospitals. So in summary, a very clear vision; a relentless focus on industry and clients; and last but not least, I would say super, super relevance. That's the ingredients that we need to be successful. And there's no company, I would say, better positioned with those ingredients to be successful in the marketplace. But -- there's a but here, and you might think, well, what's the but? We, in Products, can only do this with the help of others. So that's why I'm pleased to introduce a few colleagues here on the stage, and let's start with Ellyn Shook, our Chief HR and Leadership Officer. She takes care of the diverse and deep talent that we have onboard, that they can be their best every day; Bhaskar Ghosh, who leads the most innovative tech organization in the world; and of course, Julie Sweet, our North American CEO, who brings it all together here in North America, which is our largest geographic market. Welcome. JULIE T. SPELLMAN SWEET, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF NORTH AMERICA, ACCENTURE PLC: Thank you, Sander. ALEXANDER M. VAN'T NOORDENDE: Bhaskar, let's start with you. BHASKAR GHOSH, GROUP CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF ACCENTURE TECHNOLOGY SERVICES, ACCENTURE PLC: Thank you, Sander. Let me start with I'm delighted to be here. I cannot say, like Sander, that I live 5 blocks away. I live in Bangalore, I have traveled 5,000 miles, so I have to be delighted. So our Technology business is on a transformation journey. Two years back, at the same gathering, we talked about our formidable delivery capability, powered by our global delivery network that spans across 50-plus delivery centers, servicing clients across 120 countries, with 200,000-plus highly skilled professionals. This capability was underpinned by skill, scale, depth and breadth of services, delivery quality and top talent. Now in last 2 years, we have further built on this, and transformed our global delivery center network for technologies, to advanced technology centers, where advanced stands for innovation, intelligence, industries, new IT and new technology skills. And my job is to lead and transform our Technology business, which includes Application Services and platforms. And we do that by continuously innovating the code and growing in "the New". So let me share some of my -- some of our priorities and focus areas. Number one, intelligent automation. We're extremely proud of our enterprise automation platform, myWizard. This cloud-based AI-powered platform is now implemented in more than 3,700 clients -- client engagements across the globe. This is driving phenomenal productivity, improving quality and delivering speed to market. The virtual project manager in this myWizard platform is now trained with 12,000 past projects of Accenture across all technologies. And this virtual project manager is now helping our human project manager, working with them side-by-side as a virtual coworker and helping them to take the better decisions every day. This is reducing cost, improving quality, increasing predictability and improving productivity. Number two, industry focus. We have around 150 studios and innovation hub, as Paul talked about in earlier. So we continuously co-innovate with our clients in these studios and create industry-leading technology solutions. We have recently opened a innovation hub in Bangalore, where we have 4,000-plus professionals who work across research, lab, studios and platform. And they continuously integrate "the New" technologies in -- across 40-plus industries, and create replicable industry-leading solutions. The next, I'll talk about our focus on new IT and new technology skills. We are ensuring that our 200,000 people are going to stay relevant, stay ahead of the curve and bring "the New" in the organization. We have anticipated the change and started our talent transformation journey underpinned by reskilling, new skilling and cross-skilling our people. We have built world-class digital learning platform and we have trained 165,000 people in the new technologies in just last 20 months. And Ellyn will talk more about our talent transformation strategy later. In the beginning of this fiscal, we have launched intelligent platform services to further accelerate our platform business, which includes primarily SAP, Oracle, Microsoft and Salesforce. Last few years, our growth is primarily driven by "New". And in the context of technology, it is mainly custom development of various types. And now, all the ERP platforms are rotating to "New". They are adopting digital, like Leonardo for SAP. And our intelligent platform services brings our innovation, intelligence and industry knowledge together and help client -- clients to adopt digital ERP. Our platform business, as I said, which is mainly SAP or our work related to SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, Salesforce and Workday, is around 40% of our revenue. And this business is growing double-digits. All the industry analysts recognize us clear leader in all of these platforms. But we are not standing still. We are aggressively investing in assets and talents related to platform, to extend our lead further in "the New". We are continuously co- innovating with our ecosystem partners and our client in "the New", in the technologies like Einstein for Salesforce or Leonardo for SAP. Just last week, we have launched a new platform, Accenture Intelligent Enterprise Platform, to help companies to use advanced technologies to fast-track their transformation. This end-to-end digital platform combines Accenture's industry knowledge, our technology and tools and SAP Model Company and creates new opportunity to drive transformation. At the closing, I feel absolutely confident that we are strongly positioned to lead in "the New" with the power of innovation, intelligence, industry, new IT and new technology skills. And as our numbers shows, we are continue to lead in all of the leading and emerging platforms in the coming days. Thank you. I will hand over to Ellyn Shook, my colleague and friend, and she will talk about talent-led innovation. Thank you, Ellyn. ELLYN J. SHOOK, CHIEF LEADERSHIP OFFICER & CHIEF HR OFFICER, ACCENTURE PLC: Thank you. You can guess how Bhaskar and I are probably very good friends and very connected at the hip. But as Chief Leadership & Human Resources Officer, I am accountable for discovering and hiring the best and most relevant talent in every dimension of our business. And believe it or not, I'm laser-focused on 3 priorities: building specialization of scale; attracting and growing the best leaders; and being the steward for a unique and differentiated culture of cultures. So how do we really build deep specialization at scale? Well, you heard from my colleagues this morning about all the different types of talents we need in "the New" and "the Next" new. That is why we are hiring 100,000 people around the globe this year. But it's also essential that our people remain relevant or super relevant, as Sander said. And to do that, we have an innovative learning approach called Accenture Connected Learning. We've completely abandoned the one-size-fits-all curriculum-driven learning and moved to learning of one. All of the content is enabled real-time and on-demand and available to all of our people. We have built it using the latest neuroscience research to enable exactly what Bhaskar was talking about: deep learning at massive scale. And let me just give you one stat, 50 million. In the past 20 months, our people have completed 50 million self-directed learning opportunities. And what I hope that demonstrates is not just access to world-class content, but the intellectual curiosity of our people in their quest to stay relevant to our clients. We also have a sophisticated career development approach called performance achievement. We provide all of our people real-time, on-demand feedback that helps them unlock their potential, but also build their deep specialization. Next is leadership, leading our 442,000 people. We have recently redefined our leadership DNA. And we use it to assess our leaders, but also to develop our leaders. We use it to guide our leadership appointments and create our succession plans. And we build the leadership DNA at all levels of Accenture, starting with the 7,000 managing directors. We've created immersive learning opportunities for them, to accelerate innovation and specialization at a rate faster than the world is changing around us. And in order to keep our leadership vibrant, we invest heavily in our pipelines, both internally and externally. And I am extraordinarily proud to say that we have promoted 700 managing directors this year, 32% are women. We've also hired 300 managing directors from outside of Accenture, further demonstrating our ability to attract top talent. But last, and perhaps most importantly, is culture. And over the past decade, we've transformed our business and our culture to be innovation-led. We have diverse talent profiles, diverse people and over 90 acquisitions that have formed our culture of cultures. And it is a true strategic differentiator for us. But you know what? It doesn't just happen. We've had to be extraordinarily intentional about creating the environment where our behaviors and beliefs, the way we grow responsible leaders and the way we do business every single day, comes to life. And it's rich and vibrant. But we also have common threads that unite us all. They are our enduring core values, our code of business ethics and our unwavering belief in inclusion and diversity. Because it is our diversity that makes us smarter and more innovative. And we've built our whole culture based on an aspiration to be the most truly human company in the digital age, to help our people be successful both professionally and personally. Because in the end, we are an innovation-led business and we must be the magnet for the best talent in order to live our purpose of improving the way the world works and lives. Thank you. And I will now hand it over to my colleague and my friend, Julie Sweet, Chief Executive of North America, who will take all of what you heard today and talk about how we bring it to life in a -- the geographic dimension of our market. Thank you, Julie, thanks. JULIE T. SPELLMAN SWEET: So there isn't a senior leader at Accenture who is not very closely connected to Ellyn because of the absolute critical importance of our people and our culture of cultures to our success. So we're very fortunate to have just an incredible leader. So as the CEO of North America, I lead our largest market, the U.S. and Canada, which drives nearly 50% of our global revenues. And together with my outstanding leadership team and our over 50,000 incredibly skilled and talented people, my job is to bring the best of Accenture across our businesses and industries to our clients every minute of every day. And our numbers clearly demonstrate that we are leading in one of the world's most competitive markets. Over the last 3 fiscal years, our compound annual growth rate has been 8%, growing faster than the market and taking share. We are ranked #1 overall in market share, and have been for the last 2 years. And we are leading in "the New". For example, Ad Age named Accenture Interactive the largest digital agency in the U.S. and the world. And according to our industry analysts, our clients believe that Accenture is the strongest firm to provide advice and strategy about the adoption of Artificial Intelligence and big data solutions. And to stay ahead of the market, we are investing to bring innovation to the doorsteps of our clients. We are building an innovation network across all the major markets in North America. Today, we have 7 innovation hubs, 9 Fjord design studios and 7 advanced technology centers. So let's take a closer look at our innovation hubs. Today, they are in Boston, Chicago, Columbus, Houston, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. By the end of the year, we will have opened in Atlanta, Detroit, that's the Industry X.0 center that Mike mentioned, and also Toronto. Each of these hubs is connected to the over 100 innovation locations around the globe. And this is how we seamlessly bring the best of our global investments and insights to our clients here on the ground in North America. These hubs also bring the industrialized approach to innovation that Paul described, with the specialized needs of the market. So in Houston, our hub is all about the resources industries and Industry X.0. In New York, it's customer experience across industries and the latest in financial services. And in Washington, D.C., we're immersing our clients in cyber defense and inventing the government of the future. So why is this network and our relentless focus on innovation so important? Well, as Paul said, innovation has no finish line. So what we're seeing in the market is that companies are looking for partners who can help them continuously innovate, and this means we must work with our clients differently and locally, whether in our hubs or their offices. So in Washington, D.C., last summer, working with Marriott and the startup incubator 1776, we created the Travel Experience Incubator, which issued a challenge to the startup community to co-create unique and inventive travel experiences with Marriott and Accenture. And just this week, Marriott announced a new pilot with them entering the home-sharing market with a startup who was identified out of the Travel Experience Incubator. And in Burbank, we're working with Walt Disney Studios, as the founding member and innovation partner to StudioLABs, a new R&D initiative and a physical lab on the lot of Disney Studios, to create the new movie experience -- the new experience of how movies are made and experienced in the future. Now let me close by going back to what Pierre said. The true test of our relevance, differentiation and competitiveness is our growing roster of Diamond clients. And in North America, over the last 3 fiscal years, we've gone from 66 Diamonds to 83 Diamonds. And they include some of the most important and leading companies in the world: Walt Disney, Marriott, and companies like Anthem, DowDuPont, Morgan Stanley and Pfizer. And our portfolio of Diamonds is balanced, with Diamonds in every one of our 13 industry groups. Now perhaps most important, however, with the increase in Diamonds, is that this represents that we are helping our clients succeed. And it is that success that is our motivation. So with that, I'll hand this over to Sander to land the plane. ALEXANDER M. VAN'T NOORDENDE: Thank you very much, Julie, and thank you very much all 3 of you. A wonderful job. I mean, I believe we've sort of given you some insights in how we deploy at scale in Accenture. First we have the operating groups, and it's good to see Bob Sell here, my CMT colleague, who have relentless industry and client focus and whose role it is to bring the best of Accenture to our clients day in, day out. But as I said, in the operating groups, we would be nowhere if we wouldn't have the help of a few friends. Delivery at scale, of course, Bhaskar and the technology organization, but also Debbie with operations; Mike Sutcliff with the digital organization; and Kelly with security, we bring those guys in to deliver at scale. Of course, Ellyn and her organization to make sure we have the right people on board in the right -- the right diversity, deeply skilled, but maybe most importantly, in an environment, helping us to create an environment in which all those people can bring their best to work every day, day in, day out, to have maximum impact on our clients. And then last but not least, of course, Julie and the other geographic leaders in Accenture, who play a pivotal role in terms of connecting to the local markets and in terms of bringing the best of Accenture to the local market for maximum relevance again and impact at scale in the local and the local market. So thank you again, team. And Pierre, I think it's back to you. PIERRE NANTERME: Very well done. My friend, Sander. All right, I guess we have time for a few questions I think. I hope you enjoyed hearing from the leadership team what's going on at Accenture, how we are executing our strategy, leading in "the New", innovating in what's going to come next, and how we deploy across our industries and our different geographies. And how we're bringing as well our talent to the top level. I was very impressed, I mean, personally, with the -- I'm always impressed with our leadership. I'm going to give you the latest anecdote, because I just received a few minutes ago something very special, so I'm going to share with all of you, privately. Don't tell anyone outside this group. But yesterday, Julie represented us and Accenture at the state dinner at the White House, where Donald Trump welcomed Emmanuel Macron, our French President, and she met with, I think, the Ministry of Education as well with our President. I just received an SMS saying, "It was sad you were not with us, but we were so pleased to meet with your fantastic North America lead." So I guess now they prefer Julie than me. I don't know how exactly I need to take that. But I mean, this is another illustration of the role of Accenture being embedded in a community, just to be serious again. It is something we didn't, I mean, really cover today, but we have a profound impact in our business communities, being part of the fabric of many geographies, but as well, all what we are doing through our corporate citizenship group supporting our communities in many, many activities. So let's open for a few questions. Let's start. Yes? You will have a mic. Questions and Answers DAVID MARK TOGUT, SENIOR MD, HEAD OF PAYMENTS, PROCESSORS & IT SERVICES RESEARCH AND FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCH ANALYST, EVERCORE ISI, RESEARCH DIVISION: David Togut with Evercore ISI. You have stated that "the New" will generate $20 billion of revenue this year, just over 60% of the total. And that grew 30% in FY '17. Bhaskar talked about what he was doing to re-skill his employee base using tools like Accenture myWizard and automation. Can you talk about what you're doing, maybe unpack the strategy, to reduce the cost to serve in the core, the business that isn't growing currently? PIERRE NANTERME: Yes, absolutely. Excellent question, indeed. Because we, I mean, put maximum focus in that area in the heart of our strategy, which is about rotating to "the New", that the question is what do you do with the core? And again, I mean, our point was not to play defense on the core, but to play the offense or the attack on the core, and especially with Bhaskar looking at -- and Debbie as well, and all the others, on what it is we're going to do prevent the commoditization of our core activities. And to prevent the commoditization of the core activities, we decided to go big on robotic and automation. Big. And retraining our people. But especially in our delivery centers across the board, including in our BPO business and including in our Technology business, we invested a lot in significantly improving the productivity of the core through robotic and automation. So we want to remain competitive. We don't exit the core. We want to be less dependent on services that would be subject to commoditization. I mean, commoditization is a disease, it's the kind of thing we want -- we all want to prevent Accenture to be in. So to avoid commoditization, you need to modernize the core and invest, robotic, automation, all the nano bots. We talked about in the BPO putting the virtual agent in the code. Next time maybe we'll be center stage to present how we reinvent Accenture operations, because we're doing great things around operations. That we are very active with the core and we are very competitive with the core as well. Yes, a lady, and then we will move -- here, we have one question from the front row and then the second row. HARSHITA RAWAT, SENIOR RESEARCH ASSOCIATE, SANFORD C. BERNSTEIN & CO., LLC., RESEARCH DIVISION: This is Harshita Rawat from Bernstein. Can you perhaps talk about where are we in the maturity curve for digital? Are we finally at a point where you're -- when you're taking share from outside of the CIO budget from other areas such as the CMO budget, at scale? And at what point "the New" sort of becomes the baseline for IT services? PIERRE NANTERME: Yes, I mean, again, excellent question, because it's giving me the opportunity indeed to cover something we maybe didn't bring to light this morning. At Accenture, we were very famous in the past for what I would call enterprise management through the ERP and technology, enterprise and technology, and addressing this budget. Now if you want to grow, and you're seeing that this budgets are sometimes flattish or might move, but you might not expect a lot from this budget. So at the heart of our strategy of rotating to "the New", with the opportunity for Accenture to extend our relevance to other budgets, if you will. So if you take we were quite operating at the center of the organization, enterprise management, ERP technology, then we decided to move to the front -- I mean, to the front line and to the front end of the organization, all what you heard especially with Brian, and what we are doing with Accenture Interactive, with our weapon, if you will, to be a relevant to the front and addressing marketing spend and especially working with the CMOs. So again, we moved to the front. On the other hand, and you heard that from Mike Sutcliff, on Industry X.0, is the opportunity for us to move in what we're calling the operation in the field, at the factory level, at the supply chain level. And again, we extend our reach to new budgets which are more the industrial budget, operating budget we were not addressing before to that scale. And so now, we're making Accenture not only relevant in "the New" services, not only competitive at the core, but having significantly expanding -- expanded our reach to the front and to the operation while staying a leader in what we've been doing. And for the question, "Where are you finding growth?" We're finding growth by continuing gaining market share in the core. But as well, the expansion to new areas has been a significant source of growth for Accenture. Certainly, Interactive you see it leading in "the New". And we're putting massive expectations on Mike, big expectations on Mike on Industry X.0 to have the same success and surpass the success, if possible, of Accenture Interactive. So that was it. Now in terms of maturity curve, to some extent, and I will paraphrase my friend Omar. You -- we need to talk of maturity curves, because there are many waves and there are different points of maturity. So some of these digital services are at some level of maturity. Certainly, what we are doing with Accenture Interactive, when you look at content management or with some website experience development, or eCommerce, even is a -- there is a lot to be invented, but it's starting to be right while reasonably high on the maturity curve. But you need to continue innovate. On the other side of the spectrum, if you take what Paul has been telling us, the blockchain is pretty low on the maturity curve and it's more nascent. Even if we believe it's maybe not that far from prime time, especially, if I believe my friend David, who is chasing me to get big money to go prime on blockchain. I ask him to be a bit patient, maybe a couple of months, but he relentlessly pushing blockchain, but blockchain is more you'll see at the beginning of the curve. And some would be probably in between, maybe Artificial Intelligence, if you look at this, with Narendra, it would be probably in between, because some of these technology are already maturing and you can operate at kind -- at some scale. But again, you have the next generation of Artificial Intelligence tools and techniques that could make it through. And same in security. If you look at the shop of Kelly Bissell, I mean, there are really 2 activities which I think on security are going to be fundamental: it's identity management and cyber threat response management. On identity management, again, we're probably quite, not at the beginning of the curve, but all the innovation around biometrics and you have a certain innovation that are going to clearly create a new revolution in the way you do identity management. And needless to say, that security and digital trust through security is going to be extraordinarily important. In terms of cyber threat response, we are quite at the beginning. We made the acquisition a few years ago of FusionX, right, Kelly? Specialized in replicating a cyber attack and testing your defense. And by the way, we are using FusionX to test our own defense. So that's -- we're playing with all of these maturity curves and it's clearly the job of Paul and Omar, or Omar and Paul, I mean, the virtual twins, to understand where we are. And then it's our job, especially David and I, and others, to understand where we go live and we create a business at scale; where we're still in the incubating mode, what we're doing with immersive reality, blockchain and quantum computing. And when we're going to be ready for prime time, we'll go and invest, to answer your question. We have a question on the -- 2 question on the second row. And I'm going to try to make shorter -- short answers. ASHWIN VASSANT SHIRVAIKAR, DIRECTOR AND U.S. COMPUTER AND BUSINESS SERVICES ANALYST, CITIGROUP INC, RESEARCH DIVISION: So Ashwin Shirvaikar from Citi. Good presentation. So when I look at the 90 acquisitions and really, not really any blowups. So making acquisitions has become a core competency. Then I kind of layer in Paul's statement that innovation is not an end point, it's continuous. Should we continue to expect not only the pace of acquisitions, but as you get bigger, should we expect bigger acquisitions? And if so, how do you maintain the culture of the company? PIERRE NANTERME: Yes, should you expect that we will continue with our acquisition agenda? Yes, [well put]. But we'll continue with the same philosophy. I think we've been very clear, what has been said, we are not making acquisition to buy revenues, not at all. We are making acquisition to acquire unique capabilities, unique capabilities. This is exactly what we did across the patch and I think we've been very clear. It's not about revenue, it's about capabilities. All our acquisitions have been small to mid-size. We are extremely thoughtful on what could be largest acquisition. My friend David will keep me absolutely honest on this, because -- and I'm not mentioning the very large acquisition. You know that in our industry, very large acquisition have not been successful. I mean, 0 have been successful. So I mean, the probability are very challenged. So now, looking at some small to mid-size acquisition with deep capabilities, yes, of course, we're going to look at it. So we'll continue with pace. Now as you see in '18 and I think we said that in our Q2, our pace of acquisition will be a bit slower because we needed to absorb the one we made in '17. And again, we don't to -- want to make acquisition for the sake of it. The point is to find the right nuggets. And if we can't find the right nuggets that are going to fit our purpose, we're not going to make acquisition for the sake of just spending the capital. So yes, we will continue in a way which is going to be very thoughtful. Certainly, we're looking more in the Artificial Intelligence, blockchain, in "the New" new. This is where we would look at and see whether there are opportunities to scale. The philosophy behind the acquisition is very clear, is to have capabilities in "the New" or is to scale something we have to take the #1 position. So that's what we do. Maybe another one before we go to break. KEITH FRANCES BACHMAN, MD & SENIOR RESEARCH ANALYST, BMO CAPITAL MARKETS EQUITY RESEARCH: It's Keith Bachman. I think since Ashwin and I are sitting next to each other, we have similar questions. But my question is on culture and then attrition. And I was struck by the information you gave, 7,000 MDs and I think you said 1,000 from the outside. So presumably, that's M&A and hiring. And clients like to hire Accenture because of the consistent quality experience. Investors indeed like to invest in Accenture because of the consistency of results. So with that amount of inflow, if you will, of new people, how do you ensure the culture? And then the second part of the question is, when you think about the 90 acquisitions, what has been the attrition rate for that group of individuals relative to Accenture's total? PIERRE NANTERME: So I'm going to start with the last one. Very low, right, Ellyn? I mean, the attrition on acquisition is very low. Now I can point to the first part, because you have the same question around the culture and so forth. And I need to be -- we need to be sure, but I'm passionate about this. And I think they've been -- I'm passionate about many things, but on this one I'm passionate, and I have a point of view, which -- because sometimes you're passionate, but you don't have any point of view, which is pretty useless. Now the point of view is that in, probably in the past, some confusion between culture and values. And when companies said, there have been the wave of the one, the one Accenture, the one XYZ, the one culture. Terribly wrong. I think, indeed, the way we are looking at it is we are segregating values. I mean, the values for me, are the kind of the in -- is the set of principles where you look -- you will never compromise on. And it is quite -- that should be quite universal. So indeed, our values are global, are the set of principles which are the intangible you will never compromise. You know, the inclusion and diversity, respect for individual, ethics, compliance, our set of principles. Culture is very different. Culture is what's making a group or subgroup unique. So of course, there are going to be multiple cultures in the world, starting from a geographic standpoint. France is very different from the culture in New Jersey, right, Bob? And however -- I like Bob, but it's different. So on culture, that's why we developed this concept of culture of cultures. So we have a set of values which are absolutely our intangible. And then you have the culture of cultures to accommodate the groups coming in. This is what we did with Fjord. When you mention Fjord, very different, designers. And not only we have kept their culture, we've kept their way of working. They have all developed a kind of way of working around the kitchen, I mean, this is where they are creating. So we're giving them a kitchen so they can work around it. And they have their own style and their own culture, and we kept the name on this face -- on the case of Fjord. So this is our philosophy and it has been working for us very well. So we're moving very far from what has been created maybe 20 years ago around this concept of one, which we believe at Accenture is [profoundly] wrong. Maybe the last one. Right, indeed the last one. We will have another session. So we'll answer all the questions. All. All of them. BRIAN LEE ESSEX, EQUITY ANALYST, MORGAN STANLEY, RESEARCH DIVISION: It's Brian Essex, Morgan Stanley. Thank you for squeezing me in, so maybe if I can indirectly put Ellyn on the spot to follow up to that last topic. So I have 3 things. PIERRE NANTERME: You could work at Accenture. BRIAN LEE ESSEX: Okay. Maybe as you build out your global delivery workforce, what are the key challenges that you face in kind of maintaining, improving revenue per head, cost per head? What are the key KPIs that you focus on? And maybe the softball part of it is, I guess you maybe addressed it a little bit, but the advantages of being at Accenture as you pursue those efforts? PIERRE NANTERME: Yes, maybe just in 2 minutes, could you talk about the power of 3, David? What we're calling the power of 3, it's about the 3, not... DAVID TREAT: So just very briefly, this is something that we focus on, as you would imagine, quite a bit in our organization. And so we talk about this concept of a power of 3, which I put in front of our management team periodically. And really, the most important thing with the power of 3 is that it starts with an always-on kind of relentless, continuous, every hour of every day, focus on value versus volume-driven growth. And so one of the things that we're trying to ingrain in the culture of our management team is that, for all of the good things about our strategy, at the end of the day, we want our strategy to drive value. And so as opposed to having a business that only grows through volume, meaning we add heads, more hours, more payroll, we want a business that grows the top line, more about delivering value in the form of higher revenue per head than volume alone. So that's very much a theme in the way we manage and drive and incent and reward our leaders. That relates to the second of the power of 3, which then is the relationship between payroll growth and revenue growth that we manage very carefully. And then the third element of the power of 3 is looking at the related metrics of that, which is revenue per head and payroll per head and always understanding that relationship. So this is a very core part of how we drive our economics. PIERRE NANTERME: I -- we're going to be live at 11 with David in here, it's the webcast and so forth. So we have a big audience. So why don't we take a 10-minute breaks -- break, sorry. I know it's a bit short, but 10 minutes, then we'll hear from David and then we will open up for all your questions. Thank you. UNIDENTIFIED PARTICIPANT: Ladies and gentlemen, following the break, please return to your seat for a prompt restart at 11 a.m. Thank you. (Break) [Presentation] UNIDENTIFIED PARTICIPANT: Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Accenture Chairman and CEO, Pierre Nanterme. PIERRE NANTERME: All right, thanks a lot for coming back, and I welcome as well the people who will now listen to us on the webcast. So we're going to move to the -- I know many of you, because you love talking about the strategy, but I know you would like to get the numbers and how they do align with what we discussed this morning. So it's my pleasure, privilege to introduce David Rowland, our CFO. But David for me is more than a CFO, he's my conscience, most of the time. He is certainly the person I'm talking on a daily basis. He's much more than a CFO, I think I said that earlier as well. Because for a CFO to be effective, you need to be a strategist. And I think with David, we are blessed to have a leader who as strong in numbers and in strategy, because at the end of the day, our finance strategy is a key enabler of the strategy, especially when it comes to investments, and connecting the dots around the multiple returns we need to get right: the return to our people; the return to our shareholders as well; and the return to our clients. And so it's -- David is keeping us honest with all of this. And I'm sure what I'm going to say now, that David is the best CFO of our industry. And we will not trade David against anyone else in that industry. Over to you, David. DAVID P. ROWLAND, CFO, ACCENTURE PLC: All right, thank you, appreciate it. Thank you, as always. Just listening to Pierre make those very kind comments I couldn't help but reflect on the fact that I think Pierre and I set a great standard for a Frenchman and an American that have just an outstanding relationship. But I just happened to turn on the news last night, and in today's world, I won't tell you which news station, because no matter what I say, it would offend someone. So I turned on the generic news station and I have to say that our 2 presidents, I think, are setting a new standard. So we will have to raise our game. PIERRE NANTERME: Whatever that means. DAVID P. ROWLAND: Yes, so -- at any rate. So good morning to everyone. It's always nice to see so many of you in person. And we really do appreciate the time that you've invested this morning to learn more about the Accenture story. I was reflecting with several people on what you've heard so far and of course, the feedback has really been outstanding. And I think, as the comments support, that our leadership team has really just done an outstanding job showcasing the Accenture business and really bringing to life the key elements of our strategy, the distinct position in the marketplace, our unique capabilities, all of which come together in a super, powerful way to drive value for all of our stakeholders. And I hope, as well, that you felt the energy, the excitement, the optimism of our leaders who, I think, share my view certainly that there's never been a better time, never been a more exciting time to be at Accenture. And I know we all feel very fortunate to be part of this organization at this time and this place. So for the next 15 minutes or so, what I want to do is build on what you've heard so far and to talk about how our strategy will continue to translate into an attractive value proposition for our shareholders. First, by briefly reflecting on, if not even celebrating perhaps, all that we've accomplished from a value standpoint over the last 3 to 4 years. And then secondly, talking about our view of how the enduring nature of our shareholder value model will continue over the next horizon, and will continue to serve our shareholders very well. So as context and really anchoring back to some of the comments that Pierre made earlier, I want to start by again just briefly reflecting on all that we've done over the last several years to really transform our business to what it is today. And as I think about where we've been and what we've accomplished, I think our IA Day themes over that period serve as a good illustration of all that we've done to position Accenture as a leader in "the New." And so it's interesting to think back to where we were in October of 2013, our fiscal '14 when some of you will remember that the theme of the day -- certainly KC McClure will remember that the theme of the day was capturing new ways of growth. And for the first time at that meeting, we introduced our intent to be the leader in digital services as a key element of our growth strategy and we featured Accenture Interactive, a younger version of Brian Whipple, to really illustrate our digital strategy that was in its earlier stages, to illustrate it in action. And we began to quantify our digital revenues, which were estimated to be, believe it or not, $5 million -- $5 billion in 2014. Two years later, in October of 2015, we'd evolved our strategy and market positioning to be even more expansive. We introduced for the first time the concept of "the New." And for the first time we quantified our revenues in "the New," which we estimated to be $10 billion or about 1/3 of our revenue in '15. And then ultimately, for fiscal '16, we reported an estimated $13.5 billion in revenue, which represented 40% of our business. And so we -- here we are today, having again evolved "the New" to now include Accenture Interactive, Accenture Applied Intelligence, Accenture Industry X.0, as you heard this morning. Also including cloud and security, which continues to evolve and already anticipating, innovating, investing, and scaling in the next waves of "the New." And for fiscal '18, we estimate that our business in "the New" will have grown to roughly, and let me give you the exact number, $23 billion in fiscal '18 again, representing about 60% of our revenues this fiscal year. So it really is a tremendous story of a market leader with the right vision, the courage to change, and most importantly, the know-how to massively transform our business to be even stronger and a more relevant leader in the marketplace. But what we're most proud of is that we've done all of that while delivering very strong financial results. I think many of you know that the foundation of our strategy has always been to create a growth engine that consistently drives growth faster than the market, allowing us to take share, and to extend our position as a leader. And if you look at this period from 2014 to 2017, the execution of our strategy yielded a 9% growth CAGR, which was extremely well balanced across the dimensions of our business. During that same period, we expanded our operating margin about by 50 basis points, while at the same time creating significant headroom in our P&L to invest its scale in our business and our people. We delivered an EPS CAGR of 9% during that same period and, absent the FX headwind which was about 4%, our EPS CAGR would've been even stronger. And with strong growth in income, industry-leading DSOs, and our capital-light model, we generated over $17 billion in operating cash flow, returning $16 billion to shareholders via repurchases and dividends, with dividends growing also at a 9% CAGR. While at the same time, as we mentioned several times this morning, investing significantly to acquire critical skills and capabilities in high growth areas of our business. It was roughly a little over $4 billion over the timeframe on this slide. If you go back 5 years, that's the roughly $5 billion number invested in acquisitions that both Pierre and Omar referenced. And we did this while outperforming the market in 2 important areas. Again, we delivered on our strategic imperative to grow faster than the market, roughly 3x the rate of growth in the market and the clear leader in market share gained, and all in the most attractive and strategic areas of the market. And we did this in perfect alignment with our growth model objectives with roughly 7% organic growth and 2% inorganic growth, or to say it differently, over 75% of our growth coming from organic. And most importantly, to all of our shareholders, all of this resulted in a 3-year total return to shareholder CAGR of 20%, which outperformed the S&P, and the S&P IT sector index. And so as we look at 2018, as those of you heard on our earnings call just a few weeks ago, the story continues this year as we believe we're positioned to deliver another very strong year. We're positioned to deliver strong, top line growth again, well above the rate of growth in the market, growth again that will be incredibly well balanced across the dimensions of our business, providing further evidence of the durability and the resiliency of our growth model. We expect to deliver double-digit EPS growth with operating margin which, again, is going to be consistent with '17, which allows us the capacity to significantly invest in our business, in our people, to secure our long-term market leadership. And we expect to generate strong cash flow, while returning at least $4.3 billion to our shareholders via repurchases and dividends. And as I mentioned earlier, not to belabor this slide, but we do all of this again with extending our overall leadership in "the New." Let me say again, $23 billion is the approximate number of where we think we will land this year. And the point is, with the scale and differentiation to lead in each of the 3 components of "the New" as we also talked about this morning. Of course, everything you heard this morning was the illustration of how we do this and the magic and the secret sauce for how we make this happen. But at Accenture, as proud as we are of all that we've accomplished in recent years, we are laser-focused on the future and continuing to drive our business to generate significant value for all of our stakeholders. And so as we look to the future, an important message that I want to convey is that we believe our 3 overarching imperatives for driving value will be as relevant and achievable in the future as they have been in the past. And as we continue to evolve our strategy to stay ahead of our competitors and to position ourselves to be the leader of today and tomorrow, we do so with the intent to create an economic engine that, guess what, does 3 things. First, continues to drive market-leading growth above the rate of growth in the market. Secondly, to drive strong earnings growth including continued modest margin expansion, while investing at scale in our business and our people. And thirdly, driving strong cash flow in excess of net income, while we invest in our business and return to our shareholders, guided by a smart, consistent and disciplined capital allocation model. So let me talk briefly about why we think each of these 3 imperatives is achievable as we look to the future. At Accenture, and I think this is well understood, we are obsessed with growing faster than the market and taking share. It's at the heart of our strategy. It's in our DNA. We focus on growing profitably faster than the market. And as we evolve our strategy and our business, we will continue to be focused on that in the future as much as we have been to date. In this morning's session, there were many illustrations of our growth strategy in action and some insight on how it will evolve. But in summary, they are really 5 distinct components of Accenture's growth model. In this case, we refer to it as 3 plus 2, which we believe will allow us to sustain market-leading growth in the future. First, we will continue to benefit from our unique market footprint that includes scale and leadership in the world's largest and most critical geographic markets and industries. So we have a model, we've built the business where we have scale and leadership where it matters most. And across these markets, as Pierre referenced, we have an enviable client portfolio, anchored by 175 Diamond clients representing the world's largest and most iconic companies. Second, we're highly unique in our end-to-end service model, where we have the scale to compete as a leader in each of our businesses, covering the full spectrum of services from strategy and consulting to technology and to operations, all grounded in industry differentiation across the spectrum. Third, as I think is well understood, certainly at this point in time, both internally and externally, we're highly differentiated in digital cloud and security-related services, while at the same time, already identifying, investing and scaling to be a leader in the next evolution of "the New." So we intend to be the perpetual leader in "the Evolving" new. Fourth, we have unmatched capabilities. We highlighted some of those earlier today, but certainly it includes the scale and depth of our industry, functional and technical skills, as well as the strength of our relationships and our unique position in the ecosystem. And fifth, we have the commitment, the capacity, and the know-how, to innovate and invest to lead in the most strategic and highest growth markets. And if you think about it, we believe these 5 elements of our growth model, in aggregate, represent the essence of what differentiates Accenture in the marketplace, and this is what positions us extremely well for market-leading growth in the future. Moving to our second imperative, strong earnings growth with sustainable margin expansion. For years now, we've talked about our relentless focus on driving strong earnings growth underpinned by consistent, modest margin expansion, while at the same time creating the financial headroom to invest significantly in our business and our people. And given some of the recent dialogue on margins, I want to be clear that we are delivering significantly higher levels of improvement in our underlying margins, which is what has allowed us, both this year, in the first half of the year as well as -- if you look out over the past 2 or 3 years, which is what has allowed us to increase the level of investment in our business. So we are delivering on that objective, including in the first half of this year, and significantly expanding our underlying margins. Looking forward, we will continue to be guided by this objective and, at the highest level, our efforts are again focused on 5 primary drivers. First, as we continue to rotate our business to "the New" and higher-value services, we are laser-focused on driving more value and stronger economics from this part of our business. Some of the comments that I made earlier in answering the question alluded to that. And we believe this represents a significant opportunity for us given the strategic and critical nature of these services to our clients and our highly differentiated capabilities and skills to meet those needs. Second, as we anticipate that our business will be in a permanent state of rotating and leading in "the Evolving" new, there will always be an important part of our business which will be at a more mature point in the life cycle. In today's context, we talk about certain parts of application services in our core business as an example. Our intent, Pierre referenced this as well, is to perpetually disrupt, modernize and, where appropriate, automate our core services, to ensure that they are highly competitive in the marketplace and that we're profitable in that part of our business. And in doing so, we expect the core business to be an important contributor to our strong profitability and margin expansion. Third, we're clearly a talent-led business where labor costs are the largest component of our cost structure. And as we continue our journey of executing our highly differentiated and tailored talent strategy for each part of our business, we'll continue to carefully structure our total rewards, and engineer our overall labor cost profile to support the profit objectives of our business going forward. And among others, Ellyn and I have a responsibility to work across all of our business leaders to make sure that we deliver on that objective and, as a team, we are engaged in that daily, I can assure you. Fourth, as you know well by now, Accenture has a diverse portfolio of businesses, and we remain committed to continuously evaluating our portfolio for both a strategic and financial perspective to ensure that it's fully optimized, and we refer to that as economy of scope in our business. We've demonstrated our willingness to both enter new businesses and exit existing businesses in support of our strategic and financial objectives, and we will continue that discipline as we move forward as part of our profit model. And finally, just as we do to our clients every day, we've made significant investments to digitize Accenture to accelerate and improve our own operational efficiency. We're committed to Accenture being a showcased credential, where we can demonstrate to our clients that we embrace leading technology and leading operational practices to ensure that our business operates with maximum efficiency. So looking forward, we believe each of these 5 areas offers significant opportunity and, in aggregate, they support our belief that we'll continue to drive strong profitability with modest margin expansion while creating continued headroom in our P&L to invest in our business. The third pillar of our shareholder value model relates to strong cash flow and smart and disciplined capital allocation. And the message here is quite clear in that the drivers of our cash flow and our strategy for capital allocation will remain intact. We don't expect any significant changes as we move forward. While cash flow can ebb and flow due to certain factors, very often timing-related, we believe we continue to have a business that has the capacity to generate free cash flow in excess of net income, and we remain committed to our capital allocation strategy. First, by investing in our business, up to 25% of our operating cash flow in acquisitions; and second, continuing to return excess cash to our shareholders, where we expect dividends to grow roughly in line with income growth and the dollar amount of repurchases to remain relatively stable in the next few years. So this has been a strength of our business in the past and it will certainly be a strength for our business as we continue to move forward. So in summary, we hope this morning's session has reinforced your understanding of how truly special and distinctive Accenture is in the marketplace. There's no doubt that we are a market leader of today, uniquely positioned and highly differentiated. Hopefully, this morning, we've illustrated and demonstrated that our extremely -- that we are extremely well-positioned to be the market leader of tomorrow, always innovating and investing to be relevant in the future. And through my comments, we certainly believe that we have an enduring model for shareholder value creation and one that will serve our shareholders extremely well in the future. So with that said, I'll invite Pierre to rejoin me on the stage, and we will continue the Q&A. Questions and Answers PIERRE NANTERME: Thank you. Very good. So now we have time for questions. So let's get started. Maybe we're going to start with -- we're going to move from left to right because here we had a few. So let's... JOSEPH DEAN FORESI, ANALYST, CANTOR FITZGERALD & CO., RESEARCH DIVISION: Joe Foresi from Cantor. You mentioned underlying margins are expansion -- or expanding. Can you give us some idea of what you mean by underlying margins? And what's the core business margins versus digital margins and what's your expectation for expansion? DAVID P. ROWLAND: So first of all, let me talk about, for purposes of this, what do we mean when we talk about investments, to then think about underlying margins absent those investments. So at a high level, there's 4 things that we think about in investments. We first we think about the money that we spend, largely as organic investments, on offerings and assets. The second category of investment includes elements of our talent investments, so it's training and certain types of hiring that we do predominantly at the MD level, [I kind of encourage them] as an example, which we really categorize as a talent investment. Third, would be the P&L absorption of the acquisitions that underpin our inorganic growth, so that's really the acquisitions over the trailing 4 quarters, the P&L flow-through from those acquisitions. And then fourth would be targeted client investments that we make in a very controlled and disciplined way. I will say, just as a point, that, that is, if anything, a narrow view of investments. In fact, there are other things that if you talked about investments more broadly, like innovation centers, digital studios, labs, et cetera that we don't even include in that number. In that context to get to your question, some of you will remember that at the last IA day, I was asked the same question, maybe by you, and I threw out the number of 100 basis points. At that time, our margins were expanding in the zone of about 100 basis points or more. And what I would tell you is that if you look at the 2 years since then, and even if you look at the first half of this year, the underlying margins, so the margins absent those categories in investments, had continued to expand in that same zone. So just as an illustrative model again, our mental framework, as an illustrative example, is that, let's say, we target expanding our underlying margins by 100 basis points, we have on average generated about 15 basis points of margin expansion, if you look our history. So really what we're doing is creating 85 basis points of capacity to invest in those 4 areas that I called out. PIERRE NANTERME: Yes. Next one. BRYAN KEANE, RESEARCH ANALYST, DEUTSCHE BANK AG, RESEARCH DIVISION: It's Bryan Keane, Deutsche Bank. I just wanted to follow up on automation. How much of your business today is automated and how much will it be in 5 years as this continues to roll out? And is automation only a cost, or is it also -- could it help drive revenue? PIERRE NANTERME: Yes, when you look at the automation -- that might be good maybe they give -- you illustrate how you're using automation to drive more productivity because I think that going to bring that to life. UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE: (inaudible) So we've used automation whether it's -- ah, there you are -- RPA, AI, in combination, right, in advanced analytics to drive our operations, differentiation and business. And with that, if you look across the last 3 years, we've automated 38,000 roles. But we haven't had to let anybody go because we keep growing our business to help other clients go on that journey. So for us, it's expanding our business because we are -- it's very attractive for clients to bring their operations to us because we're making the investment to be able to combine these different types of automations, to really drive a different way of running your operations. And so it's been great for our growth, and we continue to grow very strongly in the operations space and we haven't had to let anyone go. BRYAN KEANE: So does it continue to grow? UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE: Does what? The automation? BRYAN KEANE: Yes. I mean the numbers (inaudible). UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE: They're going to continue to grow. I mean, is it going to be exponential? No. But we're taking on new work from clients. It comes in, highly manual, highly paper-based and we take it from that and we completely transform it, right? And we don't just attack their -- create productivity savings for our clients, but we also create opportunities to grow their top line. So we talked about marketing operations, right? Which is definitely targeting revenue and sales for our clients. Being able to bring that experience that Brian described to life in the day-to-day way they operate. Because it's every place along the value chain that you touch or interact with your key stakeholders that have to have that experience. And that often is in many of the operations with the -- whether it's sales operations or product operations, the product support piece, it all has to be consistent to bring that experience to life. So we view that as definitely an uplift for our clients in terms of revenue. PIERRE NANTERME: Thank you. The next one? We're moving down the road a bit. Yes? JASON ALAN KUPFERBERG, MD IN US EQUITY RESEARCH & SENIOR ANALYST, BOFA MERRILL LYNCH, RESEARCH DIVISION: It's Jason Kupferberg from Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Appreciate the increased clarity on the margins. I thought that was very helpful. I wanted to actually ask a question about the competitive landscape and if you can maybe take us through some pieces of that. Obviously, Accenture is a share-gainer. We all appreciate that. You do have the former Big 4 out there. It seems like they've gotten reengaged in recent years in parts of the market perhaps even on the technology and implementation side as opposed to just high-end consulting. So what are you seeing there as well as from some of the higher-end consultancies, the McKinseys of the world? And then, the multinationals, the Indian-centric firms. There's a lot of pieces to that landscape, so we'd love to hear what's been changing from your point of view. PIERRE NANTERME: Yes, and that's going to give me the opportunity to share with you our view of the end-to-end and, indeed, why we build this business architecture we have. We are competing against multiple fronts, as you said. On one hand you have the strategic pure-players and the Big 4. There are more on the straight consultancy part of the business. What I would call Accenture Strategy and Accenture Consulting, they would be in that space. The IPPs, or Indian pure-players are indeed more coming from the other side of the spectrum. I think they would be more the friends of Debbie and Pascal on a daily basis. So in term of operations, BPO, application outsourcing, system integration. Much less, of course, in the strategy and in the consulting landscape. Then you will have the multinationals. The multinational might be a bit, I mean, comparing a bit more -- I mean, very few, I don't know any multinational really having a strategy pure-player as we created with Accenture Strategy, so would be more on the consulting, system integration and application outsourcing. So you could see, there would be competing in some part of our business. But, indeed, we're claiming that today we are the only one, I believe, with this business architecture from strategy to consulting, to digital, to technology, to operation and to security. I didn't mention digital because digital is an interesting beast. That's why we put Mike in charge of managing this beast and understanding what's going on. Because here the dynamic is, of course very different. The best friends of Brian would be certainly the holding agencies, right? But as well, some of the coming multinationals, coming in this place of this digital marketing company. So here it's another set of competitors. And the fact that, indeed, we extended our reach to the CMOs has opened a new front with these holding companies against which now we're competing and Brian numbers strong double digits are demonstrating that our formula is very powerful compared to this set of competitors. But if you move to applied intelligence with Narendra, you're going to see another set of competitors. Some of the multinational, the big players and then more niche and specialized player. And Industry X.0, we'll see. There is not yet any established leader, probably except us. And I'm not mentioning that with arrogance, but it's just playing with this idea that we want to be the first mover. And by being the first mover, recapturing more of the market, so we'll see on Industry X.0 who's going to play in that game, but very good. So this is the dynamic. Needless to say that they all rally to digital, when I'm reading old -- your papers on the competition. Now, they're all talking about what we're talking about -- I mean, digital, blockchain, da da di da. So it's the game, there is no monopoly of the long [reach]. So that's why we were very pleased to have this Investor and Analyst Day. It's so, okay, you can talk, or you can do things. You have a story or you have the capabilities, and so indeed there is no monopoly on storytelling. All our focus is building differentiated capabilities as unique scale and having this end-to-end which is making us pretty unique in the marketplace from the boardroom to all this digital and then with the industrial strength in terms of technology and operations. We decided to have that scope on purpose. It's a very demanding scope and David mentioned economy of scope, which is our new obsession, how you manage the portfolio, being end-to-end, to be highly differentiated in the marketplace. Without having a scope, you can't manage or you can't support from an investment standpoint. But today, our scope and end-to-end is playing in our favor for -- and that's going to be the end of this long answer. Clients they want people like us to commit on an outcome, to commit on the results. Our hypothesis is, if you cover only a part of this value chain, you are not credible to commit on an outcome. That is the logic behind these businesses we built. It's the credibility to commit on our results and when we're talking with our clients, this is what they want. Put skin in the game, take a commitment on the result, on the cost base or on the revenues. It's more and more the natural discussion with clients, and if you're covering only a piece of the service, you don't have any credibility to commit on an outcome. Yes. We're moving here. We have one here. We're going to move a bit and then we'll go right. We'll go right. So we'll go left and right. But we'll take all questions. JAMES ERIC FRIEDMAN, SENIOR ANALYST, SUSQUEHANNA FINANCIAL GROUP, LLLP, RESEARCH DIVISION: It's Jamie at Susquehanna. I wanted a clarification on something Bhaskar had said earlier. I think he had said, I may have misheard, that 40% of the company's revenue is digital ERP. If I'm misquoting that, I apologize. And if I did, if you could rephrase it? And then if you could help us map which business dimension stated that the ERP is tracking to, that would be helpful. DAVID P. ROWLAND: Can you clarify the comment you meant? BHASKAR GHOSH: So what I said, the 40% of our revenue comes from platform business and platform business is SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, Salesforce and Workday. World leaders. JAMES ERIC FRIEDMAN: And didn't you say that was growing double-digit? BHASKAR GHOSH: And that is growing double-digit. JAMES ERIC FRIEDMAN: I think those are both new, at least new to me. DAVID P. ROWLAND: Yes. We have not -- we had not communicated that previously, but those are -- that is new information... JAMES ERIC FRIEDMAN: Okay. And then, (inaudible) technologies... DAVID P. ROWLAND: Which we didn't -- Bhaskar didn't go off-script. We were doing that (inaudible) or intentionally. PIERRE NANTERME: Good try. JAMES ERIC FRIEDMAN: And then you mentioned like -- where does that show up in terms of reported revenue? DAVID P. ROWLAND: Well, it's -- I would say all of our -- essentially, it's broad-based in terms of our operating groups in geographies. Do you mean from a strategy consulting, app services operations? Do you want to comment on that? BHASKAR GHOSH: We don't have the exact breakup of the different areas, but it is -- it will include all of our service lines starting from strategy to application, services to operation, to everything. DAVID P. ROWLAND: It is a driver of strategy consulting growth. I believe I'm correct that if you look at strategy and consulting, it -- in the platform business it is growing [mid single digits, consistent with the overall growth in Strategy and Consulting. So it's a driver for strategy and consulting and certainly it would be double-digit for application services] (corrected by company after the call). PIERRE NANTERME: Okay, let's take another one from the left. We move right because I see some impatience on the right. BRYAN C. BERGIN, DIRECTOR, COWEN AND COMPANY, LLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: Bryan Bergin from Cowen. As you embed more technology and platforms and IP into your delivery, can you just talk about how that affects the fundamental financial model for you from a sense of margin and also a sense from revenue visibility? PIERRE NANTERME: Yes. David? DAVID P. ROWLAND: Yes, as we embed technology and IP... BRYAN C. BERGIN: Yes, your own IP, not necessarily the platform bespoke. DAVID P. ROWLAND: Yes. I mean, I would say that -- and when you say technology, certainly you're talking about things like automation, so you're saying we bet -- we use automation as an example on our delivery models, et cetera. I mean, our position, as I mentioned in my prepared comments is that everything in "the New", because of its very nature in terms of the strategic priority to our clients, the fact that very often there's a scarcity of skills and capability in the marketplace that can do it at scale for the large companies as we do. We expect for everything that we do in "the New", including the technology infusion, et cetera, to be accretive to our profitability. That is -- we're focused on driving the right value for our business and our shareholders for all of our services in "the New", which we can do and still deliver significant value to our shareholders. Yes. PIERRE NANTERME: And we mentioned our portfolio of patent or patent-pending and it is our goal as well to monetize our patent in a way that is going to be creating more value for the firm. DAVID P. ROWLAND: Yes, you've got Rod up -- PIERRE NANTERME: Yes, here, here, here. ROD BOURGEOIS: Rod Bourgeois with Deep Dive. So I've got a question over here for you. Great. So I want to hone in on the industry-wide margin trend. As you guys know, IBM's margin in services has been high teens and it's now single digits. Infosys just guided down on their next year's margin outlook. We have some pricing data that doesn't look so good, particularly in some of the traditional segments like application maintenance and some of the other areas. So I guess my question really is, are you seeing an industry-wide margin challenge that's built up over the last few years? Or do you think this is just idiosyncratic things that some of your major competitors -- because you also had a margin disappointment last quarter. So it is interesting that IBM, Infosys, some of the other large Indian firms and Accenture have all recently had some margin challenges. Is that an industry trend or just a coincidence? PIERRE NANTERME: Yes. I'm going to start answering. The market is very competitive, let's put it that way. It's attractive, but very competitive. Now, when you look at the margin, you have different situations. Situation number one, might be you're too much exposed to commodity services and if you're too much exposed on commodity services, then the pricing are going down every year and at some point in time, it does impact the margin. Our response on this has been robotic and automation, but it does have the limit. So some are overexposed I would say to commodity services. Situation number two, would be you invest and I've seen some like us or some of our competitors, where you're investing to rotate to your destination, to "the New". Many competitors announced that they want to go digital, they want -- they're going to make (inaudible). More or less emulating our story a bit. And so it's -- some are in the wrong place or others are investing to get out of the wrong place and to get to the right place. I think this is what it is, in the context where the market is extremely competitive. So if you want to keep the price stable, or more, or moving up, you need indeed to bring extraordinary deep differentiation. And this is what we do. So I think that the way I would look across the board. So for us, we pivot to "the New." We, I think, communicated that our margin in "the New" are on balance better than the margin on the core. I mean, we announced that. We need to continue that pivot, and through all the ladies and gentlemen you heard this morning getting unique, differentiated talent, asset and solutions. When you're working with Narendra and you're bringing the best business scientist and we have how many we have now? NARENDRA MULANI: 3,000. PIERRE NANTERME: 3,000 business scientist to work on top level algorithms to solve for fraud or for churn, or other things you can have value. The more you're getting into the mass commoditized services, the more complex it is. So it depends on your portfolio of business. That's why in '12, we decided to pivot our portfolio to be less exposed to commoditization. ROD BOURGEOIS: And Pierre, just a quick follow-up. Is your biggest challenge to margin expansion going forward the competitive environment or is it just keeping that capacity to be able to invest in "the New"? In other words, what's your biggest challenge to being able to achieve margin expansion in future years? PIERRE NANTERME: Yes. I mean, first, let me be very clear, we are expanding our margin. And you mentioned 100 basis points, so we are generously expanding our margin. Now you can say, yes, I mean, 100 basis points and you give 10, 20 in average because we are reinvesting 80% to 85% of this 100 basis points in the business. And I think this is this balance we want to keep. But at Accenture, we are expanding our margin. We are expanding our margin significantly and I'm taking that as a proof point of the rotation to higher-value services. But we reinvest in the business because job's not yet done, and we need to invest in the next generation, but we are expanding the margin. Yes, here in the front, and here. ASHWIN VASSANT SHIRVAIKAR: Ashwin Shirvaikar with Citi. So a 2-part question. I was really struggling to get to 3 parts, but maybe I'm not good enough for Accenture. The first part of it is, just going back to the margin comment, the gross versus net. As you become more and more of a sort of a digital enterprise yourself and apply all these things, does that gap between the 100 basis points gross and giving us 15 basis points, does that shrink? So that you can maybe down the road deliver 30 to 50 instead of 10 to 30? And then, the revenue question, the second question is really, as digital becomes bigger and you talked about maturity curves, do you reaccelerate your growth down the road because your portfolio is growing faster? Or do you, as you hit maturity curves, your growth remains the same on a bigger pace? PIERRE NANTERME: Maybe the last one that I will let you comment the margin because you love that so much. We're growing high single double-digits. So we are pretty much full steam on growth and we're pleased with that. From an organic standpoint we're growing 3x the market minimum and, well, the expectation is being met. We want to grow more than the market. When it's 3x the organic growth, it is very good. What we believe is, indeed, with our strategy, with the next wave of growth, with the launch of Industry X.0, with the launch of Accenture Interactive Operations or Intelligent Marketing Operations, we mentioned with Nikki. I think we believe that we have the potential to continue growing in more than the market and in the zone we are setting every year. Plus, there are other markets to explore. I'm thinking about China as an illustration, where I believe there is a great potential. Or what we're doing in South America, outside Brazil, where we see a good potential in Colombia, in Mexico, in other places. So there are markets where we could expand as well. So when I look at the new business we could launch, plus the markets we could develop, plus the market share we could develop in our current markets, thinking about in the U.S., in Germany, I think we still have the possibility to improve our market share. I'm not over-concerned by the growth. I think, as we said, the point for us is to extract the value out of that growth, so we can reinvest in the business with the appropriate return to our people and to our shareholders. So that's the equation. So a big focus is going to be put on value. The growth, and again, we need always to be cautious on this, you never know what might happen, but I think we have found a good formula for growing. Now we need extract the value and reinvest in the business and continue the good story. Yes, front row and then moving here and there. MIKE VOGEL: This is Mike Vogel from the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. One more question. So very few retailers are doing well worldwide, despite spending a lot of money on interactive services from Accenture. And just what I was wondering is, are any of the retailers starting to lose faith in that money they're spending and is there any risk to "the New" brand promise overall for Accenture? DAVID P. ROWLAND: I don't know -- Sander? PIERRE NANTERME: Sander, Mr. Retail. What's happening in retail? ALEXANDER M. VAN'T NOORDENDE: Well, I mean, what's happening in retail? The real question is here, what does it take to be successful? (technical difficulty) The big question on the table for many retailers: what is our real purpose here in retail? Because think about the old model. The value proposition was really -- I put lots of stuff in one place, people go there and they buy it. Now, that model is sort of under a lot of pressure. So retailers need to take a step back and say what do I really want to be in life, what is my value proposition to my customers? And, with Brian, we're working on what's the experience to the consumer, to the shopper that we want to give? So that's a very important question that retailers need to answer and if you don't answer that question, look Toys "R" Us, you're going to be in trouble. The next thing that you need to be successful is scale, because you're competing against the best in the world, think Amazon, think Alibaba. So you got to be big to invest and to really have a mindset on investments because that's the other issue that many retailers are grappling with, is they grew up in a model where they say if we open 10 new stores, we're going to get growth. But today, the 10 new stores are not necessarily bringing growth. Today, you need to invest in digital capabilities to be successful. So what's your purpose and how are we going to invest to maximize our consumer experience? Those are sort of the 3 big questions that retailers need to answer and it's a matter of survival for some of them. So I mean they've -- some of them will invest, some of them won't and some of them won't survive. PIERRE NANTERME: Yes. It's definitely a vertical under massive pressure when you look at it. Maybe the last 2 questions. Yes? Here. Here and here and then we will wrap up. ARVIND ANIL RAMNANI, SENIOR RESEARCH ANALYST, KEYBANC CAPITAL MARKETS INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: So in emerging areas -- Arvind Ramnani from KeyBanc. In the emerging areas, blockchain and AI, are you following a similar strategy of working with external product companies or are your foundational capabilities changing? And follow-up to that is, given that these technologies drive significant levels of efficiency, how are you ensuring that you're able to retain and grow your revenue base? PIERRE NANTERME: Okay, all right. I've been working with the -- David, do you want to maybe comment on how we work with the ecosystem, because this is for us a natural act. So maybe you could elaborate. DAVID P. ROWLAND: Our ecosystem position of blockchain is actually our biggest strength and it's what's leading us to win the most of our work. The Project Ubin example that we showed a video from was the first time ever that a side-by-side build on 3 of the leading platforms was done against the same functional scope because there was a ton of confusion in the market as to -- I have one platform company telling me that their product is fantastic because of this, and the other one is showing me the same metric and saying they're fantastic, but they look wildly different. This was the first time that through using us, as an independent party, this developed the deep relationships, sometimes through minor investments and sometimes through alliances, certainly through our focus on building the proper ecosystem. We're the only trusted party that's independent that has all the relationships with the leading platforms that can do that kind of comparison. So we've been heavily investing into that ecosystem. It includes a huge focus on the startup community, a huge focus on our traditional technology partners in Microsoft and IBM, and AWS and Intel and HPE, as well as the academic community and the technical consortium that I mentioned, FAB -- sorry, Linux Hyperledger, Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, et cetera. So our ecosystem is actually one of our primary differentiators and the reason that we're winning an outsized share of the work. PIERRE NANTERME: And it's been for a long time. I remember, I mean I started 35 years ago, and working with the ecosystem of the ERP it's for us just a natural (inaudible) so we stood by change that we are #1 with -- we mentioned SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, Salesforce, Workday, Amazon Web Services and many others, with probably all the ecosystem partners. Because we -- first, we're totally independent, we are totally technology agnostic, it's a part of us. So when there is technology we're looking at the technology and our job, we are a massive translator of how this technology is going to impact the industries, and when. And when. Because for our clients to ask this question, they're going to impact our business, yes, okay, but when? Today, tomorrow? On your second question on -- all these technologies are bringing -- are easy to implement. We are doing now in 2 weeks what had been taking 2 years before. And so your business is going to shrink massively. I will answer your question with the famous quote of Mark Twain we certainly all know. "The rumors of my death are highly exaggerated". And I'm taking that because software-as-a-service is plug-and-play. So many providers are explaining to their clients that they don't need people like us anymore. That's their job because they want to get our margin in their products, in their sell. So, software-as-a-service, you don't need system integration, it's going to be super simple, super smooth. Hey, you take your plug, you put the whole thing and the magic is happening. Blockchain, certainly the same. Oh, blockchain highly decentralized, easy, you're putting that -- a couple of weeks you're done and life is good. I think the answer is we're still there and the reality is growing our revenues with these new [players], whatever they are, blockchain, whatever they are Salesforce, whatever they are, Workday. All these companies or, even now, the SAP HANA and all the others. Maybe because we are working for giants and, indeed, there might be a market, maybe a big market, where implementation might be done maybe faster and in a way which is going to be easier. For the big giants, our 175 big giants we're working with, the level of overall integration is remaining intact because the [SIPs] maybe a bit small, a bit, but the rest, which is process transformation, which is change management, which is integration in the rest of the platforms because you need to integrate your solution with the rest, is still requiring a significant -- important, I think you had this question, Paul, on a regular basis on that [fate]. How much cannibalization? The reality is we've seen [zip] and we continue to grow. So we'll see whether there are going to be one day the magic technology plug-and-play, and when we will come here and say, okay guys, it's end over. It's our last IA day. I don't think so. And we'll be back soon on this showing more growth. Maybe a final, final one to make sure there's no -- yes, here. This gentleman has been raising his hand for quite a while now. Don't want to frustrate anyone. JAMES EDWARD SCHNEIDER, VP, GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: Jim Schneider from Goldman Sachs. I was wondering if you could maybe comment on your -- the relationship between your shorter-term consulting and integration work and your longer-term outsourcing work and maybe -- you've clearly done a great job of taking digital work on the consulting side and moving into the profitable core over time. Can you just talk to the relationship between the margins in the shorter-term consulting work and the outsourcing work, historically? And whether you expect that relationship to change over time, given some of the commoditization pressures that you mentioned earlier? DAVID P. ROWLAND: It's a broad question and it's hard to -- really, you would have to get into more specificity to really give a good answer to that. In general I would say that our expectation is that our strategy in consulting margins really are -- let's say, lead the margins of the business. So clearly, that is the expectation for that part of the business. Having said that, Application Services as an example is a very profitable business, as is Operations. We really look at -- we've talked about this concept that fit-for-purpose, which means really understanding the market relevant economics for each part of the business, recognizing that the market relevant economics are different for each. What we drive ourselves to is a view of always being at, or better, and really better, than what we judge to be the market economics for that part of the business. And that's what our business group chief executives working with our operating group chief executives focus on. And so on Operations, we look at Debbie's business in Operations context, and what she's constantly doing is driving the strategy to achieve a financial outcome that is strong profitability in the context of the Operations marketplace. So that's how we drive the business. PIERRE NANTERME: Okay. Time to wrap up, right engine? And we are very -- we want to be very mindful about your time. So thanks a lot for coming this morning. I really hope that you find this session extremely helpful for all of you in understanding where we are. I am not going to summarize the element of the strategy, but the key element you heard this morning is in '11, '12 we [embark] Accenture, I mean all this leadership team embark Accenture in the -- certainly the most significant transformation of the Accenture history to rotate to "the New." And we are now in '18, and I guess we can declare we have reached our destination. But it's not the final one, but we've reached the destination that indeed we can declare we have rotated 60% of our revenue to "the New." So we can declare there is a new Accenture today on this stage and it's not the Accenture you might have known before. It's not the Accenture that an analyst, one of you wrote something like, it's not your father's Accenture, right. So it's not your father's Accenture. We're now "the New" Accenture, 60% of our revenue in "the New". I think the second message is innovation. First-mover advantage and really capturing the next wave of growth and anticipating. I think that's the other big message we're doing at Accenture. You see how we're doing that, but it's -- we believe it's absolutely to a minimum. The third big message is we are extending our reach and relevance across the value chain of our clients, so now we're relevant not only in enterprise management and technology, but we are relevant in all the marketing operations at the front and we're going to be relevant in all the operational services at the core of the operations of our clients. You see with Faurecia we contribute to build cars. Who would have believed that Accenture would build cars? We are. We are now -- at least the cockpit of the car in (inaudible). So we have significantly expanded, so we are addressing a much bigger budget and spending of our clients as well as being more relevant with them on their opportunities and challenges. Next, end-to-end, we build an architectural businesses, which is second to none where we are relevant to the -- from the boardroom and the executive committee to the technology and as well to the way you operate on behalf of clients. And finally, talent. I think we have 445,000 people, but the reality is we have 445,000 talented people and all the jobs Ellyn been doing is this concept of specialization at scale. We want to be highly specialized by our businesses and having the best people, the best business scientists, the best people for Brian and all the others in all our distinct businesses. I know it's all about specialization, but then we need to drive that specialization at an amazing scale. 3,000 business scientists, not 200, not 20, 3,000, growing. You've seen that now Accenture Interactive, you mention, we are what, 20,000? UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE: 25,000. PIERRE NANTERME: 25,000 people. This is what we're thinking when scale. Under Kelly Bissell leadership now we're going to hit the 2 billion. And last year, Accenture Security been growing 70%, right? Kelly? So he is a good guy, Kelly. He arrived 2 years ago. 70%. We're going to keep him on board. He's a very good guy, we love him a lot. And so all this talent, value proposition is extremely important. And then our -- what I would say is the deployment leverage we have across the different industries and the different markets, so we're putting all of this together. And at the end of it, I really would like for all of you really to thank the leadership team of Accenture, the people here, and all the others who are not there, because at the end of the day, it's a team sport. And what we have at Accenture is an extraordinary aligned, cohesive team of leaders. They're all the best-in-class in their categories, but what's setting them apart is their unique ability with a true friendship and camaraderie to collaborate, because at the end of the day, all these businesses should be synergistic and you can't be successful on your own. It's all about combining the capability in a geography, for an industry, and we need all these people to cooperate seamlessly and having -- and being extraordinarily aligned to our strategy. And for me, it is just a privilege to be their team captain. You see they like cracking jokes on me, so maybe I'm going to reveal the joke on the 3 because they (inaudible) across the board, all 3. Yes, I'm a bit obsessed by the 3 and every time I'm presenting -- okay, there are 3 things (inaudible). And when I ask them to present, they come with 3. Some when they come with 4 they're coming with 3 and so forth. So the 3 has become the way for us of structure our thinking. So it does work with 3 or 6 because it's twice 3. So 3, 6, 9 is the way you present things. Everything in middle would be a huge problem for our brain to understand, especially mine. So thanks for joking, for all this morning on the 3. Thank you, very much. I like working with you a lot, and I would like to thank all of you for the trust and confidence you're putting in our company, our investors, or the analyst who are supporting us, challenging us, asking tough questions. And I encourage all of you to continue asking the toughest possible questions so they could answer them. It's been a pleasure to be with you this morning. All the best, and take care. Safe travel back, and talk to you very soon. [Thomson Financial reserves the right to make changes to documents, content, or other information on this web site without obligation to notify any person of such changes. In the conference calls upon which Event Transcripts are based, companies may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding a variety of items. Such forward-looking statements are based upon current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those stated in any forward-looking statement based on a number of important factors and risks, which are more specifically identified in the companies' most recent SEC filings. Although the companies may indicate and believe that the assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements are reasonable, any of the assumptions could prove inaccurate or incorrect and, therefore, there can be no assurance that the results contemplated in the forward-looking statements will be realized. THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN EVENT TRANSCRIPTS IS A TEXTUAL REPRESENTATION OF THE APPLICABLE COMPANY'S CONFERENCE CALL AND WHILE EFFORTS ARE MADE TO PROVIDE AN ACCURATE TRANSCRIPTION, THERE MAY BE MATERIAL ERRORS, OMISSIONS, OR INACCURACIES IN THE REPORTING OF THE SUBSTANCE OF THE CONFERENCE CALLS. IN NO WAY DOES THOMSON FINANCIAL OR THE APPLICABLE COMPANY OR THE APPLICABLE COMPANY ASSUME ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY INVESTMENT OR OTHER DECISIONS MADE BASED UPON THE INFORMATION PROVIDED ON THIS WEB SITE OR IN ANY EVENT TRANSCRIPT. USERS ARE ADVISED TO REVIEW THE APPLICABLE COMPANY'S CONFERENCE CALL ITSELF AND THE APPLICABLE COMPANY'S SEC FILINGS BEFORE MAKING ANY INVESTMENT OR OTHER DECISIONS.] [Copyright: Content copyright 2018 Thomson Financial. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Electronic format, layout and metadata, copyright 2018 ASC LLC (www.ascllc.net) ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No license is granted to the user of this material other than for research. User may not reproduce or redistribute the material except for user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon Thomson Financial's or ASC's copyright or other proprietary rights or interests in the material; provided, however, that members of the news media may redistribute limited portions (less than 250 words) of this material without a specific license from Thomson Financial and ASC so long as they provide conspicuous attribution to Thomson Financial and ASC as the originators and copyright holders of such material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation.]
Subject: Copyright; Chief executive officers; Presidents; Leadership
Location: New York
People: Trump, Donald J
Company / organization: Name: Thomson Financial; NAICS: 511210, 518210, 519190
Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Apr 25, 2018
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: Linthicum
Country of publication: United States, Linthicum
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Law--Corporate Law
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2036849307
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2036849307?accountid=4840
Copyright: 2018 Thomson Financial and ASC LLC
Last updated: 2018-05-22
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 223 of 474
Calendar: Highlights from around town
Author: Daily Pilot Staff
Publication info: Los Angeles Times (Online) , Los Angeles: Tribune Interactive, LLC. Apr 26, 2018. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: A roundup of community events throughout Orange County. To submit items, email [email protected] APRIL 27 Joey Alexander Trio Joey Alexander, a renowned teenage pianist, will be performing with his trio at 7:30 p.m. at Musco Center for the Arts at Chapman University at One University Drive, Orange. For more information, visit muscocenter.org/event/joey-alexander-trio/. TILL APRIL 27 Witte Lectures The Newport Beach Public Library Foundation will hold the 21st annual Witte Lectures, featuring speakers David Frum, Masha Gessen and Maira Kalman from February through April. The events will be held at the library at 1000 Avocado Ave. For more information, visit www.nbplfoundation.org/content/The-Witte-Lectures.html. APRIL 28 Doheny Wood Car Show The annual Doheny Wood woodie car show will be held from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Doheny State Beach at 25300 Dana Point Harbor Drive, Dana Point. The show is free but park admission is $15 — seniors cost $14. For more information, visit www.socalwoodies.com. Brent Green Visual artist and filmmaker Brent Green will feature an evening of his works, including “A Brief Spark Bookended by Darkness,” “Carlin,” “Paulina Hollers” and “Strange Fates.” The event will be held at 7:30 p.m. at Frida Cinema at 305 E. 4th St. #100, Santa Ana. For tickets, visit www.santaanasites.com. APRIL 29 Laguna Beach Chamber Singers The Laguna Beach Chamber Singers will perform music from Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and others at 7 p.m. at Laguna Beach Presbyterian Church at 415 Forest Ave. For more information, visit LBChambersinger.org. APRIL 30 Fashion Show Heritage Pointe, an assisted-living senior community in Mission Viejo, will be holding its 28th annual spring luncheon, fashion show and shopping boutique at 11:45 a.m. at the Irvine Marriott Hotel at 18000 Von Karman Ave. General admission tickets are $90. For more information, visit www.heritagepointe.org. MAY 3 Sherman Library and Gardens Sherman Library and Gardens will host a special artist reception from 5 to 8 p.m. where attendees can meet the artists featured at the garden’s private garden tour. Plein air paintings will be on display and for sale. To RSVP, call (949) 673-2261 or email [email protected]. MAY 3 TILL 5 Totally Radtrofest The Huntington Beach Academy for the Performing Arts will present Totally Radtrofest, featuring 1980s-related entertainment. Tickets can be purchased at www.hbapa.org/see. TILL MAY 5 UC Irvine Art Student Exhibit The Newport Beach City Arts Commission will host “Uncommon Goods: Artist Book as Object,” a special exhibit featuring the work of 25 University of California Irvine art students, at the Newport Beach Public Library at 1000 Avocado Ave., Newport Beach TILL MAY 6 ‘Sister Act’ The Costa Mesa Playhouse will conclude 53 seasons of shows with the hit musical, “Sister Act.” Performances are 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays at the playhouse at 661 Hamilton St., Costa Mesa. For more information, visit www.costamesaplayhouse.com. MAY 15 Jennifer Newsom The Newport Beach Public Library will host an event featuring Jennifer Newsom — documentary writer, director, producer and wife of Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom — at 6:30 p.m. at the Central Library Friends Room, 1000 Avocado Ave., Newport Beach. TILL MAY 30 Russell Pierce The work of famed artist Russell Pierce will be on display at the Community Art Project gallery at 260 Ocean Ave., on the second floor near the Wells Fargo building in Laguna Beach. For more information, visit www.caplaguna.org. TILL JUNE 21 California Impressionists The “Harmony of Light: Spring in California” exhibit will be displayed at the Irvine Museum of Collection at the University of California, Irvine, 18881 Von Karman Ave. The showcase features paintings from California impressionists depicting springtime in the state. For more information, visit irvinemuseumcollection.uci.edu/event/harmony-light-spring-california/. TILL AUG. 9 Rainforest Adventure A Rainforest Adventure exhibit is featured at Discovery Cube at 2500 N. Main St., Santa Ana. For more information, visit www.oc.discoverycube.org. MAY 3 Nathan Turner Nathan Turner, an acclaimed designer, will be holding a book signing from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Newport Beach Design Shop at 3636 Newport Blvd. For more information and to RSVP, email [email protected] MAY 4 TILL 6 OC Music Fest The Orange County Music Festival will be returning to Lakeview Park near Irvine Lake at 5305 E. Santiago Canyon Road, Orange. The weekend music and camping festival is returning after a three-year hiatus. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.oc-musicfest.com/. MAY 5 HER Wellness Tea Hoag will host a women’s event, HER Wellness Tea, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Hoag for Her Center for Wellness at 500 Superior Ave., Suite 315, Newport Beach. Experts will discuss health, empowerment and relationships. Tickets are $25. To register, call 800-400-HOAG (4624). For more information, visit https://bit.ly/2xkS7xu. Kontrapunktus Kontrapunktus, a neo-baroque ensemble, will perform at 8 p.m. at Mission Basilica Catholic Church at 31520 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano. The program, “Mentors, Pupils and Scions,” will consist of music from legendary baroque composers. For more information, visit www.kontrapunktus.com. MAY 12 Like Totally Festival The third annual Like Totally Festival will be held from noon to 9 p.m. at Huntington State Beach. The event will feature bands from the 1980s. For more information, visit www.liketotallyfestival.com/event-information. Cuñao’s Canción del Inmigrante Cuñao’s Canción del Inmigrante — an outdoor evening of storytelling told through sound, puppetry, and community created folk art — will be held at 8 p.m. at the Bowers Museum at 2002 N. Main St., Santa Ana. The free, community-based production is a multimedia “opera” with puppetry, song and dance. For more information, visit www.santaanasites.com. MAY 12 TILL AUG. 11 Farmer’s Market A farmer’s market will be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the second Saturday of each month at SOCO and the OC Mix at 3315 Hyland Ave., Costa Mesa. There will be live music, chef's demos and a variety of family-friendly activities. For more information, visit bit.ly/SOCOFarmers. MAY 17 Newport Harbor Home and Garden Tour The 21st Annual Newport Harbor Home and Garden Tour will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The event will showcase six Newport Beach homes with ocean views and a variety of architectural and interior styles by local designers. For more information, visit newportharborhometour.com/. MAY 18 Literacy Author Luncheon The 11th annual Gift of Literacy Author Luncheon, presented by Newport/Mesa ProLiteracy, will be held at 11:30 a.m. at the Pacific Club at 4111 MacArthur Blvd., Newport Beach. The luncheon will feature a speech from author Janelle Brown, who penned the novels, “Watch Me Disappear,” “All We Ever Wanted Was Everything,” and “This Is Where We Live.” Tickets cost $95 and include a copy of the book “Watch Me Disappear.” For more information, visit www.newportliteracy.org. MAY 18 TILL 20 Fiesta The Saint Edward Parish Fiesta will be held from 5 to 10 p.m. May 18, noon to 10 p.m. May 19 and noon to 8 p.m. May 20 at 33926 Calle La Primavera, Dana Point. The free event will feature carnival rides, games and live entertainment. For more information, visit www.stedwardfiesta.org. MAY 20 Orange County Wind Symphony The Orange County Wind Symphony will perform “Heritage of Britain” at 6:30 p.m. at Anaheim Performing Arts Center at Servite, 1952 W. La Palma Ave., Anaheim. For more information, visit www.ocsymphony.org/. MAY 26 Mariachi Los Camperos Two-time Grammy Award-winner Mariachi Los Camperos will perform at the Musco Center for the Arts at 7:30 p.m. For tickets, visit www.muscocenter.org/. MAY 27 Natalia Lafourcade Grammy Award-winning musician Natalia Lafourcade will perform at 6 p.m. at Musco Center for the Arts at Chapman University at One University Drive, Orange. For more information, visit muscocenter.org/event/natalia-lafourcade/. JUNE 9 Children’s Bureau The Children’s Bureau, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit, will be holding a fundraiser for the prevention and treatment of child abuse from 6 to 9:30 p.m. at Oak Creek Golf Club at One Golf Club Drive, Irvine. A ticket costs $300. For more information, visit www.all4kids.org/soiree. JUNE 17 Matt Mauser Matt Mauser will perform a celebration of the music of Frank Sinatra from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Civic Center Green at 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach. The free concert is presented by the Newport Beach City Arts Commission as part of a Newport Beach concert series. JULY 15 The Springsteen Experience The Springsteen Experience will perform from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Civic Center Green at 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach. The free concert is presented by the Newport Beach City Arts Commission as part of a Newport Beach concert series. JULY 16 TILL 20 AND JULY 23 TILL 27 Designer Camp Designer Camp — a design-based summer camp — will feature workshops where kids ages 11 to 17 can learn about various careers within the design industry. The program will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day at the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity at 3321 Hyland Ave., Costa Mesa. There will be two different events — one spanning July 16 to 20 and another from July 23 to 27. For more information or to register online, visit https://bit.ly/2qbc1GN. AUG. 6 Teeing for Tusks A golf tournament will be held to fund programs that support anti-poaching efforts in Africa. “Teeing for Tusks” will run from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at Monarch Beach Golf Links at 50 Monarch Beach Resort, Dana Point. A single golfer entree is $300 and a team of four is $1,200. Register at charityvalet.com/tusks18. AUG. 12 Tijuana Dogs The Tijuana Dogs will perform from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Civic Center Green at 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach. The free concert is presented by the Newport Beach City Arts Commission as part of a Newport Beach concert series. SEPT. 9 Desperado Eagles Tribute The Desperado Eagles Tribute will perform from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Civic Center Green at 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach. The free concert is presented by the Newport Beach City Arts Commission as part of a Newport Beach concert series. ONGOING Farmers’ Market The SOCO Farmers’ Market, held at 3315 Hyland Ave., Costa Mesa, is from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays and features coffee and pastry shops, home decor, and fashion. For more information, visit farmermark.com/soco. Wetlands tour Amigos de Bolsa Chica hosts a tour of the wetlands from 9 to 10:30 a.m. the first Saturday of every month, departing every 15 minutes from the footbridge in the south parking lot of the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve. The tour is led by docents and participants will learn about the birds, endangered species, history, ecology and restoration of the wetlands. For more information, call (714) 840-1575 or email [email protected]. Walking Club The Newport-Mesa Walking Club offers free walks at 9 a.m. and 7 pm. Mondays through Saturdays. For more information, call (949) 600-0966. Monthly Beach Cleanup Community beach cleanups are held on the first Saturday of the month from 10 a.m. to noon. In Laguna Beach, the cleanup locations with supplies are Hobie Sport, Thalia Surf, El Ranchito and United Studios of Self Defense. Participants can ask for “zero trash discounts.” For more information, email Chip McDermott at [email protected]. Hortense Miller Garden The Hortense Miller Garden covers 2 1/2 acres of the upper slopes of Boat Canyon and features a range of plants and small themed gardens. Tours through the garden and private residence are at 9:45 a.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, and must be scheduled two weeks in advance. For more information, call (949) 497-0716, ext. 6. Preschool Stories The Laguna Beach Public Library, 363 Glenneyre St., presents Preschool Story Time at 11 a.m. Wednesdays, followed by cookies and punch. For more information, call (949) 497-1733. Susi Q Needle Art Guild The Needle Art Guilt meets at the Susi Q Senior Center from 1 to 3:30 p.m. the last Friday of each month to create various items for local organizations, including Mission Hospital's oncology unit and the Friendship Shelter. All ages and levels of knitters and crocheters are welcome. In addition, a new needle art technique will be discussed each month. Yarn and monetary donations are always appreciated. This is a free activity. For more information, call (949) 497-2241. Newland House Tour The historic Newland House Museum, 19820 Beach Blvd., Huntington Beach, offers tours from local historians who provide information about the two-story Victorian home built in 1898. The museum is open from noon to 4 p.m. the first and third Saturday and Sunday of the month. Cost is $2 for adults, $1 for children. For information, call (714) 960-0055. Crafty Kids Club Huntington Beach Central Library hosts Crafty Kids Club at 2 p.m. Saturdays at the library, at 7111 Talbert Ave. Children about 5 through 9 years old are invited to enjoy stories and related crafts. Call (714) 375-5107. Press zero to speak with a librarian. Laptime Storytime The Huntington Beach Library presents Laptime Storytime at 9:15, 10 and 11 a.m. Tuesdays and 10 a.m. Saturdays at 7111 Talbert Ave. for children 18 months to 3 years old. The library's Preschool Storytime for children 3 to 5 are at 10 and 11 a.m. Fridays. Call (714) 375-5107. Bolsa Chica Walking Tour A two-hour walking tour of the Bolsa Chica mesa and wetlands is conducted at 10 a.m. on the third Sunday of every month by the Bolsa Chica Land Trust. This docent-led tour makes five stops along the walk bridge and loop trails of the wetlands. Meet in the south reserve parking lot on Pacific Coast Highway across from Bolsa Chica State Beach. Warm clothing, comfortable shoes and binoculars are recommended. Tours are free and open to the public. Call (714) 846-1001 or go to bolsachicalandtrust.org. Newport Beach Walking Club A Newport Beach walking club meets 7 to 8.30 p.m. Monday to Friday at the Union Bank parking lot on Jamboree and Bayside Road. To join call Loyda at (949) 600-0966. Tutoring People can volunteer to tutor children each week at El Morro Elementary School at 8681 N. Coast Highway, Laguna Beach. The tutoring sessions are provided by the Learning Club, which operates two afternoons a week from January to May. For more information, visit aauw2-lagunabeach.org. Photography Contest The Newport Beach City Arts Commission is holding a photography contest through April 15. Contestants can submit pictures of a series of new sculptures at Civic Center Park at 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach. Submissions should be emailed to [email protected]. For more information, visit www.newportbeachca.gov/culturalarts. Credit: Daily Pilot Staff
Subject: Puppetry; Gardens & gardening; Public speaking; Fashion shows; Musicians & conductors; Books; Visual artists; Museums; Singers; Festivals; Music; Tutoring; Museum exhibits; Public libraries; Art; Walking; Baroque era; Painting
Location: Huntington Beach California Newport Beach California Costa Mesa California Laguna Beach California California Bolsa Chica
People: Turner, Nathan
Publication title: Los Angeles Times (Online); Los Angeles
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Apr 26, 2018
Section: Socal - Daily Pilot - Entertainment
Publisher: Tribune Interactive, LLC
Place of publication: Los Angeles
Country of publication: United States, Los Angeles
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Blogs, Podcasts, & Websites
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2031467571
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2031467571?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Tribune Interactive, LLC Apr 26, 2018
Last updated: 2019-03-01
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 224 of 474
Q1 2018 Praxair Inc Earnings Call - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]26 Apr 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Presentation OPERATOR: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Praxair First Quarter 2018 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Mr. Juan Pelaez, Director of Investor Relations. Sir, you may begin. JUAN PELAEZ, DIRECTOR OF IR, PRAXAIR, INC.: Thanks, Bridget. Good morning, and thank you for attending our first quarter earnings call and webcast. I'm joined this morning by Matt White, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; and Kelcey Hoyt, Vice President and Controller. Today's presentation materials are available on our website at praxair.com in the Investors section. Please read the forward-looking statement disclosure on Page 2 of the slides and note that it applies to all statements made during this teleconference. In addition, please note that year-over-year and sequential comparisons exclude transaction costs and other charges largely related to the potential merger with Linde. The reconciliations to the U.S. GAAP reported numbers are in the appendix to this presentation and the press release. Matt and I will now review Praxair's first quarter results, including the current business environment, and provide our earnings guidance for the second quarter. We will then be available to answer your questions. Let me turn the call over to Matt. MATTHEW J. WHITE, SENIOR VP & CFO, PRAXAIR, INC.: Thanks, Juan, and good morning, everyone. First quarter results were quite strong with 10% sales and 20% EPS growth compared to prior year. Volume and price improvements were obtained across every segment and end market, which supported an operating margin expansion of 140 basis points. A little under half of the volume growth came from the startup of backlog projects in North America and Asia. In fact, 1/3 or $500 million started up in the first quarter this year, yet we held the backlog constant at $1.5 billion with new customer contract wins. So while the backlog may be steady, it is from continual turnover of new project wins replacing those that are removed due to starting up which clearly helps grow our earnings and returns. And while the global team focused on delivering these results, we continued to make good progress on the merger with Linde. I'll speak to that more on an upcoming slide. But first, I'd like to provide a brief update of global business trends, which you can find on Slide 4. North America is our second fastest-growing region supported by the industrial recovery in the U.S. Over half of the 4% volume growth was driven by improvements in chemicals from new investments starting up in the U.S. Gulf Coast and manufacturing as the U.S. package business continues to grow high single digits. And higher volumes in the metals, electronics and resilient end markets of food, beverage and health care more than offset a 1% decline related to customer turnarounds in the Gulf Coast. There was modest recovery in the upstream energy business, especially in U.S. and Mexico, from increased well completion activity. However, this growth was from a very low base as volumes are still significantly below peak levels. Overall pricing in the region has been improving along with inflation, enabling margin expansion over both prior year and the fourth quarter. Project bidding opportunity in the U.S. Gulf Coast remains healthy. Despite the recent large startups, the current backlog has over $750 million of U.S. projects under construction, and we're still confident in winning new projects over the next several quarters. South America continues to lag all of the regions and now comprises only 12% of global sales and 8% of global operating profit. Volume growth was slightly better than prior year but 3% lower than the fourth quarter due to the seasonal effects of Carnival and Easter holiday. The primary driver of growth relates to on-site metals customers as their volumes ramped up to meet slightly higher demand. However, several of those customers are still below take-or-pay levels. A combination of pricing and cost actions have enabled some margin expansion from prior year, but frankly, South America will remain a challenging place until there is more clarity around the direction of Brazilian politics. Europe continues to be a steady, stable grower, with underlying growth rates improving 3%. Volume growth occurred across every major end market, although metals and manufacturing comprised half of the improvement with a pickup in industrial activity. Resilient markets also remain strong as we continue to identify new growth opportunities with the acquired CO2 business. There are a few signs of inflation returning to the economy, primarily in the form of higher power costs, which are driving passthrough up 2% versus prior year. These trends are enabling some pricing opportunities up 1%, but more efforts are underway to recover the cost inflation. Asia is our fastest-growing region, with sales up 21% and operating profit up 39% from 2017 first quarter. While foreign currency appreciation is driving about 7% of the growth, underlying conditions remain quite robust across China, India and Korea. The 11% higher volumes are roughly split between project startups and organic growth, with project startups supporting energy and electronics end markets and the industrial recovery supporting increases in chemicals, manufacturing and metals. The pricing improvement of 3% primarily relates to merchant gases in China as structural supply challenges have eased with the closing of several liquefiers attached to Tier 2 and Tier 3 steel mills. And earlier this week, we announced Praxair's single largest project win, where we will build, own and operate high-purity nitrogen plants for Samsung's newly constructed fab in Pyeongtaek, South Korea. In addition to this win, there are several other opportunities to support the growing demand for electronic devices. And finally, in our PST business, aerospace continues to grow high single to low double digits, while oil and gas is making a modest recovery. Our aviation business has been making significant investments towards capacity expansion to serve the growing demand for aircraft engine coatings, and we anticipate continued ramping of revenues for the next several quarters. So in summary, the synchronized industrial recovery, coupled with timely startups of the project backlog, have led to 5% volume growth, spread across every end market and segment. Furthermore, pockets of growing inflation have enabled higher pricing attainment in certain regions. The combination of the volume and price contribution have expanded overall operating margins for the fourth consecutive quarter. This backdrop, coupled with U.S. tax reform, appears to be supporting more customer capital investments and, thus, opportunity to increase our project backlog above the current $1.5 billion level. Before Juan provides more details on the financial results, I'd like to offer a brief update on the merger with Linde, which you will find on Slide 5. You may recall, at the start of this process, we defined 3 key phases required to complete the merger. The first 2 phases, defining the structure and value creation with the execution of the BCA and obtaining all necessary shareholder approvals through the Praxair vote and Linde tender, have both been achieved. As planned, we are now deep into the third phase, which includes obtaining appropriate regulatory approval and finalizing any relevant remedies associated with those approvals. The slide shows a high-level time line of actions underway and milestones required to close the merger by the BaFin-mandated long stop date in October of this year. The joint team continues to have constructive dialogue with all regulators and is actively engaged with potential buyers of asset divestitures. Overall, we feel quite good about our progress and ability to complete remaining milestones within the required time line. However, as you can imagine, this is a particularly important phase involving many outside parties, so I appreciate your understanding that we simply are not in a position at this time to answer any questions on merger progress or details of ongoing discussions with regulators or potential asset buyers. I fully expect that formal updates will occur at appropriate times when decisions become binding. But until then, the team is internally focused on the task at hand. I'd now like to hand it off to Juan to review the first quarter results. JUAN PELAEZ: Thanks, Matt. Please turn to Slide 6 in our presentation for our consolidated results. Sales of just under $3 billion were 10% higher than last year and up 2% sequentially. The table in the upper right breaks down the drivers to the sales variance, and you can see the volume is the largest contributor with 5% growth versus last year. When comparing to prior year, every major end market grew, led by chemicals, electronics and metals. From a segment perspective, Asia and North America had the largest organic growth from a combination of continued recovery in industrial markets and project contribution. Globally, of our total volume, more than half came from the base business, and the rest was driven by project startups. Sequentially, volumes are flat as first quarter is seasonally slower, primarily due to Lunar New Year and the timing of Easter. Furthermore, U.S. Gulf Coast customers underwent significant turnarounds, which offset the volume growth in the rest of our North American businesses. In Europe, volumes grew sequentially 1%, led by the manufacturing end market, more specifically, in Spain and Germany. South America and Asia were seasonally weaker due to the holidays in the first quarter. Sequentially, end market trends were also consistent with expectations as the industrial growth seen globally was offset by the energy drop in the turnarounds. The price/mix improvement of 2% was achieved from focused price actions across all our segments, primarily led by Asia and North America. As mentioned earlier, Asian merchant had the strongest price attainment, led by China, where structural challenges have eased coupled with a growing economy. Currency translation was favorable 3%, primarily from strengthening of the euro, Canadian dollar, Chinese RMB and the Mexican peso. Operating profit of $672 million was $99 million or 17% better than last year and $16 million or 2% better than the fourth quarter. Operating margins improved 140 basis points year-over-year and 20 basis points sequentially, led by overall strong fundamentals in the base business, positive pricing, good volume growth and tightly managed costs. Operating cash flow was $688 million, $22 million below prior year quarter, mainly driven by foreign withholding tax payments of $65 million in the first quarter. Capital expenditures were $325 million, and as a result, our free cash flow was $363 million, which we used primarily to pay dividends and reduce net debt by $86 million. We fully expect an improvement in next quarter's cash flow, in line with prior trends. Project backlog closed the quarter at $1.5 billion after starting up 3 new projects in the U.S., one of them being Yara Freeport. We also announced 2 new on-site project wins in South Korea for the electronics end market, which add up to $0.5 billion. As we continue with this backlog cadence of wins and startups, our incremental 3% EPS growth from project contribution will extend additional years. Return on capital has steadily been rising for the past 4 quarters, now reaching 13%. As we continue to grow earnings, execute our backlog and manage cash generation, we expect our return on capital improving throughout 2018. With that, now I'll turn the call back to Matt. MATTHEW J. WHITE: Please turn to Slide 7. For the second quarter, EPS guidance range is $1.67 to $1.72, which represents 14% to 18% growth from last year. Year-over-year currency tailwind is anticipated to be lower than the first quarter as we begin to lap easier prior year comps, especially in the euro, Canadian dollar and Mexican peso. The tax rate is still expected in the range of 23% to 25% and likely closer to the middle of that range, consistent with the first quarter. Excluding tax and currency, this guidance represents a double-digit growth rate, driven by an assumption of similar levels of demand continuing through June. To sum things up, we had a very good start to the year and are anticipating a continuation into the second quarter. The Praxair team has been able to capitalize on an industrial recovery through higher organic volume growth and securing new on-site contracts. In addition, the recent reflation effect in certain economies has presented pricing opportunities that have not been present for several years. A combination of these factors should enable continued growth with positive operating margin expansion. I'd now like to turn the call over to Q&A. Questions and Answers OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Duffy Fischer with Barclays. PATRICK DUFFY FISCHER, DIRECTOR AND SENIOR CHEMICAL ANALYST, BARCLAYS BANK PLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: You guys announced with Linde 2 days ago that you would look to buy back potentially the 8% holdout that didn't tender. Can you just walk through the technical aspects of that, the time line, kind of assuming a close date as x, how that would play out? And then can you do partial or do you have to do all 8% if you decide to do it? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Yes, Duffy, I'm not going to get into a lot of details of the process. That will come out in due time. But I can say that it's a very structured process that under BaFin, it's something that we will follow per the regulatory requirements. And the Linde team and the Linde group will announce each step as it's appropriate. But at this point, there's nothing more I can add to that process. PATRICK DUFFY FISCHER: Okay. Fair enough. And then if you would go to China, the environmental stuff has been a good new story around them shutting down second-tier steel, which brings some liquid off the market. Do you see that continuing? Or has the bulk of that already happened from what you can see and we're still anniversarying up, but there's not going to be other steps of improvement there? MATTHEW J. WHITE: I'd say it remains to be seen. Clearly, we've been seeing it happen over the last several quarters. I think when you look to China as far as capacity, last numbers I saw, I think it was about 1.2 billion, 1.2 billion tons a year of steel capacity if you add it all up. Now not all of them are running. So clearly, the ones that are not running and have not been running won't have much of an impact. But I would say the combination of the industrial sort of growth with these coming out is creating a pretty good dynamic there. And given the amount of steel capacity, I do think there's probably a few more innings for that to happen, but it just remains to be seen. OPERATOR: Our next question is from Michael Sison with KeyBanc. MICHAEL JOSEPH SISON, MD & EQUITY RESEARCH ANALYST, KEYBANC CAPITAL MARKETS INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: When you think about the Linde merger, I know you can't talk about the process, but any updated thoughts on the value creation potential, particularly it does seem like demand overall is getting better and pricing is a little bit better. So if you think through that, as you get in [Tier 1], maybe just give us your thoughts there. MATTHEW J. WHITE: I would just say, I mean, again, we won't get to a lot of details, but still, I have confidence on the value creation, still have confidence in the ability to deliver on the stated synergies and cost efficiencies. But clearly, our industry as a whole is doing quite well. I think you're seeing good numbers across the board. I think the Linde report yesterday was quite good. So I think the combination of us seeing a lot of return to growth collectively creates opportunities for all of us. And I think that's good. And it would be great timing to come into a merger like this in a nice upswing in the economy. So I think it's all pretty good from my perspective. MICHAEL JOSEPH SISON: Great. And quick follow-up on Brazil. I'm just trying to get a tempo. Is it getting better? Or is it not getting better? And in terms of the industrial activity side, is -- what's the potential if demand does improve over time? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Yes, I think that's the million dollar question, Mike. When you look at the numbers that we have in our segment, it's slight improvement year-over-year. Obviously, sequential will be affected by the normal seasonal declines. So when you look year-over-year, a little bit of improvement. As I mentioned in the prepared remarks, we have seen steel volumes tick up, not a lot of benefit to us given most of those were under take-or-pay. Usually, in my experience, when you see the infrastructure like metals and things start to ramp up, that tends to be a good sign of some form of an industrial recovery. But that all being said, the uncertainty around the elections -- and it's not just obviously Brazil, you have a similar situation in Colombia. You've got some situations going on politically in Peru. But I think when you add it all together, Brazil as the biggest one, we just won't have a lot of good idea in terms of how the politics will be run, how businesses will be viewed until the election in October. And right now, frankly, we're not even sure of the candidates. So when clarity comes around that, I think it could hopefully -- it'll have an effect on confidence one way or the other. But if it gives some confidence that there'll be a more, I'll say, business-friendly approach, I think you will start to see some investments. But I think most people are waiting, and it's probably prudent, and we'll just see. And so from that perspective, small improvements here and there. The resilient markets still continue to do well, and that was an area we had a lot of focus. But until then, we've been managing costs pretty tightly. We are getting some price, and we just got to work through these next quarters until there's more clarity. OPERATOR: Our next question is from the line of Jeff Zekauskas with JPMorgan. JEFFREY JOHN ZEKAUSKAS, SENIOR ANALYST, JP MORGAN CHASE & CO, RESEARCH DIVISION: There's a EUR 3.7 billion limit to divestitures in the combination. The industrial gas industry, though, is now growing quite nicely. Does that EUR 3.7 billion number get affected by the growth in the industry? Or is it some kind of look-back number? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Yes, Jeff. I'll just state that our BCA is public. That was part of the S-4 filing we did last year, and you'll find that, that threshold is a set number. It's based on a certain exchange ratio, but it's a set number. So it's not a moving number other than we fixed the exchange ratio. JEFFREY JOHN ZEKAUSKAS: If it turns out that Praxair -- the combination divested all of Praxair's European operations and all of Linde's North American operations exclusive of Lincare and exclusive of the engineering business, would that keep you under your threshold? JUAN PELAEZ: Yes, Jeff. As I stated in the prepared remarks, we're not going to discuss anything related to potential divestitures or regulatory at this time. Our team is actively working on this with the appropriate parties, and we're just not in a position to talk about this in a public way. OPERATOR: Our next question is from Vincent Andrews with Morgan Stanley. VINCENT STEPHEN ANDREWS, MD, MORGAN STANLEY, RESEARCH DIVISION: Just wondering if you can dig in a bit more on the North American price/mix being up 2%. Can you just give a sense of how much of that was driven by the merchant business versus the pure packaged gas business? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Yes. So we're seeing pretty much across the board low to mid-single-digit pricing. As you know, that 2% we show is only for, as you stated, the packaged and merchant. It's divided by the entire revenues, so it doesn't include on-site. So the real pricing we're getting is a little better than that. And what we're seeing is pretty good pricing opportunity across the board, primarily in U.S., although we are seeing some inflation in Canada and we're getting some of that back in pricing. And Mexico, as you know, has the higher inflation of both regions, so we're tracking to that as well. So we're seeing pretty consistently low to mid-single-digit opportunities as costs are going up. You're seeing power costs go up in certain regions. We're seeing distribution costs going up in certain regions. So as the team goes out to recover that and get [it in] pricing, and that's what we're able to see right now. VINCENT STEPHEN ANDREWS: And then just in terms of the backlog, you kind of said a couple of things. One was that it stayed flat because projects are coming in or going out about the same size, but there's an opportunity for the backlog to go up. And I guess I'm just wondering, can you speak to what you think the return profile of the backlog is, both as we move through this year and as you add new projects to it? Do you think the opportunity is for returns to go up, stay flat or where do you think things are? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Well, as you can imagine, when we make decisions to add projects to the backlog, these are multi-decade views. So we're not just looking at right now and what's going on right now because these are projects, if you do it right, then it will be with you for several decades. So from that perspective, I'd say the return profiles are still fairly consistent with how we've always viewed it and what our criteria is. And we will look at things like risk and reward, and we continue to do that. And we want to make the appropriate decisions on what we invest in. And from that perspective, I'd say there's not a lot of different things. But we are seeing more opportunities. And part of it, clearly, as we stated, is in the U.S. I think tax reform will help that a little bit. And the rest of it primarily is in Asia. And these are continued opportunities in our pre-backlog, and we feel pretty good about it right now. OPERATOR: And our next question is from Laurence Alexander with Jefferies. LAURENCE ALEXANDER, VP & EQUITY RESEARCH ANALYST, JEFFERIES LLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: Two quick ones. I know there's not much you can say about the BaFin process on the takeouts of the stock. But I guess one question that keeps coming up is the price setting mechanism, is that a court modulated mechanism? Or is that a -- effectively similar to going into an equity market and trying to buy up the available shares at market prices with the volatility that goes with that? Secondly, as your utilization rates are improving, are you finding any areas where your maintenance costs are slipping on the upside and you're seeing a little bit more costs than you had expected for your maintenance budget? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Okay, Laurence. I think I got the first question, but the second one I may have to clarify because it kind of cut in and out a bit. But I will state this much on the squeeze out process. As I mentioned, it is a structured process, and my best understanding of how it works is that there will be a 3-month volume-weighted average price based 3 months back from the time of the announcement. And then there will be an independent, what's called an IDW S1, valuation. You may recall, one was done on the consolidated merger at the time of the filing of the S-4 and the tender offer. So both of those will be viewed as 2 different valuations, and the higher of those 2 will be determined. It's quite structured, and that is underway with the announcement, then the valuation will be initiated to be done by an independent party. So this is all per the German requirements, and there's really nothing as an organization that we would do different. We would follow the regulations as required. Your second question, I think, was something on utilizations, but I missed the back end of it. Can you maybe repeat that, please? LAURENCE ALEXANDER: Sure, sure. So the other question was just as utilization rates pick up, are you seeing some of your assets or maybe some of your older units slip up and, therefore, your maintenance budget is moving higher than you would have expected a couple of years ago? MATTHEW J. WHITE: No. I think we continue to maintain our plants as always regardless of the utilization rates. You've got to do the maintenance appropriately. Clearly, when plants run at higher utilization rates, there's a sweet spot, right, that you like to run them at. When you're bringing them up and down, that's when it gets more difficult, frankly, when you've got to thaw plants and re-bring them to cryogenic. But right now, I'd say nothing different than what we normally experience and clear that we continue to invest in our plants, as you can imagine, regardless of what the utilization rates are at. OPERATOR: Our next question is from David Begleiter with Deutsche Bank. DAVID L. BEGLEITER, MD AND SENIOR RESEARCH ANALYST, DEUTSCHE BANK AG, RESEARCH DIVISION: Matt, very strong numbers in the packaged gases in the U.S., up 9%, clearly above end market activity. So what's driving that above-market growth? Was it an easy comp or some other factors? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Yes, David, as you may recall, packaged was one of our laggards probably a year ago, so we're having a pretty nice recovery. And when I look across the end markets and our geographies in the U.S. of kind of Central, North, Southeast, West, it really is broad-based. I mean, we're seeing it across every single packaged end market. Most of them are double-digit. Manufacturing is not quite double-digit, which is clearly our largest. But we're seeing improvements in our cylinder gases, dry ice. We're seeing a lot of improvements in Tier 2 auto. Aerospace continues to be quite strong. So I would say it's across the board. And we are seeing some pickup in upstream oil a little bit as well. That's something coming off a low base, but that's also an area where we're seeing some improved growth. So there's no one market I could point to right now. And when you look at the industrial production in the U.S., I think that's been boding well for a lot of these packaged end markets. You're just seeing it across the board. So we feel pretty good, especially the remainder of this year, in our packaged business. I think the numbers continue to be strong, and it's been a nice run. And as we said in the past, when that business recovers, it recovers with some fairly good leverage, and that's what we've been experiencing. So we've been quite happy with that as well. DAVID L. BEGLEITER: Very good. And Matt, just on FX, what did FX add to EPS in Q1? And what do you expect for Q2? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Yes, David. So as you know, it's just translational for us. So the best rule of thumb is if you take what we show on the sales and just drop that down. So we had 3% in Q1, as we laid out in our sales walk, and that's a pretty good proxy to use on EPS. When you get our Qs by the segment analysis, you'll be able to see the OP effect within each segment on FX. But for the most part, it follows the top line. Q2, and when we look at our FX, we lock in the forward rates at the beginning of the month. Clearly, rates have moved here over the last couple of weeks, so it's pretty volatile. But I would say, we expect definitely something less than 3% for Q2, partly because Q2 of last year, the rates were stronger, the foreign rates vis-à-vis the dollar, than they were in Q1, so the comps get tougher. But also, I'd say, rates, at least on a couple week basis here, have gotten a little weaker on the foreign. So the combination of that 2 will put it something below 3%, could be 2%, could be 1%, based on where we're at now remains to be seen. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Stephen Byrne with Bank of America. STEVE BYRNE, DIRECTOR OF EQUITY RESEARCH, BOFA MERRILL LYNCH, RESEARCH DIVISION: When you exited your U.S. home respiratory care business, if I recall correctly, your gross margins were essentially offset by the SG&A expense. As you look forward post the potential merger, would you see anything that has changed this dynamic, either the size of your hospital business or the size of Lincare or any changes in this industry that would change the potential synergy here? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Yes. At this point, there's really nothing I could say to that. We're not in that business today as Praxair, so I don't know much about the dynamics and what's going on in that industry. So it's really -- I think if you want to understand more about what's happening and the dynamics, you're probably best suited to ask Linde directly on that question. STEVE BYRNE: Okay. And now where do you estimate your market share now in U.S. packaged gases business? And is that attractive enough for you to consider either greenfield or M&A bolt-ons? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Well, we continue to do M&A bolt-ons in our packaged business. They're quite small, so you don't tend to see them at the consolidated level. But we're continuing to roll up opportunities for mostly family-owned distribution businesses in the U.S. I'd say the opportunity set is lower now, partly with the recovery. People have some different views of valuations. So you're not seeing as many businesses be sold. But that's something we continue to do. And as you know, we sell gases and we sell hard goods. Clearly, the gases are better margins because we have the full producer economics. Hard goods, we play more of a distributor role. But the combined margins are something you would expect of a distributor a little better, frankly, given the gas that we have. But it's a good business, and it brings a lot of nice contribution for us. So when we find opportunistic acquisitions and ones that we can justify on synergies, we absolutely will continue to do them. But right now, it's in a nice part of the growth in that business, and we continue to invest in it. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Peter Clark with Societe Generale. PETER ANTHONY JOHN CLARK, SENIOR ANALYST, CHEMICALS, SOCIETE GENERALE CROSS ASSET RESEARCH: Matt, just a quick question on the backlog to begin with. I mean, obviously, you pointed at the electronics signatures and the Gulf Coast signatures at the beginning of the year. The backlog, obviously you've seen the sort of electronics come in 50-50 now in North America, Asia. Just wondering, clearly, you're pointing at some of the Gulf Coast signatures coming, how you see the geographical split of that backlog as we get towards the tail end of the year? Because you also actually pointed at more Asian signatures potentially. And then, specifically, on the backlog and certainly an opportunity like Freeport now is up and running, that's a pretty new hub for you. Just wondering how you see the opportunities in that sort of area developing given you have [the signature]. And then the last question, on the upstream energy, you pointed it coming off the bottom now. Certainly, some of the specialty chem players are indicating that their customers potentially might loosen on the cost consciousness they've had and might be spending a bit more money to get the oil and gas out or more of the oil and gas out. Just wondering if that's your feeling on fracking gases, if there's some momentum here that we can see during the year. MATTHEW J. WHITE: Okay, Peter. So I'll try to take them in order here. The first question on the backlog. The challenge, I think, of trying to project the split between, we'll call it, U.S. chemicals and refining North America versus Asian electronics is the project sizes are so lumpy, right? So the timing of when the projects come in could skew that. We still see a lot of quite large projects in the U.S. Gulf Coast as new opportunities, and they're both refining and petchem opportunities. With Asia, clearly, to your point, we've added some large electronics. There are others out there as well. So it depends on timing. I think we'll probably see a little more move back to U.S. and refining and energy in the coming quarters just based on where things are, but it just remains to be seen on the timing and when things are ultimately signed. But we feel pretty good about the trend on both. And frankly, I'm indifferent which one we get as long as these projects meet our criteria, which they do. So -- on Freeport, yes, we clearly feel good about having those assets there. Any time you have an opportunity to extend your network into a region and bring both atmospheric and process gases, we see as a very good thing. And so we continue to find some incremental opportunities off that, which we're pursuing. And we just continue to look for ways to extend the network. So I think it's something that we always like to do, and this is what we've been doing since our inception. And on upstream energy, to your point, yes, we are hearing things, people feeling a little bit better. Oil prices are higher. I think some of the regions like the Permian are getting crowded. It's getting more difficult to get product out. I think you're starting to see activity in other regions as pricing gets better. I would say, too, we probably saw a lot of what's called re-fracking of wells, not a lot of new wells, not a lot of new completions when prices were lower. Now that prices are higher and they've kind of exhausted, I think, a large backlog of existing wells, you've seeing people do a little more work, a little more drilling, probably new completions. And to your point, they see enough value that they're willing to expend more resources. So I think that it's a good sign, but we're still coming off a pretty low, low. So we've been experiencing double-digit growth, but it's got a long way to go, and it remains to be seen if it can ever get back to the level it was. But I'd say trends are good. The customer sentiment seems to be pretty good, and we're seeing some nice roll-up opportunities. And I'd say U.S. and Mexico is where we're seeing much more of the opportunity right now, as we said in the script. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Mike Harrison with Seaport Global Securities. MICHAEL JOSEPH HARRISON, MD & SENIOR CHEMICALS ANALYST, SEAPORT GLOBAL SECURITIES LLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: Matt, I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about the margin performance in South America. You had a sequential decline, or I guess, kind of any way you look at it, sales didn't decline very much, but margin declined quite a bit, 170 bps, sequentially. Is that the take-or-pay minimums coming into play there? Or can you maybe give a little more color on why we're seeing that swing in margin despite only a modest sequential decline in sales? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Yes, Mike. I'd say it's a combination of a couple of things. Sequentially, we're improving on volumes that are below take-or-pay. So to your point, you're getting top line but not really much margin on it. And in addition, with the normal seasonal patterns with Carnival and Easter and -- what we tend to see is you see a lot less merchant and packaged gases just because of normal seasonal shutdowns, which tend to be more favorable margin products. So the combination of those 2 effects, you've got a larger decline in sort of your packaged and merchant, which is hurting the margin, and then you've got some improvement in the on-site, which might be at a below take-or-pay level. And that combination is creating, on a sequential basis, an unfavorable margin. So looking at year-over-year sometimes helps get the seasonality piece out. And year-over-year, we are a little better, as you see, but still got a long ways to go to get back to the levels that we've become accustomed to in prior years. So we've got to work that out for us, but that sequential seasonal effect, plus these rising volumes in take-or-pay scenarios, aren't doing a lot to help margins right now. MICHAEL JOSEPH HARRISON: All right. And then I was wondering if you could give us a little color on what you're seeing in the helium market. It sounds like supply and demand are getting tighter again. Would that be a potential positive for your earnings going forward? MATTHEW J. WHITE: I think it could be. To your point, helium had a rough go for the last year, but supply has become constrained for a variety of different reasons. And we're starting to see some difficulty in maintaining supply and delivering supply across various accounts in the world for the product, which will probably provide some pricing opportunity. But helium has had, like I said, probably a rough year or so, and we do expect that it should do better here over the next year. OPERATOR: Our next question is from the line of John Roberts with UBS. JOHN EZEKIEL E. ROBERTS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND EQUITY RESEARCH ANALYST, CHEMICALS, UBS INVESTMENT BANK, RESEARCH DIVISION: In Surface Technologies, maybe you don't add coaters very often, so maybe this is a good opportunity to get a sense of the capital intensity in that business. How much does a new coater cost? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Well, John, I don't want to get into specifics on what a new coater costs, but I would say that it's a multiple-asset investment to meet the demand that we have for coating engine parts. So it's not just a single coater. This is capacity that we're expanding across a couple locations, and it's something that's material enough that we want to call it out. Clearly, we're ramping up costs. We're hiring people. We're training people. We have the facility costs. We're installing the equipment. So you front run the costs in a manufacturing environment like this, but the revenue will ramp over the next several quarters. So we feel good about the progress. The investments are going to plan, and the demand is there. We know that the opportunity set is there. So that's something that I expect will get better with each successive quarter, but we're in the middle of kind of ramping that capacity up right now. JOHN EZEKIEL E. ROBERTS: Okay. And is the tightness in the trucking market and the new rules for hours drivers can work having any effect on your business? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Well, we've dealt with, as you can imagine, lots of challenges over our -- since our inception of availability of drivers and difficulty obtaining drivers. We, like probably other folks in our industry, do a combination of internal employee drivers and using third-party contract carriers. So that's something we flex up and down based on what our volumes look like, based on availability to get contract drivers that meet our safety standards and meet our requirements to be a contractor for Praxair. So I would say, the current situation, we've seen things like this in the past, and we're probably doing a little more internal hiring of drivers than using third parties, just given some of the availability. But this is something that we're used to managing and will continue to manage. And as distribution costs rise and if they rise, that's something we need to go out and try to recover in the market, which is what we've been doing. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Bob Koort with Goldman Sachs. CHRISTOPHER MARK EVANS, ASSOCIATE, GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: This is Chris Evans on for Bob. I want to talk a little bit about the Asian price trajectory. It looks like you're going to start to lap some of the benefits next quarter. I just wanted to get a sense, just in the marketplace right now, is there enough support that you could see sequential price improvement later in the year and see continued year-over-year price gains? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Well, Chris, I mean, that's -- our objective is to try and do that. It remains to be seen. I would say that prior to a lot of these increases, the pricing in China was some of the lowest we have in the world. So there is an amount of room to catch up. Demand is pretty good. So we'll -- that's something that has to be seen. But clearly, the team, I think, is motivated and properly has the right metrics and have a look at this. But conditions are good right there and good right now, but it's still -- I think China has a ways to go before the pricing can be equivalent to what you see in other markets. So I don't know at this stage, but we'll have to see. CHRISTOPHER MARK EVANS: And then since we're seeing a strong uptick in some of the merchant and packaged businesses globally, can you kind of remind us of the potential for margin improvement as you increase utilization rates? What kind of algorithms or metrics should we look at as you get to fill up your plants in higher rates? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Well, our goal is to try and raise our margins every year. And if we can get 20 to 40 basis points, I think when you look at the average that we've experienced over a long range, that's something we've been able to deliver on fairly consistently. Clearly, at a time with pricing opportunities and expansion of volumes, that gives us a better opportunity to raise margins. We've done it now, as I mentioned, 4 consecutive quarters. We've got some pretty good year-over-year margin leverage for this first quarter. So this is something that we want to just make sure we capture. And the key is that we don't lose it, right? We don't allow cost inflation to offset it, and that's something that there's a lot of focus in the organization to ensure. So I think there is more opportunity. I think there's more improvement. I mean, I look at something like South America. When you look at it by region, South American margins are some of the lowest they've been. So any kind of improvement there will clearly help the overall margins. So it's just -- it's got to be kind of region by region and what we're able to do on organic volume and pricing, but I definitely think there's room for improvement. OPERATOR: Our next question is from Jim Sheehan with SunTrust. JAMES MICHAEL SHEEHAN, RESEARCH ANALYST, SUNTRUST ROBINSON HUMPHREY, INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: Matt, could you give us some flavor on your merchant utilization rates by region? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Sure. So starting in North America, what we're seeing is kind of low 80s. Argon is much tighter. You probably heard that from other calls. But on the LIN/LOX side, still kind of high 70s, low 80s, but we're continuing to see some upticks there. But for the most part, while it's different in the regions, pretty well loaded, but we still got a lot of room and capacity for further expansion. South America, it depends. LAR is quite low, low utilization, but excluding LAR, we're probably in the mid- to high 70s for most of our areas. But that's something that's been pretty flat for a while now in utilizations over the last couple of years. Not much movement there. Europe, again, I'd say mid-70s. LIN/LOX, so we definitely got some capacity and room there, although we have seen some incremental improvements. And then Asia is clearly higher, probably mid-80s. China and Korea are definitely in higher utilization rates. India is a little lower, but we're starting to see better utilization as those economies have been growing pretty much faster than the other ones in the world. So all in, we're probably in the high 70s globally. But I would say, definitely room for further capacity expansion, and we can meet any incremental demand if required. JAMES MICHAEL SHEEHAN: Did you quantify any headwind you might expect from customer turnarounds in the second quarter? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Not in the second quarter, no. We had mentioned in the first quarter some fairly large primarily refining turnarounds in the U.S. Gulf Coast, and that was about 1% on the North American segment, so roughly half of that globally. But no, there's nothing we've highlighted in the second quarter. OPERATOR: Our next question is from Don Carson with Susquehanna Financial. DONALD DAVID CARSON, SENIOR ANALYST, SUSQUEHANNA FINANCIAL GROUP, LLLP, RESEARCH DIVISION: Matt, on the on-site business, are you seeing any pickup in production at your North American customers from the steel and aluminum tariffs? Or is it too early to tell what benefit that may have? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Well, Don, probably it's a little too early to tell. But I can say looking over the last several quarters, we've definitely seen an improvement in volumes across our metals customers in North America, and I think you've probably seen that in our end market reporting by segment. So it's been a continual improvement. I think that margins are better for them given what's going on. So I think the desire is there to run. It's profitable for them to run. So we see the right backdrop, and we've seen some good improvements. And then, clearly, it will just be as units are -- come on and off with the various mills. But that's an area, I think, that the economics for our customer base seems good, and it seems to be more of a level playing field for them. So I think that outlook still remains fairly good. DONALD DAVID CARSON: And a follow-up on the Linde divestiture process, if you can answer it. On the bidders for the assets that are being divested, have those bidders been preapproved by either the European Commission or other antitrust agencies? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Yes. Sorry, Don, I can't get into any details at this point on that process. But rest assured, when the timing is right and we have more information to disclose, we will disclose that. OPERATOR: Our last question is from Kevin McCarthy with Vertical Research. KEVIN WILLIAM MCCARTHY, PARTNER, VERTICAL RESEARCH PARTNERS, LLC: With regard to the packaged gas growth of 9%, would you comment on the split between hard goods and gas and rent? And then also, in U.S. packaged gases, Matt, I think you referenced some of the pressures in logistics. Can you remind us how you look to offset that? Is it surcharges or pricing or a combination of those? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Sure. So on the PAG, 9% growth. Hard goods are double-digit. And again, that's coming off the lower base. Hard goods tend to swing more, as you know, so they're up more double-digit. Gases are mid-single-digit, some pushing to higher single-digit. So I'd say, from that perspective, kind of bracketing around the 9%. But we've seen now a couple of quarters in a row with these type trends, and I think they remain pretty solid throughout here even through the first month of the second quarter here. Regarding logistics costs, it's exactly what you said. It will be a combination. Some will be surcharging contractually. Some will just be pricing, depends on the contract, depends on the product. For packaged, it tends to be more just pricing. And so that's a reason why they need to go out there and make sure we're recovering any of the deflation that we're seeing. And I'd say, so far to date, we've been keeping up with it. So we feel on track with that. KEVIN WILLIAM MCCARTHY: Very good. And then as a quick follow-up, if I may, on Slide 15, where you provide the end-use market growth trends, chemicals was highest at 14%. That's an acceleration from 11%, I think, last quarter. What is driving that? And if you were to back out new projects, do you think the baseline growth is accelerating there as well? Do you have any color on that subject? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Yes. So clearly, to your point, projects are driving a portion of that in North America. But even without the projects, we are still positively growing a little bit in Europe, fairly well in Asia still. We're seeing good growth in chemicals on our Asian, primarily on-site, businesses; and in the U.S. Even excluding the project startups, we are growing in chemicals. So I'd say that even despite the startups, that is a positive growing end market, consistent with what you've seen in some of the others on an organic basis. JUAN PELAEZ: Thank you again for participating in our first quarter earnings call. If you have any further questions, please feel free to reach out to me directly. OPERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day. [Thomson Financial reserves the right to make changes to documents, content, or other information on this web site without obligation to notify any person of such changes. In the conference calls upon which Event Transcripts are based, companies may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding a variety of items. Such forward-looking statements are based upon current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties. 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Subject: Acquisitions & mergers; Corporate profits; Manufacturing; Trends; Construction contracts; Copyright; Chemical industry; Earnings per share; Energy industry; Startups
Location: United States--US North America South America China Asia
Company / organization: Name: Thomson Financial; NAICS: 511210, 518210, 519190
Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Apr 26, 2018
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Place of publication: Linthicum
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ProQuest document ID: 2036975924
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Document 225 of 474
Q1 2018 Odontoprev SA Earnings Call - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]26 Apr 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Presentation OPERATOR: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for waiting. Welcome to OdontoPrev's conference call, where the results of the first quarter of 2018 will be presented. With us, we have Mr. Rodrigo Bacellar, Mr. Luis Blanco and Mr. José Roberto Pacheco. This event is being recorded. (Operator Instructions) This event is also being broadcast live via webcast and may be accessed through OdontoPrev's website at www.odontoprev.com.br/ir, where the presentation is also available. Participants may view the slides in any order they wish. The replay will be available shortly after the event is concluded. We would like to remind you that webcast participants may submit via website in advance any question for OdontoPrev, which will be answered during the Q&A session. Before proceeding, let me mention that forward statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of OdontoPrev's management and on information currently available to the company. They involve risks and uncertainties, because they relate to the future events and therefore depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors and analysts should understand that conditions related to macroeconomic conditions, industry and other factors could also cause results to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. Now I'd like to turn the conference over to Mr. José Roberto Pacheco, IR Officer of OdontoPrev. Mr. Pacheco, you may begin your presentation. JOSé ROBERTO BORGES PACHECO, IR OFFICER, ODONTOPREV S.A.: Good morning, to everyone. Welcome and thank you very much for your interest and trust in OdontoPrev. I like to thank you for your participation during this conference call, so we can present the results of the first quarter of 2018. Now to begin the presentation. On Slide #3, we can see the increase of the average ticket in 5.6% originated in all 3 business segments. Particularly, the highest increase of 14.5% occurred in the SME segment. On our next Slide #4, we can see a net addition of 29,000 members in the quarter, including the corporate segment. As demonstrated in Slide 5, the corporate segment presents the net addition of 9,000 members in the quarter, compared to a loss of 47,000 members year-over-year. In the past 12 months, there was an addition of 63,000 members compared to the loss of 263,000 members in the previous period. As we can see on Slide #6, the company recorded an actual ISS rate of 3% in the month of January and February of 2018 reflecting the average rates in the municipalities where the company operates. And 2% in the month of March, resulting from the STF, the Supreme Court preliminary injunction to suspending effects of complementary law 157/16. On our next Slide #7, we'd like to highlight the growth of 2.1% in the revenues of the corporate segment, the best performance in 7 quarters. On Slide 8, we'd like to highlight the unique positioning of the company, in relation to the leadership in developing and increasing the noncorporate individual plans in SME segment, which presents a higher ticket, less competition, high growth compared to the market and higher contribution margin. Additionally, reinforcing this strategy, the noncorporate products present significant barriers to entry such as scale and quality of distribution. Credit risk of small sized customers or individuals, adverse selection and management technology, which are clear differentials in the Odontoprev's business model. Now moving on to our next slide, we can see that the noncorporate segments are becoming more and more relevant, as you can see on Slide #9, in which 1Q '18 it now accounts for 37% of the consolidated revenues compared to just 25% in 2014. On Slide 10, our next slide, we can see that the dental loss ratio accounts for 41.9% of net revenues in 1Q '18, 45% lower year-over-year. In the past 12 months, the amount was 45%, 400 percentage points lower than the previous period. Now moving on to Slide #11, we can see the quarterly evolution of bad debt, which accounted for 3.6% of revenues in 1Q '18, lower than the 4.6% of 1Q '17. On our next slide, Slide #12, the adjusted EBITDA achieved BRL 106 million in the quarter, 17.7% higher year-over-year, with a margin increase to 28.7%, 300 points over the 25.7% observed in 1Q '17. It's also worth noting as you will see in Slide 13, the growth of 130% of the adjusted EBITDA of Brasildental in 1Q '18, going from BRL 2.7 million to BRL 6.3 million in 1Q '18 with a margin increase of 24.5%. On the next slide, Slide 14, we can see that net income was BRL 82 million in 1Q '18, 19% higher year-over-year, with an ROE -- annualized ROE of 31%. In the past 12 months, profit was BRL 258 million, 19% higher year-over-year. On our next slide, 15, we closed 1Q '18 with a net cash of BRL 522 million, without any debt. Resulting from the solvency requirements to acquire odonto system in this quarter, there is no proposal to distribute this dividends an addition to the ones that have already been paid, the BRL 12 million in interest on capital relating to 1Q '18. On our next slide, #16 we would like to highlight the record number of over 6,000 shareholders in our shareholder base making us very happy, over -- more than double than that seen in 3Q '16, and mainly individuals. The company's share base remains globalized with the highlight to 94% of the free float with foreign investors, as you can see on our last slide, #17. Once again, I would like to thank you for your participation and for your interest and trust in Odontoprev. Now I'd like to move on to the Q&A session in our usual practice of 45 minutes for our conference call. Thank you very much, and good morning. Questions and Answers OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) Our first question is from Thiago Macruz from Itaú BBA. MARCO CALVI, RESEARCH ANALYST, ITAú CORRETORA DE VALORES S.A., RESEARCH DIVISION: Actually of this is Mark (sic) [Marco] speaking. We have 3 questions on our side. First of all, in relation to SME products, we were very surprised with the significant improvement that you had in the loss ratio. So I'd like to understand how we can see that moving forward? And if you can comment on the reason why the loss ratio significantly improved year-over-year? Second question is about the bad debt. So there was also an important or significant improvement, so we'd like to know is that because Bradesco has been growing in the company sales, and the third thing is about your commercial expenses or sales expenses, we see an increase so can you talk about that, the main reason behind that increase? JOSé ROBERTO BORGES PACHECO: Marco, Pacheco speaking. I'd like to start out with this the loss ratio and the SME ticket. As you well observed, the SME portfolio has a concentration in the bank channel, and now in February, we had some price adjustments and launched new products with more -- that were robust with a higher ticket, that's one of the reasons why the average ticket is different, that was the highlight for the quarter. And consequently, the loss ratio for that segment was lower compared to the last quarters. So that's the reason why -- that's what happens in the SME portfolio. It has the higher possibility of growth, it's very consolidated, it's well established in the bank channels both providing differentiated growth in a higher average ticket observed -- compared to the market. So it's a clear competitive advantage in the company, and it has been increased in a noteworthy mention in the past quarters. The second point that you mentioned, before I hand over to Luis about bad debt, but just to mention it, bad debt does have higher share that comes from the individual plans, and the higher the share of the bank channel in the individual, the bad debt would be increase, so it gains unpredictability and quality and also in the total portfolio of bad debt for the company. Let me hand over to Luis Andre so he can comment about that. LUIS ANDRE CARPINTERO BLANCO, ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCE DIRECTOR, ODONTOPREV S.A.: Marco, this is Luis Andre speaking. So giving you a little bit more of flavor about bad debt. Bad debt, as Pacheco mentioned, is mainly related to the individual segments. So if we start to open -- that go into the details of where it's coming from, there is a behavior from the customer that come from the bank channel and also the customer that come from retailer channel. So when we analyze each channel, we can see in each season, we can see that in both subsegments, you can see a reduction throughout the year. So we had a peak back in the 2016, and as from that time, it has been dropping in all these channels. We still do have problem in a specific channel in 4Q, where one of the partners was making changes, and that really -- that jeopardized that specific channel a little, but in general terms, in all the channels where we distributed our product, there's been a continuous trend of improvement. Now we only have to organize the last channel, which we haven't yet given outside reasons, but in general, it's positive in that index. One thing that is always worth noting that I always like to remind people during the calls is that the consolidated bad debt has a growth trend given the higher share of the individual segment in the overall revenues so we can never forget that, we can't forget that, we always have to bear that in mind. But when we consider just the individual segment, there is a trend to lower that. MARCO CALVI: Perfect. Now in relation to the last question about the sales expenses, could you address that as well? LUIS ANDRE CARPINTERO BLANCO: Well Marco, about the sales expenses, particularly in the corporate segment, in fact, in this quarter it was higher. Usually it's just a bit higher than 5% and specifically, in this quarter it was higher than 7% so that's an outlier, it shouldn't be repeated if we consider the next projection models. So any company's expectation is going back to the expenses of previous years, which is a bit higher than 5% in these next quarters. OPERATOR: And the next question is from Joseph Giordano from JPMorgan. JOSEPH GIORDANO, SENIOR LATAM HEALTHCARE ANALYST, JP MORGAN CHASE & CO, RESEARCH DIVISION: I have a couple of question. The first one is about the competitive environment. So I'd like to know from you what you see, what you are seeing in terms of competition and how aggressive it's becoming especially in the corporate segment if we consider SME and the growth, maybe the competition isn't that bad in that segment. And now looking into loss ratio I'd like to understand the frequency component, so how have you seen the members' behavior, not only their behavior but also the dentists' behavior in these past quarters 2, 3 quarters if you have a more normalized curve. And the third thing is about solvency. Pacheco mentioned solvency in the presentation saw a lower dividend payment to generate more excess solvency to absorb -- to take that in, but is the regulator -- is the regulator watching that? Will they change that a little, I'd like to know how that conversation is going? RODRIGO BACELLAR, CEO, ODONTOPREV S.A.: Joseph, this is Rodrigo speaking and I'm going to talk about the competitive environment. I don't think there is any changes in the past 2 years, I think that the scenario that we've been talking about in the calls, has been -- remained stable. And we can see that the recent IPO, that's good, the more transparency we have, more information we can get and the better the culture of the dental health environment, that's healthy for the entire industry. So we're receiving our competitors that are now listed with open arms and it would be great for the industry's development an overall. Without major highlights to the tougher competition or not, it is tough, which it has been in the past 2 years. And that's the first part of the answer. The second one is about what we expect, given the competitive environment and the Brazil environment, I think that what I'd like to mention is that now, we have a very constructive vision for Brazil this year, but less constructive than it was in the last quarter of last year. So I think that in our conversations with businesspeople, customers and partners, in a certain way we had a more optimistic environment in the last quarter last year than we see now. I'm not saying that there's going to change our construction view for 2018 for Brazil and in its economic recovery, but clearly, at a more conservative and careful level on our side. So that's a bit about the competitive and industry environment that we see coming forward. And now I'm going to hand over to Luis about your other question. LUIS ANDRE CARPINTERO BLANCO: Well, now talking about the frequency. The first point is worth remembering that we always have a weaker first quarter, if you consider that now in terms of use, because there is vacation periods, so traditionally the first quarter is a month with a lower loss ratio, which is connected to frequency, and that scales up to the second and third quarter coming back in the fourth quarter. After reminding that and after remembering that and analyzing the first quarter, let's think of the first quarter, how it started, so it started stronger in January. We had a certain change, or transfer so to speak from the fourth quarter, coming into the first quarter, and February is in line with our expectations and March per se was a month that was a bit lower than what we usually expect. So there is always a year-over-year comparison in the first quarter relating to frequency and a bit distorted according to when the carnival festivities, holidays, fall on which date. But in general, the frequency has that type of behavior on a monthly basis. Speaking of solvency, and also are like also like to remind everyone on the conference call that today that we have a traditional model where within adjusted profit and loss compared to the accounting profit and loss has to be higher than a percentage over revenues or a percentage of costs. And ANS also allows us to have our own model, based on regulation so they are within that but no operators in health plans or in the dental health or health plan has enlisted with their own model, and OdontoPrev did enlist its own model for a market operator with ANS and had been discussing this with them. And it's a very slow process given the fact that this initiative is a pioneer initiative in the industry. We required the supplement -- well they required the extra documents, and we are gathering that information to submit them in May. So what we felt out of the conversations that we had, is that they like the model they believe it's suitable, so we've just been adding other information based on their request. The adoption of this model, and I think that's worth mentioning, how would this be if model being adopted moving forward, going forward? ANS would consider the solvency models considering risk, operating risk, underwriting risk, market risk, credit risk and a fifth risk is that I can't remember right now. So at first, they requested for us to base the model on the underwriting risk, which in our opinion, is the most relevant risk of all. So that's the model we presented, and we're talking to [DiOp], which is the board or the management of ANS, and they will approve the model and we are very confident that we will be able to evolve that and approve that model at some point we believe this year. But the actual adoption of the model, and how we're going to do that compared to what we already have, that still has to be regulated or -- not related, but made clear to ANS, given the fact that, that is unprecedented. Nobody has done this before, this is the first owned model that would be registered. JOSEPH GIORDANO: I'd like to -- I have another question based on that regulatory model, I would like to understand that could you give us a flavor of that about the -- your regulated capital, if you could talk about the equity? And how much of that would be translated into payout? Because that model would hinder the 100% of payout in the long term so I'd like to understand the cash distribution would be effective, would be 100% or even greater than that at was in the past because of the model? LUIS ANDRE CARPINTERO BLANCO: Well, Joseph, what I can say is that in the current model what -- it's just about the model of how it's done, the percentage of revenue or the costs or the higher of the 2. But the scale of that model would have in current regulations, is that there is a step, so in this quarter there is 64% and would achieve 100% in 31 December 2022. So what makes the growth of the requirements based on the on the current rule is just not going our operations, but mainly the growth in adopting those steps that goes up to December 31, 2022, that's what makes the requirements grow -- for equity, grow. In relation to that, to the result of the own model, I can't say anything about that yet because we're still discussing that with ANS so I can't really talk about the amount, and of course, when we approve that we will inform the market about that model. But what I could say is that at least for our operations here, today what we have in terms of our equity to cover that solvency, the model that was required requires less capital, based on the model that was. Just the concept of solvency is the portion of capital that you have to have to cover the volatility of the provisions. So given the fact that the dental market is a more stable in relation to a more predictable use, we're using models considering the past -- or the next 5 years so the need to capture the industry is lower than what required. It's lower than health care, and I'd like to remind you that the capital requirements in effect are lower for dental than health care. But when the model is approved we'll definitely share that with you, but the trend is that we should have excess capital. And the way we'd go back to that excess capital to the market is something that we will discuss in the future. But it's probably not going to be immediately in specific the traditional ones 100% that we were distributing. OPERATOR: Our next question is from Ricardo Rezende from HSBC. RICARDO NASSER DE REZENDE FILHO, ANALYST, HSBC, RESEARCH DIVISION: Actually I have 2 questions the first one is more specific looking at the CapEx for this quarter. There were something in the IT line, I'd like to understand if that was a specific project, something more on the digital side that requires more investments, and how are you can see that in the future? And as my second question is relating to the individual plans there. They have higher levels year-over-year, it's kind of stable quarter-over-quarter, so I'd like to know how much of that is influenced by the change that you had in the sales channel in the last 2 quarters with retail losing members, and how are we going to see that in the future especially in the individual segment? RODRIGO BACELLAR: Ricardo. So in relation to CapEx, the company is, in fact, expanding its initiative in the digital world, and technology is what accounts for most of our CapEx in the past years, and 2018 is going to -- will be no different. We've been practicing investment level of BRL 15 million, this year we should have higher investment levels of approximately BRL 25 million, which is not very representative in relation to the annual cash generation, but it does reinforce the company's commitment to state of our technology and the digital world is an essential aspect of our business strategy. So that's the CapEx levels that we've been having, 1Q '18 is already in line with that. I'm going to start answering you about the individual plans and revenues and loss ratio that you mentioned. In fact, the company has been observing a change in the mix within the individual segment, and that's very important, because first of all, the average ticket of the bank channel is higher than the retail channel, and the sale expenses for the retail channel is much higher than the bank channel. Three, the bad debt level, we already talked about that, that is lower in the bank channel compared to the retail channel. Since most of the portfolio is still under retail in members -- number of members, the quality of the P&L of the company, individual channels has improved substantially, and that's what we expect from the coming years. In the bank channels, they should become the greatest part of the revenues of the individual plans in the next years so that's what we're experiencing right now a period of transition. I'm going to hand over to Luis Andres so he can comment as well. LUIS ANDRE CARPINTERO BLANCO: When you have a change of that mix of the subsegments of the individual plans the contribution margin will definitely increase with the share of the bank channels. And with a higher participation of the individual segment in the consolidated that increases the contribution margin of our consolidated, so we cannot lose those 2 mix effects. One is the mix of a bank and non-bank and the individual plans and the other one is the mix between noncorporate and corporate in the total. So it's becoming more and more representative, that mix effect is showing more and more in our consolidated financial statements. RICARDO NASSER DE REZENDE FILHO: Okay. Great. I'd like to follow-up on that on the individual term so as you mentioned in the presentation, there's still a specific program with one of the channels in the retail. You're losing members, but it was already much lower than the fourth quarter. Do you think that's going to become stable in the second and third quarter or should we only see that becoming stable at the end of the year in that channel? RODRIGO BACELLAR: Ricardo, this is Rodrigo speaking. Well just, first we're working with the scenario that throughout the second and third quarter that should become stable again. OPERATOR: Our next question is from Adeodato Volpi Netto, Eleven Financial. ADEODATO VOLPI NETTO, HEAD OF ECONOMIC & CAPITAL MARKETS AND CHIEF STRATEGIST, ELEVEN FINANCIAL RESEARCH: I would like to have an idea about the loss ratio. When you look at the corporate segment, we went in 2016, it was 56% at the peak of the crisis. And we talked a lot about that lay -- important layoff cycle and an acute crisis moment, where people were looking for treatment, because they have coverage because they were worried about being laid off. Considering that, do you think it's reasonable to think that we will -- that the levels would settle at lower levels and loss ratio especially in the corporate plans world? RODRIGO BACELLAR: Yes, that is the case. In fact, we've seen in prior years during the years of recession, we saw higher loss ratio, which was mainly driven by a frequency that was outsized historical levels. Once the level of trust increases, when the company and the market has an expectation of a positive GDP and employment. It's very natural to see in the 3 business segments, particularly in the corporate segment that we will see a frequency of use, closer to the historical patterns, which leads us to an upside and a differential in terms of the loss ratio compared to the recession years, particularly up to mid last year, mid 2017. So that is a new cycle that's beginning. Obviously, it's very positive for the company's margin, and we can capture that benefit, which is driven by the noncorporate segment where in that case you have a possibility of differentiated or additional pricing compared to the exclusive channels of the company, and the company can be a pioneer in the servicing a new type of customer, the noncorporate customer. ADEODATO VOLPI NETTO: Great. One more question just real quick, if I may? About the distribution of products in Bradesco, do you see any movements in terms of incentive program, in the end the integration of the product in the [goal] plans -- retail goal plans of the branches and if that could lead to any effect in resuming things in 2018? JOSé ROBERTO BORGES PACHECO: That is a constant path. The company's been, in recent years, introducing products in the SME segments and also in the individual plan segment. That's very new, it's about -- it accounts for 35% of our revenues. 10 years ago, it was pretty much the thing, now it accounts for over 1/3. So it's been growing even in the recession of the past years. So we're absolutely focused on that -- in the quality of that opportunity for differentiation and innovation. So the company has a strategic positioning that's very clear and differentiated. These 2 noncorporate channels are a high-priority. So year after year, we want to bring in new products to encourage people to learn about this new product in the market, and count on channels that are absolutely aligned with the company in developing their own brand like Bradesco and [DB] as you mentioned that have a higher potential for members than the corporate, and I think that's going to become more and more clear for Odontoprev in the future. LUIS ANDRE CARPINTERO BLANCO: Thank you, Pacheco. Let me add to what he mentioned, that's a very important aspect of commercial activities when we consider noncorporate and corporate, which is adding to the network throughout time. So -- yes that's what I meant. In addition, to the goals and objectives, there's the thing about being part of training being part of meetings, being available for visits and so on so that's a part of our day-to-day with the bank channels. OPERATOR: Our next question is from Leandro Bastos from Crédit Suisse. TOBIAS STINGELIN, DIRECTOR, CRéDIT SUISSE AG, RESEARCH DIVISION: This is Tobias. Just to clarify in your costs composition, you said BRL 7 million of other operating -- or revenues what is that exactly, that's a strong growth year-over-year. What is that? (technical difficulty) OPERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, please hold. JOSé ROBERTO BORGES PACHECO: Tobias, this is Pacheco, no highlights in relation to other revenues. Actually we have software sale, we have services rendered. We still don't have an expressive line yet, because -- and here I'm talking about Dental Partner, which we also mentioned in previous quarters, and that's going to be a revenue line, which is a clear priority for the company in the next quarters, but we, particularly in relation to those BRL 7 million we don't have anything we can highlight about that right now. But that's costs right, it's not revenue specifically. Its cost component, BRL 7.7 million compared to BRL 2 million last year. So 2 of your revenues compared to half -- 2% of your revenue compared to half last year. Just so I understand if we're talking about the same thing, you're talking about within costs, you can get back to me later. RODRIGO BACELLAR: Yes, we'll get back to you later then. TOBIAS STINGELIN: And about the ISS tax, you provisioned the 2 month. The 2-month provision, are you thinking of reversing that or not? RODRIGO BACELLAR: No, we're not thinking of doing that. We're not reversing that. He asking about the ISS? The 2-month provision? LUIS ANDRE CARPINTERO BLANCO: Actually, the process what's going on right now, is that there is a preliminary injunction, and the entire ISS profit went back to the service renderer not taker. So Pacheco mentioned in the beginning about the rates that they would go back to 2%, and that's how we'll remain. So far that's a strategy. RODRIGO BACELLAR: Okay. Let me answer this and go back to the first point about the other revenues sorry, I was looking for that in the statements. So a part of that calculation, every time that we closed the month, when we have monthly closings we -- given our deadline for closing, we have a provision of what we received in the past 3 days, but based on the closing date, the cutoff date we make a provision for those amounts. That's why it goes into operating expenses. That's a normal variation. So if that means in the last 3 days of the month of March, we had a higher provision than the last 3 days of the month of December, that's what it means that's just it. These -- they are what came in the past 3 days, and given the closing date, the cutoff date for monthly closings it goes into a specific line. And that's provisioned. So the name of that summarized account is operating expenses and revenues. That's what it means. That means they're all the events that came into the company in the past 3 days. TOBIAS STINGELIN: So it shouldn't grow, like, or increase. It increased because of the cutoff date, right? Is that what you mean? RODRIGO BACELLAR: Yes, yes, that doesn't change year over year, it really depends on the cutoff date, and the flow that we get all the events that took -- that occurred. So we get the information but because of the cutoff closing dates, we provision them in a specific line, and there is a trend that, that should become 0 at the end of the year. So it's an event that still hasn't been recognized as an event because it was a temporary account. That's the main point that goes into the other costs part. LUIS ANDRE CARPINTERO BLANCO: Speaking of the ISS, for January and February, we operate in practice in 5,300 municipalities so we have customers, be it individuals or corporates that are present in 5,300 municipalities, it's impossible to map out all those regulations, all those different systems to collect taxes. So in January and February, we mapped 70% of those municipalities approximately in, which the most relevant one in which you operate, so we mapped out the regulations for each one of those most relevant municipalities, and for those that we were able to collect the ISS, we did collect the ISS in those cases. And to the ones that we didn't, I provisioned the ISS. The 30% remaining cases, which weren't mapped, I provisioned them for the average rate of [17%] so there is -- I -- provision of ISS with those rates that vary from 2% to 5% depending on each municipality, which are provisioned in the balance sheet, and I look at them every month, provision in my liability for payments when possible. As for March, we collect here for company headquarters which is Barueri, so we're going to pay the rate of 2%. OPERATOR: Our Q&A session is now closed. I'd like to hand over to Mr. Roberto Pacheco for his final remarks. You may begin. JOSé ROBERTO BORGES PACHECO: I'd like to thank everyone for your participation in this conference call. The company remains optimistic in relation to the new cycle and that the competitive advantages and technology, distribution and pricing will become even more to clear. Thank you very much until our next event. OPERATOR: The OdontoPrev conference call is now over. Thank you for your participation, and have a good day. And thank you for using Chorus Call. [Thomson Financial reserves the right to make changes to documents, content, or other information on this web site without obligation to notify any person of such changes. In the conference calls upon which Event Transcripts are based, companies may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding a variety of items. Such forward-looking statements are based upon current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties. 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Subject: Copyright; Investments; Webcasting
Company / organization: Name: Thomson Financial; NAICS: 511210, 518210, 519190
Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Apr 26, 2018
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: Linthicum
Country of publication: United States, Linthicum
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Law--Corporate Law
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Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2036992730
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Last updated: 2018-05-15
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Document 226 of 474
Event Brief of Q1 2018 Praxair Inc Earnings Call - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]26 Apr 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: CORPORATE PARTICIPANTS . Juan Pelaez - Praxair, Inc.,Director of IR . Matthew J. White - Praxair, Inc.,Senior VP & CFO CONFERENCE CALL PARTICIPANTS . Christopher Mark Evans - Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division,Associate . David L. Begleiter - Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division,MD and Senior Research Analyst . Donald David Carson - Susquehanna Financial Group, LLLP, Research Division,Senior Analyst . James Michael Sheehan - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc., Research Division,Research Analyst . Jeffrey John Zekauskas - JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division,Senior Analyst . John Ezekiel E. Roberts - UBS Investment Bank, Research Division,Executive Director and Equity Research Analyst, Chemicals . Kevin William McCarthy - Vertical Research Partners, LLC,Partner . Laurence Alexander - Jefferies LLC, Research Division,VP & Equity Research Analyst . Michael Joseph Harrison - Seaport Global Securities LLC, Research Division,MD & Senior Chemicals Analyst . Michael Joseph Sison - KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc., Research Division,MD & Equity Research Analyst . Patrick Duffy Fischer - Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division,Director and Senior Chemical Analyst . Peter Anthony John Clark - Societe Generale Cross Asset Research,Senior Analyst, Chemicals . Steve Byrne - BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division,Director of Equity Research . Vincent Stephen Andrews - Morgan Stanley, Research Division,MD OVERVIEW Co. reported 1Q18 sales of just under $3b and operating profit of $672m. Expects 2Q18 EPS to be $1.67-1.72. FINANCIAL DATA 1. 1Q18 sales = just under $3b. 2. 1Q18 operating profit = $672m. 3. 1Q18 YoverY sales growth = 10%. 4. 1Q18 sequential sales growth = 2%. 5. 2Q18 EPS guidance = $1.67-1.72. PRESENTATION SUMMARY - Annotation (J.P.) 1. Note: 1. YoverY and sequential comparisons exclude transaction costs and other charges largely related to the potential merger with Linde. 1Q18 Business Review (M.W.) 1. Overview: 1. Strong results with 10% sales and 20% EPS growth vs. prior year. 2. Volume and price improvements were attained across every segment and end-market, which supported an operating margin expansion of 140 BP. 1. Little under half of volume growth came from the start-up of backlog projects in North America and Asia, in fact one-third or $500m started-up in 1Q18. 2. Yet, held the backlog constant at $1.5b with new customer contract wins. 3. While the backlog maybe steady, it is from continual turnover of new project wins replacing those that are removed due to starting up, which clearly helps grow earnings and returns. 3. Global team focused on delivering these results, continue to make good progress on the merger with Linda. 2. Global Business Trends: 1. North America: 1. Second fastest growing region supported by industrial recovery in US. 2. Over half of 4% volume growth was driven by: 1. Improvements in chemicals. 2. New investments starting up in US Gulf Coast. 3. Manufacturing as US package business continues to grow high-single digits. 3. Higher volumes in metals, electronics and resilient end markets of food, beverage and healthcare more than offset 1% decline related to customer turnarounds in Gulf Coast. 1. Modest recovery in upstream energy business, especially in US and Mexico from increased well completion activity. 2. This growth was from a very low base as volumes are still significantly below peak levels. 4. Overall pricing in the region has been improving along with inflation enabling margin expansion over prior year and 4Q. 5. US Gulf Coast project bidding remains healthy. 1. Despite recent large start-ups, the current backlog has over $750m of US projects under construction and Co. is still confident in winning new projects over the next several qtr.'s. 2. South America: 1. Continues to lag all other regions and now comprises only: 1. Global sales 12%. 2. Global operating profit 8%. 2. Volume growth was slightly better than prior year, but 3% lower than 4Q due to the seasonal effects of Carnival and Easter holiday. 3. Primary driver of growth relates to on-site metals customers as their volumes ramped up to meet slightly higher demand. 1. Several of those customers are still below take-or-pay levels. 4. Combination of pricing and cost actions has enabled some margin expansion from prior year. 1. Frankly, South America will remain a challenging place until there is more clarity around the direction of Brazilian politics. 3. Europe: 1. Continues to be a steady, stable grower with underlying growth rates improving 3%. 2. Volume growth occurred across every major end market. 1. Metals and manufacturing comprised half of the improvement with a pickup in industrial activity. 3. Resilient markets also remained strong as Co. continues to identify new growth opportunities with acquired CO2 business. 4. There are few signs of inflation returning to the economy primarily in the form of higher power costs, which are driving pass-through up 2% vs. prior year. 1. These trends are enabling some pricing opportunities up 1%, but more efforts are underway to recover the cost inflation. 4. Asia: 1. Fastest growing region. 2. Sales up 21% and operating profit up 39% from 1Q17. 3. Foreign currency appreciation is driving about 7% of growth, underlying conditions remain quite robust across: 1. China. 2. India. 3. Korea. 4. 11% higher volumes are roughly split between projects start-ups and organic growth. 1. With project start-ups supporting energy and electronics end markets and the industrial recovery supporting increases in chemicals, manufacturing and metals. 2. Pricing improvement of 3% primarily relates to merchant gases in China as structural supply challenges have eased with the closing of several liquefies attached to Tier 2 and Tier 3 steel mills. 5. Earlier this week, announced Co.'s single largest project win, where it will build, own and operate high purity nitrogen plants for Samsung's newly constructed fab in Pyeongtaek, South Korea. 1. There are several other opportunities to support the growing demand for electronic devices. 5. PST: 1. Aerospace continues to grow high-single to low-double digits. 2. Oil and gas is making a modest recovery. 3. Aviation business has been making significant investments towards capacity expansion to serve the growing demand for aircraft engine coatings. 1. Anticipates continued ramping of revenues for the next several qtr.'s. 3. Summary: 1. Synchronized industrial recovery coupled with timely start-ups of the project backlog have led to 5% volume growth, spread across every end market and segment. 2. Pockets of growing inflation have enabled higher pricing attainment in certain regions. 3. Combination of volume and price contribution has expanded overall operating margins for fourth consecutive qtr. 1. This backdrop coupled with US tax reform appears to be supporting more customer capital investments and thus opportunity to increase project backlog above the current $1.5b level. 4. Proposed Linde Merger: 1. Recalling at the start of this process, defined three key phases required to complete the merger. 2. First two phases defining the structure and value creation with the execution of BCA and obtaining all necessary shareholder approvals through PX vote and Linde tender have been achieved. 3. As planned, Co. is now deep into the third phase, which includes: 1. Obtaining appropriate regulatory approval. 2. Finalizing any relevant remedies associated with those approvals. 4. High-level timeline of actions underway and milestones required to close the merger by (inaudible) mandated long-stop date in Oct. 2018. 5. Joint team continues to have constructive dialogue with all regulators and is actively engaged with potential buyers of asset divestitures. 6. Feels quite good about Co.'s progress and ability to complete remaining milestones within the required timeline. 1Q18 Financials (J.P.) 1. Consolidated Results: 1. Sales just under $3b. 1. Up 10% than last year. 2. Up 2% sequentially. 2. Drivers to sales variance: 1. Volume, largest contributor. 1. 5% growth vs. last year. 2. Every major end market grew, led by chemicals, electronics and metals. 3. Asia and North America had the largest organic growth from a combination of continued recovery in industrial markets and project contribution. 4. Globally of total volume, more than half came from base business and the rest was driven by projects start-ups. 2. Sequentially volumes are flat as 1Q seasonally slower, primarily due to Lunar New Year and the timing of Easter. 1. US Gulf Coast customers underwent significant turnarounds offsetting the volume growth in rest of North American businesses. 2. In Europe, volumes grew sequentially 1% led by the manufacturing end market, more specifically in Spain and Germany. 3. South America and Asia were seasonally weaker due to the holidays in 1Q. 4. End market trends were consistent with expectations, as industrial growth seen globally was offset by the energy drop in the turnarounds. 3. Price/mix improvement of 2% was achieved from focused pricing actions across all segments, partially led by Asia and North America. 1. Asian merchant had strongest price attainment, led by China, where structural challenges have eased coupled with growing economy. 4. Currency translation was favorable 3%, primarily from strengthening of euro, Canadian dollar, Chinese RMB and Mexican Peso. 3. Operating profit $672m. 1. $99m or 17% better than last year. 2. $16m or 2% better than 4Q. 4. Operating margins improved 140 BP YoverY. 1. 20 BP sequentially, led by overall strong fundamentals in base business, positive pricing, good volume growth and tightly managed cost. 5. Operating cash flow $688m. 1. $22m below prior year qtr. 2. Mainly driven by foreign withholding tax payments of $65m in 1Q. 6. CapEx $325m. 1. Free cash flow was $363m, which Co. uses primarily to pay dividends and reduce net debt by $86m. 1. Fully expects to improve next qtr.'s cash flow, in line with prior trends. 7. Project backlog closed qtr. at $1.5b after starting up three new projects in US. 1. One of them being Yara Freeport. 2. Announced two new on-site project wins in South Korea for electronics end market, which add up to $0.5b. 3. Continues this backlog cadence of wins and start-ups, Co.'s incremental 3% [EPS] growth from project contribution will extend additional years. 8. Return on capital, steadily been rising for the past four qtr.'s now reaching 13%. 1. Continues to grow earnings, execute backlog and manage cash generation, expects return on capital improving throughout 2018. Guidance (M.W.) 1. 2Q18: 1. EPS $1.67-1.72. 1. Represents 14-18% growth from last year. 2. YoverY currency tailwind is anticipated to be lower than 1Q as Co. begins to lap easier prior year comps especially in euro, Canadian dollar and Mexican peso. 3. Tax rate is still expected in the range of 23-25%. 1. Likely closer to the middle of that range consistent with 1Q. 4. Excluding tax and currency, this guidance represents double-digit growth rate driven by an assumption of similar levels of demand continuing through June. 2. Summary: 1. Good start to the year. 1. Anticipating continuation into 2Q. 2. Has been able to capitalize on an industrial recovery through higher organic volume growth and securing new onsite contracts. 3. Recent inflation effect in certain economies has presented pricing opportunities that have not been present for several years. 1. Combination of these factors should enable continued growth with positive operating margin expansion. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Duffy Fischer with Barclays. PATRICK DUFFY FISCHER, DIRECTOR AND SENIOR CHEMICAL ANALYST, BARCLAYS BANK PLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: You guys announced with Linde 2 days ago that you would look to buy back potentially the 8% holdout that didn't tender. Can you just walk through the technical aspects of that, the time line, kind of assuming a close date as x, how that would play out? And then can you do partial or do you have to do all 8% if you decide to do it? MATTHEW J. WHITE, SENIOR VP & CFO, PRAXAIR, INC.: Yes, Duffy, I'm not going to get into a lot of details of the process. That will come out in due time. But I can say that it's a very structured process that under BaFin, it's something that we will follow per the regulatory requirements. And the Linde team and the Linde group will announce each step as it's appropriate. But at this point, there's nothing more I can add to that process. PATRICK DUFFY FISCHER: Okay. Fair enough. And then if you would go to China, the environmental stuff has been a good new story around them shutting down second-tier steel, which brings some liquid off the market. Do you see that continuing? Or has the bulk of that already happened from what you can see and we're still anniversarying up, but there's not going to be other steps of improvement there? MATTHEW J. WHITE: I'd say it remains to be seen. Clearly, we've been seeing it happen over the last several quarters. I think when you look to China as far as capacity, last numbers I saw, I think it was about 1.2 billion, 1.2 billion tons a year of steel capacity if you add it all up. Now not all of them are running. So clearly, the ones that are not running and have not been running won't have much of an impact. But I would say the combination of the industrial sort of growth with these coming out is creating a pretty good dynamic there. And given the amount of steel capacity, I do think there's probably a few more innings for that to happen, but it just remains to be seen. OPERATOR: Our next question is from Michael Sison with KeyBanc. MICHAEL JOSEPH SISON, MD & EQUITY RESEARCH ANALYST, KEYBANC CAPITAL MARKETS INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: When you think about the Linde merger, I know you can't talk about the process, but any updated thoughts on the value creation potential, particularly it does seem like demand overall is getting better and pricing is a little bit better. So if you think through that, as you get in [Tier 1], maybe just give us your thoughts there. MATTHEW J. WHITE: I would just say, I mean, again, we won't get to a lot of details, but still, I have confidence on the value creation, still have confidence in the ability to deliver on the stated synergies and cost efficiencies. But clearly, our industry as a whole is doing quite well. I think you're seeing good numbers across the board. I think the Linde report yesterday was quite good. So I think the combination of us seeing a lot of return to growth collectively creates opportunities for all of us. And I think that's good. And it would be great timing to come into a merger like this in a nice upswing in the economy. So I think it's all pretty good from my perspective. MICHAEL JOSEPH SISON: Great. And quick follow-up on Brazil. I'm just trying to get a tempo. Is it getting better? Or is it not getting better? And in terms of the industrial activity side, is -- what's the potential if demand does improve over time? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Yes, I think that's the million dollar question, Mike. When you look at the numbers that we have in our segment, it's slight improvement year-over-year. Obviously, sequential will be affected by the normal seasonal declines. So when you look year-over-year, a little bit of improvement. As I mentioned in the prepared remarks, we have seen steel volumes tick up, not a lot of benefit to us given most of those were under take-or-pay. Usually, in my experience, when you see the infrastructure like metals and things start to ramp up, that tends to be a good sign of some form of an industrial recovery. But that all being said, the uncertainty around the elections -- and it's not just obviously Brazil, you have a similar situation in Colombia. You've got some situations going on politically in Peru. But I think when you add it all together, Brazil as the biggest one, we just won't have a lot of good idea in terms of how the politics will be run, how businesses will be viewed until the election in October. And right now, frankly, we're not even sure of the candidates. So when clarity comes around that, I think it could hopefully -- it'll have an effect on confidence one way or the other. But if it gives some confidence that there'll be a more, I'll say, business-friendly approach, I think you will start to see some investments. But I think most people are waiting, and it's probably prudent, and we'll just see. And so from that perspective, small improvements here and there. The resilient markets still continue to do well, and that was an area we had a lot of focus. But until then, we've been managing costs pretty tightly. We are getting some price, and we just got to work through these next quarters until there's more clarity. OPERATOR: Our next question is from the line of Jeff Zekauskas with JPMorgan. JEFFREY JOHN ZEKAUSKAS, SENIOR ANALYST, JP MORGAN CHASE & CO, RESEARCH DIVISION: There's a EUR 3.7 billion limit to divestitures in the combination. The industrial gas industry, though, is now growing quite nicely. Does that EUR 3.7 billion number get affected by the growth in the industry? Or is it some kind of look-back number? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Yes, Jeff. I'll just state that our BCA is public. That was part of the S-4 filing we did last year, and you'll find that, that threshold is a set number. It's based on a certain exchange ratio, but it's a set number. So it's not a moving number other than we fixed the exchange ratio. JEFFREY JOHN ZEKAUSKAS: If it turns out that Praxair -- the combination divested all of Praxair's European operations and all of Linde's North American operations exclusive of Lincare and exclusive of the engineering business, would that keep you under your threshold? JUAN PELAEZ, DIRECTOR OF IR, PRAXAIR, INC.: Yes, Jeff. As I stated in the prepared remarks, we're not going to discuss anything related to potential divestitures or regulatory at this time. Our team is actively working on this with the appropriate parties, and we're just not in a position to talk about this in a public way. OPERATOR: Our next question is from Vincent Andrews with Morgan Stanley. VINCENT STEPHEN ANDREWS, MD, MORGAN STANLEY, RESEARCH DIVISION: Just wondering if you can dig in a bit more on the North American price/mix being up 2%. Can you just give a sense of how much of that was driven by the merchant business versus the pure packaged gas business? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Yes. So we're seeing pretty much across the board low to mid-single-digit pricing. As you know, that 2% we show is only for, as you stated, the packaged and merchant. It's divided by the entire revenues, so it doesn't include on-site. So the real pricing we're getting is a little better than that. And what we're seeing is pretty good pricing opportunity across the board, primarily in U.S., although we are seeing some inflation in Canada and we're getting some of that back in pricing. And Mexico, as you know, has the higher inflation of both regions, so we're tracking to that as well. So we're seeing pretty consistently low to mid-single-digit opportunities as costs are going up. You're seeing power costs go up in certain regions. We're seeing distribution costs going up in certain regions. So as the team goes out to recover that and get [it in] pricing, and that's what we're able to see right now. VINCENT STEPHEN ANDREWS: And then just in terms of the backlog, you kind of said a couple of things. One was that it stayed flat because projects are coming in or going out about the same size, but there's an opportunity for the backlog to go up. And I guess I'm just wondering, can you speak to what you think the return profile of the backlog is, both as we move through this year and as you add new projects to it? Do you think the opportunity is for returns to go up, stay flat or where do you think things are? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Well, as you can imagine, when we make decisions to add projects to the backlog, these are multi-decade views. So we're not just looking at right now and what's going on right now because these are projects, if you do it right, then it will be with you for several decades. So from that perspective, I'd say the return profiles are still fairly consistent with how we've always viewed it and what our criteria is. And we will look at things like risk and reward, and we continue to do that. And we want to make the appropriate decisions on what we invest in. And from that perspective, I'd say there's not a lot of different things. But we are seeing more opportunities. And part of it, clearly, as we stated, is in the U.S. I think tax reform will help that a little bit. And the rest of it primarily is in Asia. And these are continued opportunities in our pre-backlog, and we feel pretty good about it right now. OPERATOR: And our next question is from Laurence Alexander with Jefferies. LAURENCE ALEXANDER, VP & EQUITY RESEARCH ANALYST, JEFFERIES LLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: Two quick ones. I know there's not much you can say about the BaFin process on the takeouts of the stock. But I guess one question that keeps coming up is the price setting mechanism, is that a court modulated mechanism? Or is that a -- effectively similar to going into an equity market and trying to buy up the available shares at market prices with the volatility that goes with that? Secondly, as your utilization rates are improving, are you finding any areas where your maintenance costs are slipping on the upside and you're seeing a little bit more costs than you had expected for your maintenance budget? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Okay, Laurence. I think I got the first question, but the second one I may have to clarify because it kind of cut in and out a bit. But I will state this much on the squeeze out process. As I mentioned, it is a structured process, and my best understanding of how it works is that there will be a 3-month volume-weighted average price based 3 months back from the time of the announcement. And then there will be an independent, what's called an IDW S1, valuation. You may recall, one was done on the consolidated merger at the time of the filing of the S-4 and the tender offer. So both of those will be viewed as 2 different valuations, and the higher of those 2 will be determined. It's quite structured, and that is underway with the announcement, then the valuation will be initiated to be done by an independent party. So this is all per the German requirements, and there's really nothing as an organization that we would do different. We would follow the regulations as required. Your second question, I think, was something on utilizations, but I missed the back end of it. Can you maybe repeat that, please? LAURENCE ALEXANDER: Sure, sure. So the other question was just as utilization rates pick up, are you seeing some of your assets or maybe some of your older units slip up and, therefore, your maintenance budget is moving higher than you would have expected a couple of years ago? MATTHEW J. WHITE: No. I think we continue to maintain our plants as always regardless of the utilization rates. You've got to do the maintenance appropriately. Clearly, when plants run at higher utilization rates, there's a sweet spot, right, that you like to run them at. When you're bringing them up and down, that's when it gets more difficult, frankly, when you've got to thaw plants and re-bring them to cryogenic. But right now, I'd say nothing different than what we normally experience and clear that we continue to invest in our plants, as you can imagine, regardless of what the utilization rates are at. OPERATOR: Our next question is from David Begleiter with Deutsche Bank. DAVID L. BEGLEITER, MD AND SENIOR RESEARCH ANALYST, DEUTSCHE BANK AG, RESEARCH DIVISION: Matt, very strong numbers in the packaged gases in the U.S., up 9%, clearly above end market activity. So what's driving that above-market growth? Was it an easy comp or some other factors? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Yes, David, as you may recall, packaged was one of our laggards probably a year ago, so we're having a pretty nice recovery. And when I look across the end markets and our geographies in the U.S. of kind of Central, North, Southeast, West, it really is broad-based. I mean, we're seeing it across every single packaged end market. Most of them are double-digit. Manufacturing is not quite double-digit, which is clearly our largest. But we're seeing improvements in our cylinder gases, dry ice. We're seeing a lot of improvements in Tier 2 auto. Aerospace continues to be quite strong. So I would say it's across the board. And we are seeing some pickup in upstream oil a little bit as well. That's something coming off a low base, but that's also an area where we're seeing some improved growth. So there's no one market I could point to right now. And when you look at the industrial production in the U.S., I think that's been boding well for a lot of these packaged end markets. You're just seeing it across the board. So we feel pretty good, especially the remainder of this year, in our packaged business. I think the numbers continue to be strong, and it's been a nice run. And as we said in the past, when that business recovers, it recovers with some fairly good leverage, and that's what we've been experiencing. So we've been quite happy with that as well. DAVID L. BEGLEITER: Very good. And Matt, just on FX, what did FX add to EPS in Q1? And what do you expect for Q2? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Yes, David. So as you know, it's just translational for us. So the best rule of thumb is if you take what we show on the sales and just drop that down. So we had 3% in Q1, as we laid out in our sales walk, and that's a pretty good proxy to use on EPS. When you get our Qs by the segment analysis, you'll be able to see the OP effect within each segment on FX. But for the most part, it follows the top line. Q2, and when we look at our FX, we lock in the forward rates at the beginning of the month. Clearly, rates have moved here over the last couple of weeks, so it's pretty volatile. But I would say, we expect definitely something less than 3% for Q2, partly because Q2 of last year, the rates were stronger, the foreign rates vis-à-vis the dollar, than they were in Q1, so the comps get tougher. But also, I'd say, rates, at least on a couple week basis here, have gotten a little weaker on the foreign. So the combination of that 2 will put it something below 3%, could be 2%, could be 1%, based on where we're at now remains to be seen. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Stephen Byrne with Bank of America. STEVE BYRNE, DIRECTOR OF EQUITY RESEARCH, BOFA MERRILL LYNCH, RESEARCH DIVISION: When you exited your U.S. home respiratory care business, if I recall correctly, your gross margins were essentially offset by the SG&A expense. As you look forward post the potential merger, would you see anything that has changed this dynamic, either the size of your hospital business or the size of Lincare or any changes in this industry that would change the potential synergy here? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Yes. At this point, there's really nothing I could say to that. We're not in that business today as Praxair, so I don't know much about the dynamics and what's going on in that industry. So it's really -- I think if you want to understand more about what's happening and the dynamics, you're probably best suited to ask Linde directly on that question. STEVE BYRNE: Okay. And now where do you estimate your market share now in U.S. packaged gases business? And is that attractive enough for you to consider either greenfield or M&A bolt-ons? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Well, we continue to do M&A bolt-ons in our packaged business. They're quite small, so you don't tend to see them at the consolidated level. But we're continuing to roll up opportunities for mostly family-owned distribution businesses in the U.S. I'd say the opportunity set is lower now, partly with the recovery. People have some different views of valuations. So you're not seeing as many businesses be sold. But that's something we continue to do. And as you know, we sell gases and we sell hard goods. Clearly, the gases are better margins because we have the full producer economics. Hard goods, we play more of a distributor role. But the combined margins are something you would expect of a distributor a little better, frankly, given the gas that we have. But it's a good business, and it brings a lot of nice contribution for us. So when we find opportunistic acquisitions and ones that we can justify on synergies, we absolutely will continue to do them. But right now, it's in a nice part of the growth in that business, and we continue to invest in it. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Peter Clark with Societe Generale. PETER ANTHONY JOHN CLARK, SENIOR ANALYST, CHEMICALS, SOCIETE GENERALE CROSS ASSET RESEARCH: Matt, just a quick question on the backlog to begin with. I mean, obviously, you pointed at the electronics signatures and the Gulf Coast signatures at the beginning of the year. The backlog, obviously you've seen the sort of electronics come in 50-50 now in North America, Asia. Just wondering, clearly, you're pointing at some of the Gulf Coast signatures coming, how you see the geographical split of that backlog as we get towards the tail end of the year? Because you also actually pointed at more Asian signatures potentially. And then, specifically, on the backlog and certainly an opportunity like Freeport now is up and running, that's a pretty new hub for you. Just wondering how you see the opportunities in that sort of area developing given you have [the signature]. And then the last question, on the upstream energy, you pointed it coming off the bottom now. Certainly, some of the specialty chem players are indicating that their customers potentially might loosen on the cost consciousness they've had and might be spending a bit more money to get the oil and gas out or more of the oil and gas out. Just wondering if that's your feeling on fracking gases, if there's some momentum here that we can see during the year. MATTHEW J. WHITE: Okay, Peter. So I'll try to take them in order here. The first question on the backlog. The challenge, I think, of trying to project the split between, we'll call it, U.S. chemicals and refining North America versus Asian electronics is the project sizes are so lumpy, right? So the timing of when the projects come in could skew that. We still see a lot of quite large projects in the U.S. Gulf Coast as new opportunities, and they're both refining and petchem opportunities. With Asia, clearly, to your point, we've added some large electronics. There are others out there as well. So it depends on timing. I think we'll probably see a little more move back to U.S. and refining and energy in the coming quarters just based on where things are, but it just remains to be seen on the timing and when things are ultimately signed. But we feel pretty good about the trend on both. And frankly, I'm indifferent which one we get as long as these projects meet our criteria, which they do. So -- on Freeport, yes, we clearly feel good about having those assets there. Any time you have an opportunity to extend your network into a region and bring both atmospheric and process gases, we see as a very good thing. And so we continue to find some incremental opportunities off that, which we're pursuing. And we just continue to look for ways to extend the network. So I think it's something that we always like to do, and this is what we've been doing since our inception. And on upstream energy, to your point, yes, we are hearing things, people feeling a little bit better. Oil prices are higher. I think some of the regions like the Permian are getting crowded. It's getting more difficult to get product out. I think you're starting to see activity in other regions as pricing gets better. I would say, too, we probably saw a lot of what's called re-fracking of wells, not a lot of new wells, not a lot of new completions when prices were lower. Now that prices are higher and they've kind of exhausted, I think, a large backlog of existing wells, you've seeing people do a little more work, a little more drilling, probably new completions. And to your point, they see enough value that they're willing to expend more resources. So I think that it's a good sign, but we're still coming off a pretty low, low. So we've been experiencing double-digit growth, but it's got a long way to go, and it remains to be seen if it can ever get back to the level it was. But I'd say trends are good. The customer sentiment seems to be pretty good, and we're seeing some nice roll-up opportunities. And I'd say U.S. and Mexico is where we're seeing much more of the opportunity right now, as we said in the script. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Mike Harrison with Seaport Global Securities. MICHAEL JOSEPH HARRISON, MD & SENIOR CHEMICALS ANALYST, SEAPORT GLOBAL SECURITIES LLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: Matt, I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about the margin performance in South America. You had a sequential decline, or I guess, kind of any way you look at it, sales didn't decline very much, but margin declined quite a bit, 170 bps, sequentially. Is that the take-or-pay minimums coming into play there? Or can you maybe give a little more color on why we're seeing that swing in margin despite only a modest sequential decline in sales? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Yes, Mike. I'd say it's a combination of a couple of things. Sequentially, we're improving on volumes that are below take-or-pay. So to your point, you're getting top line but not really much margin on it. And in addition, with the normal seasonal patterns with Carnival and Easter and -- what we tend to see is you see a lot less merchant and packaged gases just because of normal seasonal shutdowns, which tend to be more favorable margin products. So the combination of those 2 effects, you've got a larger decline in sort of your packaged and merchant, which is hurting the margin, and then you've got some improvement in the on-site, which might be at a below take-or-pay level. And that combination is creating, on a sequential basis, an unfavorable margin. So looking at year-over-year sometimes helps get the seasonality piece out. And year-over-year, we are a little better, as you see, but still got a long ways to go to get back to the levels that we've become accustomed to in prior years. So we've got to work that out for us, but that sequential seasonal effect, plus these rising volumes in take-or-pay scenarios, aren't doing a lot to help margins right now. MICHAEL JOSEPH HARRISON: All right. And then I was wondering if you could give us a little color on what you're seeing in the helium market. It sounds like supply and demand are getting tighter again. Would that be a potential positive for your earnings going forward? MATTHEW J. WHITE: I think it could be. To your point, helium had a rough go for the last year, but supply has become constrained for a variety of different reasons. And we're starting to see some difficulty in maintaining supply and delivering supply across various accounts in the world for the product, which will probably provide some pricing opportunity. But helium has had, like I said, probably a rough year or so, and we do expect that it should do better here over the next year. OPERATOR: Our next question is from the line of John Roberts with UBS. JOHN EZEKIEL E. ROBERTS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND EQUITY RESEARCH ANALYST, CHEMICALS, UBS INVESTMENT BANK, RESEARCH DIVISION: In Surface Technologies, maybe you don't add coaters very often, so maybe this is a good opportunity to get a sense of the capital intensity in that business. How much does a new coater cost? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Well, John, I don't want to get into specifics on what a new coater costs, but I would say that it's a multiple-asset investment to meet the demand that we have for coating engine parts. So it's not just a single coater. This is capacity that we're expanding across a couple locations, and it's something that's material enough that we want to call it out. Clearly, we're ramping up costs. We're hiring people. We're training people. We have the facility costs. We're installing the equipment. So you front run the costs in a manufacturing environment like this, but the revenue will ramp over the next several quarters. So we feel good about the progress. The investments are going to plan, and the demand is there. We know that the opportunity set is there. So that's something that I expect will get better with each successive quarter, but we're in the middle of kind of ramping that capacity up right now. JOHN EZEKIEL E. ROBERTS: Okay. And is the tightness in the trucking market and the new rules for hours drivers can work having any effect on your business? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Well, we've dealt with, as you can imagine, lots of challenges over our -- since our inception of availability of drivers and difficulty obtaining drivers. We, like probably other folks in our industry, do a combination of internal employee drivers and using third-party contract carriers. So that's something we flex up and down based on what our volumes look like, based on availability to get contract drivers that meet our safety standards and meet our requirements to be a contractor for Praxair. So I would say, the current situation, we've seen things like this in the past, and we're probably doing a little more internal hiring of drivers than using third parties, just given some of the availability. But this is something that we're used to managing and will continue to manage. And as distribution costs rise and if they rise, that's something we need to go out and try to recover in the market, which is what we've been doing. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from the line of Bob Koort with Goldman Sachs. CHRISTOPHER MARK EVANS, ASSOCIATE, GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: This is Chris Evans on for Bob. I want to talk a little bit about the Asian price trajectory. It looks like you're going to start to lap some of the benefits next quarter. I just wanted to get a sense, just in the marketplace right now, is there enough support that you could see sequential price improvement later in the year and see continued year-over-year price gains? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Well, Chris, I mean, that's -- our objective is to try and do that. It remains to be seen. I would say that prior to a lot of these increases, the pricing in China was some of the lowest we have in the world. So there is an amount of room to catch up. Demand is pretty good. So we'll -- that's something that has to be seen. But clearly, the team, I think, is motivated and properly has the right metrics and have a look at this. But conditions are good right there and good right now, but it's still -- I think China has a ways to go before the pricing can be equivalent to what you see in other markets. So I don't know at this stage, but we'll have to see. CHRISTOPHER MARK EVANS: And then since we're seeing a strong uptick in some of the merchant and packaged businesses globally, can you kind of remind us of the potential for margin improvement as you increase utilization rates? What kind of algorithms or metrics should we look at as you get to fill up your plants in higher rates? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Well, our goal is to try and raise our margins every year. And if we can get 20 to 40 basis points, I think when you look at the average that we've experienced over a long range, that's something we've been able to deliver on fairly consistently. Clearly, at a time with pricing opportunities and expansion of volumes, that gives us a better opportunity to raise margins. We've done it now, as I mentioned, 4 consecutive quarters. We've got some pretty good year-over-year margin leverage for this first quarter. So this is something that we want to just make sure we capture. And the key is that we don't lose it, right? We don't allow cost inflation to offset it, and that's something that there's a lot of focus in the organization to ensure. So I think there is more opportunity. I think there's more improvement. I mean, I look at something like South America. When you look at it by region, South American margins are some of the lowest they've been. So any kind of improvement there will clearly help the overall margins. So it's just -- it's got to be kind of region by region and what we're able to do on organic volume and pricing, but I definitely think there's room for improvement. OPERATOR: Our next question is from Jim Sheehan with SunTrust. JAMES MICHAEL SHEEHAN, RESEARCH ANALYST, SUNTRUST ROBINSON HUMPHREY, INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: Matt, could you give us some flavor on your merchant utilization rates by region? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Sure. So starting in North America, what we're seeing is kind of low 80s. Argon is much tighter. You probably heard that from other calls. But on the LIN/LOX side, still kind of high 70s, low 80s, but we're continuing to see some upticks there. But for the most part, while it's different in the regions, pretty well loaded, but we still got a lot of room and capacity for further expansion. South America, it depends. LAR is quite low, low utilization, but excluding LAR, we're probably in the mid- to high 70s for most of our areas. But that's something that's been pretty flat for a while now in utilizations over the last couple of years. Not much movement there. Europe, again, I'd say mid-70s. LIN/LOX, so we definitely got some capacity and room there, although we have seen some incremental improvements. And then Asia is clearly higher, probably mid-80s. China and Korea are definitely in higher utilization rates. India is a little lower, but we're starting to see better utilization as those economies have been growing pretty much faster than the other ones in the world. So all in, we're probably in the high 70s globally. But I would say, definitely room for further capacity expansion, and we can meet any incremental demand if required. JAMES MICHAEL SHEEHAN: Did you quantify any headwind you might expect from customer turnarounds in the second quarter? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Not in the second quarter, no. We had mentioned in the first quarter some fairly large primarily refining turnarounds in the U.S. Gulf Coast, and that was about 1% on the North American segment, so roughly half of that globally. But no, there's nothing we've highlighted in the second quarter. OPERATOR: Our next question is from Don Carson with Susquehanna Financial. DONALD DAVID CARSON, SENIOR ANALYST, SUSQUEHANNA FINANCIAL GROUP, LLLP, RESEARCH DIVISION: Matt, on the on-site business, are you seeing any pickup in production at your North American customers from the steel and aluminum tariffs? Or is it too early to tell what benefit that may have? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Well, Don, probably it's a little too early to tell. But I can say looking over the last several quarters, we've definitely seen an improvement in volumes across our metals customers in North America, and I think you've probably seen that in our end market reporting by segment. So it's been a continual improvement. I think that margins are better for them given what's going on. So I think the desire is there to run. It's profitable for them to run. So we see the right backdrop, and we've seen some good improvements. And then, clearly, it will just be as units are -- come on and off with the various mills. But that's an area, I think, that the economics for our customer base seems good, and it seems to be more of a level playing field for them. So I think that outlook still remains fairly good. DONALD DAVID CARSON: And a follow-up on the Linde divestiture process, if you can answer it. On the bidders for the assets that are being divested, have those bidders been preapproved by either the European Commission or other antitrust agencies? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Yes. Sorry, Don, I can't get into any details at this point on that process. But rest assured, when the timing is right and we have more information to disclose, we will disclose that. OPERATOR: Our last question is from Kevin McCarthy with Vertical Research. KEVIN WILLIAM MCCARTHY, PARTNER, VERTICAL RESEARCH PARTNERS, LLC: With regard to the packaged gas growth of 9%, would you comment on the split between hard goods and gas and rent? And then also, in U.S. packaged gases, Matt, I think you referenced some of the pressures in logistics. Can you remind us how you look to offset that? Is it surcharges or pricing or a combination of those? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Sure. So on the PAG, 9% growth. Hard goods are double-digit. And again, that's coming off the lower base. Hard goods tend to swing more, as you know, so they're up more double-digit. Gases are mid-single-digit, some pushing to higher single-digit. So I'd say, from that perspective, kind of bracketing around the 9%. But we've seen now a couple of quarters in a row with these type trends, and I think they remain pretty solid throughout here even through the first month of the second quarter here. Regarding logistics costs, it's exactly what you said. It will be a combination. Some will be surcharging contractually. Some will just be pricing, depends on the contract, depends on the product. For packaged, it tends to be more just pricing. And so that's a reason why they need to go out there and make sure we're recovering any of the deflation that we're seeing. And I'd say, so far to date, we've been keeping up with it. So we feel on track with that. KEVIN WILLIAM MCCARTHY: Very good. And then as a quick follow-up, if I may, on Slide 15, where you provide the end-use market growth trends, chemicals was highest at 14%. That's an acceleration from 11%, I think, last quarter. What is driving that? And if you were to back out new projects, do you think the baseline growth is accelerating there as well? Do you have any color on that subject? MATTHEW J. WHITE: Yes. So clearly, to your point, projects are driving a portion of that in North America. But even without the projects, we are still positively growing a little bit in Europe, fairly well in Asia still. We're seeing good growth in chemicals on our Asian, primarily on-site, businesses; and in the U.S. Even excluding the project startups, we are growing in chemicals. So I'd say that even despite the startups, that is a positive growing end market, consistent with what you've seen in some of the others on an organic basis. JUAN PELAEZ: Thank you again for participating in our first quarter earnings call. If you have any further questions, please feel free to reach out to me directly. OPERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day. [Thomson Financial reserves the right to make changes to documents, content, or other information on this web site without obligation to notify any person of such changes. In the conference calls upon which Event Briefs are based, companies may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding a variety of items. Such forward-looking statements are based upon current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties. 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Subject: Acquisitions & mergers; Corporate profits; Manufacturing; Trends; Construction contracts; Copyright; Equity; Earnings per share; Energy industry; Startups
Location: United States--US North America South America China Asia Europe
Company / organization: Name: Praxair Inc; NAICS: 325120, 423830; Name: Thomson Financial; NAICS: 511210, 518210, 519190
Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Apr 26, 2018
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: Linthicum
Country of publication: United States, Linthicum
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Law--Corporate Law
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2037001359
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2037001359?accountid=4840
Copyright: 2018 Thomson Financial and ASC LLC
Last updated: 2018-05-13
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 227 of 474
Pines Day, food fests top family fun this weekend
Author: Jhon, Jennifer
Publication info: South Florida Sun - Sentinel ; Fort Lauderdale, Fla. [Fort Lauderdale, Fla]27 Apr 2018: B.2.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: A beautiful weekend is predicted in South Florida, providing an ideal backdrop for the Pines Day birthday celebration in Pembroke Pines, the Sweet Corn Fiesta in West Palm Beach and the Pompano Beach Seafood Festival. Plenty of events deliver family fun in Miami, as well, including a Family Fun Day at Tropical Park and a 5K at Zoo Miami. Finding events for your family is easier than ever. South Florida Parenting's new calendar is easily searchable by date, location, event title or event category (such as fairs and festivals, storytelling, holidays or family event), and you can even display the events as a map view to find fun close to home. Check it out at southfloridaparenting.com/events. For fun this weekend, our list of top events for families in South Florida includes the following: Tour the Niña and the Pinta replica ships, through Sunday, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. The Pinta and the Niña, replicas of Columbus' ships, are open for public viewing in Jupiter at Harbourside Place, 200 U.S. 1, through Sunday. The Niña is considered to be the most historically correct Columbus replica ever built. The Pinta was recently built in Brazil and is a larger version of the ship. Self-guided tours cost $8.50 for adults, $6.50 for ages 5-16. No RSVP necessary. Groups can schedule a 30-minute guided tour with a crew member at 787-672-2152. www.ninapinta.org One-act Theatre Festival, Friday, 7 p.m. Jupiter Christian School presents a two-night festival full of one-act plays and musical-theater selections. 7 p.m. $15 adults; $10 students. Eissey Campus Theatre, Palm Beach State College, 11051 Campus Drive, Palm Beach Gardens. eisseycampustheatre.org Pompano Beach Seafood Festival, today through Sunday. Live music, seafood, arts and craft, children's activities and beach games off Atlantic Boulevard on the beach in Pompano Beach. $15; under 12 free. pompanobeachseafoodfestival.com Kids Dance Party, Friday, 5 p.m. Kids ages 7-13 get the chance to bring their best dance moves to the dance floor. Light refreshments served. $5. Carolyn Sims Center, 225 NW 12th Ave., Boynton Beach. facebook.com/pg/boyntonbeachrecandparks/events/ Art Night Out, Friday, 6-9 p.m. An evening in Northwood Village with restaurants, shopping, live music and array of art. Free. Northwood Village, 400 Northwood Road, West Palm Beach. facebook.com/NorthwoodVillageFanPage/ Kids Night Out, Friday, 6-11 p.m. Children ages 5-12 will play games, make new friends, create unique arts and crafts projects. Space is limited. $10, pre-registration; $20, day of event. Emma Lou Olson Civic Center, 1801 NE Sixth St., Pompano Beach. pompanobeachfl.gov Concerts in the Court, Friday, 6-9 p.m. Downtown at the Gardens, 11701 Lake Victoria Gardens Ave., Palm Beach Gardens. downtownatthegardens.com/event Kids Beach Night: Parents Survival Night, Friday, 6-8 p.m. Parents can have a date night and drop kids ages 5 and older for a night of games, relay-races, projects, crafts and more on the beach. BurgerFi, 6 S. Ocean Blvd, Delray Beach. $30 includes dinner. UnderBlueWater.com Earth Day Event, Saturday, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. A family-friendly event with eco-friendly crafts, food and live animal presentations. Free. Okeeheelee Nature, 7715 Forest Hill Blvd., West Palm Beach. pbcnature.com Saturday Ocean Kids Day, 10 a.m.-2p.m. A half day of snorkeling, boogie boarding, skimboarding, paddleboarding, surfing, fishing. Ages 5 and older. Atlantic Dunes, 1605 S. Ocean Blvd., Delray Beach. $55. UnderBlueWater.com Kids Carnival, Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. The family-friendly event is meant to raise autism awareness as well as to raise funds for local autism programs. The resource fair includes carnival games, entertainment, food, costumed characters, a DJ and bounce house. Activities included in $15 entrance fee. Sunset Cove Amphitheater, 12551 Glades Road, Boca Raton. kidscarnivalbocaraton.org Story and Craft Time, Saturday, 10 a.m. Ages 4-10 discover nature through crafts and stories. This month's theme is frogs. $2. RSVP required. Green Cay Nature Center, 12800 Hagen Ranch Road, Boynton Beach. pbcnature.com Palm Beach Mini Maker Faire 2018, Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 pm. Experience DIY robotics, maker workshops for all ages, 3-D printing, rocket launching, visual art, live science demos and more. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. $16.95; ages 3-12, $12.95 South Florida Science Center and Aquarium, 4801 Dreher Trail North, West Palm Beach. sfsciencecenter.org Artists in the Park, Saturday and Sunday. Enjoy the art of the Delray Art League in an outdoor setting. Free. Saturday, 3-7 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Old School Square Grounds, 51 N. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach. delrayartleague.com/artists-in-the-park/ Goldner Family Fun: "Clementine," Saturday, 11 a.m. Clementine is having a terrible week, but this spunky 8-year-old doesn't let her daily visits to the principal's office get her down. Join Clementine on her third-grade adventure. 11 a.m. Eissey Campus Theatre, Palm Beach State College, 11051 Campus Drive, Palm Beach Gardens. eisseycampustheatre.org Art Storytime, Saturday, 11 a.m-noon Ages 3-5 and their caregivers can attend a story reading followed by a related art activity at Perez Art Museum Miami's Knight Education Center. RSVP required. Free for kids; adults must pay for museum admission. Perez Art Museum Miami, 1103 Biscayne Blvd., Miami. pamm.org Pines Day, Saturday, noon-6 p.m. Pembroke Pines celebrates its 58th birthday with a circus/carnival, live music, singers and dancers, stilt walkers, jugglers, strolling magicians, children's rides, craft booths and carnival games. Charles F. Dodge City Center, 601 City Center Way. "Party on the Plaza" cake cutting ceremony at 5 p.m. Free. pinesday.com Sweet Corn Fiesta, Sunday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Enjoy local sweet corn and hot dogs, local food vendors, live music, corn shucking for kids and adults, and a professional competitive corn eating competition. Adults, $10; ages 6-11, $5. Children's unlimited ride wristband, $5. Yesteryear Village at the South Florida Fairgrounds, 9067 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach. sweetcornfiesta.com [email protected], [email protected], 954-574-5316 or Twitter @sfparenting Credit: By Jennifer Jhon - South Florida Parenting - [email protected], [email protected], 954-574-5316 or Twitter @sfparenting
Subject: Music; Art galleries & museums; Food; Social networks; Autism; Families & family life; Seafoods; Children & youth; Theater; Festivals
Location: United States--US Brazil South Florida Lake Victoria
Company / organization: Name: Twitter Inc; NAICS: 519130; Name: Perez Art Museum Miami; NAICS: 712110; Name: Palm Beach State College; NAICS: 611310
Publication title: South Florida Sun - Sentinel; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
First page: B.2
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Apr 27, 2018
Publisher: Tribune Interactive, LLC
Place of publication: Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Country of publication: United States, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2031259542
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2031259542?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright © 2018 South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Last updated: 2018-04-27
Database: US Southeast Newsstream
Document 228 of 474
Top weekend events: Adams Avenue Unplugged, Mission Federal ArtWalk, Chocolate Festival
Author: Deaderick, Lisa
Publication info: TCA Regional News ; Chicago [Chicago]27 Apr 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: April 27--2018 Adams Avenue Unplugged With: Paul Barrere & Fred Tackett of Little Feat, Gregory Page, Veronica May, Joey Harris, The Shawn Rolf Band, Sara Petite, Robin Henkel, Nina Francis and more. Noon to 10 p.m. Saturday. At 24 indoor venues on Adams Avenue, between Marlborough Drive and 30th Street. Free, except for Paul Barrere and Fred Tackett ($15) and the 21-and-up VIP beer and food package ($19). (619) 282-7329. adamsavenuebusiness.com/event-info/adams-avenue-unplugged If Little Feat could have turned the praise of other musicians into gold, the members of this near-legendary, almost-famous Los Angeles band might have put the contents of Fort Knox to shame. During the band's heyday in the 1970s, Mick Jagger hailed Little Feat as the best band in America. Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page declared them the best rock band in the world. "Even though we're not rock stars, at least we never had to wear Spandex!" quipped Paul Barrere, who on Saturday headlines the 2018 Adams Avenue Unplugged festival with fellow Little Feat guitarist and singer Fred Tackett. GEORGE VARGA 2018 Lakeside Rodeo 7:30 p.m. tonight; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday.Lakeside Rodeo Grounds, 12584 Mapleview St., Lakeside. $10-$20. (619) 443-5125. lakesiderodeo.com Throw on a good pair of boots and Wranglers for one of the most exciting events around -- the rodeo. Sanctioned by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and the Women's Professional Rodeo Association, the 54th annual Lakeside Rodeo brings the best in professional talent to compete in seven categories, including bull riding, bareback riding, steer wrestling and team roping. Little broncs ages 4 to 6 can get involved in a Stick Horse Race with the help of rodeo clown Kevin Higley. Also on tap: a vendor alley, snack bars with hot dogs, nachos, popcorn and drinks, and a specialty food booth. There's also a Western Days Parade at 9:35 a.m. Saturday along Woodside and Maine avenues. CAROLINA GUSMAN San Diego Ballet presents "Dance Gallery" 8 p.m. Saturday. White Box Live Arts Theater at Liberty Station, 2590 Truxtun Road, Studio 205, San Diego (at Truxtun Road and Roosevelt Road). $25. (619) 294-7378. sandiegoballet.org The San Diego Ballet, under the direction of artistic director Javier Velasco, will present "Dance Gallery," a stylistically diverse program featuring both classical and contemporary pieces created by emerging choreographers from the company. Ticket-holders are invited to meet the dancers and dance makers at a reception following the show. CYNTHIA ZANONE Spring Garden and Butterfly Festival 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. Cuyamaca College, 900 Rancho San Diego Parkway, El Cajon. Free. (619) 660-4261 or (619) 660-0614, Ext. 14. thegarden.org/springfestival Cuyamaca College's ornamental horticulture program, the Water Conservation Garden and the Heritage of the Americas Museum come together this weekend to present the annual Spring Garden and Butterfly Festival. Thousands are expected to visit the campus for the plant sales, vendors, animals, exhibits, tours of the butterfly pavilion, story time, guided tours of the garden, landscape design consultations, fine art on display and for sale, a demonstration on Chinese brush painting, museum tours, a demonstration on Kumeyaay artifacts and fire-making, and butterfly releases. LISA DEADERICK Linda Vista Multi-Cultural Fair and Parade 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. 6900 block of Linda Vista Road, between Comstock and Ulric streets, San Diego. Free. (619) 828-3101. lindavistafair.org Spend the day in Linda Vista with cultural exhibits, ethnic food, artistic performances and a parade to celebrate the different cultures of San Diego. This year's 33rd annual event is highlighting "Linda Vista: Our Stories" and will include a world arts village with artists and crafters selling their work, hands-on workshops for kids, musical performances, carnival games and rides, and a parade that begins at 11 a.m. with marching bands, clubs and community officials. LISA DEADERICK "Pinkalicious the Musical" Opens Saturday. 1 and 3 p.m. Saturdays; 3 p.m. Sundays. Through May 6. Lyceum Space, 79 Horton Plaza, downtown. $24-$49. (619) 544-1000. kelrikproductions.org Based on the kids' book, this family-minded, hourlong musical (featuring an all-adult cast) tells the story of a girl whose love for cupcakes winds up turning her pink. The show is the first in Kelrik Productions' planned "Season of Miracles" in San Diego, which also will include productions of "Disney's The Little Mermaid," "Pippin" and "Oliver!" JAMES HEBERT 2018 Mission Federal Credit Union ArtWalk 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Between Ash and Grape Streets in Little Italy. Free. artwalksandiego.org Choreographer Peter G. Kalivas, founder of the PGK Dance Project, also produces Dance on the Edge, a showcase for dance performances staged at this weekend's Mission Federal ArtWalk. He jokingly describes his role as being like the dance police. Kalivas strives to keep the peace by helping to ensure that the choreography is appropriate for a large, diverse, family-friendly showcase. No politics. No nudity. No religious themes. And if you refer to the event as a street fair, he'll issue a warning. Mission Federal ArtWalk is more accurately a celebration of visual and performing arts that spreads throughout 17 blocks in Little Italy this Saturday and Sunday. There's a diverse selection of art to peruse, along with music concerts, kids' activities and spoken-word and dance performances. MARCIA MANNA The Weight Band 8 p.m. Sunday. Belly Up Tavern, 134 S. Cedros Ave., Solana Beach. $28-$30 general admission; $49 reserved loft seating. (858) 481-8140. bellyup.com Working on their own and with close friend Bob Dylan, members of the pioneering Canadian-American group The Band laid the foundation for Americana music in the 1960s and '70s. Their first four albums have stood the test of time, as have such classic Band songs as "Up on Cripple Creek," "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" and "The Weight." Only two of the group's five original members are still alive, and neither of them is part of The Weight Band. But its lineup features several musicians who toured and recorded as the second edition of The Band -- with three of the group's co-founders -- in the 1980s and '90s. The other credits of The Weight Band's members range from Dylan and Al Green to Etta James and The Buckinghams. GEORGE VARGA Art Garfunkel 8 p.m. tonight. Balboa Theatre, 868 Fourth Ave., Gaslamp Quarter. $51.50, plus service charges. (619/858/760) 570-1100 . ticketmaster.com The sound of Art Garfunkel sputtering will never rival his famed singing voice or his eloquent way with words. It is a memorable sputter nonetheless. The 1990 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee recently underscored this during an hourlong phone interview from his New York penthouse, which overlooks Central Park. His sputter was prompted by two questions, asked as one. How often does Garfunkel change up his concert repertoire, which devotes nearly two-thirds of the selections to songs from his partnership with Paul Simon? Having made a dozen solo albums in the five decades since Simon & Garfunkel first imploded in 1970, might he favor more of his solo material on his current tour? "I very much stick to what I've been doing," said Garfunkel, who performs Friday at San Diego's Balboa Theatre with guitarist Tab Leven and keyboardist Dave Mackay. "Others might say, 'You don't change your show.' I don't. I love what I do. I am hard-pressed to imagine how I would change it. Why should I change it? If a painter is asked to paint that famous painting he did (again), his response should be, 'I'll try -- I loved it!'" GEORGE VARGA San Diego Symphony City Lights concert: Marc Broussard and Friends* 8 p.m. tonight. Copley Symphony Hall at Jacobs Music Center, 750 B St., downtown. $20-$78. (619) 235-0804. sandiegosymphony.org (*The San Diego Symphony does not perform at this concert.) Marc Broussard has come a long way since being in the Louisiana-based Christian band Y back in 2001. Soon after, he launched his solo career and released his first major album, "Carencro," in 2004. That record -- named after the Louisiana town where he was born -- spawned his first big hits, "Where You Are" and "Home." He's released seven more albums since, most recently "Easy to Love." He's "perpetually on tour," he says, and his current one brings him to Copley Symphony Hall on Friday as part of the San Diego Symphony's City Lights concert series. It's his only West Coast stop in a tour that's mostly on the East Coast and in the South. MICHAEL JAMES ROCHA "South Pacific" Opens Saturday. 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays-Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays. Through May 27. Horton Grand Theatre, 444 Fourth Ave., Gaslamp Quarter. $30-$70. (858) 560-5740. sdmt.org Dropped into the middle of "My Shot," the rousing song from the hit musical "Hamilton" that lays out the hero's dreams and ambitions, is an odd little line that might nudge the memory: "You've got to be carefully taught." What is the name of a song from the classic 1949 musical "South Pacific" doing in a number from the hip-hop-driven "Hamilton"? You can bet it's no accident. "Hamilton," with its multicultural cast and focus on the achievements of immigrants, is very much about celebrating difference and diversity. And "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught," one of the numerous enduring songs from the "South Pacific" score by lyricist Richard Rodgers and composer Oscar Hammerstein II, explores the flip side of that sense of tolerance. In 2008, when the former San Diego theater maverick Bartlett Sher staged the first Broadway revival of "South Pacific," that theme came to the fore once again -- and it's one that has hardly lost its urgency since, as our country continues to struggle with issues of race. JAMES HEBERT "Nancy Lorenz: Moon Gold" Through Sept. 3. San Diego Museum of Art, 1450 El Prado, Balboa Park. $15 for adults; discounts for students, military and 65 and older; free for 17 and under. (619) 232-7931. sdmart.org Nancy Lorenz draws inspiration for her art from many sources -- from the traditional gilt artists of Italy and the 1960s Italian arte povera movement to American painter James McNeill Whistler. But it was the five years she spent in Japan as a teenager that is her biggest influence. Her distinctive East-meets-West style is characterized by the use of gold and silver leaf, lacquer and mother-of-pearl inlay. Lorenz describes her work, which ranges in scale from room-sized panels to small boxes, as "kind of a combination of abstract expressionism along with Japanese techniques." MARTINA SCHIMITSCHEK Chocolate Festival Noon to 4 p.m. Sunday. Maritime Museum, 1492 N. Harbor Drive, San Diego. $25 adults; $13 children 3 -- 12; free to children under 2. General admission to the museum is included with ticket purchase. sdmaritime.org Sail to a land of decadent chocolate as the Maritime Museum of San Diego hosts its seventh annual Chocolate Festival on Sunday. "A Celebration of Chocolate on the Bay" is this year's theme, and organizers expect between 600 and 700 chocoholics of all ages to be in attendance. More than a dozen vendors will feature booths showcasing samples of their best chocolate treats. Festival-goers can touch, taste, smell and experience chocolate goodies of all forms and flavors on the upper deck of the steam ferry Berkeley, while the 21-and-older crowd can participate in the wine-and-chocolate or beer-and-chocolate pairings on board the HMS Surprise, a replica of the 18th-century Royal Navy frigate Rose. CAROLINA GUSMAN Tina Guo with San Diego Civic Youth Orchestra 7 p.m. Sunday. California Center for the Arts, 340 N. Escondido Blvd., Escondido. $35-$45 (student discount available); $65 VIP passes. (800) 988-4253. artcenter.org Have you heard Tina Guo play her cello? You have, if you saw "Wonder Woman," "Dunkirk" or "Iron Man 2." Have you seen Tina Guo play her cello? You have, if you watched "Joe Bonamassa: Live at Carnegie Hall," the PBS special starring the blues-rock guitar virtuoso. You have, if you saw this former San Diego Symphony guest soloist perform at the 2017 Coachella Valley Arts & Music Festival with superstar film composer Hans Zimmer, whose world tour with Guo also included a concert at Viejas Arena. You may have also seen the YouTube video of Guo performing the cello-dominant theme of "Wonder Woman," which now has more than 5 million views. Classical or rock, electric or acoustic, onstage or online, Guo, 32, seemingly does it all and will perform with the San Diego Civic Youth Orchestra on Sunday at the California Center for the Arts in Escondido. BETH WOOD Fronterizo Fest, featuring Scorpions, Megadeth, Mastodon, Sepultura and more Through Sunday. Estadio Caliente, Boulevard Agua Caliente 12027, Tijuana. (Free shuttle buses will run every 30 minutes from the San Ysidro border crossing). $40-$116 single-day tickets; $98-$280 three-day passes. fronterizofest.com/ff-en.html Tijuana will become a haven for headbangers at next weekend's Fronterizo Fest. To be held at Estadio Caliente -- the stadium formerly known as Agua Caliente Racetrack -- the heavy-metal marathon boasts more than two-dozen bands on three outdoor stages. It culminates next Sunday with Scorpions, Megadeth, and nine other acts, including Nukem, the El Cajon thrash-metal trio that won a Fronterizo battle of the bands. Mastodon, Gojira and Suicidal Tendencies headline Saturday, while Brazil's Sepultura tops Friday's bill. A dozen house and techno DJs, including Pete Tong, will play on two indoor stages. GEORGE VARGA La Jolla Music Society presents the Joey Alexander Trio 8 p.m. Saturday. Balboa Theatre, 868 Fourth Ave., Gaslamp Quarter. $25-$75. (858) 459-3728. ljms.org Like many 14-year-olds, Joey Alexander collects action figures, likes to swim and cites "Black Panther" as his favorite recent movie. Unlike any other 14-year-olds, he earned Grammy Award nominations in 2016 and 2017 in the Best Improvised Jazz Solo category, plus another in 2016 for Best Jazz Album. The youngest jazz artist to be showcased in Grammy history, Alexander was only 12 when he performed an unaccompanied solo as part of the 2016 awards telecast. The piece he performed was an original composition, "City Lights," which opens his Grammy-nominated 2016 album "Countdown." "It was a huge honor, and it was great to play jazz for people who haven't heard it or are not interested in hearing it. I'm very grateful to the Grammys for recognizing my music," said Alexander, who will make his San Diego debut at the Balboa Theatre with his trio. Presented by the La Jolla Music Society, his concert here is part of a West Coast tour to promote his fourth and newest album, "Eclipse." GEORGE VARGA Gabrielle Bakker In residence through May 5; on exhibit through June 2. Lux Art Institute, 1550 S. El Camino Real, Encinitas. $5 for adults; free for Lux members, 18 and under, bicycle riders. (760) 436-6611. luxartinstitute.org Gabrielle Bakker's paintings are stories where divergent worlds collide. Her characters include Minotaurs, geishas, mythological figures and surfers, executed meticulously in style and technique. Her colors, attention to detail and materials are inspired by old masters, resulting in pieces that are classical yet modern and often whimsical. All are the result of hard work, skill and dedication. The Seattle-based artist is spending a month at Lux Art Institute in Encinitas, where she will paint a scene of Icarus, Leda and Ariadne in a modern setting. Like all Bakker's paintings, this one has a narrative she paints the scene around. MARTINA SCHIMITSCHEK CREDIT: By Lisa Deaderick
Subject: Bands; Water conservation; Dance; Musicians & conductors; Awards & honors; Museum exhibits; Parades; Art; Theater; Rodeos; Museums; Jazz; Festivals; Dancers & choreographers; Painting
Location: Italy La Jolla California El Cajon California
Company / organization: Name: San Diego Ballet; NAICS: 711120; Name: Cuyamaca College; NAICS: 611210; Name: Lux Art Institute; NAICS: 712110; Name: Megadeth; NAICS: 711130; Name: Little Feat; NAICS: 711130
Publication title: TCA Regional News; Chicago
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Apr 27, 2018
Publisher: Tribune Content Agency LLC
Place of publication: Chicago
Country of publication: United States, Chicago
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2031397329
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2031397329?accountid=4840
Copyright: (c)2018 The San Diego Union-Tribune Visit The San Diego Union-Tribune at www.sandiegouniontribune.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Last updated: 2018-04-27
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 229 of 474
Export Champion Embrace New Success, Official Signing Ceremony of JAC S7's 14,000 Units Overseas Orders
Publication info: Contify Automotive News ; New Delhi (Apr 27, 2018).
Abstract: None available.
Full text: April 27 -- On April 25th, at the 15th Beijing Auto Show, official signing ceremony of JAC S7's 14,000 Units overseas orders became the public's eyes. In recent years, JAC Motors has achieved remarkable results in overseas markets with its ever-increasing product strength and five-star standard service. In 2017, SUV series exported more than 40,000 vehicles throughout the year, ranking first among the industry and leaped to a truly 'SUV Champion of Export'. At the beginning of 2018, S7 models were sent to 11 countries for product test, marking its entrance into international market. In early 2018, JAC Motors was named Top 50 the world's most valuable car brand, coming out top among all global automotive brand as representative of Chinese independent brands. On account of JAC's remarkable export volume of SUV series throughout 2017, S7 received 14,000 overseas orders, which not only validated its outstanding performance, but also brought new impetus to JAC's competition in the international market. The tremendous achievement of SUV cars export greatly boosts JAC's reputation in overseas market and become a preferential brand for overseas customers to choose, which also makes S7 highly anticipated in overseas market. At this year's Auto Show, JAC Motors officially signed a total 14,000 units order for S7 with representative distributors from Brazil, Chile, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Peru and the Philippines. Mexico distributor signed a gross purchase of 4,000 units in five years, and distributors from Brazil, Kazakhstan, Peru, and Chile had more than 2,000 purchases. Meanwhile, S7 had been sent to 11 countries to conduct product test and started its process of entering the international market. As an aggregation of JAC's manufacturing experience and technology accumulation in more than 50 years, S7 is a flagship product developed in line with European five-star safety standards by a global R&D team spanning Europe, Japan, and China. It has an ultra-long wheelbase with 2750mm equipped with 1.5T plus 6DCT platinum power, parking assistance plus 360panoramic imagery and other intelligent equipment. It is a tempting SUV car incorporating 108 top plus 15 proprietary technologies More space enables more comfortable ride. S7 has a large dimensional size of 4790*1900*1760mm. Its leading 2750mm long wheelbase creates a spacious and comfortable inner space beyond the mainstream compact SUV products. 5 seats is standard while 7 seats is also optional to choose, which can accurately meet the space requirements for diversified driving scenarios and meet the user's expectations of 'two-children-age'family. It is equipped with a big trunk with a volume of up to 1358L. All 22 storage spaces within the car are at your fingertips, making it easy to use. More efficient power makes it full energy-saving. S7 offers two power trains-1.5T+ and 2.0T. The 1.5T+ engine integrates three mainstream technologies of in-cylinder direct injection, turbocharged, and DVVT, and has been awarded the"China Top Ten Best Engine" for two consecutive years. The maximum power of 128kW is comparable to the 2.4L naturally aspirated engine in the market, but the idle fuel consumption is lower by more than 30%. The 1.5T+ engine is equipped with a 6DCT gearbox to form a 'Platinum Drive System'. The combined transmission efficiency is as high as 94%, taking into account both power and fuel economy. The 100-km acceleration time of 2.0T engine requires only 9.8 seconds bringing a more enjoyable driving experience. Higher standards of safety guarantees better driving experience. S7 is designed according to the European five-star safety standard, and the proportion of high-strength steel is as high as 74%. It utilizes front and rear ventilated brake discs and two-cylinder brakes to achieve a braking distance of 39.4 meters per 100 kilometers, which excels competitors a lot. S7 also pays attention to interior air safety and adopts green interior materials. The new car has no odor, whose harmful air content is far below the national standard. More advanced intelligence creates free control. S7 integrates multiple intelligent interactive functions such as parking assistance and 360panoramic imagery in order to bring users a new smart driving experience. In addition, S7 is equipped with automatic lock, reversing rearview mirror and other functions which are not available on the same level of other products. At this year's Auto Show, JAC Motors officially started S7 Global Discovery Journey, conducting experience travel exhibitions in Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Egypt, Kazakhstan, and other countries, and having the world to further understand the charm of Chinese manufacturing. Countries spanning this discovery journey are also advantageous foreign markets for JAC. The event not only explores overseas cultures in different regions, it will also allow consumers to fully witness the influence and competitiveness of JAC Motors in the international market. JAC ranks first in SUV exports, which is a result of its accumulated product quality and strength. As early as in 2013, JAC won the Asia Quality Excellence Award which represented the highest quality award in Asia in terms of innovation in quality practice and outstanding achievements. It became the only Chinese company to win the award in 2013 and was the first to receive this award among Chinese Auto Company. With the support of technical strength, in 2015, S3 successfully passed the EU standard collision certification test, which verified its excellent safety performance. Up to now, all JAC SUV models have passed this certification and been more internationally recognized. Based on leading quality, JAC Motors has received attention and praise from Chinese and foreign state leaders. In March 2015, JAC Motors signed a KD Assembly Agreement with SAP in Kazakhstan under the witness of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Kazakhstani Prime Minister Masimov. In November 2016, the two prime ministers also witnessed the launch of the automobile project in Kazakhstan through remote video connections, marking the successful operation for another major project of Sino-Kazakhstan cooperation. And JAC Motors has also become a new benchmark among China's independent automobile brands regarding "The Silk Road Economic Belt". In November 2017, JAC Refine S2mini made its debut in the Paraguayan government family car tendering program. As a key model, it was placed in the center of the presidential palace and competed with the world famous automobile brands such as Volkswagen, Ford and Chevrolet. Paraguay President Olasio Carters personally visited and experienced the S2mini, and spoke highly of it. At present, JAC has achieved a global strategic layout in Europe, Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Gulf region, and has made great achievements in all markets. In the EU high-end market, JAC achieved market breakthrough with S3. At the end of September 2017, the Italian Ministry of Transport reviewed and passed JAC's factory site review and quality management system review, and in December of that year formally approved the issuance of the S3 EU certification. Since December of 2017, the first batch of more than 300 JAC S3s have been imported into Italy, marking JAC's formal entrance into the EU high-end market. In Mexico where the independent brands have always been difficult to break through, with the introduction of S2, S3 and the release of brand-new passenger vehicle logo, in 2017, SUV achieved exports of more than 1300 units. The automotive evaluation experts named it as "China's most preferential car brand" on the YOUTUBE car channel. While our cars are popular in overseas markets, JAC has frequently exposed in high-end overseas auto shows and service events to upgrade its brand image. In 2017, at the invitation of the organizer of the Kazakhstan Expo, S3 showed up in the 2017 Astana Expo in Kazakhstan to display a new image made in China. In addition, last year, at the Pan-American Bank Summit held in Paraguay, 60 units of the S2 were selected as conference vehicles and during the Carnival in Venezuela 2017, JAC passenger vehicles were converted into a National Guard vehicle for the smooth running of the carnival. Frequently used as high-end 'Star' models, JAC passenger vehicles has been highly recognized by the local market and customers, polishing the brand. The signing of S7 mass overseas orders indicates that it has achieved a substantial breakthrough in overseas market. As S7 is introduced into overseas market and JAC has constantly upgraded our products, this global discovery journey will enable customers from all over the world to deeply understand and experience S7 and further refresh the brand image of JAC Motors, providing new impetus for our overseas development. In recent years, the development of China's independent brands has accelerated. JAC, with its excellent performance in the international market, strong technical accumulation, solid overseas layout, and other advantages, has been frequently acknowledged in the international market. JAC Motors is stepping into the international arena on behalf of China's independent brands. With better products and brand image, we will display the new strength of intelligently manufactured cars in the automotive market. Source: JAC Copyright 2017 Contify.com
Subject: Quality standards; Overseas; Vehicles; Certification; Brand image; Awards & honors
Location: Italy Beijing China Paraguay Egypt Latin America Peru Africa Brazil Asia Europe Mexico Venezuela Philippines Kazakhstan China Chile Japan
People: Li Keqiang
Company / organization: Name: Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Co Ltd; NAICS: 336111; Name: Volkswagen AG; NAICS: 336111, 336390
Publication title: Contify Automotive News; New Delhi
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Apr 27, 2018
Publisher: Athena Information Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
Place of publication: New Delhi
Country of publication: India, New Delhi
Publication subject: Transportation--Automobiles
Source type: Magazines
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2031698932
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2031698932?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright 2017 Contify.com
Last updated: 2018-04-28
Database: SciTech Premium Collection
Document 230 of 474
Q1 2018 Cia Hering Earnings Call - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]27 Apr 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Presentation OPERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, thanks for standing by. And welcome to the conference call to discuss the earnings of the first quarter 2018 of Hering company. (Operator Instructions) Before moving on, we would like to let you know that any statements made during this conference call relative to the company's business outlooks, as well as projections, operations and financial goals are forecasts based on the company's management expectations. Expectations highly depend on the conditions of the domestic market and the country's general economic performance as well as international markets, and therefore are subject to changes. Today with us in São Paulo are Fabio Hering, CEO; and Rafael Bossolani, CFO and IR Officer. The executives are going to make an initial introduction, and then answer your questions. Now I'm going to turn the call over to Mr. Fabio Hering. Please, Mr. Fabio Hering, you may go on. FABIO HERING, CEO, ADVISOR, MEMBER OF EXECUTIVE BOARD & DIRECTOR, CIA. HERING: Hello, everyone. I would like to welcome you all to this conference call to discuss the earnings of the first quarter 2018. Rafael is going to present the results, and later on, we are going to be available to answer any questions you may have and also add comments related to the questions asked. I'm going to ask Rafael to start the presentation. RAFAEL BOSSOLANI, CFO, IR OFFICER & MEMBER OF EXECUTIVE BOARD, CIA. HERING: Thank you, Fabio. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for attending. We are going to start on Slide #3, talking about our financial performance. In the first quarter '18, gross revenues totaled BRL 405.9 million, a growth of 4.4% year-on-year, which is a result of a positive contribution of our channels, as you can see the breakdown per channel to your right. The highlight is the positive performance in the foreign market in the quarter with more presence of our products in South American and Central American markets. Going to Slide #4, talking about the Hering Store network as a whole. Sales altogether totaled BRL 254.3 million, a drop of 1.1%, that is basically related to the results of franchises that closed 33 points of sales in the last 12 months, despite better sales in the same stores. On the other hand, the stores operating by the company had a growth of 7% with opening of new stores and also a better sales in the same stores. And so the same store criteria, we had an increase of 11.6% -- 1.1% -- 1.6%, sorry, influenced by the franchise performance. And here we have same-store sales with the webstores because it is considered our own sales channel. Along the year of '18, we also implemented some improvement in the store refurbishment project that is going to work with 35 Hering Stores, including own stores, but also franchises. This project will count on funds from the company and also part of a help from franchisees according to the performance of stores. Going to Slide #5. Our gross profit reached BRL 140.2 million, an increase of 3.7% compared to the previous quarter. Our margin had a contraction compared to the previous year and that basically is explained by the higher volume of imported items, which reduced the amount of our tax benefits generated in the manufacturing plants. This effect was partially offset by the exclusion of [ICMFs] in the discount fees calculation base and the decrease of our fixed costs. The positive sales performance, in addition to our management of expenses, contributed to an increase of 7.2% in our EBITDA margin, totaling BRL 45.3 million and an increase of 30 base points in our margins. Moving on to the other slide. We have a 9-point drop in terms of the previous quarter, mainly because of the lower financial results because of the lower financial income because of the interest rates. In terms of our investments, there has been a drop of 30% in the quarter influenced because of -- by the greatest investments in stores, and they have been focused on the second half because there'll be a new cycle of refurbishment. On Slide 7 when you see our cash flow, free cash flow totaled BRL 92.6 million, increased by 27% compared to the previous year, mainly due by the reduction of the need of cash at suppliers and inventory. It's worth noting that the distribution of the payout of BRL 30 million in dividends will be paid on May 15, and they correspond to profits in 2018. On Slide 8, here, we have some general outlook for the following months. We are still very optimistic in terms of 2018. We believe that the retake up in the economy will be gradual, slower than we thought. The political stability and highest volatility in sales will bring some challenges, but we still have a strong focus on our strategic priorities, sustaining the pillars of stores and products following on with the plan that we have. And we also increased the semi-store sales and will continue the revamping of stores in order to improve the sales experiences. At the same time, in our strategy, we are still growing the channel. We are increasing the capillarity of the model in our network. And lastly, we are committed to -- with a strict management of expenses, sound cash generation, a conservative capital structure based on our model and this means a high operational drive. I will now like to begin the questions-and-answer session. And now back to the operator. Questions and Answers OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Olivia Petronilho, Banco JPMorgan. OLIVIA B. PETRONILHO, ANALYST, JP MORGAN CHASE & CO, RESEARCH DIVISION: I have 2 questions concerning the stores you're closing down. We have seen several stores being closed. I would like to know, what is your perspective? Will this continue? And how that the new format -- more flexible formats that you have presented in the last Investor Day follow-through with this? And number two is, we still see traffic dropping and you have some market strategies and strategies to bring the client to the store. Have you had the effects of this? What can we expect in terms of traffic? RAFAEL BOSSOLANI: Olivia, this is Rafael. I'll start with the first question and Fabio can add, if he likes. But what we noticed in the first quarter was a mismatch between opening and closing stores. We hardly opened any stores. We opened 1 in the first quarter. And this -- these stores being closed is a natural movement. It's inherent to the business and it may pick up in the beginning of the year, precisely because of the sales -- high amount of sales at the end of the year. So the franchisees who were expecting already knew that they were going to close, they ended up waiting for the end of the year to carry it out in the first quarter. We will pick up on new stores being opened in the second quarter and on, which will reduce the gap of our base that remains in this mismatch in the first quarter. We have also been working with transfers of stores between franchisees, and this has also contributed to our postponing new stores being opening. In terms of the year, we look for a balance between opening and closing of stores. But in the short-term, what we have in terms of challenges is that we may see a net closure rate, which will be negative, but we will go on looking for a balance in the name -- in the number of stores. FABIO HERING: Now, Fabio, Olivia. I'd just like to add in terms of the number of stores. We have -- we've been having a high rate of transfer of stores. They are not being -- they are not stores that are closed, but a lot of exchanges. And this shows that some franchisees are reducing their operations and others are increasing. I say this because this also shows the flow and that you also -- the traffic you mean, that you also mentioned in your second question because of the number of tickets. And this is -- what we see there is a high dispersion, if you look at the network as a whole because half of it -- half of the performing network in the company, they have a good performance and the other half with a negative rate of performance. To us, this has been one of the greatest short-term challenges. We want to deal with this and bring the entire number of stores to the positive side. And these efforts have been focused in moving stores around. As you see, Rafael said, in the first quarter, this is common in the first quarter because the peaks of Christmas sales and the end of the year. And if people close, they usually close in the first quarter because it is after the Christmas sales. And all these adjustments that we've been doing and transferring stores to work hard, to bring all the stores to a positive performance rate, both to same-store sales, number of serviced clients in a good number of networks. We have the -- we have people counting how many people go into the stores, even in shopping malls. We have seen a high volatility in terms of entrance of clients. When we disclose the number of services, this is a consequence of the flow of the traffic that goes in, of the traffics that -- of the clients that go into the store and make a purchase. And we notice that there is a high volatility in this entrance flow. And a volatility means, is that we see that in the same quarter there is a month which has a positive rate. And then another month it drops with no apparent reason and consequently sales as well and then they pick up again. In this first quarter, once again, there is this characteristic. The first quarter of this year had some special features, which did not affect so much our industry. In terms of calendars, the Carnival in Brazil was earlier, Easter was in the first quarter. So if you compare this to the last year, Easter was in the second quarter. So this quarter, again, felt all these features that we have already mentioned. Even in the previous calls we mentioned this. We had high volatility. January was positive. February not so good. March was good. So we see this up and down; that is very much a feature of what we have been observing in the market as a whole. So we see there will be a pick up, but it will be gradual, which will not have a very uniform curve. There'll be ups and downs. This is what I have to say. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from [Mark Sully] from Itaú BBA. MARK SULLY, ANALYST, ITAú BBA: My question is about gross margin. We understand that the first quarter is a quarter in which you have a lower gross margin and more of a -- on-sales environment. What should we expect in terms of gross margin for the next quarters of 2018? RAFAEL BOSSOLANI: This is Rafael speaking. Well, indeed, we have margin seasonality quarter-on-quarter, so it's just natural that we have a lower gross margin in the first quarter compared to the remainder of the year, not only because of all on-sales and promotions, but because of volumes, mix and et cetera. We did have a one-off reduction of 30 base points in our margin, basically because of the lower tax incentives that were generated in the first quarter, which in turn, are a consequence of a mix of import and domestic production. That is, because we did have an earlier winter collection, which typically are collections that have deeper international sourcing compared to our domestic production, then we generated less tax incentives in the first quarter compared to the previous quarter -- the previous year. So we expect to maintain our margins for the year. This is what we are working for. And we believe that the margin growth that we're able to build along last year is sustainable for this year as well. We do have important initiatives to reduce losses, which will also contribute for us to maintain our margins throughout the year. But in terms of directions, I think we are going to keep margins that are very similar to what we saw last year. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from Franco Abelardo from Morgan Stanley. FRANCO T. ABELARDO, EQUITY ANALYST, MORGAN STANLEY, RESEARCH DIVISION: I have 2 questions. The first is about this 35 stores that are being refurbished or revamped. What is the deadline for this next quarter? And what is the model that you are going to have this? Is it the same of the 100 stores that were refurbished last year? And if so, if you could please share the results of these stores last year in terms of differences of -- I don't know, same-store sales and profitability compared to the ones that haven't been refurbished? FABIO HERING: This is Fabio speaking, and Rafael can add to that. Just to make it clear, the 100 stores were refurbished in 2016, not last year. Last year, we did move on with a project. It's a new project that we presented on our Hering Day in December. And basically, this brought more flexibility to the stores in terms of density and also the -- while displays were a bit more flexible for you to increase the number of product categories along the year. So you can -- I don't know, jink, for instance. You can increase or decrease the display along the year as necessary. We also worked with a lighting project, making the floors brighter. And the furniture also gave more density to what we call on ground facilities. And we also changed the facade of the stores. Now we're seeing a bit more appealing to women. And this evolution started to be executed now with 4 stores. It's ongoing since the second half of last year. So we have 2 stores in São Paulo -- I'm sorry, 5 stores we have in São Paulo, Marília, Franca, Paulista, Rio de Janeiro, (inaudible). Here, in São Paulo, also, a street store. (inaudible). I talked about Paulista already, and the shop in Paulista. And the performance of these stores is something that we have been monitoring from close and the answer is, yes. They have been performing a lot higher than the average of the network. And this incentive now that we have for this refurbishment, we have part of it being executed in the second quarter and part of it in the third quarter. And we have basically the windows of refurbishment that are going to be concentrated on the second and third quarters. In the fourth quarter, we may have something, just maybe minor works in the beginning of October, but as of the second fortnight of October, November and December, we are not going to have any stores closed for refurbishment. So we are working very hard to reduce the time the stores are closed during the refurbishment to try and do it faster and try to reduce this time as much as possible. Of course, that it varies if the store is located in a mall or on the street, but we are working on that. And the plan, as Rafael mentioned in the presentation, we do have an incentive. We have a bonus that is related to performance with the franchisees. And after the store reopens and is refurbished in the next 12 months, if the franchisee reaches the performance, they are going to have part of the investment made in the refurbishment paid off by the company. And this is being very well received by the network. It is an incentive. It is the same incentive that we pass off in 2016, and this is connected to performance. So this is something agreed with the franchisee, and we believe it's a very interesting model that we are working with. And as I mentioned, these 34 -- 35 stores for this tranche is going to be something that we are going to evaluate as it goes. That is, if we are going to expand that or if we are going to give more incentives. Alike to that, we have had a very important effort given the size of our network to basically try and complete things as fast as possible. And here I'm talking about this year and next year to try and update if not all, at least most of our network. FRANCO T. ABELARDO: Okay. It's very clear. Any estimates of what kind of investments you're talking for Hering or at least what part -- or what percentage of those investment is going to be funded by Hering? And also talking about omnichannel. Are you already having initiative of click-and-collect in your own stores? And are you going to expand those initiatives to the franchisee network and in what timing? When do you expect to have this kind of innovation? RAFAEL BOSSOLANI: Franco, this is Rafael. The estimated investment that we'll have is around BRL 10 million more or less. And this would, obviously, be done throughout the whole period, and it will be a financing for the franchisees. So that will be around BRL 10 million. In the case, as Fabio mentioned, the target set for performance are met, the franchisee may have as a subsidy from the company until 25% of this debt, which would be the 3 last installments of this 1 year financing credit line. In terms of our (inaudible) projects, what we have. In the last year, we managed to implement the click-and-collect model and a showroom as well. Showroom means, at the store that you have the alternative of purchasing online, and the client can receive at home the product. To us, this represents a major opportunity because repeatedly we have said this, that the -- that these surveys show that the clients that leave the store without buying anything is because he has not found the color or the size the client wishes. Therefore, there's a very large opportunity of reducing this significantly, this loss in sale due to inventory rupture. We have implemented this as a pilot in a few own stores in Blumenau and São Paulo, both for click-and-collect and the showroom. And our schedule as of this year is to have by the end of 2018 to have all the own stores this model be implemented and will begin the rollout to the franchisees. And in 2019, we'll have this across the network, own stores and franchise stores. And just to add, we have implemented this in our own stores with the pick-up model in 69 stores and 42 stores with the showroom. So by the end of the half, we will have a pickup in all own stores and 70% of our own stores and showroom. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from Irma Issac (sic - Irma Sgarz), Goldman Sachs. IRMA SGARZ, EQUITY ANALYST, GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: I would like to ask about the perspectives in terms of long-term when you look at the Hering network and the omni network now that you have the growth. You have spoken of net open ratios and this will represent not much of a change in the size of the network. But if you look to the future, maybe to the next 3 or 4 years, where should we imagine the growth heading to? Will the new store openings will have more through tickets or recovering traffic? How should we think of all of these elements? And then I have another question. FABIO HERING: Irma, this is Fabio. Our vision is that the distribution channels within our industry, within our business, are being actively transformed. In the whole, as the -- in the world as a whole, as we've seen in the U.S. We have seen this cycle happening in Brazil as well, although -- albeit not be so intense. If we look to a higher amount of time through the next 3, 4 years, we want to take advantage of all the capillarity that we have. We have many points of sales across the country. Even if we consider these store closures, we have hundreds of points of sale, Hering Store is the main one. And associating this to all the construction and what we have been doing with omnichannel, and we are trying to understand better, how we can create omnichannel within the franchise and the omnistores. The tax challenges and all of this is part of the work. And in the last year, we achieved in terms of systems, we evolved in terms of business rules. We developed systems. We have systems that enable us to operate with franchisees, with own stores, sending in -- selling in one, delivering in the other with compensation. And business rules that are very clear stating who and how much each one makes and when. And this opens to us and provides us with a vision of the long run. Therefore, in the 3, 4 years to come, we'll have major transformations in our distribution network, with the vision that we have a large opportunity to seize. There are hundreds of stores, and they mean hundreds of inventories close to consumers at many geographical regions in Brazil. What we have as focus, both for franchise and own stores, and we have excellent partnerships with our franchisees, is to implement the omnichannel model, which will bring, as I commented and I mentioned the showroom case, which will bring an improved performance in terms of inventory rupture. We don't want to lose that client, if he hasn't found what he wants. But you can close the sale and he can pick up at another store, pick up back at this store where he made the purchase or receive at home. Therefore, with this technology, we will have the possibility of picking up sales in terms of square meters in same-store sales consequently and increasing the network is also attached to increasing distribution in Brazil, so the growth of shopping malls and our opening of stores in smaller cities. Our network projects, as I have mentioned in the last call, we are having an analysis done on several formats, both in smaller format, more compact, which provide us with a possibility of entering smaller markets. And within the omnichannel, even when we do have a compact model, it can operate as a showroom. The client can look and, if they don't find what they want, they can buy -- make the purchase and receive it at home as well as in larger localities where we have more, more space. This is almost done. It's almost finalized and what we have to disclose at this moment is this. But within the network project, we will be focusing on new formats as new possibilities that are attached to our networks. Therefore, the existing networks that we have with more technology with improved technology, more digital retail system, there will be a leveraging of same-store sales and an increase in sales by square meters and the network will expand. Of course, if the market provides growth such as more shopping malls, and we will also have new formats. IRMA SGARZ: If you allow me just a quick question about the atmosphere for multi-brand customers. Are you increasing the average tickets for those customers? That -- it seems that the number of customers is smaller. So the closedown of stores, the pressures of this channel, do you think that they have already improved? Or do you think there are still adjustments to be made? RAFAEL BOSSOLANI: Irma, this is Rafael. Well, when you're talking about multi-brand channel, if you look back a bit, we had a very positive performance in the first half of last year. So the first half was -- had growth of more than 2 digits, then we saw more accelerated deceleration in the second half of last year, and now we see a small recovery in the first quarter of this year. Indeed, we have been able to have a better productivity within these clients. We are having a higher average ticket. We have a mix of average prices that is higher, the multi-brand channels. But the dynamics we see is that we still have a fiercer competition in terms of sales and promotions in this area and especially in specific categories in this channel. So not as irrational of a price policy as we saw in the past, but still quite tough in some categories. In addition to that what we have observed is a certain difficulty of ours to replenish some inventory, especially of items that were placed last year. So the sellout is not happening. So somehow, we see our multi-brand clients with inventory levels a bit higher than what they should be. And that has brought us some difficulty in the speed of retaking new orders. And we have had some important initiatives, a bit more tactical initiatives, to try and resume the number of clients. So we are conducting a series of campaigns, especially in the children's category world, aiming at the opening of new clients, cross selling. We have also working with the sales capture based on geo planning that is identifying potential new clients according to the geography, so potential geographic areas. We are adjusting the variable compensation models for the commercial area. So we are engaging into a series of tactical actions to resume the number of clients since we are being able to keep better productivity with the clients that we have so far. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from Tobias Stingelin from Crédit Suisse. TOBIAS STINGELIN, DIRECTOR, CRéDIT SUISSE AG, RESEARCH DIVISION: Do you have the same-store performance of the stores that you refurbished in 2016, just for us to have an idea of how those stores evolved? And second, you said that you're still working on the performance of the franchisees. What have good franchisees been doing different? And what are the poor performers doing? Is it a different mix? What is this exactly, if you could give a bit more color on that? FABIO HERING: Tobias, this is Fabio speaking. Well, for now, I do not have a raw data to give you exclusively information about the 100 refurbished stores, their performance in separate. I know there is some dispersion on average. You have better performance than the remainder of the network, but it is an average. There is dispersion as well because again, the same rationale applies, and that answers the second part of your question. What I can tell you is the following. By far, the main reason is management, management of supply of inventory, turnover. And of course, in the discussion, we have also -- have to take into consideration in a lesser scale the geographic location of stores or because they are in a shopping mall that is performing poorly or in an area that is not doing well. It is not the key determinant, but it exists. However, the key determinant is management on the part of franchisees. And what we have been trying to do with the franchisees is to give them more support in -- for their management process to be able to reverse that. And I think that what is the most important item in terms of management is the management of supply, that is to look at supply in a broader sense what you have to offer in terms of quantity and quality. And quality has also to do with the quality of inventory, with the promotions of your turnover. And again, because we have a very large network, the number of our own stores and franchises is the largest in Brazil in terms of closing item. And so this capillarity also brings us challenges in terms of management. And as I mentioned, answering another question in this call, in the short-term, this is our greatest point of attention. It is what we are most dedicated to, that is to be able to move this group that is performing a bit more poorly to a more positive performance. TOBIAS STINGELIN: What about size? Is there a difference between large and small stores? FABIO HERING: No. Size does not matter. We have large franchisees that are performing very well, of course, because they are very well structured, but with smaller franchisees, not talking about size of stores specifically. You also have a part that is performing very well and part that is not performing as well and size is the same thing. You have large franchisees that have large stores and small stores with homogeneous uniform performance. And you have the small franchisees with 3 stores with different sizes and that have a similar performance in between stores, be them large or small. And our support is very important, and we have to consider that in the performance of franchisee. So you have to consider that good performance is something that has to be shared by franchisees and ourselves and poor performance too. I mean, we have our share in there as well. This is something that we have to work together and that's what we are investing in reversing. TOBIAS STINGELIN: You have ticket traffic counters in stores. Despite all volatility, you talked about volatility in between men's. What do you see in terms of sales conversion? Are you increasing conversion rates? Are they the same? What is going on and how are you measuring that? FABIO HERING: Conversion rates are stable. They are not changing. What changes is traffic, traffic that is going down. And I think part of it is related to us being more appealing, and another part is related to what I mentioned when I was talking to Irma, which is that we see that there is a cycle of change starting in retail, physical retail has to be coupled to online. Offline, online have to work together, so that we can attract more traffic. For consumers to know that when they are in a brick-and-mortar store, they will not only have the option to buy there, but they can also make their purchase online. And when they are online, they know that they can pick up the product on -- in the stores. So we have to share this off, online world. And I think this is another point that reflects on the physical traffic. But objectively answering your question, conversion rates are maintained in a same level. And that's also an opportunity because it is not high, it's very characteristic of our industry. Conversion rates are not high, if you are thinking of those that go into the store and really come out with a product. And the main reason for them not to come out with a product is because they did not find what they had imagined. So I think that technology will also help increase conversion rates. We still do not have conclusive data, but the small pilot experience of showrooming shows there is a potential, huge opportunity there. And that will create a cycle to increase conversions, I believe. OPERATOR: Since there are no further questions, we now close Hering's conference call. Thank you for your participation, and have a good day. [Thomson Financial reserves the right to make changes to documents, content, or other information on this web site without obligation to notify any person of such changes. In the conference calls upon which Event Transcripts are based, companies may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding a variety of items. 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Subject: Copyright; Cash flow; Investments; Franchises; Executives
Company / organization: Name: Thomson Financial; NAICS: 511210, 518210, 519190; Name: Central Intelligence Agency--CIA; NAICS: 928110, 928120
Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Apr 27, 2018
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: Linthicum
Country of publication: United States, Linthicum
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Law--Corporate Law
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2037050298
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu /login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2037050298?accountid=4840
Copyright: 2018 Thomson Financial and ASC LLC
Last updated: 2018-05-16
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 231 of 474
Q1 2018 SES SA Trading Statement Call - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]27 Apr 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Presentation OPERATOR: Good day, and welcome to the SES 2018 Q1 Results Presentation for Analysts and Investors Conference Call. This conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Richard Whiteing, Vice President & Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir. RICHARD WHITEING, VP & HEAD OF IR, SES S.A.: Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining this presentation of SES's Q1 2018 results. In a moment, Steve Collar, President and CEO, and Andrew Browne, Group CFO, will present the main highlights of the quarter. They are joined this morning by Ferdinand Kayser and JP Hemingway, the CEOs of SES Video and SES Networks, who will also say a few words. After the presentation, there will be time to take questions. The results documents are available on the Investors Section of the SES.com website if you don't already have them. And as usual, please note the disclaimer at the back. And with that, I'd like to hand over to Steve. STEVE COLLAR, CEO & PRESIDENT, SES S.A.: Thank you, Richard, and morning, everyone. Thanks for joining our Q1 call. This is my first set of results and first call as CEO, officially 3 weeks in. So very much looking forward to spending more time with all you guys going forward. It's a bit of a morning of firsts. Andrew Browne is alongside me. It's his first official call also as CFO; very excited to be working with Andrew again. And while Andrew is not new to many of you, someone who almost certainly is, is JP Hemingway, who's also here on his first call, having taken up the reins of SES Networks. And he is obviously here to provide additional color on the networks business. And to complete the intros, Ferd Kayser is also here, and you will be relieved to hear it is not his first call. So with that, on with the results. And as I've said previously, our focus is very much on execution in 2018 and on performing as a business and delivering on our expectations. I'm pleased to say that in this quarter as a first step we've done that. We've delivered a solid quarter with revenues and EBITDA very much in line with our expectations. We are starting to see the anticipated growth coming through in networks, which is up 8.5% on an underlying basis, which is obviously very good news. We have updated our video fundamentals analysis. And as you see a little later in the presentation, our video business continues to be characterized as large, resilient, growing in terms of channels and households and extremely profitable, serving the best customers at the best video neighborhoods. In both video and networks, we've signed a number of important contracts in the quarter that Ferd and JP will elaborate on, with some long-term renewals at our core video neighborhoods that we've secured at like-for-like pricing as well as important customer commitments across the 3 networks verticals. So strong execution in the quarter operationally also, with 3 successful launches, something that I think, we can be very satisfied with and very proud of. With one of those, SES-16 GovSat, already in operation and SES-14 coming later in the year with 4 new O3b satellites to bring to market at the end of Q2. We've got some important new assets that are going to underpin our ongoing developments. And sort of to emphasize the importance of that, it's really good to have SES-15 online and serving customers, and that was the case early in Q1. SES-15 has already become the prime satellite and prime neighborhood to serve North American airlines and aero service providers. And it's a market that's also growing very quickly which JP will also touch on. And sort of last on this slide, it's our intention to fully scrub the numbers across the business, as you would expect with Andrew and I sort of coming in. And we are kicking off that process now. Given our Q1 numbers, our outlook remains unchanged, and we'll provide an update on short and medium-term expectations on our call with the H1 results. So with that overview, turning on to Slide 2. I am going to go fairly quickly through the next set of slides. Leaving aside the impact of foreign exchange and periodic revenue that we saw in Q1 2017 associated primarily with the sale of transponders to Global Eagle, our underlying revenue was stable year-on-year. Revenue of EUR 477.6 million was in line with our expectations as was EBITDA at EUR 304.4 million. Our margin excluding a partial restructuring provision taken in the quarter was 64.8%, net profit of EUR 98.2 million and backlog, which has been stable including -- well, at constant foreign exchange, is EUR 7.2 billion contracted and secured across the business. So some good, solid backlog numbers also underpinning the business. On Slide 3, we drill a little bit further in to video, which generated EUR 324 million in revenue in Q1. Underlying revenue was down 3.6%, but if you strip out the effect of the IFRS accounting changes and the ongoing but increasingly marginal impact from some satellite health issues that we had in 2017, the number is less than 1% in terms of a reduction from last year, or EUR 3 million in revenue year-on-year. So -- and both of the impacts of the IFRS and the satellite health issues will wash out over the course of this year. As I mentioned, we've updated our annual global review of technical reach and that shows that we have a massive 351 million households that rely on SES Video's satellites and services to receive their TV viewing and that we distribute almost 7,800 TV channels across our system. And from my perspective, there is no other distribution platform that comes close to replicating the scale with the same performance, reliability and economics. And our customers are also increasing their use of high definition and ultra high-definition channels across our system. Overall, strong fundamentals in our core business. And I'm going to hand over to Ferd, who is going to speak to some of the deals that we've signed over the course of the first quarter. FERDINAND KAYSER, CEO OF SES VIDEO, SES S.A.: Yes. Thank you, Steve. And as mentioned already, the video team has continued to secure important renewals and new business. And I would like to share some examples which are outlined on Slide 4. First, we secured an important capacity extension with Viacom in Europe of 19.2 degrees for Germany and Austria, and on 28.2 degrees for the U.K. Second and also using 19.2 degrees in Europe, we facilitated Canal+, who have launched their first UHD channel for satellite subscribers. With this UHD channel, Canal is able to deliver premium sports, soccer games from the French Premier League and Formula 1, movies and original series in UHD to potentially 100% of the households in France via satellite. So in order to receive this UHD in France, Canal+ subscribers need either fiber connection or satellite reception. And as in France only between 20% and 30% of all the households can be connected to fiber, Canal+ decided to proactively push and promote satellite as the preferred distribution infrastructure, as it is the only one offering, what they call a quality guarantee. In the international markets, Kiwisat wanted to expand their DTH offering for their subscribers who live on the Caribbean islands where the options were quite limited. We have signed a long-term agreement where Kiwisat will use capacity on SES-10 to broadcast 130 TV channels, including 90 channels in HD. Here, we work with the customer on the various steps of the rollout of this new offer. Lastly, MX1 continues to expand its portfolio of services, adding new deals such as the one with the news agency AFP. AFP is now relying on MX1 for an end-to-end service consisting in the distribution of all their broadcast feeds in IP to their customers all over the world. This allowed AFP to remove a significant operational bottleneck by enabling its customers to access content more easily via a cloud-based service platform. And with that, I hand back to Steve. STEVE COLLAR: Thanks, Ferd. I won't dwell too long on Slides 5 and 6. They simply break down the distribution and service business picture in a bit more detail for you. So the main takeaways are on Slide 5, that overall our video distribution business is stable. We saw a reduction in volume in North America, which explains much of the decline in the underlying revenue year-on-year. This was anticipated and expected. The broadcasters were reducing the number of channels simultaneously broadcast in standard definition and high definition, and that reflects the increasingly high penetration of HD in North America. We also saw a couple of -- what I would describe as entrepreneurial business models in the emerging markets fail to get the traction that we had expected during 2017. And that's dragged down a little bit our expected growth in the international markets. That said, we see some good and healthy prospects for SES-9 and SES-10 and our priority is very much to convert these leads into contracts in the coming months. Pleasingly, our core European business was stable. Our customers continue to make 10-year commitments. And as we said last month, we've limited renewals at our core neighborhoods over the course of the next 12 months. Slide 6, our video service business showed some nice underlying growth for the quarter when we back out the IFRS accounting change. This growth was driven primarily by HD+ where we then benefited from a higher annual fee and that was implemented at the start of Q2 last year. Given that this growth comes largely from that sort of price adjustment, we are pretty cautious about not reading too much into that growth from an ongoing perspective. But also encouragingly, given that we had MX1 being something of a drag on the revenues for our service business in 2017 as we were cleaning up some legacy lower margin retail business, MX1 has now started very much to return to stability, which is encouraging. So Slide 7, turning to SES Networks. And SES Networks has had a good quarter. Obviously, the impact of the new CEO. The business delivered EUR 153 million in revenue, up 8.5% on an underlying basis as I'd mentioned. We have an unfavorable comp this year, year-on-year as we sold a large number of transponders to Global Eagle in 2017 and that generated an unusually high level of periodic revenue in Q1 2017. But taking that out and otherwise, we see really strong underlying growth, primarily driven by aero and government, but actually some good positive momentum, I would say, across the networks business. We also had 3 successful launches, as I mentioned, and they will primarily benefit the SES Networks business. Much of that will come later in the year as we bring that capability to service. But we certainly see the impact of having new differentiated capacity in orbit with the impact that SES-15 has had on our Q1 numbers, showing the value of really bringing that differentiated capability to market. We've also had a strong quarter in terms of sales of the networks business. And I'll both introduce to you and hand over to JP, who is going to share a view words about some of the important customers that we signed in the period. JP? JOHN PURVIS, CHIEF LEGAL OFFICER, EXECUTIVE VP & GENERAL COUNSEL, SES S.A.: Thank you, Steve. And obviously, delighted to be here as my first time as CEO of SES Networks; also 3 weeks in like Steve and Andrew. So I will touch on just some of the examples here across our segments, but they do underpin the strong performance that Steve outlined. If we take a look at mu Space, which is in our fixed data business, we're really aligning with a strong push from the Thailand government to regulators to increase broadband penetration from low double digits up to 95%. So it's a very strong push in that market, to try and address nearly 60 million people that don't have good access, particularly in the rural areas. So in partnership with our new partner, mu Space working with Hughes, offering a fully managed service to drive to nearly 1,800 new sites, delivering both 3G and WiFi coverage to those rural areas. So we're very excited about that new prospect. Switching from fixed data into government. Great progress in the government sector, both with our GEO platforms and particularly with our O3b MEO platforms, both in U.S. government, but also in the international markets, both for defense and also for the humanitarian applications. With the U.S. government we're very pleased to have closed this latest deal with AFRICOM. That is full a O3b beam, which takes the number of sites we have with the U.S. government to in excess of 20 on the MEO sites, which really underlies the performance and the absolute change to those missions that MEO delivers to those government applications. Switching to the mobility side, we're both in aero and maritime. We are very, very pleased to have brought SES-15 into service earlier than expected. And that's really allow GoGo, our partner, to add substantial numbers of aircraft to that. They managed to deliver in excess of 200 aircraft in the first operational month. And we know that number has more than doubled since then. So it shows us a great platform continued growth in the North American markets for aero. And last but not least, in the Maritime segments, we continue to make great strides, really disrupting what you should expect from maritime connectivity into the cruise market. We now have 4 named cruise customers in this market and the 1 example we have here is with the MedallionNet with Carnival. And we really are breaking new ground. We've now demonstrated a world record to deliver more than 2.5 gigabits to a single moving platform, which is the first time that's ever been done and really challenges the definition that you can't expect home broadband or hotel-like broadband services on-board a moving platform like a ship. So it's really driving innovation. This is being noticed by the rest of the cruise market and we anticipate closing more deals in the coming quarters. STEVE COLLAR: Very good. Thanks, JP. So then the next 3 slides, as you know, we kind of break down our networks business into fixed data, mobility and government. And the next 3 slides give you a bit more detail on those 3 verticals. So Slide 9, the networks' fixed data vertical. Underlying fixed data was down 6% year-on-year. About half of that was due to the loss of AMC-9 that we suffered in the middle of last year. And I would say in general terms, market conditions in fixed data for undifferentiated capacity remain challenging and we do, without question, have some exposure there, but we are also capturing demand principally with our O3b fleet, our MEO fleet. We are seeing, for example, a full quarter of revenue coming from the [attach] business that we signed and implemented at the back end of last year and a number of other networks that we are delivering across Africa, the majority of which now are hybrid between our MEO fleet and our GEO fleet. We've actually become quite constrained in Africa and the Middle East on O3b, so bringing the next 4 satellites into service late in Q2 will certainly help us during the back end of the year in our fixed data business. Slide 10 shows our trajectory in mobility. And again, if you back out the transponder sale that we made to Global Eagle last year, we're up more than 30% year-on-year, which is hugely encouraging. A lot of that growth is obviously in aero and much of it is on SES-15, but we're also making good progress in the cruise market, as JP talked about, and that continues to be strong for us. It continues to be a good growth driver, and I'd expect and anticipate for us to have some good news to share with you next quarter on services that we are providing to major cruise lines across the fleet. And lastly, even energy is coming back. It's been a bit the ugly step-child of the mobility industry for a little while, but we've seen some really encouraging signs and some good activity particularly in Africa and Asia and that augurs well, I would say, for the future. And then on Slide 11, government, and again, I am really encouraged by the performance of our government business in Q1. This sort of information aggregates our U.S. government business along with the services and solutions that we provide to governments and institutions around the world. The U.S. government has continued its adoption of O3b, as JP has described, and having 20 sites operational is really a step change from where it was this time last year. And enjoying with government our support for African peacekeeping operations has been extended and has grown and that is something that we are very proud of as an organization. So in summary, a solid quarter, positive signs in the market, but a lot of work to do. And as I said, we're focused on execution, on delivering exceptional service to our customers and growing the business. And with that, I will hand over to Andrew. ANDREW MARTIN BROWNE, CFO, SES S.A.: Thank you very much, Steve, and good morning, everyone. I am delighted also to be back at SES as the new CFO. And really looking forward to continuing working relationship with Steve, who I've worked with now for about 20 years as a team, Ferd and JP, and the rest of the finance colleagues and across the company. And I think the opening thing I would like to say from the CFO perspective, and it's going forward with complete focus on execution, transparency and communication as we grow the company. So turning to Page 13, the financial overview. As Steve has already said, the Q1 numbers are fully in line with the company's expectations. Revenue was EUR 477.6 million in the quarter with the underlying results showing stable development compared with Q1 of last year. In fact, all EUR 10.9 million, and we'd see that on Page 15. On a reported basis, revenue was 11.7% lower and 4.9% lower at constant FX and also resulting from the unusually high periodic and other revenue that had been shown in Q1 of last year. The impact of adopting IFRS 15 added a non-cash reduction of EUR 8.2 million. EBITDA of EUR 304.4 million represented an EBITDA margin of 63.7% including the EUR 5 million restructuring provision. And excluding this, the margin would have been 64.8%. Overall EBITDA was 14.9% lower as reported and down 8.7% at constant FX and following from new revenue development. Normal operating expenses of EUR 168 million were flat at constant FX as compared to quarter 1 in 2017. Looking at operating profit, the change in FX and lower EBITDA also lead to reduction in operating profit to EUR 139 million in Q1. This represented an operating margin of 29% which was compared to 24.5% last year. And CapEx, the outlook is unchanged compared with what I think we shared at the full year results in February. Turning other to Page 14, net debt to EBITDA. The group's net debt to EBITDA ratio was 3.41x compared with 3.27x at the end of [2017]. This essentially is due to the lower 12 month rolling EBITDA, which as you'll see was mainly caused by the FX and periodic and other revenue. Also in Q1, there was a proportionately higher level of CapEx and interest payments of roughly 60% for the full year when comparing to the coming quarters. Looking forward, we have the dividend payment in Q2, which we just made, and offset by lower relative CapEx and interest during the year and increased [flow of] M&A from launches and underlying business as we start to see the growth coming through as we go through the year. And so we fully expect the leverage to be below 3.3x by the end of 2018. Proactively, the EUR 500 million bond in terms of liquidity management, we've successfully raised 8 years at a coupon rate of 1.625% and I believe that's the lowest rate the company has ever achieved. Outlook. As Steve has already said, the company outlook is unchanged. As you would expect, we are in the process of reviewing the plans, the drivers and assumptions and any update emanating from that would be shared with the half-year results. And as I say, going forward execution, transparency, communications. So looking then at Page 15, briefly looking at revenues in more detail. At constant FX, the higher level of periodic and other revenues in Q1 of EUR 24.6 million was the principal driver for the 4.9% reduction on a comparative basis. However, underlying revenue is stable and growth of EUR 10.9 million offset by the impact of the IFRS 15 change and satellite health in some of the EUR 10.9 million. Turning to EBITDA, Page 16, we see EBITDA was essentially 8.7% lower at constant FX. There again reflecting the periodic and other revenues of EUR 24.6 million. Normalized operating expenses were flat year-on-year and we mentioned the restructuring provision of EUR 5 million. And so Q2, we expect to book an additional provision of EUR 5.7 million in respect to that, getting back to the previously guided range of EUR 10 million to EUR 12 million. And the margin was 63.7%. Turning to Page -- Slide 17, shows you the key elements of the income statement. The net profit of EUR 98 million included the positive tax contribution that resulted from the recognition of a deferred tax asset related to bringing in the service of GovSat-1, which is owned by the Lux Government and the 50/50 partnership with SES. And approximately EUR 28 million was the total gross amount of that and the 50% is shown in non-controlling interests. Normalized tax rate was 21.9% in the quarter. Turning the Page 18, on CapEx, the CapEx outlook, which as already mentioned is unchanged from what was disclosed in February at the time of the full year results. Leverage that I touched upon at my opening remarks, on Page 19. As mentioned, net debt of 3.41x at the end of March, slightly higher than what it was 3 months ago. And that reflects the impact of the 12-month rolling EBITDA and also the higher proportion relatively of the CapEx and interest payments during the quarter. And I'd referred to the dividend in Q2, which will be offset by those lower CapEx and interest payments and, indeed, the business as we grow going forward. And leverage will be below 3.3x at the end of the year. And then lastly, on financial outlook, as Steve has mentioned and as I referred to, you know we are underway looking at reviewing the plan, drivers and assumptions. And any updates that may be coming around this exercise will, of course, be communicated with the Q2 results. With that, I think, Richard I will hand over. RICHARD WHITEING: Thanks, Andrew. Operator, I think we are now ready for questions. Questions and Answers OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) We will now take our first question from Paul Sidney of Credit Suisse. PAUL SIDNEY, RESEARCH ANALYST, CRéDIT SUISSE AG, RESEARCH DIVISION: I have got 3 quick questions please. Firstly on video. Your existing guidance assumes that video returns to growth by 2020. I know, obviously, it's under review but conceptually, do you still stick with the view that video can return to growth at some point over the next 2 or 3 years? Secondly, just a quick one on the C-band proposal in the U.S. I was just wondering if we could get Steve's view on the potential opportunity for SES there. Clearly Intelsat has been talking relatively positively about the opportunity for them financially. Just wondering to get your view. And then just lastly, your sort of big picture, obviously the industry's gone through a very difficult 2 years, it's probably bit of an understatement. But again just, be keen to get Steve's view on whether you think we're over the worst. If you read your statement, it reads a lot more positively than previous statements you've had. A lot of discussion on the call about contracts that you've won, so it just seems to me as though -- things within SES seem a bit more upbeat. STEVE COLLAR: Okay, great, Paul, thanks very much. So look, I will take all of those, I think. So the first on video, no change essentially. As we said, we're going to go and do a full scrub. And so, don't think that as I said, 3 weeks in is necessarily the time to get into what we think about video in 2020, so no change to the position there. On C-band, look, I think our emphasis is a little different from Intelsat's for reasons that you can probably surmise. Our focus is really on making sure that the process and the work that we are doing at the moment completely protects what we consider to be an incredibly important neighborhood and sort of series of neighborhoods in North America. It is -- as I think I've said before, and I have been asked about this. I think it is the first time where you do have the possibility for a market-based solution, which is controlled, and which -- where the interests of the current customers can be completely defended. And that's really why I'm optimistic and encouraged about the discussions that are ongoing at the moment. It's really not -- we're not focused at all on any potential financial opportunity. And in fact protecting that customer base is going to require a very significant amount of investment and that's really where our focus is and what we're working through right now. And then big picture, sort of, are we over the worst? Look, I'd say, we've seen more disruption, and you guys know this better than most. We've seen more disruption in this industry over the course of the last 2 or 3 years than at any time probably in its past. I think that is net a good thing long term, because we're moving to an environment where satellite is more core within telco networks in particular, within sort of fixed-base networks. But obviously, it's been fairly painful in the process of getting there. I think we'll continue to see that disruption. And again, I don't necessarily think that that's bad. So I wouldn't necessarily say we're over the worst, but I would certainly say that we are encouraged by the progress we're making. We've been encouraged for a while, to be honest. The challenge is making sure that that kind of comes through in the numbers. And when I say we've been encouraged for a while, I think we've seen some good traction with the differentiating capacity that we've had with O3b, with the sort of the hybrid services that we're offering. And so, yes, I would say, no sort of more or less encouraged; wouldn't characterize it as over the worst. Disruption will continue and the businesses that sort of will be successful are the ones that both cope best with that disruption. And to some extent, drive it, which I think has been our position up till now. OPERATOR: We will now take our next question from Sarah Simon of Berenberg. SARAH SIMON, ANALYST, BERENBERG, RESEARCH DIVISION: I have got 3 questions as well. First one would be on Ultra HD. We saw the news that RTL is launching a free-to-air channel in Germany on that. And that, I think, is the first like mainstream free-to-air in Europe. Just wondering if you're seeing signs -- more signs of that. And also what's the state of play in terms of the availability of set-top boxes? Because I know that's been an issue in terms of really moving Ultra HD along and particularly in the U.S. Second one was on the minority interest. Is there something funny in that charge? Because if you own half of SES-16, that kind of implies it's made round about EUR 30 million in the quarter. And that looks -- I mean, you know, even at full run rate, you think that's probably what it would make in a year? So I'm just wondering what's going on there. And the final one was just in terms of government, obviously a very strong result, but I'm just interested in what you think is going on in terms of, let's say the underlying picture in government as it would relate to people, say, who aren't offering MEO. STEVE COLLAR: Great. Ferd, if you will take the... FERDINAND KAYSER: Yes. On Ultra HD in Germany by RTL. So indeed, Sarah, RTL in Germany is the first commercial free-TV operator opting for UHD, and starting at the end of this month. So here, it is a very important first one, but we know that other free-TV operators in Europe have also plans to now to launch Ultra HD before the end of this year. Regarding the set-top boxes, yes, the number of set-top boxes as such somewhat limited in the market at the current stage. But in the future and in the near future, it's not so much about set-top boxes anymore, because the new Ultra HD TV sets are equipped with an Ultra HD tuner. And there what you need then is just the TV set. And a common interface module within the case of Germany of RTL because this is handled via HD+ and HD+ smart cards. (multiple speakers) SARAH SIMON: But you still need a set-top. If you -- sorry, Ferd. If you are a cable subscriber in the U.S. or a satellite customer, you're going to still need a set-top box? FERDINAND KAYSER: Yes, if you are a cable subscriber in U.S., you do. But if you are a satellite subscriber of HD+ in Germany, you do not necessarily need a set-top box. You can handle it via the CI module and the smart card which you insert in your Ultra HD TV set. SARAH SIMON: Okay. So it's paid that's being held up rather than the free, essentially? FERDINAND KAYSER: Yes, so this is -- the Ultra HD channel, as the HD channels in Germany by RTL and the other commercial operators are encrypted and are distributed via HD+. So you need an HD+ either Ultra HD set-up box or in the smart card going into the CI module in the TV set. STEVE COLLAR: Andrew is going to take the question on minority interest. ANDREW MARTIN BROWNE: Minority interest, Sarah, that's the joint venture and it's a 50-50. We consolidate totally all of the financial impact of that. With the launch of the satellite and coming into operations, there was a deferred tax asset that had been carried of approximately EUR 27 million to EUR 28 million. And so, because of that then, that was a one-time allocation. And hence we take the full credit with 50% approximately showing under the minority interest line. That's just a one-time number. STEVE COLLAR: And I'll take the question on -- sorry, did that answer the question, Sarah, just to check? SARAH SIMON: Yes. STEVE COLLAR: Great. And then I will take your third question on government. And so, look, I'm not sure I care too much about the impact on people who don't have a MEO, because we do. And it definitely has -- it is a big, big -- it underpins the progress that we're making in government, both for the U.S. government and in global government. But I would say, sort of more broadly the picture is more positive in the government market in general. And so we also see pick up on our GEO fleet, sort of unrelated to O3b, principally in U.S. government. I would say, the majority of the growth we're seeing in global government right now comes from MEO and from other institutional programs that we have. And so, I think the broader picture in government is more encouraging than it has been, both with the U.S. and with global governments sort of now. And the outlook, I think, will remain that way for a while. OPERATOR: We'll now take our next question from Nick Dempsey of Barclays. NICHOLAS MICHAEL EDWARD DEMPSEY, RESEARCH ANALYST, BARCLAYS BANK PLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: I have got 3 left. First one, just on HD+. Can I just check that you're saying there is -- there was a EUR 6.6 million contribution to growth from HD+ in Q1 and that will be 0 in Q2? Or perhaps you weren't being that precise. I just wanted to narrow that down. And second question, you're referring to market conditions in international, I wonder if you can give us a bit more color on those. And we've noted the pay TV subscribers kind of going down in Brazil. I don't know whether Brazil is an issue inside your comments there or perhaps you can, narrow that down to the right -- the relevant regions? And the third question, so I know you are going to revisit guidance at the first half stage. Can you just give us a bit more color on how that review process is going to work, when it's going to complete and whether you're still going to give us the same kind of structure of guidance at least? STEVE COLLAR: Great, we're going to deal with the HD+ question. FERDINAND KAYSER: Yes, so on HD+, indeed the major part of the increase is coming from the price increase. And the ongoing growth if to come now in Q2 is from additional subscribers coming from rivals like Ultra HD and other features, which we will introduce during the course of the year. STEVE COLLAR: But it will be -- I think as Ferd said, it will be more modest. FERDINAND KAYSER: Absolutely. STEVE COLLAR: We expect it to be more modest, Nick. The second question, and just to repeat that, your question was really when we were referring to a little bit of kind of softness in the international video business, the question was kind of where was that coming from, is that right, Nick? NICHOLAS MICHAEL EDWARD DEMPSEY: Yes, just color on why and where? STEVE COLLAR: Yes, so it's predominantly Africa and Asia. I don't know, Ferd, if you want to kind of -- and it's not Brazil, was your specific question. FERDINAND KAYSER: No, no, it's definitely not Brazil. It is indeed Africa and Asia. STEVE COLLAR: And what this was, this was sort of new -- start-up businesses that were looking to deploy new distribution neighborhoods that didn't work out. In all cases, it's -- I don't think that reflects the across the industry. And as I have said, we've got some pretty interesting prospects for SES-9 and SES-10. The challenge there is controlling the timing of those. Obviously the sort of more significant the opportunity, the harder it is for us to control the timing of them. But it really just reflects a little bit of the less strong growth that we expected in the international markets. That's really what we were getting at there, Nick. And then the third question of guidance. Look, there is no mystery to this, right? We've come into the business, we want to make 100% sure that we are across it, that we drill the numbers, both as they relate to sort of short-term, 2018 and 2020. This is an internal review. It's entirely consistent with what you would expect. In terms of when will it complete, I would guess sort of May-ish, we will be done. Maybe into June. And will we provide the same sort of guidance going forward? I would think so. I mean, we haven't -- as I sit here today, I can't imagine any reason that would cause us to do too much differently, but, yes, that's kind of why. Andrew, anything to add? ANDREW MARTIN BROWNE: No, no, I don't think so. I think as Steve has said, clearly it's what you would expect us to do just from a governance and prudence perspective. And I think the review, yes, indeed we will be able to share with you at the half year results is when we will have everything finished, I think by that time. OPERATOR: We will take our next question from Laurie Davison of Deutsche Bank. LAURIE DAVISON, RESEARCH ANALYST, DEUTSCHE BANK AG, RESEARCH DIVISION: On the -- I understand you can't talk on the 2020 guidance, but could you just help us out with the FY '18 guidance? Were the new contract wins that you've highlighted as expected, and consistent with that range? Or do they point towards sort of the upper end of the range you've given? And second question was the restructuring charges from the optimization program looks low -- lower than we expected in the quarter. So is there more to come in the second quarter? And can you just update us on what the full year is for the restructuring charges from the optimization program? And then final question, you mentioned a portion of fixed data revenues which are hybrid contracts, i.e. bundled MEO/GEO. Can you just update us? I think that was specifically relating to fixed data. Do you have that type of figure across networks now? STEVE COLLAR: Great. So on sort of '18 and our deals that we're signing sort of consistent with our expectations, the answer is yes. We, in order to meet the guidance, we obviously need to grow with the business. And so all of these deals that we're signing are very much orientated around that. Do not read anything into the Q1 results, more than the Q1 results, is what I would say. There are a solid set of results, they meet our expectations and we're happy with that. But I wouldn't encourage you to think about whether that points in this direction or that direction. And that's exactly why we are going to come back to you at the end of the second quarter with an update across the board. With respect to the sort of internal optimization that we are doing and the charges, Andrew, do you want to just take that? ANDREW MARTIN BROWNE: Yes, Laurie, as we said it's EUR 5 million and overall EUR 10 million to EUR 12 million, and we see the balance coming through in Q2 is our plan. STEVE COLLAR: And then in terms of kind of hybrid and is that exclusively to fixed data, the answer is no. And so we are delivering hybrid networks. And what we mean by that is essentially 1 customer who has access to both our O3b fleet and our GEO fleet simultaneously and allowing us to route traffic according to whatever priority, we and all the customer deem appropriate for that service. Sometimes that is availability, sometimes that is low cost, sometimes that is best performance. And so having that capability to deliver hybrid networks and for those hybrid networks to have a good degree of intelligence in them is a big focus for us and is quite a differentiator as we see it. And it's something that we do in cruise. It's something that increasingly, we're looking at doing in government, so it really does reflect across the whole portfolio of the networks business. LAURIE DAVISON: Okay, sorry, just to follow-up then, too, just on the restructuring charge. The full year, Andrew, are we still on course for the EUR 10 million to EUR 15 million that you've highlighted before? ANDREW MARTIN BROWNE: Yes. And I think it was EUR 10 million to EUR 12 million, is what we (multiple speakers) LAURIE DAVISON: EUR 10 million to EUR 12 million, okay. And sorry, Steve, just to come back on that hybrid networks. You said you are doing in cruise, increasing in government, so what portion of your business now is done on these hybrids contracts? STEVE COLLAR: So, we don't have a number on that per se. I wouldn't say it's a -- it's not a massive percentage when we look at kind of all of our business across the piece, but I would say it's becoming a differentiator. It's something that we can relatively uniquely offer. Obviously we're the only business that today operates a broadband non-geostationary network. The idea and the concept of sort of intelligent routing and SD-WAN, this is to say, the same kind of techniques that others are using. What we are able to do is generate a different kind of service and a different kind of offering towards the market by implementing these hybrid networks, and that definitely is a differentiator for us. So in short, I'd say it's not massively significant in terms of our aggregate business across the piece, but I think it's growing in significance in terms of our ability to differentiate from what others can sell. OPERATOR: We will take our next question from Patrick Wellington of Morgan Stanley. PATRICK THOMAS WELLINGTON, MD AND HEAD OF THE EUROPEAN MEDIA EQUITY RESEARCH, MORGAN STANLEY, RESEARCH DIVISION: Steve, you were talking about C-band and I think you said that you are not focused on the financial benefit. And I wonder why you're not focused on the financial benefit. It could be extremely large in the context of SES; shouldn't one be very focused on the financial benefit? STEVE COLLAR: That's an interesting question, Patrick, No, look, I mean it's exactly as I said that the -- this is -- the mobile industry and the satellite industry are in a war on spectrum for the last, I don't know how long. This is the first time where there is a sensible conversation, I believe, that protects the interests of broadcasters and customers of satellite, provides valuable -- or provides the opportunity for valuable spectrum towards mobile. And to be clear, we want 5G to be deployed, to be successful, we intend to backhaul 5G meaningfully. And so that is in our interest as well. What I would say is, it's -- the costs associated in doing that, and the rigor that we have to apply in order to protect our customers is really non-trivial. And so maybe a better characterization is it's very early days. I think it's way premature to be talking about the financial benefit to us or frankly to Intelsat, but that's their business. And I think it's entirely appropriate that our focus is on making sure that if there is a plan, it's an entirely robust plan. And we are not there yet. There is a lot of work to be done there. It's a pretty complex problem. So that is what I would say on that, Patrick. PATRICK THOMAS WELLINGTON: I mean, clearly, it's quite right that you should protect your customers and your business, but it is a very big opportunity, potentially financially, so presumably you will be devoting quite a bit of effort to that side of the equation as well, is that not the case? STEVE COLLAR: So I'm not sure I can add too much more color. I think if -- the proposal is on the table. It's not the only proposal, right? There are multiple different views on how C-band can be sort of unlocked, if that's the right way of putting it, for mobile. Our focus is making sure that one that protects our broadcast customers and satellite, in general, is the one that's sort of adopted. And until and unless that's the case and until we are further through this process, I consider it to be premature to be speculating on sort of any financial value. OPERATOR: We'll take our next question from Sami Kassab of Exane. SAMI KASSAB, MEDIA RESEARCH DIRECTOR, CO-HEAD OF THE EUROPEAN MEDIA TEAM & ANALYST OF MEDIA, EXANE BNP PARIBAS, RESEARCH DIVISION: Two questions here, please. The video services division has stabilized. Should we expect that trend to continue throughout the year? Or would you expect the impact of the contract losses in last year to continue to weight in the second quarter? So perhaps a bit of comment on video services and how you see the trend there. And secondly on maritime, you were talking about good growth in the cruise segment, but overall, stable revenue in maritime. So what is offsetting your growth in (inaudible)? STEVE COLLAR: Why don't I take the cruise one quickly and then I will let Ferd take the one on video services. I mean, in terms of revenue year-on-year, it was pretty stable. I think what I was referring to and what JP was talking about in terms of the world record that we secured with Carnival and the impact that we've had with them, and a couple of other cruise lines that we are starting to serve now, I think, what we expect is for that business to continue to develop. So we have a good sense that our offering in cruise is arguably a market leading one, because we have access to a system that can deliver more capability and better performance, i.e. lower latency, than any other system. And when we combine that with our GEO fleet and our GEO capability, it's really compelling, and that is resonating in the market. So we feel optimistic about the cruise market more broadly. And I would hope that we will have some good news to share with you on that over the course of the next couple of quarters. FERDINAND KAYSER: And regarding the video services activities of MX1, it's basically the return to stability and a stable business throughout the year. But being understood that there is -- this -- the exception of the impact of IFRS 15, so the accounting change, which had a negative impact this year of EUR 8.2 million. OPERATOR: We'll take our next question from Michael Bishop of Goldman Sachs. MICHAEL BISHOP, EQUITY ANALYST, GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: Just a follow-up on C-band debate. I mean, it seems like you're saying that there is various proposals on the table. So I was just wondering if you could elaborate on that and also give us your best indication of what you think the prospective timelines look like with the various options? STEVE COLLAR: Yes, the FCC are going to through an NPRM and a rulemaking process. We are obviously -- can't comment too much on the timing of that, because obviously that's a question for the FCC. I think they are motivated to move on this relatively quickly. I think we'll see some activity in the second half of the year with respect to the FCC. And yes, as you'd expect, there are multiple proposals. I think they're all out in the public domain. I think it's fair to say that this sort of market-based approach is one that is being well considered and favorably considered, and we're happy with that. We're doing a ton of work on it. Again, framed around our networks, our customers' networks, making sure we understand what we would have to do in order to free up some of this C-band. And so, yes, it's early. There are multiple proposals. I think this market-based one that ourselves and Intelsat and Intel are pursuing is well thought of. I think it's the only one that really balances the various different stakeholders in the equation. But the FCC are ultimately the ones who are going to make that call, not us. And so, we obviously have to go through that FCC process. MICHAEL BISHOP: And maybe just a follow-up in terms of the costs of essentially the Intelsat process. Do you have any early indication of whether that's a difficult process or whether that's a fairly simple process? Because clearly, there's a slight difference in terms of what the FCC has in terms of the amount of spectrum freed up versus the Intelsat plan. STEVE COLLAR: Yes. So -- and again, that kind of reflects the ongoing discussion and the fact that there is still a long way to go. The challenge gets increasingly hard the more bandwidth you're looking to free, is the obvious point. This potentially requires us to invest meaningfully in the ground segment associated to the cable neighborhoods, potentially meaningfully a new satellite to offset the fact that there is less spectrum available on each one. And so depending on where you sort of draw that line and depending on how much spectrum you try and free, that dictates fairly meaningfully the cost and complexity that's sort of driven into the satellite networks. And all of that work is ongoing at present. OPERATOR: We'll take our next question from Wilton Fry of RBC. WILTON GEORGE FRY, EQUITY ANALYST, RBC CAPITAL MARKETS, LLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: Good to see SES start to turn the corner. I guess in the spirit of rebuilding trust, please could you give us some details on any financial covenants you may have in the loans? I am particularly interested in the 2009 export credit facility, the one guaranteed by Coface. I am assuming no more tightening covenants in that, that haven't been disclosed because they're private. ANDREW MARTIN BROWNE: On the covenants, actually, we don't really have any financial covenants per se in our loan agreement. We have our internal target that we set for leverage of 3.3x, and that's the discussions we have ongoing with the rating agencies. And as you've seen, as I went through, Q1 is 3.41x, which is pretty well in line what the plans have been. And that reflects about 60% of the total for CapEx and interest payments for the full year. And in fact, there was another element as well that we were expecting about EUR 60 million of withholding tax refund coming back from Brazil at the end of March; that actually came in April, and that itself was about 4 basis points. So in summary, we expect to be below 3.3x at the year-end. WILTON GEORGE FRY: But to be clear, there aren't any covenants in those old loans? ANDREW MARTIN BROWNE: No, no. OPERATOR: Our next question comes from Aleksander Peterc of Societe Generale. ALEKSANDER PETERC, EQUITY ANALYST, SOCIETE GENERALE CROSS ASSET RESEARCH: I'd just like to hear a little bit more in networks about the capacity expansion that's coming through. Could you help us understand how we should model the additional capacity from the O3b constellation expansion here? And I know you've given some indication on that when O3b was acquired, but that was a while ago, and I was wondering whether that's changed over time and how you would guide us today on this. Also how to distribute this revenue among the networks divisions? And then secondly, on financing, you have substantial debt refinancing coming through in the next 5 years with quite some regularity, and it's good to see you raising EUR 500 million with an 8-year duration on a very reasonable coupon, so that's good. But in the context of a strong likelihood of rising interest rates, do you have any way to lock in the current low financing costs for future debt or operations? STEVE COLLAR: Okay. So why don't I take a shot on the kind of the O3b new capacity from a modeling standpoint, and I will kind of look to the team also to help me out here. So look, the first thing I would say is, the 4 new satellites are going to come into service in the second half of the year. So we expect sort of June, July, we will have those satellites sort of fully into the constellation. And obviously as we bring new satellites in, it's not an immediate sort of uptick in revenue in quite the same way that SES-15 was. So we're going to see a more gradual ramping into that capacity, although certainly there are some regions where we've got some pent-up demand, and JP will talk a little bit about kind of the regions and the verticals that we would see benefiting from that. What I would say is, obviously, that's fully anticipated in our projections that you guys may deem. So we very much need these satellites and the revenues that are going to start to flow from these satellites are kind of the ones that we expect in the second half of the year. We are very happy, obviously, that the launch went well and that the plan to integrate them into the constellation is well underway. JP, do you want to just say a few words about kind of the verticals and how we see that capacity being taken up? JOHN PURVIS: Yes. Thanks, Steve. And certainly that capacity is keenly awaited in certain of the segments. So if I touch on maybe 2 or 3 of those. Certainly, in our continued maritime growth, which is really around the Caribbean and North American markets and Europe, we're looking to augment the capacity to reflect the ongoing success we have in that particular market. So more capacity going into that segments. If you look at fixed data, there again, pent-up demand we're seeing certainly in Asia and some parts of Africa. Though, again, will be something we'll be keenly adding that capacity to. And certainly in government as well, also across Africa or the Middle East is somewhere we'll be keenly looking forward to leverage that additional capacity. So, there are the 3 segments that'll touch on most of all, Steve. ANDREW MARTIN BROWNE: In terms of the leverage, yes, indeed, I appreciate your comments that the treasury group would be very active in getting that rotation on the bond that's coming up in Q4 and the coupon rate was, as I say, the best the company has accomplished, so the guys have done a great job there. And I can say overall when you look at our debt and about 96% of our debt is actually fixed. And in fact, with the bond we just done, the average interest rate has come down slightly across the group. So the next sort of refinancing is in March of 2019. And obviously, we're very proactive and we'll be looking at that in the full course of time, as to the best way to finance that, is probably the best I could say. OPERATOR: We'll now take our final question from Giles Thorne of Jefferies. GILES THORNE, EQUITY ANALYST, JEFFERIES LLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: I had 3 questions. The first one was on Mobility. And now that your largest mobility partner has recapitalized and new management in place, is being any step change in commercial discussions coming out of Global Eagle? And actually, have you had any frustrations over the past couple of years while GEE has been dealing with its various problems? And then my second two questions, and apologies for turning the conversation back to C-band, but it is a material and near-term event. My first question is with advances in compression and modulation, how much of the 500-megahertz C-band assignment do you actually need to sustain the current cable head-end business? And then secondly, and there is a large question mark out there as to exactly who owns the spectrum, certainly in the case of Intelsat where -- because it was an IGO and it's now held by ITSO, and there's some idiosyncrasies there. In your case, if I remember correctly, you got into cable head-end distribution via your GE Americom acquisition. So is there any similar idiosyncrasy as to who actually has the economic rights over that spectrum in your case? Those are my 2 questions. STEVE COLLAR: Okay. So on mobility and Global Eagle, look, I mean, Global Eagle has been very transparent with us all the way through their process. And we've seen nothing but good partnership and great rates from Global Eagle, frankly, over the course of the last couple of years. And so, well, obviously they were sort of restructuring their business in a -- in what is obviously a very capitally intensive period for all of the aeronautical service providers. They've been nothing but a great partner and we're more than -- very, very happy to be supporting their growth and they are now a very important customer for us on SES-15. And on the C-band, how much do we need? The obvious answer to that is right now today, all of it, right. It's not a well-known fact but we are full in our digital neighborhoods in North America. And so there is 0 megahertz available for any other application or any other uses as of right now and today. Which kind of underscores the point that, in order to free up bandwidth for the mobile industry, we have to do some fairly meaningful things, and those meaningful things are sort of non-trivial. And so Giles, you characterized it as relatively short term. I really don't see it that way. I think this a process that is technically challenging, that will take time, that I'm optimistic about, but it really requires a significant amount of sort of investment and change within the operation of the cable neighborhoods in order to sort of facilitate this plan. I think that's probably -- it's an important part of the discussions that we're having, making sure that that is well-characterized. And obviously, the more aggressive, or the more bandwidth that is under consideration, the more challenging those bands become. And so each incremental megahertz becomes harder and harder to deliver. So it's a -- it is going to be a long-term process. There is some fair amount of uncertainty associated with it. And with respect to who has the "right" to the spectrum, we don't really look at it that way at all. What we look at it as, these are the necessary things that would have to happen in order for this plan to tick the boxes for all stakeholders. And that's really the basis of the conversation and that's -- in my view, that's the only way that this is going to work. That's why I consider this to be a win-win potential outcome. Whereas every single other one has always been win-lose, somebody loses as a result of any previous kind of discussion around how to free up bandwidth for the mobile industry. So it's long term, it's complicated, we're working it hard, I'm optimistic, but it's early day. GILES THORNE: Very good. And if I may just squeeze in 1 last follow-up. Could you give any color into the nature of the framework you have with Intelsat around the division of -- any time of -- any type of economic windfall that goes through that consortium? Presumably you are going to say no, but I thought I would ask. STEVE COLLAR: You're exactly right, Giles. RICHARD WHITEING: Thanks, everyone. That concludes the presentation. As always feel free to reach out to myself or the rest of the IR team should you have any follow-ups. Have a good day and a great weekend. STEVE COLLAR: Thanks, everyone. FERDINAND KAYSER: Thank you. OPERATOR: That concludes today's call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect. [Thomson Financial reserves the right to make changes to documents, content, or other information on this web site without obligation to notify any person of such changes. In the conference calls upon which Event Transcripts are based, companies may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding a variety of items. Such forward-looking statements are based upon current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those stated in any forward-looking statement based on a number of important factors and risks, which are more specifically identified in the companies' most recent SEC filings. 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Subject: Copyright; Satellites
Company / organization: Name: Thomson Financial; NAICS: 511210, 518210, 519190
Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Apr 27, 2018
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: Linthicum
Country of publication: United States, Linthicum
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Law--Corporate Law
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2037050702
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Copyright: 2018 Thomson Financial and ASC LLC
Last updated: 2018-05-16
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Document 232 of 474
Q1 2018 Localiza Rent a Car SA Earnings Call - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]27 Apr 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Presentation OPERATOR: Good morning, and welcome to Localiza Rent a Car Conference Call of the First Quarter of 2018. Hosting the event today are Mr. Mauricio Teixeira, CFO; and Nora Lanari, Investor Relations Director. We would like to inform that the numbers in this presentation are stated in millions of Brazilian reais and based on IFRS. The presentation will be recorded. (Operator Instructions) The conference call audio and the accompanying slide presentation are being broadcast simultaneously over the Internet at www.localiza.com/ir address. The slide presentation can be downloaded at the same address by clicking on the banner First Q '18 webcast. Before proceeding, we would like to clarify that any statements made in the conference call concerning the business outlook of the company, forecasts as well as operating and financial targets represent the opinions and assumptions of the company's management, which may or may not occur. Investors must comprehend that economic conditions and other operating factors may affect the company's future and lead to materially different results from those stated in this call. To start the first quarter 2018 teleconference, I turn the floor to the CFO, Mauricio Teixeira. MAURICIO FERNANDES TEIXEIRA, NON-STATUTORY EXECUTIVE OFFICER, LOCALIZA RENT A CAR S.A.: Good afternoon, and thank you for your presence. It's a pleasure to present the first quarter 2018 results of Localiza, now officially in the position of CFO and Investor Relations officer of the company. After a whole year of joint management of the financial department with Roberto, we have concluded a succession process, and I'm very excited and trust in the company's bright future. For the first quarter 2018, Localiza continued its path of growth and value generation trade in 2017 obtaining, once again, impressive results. But before we talk about the financial and operational highlights, it's worth discussing 2 interesting issues of this quarter. The first one is the 2018 annual report published by ABLA, which contains the 2017 data of the Brazilian Car Rental sector, as you can see on Page 2. It estimated at 12.3% growth of the Car Rental and Fleet Rental markets, considering Rent a Car division gross revenues, Localiza has gained share at the of 3 percentage points in 2017 from 29.3% to 32.3%. In the Fleet Rental division, Localiza has maintained a stable market share following the market's overall growth. Another market that deserves highlight is the company's initiatives in sustainability and social responsibility. Localiza has set in course a project to provide its whole network in Brazil with solar energy. In the first phase of the project, which has concluded in March, all the rental locations and Seminovos stores in 4 states accounting for 30% the company's energy consumption was already being served by solar power. The second phase will be in operation as of June this year, and its goal is to have until 2019, 100% of the company's stores on all Brazilian states running on clean and renewable energy. The company has also been working on other sustainability fronts such as the adoption of UN Global compact in 2017, which places Localiza among a select group of worldwide companies committed to corporate social responsibility and taking actions for a better world. After this introduction, let's move on to the quarter's highlights. On Page 3, we see the operational highlights. In the first quarter of 2018, the company has presented, once again, solid results consistent with its performance in 2017. The Rent a Car segment, once more, has brought great growth with a 53% increase in the daily rental volumes when compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Fleet Rental also had a relevant performance in terms of growth with a 22.1% volume increase compared to the first quarter of 2017. Seminovos ended the quarter with over 25,000 cars sold, an increase in the average sale price and showing a better operational efficiency. Our fleet ended the period with approximately 193,000 cars, roughly stable when compared to the end of 2017. The results of Others growth can be seen in our financial result as you see on Slide 4. From top to bottom line, the growth reached thresholds of 30% to 40% when compared to the same quarter of 2017. We had, once again, a net income of BRL 176 million, a record, which accounted for 43% -- 46.3% growth when compared to the previous year. To give more details of the first quarter, I hand the floor to Nora Lanari, Investor Relations Officer. NORA MASCARENHAS LANARI, NON-STATUTORY EXECUTIVE OFFICER, LOCALIZA RENT A CAR S.A.: Good afternoon. To detail a little more the quarter's results, I would like to start with the Rent a Car division. As you can see on Page 5, on the first quarter, the company kept a growth rate year-on-year. And net revenues shoot up by a solid 47.4% due to the increase in volume of 53.3%. On Slide 6, we see that the Rent a Car average daily rate dropped by 5.7% when compared to First Q '17. Even though the first quarter is usually a strong quarter in retail sales, the mix of the first quarter 2018 was impacted by higher growth on lower rates, higher utilization rates. We can also see that this is the third consecutive quarter of stable rates after a period of decreases. The gain in the utilization rate was of 2.9 percentage points in the first quarter of 2018. Keep in mind that ever since last quarter, we have changed the calculation methodology for the utilization rate to consider only the period when the car is at the rental location available for rental, excluding time frame for mobilization decommissioning. On Page 7, we show the corporate network of rental locations, which grew by 6 new locations, from which 3 were previously operated by franchisees that have returned to the company. Moving on to Slide 8. The Fleet Rental division management, the growth rate remained accelerated in the past quarter, a similar rate that was seen in the fourth quarter of 2017. The average daily rate drops by 5.6% as a reflection mainly of the prices of new contracts in a context of lower interest rates as well as the absorption of how it contracts with the lower average rate. However, the drop in daily rate should not impact the ROIC cost of debt spread since interest rates have also dropped. Moving on to Slide 9. We show the evolution of the fleet in the period. The first quarter is traditionally a net seller, which means that the car sale is higher than purchases after the demand peak generated by summer vacation and Carnival. We sold in the first quarter, 25,000 cars and bought almost 24,000 resulting in a fleet reduction of only 1,441 cars, a low in historical sequence. The net divestment was of BRL 86.7 million. On Slide 10, we show the number of points of sales from Seminovos network, which remains stable. On Slide 11, we show the end of period fleet, already highlighting the beginning -- as highlighted in the beginning of the call. Now moving to Page 12. We see an increase in net revenues -- consolidated net revenues of 36.1% when compared to the first quarter of 2017. And that can be split on a 38% growth for rental business and 34.5% in Seminovos revenues. Now moving on to Page 13. Consolidated EBITDA increased by 33.8% as a result of the growth in company's business units. The Rent a Car EBITDA margin shows a drop when compared to the 2017 first quarter due to lower pricing. But at the same time a 0.8 percentage point gain in comparison to the margin of the year 2017. In the Fleet Rental segment, margin has dropped by 1.7 percentage points due to decrease in average daily rates. On Seminovos, the EBITDA margin was 5.7% higher than on the First Q '17 due to the dilution of sales expenses, because of higher selling volume in the rise of sold car prices. In terms of depreciation shown on Slide 14, we see that the Rent a Car and Fleet Rental follow different trends in average values. On RAC segment, the annualized average depreciation was BRL 715.9 per car, 15.1% lower when compared to that of the First Q '17 due to the rise in sold car prices and the company's better efficiency in selling its assets. SG&A over net revenues reached 6.7% in the period. In Fleet Rental, we see an increase in depreciation to BRL 3,410. This figure reflects our estimates of new car prices and on selling prices at the end of the cycle. Due to lower average depreciation per car in the Rent a Car, there is a 4 percentage point gain on EBIT margin in this division shown on Page 15. Fleet Rental's EBIT margin drops due to the aforementioned factors: lower average daily rate and higher depreciation, compensated by the drop in interest rates. Net profit in the first quarter, on Page 16, is for the fifth consecutive quarter a record, 46.3% increase when compared to First Q '17, a result from the company's growth combined with excellence in execution and focus on value generation. On Slide 17 and 18, we highlight cash generation of BRL 316.2 million after fleet renewal. First quarter, accounts payables reduced by BRL 294 million, especially for payment of cost pushed on the previous quarter. Therefore, cash generation before interest was BRL 9.4 million. Despite the reduction in accounts payable, which resulted in a small increase in net debt as seen on Page 19, the company reduced its leverage ratios in 2018. You will see on Page 20 that from this quarter on we started to disclose leverage ratios, excluding net debt, from the company's credit card receivables, which have immediately liquidated and can be transformed in cash quickly. In First Q '18, the net debt minus credit card receivables to EBITDA ratio dropped to 2.5x compared to 2.9x at the end of 2017. We see the current leverage level as comfortable, especially when you take into account the interest rates we have been able to secure and the debt profile shown on Page 21. So we see that the company's capital structure is very efficient and consistent with our goals of value generation for shareholders. Finally, I would like to turn the floor back to Mauricio for -- to wrap up. MAURICIO FERNANDES TEIXEIRA: To wrap up, I would like to point out, the evolution of ROIC minus cost of debt spread on Slide 22. Once again, we've seen this spread enlarging. ROIC dropped by 1.4 percentage points, mainly impacted by the lower ROIC of the Fleet Rental segment, which as we discussed, is due to the new contracts priced at lower levels strictly as a reflection of lower interest rates. However, the spread increased by 1 point in the period since the drop in cost of debt was 2.4 percentage points. The increase in the spread reinforces Localiza's commitment to grow with value creation. We are now available to answer questions. Questions and Answers OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) First question comes from Renato Mimica from BTG Pactual. RENATO MIMICA, RESEARCH ANALYST, BANCO BTG PACTUAL S.A., RESEARCH DIVISION: I have 2 questions. First, about cost. When you look at the breakdown in the first quarter, there has been an increase -- substantial increase in Other line. Does that include costs of additional adjustments related to Hertz? And if yes, how much is -- are those costs? That's the first question. NORA MASCARENHAS LANARI: Mimica, thank you for the question. In fact, in the first quarter we still have the remaining of one-off event from Hertz of BRL 2.8 million, but they were placed in costs with third-party services. This has an effect of 1.5 percentage points on the margin. In Others, we have a percent of this duplication of the contract of Hertz but it was offset by higher revenues. On net, this impact is zeroed. RENATO MIMICA: Okay, thank you, Nora. The second question is about the dynamic of tariffs on Rent a Car. Obviously, the elasticity of demand price is impressive, your strategy has been -- has proven to be very right. Now talking about the next 2 quarters. Since we have more corporate mix or higher corporate percentage in the mix, does the dynamic in the drop of tariffs or rates will continue? Or do you see this higher -- do you think this will continue for the corporate segment as well, given the elasticity demand price? MAURICIO FERNANDES TEIXEIRA: The effect that we see for the 2018 segment by segment is that if more -- we expect more effects due to the mix rather than variation in rates per segment, imagining that we have been growing lately. So that depends a lot on the different rates of growth in each segment rather than elasticity. NORA MASCARENHAS LANARI: Just to add -- says Nora -- it's obvious that it depends considerably on the competitive environment, and this will be monitored throughout the year. OPERATOR: The next question comes from Pedro Bruno from Santander. PEDRO BRUNO, RESEARCH ANALYST, SANTANDER INVESTMENT SECURITIES INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: I have 2 questions. First is regarding the higher drop in cars. We're talking about Rent a Car and the speed of reduction of new cars for 700 has increased a lot. And I would like to understand whether this is a structure improvement at Seminovos? And it seems to be because the margin of Seminovos is improving when you compare the first quarter to the fourth quarter of last year. Although the cost dilution is also -- has an impact. But this is the first question. Whether -- I would like to know if this improvement is structural in the effect of Seminovos? MAURICIO FERNANDES TEIXEIRA: Pedro, yes, depreciation -- says Teixeira -- has dropped in the first quarter because of 3 factors: some are structural, others, circumstantial. We have -- we're buying a good amount of cars and selling, we're buying cars at a good price and selling with a corporation cost that's also lower. And given the scale and the growth we had throughout last year, and also in terms of value, the cost of operation of Seminovos is different. We have a very good productivity and that reflected on depreciation. And the third factor which is circumstantial is the inflation prices of new cars, which caused an increase in prices of Seminovos or used cars. And the rest has to do with our size and operation. PEDRO BRUNO: My second question is similar to the question of Mimica, making a follow-up about the competitive scenario of Rent a Car. So the continuation of my question would be, how do you see the average daily rate evolving from now on with the max, the -- best impact -- main impact coming from price, you answered that. So what is your expectation for 2018 in Rent a Car segment? UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE: Pedro, we still see a competitive scenario. There has been no change in terms of dynamic of mergers or new competitors. This market remains competitive, and we want to continue to grow and gain market share. So we don't see much change when compared to the end of last year. No change in dynamics in that scenario. OPERATOR: The next question comes from Pedro Pinto from Credit Suisse. PEDRO PINTO, ANALYST, CREDIT SUISSE: I would like to understand -- just a follow-up on Pedro's question regarding depreciation. We've seen a significant drop given to the structural decisions to buy the cars at a good price and selling them well. In the depreciation of cars in the fleet segment, it's counterintuitive to think that the depreciation would have to rise, although it continues at healthy levels. Just a follow-up. MAURICIO FERNANDES TEIXEIRA: Thank you, Pedro -- says Teixeira. Yes, the fleet has a different dynamic because the cycle is longer. Contracts last 2 to 3 years, and the correlation of the cars price. So used cars with -- new cars is not as direct. But we react very quickly. And the fleet we anticipated and depreciation has dropped at the -- throughout last year, and now it has reached a good level. And we understand it's a good level in terms of the dynamic price of -- the price dynamics of cars that will be sold within 2 or 3 years. We believe that this is the level we should continue. NORA MASCARENHAS LANARI: Just to complete -- says Nora. At the Fleet, this -- contract cycle are 2 to 3 years. When you look at depreciation in the fleet, in the first quarter 2016, it was 4,100 then 3,300 in the first quarter 2017. So we had to lower it so that the EBITDA margin of Seminovos for the fleet would reach the normal standards, it reached 11%. And now it's close to 6% or a bit lower than that. So as we remove those cars from the base that have been depreciated, the new cars have to come in reflecting our expected price and cost of sale for the future. So we're cleaning this space, and we have calibrated depreciation of fleet upwards, and added to that the effect that Mauricio mentioned, which is the dynamic of a car for -- that will last 3 years, it's different from one that lasts for 1 year with us. OPERATOR: The next question is from Lucas Marquiori from Banco Safra. LUCAS MARQUIORI, RESEARCH ANALYST, J. SAFRA CORRETORA DE VALORES E CAMBIO LTDA, RESEARCH DIVISION: I would like to hear your comment about 2 topics. I'm a bit -- I have questions about that. First, the RAC margin has dropped year-on-year. When do you think we'll be -- see this reflected on the gain of volume that you have? Will it begin to improve as of the second or third quarter, reflecting this operational gain in volume you have in RAC? And the second question on ROIC. We've seen that the spread is increasing and it's great. On the top part of ROIC, do you see that it will continue to drop or has it reached the standard at 14% from now on? These 2 points. MAURICIO FERNANDES TEIXEIRA: Lucas, thank you for the question -- says Teixeira. On the margin of RAC, we see that the EBITDA RAC margin, considering a much lower interest rate scenario, we have a different spread. But this quarter we -- there was the effect that Nora mentioned, that was 1.5 percentage points, which is the brand of Hertz that we didn't classify as ours, but it was absorbed in the results that would helped our margin. But we preferred not to repeat that. We prefer to have a market completely all direct. So the margin of RAC would be stable if it wasn't for that. So if there was a spread, lower interest rates, we probably will be able to have a lower margin. Of course what we want is the spread, that's what matters. And the second question. We have seen a drop in ROIC. But this happens also, we saw a drop in the EBITDA margin for fleet, because the new contracts have a lower ROIC but with the same spread. So -- and the last line, at the bottom line, what matters is the spread. And we are pricing the new contracts with the same levels we had made in the past. At lower figures, we can allow a ROIC that's a bit lower, but maintaining the spread as usual. NORA MASCARENHAS LANARI: Lucas -- says Nora -- just to complement on your question. You're probably wondering, well, if we had a one-off of 1.8. So 1.5 percentage point in addition to the EBITDA margin. LUCAS MARQUIORI: Can I assume that it will grow from now on? NORA MASCARENHAS LANARI: We don't anticipate that, Lucas. We -- giving back this operational leverage to our customers in form of price. We're also investing in process technology to be made throughout the year. So we're not counting on an EBITDA margin much higher than that, okay? LUCAS MARQUIORI: Okay, thank you, Nora. Just to follow up on ROIC, quickly. This replacement of the portfolio is the old contracts from ROIC of fleet to new contracts. What's the percentage that has been renewed and already in terms of contracts for the fleet segment? UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE: The average term is 2.5 years. So the drop in interest rate has started since second half of last year. But we were already thinking of future interest rates. So we are now at the transition phase. I'd say that considering 2.5 years, we're close to a stable return on ROIC for this segment. Interest rate has started to drop more considerably since the second half of last year. So we had a second half of last year and this year, there are still some contracts to be renewed. And also, we are growing. And new contracts come at a lower price levels, but that's for the spread not necessarily for the ROIC. OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) The next question comes from Rogério Araújo from UBS. ROGéRIO ARAúJO, DIRECTOR AND EQUITY RESEARCH ANALYST, UBS INVESTMENT BANK, RESEARCH DIVISION: I have 2 questions. First, a follow up of previous questions on a different point of view. The spread of ROIC has reached 9% on your calculation. How much is the drop in contracted ROIC based on this fleet contract turnover for the next 12 months? And today, in your mind, what is the sustainable level that you want to stay at to -- for it to be profitable for the company and not give much room for competitors? What is that level? And if it could give discounts on rates on the part of Localiza on purpose to reach that level? MAURICIO FERNANDES TEIXEIRA: Rogério, as for your first question, yes, the dynamic, as Nora mentioned, we still have 1 year to go to end this old contract and renew contracts that used to be higher with lower given the interest rates, but we don't give guidance into how much that will be in the future. That's not part of our policy. And -- but we are halfway through and advancing in this process. But I cannot say exactly how much. As for the spread. This level is sustainable. Of course, it depends on other factors, such as growth and competition. But the spread levels at the current levels for last year -- at the end of last year and beginning of this year are spread levels that generate lots of value for shareholders and allow for a capital base and grow. So as long as we remain in this growth rate with this spread, we are pleased. NORA MASCARENHAS LANARI: And Nora says -- if you ask if it could generate additional discounts on rates, we're going to price growth and margins with profitability. So we will calibrate our pricing to provide growth for shareholders. And -- growth and return for shareholders. But of course it depends on the economy and the penetration of individual segment, competition. But we have to calibrate all these factors to have sustainable growth for this year. ROGéRIO ARAúJO: And for the World Cup, the next question. In 2014, there was some tension as to the drop in the corporate segment. That was more than offset by tourism, but the cup was in Brazil. What do you expect for the World Cup in Russia? We won't have tourism, but do you expect a drop in corporate sales? UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE: Rogerio, we believe that, for this year, the impact will not be the same we expected for 2014. Of course, people rescheduled their trips maybe because of games, but they will continue to travel. So we don't believe that this will have an impact on our sales. The difference is that the World Cup is not in Brazil, and it's so different. And also, not to mention that our customer base is much more diversified now. So this effect of peak. One question people ask is about the election. Today, our customer base is too big for the election to play such a significant role, and the World Cup would be the same in terms of effect. OPERATOR: The next question is from Bruno Amorim from Goldman Sachs. BRUNO AMORIM, EQUITY ANALYST, GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: I have 2 questions. First regarding the tax rate reported in the first quarter of around 27% when compared to 21% in the previous quarter. You mentioned that one of the reasons for this tax rate was the interest on equity? So is part of this movement is one-off event at least in part? Because we've seen net income growing a lot last year. And the tax rate did not necessarily increase because of that. And the second question is about pricing dynamics on Rent a Car. When you answer the first question you mentioned that if everything else remains constant, you don't see any reason for it to drop forward. And this drop in prices there was affect by a decrease in cost that you worked very hard on that. You have reached a price nowadays that's very hard for the competition to equal. So now do you plan to add volume to the base even without lowering prices or not? Could you comment a bit on that? MAURICIO FERNANDES TEIXEIRA: I'll answer the first, and the second, Nora will answer. In terms of tax rate, there was an increase in the first quarter. That's the result of net income. Because income before taxes has grown, but the PL, which is the basis for interest and equity, came from the growth of third-party capital, because of the leverage we had. So in terms of -- in percentage terms, it accounts for less of the interest and equity than it used to. Also, there is a drop in interest and equity when compared to the first quarter. So these 2 effects combined had a change in the tax rate. But of course with a higher net income or higher income and less of our own capital and more capital coming from third parties, this percentage of tax rate is more realistic of what to expect for 2018. NORA MASCARENHAS LANARI: And, Bruno, also to answer your second part of the question. It's very hard to know how far will the competition go because we're talking about 10,000 competitors in a very fragmented market. Of course, we want to continue to gain market share in that market, but it's hard to say whether there would be more room to lower prices even further. On our point of view, we see some instability in prices because of mix. But since the economic activity is supposed to grow this year, we believe that it will be more of a base case. It all depends on the competitive environment. And it will increase because of a mix. We don't know how far the competition will go. BRUNO AMORIM: So do you think it means that within the same business lines you believe that at the margin you would need to lower prices less to bring volume to the base or not necessarily? NORA MASCARENHAS LANARI: Well, as I said, it's pretty much stable. But that's so dynamic, however, that it's hard to say because it could change tomorrow. OPERATOR: The next question comes from [Marco Silverman]. MARCO SILVERMAN, ANALYST: I have one question. I noticed an increase in PDD, provision for doubtful debtors. Is it -- given the adoption of IFRS, or has there been any other impact in -- what's the size of this impact, if you please? UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE: Well, the adoption of IFRS 9, we did this provision as of the beginning. Since the new standard was launched, this initial load on the balance was launched against [TL] according to our understanding of the application of the new standards and our audit team. So the adoption of the standard did not have an impact on itself because it didn't have any impact on the results. On the net income -- the net income impact is the mix between -- we have grown more in individuals than in legal entities, so it has to do with the ridesharing. And these segments have a higher percentage. All of that has been priced and foreseen. And that in percentage of revenues, as we have grown it grows as a percentage of revenue. But it didn't impact the results, although you see on the balance sheet. But it's much more to do with the niche of -- the mix of customers. And just to complete, in addition to the mix, there was an impact because we revisited our processes and criteria for provisioning. And we decided to be more conservative. So we've raised the bar a bit. MARCO SILVERMAN: Okay, but just as a follow-up. So from now -- for the future, is this a new level for provisioning for the company or is it just for this quarter? UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE: Well, it's not -- this is the reality. This is the rate for the quarter, yes. It's not an impact of the new standard, it's the rate for the quarter. OPERATOR: The next question is from Leandro Fontanesi from Bradesco BBI. LEANDRO FONTANESI, RESEARCH ANALYST, BRADESCO S.A. CORRETORA DE TíTULOS E VALORES MOBILIáRIOS, RESEARCH DIVISION: I have 2 questions. The first one, I would like to know if you will continue to grow organically. Because you mentioned, we observe the reaction of competitors but that our competitors that are growing a lot with purchases. So if you see a more aggressive competitor, do you still -- will maintain organic growth? And the second question, is looking at Seminovos operation, your level of expenses over revenue was low. It used to be at 9%, and now it's 6% or 7%. Given that you have increased the fleet considerably -- and we may see in the next -- can we see some adjustment in that structure in the next quarter that will lead to an increase in SG&A in Seminovos? MAURICIO FERNANDES TEIXEIRA: I will talk about the organic growth -- says Teixeira. Well, we see that their focus should be in our business, in our core business and the market that we know and the way that we know to work. Of course, we always assess new opportunities. But it doesn't make much sense -- with exception of Hertz, there was a partnership, it was very strategic. But in terms of acquisition, there's a lot of overlap. We don't see gains in synergy in acquisitions so far. Our focus is on organic growth. There is a lot to grow, still. Of course, there is an opportunity, we'll look into that. NORA MASCARENHAS LANARI: And may I address your second -- says Nora. This lower SG&A of 6%, 7% is right, now we're growing a lot. So we'll continue to increase the structure. But we're working to keep this efficiency level. So for 2018, we'll open new stores thinking about the needs of sales for 2019. On the other hand, in 2018, we'll have to sell more cars than we sold in 2017. So there's no relevant change in that level. We don't anticipate any major change in that level. OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) The next question is from [Natalia Serafin] from Citibank. NATALIA SERAFIN, ANALYST, CITIBANK: I have 2 questions. The first is about the election cycle. Historically it always boosts the Car Rental business. What is your expectation for the election, especially the second part of the election -- the second run? UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE: Well, thank you for question, Natalia. Well, historically, in the past, it did have some effect, but given the reality of the elections in our base, we're able to absorb any special demand. And election as a macroeconomic scenario, we see the market is still growing on the demand side. And the political and economic scenario, we don't see any major threats in the politics. We see that the economic activity is resuming, I mean, growing. And we don't see any threats in the macroeconomic scenario and political scenario. NATALIA SERAFIN: And my second question is more of a follow-up. I would like to know what do you expect for the depreciation level of vehicles. Will it be stable or reduced for the coming years? And for the second quarter, could you give any indication on the growth of fleet or daily rate? MAURICIO FERNANDES TEIXEIRA: Well, we don't give guidance -- says Teixeira -- but in terms of depreciation, we believe we are at the right level. We don't expect any drop or increase in depreciation. We expect a stable level. This is very well calculated and programmed. And we see a positive margin at Seminovos. So it's very well adapted to the current reality of the market. Of course, in the next 2 or 3 months, we see stability. And we don't know about the future, but we see stability in that level in the short-term. OPERATOR: I would like to turn the floor over to Mr. Mauricio Teixeira. MAURICIO FERNANDES TEIXEIRA: Thank you very much for attending our call. And our IR team is available to answer any further questions you may have. Thank you, and have a good day. OPERATOR: This concludes Localiza Rent a Car audio conference for today. Thank you very much for attending, and have a good day. EDITOR: Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call. The interpreter was provided by the Company sponsoring this Event. [Thomson Financial reserves the right to make changes to documents, content, or other information on this web site without obligation to notify any person of such changes. In the conference calls upon which Event Transcripts are based, companies may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding a variety of items. Such forward-looking statements are based upon current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those stated in any forward-looking statement based on a number of important factors and risks, which are more specifically identified in the companies' most recent SEC filings. 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Subject: Copyright; Automobile rentals; Growth rate; Alternative energy sources; Social responsibility
Company / organization: Name: Thomson Financial; NAICS: 511210, 518210, 519190
Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Apr 27, 2018
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: Linthicum
Country of publication: United States, Linthicum
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Law--Corporate Law
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2037077313
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2037077313?accountid=4840
Copyright: 2018 Thomson Financial and ASC LLC
Last updated: 2018-05-16
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 233 of 474
Brazil: Basic data
Publication info: EIU ViewsWire ; New York [New York]01 May 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Brazil: Basic data
Land area
8,547,400 sq km. Population
207.7m (2017 estimate) Main cities
Population at last census (2012 official estimate; m) São Paulo: 11.4 Rio de Janeiro: 6.4 Salvador: 2.7 Brasília (capital): 2.6 Fortaleza: 2.5 Belo Horizonte: 2.4 Climate
Mainly tropical and sub-tropical; mild on the southern coast and in the higher regions Weather in São Paulo (altitude 760 metres)
Hottest month, December, 23-30°C; coldest month, June, 15-22°C, average monthly minimum and maximum; driest month, August; wettest month, February Language
Portuguese Measures
Metric system Currency
Real (R); average exchange rate in 2017: R3.2:US$1 Time
The states along the coast, as well as eastern Pará, Brasília-DF, Minas Gerais, Goiás and Tocantins, are three hours behind GMT (official time in Brazil); the states of Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Rondônia, most of Amazonas, Roraima and western Pará are four hours behind GMT; the states of Acre and the south-western part of Amazonas are five hours behind GMT Public holidays
January 1st (New Year's Day); February 10th-14th (Carnival); March 30th (Good Friday); April 21st (Tiradentes); May 1st (Labour Day); September 7th (Independence Day); October 12th (Nossa Senhora Aparecida, the patron saint of Brazil; also Children's Day); November 2nd (All Saints' Day); November 15th (Proclamation of the Republic); December 25th (Christmas Day)
Subject: Economic conditions; Economic indicators; Background
Location: Brazil Latin America
Publication title: EIU ViewsWire; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: May 1, 2018
Publisher: The Economist Intelligence Unit N.A., Incorporated
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Political Science--International Relations
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2033146630
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2033146630?accountid=4840
Copyright: (c) 2018 The Economist Intelligence Unit Ltd. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. No further reproduction is permitted.
Last updated: 2018-05-02
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 234 of 474
Journey around the world ends at Fort Monroe; Michigan couple spent four and a half years on sailboat
Author: Holtzclaw, Mike
Publication info: Daily Press ; Newport News, Va. [Newport News, Va]03 May 2018: A.1.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: It was a decade ago that Dennis Day first mentioned the idea to his wife. "He said, 'When I retire, I want to sail around the world,' " Sherry Day recalled. "And I said, 'Well, we don't have a boat and we're not sailors, so maybe you can do that with your next wife.' He told me he was going to go, and it was up to me to decide if I wanted to come with him." She decided in the affirmative. Shortly after noon on Wednesday, they pulled their 48-foot sailboat Trillium into the marina at Fort Monroe, completing a 4½-year circumnavigation of the globe. Sipping champagne from a plastic cup and mingling with the small welcoming party at the dock, Sherry Day smiled. "I don't regret it," she said. "There were a couple of times early on when I wanted to get off, but now? I can't believe it's over." The Days, natives of Michigan, set sail from Maryland's Herrington Harbour in October 2013, just two days after Dennis retired from his law practice. Their course took them on a meandering journey through the Caribbean islands, across the Indian Ocean, to South Africa and Australia and Brazil "We saw three of the four carnivals, but we missed the big one in Rio," Dennis Day said. It brought them back to Savannah, Ga., and finally to Fort Monroe, and to their friend Bob Killebrew, who had helped prepare them for their odyssey on the high seas. Along the way they picked up Don Mason, a sailor they met in Capetown, who rejoined the Days for the final leg of their trip from the British Virgin Islands to the Chesapeake Bay. Mason, far more experienced on a sailboat than either of his fellow travelers, came away impressed. "Consider all they've been through," he said. "Four and a half years together - and they're still talking to each other!" The Days estimate they traveled 60,000 nautical miles. They took their time about it, making occasional side trips to Vietnam, and to a safari in Botswana. Their longest period on land was the two and a half months they spent on Avokh, a South Pacific island in Vanuatu where they were taken with the local residents and stayed to do charity work. They bought a computer for a local teacher and Sherry Day taught her how to use it for lesson plans. They installed solar panels. "It's a noncash economy," Dennis Day said. "We showed them that they could sell bread, which they bake, to cruises. They couldn't believe people would pay two Vanuatu dollars for bread." Their itinerary was largely determined by the weather. Traveling through cyclone territory, they plotted a course that kept them out of trouble. The few times they were caught in minor squalls, Dennis Day - who did some sailing in his 20s - was able to handle the boat safely. He described their path as "a downwind sail around the world," to which Killebrew replied with a grin: "Gentlemen don't sail upwind around the world." They were greeted at the Fort Monroe marina by about a half-dozen well wishers who cheered as the Days stepped down off the Trillium. "A lot of people talk about sailing around the world, but few actually do it," Mark Brzowski said. "Not many have the gumption. They actually did it." Sherry Day chronicled their adventure on her blog at Skipperette's Log (sv-trillium.blogspot.com). The longest they went without stepping on dry land was the 22 days between the Galapagos Islands and Marquesas. "Understand," Dennis Day said, "it's just one day at a time. Twenty-two days sounds like a long time, but it doesn't feel like a big deal at the time." So what's next? The Days will spend a few days in Hampton. They will eat out. And then they'll head home to Michigan. By plane. "Yep, game's over - we've done our sailing," Dennis Day said. "Four years in a 48-foot boat, 14 feet wide? That's enough for now." Holtzclaw can be reached by phone at 757-928-6479. Credit: By Mike Holtzclaw - [email protected] - Holtzclaw can be reached by phone at 757-928-6479. Caption: Aileen Devlin/Daily Press Dennis and Sherry Day drink champagne after docking at Fort Monroe in Hampton on Wednesday. Beginning in late October 2013 in Maryland, the couple circumnavigated the globe traveling an estimated 60,000 nautical miles. See more photos and video of the Days at dailypress.com.
Subject: Editorials; Boats; Sailing & sailboats
Location: Chesapeake Bay South Africa South Pacific Vietnam Botswana Australia Maryland British Virgin Islands Indian Ocean Brazil Michigan Galapagos Islands Vanuatu
Publication title: Daily Press; Newport News, Va.
First page: A.1
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: May 3, 2018
Publisher: Tribune Interactive, LLC
Place of publication: Newport News, Va.
Country of publication: United States, Newport News, Va.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2033619951
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2033619951?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright © 2018 Daily Press
Last updated: 2018-05-03
Database: US Southeast Newsstream
Document 235 of 474
Journey around the world ends at Fort Monroe; Michigan couple spent four and a half years on sailboat
Author: Holtzclaw, Mike
Publication info: Daily Press ; Newport News, Va. [Newport News, Va]03 May 2018: A.1. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: It was a decade ago that Dennis Day first mentioned the idea to his wife. "He said, 'When I retire, I want to sail around the world,' " Sherry Day recalled. "And I said, 'Well, we don't have a boat and we're not sailors, so maybe you can do that with your next wife.' He told me he was going to go, and it was up to me to decide if I wanted to come with him." She decided in the affirmative. Shortly after noon on Wednesday, they pulled their 48-foot sailboat Trillium into the marina at Fort Monroe, completing a 4½-year circumnavigation of the globe. Sipping champagne from a plastic cup and mingling with the small welcoming party at the dock, Sherry Day smiled. "I don't regret it," she said. "There were a couple of times early on when I wanted to get off, but now? I can't believe it's over." The Days, natives of Michigan, set sail from Maryland's Herrington Harbour in October 2013, just two days after Dennis retired from his law practice. Their course took them on a meandering journey through the Caribbean islands, across the Indian Ocean, to South Africa and Australia and Brazil "We saw three of the four carnivals, but we missed the big one in Rio," Dennis Day said. It brought them back to Savannah, Ga., and finally to Fort Monroe, and to their friend Bob Killebrew, who had helped prepare them for their odyssey on the high seas. Along the way they picked up Don Mason, a sailor they met in Capetown, who rejoined the Days for the final leg of their trip from the British Virgin Islands to the Chesapeake Bay. Mason, far more experienced on a sailboat than either of his fellow travelers, came away impressed. "Consider all they've been through," he said. "Four and a half years together - and they're still talking to each other!" The Days estimate they traveled 60,000 nautical miles. They took their time about it, making occasional side trips to Vietnam, and to a safari in Botswana. Their longest period on land was the two and a half months they spent on Avokh, a South Pacific island in Vanuatu where they were taken with the local residents and stayed to do charity work. They bought a computer for a local teacher and Sherry Day taught her how to use it for lesson plans. They installed solar panels. "It's a noncash economy," Dennis Day said. "We showed them that they could sell bread, which they bake, to cruises. They couldn't believe people would pay two Vanuatu dollars for bread." Their itinerary was largely determined by the weather. Traveling through cyclone territory, they plotted a course that kept them out of trouble. The few times they were caught in minor squalls, Dennis Day - who did some sailing in his 20s - was able to handle the boat safely. He described their path as "a downwind sail around the world," to which Killebrew replied with a grin: "Gentlemen don't sail upwind around the world." They were greeted at the Fort Monroe marina by about a half-dozen well wishers who cheered as the Days stepped down off the Trillium. "A lot of people talk about sailing around the world, but few actually do it," Mark Brzowski said. "Not many have the gumption. They actually did it." Sherry Day chronicled their adventure on her blog at Skipperette's Log (sv-trillium.blogspot.com). The longest they went without stepping on dry land was the 22 days between the Galapagos Islands and Marquesas. "Understand," Dennis Day said, "it's just one day at a time. Twenty-two days sounds like a long time, but it doesn't feel like a big deal at the time." So what's next? The Days will spend a few days in Hampton. They will eat out. And then they'll head home to Michigan. By plane. "Yep, game's over - we've done our sailing," Dennis Day said. "Four years in a 48-foot boat, 14 feet wide? That's enough for now." Holtzclaw can be reached by phone at 757-928-6479. Credit: By Mike Holtzclaw - [email protected] - Holtzclaw can be reached by phone at 757-928-6479. Caption: Aileen Devlin/Daily Press Dennis and Sherry Day drink champagne after docking at Fort Monroe in Hampton on Wednesday. Beginning in late October 2013 in Maryland, the couple circumnavigated the globe traveling an estimated 60,000 nautical miles. See more photos and video of the Days at dailypress.com.
Subject: Editorials; Boats; Sailing & sailboats
Location: Chesapeake Bay South Africa South Pacific Vietnam Botswana Australia Maryland British Virgin Islands Indian Ocean Brazil Michigan Galapagos Islands Vanuatu
Publication title: Daily Press; Newport News, Va.
First page: A.1
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: May 3, 2018
Publisher: Tribune Interactive, LLC
Place of publication: Newport News, Va.
Country of publication: United States, Newport News, Va.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2033619995
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2033619995?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright © 2018 Daily Press
Last updated: 2018-05-03
Database: US Southeast Newsstream
Document 236 of 474
Calendar: Highlights from around town
Author: Daily Pilot Staff
Publication info: Los Angeles Times (Online) , Los Angeles: Tribune Interactive, LLC. May 3, 2018. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: A roundup of community events throughout Orange County. To submit items, email [email protected] MAY 4 TILL 6 OC Music Fest The Orange County Music Festival will be returning to Lakeview Park near Irvine Lake at 5305 E. Santiago Canyon Road, Orange. The weekend music and camping festival is returning after a three-year hiatus. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.oc-musicfest.com/. MAY 5 HER Wellness Tea Hoag will host a women’s event, HER Wellness Tea, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Hoag for Her Center for Wellness at 500 Superior Ave., Suite 315, Newport Beach. Experts will discuss health, empowerment and relationships. Tickets are $25. To register, call 800-400-HOAG (4624). For more information, visit https://bit.ly/2xkS7xu. Kontrapunktus Kontrapunktus, a neo-baroque ensemble, will perform at 8 p.m. at Mission Basilica Catholic Church at 31520 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano. The program, “Mentors, Pupils and Scions,” will consist of music from legendary baroque composers. For more information, visit www.kontrapunktus.com. TILL MAY 5 Totally Radtrofest The Huntington Beach Academy for the Performing Arts will present Totally Radtrofest, featuring 1980s-related entertainment. Tickets can be purchased at www.hbapa.org/see. UC Irvine Art Student Exhibit The Newport Beach City Arts Commission will host “Uncommon Goods: Artist Book as Object,” a special exhibit featuring the work of 25 University of California Irvine art students, at the Newport Beach Public Library at 1000 Avocado Ave., Newport Beach MAY 6 Emergency Response Meeting Residents can meet with Corona del Mar emergency preparedness leaders from 2 to 3 p.m. at Begonia Park at 0411 Carnation Ave., Newport Beach. Emergency supplies will be available. Paul Mitchell the School Paul Mitchell the School will hold a fundraising event from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 3309 Hyland Ave., Costa Mesa. Haircuts and other various grooming treatments will be available along with mimosas and snacks. Proceeds go toward various charities, including Children’s Miracle Network, Eyes on Cancer, Food 4 Africa and Andrew Gomez Dream Foundation. For more information, visit www.socoandtheocmix.com. TILL MAY 6 ‘Sister Act’ The Costa Mesa Playhouse will conclude 53 seasons of shows with the hit musical, “Sister Act.” Performances are 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays at the playhouse at 661 Hamilton St., Costa Mesa. For more information, visit www.costamesaplayhouse.com. MAY 15 Jennifer Newsom The Newport Beach Public Library will host an event featuring Jennifer Newsom — documentary writer, director, producer and wife of Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom — at 6:30 p.m. at the Central Library Friends Room, 1000 Avocado Ave., Newport Beach. TILL MAY 30 Russell Pierce The work of famed artist Russell Pierce will be on display at the Community Art Project gallery at 260 Ocean Ave., on the second floor near the Wells Fargo building in Laguna Beach. For more information, visit www.caplaguna.org. TILL JUNE 21 California Impressionists The “Harmony of Light: Spring in California” exhibit will be displayed at the Irvine Museum of Collection at the University of California, Irvine, 18881 Von Karman Ave. The showcase features paintings from California impressionists depicting springtime in the state. For more information, visit irvinemuseumcollection.uci.edu/event/harmony-light-spring-california/. TILL AUG. 9 Rainforest Adventure A Rainforest Adventure exhibit is featured at Discovery Cube at 2500 N. Main St., Santa Ana. For more information, visit www.oc.discoverycube.org. MAY 12 Like Totally Festival The third annual Like Totally Festival will be held from noon to 9 p.m. at Huntington State Beach. The event will feature bands from the 1980s. For more information, visit www.liketotallyfestival.com/event-information. Cuñao’s Canción del Inmigrante Cuñao’s Canción del Inmigrante — an outdoor evening of storytelling told through sound, puppetry, and community created folk art — will be held at 8 p.m. at the Bowers Museum at 2002 N. Main St., Santa Ana. The free, community-based production is a multimedia “opera” with puppetry, song and dance. For more information, visit www.santaanasites.com. MAY 12 TILL AUG. 11 Farmer’s Market A farmer’s market will be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the second Saturday of each month at SOCO and the OC Mix at 3315 Hyland Ave., Costa Mesa. There will be live music, chef's demos and a variety of family-friendly activities. For more information, visit bit.ly/SOCOFarmers. MAY 15 Newport Beach Women’s Democratic Club Meeting The Newport Beach Women’s Democratic Club and Imagine Action Orange County will host filmmaker, founder and CEO of the Representation Project, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, and congressional candidate Julia Peacock at its monthly meeting at 6:30 p.m. at the Newport Beach Public Library at 1000 Avocado Ave. For more information, visit NBWDC.org. MAY 17 Newport Harbor Home and Garden Tour The 21st Annual Newport Harbor Home and Garden Tour will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The event will showcase six Newport Beach homes with ocean views and a variety of architectural and interior styles by local designers. For more information, visit newportharborhometour.com/. MAY 18 Literacy Author Luncheon The 11th annual Gift of Literacy Author Luncheon, presented by Newport/Mesa ProLiteracy, will be held at 11:30 a.m. at the Pacific Club at 4111 MacArthur Blvd., Newport Beach. The luncheon will feature a speech from author Janelle Brown, who penned the novels, “Watch Me Disappear,” “All We Ever Wanted Was Everything,” and “This Is Where We Live.” Tickets cost $95 and include a copy of the book “Watch Me Disappear.” For more information, visit www.newportliteracy.org. MAY 18 TILL 20 Fiesta The Saint Edward Parish Fiesta will be held from 5 to 10 p.m. May 18, noon to 10 p.m. May 19 and noon to 8 p.m. May 20 at 33926 Calle La Primavera, Dana Point. The free event will feature carnival rides, games and live entertainment. For more information, visit www.stedwardfiesta.org. MAY 20 Orange County Wind Symphony The Orange County Wind Symphony will perform “Heritage of Britain” at 6:30 p.m. at Anaheim Performing Arts Center at Servite, 1952 W. La Palma Ave., Anaheim. For more information, visit www.ocsymphony.org/. Rossmoor Woman’s Club The Rossmoor Woman’s Club will hold a spring garden tour and outside market from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The tour will include five gardens at homes in Rossmoor, a pop-up market at Rush Park featuring a variety of vendors and a Friendship Garden at the market where club members will sell succulents and air plants. Tickets can be purchased for $15 online at rossmoorwomansclub.com or at Brita’s Old Town Gardens, 225 Main St., Seal Beach (562) 430-5019; Antica, 11110 Los Alamitos Blvd., Los Alamitos (562) 430-0320; McNally Electric, 10792 Los Alamitos Blvd., Los Alamitos (562) 598-9438; Prep Kitchen Essentials, 12207 Seal Beach Blvd., Seal Beach (562) 430-1217; Cinnamon Stik, 10641 Los Alamitos Blvd., Los Alamitos (562) 596-6939 and Seal Beach Sun, 216 Main St., Seal Beach (562) 430-7555. MAY 24 Max Love Project Max Love Project, an Orange County nonprofit that helps child cancer survivors, will host the inaugural Farm to Fork App-Off competition from 6 to 10 p.m. at the Lost Bean at 1632, 3335 Susan St., Costa Mesa. Proceeds will benefit the organization’s culinary medicine program collaboration with the Children’s Hospital of Orange County. For tickets, visit http://bit.ly/MLPAppOff. MAY 26 Mariachi Los Camperos Two-time Grammy Award-winner Mariachi Los Camperos will perform at the Musco Center for the Arts at 7:30 p.m. For tickets, visit www.muscocenter.org/. MAY 27 Natalia Lafourcade Grammy Award-winning musician Natalia Lafourcade will perform at 6 p.m. at Musco Center for the Arts at Chapman University at One University Drive, Orange. For more information, visit muscocenter.org/event/natalia-lafourcade/. JUNE 1 TILL 3 Newport Beach Jazz Festival The Newport Beach Jazz Festival will be held at the Newport Beach Hyatt at 1107 Jamboree Road. For more information, visit festivals.hyattconcerts.com/. JUNE 9 Children’s Bureau The Children’s Bureau, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit, will be holding a fundraiser for the prevention and treatment of child abuse from 6 to 9:30 p.m. at Oak Creek Golf Club at One Golf Club Drive, Irvine. A ticket costs $300. For more information, visit www.all4kids.org/soiree. JUNE 17 Matt Mauser Matt Mauser will perform a celebration of the music of Frank Sinatra from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Civic Center Green at 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach. The free concert is presented by the Newport Beach City Arts Commission as part of a Newport Beach concert series. JUNE 24 Huntington Beach Concert Band The Huntington Beach Concert Band’s Summer Series begins with the first free event. Eleven concerts will be held on Sunday until Sept. 2. The concerts will be held at the Thomas Ridley Central Park Concert Bandstand at Huntington Beach Central Park at 7111 Talbert Ave. For more information, call Linda D. Couey at (714) 891-6856 or visit hbconcertband.org. JULY 15 The Springsteen Experience The Springsteen Experience will perform from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Civic Center Green at 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach. The free concert is presented by the Newport Beach City Arts Commission as part of a Newport Beach concert series. JULY 16 TILL 20 AND JULY 23 TILL 27 Designer Camp Designer Camp — a design-based summer camp — will feature workshops where kids ages 11 to 17 can learn about various careers within the design industry. The program will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day at the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity at 3321 Hyland Ave., Costa Mesa. There will be two different events — one spanning July 16 to 20 and another from July 23 to 27. For more information or to register online, visit https://bit.ly/2qbc1GN. AUG. 6 Teeing for Tusks A golf tournament will be held to fund programs that support anti-poaching efforts in Africa. “Teeing for Tusks” will run from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at Monarch Beach Golf Links at 50 Monarch Beach Resort, Dana Point. A single golfer entree is $300 and a team of four is $1,200. Register at charityvalet.com/tusks18. AUG. 12 Tijuana Dogs The Tijuana Dogs will perform from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Civic Center Green at 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach. The free concert is presented by the Newport Beach City Arts Commission as part of a Newport Beach concert series. SEPT. 9 Desperado Eagles Tribute The Desperado Eagles Tribute will perform from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Civic Center Green at 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach. The free concert is presented by the Newport Beach City Arts Commission as part of a Newport Beach concert series. ONGOING Newport Beach Walking Club A Newport Beach walking club meets at 9 a.m. Monday through Saturday on the benches at the end of East Balboa Boulevard. For more information, call Loyda at (949) 600-0966. Farmers’ Market The SOCO Farmers’ Market, held at 3315 Hyland Ave., Costa Mesa, is from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays and features coffee and pastry shops, home decor, and fashion. For more information, visit farmermark.com/soco. Wetlands tour Amigos de Bolsa Chica hosts a tour of the wetlands from 9 to 10:30 a.m. the first Saturday of every month, departing every 15 minutes from the footbridge in the south parking lot of the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve. The tour is led by docents and participants will learn about the birds, endangered species, history, ecology and restoration of the wetlands. For more information, call (714) 840-1575 or email [email protected]. Walking Club The Newport-Mesa Walking Club offers free walks at 9 a.m. and 7 pm. Mondays through Saturdays. For more information, call (949) 600-0966. Monthly Beach Cleanup Community beach cleanups are held on the first Saturday of the month from 10 a.m. to noon. In Laguna Beach, the cleanup locations with supplies are Hobie Sport, Thalia Surf, El Ranchito and United Studios of Self Defense. Participants can ask for “zero trash discounts.” For more information, email Chip McDermott at [email protected]. Hortense Miller Garden The Hortense Miller Garden covers 2 1/2 acres of the upper slopes of Boat Canyon and features a range of plants and small themed gardens. Tours through the garden and private residence are at 9:45 a.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, and must be scheduled two weeks in advance. For more information, call (949) 497-0716, ext. 6. Preschool Stories The Laguna Beach Public Library, 363 Glenneyre St., presents Preschool Story Time at 11 a.m. Wednesdays, followed by cookies and punch. For more information, call (949) 497-1733. Susi Q Needle Art Guild The Needle Art Guilt meets at the Susi Q Senior Center from 1 to 3:30 p.m. the last Friday of each month to create various items for local organizations, including Mission Hospital's oncology unit and the Friendship Shelter. All ages and levels of knitters and crocheters are welcome. In addition, a new needle art technique will be discussed each month. Yarn and monetary donations are always appreciated. This is a free activity. For more information, call (949) 497-2241. Newland House Tour The historic Newland House Museum, 19820 Beach Blvd., Huntington Beach, offers tours from local historians who provide information about the two-story Victorian home built in 1898. The museum is open from noon to 4 p.m. the first and third Saturday and Sunday of the month. Cost is $2 for adults, $1 for children. For information, call (714) 960-0055. Crafty Kids Club Huntington Beach Central Library hosts Crafty Kids Club at 2 p.m. Saturdays at the library, at 7111 Talbert Ave. Children about 5 through 9 years old are invited to enjoy stories and related crafts. Call (714) 375-5107. Press zero to speak with a librarian. Laptime Storytime The Huntington Beach Library presents Laptime Storytime at 9:15, 10 and 11 a.m. Tuesdays and 10 a.m. Saturdays at 7111 Talbert Ave. for children 18 months to 3 years old. The library's Preschool Storytime for children 3 to 5 are at 10 and 11 a.m. Fridays. Call (714) 375-5107. Bolsa Chica Walking Tour A two-hour walking tour of the Bolsa Chica mesa and wetlands is conducted at 10 a.m. on the third Sunday of every month by the Bolsa Chica Land Trust. This docent-led tour makes five stops along the walk bridge and loop trails of the wetlands. Meet in the south reserve parking lot on Pacific Coast Highway across from Bolsa Chica State Beach. Warm clothing, comfortable shoes and binoculars are recommended. Tours are free and open to the public. Call (714) 846-1001 or go to bolsachicalandtrust.org. Newport Beach Walking Club A Newport Beach walking club meets 7 to 8.30 p.m. Monday to Friday at the Union Bank parking lot on Jamboree and Bayside Road. To join call Loyda at (949) 600-0966. Tutoring People can volunteer to tutor children each week at El Morro Elementary School at 8681 N. Coast Highway, Laguna Beach. The tutoring sessions are provided by the Learning Club, which operates two afternoons a week from January to May. For more information, visit aauw2-lagunabeach.org. Photography Contest The Newport Beach City Arts Commission is holding a photography contest through April 15. Contestants can submit pictures of a series of new sculptures at Civic Center Park at 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach. Submissions should be emailed to [email protected]. For more information, visit www.newportbeachca.gov/culturalarts. Credit: Daily Pilot Staff
Location: Costa Mesa California California Newport Beach California Anaheim California Laguna Beach California Huntington Beach California Bolsa Chica
Publication title: Los Angeles Times (Online); Los Angeles
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: May 3, 2018
Section: Socal - Daily Pilot - Entertainment
Publisher: Tribune Interactive, LLC
Place of publication: Los Angeles
Country of publication: United States, Los Angeles
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Blogs, Podcasts, & Websites
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2034335936
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2034335936?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Tribune Interactive, LLC May 3, 2018
Last updated: 2019-03-01
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 237 of 474
Q1 2018 Stoneridge Inc Earnings Call - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]03 May 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Presentation OPERATOR: Good morning, and welcome to the Stoneridge First Quarter 2018 Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference call may be recorded for replay purposes. It is now my pleasure to hand the conference over to Mr. Matt Horvath, Director of Investor Relations. Sir, the floor is yours. MATTHEW HORVATH, DIRECTOR OF IR AND M&A, STONERIDGE, INC.: Thanks, Brian. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us to discuss our first quarter results. The release and accompanying presentation was filed with the SEC yesterday evening and is posted on our website at www.stoneridge.com in the Investors section under Webcast & Presentations. Joining me on today's call are Jon DeGaynor, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Bob Krakowiak, our Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I need to inform you that certain statements today may be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include statements that are not historical in nature and include information concerning our future results or plans. Although we believe that such statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, you should understand that these statements are subject to risks and uncertainties and actual results may differ materially. Additional information about such factors and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ may be found in our 10-Q, which has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission under the heading Forward-Looking Statements. During today's call, we will also be referring to certain non-GAAP financial measures. Please see the appendix for a reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures. After Jon and Bob have finished their formal remarks, we will then open up the call for questions. (Operator Instructions] With that, I will turn the call over to Jon. JONATHAN B. DEGAYNOR, CEO, PRESIDENT & DIRECTOR, STONERIDGE, INC.: Thanks, Matt, and good morning, everyone. Yesterday evening, we released our results for the first quarter, in which we delivered another quarter of strong financial performance. Let me begin on Page 3 with an overview of our financial performance for the quarter. Our first quarter sales of $225.9 million resulted in a gross margin of 30.1%, translating to an adjusted operating margin of 8%. Adjusted EPS for the quarter was $0.50, an increase of $0.12 or 33% relative to the first quarter of last year. This morning, we are increasing our 2018 full-year outlook for sales and earnings per share as a result of out-performance this quarter as well as our expectation of an improved revenue outlook for the remainder of 2018. In short, we expect improved revenue growth particularly related to Control Devices and Electronics. Our full-year guided margin expectations remain intact, resulting in an improvement to full year midpoint EPS guidance. Bob will provide additional detail on guidance later in the discussion. Our segments performed as expected during the quarter, with Control Devices delivering growth in our admissions and certain actuator products. As discussed last quarter, planned Shift-by-Wire revenue reductions more than offset our growth in other actuator product lines, leading to roughly flat revenue quarter-over-quarter for this segment. Revenue growth of 34% in our Electronics segment was driven by strong performance at Orlaco as well as the ramp-up of new programs. Additionally, the robustness of the commercial vehicle markets in both Europe and North America and favorable currency rates contributed to top line growth for the segment. Sales at PST remained flat relative to the first quarter of 2017, primarily due to the impact of expected seasonality and unfavorable currency. Margin expansion continued for the segment, resulting in a trailing 12-month adjusted operating margin of 6%. This compares to a breakeven operating margin for the segment over the same period 1 year ago. This morning, we are excited to announce pending new business awards of over $35 million in peak annual revenue, related to our MirrorEye and connectivity products. We will update our 5-year awarded business backlog when we receive the finalized contracts. Page 4 provides a summary of key financial metrics for the first quarter compared with the first quarter of 2017, as well as a comparison for the trailing 12-month period. Sales increased by 11% to $226 million for the quarter. Adjusted gross profit improved quarter-over-quarter by 9%. However, gross margin declined by approximately 30 basis points, compared to the first quarter of 2017. While gross margin benefited from our continuous improvements activities, unfavorable mix on incremental revenue, launch costs, including overtime premium freight and scrap diminished the impact of base operational improvements in the quarter. Adjusted operating income grew by 4% while operating margin declined by 50 basis points compared to the first quarter of 2017. During the quarter, we incurred higher net engineering costs due to program launches and investments in development activities. As we continue to ramp up recently launched programs, we expect to see improvements in operating margin in the coming quarters. As we have discussed regularly, we focus on continuous improvement throughout the organization to drive cost reductions more broadly and over the long term through operation of manufacturing processes as well as our global supply chain. This continuous improvement focus includes engineering products that enable efficient production and improved quality. While change is continuous, the financial improvement related to these opportunities is not always linear as we experienced during the quarter. Adjusted EBITDA improved by 13% and EBITDA margin improved by 20 basis points. The improvement in EBITDA margin relative to operating margin can be attributed in part to improved operating performance at our joint venture in India, which translates to improved equity earnings for Stoneridge. We expect the momentum in our joint venture in India to continue due to new business awards and operational improvements. Our financial performance resulted in adjusted earnings per share of $0.50 compared to $0.38 per share in the same period in 2017, representing growth of 33%. We were able to achieve these results through continued top-line growth that exceeds our underlying markets and the focus on continued operating efficiency. We're pleased with the improvement in each of our key financial metrics and we remain committed to improving our execution in all facets of the business. On page 5, I would like to provide an update on the segment-specific opportunities that will drive our success in 2018. In Control Devices, our revenue growth is and will be driven by our success in actuation and emissions products. In the quarter, this growth was more than offset by planned reductions in Shift-by-Wire volumes. In response to those reductions, we took steps to optimize our lever cost through relatively small but targeted cost reduction activities in our North American facilities. Additionally, we are implementing improvements to our production processes to address the premium freight, scrap and overtime cost that we discussed previously. We expect these actions, along with overall continuous improvement activities, to drive margin expansion for the segment. As I mentioned earlier, we have significant new awards in the Electronics segment, including the MirrorEye OEM award. Our Electronics segment grew by more than 30% relative to the first quarter of last year. Our customers are recognizing our ability to deliver technology -- our customers are recognizing our ability to deliver technology-based solutions globally, which is driving record business awards. In addition, we continue to focus on the most prudent use of our engineering resources to facilitate growth in the segment and ensure that we support our global customers. Although PST experienced flat revenue growth relative to the first quarter of 2017, the mix of our revenue continues to shift toward higher-margin track and trace products. We expect revenue growth for PST for the remainder of the year as macroeconomic conditions appear relatively stable. Leveraging the existing cost structure will allow for continued margin expansion at PST. Each of our segments is well-positioned for continued success. Turning to page 6. I'm happy to announce that we have an award pending for our first OEM MirrorEye program with a leading commercial vehicle manufacturer. Scheduled to start production in 2020, this program is forecast to generate roughly $13 million of peak annual revenue based on forecasted vehicle production and conservative assumptions around system take rates. We believe this award is just the beginning of the OEM opportunities for MirrorEye. We continue to work with a number of customers on development programs in anticipation of additional awards. As we have discussed previously, MirrorEye is not just an original equipment application. One of the other opportunities is a retrofit opportunity, particularly with fleets in North America. Recently, we submitted a request to FMCSA for an exemption to the current regulation that requires an external side mirror. This exemption would allow MirrorEye-equipped trucks to completely remove the standard-size mirror. While the exemption is pending, we expect a favorable response later this year. With or without the exemption, the retrofit opportunity for MirrorEye is significant. Additionally, we continued to explore other applications of our MirrorEye technology, such as municipal vehicle, passenger transport and off-highway applications. In fact, we have been awarded a relatively small program on buses operating in urban environments that will protect both passengers and the surrounding pedestrians. This award reinforces the fact that MirrorEye will change the safety environment, both on the highway and in our cities. Stoneridge is focused on bringing this technology to all applicable markets worldwide. Overall, we expect MirrorEye to drive growth for our Electronics segment, starting with retrofit opportunities as soon as this year and OEM revenue beginning in 2020. Turning to page 7. Additionally, we are announcing a significant pending award related to our connectivity products, which start production in early 2019 and peak annual revenue of $24 million. Our product our is a state-of-the-art connectivity device that allows our customers to deliver data services to truck owners and fleets via a cloud-based solution. This is an open platform that will facilitate classical vehicle management, advanced fleet management as well as dispatching and location-based services. As an open platform, with the ability to tap into almost any data in the vehicle, there are no limitations as to which services can be provided using our device. This award is truly a global award as we are leveraging our existing technologies, currently applied in Europe, to bring a product to the North American and Brazilian markets in an accelerated timeframe and support our customers as they incorporate added intelligence into their vehicles. We continue to partner with our customers globally, and our footprint in Brazil is differentiating us from our competition. This award not only validates our global manufacturing and engineering strategy, but it also positions us to expand our product offerings to an important OEM customer. As we execute this program, we will continue to evaluate opportunities to expand our connectivity products and related data offerings with OEM customers to enable intelligent connected vehicle solutions worldwide. Turning to page 8. We were honored with the Partnership Supplier Award from Daimler during the first quarter for our international launches of driver information systems for our Mercedes-Benz, Freightliner and FUSO trucks. Stoneridge is committed to deepening our partnerships with our customers and this supplier award, as well as the new business awards, is further proof that our efforts are being recognized. We are a proven global partner for both our passenger car and commercial vehicle customers. Partnering with some of the largest, most successful global OEMs in both the passenger and commercial vehicle markets will position Stoneridge for continued and accelerating long-term success. Turning to page 9. I'm pleased with our achievements in the first quarter. As an organization and a leadership team, we not only delivered strong financial performance across the business but also identified and responded to opportunities and challenges across the organization. Over the last 3 years, we have built a culture focused not only on execution and continuous improvement but also on profitable growth. This morning, we announced awards related to our MirrorEye system and connectivity products. We continue to work with our customers to deepen those relationships and gain their confidence in order to grow the business. And finally, we are increasing our revenue and EPS guidance for the remainder of the year. With that, I'll turn it over to Bob to discuss our financial results in more detail. ROBERT R. KRAKOWIAK, CFO & TREASURER, STONERIDGE, INC.: Thanks, Jon. Turning to slide 11. Net sales during the first quarter were $225.9 million, an increase of 11% relative to the first quarter of 2017. Adjusted operating income of $18 million or 8% of sales, represented a 4% increase over the same period last year. More specifically, Control Devices net sales of $117.5 million were in line with our expectations, decreasing by approximately 2% quarter-over-quarter. Adjusted operating income of $18.4 million declined 4% relative to the first quarter of 2017 to 15.6% of sales. Electronics net sales of $100 million increased by 34%, resulting in adjusted operating income of $8.8 million or 8.7% of sales. PST's net sales of $20.5 million decreased by 5%, resulting in adjusted operating income of $1 million or 4.8% of sales, an increase of 70% relative to the same period last year. This morning, we are providing revised guidance on our 2018 financial performance, considering our first quarter performance and the revised view for the remainder of 2018. We expect continued top-line growth due to favorable end markets in our Control Devices and Electronic segments, the extensions of certain Shift-by-Wire programs and strong performance by PST for the remainder of the year. We are increasing the midpoint of our sales guidance by $30 million to a midpoint of $880 million, an increase of 7% over 2017. We are maintaining our guidance related to adjusted gross margin, operating margin and EBITDA margins with midpoints of 31.5%, 9.5% and 13%, respectively. We are also increasing our adjusted EPS guidance by approximately $0.13 to a midpoint of $2.13, an increase of 36% over last year. Page 12 summarizes the key financial metrics in both quarter-to-quarter and trailing 12-month periods specific to Control Devices. Control Devices sales decreased by 2% relative to the first quarter of 2017. In the trailing 12 months, Control Devices revenue increased by 3% relative to the prior trailing 12-month period. This increase was driven primarily by strong performance in our actuation and sensing products and continued expansion in China. Looking to 2018, we expect continued strong performance in our product lines, highlighted by the launch of our sensor line in Europe as well as continued growth in China as well as our actuation products outside of Shift-by-Wire. We expect Shift-by-Wire sales to continue to ramp down over the course of the year. However, our sales outlook for the year has improved due to platform extensions by our customers. Adjusted operating income decreased by 4% and adjusted operating margin decreased by 30 basis points in the quarter relative to the first quarter of 2017. As Jon mentioned previously, the relative reduction in operating margin can be attributed to increased production costs in the quarter related to launch costs, including overtime, premium freight and scrap. We have identified opportunities to improve our processes and have implement countermeasures, including targeted cost reductions, which we expect to offset these issues and drive margin improvement for the remainder of the year. As many of you are aware, Ford recently announced plans to exit certain North American passenger vehicles. I would like to provide some additional detail on our backlog related to these programs. Our backlog has always accounted for the planned ramp-down of Shift-by-Wire, including products on these platforms. As we have disclosed previously, Ford is one of our largest customers, accounting for 14% of our sales in 2017. Through 2019, a majority of our sales to Ford on passenger car platforms are Shift-by-Wire products. Beyond 2019, less than 1% of our $3.3 billion backlog as of the end of last year is attributable to the passenger car platforms in Ford's recent announcement. We continue to evaluate the long-term opportunities with the company as a result of Ford's plan, which would include extensions of existing platforms prior to elimination. As our product portfolio continues to evolve, and in line with current automotive market megatrends, there may be additional opportunities for our products in the platforms that Ford introduces to replace the eliminated vehicles. I want to reiterate that our backlog has not been updated to reflect the MirrorEye and connectivity awards that Jon discussed previously. We will update our 5-year awarded business backlog when we receive finalized contracts. In summary, we do not expect Ford's announcement last week to have a material impact on our backlog. A high percentage of SUV, CUV and light truck business with Ford in North America will position our company well as our customer focuses on these platforms. Page 13 highlights the substantial time-over-time growth in both revenue and adjusted operating income in our Electronics segment. Electronics sales increased by 34% relative to the first quarter of 2017, an increase of $25 million. Orlaco continues to outperform our expectations as we again reported a step-up in the fair value of the earn-out liability during the first quarter, which brings our total accrued earn-out liability to the maximum payout 9 months earlier than expected. Our legacy business continues to perform well with strong commercial vehicle volumes driving top line performance during the quarter. We expect our Electronics segment to continue to deliver growth as forecasts are suggesting a robust commercial vehicle market in Europe and North America. Recent product launches in this segment continue to drive revenue growth. In addition, we anticipate continued strong performance in the aftermarket by Orlaco and the addition of MirrorEye retrofit revenue later this year. Adjusted operating income increased by 34% in the quarter, relative to the first quarter 2017. Operating margin remained relatively flat compared to the first quarter of 2017, as a result of higher net engineering costs due to program launches and investment in development activities. While we will continue to incur launch costs across our product portfolio and design and development costs related to MirrorEye in 2018, we expect the Electronics margin to continue to improve as the year progresses. Electronics continues to deliver solid financial performance, led by a strong product portfolio, which will deliver growth greater than the businesses' underlying market. Turning to page 14. PST had sales of $20.5 million during the quarter, a decrease of 5% versus the first quarter of 2017, primarily due to unfavorable exchange rates. Over the past 12 months, PST delivered 9% revenue growth over the prior trailing 12-month period. PST continues to drive improvement in margin by levering -- by leveraging fixed costs and growing in higher margin product lines, including our track and trace business. Adjusted operating income improved by 70% relative to the first quarter of 2017, while our operating margin improved from 2.7% to 4.8% during the current quarter. We remain cautiously optimistic about macroeconomic conditions in the region and expect PST to convert revenue growth for the remainder of 2018, into improved bottom line performance. Additionally, we continue to explore opportunities to drive growth in Brazil by introducing products from our Control Devices and Electronics segments into the region. Moving to Slide 15. This morning, we are increasing our full year midpoint guidance for sales and adjusted earnings per share. We are revising our sales guidance up to a midpoint of $880 million, implying a midpoint-to-midpoint increase in our guidance of $30 million. Our midpoint guidance implies $56 million of incremental revenue or 7% growth year-over-year. We are reaffirming our margin guidance and revising the midpoint of our full year EPS guidance up by $0.13 to $2.13, an improvement of 35% year-over-year. The increase in our year-over-year adjusted earnings per share is consistent with our historical contribution margins on incremental volume of 2x to 3x our EBITDA margins. We expect to continue to outperform the growth in our underlying markets and drive margin performance through continuous improvement in our base operations. Moving to slide 17. In closing, we are pleased with our performance during the first quarter, in which we delivered strong results for all our key financial metrics. Our updated 2018 guidance results in revenue growth of 7%, gross margin expansion of 120 basis points and operating and EBITDA margin expansion of 140 basis points. This results in increased EPS guidance to a midpoint of $2.13, an increase of $0.13 relative to our prior outlook. Stoneridge is committed to driving shareholder value through strong financial performance and profitable long-term growth. With that, I will open up the call to your questions. Questions and Answers OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) And our first question will come from the line of Christopher Van Horn with B. Riley FBR. CHRISTOPHER RALPH VAN HORN, ANALYST, B. RILEY FBR, INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: So if I look at your guidance, you've obviously maintained the guidance rate on the margin side, raised it on the revenue side. It's implying a pretty significant sequential margin expansion as we head throughout the year. And I just want to see if we can identify some of the -- is there some big levers that caused that to happen? Is it lower launch costs or higher margin business rolling on, just some more detail there, if you don't mind. JONATHAN B. DEGAYNOR: Yes, Chris, thanks for your question. And as we've talked about during the call, we had a series of noncontinuous activities happen as part of the launch with premium freight, scrap costs and overtime that we don't expect to continue. So there are action plans that are in place. There are specific teams that are working to address each of the top 10 items. And we're very confident that we will see that -- see the improvements in each of those areas and address the one-off items that we talked about in the call. CHRISTOPHER RALPH VAN HORN: Okay, great. And then, if I look at the FMCSA exemption decision timing, what has to happen in order for that to move favorably? And is there an opportunity still from MirrorEye if you don't get that exemption? From the way I understand it is, it can be on a vehicle even with the mirrors and just is an added safety future as well, just for clarification there. JONATHAN B. DEGAYNOR: Yes, so let me answer the first piece -- or the second piece first, Chris. MirrorEye does not need the FMCSA exemption that we put on the truck. What we see -- and therefore, to get the safety benefits, they don't need the FMCSA exception. However, the FMCSA exemption, which is a process of we apply for the exemption, they publish it and there is a period of public comment and then there's MEC, which is 30 days, and then there is 90 days in which they have posted the public comment to make those decisions. So we've submitted our proposal. It's out in the process of public comment currently, and we expect within 90-ish days to be in a situation of having the answer. And it's a 5-year exemption from there. But what we see and what we hear back from the fleet is they want that. Not only the safety benefit of MirrorEye, but side mirrors do have a fuel economy impact. And more importantly, they have a maintenance cost because it's an opportunity to damage the product, to damage the mirror. So it's a maintenance cost. So they want the benefit of taking the mirrors off. But in order to get the safety benefit, they don't -- we don't need to have the FMCSA exemption in order to do that. And so we're working with -- we're in fleet trials today where the mirrors are not pulled off. ROBERT R. KRAKOWIAK: Yes, that's important. We're in fleet trials today where the mirrors are not pulled off and the response has been overwhelmingly positive even with the mirrors on the vehicle. CHRISTOPHER RALPH VAN HORN: And then just one final one from me. Congratulations on the intelligent vehicle win here. How big is that business today? Because the wording, it sounds like this is a business you're already in? Where do you see this kind of opportunity going forward? Because this is a pretty significant win in our view. JONATHAN B. DEGAYNOR: Yes, it's a significant win. We don't break out the segments within Electronics down at that level. But I would say that this is -- within connectivity, this is a significant win. It builds upon a platform that we're already selling in Europe with at least 1 OE customer. And what we expect to see is that more and more OE's are looking at what do they do to manage and control the data that's on the truck. And we're getting more and more of these questions from our OEM partners. So this win is significant. The fact that it's both in North American and in Brazil is meaningful, and the fact that it builds upon a set of core competencies that we already have developed means that we get to leverage our engineering as opposed to doing something bespoke. ROBERT R. KRAKOWIAK: Right, I would add onto Jon's comment that what I think is really important to mention regarding this win as well is, we're looking at a launch on this product in March of next year, which, when people in the automotive supply base talk about awards, you're generally talking about a 2- to 3-year timeframe in terms -- from the time that you receive a purchase order to the time that that program goes into production. And that just really speaks volumes to the fact that we have the installed base and software, we've got the system in place to be able to turnaround a production system and in that kind of timeframe just really, I think, speaks volumes to the capability of our teams around the world. OPERATOR: And our next question will come from the line of Justin Long with Stephens. JUSTIN TRENNON LONG, MD, STEPHENS INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: So maybe to follow up on that last question on the global connectivity program win. That was obviously a nice win. With MirrorEye, you've given us some help and kind of framed up the addressable market as you see it today. Is there a way to think about the addressable market, and a way to think about the competitive landscape for that product offering? JONATHAN B. DEGAYNOR: So the addressable market we see, Justin, is -- it's difficult for us to frame it. It has the ability to go across all trucks. It's something, if you look at some of the announcements that have been made by the OEs with regard to what they're trying to do, with regard with -- regarding data control in their vehicles, what we see is all the OEs are trying to do a better job of controlling the information that's flowing through their truck. This connectivity module is the tool to do that. So we look at it as -- this isn't a takeaway. Ultimately, it will be across all trucks. So that's piece #1. Secondly, this is a competitive activity. We won the bid competitively. Our footprint, our technology and our cost structure allowed us to win it comparatively. And we feel like we can support a customer in North America, in Europe or anywhere else around the world, in order -- as they have these needs and make -- try to offer more services to their customers. JUSTIN TRENNON LONG: Okay, that's helpful. And secondly, I wanted to ask about the 2018 revenue guidance. It went up by $30 million. I was wondering if you could help us understand how much of that was from Shift-by-Wire platforms getting extended versus a better market outlook. And also curious if you have the contribution -- the revenue contribution from Shift-by-Wire in the first quarter. ROBERT R. KRAKOWIAK: Yes, so Justin, thank you so much for the question. So really, the guide on the increase of revenue is -- it's really not about -- it's not about Shift-by-Wire extensions. It's really more about our end markets and our customers, outperforming, really, just the overall base market. So I would say, categorically, if you look at where we have planned our volumes versus what's actually occurring with our customers, across the board, if it's IHS in North America, LMC in North America, or LMC Europe, our customers there are gaining share and we're participating in that because we're on the right -- our programs are on the right platforms. It's more of a story of that type of growth versus Shift-by-Wire getting extended for a period of time. JUSTIN TRENNON LONG: Okay. On that second question, do you have what the Shift-by-Wire revenue was in the first quarter? And is there any color you can provide on how you expect that to ramp down over the course of the year? ROBERT R. KRAKOWIAK: I don't -- we haven't disclosed what the Shift-by-Wire -- we haven't disclosed that ramp-down, but really, Justin, we've given you that information. If you think about the platforms, we've provided the platforms that we're on. We've given the average selling price of the products. If you go and look at the IHS data, you can look at those platforms and you can calculate what the ramp-down looks like. JONATHAN B. DEGAYNOR: But I think is important to note, Justin, that this isn't just a 2018 ramp-down. This is a ramp-down over the balance of the vehicle life. So you're talking about ramp-downs in '20 -- end-of-life in 2020 or 2021. So it's not as though it goes from full volume to 0 within calendar year of 2018. It's been within our plan, it's at the rates that were basically within our plan, and we're adjusting our facilities for the ramp-down. JUSTIN TRENNON LONG: Okay, great. And I guess last one for me, I wanted to ask about free cash flow. But when we think about the conversion ratio of net income into free cash flow, is it reasonable to expect that ratio to be around 100% in both 2018 and beyond? ROBERT R. KRAKOWIAK: I think, Justin, that's a reasonable assumption, yes. OPERATOR: And our next question will come from the line of Scott Stember with CL King & Associates. SCOTT LEWIS STEMBER, SENIOR VP & SENIOR RESEARCH ANALYST, CL KING & ASSOCIATES, INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: You guys talked about I guess having a certain level of confidence that the approval for MirrorEye here in the U.S. or North America will go through. Can you maybe just got talk about some of the, I don't know, what's supporting that confidence? Is it just what you're hearing from the end customers that are testing it? Or is it -- is there anything else, any other back-channel communications that you're having which suggest that you're feeling pretty good without it? JONATHAN B. DEGAYNOR: Well, first and foremost, it starts with we've used all of our partnerships via the OEs, via the fleets to get feedback on the product and see where they would line up. So part of this is making sure that there's whole, and that they would agree with the approach. Secondly is, we've given the regulators an opportunity to drive the truck and see the benefits of -- from a safety standpoint, see the benefits of the product. So based on the fact that the feedback that we've gotten from the regulatory bodies, what they see is the benefit of the product or the technology, the feedback that we've gotten from the OEs and what we see during our fleet trials, we feel highly confident that we will get the approval. But I must say it one more time, I don't believe that that is a make or break for the application of the product. The safety benefits come regardless of whether the side mirrors are pulled off. SCOTT LEWIS STEMBER: Essentially, there is a market for it if, like you said, from a safety standpoint. JONATHAN B. DEGAYNOR: There's absolutely a market. And Scott, we've talked about this fairly consistently. If you look at the expenses that commercial vehicle operators have. Insurance is one of the top 3 and it's the fastest growing of those 3 from a rate year-over-year. The ability for us to help them avoid blind spot accidents, and that's really where MirrorEye comes into play, it's a supplement and it's something that they want, and we have gotten that -- we believed it and we've gotten consistent feedback from the safety leaders in the industry and from our fleet trials. ROBERT R. KRAKOWIAK: Jon, let me add to that, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that the requirement, you can go down to a 50 square-inch mirror, which significantly restricts the visibility for the drivers. So I would even say if the fleets go down -- if the commercial vehicle industry goes down to a 50 square inch mirror, we're going to -- they're going to come out of that with some sort of vision system. JONATHAN B. DEGAYNOR: Yes, they have to. ROBERT R. KRAKOWIAK: They have to. SCOTT LEWIS STEMBER: Got it. And also, just on the topic, it sounds like you're expecting some retrofit opportunities in the back part of the year. Is that in your guidance? JONATHAN B. DEGAYNOR: Well, the answer is yes and yes, but the number is relatively small. It's -- what we're looking at there is a broader proof of concept. We have fleet trials going right now. We see some small level -- low-level revenues in 2018, but it's really more of an expanded proof of concept than anything else. It's not on the same order of magnitude as the OE program. But what we want to make sure is that we have done our work and that we have validated the product and made sure that we've got the appropriate level of feedback from the fleet -- the fleets and the drivers to make sure that our product is what they need to make their vehicles safer. SCOTT LEWIS STEMBER: And just a couple of last quick ones. You did mention some other opportunities that you've talked about, I guess, on buses for MirrorEye. What about for motorhomes, RVs? I think that that would be a very big selling point on $150,000 to $200,000 motorhome. JONATHAN B. DEGAYNOR: Yes, you're right, you're right, Scott. And our challenge right now is the list of opportunities is quite long. Creative people are continuing to find additional opportunities, and it's -- as we talked about during the presentation earlier, it also is applicable in off-highway, it's applicable in construction equipment. It really builds -- the technology that we're developing there, it builds upon the Orlaco base end markets as well. What we're trying to make sure is that we have a platform of technology that is robust and then we apply it in as many ways as possible. But the starting point is make sure that you have the technology platform robust, and then we can execute it in multiple end markets. But you're right, that the motorhome space is also an opportunity for us. STEFAN PETER MYKYTIUK, MANAGING PARTNER AND PORTFOLIO MANAGER, PIKE PLACE CAPITAL MANAGEMENT, LLC: All right. Just last question on PST. You talked about how foreign currency was largely responsible for the sales decline. Do you know what the constant currency number was? And just talk about -- you did talk about how you expect sales there to improve as the year progresses. Maybe just talk about why. ROBERT R. KRAKOWIAK: Yes, so the impact for PST for currency year-over-year was a couple of hundred thousand dollars. JONATHAN B. DEGAYNOR: Here's the thing, Scott, comparing quarter-over-quarter, one thing you have to understand is, PST currently is a 100% aftermarket business. So retail channels and basically consumer channels drive this. And so timing of things like when Carnival happens, whether it happens in Q1 or Q2, will actually change how a quarter looks because of buying habits -- or Easter. ROBERT R. KRAKOWIAK: (inaudible) JONATHAN B. DEGAYNOR: What we see within PST is compared to where we were a couple of years ago, there's much greater stability in the base economics. I'm not so worried as much about quarter-over-quarter as I am how does the total economic progress in the country. But secondly, this connectivity award that we just got is really important because it's also a Brazilian OE program, and we are incredibly excited about that programs and others that are in the pipeline that will transition PST from being solely an aftermarket and to consumer business to having OE programs and us being able to support our OE customers in that important end market for them. OPERATOR: And our next question will come from the line of Gary Prestopino with Barrington Research. GARY FRANK PRESTOPINO, MD, BARRINGTON RESEARCH ASSOCIATES, INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: Most of my questions have been answered. But could you -- was there any currency impact in Electronics? And is that all organic growth, that 34%? ROBERT R. KRAKOWIAK: So the majority of the growth in Electronics -- there was a little bit of currency in Electronics year-over-year, but the one big part of Electronics was the -- is the annualization of the Orlaco acquisition. GARY FRANK PRESTOPINO: Okay, all right. And then in terms of the MirrorEye, is most of your retrofits opportunities right now in North America? My understanding is Europe is not going to be a big retrofit market, or am I incorrect there? JONATHAN B. DEGAYNOR: Yes, no, Gary, your -- our assumptions are, for the near term, that the primary retrofit opportunities are in North America, just because of the difference of the way European trucks are certified versus the way U.S. trucks are certified. It doesn't mean that there won't be an opportunity there. But the starting point in Europe is in OE application, whereas here, we see both the opportunity for retrofit and OE application. GARY FRANK PRESTOPINO: Okay. And then just getting back to your -- the new award on connectivity. Is there any -- I know this is new for you but is there any retrofit potential there as well over time? JONATHAN B. DEGAYNOR: Yes. It's not considered in that business award, but there certainly is the opportunity for retrofit and it was one of the considerations for us winning the business versus some of our competitors. OPERATOR: And we have a follow-up question coming from Justin Long with Stephens. JUSTIN TRENNON LONG: I just wanted to ask about Park-by-Wire, there hasn't been a lot of discussion on that topic during the call. I wanted to see if you could provide an update on where we are in the Park-by-Wire sales cycle. And is there any color you could give us on a reasonable way to think about the timeline for new contract announcements on that front? JONATHAN B. DEGAYNOR: Well, what we -- so let's talk first. We're in the process of basically finalizing the development with a ramp-up of that product in 2019. Some of the announcements from our customers with regard to what they're doing on their platform choices, we actually think will create more opportunities for our Park-by-Wire as they try to do more with hybrid powertrains and electric drivetrains. So for us right now, Justin, the most important thing is launching well, bringing the credibility with the customers and being able to demonstrate our execution as they're trying to figure out what they're doing with their platform. So there's nothing short-term from an award perspective, but it's really important getting it started, getting it amped up, and being viewed as that supplier that can help them as they're trying to set their future platform strategies. JUSTIN TRENNON LONG: Makes sense. And I guess the last question for me. Balance sheet's in pretty good shape today. Wanted to ask about capital deployment going forward. What does the acquisition pipeline look like right now? And how are you thinking about allocating capital via acquisitions versus potentially a buyback? ROBERT R. KRAKOWIAK: Thanks for the question, Justin. So we are -- we have a very active pipeline. We're looking at a number of opportunities. We're very pleased with the acquisition of Orlaco. I mentioned earlier that 9 months ahead of time, we'll be previewing that on the Orlaco deal, and that just speaks to the success of that transaction. Alluding to strategy, we're -- strategy has not changed. We're looking at product extensions and we're looking for opportunities to expand our existing product line with different customers and different regions of the world. And we have a number of opportunities that we're evaluating. And in terms of how we look at our alternatives, we look at them like any prudent investor would. We look at opportunities in terms of M&A, really, the same way that we look at repurchasing our own stock and whatever makes -- whatever has the highest NPV for our shareholders, we'll pursue that path. You're right, we're very, very comfortable with the strength of our balance sheet. We're very well positioned, and we are evaluating a number of opportunities and hopefully I'll have more to say about that in the near future. JONATHAN B. DEGAYNOR: And Justin let me just add on top of that, part of our continuous improvement activities and our focus from an organizational standpoint on the ability to execute, is also our ability to execute growth through acquisitions, and our confidence in the organization, in order to be able to do that, so that we deliver the right returns to our shareholders. Orlaco is an example of that, and we will continue to look at the right things to add on to Stoneridge in order to accelerate our growth. It's exciting for myself and the leadership team as we talk about how to really take Stoneridge into the next phase of accelerating our growth. OPERATOR: Thank you, and I'm showing no further questions at this time. So it's my pleasure to hand the conference back over to Mr. Jon DeGaynor, Chief Executive Officer, for some closing comments or remarks. JONATHAN B. DEGAYNOR: Well, thank you, and thanks, everybody, for your questions and the participation in today's call. In closing, I can assure you that our company is committed to continuing to drive shareholder value through strong operation results, profitable new business and focused deployment of our available capital. We're confident that the actions that we are taking will result in continued success in 2018 and beyond, and we look forward to speaking to you in subsequent quarters. Thanks very much. OPERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation on today's conference. This does conclude our program. And you may all disconnect. Everybody, have a wonderful day. [Thomson Financial reserves the right to make changes to documents, content, or other information on this web site without obligation to notify any person of such changes. In the conference calls upon which Event Transcripts are based, companies may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding a variety of items. Such forward-looking statements are based upon current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those stated in any forward-looking statement based on a number of important factors and risks, which are more specifically identified in the companies' most recent SEC filings. 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Subject: Copyright; Chief executive officers; Earnings per share; Product lines; Joint ventures
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Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: May 3, 2018
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Document 238 of 474
Q1 2018 Lojas Renner SA Earnings Call - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]04 May 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Presentation OPERATOR: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for waiting. Welcome to Lojas Renner's conference to discuss the results of the first quarter of 2018. We would like to inform you that this conference is being recorded and translated simultaneously into English. The slides are being presented on the Internet at www.lojasrenner.com.br, Investor Relations section, at the webcast platform and also the MZiQ platform. We would like to remind you that questions may be taken by phone or by the platform. (Operator Instructions) We would like to remind you that questions from journalists may be directed to the telephone number (11) 3165-9586. Before proceeding, we would like to clarify that forward-looking statements that might be made during this call related to the business perspectives of the company, operating financial projections and targets are assumptions and information currently available to the company. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance. They involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions as they refer to future events, and therefore, they depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors should understand that general economic conditions, industry conditions and other operating factors could also affect the future results of the company and could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. Now we would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Laurence Gomes, CFO and IRO. Mr. Gomes, you may proceed. LAURENCE BELTRãO GOMES, CFO AND IR OFFICER, LOJAS RENNER S.A.: Good afternoon, everyone. This is Laurence, and we are gathered here today in order to talk about the results of the first quarter of 2018. With me today, we have Galló, our CEO; Paula Picinini, our General Investor Relations and New Businesses Manager; and Luciano Agliardi, our Controller. It was a good first quarter in spite of the late launch of the collection because of the Carnival at the beginning of February and the higher temperatures in March. And in spite of that, we were able to post an increase in our net revenue of 13.3% and same-store sales reaching 6.3% even if you consider a growth of 9.1% in the first quarter of 2017. And this performance is very favorable as we compare this to the IBGE indicators of the card operators and even if we compare to the shopping center entrepreneurs who publish more detailed information about performance of categories and store formats. Besides our sales value, Camicado continued to develop at a good pace, notwithstanding the remodeling of 6 Camicado stores, which had -- or which have a very big weight in the sales of this company. And during this period, they were practically closed, that is to say the 6 Camicado stores, our gross margin was better with an increase of 1.8 percentage points favorably impacted by the good reception received by the March collections and also by the favorable exchange rate for imported items. In expenses, we see an increase of 0.5 percentage points over the net revenue. That's reflecting a higher number of stores opened and also the enforcements of structures made to support this business model, the current business model. Besides the expenses related to digital and multichannel initiatives also had an impact on their participation. But in spite of that, I believe that we should highlight the fact that this percentage is still slightly higher than last year, and it reflects the ongoing effort made by the company in terms of controlling our expenses. And this is why this is a quarter that seasonably is the weakest in the year in terms of sales. Thus, and as a consequence of all I have said so far, the retail EBITDA had a growth of 31.7% in the first quarter of '18. EBITDA margin went from 9% to 10.5%, with an increase of 1.5 percentage points. Now talking about our Financial Products. We had a very solid result. The result went up 30% this period, mainly due to the higher revenues generated, but also due to the control of delinquency. In the case of revenues, they were impacted by the cobranded card and the lower funding cost in spite of the reduction in the cobranded delinquency rate and also the withdrawal, the quick withdrawal. Regarding delinquency of the product had a good performance and this shows stability although they are impacted by the recent growth of 86.5% in the Meu Cartão portfolio and also by the new IFRS 9 rules. Thus, the total adjusted EBITDA was BRL 250 million, which means a 31% increase in the first quarter of '18 and margin went from 15.4% to 17.8%. And lastly, I would like to mention the net income that grew by 66.4%, going from BRL 67 million to BRL 111 million, and this performance reflects the operating improvement and our commercial strategy and also the reduction of our net financial expenses and also the lower growth of the expenses with depreciation. These were the main highlights. And now we will be available to answer any questions that you might have. Questions and Answers OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) We see that there are some people waiting to ask questions and maybe there is a technical problem. Mr. Guilherme Assis from Banco Brazil Plural. GUILHERME ASSIS, ANALYST, BRASIL PLURAL CORRETORA DE CAMBIO, TITULOSE VALORES MOBILIáRIOS S.A., RESEARCH DIVISION: Can you hear me? I have 3 questions. What have you been seeing in this beginning of quarter and the end of last quarter, mainly? I'm talking about the weather because only now, we have a cooler weather. And also, I would like to ask you about the exchange rate. Could this further favor you until the end of the year? And I'm talking about the hedges, specifically. JOSE GALLó, CEO, MD AND DIRECTOR, LOJAS RENNER S.A.: Good afternoon, this is Galló. I can tell you the following. We do have our collections in the stores, and we have a good acceptance of the collections. And our great challenge is really, as you said, the weather because the temperatures are higher and -- in March and continuing through April. And this is a very sensitive matter as far as we are concerned. I'm talking mainly about the southeast and the south where we had an average temperature between 5 and 7 degrees higher than the previous years. And the most -- or the warmest period in the last 20, 30 years, in fact. And one way of seeing that things are going well in that -- from Rio up, we are achieving our target temperatures shows -- this is being very important. But this is not something new. We have been here quite a long time and our team is used to that, and this is a very (inaudible) run in our business, and we have been through 25 years winters as well, up to now. So we always seek the solution. Now in terms of acceptance of the collection, so we are very comfortable with that because we know we have the right collection. Now we depend on the weather. That is to say, the weather is becoming a little bit cooler. In relation to the exchange rate in our hedge, our position is practically all locked at this level of 3.30 for the next quarter. And I would like to remind you that the benefit or disadvantage or the difference vis-a-vis last year starts to become smaller, because in the second quarter we already had 2.60 last year, on average. And our position, was very close to 3.30. OPERATOR: Mr. Franco Abelardo from Morgan Stanley. FRANCO T ABELARDO, EQUITY ANALYST, MORGAN STANLEY, RESEARCH DIVISION: I have 2 questions. Same-store sales, 6.3% in the quarter. What was the contribution of the items that changed in the tax -- in taxes, the impact of e-commerce in Camicado and Youcom? I would like to know what was the same-store sales increase for the Renner brand and for the brick-and-mortar stores. Would we have a figure higher than inflation or would it be closer to 2%? I'm talking about the brick-and-mortar retail for Renner. And the second question is still about the weather. How much weaker March was because of the weather, the warmer weather, and does it continue in April? Just to know if we can expect a very big change in same-store sales for the second quarter or so. JOSE GALLó: In relation to March, it's not possible to say well, "X percent was due to the weather, X percent was because of the economy. X percent was because of consumer confidence," because what we see is that normally, the winter items would be selling maybe 10%, 15%, 20% more, the heavier items 10% and the lighter items, 15% to 20%. But it's not possible to tell you that x percent of our sales were affected in the second week or the second half of March, for instance, because there are other factors that come into play. So I really wouldn't be able to answer your question. And as I had already mentioned, another way of looking at that is that other regions have a better performance, and the other regions have, let's say, 10% to 15% lower than they should be selling. LAURENCE BELTRãO GOMES: This is Laurence. Regarding the breakdown of same-store sales, the exclusion of the ICMS was about 2.2 percentage points and the e-commerce, 60 bps or 0.6 percentage points until we get to 3.7 plus 1% of real, while the growth would be inflation plus 1. OPERATOR: Thiago Macruz from Itaú. THIAGO CAPUCCI MACRUZ, RESEARCH ANALYST, ITAú CORRETORA DE VALORES S.A., RESEARCH DIVISION: I have 2 questions. The first has to do with working capital. We had a greater level in this quarter, and I would like to understand whether it was something like one-off or it had something to do with the delay of the collection, and that in the next quarter, you will get a more normal level of working capital. And the other question is to Laurence. And the surprise was more on the revenue side this quarter. Would it be reasonable to expect stability in terms of contribution to EBITDA in terms of consumer finance and the fact that Meu Cartão is going very well? Do you think that you could have even higher expectations, that is to say that this operation could grow even more than you expected? LAURENCE BELTRãO GOMES: Thiago, thank you for the questions. The first question is about the need for cash and cash flow and there was a higher need for working capital. And it was mainly due to the pace of sales in the fourth quarter of '17. It was a very good one, a very good volume of businesses and this is why we had to pay taxes on sales in the highest -- higher taxes that happened in the first quarter last year. That would like to remind you that in the first quarter of '17, there was a fourth quarter in 2016, in a year that was not (inaudible). So this brings about pressure on our cash. And this year, due to the higher volume of businesses in the fourth quarter of '17, we had more sales. And there was also a higher payment of suppliers in the first quarter compared to the first quarter of last year that had the lower volume of purchases from suppliers. So these are the main factors that came into play in this higher need for working capital. And we see these going back to normal levels from now on. Now in relation to the results from Financial Products, what we have been seeing is a stability in terms of losses and also in terms of delinquency. And I think this is a healthy moment that we are living. And I think it's important to mention that we have been achieving good results coming from the initiative that we have been implementing, revitalizing our credit process. And it is now end-to-end digital, from the moment we capture to the client and go into the whole process and the digital card, then going up to maintaining and recovering credit. Also using much more agility, much more communication in this talk or this dialogue with our clients, in terms of credit recovery and collection. So we have been achieving good results. And from now on, I think it is important to be cautious or to continue to be cautious. As you know, there were changes in the regulation that have already occurred, and they have some impact that could continue to impact the portfolio because we got into a more normal pace of growth and the provisions were because of a portfolio that grew a lot last year. So we might see a need for higher provisions. So I believe that the second quarter will be more comparable. So we continue to have a good expectation for the results coming from our Consumer Finance and Financial Products, both on the revenue side and see more normal losses due to a portfolio that now starts to get into a more normal growth pace. OPERATOR: Fábio Monteiro from BTG Pactual. FáBIO MONTEIRO, ANALYST, BANCO BTG PACTUAL S.A., RESEARCH DIVISION: I would like to have an update regarding e-commerce. Is there something new? Or what about click and collect? In the -- and what about the platform for Youcom and Camicado? Because you were replicating what you had already done for Renner. So I would like to know about your content initiative. And given that -- please give us a general update? JOSE GALLó: Hello, Fábio. On e-commerce, it's well aligned with what we had planned. And the growth is quite relevant, growing by 3, 4x what e-commerce was in terms of apparel in Brazil. And I think that shows that we are in the right direction. Click and collect, for instance, as you said, we have in Rio, we started in São Paulo as well. And we believe that by the end of this year, we might have around 100 stores included in this click and collect initiative. We have a new website that has many more resources. I would say it is much more user-friendly than before. And things are going quite well. I've seen very good growth and that we have increased stores in -- by the end of the year in Camicado. We have a new platform. We do have a new platform in the second half of this year, and this will allow it to be more daring, I would say, and having some products that we do not have in the brick-and-mortar stores. We intend to sell other products. Comparing with a marketplace a little bit, but not so much. I mean, it may sound a little bit pretentious. And in Youcom, also receiving updates and improvements. And I think more important than e-commerce is the fact that we think we are working very much on multichannel, and it means the need for investments in technology and big use of some digital tools. And we firmly believe that the brick-and-mortar stores will continue to play a fundamental role. 30% of the analysis for instance, are in brick-and-mortar stores. Why do 30% of the women go to stores when they can just sit at home and do it with their computers, or...? So I think a store means a lot for women because they go there and there is a social purpose in that and there is a leisure purpose also included. And I can tell you that our trend is not to become a marketplace or get into a marketplace. If you draw a comparison with Amazon.com, for instance, they put black, if you pick like, a black dress, you will have 100,000 items popping up on your screen. And we think that women have less and less time available so we must help them simplify their choices. They must have a very practical and user-friendly environment for them to do their shopping. And we are very much sure that this is our path, not only in e-commerce but also our overall direction. We have a strong brand, a good brand, a valuable brand. And after all, Renner is the 11th most valuable brand in Brazil, and this is not just a coincidence, because you cannot build a brand by means of advertising only. It has to do with the store environment, with the service that you receive and if you have a very fast service. So we have to strengthen our brand further and further because it creates this sensation of going to a Renner store, for instance, and they can be a pleasurable and pleasant experience. And this is why women have fled the department stores when going to this kind of store. But this does not mean that we are not making our best endeavors to go toward multichannel. It does take some time and you cannot do that if you don't have a very strong, very powerful platform. Or the investment that you made like 12 years ago, you have to have the processing capacity. Otherwise, you will not be able to put artificial intelligence and algorithm on this platform and we have already made this investment. So this is our path, Fábio. FáBIO MONTEIRO: Just to follow-up about what you said, and looking at other operations abroad. The impression that we have, maybe it's a little bit too soon to place our bets, but the goal of getting to 5% of your sales in 2021 sounds very conservative because here, we think that Renner will achieve this target before 2021, maybe well before. And my question has to do with the following. With all these funds that you have, and considering multichannel service level, et cetera, do you think this could be a business that could represent, for instance, from 10% to 15% of your sales in the medium run or even more? JOSE GALLó: Well, this is rather ambitious, and I could tell you that this will probably reach 85% before 2021. But the remainder, well, let's answer this in one of our next calls, okay? Thank you. OPERATOR: Robert Ford for Bank of America. ROBERT ERICK FORD AGUILAR, MD IN EQUITY RESEARCH, BOFA MERRILL LYNCH, RESEARCH DIVISION: Sales performance seemed to be particularly strong. In what regions of Brazil do you see a faster growth? JOSE GALLó: Well, first of all, good morning, I'm sorry. And I think you're the only one that follows us for 25 years, so you know Renner maybe better than I do. But I can tell you that when we mentioned here this difference in temperature that we had between the southeast and the south and because of that, we are suffering because of the warmer weather and some there up, I think more normal. I can tell you that there is no big difference in terms of growth. Maybe in the more agricultural areas, more toward the Midwest, we see in higher growth nowadays. But there is nothing very relevant that we can tell you unless the temperature issue that we had already talked about. ROBERT ERICK FORD AGUILAR: And the Camicado models are undergoing a major change. So could you talk about what you're doing there and what kind of improvement you expect? JOSE GALLó: When we acquired Camicado, 20-some stores, I would say that Camicado was a company that was not really going up or down. It was at a very good point, that is to say the brand was good but not with a very adequate product mix. At the time we went to Camicado and the sensations that you had were that they only sold white items, very basic items. And what did we do? We started to work with lifestyle in Camicado, and as a consequence, we started to see colors and more fashionable products. And we started to develop some sectors. For instance, main cooking and with more kitchen items we're bringing to this or that population. And what is interesting is that the target audience of Camicado is exactly the same as Renner. Mostly women, the same class. And you can see when you go to places, when we go to places and people turn to us and they say, "Well, Camicado's so great and things are going very well." And in fact, we do not have competitors in Brazil. So when we go to the north or the northeast, we have no competitors whatsoever. There isn't one single store that has, let's say, 10 stores or in each capital, maybe they have 1 or 2 stores, but with expensive gift items. And we are very well positioned and we are the market leaders. And I think we have all these advantages that I have discussed. OPERATOR: Richard Cathcart from Banco Bradesco. RICHARD M. CATHCART, LATAM RETAILERS SENIOR ANALYST, BRADESCO S.A. CORRETORA DE TíTULOS E VALORES MOBILIáRIOS, RESEARCH DIVISION: Two questions. The first one, I would like to talk about the 2% growth in the quarter or I think it was 3% over last year. Are you passing on less inflation or are your consumers buying lower-ticket items? And the second question has to do with the Renner stores that were closed in the quarter. Could you say a few words about the reason for you to close these stores? Was it because the traffic -- consumer traffic was slower or was it because of competition? JOSE GALLó: Richard, thank you for the question. In relation of the tickets, we have been saying what has been going on. And last year, we saw a gradual recovery, but we still see a challenging scenario. Although it's (inaudible) here now, we still have an environment that in which the consumers are price sensitive. They are conscious in their purchases and the prices given by the market, in fact, and it is more important to maintain a relationship with our clients and maintain our competitiveness. So this is the rationale behind this performance. And about the 2 points that you mentioned. In relation to your other question, it is important to say that we closed -- well, even -- the most important thing with regard to most relevant is that there were new stores with very good performance in these regions. So we wanted to channel these sales to these new stores and we wanted to optimize our expenses. In some of these areas or some of these stores, we're in the same city. Two of these stores are in the center of the city, and -- but the most important thing was not to lose share, not to lose coverage of these markets. And we believe that with the new stores in that or these specific regions, we are able to absorb the sales of the stores that were closed, which are just completing or adding to what Laurence said. I think nobody likes to shut down stores. And what precedes the closing of a store are attempts to make the store feasible or to renegotiate rent, as the case may be. But nobody likes to close stores but on the other hand, nobody likes to lose money. So this is a normal routine. We evaluate the operating result of the stores and we have to protect the funds that were invested by our shareholders. And we have to be certain of something. When we close a store, it is only after we deplete all the possible attempts. 80%, 90% of these clients, they end up going to the other Renner stores and we only end up losing a few eventually. OPERATOR: Gustavo Oliveira from UBS. GUSTAVO PIRAS OLIVEIRA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, HEAD OF LATAM RESEARCH, AND LATIN AMERICA CONSUMER ANALYST, UBS INVESTMENT BANK, RESEARCH DIVISION: The question is about the gross margin. Yes, I understand that you got an additional 90 bps and it has to do with the hedging. And I believe you still have some gains to be realized in the second quarter. And I think in the second half, it's a little bit more difficult because the hedge has gone up to 3.60. So what could we expect for the remainder of the year, because the expansion in the margin was quite impressive this quarter? Do you believe you would still achieve this kind of growth for the remainder of the year? How do you see this? LAURENCE BELTRãO GOMES: Gustavo, our expectation regarding the year, they continue unchanged. Our expectation has not changed, and we have already talked about these expectations at the end of the year, and we believe that the macroeconomic conditions are in place. They are favorable so that we may deliver good commercial performance. But it's a little bit too early. We are still at the beginning of the year. But I believe that all the investments that we made, not only investments in terms of structures then all the initiatives that we have been put in place to achieve more sales and also a further expansion of our gross margin. So yes, going back to your question, it is possible, it is challenging. There are uncertainties ahead of us, mainly in the second half of the year. But we believe that the right conditions are in place for us to achieve a slight margin expansion still. GUSTAVO PIRAS OLIVEIRA: The second question. (inaudible). You started the abstract model with online distribution and we're going to open 3 stores. And I would like to know whether this is a small market, it's -- whether it is very attractive. And is the opening of these stores a better way for you to understand the multichannel model? Is it part of your learning for e-commerce? JOSE GALLó: This is Galló. First, the e-commerce result is quite interesting. We have relevant growth rate every month. Secondly, this is not a small market. You can be sure that if we decided to open stores, we evaluated the total market before. Thirdly, normally, the most offers that you have in this market are very basic products with relatively high prices. And what we wanted to do was to do fashion at competitive prices. And once again, it's very important to say that we'll be creating another business, an additional business. We are going to cater to women. We want to deliver very good service and we do have the expertise to do this in-house so we can call this an experiment. But it's not really an experiment that starts from scratch. What we will be doing is the following: We acquire this experience and the experience will give us the necessary elements and figures so that we may draw the business plan. But what we see is that this market is rather interesting, and we could have a relevant share in this market and thus achieving integration among the market and going back to our multichannel approach. GUSTAVO PIRAS OLIVEIRA: So this would be a pilot test for these 3 stores, similarly to what you did with Youcom? JOSE GALLó: Yes, exactly. This is a store that has a different kind of demand, caters to a different kind of demand and also people seeking another type of product. So it has its own characteristics and they are different from the others. And the figures have shown us that we could have this individuality that is important for our consumers. OPERATOR: Maria Paula Cantusio from BBI Investments. MARIA PAULA CANTUSIO, SENIOR ANALYST, BB-BANCO DE INVESTIMENTO S.A., RESEARCH DIVISION: I would like to go back to the average ticket with an increase of 2% vis-a-vis the first quarter last year. We can see that the flow or the traffic has been strong. Could you qualify this? Is the traffic coming from new clients or are they old clients that are back in the stores? I believe I remember that in the peak of the crisis, you were seeing people from the A plus classes trading down and going to Renner stores. Do they continue to come to Renner? And could you talk about this traffic of people in the stores? And also the increase in the participation of third-party cards that was higher in the quarter, 2-point-something, in spite of the good results that you had in terms of your financial results? LAURENCE BELTRãO GOMES: Maria Paula, thank you for your question. In relation to segmentation, whether we saw an exchange in client segmentation, the clients that come to the store because the traffic has had a relevant participation in same-store. And the answer is no, because the characteristic of this traffic remains stable. There is nothing relevant that should be highlighted regarding a change in social classes. So we continue to be very well positioned in our target markets. This is the trend that we saw. And we continue to attract new clients and these new clients come from all the different classes. In relation to the third-party card, what we see is a trend in the market as a whole, a higher participation of third-party cards and people using charge cards more, and more extended or shorter term, that is to say, people avoiding -- getting to get, people be more cautious, looking for plans with a smaller number of installments. But the magnitude will be smaller in this quarter. There is a positive point that should be seen here. This drop in this participation was smaller. And the same way we see some important initiatives in the channels, we believe that the Renner Card is really the entry gate for a relationship with the other product and the other brands of the company. So other initiatives will be implemented over the year and they will be (inaudible) or reducing attrition, for instance, and improving the friendly or user-friendly experience or user-friendly shopping experience. And we will have some important actions being taken in order to incentivize the use of the card as a support of our core business. And again, the card which will be the entry gate for the other products. OPERATOR: Guilherme Assis from Brasil Plural. GUILHERME ASSIS: I would like to ask a lot of questions. I think the result is quite clear. You have already talked about the expansion dynamics, your margin expectations and this shows good execution. And my question has to do with your execution precisely. What about your succession plan? Have you established the timing for that? And could you describe this dynamic in the company? I know that I have already asked this in other calls, and you said that this is one of the things that are sitting on your table as priorities. And do you have an update to give us? JOSE GALLó: Well, a lot of people ask me this question mainly lately. So Guilherme, I'm going to repeat what I usually say. Our business today, we started to concern ourselves more strongly with succession about 5 years ago. It was not about my own succession but the general succession process in the company, which means that today, even the store managers. And as of this year, we have been giving a bonus to the main executives because of their endeavors in terms of training their successors. And everything that goes on, we talk on a quarterly basis at the Board. And I -- and this is a very interesting subject, not only for Renner but also for the other companies as well. And I can tell you that I doubt anybody has a better succession plan than we have at Renner. This is what people tell us when they describe what is going on here. And to answer your question, we began saying, well the good results and this and that. Guilherme, I am not the guy who produces results. The results come from a whole team, all the company executive officers and managers and store managers. These are the people who really deliver results. Maybe I give some contribution, giving a guideline or this or that and I will continue to do that, and I will continue to do that in the Board of Directors, for instance. So don't worry about it because everything is going to have a very good outcome. GUILHERME ASSIS: Just a follow-up. What is the timing that you work with for your succession process? JOSE GALLó: Well, my contract ends at the end of this year, this is the timing. GUILHERME ASSIS: Up until then? JOSE GALLó: Well, of course, it will be new. OPERATOR: Tobias Stingelin from Credit Suisse. TOBIAS STINGELIN, DIRECTOR, CRéDIT SUISSE AG, RESEARCH DIVISION: I have 3 questions. Digital investments, the investments that you have been making over the last quarter, where are we in this investment cycle? Could you share with us how much you have already spent and how much you still intend to spend? You talked a lot about push and pull in the past, and now nobody talks about push and pull. You talk about the digital platform. So we would like to better understand that. What is being done? What has been done and about international operations? And lastly, Galló, how many stores do you have that you might close? That is to say that you're studying and that you're making efforts to not close, well, digital. JOSE GALLó: It is a little bit hard to say anything about that because digital is all CapEx, OpEx and other things. What we can give you is an estimate between BRL 50 million, BRL 60 million but this is just a rough estimate, it's a ballpark figure. It involves equipment and systems that still need to be developed. TOBIAS STINGELIN: Are you saying (inaudible)? JOSE GALLó: Next year. I don't believe it's going to be very different from that. It's very hard to tell you. What I can tell you is that in terms of hardware or platform, that is to say, nobody says hardware. Everybody says platform and cloud and this and that. I would say that to be around this ballpark figure in 2016, we may divest into the RFP platform. And over or on this platform, we are able to apply all this digital technology and the Financial Services platform was also made in 2016. And many things have already been made and done. It's very difficult to say what will be the total next year, because it's not going to be very different or more relevant than what was done this year. And the third question has to do with the stores, how many stores we might still close. Well, what I can say is that today, there is no store that we intend to close. In the full package that you see of stores, we have an ongoing work. Sometimes you have a store that is not going so well, and then you go there and you recover. Today really, we have no store whatsoever that we intend to close. This does not mean that in the second half, maybe we will not decide to close a store. If Renner has ever closed stores, it shows things are a little bit strange as far as we are concerned. But you can look at what happened with Zara, for instance. They closed 276 stores and they opened 880 every year and then they close here. And then -- so what we have to keep in mind is that closing a store is not an indicator that should be extended to the whole company or let's say, well if they close a store, it's because there is something wrong going with the company. This is not really the case. If we see that we should close a store, we will close a store. Nobody likes to lose money. What we do is protect the investment made by our shareholders. So after we deplete all the options, then what we do, we have to close the store. But so far and today, there is nothing in our radar screen. TOBIAS STINGELIN: What about international operations? JOSE GALLó: We're going well in Uruguay. We are doing 50% higher than the business plan. And in terms of the collection and all the prices have passed the test. We are going to open additional 2 this year and we will continue to track it. Other countries, no, we don't have any definition regarding other countries. But this does not mean that we will not open stores in another country. I'm talking about right now. OPERATOR: There is a question. I'm going to read the question. Good afternoon. Could you break down the gross margin gain, how much came from hedging? How much came from operating improvement? LAURENCE BELTRãO GOMES: Again, I think it's important to mention that we had an improvement in our commercial management. And it is also important to maintain competitive margins in this scenario that we have today, with the very slow recovery. 1.8% margin gain, 0.9 percentage point came from the exclusion of the ICMS fees and the other part, not only due to the hedge but the higher participation of important items in our product mix. OPERATOR: And the second question is about the net closing of stores in the first quarter. Does it mean that you are changing your footprint? Were they old stores, the ones that you closed? LAURENCE BELTRãO GOMES: What I can mention is that there is no change in the process of expansion of the company. The process, as Galló said, the process of reviewing all these stores is ongoing. We have to evaluate all the stores and the performance of each store and we evaluate for potential closing. So as Galló mentioned, up to now, there is no visibility regarding need for additional closing. You asked if they were old stores. They were mature, but they were in central regions. So I think I have already answered the question from the webcast. OPERATOR: Now we close the Q&A session. We would like to give the floor back to Renner for the closing remarks. JOSE GALLó: I would like to thank everybody who participated in this call. And as always, it's a great pleasure for us to exchange ideas with you. And as always, we will remain available to you. Please call us and talk to us and we are always available to you. Thank you very much. OPERATOR: Lojas Renner's conference call is closed. We thank you for participating, and we wish you a good day. Thank you. [Thomson Financial reserves the right to make changes to documents, content, or other information on this web site without obligation to notify any person of such changes. In the conference calls upon which Event Transcripts are based, companies may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding a variety of items. Such forward-looking statements are based upon current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those stated in any forward-looking statement based on a number of important factors and risks, which are more specifically identified in the companies' most recent SEC filings. 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Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: May 4, 2018
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Publication subject: Business And Economics, Law--Corporate Law
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Iran Warns U.S. Against Abandoning Nuclear Deal As Deadline Looms; Man Arrested On Attempted Murder Charge After Highlands Deputy Shot In Head; Oracle On New Cloud Support Services; Oracle CEO Reacts To Secretary Mnuchin's Comments On Labor Shortage
Publication info: International Wire ; Lanham [Lanham]07 May 2018.
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Full text: MARIA BARTIROMO, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK ANCHOR: -- Index in Germany, the best performer, up two-thirds of one percent with 75 points higher. The CAC quarante in Paris is flat and markets in London are closed for a holiday. In Asia overnight, markets were mostly higher at the close with the exception of Japan. Korea is closed for a holiday and the Shanghai Composite in China was up 1-1/2 percent. Oil prices on the move this morning, crude oil hitting the highest levels since 2014 amid protesters in Iran along with the looming deadline over the nuclear deal May 12. Former Senator Joe Lieberman joined me Sunday reiterating the President's call to pull out of the detail. He explained why it's the right move. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOE LIEBERMAN, FORMER UNITED STATES SENATOR: It basically gave way all our leverage against them in return for a pause of the nuclear program. If they're keeping their word which they don't have a good reputation for doing, so it was a bad deal and mistake for us. (END VIDEO CLIP) BARTIROMO: We're taking a closer look coming up this morning. Meanwhile, Nestle's coffee business getting extra buzz from Starbucks. The company has made a deal for Nestle to sell Starbucks bags, coffee and other drinks in grocery stores for more than $7 billion. And a warning for Attorney General Jeff Sessions. House Intelligence Committee Devin Nunes is threatening to hold him in contempt of Congress. The Justice Department fired back against Nunes' allegations. We're going to break it all down coming up. Lava has overtake -- overtaken neighborhoods on HawaiI's big island. The fiery lava flow damaged dozens of homes and forced more evacuations. Plus, the ultimate real estate listing goes beyond a window kitchen and stainless steel appliances. One New York City apartment offering a Rolls-Royce and trip to space along with the apartment. It comes with a hefty price tag. All those stories coming up this Monday morning and joining me to break it all down, Fox News Contributor, Kat Timpf, the King's College professor, business and economics, Brian Brenberg and PwC Partner, Mitch Roschelle. Great to see you. MITCH ROSCHELLE, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK CONTRIBUTOR: SpaceX and a Rolls- Royce. KAT TIMPF, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Yes. I would like -- I would like that. BRIAN BRENBERG, BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS PROFESSOR,KING'S COLLEGE: I would like that. (CROSSTALK) BARTIROMO: Plus the apartment. BRENBERG: Plus the apartment. (CROSSTALK) TIMPF: A little life through the mind. Just a little event. BARTIROMO: You think? TIMPF: Yes. BARTIROMO: We're going to talk about that coming up. Topping the news this half an hour, a looming deadline over the Iran Nuclear Deal. British Foreigner Secretary Boris Johnson is making a plea to stay in the agreement as he meets with Vice President Mike Pence today, along with National Security Advisor John Bolton. Blake Burman is at the White House right now with the very latest there. Blake, good morning to you. BLAKE BURMAN, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK CORRESPONDENT: Maria, good morning to you as well. It is one of the biggest decisions of the Trump presidency coming up this week. The Commander-in-Chief has to decide by Saturday whether to keep the U.S. and the Iran Nuclear Deal or pullout which could potentially kill the deal altogether. The top Republican on House Armed Services Committee is Mac Thornberry and he said over the weekend that he thinks the President should actually stay in the deal. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. MAC THORNBERRY (R), TEXAS: I would counsel against it. I was opposed to the Iran deal. I thought it was a bad deal. You need to have a clearer idea about next steps if we are going to pull out. (END VIDEO CLIP) BURMAN: But the former Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman is of the contingency as he told you over the weekend, Maria, that he feels an entirely new deal is needed. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LIEBERMAN: It was a bad deal and mistake for us. I think the President really has a power to correct that mistake and I hope he does. (END VIDEO CLIP) BURMAN: You mentioned Boris Johnson, Maria. He is also the -- he is the top diplomat in the U.K. He is also on the airwaves this morning trying to push for the U.S. to stay in this deal. European allies have been hoping that the President will stay in as you know, Emmanuel Macron, Angela Merkel were here at the White House within the last week or two with that message in part but the President's -- potentially his biggest ally Benjamin Netanyahu is of the thinking that the President needs to pull out of this deal again by Saturday, so the President has five, six days now to announce what he wants to do. Maria? BARTIROMO: Yes. We'll see about that. It feels like he keeps thinking that it's actually going to be a pullout. Blake, we'll see what the other allies have to say about that including Europe. Blake Burman at the White House, thank you. Joining us right now to talk more about it is former White House Press Secretary under George W. Bush, and Fox News Contributor Ari Fleischer. Good to see you, Ari. Thanks so much for joining us. ARI FLEISCHER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Good morning. BARTIROMO: So you got, you know, the U.K. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson pushing to -- look, it's better to improve Iran's handcuffs rather than break them. They want us to stay in. FLEISCHER: The problem with that is that assume as they handcuffs on them and they don't. I've never seen handcuffs that you get $1.8 billion ion cash and that's made of 50, 150 billion in exchange for handcuffs? My problem with Iran Deal is it never stop Iran from being on the path to getting the nuclear weapons which is -- this is about it, it's never about improved Iran's behavior in the neighborhood which is what this should be about. And I am 100 percent support of President Trump doing everything he can to make it an effective deal. BARTIROMO: What are the implications of pulling out? FLEISCHER: Well, the implications of pulling out of that Iran is to immediately reassumes its enrichment programs to try to get a nuclear weapon faster. But it also -- you have to assume they're not doing that now anyway. And I'm not willing to make that assumption, I think there is a possibility Iran is doing that anyway and we just don't know it. So, you have to look at the motives of the people you're dealing with in this case and I don't think the motives of Iran should lend credibility or support in the west that Iran is a good behavior. BRENBERG: So what you're basically saying is there's just -- there's really no way to renegotiate this in a way that's going to be effective. It has to be a pullout, it has to be a completely different approach to Iran. I mean, some people are holding out hope that you can make it tougher or renegotiate but it sounds like what you're saying is just need to start. No, no, I -- FLEISCHER: I do think there is a way to ratchet down and really to create pressure and that comes for sanctions. The sanctions have never should have been lifted in the first place. Our best hope against Iran was sanctions. And it's a nonmilitary way to settle a dispute. And if it actually have international support then you're going to have meaningful sanctions. Unfortunately the history of sanctions is too often they're violated because you do not have support. BARTIROMO: But they were lifted because of the Iran Deal. FLEISCHER: That's correct. BARTIROMO: Yes. Go ahead, Mitch. ROSCHELLE: What happens with our relationship with the rest of the world if we do pull out unilaterally, and everybody is against it? FLEISCHER: Well, I'm not sure everybody is against it. I think when it comes to -- (CROSSTALK) ROSCHELLE: -- but they're looking for us to lead? FLEISCHER: People follow leader. ROSCHELLE: Right. FLEISCHER: And that's how United States Presidents are affected. If you demonstrate leadership, if you show this is the right and to deal from a moral perspective, from a national security and economic perspective, you can rally support. BARTIROMO: By the way, they all followed us in. FLEISCHER: That's my point. (CROSSTALK) ROSCHELLE: Right. BARTIROMO: -- because you know, the only reason everybody is involved in this deal is because U.S. said yes, let's do it. ROSCHELLE: Exactly, right. And now it looks like France, Germany, even though they would like us to stay in, they're willing to follow us into something more effective and tougher. That's again, American leadership. American leadership still speaks volume around the world. TIMPF: I have heard some people say that they're concerned that if we pulled out, it could affect negotiations with North Korea because they might think that, oh, the next President can just exit whatever deal we make. Do you think that there's any validity to that or no? FLEISCHER: I think it's just the opposite. I think once America shows just as we did with the Soviet Union that we mean business, that sounds a signal around the world and that actually helps us with -- (CROSSTALK) BARTIROMO: Well, this is a good point because North Korea and Iran are partners in certain businesses and I say that loosely because it's about making nuclear weapon. TIMPF: Yes. BARTIROMO: But -- so North Korea is going to be watching this closely. FLEISCHER: That's' right. And they're it closely for toughness. BARTIROMO: Right. Exactly. That's what I mean. So I agree with you. (CROSSTALK) FLEISCHER: For precedence, we're looking for -- this guy Donald Trump really mean business because America does it under President Obama, that's why they were able to get away with these things and everybody knew it abroad that Trump is different. BARTIROMO: So White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders has been in her role nearly a year from attacks by the mainstream media to the White House Correspondent's dinner. She has been tough under a lot of scrutiny. Ari, you stood at that podium, that was your job. How is she doing? FLEISCHER: It's easy job. BARTIROMO: All right. FLEISCHER: I think Sarah is doing just fine. It is a very tough job. And I think anytime your boss gives you incomplete information which is how I'm going to phrase it, it makes the job as press secretary impossible because the press will never accept incomplete, they will nail in on vulnerability and that's what happened to Sarah. It's not her fault. BARTIROMO: Yes. But this whole White House Correspondent takedown, I mean, that had -- the (INAUDIBLE) was mean. FLEISCHER: That was brutal, it was on fair, and that's a dinner that should be over. I am so pleased to tell you I haven't been to that dinner since I was the Press Secretary. BARTIROMO: Really? FLEISCHER: It's just -- (CROSSTALK) BARTIROMO: You don't want to -- you think they should shut it down? FLEISCHER: It should be a press dinner. Let reporters have the dinner for themselves to honor journalism, to have scholarships. Why are trying to get all these government officials to go? BARTIROMO: Because they want to -- they want to roast them. FLEISCHER: They want glamour. ROSCHELLE: Yes. FLEISCHER: They want red carpets, glamour, and celebrate themselves which is not what journalism is about. BARTIROMO: Look, let's turn to the House Intelligence Committee and what's going on between the DOJ and Devin Nunes. He issued a threat to Attorney General Jeff Sessions yesterday, outlining consequences if Sessions does not comply with the subpoena investigating alleged surveillance abuses at the Justice Department. Here's what the Congressman said on "FOX & FRIENDS" yesterday. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. DEVIN NUNES (R-CA), CHAIRMAN, HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Two weeks ago, we sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a classified per usual, it was ignored, not acknowledged. Just completely ignored. So last week we sent a subpoena and then on Thursday we discovered that they are not going to comply with our subpoena. The only thing left that we can do is we have to move quickly to hold the Attorney General of United States in contempt. (END VIDEO CLIP) BARTIROMO: Now, the Department of Justice fought back saying that it did respond to Congressman Nunes with a letter last Thursday and that letter reads this in part. The department has determined that consistent with applicable law and longstanding executive branch policy, it is not in a position to provide information responsive to your request regarding a specific individual. So, yes. I mean, everything that Devin Nunes said was right that they responded on Thursday, but on Thursday they said we're not going to comply. FLEISCHER: Yes. You know, this is so tricky because in one hand you really do have a Justice Department responsibility to make sure our prosecutions are able to go through without being unduly influenced. On the other hand, Justice Department is responsible to Congress. So, I hope this gets settled in a negotiation but what Congress is saying basically is they've run out of patience and they don't have any tools to comply good behavior from an executive branch, so they very blunt tools, and that's what they have to use. BARTIROMO: Yes. ROSCHELLE: Every time -- every time, Congress as for something on DOJ, just to your point when the news finally comes, when something is finally provided, it turns out to be bad news for the DOJ. It looks like this repeated that we just don't want to give you anything because we don't have anything with us that's going to make us look good, we're going to look bad in this. (CROSSTALK) BARTIROMO: Right. Like one redaction -- one redaction was about -- was about Lisa Page saying to -- saying to Peter Strzok, oh, go to the party and, you know, go talk to Judge Contreras, it's not a conflict of interest, Judge Contreras was a FISA judge. BRENBERG: Right. BARTIROMO: And that was redacted. FLEISCHER: Yes. The redactions are becoming -- BARTIROMO: That's not national security. FLEISCHER: No. TIMPF: Right, yes. FLEISCHER: They protect images -- (CROSSTALK) FLEISCHER: And that's a bureaucracy wide problem. And what's surprising though is that people at the top, the attorney general and the deputy attorney general are listening to the bureaucrats underneath them instead of being outsiders and fortune good behavior and their agencies. BARTIROMO: Well, that's really an important point and I want to drill down on it a bit. I don't understand, this is Donald Trump's Department of Justice, we thought. And they're fighting with the Congress who is overseeing them. They don't want to show -- what are they hiding? FLEISCHER: It tells you the power of bureaucracy. That's where the redactions are done. The Attorney General doesn't sit there with a black marker, it's people underneath -- (CROSSTALK) BARTIROMO: But shouldn't Rod Rosenstein or Sessions say, look, unredact and send them the darn documents? FLEISCHER: Well, this is what it take. And for them to put in the time, the effort, the energy to fight the bureaucracy really requires the outsiders thinking. Bureaucracies have tremendous sway and power because of exactly these type of issues. You have to have people at top decide, I'm going to take him on, and it's not just this issue, you have to take him on a host of issues so that they can choose. BARTIROMO: Meanwhile, somebody is trying to take on Robert Mueller right now, the judge on Friday, the very latest in terms of the Special Counsel Robert Mueller, a former personal attorney for President Trump says that the President will not sit down for an interview with Mueller saying this is not -- no longer a "good faith investigation." The President tweeted about this about 30 minutes. He says this. The Russia witch-hunt is rapidly losing credibility. House Intelligence Committee found no collusion, no coordination or anything else with Russia. So, now the probe says, OK, what else is there? How about obstruction for made up phony crime. There is no obstruction, it's called fighting back. Ari, this started because on Friday, one judge -- Federal Judge T.S. Ellis basically said to Robert Mueller, no, we're not going to proceed in this Paul Manafort prosecution because it has nothing to do with the Russia mandate that you were supposed to be doing. FLEISCHER: Yes. That's what he said, terribly significant left to see how he rules. There could be a difference but no way should Donald Trump sit down. I mean, I just can't imagine -- I think this is all Kabuki dance now. He is not going to sit down and I think everybody knows that. Look, I think I'm the only person left on Fox News will say this though, let Mueller finish the investigation. BARTIROMO: You're right. FLEISCHER: The worst that could happen is Donald Trump fires him, he gets rid of him in some manner. Then all the good news that's been happening to the President, his improving poll numbers, it's going to reverse but he needs to holdout for it if Mueller vindicate him. If he's vindicated by Mueller, it's going to be sky-high for Donald Trump, it's going to be like a new election day for him. Let it see it's -- (CROSSTALK) BARTIROMO: Yes. But will he be vindicated given the fact that this investigation has gone so far afield? First we were told it was collusion then it was obstruction now it's payment to Stormy Daniels. FLEISCHER: Yes. I think the President will be vindicated. Now, the people in his satellite has orbit as he said, we don't know but for the President, yes, absolutely. I don't see anything -- (CROSSTALK) FLEISCHER: -- but none of us know that. BARTIROMO: Right. FLEISCHER: So the right course, let Mueller finish and when Mueller says there's no collusion, he is so home free. His poll numbers are going to start to move up sharply and that's the best thing for the President. BARTIROMO: So, you think you do see an end to the investigation? FLEISCHER: Oh, of course, I do. I don't know what time, when but these new poll is due end. TIMPF: I don't even remember life before this investigation. BARTIROMO: Yes. You're right. Ari, thank you. Ari Fleischer there. Coming up. Nestle brewing up something new strikes a deal with Starbucks. The Swiss company is planning to sell the coffee chain's products across the world. And then everything and the kitchen sink. The incredible amenities of this $85-million apartment that's up for sale, next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: A Florida Deputy is fighting for his life this morning after being shot in the head. Cheryl Casone with the story. Cheryl? CHERYL CASONE, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK ANCHOR: That's right, Maria. Deputy William Gentry was responding to a call about a cat being shot when the gunman fired in Lake Placid, Florida. The suspect identified as Joseph Ables has been arrested. The Highland's County Sheriff's Department says that he has a violent history with law enforcement. Deputy Gentry is a nine-year veteran of the force and served with his brother who is a detective. Well, an escalating disaster in Hawaii. 26 homes are now destroyed as lava flows intensified from the big island's Kilauea Volcano. More than 1700 people now have been evacuated. And there's this stunning video that shows molten rocks spewing into the air, that hot lava also giving a poisonous gas. The volcano producing more than 1,000 earthquakes the last week. Well, sciences don't know when the lava is going to stop or how far it will spread but when the sun comes up in Hawaii, we hope we get a better picture what's going on there. Nestle and Starbucks are teaming up. Nestle paying Starbucks more than $7 billion to sell Starbucks at homes. The business has two billion in sales and reinforces Nestle's position as the world's biggest coffee company. The deal doesn't includes products inside of Starbucks coffee shops. About 500 Starbucks employees are going to join Nestle. Operations are going to be located for this current ventue in Seattle. Starbucks, the stock as you can imagine is up high in premarket, up almost three percent. Shares of Nestle are down about 11 percent year year-to-date. And check this out. The most expensive apartment listing in New York City right now has got some very unusual perks to try and get somebody to buy it. If you become a new owner of this for sale, $85-million duplex penthouse on the West Side of Manhattan, you will also get two Rolls-Royce Phantoms, a Lamborghini Roadster, among some other high-end benefits. If (INAUDIBLE)from it all though, how about this, two $250,000 tickets to fly to outer space on Virgin Galactic, also being thrown in. The owner of the penthouse says that a chance for somebody who's not from the city to live a luxurious New York lifestyle because that's how we all live in New York. Got you. BARTIROMO: There is something that was suspicious of the apartment or the board -- (CROSSTALK) BARTIROMO: -- then you've got trip to space and the Rolls-Royce. (CROSSTALK) BRENBERG: You don't get a parking ticket. Who cares if you got -- (CROSSTALK) BRENBERG: -- you don't know where to put it. ROSCHELLE: You know, I would gladly take one of those cars and let them park in my garage in the (INAUDIBLE) BRENBERG: There you go. There's an offer added to the deal here. BARTIROMO: You can't park on the street. TIMPF: No. BARTIROMO: Thank you, Cheryl. Coming up. Hundreds of cities apply to become the second headquarters for Amazon. But what happened to the towns that got rejected? The changes that are taking place in those areas after the retail giant pointed out what it did not like, that's next. And then, in roughly 10 minutes I'll be speaking exclusively with the CEO of Oracle, Mark Hurd, my special guest. We get his take on fiber security, cloud softer and a lot more. Back in a moment right here. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Amazon hitting the phone lines. The list for Amazon's new $5-billion second -- cities did not have to offer that prompted more than 200 phone calls from Amazon to disappointing municipalities in recent weeks. Joining us now is the cyber guy, Kurt Knutson. Kirk, good to see you. Thanks so much for joining us. KURT KNUTSON, THE CYBERGUY: Good morning, Maria. BARTIROMO: So what were some of the big issues that Amazon had with the cities that were ultimately rejected? KNUTSON: So here is what's at stake because, you know, $5 billion in the local economy, 50,000 jobs, and Detroit as well as Pittsburgh. Orlando, failing for, not simply having a decent enough public transit system. The other thing on their list that they really want and that a lot of cities didn't have was a pool of tech workers to go from, for five -- 50,000 jobs coming in, you know, they really wanted to have some talent there. That's narrowing the field here and the heat is getting turned up, a lot of cities here now really vying to have this headquarters, a second headquarters in their city and, you know, this is that tax breaks are really what Amazon is looking for. BARTIROMO: Right. I mean, it's interesting, Mitch, you know so much about real estate and have been watching the real estate markets develop across the country over the last year but some of these cities that were actually rejected are now going back and saying, well, Amazon didn't like this and Amazon didn't like that, so let's put that in our city now. ROSCHELLE: Yes. Which could be a mistake. If the pool is down, the tech workers is really a driving force, this only mean a handful of cities have that -- hit that box, I think it's an array of things and I'm not a big fan of Amazon going back and saying, hey, city, you didn't pass because of X. But the thing that -- from the city's perspective, when you fail a test, you want to go to the faculty member right, Brian? And talk about why you didn't -- why you didn't pass. So, it kind of makes sense but this whittling down of list of tech skills, overly the driving force, I heard you talked about before that SAT scores is also part of the calculus, so -- BARTIROMO: SAT? ROSCHELLE: Scores. Well, they're trying to figure out how intelligent -- (CROSSTALK) ROSCHELLE: You have heard that too, Kurt? KNUTSON: No. I actually had not heard that. I know there's additional criteria that they're not telling us but that I did not see on the list. It really boiled down to, are you going to give me a tax break I think is at the top of the list -- (CROSSTALK) KNUTSON: -- infrastructure that support it. BARTIROMO: Well, money is mobile. ROSCHELLE: So, Kurt, you get these cities getting this feedback and some of them are sort of jumping over who's to try to fix what's wrong. Are there any cities who are just saying to Amazon like, look, take a hike, don't tell us what to do. We gave you what we got and if you don't like it, fine. But don't try to dictate how we run the city. KNUTSON: There are because there is some sophisticated players in cities, Brian. And those are the people that realize that it's about the tax break quite frankly and they have -- they're like, hey, this is what we have, this is what we have in the platter, take it or leave it. You've got that going on and then you have other cities like the Newark area outside of New York and New Jersey. They are really offering substantial tax breaks. And if you take a look at the existing tax structure across the now candidates or about 20 of them, Raleigh is leading that one. They have the lowest tax, seven percent and the rumor here now for this $5 billion coming in to some city that's going to be awarded for the second headquarters is leaning toward the Washington, D.C. area in Northern Virginia. BARTIROMO: We've been predicting that on this show. KNUTSON: Right? Right. (CROSSTALK) KNUTSON: And that's the smartest move. BARTIROMO: Yes. Well -- yes. And then Jeff Bezos just buying enormous -- KNUTSON: There's three miles away from their -- BARTIROMO: Didn't Jeff Bezos just buy an enormous house in Washington? KNUTSON: Well, that would make sense because buying big houses just down the road here in Beverly Hills, so I don't know if they're going to move their headquarters -- (CROSSTALK) KNUTSON: But I'll tell you what he did do is he bought a bigger house for their data there, so that is -- that's part of this country that it was really the American hub of data, a lot of people don't know that it's in Washington, D.C. area, so in this area of D.C., just outside of Dulles Airport, Northern Virginia actually, that is where they already spent a huge amount of money on another data center and they bought another parcel of land that's about 26 acres so people are eyeballing that. BARTIROMO: All right. We'll watch. Kurt, thank you. It's good to see you, sir. KNUTSON: All right. Good to see you, Maria. BARTIROMO: Kurt Knutson there. Coming up. I'll talk exclusively with the CEO of Oracle, Mark Hurd getting his take on the tightening labor market, the company's cloud business and a lot more. Then, after Tesla CEO Elon Musk ignored recent questions about his company spending. The automaker is now revealing it may in fact look to raise additional capital just for a lot of the skeptics we're saying. Back in a moment. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Good Monday morning, everybody. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Maria Bartiromo, and it is Monday, May 7th. Your top stories right now 8:30 a. m. on the East Coast. Markets are poised for gains today. Futures indicating a higher opening with about an hour until their market opens the trading day at 9:30, up 60 points on the Dow, up 30 points on the NASDAQ. Global markets are fractionally better on the session; a really fractional move here. The CAC Quarante is flat on the session but the DAX Index is up three quarters of one percent with the 90- point rally. Markets in London were closed this morning for a holiday. for the broader averages. In Asia overnight, markets mostly higher; Korea was close for holiday as well, but the Shanghai composite, best performer in China, up 1. 5 percent. The state of the labor market. The April jobs report missed expectations on payrolls, but one question looming large is whether the labor market is tightening. The administration does not think so, but we will hear from the CEO of Oracle about finding skilled workers coming up. Then Greece approaching the eight-year anniversary of its first bailout we'll take a look at the where economy stands now, and where the risks are. Debts Tesla backtracks -- the company now revealing it may raise money just days after CEO Elon Musk ignores questions about Tesla's spending forward. Earnings season winding down, but Disney on tap -- we'll have a preview of tomorrow earnings from Disney. Stock is up one percent going into the numbers. First, though, this, ticking off the half hour with a look at Oracle. The technology giant reporting a 5. 4 percent increase in revenue year over year in its latest earnings report. This coming as Oracle is announcing new support services for its cloud applications today. Joining me right now in the Fox Business Exclusive is Oracle CEO Mark Hurd. Mark, good to see you. Thanks so much for joining us. MARK HURD, CEO, ORACLE: Great to be with you, Maria. BARTIROMO: And I know you've got Global Media Day going on this morning at your headquarters. Tell us where the growth at Oracle is right now, and what some of the messages in terms of growth are that you're trying to get out this morning to the media? HURD: I think in general, we'll talk about two different things that Oracle is really focused on right now amongst many things that we do. But really, two key areas: one, our applications business which it referenced a little bit with the support services those mainly being our new SAS applications, whether those BERP, H.R., sale, marketing service, and so we'll talk about all the innovation and the integration of artificial intelligence capabilities into those applications. And then, in addition to that, we'll talk about a new database that we're releasing called the autonomous database that similarly has A.I. functionality integrated into that as well. Where today, probably, biggest database product we've ever - - biggest in context of the features and the innovation that we released in years, and years, and years perhaps even ever. BARTIROMO: Well, look, obviously, the cloud business has taken off and is really one of the big growth spots of the economy right now. Give your sense of what business managers are doing, do you see them increasing budgets as it relates to cloud computing and other thing, and where are those other things? Are they putting new money into these kinds of things? HURD: Yes, I think it is new money but it is really, a shift of the existing money. If you look at business budgets for I.T., they're not up a lot. Depending on whose research you believe, or really follow, it could be down a little bit, up a little bit. But within that budget, the shifting of the traditional spending, older on premise capabilities and moving that into cloud is what's going on, and it's going on for a couple of core reasons: one, frankly, Maria, from a total cost of ownership, it just costs less money; second, you just get a lot more innovation while you spend less money; and thirdly, the issue that you and I have talked about before security, it's simply more secure than the traditional way of running solutions in your own data center. Those three core things are business drivers as opposed to even tech drivers -- may be the innovation piece has got some tech drivers to it. But at the end of the day, this is much about business strategy, business models, as it is about the raw technology itself. BARTIROMO: I mean, I assume, when it comes to cyber that's sort of an unlimited spend -- you've got to protect customer data. HURD: Yes, it's, it's even more than customer data. You got customer data, you got supply chain data, you've got financial data, you got -- you've just got, you know, really, you know, the whole data setting in most company is extremely valuable. And by the way, to be clear, and I know you have a lot of people that come on your show, talking about why companies don't do more. First of all, to start with, it's really hard to secure all of this stuff because the industry has spent 20 to 25 years building up these very complicated architectures, of server from one company, an operating system from another, a database from another, all sorts of milder ware in different applications, and all of this stuff, Maria, has to be glued together. And then, there's this complicated world called patching. And to patch something you have to know versions of each of these individual pieces, and you have to do it simultaneously -- and without me going into, you know, excruciating detail, it's just a hard thing. And so, part of move to the cloud; it's trying to get rid of that complexity and trying to move that to a much simpler world, a much easier world, and everything on the cloud is -- at least (INAUDIBLE). Our cloud is just architected with one architecture -- one server, one operating system, one database. So, the job just becomes infinitely easier. BARTIROMO: So, the sales force enables to execute that given the fact that you've got so much competition in this field? I mean, everybody is now recognizing that cloud is where you want to be, and you've got lots of companies big and small, trying to get that market share. What is your sales force doing in terms of keeping the market share? HURD: Well, it starts with products, really. I mean, in the end, great sales forces is typically made by great products. And in the end, I think competition changes as you're seeing today, and even as you dial forward several years. I think the plethora of companies that offered products are going to shift into a smaller set of companies that offer more complete set of services. So, I think when you look at competitive set, there'll actually be fewer companies in the business, for a few reasons: one, you have to have great I.P. to be able to compete; point two, you have to have a lot of capital. So, when you start looking at the ability to deploy the I.P. with all of the -- you talked about security. In fact, the last time we talked, we talked a little bit about privacy, and data sovereignty in many countries around the world -- new privacy laws. That's forcing cloud companies to have to put data center capabilities in virtually, well, almost certainly every significant country around the world. That requires not just great I.P., but lots of capital. So, the amount -- the number of companies are going to frankly do that, are -- actually are few. BARTIROMO: Mark, take us around the world and give us your sense of where the economy is right now. You know, there is a narrative going around right now that while we are expecting good growth in the U.S. this year -- 2. 6-2.7 percent. It's going to drop all the way down to 1-3/4 percent in 2019. So, what are you expecting from U.S. as well as some of the other growth markets across the world that you're in? HURD: Well, if you want me to go relatively quickly, I'd say U.S. is pretty strong. I think in the U.S., mid-market, for example, outside fortune 500 people are investing in projects that make sense. I think big companies are investing as well. I think if you have good projects today. If went back four, five years ago, I had to have a 12-month horizon in terms of payback. Now, you see that lengthening a bit. So, I think the U.S. economy is good. I think when you go to Europe, it's more of a mixed bag and it depends a little bit what sector you're in. The banking sector in Europe has some challenges in it, and, of course, that's one of the biggest sectors in Europe. So, Europe, a bit mixed. Latin America, of course, had been very strong. Brazil, you know, as bad as it was -- I believe it's beginning to recovery a bit. And Asia -- Asia, OK. I think Asia has been, been, been relative. But the same, I wouldn't say exciting, but same over the past -- couple years, or so. I think the economy is, is OK, it's just hard to generalize, Maria, based on countries and industries because a little bit different in each, but if I had to generalize, that's how I'd do it. BARTIROMO: Mark, let me ask you about the jobs picture right now. We have the April jobs' report out on Friday, it showed weaker than expected number of jobs added to the economy. But you know, this market seems tight, a number of people are noticing labor shortages. Do you feel that the market right now is getting tight in terms of you finding the people that you need to put into the jobs that are available? HURD: Well, I suppose. To give you a quick answer, I think -- which I know you'd like, I think the answer is that you can find people. In terms of quantity of people, we can certainly find people. It's very competitive for the great people in the market. And certainly, it isn't just Maria about finding the quality of people, and finding people that you think will do good, but for in our case, the people we think will be great at Oracle. And so, a lot of our efforts -- frankly, even in our applications or H.R. applications or human research applications recruiting such an important part of it, that when you recruit we use all the intelligence we have, use the data, use machines to machine learning. To best understand, you know, if you were -- if the company was interviewing both you and I, we might have different raw skills, but who would be the better fit for us and what we've got to do. And so, that's what we're focused on, but you can get quantity -- the quality is very competitive for the best people. BARTIROMO: Right, because these are very high-paying jobs. And that's what I keep hearing from businesses. I asked Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin about this but listen to what he said. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BARTIROMO: What do you say to managers when they say -- I'm sure you've heard it, I've heard it a lot: I can't find the people to put in the jobs that I have available. Is that about training? STEVEN MNUCHIN, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: I think some of it is training. But I'm not hearing that from companies I speak to. (END VIDEO CLIP) BARTIROMO: He says, he is not hearing from the companies she's speaking to, and yet, you know, the journal rode about it last week that the labor market is tightening forcing wages up, even if it's not to the extent that we thought it was. HURD: Yes. I mean, again, my view of the labor market falls into a couple of categories: engineers, and really sales people, which are the two primary functions in our company. We generally speaking make stuff and we sell stuff. We also support stuff, and we have a lot of other functions for the company, but those are core two big core building blocks. Engineers have always been tight, Maria, this is not a new story. We have not produced enough engineers in the United States to fill all of the engineering jobs in the United States, and that's been going on a while. That's pretty exacerbated by the -- it's more than train, it's just number of people available in market. There is another problem in engineering which has been that many people that studying in U.S. Engineering schools, we'd like to keep in the country. But because they come from outside the country, sometimes they're not allowed to stay. And so, we could get into a longer conversation about all of these immigration issues. But ability to keep telling somebody goes to one of our great schools, we let them study here but we don't let them stay here to practice. That also hurt the engineering -- the ability for us to fill engineering roles in the country. So, and then, for another set, there's competitive amongst those that are left. So, this is not a new story about more engineers, more engineering skills available to companies. On the sales side, we find great kids on the college campus, Maria. BARTIROMO: Really. HURD: I mean, the quality of -- oh, the quality of young people available today, on the college campus. We hire from the college campus, we train our own, and we find about fantastic talent. To give you an example, 85, 6 percent of all the young people in college that we offer a job to, accept it. So we do a very, very, we think, great job in screening, and hiring, and training. BARTIROMO: Those are higher paying jobs, right, engineering? HURD: Engineering and sales are both great you know entry level jobs. But yes, engineering is -- these are high-paying jobs. BARTIROMO: Mark, real quick on regulation, do you think we're going to see tighter regulation out of this government on technology? HURD: The United States government on technology? BARTIROMO: Yes, given the issues around privacy, and what we just saw take place around Facebook, wondering if you are expecting you know, a new era when it comes to the regulatory environment on tech? HURD: Well, I mean, obviously, I'd like to see the companies regulate themselves. I mean, I'll give you an example just in our cloud, all of the data, customer data is actually encrypted. So, just to be -- so you'd understand what that means is that even the people in Oracle, if you had your data in our cloud, he wouldn't even be able to see it. BARTIROMO: So, regulating yourselves is critical there. Mark, great to have you on the program. Thanks so much. HURD: Thanks, Maria. BARTIROMO: Good luck with Media Day, Mark Hurd. We'll be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. The first-quarter earnings season winding down fast. Only one Dow component set to report this week along with 41 S&P 500 companies. Nicole Petallides on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange expecting a pretty good open at the start of trading. Nic, good morning. NICOLE PETALLIDES, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK ANCHOR: Good morning to you. As we noted Friday, a great day, even though we've had two down weeks for the -- for the Dow and the S&P but this morning, you see Futures are higher, right, we're up 67 points on the Dow Jones Industrial Average Futures and we'll watch for Disney, the Dow component. And so, when we look at Disney and they're going to be reporting, there's a few things. First of all, "Avengers: Infinity War" scored second biggest ever weekend so that was some great news, coupled with what everybody is looking for rising revenue, and also "Black Panther" helping them along. And then revenue growth from theme parks as well as the resort. And any news on the Disney-Fox deal. And then how about Tesla, taking a look at Tesla this morning, as their giving no timeframe on this, when you could see the stock is up about one percent. And Musk and his team saying that we continually re-evaluate the capital expenditures and may need to raise capital. I don't think that people would find that as much of a surprise but he certainly dodged some of those questions on the conference call. The stock is about -- up 100 -- less than $100 off its annual high. Certainly, has not been stellar butt you could see this morning, it's up about one percent. Maria? BARTIROMO: All right. Nic, thank you so much. Coming up, we'll sit down with the former finance minister of Greece and his take on where that country's economy stands now as Greece approaches the eight-year anniversary of the first bailout. Back in a moment. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Greece banks getting a check-up, the European Central Bank releasing results of the latest bank stress test getting Greek banks a clear bill of health. It also found Greece's four largest banks would lose 15.5 billion euros worth of capital in the next two years under unfavorable economic circumstances. Joining me right now is economist, former Finance Minister of Greece and the author of "Talking To My Daughter About The Economy: A Brief History of Capitalism" Yanis Varoufakis. Great to see you, Yanis, thanks so much for joining us. YANIS VAROUFAKIS, FORMER FINANCE MINISTER OF GREECE: Thank you for having me. BARTIROMO: So, let's talk first about the state of Greece today. We all remember when we were in the throes of the recession and Greece was really one of the weakest links in Europe, how do you characterize things today? VAROUFAKIS: Well, you don't have to worry about Greece, Greeks have to worry about Greece. The reason why I'm saying that is because all the toxic unsustainable debt has already been shifted onto the shoulders of the European Union taxpayers. So, you know, the banking system here in Switzerland doesn't have to worry about that Greece. But Greece is in a clasp of spectacular and very sad great depression. I mean, I heard you talk about the stress test of a bank. Let me remind you and this is quite, you know, telling. We had three recapitalizations, in other words, three (INAUDIBLE) of banks (INAUDIBLE) banks. Every single time, those were preceded by stress tests that gave them a clean bill of health, so please do not take too much notice of these tests. They mean absolutely nothing. The European Central Bank would have a serious political problem if it told the truth about the state of banks. BARTIROMO: Wow. So, it's really still in this state of weakness? It sounds dire. VAROUFAKIS: Well, let me give you a U.S. parallel, imagine that after 1929 that -- well, the collapsed that you had of GDP in this country by 1972, 1973, you had lost 28 percent of -- BARTIROMO: Right, and went into a depression. VAROUFAKIS: So, imagine that after 1933, there was no significant, no statistical significant increase in GDP and you are now in 1957, 1958, and U.S. still at the same level of stagnation, that's the state of Greece. BARTIROMO: Wow. Meanwhile, we had Kyle Bass on, one of the really leading investors looking for value. He joined me last week and said he is actually investing in Greece. Listen to this. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KYLE BASS, FOUNDER AND PRINCIPAL, HAYMAN CAPITAL MANAGEMENT: Greece has gone through a great depression, a 30 percent real GDP decline over the last eight years. You think about the U.S. great depression, we had a reflexive snapback in two or three years, they've had eight years of a complete disaster in their economy. And you're seeing every macroeconomic indicator in Southern Europe it's heading higher right now. And so -- (END VIDEO CLIP) BARTIROMO: So, he's investing in Greece, and basically, you're saying, look, just because you have eight years of a dire situation, it doesn't mean it doesn't get worse. VAROUFAKIS: It will not get better if we continue to do the same thing. Because now, look, we have a permanent fraudulent bankruptcy concealment. We have a bankrupt state, bankrupt banks, bankrupt families, and bankrupt companies, and we are pretending that this is the end of the way through more loans and more steady of (INAUDIBLE) incomes, that will not happen. But I heard the gentleman, he actually was absolutely correct in his assessment of the last (INAUDIBLE) and if you are a patient investor, it is true that assets prices are on the floor in Greece. And, hopefully, we Greeks will do something about it, and then assets will pick up, but it is not happening today, it is not going to happen next year or in a few years' time if the government continues to do that which the European Union is imposing upon. BARTIROMO: Yes, understood. And these are very basic issues like too much debt. I mean, these are very, very basic issues. It's something that you wrote about in "Talking to My Daughter about Economy: A Brief History of Capitalism." Tell me why you wrote this book. VAROUFAKIS: Well, because we, economists, make effectively a very good living out of explaining things that people would normally understand and in a language that no one gets. Because that (INAUDIBLE) that said one thing very well, monopoly power. So, if we make sure that nobody understands our jargon then we, you know, our economic rent increases, so I wanted to write about economics in a way that the public would understand, it would demystify it, and the monopoly that we supposed experts have so that then we can have a conversation about what needs to be done about a world we live in. BARTIROMO: Will you ever go back to write -- to being in government? Do you want to run for public office. VAROUFAKIS: Well, I've just said that -- I have just had I'm a new political party in Greece so wish me luck. BARTIROMO: And you want to run for President. VAROUFAKIS: We don't have -- the important position of Greece's Prime Minister, it's not something I want to do but at the moment we are facing such a depression that it is important that those of us that have ideas about what to do should put our money where our mouth is and be prepared to serve and to offer public service. BARTIROMO: We're going to look for your name in the prime minister ballot. Yanis Varoufakis, good to see you, sir. Thank you so much. VAROUFAKIS: Thank you very much. BARTIROMO: We'll be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: My thanks to our fantastic panel this morning. Let's get right to "VARNEY & COMPANY" Charles Payne in for Stuart this morning. Charles, take it away. END [Copy: Content and Programming Copyright 2018 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2018 ASC Services II Media, LLC. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of ASC Services II Media, LLC. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.] [Show: MORNINGS WITH MARIA] [Date: May 7, 2018] [Time: 07:00:00] [Tran: 050702cb.231] [Type: SHOW] [Head: Congress Gets Back to Work; Mueller Probe; Rocket Power; Tyson Foods Revenue Misses Estimates; Berkshire Hathaway Meeting; Bufett on Wells Fargo; Attorney General Under Fire; Nunes: We Have to Move Quickly to Hold Attorney General Sessions in Contempt; Ship Wrecked; Washington Pop-Up Bar Celebrates Royal Wedding; New Royal Baby Photos; NBA Playoffs; Durant Dominates Game four; Molina Undergoes Surgery, Out One Month With Injury; NFL Could Make Standing for National Anthem a Team Choice] [Sect: News; Financial] [Byline: Maria Bartiromo, Kat Timpf, Cheryl Casone, Jared Max, Liz Claman, Andrew Napolitano] [Guest: Mitch Roschelle, Brian Brenberg, Ron Desantis, Jim Cantrell] [Spec: Congress; Government; Law Enforcement; Astronautics and Space; Science; Technology; Tyson Foods; Berkshire Hathaway; Meeting; Bufett;; Wells Fargo; Attorney General; Jeff Sessions; Nunes; Royal Wedding; NBA Playoffs; Durant Molina Undergoes; National Anthem; Prince Harry And Meghan Markle; Prince Louis; Federal Judge; Justice Department; Rod Rosenstein; St. Louis Cardinals] MARIA BARTIROMO, FBN HOST: Welcome back. Good Monday morning, everybody. Thanks so much for joining us this Monday. I'm Maria Bartiromo. And it is Monday, May 7th. Your top stories right now at 7:00 a.m. on the East Coast. Poised for gains -- futures indicating a higher opening for the broader averages. We are now at the high of the morning -- check this out. Dow Industrials expected to be up about 70 points, a third of a percent; the Nasdaq is up 40 points right now, two-thirds of 1 percent. This, on top of a pretty good rally on Friday-- it was a wild day on Wall Street after that April jobs report. When all was said and done the market was up 330 points. That was one and a third percent. The Nasdaq was up 1.75 percent. Brian Brenberg predicted it on Friday right here. Global markets this morning looking like this. In Europe, slight gains as you see, the market in London is closed for a holiday this morning. But the DAX index in Germany is up a half a percent. And CAC 40 is up just a fraction in positive territory though in France. In Asia overnight markets were mostly higher with the exception of Japan. Korea was closed for a holiday. And the shanghai composite in China -- that was up 1.5 percent. We're watching oil prices this morning. Crude oil is now at the highest level since 2014, up to $70.38 a barrel. This, amid protests in Iran along with the looming deadline over the nuclear deal. The President has until May 12th, this week, to decide whether or not to pull out of the Iran deal. Congress gets back to work this week. Lawmakers are returning to Washington with a lot on their plate -- all ahead of the midterm elections. Here is what House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy told me yesterday on "SUNDAY MORNING FUTURES" about the possibility of Speaker Pelosi. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA), HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER: It's probably one of the scariest things I've heard all week. Picture come November 9th, waking up if the Democrats control the House and Nancy is giving this congratulatory speech of becoming speaker. (END VIDEO CLIP) BARTIROMO: We will tell you why that was the scariest thing he'd ever look at coming up -- meanwhile a closer look at that. Meanwhile a scare on the tarmac -- a Southwest jet and a truck collide. We have the details coming up. Bank of America is backtracking. The lender says it will now provide financing for gun maker Remington Outdoor, initially pulling back out of that. An unbelievable scene on a Carnival Cruise ship -- look at this. Water flooding the hallways, reminding some passengers of the Titanic. What was behind the flood -- coming up. Plus a painful moment for one baseball player, a pitch to the groin putting him on the bench for a month -- ouch. All that coming up this morning. Joining us to talk all about it -- Fox News contributor Kat Timpf is here; the King's College professor on business and economics, Brian Brenberg is here; and the PWC Partner Mitch Roschelle. Great to see you. MITCH ROSCHELLE, PWC PARTNER: We have to go right after the -- BRIAN BRENBERG, BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS PROFESSOR, THE KING'S COLLEGE: I know. That leading story -- BARTIROMO: That wasn't good. KAT TIMPF, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: A month on the bench. BARTIROMO: And how about the water on the ship? That does remind you of the Titanic. TIMPF: They were all playing and laughing in it. I would not have been so chill -- no way. BARTIROMO: A really important conversation I thought with Mark Penn and Marc Lotter this morning, talking about what's taking place at the Department of Justice and this pushback between the Oversight Committee and the Intel Committee and the Department of Justice -- Brian. BRENBERG: And these continued important conversations about scope. I mean this is so basic, this conversation. What are we here to do? Federal judge down in Virginia saying come on, people, let's figure out what we're about here and stick to the script. One of the problems, of course, as you pointed out is we don't even know what the script is. We don't know what the scope of this thing is because it hasn't been revealed. BARTIROMO: Initially Robert Mueller said that his investigation was about potential collusion between the Trump administration and Russia. And then he started talking about obstruction. And then somewhere along the lines he was given the right to expand the scope of the investigation. Now this judge wants to see the scope, the scope memo. What is it? They don't want to give it up. BRENBERG: And he wants to see it because he's wondering why we're talking about bank fraud allegations from 2005 -- BARTIROMO: Right. BRENBERG: When we're supposed to be talking about Russia. BARTIROMO: And he makes the point that let's face it, let's be honest. You're just bringing Paul Manafort in to get information about Donald Trump because your end goal here is to take down Donald Trump. TIMPF: That's very clear that that's what this is about at this point. I mean at first you could say it's about the integrity of our elections. I'm all for that. But when it just comes to taking down Donald Trump for the sake of taking down Donald Trump, I don't even appreciate my tax dollars being spent on that. BARTIROMO: Yes. Thank you. Coming up this morning, joining the conversation -- the CEO of Oracle is here. Mark Hurd will join us to give us a window into how business is going. Former White House press secretary under George W. Bush, Ari Fleischer is here along with former finance minister of Greece Yanis Varoufakis is here; and Fox News senior judicial analyst, Judge Andrew Napolitano. We will talk -- all of that coming up. Don't miss a moment of it. But first our top story right now -- back to business on Capitol Hill. House Republicans are returning to work today after a weeklong recess to face an intraparty fight over the sweeping $867 billion Farm Bill which includes funding for food stamps. The White House is expected to send the house a proposal to cut roughly $11 billion from old spending accounts using a method known as rescission today as well. Joining us to weigh in is a member of the House Foreign Relations and Judiciary Committees, House Freedom Caucus member as well, Congressman Ron Desantis of Florida. Congressman -- good to see you. Thanks so much for joining us. REP. RON DESANTIS (R), FLORIDA: Good morning -- Maria. BARTIROMO: Lots to cover this morning. First to the Farm Bill -- do you support it? DESANTIS: I think that there's questions. I mean look, this is a massive spending bill. I think there are some good faith efforts to reform some of this. The problem though, Maria, if you pass that out of the House with Republican votes, what happens in the Senate is they put all the other stuff back in there and then an $867 billion bill ends up a trillion- dollar. So I think a lot of us on the conservative side who want less spending are just looking over at the U.S. Senate. And we've seen this game time and time again. There's some conservative reforms passed out of the House and then the ultimate package is the same old song and dance year after year. BARTIROMO: So you want to see -- you want to see some change before you'll actually buy into this? DESANTIS: That's right. BARTIROMO: What do you want to see? How might it change? DESANTIS: Well, I want to see that whatever reforms will stick through the whole process -- BARTIROMO: Right. DESANTIS: -- rather than just creating a vehicle that ends up getting the same old bill. Remember last time in 2013 the bill was a trillion dollars and it actually was more expensive than they initially forecast with some of the farm programs. So we've got to protect taxpayers in all this -- Maria. And those are the people that typically get lost in these big food fights. BARTIROMO: Yes, exactly. This comes ahead of a big race tomorrow -- voters headed to the polls in Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, North Carolina. President Trump was tweeting about the West Virginia race as well. Here's what he wrote. "To the great people of West Virginia, we have together a really great chance to keep making a big difference. Problem is Don Blankenship currently running for Senate cannot win the general election in your state. No way. Remember Alabama. Vote Representative Jenkins or A.G. Morrisey." This comes, of course, ahead of the mid-term elections this November. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi recently said Democrats will win the House and she will run for speaker. I asked that to Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who is expecting to be speaker, yesterday on "SUNDAY MORNING FUTURES". Listen to this -- Congressman. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MCCARTHY: That's probably one of the scariest things I've heard all week. Because picture come November 9th waking up if the Democrats control the House and Nancy is giving this congratulatory speech and becoming speaker. What we had just transpired in the last year will all be reversed. (END VIDEO CLIP) BARTIROMO: Congressman -- your reaction? DESANTIS: Well, what Nancy would do is she would want to raise taxes which would obviously hurt the economic progress we've made and they would want to continue to allow pretty much unfettered illegal immigration. That's a position that their party is gravitated towards now. And they would do nonstop investigations of the Trump administration. I do think that they would move to try to impeach the President. On what -- I have no idea. But I've seen them issue those -- try to force votes on those resolutions this year in the Congress, trying to impeach him over things like his tweeting or him criticizing the NFL players for kneeling. I mean it's preposterous but I think that's what they're looking at. So the American people need to ask, ok, do you want a majority that is intent on actually focusing on the kitchen table issues which I think the Republicans would? Or do you want to go off on this left-ward veer with somebody like Nancy Pelosi who you've already seen her in action for four years and you overwhelmingly rejected her leadership in 2010. so I think that's a pretty clear choice. BARTIROMO: Well, that's an interesting point that you make because we were just -- I was speaking with Mark Penn and Marc Lotter about what took place between the Department of Justice and Devin Nunes, the chairman of the intel committee over the weekend. And I want to get your take on this because now on Friday, you have this judge pushing back, T.S. Ellis saying what is the scope of this investigation and we're not understanding fully what Robert Mueller's scope is, in fact. Has it been expanded? DESANTIS: Well, that's been the problem from day one, Maria. Rod Rosenstein, when he appointed Mueller, he didn't clearly delineate what was supposed to be investigated, He didn't identify a specific crime. It was basically just do a counter intelligence investigation and turned it into a criminal investigation which basically means you're just trying to find any crime you can. I mean that's not the way these things are supposed to be going. I think what the judge said was exactly right. I think that Rosenstein has refused to rein in Mueller which he should have done. and then you also have the judge on Saturday, Maria, where remember the only case involving the presidential campaign -- it's nothing to do with Donald Trump or his campaign. But they did indict several of these Russian companies for doing the boss (ph) and the social media. Well, one of those companies has attorneys and they want to actually contest the charges. And Mueller is not ready to bring the case. He asked for a delay and the judge said no, you need to come bring this case. So this seems to be falling apart. There's no basis for the collusion, even after a full year of Mueller and then of course, a lot of Comey before then. So I think it's time to put up or shut up. I've been saying that for a long time. BARTIROMO: Yes. DESANTIS: This is not good for the country. And to just say we're going to try to do anything to bring down the President, that's not the way this is supposed to operate. BARTIROMO: It's interesting that Devin Nunes is pursuing contempt of Congress charges against Jeff Sessions but not Rod Rosenstein because basically he says Rod Rosenstein shouldn't be involved in any of this at all because he's conflicted -- DESANTIS: I agree. BARTIROMO: -- because he put his signature on the FISA warrant, the last FISA warrant renewal which allowed them to wiretap and listen in to Carter Page and it was all based on the dossier. DESANTIS: He signed the FISA warrant -- 100 percent true. And he's the one that wrote the memo saying that Comey should be fired. BARTIROMO: Yes. DESANTIS: So he should have been recused from the whole Mueller thing. He should not have been the one to make that determination. So I am 100 percent in agreement. I think Rosenstein should have recused himself; should have never been involved in any of this. And the fact that he has been involved with the FISA application and yet he has stonewalled Congress, that is a really bad look for the Justice Department. And it looks like they're just trying to keep the truth from the American public. And remember Rosenstein has said you can't do a Nunes memo. It's going to be terrible for national security. They were making all these claims yet the memo was declassified. There was no damage to national security -- Maria. It was very informative of the public about the conduct of his department. But it didn't expose any sources and methods. So they've cried wolf time and time again on that. BARTIROMO: What I don't understand is why the Justice Department would be hiding anything. I mean at this point knowing -- we all know what took place during the 2016 election between Jim Comey and Andrew McCabe and then you've got Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. By the way, we should point out Lisa Page resigned. She resigned from the FBI on Friday. So we know that there was all this bias. Wouldn't the Department of Justice want to get truth out? Who are they protecting? DESANTIS: Well, if you look at some of the things that they have produced and the redactions that they'll have, there really isn't a national security reason to do some of the redactions. A lot of the redactions are done to protect people like Comey. And I just think it's in Washington, bureaucracies tend to defend themselves and they're more interested in doing that than in getting the facts to the American people. That's why I think Nunes has been right to say with either Rosenstein or Sessions, look, there needs to be consequences for your noncompliance. And if we go back and do the song and dance, oh, please give us the documents, please do this, you're going to end up in the situation we've had. If you say we'll hold you in contempt or you say we'll even bring an impeachment article against you, well then that's the point where I think these people would have to listen and finally put up or shut up. But if we don't get the documents soon, my fear is that you get into the summer, then the election season and you end up delaying it past the fall campaign. And I think that would be a disaster. The American people need the answers now. BARTIROMO: -- which is why the President tweeted suggestions recently that he's going to have to use his presidential power which means he will declassify all of this stuff. He can do that. DESANTIS: He should. He should. And I think his advisors have said look, they're going to say you're interfering with Mueller if you do this or that. I think that ship has sailed at that point. BARTIROMO: Right. DESANTIS: I think people realize Mueller doesn't have the collusion goods. He's basically trying to build an obstruction case which I think is absurd on its face. BARTIROMO: Right. DESANTIS: So I think the President should do that. I think it would be a blow for transparency and it would help the American people make sense of how these very high people in the bureaucracy conducted their affairs. Remember, the Nunes -- the start of the investigation for collusion was Peter Strzok based off two pages with no intelligence -- BARTIROMO: No intelligence. DESANTIS: -- and he opens up a collusion investigation. BARTIROMO: Yes, Devin Nunes told us that, no intelligence. Real quick -- will the President pull out of the Iran deal, do you think? The deadline is this week. DESANTIS: I think he should. It's a bad deal. BARTIROMO: Congressman -- good to see you, sir. DESANTIS: Thank you. BARTIROMO: Thanks so much. Congressman Ron Desantis there. A scare on the tarmac, we will tell you about it next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. The President is tweeting this morning about the CIA director nominee. He says "My highly respected nominee for CIA director, Gina Haspel, has come under fire because she was too tough on terrorists. Think of that. In these very dangerous times we have the most qualified person, a woman, who Democrats want out because she's too tough on terror. Win Gina." The President just tweeting about Gina Haspel. Another incident meanwhile involving a Southwest Airlines plane this morning to tell you about. Cheryl Casone has headlines now -- Cheryl. CHERYL CASONE, FBN CORRESPONDENT: Yes -- Maria. The airline can't catch a break it seems. This happened just after midnight. Flight 6263 had arrived in Baltimore-Washington International from Fort Lauderdale. As the plane was pulling into the gate a pickup truck hit it and became stuck underneath. Nobody was hurt but passengers say they were stuck on the plane for an additional two hours. Just last week a window cracked on a flight causing an emergency landing. And last month, an engine explosion caused debris to break a window, partially sucking a passenger outside of the aircraft. Shares of Southwest are down about 19 percent for the year. Well, Bank of America apparently testing a pledge it made just a few weeks ago to stop loaning money to companies that make assault weapons. The bank saying it's going to help provide financing to Remington Outdoor which plans to exit bankruptcy later this month. B of A is one of seven banks taking part in this nearly $200 million loan. Remington makes the Bushmaster rifle which was used in the Sandy Hook school shooting in Connecticut back in 2012. The bank says it agreed to replace the company's credit facility before it adopted its new policy on financing makers of assault weapons. Bank of America shares are slightly higher in the premarket. Well, an Alabama boy coming back to life, literally. After his parents had already pledged to donate his organs, 13-year-old Trenton McKinley was being pulled in a car, it flipped over, he landed on his head. So it was a freak accident for the young boy. Doctors told his parents that his survival was unlikely. And five other children could be helped with his organs. The day before doctors were ready to literally pull the plug, Trenton was showing signs of improvement. He says that he even went to heaven before being brought back to earth. He is now on the road to recovery. Incredible. And finally there's this. How fast do you think you could solve Rubik's cube? Check this out a 22-year-old man in Australia set a new world record, solved the problem in a stunning 4.22 seconds. Happened over the weekend in a competition in Melbourne, breaking the previous world record of 4.59 seconds -- ok. The new record holder is known as a super cuber. Fast fingers -- Maria. TIMPF: How about I solve that puzzle never? I've never done it. Not once. ROSCHELLE: I can get a side. I can definitely do a side. BARTIROMO: That's hard. ROSCHELLE: That's incredible. Now, I can't even tie my shoes that fast. BARTIROMO: Thanks -- Cheryl. Coming up a new warning from NASA -- the agency now says SpaceX rocket technology could put lives at risk. This as the company prepares for another launch today. We'll talk with Vector co-founder and CEO Jim Cantrell about the space race next. And then, now you can party like a royal wedding guest even if you didn't get an invite. Where you can check out the royal wedding pub, next. Back in a minute. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CROWD: Five, four, three, two, one. (END VIDEO CLIP) BARTIROMO: Three, two, one -- lift off. That was SpaceX's historic launch of the Falcon heavy rocket back in February. The aero-space company slated for another rocket launch later today. This coming as NASA safety advisors are reportedly concerned that SpaceX's method for loading fuel could put lives at risk according to "The Washington Post". With privatized space travel gaining more steam, our next guest wants to turn out rockets with the same speed the auto industry turns out cars. Joining us right now is the CEO and co-founder of Vector, Jim Cantrell. Jim is also a member of the founding team of SpaceX. You are the co- founder there. Great to see you -- Jim. JIM CANTRELL, CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, VECTOR: Thank you. BARTIROMO: Thank you so much for joining us this morning. What's your take on the space race? CANTRELL: Yes, so -- really we've changed from nation state space to private space and slowly the government domination of the industry is moving away to that of entrepreneurs who are rightfully taking the place in this part of high technology. BARTIROMO: And is that a good thing? CANTRELL: It's a good thing in my view. A, we lower costs. Elon and SpaceX have lowered the cost of building these rockets by at least 50 times what the government's done. And in order for the innovation to occur it has to really go to the private sector. Can you imagine the government making iPhones, for example today? BARTIROMO: No. Yes, good point. BRENBERG: Is there any way for NASA to do something commercial? Or are they just completely frozen out because SpaceX and others are really taking over the commercial space? CANTRELL: Good question but it's really a question of what NASA's rightful role is. And they're a user of space. They're not necessarily a developer of rockets and spacecraft anymore. And so we see them as the commercialization goes forward, just like they use Mac computers and iPhones, they'll be using Vector rockets and the SpaceX rockets. ROSCHELLE; So Jim -- you know, you look at like Bezos, you look at Elon Musk and they're kind of all about saving -- you know, when we destroy planet earth we're going to have these colonies ready for you -- these big, grand sort of schemes. And Richard Branson is all about providing space tourism for the wealthy. You take a very different approach. You're not thinking about that kind of stuff. You're thinking about how do we build the Model T of rockets essentially. CANTRELL: Right. You know, when Elon approached me back in 2001 -- it was all about going to Mars, going to Mars and building rockets was all about going to Mars. It still is. I'm different in the sense that I'm about making money. I want to transform the space economy like elevators did to the New York skyline. It raised the skyline here, raised the economy, raised all of the real estate in New York City. So we're going to build rockets at a rate that we can actually make them reliable and the only way to do that is to emulate the automotive industry, who's actually made very sophisticated devices called cars at very low cost. TIMPF: Familiar. BARTIROMO: So you think that there's -- I mean what are they going to do, go there and then what do we know about space in order to explore more? CANTRELL: Well, so there's always sort of the basic human yearning to see what's around the next corner. I think that's really what drives Bezos and Elon and some of these guys just to go to Mars, you know. Me -- I'm motivated by making a dollar and making the economy a little bit better. ROSCHELLE: But it's interesting because you know, this past week we were talking about Elon Musk and Tesla. And, you know, you're talking about making cars. They're having a hard time making cars. But he's talking about going to space and so is there just a gap in terms of the expectation about what we want to do and what's actually feasible? And do we need to start thinking more like, look, Henry Ford, Model T, let's just get something on the road. CANTRELL: Yes, that's exactly the point Vector is at where we're actually making the simplest possible rocket in the smallest possible size so we can make them in the maximum possible numbers. We get the benefits of cost reduction plus reliability. So we think that that's what we can do to turn space airline from a bespoke industry into something more like an airline transport where it goes every day. ROSCHELLE: And it says your doing it at 1/20th of the price. So your payload's considerably smaller than what their payload would be. CANTRELL: Correct -- we're focused on micro satellites which are anywhere from the size of the law for bread, to the size of an HP printer, for example. And they weigh a few hundred pounds down to a few pounds. ROSCHELLE: And they're used for? CANTRELL: Commercial communications and then earth observation are the primary uses right now. BARTIROMO: And what do you think this looks like in five years? CANTRELL: So Morgan Stanley predicts this is a trillion dollar economy in about 10 years. BARTIROMO: Wow. CANTRELL: So I think we'll be close to that in five. It's growing exponentially underneath everybody's nose and-this is one of the great places where venture capitals been invested right now. There was over $1 billion invested last year in this area. BARTIROMO: That is incredible. Jim-- thank you so much. TIMPF: People want to go to space. CANTRELL: Thank you, yes. I kind of do. BARTIROMO: People want to go to space. TIMPF: Yes, I kind of do. BARTIROMO: Well, the curiosity of what's around the corner, you're right. That's true. Good to see you, sir. Thank you so much, Jim Cantrell there. Coming up, bringing the Woodstock of capitalism back to Omaha. Liz Claman is sitting down with Warren Buffet at the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting. She bring us the latest from Omaha after the meeting this weekend. Then a carnival cruise scare, passengers aboard the dream ship forced to head home after a nightmare water main break forced hallways and flooded hallways and rooms with water. We have the harrowing pictures coming up. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Good Monday morning, everybody. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Maria Bartiromo. And it is Monday, May 7th. Your top stories right now, 07:30 a.m. on the East Coast. Poised for gains, Futures indicating a higher opening for the broader averages. This is the high of the morning right here, Dow Industrials up 82 points right now, that's a third of a percent, S&P is up a third of a percent (INAUDIBLE) and the NASDAQ is up 42 points, that's two-thirds of one percent. Extending the rally of Friday, it was a wild day on Friday after the April jobs report. Markets started off lower but gained momentum throughout the session and finished up 332 points, 1-1/3 percent this morning. Global markets are fractionally better on the session. The market is closed in London for a holiday. But the CAC Quarante on Paris is up a fraction and the DAX Index in Germany is up 1/2 of a percent. Tyson Foods hitting the tape right now, revenue missing expectations. Earning still a driver in this market. In Asia overnight, markets closed mostly higher. As you can see, Korea was closed for a holiday. Shanghai composite in China, best performer, of 1.5 percent. Contempt of Congress, that's the threat against attorney general Jeff Sessions over the Justice Department not complying with a subpoena. The DOJ is firing back this morning. Here's what House Majority Kevin McCarthy told me yesterday on "SUNDAY MORNING FUTURES" about holding the Justice Department accountable. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) House Majority Kevin McCarthy We will not stop because we are separate but co-equal. And we will take every process that we have in the power to get the information that we have a right and responsibility to see. (END VIDEO CLIP) BARTIROMO: President Trump is Tweeting this morning, here's what he says, The Russia witch hunt is rapidly losing credibility. House Intelligence Committee found no collusion. Coordination or anything else with Russia. So now the probe says OK, what else is there? How about obstruction for a made up, phony crime. There is no obstruction. It's called fighting back. An unbelievable scene on a carnival cruise ship, water flooding the hallways, reminding some passengers of the Titanic. What was behind that flood? Coming up. And a painful pitch, ouch. An MLB catcher taking a 100-mile-an-hour fast ball right to the groin. We're going to tell you about that. He is now out for a month, an update on his condition this morning. Celebrating the royal wedding without heading to across the pond. Find out where you can toast to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle next week ahead of their wedding. Plus, a new look at Prince Louis. Kensington Palace releasing new photos of the Prince. Both Prince Louis and Princess Charlotte both wearing hand me downs. Great pictures there. All of that coming up this morning. But first, there's this, the Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting happened over the weekend. Warren Buffett among the top shareholders of Wells Fargo. Last week, I spoke exclusively with CEO Tim Sloan and asked him what the company is doing to repair their relationship with customers. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TIM SLOAN, CEO, WELLS FARGO: We need to rebuild trust with our stake holders. So, how do we do that? We make sure that if there's anything that we did that was improper with the customer, that we make it right by now, that we fix anything that needs to be fixed at the company and then we focus on going forward and that's building a better Wells Fargo. And we're doing that every day. (END VIDEO CLIP) BARTIROMO: Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway the number one shareholders in Wells Fargo. Liz Claman at the Berkshire Hathaway meeting today over the weekend. She's in Omaha Nebraska, she caught up with Warren Buffett to get his reaction. Liz, good morning to you. How was the meeting? LIZ CLAMAN, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK CORRESPONDENT: I'll tell you something, Maria. It was fascinating this time around. This is our tenth year at FOX Business where we have this exclusive access. Right now, I just want to let you know, we are in Warren Buffett's Headquarters lobby. We're the only business network that is invited in after the meeting and certainly before the board meeting of directors which will happen this morning. So, we're going to get you all of that. But I have to tell you that what people heard from the meeting, and then there's this huge crash of people, Warren has said it would be a record, you can see some of these people as they gathered around him, some 40, 40 maybe 42,000 people who descended upon Omaha, Nebraska for this annual shareholder meeting. A lot of them wanted to know, precisely what you just showed. What about Wells Fargo? This is a stock that actually ended up in an accounting trickery thing that happened because it's just a new accounting rule. It brought Berkshire earnings to a loss here because of Wells Fargo stock not doing well and all of the scandals. Friday you know Wells Fargo had yet another settlement, it had to pay out in a class action shareholder lawsuit. The biggest of the shareholders, Warren Buffet. I had a chance to specifically ask him at what point do you look at Wells Fargo and say what's going on? Here's what he said. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) WARREN BUFFETT, CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INC: Wells Fargo had the wrong incentives and unfortunately incentives worked (INAUDIBLE) they worked in the wrong way. And the big problem was they didn't do something about it. CLAMAN: You just remember when you were at Solomon, and you had to fix problems that you said hurt the brand and I will be ruthless. Would you have allowed at Solomon that many mistakes to continue after the original one was discovered? BUFFETT: Well, I was worried sick when the original one was discovered. There were a whole bunch more. CLAMAN: But you're holding onto Wells Fargo for the foreseeable future? BUFFETT: We'll make a lot of money in Wells Fargo. We've already made a lot of money. We've probably got over a $10 billion profit in Wells Fargo. (END VIDEO CLIP) CLAMAN: How about that, Maria? $10 billion profit, coming up 3:00 p.m. Eastern right here. I've got Warren Buffett. But I'm going to talk to him about a whole bunch of issues, all that's happening, what are sort of the black swans that we may face? We're days away from President Trump possibly deciding to pull out of the nuclear deal with Iran. What would that do to the markets? We'll talk to him about that and his vice chair, Charlie Munger who made big headlines on Bitcoin, he equated trading Bitcoin to trading, this is his quote, turds. We're going to talk about that much more. But these two in their 80s and 90s are still in it to win it. It's unbelievable. BARTIROMO: Yes, It's incredible. And I know Liz one big headline from the meeting that you were at this weekend was that he bought more Apple and he continues to make money on Apple stock. For a long time, he wasn't a growth investor in tech, but once he figured it out he went knee deep in tech. CLAMAN: Guess what? He said he doesn't view Apple as tech. He views it as a consumer products business. BARTIROMO: Yes, I guess(INAUDIBLE), OK. CLAMAN: I said what happens there? You know, I mean, what if they are outdone by some other company. He said well, call me when it happens. BARTIROMO: Great stuff. Liz, we're looking forward to your interview, 3:00 p.m. on you program here on FOX Business. Thank you so much Liz. We'll see you back on the ranch when you come home. Liz Claman is on Omaha this weekend. And join her live today, 3:00 p.m. Eastern for her interview with Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger. First all this, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes doubling down on Attorney general Jeff Sessions. Counselor Nunes outlined the potential consequences if Sessions does not comply with a subpoena investigating alleged surveillance abuses at the Justice Department. He called into "FOX AND FRIENDS" yesterday, basically saying he is ready to pursue the contempt of Congress charges. Then, right after that I had House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy on "SUNDAY MORNING FUTURES". And I asked him to weigh in as well. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. DEVIN NUNES (R-CA), CHAIRMAN, HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE (via telephone): Two weeks ago, we sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a classified letter. Per usual, it was ignored, not acknowledged, just completely ignored. So last week we sent a subpoena and then on Thursday we discovered that they are not going to comply with our subpoena. The only thing left that we can do is we have to move quickly to hold the attorney general of the United States in contempt. REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (D-CA), HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER: Every time they have stonewalled us, we have not given up. And when we did get the information, it was very interesting how the information would come forward, then people would then start resigning or quitting from these organizations. BARTIROMO: Right. MCCARTHY: Based upon the action that they took place. (END VIDEO CLIP) BARTIROMO: Now the Justice Department fired back, saying that it informed Nunes that providing the information could pose great implications for national security. That's according to the letter obtained by FOX News, that letter of Thursday saying we're not going to comply with this because it's national security issues. Joining us right now, FOX News Senior Judicial Analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano. Judge, good to see you. ANDREW NAPOLITANO, FOX NEWS SENIOR JUDICIAL ANALYST: Good morning. BARTIROMO: Wow. NAPOLITANO: I'm still chuckling at the ease with which Warren Buffett can say yes, we made a $10 billion profit. KAT TIMPF, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Another day at the office. NAPOLITANO: Unbelievable. Right. BARTIROMO: So, what about this, Judge? NAPOLITANO: This is a little more complicated than it appears at first blush. The Justice Department will -- I'm not defending what they do. To explain it, will probably take the position that the documents that are sought are about an ongoing criminal investigation. Now, who wrote the laws that says you can keep secret documents about an ongoing criminal investigation? The Congress. So, if the Congress wants to change that law, they can change it. They haven't. Now, if I receive a subpoena for something that I think is secret, I can't basically say to the sender of the subpoena go take a hike. I have to take the subpoena to a federal judge and ask the federal judge to quash it, that's the phrase we use to eradicate it. And then the federal judge will look at the documents and decide if they are privileged as I claim. The Justice Department doesn't do that. The Justice Department basically says go take a hike if you want to enforce the subpoena, you know how to enforce it. So, I don't know where this is going to go. The Justice Department gets burned, it believes, when the progress of an ongoing criminal investigation is exposed for political reasons. On the other hand, the Congress is the regulator of the Justice Department, has the right to see nearly everything. I say nearly everything because Congress wrote the laws that says there are certain things nobody can see, like the progress of a criminal investigation mid-stream, the names of confidential informants and what they told FBI agents. TIMPF: Do you see that changing though? I don't see Congress doing anything about that, right? NAPOLITANO: You know, I -- BARTIROMO: That's not the point. The point is, is we know what has taken place in 2016. We know that there's been an incredible amount of bias from the FBI and the DOJ. NAPOLITANO: Yes. BARTIROMO: Let's not make believe there's business as usual. NAPOLITANO: Well, it's not -- BARTIROMO: It's not business as usual. NAPOLITANO: Correct. But there still is an ongoing criminal investigation. Congress may not like it but it's there. Who knows when this Mueller thing is going to be over. But he is still investigating these matters for the DOJ to expose the contents of those -- of that investigation now, the DOJ will argue, I'm not always a pro-government person as you know. Would impair the investigation. And if you don't believe us, just look at the federal rules of criminal procedure which Congress wrote which allow us to keep this stuff secret during the penance of investigation. BARTIROMO: Every time we have seen redactions and then they were unredacted, it was clear that the reason they were redacted is because they didn't want to embarrass themselves. NAPOLITANO: Correct. BARTIROMO: We've been down this road before. NAPOLITANO: On the stuff that -- Yes, on the stuff that we have seen -- BARTIROMO: We see the redactions and then the un--redactions -- NAPOLITANO: Yes. BARTIROMO: -- and it had zero to do with national security. NAPOLITANO: Yes. BARTIROMO: That's why I'm like, that's not the point. TIMPF: Yes. NAPOLITANO: That's why it is best for a judge, a neutral judge to look at this and say you're not going to redact this because it makes James Comey or Andrew McCabe look bad. You can only redact it if it's going to impair the investigation or expose a source and expose that person to danger. BARTIROMO: The president tweeted about it this morning. I want to tell you what he said, he says, the 13 angry Democrats in charge of the Russian witch hunt are starting to find out that there is a court system in place that actually protects people from injustice and just wait until the courts get to see your unrevealed conflicts of interest. NAPOLITANO: I think he's probably talking about the argument in court last week before Judge Ellis who questioned the nature and extent of Mueller's ability to prosecute. BARTIROMO: Exactly. NAPOLITANO: I think that that is just a hypothetical argument because if Mueller can't prosecute, the federal prosecutors in the Eastern district of Virginia will prosecute. There's plenty of evidence of bank fraud. The only question is who gets to prosecute it. BRIAN BRENBERG, BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC PROFESSOR, THE KINGS COLLEGE: Right and that gets the -- I mean, that gets the scope issue. It should move to that court if it's not related to the original scope of the issue. NAPOLITANO: Just as the investigation of Michael Cohen moved to the Southern district of New York. BRENBER: Exactly. NAPOLITANO: Mueller stumbled upon this stuff and said look, I'm not in New York, this doesn't directly relate to me, you guys handle it. BARTIROMO: Yes, the other thing is, it's interesting that Devin Nunes is saying contempt of Congress charges against Jeff Sessions. NAPOLITANO: Yes. BARTIROMO: But not Rod Rosenstein. NAPOLITANO: It's very odd. BARTIROMO: He views Rod Rosenstein as being conflicted. NAPOLITANO: Correct. But Rod Rosenstein has the authority to say surrender the documents. Jeff Sessions doesn't because he's recused himself. BARTIROMO: Right. NAPOLITANO: But I will tell you that contempt is the -- is the way to do it, not impeachment as they threatened to do last week that was a joke. But contempt is the way to do it.. BARTIROMO: Why? NAPOLITANO: Because that will force a lawyer to -- reply a lawyer who is held in contempt can lose his license to practice. BARTIROMO: Got it. Judge, great insights. Thank you Judge Andre NAPOLITANO. NAPOLITANO: You're welcome. BARTIROMO: Back in a minute. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: No smooth sailing for passengers on a carnival cruise ship that flooded. Cheryl Casone with the details, Cheryl. CHERYL CASONE, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK ANCHOR: Yes Maria. A water line break flooded 50 rooms aboard a carnival dream ship. Check out this, a passenger filmed the video as a crew member -- crew members formed a bucket brigade to try to get the water out. Carnival says it took six hours to clean up the water and dry out the carpet. About a hundred passengers were affected by the flood. They all received full refunds. Royal wedding fever is heating up in the U.S. A bar in Washington, D.C. is getting into the spirit to honor Prince Harry and Meghan Markle wedding on May 19th. People are standing in line to buy a drink at the bar which called itself The Royal Wedding Pub. They've even been decorated now inside to resemble Saint George's Chapel where the Prince and Meghan are going to become husband's and wife. And everybody is wondering if this little guy is going to be at Prince Harry's wedding. Kate Middleton releasing the first photos of new baby Prince Louis Arthur Charles. Her sister Princess Charlotte making an appearance in the pictures as well. This photos were shot just days after Prince Louis birth. The new prince wearing hand me down we should say, the same white sweater his big sister wore for her new born photos. And we've got some new babies of our own that we want to welcome to the "MORNINGS WITH MARIA" family. Our producer Cody and his wife Rachel welcomed the baby boy on Saturday, Cormick Harrison Shelt. Born 11:11 p.m. weighing in at six pounds, 13-ounces. Congratulations Cody. And then, our makeup artist on the show, Brendalyn and her husband Warren also welcomed a son, Camden Barrack Williams was born April26th. Seven pounds, six ounces. Both families are happy and healthy. Of course, we want to wish them the best. They thought they weren't sleeping on a morning show. They're never going to sleep. BARTIROMO: Congratulations to all of them. New babies in the Maria -- "MORNINGS WITH MARIA" family, love it. Beautiful pictures. BRENBERG: That's great. They're prepared for it. If you do this show, you know how to deal with early mornings. MITCH ROSCHELLE, PARTNER, PWC: You know how to get up two in the morning. BRENBERG: Training. BARTIROMO: Good training. Well, I don't know if it's that easy but -- We'll take a break. When we come back, the catcher for the St. Louis Cardinals now out for a month after being hit in the groin, following a foul ball. We've got the story and the latest from the NBA in sports, Next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Looks like it will be the Warriors and the Rockets in the NBA's Western Conference Finals. Jared Max with all the highlights. Jared, good morning. JARED MAX, FOX NEWS SPORTS REPORTER: Good morning, more and more it looks this way. With all due respect, to the Pelicans and the Jazz. These results kind of expected. Sunday night hoops in Salt Lake City, Chris Paul peppered the Jazz with 27 points, 12 rebounds. James Harden scored 24. Rockets win 187. They lead the series, three games to one . They could close it out tomorrow at home. It's the same story for the defending champs, the Warriors back at the Golden State. They won Sunday in New Orleans 118-92. Kevin Durant scored 38. He was inspired by a text message sent from teammate Draymond Green at 4:00 a.m. Sunday to be who he is. The Warriors can advance the four straight Western final with a win at home tomorrow. San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Becky Hammon is going to interview for the Milwaukee Bucks head coaching job. Hammon has been an assistant in San Antonio for four seasons will become the first woman to interview for NBA head coach in position. Reportedly she also interviewed with the Bucks last year for their G.M. job. And a weekend filled with injuries in major league baseball. St. Louis Cardinals all-star catcher Yadier Molina needed emergency surgery on Saturday to repair a traumatic hematoma. Suffered a fouled tip hit into his groin area. Molina was hospitalized overnight. Returned home yesterday. He is walking around, said to be feeling much better. He's going to be out at least one month. Twice in the Stanley Cup Playoffs Brad Marchand tried to get under the skin of opponents by licking their faces. On Friday Marchand got lick on face Lightning's Ryan Callahan after the two had scuffled earlier in the playoffs. He licked the Maple Leafs Leo Komarov. Who won the regular season game got a kiss on the cheek from Marchand. The Saturday met with the NHL and he was warned a potential suspension was waiting for him if he failed to lick his antics. Thankfully for Brad Marchand he doesn't have to worry about it because his team was eliminated from the playoffs yesterday. TIMPF: I love hockey. Only in hockey. BRENBERG: Imagine if Trump licked Mueller's face if they ever had the sit- down. There you go. BARTIROMO: Wow. BRENBERG: I'm thinking of Tyson and the biting of the ear. ROSCHELLE: Biting of the ear. BARTIROMO: Yes, that's right. BRENBERG: Stay away from that stuff. BARTIROMO: How about standing for the national anthem? NFL could make standing for the national anthem a team choice. Washington Post has reported that the league is considering giving the teams the power to craft their own anthem policies as a compromise. Th currently policy recommends but does not require players to stand. What do you think? MAX: Roger Goodell is essentially driving the car. He has -- he has the power to make those decisions driving the car and what he's basically done is saying hey, anybody want to weigh in on this? If you think you're going to get a better result with this, there's no way. There's no way. 32 teams. BRENBERG: Yes. MAX: Just because one owner thinks he can get most of his players on board, what if he got one guy who doesn't want to do it? Dumb idea. Either make them do it or you don't. Or we just stop talking about it and they stop doing it. BARTIROMO: Make new rules. TIMPF: I would love that, just stop talking about it. That way -- that's the only reason why it keeps happening. MAX: Of course. BRENBERG: But this is going to create 32 issues now. It's going to -- it's going to blow up the issue essentially. And it really -- and it seems like he's sort of advocating responsibility, right? Like make a call on this. TIMPF: He doesn't want to make anymore (INAUDIBLE) -- BRENBERG: He doesn't. But like, this is actually going to create much more of it, I think it's going to be be a rolling story. MAX: And he's also take a national news story and you make it local. And all of those local markets which is just really important to those team. So, this is going to be -- TIMPF: He just wants to be able to say, not my fault. I don't know. It's what they decided. BRENBERG: Yes. BARTIROMO: that's exactly right. Jared: I agree. It sprouts them. Now you've got one problem and now you've got 32 of them. BARTIROMO: All right. We will watch it. Jared, thank you. MAX: Thanks, Maria. BARTIROMO: Catch Jared's sports reports on FOX News Headlines 24/7 Sirius radio XM115. We'll sit in a quick break. Then, oil prices hit the highest level since 2014 fueled by tensions with Iran, this ahead of the deadline for the president to re-certify the Iran nuclear deal, that would be on May 12th. That's next hour. Right here "MORNINGS WITH MARIA" Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Good Monday morning everybody. Thanks for joining us. I'm Maria Bartiromo. Happy Monday to you. It is Monday, May 7th. Your top stories right now, 8:00 a.m. on the East Coast. Markets are poised for gains this morning. Futures indicating a higher opening for broader averages. Dow Industrials set to openly 75 points a third of a percent. Extending the rally on Friday, it was a volatile session on Friday after the April jobs report. We will show you later this hour how you could have made money if you watch this program Friday morning. Markets are up 332 points at the close, 1-1/3 of a percent. The NASDAQ was up one and three quarters percent. 122 points higher on Friday. Global markets this morning are fractionally better but no big moves. We got the DAX Index in Germany the best performer, up two thirds of one percent. But 75 points higher. The CAC Quarante in Paris is flat, and markets in London closed for a holiday. In Asia overnight, markets are mostly higher at the close with the exception of Japan. Korea's closed for a holiday and -- END [Copy: Content and Programming Copyright 2018 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2018 ASC Services II Media, LLC. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of ASC Services II Media, LLC. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.] [Show: MORNINGS WITH MARIA] [Date: May 7, 2018] [Time: 06:00:00] [Tran: 050701cb.231] [Type: Show] [Head: Average Hourly Earnings in April Up 2.5% from a Year Ago; NAFTA Talks; Musk Meltdown; A.G. Sessions under Fire; Nunes We Have To Move Quickly to Hold A.G. Sessions in Contempt; Mueller Probe; Volcano Destroys 25 Homes; Man Eats 30,000 Big Mac; Rose O'Donnell Under Fire; SNL Features Stormy Daniels] [Sect: News; Financial] [Byline: Maria Bartiromo, Kat Timpf, Cheryl Casone] [Guest: Brian Brenberg, Mitch Roschelle, Michael Sonnenfeldt, Mark Penn, Marc Lotter, Joe Piscopo] [Spec: Stock Markets; Meetings; Business, Rosie O'Donnell; Oreos; Mondelez; Tate's Bake Shop; McDonald's; Big Mac; Stagwell Group; Microtrends Squared; Justice Department; FBI; Contempt of Congress; Russian Collusion; 2016 Election; Fifth Amendment; Hawaii; Lava Flow; Kilaeua Volcano; Ritz Crackers; Mondelez International; Wisconsin; Guinness Book Of World Records; Don Gorske; Rosie O'Donnell; Illegal Donations; Oversized Donations; Democrat; SNL; White House; Jokes] MARIA BARTIROMO, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK ANCHOR: Here there ladies, thank you so much. Happy Monday to you. Good morning everybody, thanks for joining us. I'm Maria Bartiromo and it is Monday, May 7th. Your top stories right now 6:00 a.m. on the East Coast. Poise for gains, Futures indicating a pretty strong open at the start of trading this morning. Dow Industrials up 60 points right now, that's quarter of a percent. NASDAQ is up two-thirds of a percent, that's 40 points higher. This on top of a rally on Friday. It was a wild day in the street on Friday after that April jobs report. The market was up 332 points at the close, we're going to show you straight ahead how you would have made money if you watched this show on Friday morning, thank you Brian Brenberg. Global markets this morning are higher as well, take a look at European Indices, fractional moves there. Markets in London are closed this morning for a holiday but the DAX Index is up a third of a percent but the CAC Quarante in Paris is up a fraction. In Asia overnight, markets closed mostly higher with the exception of Japan. The Kospi in Korea also closed for a holiday. Shanghai Composite up one and a half percent. We are on oil prices watch this morning, take a look at oil, above $70.00 a barrel, that is the highest level since 2014 amid protests in Iran and that looming deadline over the nuclear deal. This week, May 12th is when the president will decide. Former Senator Joe Lieberman told me he hopes the president fulfills his campaign promise. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOE LIEBERMAN (D), FORMER CONNECTICUT SENATOR: It was a bad deal, a mistake for us. I think the president really has the power to correct that mistake and I hope he does. (END VIDEO CLIP) BARTIROMO: That was Joe Lieberman on with me yesterday. We're taking a closer look this morning. Nestle's coffee business getting an extra buzz from Starbucks, the companies made a deal for Nestle to sell Starbucks bag's coffee and other drinks in grocery stores for more than $7 billion. Meanwhile, a warning for Attorney General Jeff Sessions, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes is threatening to hold him in contempt of Congress. The Justice Department is firing back against Nunes's allegations. We're going to break it all down. It transpired yesterday right here on FOX. Lava overtakes neighborhood's on Hawaii's big island. Take a look at these pictures, the fiery lava flow damaged dozens of homes forcing even more evacuations. We're going to take you to Hawaii, give you the very latest. Then Big Mac milestone, the Wisconsin man who holds the record for the most Big Macs eaten hits 30,000 Big Macs and he is still going. All those stories coming up this Monday morning and joining me to break it all down, FOX News Contributor, Kat Timpf is here. The King's College Professor in Business and Economicsm Brian Brenberg is here. And PWC Partner, Mitch Roschelle. MITCH ROSCHELLE, PARTNER, PWC: Good morning. KAT TIMPF, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Good morning. BARTIROMO: Good morning to you. ROSCHELLE: I'm blown away about that big night story. TIMPF: Yes. BRIAN BRENBERG, BUSINESS ECONOMICS PROFESSOR, THE KING'S COLLEGE: How many hundreds of gallons of special sauce would you have to consume for that many? I mean think about it, it's like it's room full or something. BARTIROMO: By the way, he said he lost weight over the years that he's been eating all of these Big Macs. TIMPF: Probably -- is that all he eats per day? Just one Big Mac.? BARTIROMO: I guess so. I don't know. BRENBERG: It sounds like a new ad campaign for McDonald's, Big Mac lose weight. BARTIROMO: So much to talk about this morning. Good economic news on Friday, you called on Friday Brian. You said this mark is going to turn around and it's going to trade up. It's exactly what happened. BRENBERG: Yes. Well look, just don't mark my words every time I get it wrong. A 99 out of a 100 times I get it wrong but I think it's an interest rate story, you know. I was sitting in this chair in March when we were looking at wages being slightly higher growth than expected and the market just tanked. So, for me, I think people just don't know what the Fed's going to do this year. When they see signals like this, they like it because they think the interest rate's big, it's not going to turn off. BARTIROMO: I don't think the Fed's going to be as aggressive as some people think. ROSCHELLE: No, I totally agree with that. I totally agree with that. There's so many things to balance that and plus the deficit issue that's looming out there. BARTIROMO: Yes. ROSCHELLE: You got global economy, you got jobs, you got inflation, you got a dollar that's bouncing around. I don't think they're going to rock the boat. BRENBERG: But isn't it interesting, on Friday, you didn't get great news on trade. I mean, U.S. walked away from China, really nothing happening there. And yet, just because wages came in a little bit low, the market really liked it. So you can see how important that story is for investors. BARTIROMO: Yes, it's true. We'll talk more about it and drill down on what happened on Friday as well as where we are in the economy. Joining the conversation this morning, House Judiciary Committee Member, Florida Congressman, Ron DeSantis is with us. The CEO of Oracle, Mark Hurd with us as well, give us a window of how business is going. Plus, former Senior Advisor to the Clintons and Stagwell Group President, Managing Partner Mark Penn who's been writing some dynamite Op-Eds recently. Former Special Assistant to President Trump, former Press Secretary to Vice President Pence, Marc Lotter is here as well. Plus, Saturday Night Live Alum, Actor and Radio Host, Joe Piscopo makes an appearance this morning. You don't want to miss moments of it, so do stay with us for the big show. And we kick it off right here with a look at markets. Futures are extending gains after April's jobs report. Show that 164,000 jobs were added to the economy last month with the unemployment rate ticking down to 3.9 percent. Can wage growth continue at these levels? Wage growth came in all weaker than expected at 2.6 percent year-over-year. Here's Brian's prediction on Friday following that job's report. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BRENBERG: The wage number here is totally unimpressive, 2.6, less than expected, nowhere near the level that you really want to see with more -- people getting more money in their pockets. So this is a -- probably markets going to like it but not a great report from the standpoint of the health of labor markets. Markets will come back a little bit today, they're going to like it, the wage number wasn't that high and so I think you're going to see a little bit of a reversal. (END VIDEO CLIP) BARTIROMO: And that's what we saw, markets closed at 300 plus points. BRENBERG: Yes. Yes. BARTIROMO: So it was really the wage number that influenced you. BRENBERG: I hate being right about bad news, moving markets higher by the way. I would like to see wages go up and I just think right now people are so nervous about -- I mean, interest rates have been the story in markets for years and years and years. If we would have gotten a good wage number, uh-oh, here comes inflation, what's Powell going to do? We're going to see four rate increases this year, investors are going to hate that. So to me, it is all about inflation wages and interest rate even more so than trade right now, even though that's the headline issue. BARTIROMO: Uh-hmm. ROSCHELLE: Well the thing is, we've grown this economy around the world largely on low interest rate. BRENBERG: Yes. ROSCHELLE: So everybody's worried if you raise the interest rates, does that choke up corporate earnings, does that choke up economic growth? So, anything that could nudge or (INAUDIBLE) people, get worried about in the market. BARTIROMO: Look, a lot of people have said on this program actually that the biggest risk to the economy right now and growth and the market is the Federal Reserve, that they blow it, that they overshoot, that they do too many interest rate hikes, or they blow it on the wind down of the balance sheet. I think they're going to be very careful and we're not going to see. I mean, we're -- I would say three total, so that means two more. We are expecting an interest rate hike in June. BRENBERG: Yes. ROSCHELLE: Yes. I'm with you on two more. I think doing one more, get in the 10-year in the mid threes could be very problematic for the economy. BRENBERG: And because -- partly because the GDP expectations have softened so much. BARTIROMO: Yes. Yes. BRENBERG: We've talked about that going to the next year capital and talking about this. Do you really want to raise rates that much when there's the possibility that GDP doesn't -- BARTIROMO: Oh, the slowdown. BRENBERG: -- stand this three percent level. So I agree with you, I think Powell is going to be cautious and I think this report gave more ammo for that. BARTIROMO: Yes. and we were looking at the Journal highlighting a market's piece recently saying, "Stocks and bonds are going nowhere fast." This is from Sunday, May 6. The report is also saying concerns over global economic growth amid the likelihood of tightening monitory policy leaving investors in a rut. And that's exactly the point here that we're seeing expectations for growth come down. What he's referring to Kaplan, Robert Kaplan from the Dallas Fed told me that in the end of 2019, we're going to see the GDP go down to one and three quarters percent Mitch. ROSCHELLE: That's very -- that's very -- BARTIROMO: That's a big drop. ROSCHELLE: That's very scary and that would be our economy growing at a slower pace in other global economies, that's very problematic. BARTIROMO: But it's because of demographics, baby boomers retiring, lot of technical things is what he was pointing to. And by the way, I just want to say when I brought this up to Steven Mnuchin he said, "Absolutely not." ROSCHELLE: Yes. BARTIROMO: He's expecting three percent growth for a couple of years. BRENBERG: He seemed a little too quick to (INAUDIBLE) some of this data Maria. BARTIROMO: Yes. Yes, yes, yes. BRENBERG: I want to be an optimist too but look, you've got to consider all scenarios here. I do think Powell and the Fed are going to consider those scenarios when they think about interest rates this year. BARTIROMO: Yes. So, does oil move on a stronger economy or does an economy weaken as oil prices gets higher? We're watching oil this morning, those prices are at their highest levels since 2014 and it's largely during the protest in Iran, the looming nuclear deal deadline. This coming as Vice President Mike Pence is meeting with British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson today in Washington. They're going to talk about the Iran deal. Johnson expected to encourage the White House to stay in the deal but here's what former Democratic Vice Presidential Nominee and Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman told me yesterday. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LIEBERMAN: I'm encouraged to -- by what the president has said so far and I hope he does pull out because I give you a perspective of somebody who was in the Senate for 24 years, worked with people in both parties to put sanctions, economic pressure on Iran with a singular goal which was to denuclearize Iran to stop their nuclear weapons development program. And what the Obama Administration, NRL as in Europe did was not dead. (END VIDEO CLIP) BARTIROMO: He goes on to slam former Secretary of State John Kerry for reportedly working on the sidelines to rally support to renew the Iran deal. Kat, your reaction to this? We know that apparently John Kerry has been meeting with people on the QT to try to figure out how we can salvage this year, this was his deal. TIMPF: Right, this is his deal. And I think it's probably more of a personal thing than the fact that this was actually a good deal. It wasn't a good deal and I don't know about completely exiting it but there are changes that need to be made in order to kind of respect ourselves a little bit more. BARTIROMO: Yes. And like checking on whether or not they're developing nuclear (INAUDIBLE) TIMPF: Very basic, right? Very -- what's the point of having the deal? ROSCHELLE: The core of the issue here -- TIMPF: What's the point of having the deal if we're not actually using it to check? I don't understand. I know some people say it's better than nothing but is it? I don't know. I think that there need to be some serious changes made to this deal. BARTIROMO: The deadline is May 12th when the president will make an announcement in terms of whether or not he's going to renew this deal or pull out. My bet, he pulls out. ROSCHELLE: Yes. TIMPF: That's what his campaign promise was. ROSCHELLE: But that's also a self -- he imposed that deadline, so he could always kick it down the road a little bit if he's not ready to make an announcement. BARTIROMO: OK. Then there's NAFTA, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer meeting with his Mexican and Canadian counterparts today to rework the trade agreement among the proposals gaining steam is this so- called sunset clause. That triggers a renegotiation of the agreement every five years. Here's what the Chief Executive of Royal Bank of Canada, Dave McKay told me last week. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DAVE MCKAY, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, ROYAL BANK OF CANADA: Sunset clause, as an investor, you need certainty over the term of your investment and how long will the policy apply. Right now, NAFTA is on on every green agreement. It continues to renew unless the president or Congress institutes the 180- day clause to remove the United States. Well you cannot get into a partisan political process every time NAFTA matures every five years because as an investor, I want to know there's certainty on investment beyond five years. (END VIDEO CLIP) BARTIROMO: Most people would like to see a new deal in place Brian before the Mexican elections which happen July 1. I think they're going to get it done. BRENBERG: I do too. And I -- BARTIROMO: Yes. It sounds optimistic. BRENBERG: And I think it's incredibly helpful to be revisiting the treaty at this point but I do agree on this issue of every five years. I mean, you're talking about a lot of companies with investment time horizons that go way beyond five years. It's hard to make big investments when you don't know what the trade flows are going to be. BARTIROMO: That's a very good point. BRENBERG: So, I do think that is an issue. I'd like to see them actually move away from that. There's other good things they can do here but you don't want to rattle companies every five years about where they can sell and source product. BARTIROMO: Another issue is the origination. So where does a car originate from? How much of that car is produced in the U.S., in Canada, or in Mexico? That's something that this administration is also pushing for, more production in North America. ROSCHELLE: And a lot of this goes back -- we've talked about this on the show before when border adjustment tax was in the conversation. A lot of parses, supply chain of a car transferred back and forth over the border. They get assembled here, they go back there, they go back and back. So -- BARTIROMO: Which is a worry over tariff. Sometimes you're going to tariff one product. ROSCHELLE: Right. Right. And -- BARTIROMO: When the nails are from Mexico and the seat is from -- ROSCHELLE: And it gets upholstered here and then goes back there for assembly, so. BARTIROMO: Exactly. All right, we'll keep talking about all that above. We're going to take a break. When we come back, a Florida sheriff's deputy clinging to his life this morning after being shot in the line of duty. The very latest on his condition is next. And then a sweet new deal for Starbucks, Nestle has agreed to sell Starbucks products across the globe. What the multibillion dollar deal means for both companies when we come right back, stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. A Florida deputy fighting for his life this morning after being shot in the head. Cheryl Casone with the details right now, Cheryl. CHERYL CASONE, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK ANCHOR: That's right Maria. Deputy William Gentry was responding to a call about a cat being shot when the gunman fired in Lake Placid, Florida. The suspect identified as Joseph Ables has been arrested. The Highlands County Sheriff's Department says he has a violent history with law enforcement. Deputy Gentry is a nine-year veteran of the force and serves with his brother who is a detective. Well, Nestle and Starbucks are teaming up. Nestle's paying Starbucks more than $7 billion to sell Starbucks in homes. The business has $2 billion in sales and reinforces Nestle's position as the world's biggest coffee company. The deal doesn't include products inside of Starbuck's shops. About 500 Starbucks employees are going to be joining Nestle and operations are going to be located in Seattle. Starbucks, the stock is higher in the premarket on this news. As you can imagine, it's up almost three percent right now. Well, state coffers around the country are getting fatter. The Wall Street Journal reports that the fiscal picture for many states is rosier than in the last several years thanks in part to the Federal Tax law. Revenue collections are up and tax proceeds are beating expectations. The (INAUDIBLE) is raising some cautionary flags here noting that more volatility in financial markets raises the threat for states in that widening federal deficits can weaken the federal government's ability to aid states during the next recession, whenever that's going to be. And then this, the Avengers: Infinity War movie has surpassed the $1 billion mark at the global box office. (VIDEOCLIP) CASONE: So this weekend's (INAUDIBLE) for the movie enough to beat the record previously held by a fellow Marvel movie Black Panther. 2015 Star Wars, the Force Awaken still holding on to the record for biggest second weekend. Only five movies have ever hit that $100 million mark in their second weekend at the box office, pretty astounding. Meanwhile, the remake of the $1987 comedy, one of my favorites, Overboard, they're remade it Maria, it's got Anna Faris, this came in second place, $14.8 million. Bumped down to number three was The Quiet Place, they brought in $7.6 million there. Running up for top five, I Feel Pretty and Rampage. Finally a reason to go to the box office, they remade Overboard Maria. I've seen that movie like -- BARTIROMO: But wow, is Disney on fire or what with all of these films from Marvel? BRENBERG: No. And they seem like they come out about once a month too. I mean, clearly not paying attention but I mean this franchise is so powerful. TIMPF: I don't get it. I personally don't get it, superhero movies, it's like every single one is the same. There's some sort of conflict and then the good guys win in the end. ROSCHELLE: Kat I'm warning you, you're going to get blown up on Twitter right now. TIMPF: I know I am. I know I am. I know I am. People are going to hate me for it but I don't get it. I don't need to see the movie, I know. ROSCHELLE: And I think I'm going to start it right now. I'm (INAUDIBLE) you up on Twitter. TIMPF: If people would -- there's people with super powers and people with different super powers who are evil and then they fight and then the good guys win in the end. There you go, I just saved you $20.00. ROSCHELLE: Just like real life Kat. Come on, just like real life. BARTIROMO: Sometimes. Sometimes the good guys don't win. ROSCHELLE: That's true. BARTIROMO: We'll take a break. When we come back, he did do threats against the Justice Department. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes says he's holding Attorney General Jeff Sessions in contempt of Congress because he still hasn't gotten the documents he's requesting. The DOJ is firing back. Then the mind of Musk, a bizarre earnings call last week, the trouble for Tesla. Is Elon Musk's brush attitude still a boon or a bust for his big ideas? What investors are saying next, back in a moment right here. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Now this, Telsa -- Tesla tantrum, CEO Elon Musk shocking Wall Street last week with his antics on the earnings call by calling analysts questions boring, bonehead questions. He backtracks on Friday after the stock took a huge hit saying that it was foolish to ignore the analyst questions. My next guest has a different perspective on Musk's behavior. Joining us right now is Michael Sonnenfeldt. He is the Chairman of Tiger 21. Michael, you've got members who mostly agree with how Musk handled that call. Tell us about it. MICHAEL SONNENFELDT, CHAIRMAN, TIGER 21: So Musk has done something -- he's one of the great entrepreneurs of our time in SpaceX. He's taken a pound that used to cost $40,000 to put into space and it cost $1,200 now. He's completely changed that industry, Tesla the same. So Tesla as a stock, up and down but as an entrepreneur he's one of the great entrepreneurs of our time. BARTIROMO: So, was it OK that he basically said -- I mean, they wanted to know about liquidity issues, they wanted to know why the company burn so much cash and he said, :Look, these are all bonehead questions." SONNENFELDT: Yes, I don't think they're bonehead questions. I think the - - many entrepreneurs get out over their skates and people are wondering whether Tesla is overpriced or underpriced but I would separate that from he's still one of the great entrepreneurs of our time. BRENBERG: But the questions -- so everybody kind of acknowledged that he's a great entrepreneur, is the question whether he can make the transition to the guy who can run a scaling business, right? I mean, it's Model 3, if you want to see Model 3s produced consistently, he's sleeping on the factory floor, we can't seem to get that done. I mean, is he at that point where his skill set needs to change and he can't do that? SONNENFELDT: Most of our members created great businesses all across North America, we have 600 members, everyone went through this transition. You don't -- it fits in starts. It's this role of the entrepreneur is fail, succeed, fail, and move on. 1So he's acting like a typical entrepreneur but in the public light and in a scale that we've never seen before. BARTIROMO: I love what he did this weekend because basically the Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meetings going on and Warren Buffett said something like, "Look, businesses with a moat around them are really great businesses." So over the weekend, Musk react -- respond to them says, "I don't care about having a moat around your business, it's no big deal." So Warren Buffett challenges him and says, "Oh really? Well how about my candy company, See's Candy, it has its own moat around it." And warned Musk, you should not take on -- take me on in the candy business. So what does Musk do? He says, "Oh, I'm starting a candy company." TIMPF: Yes. And then he added (INAUDIBLE) he said, "It's going to be amazing." And then he added another tweet, "I am super, super serious." Not just serious, super, super serious. SONNENFELDT: I'll tell you something sweeter than that, Warren Buffett said that if you invested $10,000 in 1942 it would be worth $51 million today, that's a 12 percent compound of return and that's the S&P, not even Berkshire Hathaway. That talks about the enduring nature of our economy. You have -- Warren Buffett is one of the great investors, Elon Musk is one of the great entrepreneurs. I hope he doesn't get out over a skates and I hope he survives. ROSCHELLE: But Berkshire Hathaway is a fully sort of diversified business with all the portfolio companies they have. The question is, is the diversification that test -- or Musk has, will it be as durable as what Berkshire Hathaway has done? SONNENFELDT: It's way too early to tell. Way too early. BARTIROMO: What are your members talking about and thinking is important these days? The majority of their holdings are in real estate and private equity, is that right? SONNENFELDT: Yes. So real estate is 30 percent, private equity is 22, still public equity is 22. When you add those up, we're at over 70 percent and when our members are talking and meetings all across North America, they're kind of saying, "What do we look at?" Because it's not just interest rates, inflation, wage inflation, that's an important factor. We have some contradictions right now that is why they're kind of holding their breath. What are the contradictions? We have amazingly low unemployment but we also have low rates of participation, that shouldn't be. At this point in the cycle we should have wages heating up a lot more than they are. That talks about the economic power of the middle and working class, not as strong as it should be. Maybe that's because the technology and being erased. People are concerned about Iran, North Korea but they're really concerned about trade war, nobody thinks that will benefit us. So you have these kind of contradictions and in a meeting, we have these confidential meetings. I asked one of the meetings two weeks ago, how many members have delayed or put off making a decision because of what's going on in Washington? A majority of members said they've delayed. Doesn't mean they stopped investing. ROSCHELLE: In their primary businesses? SONNENFELDT: In their -- in their investing activities. ROSCHELLE: OK. SONNENFELDT: So people are nervous but we're fully invested, it's not crisis mode by any means and fundamentally the economy is strong. We had great growth, it's pretty amazing. BARTIROMO: That's what you said earlier. We need the certainty, business managers need certainty in order to put money to work for the next 10 years. BRENBERG: Well -- and they just hate the uncertainty. It's interesting you mentioned the trade issue. Friday was to me just the day of uncertainty when it comes to trade. The U.S. leaves China, there is nothing really on the table. I mean, how do you look at that, does that make you even more worried about the trade situation? SONNENFELDT: It's like an adult looking at children. If you listen to what Warren Buffett this weekend about the chin -- he said, "Neither, it's not in China's interest or the United States to create a trade war. That's what common sense says. If common sense prevails, we'll be fine." Let's hope it does. BARTIROMO: Yes. But it's also in the U.S.'s interest to open up markets in China. SONNENFELDT: Without question. BARTIROMO: So -- I mean, you can't have one probably without the other, we'll see. SONNENFELDT: Right. BARTIROMO: If they could actually come back with news that China has agreed to open its market, that would be a huge thing. ROSCHELLE: And that's steel and intellectual property. BARTIROMO: Exactly. That too. Michael, great to have you on the show. Thanks so much. SONNENFELDT: Thanks so much. BARTIROMO: Michael Sonnendfeldt there. Coming up, more than two dozen homes are destroyed by a volcano in Hawaii that is spewing molten rock. Look at these pictures, it's also spewing toxic gas and steam into the air. We're going to bring you the latest on the lava's path of destruction next. And then a Big Mac milestone, find out what this Wisconsin man said after breaking the record and eating his 30th thousand Big Mac, we'll be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Good Monday morning, everybody, thanks so much for joining us. I'm Maria Bartiromo, happy Monday. It is Monday, May 7th. Your top stories right now 6:30 a.m. on the East Coast. Poised for gains, Futures pointing to a higher opening this morning. Check out markets, Dow Industrial set to be up about 40 points, NASDAQ up 32. Extending a rally on Friday, it was a pretty wild day in terms of volatility on Friday, after the April jobs' report. The Dow, when all was said and done, surged 330 points. That was one and a third percent. The NASDAQ was up 1-3/4 percent, big day, Friday. Global markets, this morning, look like this, in Europe, slight gains as you can see, markets are closed in London, this morning, for a holiday. The CAC Quarante in Paris is fractionally moving and the DAX Index in Germany is up a third of a percent. In Asia overnight, markets finished mostly higher, Shanghai Composite in China, up one and a half percent, Korea, closed for a holiday. Contempt of Congress charges, that is the latest against Attorney General Jeff Sessions over the Justice Department, not complying with a subpoena. The DOJ fires back but here is what House Judiciary Committee Member, John Ratcliffe, told me, Sunday, about the document release and what the real issue is. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. JOHN RATCLIFFE (R-TX), MEMBER, HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: As Congress has pressed on those documents have come out, we found that a lot of the information that's been redacted or kept from public view, have really reflected more on the department or the FBI and its senior officials and to save them from embarrassment or from potential infractions or misconduct. (END VIDEO CLIP) BARTIROMO: What is the DOJ hiding? We are taking a closer look at the back and forth, this morning. Meanwhile, Rosie O'Donnell in hot water, but not for comedy, she went over the legal limit for campaign donations, the backlash, coming up on campaign finance rules. Lava is overtaking neighborhoods in Hawaii's big island, this morning. The fiery lava flow has damaged dozens of homes and has forced more evacuations. We're going to take you there. Plus, the parent company of Oreos, adding another cookie brand to its pantry, Mondelez, acquiring Tate's Bake Shop for roughly $500 billion, plus Big Mac milestone, the Wisconsin man who holds the record for Big Macs eating, hits 30,000 and he's still going, eating Big Macs, all that coming up this morning. But first, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, has doubled down on Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Congressman Nunes outlined the potential consequences if Sessions does not comply with the subpoena, investigating alleged surveillance abuses at the Justice Department. He called in on "Fox & Friends", yesterday, I was with House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Sunday Morning Futures when I spoke with him about Nunes' calls for Contempt of Congress. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. DEVIN NUNES (R-CA), CHAIR, HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Two weeks ago, we sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a classified letter, per usual, it was ignored, not acknowledged, just completely ignored. So last week, we sent a subpoena and then on Thursday, we discovered that they are not going to comply with our subpoena. The only thing left that we can do is we have to move quickly to hold the Attorney General of the United States, in contempt. REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA), LEADER, HOUSE MAJORITY: Every time they have stone-walled us, we have not given up. And when we did get the information, it was very interesting how the information would come forward, that people would then start resigning or quitting from these organizations. BARTIROMO: Right. MCCARTHY: based upon the action that they took place. (END VIDEO CLIP) BARTIROMO: Now, the Department of Justice says that it responded to Congressman Nunes with a letter, this past Thursday, the letter reads in part, this, the Department has determined that consistent with applicable law and long-standing Executive Branch policy, it is not in a position to provide information responsive to your request regarding a specific individual. The Department and its Intelligence community partners would welcome the opportunity to discuss whether there are other ways to accommodate the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence's oversight inquiry. Joining me right now is Former Senior Adviser to the Clintons, President, Managing Partner of the Stagwell Group and author of Microtrends Squared, Mark Penn is with us. Also joining me is Former Special Assistant to President Trump, Former Press Secretary to Vice President Pence, Marc Lotter. Good to see you, gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us. MARC LOTTER, FORMER SPECIAL ASSISTANT, PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, UNITED STATES: Good morning. MARK PENN, PRESIDENT AND MANAGING PARTNER, STAGWELL GROUP: Good morning. BARTIROMO: So, Mark Penn, you've written some really fantastic op-eds recently, basically, stating what, you know, what are they hiding and why are we continuing to go see the stone walling, what's your take on what we've learned over the weekend, that Nunes says, look, it's time for contempt of charges against Jeff Sessions and the Department of Justice pushing back saying, we are not complying with this one? PENN: Well, I think, what we've learned over the weekend is that the -- both the Justice Department, the FBI and the special prosecutor, now, are all facing pressure from the White House, Republicans in Congress, and now, for the first time, some judges to say, hey, you can't have a secret investigation on the basis of secret documents and then have a Special Counsel with a secret set of instructions. You have to disclose why are we doing this and what are we doing? And, I think, you're seeing everybody in all of these areas now begin to create this kind of pressure, and I don't think either the Justice Department or the Special Counsel can continue to withhold this information for long. This process goes on over and over again, where they drag their feet and then it simply all comes out. BARTIROMO: You know, Devin Nunes, basically, is sitting on some big information, is what he's suggesting and, you know, he says as soon as we get the confirmation, and that confirmation is going to come from these redacted documents once the DOJ and the FBI give them up, that it's going to be VERY clear to America, what took place here during the 2016 election. Do you think it's clear or has become clear what took place, Mark? PENN: Well, not entirely, but it does look like this entire investigation is what I've called the fruits of a poisonous tree, which is that, there was malfeasance or corruption within the FBI, the CIA, generating, you know, warrants to tap Americans without adequate foundations, and then the same thing having Rosenstein appoint an independent counsel, when he authored the memo to fire Comey, and then creates the counsel because Comey is fired. None of this is striking Americans as rational. Americans still support the Mueller investigation, but they think McCabe has lied. They think there are serious questions about the FBI and I think that it's time for Mueller to start answering these questions along with Rosenstein and poor Sessions, has been nothing but road kill in this whole thing. BARTIROMO: Right. You know what's interesting that nobody has picked up on, Nunes, yesterday, said that he is calling for Contempt of Congress charges against Jeff Sessions, not Rod Rosenstein, and I think the reason is because he thinks Rod Rosenstein is conflicted in the whole thing and shouldn't be working on any of this because Rod Rosenstein was one of the people who approved the FISA warrant. If you remember, his signature is on the FISA warrant, which we know, they got a FISA warrant and all they did was use the dossier as their -- as their justification to wiretap and listening to Carter Page. Marc Lotter, Mark just said that, you know, the Special Counsel is beginning to face some pressure, that's what we saw on Friday. Mr. Mueller's team was in court trying to advance its tax and bank fraud charges against Paul Manafort, who briefly ran the Trump presidential campaign in 2016. A great op-ed from James Freeman, this morning, in the Journal saying, this is a judge who has been serving on a federal bench since the 1980s. He's old enough to remember when the Justice Department's Special Counsel, Robert Mueller's investigation was about alleged Russian collusion. Now, he's saying to Mueller, look, we want to know what this is about, we want to why your signature prosecution does not appear to have anything to do with Russian collusion. LOTTER: It's absolutely clear and it's growing, increasingly, more every day than what we have here, as opposed to the FBI investigating a crime and looking for a person responsible. They are investigating people and looking for crimes. And that's just not the way our justice system works, I think, you've got now two judges that are starting to push back on that and the American people to Mark's point, a few minutes ago, are really seeing through a lot of this. BARTIROMO: Mark Penn, this is the U.S. District Judge, T.S. Ellis, in the Eastern District of Virginia. He says, I don't see what relationship this indictment has, with anything the Special Counsel is authorized to investigate. First, we were told that this Special Counsel Investigation was about Russian collusion, then we were told it might be about obstruction of justice, now, we are hearing that it's about, them, finding information about Stormy Daniels and payments to Stormy Daniels. This investigation has gone so far field of what it was supposed to be, is that -- is that proper? PENN: Well, think through the logic of what the judge is saying. In essence, and, I think, he'll get there, the folks that have been targeted by the Special Counsel's office, are really America's first political prisoners. They have piled on to these folks with predawn raids, making it clear they're being investigated, with Manafort's case, they started cases in two jurisdictions to make it physically and monetarily impossible for him to defend, even though he is holding out for others. They have threatened them with prosecution of their family in order to get them to plea. This has now become political in nature. While we might have gone after Al Capone for tax evasion, it's quite another thing to apply these techniques to people who work in campaigns and White Houses. We will -- cannot have a government and democracy is that's what's going to happen here. BARTIROMO: Right, and Marc Lotter, you know, this judge, Ellis, not only wants to know what this prosecution of Paul Manafort has to do with Russian collusion, he also wants to know what the scope of the mandate that Robert Mueller has is, because, you know, Michael Mukasey, former A.G., yesterday, told me that somewhere along the process, Rod Rosenstein expanded the scope of what Robert Mueller can look at, but he didn't share that with the public. LOTTER: And if you go back and look at the court hearing on Friday, they were resisting the judge, who was asking for that information. So just like with Congress, they are operating in a complete secrecy with no oversight, the judge wasn't having any of it and to your earlier point, it looks like Congress is not having any of it and finally, we are going to have some transparency one way or the other when it comes to the activities that are taking place, locked behind closed doors, looking at people, trying to find crimes. BARTIROMO: So, do you think this pushback, then, is the beginning of perhaps, a change in where this investigation goes, Mark Penn, what do you think? Because a former personal attorney for President Trump says the President will not sit down for an interview with the Special Counsel because of just this. He is describing the concerns about the investigation going all over the place. He said this on Fox News, yesterday. Listen to this. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ATTY. JOSEPH DIGENOVA, FORMER PERSONAL LAWYER OF PRESIDENT TRUMP: The President will not sit down for an interview because this investigation has now reached a level of bad faith, this is no longer a good-faith investigation. (END VIDEO CLIP) BARTIROMO: So what do you think? Is that going wide, Mark Penn, what do you think? PENN: Well, we don't really know what the President's final decision is. You know, when I worked with President Clinton, we thought about all of this and ultimately decided that it was better for the President to testify than take the Fifth Amendment. I think, though, what you have seen is, that the President, previously, just had lawyers who said, hey, just cooperate and this will go away. At a certain point, they realized that this investigation just was becoming an octopus in nature and spreading into more and more areas and was never going away, and now, he's playing offense, as well as, defense because if he doesn't find a way to stop the investigation or end it, it will go on for years and years, as the one on Clinton did. BARTIROMO: Right. And Marc Lotter, you made an important point earlier when you said, look, they're supposed to be investigating criminal activity, not individual people, once you start investigating individuals like Paul Manafort, like whoever, you can go back 20 years and try to -- and try to find something that they may have done wrong which has nothing to do with the Russian collusion. LOTTER: And that's what you're seeing time and time again, most of the people who have been indicted, at least the American citizens that have been indicted by the Special Counsel have not been indicted for things about the Russian collusion investigation. it is going back looking at their prior business experience, their prior business activities, and as the judge rightfully noted on Friday, they are basically trying to put the pressure on them to flip and provide information and their ultimate goal, which is to prosecute or impeach the President of the United States, that's why he keeps calling it a witch hunt. BARTIROMO: Right. I don't understand, Mark Penn, why there's such discontent between the Justice Department and Devin Nunes. I mean, they're supposed to have equal powers that's supposed to be an oversight branch, overseeing the Justice Department and the Intelligence agencies, but it seems like even today, in Donald Trump's presidency, the Justice Department is against any questions about his behavior. PENN: Well, not only that, but remember, this is a Republican committee chairman going after Republican Attorney General, the man (INAUDIBLE) that is because there's a government within the government. Rosenstein, here, got recusal of Sessions, they even got the U.S. Attorney in New York to recuse himself from the Stormy Daniels, Cohen investigation, so that, really, this government now operates in a complete vacuum of accountability. And that's why you see Marc Lotter and I, maybe not having the most vigorous partisan debate because, I think, we need some more bipartisanship here. BARTIROMO: Right. PENN: Right? And whether it's Nunes going after the same party or people of different parties, this thing has gone too far with too much power, the judge said it perfectly well. BARTIROMO: People do not want anybody having unfettered power. That's the bottom line. And the Justice Department should recognize that. Mark Penn, Marc Lotter, good to see you both, gentlemen, thank you. LOTTER: Thank you. PENN: Thank you. BARTIROMO: We'll keep talking about that. Then, there's Rosie O'Donnell, she's under fire, wait till you see what she did in terms of campaign donations, next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. More than two dozen homes in Hawaii destroyed by a volcano. Cheryl Casone with the details now, Cheryl. CASONE: That's right, Maria. The lava flow from Hawaii's Kilauea volcano intensifying as it burns through those homes forcing more than 1700 people to evacuate. Incredible video showing lava shooting more than 300 feet into the air according to the U.S. geological survey -- molten rock, hot steam, and dangerous levels of sulfur dioxide gas are potential threats here. At least 10 fishers have opened up on the big island. Well, the maker of Oreos and Ritz Crackers is adding another snack to its pantry. Mondelez International is buying cookie maker Tate's Bake Shop for about $500 billion. Mondelez U.S. sales were down in the last quarter while Tate's sales have quadrupled in the past five years. The South Hampton, New York company best known for their chocolate chip cookies with that greater and white label in the bag, of course, one of New Yorkers love, these guys. Shares of Mondelez down nine percent, so far this year. Well, a Wisconsin man hitting a big mac milestone -- eating burger number 30,000th. Don Gorske, join (INAUDIBLE) in March when he said a new Guinness World record for most big macs eaten. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DON GORSKE, AMERICAN WORLD RECORD HOLDER AND BIG MAC ENTHUSIAST: It's great to have a Guinness world record. Like I say, when you have a habit that's kind of unique and stuff, it's great to have it recognized. The record would've happened whether or not Guinness was there. Big macs are my favorite food. So, I'm just going to keep eating them every day. (END VIDEO CLIP) CASONE: There you go. The 64-year-old says that he has been eating two McDonald's big macs every day for the past 46 years. Gorske says that despite his habit, he feels pretty health and he's got good cholesterol. He has to make -- it's going to take him another 14 years to hit the next big milestone, which would be 40,000. Shares of McDonald's are up 10 percent over the last year. Maybe he's helping out the stock, Maria. I don't know. BARTIROMO: I think he said, he lost weight doing all of this -- he actually lost weight. I'm not recommending it. (LAUGHTER) BRENBERG: Dr. Maria is not necessarily recommending it. TIMPF: I want one right now. BARTIROMO: See, that's the problem, we're talking about big macs. We'll take a break. When we come back, Rosie over the limit; new revelations this morning about Rosie O'Donnell going over the legal in donations to liberal candidates. Then, another week, another "Saturday Night Live" roast of the president. We're talking about the SNL Joe Piscopo and get his take. Back in a moment. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Rosie O'Donnell in hot water. According to the New York Post this morning, comedian Rosie O'Donnell has made illegal oversized donations to at least five Democrats. Her donations reportedly exceeded the FEC's $2,700 limit to Democratic Senator Doug Jones, Pennsylvania Congressman Conor Lamb, and Congressman Adam Schiff among others. O'Donnell reportedly told the post that donating Trump's opposition eases her anxiety. What do you say about that, Kat Timpf? TIMPF: I think that she's a little crazy. I think that there's a screw loose, honestly. If you need to donate that much money to ease your anxiety and -- by the way, there's a lot of options for easing your anxiety that don't involve breaking the law, like maybe she should take a nice hot bath or something like that. BARTIROMO: She's got to ease her anxiety. Joining us right now is AM970 Radio Host, former SML alumni, actor, and comedian, Joe Piscopo. He's live on the radio show right now. Joe, are you there? (LAUGHTER) BARTIROMO: OK. We're going to get to him in a second -- literally, he's on the air live. So, as soon as he knows that we are on hold live for him, he'll come to us because we want to hear what he has to say about the latest episode of "Saturday Night Live", kicked off with the sketch featuring Stormy Daniels, Saturday night. She delivered a message to the president saying, a storm is coming. What do think? Did you see the actual episode? TIMPF: I did and I agree with what Rob Schneider said a few weeks ago about how SNL isn't as funny anymore because you know what the jokes are going to be ahead of time. We know that the bias is against President Trump. There's no real punch line that's going to surprise anyone -- like, oh, I wonder where the sketch is going. No, we already know, it's anti- Trump, to actually have her on, I mean, you can't really make it more obvious than that. BARTIROMO: Joe Piscopo is with us right now. Joe, good morning to you. JOE PISCOPO, AM970 RADIO HOST: Maria, how are you, so great to talk to you this morning. Happy Monday! BARTIROMO: And to you, I just said that as well, happy Monday! Look, we're talking about SNL, Joe. I don't know how you feel about a storm is coming from Stormy Daniels on SNL Saturday night. PISCOPO: You know, Maria, when we -- when I have the privilege of working with you when we do the Club's Day Parade in New York, and then I always say to my three daughters, look at Maria Bartiromo, I know you too long to patronize you, so I say it from my hearth, this is the best example of women in the media in Maria Bartiromo. Three of my girls looked at Maria, that's what you want to stride for. Now, my all alma mater, I love them, I'm loyal to SNL, but Stormy Daniels on SNL? Lauren Michael doesn't even ask me to go on SNL. I thought it was way, way over the line and totally unnecessary, Maria. BARTIROMO: Yes. I mean, we were just saying. Kat said, a minute ago here on the panel, that the jokes are become, like, we know what to expect at this point -- it's just trash Donald Trump. I don't know, I don't think it's funny anymore. PISCOPO: I've got to tell you, it's so -- the sketch was well written Ben Stiller was hysterical, Jimmy Fallon was hysterical, and Scarlet Johansson. It was such a great organized script -- sketch written, but you know what, don't put Stormy Daniels in there, what do I tell my kids? Dad, how do I get on Saturday Night Live? Being adult porn star. I mean, really? BARTIROMO: Joe, we've got on my panel here in New York, we've got Brian Brenberg, we've got Kat Timpf, and we've also got Mitch Roschelle from PWC, and we want to ask you, I mean, you know, at one point comedy really was really comedy. I mean, you had -- when you were on SNL, you had clean wholesome comedy and it was funny, but let's talk about the White House Correspondents Dinner, there was nothing funny about Comedian Michelle Wolf. She's facing criticism for that controversial monologue attacking White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Sarah could not have been more of a professional and a lady sitting there taking it all. What was your take on that? PISCOPO: I thought she went too far as well. I mean, do I sound -- I don't want to sound too old here, Maria, but it just she went too far, it was too mean-spirited. And you're right, when we were on the show, don't forget I used to imitate the great Ronald Reagan, the great Ronald Reagan, when I did it on that, but we always what -- BARTIROMO: Do it, do it. (LAUGHTER) PISCOPO: Right, right. When I did Frank Sinatra, it was always -- we always had fun with it. But it was a modicum of respect. Now, they feel like they have to be vicious. It was like -- Maria, when I watched that White House Correspondents' Dinner, it was like I was in the comedy clubs in 1979 and it was 3:00 o'clock in the morning, and it was me and Larry David and Gilbert Gottfried on stage, and we would say anything at any time. It was so inappropriate at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. BARTIROMO: You want to give us an impression as we go to break? Give me an impression. PISCOPO: Hey, baby, fly me to the moon, let me swing among the stars. BARTIROMO: Thank you, Joe Piscopo. Love you, baby. We'll see you soon. (LAUGHTER) (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Good Monday morning, everybody. Thanks so much for joining us this Monday. I'm Maria Bartiromo -- END [Copy: Content and Programming Copyright 2018 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2018 ASC Services II Media, LLC. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of ASC Services II Media, LLC. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.]
Subject: National debt
Location: Iran United States--US New York United Kingdom--UK
People: Reagan, Ronald Wilson Lieberman, Joseph I Johnson, Boris Cohen, Michael D
Company / organization: Name: Fox News Channel; NAICS: 515120; Name: Starbucks Corp; NAICS: 722515
Publication title: International Wire; Lanham
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: May 7, 2018
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: Lanham
Country of publication: United States, Lanham
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2035815229
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2035815229?accountid=4840
Copyright: 2018 ASC Services II Media, LLC
Last updated: 2019-01-25
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 240 of 474
Global Equities Roundup: Market Talk
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]09 May 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
The latest Market Talks covering Equities. Published exclusively on throughout the day.
0838 GMT - Compass Group's first-half results suggest the slowdown in its organic growth was sharper in the second quarter than expected, but it remains in healthier shape than competitors, says Berenberg. The brokerage says 3.7% organic growth in 2Q18 was below Berenberg's own 5% estimate, and was hit by Easter timing, bad weather and contract demobilization. However, Berenberg notes this is still better than the organic growth delivered by rivals Sodexo and Aramark for the quarter, and said Compass remains its top pick in the sector. Shares are down 5.7% at 1494 pence. ([email protected])
0836 GMT - Berenberg says any weakness in Burberry's share price as a result of Groupe Bruxelles Lambert selling its stake in the luxury clothing retailer is a buying opportunity for investors. The broker says Burberry has scope for further growth following its restructuring program. The change in Burberry's cost structure is an opportunity for the company to address its historically low profitability compared with its peers, says Berenberg, and its willingness to return cash to shareholders and make management changes also demonstrates the deep-rooted transformation it is prepared to undergo. Burberry shares are down 7.1% at 1,750 pence. ([email protected])
0833 GMT - Anheuser-Busch InBev's first-quarter results managed to exceed analyst consensus and management expectations despite a tough environment in Brazil, says Bryan Garnier. Beer and soft drinks volumes decreased in the country by 8.1% and 19.1% respectively, as the overall environment was softer, with carnival happening earlier and bad weather. Meanwhile, Mexico's high-teen percentage growth and Colombia's 12.1% growth helped to offset this. South Africa and China performed in line. Shares are up 2.8% at EUR85.04. ([email protected]; @donatopmancini)
0832 GMT - Ahead of Ryanair Holdings's full-year results on May 21, Davy analysts forecast that the airline will deliver high single-digit profit for fiscal 2018. Davy says that fiscal 2019 will be a year of record growth for Ryanair, adding that its current assumption of a 6% increase to 138 million passengers will likely be beaten. However, the analysts say that while they expect Ryanair to maintain underlying cost efficiencies over the competition, cost headwinds from fuel and labor will apply pressure--as will ongoing issues with pilots and unions. London-listed shares at 0824 GMT are down 2%, or EUR0.30, at EUR15.68 per share. ([email protected]; @OliGGriffin)
0829 GMT - Vodafone PLC's acquisition of Liberty Global assets in Germany and eastern Europe will pose a challenge to Deutsche Telekom and could pave the way for U.K. takeovers, says Markets.com. The deal will enable Vodafone to become the big quad-play telecoms provider in the region, meaning big competition for its German rival, says Markets.com's Neil Wilson. Liberty could use the proceeds to do U.K. deals, he adds. "The much-rumored bid for ITV could be on the cards, though Liberty may in fact be minded to go after O2 ahead of its much-rumored stock market listing. Tying up the assets of Virgin and o2 to offer bundled services/quad-play in the UK may be the number one option." Vodafone shares gain 1.5%. ([email protected])
0825 GMT - Vodafone Group's acquisition of Liberty Global's operations in Germany and eastern Europe shows that telecommunication companies opt for scale to face rising costs, Markets.com analyst Neil Wilson says. "With the mounting costs of building out network capacity and 5G, telecoms firms have decided they need to combine or merge assets to have the necessary scale," Mr. Wilson says. Vodafone estimates the deal--which is valued at EUR19 billion--will deliver annual costs and capital-expenditure savings of EUR535 million by the fifth year after completion, before integration costs. Vodafone shares rise 1.4% to 210.45 pence. ([email protected])
0821 GMT - Suez shares fall nearly 9% in early trade following an equally abrupt rise late Tuesday, leading traders to blame a so-called fat-finger error. Given the lack of company news and the sharp nature of the price swings, an erroneous order seems the most likely culprit, say market sources. "Otherwise, how can you explain the almost perfect symmetry between this morning's drop and yesterday's rise?" asks one manager. A Suez spokesperson told Agefi-Dow Jones that the company also favors this assumption. Suez trades 8.9% lower at EUR11.92. ([email protected])
This story was translated in whole or in part from a French-language version initially published by L'Agefi, a partner of Dow Jones & Co.
0820 GMT - Jubilant FoodWorks' strong F4Q results has estimates rising on the operator of Domino's and Dunkin' Donuts restaurants in India. PhillipCapital now expects 15% same-store-sales growth for this FY, 2 points more than before, amid the recent extension of value offers and big ad campaign at cricket matches. Management also plans to add 75 Domino's stores this FY. PhillipCapital sees 34% annual profit growth the next 3 years for Jubilant, which is up 1.2% today and 47% for the year. ([email protected])
0819 GMT - The gains weren't stellar, but the Hang Seng's 0.4% gain and China Enterprises Index's 0.3% rise were enough to make Hong Kong stocks amid the region's best performers amid muted moves generally across Asia. Helping was oil's pop, which sent PetroChina up 4.4% and fellow majors Cnooc and Sinopec higher by more than 2%. Meanwhile, index giant Tencent rebounded a further 1%. ([email protected]; @chester_yung)
0814 GMT - The mood around Imperial Brands is changing for the better as the cigarette-maker continues to raise its dividend and gave optimistic 2H guidance, says Hargreaves Lansdown. The brokerage says that, on a volume basis, Imperial's performance looks to be ahead of industry averages in key markets, while its growth brands are gaining traction. "The market had put Imperial Brands in the dog house until recently, largely due to its perceived lack of heat-not-burn alternative tobacco products," says HL, but with its core tobacco performance showing signs and of improvement and vapor products performing strongly, that looks like it's changing. Shares rise 4.1% to 2,724.50 pence. ([email protected])
0815 GMT - ProSiebenSat.1 shares plunged Wednesday after the company reported a 58% drop in its first-quarter net profit and confirmed its outlook for the year, which some analysts say is obscure. The German broadcaster said it expects a decline in adjusted Ebitda in the second and third quarters, and according to a trader, this guidance may have led shares to fall. Jefferies says it expects the market to remain cautious due to lack of visibility for the fourth quarter, and expects minor downgrades on the back of Wednesday's release. Shares trade 8.8% lower at EUR28.35. (marc.nava[email protected])
0812 GMT - Bayer will likely aim to raise around EUR6 billion in a rights issue to fund its planned takeover of Monsanto, compared with original estimates of EUR17 billion, says Jefferies. After raising EUR4 billion in convertible bonds, EUR4 billion from reducing its stake in Covestro and EUR3 billion in a stock placement to Temasek, the chemical company's funding gap has been significantly reduced, says Jefferies. This will limit the dilutive effects of the rights issue, which should be enough to offset the negative impact of Bayer's recent round of antitrust divestments, says Jefferies. The bank raises its target price on Bayer to EUR123 from EUR119. Bayer trades 0.7% lower at EUR101.00. ([email protected])
(END)
May 09, 2018 04:38 ET (08:38 GMT)-0-
Subject: Corporate profits; Estimates; Breweries; Competition; Cost control; Stock exchanges
Location: United Kingdom--UK Hong Kong Brazil Asia Europe Mexico South Africa India Germany China Colombia
Company / organization: Name: Dunkin Donuts Inc; NAICS: 533110, 722515; Name: Aramark Corp; NAICS: 722310; Name: Ryanair Holdings PLC; NAICS: 481111, 492110; Name: Vodafone Group PLC; NAICS: 517210; Name: Covestro; NAICS: 325180, 325320; Name: Monsanto Co; NAICS: 325180, 325199; Name: Hargreaves Lansdown; NAICS: 523120; Name: CNOOC Ltd; NAICS: 211111; Name: Anheuser-Busch InBev; NAICS: 312120
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: May 9, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2036620711
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2036620711?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc May 9, 2018
Last updated: 2018-05-10
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 241 of 474
Global Equities Roundup: Market Talk
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]09 May 2018. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
The latest Market Talks covering Equities. Published exclusively on throughout the day.
0919 GMT - German reinsurer Munich Re had a "benign" first quarter of the year, Goldman Sachs says. The sharp increase in profit had already been announced in April, GS notes. However, the company's property and casualty reinsureance, as well as life-reinsurance operations, reported operating results above consensus, it adds. "Overall, we consider these results to be in line with market expectations and recent operating trends," it says. Shares in Munich Re trades 1.5% higher at EUR193.90. ([email protected]; @pietrolombard10)
0917 GMT - Singapore shares were slightly higher most of the day and finished there, helped by oil prices rebounding sharply to fresh 3 1/2-year highs. The Straits Times Index rose 0.15% to 3548.54 amid muted moves for most Asian stock benchmarks. But Sembcorp Marine jumped 4.3% and rival rigbuilder Keppel gained 2.1%. Meanwhile, Hutchison Port rose 1.5%. ([email protected]; @journosaurabh)
0914 GMT - Indonesian shares bounced after hitting an 11-month low this morning, for the moment stemming the market's recent slump. The JSX finished up 2.3% at 5907.94, but gainers lead decliners by only a 226-185 margin while foreigners sold another IDR320.92 billion ($22.8 million) of shares on a net basis. But that was more than offset by domestic demand. "For local investors, there's no place to go but the stock market," said a managing director with a local investment bank. Banks, beaten down of late, popped with Negara and Mandiri--the country's 2-largest lenders, jumping a respective 9.9% and 5.5%. The market will be closed Thursday for Ascension Day. ([email protected])
0908 GMT - J.D. Wetherspoon's performance is significantly ahead of the wider market, as third-quarter comparable sales rose 3.5%, Shore Capital says. In the first nine months of fiscal 2018, like-for-like sales slowed to 5.2% from a 6% in the first half, and the U.K. pub chain said the timing of the May bank holiday in 2017 hit this year's sales figures. The brokerage says there is scope for estimate upgrades on Wetherspoon given its strong momentum, but notes that the company's valuation is elevated against historic levels. Shore Capital keeps a sell recommendation on the stock. Shares fall 0.7% to 1,174 pence. ([email protected])
0903 GMT - Anheuser-Busch InBev's results in northern Latin America came in flat, but still beat consensus forecasts that had anticipated a decline, says Liberum. In Brazil, tough competitors, poor weather and an earlier Carnival weighed on 1Q sales, but Liberum says the brewer will benefit greatly from the soccer World Cup in June, as Brazil's winter is mild. Colombia was the "bright spot" for the brewer, says Liberum, increasing revenue by 12% and Ebitda by more than 20%, helped by product launches and the timing of Easter. Shares in AB InBev trade up 2.7% at EUR84.98. ([email protected]; @donatopmancini)
0859 GMT - Shares in Provident Financial PLC rise 8.8% to 699 pence after the U.K. doorstep lender reported a strong start in 2018 and said the recovery plan for its troubled home-credit business is on track. "Today's statement highlights that Provident is making progress with returning the business to some sort of normality," says Peel Hunt Analyst Stuart Duncan. "There is still more to do on the home-credit side, but the indications are encouraging." ([email protected])
0856 GMT - Provident Financial's first-quarter statement suggests its recovery plan is on-track, although vehicle-finance unit Moneybarn is struggling with higher impairments, says Jefferies. The investment bank says the Vanquis Bank credit card business beat Jefferies's own growth estimates with 7.8% customer growth, while the home-credit business was in-line with recovery plans. However, Jefferies says the flow of impairments in Moneybarn from previous new-customer growth bears watching. Jefferies also notes that Provident's capital surplus of GBP120 million is equivalent to historical levels, as it plans to return to a progeessive dividend in 2019. Shares are up 8.8% at 698.40 pence. ([email protected])
0852 GMT - Regulators may have concerns about Vodafone Group's acquisition of Liberty Global assets in Germany, Romania, Hungary and the Czech Republic, so there is a risk it may not happen, says Markets.com analyst Neil Wilson. The deal will mean big competition for Deutsche Telekom as Vodafone will become the big quad-play provider--offering cable, internet, wireless and landline-phone services--in the region, says Mr. Wilson. Deutsche Telekom voiced concerns on the deal on Tuesday and said that it would let antitrust authorities examine the case. Shares in Vodafone rise 1.3% to 210.35 pence, while Deutsche Telekom shares fall 1.3% to EUR14.33. ([email protected])
0842 GMT - Zurich Insurance's first-quarter data shows "a pleasing return to growth" at the company's farmers segment, Jefferies says. This follows a disappointing performance in 2017, it adds. In property and casualty "Zurich's planned cut-back in North America has progressed well, with a 5% life-for-like contraction," it notes. Shares in Zurich Insurance trade 0.4% higher at CHF318.40. ([email protected]; @pietrolombard10)
0838 GMT - European budget airline giant Ryanair Holdings reports full-year results on May 21. Davy Research expects the airline to deliver profit "in line or perhaps at the upper end of guidance." Look for a cautious outlook for the new fiscal year, with fuel costs and labor rising. Ryanair typically issues cautious guidance at the start of the financial year anyway. Ryanair shares down 1.9% on a day higher oil prices are weighing on airline stocks. ([email protected])
0838 GMT - Compass Group's first-half results suggest the slowdown in its organic growth was sharper in the second quarter than expected, but it remains in healthier shape than competitors, says Berenberg. The brokerage says 3.7% organic growth in 2Q18 was below Berenberg's own 5% estimate, and was hit by Easter timing, bad weather and contract demobilization. However, Berenberg notes this is still better than the organic growth delivered by rivals Sodexo and Aramark for the quarter, and said Compass remains its top pick in the sector. Shares are down 5.7% at 1494 pence. ([email protected])
0836 GMT - Berenberg says any weakness in Burberry's share price as a result of Groupe Bruxelles Lambert selling its stake in the luxury clothing retailer is a buying opportunity for investors. The broker says Burberry has scope for further growth following its restructuring program. The change in Burberry's cost structure is an opportunity for the company to address its historically low profitability compared with its peers, says Berenberg, and its willingness to return cash to shareholders and make management changes also demonstrates the deep-rooted transformation it is prepared to undergo. Burberry shares are down 7.1% at 1,750 pence. ([email protected])
(END)
May 09, 2018 05:19 ET (09:19 GMT)
Subject: Corporate profits; Investments; Professional soccer; Breweries; Competition
Location: Czech Republic Hungary Romania North America Germany United Kingdom--UK Latin America Singapore Brazil Colombia
Company / organization: Name: Aramark Corp; NAICS: 722310; Name: Ryanair Holdings PLC; NAICS: 481111, 492110; Name: Provident Financial PLC; NAICS: 522291, 524113; Name: Goldman Sachs Group Inc; NAICS: 523110, 523120; Name: Vodafone Group PLC; NAICS: 517210; Name: Anheuser-Busch InBev; NAICS: 312120
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: May 9, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2036620880
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2036620880?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc May 9, 2018
Last updated: 2018-05-10
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 242 of 474
Global Equities Roundup: Market Talk
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]09 May 2018. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
The latest Market Talks covering Equities. Published exclusively on throughout the day.
0859 GMT - Shares in Provident Financial PLC rise 8.8% to 699 pence after the U.K. doorstep lender reported a strong start in 2018 and said the recovery plan for its troubled home-credit business is on track. "Today's statement highlights that Provident is making progress with returning the business to some sort of normality," says Peel Hunt Analyst Stuart Duncan. "There is still more to do on the home-credit side, but the indications are encouraging." ([email protected])
0856 GMT - Provident Financial's first-quarter statement suggests its recovery plan is on-track, although vehicle-finance unit Moneybarn is struggling with higher impairments, says Jefferies. The investment bank says the Vanquis Bank credit card business beat Jefferies's own growth estimates with 7.8% customer growth, while the home-credit business was in-line with recovery plans. However, Jefferies says the flow of impairments in Moneybarn from previous new-customer growth bears watching. Jefferies also notes that Provident's capital surplus of GBP120 million is equivalent to historical levels, as it plans to return to a progeessive dividend in 2019. Shares are up 8.8% at 698.40 pence. ([email protected])
0852 GMT - Regulators may have concerns about Vodafone Group's acquisition of Liberty Global assets in Germany, Romania, Hungary and the Czech Republic, so there is a risk it may not happen, says Markets.com analyst Neil Wilson. The deal will mean big competition for Deutsche Telekom as Vodafone will become the big quad-play provider--offering cable, internet, wireless and landline-phone services--in the region, says Mr. Wilson. Deutsche Telekom voiced concerns on the deal on Tuesday and said that it would let antitrust authorities examine the case. Shares in Vodafone rise 1.3% to 210.35 pence, while Deutsche Telekom shares fall 1.3% to EUR14.33. ([email protected])
0842 GMT - Zurich Insurance's first-quarter data shows "a pleasing return to growth" at the company's farmers segment, Jefferies says. This follows a disappointing performance in 2017, it adds. In property and casualty "Zurich's planned cut-back in North America has progressed well, with a 5% life-for-like contraction," it notes. Shares in Zurich Insurance trade 0.4% higher at CHF318.40. ([email protected]; @pietrolombard10)
0838 GMT - European budget airline giant Ryanair Holdings reports full-year results on May 21. Davy Research expects the airline to deliver profit "in line or perhaps at the upper end of guidance." Look for a cautious outlook for the new fiscal year, with fuel costs and labor rising. Ryanair typically issues cautious guidance at the start of the financial year anyway. Ryanair shares down 1.9% on a day higher oil prices are weighing on airline stocks. ([email protected])
0838 GMT - Compass Group's first-half results suggest the slowdown in its organic growth was sharper in the second quarter than expected, but it remains in healthier shape than competitors, says Berenberg. The brokerage says 3.7% organic growth in 2Q18 was below Berenberg's own 5% estimate, and was hit by Easter timing, bad weather and contract demobilization. However, Berenberg notes this is still better than the organic growth delivered by rivals Sodexo and Aramark for the quarter, and said Compass remains its top pick in the sector. Shares are down 5.7% at 1494 pence. ([email protected])
0836 GMT - Berenberg says any weakness in Burberry's share price as a result of Groupe Bruxelles Lambert selling its stake in the luxury clothing retailer is a buying opportunity for investors. The broker says Burberry has scope for further growth following its restructuring program. The change in Burberry's cost structure is an opportunity for the company to address its historically low profitability compared with its peers, says Berenberg, and its willingness to return cash to shareholders and make management changes also demonstrates the deep-rooted transformation it is prepared to undergo. Burberry shares are down 7.1% at 1,750 pence. ([email protected])
0833 GMT - Anheuser-Busch InBev's first-quarter results managed to exceed analyst consensus and management expectations despite a tough environment in Brazil, says Bryan Garnier. Beer and soft drinks volumes decreased in the country by 8.1% and 19.1% respectively, as the overall environment was softer, with carnival happening earlier and bad weather. Meanwhile, Mexico's high-teen percentage growth and Colombia's 12.1% growth helped to offset this. South Africa and China performed in line. Shares are up 2.8% at EUR85.04. ([email protected]; @donatopmancini)
0832 GMT - Ahead of Ryanair Holdings's full-year results on May 21, Davy analysts forecast that the airline will deliver high single-digit profit for fiscal 2018. Davy says that fiscal 2019 will be a year of record growth for Ryanair, adding that its current assumption of a 6% increase to 138 million passengers will likely be beaten. However, the analysts say that while they expect Ryanair to maintain underlying cost efficiencies over the competition, cost headwinds from fuel and labor will apply pressure--as will ongoing issues with pilots and unions. London-listed shares at 0824 GMT are down 2%, or EUR0.30, at EUR15.68 per share. ([email protected]; @OliGGriffin)
0829 GMT - Vodafone PLC's acquisition of Liberty Global assets in Germany and eastern Europe will pose a challenge to Deutsche Telekom and could pave the way for U.K. takeovers, says Markets.com. The deal will enable Vodafone to become the big quad-play telecoms provider in the region, meaning big competition for its German rival, says Markets.com's Neil Wilson. Liberty could use the proceeds to do U.K. deals, he adds. "The much-rumored bid for ITV could be on the cards, though Liberty may in fact be minded to go after O2 ahead of its much-rumored stock market listing. Tying up the assets of Virgin and o2 to offer bundled services/quad-play in the UK may be the number one option." Vodafone shares gain 1.5%. ([email protected])
0825 GMT - Vodafone Group's acquisition of Liberty Global's operations in Germany and eastern Europe shows that telecommunication companies opt for scale to face rising costs, Markets.com analyst Neil Wilson says. "With the mounting costs of building out network capacity and 5G, telecoms firms have decided they need to combine or merge assets to have the necessary scale," Mr. Wilson says. Vodafone estimates the deal--which is valued at EUR19 billion--will deliver annual costs and capital-expenditure savings of EUR535 million by the fifth year after completion, before integration costs. Vodafone shares rise 1.4% to 210.45 pence. ([email protected])
0821 GMT - Suez shares fall nearly 9% in early trade following an equally abrupt rise late Tuesday, leading traders to blame a so-called fat-finger error. Given the lack of company news and the sharp nature of the price swings, an erroneous order seems the most likely culprit, say market sources. "Otherwise, how can you explain the almost perfect symmetry between this morning's drop and yesterday's rise?" asks one manager. A Suez spokesperson told Agefi-Dow Jones that the company also favors this assumption. Suez trades 8.9% lower at EUR11.92. ([email protected])
This story was translated in whole or in part from a French-language version initially published by L'Agefi, a partner of Dow Jones & Co.
(END)
May 09, 2018 04:59 ET (08:59 GMT)-0-
Subject: Corporate profits; Telecommunications industry; Cost control; Breweries; Competition
Location: Czech Republic Mexico Hungary South Africa Romania North America Germany United Kingdom--UK China Brazil Colombia Europe
Company / organization: Name: Aramark Corp; NAICS: 722310; Name: Ryanair Holdings PLC; NAICS: 481111, 492110; Name: Provident Financial PLC; NAICS: 522291, 524113; Name: Vodafone Group PLC; NAICS: 517210; Name: Anheuser-Busch InBev; NAICS: 312120
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: May 9, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2036621254
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2036621254?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc May 9, 2018
Last updated: 2018-05-10
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 243 of 474
AB InBev Exceeds Expectations Despite Brazil Drag: BG -- Market Talk
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]09 May 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
0833 GMT - Anheuser-Busch InBev's first-quarter results managed to exceed analyst consensus and management expectations despite a tough environment in Brazil, says Bryan Garnier. Beer and soft drinks volumes decreased in the country by 8.1% and 19.1% respectively, as the overall environment was softer, with carnival happening earlier and bad weather. Meanwhile, Mexico's high-teen percentage growth and Colombia's 12.1% growth helped to offset this. South Africa and China performed in line. Shares are up 2.8% at EUR85.04. ([email protected]; @donatopmancini)
(END)
May 09, 2018 04:33 ET (08:33 GMT)
Subject: Breweries
Location: China Mexico Brazil South Africa Colombia
Company / organization: Name: Anheuser-Busch InBev; NAICS: 312120
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: May 9, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2036621676
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2036621676?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc May 9, 2018
Last updated: 2018-05-10
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 244 of 474
AB InBev's Brazil Drag to Turn Into Lift: Liberum -- Market Talk
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]09 May 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
0903 GMT - Anheuser-Busch InBev's results in northern Latin America came in flat, but still beat consensus forecasts that had anticipated a decline, says Liberum. In Brazil, tough competitors, poor weather and an earlier Carnival weighed on 1Q sales, but Liberum says the brewer will benefit greatly from the soccer World Cup in June, as Brazil's winter is mild. Colombia was the "bright spot" for the brewer, says Liberum, increasing revenue by 12% and Ebitda by more than 20%, helped by product launches and the timing of Easter. Shares in AB InBev trade up 2.7% at EUR84.98. ([email protected]; @donatopmancini)
(END)
May 09, 2018 05:04 ET (09:04 GMT)
Location: Brazil Latin America Colombia
Company / organization: Name: Anheuser-Busch InBev; NAICS: 312120
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: May 9, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2036621682
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2036621682?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc May 9, 2018
Last updated: 2018-05-10
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 245 of 474
Budweiser, Bud Light Volumes Fall Sharply in U.S. but AB InBev Squeezes Costs -- Update
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]09 May 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
Big brewers are losing their grip on America's beer belly.
Anheuser-Busch InBev SA, which makes Budweiser, Bud Light and Stella Artois, said Wednesday overall sales volume in North America fell 4.1% over the first three months of the year from a year earlier, due largely to declines in Bud Light and Budweiser. Molson Coors Brewing Co. said last week that it also struggled, losing 3.8% in brand volume in the U.S., while beer volume at Heineken NV's U.S. unit declined by a high single-digit percentage in the first quarter.
The U.S. has been turning away from big beer for years, but brewers say demand was even more anemic than expected in the first quarter.
Sales to wholesalers in the U.S. at AB InBev were down 4.4%, with revenue decreasing 2.5% in the first quarter. The brewer estimated that sales to retailers declined 2.3% across the industry in the first quarter.
The silver lining for AB InBev in North America is that its revenue per hectoliter grew 1.9% over the period as management kept a tight lid on costs and consumers paid more for their brews. Shares rose 3% in morning trading in Europe.
"While we acknowledge we still have work to do in the U.S., we are moving in the right direction," Chief Financial Officer Felipe Dutra told reporters.
Michelob Ultra -- marketed as the beer for people with an active lifestyle -- continued to perform well, AB InBev said, as did Stella Artois, which continued to gain share in the so-called "above premium category." The company said its portfolio of beers it markets as craft beer also performed well.
But the brewer's Budweiser and Bud Light brands continued to lose market share in the U.S. Overall, the company estimated it lost half a percentage point of market share in the quarter.
Speaking on a call with reporters, Mr. Dutra said AB InBev had lost market share because a large part of its business is in declining categories, rather than growing segments of the market like craft beer. Executives at the company have been trying to boost profits and margins by persuading consumers to buy more expensive beers. The company recently rolled out Michelob Ultra Pure Gold, made with organic grains, as well as Bud Light Orange and a "refreshed" Bud Light Lime, which are both brewed with real citrus peels.
Globally, AB InBev said earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization -- a key measure watched by analysts -- rose 6.6% to $4.99 billion in the first quarter, topping analyst expectations of a 4.7% rise.
In the U.S., a rise in the price of hedging aluminum and increased freight costs led to margin contraction and a 5% decline in Ebitda, although Mr. Dutra said that "underlying beer trends remain unchanged."
The Leuven, Belgium-based brewer said beer volumes grew strongly in Mexico, Colombia and Argentina, but declined in Brazil, its second-largest market, as well as the U.S. The brewer had flagged that the first quarter was likely to be weak, in part because of an early end to Carnival season in the Latin American country and increased sales and marketing spending tied to the coming soccer World Cup in Russia.
Revenue increased to $13.07 billion from $12.92 billion. Net profit decreased to $1.02 billion from $1.40 billion.
Mr. Dutra said that the first quarter "was better than we initially expected" and that growth should accelerate through the rest of the year, particularly in the second half.
The company said it found another $160 million of cost savings tied to its almost $100 billion acquisition of SABMiller, bringing the total to $2.29 billion since it completed the deal in October 2016.
Write to Nick Kostov at [email protected]
(END)
May 09, 2018 06:11 ET (10:11 GMT)By Nick Kostov
Subject: Breweries; Beer; Professional soccer; Light; Cost control
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: May 9, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2036624265
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?ur l=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2036624265?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc May 9, 2018
Last updated: 2018-05-10
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 246 of 474
Global Equities Roundup: Market Talk
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]09 May 2018. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
The latest Market Talks covering Equities. Published exclusively on throughout the day.
0935 GMT - Berenberg doesn't expect any positive surprises in Burberry's fiscal 2018 earnings after the luxury-fashion retailer recently reset its profit expectations. Burberry is due to report earnings next Wednesday--its first set of full-year results under new management, creative teams and a new chairman. The broker says investors shouldn't expect to see any acceleration in fourth-quarter like-for-like growth, but it is more confident about Burberry's fiscal 2019 performance and the next stage of its turnaround, with designer Riccardo Tisci due to present his first collection for the company in September. Berenberg retains a buy rating on Burberry with a 1,865-pence target price. ([email protected])
0933 GMT - Imperial Brands has been successful in gaining market share, with product volumes down 2.1% compared with a market that is estimated to have fallen by 5.7% in the year-to-date overall, says UBS. As a result, volume was 1.4% higher than UBS estimates and 0.8% higher than consensus. An adjusted EPS of 114.3 pence also compared favorably with the bank's estimate of 110.7 pence and a consensus forecast of 111.9 pence. Shares are up 4.6% to 2,738.50 pence. ([email protected])
0929 GMT - Analysts at Goldman Sachs say the performance of Beiersdorf's luxury skin-care brand La Prairie was exceptional in the first quarter. "Stronger growth for prestige beauty has been well flagged by cosmetics peers such as L'Oreal, Estee Lauder and P&G," the bank says, but the level of growth La Prairie reached hadn't been anticipated. Although Beiersdorf's flagship brand Nivea had a slow quarter, management feels confident about the rest of the year, Goldman Sachs says. Beiersdorf shares trade up 0.1% at EUR97.14. ([email protected])
0921 GMT - With its acquisition of QTS Group Limited, Renew Holdings can make the most of a planned 25% increase to operational expenditure by Network Rail--which owns and manages most of the U.K.'s railways--Numis analysts say. The brokerage says the enlarged group will also benefit from significant organic opportunities due to the inclusion of complementary services and new geographic potential. QTS Group's business model will be a strong foil to Renew Holdings' rail operations, with the company now representing the best investment option in its industry, Numis says. ([email protected]; @OliGGriffin)
0921 GMT - Henkel should experience a positive stock reaction today after its first-quarter update beat consensus on sales, margins and EPS, say analysts at Bernstein. The German company's organic growth of 1.1% was its lowest for over 8 years but managed to come in ahead of Bernstein's expectations, says the brokerage. Henkel had warned that its first quarter would be hit by delivery issues in North America and management reiterated business would return to normal in 2Q. Bernstein doesn't see any significant changes to its full-year estimates. ([email protected])
0919 GMT - German reinsurer Munich Re had a "benign" first quarter of the year, Goldman Sachs says. The sharp increase in profit had already been announced in April, GS notes. However, the company's property and casualty reinsureance, as well as life-reinsurance operations, reported operating results above consensus, it adds. "Overall, we consider these results to be in line with market expectations and recent operating trends," it says. Shares in Munich Re trades 1.5% higher at EUR193.90. ([email protected]; @pietrolombard10)
0917 GMT - Singapore shares were slightly higher most of the day and finished there, helped by oil prices rebounding sharply to fresh 3 1/2-year highs. The Straits Times Index rose 0.15% to 3548.54 amid muted moves for most Asian stock benchmarks. But Sembcorp Marine jumped 4.3% and rival rigbuilder Keppel gained 2.1%. Meanwhile, Hutchison Port rose 1.5%. ([email protected]; @journosaurabh)
0914 GMT - Indonesian shares bounced after hitting an 11-month low this morning, for the moment stemming the market's recent slump. The JSX finished up 2.3% at 5907.94, but gainers lead decliners by only a 226-185 margin while foreigners sold another IDR320.92 billion ($22.8 million) of shares on a net basis. But that was more than offset by domestic demand. "For local investors, there's no place to go but the stock market," said a managing director with a local investment bank. Banks, beaten down of late, popped with Negara and Mandiri--the country's 2-largest lenders, jumping a respective 9.9% and 5.5%. The market will be closed Thursday for Ascension Day. ([email protected])
0908 GMT - J.D. Wetherspoon's performance is significantly ahead of the wider market, as third-quarter comparable sales rose 3.5%, Shore Capital says. In the first nine months of fiscal 2018, like-for-like sales slowed to 5.2% from a 6% in the first half, and the U.K. pub chain said the timing of the May bank holiday in 2017 hit this year's sales figures. The brokerage says there is scope for estimate upgrades on Wetherspoon given its strong momentum, but notes that the company's valuation is elevated against historic levels. Shore Capital keeps a sell recommendation on the stock. Shares fall 0.7% to 1,174 pence. ([email protected])
0903 GMT - Anheuser-Busch InBev's results in northern Latin America came in flat, but still beat consensus forecasts that had anticipated a decline, says Liberum. In Brazil, tough competitors, poor weather and an earlier Carnival weighed on 1Q sales, but Liberum says the brewer will benefit greatly from the soccer World Cup in June, as Brazil's winter is mild. Colombia was the "bright spot" for the brewer, says Liberum, increasing revenue by 12% and Ebitda by more than 20%, helped by product launches and the timing of Easter. Shares in AB InBev trade up 2.7% at EUR84.98. ([email protected]; @donatopmancini)
0859 GMT - Shares in Provident Financial PLC rise 8.8% to 699 pence after the U.K. doorstep lender reported a strong start in 2018 and said the recovery plan for its troubled home-credit business is on track. "Today's statement highlights that Provident is making progress with returning the business to some sort of normality," says Peel Hunt Analyst Stuart Duncan. "There is still more to do on the home-credit side, but the indications are encouraging." ([email protected])
0856 GMT - Provident Financial's first-quarter statement suggests its recovery plan is on-track, although vehicle-finance unit Moneybarn is struggling with higher impairments, says Jefferies. The investment bank says the Vanquis Bank credit card business beat Jefferies's own growth estimates with 7.8% customer growth, while the home-credit business was in-line with recovery plans. However, Jefferies says the flow of impairments in Moneybarn from previous new-customer growth bears watching. Jefferies also notes that Provident's capital surplus of GBP120 million is equivalent to historical levels, as it plans to return to a progeessive dividend in 2019. Shares are up 8.8% at 698.40 pence. ([email protected])
(END)
May 09, 2018 05:35 ET (09:35 GMT)
Subject: Corporate profits; Investments; Professional soccer; Estimates; Breweries; Earnings per share
Location: North America United Kingdom--UK Latin America Singapore Brazil Colombia
Company / organization: Name: Provident Financial PLC; NAICS: 522291, 524113; Name: Goldman Sachs Group Inc; NAICS: 523110, 523120; Name: La Prairie; NAICS: 325620; Name: Estee Lauder Cos Inc; NAICS: 325620; Name: Beiersdorf AG; NAICS: 325412, 325620; Name: Network Rail; NAICS: 482112; Name: Anheuser-Busch InBev; NAICS: 312120; Name: UBS AG; NAICS: 522110, 523110, 523120, 523920, 523930
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: May 9, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2036624466
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2036624466?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc May 9, 2018
Last updated: 2018-05-10
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 247 of 474
AB InBev Stumbles in U.S., but Sees Growth Elsewhere
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]09 May 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
Big brewers are losing their grip on America’s beer belly.
Anheuser-Busch InBev SA, which makes Budweiser, Bud Light and Stella Artois, said Wednesday overall sales volume in North America fell 4.1% over the first three months of the year from a year earlier, due largely to declines in Bud Light and Budweiser. Molson Coors Brewing Co. said last week that it also struggled, losing 3.8% in brand volume in the U.S., while beer volume at Heineken NV’s U.S. unit declined by a high single-digit percentage in the first quarter.
The U.S. has been turning away from big beer for years, but brewers say demand was even more anemic than expected in the first quarter, in part because of cooler temperatures.
Sales to wholesalers in the U.S. at AB InBev were down 4.4%, with revenue decreasing 2.5% in the first quarter. The brewer estimated that sales to retailers declined 2.3% across the industry in the first quarter.
The silver lining for AB InBev in North America is that its revenue per hectoliter grew 1.9% over the period as management kept a tight lid on costs and consumers paid more for their brews. Shares rose 3% in morning trading in Europe.
“While we acknowledge we still have work to do in the U.S., we are moving in the right direction,” Chief Financial Officer Felipe Dutra told reporters.
Michelob Ultra—marketed as the beer for people with an active lifestyle—continued to perform well, AB InBev said, as did Stella Artois, which continued to gain share in the so-called “above premium category.” The company said its portfolio of beers it markets as craft beer also performed well.
But the brewer’s Budweiser and Bud Light brands continued to lose market share in the U.S. Overall, the company estimated it lost half a percentage point of market share in the quarter.
Speaking on a call with reporters, Mr. Dutra said AB InBev had lost market share because a large part of its business is in declining categories, rather than growing segments of the market like craft beer. Executives at the company have been trying to boost profit and margins by persuading consumers to buy more expensive beers. The company recently rolled out Michelob Ultra Pure Gold, made with organic grains, as well as Bud Light Orange and a “refreshed” Bud Light Lime, which are both brewed with real citrus peels.
Globally, AB InBev said earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization—a key measure watched by analysts—rose 6.6% to $4.99 billion in the first quarter, topping analyst expectations of a 4.7% rise.
In the U.S., a rise in the price of hedging aluminum and increased freight costs led to margin contraction and a 5% decline in Ebitda, although Mr. Dutra said that “underlying beer trends remain unchanged.”
The Leuven, Belgium-based brewer said beer volumes grew strongly in Mexico, Colombia and Argentina, but declined in Brazil, its second-largest market, as well as the U.S. The brewer had flagged that the first quarter was likely to be weak, in part because of an early end to Carnival season in the Latin American country and increased sales and marketing spending tied to the coming soccer World Cup in Russia.
Revenue increased to $13.07 billion from $12.92 billion. Net profit decreased to $1.02 billion from $1.40 billion.
Mr. Dutra said that the first quarter “was better than we initially expected” and that growth should accelerate through the rest of the year, particularly in the second half.
The company said it found another $160 million of cost savings tied to its almost $100 billion acquisition of SABMiller, bringing the total to $2.29 billion since it completed the deal in October 2016.
Write to Nick Kostov at [email protected]
(END)
May 09, 2018 06:20 ET (10:20 GMT)
Subject: Corporate profits; Professional soccer; Cost control; Breweries; Beer; Light
Location: Mexico Russia United States--US North America Argentina Brazil Belgium Colombia Europe
People: Dutra, Felipe
Company / organization: Name: Stella Artois; NAICS: 312120; Name: Heineken NV; NAICS: 312120; Name: Anheuser-Busch InBev; NAICS: 312120; Name: Molson Coors Brewing Co; NAICS: 312120
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: May 9, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2036626508
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2036626508?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc May 9, 2018
Last updated: 2018-05-10
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 248 of 474
Q1 2018 Match Group Inc Earnings Call - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]09 May 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Presentation OPERATOR: Good morning, and welcome to the Match Group First Quarter 2018 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Please note that this event is being recorded. And now I would like to turn the conference over to Lance Barton, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead. LANCE BARTON, SVP OF IR & CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT, MATCH GROUP, INC.: Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. I'm joined on the call by our CEO, Mandy Ginsberg and CFO, Gary Swidler. They will review the Q1 investor presentation that is available on our IR website, and then we'll take questions. But before we start, I'd like to remind everyone that during this call, we may discuss our outlook and future performance. These forward-looking statements may be preceded by words such as we expect, we believe, we anticipate or similar statements. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and our actual results could differ materially from the views expressed today. Some of these risks have been set forth in our earnings release and our periodic reports filed with the SEC. With that, I'll turn the call over to Mandy. AMANDA W. GINSBERG, CEO & DIRECTOR, MATCH GROUP, INC.: Great. Thanks, Lance. Thanks, everyone, for joining our call to review the company's best results since the IPO back in 2015. We are delivering all-time bests across virtually all of our key operating metrics, and our momentum is fantastic. I'm sure some of you have joined the call to focus on recent external news, and I'm going to get to that in a few minutes. But first, I want to focus on the tremendous progress and results that we're reporting this quarter. So let's begin and turn to Slide 4. Tinder remains the primary catalyst for Match Group's growth as Tinder year-over-year revenue growth in the first quarter exceeded 150%. This increase in revenue underscores that Tinder is clearly more than a subscriber growth story. We have multiple revenue drivers for this business, including subscription revenue, a la carte revenue, user growth and the various ways in which we optimize how we merchandise and price our features. Our focus is on driving revenue growth, so the mix of these components can and it will shift over time. Tinder is still in the early stages of how sophisticated we can be in terms of monetization and pricing given we only started offering paid features 3 years ago. So there is still room to optimize the various tradeoffs between subscriber growth and ARPU to maximize our overall revenue. In Q1, Tinder average subscribers grew 87% year-over-year and added 368,000 average subscribers sequentially. Renewal rates for Gold were higher than we thought, which led us to exceed our Q1 expectations. The continued strength in this metric makes it apparent that our users continue to see significant value in Gold. Year-over-year ARPU growth at Tinder in Q1 was the highest we have seen in 2 years, driven by 2 components. The first and most obvious driver is Gold, which was not in existence in Q1 last year. The second but less obvious component is growth in a la carte revenue from subscribers. On a sequential basis, a la carte revenue grew faster than subscription revenue as we have seen a lift in purchases of a la carte features. We are seeing that Tinder subscribers, both Gold and Plus, are willing to pay for additional features if those features improve the chances to connect with someone. The combination of dramatically higher ARPU driven by Gold and a la carte purchases and strong subscriber growth led to phenomenal revenue growth for Tinder in Q1. Turn to Slide 5, I want to take you through the Tinder product slide. I want to reiterate what I said on the last call, the biggest drivers of long-term revenue growth at Tinder are free features that make Tinder a simple, fun and useful product, creating a vibrant community of users that, in turn, drives word of mouth. Our monetization features are clearly important, and we're going to continue to develop and enhance these, but most users on Tinder experience the product for free. And while we are actively in development and about to start testing a new revenue feature that we'll launch in the second half of the year, the main focus for us is to give our customers more reasons to use Tinder and more reasons to use Tinder more frequently. We want to provide our users with features that make Tinder an integral part of their journey so that Tinder is a weekly part of their single social life. The first example is the Feed. We launched Feed to all Tinder users in Q1, and it is our first feature aimed at enhancing the post-match experience by delivering a visual experience that helps users start conversations with their matches. It gives users a better glimpse into the world of their matches, their passions, their personality, their latest adventure, all leading to better conversations and deeper connections. During testing, the Feed drove 25% increase in conversations with older matches and a 15% lift in overall conversations. The second area I want to talk about is video. We are currently testing our first video feature called Loops. Loops are user-generated 2-second looping videos, allowing users to show off more of their personality than just a picture. Profile pictures are one-dimensional and long-form videos can feel a bit awkward, but a loop can bring the user to life without that awkwardness. Loops will show up the same way pictures do within the profile. They will be in the card stack as users swipe through profiles, and Loops will also appear in the feed. And then you can see in the slideshow, the free PR we got when we launched, courtesy of Jimmy Fallon. He is definitely not on Tinder, but he had fun with Loops in his monologue. On the last call, we also mentioned that we're working on location-based features to enhance the Tinder experience in the real world. The places we go in our daily lives say so much about who we are and what we like to do. It's obviously where our life happens. The first step of our product journey in the real world is Tinder Places. Tinder Places is a new way for users to see potential matches who enjoy the same places they do. Whether it's their neighborhood bar, favorite coffee shop or a museum they love, they can connect to people who love going to the same places they love going to. This leads to higher-quality matches and more authentic conversations. We are currently testing this product in a closed beta with a small group of users in 3 international markets. In the first 3 weeks, we have seen these users go to 200,000 social places. Half of those users who opened the app engaged daily with Places, and 96% of users have continued to keep using the feature. This is a good indicator for both interest and sustainability of the feature. It's a completely user opt-in feature, and we have paid special attention to user privacy and control in designing this. We intend to make Places available to all users in these 3 cities this quarter. Again, it's still in beta, the early feedback is promising and we hope to roll it out globally soon. At that point, when we officially launch Tinder Places, we'll share more details about the product. We've also talked about providing women with more control on how and when matches communicate with them. This week, we started testing the Message First setting. We believe users want the option to choose who makes the first move, and we're giving them that choice. These examples are a glimpse into the product innovations that we are working on. I also am pleased to announce that we settled our IP litigation against TanTan, which will result in a redesign of their U.S. app and annual royalty payments tied to their U.S. user base. And this announcement reinforces the strength and value of our market-leading innovations. Turning to Slide 6, I want to talk through our marketing efforts. Tinder has become an iconic American brand. It's all about the fun and adventure of being single, and its viral growth is really unlike anything we've seen in the category. The brand has also resonated globally. Tinder is the top grossing lifestyle app in roughly 100 countries around the world and the second highest grossing app globally, non-games behind Netflix. This growth was driven primarily by word of mouth. In the past few quarters, we have started to supplement that viral growth with marketing spend in order to capitalize on the momentum and accelerate brand awareness to drive additional user growth. In the U.S., our marketing campaigns focus on college age users by leveraging relevant celebrities and brands. A few examples include Valentine's Day with Adam Levine and an expansion of our Tinder-U college ambassador program and a March Madness style contest where 64 colleges competed to win a free concert by music star Cardi B. In international markets where our awareness is growing rapidly but it's still lower than the U.S., we continue to increase awareness by working with globally recognized brands such as Man City soccer team. Through this partnership, we are creating exciting cannot buy experiences for Tinder users around the globe. In India, we launched a fun Bollywood-style Tinder video that captured the spirit of dating in India and resonated with young urban Indian women. This effort resulted in almost 2 million views and a wave of press. And in Brazil, we hosted the Camarote Salvador, the hottest party within Carnival, attended by many of Brazil's most important influencers. Through PR and social media, Tinder reached tens of millions of Brazilians. The growth of Tinder in unexpected markets like India and South Korea are initial evidence that this cultural phenomenon is global in nature, though still early in developing markets. And you can see from these examples that I mentioned, Tinder is not using traditional marketing channels like TV but rather celebrity endorsements, brand partnerships and Internet influencers. Even as we continue to expand our marketing efforts, we expect Tinder will remain a highly profitable and high-margin business, well above any of our other businesses or businesses in the category. Flip to Slide 7, as I want to talk about our other businesses outside of Tinder. Despite headwinds in TV marketing efficiency that I've talked about on our last call, our portfolio outside of Tinder remains stable, and we see opportunity to invest in product and marketing to drive long-term growth. Match and Meetic have both successfully transitioned their businesses from desktop to mobile-first products, leading to big improvements in conversion and engagement. They also remain 2 of the most recognized premium brands in the U.S. and Europe with a focus on serious intent. In order to continue distinguishing these brands from the competition, it's important we continue to evolve the product and deliver what is truly a premium experience versus alternatives in the market. To that end, we're going to make some moves to increase the value for users of these brands. For example, we're going to enrich the subscription by rolling in a la carte features that we previously charged for, decluttering the subscriber experience by reducing the number of ads, and last, we're increasing customer service levels. These changes are meant to drive word-of-mouth growth and ensure premium positioning of these brands that have historically relied on traditional marketing to grow. We also see opportunity to invest in increasing the awareness of some of our brands to drive their subscriber growth. OkCupid, for example, ended 2017 with some great product wins, materially increasing engagement, conversion and overall product appeal. We amplified those wins in Q1 by launching a provocative marketing campaign in OkCupid markets. We saw a 32% increase in aided brand awareness in New York City and a 13% increase in other test markets. More importantly, we saw double-digit registration growth in these markets indicating this is a viable marketing strategy that can help drive top of funnel at OkCupid. We plan to make further marketing investments into positive momentum, which should lead to increased awareness and adoption in the short and long term. In Japan, our Pairs brand has seen extremely strong subscriber growth and has benefited from the expertise of the Match Group following its acquisition in 2015. We are expanding our marketing spend in channels in Japan and are pushing the Pairs brand in Korea. The dating market is still relatively nascent in both Japan and South Korea as compared to the U.S. or Western Europe, which bodes well for long-term growth prospects of the business. Okay. Turning to Slide 8. Slide 8 addresses 2 forthcoming changes to our operating landscape. The first is GDPR and changes in data protection and privacy expectations. We are keenly aware that our customers share more intimate details than they typically share with their broader social network of friends and family. Therefore, we've always considered protecting our users' privacy a top priority in everything we do. And of course, we've been working to be fully compliant with GDPR regulations by the May 25th deadline. Tinder will be applying GDPR standards globally. Our businesses that are not subject to GDPR intend to nonetheless adopt similar privacy standards as required under GDPR. We really want to be a leader in protecting our users' sensitive data. The second is Facebook. We started getting inquiries about how changes at Facebook due to the Cambridge Analytica scandal might impact our business. And then, of course, major questions arose in light of Facebook's announcement last week that they planned on increasing their focus on dating. So let's start with Facebook's recent announcement because I know many of you are focused on this topic. First, let me say we respect the power of Facebook and its global scale. Their announcement about dating included very few specifics. Not many details are available for us to analyze, however, we definitely know a few things about the world of dating and this helps us assess what we think the impact could be. First and foremost, Facebook has been a part of the dating landscape really since inception. We know that people meet their significant other in many ways aside from online dating, including at bars, churches, through relatives and through friends and, not surprisingly, through Facebook. This is a result of introductions from friends and family, of course, but also through a series of subtle features on Facebook designed to introduce new people. In fact, Facebook has, over time, tried a number product features to enhance it as a source for dating. You may remember the Poke from the early days that faded. There's also Facebook Graph Search launched in 2013, which allowed users to search for things like "single men who attended Harvard and lived in San Francisco". And that was viewed at the time as a feature that would disrupt online dating. In 2017, Facebook launched Discover People to facilitate connection between people who aren't already Facebook friends, and a meet-up prompt in Messenger showed users people who want to meet up with them. We want to point out that none of these had any discernible impact on our business. We now know that Facebook is going to turn the screw further on the dating continuum, including the dating profile, which means users will declare explicitly that they are available to date and invite contact from strangers. I think this point is important. The expectation of overt dating features and apps reflect all the complicated emotions that dating involves: rejection, dissatisfaction, great dates, bad dates, and then ultimately, people churn. We in our category, have to deal with this. By explicitly introducing and promoting dating in their ecosystem, Facebook will have to confront and carefully manage this dating dynamic into their customers' experience. At F8, Facebook focused on connecting daters through flows in their events and group modules where they probably see some dating-related activity already happening. In my mind, it would make sense for them to limit dating focus to that aspect of their experience because it would minimize conflict with their core business. If that does end up being the case, then they're not going to compete with what our apps do, just as we don't think bars, churches, friends and family, nor Facebook today, directly competes with us and impacts our dating business. But it's really unclear at this point. Research also says that the vast majority of singles would not want to use Facebook for dating, primarily due to concerns with data and personal privacy, but more importantly, they don't want to be contacted by strangers on a social network meant for connections with friends and family. This resistant is particularly pronounced among women and the younger demographic. Another strong data point that gives us confidence that Facebook dating is unlikely to have a negative impact on Tinder, which is our biggest growth engine, is the striking result of our introduction of SMS sign-up on Tinder last year. Take a look at Slide 8 on the bottom right. Before last year, our users could only sign up using Facebook authentication. Within 2 months of offering Tinder users an alternative to sign up with Facebook, new users went from 100% Facebook sign-up down to only 25% Facebook sign-up, even though a Facebook sign-up was the first option on the screen and the most frictionless. Said another way, users quickly and decisively separated Facebook from their dating experience. The data we show from new user sign-ups is for North America, but the trend is very similar globally. And additionally, we saw a meaningful lift in new users joining Tinder after providing an alternative to Facebook sign-up. These were likely users who were previously unwilling to connect through Facebook who now saw an opportunity to finally join Tinder. When we asked our users why the aversion to logging in to Tinder via Facebook, the answer that came back was simple, a preference not to mix dating with their broad network of friends and family. We also know that in the context of dating, intent of community and the brand matters. This is not a utility feature. People want a community of users with similar intent. Dating is so personal, and we see people gravitate to brands they trust and they can relate to. A 23-year old who just graduated from college is going to use a very different brand than a 43-year-old single mom who wants a serious relationship. This is not a category when one size fits everyone, and it has never been a winner-take-all category. On average, people use 3 dating products at any given time. Tinder has earned and we believe will maintain its place as 1 of those 3, especially among younger users. It took the launch of Tinder 5 years ago to unlock a huge audience in their 20's. And why? Because Tinder is its own unique experience representing a sense of adventure and freedom that we don't believe Facebook can replicate, especially at the expense of their core experience. The global market for potential daters to connect through technology is very large. Over 600 million people, which doesn't include China. Of these, more than 80% do not currently use a dating product, largely due to category stigma. We have grown our business by chipping away at the stigma and bringing resisters into the fold. It is possible that Facebook can convince some of the resisters to try dating through technology, and therefore, they may be able to help break some of the stigma and further expand the category. Given our large product portfolio, we think we could benefit from this. Now turning to the other Facebook question. Is it likely that they change operating policies to our detriment? We don't think so. First, based on discussions with Facebook, we do not expect them to change any policies that relate to us. Second, our biggest dependency was the reliance on Facebook for Tinder log-in, but we have effectively removed that reliance by creating the alternative sign-up method I just mentioned. We don't have much reliance on Facebook for anything else. Our proprietary matching algorithms have never relied on Facebook. And now that most people sign up using SMS, most of the profile content is generated by the user. Even for those who sign up using Facebook, we only receive age, gender and photo, so we don't believe that any changes they will make will materially impact our Tinder business. We are going to continue to execute at Tinder and on our other products. We have a ton of experience in dating, and all we care about is delivering a better and better experience for our customers. If we do that with maniacal focus, customers will continue to come back and they'll thrive. I'm incredibly proud of the results this quarter, and I look forward to continued great performance. And I will turn it over to Gary, and he'll take you through the financial results and our outlook. GARY SWIDLER, CFO, MATCH GROUP, INC.: Thanks, Mandy. Match Group had an incredible first quarter of 2018 from a financial perspective as we built on the strength we experienced in the back half of last year. We are reporting our highest year-over-year quarterly revenue growth as a public company. And in Q1, we controlled expenses to achieve our best operating income and EBITDA growth in 2 years, resulting in a meaningful jump in margins. Our outlook for the rest of 2018 is extremely positive with increased expectations for full year revenue and EBITDA. Let's review the slides. On Slide 10, you can see that average subscribers reached over 7.4 million, up 26% year-over-year and up 2 points from Q4 2017's year-over-year growth. The strength was evident in both North America, which grew average subscribers 17% year-over-year, up 2 points from last quarter's year-over-year growth; and international, which grew average subscribers 37% year-over-year, also up from last quarter's growth rate. Tinder continued to be the story as it added 1.6 million average subscribers year-over-year, an 87% growth rate, and 368,000 sequentially. Tinder's subscriber growth was stronger than we'd expected as Gold renewal rates exceeded our expectations. We said on the call last quarter that our assumptions might be conservative, to the extent the 1-month Gold renewal rate and resub rates continued with the trends we were seeing. That, indeed, turned out to be the case, which helped drive Tinder subscriber growth in Q1 higher than our expectations. We discussed a number of times how Tinder Gold led to a surge in subscriber levels that began in Q3 2017. We expected this surge to moderate as we moved further away from the introduction of Tinder Gold. That proved the case in Q1 as the 368,000 subscribers we added was a smaller increase than we've seen in Q3 and Q4 last year but was higher than we'd expected because of the higher renewal rates. Strength in several of our other businesses also helped our subscriber trends. OkCupid domestically and Pairs in Japan showed particular strength in the quarter. And OurTime in Europe continues to grow. We also continue to see moderating subscriber declines at our Affinity brands, where trends are on track with our expectations. The decline in Affinity cuts overall subscribers, ex Tinder, to be down slightly. Overall, company ARPU is up $0.05, 8% year-over-year to an all-time high as a public company of $0.58. International ARPU benefited from FX rates. On a constant currency basis, international ARPU is up 7% to $0.52. Overall ARPU was up $0.02 or 3.5% on a constant currency basis. Tinder Gold has had a major impact on ARPU. Tinder's ARPU in the quarter grew 37% year-over-year. Tinder's ARPU continues to trend closer to the overall company ARPU. Tinder's ARPU has also been driven by accelerating ala carte sales, which have increased in tandem with the likes you feature within Gold. Flipping to Slide 11. You can see that the subscriber and ARPU growth led to year-over-year total revenue growth of 36%, up meaningfully from 28% last quarter. The last 3 quarters have all shown accelerating revenue growth. Excluding FX impact of $17 million, year-over-year revenue growth would have been 31%. We demonstrated strength in all components of the top line in Q1. Direct revenue grew 36%, driven by 26% subscriber growth and ARPU that was up 8%. Overall direct revenue as well as both the domestic and international components showed accelerating growth. Indirect revenue grew strongly at 33% year-over-year as we continued to see growth in programmatic revenue at Tinder and we increased direct ad sales. Total revenue, domestic direct revenue and international direct revenue growth rates were all the fastest we have achieved as a public company. EBITDA grew 60% due to the revenue growth and operating leverage. EBITDA margins were 34% in the quarter, up from 29% in Q1 '17. Overall expenses as a percentage of revenue were 72% in Q1 compared to 80% in the prior year quarter. Sales and marketing expense for the quarter was up only $11 million year-over-year, resulting in a decline in its percentage of revenue from 36% in Q1 '17 to 29% in Q1 '18, reflecting the ongoing shift to lower marketing spend brands. The increases in marketing spend were at Tinder, OkCupid and Pairs, businesses with strong momentum and product wins, as well as at OurTime, as we continue to spend to roll out that brand across Europe. We reduced marketing spend at our Match, Meetic and Affinity brands. The Affinity reduction is a continuation of a trend that has been going on for several quarters now. The Match and Meetic reductions were driven by lower efficiency of marketing spend, particularly TV. We continue to be very judicious with our marketing spend in these businesses. Stock-based comp expense in the quarter declined by 6% to just under $17 million. The decline in SBC and lower depreciation as a percentage of revenue led to operating income growing faster than EBITDA. Operating income margins rose 8 points to 28% compared to 20% in Q1 2017. On Slide 12, you can see that the business continues to generate significant cash. Operating cash flow for the quarter grew 36% year-over-year to $122 million, and free cash flow increased 39% to $117 million. CapEx was only $5 million in the quarter. Free cash flow conversion from EBITDA in the quarter was 85%, above our target of approximately 75% for the full year. Our current trailing 12-month leverage is 2.4x on a gross basis and 1.9x on a net basis. Our cash balance of $288 million provides us solid financial flexibility for strategic M&A opportunities, buybacks, debt paydown or other uses. In Q1, we used $105 million of our cash to repurchase shares to offset dilution from employee option exercises and to pay withholding taxes on the option exercises. We have now repurchased a total of 1 million shares under our 6 million share repurchase authorization. By using cash to pay withholding taxes, we issued 1.9 million fewer dilutive securities. We did not pay any cash taxes in Q1 and do not expect to be a material U.S. cash taxpayer until 2020. On Slide 13, we discuss our outlook. The strength in Q1 led to a meaningful beat compared to the expectations we laid out last quarter. We expect this strength to carry over to Q2 with continued strong performance at Tinder coupled with operating leverage and stability across our other brands. Specifically for Q2, we expect revenue of $405 million to $415 million or 32% year-over-year growth at the midpoint. Q2 revenue will continue to benefit from the impact of Gold subscribers that have been added over the past 3 quarters. Q2 '18 is the last quarter that does not have the Gold effect in the prior year quarter. We expect $160 million to $165 million of EBITDA in Q2 or approximately 48% year-over-year growth at the midpoint and margin of close to 40%. We believe that we have largely put the surge in Tinder subscribers from Gold into the rearview mirror, although surge lasted a quarter longer than we had initially expected due to the strength we have seen in renewal rates. We think Q2 will reflect a more typical level of sequential additions at Tinder, between 200,000 and 250,000. And that this level will once again, be the norm, at least until the new Tinder revenue feature is rolled out. As Mandy discussed in Slide 4 highlights, Tinder clearly is much more than a subscriber growth story. It has multiple revenue drivers, including sub growth, a la carte strength and overall ARPU improvement, with opportunities to optimize price and merchandise more effectively that we intend to pursue as the year progresses. As a result of continued strength at Tinder, particularly stronger first half revenues as Gold take and renewal rates are running higher than we initially expected, we are raising our full year outlook by $100 million to $1.6 billion to $1.7 billion of total revenue. At the midpoint, that would be 24% year-over-year revenue growth. As a reminder, our back half of 2018 comps will be much tougher given the positive impact of Gold in the second half of last year. Our revenue outlook for our non-Tinder businesses is largely unchanged. We are primarily focused on optimizing profitability in these businesses. We will not chase subscriber growth at the expense of profitability. For full year 2018, we're raising EBITDA expectations by $50 million to $600 million to $650 million, 33% growth at the midpoint, more than double 2017's growth rate of 16%. The higher EBITDA expectations primarily reflect the additional revenue, particularly at Tinder, less additional IAP fees. Margin will be nearly 38% at the midpoint, representing an improvement of nearly 3 percentage points from the 2017 figure. We're expecting to over-deliver on our margin expansion expectation in 2018. We continue to believe that 40% plus is a reasonable long-term target for the company's margins. Tinder continues to experience meaningful operating leverage. Even with solid investment levels and product and marketing spend to drive new users globally, Tinder EBITDA margins in Q1 reached north of 40% for the second consecutive quarter. We expect this to be the case again for Q2 with room for additional expansion over time. We do expect higher Q3 marketing spend at Tinder as we focus intently on the back-to-school opportunity for university students. There are several key items that we're keeping an eye on, which will affect where in our current ranges we land for the full year. These include: first, the new Tinder revenue feature. The new feature is far along in development, and we plan to test it over the coming months and introduce it in the second half of the year. The precise timing and the success of this feature will have an impact on whether we are able to reach the upper half of our revenue range for the year, based on the new raised guidance. Second, data privacy and regulatory compliance requirements are shifting quickly. Certain shifts that result could require us to make product changes, delay our product road map or dedicate resources to make adjustments. Our outlook includes GDPR and all known data privacy and regulatory impacts. One last note. For everyone's modeling purposes, I wanted to mention that last time I said our GAAP effective tax rate would be in the low 20s percent range for 2018. It is difficult to predict the pace of employee option exercises and their impact on tax rates. But based on what we have seen so far, our 2018 GAAP effective tax rate could be meaningfully below the low 20s rate we previously indicated for 2018 and is likely to be volatile quarter-to-quarter. Stepping back, we really could not have hoped for a stronger quarter to start the year. The Q1 performance has led to additional optimism for the full year, and we're pleased to be able to raise our outlook so meaningfully. We believe our outlook now much more accurately reflects what you expect from us this year. We have confidence that Match Group will deliver its strongest year yet as a public company in 2018. We'll now answer any questions you may have. Operator, please open the line to questions. Questions and Answers OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) And this morning's first question comes from Dan Salmon with BMO Capital Markets. DANIEL SALMON, MEDIA AND INTERNET ANALYST, BMO CAPITAL MARKETS EQUITY RESEARCH: Good morning everyone. Mandy, thanks for addressing the Facebook-related concerns head on, and in particular, on Slide 8 here, this chart around Tinder registrations not using the sign-up and how we've seen this pretty significant change there since you launched that. Of course, there are other ways that you interact with Facebook. You spend marketing dollars there. You've also got an advertising sales partnership with Facebook Audience Network. Are there any other material changes in your relationship that you might expect going forward as they come into the space a little bit more officially? AMANDA W. GINSBERG: Okay, great. All right. Okay. So you pointed out, Dan, that we definitely have a multifaceted relationship with Facebook. And they've been a long-term partner for us. We have been in conversation since the announcement at the executive levels, and they have certainly indicated to us that they don't plan to change either the auth or the advertising relationships. And they dealt with these complex and similar relationships in other verticals like e-commerce with Marketplace. The good news is -- which I mentioned, is that our reliance on sign-up has declined dramatically since last summer. On the advertising side, which you pointed out, a few of our brands spend on Facebook, particularly Match, Meetic and OurTime, which is our 50-plus brand here in the U.S. That said, it's one of the many digital channels that we use. And it's a relatively small percentage of our spend across all the businesses. It's in the single digits. And we believe that as long as spending on Facebook is ROI positive and it's sufficient spend for us and Facebook doesn't misuse our data, which we don't think they will, we'll continue to spend there. So Facebook Audience Network is the last question you had. We have a great relationship with them. It makes sense on both sides, but there's definitely alternatives in the market. To the extent we would need to go somewhere else, we would. But at this point, we don't think that it makes sense. And then I just want to sort of take a step back, and all of that said, they announced last week that they are an overt competitor in dating, so we're just going to have to monitor and adapt as needed. OPERATOR: And the next question comes from John Blackledge with Cowen. JOHN RYAN BLACKLEDGE, HEAD OF INTERNET RESEARCH, MD AND SENIOR RESEARCH ANALYST, COWEN AND COMPANY, LLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: Two questions. The 75% of Tinder registration that don't use the Facebook sign-up, could you just remind what time period does that cover? And how long is the sign-up process if users don't use the Facebook sign-up? And then second question on Tinder, so the a la carte growth was really strong in 1Q. If you could provide some more color, that would be great. And what percentage of Tinder revenue was a la carte in 1Q '18? AMANDA W. GINSBERG: Okay. Let me talk to the first one. So the rollout started in June/ July time frame. And after about 2 months, 75% of new users were using alternative sign-up. And I mentioned it in my remarks, but the chart is U.S., but it's the same picture globally. And then just to address questions you had about process and how easy it is, it's a pretty easy process. So download to profile rates, we looked at are virtually identical between Facebook auth and SMS. And the quality of the profile through both of these flows are similar. So we don't see a degradation in quality. It really doesn't create much more friction for the user. And on the a la carte, Gary, do you want to take that? GARY SWIDLER: Yes, sure. In the a la carte, I think you should think about sort of 2 components to it. First of all, Gold has driven a la carte increases generally, so that's helped significantly, particularly Boost, which worked very well with the Gold subscription. So that's been a component of it. We've also seen a lot of strength in Super Likes lately. So it's multifaceted on both of our a la carte pieces. Super Likes and Boost are driving the strength there. In terms of the percentage, we talked previously about it being kind of 1/3 or so of the overall subscriber revenue at Tinder. As Gold has driven subscription revenue higher, that percentage actually has come down a little bit. So I'd say probably just a little bit south of 30% or around 30% is the way to think about it. But it's not because of weakness in a la carte. It's actually because of the strength on the subscriber side. OPERATOR: And the next question comes from Ross Sandler with Barclays. ROSS ADAM SANDLER, MD OF AMERICAS EQUITY RESEARCH AND SENIOR INTERNET ANALYST, BARCLAYS BANK PLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: Two questions. Back to the Facebook topic. If we take it up a level, how much of the kind of top of the funnel MAU growth, either organic or paid, comes from Facebook, not just for Tinder but across all brands? You mentioned single-digit percent of marketing, but what about just inbound kind of traffic? And then the second question is on GDPR. You mentioned in the guidance potentially some risk around GDPR. Can you just remind us what the revenue or sub base in Europe is today? And any additional color on what might happen post GDPR? AMANDA W. GINSBERG: Okay. So Ross, Facebook for us is really not an organic channel, it's a paid channel for us. If we look at all the registrations across all of our products, the percentage of registrations from Facebook is really small. It's like around 5%. So it's not a meaningful number for us. In terms of MAU growth across all businesses, the vast majority is organic. It's like well over half is organic. And if you look at the businesses that pay for acquisition, it's really Match, OurTime and Meetic in Europe. And there's a number of channels that are much bigger. So you've got TV and over-the-top and display and search, and Facebook is probably around the third or fourth channel. So we don't see a big risk there. And as I said, we'll continue to spend, especially if the spend is sufficient, on Facebook because it's been a good channel, though relatively small channel for us. GARY SWIDLER: And, Ross, on GDPR, just to be clear, all the impacts from GDPR and, in fact, all the known privacy and regulatory things that we need to deal with are included in our guidance. The GDPR has been a big effort across the company to make sure we comply by the May 25 deadline, and we're on track to do that. And we spend a lot of time and resources and money to make sure that we're doing what we need to do. It's not massive amounts, but it's there and it's all included in our numbers for the year. And there's also revenue effects because we're adjusting auto renewals for places where we control the payments and so forth. So all that is baked in, but there are revenue and cost impacts of GDPR and all the compliance things that are going on. Again, all that is baked into our numbers for this year. The thing that's not baked in is what we don't know. So to the extent other jurisdictions put in new privacy things that we need to comply with and we don't currently comply with, or other effects happen out of this much more intense focus on privacy, that would potentially move around our outlook but we think would be manageable within probably the ranges we have. But that's the thing that's not factored in. The known things, including GDPR, clearly factored in at this point. OPERATOR: And the next question comes from Jason Helfstein with Oppenheimer. JASON STUART HELFSTEIN, MD AND SENIOR INTERNET ANALYST, OPPENHEIMER & CO. INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: So two questions, one on Facebook and then a business question. So just can you help us understand, Facebook terms of service seem to suggest they can use all of the data they learn from you for their own benefit. So any views on that? How do you think about it? And then this has been a big question kind of why Facebook is doing this, and those of us who just looked at the sector for a long time have generally believed in that people do want to keep their dating and personal behavior separate. When I think about walled garden and you take Google and Travel, for years, they've thought about entering the space, but instead they'd rather just collect an advertising fee from the big players. So maybe if you can pontificate a bit more why you think Facebook is wanting to do this as opposed to try to maybe extract just a greater tax from you on the advertising side. And then just business-wise, on the reduction in planned marketing spend, Gary, is this just a function of like ROI requirements and you're not seeing it? And just how should we think about kind of if TV continues to be less effective, how you continue to drive growth with paid marketing? AMANDA W. GINSBERG: Okay. So a number of questions there. So let me take the first one, which is around Facebook competing against us with our data. So we definitely looked at the terms of service, and it does give them broad rights. But what you're bringing up truly is like it's a business ethics question, about how they use our data. And this is an issue that they've addressed with us head on in executive level conversations we've had, obviously, since last week's announcement. And they have indicated that they are not going to use information about our users that they receive through the authentication relationship or the advertising relationship. And any targeting that they would do would be based on information that's available for everyone. We've been a long partner for them, and honestly, I can't imagine Facebook would want to compromise the partnership, but more importantly, it's a trust issue. And the users' trust is part of these partnerships. And so my sense is right now, so it's too early to tell, but we have been assured that there is going to be integrity in our relationship. And then in terms of competition, about how we compete, at the end of the day, I really don't think, and I'll get to your next question, I don't think that people are going to be comfortable mixing their dating lives with Facebook. And so user targeting is not nearly as much of a big concern of mine at the moment. And then in terms of why Facebook is doing this, I can't speculate. I'm not sure. We sort of laid out in the remarks that the challenges they will have, especially in balancing the core user experience with dating, which is a great business, but it's also a business -- I mean, dating can be tough, online dating is a factor of that. Someone told me that dating someone is great when you are really into someone, but dating in general can be hard. And so we deal with all the dynamics around dating. And I think that by introducing a dating feature into their products, they will have to do that, too. So not sure, I think we'll learn more as more details are told to the market. GARY SWIDLER: And, Jason, in terms of your question on the ROIs on marketing. We're not moving our hurdles in any way. It's not a question of the hurdles being changed. The real reality is that TV has become more expensive. The cost of bringing in a user that way has gone up, as eyeballs have really moved from TV to digital, which isn't as engaging, isn't as effective. TV has always been a great source for us. So we're trying to maintain our discipline on our hurdles. And to the extent that means we can't spend as much, we're not spending as much. It's as simple as that. Obviously, we're focused on the impacts of that and hoping that additional channels open up that we could find effective and hit our hurdles and spend. And if we do, we definitely will do that. In the interim, we're making the improvements on the products that we talked about, trying to drive more word of mouth and replace some of what we lost on the TV side in other ways. So that's the strategy around, particularly, Match and Meetic, where the effect of what's happening with TV is the most pronounced. OPERATOR: And the next question comes from Eric Sheridan with UBS. ERIC JAMES SHERIDAN, MD AND EQUITY RESEARCH INTERNET ANALYST, UBS INVESTMENT BANK, RESEARCH DIVISION: Maybe 2 with respect to the focus around Tinder and growth. One, I want to know how you're thinking about sort of allocating resources, whether it be R&D dollars behind product or marketing behind initiatives around subscriber growth or monetization awareness on a global scale. What are those areas of focus within the company to continue to drive the momentum? And second, coming out of that, what's sort of the message you think investors should have about growth versus margins for Tinder as we look not only in 2018 but beyond? GARY SWIDLER: Sure. Let me take a crack at it. First of all, we have really been investing on both the product and marketing side at Tinder. And we see real things we're trying to accomplish in both to continue to roll out product that is enhancing engagement and driving new users, as we talked about, as well as roll out some revenue features. And so we continue to add headcount there. We continue to add top class engineering talents, AI talent, and we've been spending on product and bringing engineering to drive products. So as far as that goes, clearly, we see that Tinder is our growth engine, and we're investing where we can to drive the product at Tinder. And similarly, on the marketing side, we didn't have to market initially, as Mandy talked about in her remarks, at Tinder. And Tinder grew virally around the world out of the box in a way that we've never seen before. But there are still lots of things to do at Tinder now at this stage of its development, which include continuing to raise awareness of the product in international markets. And we're spending money there where necessary to try to drive awareness in India, in Korea, elsewhere in Asia, where we see real opportunity. And we're going to continue to do that. As well as in the U.S., where Tinder needs to continue to evolve in terms of how people perceive the product. And we're spending money there as well and to work through further involvement with the younger demographic as people age and turn 18 and go to college to try to drive some of those users to Tinder. So all of those things are key priorities for us. And Tinder is an incredibly profitable business, as we talked about. And we're spending, I think, very appropriately in both product and marketing to achieve our strategic objectives. And in fact, if you go back to 2017, which seems like a long time ago, but I'd say it isn't that long ago, you'll remember that we talked about reducing margins at the company, at Tinder in particular, because we had to start spending on marketing and to try to drive user growth in part with some marketing. And we took a step back in margin and we said, overall, longer term, we think that will be useful from a growth perspective and we'll see margin enhancement at Tinder over time. And that's, in fact, what's happening. And you're starting to see the results of all that now as Tinder's margins are expanding while at the same time Tinder is achieving tremendous growth. And so we're really enjoying both margin and growth at Tinder, and that was the long-term plan that we put in place. OPERATOR: And the next question comes from Sam Kemp of Piper Jaffray. SAMUEL JAMES KEMP, VP AND SENIOR INTERNET RESEARCH ANALYST, PIPER JAFFRAY COMPANIES, RESEARCH DIVISION: So looking at the re-segmentation that you did with North America versus international subs for the OkCupid allocation, looks like subs were growing at least 12% by the end of 2017 in international. Can you just talk about, has that continued into 2018 now? And is OkCupid finding a bigger opportunity outside the U.S. than it has inside the U.S.? And then the other brand I wanted to talk about was, you called out Pairs several quarters in a row now. Can you just talk about how big is that business today? Perhaps can you just contextualize a little bit more where the Japanese and South Korean dating markets are in their evolution? GARY SWIDLER: Mandy, do you want to take the Pairs question? AMANDA W. GINSBERG: Sure. So let me talk about Pairs because we have talked about it. We mentioned it in the slide today. So if you look -- we do think there's opportunity in the Asian market generally, and I'll talk a little bit about Japan. But in the Asian market, there's population growth, it's a young population, there's smartphone penetration. And the fact is there's still a real cultural stigma in dating. And so I equate it to what it was like 15-20 years ago in the U.S. when online dating first came on to the forefront. On your question specifically on Pairs, it's one of the biggest economies in the world, and then it lags in U.S. and Europe in terms of dating penetration for the reasons I just mentioned. It is a high-growth business, and we don't break out the specific business by business, but you can roughly compare the revenue to the size of about OkCupid or PlentyOfFish. And for Pairs, in particular, it is a product that targets people looking for a serious relationship, and they've seen a real -- we've seen a real growth in that market despite the fact that there's government regulations and you actually can't advertise in a lot of channels, including television marketing. So as hopefully the market is destigmatized, we'll also see opportunity to spend more and, hopefully, open up some of those channels. But we just think that in Japan, there is a particular need for these products and people are willing to pay for them. The team is really strong in Japan, and we think that we can take these learnings and use those learnings for other markets, particularly for South Korea. So we'll see. But I think there's some real opportunity, both with the Pairs brand as well as Tinder. So let me talk a little bit about Tinder because -- you didn't ask me that, but I think that is also a great opportunity for us in Asia and in Japan. We've seen real growth in younger segments in Asia, and these are the 2 main brands with Pairs and Tinder that we're going to go after. And then the last thing which I just want to address because I think it's one of the reasons why we feel confident and bullish around that market is that there was a real question about whether or not people would pay in Asia. And we've seen, in particular, in Pairs, it is our highest LTV and our highest ARPU business, so people really are willing to pay for products. GARY SWIDLER: And, Sam, maybe just to give a little more color on your question. On the International side, ex Tinder, and Tinder is obviously driving a lot of international growth, but ex Tinder, Pairs and the new OurTime brand in Europe are probably driving the preponderance to that growth. OkCupid has a small business internationally, but I don't think it's a major contributor to the overall growth that you alluded to. We would consider however trying to push OkCupid internationally. We think now that the product is working pretty well and we're seeing real resonance in the U.S., continuing to expand internationally could be part of the plan for OkCupid. And in fact, PlentyOfFish also has seen some strength in some international markets, particularly in English speaking markets and we could push PlentyOfFish internationally as well. So those are some things that we are thinking about. The one thing that overall you highlighted and I just wanted to mention, though, is strength in OkCupid. And we talked about how we are investing behind OkCupid on the marketing side, and we're pleased with the product wins they've had there. You can see that over the past couple of quarters, OkCupid's growth has accelerated meaningfully and it is performing very strongly. So it is valid a point that overall, that OkCupid is performing well. OPERATOR: And the next question comes from Chris Merwin with Goldman Sachs. CHRISTOPHER DAVID MERWIN, RESEARCH ANALYST, GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: I just had a couple. The first one is on Facebook. Can you talk about how the API changes affect how data from public Facebook profiles flow into the Tinder app? Will users that signed up through Facebook, have to manually reenter their information into their Tinder profile? And can they still see friends in common? And if not, do you think this changes the user experience in any meaningful way? And then just a second one on the trajectory of the core business, I think, Gary, you mentioned that subs have been down slightly year-on-year in the quarter. Was that the case for revenue as well? And is flattish growth the right way to think about the trajectory of the core for the rest of the year in the context of your updated guidance? AMANDA W. GINSBERG: Okay, Chris. Let me take the Facebook question. So in addition to credentials or authentication, really, the only information that we get from Facebook API is age, gender and photo. Then really, what happens in the ecosystem, because remember, people want to sort of put their best foot forward and impress people in the dating world, and so they will enrich their profile with additional photos that they give to us within our ecosystem. And so we get additional photos, bio, music from Spotify, which is on the profile, and then you can also input work and school. So we do not see a lot of friction. Users will do that for the reason I stated before, that they want to put their best foot forward. For users who previously signed up through Facebook, their profile on Tinder remains unchanged. GARY SWIDLER: I think in terms of the revenue question, revenue is basically flat in those businesses, in the non-Tinder businesses. And I think that's our expectation as the year progresses, that revenue is going to stay flat. I think we're thinking along the same lines on the sub side. The question around all that is something that we've talked about a little bit throughout the call, which is, what is the marketing opportunity? And do we find opportunities to spend? To the extent we don't find opportunities to spend, that will put some pressure on sub growth in the non-Tinder businesses, particularly at Match and Meetic. And so that's what we're watching. That's probably where the variability is, the sub growth being sort of connected to the marketing spend opportunity. So we'll have to see how that all plays out as the year goes on. But generally, the assumptions around revenue being flat, subs being flat, is still kind of our operating principle. OPERATOR: And the last question today comes from Douglas Anmuth with JPMorgan. DOUGLAS TILL ANMUTH, MD, JP MORGAN CHASE & CO, RESEARCH DIVISION: Just thinking higher level here, in the slides, you talked about, about 600 million unattached singles globally. If we think about Tinder's having maybe around 35 million to 40 million maybe higher MAUs, could you just discuss how you think about Tinder's TAM and what the potential longer-term penetration of paid subscribers as a percentage of MAUs could look like? And is there any reason that paid member penetration would be structurally lower than other premium services, for example, like a Spotify, over time? GARY SWIDLER: Okay. Let me take a crack at that, and let me try to do it outside of confirming some of the numbers that you threw out that we haven't really thrown out. But as far as the 600 million TAM, obviously, we think that's the right number. We focus on Tinder's demographic, core demographic, being in the kind of 20- to 30-year-old range. So rough estimate off top of my head would be kind of 1/4 of that 600 million TAM is probably in Tinder's core demographic globally. So that's obviously still a very big market, around 150 million people globally, ex China. And we believe that Tinder is well positioned to keep capturing more and more of that market over time. That's why we're spending the marketing dollars. That's why we're focused internationally and putting forth those efforts because we see significant opportunity, particularly in those developing markets globally. In terms of kind of payer penetration levels, the only thing that we can tell you is we feel very confident that we can drive those numbers higher and higher over time. Obviously, it depends on the product road map and what we roll out and whether people find those features appealing. But if the past is any prelude on that, we continue to have a lot of success rolling out features that users find appealing and are willing to pay for. In fact, the adoption from a payer standpoint of our recent feature has been incredibly strong. We think we're still in that strong adoption point. So we'll expect to continue to make progress there. We'll continue to drive payer penetration higher. What the ceiling is, how it compares with others is really hard to say. It will depend on a lot of different things, including how we price the different features, what we offer for free. Our category is different than music in a variety of ways, for example, are different than other categories because it's something that's incredibly important to people and they see incredible value in it, which is why we've been able to continue to drive overall ARPU up at Tinder. And so those, I think, are some of the factors to think about as you think about kind of where penetration levels can go. So -- but the only thing I'd say is we definitely have confidence in it going higher. Hard to say kind of where that overall ceiling may be, and it will depend on kind of how we approach a variety of different things as we balance everything out. DOUGLAS TILL ANMUTH: Okay. And any comments just on overall MAU numbers, where you are now for Tinder? GARY SWIDLER: Not today. DOUGLAS TILL ANMUTH: Okay. Hopefully soon. Thanks. OPERATOR: And as it was this morning's last question, I would like to return the call to management for any closing comments. AMANDA W. GINSBERG: Sure. Well, thanks for joining the call. The one thing I would say is we spent a lot of time talking about the announcement last week, but we didn't spend nearly as much time talking about the thing that we love to do and that we deliver every day, which is really product innovation. And we feel like we did many years ago create the category and are constantly evolving it and disrupting it. And I think that -- I just want to end by saying that the reason we feel that the future is bright is because we've got teams sort of across the globe that are really focusing on how do we create phenomenal products that truly change relationship outcomes. And if we keep doing that, I think that we're going to be in great shape. OPERATOR: Thank you. 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Company / organization: Name: Thomson Financial; NAICS: 511210, 518210, 519190
Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: May 9, 2018
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Document 249 of 474
Q1 2018 Ambev SA Earnings Call - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]09 May 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Presentation OPERATOR: Good morning and thank you for waiting. We would like to welcome everyone to Ambev's First Quarter 2018 Results Conference Call. Today with us we have Mr. Bernardo Paiva, CEO for Ambev and Mr. Ricardo Rittes, CFO and Investor Relations Officer. We would like to inform you that this event is being recorded. (Operator Instructions) Before proceeding, let me mention that forward-looking statements are being made under the safe harbor of the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1996. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of Ambev's management and on information currently available to the company. They involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions because they relate to future events and therefore depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. Investors should understand that general economic conditions, industry conditions, and other operating factors could also affect the future results of Ambev and could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. I would also like to remind everyone that as usual, the percentage changes that will be discussed during today's call are both organic and normalized in nature and unless otherwise stated percentage changes refer to comparisons with first quarter 2017 results. Normalized figures refer to performance measures before exceptional items which are either income or expenses that do not occur regularly as part of Ambev's normal activities. As normalized figures are non-GAAP measures, the company discloses the consolidated profit, EPS, EBIT, and EBITDA on a fully reported basis in the earnings release. Now I'll turn the conference over to Mr. Ricardo Rittes, CFO and Investor Relations Officer. Mr. Rittes, you may begin your conference. RICARDO RITTES DE OLIVEIRA SILVA PAIVA, CHIEF FINANCIAL & IR OFFICER AND MEMBER OF EXECUTIVE BOARD OF OFFICERS, AMBEV S.A.: Thank you. Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining our 2018 first quarter earnings call. I will guide you through our financial highlights of Brazil, Central America and the Caribbean, Latin America South and Canada, including our below the line items and cash flow. After that, Bernardo will give more details about our performance in Brazil, evolution of our growth platforms, as well as our outlook for the remaining of the year. Beginning with the main highlights of our consolidated results. We started the year with growth in CAC, LAS and Brazil. On a consolidated basis, top line was up 5.9% in the quarter with volume going down 5.8% mainly due to a shortfall in Brazil. Volume decline was more than offset by a healthy net revenue per hectoliter increase of 12.4%. EBITDA was up 10.1% in the quarter reaching BRL 4.6 billion with margin expansion of 160 basis points to 39.9%. Normalized net profit was BRL 2.6 billion, 12.7% higher than that of the first quarter of 2017 as the EBITDA organic growth and lower interest expenses were partially impacted by a higher tax rate. Moving now to our divisional results and starting with Brazil. Brazil EBITDA was up 5.3% with margin expansion of 280 basis points to 41.8%. In Beer Brazil, top line was down 1%. As anticipated we started the year facing challenging volume that decline by 8.1% mainly driven by the combination of a weak industry and a tough comparable in the first quarter of 2017. On the other hand, net revenue per hectoliter remained strong and grew by 7.7%, benefiting from the carry-over of the price adjustment implemented in the third quarter of 2017 and from our continued revenue management initiatives. Despite volume not being supportive, we still managed to grow Beer Brazil EBITDA by 5.2% and expand margin by 260 basis points to 43.8%. Cash COGS per hectoliter in Beer Brazil was down 4.8%, driven by favorable FX partially affected by inflation and higher commodity prices. And cash SG&A was up 3.1% as higher logistic costs impacted by operational deleverage were partially offset by below-inflation sales and marketing and administrative expenses. In Non-Alcoholic Beverages Brazil, NAB, as we call, EBITDA was up 6.1% with margin expansion of 350 basis points to 29.5%. Despite posting solid net revenue per hectoliter growth of 16.2% which benefited from the annualization of our revenue management initiatives implemented in the second half of 2017, top line was down 6.4%, impacted by a volume decline of 19.4%. Similarly to Beer, NAB's weak volume was driven by mainly 2 factors: one, a still declining industry and second a hard comparable in the first quarter of 2017. Bernardo will expand on this topic. In terms of costs and expenses, cash COGS per hectoliter in NAB was up 4.9% as favorable FX was adversely impacted by higher raw materials including sugar coupled with volume decline effect in fixed cost dilution. Cash SG&A, on the other hand, grew below inflation at 1% as higher logistic costs affected by operational deleverage were partially offset by lower sales and marketing expense. Moving now to our international operation. In Central America and the Caribbean, we continue to experience a positive momentum. In the first quarter of 2018, EBITDA in CAC reached BRL 445 million, increasingly organically 18.7% with margin expansion of 330 basis points to 38.7%. In U.S. dollars reported EBITDA grew close to 16%. Net revenue increased by 8.7% and on a per hectoliter basis by 4.2%. Volume was up 4.3% with Dominican Republic and Panama, the 2 largest countries in the region for us, delivering strong growth. In the Dominican Republic, our performance was supported by continuing investment in the Presidente brand that in the first quarter promoted a notable Carnival along with a strong 360 Holy Week activation. And in Panama this quarter, we continued to witness the success of our portfolio of brands led by Atlas Golden Light, which delivered to consumers' great experience during 2 major events, Carnival and the Atlas Golden Fest Festival. Cash COGS per hectoliter in CAC was slightly positive growing 0.2%, benefiting from a tight cost management and further cost savings in our non-working money as well as efficiency gains in our working money. This translated into decline in cash SG&A by 0.2%. Moving now to Latin America South. In LAS, we started the year maintaining the good trend of 2017. EBITDA was up 25.2% organically reaching BRL 1.3 billion with margin expansion of 30 basis points to 43.1%. Net revenue grew by 24.6% explained by a combination of, #1, a strong volume that grew 5.7% with all the countries performing well, enabling us to reach record beer volume in the first quarter in the region and second, net revenue per hectoliter increase of 17.8%, which were a consequence of the high inflation in those countries plus revenue management initiatives and a favorable brand mix. In Argentina, in particular beer volumes grew by high-single digit fueled by Brahma coupled with the successful launch of Quilmes Clásica. Our premium portfolio in the country also led the way with Stella Artois, Corona and local craft brand Patagonia presenting strong growth and driving a positive mix. Cash COGS per hectoliter in LAS went up by 13.5%, benefited by the FX, while cash SG&A increased by 28%, mostly impacted phasing of sales and marketing expense. Turning now to Canada. We delivered in the first quarter BRL 275 million of EBITDA, which is 20.4% lower than that in the first quarter of 2017. Top line grew by 0.5% and net revenue per hectoliter rose by 1% as a favorable brand mix was negatively impacted by excise tax increase. Volumes were marginally down, declining 0.4% predominantly driven by a soft industry. On the other hand, our strong portfolio helped us retaining our leading position in the Canadian market with #1 Bud Light, Corona, Stella Artois and Michelob Ultra outperforming the industry and #2, our craft portfolio, comprised of Mill Street and Archibald, among other brands, growing double-digit year-over-year. Cash COGS per hectoliter, however, was up 26% in Canada due to a hard comparable in the first quarter of 2017 and the impact of imports. On the other hand, cash SG&A was down 2.9%, benefiting from cost savings in our non-working money as well as phasing and efficiency gains in our working money. Still on our international operation and before going back to consolidated figures, I would like to highlight that we're enthusiastic with the evolution of our business in LAS and CAC reinforcing our positive outlook for both regions. Especially in LAS, we're also pleased that we closed the transaction in Argentina that resulted in perpetual license of Budweiser brand. Such transaction brings us the unique opportunity to further develop Budweiser, which is a very strong global brand, with great potential for growth going forward. Finally, in Canada, while we're not satisfied with our performance this quarter as we cycle COGS hard comparable, we're confident that we will be able to deliver improved results supported by our strong portfolio of brands. Now back to consolidated figures. Other operating expense totaled BRL 258 million in the first quarter mainly explained by government grants related to State VAT long-term tax initiatives that were down year-over-year. Lower revenue and the revenue geographic mix explain this reduction. Finally, moving below EBITDA. In the first quarter, our net financial results totaled an expense of BRL 144 million, declining 37.6% when compared to the first quarter of 2017. Going to more details, main items in the financial expense in the quarter were, first, interest income of BRL 103 million, driven by our cash balance mainly Brazilian reais, U.S. dollars and Canadian dollars. Second, interest expenses of the BRL 348 million that include among other items, interest incurred in connection with the Brazilian tax regularization program as well as a non-cash accrual of approximately BRL 65 million related to the put option associated with our investment in the Dominica Republic business. Such non-cash accrual declined more than 50% year-over-year as a result of the partial exercise of the put option in January 2018, which resulted in the decrease from 45% to 15% of ELJ ownership in the business. Third, BRL 183 million of losses on derivative instrument, mainly driven by the carry cost of our FX hedges, primarily linked to our COGS exposures in Brazil and Argentina. Losses on derivative instrument declined by 26% year-over-year benefiting from positive results of equity swaps, coupled with lower interest rates in Brazil that contributed further reduction of carry cost. Fourth, gains on non-derivative instruments of BRL 92 million that comprises a gain related to the adjustment in the fair value of the put option in the Dominican Republic that, as I just mentioned, was partially exercised at the beginning of the year. And finally, #5, fifth, BRL 119 million of other financial expenses mainly driven by interest income contingencies. The effective tax rate in the quarter was 19.3% versus 12.9% last year mainly explained by the negative impact of foreign exchange variation on intercompany transactions, due to the depreciation of the Brazilian real on a cash flow perspective. Cash flow from operating activities before changes in working capital was BRL 4.7 billion versus BRL 4.6 billion in 2017. Starting from the higher cash flow generation before working capital, during this quarter, we had a negative cash impact on working capital due to volume decline in both beer and NAB business in Brazil. Given that we have a negative working capital position, every time we grow our business, there is a positive impact from working capital as cash generated by payables is significantly higher than the cash tied up in receivables and inventories. The opposite is also true, every time we face volume deceleration there is a negative effect on working capital. As a result, the first quarter of 2018 cash generated from the operations was BRL 2.5 billion versus BRL 3.1 billion during the same period of 2017. This quarter, we also had a higher cash tax payment when compared to the same period of 2017, mostly due to FX negative impact from tax paid abroad and phasing and this figure is expected to be partially diluted over the year. Similarly, we also completed the transaction that I alluded to, whereby we increased our ownership in the Dominican Republic business for 55% to 85% leading to a cash outflow of roughly BRL 3 billion. Finally, in the first quarter, we paid out BRL 1.1 billion in dividends to shareholders. Thank you very much. I will now move to Bernardo before going to Q&A. BERNARDO PINTO PAIVA, CEO & MEMBER OF EXECUTIVE BOARD OF OFFICERS, AMBEV S.A.: Thank you, Ricardo. Hello, everyone. As mentioned by Ricardo, we started the year, delivering EBITDA growth and margin expansion for Beer Brazil, despite volume decline of 8.1%. When we announced the 2017 full-year results, we mentioned that we expected a challenging volume for Beer Brazil in the first quarter, but that we had a positive outlook for the remainder of the year. In this context, I believe it's worth sharing to you our view on 2 questions; one, what are the main drivers that led to such volume decline and second, is there any change in our outlook going forward. So what happened? There are a few factors that explain beer volume decline in Q1. First, earlier Carnival. The earlier the Carnival vacation is cut short and as a consequence, beer consumption levels tend to suffer. Second, poor weather. Especially in January and February, we had more rain and lower temperatures across the country when compared to the first quarter 2017, particularly in the South East region where we have a stronghold. And third, macro. The consumer environment in Brazil remains volatile. It is a reality that unemployment rate is still very high and the real disposable is recovering at a slow pace. These 3 drivers together led to a [lean beer industry] that according to our estimate declined between low and mid-single digit in the quarter. In addition, we also faced a hard comparable in Q1 2017 when we substantially outperformed the industry. With that, I would like to highlight that even though we underperformed the industry this first quarter, we don't see any structural change in our market position. One of the reasons for that is that when we mention industry figures, we are referring to sell-out and not selling data and depending on inventory levels at the retail channel and pace of the stocking, there may be significant difference between the 2 of them. As such in fourth quarter 2017, our volume was up 5.1%, while the industry was flattish. It is fair to say that at this time, retail was expecting a strong summer season. Regarding first quarter '18, summer was actually impacted by a poor weather and as a consequence the sell-out was lower than expected, leading to [a slower lift time]. If you analyze our performance during fourth quarter 2017 and first quarter 2018 combined, volume was down approximately 1%, in line with the industry. Having said that, I will now move to the second question. If there is any change in our outlook for the balance of the year and the answer is no. Our positive outlook remains unchanged as; one, since the quarter-to-quarter the trends are positive. We have seen an improved performance in April and our beer volume is back to positive territory. Second, we have the World Cup, a major event with the strong execution approaching. And third, we remain consistent on our commercial strategy leveraging our growth platforms and despite the challenging quarter, we still managed to make a good progress in each of them. [We start usual elevate the core]. Skol, our easy drinking lager closed the summer season with the strong Carnival. The brand promoted the most important street parties Brazil, providing breakthrough experience to more than 40 million consumers in more than 40 cities. Also during the quarter, Skol maintained its position of being the most innovative brand in the market and launched a new package (inaudible) with a pull-off on its crown, helping consumers open the bottle more easily. Now talking about Brahma, our classic lager. In Q1, Brahma maintained the good trend of 2017 strongly outperforming the industry. Looking forward, Brahma is building momentum as the World Cup approaches. The brand has been part of the Brazilian's consumer life since the first edition of the World Cup in 1930. For the 2018 edition, we will keep the tradition alive, executing strong activation that we evoke all with heritage. Brahma's most recent action was the re-printing of historic labels that adorned its bottles during the years in which Brazil won the World Cup: 1958, 1962, '70, '94 and 2002. The new labels were distributed across the whole country with an incredible positive response from consumers. Still on Brahma's family, Brahma Extra, with its three variants, Lager, Red Lager and Weiss, delivered a strong performance in Q1 with the volume growing almost 100% and reaching more than 1% of our beer volume in Brazil. Going forward, we see that Brahma Extra has a great potential to continue to grow, providing the consumers the first (inaudible) and driving positive mix. Finally, Antarctica. Antarctica also delivered memorable carnival in Rio de Janeiro and in Brazil, reaching more than 20 million people. Along with that as I mentioned in our last call, Antarctica launched its new Visual Brand Identity during the quarter. Early results indicate that the new VBI will be a major success. Now moving to premium, our global portfolio of premium brands comprised of Budweiser, Stella Artois and Corona, grew double digits in Q1 2018 meeting the raising awareness of Brazilians for premium brands while delivering memorable experience such as Lollapalooza. Budweiser sponsored the first edition of the festival in U.S. back in 1991. And inspired by this heritage, in March the brand sponsored the Lollapalooza in Brazil, featuring several iconic singers. As we move to Q2, Budweiser also achieved a remarkable activation during World Cup increasing its awareness and further consolidating its strong position in the premium segment. Still in premium, Stella Artois is also doing well for the second consecutive year in a row. The brand launched the global campaign, Buy a Lady a Drink in partnership with Water.org to help raise awareness of the global water crisis, inviting its consumers to leave a legacy. Going forward, we are excited that our premium brands are well positioned to keep delivering strong results not only in the short term but also in the long term. It's fair to say that even though we had substantially improved our premium volume performance in the last 5 years, there is still much more to be done. Especially considering that premium volume remains underpenetrated in Brazil as compared to the other market. Now talking about the smart affordability. We have been developing several initiatives related to package and route-to-market which tackle the affordability issue in Brazil without impact on profitability. We believe that to foster beer consumption in the country, especially in underdeveloped regions, we have to steadily evolve with these types of initiatives. And given the importance of affordability, we incorporated this as one of our growth platforms. Having said that, our returnable glass bottle strategy in the off-trade remains high in our agenda with the 300 ml returnable glass bottles, our minis, delivering more competitive consumer price. Finally, moving to a different occasion, in home and out of home. As we started the year, we continued to accelerate our trade programs, putting great efforts to assure a high service level everywhere. We are confident that a consistent execution in the on-trade and in the off-trade enables us to step up consumers' experience in both channels while building strong brands. Before closing, a quick run through our non-alcoholic business in Brazil. NAB had a very challenging quarter in terms of volume. It was down 19.4%. There are mainly 2 drivers that explain such performance: one, a hard comparable in first quarter 2017 when the soft drink industry declined by high single-digit and our volume was flattish. And second, and industry that's still being impacted by low discretionary spending, falling by mid-single digit in first quarter 2018. However, as mentioned by Ricardo, despite facing weak volume, we still managed to increase EBITDA and expand margin. While we are not satisfied with our NAB volume result this quarter, we are confident that we are implementing the right initiatives needed to strengthen our foundation and which will enable us to deliver improved volume with a more profitable business and as a consequence, deliver a stronger EBITDA growth. Before moving to the Q&A, I would like to close with a final message. As I just mentioned, as we turn the page on Q1, the trend is positive. In this context, and also supported by a strong execution during the World Cup, we expect beer volume to resume growth in Q2 2018. The World Cup will also bring a great opportunity for NAB with Guaraná Antarctica as the official sponsor of the Brazilian team. With that in mind, we are optimistic about our business in Brazil and we're committed to keep consistency in executing the initiatives implemented under the growth platform. We remain confident that we have a strong plan and great portfolio to further accelerate EBITDA growth versus 2017. Finally, we are also excited that all the important countries in which we operate Argentina, Uruguay and Panama, will participate in the World Cup. We also have a great plan to execute a strong 360 activation in all these countries, further enhancing the equity of our brands. We can now move to the Q&A. Thank you. Questions and Answers OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) The first question comes from Luca Cipiccia with Goldman Sachs. LUCA CIPICCIA, EQUITY ANALYST, GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: I wanted to ask 2, very briefly. The first on the beer volumes outlook, appreciate the detail that you gave on the second quarter, but maybe if you can add, if we look at the industry overall, as we size the type of catalysts, the contribution that the World Cup may have and the improvement -- the sequential improvement that it seems you're expecting, do you think the industry will be able to show positive growth in volumes overall this year? Do you have any visibility on that and maybe if you have any comment? That will be the first one. And then secondly, on the non-alcoholic beverages, it seems that the debate on affordability in that category has also been quite relevant and the Coca-Cola system seems to have moved more focus on that. And I'm just wondering the relative underperformance of your portfolio, does it have to do more with the type of, let's say, price positioning that you have or mix positioning that you have or rather as the biggest player in the market, pushes a little more on affordability, maybe you don't have as many tools as they have given the difference in scale and brand portfolio? If you have any additional qualifier there as well, it would be useful. BERNARDO PINTO PAIVA: Thanks, Luca. Thanks for the question. First linked to the industry and the outlook, we'll not comment for the full year, but as I commented in my speech, we really expect for the second quarter for the volume to resume to grow. So our performance will be better in the second quarter. I mean we have the visibility of April and the initial numbers of May. So we are positive about our volumes in terms of the second quarter. For the affordability issue, I think that as we know all have been implementing initiatives in this front for the last years. So we acknowledge that we need to keep developing affordability initiatives to boost the beer volume and expand the beer category, especially in the -- underdeveloping regions like the Northeast for instance, where the disposable income is low. So what could be done, for instance, one, what are we doing in terms of the packaging, such as the returnable glass bottles in the off-trade, which we are now expanding even more in sub-segments of the off-trade. That takes time because we'll have to go there to visit, I mean to put the crate and so on. But we're doing this in mom and pops and [tips tops] and among other sub-segments of the off-trade. And second, the go-to-market, that's very, very important. We're serving better and serving more point of sales enable us to deliver our products direct and able to manage the right price across the whole country. So doing that and increasing the number of point of sales that we're selling with the right price, a consumer price and doing this in a profitable way helps a lot to bring more affordable SKUs and brands overall in many regions in Brazil. The third thing is the innovation pipeline. So [Herbe] is turning that and working on that to really bring to the market innovation like we've done with the 330 ml but not on package and in other fronts as well that we could not and we'll not comment, I mean, for competitive reasons. The only thing that we not do is to play in the value segment with no margins, that we don't do. So we have a strong hold in our core, our premium is evolving, the portfolio is doing very, very well, but really to bring volumes with no margin starting one-way camps with zero margin or negative margin is not our game. So having said that, affordability is key. That's why we put in our platform I mean now it's even more clear and then we wrote that it drives much affordability that it's a profitable one the kind of affordability that you are searching for. LAUREN ELAINE TORRES, LATIN AMERICAN FOOD AND BEVERAGE SENIOR ANALYST, UBS INVESTMENT BANK, RESEARCH DIVISION: But just quickly. Sorry. RICARDO RITTES DE OLIVEIRA SILVA PAIVA: Going to the question that you ask about non-alcoholic beverage specifically, just to highlight that you know that our pricing strategy is to increase price level inflation. So when you look at the -- when price was taken in the second half of 2017, Q4 '17 after price increase that revenue per hectoliter grew by 9.6%. And then Q4 versus Q1 2018 that revenue per hectoliter was actually down 11.2% as a result of the catch-up of the state taxes. So again, I think the non-alcoholic business is the more elastic one and all the issues that Bernardo discussed get a little bit amplified in the very short term that that were discussed. But we are very confident in the strength of our brands in that portfolio Guaraná Antarctica and Pepsi specifically. LUCA CIPICCIA: Just quickly, the premium segment of the non-alcoholic business is that showing a similar resilience or relative outperformance as what you commented about in beer or like what you will call premium within non-alcoholic? Is that also doing better even though it's much, much smaller? I appreciate that. BERNARDO PINTO PAIVA: Yes, Luca, it's doing better. So the portfolio of premium, the juices and the Fusion, the energy drinks are doing very, very well. So that's one of the bets for the future. OPERATOR: The next question comes from Isabella Simonato with Bank of America. ISABELLA SIMONATO, VP, BOFA MERRILL LYNCH, RESEARCH DIVISION: My first question is on beer more in line with what Luca asked. I mean considering -- looking for Q2 or maybe beyond aside from maybe a better weather in April or the positive impact from the World Cup, are you seeing real signs of consumer consumption recovering on the beer? And also thinking about affordability, do you think consumers are ready to take more significant price increases going forward without affecting a lot volumes at this point? That's my first question on beer. And second, regarding SG&A, this has been a line that has been very under control with selling below inflation. What sort of impact should we see from Q2 on that line because of the World Cup? BERNARDO PINTO PAIVA: Thanks, Isabella. Thanks for the question. I think linking for the same question that Luca asked that I'll just add in terms of kind of a view of the industry for the future. First, we have to acknowledge that the consumer environment in Brazil is still soft, disposable income is growing at a slow pace, unemployment is too high. In any case a gradual improvement of macro indicators should be supportive for the beer industry as the year progresses. We should also keep in mind that the beer industry is one of the last to getting into the crisis and one of the last to leave this crisis as well. But all-in-all, leaving the first quarter behind, we are optimistic about our business in Brazil and confident that we're on the right -- we will be at the right -- we'll be on the right track. So we really expect going -- I mean, for the future, yes where the industries given that again, Brazil disposable income one day it will be better and it will and then we see the impact in the industry. And beer industry again is one of the first ones and the last ones to enter in a crisis and one of the last ones to leave the crisis as well. So related to the SG&A, I think Ricardo can answer. RICARDO RITTES DE OLIVEIRA SILVA PAIVA: Isabella, then again, just highlighting what Bernardo just said. So we are excited about the future and noting what Bernardo also said that we are already in May. So we have visibility aside for the World Cup on somehow an improvement because of the reasons that Bernardo explained in his. And regarding SG&A, you recognize that we don't provide any specific guidance on SG&A by quarter. But it's fair to assume that there might be some failing, but nothing that will be notable. What we have been doing recently in the last couple of years is always to provide or highlights or provide like specific guidance or anything that should be notable going forward. And I think that you had a question regarding affordability. Could you repeat that? ISABELLA SIMONATO: Yes, Bernardo. It's just in line with the comments for the industry. I mean if you -- given the scenario of a slower consumption recovery, if you think consumers are ready to take more significant price increases without having a -- still a significant impact on volumes? BERNARDO PINTO PAIVA: I mean, we don't comment on our pricing policy. I mean, the only thing that I comment that our net revenue per hectoliter our -- I mean long-term policy is to grow in line with inflation plus any tax increase over time. So that we need to do offset. I think the only thing that -- it's fair to say that when you execute better when you serve the [box] better, we'd be able to manage the consumer price better. So sometimes the number in terms of the price to point of sale, and then this number goes to the P&L, is not exactly the same number. It could be higher than the number that goes to, I mean, the final price of beer industry in the country. So -- and we think that we are doing pretty well in terms of evolution of our service level, maybe getting much, much better, provide a much better service to the point of sales. And then this has an impact in the way that they price our beers. So which means that you can mitigate any impact including in terms of price [PTI] increase for the point of sale. So excellence in service helps affordability as well. That's what the kind of figure that I tried to highlight in the comments that I need to look. OPERATOR: The next question comes from Lauren Torres with UBS. LAUREN ELAINE TORRES: Earlier today on Inbev's call Brito talked about Brazil being in margin recovery mode. He talked about factors that we've heard from you before, particularly the cost environment being better as the hedges rolled off, but he also spent a little time on positive mix with respect to premium brands and the growth of RGBs. I was hoping if you could just talk a little bit more about positive mix for this year because sensing that the volumes are recovering, the cost environment better, the pricing is in place, something incremental could be more from the mix side. And looking at your historical EBITDA margin, we've been north of 50% in the past, now are closer to the low 40%s. So how should we think about this progression? Is there a lot of upside from mix to consider or should we not get too excited about the lift on the mix side? RICARDO RITTES DE OLIVEIRA SILVA PAIVA: Lauren, thank you very much for the question. So (inaudible) a bit longer term we are very excited with the evolution of the Brazilian business, if you will. And I think that's what Brito mentioned as a recovery mode. Of course, the part of our business has like a fixed cost. So every time we grow the business, you have like evolution in terms of the margins. I think that's -- so as Brazil gets out of the crisis, as we -- GDP starts to go to the positive side and et cetera, so there is like a top line benefit when you look ahead and when you look forward. I think that's the first important, if you will, dimension. The second dimension on the cost side. So if you take like a very, very long term, we have managed to, over time, to have like COGS to grow a little bit lower than inflation, but with the size of our COGS linked to FX, for example, there is some volatility into this. We use hedges to smooth that volatility for us to be able to react operationally to market risk shocks. And as a result, we have some visibility in a couple of quarters ahead of us in terms of what to expect, in terms of, if you will, of the impact of the FX into our COGS going forward. So as we explained in the last quarter's call, the average FX for this year is 3.16. And the current FX, which is closer to 3.5, 3.6 is much higher. And as a result of that, also there is an improvement year-over-year. That flows into the P&L in a way of that impact in itself in a way of positive trend towards margins. In terms of the mix itself, long term, premium has grown from 5% of the total volumes to more than 10% of the total volumes. And that continues to be the case quarter after quarter after quarter. So over time that also serves as a positive force into our like, let's say, the margins. So net, if I could like summarize all that, I think, Brito also a couple of quarters ago mentioned that the way we see the margins is just like a high watermark and is not something that we believe was like the peak of the margin or anything, just a high watermark that we need to run the business. And over time, there is no reason for us not to work towards that direction. BERNARDO PINTO PAIVA: I think, Lauren, linked to the premium segment, I think, if you see globally -- I mean premium average weight is around 20% of the mix of the industry. In Brazil, it's a little bit -- I mean [around 10%] a little bit higher than that. If you see some regions of Brazil or even countries like Paraguay that premium is already 20% of the industry shows us that we have room to grow the premium segment in Brazil with good impact in margins as well. LAUREN ELAINE TORRES: So, I guess, with that said, I mean, I quoted that over 50% margin you've given us in the past and I think today you did say there is no structural changes as far as your market position and so there's no reason why we shouldn't get back to some of your historical margin levels? RICARDO RITTES DE OLIVEIRA SILVA PAIVA: It's -- again, it's not a guidance, but it's just a high watermark and the 50%-plus margins numbers are reference to us, nothing prevents us from reaching those margins again. The only structural change in our P&L comparing for instance 2012-2015 is the other operating income line, which has declined. The line used to represent 7% to 8% of net revenues and now represents around 4%. But besides that, I think the strategy of the company is the same and there's no reason for us not to get there. OPERATOR: The next question comes from Thiago Duarte with BTG. THIAGO CALLEGARI L. DUARTE, ANALYST, BANCO BTG PACTUAL S.A., RESEARCH DIVISION: Couple of questions on my side. First, I would cycle to Canada and I would appreciate if you could comment a little bit more on the cost things there? You mentioned, of course, the tough comps as one reason for the increase in the cost year-over-year and the increase in imports. But even if you look on a unitary basis what we see is the costs are at a much higher level than we saw in the last many quarters. So just wanted to understand whether this import issue is something that we could see in the coming quarters, so there would be like a new normal in terms of cost magnitude in the operations there? Or something that we should be seeing as nonrecurring going forward? I would appreciate some comments on that. And second, I would love to hear from you guys a little bit more on the mix in Brazil. You guys commented on the further growth in the premium segment. In RGB, we know that they are all accretive on the net revenue per hectoliter. So if you could a little bit disclose to us how much this mix has contributed to the increase in net revenue per hectoliter year-over-year and as well I would love to hear if you could comment on the impact on the net revenue per hectoliter from the exclusion of the ICMS from the PIS/COFINS basis as part of the calculation of the total deduction on gross revenue? Would appreciate that as well. RICARDO RITTES DE OLIVEIRA SILVA PAIVA: Duarte, Ricardo here. So first let me start with Canada. With Canada, if you remember, in the first quarter of 2017, EBITDA grew 17.5% at that time. And was also impacted by the COGS line creating a little bit of a reference base. If you look at the full year and again the shorter period of time they look the more volatility you might have due to specifically the imports of -- that go to Canada. If you look at the full year, EBITDA of Canada grew 0.9%. So over like just 4 quarters and this is an [element of the] business adjusted because you get a full year, you don't see that type of noise flow into the P&L. So to answer to your question whether this is the new norm, no, is not a new normal. And again, I think just the same way that last year create a comparable basis, I think again, over time, you shouldn't see anything different in the Canadian business. Related specific to price and to the tax issue or meaning you specifically asked how much of the net revenue per hectoliter increase came from the VAT from the excise taxes, specifically, again, it's not that much, because if you remember in addition to this, we had also the increasing taxes based on the law approved in 2015. So there is a reduction in the [reductor] of the beer business import taxes, and that was the steepest one in 2017 since the law was approved. So again, in 2015, that reduction was 20%, '16 was 15%, '17 was 10% and '14, 0% in the beer for up to 400 ml containers. So it's a big change. So one thing and the other, you have to look at the difference in the net basis, which is not that relevant. BERNARDO PINTO PAIVA: I think, Duarte to talk about the mix. Thanks for the question, I mean, and just I mean to reinforce before the other tax issue, we had upside in the VAT, but a downside in the federal tax that's what exactly I think Ricardo said in this first quarter. So linked to the mix, I mean, very difficult for us to really disclose the numbers. But to grow 7.7% year-over-year, the net revenue per hectoliter, I mean, compared this quarter to the other quarter in the last year for sure you have annualization of the price increase of -- that we've done in the third quarter. But yes mix and RGBs help us on that. Because it's -- I think it was a good growth in terms of the net revenue. That makes sense in our policy that we always say our mantra that I mean we increase net revenue in line with inflation plus any tax offset so that (inaudible). THIAGO CALLEGARI L. DUARTE: [You're trying to] say that on a constant mix basis, your net revenue per hectoliter is growing in line with inflation as you just said or should I think in terms of the gross revenue per hectoliter in terms of on a constant basis -- on a constant mix basis, sorry? RICARDO RITTES DE OLIVEIRA SILVA PAIVA: No, if you look at over time, the answer is yes, but if you look at specific quarter or other, no. But if you look for example, the last 3 years or 5 years, if you do that calculation you're probably going to get very close to the exact number in terms of net revenue growing exactly in line with inflation. OPERATOR: The next question comes from Antonio Barreto with Itau. ANTONIO COSTA BARRETO, RESEARCH ANALYST, ITAú CORRETORA DE VALORES S.A., RESEARCH DIVISION: My question is going back to the mainstream. When we talk to our channel checks, we believe that you guys are suffering a bit more on Skol than on the other brands. So my question is if you could comment at least on a qualitative basis, how the brand preference for Skol has evolved? You mentioned that the Carnival was a very good period and brand activation for Skol in the first half -- in the first quarter of the year. And I would like to see if you guys have seen any kind of uptick in the brand preference for this brand? And looking for the rest of the year, it seems to us that most of the activities are related to Brahma, especially the vodka, and I was wondering if you guys are seeing anything else relevant to make us think of any kind of recovery or any kind of uptrend on Skol brand preference. BERNARDO PINTO PAIVA: It's a very good question. I think that, first, I mean, we have been steady, I mean in the last 3 years, all the trends are coming, many markets including here. So -- and we know for that [one thing that's] important in terms of attributes for brands. I mean drinkability is key, but all of this thing about the flavor and so on, this attribute of flavor, both the flavor, it's important as well. So it is the beauty that we have, Ambev has a portfolio that can cover that. So that's why we have been saying for years -- I mean 2 or 3 years that we have easy drinking lager and a classic lager. And then that's why both brands are very, very important, in terms of the equity, both brands are very, very strong. And then all of the indicators that we have from many kind of research companies show that Skol is the most powerful brand in Brazil by far -- by far. But, yes, I mean this attribute of flavor is growing in Brazil. And the good news here is that you have Brahma and Brahma is booming, it's growing big, big time. So that always hints to you that it's not a one brand gain, it's a portfolio gain. And that's why Ambev is so -- I mean the portfolio that Ambev had is so strong because it can play in the need space, different need space attributes that a consumer did value for, specific occasion for specific brands. So Skol is doing well in terms of equity, it's even more young. I mean you're talking about the diversity a lot which Skol connect to young people. And just launched this Skol (inaudible) that's amazing. All the comments that you see in the social media is doing pretty well. And we have innovation ahead of us. And on top of that, yes, Brahma is doing pretty well, it's our classic lager that delivers more flavor. Brahma, it's a huge success. So in our core business, we are very, very well in terms of the market share, in terms of the equity. So I will say to you and the only segment that we really -- it's unusual for us (inaudible) segment, we don't play because (inaudible) segment, it's just providing that goals for one guy from another guy selling brands with no margin. That's not our game. But in terms of the core brands and the core segment, we're very, very strong, brands are strong. The [variants are] strong as well. And in the premium segment, global brands are growing, the portfolio has become even stronger. RICARDO RITTES DE OLIVEIRA SILVA PAIVA: And just to add something that Bernardo -- what Bernardo just said, regarding Skol specifically your question about the remaining of the year, we have a lot of exciting innovations on the pipeline, which we cannot disclose in advance for competitive reasons, but we do have a lot of exciting things for Skol. BERNARDO PINTO PAIVA: I think, given that, all these studies and a deep dive that is done in the last years really are making -- I mean, ensuring that building a portfolio to last. So pacing the innovation that's a goal in the market. If you see 2 years ago, Brahma Extra, that's a variant of classic lager and more bolder. It was basically nothing in Brazil, and today probably be around 1% of our volume, core plus we are very profitable. So we always prefer to look up from the core and up and build the portfolio from there and not look down and go to the better segment. ANTONIO COSTA BARRETO: Just a small follow-up on that. Looking at the VBI changes that you guys have implemented on Skol, are you satisfied with the results, anything that you can comment on that front? RICARDO RITTES DE OLIVEIRA SILVA PAIVA: Yes, we are, I think it was very, very important for us. It really was part of the change of the VBI and then for this brand become even more younger because all the (inaudible) saying it come back to use the [arrow] and then you see after changing the VBI, all the campaigns started to use again in a different way, but use again, the best has claim, and the positive results in terms of equity started to appear. So I think that -- they must be different employment because Brahma is one Classic Lager as Skol, it's an easy drinking lager. I mean for all of the brands including for Skol, we always had room to improve in terms of that innovation that Ricardo just said and in terms of the VBI as well, if we see an opportunity or any kind of adjustment. OPERATOR: The next question comes from Alex Roberts with Citi. ALEXANDER REID ROBARTS, MD AND HEAD OF LATIN AMERICAN CONSUMER STAPLES EQUITY RESEARCH TEAM, CITIGROUP INC, RESEARCH DIVISION: So, I mean I also had a question on portfolio in Brazil and then a second one on Brazil COGS. So one of the trends at least our research had shown is that there is an emerging growth or accelerating growth of this category of pure malt, what you call the (inaudible). And you don't really talk about it in your literature (inaudible). I wonder if you could comment a little bit about how that segment is doing. I mean, I have the impression that pure malt beer is, as a category kind of similar in size to the premium space. And how are you thinking about that? In fact the growth there outperforming the industry. What is the competition doing and are there some strategies around that pure malt category? That's the first question. And I'd like to come back with the COGS one. RICARDO RITTES DE OLIVEIRA SILVA PAIVA: Thanks, Alex. I think that the first -- I mean if you see the history of beer more than 11,000 years was market by the diversity. So beers -- I mean people brewed beers I mean, 11,000 years ago and then with the ingredients that they had in their specific region. So including malt, not even an ingredient, I mean you can malt everything. I mean, barley, rice, corn everything. So the issue is that what you always say, but the point is as Ambev, I mean as a beer company you would like to do that to provide diversity in beer, which means that we will have, I mean, beers and 4 classic lagers, easy drinking (inaudible). And pure malt, when beer 100% of barley -- malted barley it's an option as well. And we like Brahma Extra. So I think that the most important thing again is the portfolio win. It's very, very important for us to have -- yes, for people that would like the pure malt so-called beer we have and we already have. And yes, can we improve as well? Yes. We can, I mean, can reinforce that part of the portfolio. But the most important thing is diversity in beer and it's another trend because, for us, we're not here for 2 years. It's not the trend of the day. Have to see 10, 30, 50 years from now. Just to given example. We had the brand (inaudible) that's one. The most important price in Germany so-called the land of the pure malt -- for beer (inaudible). So I think that diversity it's very important value in the society nowadays. And I think that diversity in beer follows that. So -- and then you see this brand, craft brand that's growing fast. Potential to grow even, even more, and mix everything (inaudible) But I mean I can show to you when it comes here in Brazil. So all in all, pure malt is a segment, it's important. But most important than that is diversifying beer, that's why Ambev is the big brewer in Brazil is providing choice for everyone. That's basically what I could talk to you about. ALEXANDER REID ROBARTS: Thanks for that. So -- I am sorry, go ahead. Sorry. RICARDO RITTES DE OLIVEIRA SILVA PAIVA: I understood that we have a question, Alex, for the SG&A. ALEXANDER REID ROBARTS: I did. It was the COGS. So just to confirm, so this is a segment that's growing faster than the industry. That's equal or bigger than the premium. And it sounds like with the initiatives of extra Brahma you might be under indexed there, is that fair to say in that category, or it's a work in progress? RICARDO RITTES DE OLIVEIRA SILVA PAIVA: Alex, I think it's a segment that is growing. It's Ricardo here. So it's a segment that's growing. And as Bernardo said, our strategy, our approach is a portfolio approach. And if there is any segment in the market that we under index over time what we tend to do, we evolve our portfolio in order to address customer needs. Again consumers' needs are first and if that is the case, again, we have like a large operation, a very strong portfolio. So at any given time we could evolve over portfolio to address that. But again, provided that there is a consumer need long-term sustainable that is changing, not just the fed, if you will. ALEXANDER REID ROBARTS: Got it. Fair enough. And just on COGS, the 2.5% cash COGS decrease in the quarter in Brazil, was an interesting one for us. We had, I guess, thought it would fall a little bit more and I appreciate your detail around how the sugar costs with non-alcoholic were higher and then the FX gains and FX dollar COGS hedge helped the beer COGS fall and net-net, you're down this 2.5%. But as we think about going forward, is it fair -- how should we think about aluminum in terms of the commodity hedge? I guess, we understand it only kind of started a bit in the COGS in the first quarter, but it will probably be more of a factor starting in the second quarter. However, we have the sugar also kind of rolling off and coming back down to the international prices. So as we look in the short term, the cash COGs in Brazil, would it be fair to say the FX hedge effect continues to offset the commodity, particularly aluminum and kind of with that we've seen a new fresh 5-year high with aluminum on the back of several things, including what Trump has done with those tariffs to China. But so, how should we just kind of think of that commodity hedge for the remaining of the year? RICARDO RITTES DE OLIVEIRA SILVA PAIVA: Alex, so Brazil beer cash COGs correct it was down 2.5% as you said as you continue to cycle unfavorable effects. Beer Brazil was down 4.8% as higher commodity prices were more than offset by favorable FX, but the non-alcoholic business was up 4.9%. So the 2.5% is a combination of both. And despite favorable effects, we're still impacted by higher sugar prices and volume decline effect on fixed cost dilution. Then (inaudible) costs will be impacted by higher commodity prices, especially aluminum, which will be benefited by favorable FX. For reference, our average implied foreign exchange hedge rate for 2018 we said was -- is going to be 3.16 this year, which compares to 3.59. So again, this is like the highest market risk factor that we have within our P&L. And aluminum is the second one, which represents around 30% of the Brazil total COGS. So, again, it's on one hand FX helping us a lot, on the other hand, aluminum with positive hedges, but going forward, aluminum going up. But overall, for the last couple -- for the next couple of quarters, if you will, is a more favorable environment than what we have had in the last couple of years. OPERATOR: Your next question comes from Joao Soares with Bradesco. JOãO PEDRO RIBEIRO SOARES, RESEARCH ANALYST, BRADESCO S.A. CORRETORA DE TíTULOS E VALORES MOBILIáRIOS, RESEARCH DIVISION: I think I have 2 questions on outlook. So first one, in Argentina, so the recent macro development backed your outlook for beer consumption in the country, or should we continue to see this trend in gaining share throughout the year to continually to positive volumes there? And the second is on Canada. So we have basically 5 quarters of flattish to negative volumes on a year-over-year basis. So is it fair assume that we should expect some sort of volume rebound in the country, or do you still see the industry there on a negative trend? RICARDO RITTES DE OLIVEIRA SILVA PAIVA: So first in terms of the hedging policy -- or in terms of Argentina specifically, given our hedging policy, the current movement, we impact our COGS just next year. So there is no impact -- immediate impact on that for Argentina. Of course, there we continue to monitor the situation and -- in Argentina as specifically and our concerns are much more longer term in terms of consumption GDP and et cetera and how this translates into their economy. But we're very excited with the prospects of the Argentina and the large region overall, very excited. Regarding Canada, specifically, Canada is a different culture when you compare it to the rest of the portfolio of countries that we have in Latin America, South Latin America and North, including Central America and the Caribbean. Here we have essentially 3 main drivers in terms of volume growth longer term. Number one is demographics; number two is the disposable income; and number three, all the innovation that the industry can do, including for example in Brazil the 300 ml returnable that over time will contribute to the long-term growth of the overall interests. In Canada, demographics not necessarily longer term help us that much, but it's a very profitable market. It's a market in which -- it serves also as a laboratory in terms of innovation, it's market where for example, craft and some of the premium have a higher weight in comparison to the most of our other countries. And again it's a market that we're excited also for the long-term prospects and our relative and competitive position there has improved significantly over the last couple of years. OPERATOR: The final question comes from [Mohammed Amar] with [FGP]. UNIDENTIFIED ANALYST: Just a quick one on Canada, again. Could you give us a little color from a longer-term perspective, what we should expect the profitability to -- when should we expect the profitability to bottom and to what level can you get the improvements? Because if I look at it, say, over a 3-year view volume has essentially been flat. You've had certain degree of net revenue per hectoliter improvement maybe sort of like 1% to 2% a year, which in itself those to combined is not bad for a mature market but COGS over 3 years has gone up a lot. So could you just give us a sense of what we should expect sort of medium term, 2 to 3 years out? And also recent changes in Ontario distribution that I see, does that impact your business in any material way? RICARDO RITTES DE OLIVEIRA SILVA PAIVA: Thank you for your question. So again, we don't provide a specific guidance long-term for Canada but Canada grew top line 0.5% year-on-year in the first quarter. Net revenue per hectoliter also healthy. Michelob Ultra specifically had a great start in 2018, finishing Q1 with a [15%] growth. And if you know with Canada, one of the things in terms of trends that we see in Canada, when you look at the craft industry and you compare that to the U.S. so it's relatively underdeveloped or growing a lot. And in the last couple of years what we have done, so we are adjust some of our portfolio, if you look at New Street, for example, the organic beer that we launched there or Archibald and even like the cider ready to drink type of products that we created there, is a moving portfolio, as change, moving portfolio. And we again, there is no reason for us in spite of not giving any guidance, and specifically again the shorter the term that you look the hardest for you to see. There is no reason for us not to have, not only the profitability that we have in the Canadian business but also to resume a growth if you will -- in terms of margin overall. Remember that in 2017 full year, again EBITDA grew by 0.9%. OPERATOR: This concludes our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Bernardo Paiva for any closing remarks. BERNARDO PINTO PAIVA: Thanks, Gary. So before finishing our call, just a quick comment regarding Brazil. I'd like to reinforce that the first quarter behind us, we have a positive view about our business in Brazil. We remain very confident in our strong growth platforms, very confident in our solid innovation pipeline that will help us to resume beer volume growth in the second quarter and further accelerate EBITDA growth for the balance of the year. So, thank you. Have a great day. Enjoy the rest of your day. OPERATOR: The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect. [Thomson Financial reserves the right to make changes to documents, content, or other information on this web site without obligation to notify any person of such changes. In the conference calls upon which Event Transcripts are based, companies may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding a variety of items. Such forward-looking statements are based upon current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those stated in any forward-looking statement based on a number of important factors and risks, which are more specifically identified in the companies' most recent SEC filings. 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Subject: Administrative expenses; Copyright; Revenue management; Corporate profits; Earnings per share; Cost control
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Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: May 9, 2018
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Country of publication: United States, Linthicum
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Law--Corporate Law
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Document 250 of 474
Q1 2018 Arezzo Industria e Comercio SA Earnings Call - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]10 May 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Presentation OPERATOR: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for waiting, and welcome to the Arezzo & Co Conference Call, where the results of the first quarter 2018 will be presented. (Operator Instructions) This call will be translated into English and oversea participants will be able to ask questions. (Operator Instructions) We would like to remind all journalists and others from the press that this conference call is exclusively for professionals from the financial market and current and potential shareholders. Any questions must be submitted to our Press Relations Assistant, Caroline Muzzi whose contact information is available on the company website at www.arezzoco.com.br. This conference call and the slides are being streamed on the web and can also be seen on the company website. In case any of you do not have a copy of the Arezzo & Co press release published yesterday, Wednesday, May 9, you can get a copy from the company website. This conference call is being recorded and the recording is available on the website after the call is over. Before we proceed, we would like to clarify that any statements made during this call regarding the company's business prospects as well as projections, operational and financial goals concerning its potential for growth are forecasts, based on the expectations of the management for the future of Arezzo & Co. These expectations are highly dependent on domestic market conditions, on the general economic performance of Brazil and international markets and are, therefore, subject to change. Now I will hand over to Mr. Alexandre Birman. Mr. Birman, please proceed. ALEXANDRE CAFE BIRMAN, CEO AND MEMBER OF BOARD OF EXECUTIVE OFFICERS, AREZZO INDúSTRIA E COMéRCIO S.A.: Good morning, everyone. Thank you for participating in yet another earnings call. This is a very important moment so that we can interact with you and the questions are very welcome, as always. We have with us our CFO, Daniel Levy; and our Investor Relations manager, Aline Penna. I'd like to talk about the market context in this first quarter. It marks the transition of the summer collection to the winter collection, which is very important for our business. As we mentioned, on March 8, it's been 2 months for -- since our last interaction, we closed our summer collection in a very healthy manner in measuring the largest -- or leftovers that increased our average markup in the chain. In addition, given that the Carnival took place earlier in 2018, we were able to launch our prefall collection in January and right after Carnival in February, we switched to our winter collection, so I'd like to take this opportunity to congratulate our entire team for the continuous evolution of the operating efficiency of our business calendar. Our business cycle is in fact our 20-mile march, making our company work in a very consistent manner, so I'd really like to congratulate our team and the assertiveness of the major trends that really drove the sales in this period. Among them, I'd like to highlight the fashion boots that are working strong. And we have 2 major looks: the Kitten heels, the very low heels and especially in white and red, were a huge success. In addition, there -- the boots in a stretch material, like nylon, of all different heels, sizes, they are heels that are closed ones and are very -- will remain strong into the summer collection. And the sneaker collection has a lot of our brands and has expressive share, so we're going to work strongly so we can still have a high leadership in that casual sneaker category in Brazil. Now specifically, talking about each brand. Our Arezzo brand is still being strong as a leader in the market of -- in footwear, bags and women's fashion in Brazil. The marketing is very compliant to that. Based on our branding, we have a very strong participation of Gisele Bundchen. She really leverages the brand awareness, but that's not just it. It's a 360-degree plan, so we've been innovating more and more in digital media. We launched the collection simultaneously to a talk show, which was given by TV show host, Astrid Fontenelle, with many successful women and we had dozens of millions of people watching that talk show at the same time. And it was being -- it was live, although, it was with shopping Iguatemi. For Mother's Day, we had spontaneous things from daughters to mothers and with a lot of recall in social media, that has also helped the attractiveness and the e-commerce of the Arezzo brand. So we've been innovating the brand communication even more and, therefore, we have solid growth. About Schutz, it's very interesting to see the quantification of the bag category for the brand, and that's near not only by our results, but also what also makes us very proud to see the generic variations of the Schutz bags spread out throughout Brazil. When a brand becomes an icon in bags and internationally, I mean, you can go walk in New York, and you can see street vendors selling generic bags. And if that's happening with Schutz, that shows that it's very recognized as a brand. In addition, e-commerce is almost 15% of the revenues of the brand -- share of the brand, with high digital adherence and we'll speak more about that later. We're going through a major process of 3 major pillars to strengthen the Schutz brand, including the transformation of the store design, focusing on converting the stores to the stores that we call Schutz Digital Stores and the stores are already operating in this new concept, with very positive results. With continuous evolution, as we always talk about our franchising model, we always -- we're always at the end, focusing on sellout and now we're going to start a new stage to strengthen the Schutz global branding, including a campaign that will be launched May 17, on Thursday, where the star will be Adriana Lima. She will be with us throughout all of 2018. The work is great and next week, we're going to present more details about that work to strengthen Schutz branding. Another interesting detail that today, given there's the operation in the U.S., we have 2 Instagram, almost 4 billion followers in the you -- in Brazil and almost 400,000 in the U.S. Now we're going to migrate the accounts in Instagram to strengthen the Schutz positioning even more. About Anacapri, it was truly -- has become a solid brand. In 2018, it's the 10-year anniversary of its launch. We're going to end the year with over 150 mono brand Anacapri stores, with the share of almost 10% of our revenues, so the brand is in fact prepared in all senses, the team maturity and even training talent that are moving into other brands in our company. In addition, the assertiveness is huge in relation to the mix with a highlight of the continuous -- sales, which is 25% of sales, giving the franchisees the confidence as they know that the brand is solid. So it's ready for continuous growth in stores' numbers. Alexandre Birman, the same way, is becoming more mature. It's worth mentioning that both brands were launched simultaneously in 28 -- 2008, so they both celebrated their 10th anniversary, so that brand was more towards international sales. We have 4 stores in Brazil, which give us great volumes of same-store sales, with highlight to the shopping Iguatemi store that has 20 -- average sales of BRL 700,000. It's interesting to see that both Anacapri and Alexandre Birman -- the co-founders of the brands are -- the executives of the brands for more than 10 years, so this gives us great confidence that the brand is managed by a team that knows what they're doing with the brand. Now in the second quarter, we will open a showroom in Italy, launching to the European market. Starting that work, that will bring good results. About Fiever, we see that we should direct the product mix for casual sneakers. It's a very strong trend globally for that type of product. The brands have been growing in this category, and we have to work Fiever to concentrate on that category. The brand had a great performance in the e-commerce channel, which shows the millennials that buy through that channel, which is the greatest amount of our customers, and we're going to open another store at Higienopolis Mall and another one, a pop-up store at Shopping Eldorado. About our strategic planning, we're very confident we're following the track that we chose a few years ago in a very consistent manner. So if I could say a little bit about strategic planning of our company, I would say that consistency is the keyword. Within this consistency, our search to consolidate our leadership in market share in Brazil. So this happens through expansion of franchise, focusing on the original Light architectural format that has been getting great results and expanding Anacapri. Also, diversifying product categories. We are mature in handbags, and we have a strong growth and we're already advanced in launching new categories. And our OWME management, we want to give a little bit more about that at the end of the call about the new guidelines of our structure, so that we can come even stronger in this growth. It's worth mentioning our vision of brand portfolio. A company can -- that can have 6 brands, that are completely unique, with a high level of independence, not only in their management, but also in their characteristics and really comply -- have a great number of customers is a multibrand company. And the launching of OWME last week with our flagship at Oscar Freire, makes us confident of our capacity to create brands. And last Saturday, we sold BRL 20,000 without having anything happening in the store. It was organic sales. So I would like to invite you all to be with us on Friday, tomorrow. We will open the store at noon. We will receive the press, and you are all invited. The deliveries of the multibrand channel also happen with quality and tenure. And we already have expressive results from the multichannel. So for 2018, OWME probably will have good sales. Lastly, I would like to talk about a growth path that is -- goes together with our core, which is consolidating our market share in Brazil and has been growing and it's a huge challenge. But it's also a great opportunity, which is our operations in the United States. At the moment, we're solidifying our team. In the short-term, we will have some novelties, people, who will join our team, focusing on being ready for our growth. In the next few months, we will invest in our operations of our own brands and stores. Next week, we will open a concept store at Madison Avenue, around 75, a pop-up of Schutz at SoHo to test that market in that important region in New York, and also boost our new campaign to position our brand with Adriana Lima. We also will open between September and October, 2 stores in Florida, which is a market that is very strong for both brands; one, Alexandre Birman at Bal Harbour and the other one at Aventura Mall. The 2 stores will open and in May specifically, we have been seeing strong growth, about 50% in the stores. So we've been working very well with our team. We're also going to invest in our e-commerce operations, launching this year -- this month, Alexandre Birman, and throughout the year, we will switch the platform from Schutz that has a great growth capacity that is untouched. For wholesale, we are now launching a drop ship with Bloomingdale's, just like we did with Nordstrom, and we see that this channel will also have a good opportunity to grow in the long term. So that's the highlight of our strategy of the brand, the market context in this quarter. Now I would like to invite Daniel to bring more details about our results. Then we will be available to interact through Q&A. DANIEL LEVY, CORPORATE VP, CFO, IRO & MEMBER OF BOARD OF EXECUTIVE OFFICERS, AREZZO INDúSTRIA E COMéRCIO S.A.: Thank you, Alexandre, and good morning. Continuing to our presentation, now let's go to Page 4 of the material that is available online. On the left side of the chart, the company's gross revenue was BRL 408 million in 1Q '18, a similar growth in the domestic and foreign markets of around 10%. On the next page, we opened the gross revenue in the domestic market, we've achieved BRL 377 million in the period. All the brands recorded growth in sales, with highlight to Arezzo and Anacapri, but also with Schutz, which is resuming its growth. Arezzo grew 9.7% in the third quarter -- in the quarter, helped by the web commerce and multibrand, which grew 40.3% and 60%, respectively. The performance is even more relevant when we point out that these channels grew above 13% in 1Q '17. That means strong growth on top of strong growth. Schutz grew 5% in the domestic market, also helped by the expansion of 16% in web commerce, which already represents 14% of the brand sales. And multibrand was 19 -- 9% growth in the quarter. It's also worth mentioning the performance of handbags, Schutz, that represent 21% of the sellout in the brick-and-mortar stores. Anacapri, in turn, showed expressive growth of 34% in its gross revenue. The brand contributes now with 12% of the total revenue, compared to 10% year-over-year. We highlighted strong growth of 61% in the franchise channel, due to the opening of 39 stores in the past 12 months, in addition to increase of same-store sales resulting from the assertive positioning as Alexandre mentioned before. It's important to say about Anacapri, expressive growth of 60% in the web, which is growing in this channel. Alexandre Birman grew 10% in the quarter, with the highlight of the same-store sales in Brazil, where we already have 4 owned stores. Fiever, continuing with its strengthening of its presence in the domestic market, had its main highlight in the quarter performance in the web commerce, which grew 80% year-over-year, and already represents 12.4% of the brand sales. Now going to Page 6, we have a view of the gross revenue per sales channel. Just like our brands, all the channels showed revenue growth in the first quarter. We highlight web commerce performance, 32% growth. Franchise and multibrand, with 10% growth each. Our own stores went back to growing 5.3%, due to the strong performance of Alexandre Birman and Fiever brands, as we mentioned before, as well as the recovery of the sales at Schutz store. In terms of sellout, our mono brand chain franchise owned stores and web commerce grew 12.2% in sales, reflecting strong result of the online channel and the net opening of 62 franchises in the past 12 months, in addition to expressive growth of 8.4% of sale -- same-store sale in the quarter. The franchise channel accounts for 51% of domestic sales of Arezzo & Co and a same-store sale sell-in of 3.7%, ending with a healthy and adequate inventory and a continuous improvement of gross margin. It's worth noting that in 1Q '17, the company presented same-store sales sell-in increase of 13.6%. That means that it's a very challenging comparison for the period. This performance would have been even better if it weren't the calendar effect on the prefall collection, where a part of the revenues were made in 4Q '17. I'd also like to remind you that once again that for the effects of comparison, we recommend that the same-store sales sell-in and sell-out indicators are analyzed in a period of at least a 12-month period to avoid calendar effects, as the one that I mentioned, which are very common in the company's operations. Lastly, and as mentioned, the multibrand channel grew 10% in the quarter, reflecting company's initiatives, such as new customer adherence and the continuous effort to obtain a higher cross-sell. Year-over-year, our customers increased in the multibrand area 6.7%, showing the continuous confidence and financial health of small business people. On Page 7, we have the evolution of owned stores and franchises as in the total sales area. We closed the quarter with 625 stores, being 618 in Brazil and 7 abroad, an area increase of 7.4%, compared to the same period in 2016 -- '17. This quarter, we opened 7 stores, where 5 were Anacapri and 2 Arezzo, the 2 in the Light format. In the past 12 months, there were 63 net openings. Now moving on to Page 8, I'd like to show you on the left, the chart, the gross profits of the quarter, achieving BRL 146.6 million, 12.7% higher year-over-year and gross margin of 44.4%. The growth in the quarter of 60 basis points to the gross margin is mainly explained by the following effects; the exclusion of the sales tax, ICMS, over PIS and Cofins in the owned stores and web commerce, a higher share of web commerce and domestic revenues and a better mix in exports. And yet on this page, on the right of the chart, we have the EBITDA performance. As you can see the EBITDA achieved BRL 40.8 million, representing a growth of 13.1% year-over-year and a margin of 12.3%, which is 20 bps better than last year. Although the 60 bps of increase in the gross margin in the quarter, we recorded an increase of 6.4% in our commercial expenses and 24.6% in our SG&A, especially resulting from the new personnel structure as well as company governance, as we mentioned, in previous calls and our continuous investment in strategic and innovation projects, which include the launch of the OWME brand, the meritocracy program for franchisees, the Arezzo Light Project, CRM initiative and speeding up the movement to internationally expand the Alexandre Birman brand. On Page 9, you can see that net income was BRL 27.1 million, net margin up 8.2%, and an increase of 22.3% year-over-year. As in 4Q '17, we are no longer collecting income tax and CSLL over the tax benefit, in relation to the ICMS. However, part of this impact was offset -- a positive impact was offset by lower financial results resulting from a lower compensation of our available cash flow as a result of lower interest rates. Now on Page 10, we have cash operation generation, which is BRL 30.2 million lower than 1Q '17. On January 5, we paid interest over -- on capital relating to the second half of 2017 in the amount of almost BRL 21 million. Last year, that same payment was in December of the previous year. On Page 11, on the left, you can see that CapEx for the quarter was BRL 7.2 million, which includes the implementation of the data center system of -- from IBM and renovation of the Alexandre Birman and Schutz stores. On the right, we have our indebtedness chart, and we closed the quarter with a net cash of BRL 161 million. Lastly, on Page 12, we have the return over invested capital for the company, ROIC, which presented once again expressive growth in this quarter, achieving a level of 30.2%, that means 680 bps greater than 2017. The growth of 32.4% was a result of our operating results, an improvement of our working capital, continuous focus in decreasing inventory and suppliers as well as a reduction of our fixed assets. So those are our comments about the results for the first quarter of 2018. Now I'd like to open for the Q&A session. Questions and Answers OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) Our first question is from Marco Calvi from Itaú BBA. MARCO CALVI, RESEARCH ANALYST, ITAú CORRETORA DE VALORES S.A., RESEARCH DIVISION: My first question is about Schutz. We saw that in this quarter, we had very positive results, mainly resulting from your -- the initiatives that you've been carrying out. Could you talk about -- I don't know, a schedule and sales impact to 2018? So what do you expect in relation to the rollout of the concept that you're doing this year? The second question is mainly top-down. So if you could talk about the appetite of the multibrand channel. So you see that once again, there's positive results in the first quarter. So it's like a mac -- it's like a macro question. Do you feel that the multibrand channel has a bigger appetite? Those are my two questions. ALEXANDRE CAFE BIRMAN: Marco, thank you for your question. This is Alexandre speaking. I'm going to start off with the second one about the multibrand channel. So in our business calendar, we've already launched the first presummer collection, which internally we call the Resort Collection. This collection had strong adherence from the multibrand channel. It was launched in the beginning of April and it will be delivered at the end of the second quarter -- by the end of the second quarter. And the results were very good. So we hope that in the second quarter, we have very expressive results, even more than the first quarter for the multibrand channel. In our business calendar, we have the launch of the Summer 1 collection next week. For the first time, we're going to be a part of a new trade show that is becoming relevant in this sector that takes place in the City of Gramado in the south of Brazil in May. And as from June, we're going to have different movements because of the FRANCAL trade show was postponed, considering the schedule that it usually has, it's going to be on July 15 -- usually, it's July 15, but it used to be beginning of July and end of June, so we're anticipating the sales of Summer 2, that is usually launched at that trade show, we're going to start those sales at the end of June through our showrooms. So we have good expectations. It's an important channel for our business, even though we're literally a company that is multichannel. The multibrand accounts are 80 -- 20% of our revenues, so we are very proud of that. Over 2,000 points of sale, 46 years, all our brands are launched in multibrands, and we have a close relationship with these store owners. About the Schutz brand, in terms of the domestic market, in 2015, it had been close to what we saw in the go-to-market in 2011. It has a strong growth in new category. So like I mentioned, in the beginning, bags are an icon. Some of the Schutz bags are just naturals characteristics, our triangle print is the brand hologram and many new versions are being created of those bags. And the new design has provided superior sales results compared to other stores. So in 2018, we're planning on resuming the growth in Schutz, and I believe it's going to be important for our business. It's also worth mentioning that it has the biggest potential to grow in our U.S. operations. OPERATOR: Our next question is from Richard Cathcart, Bradesco. RICHARD M. CATHCART, LATAM RETAILERS SENIOR ANALYST, BRADESCO S.A. CORRETORA DE TíTULOS E VALORES MOBILIáRIOS, RESEARCH DIVISION: I have a question about e-commerce. The Arezzo brand achieved 7% and Schutz, 14%. So I would just like -- I think you already mentioned that in the midterm, e-commerce could achieve about 10% for the entire company. So I would like an update to see if 10% is still realistic? Or if you could start to think about even greater penetration of e-commerce for the company as a whole? And also for Schutz and Arezzo. ALEXANDRE CAFE BIRMAN: Richard, it's Alexandre speaking. Thank you for your question. That's a topic that really fascinates us. I would like to recall that our e-commerce operation is 100% our own proprietary. That means that it was created internally by our in-house team from the systems all the way to customer service. And we're always rated as the best-in-class. Our score is one of the highest, our logistics operations is our own. So that operations and revenue, our monobrand from our business, and that's the way we developed it. About figures, our goal was to reach 10% in 2020, and we understand that we're way ahead compared to that expectation. And we do see a new wave of investments. We don't know, which comes first, the chicken or the egg, but there's a new wave of investment, in which we see more than 10% as participation in the revenue. We're reformulating our structure and it will give you more flavor of what we're starting to prepare for the next step. I think we achieved what we wanted in 2020 -- now in 2018, and we're going to have a new cycle of management for our OWME strategy. OPERATOR: Our next question is from Irma Sgarz from Goldman Sachs. IRMA SGARZ, EQUITY ANALYST, GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: I have two questions. One question is about the number of customers in the multibrand. This grew 7% year-over-year. I would like to understand how much in your opinion is because of the rollout of new brands? Or if you still have a growth in the number of customers that you can achieve? And -- or if it's a sign of recovery of the economy or maybe a mix of both? I would just like to understand what you understand in terms of number of customers. The other question, the growth of Fiever is, together with that of other brands. So I would like -- I saw the growth of Fiever, I saw that in e-commerce, it's going very strongly, but I would like to know the overall growth of the brand. And if the in-store sales are satisfactory or if there's other reasons? ALEXANDRE CAFE BIRMAN: Irma, thank you for your question. This is Alexandre speaking. About the number of customers on the multibrand channel, you asked me a question and helped me with answer. It's a combination of the factors. First, I would like to point out that there is an upturn of the economy, so those figures of 2016 and 2017, we had a reduction of the name -- of the number of customers and now it's resuming. And the new brands bring a little bit of a different profile of store owners, so there is an addition of new customers, especially those that are more focused on apparel that are selling our new brands that still don't have a very strong monobrand presence. The brands that are already established, and have a very expensive monobrand chain in Brazil, don't give the opportunity to sell in the multibrand stores, which is not what happens with the new brands. So with the expansion of OWME in the first half of the year, you're going to see these figures continue to grow. About your second question, more specifically about Fiever, compared to the total growth of the brand in the quarter, it was below the total growth of our company. And within that issue, as I said, with my opening comments, we want to focus greatly on sneakers. So the brand started with its positioning with streetwear, reaching other categories of products being sold. So we'll direct our brand to casual sneakers, where we see a strong growth in that category. So we're investing and repositioning the communication of the brand. It's worth mentioning that the monobrand stores, the 4 brands and e-commerce, had a great result in the first quarter. So for the second quarter, we're starting to look at continuing to expand the monobrand, opening 2 stores that I mentioned, at Higienopolis Mall and a pop-up at Eldorado Store. We're going to test the profile of customers at that mall, and definitely with the greater direction for casual sneakers, I'm sure that Fiever will continue to show good growth. OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) Our next question is from Irma Sgarz from Goldman Sachs. IRMA SGARZ: Well, I have another question. For Schutz in the United States, you're obviously, creating new partnerships with Bloomingdale's as you mentioned. Could you just remind us, it was an impact of those selling to independent stores? Are you completely phasing out on that channel? And are you focusing on the department stores? And which department stores are you working with at the moment? ALEXANDRE CAFE BIRMAN: Irma, it's Alexandre again. Once again, thank you for your follow-up question. I would say that, no, we're going to resume a strong work on our subchannel. We have 3 subchannels that we have in the United States. We have the field online players, with Shopbop and Reebok, with excellent results for Schutz, and it's the first -- #1 of Rebook, it's been growing a lot. Today they completely dominate the Court Yolo, [Coachella] so -- the music festival in California. We have the department stores and also we have the independent retailers, and the independent retailers work differently in the United States. I would say that not -- we weren't effective in managing that in the first quarter. We saw a drop in the number of independent retailers, but we're working to resume the growth in that subchannel with -- which really helps us give better distribution to the brand. We know that it's a stagnant channel in the United States. They had a huge drop for the past years and some retailers, because of the creatorship of the owner, were able to work better in a certain region. But they're not in the large malls in the United States, far from that. So an example; in the Four Seasons Hotel, there's a very cool multibrand that sells Alexandre Birman and we're going to take Schutz there as well. But they are very specific locations. It's not like in Brazil that there's a large density of independents. Our greatest focus for growth are the department stores. Today, the greatest partnership that we have is with Nordstrom, and we're going to launch Adriana Lima's campaign as I mentioned, with Nordstrom next week. They were great partners and they bought out of the calendar and we presented a proposal for Adriana Lima about a month ago, and the campaign will be launched simultaneously in our monobrand stores and at Nordstrom. And at Bloomingdale's, I had a meeting with the General Merchandise Manager last week. They just opened a new shoe floor at their flagship at 29th West Lexington. They had 2 floors on second and fourth and now, they moved to the fourth -- to the fifth floor. It's a huge shoe floor. So it's a huge store and Schutz has a highlight there, having great results in sales. So that's another partnership that we want to have as well. About the monobrand stores, as I mentioned, we are getting great results in the same stores. OPERATOR: Our next question is from Richard Cathcart from Bradesco. RICHARD M. CATHCART: I'd also like to take this opportunity to ask a second question. I'd like to know about Europe, Alexandre, because here in the release, you're saying that you're going to open a flagship for the Alexandre Birman brand, and you also recently opened an office in Europe, if I'm not mistaken. So I'd like to understand if the strategy in Europe at this time is just about Alexandre Birman brand? Or are there any learnings, any other strategies that you're considering for Schutz that could also be developed in Europe? ALEXANDRE CAFE BIRMAN: Richard, and thank you for your second question. This is Alexandre speaking. Okay, so our main focus to grow internationally is in the U.S. We have tried through a number of groups to other countries in the world to open stores, but we do want to take one step at a time. And we're almost there in making our operation in the U.S. concrete, which is -- and then after that, we can look into other markets. So we're starting -- we're taking our first steps now in Europe. And that step is just being taken with the Alexandre Birman brand. And it's not a flagship actually, it's a showroom that's being inaugurated in Milan and not just the showroom, it's also a distributor. Because currently, in the U.S., the U.S. store owners buy the product from a U.S. company, which is our subsidiary in that country. Our European customers, we started to have an important growth in department stores, such as Harrods in England, NET-A-PORTER in England, Mercedeh in Germany. They buy through a third party. So we use a distributor, who we pay a commission to, so that they can bring the product into the European market and then distribute it for us. But now, we want our own operation there so we can have more control, and have a better margin. So that's the beginning. As we started in 2012 in the U.S., we're starting with the showroom and a sales office and the distribution that will be done in Italy to the entire European market. That's what we have for the time being. OPERATOR: Our next question is from Felipe Cassimiro from HSBC. FELIPE CASSIMIRO DE FREITAS, ANALYST OF LATAM RETAIL, HSBC, RESEARCH DIVISION: I have 2. So the first one is about the sales recovery of the Schutz brand. So I'd like to understand the brand's performance in the franchise channel specifically. And now, in April, beginning of May, in general, I'd like to know about the brand's performance. And my second question is that Alexandre mentioned, about a new category in the Fiever brand, but I'd also like to hear about other new categories in the company overall in other brands. ALEXANDRE CAFE BIRMAN: Felipe, thank you for your question. This is Alexandre speaking. I'm going to start off with the second question about the Fiever brand and then maybe correct some of my words. I wouldn't say it's a new category in the Fiever brand, but instead of that focusing on a category that we call casual sneakers, because they are not sneakers when you compare to the sports brand. They're casual sneakers, as we call them, because they're the big strength and trend of the fashion market. Women are now wearing sneakers with more casual clothes, but they don't want to wear sport shoes because then it's going to be too much of a sporty look. So in international market, there are number of brands that are creating this type of product. And in addition to this category, Fiever had other categories. So now we're focusing the products and communications for Fiever in -- on -- focusing that on casual sneakers. But now we're going to extend that to other categories. So bags, bags it has been a big focus of ours, and we studied 26 -- in 2016 and 2017 other adjacent categories, but we preferred to dedicate our time and effort to actually quantify the bag category. But I'd say that resuming the analysis of these categories is in the pipeline. We did that through consulting firms and projects, but we decided to set that aside a while, because of time and resources. But now, throughout 2018, we'll resume studying that, but we don't expect to launch anything in 2018. We'd really want to make the bags category solid first. About the Schutz brand, your question, we had a growth in all channels. However, in franchises, there was a change as I mentioned. Actually, it's an evolution. Since 2013, when we started off the process to fully control the sell-out and sell-in with the Arezzo project called Strada that was from 2015 to 2017, we've been constantly reviewing the franchise model. It's a live thing, which is constantly being adapted. So for Schutz, we're now testing a pilot group where we have more ownership in relation to the store supply. Therefore, we're splitting the royalties charged, which usually takes place upon sell-in so that there's also a part during sell-out in order to decrease the risks that the franchisee is taking as they're letting us decide on the supply of the store. But then again, there's more ownership and better replenishment in the case of the best sellers. So the stores that are in the control group are having higher performance compared to the other group that is still operating in the normal supply model. So we're going through a process to adapt the systems team and processes. But the first results of the pilot project are exciting. So in 2018, we're going to continue to migrate that in other Schutz stores throughout 2018. FELIPE CASSIMIRO DE FREITAS: Could you -- this is a follow-up. How was the evolution in April in quantitative terms with the positive performance of Schutz? ALEXANDRE CAFE BIRMAN: Yes, April, we still have positive results for the Schutz brand. OPERATOR: Since there are no further questions, I'd like to hand over to Mr. Birman for his final remarks. ALEXANDRE CAFE BIRMAN: Once again, thank you, everyone, for taking part in our earnings conference call, and I'd like to end with a few words. First of all, this is yet another quarter that makes us feel very confident about our business model, so the integrated management of the value chain focusing on the main assets, which are brand, product and people, and having partners at the production side and also the commercial side is truly a business model that's very successful, constantly evolving and our strategic guidelines are very clear. We're confident that, although, we've had been making voluminous investments, in the medium and long term we'll be able to prove with Anacapri and Alexandre Birman that we can change such investments in drivers for our brands. Within this entire context, we've made some changes to make our structure more solid. So I'd like to say that Fabiola Guimarães is once again taking on the global direction of the Schutz brands for product creation and marketing. In addition, we invited [Luciana Veznik], she's been with us for over 20 years to be -- to spearhead the Fiever brand and Mariana Toledo, who has been responsible for the bags category and Schutz to manage the OWME brand. So they are important changes that are providing good results to our business. And lastly, I'd like to announce the creation of a new position in our company at the C level, which will truly emphasize our entire digital expansion. I'd like to invite him to say a few words. He is right next to me, Mauricio Bastos, which throughout these almost 8 years, he started very young in our company and now, we have an honor to appoint him as our Executive Director/CEO. Congratulations on this new position. Could you say a few words? MAURíCIO BASTOS: Thank you, Alexandre, for your kind words. Good morning, everyone. It's a great honor to be able to be here with you and share with you all of our beliefs and perspectives to transform our business. In the past year, as Alexandre mentioned, I had the opportunity of spearheading the construction and consolidation of our online channel, which we've been talking about the results and perspective. And today, in the consolidation, where we're already counting on operations, so the 9 digital operations of our 6 brands in the Brazil -- in Brazil and the U.S., with a very solid platform that enables us to strengthen the consistent growth in Brazil, and also enter a fast growth -- fast digital growth in the U.S. as well. About the framework, which is digital transformation and having a kick-off on -- ahead on February 20 with -- together with the Board of Directors, which we call the Digital Day. And this structure counts on different areas in the company, so we have the OWME commerce area, which is the integrated view of OWME commerce. Technology is also part of that framework and the movement to bringing in the digital and agile culture in an integrated manner so we can reap the benefits of the technical and digital world of experience of an entire chain, to reap the benefits of working in a chain with a strong physical and online environment, together with our areas of innovation and special products and potential technologies that we learned a lot about, myself and Alexandre, and data, which is the new engine -- new driver of this new world and economy. And all of that integrated with our CRM, called Valorizza, we're customer-centric, and we're highly confident that this new structure will make us closer to our customers and bring even more important results for our business. ALEXANDRE CAFE BIRMAN: Thank you, Mauricio. Welcome to this new challenge. I'm very happy to see our internal talent, which is the basis of the growth of our business and likewise the ability to attract external talent that fascinate us, such as very senior people that had joined our company in the past years and now, play a very important role in building our future. I'd like to take this opportunity once again to emphasize the invitation to join us on Friday in the official inauguration of OWME. It will be a great pleasure to present the entire brand concept to all of you. It's very well presented in our flagship store in a very clear manner. You can really understand the purpose of the brand. And it's a brand that has a very clear identity as from its birth in a very different retail experience. When the customer arrives, first they ask and if they say have some time available, they offer her a foot bath so she can relax and then to this "ohm" spirit of meditation. So we offer her some tea. And we also give them a test drive, which I really recommend. And we have -- we've been having a lot of conversion in the people that test the OWME products because they are very comfortable. In addition, I'd like to invite all the children and husbands to buy our brands a lot for Mother's Day. Yesterday at Iguatemi Mall, I had the pleasure of seeing a man, a consumer, buying 6 pairs of shoes for his wife and that made me very happy. So I'd like to invite all these children or husbands to buy our brands for Mother's Day. So I'd like to thank you, thank our Board of Directors to give us so much strength and strategic direction and thank all the board members in advance for holding our first meeting that will take place at our offices in New York. It's a very important moment, where Brazil is standing out and also another important event that will take place at that time and the inauguration of our store. I'd like to thank our Board of Directors and our Founder, Anderson Birman and all our team for all their efforts in this first quarter, and I hope we continue to have great results throughout 2018. Thank you. OPERATOR: The Arezzo Conference Call is now closed. Thank you for your participation. [Thomson Financial reserves the right to make changes to documents, content, or other information on this web site without obligation to notify any person of such changes. In the conference calls upon which Event Transcripts are based, companies may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding a variety of items. Such forward-looking statements are based upon current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those stated in any forward-looking statement based on a number of important factors and risks, which are more specifically identified in the companies' most recent SEC filings. 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USERS ARE ADVISED TO REVIEW THE APPLICABLE COMPANY'S CONFERENCE CALL ITSELF AND THE APPLICABLE COMPANY'S SEC FILINGS BEFORE MAKING ANY INVESTMENT OR OTHER DECISIONS.] [Copyright: Content copyright 2018 Thomson Financial. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Electronic format, layout and metadata, copyright 2018 ASC LLC (www.ascllc.net) ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No license is granted to the user of this material other than for research. 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Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: May 10, 2018
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Document 251 of 474
Q1 2018 Minerva SA Earnings Call - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]10 May 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Presentation OPERATOR: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for waiting. At this time, I would like to welcome everybody to Minerva's First Quarter of 2018 Results Conference Call. Today with us, we have Fernando Queiroz, Chief Executive Officer; Eduardo Puzziello, Investor Relations Officer; Francisco Assis, Controller; and Nathan Freire, Treasury Director. We wish to inform that this event is being recorded. (Operator Instructions) The audio and slide show of this presentation are available through a live webcast at www.minervafoods.com/ir and MVIQ platform. The slide show can also be downloaded from the webcast platform in the Investor Relations section of this website. Before proceeding, we wish to mention that forward-looking statements made during this presentation in relation to Minerva's business prospects, operations and financial estimates and goals, they are based on beliefs and assumptions of company management and on information currently available. They involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions because they relate to future events and, therefore, depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. Investors should understand that general economic conditions, industry conditions and other operation factors could also affect the future results of Minerva and could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. I will now turn the conference call over to Mr. Fernando Queiroz, CEO, who will begin the presentation. Mr. Queiroz, you may start the presentation. FERNANDO GALLETTI DE QUEIROZ, CEO, MINERVA S.A.: Good afternoon, and thank you for participating in Minerva's conference call of the results for the first quarter of 2018. You might have noticed in our earnings release, we made 2 restructuring. The first was related to the disclosure of our results from now on. We developed a new layout that will increase the transparency of our results and improve the understanding of the operational dynamics in the different regions that we operate. We have then divided consolidated gross revenue into 3 divisions: first, the Brazilian Industry division; the International Industry division, second; and the third, the Trading division. In the Brazilian Industry division, we will report the results of our Brazilian units, comprising sales of fresh beef, processed food, such as those produced by Minerva Fine Foods, and slaughter byproducts, such as leather, offals, among others. The second one, the International Industry division market, have the same scope but with originating products from Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina and Colombia. Finally, we have the Trading division, which concentrates revenues from live cattle operations from the trading companies and the resale of third-party products in our distributions among the world. We hope these results will help you understand deeply the particularities of the different regions where Minerva is currently operating. The second restructuring process was in the organizational side. Nowadays, the footprint of the company is more diversified. Therefore, we have different dynamics so we decided to implement a new management model that fits into this new reality and which has as main pillars the extraction of our greater operational synergies to give more agility for the decision make and, with no doubt, to carry out the activities applying the best practices. We will comment the new structure at the end of this presentation after Puzziello financial presentation. Let's begin the earning conference call talking about the highlights for the quarter starting on Slide 2. The company consolidated gross revenues totaled BRL 3.8 billion in the first quarter and BRL 14.4 billion in the last 12 months. 63% of first quarter revenues came from the export market. Of the total, the Brazilian Industry division accounted for 46% of the total gross revenues, while International division represented 40% of the -- and the Trading division accounting for the remaining 14%. Talking about that again, 46% of Minerva revenues comes from Brazil, 40% from the other countries in South America ex Brazil and 14% from trading operations among the world. First quarter net revenues reached BRL 3.5 billion, 65% more than in the same period last year. In the last 12 months, net revenue, including pro forma figures of Mercosur assets, came to BRL 14.5 billion, 45% more than in the same period of 2017. In this context, the accumulated net revenues is in line with the guidance for 12-months period between July 2017 and June 2018 that we informed for the market, ranging from BRL 13 billion to BRL 14.4 billion. Based on the first quarter results, we are maintaining this guidance. Besides, yesterday, we disclosed a new guidance but now for the period between January and December 2018 ranging from BRL 14.5 billion to BRL 15 billion. First quarter adjusted EBITDA climbed 44% over the same period in 2017, totaling BRL 285 million with an adjusted margin of 8.1%. In the last 12 months, adjusted EBITDA reached BRL 1.3 billion, up 39% year-on-year. The adjusted EBITDA margin for the period was 9%. Giving the operating results, we have a recorded operating cash flow of a positive BRL 187.6 million and free cash flow of a positive BRL 51.6 million. In the first quarter of 2018, this was an achievement that is worth mentioning because it's normally the worst quarter of the year, and this also shows our commitment with our cash generation. We closed the first quarter of 2018 with a net loss of BRL 114.7 million. We recorded -- in the last 12 months, we recorded a negative net result of BRL 398 million, impacted by noncash effect of foreign exchange variation. Just to emphasize, this was linked to the currency variation and have a noncash impact. On the capital restructure front, we closed the quarter with a leverage measured by the net debt to adjusted EBITDA for the last 12 months of a 4.5x, 0.1 less than in the last quarter of 2017. This movement shows the beginning of our delevering -- deleveraging process. We continue with a comfortable position in cash of BRL 3.9 billion in the first quarter. The duration of our debt was around 6 years on March 31, 2018. Minerva continued to account for 22% of South American exports and remained the largest beef exporter in the continent. This just to emphasize how strong South America became in the world market of beef. So Minerva is, by far, the largest and the most diversified producer in South America. Talking about the integration process, it's worth mentioning that we have concluded the period of setting the SAP, the basis platform for controlling and having all of the same standards in all the countries. And we'll continue pursuing improvements in our operational and commercial efficiency programs through benchmarks, through best practices and through exchange of positive experience. It's worth mentioning the positive outlook for the opening of new markets in the coming months. As we have already mentioned, we expect the Japanese market to open for Uruguay, the Indonesian market just finished [visiting] to Brazilian plants and shall be open still in the first half of the year. And also important to mention, the possible reopening of United States for Brazilian and for Argentinian beef. Moving to Slide 3, where we'll talk about the sector. And we will begin talking about the sector in Brazil where we have 45% of our capacity. Slaughter has grown 4% between first Q of '17 and first Q '18. In first Q '18 beef exports came to 390,000 tons, 21% more than in the same period of last year. Strong export demand came mainly from Asia, Chile and the north of Africa. Also, the Middle East had important -- was an important destination for Brazil. The domestic performance was in line with the seasonal trend for the period. While characterized by more modest beef consumption, we also had the impact of the replacement of beef with other proteins and the calendar effect for -- of the carnival and Easter that fell in the same quarter, compromising the beef consumption in this period. Nevertheless, with that, Minerva has maintained a stable share, a stable volume of product in the Brazilian local market. We are now going to discuss Paraguay, which concentrates 20% of our production capacity. You can see the details on the top right corner. Paraguayan slaughter fell 17% between first Q '17 and first Q '18. The decline was related to the rainy season, which made the logistics much more complicated and reducing the availability of movement -- and reducing the availability of cattle. Therefore, there was a reduction of exports because of that. Chile also had some suspensions during this period but this already got back to normal. So Chile, that's an important market, it's really the (inaudible) for Paraguay nowadays. The main destination of Paraguayan exports was Russia, which accounted for 44% of the country's total exports in the first Q '18, 12 percentage points more than in the same period last year, driven mainly by the ban of the Brazilian beef to Russia. Therefore, Paraguay was able to occupy part of the space left by Brazil. In Uruguay, where we have 12% of our operation, the slaughter volume was 8% higher than in first Q of '17 and 7% over 4Q of '17. The higher slaughter volume was due to the drought in the country caused by La Niña, which encouraged cattle producers to bring forward slaughter. In the first Q '18, Uruguayan exports performed well, up 60% over first Q '17. The main destination of Uruguayan exports were China and the United States, which accounted for more than half of the country exports. Finally, moving on to Argentina, which represents around 19% of our slaughter capacity. Slaughter volumes moved up 8% between first Q '17 and first Q '18. It's worth noting that, like Uruguay, Argentina also went through a drought caused by La Niña. Argentina exports volume once again performed exceptionally, climbed 56% over first Q '17. This was an outstanding performance showing that Argentina beef is back to the world market with a well-recognized brand. China was the main destination of Argentina exports in the period and accounted for 35% of the total exports, followed by Russia and Chile. I would like to draw your attention to the beauty of Minerva geographic diversification. An example, Russia closed its market for Brazilian beef. We used it, and we increased our production in Argentina, in Paraguay and also in Uruguay to fulfill the gap. Therefore, we were exporting as Minerva more than when Brazil was open. To create value when Chile reduced its Paraguayan exports, Brazil replaced that origin, also helped by Argentina. So this arbitrage capability is one of the Minerva most competitive advantages. Argentina domestic consumption was also strong in the first quarter. It's another point that is relevant to mention. The typical seasonal effect, and the demand in the quarter was barely affected by the seasonality. Again, I draw the attention that we have, from time to time, sanitary events, we have currency events. We have different events that allows Minerva with the geographic diversification to mitigate the risks. There is no other tool that is as efficient as the one that we have to mitigate the risks on the beef sector. Now let's analyze Minerva's performance, beginning with the exports on Slide 4. In the first quarter, Minerva continued to be one of the leading exporters in the country where we operate. In Brazil, we once again had a significant 19% market share of exports. In Paraguay, our market share of exports came to 40%, a total record that shall be broken again in the second Q. All-time highs consolidating our position as the largest exporter. So not only the first quarter but the second quarter, we consolidated our position as the most important and the most relevant exporter out of Paraguay. Meanwhile, in Uruguay, our market share, (inaudible) to 21% of the total exports in the first Q. In Argentina, we were responsible for 16% with all the exports of the country. And finally, in Colombia, that is a small basis, we are responsible for 71% of the total country's exports. Moving to Slide 5. We will show the breakdown of exports by region and by division. To show you the different dynamics, we divided the results of exports between Brazil, the International division, in 2 separate charts. In the Brazil Industry division, the Middle East stood out in the last 12 months ended March, accounting for 31% of the total exports, 3 percentage points more than in the same period last year. The second most important destination was Asia, which accounted for 1/4 of the division exports in the last 12 months. So if you added Africa, that's mainly north of Africa, the Maghreb area, you will see an importance of the Islamic slaughter for the company. In the International Industry division, that includes all the other South American countries ex Brazil, the main destination was Americas, followed by Asia with 29% to Americas and 28% to Asia, 6 percent points more than in the last 12 months of first Q '17. This proves what we have been showing to the market in the last few months, about the constant growth in demand from Asia and Middle East and the fact that South American exporters are consistently better prepared to meet these demands. I will now turn to Eduardo, our Investor Relations Officer, who will present the company's financial and operating highlights. Puzziello? EDUARDO PIRANI PUZZIELLO, IR OFFICER, MINERVA S.A.: Thank you, Fernando. Good afternoon, everyone. We will present Minerva's financial and operating highlights as of Slide #6. As Fernando mentioned in the beginning of the presentation, starting this quarter, we are dividing world revenue in 3 groups. And we can see the evolution of each of these groups separately on this slide. Gross revenue from the Brazilian Industry division came to BRL 1.7 billion in the first quarter, around 22% higher than in the first Q '17. Gross revenue for the International Industry division reached BRL 1.5 billion in the first Q '18, around 165% more than in the 1Q -- the first Q '17 as shown in the graph on the top right corner. In addition to the organic growth of this operation, this performance was related to the addition of the new assets as of last August. The capacity utilization rate of our Brazilian units stood at 80.1% in first Q '18, more than 10% higher than in the first Q '17, while the capacity utilization rate of our units in Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina and Colombia stood at roughly 72%. In the next slide, we will continue talking about the financial and operational performance of the divisions. But now, we are -- we will talk about the Trading division revenue, which stood around BRL 530 million in the first quarter of 2018, around 70% above what we saw in the first Q '17. This increase was driven by the improved performance of the Live Cattle segment, combined with our strategy of reselling third-party products in the domestic market and our protein trading operations in the export market. In the bottom right graph, we also presented the share of each of the 3 divisions in the gross revenue breakdown, showing the importance of each division that makes up our consolidated operation, as Fernando had mentioned in the beginning of this conference. The Brazilian Industry division accounted for 46% of the gross revenue. The International Industry division represented 40% of the total and the Trading division accounted for the remaining 14% of the total world revenue. Minerva's net revenue totaled BRL 3.5 billion in the first Q of 2018, 65% more than the same period of last year. Adjusted EBITDA amounted to BRL 285 million in the first quarter, also, 35 -- 33% higher than the EBITDA of the same period of last year. Ending EBITDA margin reached 8.1%. So now turning to Slide #8, we're going to talk about the net result for the first quarter of 2018. As you can see in this slide, the company recorded a net loss of BRL 114 million after income and social contribution taxes in the first quarter of '18. And in the last 12 months and in March, company recorded a net loss of BRL 398 million, as Fernando also mentioned in the beginning of the presentation, all related to the noncash impact of the currency variation. Moving to the next slide, we will talk about the cash flow -- the operational cash flow of the company. In the first quarter of 2018, the operating cash flow was positive BRL 187 million. Adjustments to the net income totaled BRL 269.5 million, while the working capital variation was positive by roughly BRL 33 million. In the first Q of 2018, the positive working capital was a result of receivables line, which returned approximately BRL 331 million to our cash, and also, another positive contribution came from other payables line. Please bear in mind that these lines reflect the company's credit policy and contains the prepayment from some clients according to their credit risk. On the other hand, the supplier line consumed BRL 234 million because the company paid cash for the purchase of more raw materials. In the last 12 months ending March, operating cash flow was positive by around BRL 596 million. Adjustment to net income totaled approximately BRL 1.5 billion, while the change in the working capital requirement was negative by BRL 460 million. Turning to Slide #10, we will now touch on the free cash flow for the first quarter of 2018. As you can see, the adjusted EBITDA reached BRL 285 million, while cash CapEx came to roughly BRL 48 million. The financial results with cash effect stood at BRL 218 million, while the variation on -- in the working capital, as I just mentioned in the previous slide, reached BRL 33 million. So as a result, the free cash flow was positive by BRL 51.6 million in the first quarter of 2018. Regarding the free cash flow of the last 12 months, the EBITDA reached BRL 1.2 billion, excluding the pro forma figures of the Mercosur assets. Maintenance CapEx came to BRL 258 million. Cash financial results for the last 12 months reached BRL 795 million, and the variation of the working capital requirements was negative by BRL 460 million. So the results of the last 12 months free cash flow of the company was a negative BRL 277 million. Going now to Slide #11, we're going to talk about the capital structure of the company. Our leverage, measured by the ratio net debt to EBITDA over the last 12 months, reached 4.5x at the end of March, 0.1x lower than the first Q of '17. So as also mentioned by Fernando in the beginning of the presentation, we're in the beginning of the deleveraging process of the company. Our cash position was BRL 3.9 billion, sufficient to make us very comfortable to deal with the adverse scenario and settle our debt through 2024. And at the close of the first quarter of 2018, roughly 80% of Minerva's debt was exposed to the FX variation with a duration of close to 6 years. I will now return the floor over to Fernando, who will talk about the new organization structure and also talk about the -- and then we're going to go to the Q&A. FERNANDO GALLETTI DE QUEIROZ: Thank you, Eduardo. As I previously mentioned, today Minerva is part of a new reality, with a relevant -- with a much more relevant geographic diversification. We are in a sector that is becoming more and more global, so we must be more apt to deal with the different dynamics and particularities of our company and on the locations and the geographic location that we are. Aiming to attract the best synergies from the unities to improve the integration between the management and to apply the best practices in decision-making, we readapt the company organization structure. Thus, we established a new role of a Global Chief Operational Officer that is global. That will be played by our currently COO, Mr. Iain Mars, who many of you already met. Iain is with us for the -- for 10 years. He has participated in the growth plan and is fully aligned with the Minerva dynamics, and he share our business plan from the very beginning. He will coordinate the operational management team in Brazil, in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Colombia and from the related business. Another changing that we made was the restructuring of the financial department. Eduardo de Toledo left the company, and we will have now 3 areas that are: first, risk and control under Francisco de Assis' supervision, who is with us for 7 years; Treasury, with Nathan Freire, that was with us for 8 years; and third, Investor Relations with Eduardo Puzziello here at my side, who has been in the company for 8 years. These areas are 100% integrated and fully aligned with me and with the company strategy. Once again, I would like to highlight that Minerva's main focus is the leveraging -- is the deleveraging process through the value extraction from our unities and working capital management. During the integration process, I was focused on the operational side, and now with this step concluded, I will return to focus on the strategic level. This explain why we have decided to have a new structure to follow our principles: discipline, focus and consistency. Finally, I would like to mention that the achievements and the results for Minerva are due to the work of not only 1 person but more than 18,000 people. With -- I emphasize their commitment and their search for a consistent improvement. I will now hand over to the floor to start the Q&A session. Questions and Answers OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) Lauren Torres from UBS would like to make a question. LAUREN ELAINE TORRES, LATIN AMERICAN FOOD AND BEVERAGE SENIOR ANALYST, UBS INVESTMENT BANK, RESEARCH DIVISION: Fernando, you were clear about the restructuring, but I'm just curious to get a bit more of your perspective on what changed in the last few months. We had the appointment of the CFO just a few months ago, so curious -- I understand the visibility, the clarity having executives at the firm to fill these spots now. But I think with some nervousness in the market with management changes at the high level, curious to get your perspective on kind of what changed just in a few months' time to do this restructuring now. FERNANDO GALLETTI DE QUEIROZ: Well, there is not much that has changed, Lauren. We've -- since we acquire the operations of Mercosur, (inaudible), we've been preparing the company for the structure of having a COO -- a global COO that would consolidate the operational part. So that's what I shared with our board. This has been discussed with our team. So it was time to implement. What really was different that is happening at the same time that we had done at the [no election] of Eduardo de Toledo. Once you have a new -- even though you can make a good search and a new hiring, you got to know the person when it comes to the day-to-day. So there is always risks and uncertainties from both parts by having changing on the high level. What we used was the common sense to recognize and to change the structure with a team that we feel very comfortable. That's a team that are with us for more than 7 years and is a very senior team that have been conducting the operations and have been conducting the strategy of the company for all this time. So it's not something that is -- it happened now. It's something that was planned, and it was adjusted with this new senior team on the financial side. LAUREN ELAINE TORRES: Okay. All right. That's helpful. And if I could just ask some questions on results. Just first on the margins. There were some items affecting margins in the quarter. With the integration now more or less done, curious to get your perspective on directionally where margins could go for the remainder of this year. And then also on leverage, I think you've given some general leverage targets for us to think about in the next 12 months or so, if you could talk about if you have a leverage -- a public leverage target. FERNANDO GALLETTI DE QUEIROZ: First on the margins, the margins -- normally, the first quarter of the year, margins are lower. This is part of the seasonality. This year, we had some good surprises and bad surprises. What was below our expectation was Brazil. The competition in Brazil was -- had increased. Therefore, there was a compression in margins in Brazil. The positive surprise came mainly from Argentina, that outperformed what we expected. So -- but giving our view for the second Q, we see Brazil normalizing. We see Paraguay also taking a new increase on volumes. What happened is that for the first quarter, there was some retention of cattle due to logistics. Now, it's normalized. And Argentina keeps performing well, especially with the model that Minerva implemented by being focused on exports. So exports, especially now that the peso has devaluated, make us even more competitive. Just to give you an idea, first Q, if we analyze Argentina individually, first Q '17 versus first Q '18, the increase on exports of Argentina were at 135%. So we don't give guidance of what would be the deleverage -- or what would be the deleverage that we will reach by the end of the year, but definitely our focus is to decrease the deleverage. We have our internal goals, we have our internal measures that we are taking that is leading to some small results in the first Q and we shall continue on that path from now on. OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) This concludes the question-and-answer session. At this time, I'd like to turn the floor back to (multiple speakers) FERNANDO GALLETTI DE QUEIROZ: Sorry, there is another questioner there that we have not heard of. OPERATOR: Mr. Andrew De Luca from Barclays would like to make a question. ANDREW C. DE LUCA, RESEARCH ANALYST, BARCLAYS BANK PLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: I just wanted to follow up on the prior question on the competitive environment in Brazil. Can you just give us sort of a bit of color on your outlook in terms of how you're expecting that margin to evolve? I mean, it sounds like, obviously, the Argentina side of the business is improving. But what's your outlook for the competitive environment for Brazil for the rest of the year? FERNANDO GALLETTI DE QUEIROZ: What's happening in Brazil is that we are in a positive side of the cycle. The increase of supply, the increase of availability of cattle is shown. You can see the prices that had go down. Not only that but with the currency -- Brazilian currency devaluating, this will have a further impact in dollar terms for the cattle that we are purchasing. So this one is -- this only consolidates South America, in Brazil, in Argentina, in Paraguay, as the main -- the most competitive supplier of beef worldwide. So we see the competitive environment more stable and more healthy for the rest of the year in Brazil, mainly because there are -- there is more cattle, and there is more rationality. ANDREW C. DE LUCA: And on the back of the greater cattle availability and rationality, are there any concerns of additional capacity that's going to be coming online, from JBS, for example? FERNANDO GALLETTI DE QUEIROZ: Well, we are not seeing any movement. This is something that we don't control what is happening to -- but -- on our competitors. But we don't see any major change on that. OPERATOR: This concludes the question-and-answer session. At this time, I would like to turn the floor back to Mr. Fernando Queiroz for any closing remarks. FERNANDO GALLETTI DE QUEIROZ: I'd like to end this conference call first with saying that we're very confident with the changes that the company is going through. We believe that we will continue bringing positive results and consolidating our position of being the leaders of exports out of South America. And I would like to thank once again Minerva entire team for doing their best for the company and for making us, through their efforts and dedication, the leader of South America. It's a multicultural company. It's a company that's diversified. And lastly, I would like to thank you all for the interest in the company, and we remain at your disposal for any questions and clarifications. Thank you very much, and do not hesitate in contacting us. OPERATOR: Thank you. This does conclude today's presentation. You may disconnect your line at this time, and have a nice day. 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Subject: Copyright; Chief executive officers; Cash flow; Earnings; Webcasting
Location: South America Brazil
Company / organization: Name: Thomson Financial; NAICS: 511210, 518210, 519190
Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: May 10, 2018
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: Linthicum
Country of publication: United States, Linthicum
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Law--Corporate Law
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2043337556
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Copyright: 2018 Thomson Financial and ASC LLC
Last updated: 2018-06-13
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Document 252 of 474
Q1 2018 Marisa Lojas SA Earnings Call - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]11 May 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Presentation OPERATOR: Good morning. Thanks for holding. Welcome to Marisa's conference call to discuss the earnings of Q1 2018. We would like to inform you that this event is being recorded and is available on Marisa's IR website. (Operator Instructions) Before proceeding, let me mention that forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of Marisa's management and on information currently available to the company. They involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions because they relate to future events and therefore, depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. Investors should understand that general economic conditions, industry conditions and other operating factors could also affect the future results of Marisa and could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. Now I will turn the conference over to Mr. Adalberto Pereira Dos Santos, CFO and IRO, who will start the presentation. Please, the floor is yours. You may begin. ADALBERTO PEREIRA DOS SANTOS, CFO, IR OFFICER & MEMBER OF THE BOARD OF EXECUTIVE OFFICERS, MARISA LOJAS S.A.: Good morning, everyone. Thank you to First Quarter 2018 Earnings Conference Call of Marisa. Marcelo Araujo is with us; Macio Luiz is also with us today; Marco Muraro, our VP of the Commercial Area; and Karina, our IR Manager. As you could see, in the first quarter this year, our results were affected by the low sales performance. We had a low flow in the shop, probably a consequence of Carnival in February and also due to operating issues as an excess of low cost or low price items. That, associated with the low sales performance, put some pressure on our growth profit, which affected the retail operations and the company as a whole. In all other pillars, and in our portfolio of products and cash generation, we remained with fortuitous results. We geared our efforts as mentioned here and it's directed to correct deficits in the commercial area. Now I would like to show you the presentation with further details of information. On Page 2, the evolution of net revenue, there was a reduction, 4.5%, and same-store sales, a reduction of 3.9%. And as I said, the negative impact, as I had mentioned, due to Carnival. And it's always good to highlight the positive side. This is particular with positive performance throughout the quarter, indicating greater conversion. And in March, from the sales standpoint and conversion it was highly positive as well, vis-à-vis the first 2 months of the year. Page 3. We can see gross profit and margin. Gross profit is impacted by sales performance. We could see from 51.3% to 48.5%. We had some difficulty recovering full price sales also in the months of February and we've started making some adjustments in our inventory. So gross profit and margin were affected in March. Page 4. We can see the drop of 0.3%. Here we can see the nominal fall of 0.3%, reflecting the company's ongoing efforts to control expresses (sic) [expenses]. G&A increase of 2.6% due to the recomposition of the commercial and operations teams. Sales expenses decreased by 0.6%. Page 5. We can see adjusted EBITDA and margin, from BRL 33.8 million to BRL 37.2 (sic) [32.7] million, because of the compression in gross margin and a drop in sales. In the first quarter, we had a balance of BRL 57.8 million in terms of taxes. Page 6. You can see the contribution margin results impacted mainly due to the lower penetration of Marisa Card and the 0+8 product. And we can see the figures vis-à-vis the previous quarter. In terms of personal loans, there was a contribution margin increase of 12.5% and an increase of 22% in the portfolio. Co-branded operations grew by 4.2%, impacted mainly by the higher number of eligible accounts. Here we can see the EBITDA FPS. We can see a minor drop but it remained solid, impacted by the adoption of IFRS, new methodology for the provision of losses, including a provision for the portfolio to mature in addition to past-due portfolios. So you can see the differences between this year and last year. And again, positive impact of the personal loan operation and continuous efficiency gains in costs and expenses, and maintenance of the same levels of the first quarter of 2017. On Slide #8, portfolio loss. So the broken line is considering the sales of past portfolios. And in both lines, both the dotted and the solid lines, you can see some effects because the portfolio was in decline. We can see an elevation here from 41.2% to 42.9%. And there was an impact of BRL 4 million in this quarter. And here, we can see the other indicator, EFICC PL, also practically stable. Number 9, we can see portfolio loss, considering the effect of the sales of the portfolio. We can see the percentage of overdue receivables. We feel comfortable as a whole, indicating the assertiveness of the credit concession. The EFFICC, within expectations according to the current values of the product receivables portfolio. Slide 10. Consolidated EBITDA, from BRL 111.3 million to BRL 40.6 million. Again, we had a fall impacted both by decrease in the gross margin of retail operation and by the lower reversal of tax credits. Slide #11. We had BRL 14.7 million and negative to 41.1% (sic) [BRL 41.1 million] due to the poor result in the retail operation. And there was also asymmetry on the comparable basis, lesser extent in the reversal of tax credits of ICMS payment in PIS/Cofins calculation. BRL 47 million here in cash generation and the same level, despite the substantial drop in EBITDA. So despite the lower adjusted EBITDA, operating cash generation continued at healthy levels. You can see the figure. The EBITDA had a higher level of leverage due to the reduction of adjusted EBITDA and the exclusion of BRL 75 million in tax credits. Thank you. The floor is now open for questions. Questions and Answers OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) We have a question from Mr. Richard. UNIDENTIFIED ANALYST: I just would like to ask a question on the collection because you mentioned that January and February were hard months and March was better. So I just would like to better understand your vision regarding the collection session, price structure, if you are pleased with it, and if -- or if there's something that still needs some improving. MARCELO PEREIRA MALTA DE ARAúJO, CEO, CHIEF SALES OFFICER, MEMBER OF BOARD OF EXECUTIVE OFFICERS & DIRECTOR, MARISA LOJAS S.A.: This is Marcelo Araujo. Richard, and all of you listening to us, thank you for your question. I don't know if you have had the opportunity to be with us in our latest conference call. Towards the end of 2017, we had a lack of assertiveness in the collection that we had, which gave rise to some imbalance. Our expectation was that it could have been adjusted faster, but we had some slow adjustments in February that hindered that. So we still have imbalance because of inventory. But the -- some products had better acceptance in March. So March as a whole was much better than January and February, basically because of the introduction of the new collection and the extensions of the new sectors in our shops and our new communications strategy launched in International Women's Day as we have done traditionally on March 8, featuring singer Claudia Leite. And more than that, it's about the new positioning of the brand. We still have several challenges ahead of us, and the new collections will gradually migrate the positioning of the brand. That's why we say this is a transitional process that should gain more momentum in the second half of the year. Once it's fully developed, all based on the new processes that we are reviewing. And also with the renewal of the team. This team is already developing a new collection and with different prices. But -- to give you a straight answer, Richard, the sales of the collection launched in March were very exciting. Yes, we are pleased with the new collection, but we still have a challenge ahead of us because of the volume of available items in our shop. OPERATOR: Felipe would like to ask a question. UNIDENTIFIED ANALYST: Firstly, I understand what Marcio said. I want to know whether we can expect an improvement in the performance in April as well. And the second question is regarding the mobile operations. I can still see that we have few shops, but what were your first impressions? And I would like to know why the rollout is only for 55 stores. Does that have anything to do with the size of the shops or the regions? I would like to understand the rationale behind that. And also, what were the first actions taken by Marcio? And what has changed vis-à-vis the latest management? MARCELO PEREIRA MALTA DE ARAúJO: Okay, Felipe. So let me begin with the first question, and how we can see the market right now. And then we're going to have some remarks on the mobile project. Marco is spearheading this project. So I'm going to ask him to introduce himself and share a few words with you regarding his position. Yes, regarding the sales, the collection is selling well in April as well. I believe you can see what the -- how the market is doing. We had some temperature changes this month, vis-à-vis the same months of last year. And winter products have a great weight in terms of the average ticket. But we can expect some recovery. Towards the end of April, we had a new strategy for Mother's Day and we're having some positive outcomes. If everything goes well, weather-wise, we can expect to have the second half of the year still in line, and we are having a substantial transition right now. I don't know whether it was clear or not, but we have changed our distribution in -- the distribution of our -- the sectors in our shops. We changed all the shops of the company throughout Brazil in the first quarter due to the lower demand in the first quarter. And we had some clearance in January and February. And when you conduct an intervention like this and you change the layout, well depending on the size of the shop, you impact the conversion flow of that shop for a few days. So it's all part of this context. So now, gradually, we are considering these shops. But an important remark to make when we talk about this scenario in our growth expectations, is that we're still dealing with the macroeconomic scenario that is rather frustrating. We expected things to be a little bit better, especially in terms of unemployment rate, because it is the variable that is most correlated with our sales. But we still have record in terms of unemployment rate which impacts our shop. So there is this imbalance. And this effect was very clear in 2017 and it remains in the first quarter. We can see a major gap in terms of performance between shops at our end markets that are better protected versus shops that are more in -- they are in more vulnerable areas. So these effects remain present. We are not witnessing a very fast recovery. So we can expect that to still put some pressure on our results in the upcoming months. And before I hand it over to Célio and Marco, because I believe it would be interesting to hear what they have to say about their initiatives and the rollout in terms of mobile, I would like to say a few words about the project M2020. It's a new shop model that we started checking in November last year in some shops that we have. The 19 top shops that we have proven to be very effective, very positive for this model. These shops are already positive against the same period last year, and we are beginning a new wave of another 20 shops to receive this project. So this is a model that is substantial based on a rigorous assessment that we have conducted. We're going to begin doing the rollout of this new methodology in terms of architecture and layout and different service. In sum, everything that we presented to you in the Marisa Day. And so, also, we have to consider the effects of these shops. We have conducted some changes in the pilot test. We have expanded the number of shops, the model of top shops. And in the next 6 days, we're going to conduct more tests in order to better adjust this model. We are highly focused on our transformation program and this is a 3-year project. It started February last year. We are very pleased to see the progress of this program. We were frustrated in terms of the sales returns that we had in terms of retail, but we can have a more sustainable competitiveness and very soon, we'll be a -- we'll be in a new cycle of growth. I will hand it over to Célio now. CéLIO MARCOS LOPES, DIRECTOR OF FINANCIAL & PRODUCT SERVICES, MARISA LOJAS S.A.: Hello, this is Célio right now. Thank you for the questions. I hope everything is well in Mexico. So we first implemented the mobile and pilot shops so that we can learn from this operation. But now, for 6 months, it's still a short period of time for us to have an intense rollout of this operation. We are still having an important learning curve. We still have some lessons to learn so that we can intensify this curve. And given our moment now, we are focused more on improving the sales in our session. We are not including this rollout now. An important lesson to learn is in terms of the portfolio, both in terms of the size of the portfolio and the size, the price, we have learned greatly in terms of credit for this sector, that seems to be a distinguishing feature, for our target public. And ultimately, the operation of mobile, both in terms of supply in the entire chain and also the influence of mobile in the shops in terms of flow and sales, not only considering mobile alone, but we still have to evolve so that we can have a more intense rollout. We believe that with 55 shops this year, this curve will be mature enough. But you'll have to consolidate the growth in terms of revenues to better understand this business. MARCO MURARO, PROCUREMENT OFFICER, MARISA LOJAS S.A.: This is Marco. Regarding the changes in the commercial area, we have restructured the team and made investments in terms of planning and supply, aiming to ensure that we have a more balanced collection. So the work right now is focused on changing the collection. April, May and June, we are still waiting to see what the weather will be like, but we're working strongly on planning things better in terms of the type of shop and its mix. And also, with this major investment, the team is restructuring itself. We are considering the learning curve. But as of the second and third quarters, these efforts will show, will be reflected. OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) Andres from Brasil Plural, he would like to post a question. Andres from Brasil Plural has a question. ANDRES ESTEVEZ, ANALYST, BRASIL PLURAL CORRETORA DE CAMBIO, TITULOSE VALORES MOBILIáRIOS S.A., RESEARCH DIVISION: It's just a follow-up on your inventory. I would like to know whether you still have some business from previous collections and how you can eliminate the previous collections. And I would also like to understand a bit more in terms of mobile, the M2020 that you have. I understand you're still in the stages of rollout, but I would like to understand more about cost, and how you are planning to fit it into your revenues as well. MARCELO PEREIRA MALTA DE ARAúJO: Hello, Andres, this is Marcelo again. Yes, just to give you a brief overview on the inventory. As I said, at the turn of the year, we had a minor imbalance in our inventory. We had planned to have bigger inventory levels. But still, it was a bit higher because of the collection of an important sector in the fourth quarter last year, high summer collection. Since then, we have been doing some work to eliminate this stock. Unfortunately, we couldn't have the speed that we expected. We still have some adjustments. But we intend to conclude them by the clearance, or the winter clearance, by June or July. So until then, we'll be conducting some adjustments, gradual adjustments. As for your question about mobile, we haven't consolidated them into the revenues of the company. We are still -- we are using a partner of ours to do this consolidation. And it's likely to be done just as of next year, once we conclude the stage of the pilot mentioned by Sergio (sic) [Célio]. But we are excited. We believe that it is a category that is very expressive in terms of flow generation, especially with mobile services such as financial. Likewise, cosmetics can also add value. So both categories were prioritized based on some surveys conducted with our customers in the end of last year. We started with some pilot tests. And all this transformation, also that we are conducting in terms of the M2020 project, we are still considering the mix of projects so that we are -- so that we can have a broader rollout. But at this point, the costs are marginal, not very material. I don't know if Adalberto would like to say a few words, but it's not very material yet. ADALBERTO PEREIRA DOS SANTOS: Yes, Marcelo put this very well. In our internal structures, we have some teams focused on products and shops and changing processes and training. So the costs associated with these initiatives are still marginal. Yes, thank you. OPERATOR: Felipe from HSBC. UNIDENTIFIED ANALYST: Yes, just a quick follow-up on closing stores. I want to know if you are going to close other shops throughout the year. MARCELO PEREIRA MALTA DE ARAúJO: This is Marcelo again. Marcelo Pimentel is not with us today, but -- because he's traveling because of Mother's Day, but I'm -- I can answer on his behalf. The judicious analysis on the ROI for each shop of our network is an ongoing obligation of a company that aims to expand and grow profitability. So regardless of the level of results, we always have in our radar the shops that have the lower rate of return. We monitor the shops. And once they fall into this group of shops, they receive some special attention. We develop a new plan, and we conduct further investigations regarding the potential of the region and the team, and we assess customer satisfaction. We work in all levels. It's an ongoing process for us. We don't have any plans to close shops in the short term. But we do have, as always, from 3% to 5% of the shops of the network being analyzed and tested. That shop that we closed in the past was part of the first group. We just had to do some negotiations with the mall in Rio, the shop that you mentioned that we closed since then. But yes, we are constantly assessing the profitability. But we don't have a short-term plan to close shops in the upcoming months. If there is a recovery of this scenario, we cannot expect that to happen yet. OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) Kenya from Banco do Brasil would like to ask a question. UNIDENTIFIED ANALYST: My name is Kenya Mor (sic) [Moreira], Banco do Brasil. I would like to know more about the presentation, Slide #6. On the penetration of Marisa Card, there was a reduction. And given the bigger number of accounts, I would like to know what is the strategy to be adopted in terms of receivables for the upcoming years? ADALBERTO PEREIRA DOS SANTOS: Kenya, this is Adalberto, I'm going to hand it over to Célio. CéLIO MARCOS LOPES: I don't really understand how you connected the first part of your question, which has to do with the card. If you can repeat it, please? UNIDENTIFIED ANALYST: In terms of the strategy for receivables, Célio. CéLIO MARCOS LOPES: Thanks for your questions. The credit card, well, they are a key portion of our strategy regarding financial services. We have this substantial increase in terms of the number of active accounts. And we can see a substantial increase in the base for over a year. So the relationship with our customers via credit card has been improving over time. In terms of revenues, there was an impact as of last year because of some regulatory changes in 2017, and a minor one now in 2018. But we have to consider default. It's being -- helping with the results. And there's also conversion of customers, who already have our card, to using the credit card. So it's been increasing our revenues as well. So these are the main pillars responsible for our result. Now could you repeat your question, please, about the portfolio, I don't understand that very well. UNIDENTIFIED ANALYST: In terms of the strategy with receivables, you adopted some strategies, such as Marisa Card, and co-branded as an operation for your revenues. Are you going to prioritize more co-branded? Or are you going to continue working with the penetration of Marisa Card? CéLIO MARCOS LOPES: This is Célio. We're going to continue developing our shop card. Our customers have a relevant need for credit. And using the card -- by using the card, they can get closer to our products and services at Marisa. In terms of the credit card, it's going to complement the strategy because it provides the same credit conditions but more involved, but it also opens grounds for more market penetration. But we are still developing further all the financial services that are part of our portfolio. OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) Andres from Brasil Plural would like to ask a question. ANDRES ESTEVEZ: Yes, just another follow-up in terms of the TOP shops that you're always mentioning a lot in the calls. I just want to understand, do you have a target in terms of the percentage of the base that are POP and the percentage that is TOP from -- I think the TOP shops are overperforming, right? Do you have a -- what is the ideal composition of shops? MARCELO PEREIRA MALTA DE ARAúJO: Andres, thanks for the question. Yes, I am sure it is the same question that other people may have. Let me explain what is the difference between TOP and POP. It's just for us to see the way we manage this shop. So basically, what is the difference between TOP and POP? The competitive context, the setting, most TOP shops are in malls, competing against other domestic players and the public, the group of customers, has a higher purchasing power and they're more sophisticated than in our popular shops. They are -- those are on streets, sometimes in the outskirts of large cities. And the competition is made up of local retailers or regional retailers. The public -- the customers have different habits, different sessions, purchasing experiences, therefore, they have different expectations as to how we present our collections and the service that is provided by this shop, and what they would like to see more in doing those. So it's more a way for us to be closer to our customers in order to meet their expectations better, so that we can convey our positioning more clearly and to show the value perception in terms of what the customers can expect from Marisa. It's rather than a strategy to grow more one group, not the other. The expansion model is based on identifying opportunity and the profitability of both POP and TOP are similar. We don't have different expectations in terms of return, rather it's more about our go-to-market strategy in order to meet the expectations of our customers. And historically speaking, the performance of these 2 groups is not different. But when we have a demand contraction pressuring the C bracket of -- lower income bracket of society. It's the whole region, where the shops are present, is more affected. Therefore, their performance is different, different from the performance of the TOP group of shops. I don't know if it's clear, but we don't have a target for that. It's just about having 2 different clusters, TOP and POP. But the public of Marisa is the same, it's from 25 to 45 years of age and income brackets of society C and B. So it's the same in both groups. But it's more about the step change, the environment of these groups of shops that changes. Therefore, the shopping habit also change. That's why we adopt our strategy to that effect. I don't know if I made myself clear. But again, I don't have a straightforward answer. We don't have a target for that. OPERATOR: Pedro from Macquarie has a question. UNIDENTIFIED ANALYST: I just would like to understand what happened with cost, because usually they are very well controlled. In terms of revenues, I could clearly understand, unemployment and the calendar, the holidays. But I wonder if there was a lack of control or something that you failed to control in terms of cost, or too many promotions and the price charged was lower. And then I also have a question regarding working capital. ADALBERTO PEREIRA DOS SANTOS: Pedro, in terms of cost, it has to do with the margin, as mentioned, because we had to consider the stock and there were some promotions that put some pressure on the margin. Is your question about SG&A or cost? SG&A is controlled, yes. And we conducted a credit proceed that based on squared meters. There was a drop in the last 5 years of 30% in actual value, following the strategy mentioned by Marcelo, aiming to preserve the network. So we could have had a drastic earnings and network so that we could be positive. But the strategy was to preserve the network or the chain because we addressed supply for all this unallocation, and with that, the impact of sales in the EBITDA would have been violent. So again, there was an increase in cost when there was an essential -- more assertiveness in terms of promotion. But in financial products and retail, we can see a performance that is exceptional. So the question was around cost, the SG&A is very clear and also the retail operations. But that's fine. So again, it's more regarding the promotion that gave rise to the margin, yes, the gross margin. UNIDENTIFIED ANALYST: Okay. My other question is in terms of working capital, you had an improvement in the term for receiving from the customers, right? Is it also because of the promotions that customers had to pay outright? Or any other reasons behind that improvement in working capital? ADALBERTO PEREIRA DOS SANTOS: It was a combination of factors. You have the impact of the inventory. As you eliminate inventory, you have a return. And we should expect to see this positive result. You also have the receivables. We migrated the operation for good banking partners. And when you migrate from internal financing with the banks, you have this improvement also. But the trend is for us to continue having positive effect. OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) As there are no questions, I would like to turn the floor over to Mr. Adalberto Pereira Dos Santos for his final remarks. ADALBERTO PEREIRA DOS SANTOS: Thank you all for joining us today. Some questions are coming in via webcast, they're more technical ones. So Karina Lozano and myself would be at your disposal to discuss the technical questions with you later on. So thank you so much, and see you again in the next conference. And I'll hand it over to Marcelo for his final remarks. MARCELO PEREIRA MALTA DE ARAúJO: Thank you very much for joining us today. Thank you for the questions. They're always very important for us so that we can share our vision on our program and our development. It's a very challenging moment right now. We are aware of all the volatility in all organizations, consequently in the results. And we had that in the first quarter, also with the macro scenario that is not helping. But as we have mentioned, we are confident in what we are building in the fundamental pillars. Now consolidating all the changes in the commercial area, it was the last chapter for us to tackle in the TransforMAR program, and also consolidating the development processes and supply that started in the end of last year. So we are confident. We are positive regarding our future. And our priority in this transition will be to control the level of costs and expenses and controlling working flow that will enable us to weather this seamlessly so that we can continue making the required investment with our project M2020, that encompasses all dimensions, in our customers, our shops and new categories with mobile and cosmetics and our digital transformation. So in other words, we are still building the future despite this period of transition right now. But we're still highly confident that our customers will continue giving us the honor of their preference, they continue visiting our shops and they are still pleased with the products that we offer. Now we have Mother's Day and we can see that happening strongly. Our strategy for Mother's Day started 2.5 weeks ago and it's doing very well. Today and tomorrow are key days for retail as a whole in Brazil. Mother's Day is the second Christmas for us, if you will. So it's very important for all of us. And with that, I would like to say goodbye and thank you, once again, for joining us. Have a fantastic Mother's Day. May you spend Mother's Day with your families. And our shops will have the pleasure to welcome you to buy your mother a gift, and also our website. Thank you very much. Have a nice day. OPERATOR: Thank you. Marisa's conference call is now concluded. Thank you for joining us, and have a nice day. 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Subject: Copyright; Corporate profits; Tax credits
Company / organization: Name: Thomson Financial; NAICS: 511210, 518210, 519190
Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: May 11, 2018
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: Linthicum
Country of publication: United States, Linthicum
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Law--Corporate Law
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Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2043741656
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Copyright: 2018 Thomson Financial and ASC LLC
Last updated: 2018-06-01
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Document 253 of 474
Q1 2018 Lojas Americanas SA Earnings Call - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]11 May 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Presentation OPERATOR: Good afternoon and thank you for waiting. Welcome to the conference call for Lojas Americanas to discuss the results of the 1st quarter of 2018. We have with us today Mr. Carlos Padilha, Financial Director and Investor Relations of Lojas Americanas and Mr. Fabio Abrate, Financial Director and Investor Relations of B2W. We inform you that this event is being recorded and all participants will be listening into listen only mode during the presentation of the company. (Operator Instructions) It is also important to remind that today's event has a presentation and slides that can be accessed at the address ri.lasa.com.br Before we continue we would like to declare that eventual statements that could be made on this call relating to prospectives of businesses of Lojas Americanas, projections, operational targets, financial targets are based on beliefs and assumptions of the company as well as the available information we have to-date. Future considerations are not guarantees of performance. They involve risks, uncertainties, assumptions because they refer to future events. So they depend on circumstances that can or may not occur. Investors should understand that general economic conditions, industry conditions and other operational factors may affect the future performance of Lojas Americanas and may conduct to results that will differ materially from those expressed in future consideration. The company enlightens that the accounting information that served as the basis for such comments are presented according to the international standards of the financial report IFRS as well as the norms by CVM in reais. Now we would like to -- to give the floor to Mr. Carlos Padilha, who will introduce the operational and financial highlights of Lojas Americanas. Please, Mr. Padilha, the floor is yours. CARLOS EDUARDO ROSALBA PADILHA, FINANCIAL & IR DIRECTOR AND MEMBER OF THE EXECUTIVE BOARD, LOJAS AMERICANAS S.A.: Good afternoon, everyone. It's a pleasure to be with you in this conference call to present the results of the first quarter of 2018 of Lojas Americanas. Before starting the presentation, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all the mothers. On behalf of Lojas Americanas, Happy Mother's Day. Going to Slide 2 of our presentation, we will start with the main point of Lojas Americanas. In the first quarter of 2018, we inaugurated 14 new stores and today, we have more than 130 contracts signed or in final phases of negotiations. We reaffirm our objective of opening 800 stores between 2015 and 2019, in our expansion plan of: 85 years in 5 - We are More Brazil. In relation to the convenience stores, after the definition of the concepts, the new brand and considering the results achieved, we announced the rollout of the model, opening 30 new stores in 2018. The brand we chose is Local. We created our own identity of the convenience store. At the same time we captured the brand value, Lojas Americanas. Apart from that, this quarter, the +AQUI reached the mark of 1.6 million cards Lojas Americanas in -- issued and established 3 new partnerships. This quarter, the controlling company presented a growth by 29.6% of net sales and 33.9% of the adjusted EBITDA. Apart from that, the first 4 months of the year, we registered growth of 8.5% of sales in the concept-same stores. On Slide 3, we are going to talk about the main results of the consolidated and controlling company. In this period, consolidated GMV reached BRL 5.8 billion, a growth of 26.5% if compared to the first quarter of 2017. Apart from that, net revenue consolidated was BRL 4.0 billion, a growth of 17.5% compared to the first quarter of last year. Gross profit consolidated in the quarter was BRL 1.3 billion, with gross margins of 33.3%, representing growth of 3.1 percentage points if compared to the same period last year. The adjusted consolidated EBITDA totaled BRL 523.3 million, with EBITDA margins of 13%, an increase of 1.8 percentage points compared to the first quarter of 2017. In this period, the controlling companies presented net revenues of BRL 2.6 billion, an increase of 29.6% in relation to the first quarter of 2017. In sales growth, on the concept-same stores of 8.5% in the initial 4 months of the year. Gross profit of the controlling company was BRL 987.7 million, growth of 25.9% if compared to the first quarter of 2017. Gross margin was 38.4%, a variation of minus 1.1 percentage points because of Easter holidays in 2018, and it happened that -- the same happened in the second quarter in 2017. EBITDA totaled BRL 456 million, with a margin of 17.7%, an increase by 0.5 percentage points, which is the result of expenses dilution due to sales increase influenced by Easter. To make the assessment of the results easier, we anticipated the valuation of the main lines of the results in the initial 4 months of the year. In this period, net revenue increased by 11.7%. EBITDA reached a growth of 12%. On Slide 4, we will discuss the evolution of the working capital of the company. In the first quarter of 2018, working capital of the controlling company was 39 days, which represents an improvement of 4 days in relation to the same period in 2017. The result was due to the better inventory management, the pursuit of better variables in the balance of commercial and operational variables. Evolutions of working capital show that we are in the right path to reach, in the mid- and long term, results that even more sound and sustainable. On Slide 5, we will discuss the expansion plan, 85 years in 5 - We are More Brazil. In order to maintain our commitment to increase the growth of the business. According to the expansion plan, we finished the first quarter of 2018 with 1,320 stores and we are present in 525 cities in the entire territory. In the first quarter of this year, we inaugurated 14 new stores with the same discipline in the approval of new points and the expected financial returns. We offered fair prices and products of great quality to the local population. In 2018, and up till now, we inaugurated 18 new stores and we already have 130 contracts signed or in the final phases of negotiation, which show that we are in the right path to conclude successfully the 200 inaugurations expected for 2018. On Slide 6, we will discuss the highlights of the first quarter of 2018 of B2W Digital. In this quarter, growth of B2W in terms of GMV was 24.1%, vis-à-vis 11% growth in the market according to IBEF. The market share of B2W expanded 2.8 percentage points, growing from 23.7% in the first quarter to 26.5% in the first quarter of '18. The marketplace GMV reached BRL 1.4 billion, growing from (sic) [a growth of] 86.5% and reaching 46.4% of the total GMV. The B2W Digital platform has attracted more clients and sellers. Along the first quarter, we had more than 2,400 sellers connected, a new record. B2W Delivery, the proprietary platform of B2W which operates and controls the deliveries in the marketplace, connected 2,800 sellers in the first quarter and already meets the needs of 7,700 sellers, which represents more than 63% of the basis of sellers of B2W. On Slide 7, we will discuss the significant evolution of cash consumption of B2W. In the first quarter of '18, B2W reduced the cash consumption in approximately BRL 669 million, vis-à-vis the first quarter of '17. There [has been] smaller cash consumption in the first quarter in the last 5 years. To capture all these effects, cash generation is measured by the variation of net debt compared to the previous quarter, always regarding eventual operation resources of capital increase. In Slide 8, we will discuss the highlights of the first quarter of 2018 to promote +AQUI, responsible for the management and promotion of financial products and services through partnerships with specialized companies that stand out in these sectors. The highlights of the quarter were: the plan Controle de Claro offered by +AQUI, in which the client pays a fixed value per month and has access to calls, Internet, all the Claro services; as well as consultation services of CPFs, CNPJs at Serasa; the new partnership of personal loans with Portocred, to increase credit options to our customers. In the first quarter of 2018, we reached the mark of 1.6 million Lojas Americanas cards issued, and we generated an increase of 47% in transactions vis-à-vis the same period of last year. This way, the company is very enthusiastic with the opportunities that present with the evolution of +AQUI. And during this year, we will follow up this focus on increasing productivity of the stores, broadening and diversifying the portfolio of products and services. On Slide 9, we will discuss the development of the convenience stores. In the first quarter of 2018, we inaugurated 2 convenience stores reaching a total of 9 stores in this format. We will continue with this strategy to dominate the places of the new sites with the objective to meet the needs of the local population, offering a new option of convenience. Along this quarter, we will continue to improve routines, processes through the Design Thinking methodology, which, together with the complete options of services offered by LET'S, will enable us to evolve in the assertiveness of this logistics model. As it's a very differentiated business with great potential, we developed a new brand for the model, Local, whose idea is to have its own identity of convenience store and, at the same time, capture the value of the Lojas Americanas brand. So Local is a proposal of value that's focused on proximity and is able to adapt to the site in which the store is. [Inserted] Local is a brand that wants to be closer to adapt to its surroundings, to know the customer well and to be part of each community where we will be present. After the definition of the concept of the new brand and considering the results we achieved, we have the pleasure to announce the rollout beginning -- opening 30 new stores, Local, in 2018. Local is our brand in Rio and São Paulo. On Slide 10, we see the highlights of our own brands. The first quarter of 2018 saw many launched. Our own brand, Leven, we launched mini cookies, of granolas, whole food, snacks and also the Leven water, which was very successful. In this line of beverages, we launched juices with passion fruit, peach, orange, grape, always aiming at offering the clients more products with great quality in every segment. Apart from that, the quarter saw important events. The first big event was return to school, very important for the brands, School Basics and Office Basics. Subsequently, we had Carnival, with great presence of the brand, Brink+, with accessories, costumes; and Basic+, with -- shirts with exclusive design for the event. To finalize the quarter, the brand Maior Páscoa do Mundo, Biggest Easter of the World, one of the largest events of Lojas Americanas, highlighting the D'elicce brand, offering different options of eggs with gifts that really amaze the children. Apart from that, we developed eggs for the adult public: mini eggs, Easter cakes and butter cookies to diversify the product offer. On Slide 11, we discuss the highlights of LET'S, the shared management platform of the logistic assets and distribution of Lojas Americanas and B2W. LET'S is building a flexible model of fulfillment, aiming at maximizing competencies of each company to capture all the opportunities of the multiplatform operation. In that sense, several initiatives are on the way, including the acceleration of important fronts, O2O, Online to Offline. Lojas Americanas in the B2W marketplace is the first one. In the fourth quarter, Lojas Americanas was connected to marketplace of B2W, making its products available to be delivered in the states of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Minas Gerais. By the end of 2018, the initiative will encompass all the states of Brazil. The second, Click and Collect, Entrega en Loja, currently available in 400 Lojas Americanas to deliver 1P products, and it will be expanded to 800 stores by the end of the year, including the assortment of connected sellers through B2W Delivery. This way, the model will be the only operation of Click and Collect that will be present in every state of Brazil. Each store as seller, the third project, the third initiative. This initiative enables any brick-and-mortar store to become a seller of marketplace of the B2W, get -- collecting the product 1 hour after the purchase online. In 2018, all the current 1,320 stores are going to be connected to the program. The fourth initiative, B2W drop-off. By the end of 2018, B2W Delivery will make available a new model of order collection to the sellers of the marketplace. They can post their products in the 1,300 Lojas Americanas. On Slide 12, we will highlight our digital initiatives. The area of offers of Lojas Americanas in the app, Americanas.com, presented great expansion. Only used by clients, with more than 6 million discounts accessed in 7 months of operation. Another highlight of the quarter is the increasing presence of Lojas Americanas in the social media, recently achieving the status of 2 million followers at Instagram, closing in to the 11 million followers in Facebook. We currently rank among the 50 largest pages in Brazil in Facebook and we are among the 5 largest brick-and-mortar retailers and as the top 100 largest brands in the world in the network. On Slide 13, we introduced some of our main awards and acknowledgments in the quarter. We continue as the only Brazilian brand to be among the 250 largest companies in the global retail in the rankings, the power of retail (sic) [Global Powers of Retailing] of Deloitte. It's the fourth year we win in the category of retail, the Reputation Pulse, a survey of reputation among thousands of companies in the whole world. In the ranking developed for the first time by the magazine Veja Rio, in partnership with MindMiners on the most loved brands by the people from Rio, we ranked first in the category utilities -- or appliances. We were awarded, once again, the certification Green Seal of the Socio-environmental Award, Chico Mendes. We have excellent indexes of services to clients, and we have this Seal RA 1000 (sic) [RA 1000 Seal]. In the last 6 months, the company had received 7.6 -- 7.56 points in the solution index of 91.2%, an index that reflects the commitment to serve our clients with excellence. These were the main comments in relation to our performance in the first quarter of '18. Now I would like to open the session for Q&A to answer your questions. Thank you very much. Questions and Answers OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) Our first question from Fábio Monteiro, BTG Pactual. FABIO MONTEIRO, ANALYST, BANCO BTG PACTUAL S.A., RESEARCH DIVISION: I believe that the result shows an interesting evolution, an evolution of same-store. I would like to explore relevant aspects that you outlined together with the results and it would be very relevant from here on out. One is the convenience store. I would like you to elaborate the learning curve with the 9 -- 7 stores -- well, 7 stores last year, a number of stores in the beginning of this year and the expectation of opening 30 stores, I would like to know about the learning curve. What have you observed up to the moment in terms of payback potential? And other store productivity metrics, if you could share this with us. And also, what other opportunities you will have. And another question would be regarding LET'S that involves you and B2W. You mentioned a number of initiatives, and if you could elaborate a little bit more. Before the gain of flow improvement in sales that will be a result of these initiatives, I would like to understand if you visualize any other monetization actions and what kind of commissions do you expect for the store? And what things you will need to adapt stores, if some will have to go retrofit? Or you have a daily area of storage? Well, perhaps, you will need more employees. Perhaps not right now that you're in the rollout process, but maybe it's food for thought for the future because we're talking about a number of initiatives that will be positive, both for you and for B2W. Thank you very much and this is, for the time being, my question. CARLOS EDUARDO ROSALBA PADILHA: Thank you, Fábio, for your participation. Regarding your first question, regarding the convenience stores, as we said, we had 7 stores last year. We opened 2 this year. The expectation is to open 30 more. We see great potential in this business. It is something that we have no direct competition, we have indirect competition. The competition of convenience store are bakeries, perhaps, convenience store from gas stations. But you actually do not have a pleasant convenience store where you can buy products at a fair price. And very quickly, when you go sometimes to a store, the prices are outrageous. So the success of these 9 stores has driven us to copy this model. This is a model that can present a potential, about 3,000 stores in the long run. This year, we're thinking about organic growth of the business. But for 2019, perhaps we can open franchises. This is something that we're studying. And we're also trying to see partnerships with hospitals, schools, enterprises, so that we can place our convenience stores inside these places because you can see how model -- how flexible is our model. Our store is 100 square meters, the size of an apartment. So it's easy to place in a number of locations and we can attract a new public for these businesses. So we are very reassured. We are thrilled. I believe that we can have better performance than the Express stores because of its economic model, and we are excited with the potential of growth. Now regarding the new opportunities. I believe that as we evolve, new things start emerging. But first and foremost, we have to rollout our businesses. First, we have a learning curve, we have to be assertive and then we improve. Now I don't know if you had the opportunity to see this Local brand. This has been studied a lot. Just for you to have an idea, we invite agencies, but the name came because of our collaborators. So we wanted to know what would be the best name for this type of business, and we concluded that Local was very timely because this is a local for people to be happy. People go to the convenience store, they have a cappuccino, they have wine, WiFi, fast food. So now we're seeing fresh salad, fresh juice. So this is a place to eat quickly and to buy something quickly and it's convenient. And especially, it has to be a very pleasant place at a competitive price. Because sometimes, you go to places and the prices are outrageous. And we know, we want fair prices. So we're excited with this business. We believe that we are strongly contributing to our business. FABIO MONTEIRO: Just one thing, Padilha, you were talking about captive markets that you were studying, like hospital, gyms, schools. But at first, the main part of your expansion -- not this year, but the main part of your expansion would be on the streets. And the other fronts would be something additional that you could negotiate parallelly. CARLOS EDUARDO ROSALBA PADILHA: Yes, we can think this way, yes, along these lines. The idea, the starting point would be Rio, São Paulo, on the streets. So this is our strategy. So we open a store in a neighborhood. We have stores downtown Copacabana. And then from that you, start expanding, for example sometimes -- sometimes, the customer walks by a store, the first time they don't go in. They don't go in the second. The third one, they go in, they have coffee, something else, then buy a sandwich to go to work. And as of that moment, it has an appeal. And it becomes more attractive to our customers. So this is part of our strategy. FABIO MONTEIRO: Okay, I understood. CARLOS EDUARDO ROSALBA PADILHA: And as you said, LET'S -- just to remind you, LET'S is an asset management, a logistic asset management from Lojas Americanas and from B2W. There are synergies amongst both companies since the creation of Americanas.com in '99. Their starting quote slogan was Lojas Americanas, At Your Place. So we were born together, both business, they coexist and we complement ourselves. In 2002, we created a kiosk. Americanas.com was a kiosk of a brick-and-mortar store. So we can take the brick-and-mortar store to our customer and, at the same time, they are within the digital world. In 2014, we had the Click and Collect. It's a pilot project. Now we have 400 stores. Now going to 800 stores and in 1P and 3P. As you said, this is another important synergy within this process of complementing each other. So I believe the monetization is to generate -- what is important is to have a satisfied customer. We have to generate more comfort to our customer, greater options to purchase, more options to distribute their products and they have to feel comfortable in our store and our ecosystem; so it has to be attractive. And the monetization comes from the increase of customer satisfaction. This also increases sales, it increases margins and so forth. So this is a win-win situation. The first thing is that we have to make our customer happy. This is our target, our challenge and we are restless when it comes to this. FABIO MONTEIRO: Okay. Now some type of store adaptation, like the storage area. I was thinking more about a store as a hub in the Click and Collect. Will you have a problem of space? CARLOS EDUARDO ROSALBA PADILHA: No. This is a good question, actually. Perhaps, some stores will need a little retrofit, but we can't forget that most of our stores have kiosks. So the kiosks already have space that is dedicated to this. And we can share it with this new operations. We see no major adaptations, perhaps one or the other, but it's something really insignificant. Yes, and we also have the service area. So we have the kiosk. We have the service area of +AQUI and we can readapt it. So we can place this new business in terms of this new businesses when we think about physical areas without changing the layout. FABIO MONTEIRO: Okay, this is clear to me. I love your initiatives. OPERATOR: Our next question from Franco Abelardo, Morgan Stanley. FRANCO T ABELARDO, EQUITY ANALYST, MORGAN STANLEY, RESEARCH DIVISION: Padilha, 2 questions. Number one, I would like to better understand what could have helped you in the acceleration of the same-store sales? Is there a category that stands out here? Was it the Easter event that was very successful? Did you have any other highlight? Or was it because of the region where the stores are located? Something to understand the drivers of this growth. And the second question would be +AQUI. You talked about +AQUI, I would like to know the service penetration of +AQUI, regarding the total revenue of Lojas Americanas or what the contribution is in the growth margin or any other type of driver that you could share with us regarding +AQUI. And how can this evolve with the new services that you're launching right now? CARLOS EDUARDO ROSALBA PADILHA: Thank you, Franco, for your participation. Now regarding your first question, the same-store growth. So this is a continuous effort. So this is something that, on a daily basis, we have to review assortment, we have to renegotiate prices with the suppliers. And this is something -- this is business as usual on a daily basis. There is nothing specific that I can say, "Oh, this happened because of this." In the retail market, it's very difficult to have a result because of one point, okay? This is a sum of small things. So for example, the events of the first quarter were very important: going back to school, we had Carnival, we had Easter. There's no doubt that Easter was the most relevant of [them]. But each one of these events contributed -- had, for example, participation of our own brands. And we are highly satisfied with the result. With our own brands, we have more loyal customers. We have contributed more with the margin of the company. And Easter was a very successful event. The significant part was D'elicce, that is our brand that is very successful. I don't know if you know it. You should try it out, and we are highly satisfied with it. So the store concept of same-store sales is a sum of a number of things. So it's better logistic interaction, better assortment with supplier, better negotiation together with supplier. Our own brands, the evolution of our events during the first quarter. It is even difficult to pinpoint that one was something, 20%, this is an ensemble of things that explains the success. But all in all, you can see that everything was successful and we will continue being more successful. FRANCO T ABELARDO: Can I interrupt you? Same-store sales is a result of greater volume because of traffic? Or is it the increase of the average ticket? So how do you make it up? CARLOS EDUARDO ROSALBA PADILHA: This is a mix of things. As a matter of fact, we had more people visiting the stores, so our stores are very appealing. We saw 2017 as an example, 250 million people visited our stores. So -- and this is more than the Brazilian population. So the Easter concept was -- we had more people coming in more frequently, the participation of our own brands, better assortment of products contributed as well, better logistics and also supply. We had very little stock out in comparison to the past years. The commercial team, the supply team strongly participated. So we're talking about a sum of very little things. I'm going to be very objective. Okay supply, assortment, loyal companies, more people coming in, our own brand, replenishment, these are the aspects that contributed to this very nice number. And we're very satisfied of delivering these figures during these 4 months. Now +AQUI, we're going to give you more information. I believe that +AQUI is a very robust net business. It strongly contributed last year with our EBITDA. I believe that we are assimilating new complementary financial and nonfinancial services. So I believe that our volume of opportunities is important, not only with what we have done, but what we will introduce in 2018 towards +AQUI. So we will have a special announcement of +AQUI so people better understand it. But by and large, this business contributed last year with an EBITDA, and the expectation is to double the EBITDA of +AQUI. But I'm still going to have a more special announcement so that I can provide you more information and you can accurately price what we're doing. FRANCO T ABELARDO: Okay, so we're expecting this announcement. And once again, kudos for the results. OPERATOR: Our next question from Thiago Macruz, Itaú. THIAGO CAPUCCI MACRUZ, RESEARCH ANALYST, ITAú CORRETORA DE VALORES S.A., RESEARCH DIVISION: I have 2 questions. The first one, regarding LET'S. Is there a technological restriction in this integration? I believe that you had many SKUs. How do you see stocks? This is my first question. The second question is more technical regarding working capital. The second quarter, generally, you have better working capital. How will this improvement be, following the same process? Do you believe that you are focusing to the capital demand like last year, like 0 days? How do you see this during the second quarter? CARLOS EDUARDO ROSALBA PADILHA: Thank you, Macruz, for your participation, and for your questions. Now regarding LET'S. Well, answering from back to the beginning, there is no technological deployment involved in order to do what we're proposing, because what we have to do is already ready. Okay, we have the SAP, we have stock per store. And when we carry out this operation, we will give visibility to B2W. When the customer goes into the site, they will see what the stock of the brick-and-mortar store is like. Now regarding technical changes based on our SAP, we do understand that we don't need any additional technology. What we have is okay, and we just have to integrate systems and to go on. So there's no deployment to be done. Now regarding the working capital. Working capital is a sum of a number of factors. One detail here, we're going to have 900 stores. In 1 year, we're opening 200 and we open 195 stores next year. 93 in the other. And then more stores. So this is a very robust amount of stores. And for this, we must have inventory control very different than what we had 3, 2, 1 years ago. So to manage inventory per store or replenishment of stores aligned to the operating side, aligned to a more adequate negotiation together with our suppliers. I'm talking about negotiation. Why? Because as we expand and expand ourselves toward capital, my lead times to take the product from the door of the supplier to the company's DC is 1. When the distribution is within the capital. Now when you have to take a product from the capital and take it to a distant store, like (inaudible) Acre, it takes too long a time, it takes 2 working days. So the payment terms for your supplier can't be the same than in the past. So then you have to carry out a sales negotiation in terms of pricing and terms of deadline of payment. So that we're able to have a better working capital. And we have been able to do this. You can see that in 2017, during the fourth quarter, we showed a working capital that was very interesting. Regarding the working capital of the third quarter, highly aligned with what we showed at the end of 2016. So the expectation for 2018 is to have constant evolution in working capital in 2018 and it will be even better in 2019. So these are constant changes, constant honing of our system, okay? Nothing very different. OPERATOR: Next question comes from Irma Sgarz, Goldman Sachs. IRMA SGARZ, EQUITY ANALYST, GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: My question is about the model of the stores you have tested in the past, the more premium stores. I don't know if I missed something, but you didn't talk about this model again. It was opened in Leblon, in Ipanema, Rio. Could you please tell me what was the experience with this store? Does it make any sense to take it on, to have such stores in the big capital? I would like to have an idea about that. CARLOS EDUARDO ROSALBA PADILHA: Thank you, Irma, for your participation. I think that this premium model was very successful. It has been very well accepted. We have learned a lot. It's a concept store. We have learned a lot with this kind of model. And every day, we improve one activity, one process. I believe that we have had very positive feedback from the clients in relation to the improvements we've made in time. There is high level of technology in that kind of store. We have a high level of usability in the store. You can change the way you navigate in the store. This is very sensitive to some clients. It's important for us as a very democratic store that vendor services to all the levels of the society, all the social and economic levels, to be able to have a store where people feel well. This premium store has been very successful. People have praised us and we have expectations to continue with this model. IRMA SGARZ: Apart from that, does it make any sense to have 1 store or maybe take it to other stores to retrofit some stores where the profile of the consumer would be similar to the profile of the customers of this store? CARLOS EDUARDO ROSALBA PADILHA: I think it makes sense to take it to different places, but we have to study the time. This moment in Brazil is not very favorable in economic and political terms. But we believe in Brazil. All of our business is in Brazil. We are growing and we are increasing in the number of stores in Brazil. And we are opening a new segment of the convenience store. This year, we have LET'S. We are fans of Brazil. But the current moment is not favorable to evolve in that model of premium stores. But it's a cyclic thing, Irma. I believe that soon, the economy will resume and this store is going to be very successful. OPERATOR: Next question from Gustavo Oliveira, UBS. GUSTAVO PIRAS OLIVEIRA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, HEAD OF LATAM RESEARCH, AND LATIN AMERICA CONSUMER ANALYST, UBS INVESTMENT BANK, RESEARCH DIVISION: I have a question in relation to LET'S. In the context of growth that both companies have obtained, you have expanded the convenience store. Next year, you will have 85.5%. I believe that you were going to announce a plan next year. Usually, these plans, when you increase growth, you have investment in logistics, on distribution centers. The online growth will be accelerated, and that means different growth. How do you perceive the capital allocation for the 2 companies? Sometimes those assets, they belong to the both companies. You have the O2O very integrated. How do you define that in your business plan in the case of Lojas Americanas? CARLOS EDUARDO ROSALBA PADILHA: Look, LET'S has been very successful. You have seen what we implemented, the novelties that we're taking to you in this announcement, 4 great initiatives, very disruptive. We don't have in the market something like that. Even in the world market, to give you an idea, each store shows that some international players deliver products in 4 hours. We're going to deliver our products in 1 hour. So these are disruptive issues. It's of great comfort to the clients. They really feel sure, and it's easy for them to buy. So in terms of expenses allocation, each company has a different kind of allocation. Lojas Americanas, with the necessary implementations in Lojas Americanas. This is in the cycle of Lojas Americanas. There's not much to be implemented. The technology necessary for all that, we already have. We have +AQUI. We don't need much more. We don't have to -- we don't need an intensive demand of capital. But we have already acquired Direct and other technology companies. In the last 5 years, they've been acquired. We don't have additional investments to be made. And LET'S, it's a fine tuning of the process. And coming to the accounting environment, if you have any expenses related to these implementation, everything is in the company, in Lojas Americanas, B2W, according to the need of each company. You understand? GUSTAVO PIRAS OLIVEIRA: Yes, I understood. But I remember that when you created -- when you showed the last results, you had the intention to define the partnership structure, maybe have an independent company. The plan. it still exists? How this discussion evolved? CARLOS EDUARDO ROSALBA PADILHA: Nothing is born 100% ready. It's a construction. We build it step-by-step. It's organized. When we announced in March, just a short time ago, just a month between one announcement and the other, we have seen all these new projects, new time lines. This is going to add a lot to the client -- or to the customer-buying experience. So it's one fact after the other. There's nothing different that I could say now, because the moment we face is the implementation of the 4 initiatives. We don't see any absurd expenditure. And if it is necessary, it's going to be related to each account: Lojas Americanas and B2W. If there's anything new, different partnerships or anything else, we will inform you so everybody has very precise information. OPERATOR: Next question from Joseph Giordano, JPMorgan. JOSEPH GIORDANO, SENIOR LATAM HEALTHCARE ANALYST, JP MORGAN CHASE & CO, RESEARCH DIVISION: I would like to explore this idea of the Traditional stores and the Express stores. As it's been said, next year is going to be the last one of the plan. I would like to understand if, as of now, we should focus on convenience stores? Or you still see great market potential for a more mature model in the company? CARLOS EDUARDO ROSALBA PADILHA: Thank you, Joseph, for your participation. There's a detail when you talk about convenience store or Express store -- the conventional store, the Express store, what we see is that Brazil has more than 1,000 (sic) [5,000] municipalities. It's a continental country. We are present in 522 municipalities. Despite our size, we have grown a lot. But I would like to say that out of the 5,000 municipalities, at least 2,000, we have room for new stores, a conventional store and an Express store. Some municipalities, we may open 2 stores. We only have 522 municipalities where we are present. Although we have more than 1,300 stores in the country, you see the size of the business. We're not talking about convenience stores, +AQUI or LET'S, which is a complement. When we looked at our stores, our current stores, the conventional and the Express, we have a great upside. We have room to grow in Brazil in the current business model. So the convenience store is additional. It does not compete with the model of express and the conventional store. So just in a few words, I could say that we see great potential for the conventional store, for the Express store and the convenience store to grow a lot in Brazil because there's room for that. We're going to open 200 stores this year, the Traditional stores, conventional stores and 30 convenience stores. And there we go. There is a very long path for us to run. And we can open stores in 1,500 cities, convenience stores in -- 3,000 convenience stores in different cities. So we are really enthusiastic about this expectation that we see ahead of us. JOSEPH GIORDANO: Perfect. I would like to ask another question in terms of +AQUI to have more data. I would like to understand, if you look into the future, we have 3 payment means in the company, +AQUI, the AME Digital and the card, the B2W card. Thinking strategically as we have seen on the logistics side, do you believe that we could create a LET'S for the management of those assets, in the consumer finance for example in the future? CARLOS EDUARDO ROSALBA PADILHA: Joseph, the business is individual. But we could put them together. They could converge. In a model of continuous evolution, the models we have today are very prosperous and we can evolve in the design. But of course, we have not stopped. We are thinking of properties, we are thinking of development. And AME could embrace the 2 other models. But still something that we're going to study. These are opportunities. OPERATOR: Next question from Guilherme Assis, Brasil Plural. GUILHERME ASSIS, ANALYST, BRASIL PLURAL CORRETORA DE CAMBIO, TITULOSE VALORES MOBILIáRIOS S.A., RESEARCH DIVISION: Talking about +AQUI, I know that you are giving more information, we want to measure the contribution and the potential for the business. But something caught my attention. In your presentation, you mentioned the new partnership with Portocred. Could you please explore about this -- or elaborate on this partnership? From what I understood, correct me if I'm wrong, this is personal loan. Could you please elaborate on this specific service and how it is different from what you already had at +AQUI? This is one question. And the second question related to the expansion plan looking on the long term and the specific model of Local, the convenience store. Do you think it would make sense to talk about gas stations as well? Would that involve any kind of partnership? You discussed in the past that you were assessing partnerships with fuel companies? Does it make any sense to have this kind of discussion? Is there anything you could say about it? These are my questions. CARLOS EDUARDO ROSALBA PADILHA: Thank you for your participation, (inaudible). The first question related to +AQUI. Our main objective is to give more convenience to our clients. Today, we have a partnership with one of the Bradesco branches, (inaudible). They offer bank loans. And the new partnership, we just closed the contract, is to have another option. In reality, if we can offer choices for our clients, our customers in terms of rates, of convenience, of time, that's what we are doing. The models compete between each other, the company that's going to offer loans. But the only objective is to offer alternatives to our customers when he needs or she needs a loan. That's just choice, rate A or B, circumstances A or B, this is our vision with Portocred. In terms of expansion, we are accelerating, as you have seen, in the local market. We see a great range of opportunities to develop this market. We are really happy about it. We're pleased because when we move on with this model, we see more opportunities. And that drives us. This is a general -- generalized enthusiasm. This partnership with the hospitals, with Local, with universities, it's just another choice, another option to increase the business in our strategy to really master that location, to conquer the market share. And this going to mean appreciation, everybody's going to like the service. They will return, they will say nice things about our business and we are going to prosper. We're going to -- well, this is -- one thing is a consequence of the other. GUILHERME ASSIS: Padilha, in my mind, in my point of view, when I think of Brazil, when you talk about convenience store, a gas station always comes to my mind. We have different models in Mexico with a big network, which is not so much related. But do you think it would make sense to have partnerships with gas stations? Do you think that would be a quick expansion of the model? CARLOS EDUARDO ROSALBA PADILHA: Guilherme, we have a gas station -- just to let you know, we have it in Rio de Janeiro, in (inaudible), we have a convenience store there. So you can see that we find the model interesting. But it's not only gas stations. That's one of the places where we can develop a convenience store. We can have a street store, we can have gyms, you have big companies, you have hospitals, schools. Of course, there's lots of things, a lot of places, different places where you could implement a convenience store and be very well accepted due to its assortment. So to answer your question, it's feasible. We already have a gas station in Rio, right in front of (inaudible). OPERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, due to our time, we won't be able to answer all the questions. Please contact our Investor Relations team that will be at your disposal. We would like to give the floor to Mr. Carlos Padilha for his final comments. CARLOS EDUARDO ROSALBA PADILHA: Thank you for participating in our conference call regarding the results of the first quarter of 2018. I would like to inform you that on May 20, 2018, in Rio de Janeiro, we will have another circuit of running and walking. This, for the fifth year, was created to encourage the participation of everybody that is part of the company, and we're committed with sustainability and social responsibility. Our IR team is at your disposal to clarify questions through [email protected] Thank you very much to everyone, and have a very good afternoon. OPERATOR: Lojas Americanas' conference call has come to an end. We would like to thank everybody for their participation, and have a very good afternoon. [Thomson Financial reserves the right to make changes to documents, content, or other information on this web site without obligation to notify any person of such changes. In the conference calls upon which Event Transcripts are based, companies may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding a variety of items. Such forward-looking statements are based upon current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those stated in any forward-looking statement based on a number of important factors and risks, which are more specifically identified in the companies' most recent SEC filings. Although the companies may indicate and believe that the assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements are reasonable, any of the assumptions could prove inaccurate or incorrect and, therefore, there can be no assurance that the results contemplated in the forward-looking statements will be realized. 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Subject: Copyright; Expansion; Convenience stores; Working capital
Location: Brazil
Company / organization: Name: Thomson Financial; NAICS: 511210, 518210, 519190
Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: May 11, 2018
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: Linthicum
Country of publication: United States, Linthicum
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Law--Corporate Law
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2043843923
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2043843923?accountid=4840
Copyright: 2018 Thomson Financial and ASC LLC
Last updated: 2018-06-27
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 254 of 474
Anheuser-Busch InBev Q1 2018 - results data
Author: Wehring, Olly
Publication info: just - drinks global news ; Bromsgrove [Bromsgrove]12 May 2018.
Abstract:
Beck's was launched in the country during the period, with core brand Aguila benefitting from a marketing push centred on Colombia's last appearance at the FIFA World Cup, which starts next month. South Africa Sales rose by mid-single-digits as volumes dipped by low-single digits, as the beer category absorbed above-inflation tax increases in the country in February.[...]Africa - South Africa excepted - posted an increase in volumes of double digits.Full text: In early-May, Anheuser-Busch InBev reported its results for the first quarter of 2018. Here, just-drinks takes a deeper look at the group's performance during the three months to the end of March.
A-B InBev enjoyed a strong first quarter, describing its results as "slightly better than we initially expected". The top-line in the three months to the end of March came in almost 5% up on the corresponding period last year, with volumes holding steady. The group will now turn its attention to the summer months, particularly June and July, when the FIFA World Cup, of which the Budweiser brand is a lead sponsor, takes place in Russia. The US
Split between sales-to-retailers and sales-to-wholesalers, the former dipped 3.3% and fell 4.4% to the latter. Group sales in the US declined by 2.5%, due in part to colder-than-usual temperatures in the quarter. Breaking down the portfolio along value lines, 'Above Premium' did well in the country, with the Michelob Ultra variant continuing its healthy trajectory, for the 12th consecutive quarter. The brand's volumes increased by double-digits, A-B InBev noted. In Premium, meanwhile, brand Budweiser's market share was static in Q1, while Bud Light registered "pockets of improvement" thanks to "hyper-local" programming and execution. The brand's 'Dilly Dilly' marketing campaign helped make Bud Light "the leading beer brand in social conversation for the second consecutive quarter". "While we acknowledge we still have work to do," the company said, "we remain committed to and focused on stabilising Bud Light's (US) volume trends and share performance within its segment." The Value portfolio under-performed in the quarter, while Near Beer - featuring brands such as Natty Rush and Spiked Seltzer - performed well and is considered by the group to be "an important segment for category growth and health". Mexico
An excellent first quarter for Mexico, with the company seeing volumes rise by mid-teens and sales in the country jumping by high-teens. The earlier Easter played a part in the performance, as a pack assortment approach for the Corona portfolio reaped rewards. Brand Victoria played well on its Mexican heritage, while the upscaling of it music platforms boosted Bud Light sales in the country. Mexico remains a market ripe for premiumisation opportunities, the company said, with the higher-end stable posting double-digit growth. Colombia
Double-digit sales growth (12%) and a high-single-digit volumes lift (7.3%) earned Colombia star status for A-B InBev in Q1. Easter helped, again, as the group's global brands did well. Beck's was launched in the country during the period, with core brand Aguila benefitting from a marketing push centred on Colombia's last appearance at the FIFA World Cup, which starts next month. Brazil
A "challenging" quarter was expected in Brazil, and Q1 did not disappoint. Sales dipped by almost 2% on the back of an 8% volumes fall. An earlier Carnival this year coincided with poor weather in the three months, leading to "short-term volatility" in the country for A-B InBev. Volume growth is expected to return in Q2, with the FIFA World Cup - in which Brazil is (again) one of the favourites - running throughout the third month of the period. South Africa
Sales rose by mid-single-digits as volumes dipped by low-single digits, as the beer category absorbed above-inflation tax increases in the country in February. A subsequent wave of price increases at the start of March hit A-B InBev's mainstream offerings in the quarter, although the group's global brands stable - joined by Budweiser, which was rolled out nation-wide in March - posted a 200% leap in sales. Having launched a 1-litre returnable bottle last year, A-B InBev extended the pack offering to the rest of SA in Q1, "offering core and core-plus brands in an affordable multi-serve format". China
Premium is the name of the game for A-B InBev in China, where sales outstripped volume growth, the former rising 4.4% compared to the latter's 1.6%. A-B InBev's Corona brand is now the top-selling imported beer in China, where the brewer boasts of 20% market share. The group is also enjoying success with its e-commerce business in the country, which increased its volumes by high-double-digits. "We believe our brand portfolio, which over-indexes our national market share in the faster-growing premium and super-premium segments and on-line channels, remains well-positioned to continue growing ahead of the industry," A-B InBev said. Other Markets
The UK
won praise for delivering a double-digit gain, with Western Europe
up by low-single-digits. In Eastern Europe
, Russia
was down in volume terms, as A-B InBev completed the merger of its operations in the country with those of Anadolu Efes at the end of March. Going forward, the group's Russian performance will feature in its partner's results, Finally, Africa
- South Africa excepted - posted an increase in volumes of double digits. Nigeria
, where the group launched Budweiser in March, was up in volume terms by high teens. A-B InBev will be hoping Nigeria's national football team does well in this summer's FIFA World Cup, which takes place in Russia in June and July. Click here for Anheuser-Busch InBev's company page on just-drinks
This article was originally published on just-drinks.com on 10 May 2018. For authoritative and timely drinks business information visit http://www.just-drinks.com. Credit: Olly Wehring
Subject: Sales; Tournaments & championships; Breweries; Soccer; Market shares; Beverage industry
Location: Western Europe Mexico Russia United States--US South Africa Nigeria United Kingdom--UK Africa China Brazil Eastern Europe Colombia
Company / organization: Name: Anheuser-Busch InBev; NAICS: 312120; Name: Federation Internationale de Football Association--FIFA; NAICS: 813990
Publication title: just - drinks global news; Bromsgrove
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: May 12, 2018
Publisher: Aroq Limited
Place of publication: Bromsgrove
Country of publication: United Kingdom, Bromsgrove
Publication subject: Beverages, Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2037379675
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2037379675?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Aroq Limited May 12, 2018
Last updated: 2018-05-31
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 255 of 474
Fashion is statement of the day
Author: BALAKIT, MELANIE
Publication info: The Tennessean ; Nashville, Tenn. [Nashville, Tenn]13 May 2018: A.3.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Pastel blazers, floral dresses and wide-brimmed hats dominated the fashion scene at the annual Iroquois Steeplechase horse race in Nashville. But it's those who took a departure from the preppy ensembles who got all the attention. That's what happened to Carolyn Smith Bryant, a New York City transplant who now lives in Leiper's Fork. Just a few feet away from the grassy track, where horses cleared hurdles on the 3-mile track, attendees lightly tapped her on the shoulder and asked, "Can I take a picture with you?" Despite the heat — temperatures hovered around the mid-90s Saturday afternoon at the 77th annual Iroquois Steeplechase at Percy Warner Park — Bryant wore a floor-length orange dress made of a light material. Across her body, she wore a sash of sheer orange fabric dotted with red flowers. It was her hat, however, that really turned heads. Her oversized green hat was over 1 foot tall — a far departure from the more commonly seen wide-brimmed straw hats and fascinators. Plastic lemons and bananas sat on the brim of her hat. On top, there were garlands of red flowers, green leaves, a butterfly, sunflowers, sparkly green ribbon and dark green and red feathers. "I was inspired by Carnival in Brazil," Bryant said. She said she also was inspired by Carmen Miranda, a late actress known for her large fruit basket headdresses. While there were attendees engrossed in the horse races, fashion was a big draw, with many taking pictures of their outfits and admiring other outfits. Amid a sea of khaki pants and collared shirts, some men opted for a more playful style. Some men wore pastel-colored rompers that hit mid-thigh, a style more commonly seen in women's fashion. Instead of seersucker or solid colors, some men stood out in blazers with bright floral or fruit designs. Lynn Lancaster had a more traditional outfit. She wore a black dress with a light pink floral print. Her wide-brimmed hat, from Dee's Crafts in Louisville, Kentucky, had a similar theme. Fashion, whether traditional or funky, is part of what keeps her going back. She's attended Steeplechase for the last 11 years. Hours before the race, Kim Benefield, of Columbia, stood in the shade of her tent, greeting visitors as they snapped pictures of the dozens of flamingo decorations. A pink chandelier with pink flamingos hovered above her. "We wanted something fun and something that brings a smile to everyone's face," Benefield said. "We were like, "OK, what's happier than a flamingo?" Reach Melanie Balakit at [email protected] CAPTION: Kim Benefield, Daniel Cisneros and Jane Lock Anderson pose with their flamingos in the tailgate area during the 77th Iroquois Steeplechase at Percy Warner Park on Saturday in Nashville. Larry McCormack / The Tennessean Nick McGreggor and Cleveland and Megan Bain attend Saturday's Iroquois Steeplechase. Kendall Mitchell Gemmill / For USA TODAY NETWORK-Tennessee
Subject: Deaths
Publication title: The Tennessean; Nashville, Tenn.
First page: A.3
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: May 13, 2018
column: Iroquois Steeplechase
Section: News
Publisher: Gannett Co., Inc.
Place of publication: Nashville, Tenn.
Country of publication: United States, Nashville, Tenn.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
ISSN: 10536590
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2037941166
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2037941166?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright 2018 - THE TENNESSEAN - All Rights Reserved.
Last updated: 2018-08-30
Database: US Southeast Newsstream
Document 256 of 474
Insomniac, LiveXLive, Zebra Entertainment And Tencent Video Sign Partnership Agreement To Distribute Livestream Of Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) Las Vegas: Tencent Video Will Livestream EDC Las Vegas to Audiences in Mainland China, Macau and Hong Kong
Publication info: PR Newswire ; New York [New York]15 May 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Investor Contacts: Alex Wellins, The Blueshirt Group, [email protected], (415) 217-5861, Chris Tyson, MZ North America, [email protected], 949-491-8235, Media Contacts: Beck Media & Marketing for LiveXLive, [email protected], (310) 300-4800, KIRVIN DOAK COMMUNICATIONS, Lea Komitzky / Jaclyn Dadas / Rebecca Baia, [email protected], 702.737.3100, Insomniac, [email protected] BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., May 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Insomniac, the producer behind some of the most innovative, immersive music festivals and events in the world, and LiveXLive Media, Inc. (NASDAQ: LIVX) ("LiveXLive"), a global digital media company focused on live entertainment, announced today that Insomniac, LiveXLive, Zebra Entertainment and Tencent Video, China's largest video-streaming company, have signed a distribution agreement for Tencent Video to livestream the Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) Las Vegas to audiences in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau. This partnership comes on the heels of LiveXLive's recent announcement to launch an exclusive channel with Insomniac and be the exclusive global livestreaming partner for more than 50 of Insomniac's festivals and events, including EDC Las Vegas. EDC Las Vegas is North America's largest three-day dance music festival and will broadcast live from the Las Vegas Motor Speedway May 18-20, featuring the biggest names in dance music for its 22nd incarnation. The lineup features more than 250 of the top dance music artists around the world performing across eight dynamic and awe-inspiring stages all weekend long. More information surrounding the artists who will be featured on the livestream will be announced on show days. Through LiveXLive and Tencent Video, the EDC Las Vegas livestream will be available to audiences around the world, expanding the reach of EDC Las Vegas and increasing the international dance music fan base. Viewers in China, Macau and Hong Kong will be able to watch the livestream on the Tencent Video website, apps on mobile, tablet and smart TV. The agreement with Tencent Video originated through Zebra Entertainment, the local promoter of EDC China and a valued partner of EDC parent company Insomniac, the producer behind some of the most innovative, immersive music festivals and events in the world. "We are fortunate to partner with Tencent Video, providing a unique opportunity to expand the EDC Las Vegas fan base into China, Macau and Hong Kong," said Rob Ellin, CEO and chairman of LiveXLive. "As we scale our company, we couldn't ask for a better international partner. We are grateful to Zebra Entertainment for bringing us this exciting opportunity, and we fully expect this to be the first chess move in expanding our relationship in the near future." "Being a digital media pioneer in China, Tencent Video has always attached great value to international music content partnerships," said Alan Deng, director, Tencent Video. "We are honored to collaborate with LiveXLive and EDC Las Vegas, a truly influential brand in the global electronic music scene. With this partnership, we can connect millions of young Chinese viewers with ravers from all around the world, showcasing great music and an amazing vibe." This year, LiveXLive plans to stream more than 27 music festivals and concerts across the globe with over 350 hours of live content as well as unique original programming. LiveXLive's livestreaming portfolio includes marquee festivals such as Rock in Rio Brazil, Rock in Rio Lisbon, EDC Las Vegas, Hangout Music Festival, Bumbershoot, Country 500, Paleo Festival de Nyon and Rock on the Range, among many others. About LiveXLive Media, Inc. Forward-Looking Statements About Insomniac Throughout its 25-year history, Insomniac has produced more than 1,200 festivals, concerts and club nights for nearly 5 million attendees over five continents. Insomniac's events are held across the U.S. as well as in Mexico, Australia and Japan. The company's premier annual event, Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas, is the largest dance music festival in North America, and attracted more than 400,000 fans over three days in June 2017. The company was founded by Pasquale Rotella, and has been based in Los Angeles since it was formed in 1993. Keep up with Insomniac announcements and news on Insomniac.com, Facebook and Twitter. SOURCE LiveXLive Media, Inc. CREDIT: LiveXLive Media, Inc.
LiveXLive Media, Inc. (NASDAQ: LIVX) (the "Company") is a global digital media company dedicated to music and live entertainment. The Company operates LiveXLive, one of the industry's leading live music streaming platforms; Slacker Radio, a streaming music pioneer; and also produces original music-related content. LiveXLive is the first 'live social music network', delivering premium livestreamed, digital audio and on-demand music experiences from the world's top music festivals and concerts, including Rock in Rio, EDC Las Vegas, Hangout Music Festival, and many more. LiveXLive also gives audiences access to premium original content, artist exclusives and industry interviews. Through its owned and operated Internet radio service, Slacker Radio (www.slacker.com), LiveXLive delivers its users access to millions of songs and hundreds of expert-curated stations. The Company also operates a social influencer network, LiveXLive Influencers. The Company is headquartered in Beverly Hills, CA. For more information, visit us at www.livexlive.com and follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter at @livexlive.
All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this press release are "forward-looking statements," which may often, but not always, be identified by the use of such words as "expects", "anticipates", "intends", "estimates", "plans", "potential", "possible", "probable", "believes", "seeks", "may", "will", "would," "should", "could" or the negative of such terms or other similar expressions. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. These factors include uncertainties as to identifying, acquiring, securing and developing content, ability to attract and retain users, successfully implementing the Company's and Slacker's growth strategy, including relating to their technology platforms and applications, management's relationships with industry stakeholders, changes in economic conditions, competition, and other risks including, but not limited to, those described from in the Company's Registration Statement on Form S-1, Amendment No. 5, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on December 15, 2017 (the "SEC") and other filings and submissions with the SEC. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof and the Company disclaims any obligations to update these statements except as may be required by law.
Insomniac produces some of the most innovative, immersive music festivals and events in the world. Enhanced by state-of-the-art lighting, pyrotechnics and sound design, large-scale art installations, theatrical performers and next-generation special effects, these events captivate the senses and inspire a unique level of fan interaction. The quality of the experience is the company's top priority.
View original content with multimedia: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/insomniac-livexlive-zebra-entertainment-and-tencent-video-sign-partnership-agreement-to-distribute-livestream-of-electric-daisy-carnival-edc-las-vegas-300648243.html
Subject: Audiences; Dance music; Social networks; Partnership agreements; Digital broadcasting; Music festivals
Location: Mexico United States--US North America Australia China Hong Kong Brazil Los Angeles California Macao Las Vegas Nevada Japan
People: Rotella, Pasquale
Company / organization: Name: Tencent Video; NAICS: 519130; Name: Nasdaq Stock Market Inc; NAICS: 523210; Name: Twitter Inc; NAICS: 519130; Name: Securities & Exchange Commission; NAICS: 926150; Name: Las Vegas Motor Speedway; NAICS: 711212; Name: Facebook Inc; NAICS: 518210, 519130
Publication title: PR Newswire; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: May 15, 2018
Dateline: BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.
Publisher: PR Newswire Association LLC
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2038609566
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2038609566?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright PR Newswire Association LLC May 15, 2018
Last updated: 2018-10-26
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 257 of 474
Press Release: Insomniac, LiveXLive, Zebra Entertainment And Tencent Video Sign Partnership Agreement To Distribute Livestream Of Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) Las Vegas
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]15 May 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
Insomniac, LiveXLive, Zebra Entertainment And Tencent Video Sign Partnership Agreement To Distribute Livestream Of Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) Las Vegas
Tencent Video Will Livestream EDC Las Vegas to Audiences in Mainland China, Macau and Hong Kong
PR Newswire
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., May 15, 2018
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., May 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Insomniac, the producer behind some of the most innovative, immersive music festivals and events in the world, and LiveXLive Media, Inc. (NASDAQ: LIVX) ("LiveXLive"), a global digital media company focused on live entertainment, announced today that Insomniac, LiveXLive, Zebra Entertainment and Tencent Video, China's largest video-streaming company, have signed a distribution agreement for Tencent Video to livestream the Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) Las Vegas to audiences in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau. This partnership comes on the heels of LiveXLive's recent announcement to launch an exclusive channel with Insomniac and be the exclusive global livestreaming partner for more than 50 of Insomniac's festivals and events, including EDC Las Vegas.
EDC Las Vegas is North America's largest three-day dance music festival and will broadcast live from the Las Vegas Motor Speedway May 18-20, featuring the biggest names in dance music for its 22nd incarnation. The lineup features more than 250 of the top dance music artists around the world performing across eight dynamic and awe-inspiring stages all weekend long. More information surrounding the artists who will be featured on the livestream will be announced on show days.
Through LiveXLive and Tencent Video, the EDC Las Vegas livestream will be available to audiences around the world, expanding the reach of EDC Las Vegas and increasing the international dance music fan base. Viewers in China, Macau and Hong Kong will be able to watch the livestream on the Tencent Video website, apps on mobile, tablet and smart TV. The agreement with Tencent Video originated through Zebra Entertainment, the local promoter of EDC China and a valued partner of EDC parent company Insomniac, the producer behind some of the most innovative, immersive music festivals and events in the world.
"We are fortunate to partner with Tencent Video, providing a unique opportunity to expand the EDC Las Vegas fan base into China, Macau and Hong Kong," said Rob Ellin, CEO and chairman of LiveXLive. "As we scale our company, we couldn't ask for a better international partner. We are grateful to Zebra Entertainment for bringing us this exciting opportunity, and we fully expect this to be the first chess move in expanding our relationship in the near future."
"Being a digital media pioneer in China, Tencent Video has always attached great value to international music content partnerships," said Alan Deng, director, Tencent Video. "We are honored to collaborate with LiveXLive and EDC Las Vegas, a truly influential brand in the global electronic music scene. With this partnership, we can connect millions of young Chinese viewers with ravers from all around the world, showcasing great music and an amazing vibe."
This year, LiveXLive plans to stream more than 27 music festivals and concerts across the globe with over 350 hours of live content as well as unique original programming. LiveXLive's livestreaming portfolio includes marquee festivals such as Rock in Rio Brazil, Rock in Rio Lisbon, EDC Las Vegas, Hangout Music Festival, Bumbershoot, Country 500, Paleo Festival de Nyon and Rock on the Range, among many others.
About LiveXLive Media, Inc.
LiveXLive Media, Inc. (NASDAQ: LIVX) (the "Company") is a global digital media company dedicated to music and live entertainment. The Company operates LiveXLive, one of the industry's leading live music streaming platforms; Slacker Radio, a streaming music pioneer; and also produces original music-related content. LiveXLive is the first 'live social music network', delivering premium livestreamed, digital audio and on-demand music experiences from the world's top music festivals and concerts, including Rock in Rio, EDC Las Vegas, Hangout Music Festival, and many more. LiveXLive also gives audiences access to premium original content, artist exclusives and industry interviews. Through its owned and operated Internet radio service, Slacker Radio (www.slacker.com), LiveXLive delivers its users access to millions of songs and hundreds of expert-curated stations. The Company also operates a social influencer network, LiveXLive Influencers. The Company is headquartered in Beverly Hills, CA. For more information, visit us at www.livexlive.com and follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter at @livexlive.
Forward-Looking Statements
All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this press release are "forward-looking statements," which may often, but not always, be identified by the use of such words as "expects", "anticipates", "intends", "estimates", "plans", "potential", "possible", "probable", "believes", "seeks", "may", "will", "would," "should", "could" or the negative of such terms or other similar expressions. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. These factors include uncertainties as to identifying, acquiring, securing and developing content, ability to attract and retain users, successfully implementing the Company's and Slacker's growth strategy, including relating to their technology platforms and applications, management's relationships with industry stakeholders, changes in economic conditions, competition, and other risks including, but not limited to, those described from in the Company's Registration Statement on Form S-1, Amendment No. 5, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on December 15, 2017 (the "SEC") and other filings and submissions with the SEC. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof and the Company disclaims any obligations to update these statements except as may be required by law.
About Insomniac
Insomniac produces some of the most innovative, immersive music festivals and events in the world. Enhanced by state-of-the-art lighting, pyrotechnics and sound design, large-scale art installations, theatrical performers and next-generation special effects, these events captivate the senses and inspire a unique level of fan interaction. The quality of the experience is the company's top priority.
Throughout its 25-year history, Insomniac has produced more than 1,200 festivals, concerts and club nights for nearly 5 million attendees over five continents. Insomniac's events are held across the U.S. as well as in Mexico, Australia and Japan. The company's premier annual event, Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas, is the largest dance music festival in North America, and attracted more than 400,000 fans over three days in June 2017.
The company was founded by Pasquale Rotella, and has been based in Los Angeles since it was formed in 1993.
Keep up with Insomniac announcements and news on Insomniac.com, Facebook and Twitter.
View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/insomniac-livexlive-zebra-entertainment-and-tencent-video-sign-partnership-agreement-to-distribute-livestream-of-electric-daisy-carnival-edc-las-vegas-300648243.html
SOURCE LiveXLive Media, Inc.
/CONTACT: Investor Contacts: Alex Wellins, The Blueshirt Group, [email protected], (415) 217-5861, Chris Tyson, MZ North America, [email protected], 949-491-8235, Media Contacts: Beck Media & Marketing for LiveXLive, [email protected], (310) 300-4800, KIRVIN DOAK COMMUNICATIONS, Lea Komitzky / Jaclyn Dadas / Rebecca Baia, [email protected], 702.737.3100, Insomniac, [email protected]
/Web site: https://www.livexlive.com
(END)
May 15, 2018 07:00 ET (11:00 GMT)
Location: Mexico United States--US North America Australia China Hong Kong Brazil Los Angeles California Macao Las Vegas Nevada Japan
People: Rotella, Pasquale
Company / organization: Name: PR Newswire; NAICS: 518210, 519110; Name: Tencent Video; NAICS: 519130; Name: Nasdaq Stock Market Inc; NAICS: 523210; Name: Twitter Inc; NAICS: 519130; Name: Securities & Exchange Commission; NAICS: 926150; Name: Las Vegas Motor Speedway; NAICS: 711212; Name: Facebook Inc; NAICS: 518210, 519130
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: May 15, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feed s
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2039057606
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2039057606?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc May 15, 2018
Last updated: 2018-10-26
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 258 of 474
United States: Insomniac, LiveXLive, Zebra Entertainment And Tencent Video Sign Partnership Agreement To Distribute Livestream Of Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) Las Vegas
Publication info: Asia News Monitor ; Bangkok [Bangkok]16 May 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Insomniac, the producer behind some of the most innovative, immersive music festivals and events in the world, and LiveXLive Media, Inc. (NASDAQ: LIVX) ("LiveXLive"), a global digital media company focused on live entertainment, announced today that Insomniac, LiveXLive, Zebra Entertainment and Tencent Video, China's largest video-streaming company, have signed a distribution agreement for Tencent Video to livestream the Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) Las Vegas to audiences in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau. This partnership comes on the heels of LiveXLive's recent announcement to launch an exclusive channel with Insomniac and be the exclusive global livestreaming partner for more than 50 of Insomniac's festivals and events, including EDC Las Vegas. EDC Las Vegas is North America's largest three-day dance music festival and will broadcast live from the Las Vegas Motor Speedway May 18-20, featuring the biggest names in dance music for its 22nd incarnation. The lineup features more than 250 of the top dance music artists around the world performing across eight dynamic and awe-inspiring stages all weekend long. More information surrounding the artists who will be featured on the livestream will be announced on show days. Through LiveXLive and Tencent Video, the EDC Las Vegas livestream will be available to audiences around the world, expanding the reach of EDC Las Vegas and increasing the international dance music fan base. Viewers in China, Macau and Hong Kong will be able to watch the livestream on the Tencent Video website, apps on mobile, tablet and smart TV. The agreement with Tencent Video originated through Zebra Entertainment, the local promoter of EDC China and a valued partner of EDC parent company Insomniac, the producer behind some of the most innovative, immersive music festivals and events in the world. "We are fortunate to partner with Tencent Video, providing a unique opportunity to expand the EDC Las Vegas fan base into China, Macau and Hong Kong," said Rob Ellin, CEO and chairman of LiveXLive. "As we scale our company, we couldn't ask for a better international partner. We are grateful to Zebra Entertainment for bringing us this exciting opportunity, and we fully expect this to be the first chess move in expanding our relationship in the near future." "Being a digital media pioneer in China, Tencent Video has always attached great value to international music content partnerships," said Alan Deng, director, Tencent Video. "We are honored to collaborate with LiveXLive and EDC Las Vegas, a truly influential brand in the global electronic music scene. With this partnership, we can connect millions of young Chinese viewers with ravers from all around the world, showcasing great music and an amazing vibe." This year, LiveXLive plans to stream more than 27 music festivals and concerts across the globe with over 350 hours of live content as well as unique original programming. LiveXLive's livestreaming portfolio includes marquee festivals such as Rock in Rio Brazil, Rock in Rio Lisbon, EDC Las Vegas, Hangout Music Festival, Bumbershoot, Country 500, Paleo Festival de Nyon and Rock on the Range, among many others. About LiveXLive Media, Inc. LiveXLive Media, Inc. (NASDAQ: LIVX) (the "Company") is a global digital media company dedicated to music and live entertainment. The Company operates LiveXLive, one of the industry's leading live music streaming platforms; Slacker Radio, a streaming music pioneer; and also produces original music-related content. LiveXLive is the first 'live social music network', delivering premium livestreamed, digital audio and on-demand music experiences from the world's top music festivals and concerts, including Rock in Rio, EDC Las Vegas, Hangout Music Festival, and many more. LiveXLive also gives audiences access to premium original content, artist exclusives and industry interviews. Through its owned and operated Internet radio service, Slacker Radio (www.slacker.com), LiveXLive delivers its users access to millions of songs and hundreds of expert-curated stations. The Company also operates a social influencer network, LiveXLive Influencers. The Company is headquartered in Beverly Hills, CA. For more information, visit us at www.livexlive.com and follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter at @livexlive. Forward-Looking Statements All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this press release are "forward-looking statements," which may often, but not always, be identified by the use of such words as "expects", "anticipates", "intends", "estimates", "plans", "potential", "possible", "probable", "believes", "seeks", "may", "will", "would," "should", "could" or the negative of such terms or other similar expressions. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. These factors include uncertainties as to identifying, acquiring, securing and developing content, ability to attract and retain users, successfully implementing the Company's and Slacker's growth strategy, including relating to their technology platforms and applications, management's relationships with industry stakeholders, changes in economic conditions, competition, and other risks including, but not limited to, those described from in the Company's Registration Statement on Form S-1, Amendment No. 5, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on December 15, 2017 (the "SEC") and other filings and submissions with the SEC. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof and the Company disclaims any obligations to update these statements except as may be required by law. About Insomniac Insomniac produces some of the most innovative, immersive music festivals and events in the world. Enhanced by state-of-the-art lighting, pyrotechnics and sound design, large-scale art installations, theatrical performers and next-generation special effects, these events captivate the senses and inspire a unique level of fan interaction. The quality of the experience is the company's top priority. Throughout its 25-year history, Insomniac has produced more than 1,200 festivals, concerts and club nights for nearly 5 million attendees over five continents. Insomniac's events are held across the U.S. as well as in Mexico, Australia and Japan. The company's premier annual event, Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas, is the largest dance music festival in North America, and attracted more than 400,000 fans over three days in June 2017. The company was founded by Pasquale Rotella, and has been based in Los Angeles since it was formed in 1993. Keep up with Insomniac announcements and news on Insomniac.com, Facebook and Twitter. SOURCE LiveXLive Media, Inc.
Subject: Audiences; Dance music; Social networks; Partnership agreements; Digital broadcasting; Music festivals
Location: Mexico United States--US North America Australia China Hong Kong Brazil Los Angeles California Macao Las Vegas Nevada Japan
People: Rotella, Pasquale
Company / organization: Name: Tencent Video; NAICS: 519130; Name: Nasdaq Stock Market Inc; NAICS: 523210; Name: Twitter Inc; NAICS: 519130; Name: Securities & Exchange Commission; NAICS: 926150; Name: Las Vegas Motor Speedway; NAICS: 711212; Name: Facebook Inc; NAICS: 518210, 519130
Publication title: Asia News Monitor; Bangkok
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: May 16, 2018
Section: Business News
Publisher: Thai News Service Group
Place of publication: Bangkok
Country of publication: Thailand, Bangkok
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--Philippines, General Interest Periodicals--Vietnam, General Interest Periodicals--Thailand
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2038848616
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2038848616?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Thai News Service Group May 16, 2018
Last updated: 2018-05-15
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 259 of 474
Calendar: Highlights from around town
Author: Daily Pilot Staff
Publication info: Los Angeles Times (Online) , Los Angeles: Tribune Interactive, LLC. May 17, 2018. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: A roundup of community events throughout Orange County. To submit items, email [email protected] MAY 18 Literacy Author Luncheon The 11th annual Gift of Literacy Author Luncheon, presented by Newport/Mesa ProLiteracy, will be held at 11:30 a.m. at the Pacific Club at 4111 MacArthur Blvd., Newport Beach. The luncheon will feature a speech from author Janelle Brown, who penned the novels, “Watch Me Disappear,” “All We Ever Wanted Was Everything,” and “This Is Where We Live.” Tickets cost $95 and include a copy of the book “Watch Me Disappear.” For more information, visit www.newportliteracy.org. MAY 18 TILL 20 Fiesta The Saint Edward Parish Fiesta will be held from 5 to 10 p.m. May 18, noon to 10 p.m. May 19 and noon to 8 p.m. May 20 at 33926 Calle La Primavera, Dana Point. The free event will feature carnival rides, games and live entertainment. For more information, visit www.stedwardfiesta.org. MAY 19 Pacific Chorale Pacific Chorale, a choir for the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, will end its 50th anniversary season with a performance at 5:30 p.m. at the center at 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. For tickets, visit www.pacificchorale.org or call (714) 662-2345. MAY 20 Orange County Wind Symphony The Orange County Wind Symphony will perform “Heritage of Britain” at 6:30 p.m. at Anaheim Performing Arts Center at Servite, 1952 W. La Palma Ave., Anaheim. For more information, visit www.ocsymphony.org/. Rossmoor Woman’s Club The Rossmoor Woman’s Club will hold a spring garden tour and outside market from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The tour will include five gardens at homes in Rossmoor, a pop-up market at Rush Park featuring a variety of vendors and a Friendship Garden at the market where club members will sell succulents and air plants. Tickets can be purchased for $15 online at rossmoorwomansclub.com or at Brita’s Old Town Gardens, 225 Main St., Seal Beach (562) 430-5019; Antica, 11110 Los Alamitos Blvd., Los Alamitos (562) 430-0320; McNally Electric, 10792 Los Alamitos Blvd., Los Alamitos (562) 598-9438; Prep Kitchen Essentials, 12207 Seal Beach Blvd., Seal Beach (562) 430-1217; Cinnamon Stik, 10641 Los Alamitos Blvd., Los Alamitos (562) 596-6939 and Seal Beach Sun, 216 Main St., Seal Beach (562) 430-7555. Charm House Tour The 46th annual Charm House Tour in Laguna Beach will be held throughout the day. The tour starts at noon at 650 Laguna Canyon Road, in front of the Festival of Arts. Tickets can be purchased at www.villagelaguna.org/charm-house-tour/. MAY 22 Music Discussion A discussion and demonstration on the legacy of American music will be held at 6:30 p.m. at Mozambique Steakhouse at 1740 South Coast Highway, Laguna Beach. Dr. Robert Istad, a professor of music and at Cal State Fullerton, will lead the discussion. For more information and to make reservations, visit lagunabeachlive.org. MAY 24 Max Love Project Max Love Project, an Orange County nonprofit that helps child cancer survivors, will host the inaugural Farm to Fork App-Off competition from 6 to 10 p.m. at the Lost Bean at 1632, 3335 Susan St., Costa Mesa. Proceeds will benefit the organization’s culinary medicine program collaboration with the Children’s Hospital of Orange County. For tickets, visit http://bit.ly/MLPAppOff. MAY 26 Mariachi Los Camperos Two-time Grammy Award-winner Mariachi Los Camperos will perform at the Musco Center for the Arts at 7:30 p.m. For tickets, visit www.muscocenter.org/. MAY 27 Natalia Lafourcade Grammy Award-winning musician Natalia Lafourcade will perform at 6 p.m. at Musco Center for the Arts at Chapman University at One University Drive, Orange. For more information, visit muscocenter.org/event/natalia-lafourcade/. TILL MAY 30 Russell Pierce The work of famed artist Russell Pierce will be on display at the Community Art Project gallery at 260 Ocean Ave., on the second floor near the Wells Fargo building in Laguna Beach. For more information, visit www.caplaguna.org. TILL JUNE 21 California Impressionists The “Harmony of Light: Spring in California” exhibit will be displayed at the Irvine Museum of Collection at the University of California, Irvine, 18881 Von Karman Ave. The showcase features paintings from California impressionists depicting springtime in the state. For more information, visit irvinemuseumcollection.uci.edu/event/harmony-light-spring-california/. TILL AUG. 9 Rainforest Adventure A Rainforest Adventure exhibit is featured at Discovery Cube at 2500 N. Main St., Santa Ana. For more information, visit www.oc.discoverycube.org. TILL AUG. 11 Farmer’s Market A farmer’s market will be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the second Saturday of each month at SOCO and the OC Mix at 3315 Hyland Ave., Costa Mesa. There will be live music, chef's demos and a variety of family-friendly activities. For more information, visit bit.ly/SOCOFarmers. JUNE 1 Humanitarian Eleven individuals who represent humanitarian organizations from Tustin will be honored during an event at 6 p.m. at Tustin Ranch Golf Club at 12442 Tustin Ranch Road. The event costs $65. JUNE 1 TILL 3 Newport Beach Jazz Festival The Newport Beach Jazz Festival will be held at the Newport Beach Hyatt at 1107 Jamboree Road. For more information, visit festivals.hyattconcerts.com/. JUNE 3 Festival Singers of Orange County The Festival Singers of Orange County will perform “Music and Stories from the Stage” at 3 p.m. at the Lake Forest Sun and Sail Club at 24752 Toledo Way. The concert features choruses and arias from Georges Bizet’s “Carmen”, Giacomo Puccini’s “Madame Butterfly”, Johann Strauss’ “Die Fledermaus”, Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Pirates of Penzance”, among others. Tickets can be purchased for $15 at www.festivalsingers.net or at the door. JUNE 9 Children’s Bureau The Children’s Bureau, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit, will be holding a fundraiser for the prevention and treatment of child abuse from 6 to 9:30 p.m. at Oak Creek Golf Club at One Golf Club Drive, Irvine. A ticket costs $300. For more information, visit www.all4kids.org/soiree. JUNE 9 AND 10 Flying Miz Daisy Vintage Market The Flying Miz Daisy Market is returning to the Hangar at the OC Fair and Event Center at 88 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa. The vintage market features sellers from throughout the west coast. For more information, visit www.ocgoodwill.org/about-us. JUNE 10 SoCal Ride for Parkinson’s The SoCal Ride for Parkinson’s will be held at 7 a.m. at 1785 Newport Blvd., Costa Mesa. The event is part of the Tour de Fox ride series, which supports the Michael J. Fox Foundation. The event includes beginner, intermediate and advanced level rides. For more information, visit https://fundraise.michaeljfox.org/tf-2018/socalride. JUNE 16 Porsche in the Park The 48th edition of Porsche in the Park will be held at 9 a.m. at Mile Square Park at 16801 Euclid St., Fountain Valley. About 120 Porsches are expected to be on display at the free event. JUNE 17 Matt Mauser Matt Mauser will perform a celebration of the music of Frank Sinatra from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Civic Center Green at 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach. The free concert is presented by the Newport Beach City Arts Commission as part of a Newport Beach concert series. JUNE 24 Huntington Beach Concert Band The Huntington Beach Concert Band’s Summer Series begins with the first free event. Eleven concerts will be held on Sunday until Sept. 2. The concerts will be held at the Thomas Ridley Central Park Concert Bandstand at Huntington Beach Central Park at 7111 Talbert Ave. For more information, call Linda D. Couey at (714) 891-6856 or visit hbconcertband.org. JUNE 29, 30 AND JULY 1 A Taste of Greece The 40th annual Taste of Greece festival will be held at St. Paul’s Greek Orthodox Church at 4949 Alton Parkway, Irvine. It will run from 5 to 10 p.m. June 29, noon to 10 p.m. June 30 and noon to 9 p.m. July 1. Admission is $3. For more information, visit http://irvinegreekfest.com. JULY 7 TILL OCT. 4 Drawing on the Past The Irvine Museum Collection at UC Irvine will feature “Drawing on the Past: Works on Paper,” with drawings, pastels watercolors and etchings from famed California artists. The museum is located at 18881 Von Karman Ave., Irvine. For more information, visit http://irvinemuseumcollection.uci.edu.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/event/drawing-past-works-paper/. JULY 11 TILL SEPT. 19 Newport Beach Jazz An 11-week jazz series will be held every week at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel and Spa at 900 Newport Center Drive. KJAZZ is sponsoring the event. Tickets can be purchased at www.sunsetjazzatnewport.com or by calling (949) 759-5003. JULY 15 The Springsteen Experience The Springsteen Experience will perform from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Civic Center Green at 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach. The free concert is presented by the Newport Beach City Arts Commission as part of a Newport Beach concert series. JULY 16 TILL 20 AND JULY 23 TILL 27 Designer Camp Designer Camp — a design-based summer camp — will feature workshops where kids ages 11 to 17 can learn about various careers within the design industry. The program will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day at the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity at 3321 Hyland Ave., Costa Mesa. There will be two different events — one spanning July 16 to 20 and another from July 23 to 27. For more information or to register online, visit https://bit.ly/2qbc1GN. AUG. 6 Teeing for Tusks A golf tournament will be held to fund programs that support anti-poaching efforts in Africa. “Teeing for Tusks” will run from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at Monarch Beach Golf Links at 50 Monarch Beach Resort, Dana Point. A single golfer entree is $300 and a team of four is $1,200. Register at charityvalet.com/tusks18. AUG. 12 Tijuana Dogs The Tijuana Dogs will perform from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Civic Center Green at 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach. The free concert is presented by the Newport Beach City Arts Commission as part of a Newport Beach concert series. SEPT. 9 Desperado Eagles Tribute The Desperado Eagles Tribute will perform from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Civic Center Green at 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach. The free concert is presented by the Newport Beach City Arts Commission as part of a Newport Beach concert series. ONGOING Stop the Bleed UC Irvine trauma surgeon, Dr. Jeffry Nahmias teaches a free Stop the Bleed course on the third Saturday of each month at the UC Irvine Medical Center at 101 The City Drive South, Orange. For more information, visit www.ucirvinehealth.org/events/health-classes/stop-the-bleed. Newport Beach Walking Club A Newport Beach walking club meets at 9 a.m. Monday through Saturday on the benches at the end of East Balboa Boulevard. For more information, call Loyda at (949) 600-0966. Farmers’ Market The SOCO Farmers’ Market, held at 3315 Hyland Ave., Costa Mesa, is from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays and features coffee and pastry shops, home decor, and fashion. For more information, visit farmermark.com/soco. Wetlands tour Amigos de Bolsa Chica hosts a tour of the wetlands from 9 to 10:30 a.m. the first Saturday of every month, departing every 15 minutes from the footbridge in the south parking lot of the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve. The tour is led by docents and participants will learn about the birds, endangered species, history, ecology and restoration of the wetlands. For more information, call (714) 840-1575 or email [email protected]. Walking Club The Newport-Mesa Walking Club offers free walks at 9 a.m. and 7 pm. Mondays through Saturdays. For more information, call (949) 600-0966. Monthly Beach Cleanup Community beach cleanups are held on the first Saturday of the month from 10 a.m. to noon. In Laguna Beach, the cleanup locations with supplies are Hobie Sport, Thalia Surf, El Ranchito and United Studios of Self Defense. Participants can ask for “zero trash discounts.” For more information, email Chip McDermott at [email protected]. Hortense Miller Garden The Hortense Miller Garden covers 2 1/2 acres of the upper slopes of Boat Canyon and features a range of plants and small themed gardens. Tours through the garden and private residence are at 9:45 a.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, and must be scheduled two weeks in advance. For more information, call (949) 497-0716, ext. 6. Preschool Stories The Laguna Beach Public Library, 363 Glenneyre St., presents Preschool Story Time at 11 a.m. Wednesdays, followed by cookies and punch. For more information, call (949) 497-1733. Susi Q Needle Art Guild The Needle Art Guilt meets at the Susi Q Senior Center from 1 to 3:30 p.m. the last Friday of each month to create various items for local organizations, including Mission Hospital's oncology unit and the Friendship Shelter. All ages and levels of knitters and crocheters are welcome. In addition, a new needle art technique will be discussed each month. Yarn and monetary donations are always appreciated. This is a free activity. For more information, call (949) 497-2241. Newland House Tour The historic Newland House Museum, 19820 Beach Blvd., Huntington Beach, offers tours from local historians who provide information about the two-story Victorian home built in 1898. The museum is open from noon to 4 p.m. the first and third Saturday and Sunday of the month. Cost is $2 for adults, $1 for children. For information, call (714) 960-0055. Crafty Kids Club Huntington Beach Central Library hosts Crafty Kids Club at 2 p.m. Saturdays at the library, at 7111 Talbert Ave. Children about 5 through 9 years old are invited to enjoy stories and related crafts. Call (714) 375-5107. Press zero to speak with a librarian. Laptime Storytime The Huntington Beach Library presents Laptime Storytime at 9:15, 10 and 11 a.m. Tuesdays and 10 a.m. Saturdays at 7111 Talbert Ave. for children 18 months to 3 years old. The library's Preschool Storytime for children 3 to 5 are at 10 and 11 a.m. Fridays. Call (714) 375-5107. Bolsa Chica Walking Tour A two-hour walking tour of the Bolsa Chica mesa and wetlands is conducted at 10 a.m. on the third Sunday of every month by the Bolsa Chica Land Trust. This docent-led tour makes five stops along the walk bridge and loop trails of the wetlands. Meet in the south reserve parking lot on Pacific Coast Highway across from Bolsa Chica State Beach. Warm clothing, comfortable shoes and binoculars are recommended. Tours are free and open to the public. Call (714) 846-1001 or go to bolsachicalandtrust.org. Newport Beach Walking Club A Newport Beach walking club meets 7 to 8.30 p.m. Monday to Friday at the Union Bank parking lot on Jamboree and Bayside Road. To join call Loyda at (949) 600-0966. Tutoring People can volunteer to tutor children each week at El Morro Elementary School at 8681 N. Coast Highway, Laguna Beach. The tutoring sessions are provided by the Learning Club, which operates two afternoons a week from January to May. For more information, visit aauw2-lagunabeach.org. Photography Contest The Newport Beach City Arts Commission is holding a photography contest through April 15. Contestants can submit pictures of a series of new sculptures at Civic Center Park at 100 Civic Center Drive, Newport Beach. Submissions should be emailed to [email protected]. For more information, visit www.newportbeachca.gov/culturalarts. Credit: Daily Pilot Staff
Subject: Tutoring; Musicians & conductors; Museum exhibits; Musical performances; Roads & highways; Art; Libraries; Walking; Music festivals; Museums; Grammy awards; Singers; Nonprofit organizations; Literacy
Location: Costa Mesa California Southern California Anaheim California Los Alamitos California Laguna Beach California Huntington Beach California California Newport Beach California Bolsa Chica
Company / organization: Name: Pacific Chorale; NAICS: 711130; Name: Mariachi Los Camperos; NAICS: 711130
Publication title: Los Angeles Times (Online); Los Angeles
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: May 17, 2018
Section: Socal - Daily Pilot - Entertainment
Publisher: Tribune Interactive, LLC
Place of publication: Los Angeles
Country of publication: United States, Los Angeles
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Blogs, Podcasts, & Websites
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2040823078
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2040823078?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Tribune Interactive, LLC May 17, 2018
Last updated: 2018-05-18
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 260 of 474
PLEASURE'S ALL MINE [ET Panache]: Take a tour of the world's most decadent paradises that promise high jinks, street parades, adult entertainment and more
Author: Tellis, Shann on
Publication info: The Economic Times (Online) ; New Delhi [New Delhi]17 May 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: EXCESS RIO DE JANEIRO The granddaddy of all carnivals, Rio de Janeiro Carnival is the perfect opportunity to let your hair down and samba your way through the 600 odd bloc parties (or blocos) every year. Complete with loudspeakers, drink and food vendors, blocos see thousands of tourists hit the streets to dance, parade and party. If you'd rather watch, the main Carnival parade at Sambadrome is a sight to behold with elaborate costumes, giant floats and fleets of samba dancers from the favelas (local slums). Raking in more than $40 million annually, the carnival is the perfect place to become anyone or anything. ADULT ENTERTAINMENT BANGKOK Reportedly designated under law as 'entertainment zones', Bangkok is home to the most active nightlife in Thailand like Soi Cowboy, Soi Twilight Patpong, and Nana Plaza featuring hundreds of go-go clubs, 'ladyboy' bars and short term hotels. Nana Entertainment Plaza -- a three-storey complex -- boasts of some of the best shows in the city and is rumoured to be the world's largest adult playground. While not strictly illegal, Thailand's adult tourism industry is valued at $6.4 billion a year in revenue, as of 2015. The operative word here is 'adult'. EXHIBITIONISM NEW ORLEANS New Orleans's annual Mardi Gras celebrations are known for their pomp, colour and beads. Over 1.4 million people flock to Bourbon Street every year to catch beads, stuffed animals and coins thrown from the parade floats. Some daring tourists may even flash rooftop spectators to earn more beads. The float riders are required by law to wear a mask, symbolising relaxed inhibitions and allowing them to mingle with whomever they choose. MARIJUANA AMSTERDAM Did you know that you can't smoke tobacco in Amsterdam coffee shops but smoking marijuana is allowed? You can buy cannabis over any coffee counter but only up to five grams. Since it is not legal in the Netherlands, coffee shops can't advertise and are only allowed to store a maximum of 500 grams of cannabis on the premises at one time to avoid prosecution. When you ask for it, most shops will recommend a pre-rolled joint or point you towards the bestsellers on their weed menu. GAMBLING LAS VEGAS In a city that boasts of one operating slot machine for every eight residents, there's bound to be some golden gambling moments. FedEx founder Frederick Smith once risked the company's last $5,000 on a game of blackjack. Desperate to save the company from bankruptcy, he impulsively flew to Las Vegas where his gamble paid off and he won enough to keep FedEx's doors open for another week. Who said gambling couldn't be a sound business strategy?.
Subject: Gambling; Mardi Gras; Coffee; Gaming machines; Carnivals
Location: Thailand Netherlands Rio de Janeiro Brazil Bangkok Thailand Las Vegas Nevada
Company / organization: Name: FedEx Corp; NAICS: 484110, 492110, 551114
Publication title: The Economic Times (Online); New Delhi
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: May 17, 2018
Publisher: Bennett, Coleman & Company Limited
Place of publication: New Delhi
Country of publication: India, New Delhi
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2054063001
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2054063001?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Bennett, Coleman & Company Limited May 17, 2018
Last updated: 2018-06-13
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 261 of 474
PLEASURE'S ALL MINE [ET Panache]: Take a tour of the world's most decadent paradises that promise high jinks, street parades, adult entertainment and more
Author: Tellis, Shannon
Publication info: The Economic Times (Online) ; New Delhi [New Delhi]17 May 2018. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Did you know that you can't smoke tobacco in Amsterdam coffee shops but smoking marijuana is allowed? You can buy cannabis over any coffee counter but only up to five grams. Since it is not legal in the Netherlands, coffee shops can't advertise and are only allowed to store a maximum of 500 grams of cannabis on the premises at one time to avoid prosecution. When you ask for it, most shops will recommend a pre-rolled joint or point you towards the bestsellers on their weed menu. Reportedly designated under law as 'entertainment zones', Bangkok is home to the most active nightlife in Thailand like Soi Cowboy, Soi Twilight Patpong, and Nana Plaza featuring hundreds of go-go clubs, 'ladyboy' bars and short term hotels. Nana Entertainment Plaza -- a threestorey complex -- boasts of some of the best shows in the city and is rumoured to be the world's largest adult playground. While not strictly illegal, Thailand's adult tourism industry is valued at $6.4 billion a year in revenue, as of 2015. The operative word here is 'adult'. The granddaddy of all carnivals, Rio de Janeiro Carnival is the perfect opportunity to let your hair down and samba your way through the 600 odd bloc parties (or blocos) every year. Complete with loudspeakers, drink and food vendors, blocos see thousands of tourists hit the streets to dance, parade and party. If you'd rather watch, the main Carnival parade at Sambadrome is a sight to behold with elaborate costumes, giant floats and fleets of samba dancers from the favelas (local slums). Raking in more than $40 million annually, the carnival is the perfect place to become anyone or anything. New Orleans's annual Mardi Gras celebrations are known for their pomp, colour and beads. Over 1.4 million people flock to Bourbon Street every year to catch beads, stuffed animals and coins thrown from the parade floats. Some daring tourists may even flash rooftop spectators to earn more beads. The float riders are required by law to wear a mask, symbolising relaxed inhibitions and allowing them to mingle with whomever they choose . In a city that boasts of one operating slot machine for every eight residents, there's bound to be some golden gambling moments. FedEx founder Frederick Smith once risked the company's last $5,000 on a game of blackjack. Desperate to save the company from bankruptcy, he impulsively flew to Las Vegas where his gamble paid off and he won enough to keep FedEx's doors open for another week. Who said gambling couldn't be a sound business strategy?.
Subject: Mardi Gras; Coffee; Gaming machines; Carnivals
Location: Thailand Netherlands Rio de Janeiro Brazil Bangkok Thailand Las Vegas Nevada
Company / organization: Name: FedEx Corp; NAICS: 484110, 492110, 551114
Publication title: The Economic Times (Online); New Delhi
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: May 17, 2018
Publisher: Bennett, Coleman & Company Limited
Place of publication: New Delhi
Country of publication: India, New Delhi
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2054063080
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2054063080?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Bennett, Coleman & Company Limited May 17, 2018
Last updated: 2018-06-13
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 262 of 474
PLEASURE'S ALL MINE [ET Panache]: Take a tour of the world's most decadent paradises that promise high jinks, street parades, adult entertainment and more
Author: Tellis, Shann on
Publication info: The Economic Times (Online) ; New Delhi [New Delhi]17 May 2018. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: MARIJUANA AMSTERDAM Did you know that you can't smoke tobacco in Amsterdam coffee shops but smoking marijuana is allowed? You can buy cannabis over any coffee counter but only up to five grams. Since it is not legal in the Netherlands, coffee shops can't advertise and are only allowed to store a maximum of 500 grams of cannabis on the premises at one time to avoid prosecution. When you ask for it, most shops will recommend a pre-rolled joint or point you towards the bestsellers on their weed menu. ADULT ENTERTAINMENT BANGKOK Reportedly designated under law as 'entertainment zones', Bangkok is home to the most active nightlife in Thailand like Soi Cowboy, Soi Twilight Patpong, and Nana Plaza featuring hundreds of go-go clubs, 'ladyboy' bars and short term hotels. Nana Entertainment Plaza -- a threestorey complex -- boasts of some of the best shows in the city and is rumoured to be the world's largest adult playground. While not strictly illegal, Thailand's adult tourism industry is valued at $6.4 billion a year in revenue, as of 2015. The operative word here is 'adult'. EXCESS RIO DE JANEIRO The granddaddy of all carnivals, Rio de Janeiro Carnival is the perfect opportunity to let your hair down and samba your way through the 600 odd bloc parties (or blocos) every year. Complete with loudspeakers, drink and food vendors, blocos see thousands of tourists hit the streets to dance, parade and party. If you'd rather watch, the main Carnival parade at Sambadrome is a sight to behold with elaborate costumes, giant floats and fleets of samba dancers from the favelas (local slums). Raking in more than $40 million annually, the carnival is the perfect place to become anyone or anything. EXHIBITIONISM NEW ORLEANS New Orleans's annual Mardi Gras celebrations are known for their pomp, colour and beads. Over 1.4 million people flock to Bourbon Street every year to catch beads, stuffed animals and coins thrown from the parade floats. Some daring tourists may even flash rooftop spectators to earn more beads. The float riders are required by law to wear a mask, symbolising relaxed inhibitions and allowing them to mingle with whomever they choose . GAMBLING LAS VEGAS In a city that boasts of one operating slot machine for every eight residents, there's bound to be some golden gambling moments. FedEx founder Frederick Smith once risked the company's last $5,000 on a game of blackjack. Desperate to save the company from bankruptcy, he impulsively flew to Las Vegas where his gamble paid off and he won enough to keep FedEx's doors open for another week. Who said gambling couldn't be a sound business strategy?.
Subject: Gambling; Mardi Gras; Coffee; Gaming machines; Carnivals
Location: Thailand Netherlands Rio de Janeiro Brazil Bangkok Thailand Las Vegas Nevada
Company / organization: Name: FedEx Corp; NAICS: 484110, 492110, 551114
Publication title: The Economic Times (Online); New Delhi
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: May 17, 2018
Publisher: Bennett, Coleman & Company Limited
Place of publication: New Delhi
Country of publication: India, New Delhi
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2054066137
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2054066137?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Bennett, Coleman & Company Limited May 17, 2018
Last updated: 2018-06-13
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 263 of 474
Brazil: Brazil Accuses 11 of Trying to Start Islamic State Cell
Publication info: Asia News Monitor ; Bangkok [Bangkok]21 May 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Brazilian federal prosecutors have charged 11 people with planning to establish an Islamic State cell in Brazil and trying to recruit jihadists to send to Syria, according to a court filing seen by Reuters on Thursday. Police tracked the alleged Islamic State militants through their social media messages after Spain's Guardia Civil provided telephone numbers found on a Brazilian arrested in Spain for belonging to a jihadist group there. In one WhatsApp chat group, some of the Brazilian suspects discussed plans to copy last year's London Bridge attack during Carnival in Rio de Janeiro or Salvador to kill as many people as possible, the document said. Two of the Brazilians are being held in a maximum-security prison and five others, arrested since October, were freed pending trial, said a spokesman for the prosecutor's office for the state of Goias in central Brazil that filed the charges. Police found homemade weapons in the house of one of the suspects, who identified himself in social media messages as a supporter of the militant Islamic movement al-Qaida. It was the second copycat group dismantled by Brazil in two years. Before the 2016 Rio Olympics, police arrested 10 people suspected of belonging to a poorly organized group supporting Islamic State who discussed terrorist acts during the Games. The Brazilian government described the group as absolutely amateur and said its members were in contact via messaging apps but did not know each other personally. - VOA
Subject: Social networks
Location: Brazil Spain Syria Rio de Janeiro Brazil
Company / organization: Name: Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant--ISIS; NAICS: 813940
Publication title: Asia News Monitor; Bangkok
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: May 21, 2018
Section: General News
Publisher: Thai News Service Group
Place of publication: Bangkok
Country of publication: Thailand, Bangkok
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--Philippines, General Interest Periodicals--Vietnam, General Interest Periodicals--Thailand
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2041404777
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2041404777?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Thai News Service Group May 21, 2018
Last updated: 2018-05-20
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 264 of 474
Slowly but steadily, the travel industry cuts its ties to disposable plastics: Hotels, cruise ships and entire countries are eliminating straws, bags and water bottles.
Author: Sachs, Andrea
Publication info: The Washington Post (Online) , Washington, D.C.: WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post. May 27, 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: When Dianna Cohen travels, she packs as if she were headed into battle. And in a way, she is. Her enemy is single-use plastics. To combat her foe, which appears in such disguises as water bottles, straws and bags, Cohen always carries a stainless-steel cup by Hydro Flask and a S'well bottle that she fills up at hydration stations and taps. For purchases, she thwarts plastic sacks with a reusable Micro ChicoBag. She also throws in To-Go Ware bamboo utensils, a folding spork, titanium plates and two metal straws. "I found out that it wasn't very polite of me to pull out a straw without one for a friend," said the chief executive of the Plastic Pollution Coalition, an alliance working to cleanse the planet of plastics. Unfortunately, her arsenal can't always protect her from the omnipresent material. In these situations, she will switch to a defensive position. "Please don't put any plastic in my drink," Cohen will inform the server or bartender when placing her order. The world is drowning in plastic, and the travel industry is enabling our habit. The disposable items turn up on planes (cups, stirrers, water bottles), hotels (toiletries, breakfast utensils, laundry bags) and cruise ships (straws, straws, straws). For instance, Hurtigruten uses 390,000 plastic cups and 960,000 straws on its cruises each year. A typical limited-service Marriott hotel in North America blows through 23,000 toiletry bottles annually. Last year, Alaska Airlines handed out 22 million plastic stirrers and citrus picks. "There are huge amounts of plastic in the travel industry," said Erik Solheim, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program. "It's basically everywhere." To address the perils of plastics — for a reality shock, watch the YouTube video of a Costa Rican sea turtle with a straw up his nasal cavity — several organizations have launched global programs to raise awareness and reduce consumption. U.N. Environment unveiled the CleanSeas campaign last year, and more than 40 countries have signed on, including dozens of nations that have banned plastic bags. The Plastic Pollution Coalition offers free guides on how to live — and travel — without plastics. And OneLessStraw rewards participants who promise to renounce straws with a reusable glass version. If you missed International Straw Free Day on Feb. 3 — perhaps you were too busy celebrating Ice Cream for Breakfast Day or Elmo's birthday — you'll have more chances to nix plastic this summer. International Plastic Bag Free Day falls on July 3, or take the whole month off with Plastic Free July, a movement that originated in Perth, Australia, in 2011. You might also consider de-plasticizing your vacation. Many destinations, airlines, hotels and cruise lines are phasing out single-use plastics and introducing more environmentally friendly alternatives, including edible styles. Now, you can toast your plastic-free summer with a festive cocktail accessorized with a straw that could end up in your gullet but never the landfill or ocean. Plastics aren’t welcome here Rwanda was a pioneer, banning nonbiodegradable polyethylene bags a decade ago. The effort has worked. "Kigali has to be one of the cleanest cities in Africa," Michael Sheldrick, vice president of global policy and government affairs at Global Citizen, said of Rwanda's capital. "You don't see bags floating in the streets or hanging from trees." Since then, more than 40 countries have enacted laws on plastics. The restrictions vary from mild (a nominal bag tax in Denmark) to serious (up to $40,000 in fines or four years in jail in Kenya). Here is a sampling of measures around the world. United States: California banned select retailers from providing plastic bags to customers two years ago and recently introduced a bill reining in straws at restaurants. In New York, lawmakers have floated several proposals, including a statewide bag ban and, in New York City, an embargo on the sale of water bottles in public parks and beaches and the distribution of straws in drinking and dining establishments. One law under consideration in Hawaii would punish violators caught selling or offering straws with a three-figure fine and hours of community service, such as removing litter. On the local level, environmental organizations estimate that 150 to 250 cities have banned plastic bags, including Boston (effective in November) and Malibu, Calif. (2008), which will add straws, stirrers and cutlery to its forbidden list on June 1. After its successful Strawless in Seattle campaign last year, the Emerald City will outlaw straws and utensils after July 1. For other actions around the country, consult the State Plastic and Paper Bag Legislation list assembled by the National Conference of State Legislatures. Canada: Starting on July 1, the country will no longer sell beauty and oral-care products seeded with plastic microbeads. Cities are also baring their anti-plastic fangs. Montreal will ban bags starting on June 5; Victoria will follow suit in July. The Vancouver Aquarium has not permitted straws for a decade, and its host city has finally caught the eco-wave with its Single-Use Item Reduction Strategy. "First in Canada!" the mayor's office tweeted May 16. "Vancouver adopts new policy to prohibit polystyrene foam cups and takeout containers, and single-use plastic straws, as part of the Zero Waste 2040 strategy." Central America: Belize will celebrate Earth Day 2019 by ridding itself of straws, bags and utensils. Costa Rica has equally grand ambitions: The eco-friendly country intends to eliminate all single-use plastics by 2021, the same year it plans to become carbon neutral. Last year, Chile' s president addressed the marine crisis by prohibiting bags in more than 100 coastal villages and towns. In May, he strengthened the message by proposing a nationwide ban. Europe: The European Union released its three Rs platform in January: The 28 member states must shift to recyclable plastic packaging by 2030, reduce consumption of single-use plastics and restrict microplastics. However, many European countries have already shown plastics the door. In Britain, the prime minister recently announced a ban on all single-use plastics, including stirrers and cotton swabs, starting as early as next year. Even Queen Elizabeth II is on-message: Her Majesty ousted straws and plastic bottles from the royal estates, including the gift shops and cafes. On the continent, Hamburg has given the boot to non-recyclable coffee pods and France will end its fraternité with plastics by forbidding cups, plates and cutlery beginning in 2020. Africa: Several African countries have banned or taxed plastic items, including Botswana, South Africa, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Morocco and Tanzania. However, U.N. Environment said enforcement is "somewhat patchy" in many places. In August, Kenya passed one of the world's strictest laws. "You will stand out for sure," Solheim said of individuals spotted with plastic bags. "They will tell you to get rid of it." Asia: In February, Taiwan announced a multiphase plan to wean itself off plastic products by 2030. The island nation will kick off the uncoupling with no straws in chain restaurants in 2019 and end with a complete ban on bags, food containers and utensils. Sailing and flying without straws If you want a straw for your margarita and ocean views, you'll have to ask for it. In April, Carnival announced a by-request-only policy for its 26 ships. One exemption: frozen drinks. In addition, the company's P&O Cruises and Cunard will eliminate all plastics by 2022. Passengers aboard Royal Caribbean's newest vessel, Symphony of the Seas, won't find straws, stirrers or picks on the world's largest cruise ship. The company will extend its policy to Azamara Club Cruises, Celebrity Cruises and other RCI ships "as soon as possible," according to a statement. Starting July 2, Hurtigruten will scrub its 17 ships of plastics, including straws, stirrers, plastic-wrapped plastic glasses, cutlery, bags, coffee cup lids, toothpicks, aprons and single-use packaged butter. On July 16, Alaska Airlines will substitute plastic stirrers and citrus picks with a white birch version on all domestic and international flights and in airport lounges. The carrier will accommodate passengers who request a straw with a marine-friendly variety. Ryanair peered into the crystal ball and saw no plastics by 2023: "For customers on board, this will mean initiatives such as a switch to wooden cutlery, biodegradable coffee cups, and the removal of plastics from our range of in-flight products," the low-fare European airline announced earlier this year. Meet the newest guests: bamboo and paper After attending the Burning Man festival in Nevada four years ago, Ben Pundole returned to his life as vice president of brand experience at Edition Hotels with a new purpose: to purify the boutique hotel chain of plastics. The Miami Beach, London and Manhattan properties reached the 80 to 90 percent purge mark on Earth Day. To achieve his goal, Pundole switched over to bamboo for the food containers, combs and toothbrushes and to cans for the gym and turndown service. Edition plans to open seven hotels in the next 18 months and all will adhere to Pundole's Burning Man revelation. Bruno Correa, who founded Bee + Hive, an association of eco-minded hotels, parks and restaurants, started with "the low-hanging fruit." The seven properties in Brazil, Sweden, Zimbabwe, Australia and Georgia will offer paper — not plastic — straws. "When people ask for a straw," he said, "we can use this as an opportunity to educate them about the issue." Larger chains with thousands of rooms are also casting out straws. Among them: Anantara and Avani Hotels & Resorts in Asia, Australasia, Europe and the Middle East; Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts; India-based Taj Hotels; AccorHotels in North and Central America; and Marriott, which has removed straws at 60 British properties and replaced toiletry bottles with shower dispensers at 1,500 North American hotels. The company expects to triple the number of hotels with the refillable containers by the end of the year. Some Hilton hotels are testing edible straws made of sugar and cornstarch and everything eco-nice. Its China properties are pulling water bottles from meeting rooms, events, gyms and spas, saving more than 13 million bottles a year. In Australia, nearly 20 hotels tout no plastics, down to the pens and laundry bags. During Earth Week, Hilton Los Cabos became the first hotel in Mexico to eighty-six straws. Iberostar Group is on a mission to clear all plastic from its 36 Spain hotels by this summer and its 110 properties around the world by 2019. The decision translates to 2.5 million fewer plastic items besmirching the environment. BYO reusable bottle and other tips When packing, follow the BYO principle. At the very minimum, carry a refillable bottle that can handle hot and cold liquids and a metal spork, because ice cream is mandatory at every destination. If you subsist on food truck and takeout fare, toss in camping-style plates, cups and utensils, including chopsticks, which can double as a coffee stirrer. Fancy a reusable straw? Pick your flavor: stainless-steel, paper, glass, bamboo and even pasta. For shopping excursions, bring collapsible bags that can accommodate purchases of various sizes and heft. Don't forget a mesh or cloth sack for laundry and muddy shoes. On planes, Cohen suggests you forgo the plastic cup on the beverage cart and instead hold out your reusable chalice and smile. Contamination is a concern; the flight attendant will pour high so that the lip of the serving bottle doesn't kiss your container. Countries with unsafe tap water is one of the biggest challenges for the plastic-averse. (Even travelers who embrace plastic should be careful in developing countries, which may use a cheap material that can leach into the liquid.) If you are staying at a hotel with treated water, fill up your flask each day. If your room has a kettle, boil water then let it cool and pour it into your vessel. Also, hydrate creatively. In India, Cohen drank hot chai and carbonated water sold in glass bottles. When Nunez visits Belize and Mexico, she prepares her own potable water with a SteriPEN, a UV-powered water purifier. She also recommends Sawyer Mini for rural areas with turbid water and LifeStraw for everywhere else. The filtration system doesn't just remove bacteria and chemicals; it also keeps up 8,000 water bottles off the streets and out of our oceans. Credit: By Andrea Sachs
Subject: Resorts & spas; Plastics; Hotels & motels; Cities
Location: Mexico Belize New York Canada India Central America Rwanda Europe
Publication title: The Washington Post (Online); Washington, D.C.
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: May 27, 2018
Dateline: 2018052701114500
Section: TRAVEL
Publisher: WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post
Place of publication: Washington, D.C.
Country of publication: United States, Washington, D.C.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
ISSN: 26419599
Source type: Blogs, Podcasts, & Websites
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2046425045
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2046425045?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post May 27, 2018
Last updated: 2018-06-05
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 265 of 474
Sand soccer tournament bringing thousands to Buckroe; This weekend's 12th annual event to bring 86 teams, live music and local food trucks
Author: Holtzclaw, Mike
Publication info: Daily Press ; Newport News, Va. [Newport News, Va]02 June 2018: A.5.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: HAMPTON - Stephen Price and his friends have played soccer their whole lives. They have spent plenty of time playing the sport on the beaches of Hampton Roads. But when the 12th annual Virginia Sand Soccer Championships start on Saturday at Buckroe Beach, Price and his friends won't be playing. "Nope," he said, "this weekend we won't even have time to sit down, let alone play soccer." Price, the tournament director, and his friends will be busy running the tournament. This is their third year in charge of the event after they took it over from 3-D Sports, the previous operator. The tournament is expected to bring almost 1,000 players on 86 teams from around Virginia and North Carolina. Thousands more will attend - whether they specifically come for the soccer or just show up for a day at the beach and end up watching the matches. There is no admission charge for those watching. With live music and local food trucks, it will be as much a festival as a sporting event. The age divisions range from pre-teens up through adults and, for the first time, a six-team professional division. "It's really an end-of-season party for a lot of high school teams that have wound down their seasons," Price said. "It's a way to get on the beach, get their shoes off, be a part of a great environment, and play the great game of soccer." Games are scheduled from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days. The tournament falls on a big weekend for Hampton, which also features the Blackbeard Pirate Festival downtown and the Bodacious Bazaar at the Hampton Roads Convention Center adjacent to the Coliseum. Ryan Downey of the Hampton Convention and Visitors Bureau characterized the soccer tournament as "a great showcase for the city, and especially for Buckroe Beach." Sand soccer has become a big attraction at coastal communities around the United States (including another tournament next weekend at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront). It was officially recognized by FIFA, the international governing body of soccer, a little more than a decade ago. According to the Beach Soccer Worldwide website, the sand variation of the sport originated in Brazil, where Copacabana Beach provided "an environment where skill, improvisation, excellent physical conditioning and the swing and natural ability that Brazilians are known for have all overflowed." The site reports that beach soccer is played in 75 countries and televised in 170. Price said the organizers have worked hard to make the Buckroe event distinctive from other sand soccer tournaments along the Eastern Seaboard. "We've incorporated live music while the games are being played, with a stage right there on the beach," he said. "And we stick with local gourmet food trucks, instead of the big carnival-style tent that you see at a lot of tournaments. We're trying to give everyone an all-around good time." The promoters and staff spent all day Friday putting eight soccer fields on the beach and creating grandstands and stages. Now all that's left, Price said, is to hope for good weather. "We've got our fingers and toes crossed on that one," he said. Holtzclaw can be reached by phone at 757-928-6479. Credit: By Mike Holtzclaw - [email protected] - Holtzclaw can be reached by phone at 757-928-6479.
Subject: Tournaments & championships; Soccer; Mobile businesses; Vendors; Food trucks
Location: Brazil Virginia United States--US North Carolina Copacabana Beach
Company / organization: Name: Federation Internationale de Football Association--FIFA; NAICS: 813990
Publication title: Daily Press; Newport News, Va.
First page: A.5
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 2, 2018
Publisher: Tribune Interactive, LLC
Place of publication: Newport News, Va.
Country of publication: United States, Newport News, Va.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2048392034
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2048392034?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright © 2018 Daily Press
Last updated: 2019-06-04
Database: US Southeast Newsstream
Document 266 of 474
An industry slowly rids itself of disposables
Author: Sachs, Andrea
Publication info: The Washington Post ; Washington, D.C. [Washington, D.C]03 June 2018: F.5.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: When Dianna Cohen travels, she packs as if she were headed into battle. And in a way, she is. Her enemy is single-use plastics. To combat her foe, which appears in such disguises as water bottles, straws and bags, Cohen always carries a stainless-steel cup by Hydro Flask and a S'well bottle that she fills up at hydration stations and taps. For purchases, she thwarts plastic sacks with a reusable Micro ChicoBag. She also throws in To-Go Ware bamboo utensils, a folding spork, titanium plates and two metal straws. "I found out that it wasn't very polite of me to pull out a straw without one for a friend," said the chief executive of the Plastic Pollution Coalition, an alliance working to cleanse the planet of plastics. Unfortunately, her arsenal can't always protect her from the omnipresent material. In these situations, she will switch to a defensive position. "Please don't put any plastic in my drink," Cohen will inform the server or bartender when placing her order. The world is drowning in plastic, and the travel industry is enabling our habit. The disposable items turn up on planes (cups, stirrers, water bottles), hotels (toiletries, breakfast utensils, laundry bags) and cruise ships (straws, straws, straws). For instance, Hurtigruten uses 390,000 plastic cups and 960,000 straws on its cruises each year. A typical limited-service Marriott hotel in North America blows through 23,000 toiletry bottles annually. Last year, Alaska Airlines handed out 22 million plastic stirrers and citrus picks. "There are huge amounts of plastic in the travel industry," said Erik Solheim, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program. "It's basically everywhere." To address the perils of plastics - for a reality shock, watch the YouTube video of a Costa Rican sea turtle with a straw up his nasal cavity - several organizations have launched global programs to raise awareness and reduce consumption. U.N. Environment unveiled the CleanSeas campaign last year, and more than 40 countries have signed on, including dozens of nations that have banned plastic bags. The Plastic Pollution Coalition offers free guides on how to live - and travel - without plastics. And OneLessStraw rewards participants who promise to renounce straws with a reusable glass version. If you missed International Straw Free Day on Feb. 3 - perhaps you were too busy celebrating Ice Cream for Breakfast Day or Elmo's birthday - you'll have more chances to nix plastic this summer. International Plastic Bag Free Day falls on July 3, or take the whole month off with Plastic Free July, a movement that originated in Perth, Australia, in 2011. You might also consider de-plasticizing your vacation. Many destinations, airlines, hotels and cruise lines are phasing out single-use plastics and introducing more environmentally friendly alternatives, including edible styles. Now, you can toast your plastic-free summer with a festive cocktail accessorized with a straw that could end up in your gullet but never the landfill or ocean. Rwanda was a pioneer, having banned nonbiodegradable polyethylene bags a decade ago. The effort has worked. "Kigali has to be one of the cleanest cities in Africa," Michael Sheldrick, vice president of global policy and government affairs at Global Citizen, said of Rwanda's capital. "You don't see bags floating in the streets or hanging from trees." Since then, more than 40 countries have enacted laws on plastics. The restrictions vary from mild (a nominal bag tax in Denmark) to serious (up to $40,000 in fines or four years in jail in Kenya). Here is a sampling of measures around the world. United States: California banned select retailers from providing plastic bags to customers two years ago and recently introduced a bill reigning in straws at restaurants. In New York, lawmakers have floated several proposals, including a statewide bag ban and, in New York City, an embargo on the sale of water bottles in public parks and beaches and the distribution of straws in drinking and dining establishments. One law under consideration in Hawaii would punish violators caught selling or offering straws with a three-figure fine and hours of community service, such as removing litter. On the local level, environmental organizations estimate that 150 to 250 cities have banned plastic bags, including Boston (effective in November) and Malibu, Calif. (2008), which was expected to add straws, stirrers and cutlery to its forbidden list on June 1. After its successful Strawless in Seattle campaign last year, the Emerald City will outlaw straws and utensils after July 1. For other actions around the country, consult the State Plastic and Paper Bag Legislation list assembled by the National Conference of State Legislatures. Canada: Starting on July 1, the country will no longer sell beauty and oral-care products seeded with plastic microbeads. Cities are also baring their anti-plastic fangs. Montreal will ban bags starting on June 5; Victoria will follow suit in July. The Vancouver Aquarium has not permitted straws for a decade, and its host city has finally caught the eco-wave with its Single-Use Item Reduction Strategy. "First in Canada!" the mayor's office tweeted May 16. "Vancouver adopts new policy to prohibit polystyrene foam cups and takeout containers, and single-use plastic straws, as part of the Zero Waste 2040 strategy." Central America: Belize will celebrate Earth Day 2019 by ridding itself of straws, bags and utensils. Costa Rica has equally grand ambitions: The eco-friendly country intends to eliminate all single-use plastics by 2021, the same year it plans to become carbon neutral. Last year, Chile' s president addressed the marine crisis by prohibiting bags in more than 100 coastal villages and towns. In May, he strengthened the message by proposing a nationwide ban. Europe: The European Union released its three Rs platform in January: The 28 member states must shift to recyclable plastic packaging by 2030, reduce consumption of single-use plastics and restrict microplastics. However, many European countries have already shown plastics the door. In Britain, the prime minister recently announced a ban on all single-use plastics, including stirrers and cotton swabs, starting as early as next year. Even Queen Elizabeth II is on-message: Her Royal Highness ousted straws and plastic bottles from the royal estates, including the gift shops and cafes. On the continent, Hamburg has given the boot to non-recyclable coffee pods and France will end its fraternité with plastics by forbidding cups, plates and cutlery beginning in 2020. Africa: Several African countries have banned or taxed plastic items, including Botswana, South Africa, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Morocco and Tanzania. However, U.N. Environment said enforcement is "somewhat patchy" in many places. In August, Kenya passed one of the world's strictest laws. "You will stand out for sure," Solheim said of individuals spotted with plastic bags. "They will tell you to get rid of it." Asia: In February, Taiwan announced a multiphase plan to wean itself off plastic products by 2030. The island nation will kick off the uncoupling with no straws in chain restaurants in 2019 and end with a complete ban on bags, food containers and utensils. Sans straws If you want a straw for your margarita and ocean views, you'll have to ask for it. In April, Carnival announced a by-request-only policy for its 26 ships. One exemption: frozen drinks. In addition, the company's P&O Cruises and Cunard will eliminate all plastics by 2022. Passengers aboard Royal Caribbean's newest vessel, Symphony of the Seas, won't find straws, stirrers or picks on the world's largest cruise ship. The company will extend its policy to Azamara Club Cruises, Celebrity Cruises and other RCI ships "as soon as possible," according to a statement. Starting July 2, Hurtigruten will scrub its 17 ships of plastics, including straws, stirrers,plastic-wrapped plastic glasses, cutlery, bags, coffee cup lids, toothpicks, aprons and single-use packaged butter. On July 16, Alaska Airlines will substitute plastic stirrers and citrus picks with a white birch version on all domestic and international flights and in airport lounges. The carrier will accommodate passengers who request a straw with a marine-friendly variety. Ryanair peered into the crystal ball and saw no plastics by 2023: "For customers on board, this will mean initiatives such as a switch to wooden cutlery, biodegradable coffee cups, and the removal of plastics from our range of in-flight products," the low-fare European airline announced earlier this year. Bamboo and paper After attending the Burning Man festival in Nevada four years ago, Ben Pundole returned to his life as vice president of brand experience at Edition Hotels with a new purpose: to purify the boutique hotel chain of plastics. The Miami Beach, London and Manhattan properties reached a purge mark of 80 to 90 percent on Earth Day. To achieve his goal, Pundole switched over to bamboo for the food containers, combs and toothbrushes and to cans for the gym and turndown service. Edition plans to open seven hotels in the next 18 months and all will adhere to Pundole's Burning Man revelation. Bruno Correa, who founded Bee + Hive, an association of eco-minded hotels, parks and restaurants, started with "the low-hanging fruit." The seven properties in Brazil, Sweden, Zimbabwe, Australia and Georgia will offer paper - not plastic - straws. "When people ask for a straw," he said, "we can use this as an opportunity to educate them about the issue." Larger chains with thousands of rooms are also casting out straws. Among them: Anantara and Avani Hotels & Resorts in Asia, Australasia, Europe and the Middle East; Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts; India-based Taj Hotels; AccorHotels in North and Central America; and Marriott, which has removed straws at 60 British properties and replaced toiletry bottles with shower dispensers at 1,500 North American hotels. The company expects to triple the number of hotels with the refillable containers by the end of the year. Some Hilton hotels are testing edible straws made of sugar and cornstarch and everything eco-nice. Its China properties are pulling water bottles from meeting rooms, events, gyms and spas, saving more than 13 million bottles a year. In Australia, nearly 20 hotels tout no plastics, down to the pens and laundry bags. During Earth Week, Hilton Los Cabos became the first hotel in Mexico to eighty-six straws. Iberostar Group is on a mission to clear all plastic from its 36 Spain hotels by this summer and its 110 properties around the world by 2019. The decision translates to 2.5 million fewer plastic items besmirching the environment. Going BYO When packing, follow the BYO principle. At the very minimum, carry a refillable bottle that can handle hot and cold liquids and a metal spork, because ice cream is mandatory at every destination. If you subsist on food truck and takeout fare, toss in camping-style plates, cups and utensils, including chopsticks, which can double as a coffee stirrer. Fancy a reusable straw? Pick your flavor: stainless-steel, paper, glass, bamboo and even pasta. For shopping excursions, bring collapsible bags that can accommodate purchases of various sizes and heft. Don't forget a mesh or cloth sack for laundry and muddy shoes. On planes, Cohen suggests you forgo the plastic cup on the beverage cart and instead hold out your reusable chalice and smile. Contamination is a concern; the flight attendant will pour high so that the lip of the serving bottle doesn't kiss your container. Countries with unsafe tap water is one of the biggest challenges for the plastic-averse. (Even travelers who embrace plastic should be careful in developing countries, which may use a cheap material that can leach into the liquid.) If you are staying at a hotel with treated water, fill up your flask each day. If your room has a kettle, boil water then let it cool and pour it into your vessel. Also, hydrate creatively. In India, Cohen drank hot chai and carbonated water sold in glass bottles. When Nunez visits Belize and Mexico, she prepares her own potable water with a SteriPEN, a UV-powered water purifier. She also recommends Sawyer Mini for rural areas with turbid water and LifeStraw for everywhere else. The filtration system doesn't just remove bacteria and chemicals; it also keeps up to 8,000 water bottles off the streets and out of our oceans. Credit: Andrea Sachs
Subject: Resorts & spas; Plastics; Hotels & motels; Cities
Location: Mexico New York Belize Canada India Central America Rwanda Europe
Publication title: The Washington Post; Washington, D.C.
First page: F.5
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 3, 2018
Section: TRAVEL
Publisher: WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post
Place of publication: Washington, D.C.
Country of publication: United States, Washington, D.C.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
ISSN: 01908286
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2048871080
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2048871080?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post Jun 3, 2018
Last updated: 2018-06-03
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 267 of 474
Brazil: Basic data
Publication info: EIU ViewsWire ; New York [New York]05 June 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Brazil: Basic data
Land area
8,547,400 sq km. Population
207.7m (2017 estimate) Main cities
Population at last census (2012 official estimate; m) São Paulo: 11.4 Rio de Janeiro: 6.4 Salvador: 2.7 Brasília (capital): 2.6 Fortaleza: 2.5 Belo Horizonte: 2.4 Climate
Mainly tropical and sub-tropical; mild on the southern coast and in the higher regions Weather in São Paulo (altitude 760 metres)
Hottest month, December, 23-30°C; coldest month, June, 15-22°C, average monthly minimum and maximum; driest month, August; wettest month, February Language
Portuguese Measures
Metric system Currency
Real (R); average exchange rate in 2017: R3.2:US$1 Time
The states along the coast, as well as eastern Pará, Brasília-DF, Minas Gerais, Goiás and Tocantins, are three hours behind GMT (official time in Brazil); the states of Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Rondônia, most of Amazonas, Roraima and western Pará are four hours behind GMT; the states of Acre and the south-western part of Amazonas are five hours behind GMT Public holidays
January 1st (New Year's Day); February 10th-14th (Carnival); March 30th (Good Friday); April 21st (Tiradentes); May 1st (Labour Day); September 7th (Independence Day); October 12th (Nossa Senhora Aparecida, the patron saint of Brazil; also Children's Day); November 2nd (All Saints' Day); November 15th (Proclamation of the Republic); December 25th (Christmas Day)
Subject: Economic conditions; Economic indicators; Background
Location: Brazil Latin America
Publication title: EIU ViewsWire; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 5, 2018
Publisher: The Economist Intelligence Unit N.A., Incorporated
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Political Science--International Relations
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2050169480
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2050169480?accountid=4840
Copyright: (c) 2018 The Economist Intelligence Unit Ltd. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. No further reproduction is permitted.
Last updated: 2018-06-06
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 268 of 474
FTSE Falls, Basic Materials Sector Leads Losses
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]05 June 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
U.K. stocks slipped Tuesday, as Royal Bank of Scotland shares came under pressure after the U.K. government sold part of its a stake in the lender at a loss.
The FTSE 100 index fell, led by losses in the basic materials sector. The consumer goods, oil and gas and consumer goods sectors rose. London's blue-chip benchmark on Monday climbed 0.5% and notched its highest close since May 23, according to FactSet data.
The pound traded at $1.3317, little changed from $1.3312 late Monday in New York.
The blue-chip stock index was wobbling, lacking a catalyst to drive decisive action, after settling at a near two-week high in the prior session.
On the corporate level, Royal Bank of Scotland shares were heading toward their worst loss since mid-September. Overnight, the U.K. government sold a portion of its stake in the lender at a 3.5% discount to RBS's closing price on Monday. The shares sold at GBP2.71 for a total of GBP2.51 billion ($3.34 billion). British taxpayers paid on average GBP5 per RBS share during a bailout 10 years ago.
The government has slowly been offloading the state's holding in RBS, re-privatizing the bank it stepped in to save during the financial crisis a decade ago.
"The RBS share price has bounced back from its slump after the EU referendum, but the taxpayer's still going to be significantly out of pocket as the government sells down its stake," said Laith Khalaf, senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, in a late Monday note.
"As a business RBS remains a work in progress, and consequently an investment for recovery investors with a long-term investment horizon," he said.
RBS shares dropped 3.2% to GBP2.72, near the selling price of the government stake.
Also among decliners, Carnival dropped 3.8% and British Airways parent International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (IAG.LN) lost 3%.
Advancers were led by steel maker Evraz and DIY retailer Kingfisher, up by 2.2% and 1.1%, respectively.
U.K. Government to Sell 7.7% Stake in RBS
The U.K. government said Tuesday it has sold a 7.7% stake in Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC, pushing on with a plan to shed its ownership in the Scottish bank at a loss.
Altitude Group Shares Rise on Increased 2017 Profit
Shares in Altitude Group PLC (ALT.LN) rose on Tuesday after the online-marketplace operator said its 2017 profit increased driven by a steep rise in revenue.
AO World FY 2018 Loss Widens Amid Competitive U.K. Market
AO World PLC (AO.LN) said Tuesday that its loss more than doubled in financial 2018, as earnings in the U.K. fell and its loss in Europe widened.
Cradle Arc to Seek Shareholder Approval to Complete Warrant Issue
Cradle Arc PLC (CRA.LN) said Tuesday that it has issued 35.7 million share warrants to a consortium of lenders, and that it will seek shareholder approval for an equal warrant issue at its annual general meeting.
Europa Oil & Gas Shares Rise on Ireland Project Estimate Upgrade
Shares of Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) PLC (EOG.LN) rose in early trade Tuesday after it said that an updated estimate has nearly doubled prospective resources at its FEL 3/13 license offshore Ireland.
FairFX Group Sees Full-Year Performance in Line
E-banking and payments company FairFX Group PLC (FFX.LN) said Tuesday that it expects its performance for the full year to be in line with market forecasts, as the two acquisitions it has made start to deliver benefits.
Gama Aviation Sees Trading Satisfactory Albeit Flat on Year
Gama Aviation PLC (GMAcA.LN) said Tuesday that trading since the start of 2018 in both its air and ground divisions has been "broadly satisfactory although flat compared with last year."
Gaming Realms Trims Pretax Loss; Sees 2018 on Target
Gaming Realms PLC (GMR.LN) said Tuesday that it narrowed its loss before tax in 2017 and that it backs its outlook for 2018.
Independent Oil & Gas to Request Extension to Approval Date for Field Plan
Independent Oil & Gas PLC (IOG.LN) said on Tuesday that it intends to request an extension for approval for its southern North Sea field development plan, to continue testing of its Thames pipeline.
Johnston Press Backs 2018 Views as Revenue Falls 9%
Johnston Press PLC (JPR.LN) said Tuesday that its expectations for 2018 were in line with market forecasts after a 9% fall in revenue in the year to date, and that it continues assessing options for the restructuring or refinancing of its bonds.
Online Blockchain Has Developed Software, Wallet for New Crypto Token
Online Blockchain PLC (OBC.LN) said Tuesday that it has developed the software and a basic wallet for a new crypto token--Brazio--and is cooperating with ADVFN PLC (AFN.LN) to develop support in Brazil, and for the initial marketing to start this month.
OPG Power Shares Rise on Gujarat Plant Review, 4Q Production Up 15%
Shares of OPG Power Ventures PLC (OPG.LN) rose in early trade Tuesday, after it said it has started a strategic review of its Gujarat power plant in India, as power production rose 15% in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2018.
Quiz FY 2018 Profit Rises, Declares First Dividend
Quiz PLC (QUIZ.LN) said Tuesday that profit before tax rose 5.4% in fiscal 2018 on increased revenue, and declared its first dividend.
Ryanair Asks EU to Act Against Strikes After Cancelling 1,100 Flights
Ryanair Holdings PLC (RY4C.DB) said Tuesday that it cancelled 1,100 flights in May and called for "immediate EU Commission action" to prevent more strikes by air-traffic controllers from disrupting the summer travel plans of European consumers.
Sound Energy Launches Farm-Out for Moroccan Gas Project
Sound Energy PLC (SOU.LN) said on Tuesday that it has begun the farm-out process for its Sidi Moktar onshore gas license in Morocco.
St. Modwen Properties Sees 2018 Performance in Line
St. Modwen Properties PLC (SMP.LN) said Tuesday that it has had a good start to 2018 and that it maintains unchanged its expectations for full-year performance.
Ten Entertainment CEO Alan Hand to Leave in December
Ten Entertainment Group PLC (TEG.LN) said on Tuesday that Chief Executive Alan Hand intends to leave the ten-pin bowling operator for personal reasons.
Shares of WYG Rise After Improved 2H Performance
Shares of WYG PLC (WYG.LN) rose in early trade Tuesday after the company said that business picked up in the second half despite a swing to a loss in fiscal 2018 as a whole.
Brexit to Influence Sterling as June 28/29 Summit Nears: UniCredit
0815 GMT - Sterling is likely to be driven by Brexit negotiations in the run-up to the EU Summit on June 28 and 29, says UniCredit. Investors may price out interest rate expectations going further, but "any positive developments [in Brexit negotiations] may outweigh the negatives" related to Bank of England's monetary policy, UniCredit says. If the Irish border issue turns out to be solved in the coming weeks, EUR/GBP could fall below 0.87. But if the U.K. and the EU fail to reach an agreement, it would "cause markets to price in a higher risk premium for sterling, potentially sending EUR/GBP back towards 0.89," Unicredit says. EUR/GBP is last flat at 0.8782.
Contact: London NewsPlus, ; +44-20-7842-9319
(END)
June 05, 2018 04:51 ET (08:51 GMT)Market News: FTSE 100 7728.40 -12.89 -0.17% FTSE 250 21114.70 +4.10 +0.02% FTSE AIM All-Share 1091.20 +2.29 +0.21% Top News: Companies News: Market Talk:
Subject: Consumer goods; Stockholders; Investments; Shareholder approval; Aviation; EU membership
Location: Ireland New York North Sea India United Kingdom--UK Brazil Europe Morocco
Company / organization: Name: Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC; NAICS: 522110, 523110; Name: Johnston Press PLC; NAICS: 511110; Name: Europa Oil & Gas; NAICS: 211111; Name: Bank of England; NAICS: 521110; Name: Ryanair Holdings PLC; NAICS: 481111, 492110; Name: International Consolidated Airlines Group SA; NAICS: 481112; Name: Royal Bank of Scotland PLC; NAICS: 522110; Name: Hargreaves Lansdown; NAICS: 523120; Name: ADVFN; NAICS: 519110
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 5, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2050259181
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2050259181?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jon es & Company Inc Jun 5, 2018
Last updated: 2018-06-06
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 269 of 474
WORLD MARKETS AT A GLANCE [Usa Region]
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]06 June 2018: 16.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: WORLD MARKETS AT A GLANCE FT.COM/MARKETSDATA Change during previous day's trading (%) S&P 500 -0.15% Nasdaq Composite 0.10% Dow Jones Ind -0.30% FTSE 100 -0.70% FTSE Eurofirst 300 -0.32% Nikkei 0.28% Hang Seng 0.31% FTSE All World $ -0.12% $ per € -0.256% $ per £ 0.075% ¥ per $ 0.155% £ per € -0.228% Oil Brent $ Sep -0.71% Gold $ 0.07% Stock Market movements over last 30 days, with the FTSE All-World in the same currency as a comparison AMERICAS EUROPE ASIA May 06 - - Index All World May 06 - Jun 05 Index All World May 06 - Jun 05 Index All World May 06 - Jun 05 Index All World May 06 - Jun 05 Index All World May 06 - Jun 05 Index All World S&P 500 New York 2,663.42 2,742.71 Day -0.15% Month 2.98% Year 12.45% Nasdaq Composite New York 7,209.62 7,614.21 Day 0.10% Month 5.61% Year 20.74% Dow Jones Industrial New York 24,262.51 24,739.78 Day -0.30% Month 1.96% Year 16.65% S&P/TSX COMP Toronto 15,729.40 16,114.72 Day 0.39% Month 2.47% Year 4.59% IPC Mexico City 46,474.70 45,185.23 Day -0.13% Month -3.86% Year -8.90% Bovespa São Paulo 83,118.03 77,689.77 Day -1.15% Month -6.56% Year 24.36% FTSE 100 London 7,502.69 7,686.80 Day -0.70% Month 1.61% Year 2.17% FTSE Eurofirst 300 Europe 1,527.70 1,512.64 Day -0.32% Month -0.32% Year -1.70% CAC 40 Paris 5,531.42 5,460.95 Day -0.22% Month -1.00% Year 2.20% Xetra Dax Frankfurt 12,819.60 12,787.13 Day 0.13% Month 0.95% Year NaN% Ibex 35 Madrid 10,140.90 9,686.40 Day -0.66% Month -4.13% Year -11.18% FTSE MIB Milan 24,544.26 21,750.15 Day -1.18% Month -10.62% Year 4.97% Nikkei 225 Tokyo 22,467.16 22,539.54 Day 0.28% Month 0.30% Year 11.71% Hang Seng Hong Kong 29,926.50 31,093.45 Day 0.31% Month 3.90% Year 19.94% Shanghai Composite Shanghai 3,136.64 3,114.21 Day 0.87% Month 0.75% Year 0.28% Kospi Seoul 2,461.38 2,453.76 Day 0.25% Month -0.31% Year 3.46% FTSE Straits Times Singapore 3,545.38 3,483.16 Day 0.45% Month -1.72% Year 7.54% BSE Sensex Mumbai 35,208.14 34,903.21 Day -0.31% Month -0.03% Year 11.61% Country Index Latest Previous Country Index Latest Previous Country Index Latest Previous Country Index Latest Previous Country Index Latest Previous Country Index Latest Previous Argentina Merval 30031.99 29036.15 Australia All Ordinaries 6108.50 6138.60 S&P/ASX 200 5994.90 6025.50 S&P/ASX 200 Res 4323.50 4373.50 Austria ATX 3268.10 3333.86 Belgium BEL 20 3799.15 3834.90 BEL Mid 7515.27 7523.24 Brazil Bovespa 77689.77 78596.06 Canada S&P/TSX 60 951.91 948.89 S&P/TSX Comp 16114.72 16052.24 S&P/TSX Div Met & Min 1022.16 1024.17 Chile IGPA Gen 28049.18 28097.55 China FTSE A200 10068.64 9977.63 FTSE B35 9000.71 8988.96 Shanghai A 3261.76 3233.58 Shanghai B 309.69 306.01 Shanghai Comp 3114.21 3087.27 Shenzhen A 1859.03 1827.85 Shenzhen B 1123.85 1112.42 Colombia COLCAP 1564.47 1546.71 Croatia CROBEX 1842.85 1838.84 Cyprus CSE M&P Gen 68.46 68.68 Czech Republic PX 1073.24 1080.00 Denmark OMXC Copenahgen 20 988.85 990.98 Egypt EGX 30 16675.31 16675.31 Estonia OMX Tallinn 1246.00 1244.94 Finland OMX Helsinki General 10290.07 10298.47 France CAC 40 5460.95 5472.91 SBF 120 4374.98 4384.35 Germany M-DAX 26688.98 26641.13 TecDAX 2831.70 2815.48 XETRA Dax 12787.13 12770.75 Greece Athens Gen 789.32 778.57 FTSE/ASE 20 2077.43 2047.58 Hong Kong Hang Seng 31093.45 30997.98 HS China Enterprise 12259.32 12249.58 HSCC Red Chip 4712.49 4691.32 Hungary Bux 36677.56 37194.37 India BSE Sensex 34903.21 35011.89 Nifty 500 9110.50 9175.90 Indonesia Jakarta Comp 5885.10 5994.60 Ireland ISEQ Overall 7161.98 7182.42 Israel Tel Aviv 125 1371.49 1365.05 Italy FTSE Italia All-Share 23973.72 24219.63 FTSE Italia Mid Cap 41167.46 41150.88 FTSE MIB 21750.15 22009.95 Japan 2nd Section 7226.39 7221.98 Nikkei 225 22539.54 22475.94 S&P Topix 150 1426.40 1425.81 Topix 1774.96 1774.69 Jordan Amman SE 2078.36 2081.59 Kenya NSE 20 3353.08 3344.88 Kuwait KSX Market Index 6633.44 6603.51 Latvia OMX Riga 1051.58 1045.06 Lithuania OMX Vilnius 708.41 710.77 Luxembourg LuxX 1682.63 1672.96 Malaysia FTSE Bursa KLCI 1755.14 1755.17 Mexico IPC 45185.23 45243.98 Morocco MASI 12257.00 12247.40 Netherlands AEX 562.78 561.69 AEX All Share 833.14 832.64 New Zealand NZX 50 8757.04 8636.16 Nigeria SE All Share 36816.29 38104.54 Norway Oslo All Share 999.71 1004.97 Pakistan KSE 100 43702.58 43268.29 Philippines Manila Comp 7685.76 7579.61 Poland Wig 58870.98 58206.49 Portugal PSI 20 5584.67 5584.20 PSI General 3237.21 3240.35 Romania BET Index 8255.77 8093.25 Russia Micex Index 2285.53 2285.76 RTX 1170.49 1179.78 Saudi-Arabia TADAWUL All Share Index 8335.39 8329.55 Singapore FTSE Straits Times 3483.16 3467.48 Slovakia SAX 334.24 330.54 Slovenia SBI TOP 893.69 889.86 South Africa FTSE/JSE All Share 57779.11 57870.89 FTSE/JSE Res 20 40910.84 40139.17 FTSE/JSE Top 40 51413.93 51404.55 South Korea Kospi 2453.76 2447.76 Kospi 200 315.76 314.84 Spain IBEX 35 9686.40 9750.30 Sri Lanka CSE All Share 6409.51 6394.93 Sweden OMX Stockholm 30 1562.40 1564.73 OMX Stockholm AS 579.07 579.39 Switzerland SMI Index 8538.31 8634.42 Taiwan Weighted Pr 11100.11 11109.50 Thailand Bangkok SET 1732.71 1721.29 Turkey BIST 100 116840.94 116315.98 UAE Abu Dhabi General Index 4577.15 4566.05 UK FT 30 3309.20 3334.20 FTSE 100 7686.80 7741.29 FTSE 4Good UK 6920.35 6969.46 FTSE All Share 4233.76 4259.90 FTSE techMARK 100 4770.45 4778.14 USA DJ Composite 8255.88 8298.82 DJ Industrial 24739.78 24813.69 DJ Transport 10711.91 10814.04 DJ Utilities 675.66 679.45 Nasdaq 100 7150.89 7143.57 Nasdaq Cmp 7614.21 7606.46 NYSE Comp 12634.03 12673.91 S&P 500 2742.71 2746.87 Wilshire 5000 28626.99 28654.26 Venezuela IBC 36840.34 36840.34 Vietnam VNI 1022.74 1013.78 Cross-Border DJ Global Titans ($) 305.57 306.23 Euro Stoxx 50 (Eur) 3459.90 3469.57 Euronext 100 ID 1063.09 1065.05 FTSE 4Good Global ($) 6660.76 6680.10 FTSE All World ($) 340.74 341.15 FTSE E300 1512.64 1517.57 FTSE Eurotop 100 2903.30 2915.54 FTSE Global 100 ($) 1719.78 1720.34 FTSE Gold Min ($) 1427.58 1429.90 FTSE Latibex Top (Eur) 4041.90 4049.20 FTSE Multinationals ($) 1993.91 1982.06 FTSE World ($) 601.51 602.35 FTSEurofirst 100 (Eur) 4298.33 4312.86 FTSEurofirst 80 (Eur) 4858.37 4873.27 MSCI ACWI Fr ($) 516.38 512.77 MSCI All World ($) 2121.86 2109.19 MSCI Europe (Eur) 1604.24 1598.28 MSCI Pacific ($) 2848.51 2808.59 S&P Euro (Eur) 1635.32 1639.87 S&P Europe 350 (Eur) 1560.66 1565.12 S&P Global 1200 ($) 2360.80 2365.87 Stoxx 50 (Eur) 3078.74 3091.26 (c) Closed. (u) Unavaliable. † Correction. ? Subject to official recalculation. For more index coverage please see www.ft.com/worldindices. A fuller version of this table is available on the ft.com research data archive. STOCK MARKET: BIGGEST MOVERS UK MARKET WINNERS AND LOSERS AMERICA LONDON EURO MARKETS TOKYO ACTIVE STOCKS stock close Day's traded m's price change Amazon.com 38.4 1683.69 18.42 Apple 21.0 193.20 1.37 Netflix 16.4 368.72 6.91 Facebook 16.4 193.62 0.34 Nvidia 15.1 264.54 -0.31 Micron Technology 14.1 59.23 0.13 Microsoft 10.5 101.99 0.32 Alphabet 9.7 1138.15 -1.15 Alphabet 9.3 1151.54 -1.51 Bank Of America 6.2 29.09 -0.31 BIGGEST MOVERS Close Day's Day's price change chng% Ups Macy's 39.63 2.53 6.82 Gap 30.91 1.72 5.89 Mylan N.v. 40.54 2.04 5.31 Nektar Therapeutics 55.31 2.74 5.21 Kohl's 75.24 3.68 5.14 Downs Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd 101.27 -5.24 -4.92 Dentsply Sirona 41.95 -1.99 -4.53 Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd 50.78 -2.25 -4.24 Carnival 60.70 -2.64 -4.17 Vertex Pharmaceuticals orporated 144.41 -5.24 -3.50 ACTIVE STOCKS stock close Day's traded m's price change Royal Bank Of Scotland 400.5 266.00 -14.90 Bp 274.2 577.00 -1.90 Glencore 196.0 389.70 6.85 Hsbc Holdings 190.8 723.70 -7.60 Lloyds Banking 176.8 62.49 -1.10 Nex 176.1 1030.00 -7.00 British American Tobacco 176.0 3740.00 -70.50 Sky 170.9 1354.00 4.00 Unilever 170.3 4166.00 -9.50 National Grid 167.7 826.90 -12.90 BIGGEST MOVERS Close Day's Day's price change chng% Ups Alfa Fin Software Holdings 161.40 7.40 4.81 Greene King 612.40 26.20 4.47 Kaz Minerals 1024.50 36.70 3.72 Stobart Ld 238.00 8.50 3.70 Shaftesbury 960.00 28.50 3.06 Downs Stagecoach 142.70 -11.30 -7.34 Carnival 4561.00 -312.00 -6.40 Royal Bank Of Scotland 266.00 -14.90 -5.30 Btg 585.50 -31.50 -5.11 Talktalk Telecom 106.70 -4.50 -4.05 ACTIVE STOCKS stock close Day's traded m's price change Bayer Ag Na O.n. 631.2 101.10 -1.62 Unibail-rodamco 612.4 190.00 0.35 Intesa Sanpaolo 445.2 2.50 -0.10 Roche Gs 400.5 182.33 -3.47 Telefonica 355.5 7.69 -0.04 Asml Holding 341.8 178.30 5.10 Unicredit 323.6 14.05 -0.52 Sap Se O.n. 307.7 99.00 1.21 Total 302.7 52.30 -0.34 Nestle N 294.9 64.71 -0.59 BIGGEST MOVERS Close Day's Day's price change chng% Ups Seadrill 0.42 0.04 10.34 Stmicroelectronics 21.16 0.85 4.19 Asml Holding 178.30 5.10 2.94 Infineon Tech.ag Na O.n. 24.38 0.64 2.70 Accor 45.22 0.93 2.10 Downs Casino Guichard 35.33 -2.29 -6.09 Intesa Sanpaolo 2.50 -0.10 -3.83 Raiffeisen Bank Internat. Ag 26.56 -1.05 -3.80 Unicredit 14.05 -0.52 -3.56 B. Sabadell 1.43 -0.05 -3.08 ACTIVE STOCKS stock close Day's traded m's price change Toyota Motor 552.5 7345.00 -56.00 Softbank . 501.3 8032.00 170.00 Tokai Carbon Co., 417.7 2251.00 -37.00 Sony 393.1 5389.00 70.00 Mitsubishi Ufj Fin,. 298.9 680.10 -2.40 Fast Retailing Co., 294.0 47140.00 60.00 Takeda Pharmaceutical 243.0 4296.00 53.00 Sumitomo Mitsui Fin,. 224.4 4576.00 -32.00 Tokyo Electron 213.5 21125.00 260.00 Mizuho Fin,. 184.2 192.80 -1.30 BIGGEST MOVERS Close Day's Day's price change chng% Ups Astellas Pharma . 1738.50 39.00 2.29 Eisai Co., 8226.00 181.00 2.25 Mitsui Eng & Shipbuilding Co., 1530.00 33.00 2.20 Softbank . 8032.00 170.00 2.16 Dowa Holdings Co., 3660.00 70.00 1.95 Downs Jgc 2209.00 -78.00 -3.41 Toto 5630.00 -180.00 -3.10 Otsuka Holdings Co., 5332.00 -167.00 -3.04 Inpex 1195.50 -37.00 -3.00 Chiyoda 928.00 -24.00 -2.52 Based on the constituents of the S&P500 Based on the constituents of the FTSE 350 index Based on the constituents of the FTSEurofirst 300 Eurozone index Based on the constituents of the Nikkei 225 index Jun 05 %Chg %Chg FTSE 100 price(p) week ytd Winners Johnson Matthey 3731.00 10.4 21.6 Burberry 2141.00 7.3 20.1 Antofagasta 1114.00 6.9 11.3 Evraz 515.00 6.3 45.2 Anglo American 1858.80 6.1 16.5 Informa 802.00 5.4 11.2 Crh 2793.00 5.4 5.4 Glencore 389.70 5.1 -1.1 Smith (ds) 572.00 3.8 11.3 Bhp Billiton 1736.40 3.6 13.6 Intertek 5652.00 3.2 10.3 Bp 577.00 3.2 11.5 Losers Taylor Wimpey 187.00 -7.1 -10.1 Smurfit Kappa 2920.00 -6.6 18.2 National Grid 826.90 -6.0 -4.1 Mediclinic Int 581.40 -5.8 -10.4 Carnival 4561.00 -5.8 -7.0 Nmc Health 3434.00 -5.4 19.7 Royal Bank Of Scotland 266.00 -5.0 -4.1 Royal Mail 492.10 -4.8 8.1 Old Mutual 232.90 -3.4 1.8 Marks And Spencer 288.30 -3.3 -8.8 Shire 3969.00 -3.0 2.0 Lloyds Banking 62.49 -2.8 -7.7 Jun 05 %Chg %Chg FTSE 250 price(p) week ytd Winners Mercantile Investment Trust (the) 222.65 1.0 2.4 Bank Of Georgia 2047.00 9.8 -42.2 Euromoney Institutional Investor 1360.00 8.5 7.3 Tbc Bank 1708.00 6.4 -2.3 Grafton 776.50 3.3 -2.4 Fidelity China Special Situations 264.50 3.1 9.5 Nex 1030.00 3.1 69.5 Schroder Asiapacific Fund 480.00 3.0 2.1 Bakkavor 206.00 3.0 6.7 Templeton Emerging Markets Investment Trust 736.00 1.7 -6.0 Pantheon Int 2010.00 1.8 7.5 Rdi Reit P.l.c. 37.25 1.4 3.2 Losers Alfa Fin Software Holdings 161.40 -48.8 -70.2 Firstgroup 92.30 -19.1 -15.2 Card Factory 197.90 -11.4 -32.7 Talktalk Telecom 106.70 -8.3 -28.9 Go-ahead 1678.00 -8.8 9.8 Contourglobal 214.00 -9.3 -18.0 Stagecoach 142.70 -8.5 -14.2 Esure 226.80 -5.5 -10.1 Hunting 796.00 -4.2 31.4 Auto Trader 353.60 -3.0 0.2 On The Beach 470.00 -2.5 -1.7 Btg 585.50 -3.5 -22.4 Jun 05 %Chg %Chg FTSE SmallCap price(p) week ytd Winners Renold 30.00 16.7 -37.6 Vp 977.00 8.1 11.4 Pacific Horizon Investment Trust 388.00 4.0 19.4 Luceco 64.60 7.7 -41.5 Allied Minds 113.80 6.0 -31.0 Huntsworth 106.00 5.5 29.9 Findel 243.00 5.0 18.8 Ricardo 1045.00 5.1 16.4 Dialight 526.00 7.1 -2.6 Dunedin Smaller Companies Investment Trust 282.50 2.9 4.2 Hilton Food 940.00 4.4 10.6 Montanaro Eur Smaller C. Tst 865.00 1.8 6.1 Losers Photo-me Int 111.60 -26.3 -40.1 Ophir Energy 49.20 -20.8 -27.0 Xaar 295.00 -13.1 -18.3 Hansard Global 59.80 -11.5 -31.7 Dignity 1081.00 -10.5 -40.6 Carpetright 35.00 -8.9 -16.1 Foxtons 67.50 -9.4 -18.6 Arrow Global 264.50 -8.0 -32.6 Sabre Insurance 241.00 -7.3 -10.7 The Gym 247.00 -5.2 12.3 Clipper Logistics 418.00 -5.6 -10.1 Sthree 316.50 -4.4 -14.5 Jun 05 %Chg %Chg Industry Sectors price(p) week ytd Winners Industrial Metals 4866.49 5.4 26.5 Chemicals 16308.57 5.0 15.3 Mining 19908.01 4.0 6.3 Construction & Materials 6873.10 4.0 5.2 Electronic & Electrical Equip. 7229.53 2.5 9.9 Automobiles & Parts 10352.65 2.4 41.2 Industrial Engineering 13569.90 2.3 8.6 Support Services 8516.14 2.3 6.4 Oil & Gas Producers 9663.43 2.2 7.1 Real Estate Investment Trusts 3168.21 1.8 0.2 General Retailers 2520.45 1.7 -0.8 Aerospace & Defense 5230.59 1.6 7.1 Losers Gas Water & Multiutilities 4955.93 -3.6 -4.1 Electricity 7969.09 -1.6 3.3 Household Goods 16617.74 -1.5 - Food Producers 7755.39 -1.4 -6.8 Tobacco 41777.47 -1.0 - Industrial Transportation 3381.43 -0.6 1.7 Banks 4357.26 -0.6 -5.6 Media 8075.88 -0.4 6.8 Fixed Line Telecommunication 2385.55 -0.3 - Health Care Equip.& Services 8004.98 -0.3 5.8 Real Estate & Investment Servic 2916.00 -0.2 -0.4 Travel & Leisure 10398.17 -0.2 2.1 Based on last week's performance. †Price at suspension. MARKET DATA
Subject: REITs; Investments; Stock exchanges
Location: China Mexico Hong Kong New York United Kingdom--UK Singapore Europe
Company / organization: Name: Sao Paulo Stock Exchange; NAICS: 523210
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 16
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 6, 2018
Section: Companies and Markets
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2065180498
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2065180498?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Jun 6, 2018
Last updated: 2018-07-07
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 270 of 474
Brazilica Announce Main Stage Programme For Saturday’s Festival Day
Publication info: M2 Presswire ; Coventry [Coventry]07 June 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: M2 PRESSWIRE-June 7, 2018-Brazilica Announce Main Stage Programme For Saturday’s Festival Day (C)2018 M2 COMMUNICATIONS http://www.m2.com June 7, 2018 Brazilica Festival is one of Liverpool's most eagerly anticipated events of the year, and today organisers of Liverpool's International Samba Carnival can reveal the main stage line-up for 2018. An array of exciting and talented musicians from across the globe will bring the pulsating sounds of Brazilian/Afro Latin music to the banks of the Mersey on Saturday 14 July, with acts taking to the stage from 12 - 8pm. The festival returns to the Pier Head Village located on the city's world heritage waterfront which will be transformed by colourful carnival action in what is now Brazilica's 11th consecutive year. Agathe Iracema brings her own unique blend of Brazilian music to the festival. The French/Brazilian artist has been singing since the age of fifteen and has toured the world performing at international jazz festivals. Percussion driven electronic quartet Penya will have crowds moving with their tribal, alternative dance floor take on Afro-Latin inspired beats. Led by producer and multi-instrumentalist Magnus PI the group will be playing tracks from their debut album Super Liminal. Described as "seriously funky" by BBC Radio 6, The Fontanas upbeat live set is guaranteed to get audiences in the carnival spirit. Their sound consists of Brazilian funk and jump up Latin Ska sure to whip the crowd in to a funky frenzy. With cultural influences ranging from Brazil, Angola and Portugal, Sueli G's vocal style references the great luminaries of the past Elizete Cardoso and Elis Regina making her an unmissable addition to this year's festival. Completing the main stage programme is Rio de Janeiro born singer-songwriter Aleh Ferreira whose versatile composing skills infuse Latin funk, Afro-soul, reggae and samba rock that will have the main stage a buzz with samba sounds. Alleh's sound combines a range of influences from Jorge Ben Jor, and Tim Maia to music legends Marvin Gaye and Bob Marley. There will also be top Carnival DJ's taking to the stage keeping the samba beats going, performing throughout the day from 12pm-8pm. For full line up and timings visit www.facebook.com/brazilicafestival Maeve Morris, Artistic Director of Liverpool Carnival Company, said: "We have another fantastic line up of Latin infused music for this year's festival and we can't wait to see crowds dancing along to the Brazilica beats. Music is a huge component in the festival and we are delighted with our 2018 line up." ((Comments on this story may be sent to [email protected]))
Subject: Music festivals; Latin music
Location: Portugal Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil Angola
People: Gaye, Marvin Jr (1939-84)
Company / organization: Name: BBC Radio 6; NAICS: 515111
Publication title: M2 Presswire; Coventry
Publication year: 2018
Publicationdate: Jun 7, 2018
Publisher: Normans Media Ltd
Place of publication: Coventry
Country of publication: United Kingdom, Coventry
Publication subject: Communications
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2051027317
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2051027317?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright © M2 Communications, 2018
Last updated: 2018-06-07
Database: SciTech Premium Collection
Document 271 of 474
NASDAQ New 52-Week Highs And Lows -2-
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]07 June 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
(END)
June 07, 2018 12:18 ET (16:18 GMT)Invesco S&P SC Financials PSCF 59.38 2,776 Invsc S&P SC Health Care PSCH 129.38 34,106 Invsc S&P SC Info Tech PSCT 85.95 6,453 iRhythm Technologies IRTC 81.85 91,927 iSh Core S&P U.S. Growth IUSG 58.92 181,015 iSh Gl Timber & Forestry WOOD 83.88 17,192 iShares S&P SC 600 Growth IJT 193.51 30,917 Jack Henry & Associates JKHY 129.66 64,081 Janus S/MC Growth Alpha JSMD 43.95 2,367 Jazz Pharmaceuticals JAZZ 176.62 288,099 Krystal Biotech KRYS 13.00 36,197 LivaNova LIVN 96.83 129,263 LivePerson LPSN 22.40 216,797 Logitech International LOGI 44.38 289,711 Lonestar Resources US A LONE 7.55 109,411 MB Financial MBFI 51.59 307,961 MYR Group MYRG 40.81 18,963 Macatawa Bank MCBC 12.65 14,570 MakeMyTrip MMYT 38.75 99,578 Medallion Financial MFIN 5.68 133,820 Mercer International MERC 16.70 103,673 Microchip Technology MCHP 103.42 972,765 Microsoft MSFT 102.69 9,218,730 Mirati Therapeutics MRTX 46.40 1,513,450 Mobile Mini MINI 48.65 54,083 Monolithic Power Systems MPWR 137.80 62,462 Morningstar MORN 126.88 27,911 NF Energy Saving NFEC 3.85 160,625 Nasdaq NDAQ 95.71 433,249 National Commerce NCOM 47.35 6,108 Navigators Group NAVG 61.30 15,121 NetApp NTAP 75.40 1,345,670 Northwest Bancshares NWBI 17.88 84,820 NuCana ADR NCNA 32.00 17,407 Nuvectra NVTR 19.54 52,859 Nuv NASDAQ 100 Dyn Over QQQX 28.16 59,645 O'Reilly Automotive ORLY 287.66 313,076 OceanFirst Financial OCFC 30.83 80,327 Ohio Valley Banc OVBC 54.65 2,675 Okta Cl A OKTA 61.00 4,504,913 Oncolytics Biotech ONCY 7.40 22,787 Ophthotech OPHT 4.40 11,931,085 Osprey Energy Acqn Un OSPRU 11.10 500 PC Connection CNXN 31.00 51,651 PRA Group PRAA 40.85 40,121 PTC Inc. PTC 89.45 213,077 PacWest Bancorp PACW 55.69 192,462 Paylocity Holding PCTY 62.20 58,090 People's Utah Bancorp PUB 38.10 23,721 Peoples Bancorp (Ohio) PEBO 38.75 35,520 Phibro Animal Health PAHC 48.40 16,397 Preferred Bank LA PFBC 67.67 13,263 Primo Water PRMW 17.89 108,358 QAD Cl A QADA 55.00 55,408 REGENXBIO RGNX 57.98 249,386 R1 RCM RCM 9.27 295,477 Radware RDWR 24.14 45,872 Renasant RNST 49.78 115,901 Republic Bancorp KY Cl A RBCAA 47.98 1,920 Rhythm Pharmaceuticals RYTM 34.99 35,972 RiceBran Technologies RIBT 1.70 213,965 S&T Bancorp STBA 46.44 11,339 SIGA Technologies SIGA 7.33 85,982 Sabre Corp. SABR 25.61 740,468 Sandy Spring Bancorp SASR 43.87 117,948 Seacoast Banking of FL SBCF 32.24 54,614 Seattle Genetics SGEN 66.94 368,520 Semtech SMTC 51.40 144,390 ServisFirst Bancshares SFBS 44.72 20,206 Shoe Carnival SCVL 34.63 49,622 ShotSpotter SSTI 36.64 177,758 Sierra Bancorp BSRR 29.73 10,520 Silicon Laboratories SLAB 110.70 71,693 Simmons First Natl Cl A SFNC 33.45 65,303 Simulations Plus SLP 20.20 8,666 Sonic SONC 30.35 1,473,601 Splunk SPLK 119.15 990,408 Stamps.com STMP 264.00 50,063 State Auto Financial STFC 33.02 6,096 State Bank Financial STBZ 34.97 131,965 Steven Madden SHOO 55.25 82,947 TFS Financial TFSL 16.56 37,490 T Rowe Price Group TROW 127.43 351,739 Timberland Bancorp TSBK 35.84 5,108 Tonix Pharmaceuticals TNXP 5.11 1,043,387 Transcat TRNS 19.95 2,610 Trident Acquisitions Un TDACU 10.12 59,450 21st Century Fox Cl B FOX 39.06 953,411 Ultimate Software Group ULTI 274.38 80,088 Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical RARE 80.32 366,577 Umpqua Holdings UMPQ 24.81 660,821 Union Bankshares UBSH 42.31 165,298 Utd Community Banks UCBI 34.10 115,768 Utd Community Fincl UCFC 10.90 245,761 United Fire Group UFCS 56.67 20,640 Urban Outfitters URBN 47.22 923,890 Vanguard Russ 1000 Growth VONG 150.92 14,343 Vanguard Russell 2000 VTWO 134.30 47,998 Vanguard Russ 2000 Growth VTWG 151.98 5,956 Vanguard Russ 2000 Value VTWV 117.17 1,808 Verastem VSTM 6.43 1,790,500 Verint Systems VRNT 44.70 128,320 VeriSign VRSN 137.65 159,389 Verisk Analytics VRSK 109.59 199,491 Veritex Holdings VBTX 32.62 33,746 VicSh US SC Vol Wtd CSA 49.26 2,421 WD-40 WDFC 143.50 13,417 WSFS Financial WSFS 54.85 12,708 Washington Trust Bancorp WASH 63.25 7,607 WesBanco WSBC 48.37 29,366 WisTree US SmCp Qlty Div DGRS 37.20 40,347 Xencor Inc. XNCR 43.39 85,027 Zebra Technologies Cl A ZBRA 159.83 69,836 Zillow Group Cl C Z 62.54 339,533 Zillow Group Cl A ZG 62.39 133,392 Zscaler ZS 42.16 6,432,269 Zynga ZNGA 4.57 5,705,490 New Lows 21 COMPANY SYMBOL LOW VOLUME ------- ------ ---- ------ BGC Partners Cl A BGCP 10.65 1,914,123 Clearfield CLFD 10.35 5,044 DHX Media DHXM 2.45 13,905 FT Brazil AlphaDEX FBZ 12.43 20,372 FT Latin Am AlphaDEX FLN 17.89 39,393 IZEA IZEA 1.13 693,176 JMU ADR JMU 0.45 17,881 LM Funding America LMFA 0.45 84,315 Midatech Pharma ADR MTP 0.66 28,796 MiMedx Group MDXG 5.79 9,440,846 Neos Therapeutics NEOS 6.04 1,269,456 One Horizon Group OHGI 0.49 215,958 Oxbridge Re Holdings OXBR 1.00 131,438 Pure Acquisition Cl A PACQ 9.61 877,000 Quarterhill QTRH 1.20 217,340 ReShape Lifesciences RSLS 3.21 150,478 Rocky Mountain Chocolate RMCF 10.88 3,197 scPharmaceuticals SCPH 7.93 81,798 TrovaGene TROV 1.84 479,144 VS 2x VIX Short Term TVIX 4.19 19,332,855 Vodafone Group ADR VOD 25.27 4,508,225 s-Split or stock dividend of 10 percent or more in the past 52 weeks. n-New issue in past 52 weeks and does not cover the entire 52 week period. Source: WSJ Market Data Group
Subject: Bank acquisitions & mergers; Pharmaceuticals
Location: Ohio Valley Brazil Utah United States--US Ohio
Company / organization: Name: Ultimate Software Group Inc; NAICS: 511210; Name: BGC Partners; NAICS: 523120; Name: Nasdaq Stock Market Inc; NAICS: 523210; Name: NetApp Inc; NAICS: 334112, 518210; Name: Shoe Carnival Inc; NAICS: 448210; Name: Horizon Group; NAICS: 531210; Name: Xencor Inc; NAICS: 325412, 541711; Name: PacWest Bancorp; NAICS: 551111; Name: Vodafone Group PLC; NAICS: 517210; Name: MB Financial Inc; NAICS: 551111; Name: Phibro Animal Health Corp; NAICS: 311119, 325412, 333131; Name: Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc; NAICS: 325413; Name: RiceBran Technologies; NAICS: 311212; Name: Jazz Pharmaceuticals; NAICS: 325412; Name: iRhythm Technologies Inc; NAICS: 334510; Name: PTC Inc; NAICS: 511210; Name: LivaNova PLC; NAICS: 339112; Name: Zynga Game Network Inc; NAICS: 511210; Name: 21st Century Fox; NAICS: 515120; Name: Microsoft Corp; NAICS: 334614, 511210; Name: Mirati Therapeutics Inc; NAICS: 325412; Name: Primo Water Corp; NAICS: 424490; Name: O Reilly Automotive Inc; NAICS: 441310; Name: Jack Henry & Associates Inc; NAICS: 511210, 522320; Name: Veritex Holdings; NAICS: 551111
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 7, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2051445530
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2051445530?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Jun 7, 2018
Last updated: 2018-06-08
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 272 of 474
NASDAQ New 52-Week Highs And Lows -2-
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]07 June 2018. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
(END)
June 07, 2018 11:18 ET (15:18 GMT)iRhythm Technologies IRTC 81.85 44,382 iSh Core S&P U.S. Growth IUSG 58.92 146,892 iSh Gl Timber & Forestry WOOD 83.88 6,122 iShares S&P SC 600 Growth IJT 193.51 19,342 Jack Henry & Associates JKHY 129.66 45,038 Janus S/MC Growth Alpha JSMD 43.95 1,788 Jazz Pharmaceuticals JAZZ 176.62 225,228 Krystal Biotech KRYS 13.00 24,607 LivaNova LIVN 96.83 64,688 LivePerson LPSN 22.40 157,920 Logitech International LOGI 44.38 209,233 MB Financial MBFI 51.59 235,597 MYR Group MYRG 40.81 16,021 Macatawa Bank MCBC 12.63 11,960 MakeMyTrip MMYT 38.75 70,771 Microchip Technology MCHP 103.42 687,078 Microsoft MSFT 102.69 5,516,867 Mobile Mini MINI 48.65 26,634 Monolithic Power Systems MPWR 137.80 27,928 Morningstar MORN 126.82 14,017 NF Energy Saving NFEC 3.78 84,828 Nasdaq NDAQ 95.71 235,092 National Commerce NCOM 47.35 4,192 Navigators Group NAVG 61.30 8,278 NetApp NTAP 75.40 892,744 Northwest Bancshares NWBI 17.88 46,980 NuCana ADR NCNA 32.00 15,642 Nuvectra NVTR 19.54 26,296 O'Reilly Automotive ORLY 284.97 164,657 OceanFirst Financial OCFC 30.75 61,172 Ohio Valley Banc OVBC 54.65 2,169 Okta Cl A OKTA 61.00 3,060,579 Oncolytics Biotech ONCY 7.40 14,489 Ophthotech OPHT 3.82 7,165,831 Osprey Energy Acqn Un OSPRU 11.10 500 PC Connection CNXN 31.00 39,777 PRA Group PRAA 40.85 24,011 PTC Inc. PTC 89.45 90,027 PacWest Bancorp PACW 55.69 122,880 Paylocity Holding PCTY 62.20 33,089 People's Utah Bancorp PUB 38.10 10,986 Peoples Bancorp (Ohio) PEBO 38.75 27,769 Phibro Animal Health PAHC 48.40 11,029 Preferred Bank LA PFBC 67.67 7,496 Primo Water PRMW 17.86 64,096 QAD Cl A QADA 55.00 30,671 REGENXBIO RGNX 57.98 177,076 R1 RCM RCM 9.27 219,882 Radware RDWR 24.14 25,629 Renasant RNST 49.78 87,103 Republic Bancorp KY Cl A RBCAA 47.98 682 Rhythm Pharmaceuticals RYTM 34.99 14,467 RiceBran Technologies RIBT 1.70 185,309 S&T Bancorp STBA 46.44 5,970 SIGA Technologies SIGA 7.33 61,119 Sabre Corp. SABR 25.61 408,201 Sandy Spring Bancorp SASR 43.87 72,980 Seacoast Banking of FL SBCF 32.24 34,960 Seattle Genetics SGEN 66.94 255,568 Semtech SMTC 51.40 94,770 ServisFirst Bancshares SFBS 44.72 14,071 Shoe Carnival SCVL 34.63 28,972 ShotSpotter SSTI 36.21 122,576 Sierra Bancorp BSRR 29.60 6,873 Silicon Laboratories SLAB 110.70 48,754 Simmons First Natl Cl A SFNC 33.45 42,946 Simulations Plus SLP 20.20 8,066 Sonic SONC 29.90 1,128,236 Splunk SPLK 119.15 659,134 Stamps.com STMP 264.00 30,312 State Auto Financial STFC 33.02 4,019 State Bank Financial STBZ 34.97 83,352 Steven Madden SHOO 55.25 63,882 TFS Financial TFSL 16.56 25,436 T Rowe Price Group TROW 127.43 225,837 Timberland Bancorp TSBK 35.84 4,247 Tonix Pharmaceuticals TNXP 5.11 992,023 Transcat TRNS 19.95 2,016 21st Century Fox Cl B FOX 39.06 491,724 Ultimate Software Group ULTI 274.38 39,012 Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical RARE 79.72 241,173 Umpqua Holdings UMPQ 24.81 376,560 Union Bankshares UBSH 42.31 90,590 Utd Community Banks UCBI 34.09 93,890 Utd Community Fincl UCFC 10.87 184,945 United Fire Group UFCS 56.67 15,333 Urban Outfitters URBN 47.22 403,846 Vanguard Russ 1000 Growth VONG 150.92 6,182 Vanguard Russell 2000 VTWO 134.30 40,606 Vanguard Russ 2000 Growth VTWG 151.98 4,215 Vanguard Russ 2000 Value VTWV 117.13 1,420 Verastem VSTM 6.43 1,086,705 Verint Systems VRNT 44.70 85,724 VeriSign VRSN 137.65 97,396 Verisk Analytics VRSK 109.59 126,611 Veritex Holdings VBTX 32.62 19,636 WD-40 WDFC 143.50 4,959 WSFS Financial WSFS 54.85 7,459 Washington Trust Bancorp WASH 63.25 5,791 WesBanco WSBC 48.37 13,210 WisTree US SmCp Qlty Div DGRS 37.20 38,865 Xencor Inc. XNCR 43.39 51,852 Zebra Technologies Cl A ZBRA 159.83 42,660 Zillow Group Cl C Z 62.54 232,475 Zillow Group Cl A ZG 62.39 89,525 Zscaler ZS 42.16 5,418,810 Zynga ZNGA 4.57 4,426,078 New Lows 20 COMPANY SYMBOL LOW VOLUME ------- ------ ---- ------ BGC Partners Cl A BGCP 10.65 1,442,795 Clearfield CLFD 10.35 3,745 DHX Media DHXM 2.45 13,904 FT Brazil AlphaDEX FBZ 12.65 19,527 FT Latin Am AlphaDEX FLN 18.12 969 IZEA IZEA 1.13 624,679 JMU ADR JMU 0.45 16,699 LM Funding America LMFA 0.45 51,948 Midatech Pharma ADR MTP 0.66 19,032 MiMedx Group MDXG 5.79 7,112,297 Neos Therapeutics NEOS 6.20 400,901 One Horizon Group OHGI 0.49 175,414 Oxbridge Re Holdings OXBR 1.00 128,540 Pure Acquisition Cl A PACQ 9.62 450,000 Quarterhill QTRH 1.20 139,065 ReShape Lifesciences RSLS 3.21 128,170 scPharmaceuticals SCPH 7.93 63,428 TrovaGene TROV 1.84 179,842 VS 2x VIX Short Term TVIX 4.19 13,726,482 Vodafone Group ADR VOD 25.27 2,769,222 s-Split or stock dividend of 10 percent or more in the past 52 weeks. n-New issue in past 52 weeks and does not cover the entire 52 week period. Source: WSJ Market Data Group
Subject: Bank acquisitions & mergers; Pharmaceuticals
Location: Ohio Valley Brazil Utah United States--US Ohio
Company / organization: Name: Ultimate Software Group Inc; NAICS: 511210; Name: BGC Partners; NAICS: 523120; Name: Nasdaq Stock Market Inc; NAICS: 523210; Name: NetApp Inc; NAICS: 334112, 518210; Name: Shoe Carnival Inc; NAICS: 448210; Name: Horizon Group; NAICS: 531210; Name: Xencor Inc; NAICS: 325412, 541711; Name: PacWest Bancorp; NAICS: 551111; Name: Vodafone Group PLC; NAICS: 517210; Name: MB Financial Inc; NAICS: 551111; Name: Phibro Animal Health Corp; NAICS: 311119, 325412, 333131; Name: Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc; NAICS: 325413; Name: RiceBran Technologies; NAICS: 311212; Name: Jazz Pharmaceuticals; NAICS: 325412; Name: iRhythm Technologies Inc; NAICS: 334510; Name: PTC Inc; NAICS: 511210; Name: LivaNova PLC; NAICS: 339112; Name: Zynga Game Network Inc; NAICS: 511210; Name: 21st Century Fox; NAICS: 515120; Name: Microsoft Corp; NAICS: 334614, 511210; Name: Primo Water Corp; NAICS: 424490; Name: O Reilly Automotive Inc; NAICS: 441310; Name: Jack Henry & Associates Inc; NAICS: 511210, 522320; Name: Veritex Holdings; NAICS: 551111
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 7, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2051445647
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2051445647?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Jun 7, 2018
Last updated: 2018-06-08
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 273 of 474
NASDAQ New 52-Week Highs And Lows -2-
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]07 June 2018. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
(MORE TO FOLLOW)
June 07, 2018 14:18 ET (18:18 GMT)Invsc DWA Tactical DWTR 30.88 99,903 Invsc FTSE US 1500 S-M PRFZ 141.35 26,645 Invsc KBW Hi Div Yd Fin KBWD 23.77 45,657 Invsc KBW Reg Banking KBWR 62.03 6,582 Invesco NASDAQ Internet PNQI 141.66 22,523 Invesco QQQ Trust I QQQ 175.93 23,853,833 Invsc S&P SC Cons Disc PSCD 67.22 14,541 Invesco S&P SC Financials PSCF 59.38 6,233 Invsc S&P SC Health Care PSCH 129.38 48,279 Invsc S&P SC Info Tech PSCT 85.95 10,533 iRhythm Technologies IRTC 81.85 197,718 iSh Core S&P U.S. Growth IUSG 58.92 259,051 iSh Gl Timber & Forestry WOOD 83.88 43,222 iShares S&P SC 600 Growth IJT 193.51 53,741 Jack Henry & Associates JKHY 129.66 104,468 Janus S/MC Growth Alpha JSMD 43.95 2,837 Jazz Pharmaceuticals JAZZ 176.62 464,870 Krystal Biotech KRYS 13.00 64,795 LivaNova LIVN 96.83 225,892 LivePerson LPSN 22.40 379,760 Logitech International LOGI 44.38 367,107 Lonestar Resources US A LONE 7.55 144,968 MB Financial MBFI 51.59 376,024 MYR Group MYRG 40.81 23,062 Macatawa Bank MCBC 12.65 26,447 MakeMyTrip MMYT 38.85 158,805 Medallion Financial MFIN 5.83 250,218 Mercer International MERC 16.95 151,934 Microchip Technology MCHP 103.42 1,302,499 Microsoft MSFT 102.69 14,237,584 Mirati Therapeutics MRTX 46.40 1,880,526 Mobile Mini MINI 48.65 72,812 Monolithic Power Systems MPWR 137.80 106,069 Morningstar MORN 126.88 46,244 NF Energy Saving NFEC 3.98 304,872 Nasdaq NDAQ 95.71 716,177 National Commerce NCOM 47.35 10,973 Navigators Group NAVG 61.30 29,283 NetApp NTAP 75.40 1,779,085 Northwest Bancshares NWBI 17.88 120,577 NuCana ADR NCNA 32.00 25,019 Nuvectra NVTR 19.54 93,887 Nuv NASDAQ 100 Dyn Over QQQX 28.19 119,266 O'Reilly Automotive ORLY 287.66 425,130 OceanFirst Financial OCFC 30.89 190,660 Ohio Valley Banc OVBC 55.02 6,672 Okta Cl A OKTA 61.00 6,337,481 Old Natl Bancorp ONB 18.95 341,572 Oncolytics Biotech ONCY 7.40 37,142 Ophthotech OPHT 4.50 19,032,061 Osprey Energy Acqn Un OSPRU 11.11 600 PC Connection CNXN 31.00 57,025 PRA Group PRAA 40.85 65,735 PTC Inc. PTC 89.45 430,827 PacWest Bancorp PACW 55.69 324,704 Parke Bancorp PKBK 22.85 4,814 Paylocity Holding PCTY 62.20 106,800 People's Utah Bancorp PUB 38.10 33,620 Peoples Bancorp (Ohio) PEBO 38.75 41,593 Phibro Animal Health PAHC 48.40 28,142 Preferred Bank LA PFBC 67.67 30,447 Primo Water PRMW 17.89 157,404 QAD Cl B QADB 43.18 7,317 QAD Cl A QADA 55.00 85,403 REGENXBIO RGNX 57.98 347,396 R1 RCM RCM 9.27 404,427 Radware RDWR 24.14 81,001 Renasant RNST 49.78 147,698 Republic Bancorp KY Cl A RBCAA 47.98 3,375 Rhythm Pharmaceuticals RYTM 34.99 59,532 RiceBran Technologies RIBT 1.70 269,235 S&T Bancorp STBA 46.44 23,828 SIGA Technologies SIGA 7.33 121,329 Sabre Corp. SABR 25.61 1,174,841 Sandy Spring Bancorp SASR 43.87 144,992 Seacoast Banking of FL SBCF 32.24 94,157 Seattle Genetics SGEN 66.94 548,753 Semtech SMTC 51.40 211,129 ServisFirst Bancshares SFBS 44.72 31,402 Shoe Carnival SCVL 34.63 79,279 ShotSpotter SSTI 36.64 240,557 Sierra Bancorp BSRR 29.73 11,388 Silicon Laboratories SLAB 110.70 162,276 Simmons First Natl Cl A SFNC 33.45 126,630 Simulations Plus SLP 20.20 15,432 Sonic SONC 30.84 2,208,327 Splunk SPLK 119.15 1,379,139 Stamps.com STMP 264.00 87,696 State Auto Financial STFC 33.02 19,708 State Bank Financial STBZ 34.97 202,616 Steven Madden SHOO 55.25 125,803 TFS Financial TFSL 16.62 70,253 T Rowe Price Group TROW 127.43 519,364 Timberland Bancorp TSBK 35.84 6,055 Tonix Pharmaceuticals TNXP 5.11 1,104,221 Transcat TRNS 19.95 3,142 Trident Acquisitions Un TDACU 10.12 95,540 21st Century Fox Cl B FOX 39.06 1,395,799 Ultimate Software Group ULTI 274.38 139,355 Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical RARE 80.32 495,293 Umpqua Holdings UMPQ 24.81 1,113,321 Union Bankshares UBSH 42.31 278,157 Utd Community Banks UCBI 34.10 154,559 Utd Community Fincl UCFC 10.95 314,268 United Fire Group UFCS 56.67 31,822 Urban Outfitters URBN 47.22 1,264,571 Vanguard Russ 1000 Growth VONG 150.92 24,671 Vanguard Russell 2000 VTWO 134.30 55,993 Vanguard Russ 2000 Growth VTWG 151.98 6,890 Vanguard Russ 2000 Value VTWV 117.17 3,727 Verastem VSTM 6.43 2,297,053 Verint Systems VRNT 44.70 333,165 VeriSign VRSN 137.65 263,653 Verisk Analytics VRSK 109.59 365,628 Veritex Holdings VBTX 32.66 67,283 VicSh US SC Vol Wtd CSA 49.26 2,902 WD-40 WDFC 143.50 20,042 WSFS Financial WSFS 54.85 25,078 Washington Trust Bancorp WASH 63.25 14,095 WesBanco WSBC 48.37 40,647 WisTree US SmCp Qlty Div DGRS 37.20 42,593 Xencor Inc. XNCR 43.39 141,652 Zebra Technologies Cl A ZBRA 159.83 123,550 Zillow Group Cl C Z 62.54 579,345 Zillow Group Cl A ZG 62.39 204,282 Zscaler ZS 42.16 7,795,408 Zynga ZNGA 4.57 7,303,447 New Lows 29 COMPANY SYMBOL LOW VOLUME ------- ------ ---- ------ BGC Partners Cl A BGCP 10.65 2,316,450 Canadian Solar CSIQ 12.07 1,416,918 Checkpoint Therapeutics CKPT 2.97 70,721 Clearfield CLFD 10.35 14,332 DHX Media DHXM 2.45 16,128 Evelo Biosciences EVLO 15.01 42,852 FT Brazil AlphaDEX FBZ 11.90 27,423 FT Latin Am AlphaDEX FLN 17.33 84,838 Hancock Jaffe Labs HJLI 4.05 12,087 IZEA IZEA 1.13 942,979 iShares MSCI Brazil SC EWZS 12.00 243,268 JMU ADR JMU 0.45 30,149 LM Funding America LMFA 0.45 134,486 Midatech Pharma ADR MTP 0.66 42,713 MiMedx Group MDXG 5.79 11,809,624 Neos Therapeutics NEOS 6.04 1,758,273
Subject: Bank acquisitions & mergers; Banking; Pharmaceuticals
Location: Ohio Valley Brazil Utah United States--US Ohio
Company / organization: Name: Ultimate Software Group Inc; NAICS: 511210; Name: BGC Partners; NAICS: 523120; Name: Nasdaq Stock Market Inc; NAICS: 523210; Name: NetApp Inc; NAICS: 334112, 518210; Name: Shoe Carnival Inc; NAICS: 448210; Name: Xencor Inc; NAICS: 325412, 541711; Name: PacWest Bancorp; NAICS: 551111; Name: MB Financial Inc; NAICS: 551111; Name: Phibro Animal Health Corp; NAICS: 311119, 325412, 333131; Name: Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc; NAICS: 325413; Name: RiceBran Technologies; NAICS: 311212; Name: Jazz Pharmaceuticals; NAICS: 325412; Name: iRhythm Technologies Inc; NAICS: 334510; Name: PTC Inc; NAICS: 511210; Name: LivaNova PLC; NAICS: 339112; Name: Zynga Game Network Inc; NAICS: 511210; Name: 21st Century Fox; NAICS: 515120; Name: Microsoft Corp; NAICS: 334614, 511210; Name: Mirati Therapeutics Inc; NAICS: 325412; Name: Primo Water Corp; NAICS: 424490; Name: O Reilly Automotive Inc; NAICS: 441310; Name: Jack Henry & Associates Inc; NAICS: 511210, 522320; Name: Veritex Holdings; NAICS: 551111
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 7, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2051448092
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2051448092?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Jun 7, 2018
Last updated: 2018-06-08
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 274 of 474
NASDAQ New 52-Week Highs And Lows -2-
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]07 June 2018. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
(MORE TO FOLLOW)
June 07, 2018 13:18 ET (17:18 GMT)Invsc KBW Reg Banking KBWR 62.03 4,076 Invesco NASDAQ Internet PNQI 141.66 19,124 Invesco QQQ Trust I QQQ 175.93 18,597,286 Invsc S&P SC Cons Disc PSCD 67.22 14,271 Invesco S&P SC Financials PSCF 59.38 5,955 Invsc S&P SC Health Care PSCH 129.38 40,437 Invsc S&P SC Info Tech PSCT 85.95 7,705 iRhythm Technologies IRTC 81.85 129,956 iSh Core S&P U.S. Growth IUSG 58.92 208,468 iSh Gl Timber & Forestry WOOD 83.88 39,648 iShares S&P SC 600 Growth IJT 193.51 45,323 Jack Henry & Associates JKHY 129.66 77,077 Janus S/MC Growth Alpha JSMD 43.95 2,692 Jazz Pharmaceuticals JAZZ 176.62 375,518 Krystal Biotech KRYS 13.00 53,310 LivaNova LIVN 96.83 178,644 LivePerson LPSN 22.40 314,142 Logitech International LOGI 44.38 327,713 Lonestar Resources US A LONE 7.55 132,178 MB Financial MBFI 51.59 331,461 MYR Group MYRG 40.81 20,227 Macatawa Bank MCBC 12.65 23,946 MakeMyTrip MMYT 38.85 132,904 Medallion Financial MFIN 5.83 229,263 Mercer International MERC 16.85 132,367 Microchip Technology MCHP 103.42 1,114,765 Microsoft MSFT 102.69 11,447,578 Mirati Therapeutics MRTX 46.40 1,700,122 Mobile Mini MINI 48.65 67,570 Monolithic Power Systems MPWR 137.80 79,352 Morningstar MORN 126.88 36,577 NF Energy Saving NFEC 3.98 277,984 Nasdaq NDAQ 95.71 598,006 National Commerce NCOM 47.35 8,553 Navigators Group NAVG 61.30 26,231 NetApp NTAP 75.40 1,547,385 Northwest Bancshares NWBI 17.88 102,171 NuCana ADR NCNA 32.00 21,313 Nuvectra NVTR 19.54 74,451 Nuv NASDAQ 100 Dyn Over QQQX 28.19 98,233 O'Reilly Automotive ORLY 287.66 374,858 OceanFirst Financial OCFC 30.89 149,847 Ohio Valley Banc OVBC 55.02 5,503 Okta Cl A OKTA 61.00 5,371,964 Old Natl Bancorp ONB 18.95 263,154 Oncolytics Biotech ONCY 7.40 35,622 Ophthotech OPHT 4.50 16,948,934 Osprey Energy Acqn Un OSPRU 11.11 600 PC Connection CNXN 31.00 53,072 PRA Group PRAA 40.85 54,170 PTC Inc. PTC 89.45 304,734 PacWest Bancorp PACW 55.69 260,398 Parke Bancorp PKBK 22.85 3,715 Paylocity Holding PCTY 62.20 84,856 People's Utah Bancorp PUB 38.10 32,880 Peoples Bancorp (Ohio) PEBO 38.75 37,201 Phibro Animal Health PAHC 48.40 21,779 Preferred Bank LA PFBC 67.67 16,798 Primo Water PRMW 17.89 141,074 QAD Cl B QADB 43.18 6,698 QAD Cl A QADA 55.00 79,500 REGENXBIO RGNX 57.98 287,542 R1 RCM RCM 9.27 360,794 Radware RDWR 24.14 60,924 Renasant RNST 49.78 135,093 Republic Bancorp KY Cl A RBCAA 47.98 2,661 Rhythm Pharmaceuticals RYTM 34.99 44,884 RiceBran Technologies RIBT 1.70 222,904 S&T Bancorp STBA 46.44 15,186 SIGA Technologies SIGA 7.33 107,319 Sabre Corp. SABR 25.61 953,698 Sandy Spring Bancorp SASR 43.87 130,424 Seacoast Banking of FL SBCF 32.24 66,417 Seattle Genetics SGEN 66.94 468,307 Semtech SMTC 51.40 178,070 ServisFirst Bancshares SFBS 44.72 24,498 Shoe Carnival SCVL 34.63 65,066 ShotSpotter SSTI 36.64 225,775 Sierra Bancorp BSRR 29.73 10,669 Silicon Laboratories SLAB 110.70 102,955 Simmons First Natl Cl A SFNC 33.45 86,281 Simulations Plus SLP 20.20 9,835 Sonic SONC 30.84 1,885,940 Splunk SPLK 119.15 1,147,513 Stamps.com STMP 264.00 64,702 State Auto Financial STFC 33.02 17,857 State Bank Financial STBZ 34.97 166,085 Steven Madden SHOO 55.25 95,705 TFS Financial TFSL 16.62 53,811 T Rowe Price Group TROW 127.43 426,947 Timberland Bancorp TSBK 35.84 5,357 Tonix Pharmaceuticals TNXP 5.11 1,093,999 Transcat TRNS 19.95 2,651 Trident Acquisitions Un TDACU 10.12 95,540 21st Century Fox Cl B FOX 39.06 1,165,485 Ultimate Software Group ULTI 274.38 107,386 Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical RARE 80.32 434,728 Umpqua Holdings UMPQ 24.81 893,731 Union Bankshares UBSH 42.31 212,409 Utd Community Banks UCBI 34.10 128,712 Utd Community Fincl UCFC 10.95 281,128 United Fire Group UFCS 56.67 26,233 Urban Outfitters URBN 47.22 1,096,883 Vanguard Russ 1000 Growth VONG 150.92 18,662 Vanguard Russell 2000 VTWO 134.30 52,584 Vanguard Russ 2000 Growth VTWG 151.98 6,733 Vanguard Russ 2000 Value VTWV 117.17 1,937 Verastem VSTM 6.43 2,129,272 Verint Systems VRNT 44.70 270,588 VeriSign VRSN 137.65 203,368 Verisk Analytics VRSK 109.59 297,337 Veritex Holdings VBTX 32.62 49,372 VicSh US SC Vol Wtd CSA 49.26 2,599 WD-40 WDFC 143.50 16,689 WSFS Financial WSFS 54.85 16,332 Washington Trust Bancorp WASH 63.25 10,380 WesBanco WSBC 48.37 34,606 WisTree US SmCp Qlty Div DGRS 37.20 40,352 Xencor Inc. XNCR 43.39 111,429 Zebra Technologies Cl A ZBRA 159.83 92,766 Zillow Group Cl C Z 62.54 433,822 Zillow Group Cl A ZG 62.39 169,239 Zscaler ZS 42.16 7,230,070 Zynga ZNGA 4.57 6,562,871 New Lows 28 COMPANY SYMBOL LOW VOLUME ------- ------ ---- ------ BGC Partners Cl A BGCP 10.65 2,091,348 Canadian Solar CSIQ 12.21 1,132,282 Checkpoint Therapeutics CKPT 3.00 55,873 Clearfield CLFD 10.35 11,195 DHX Media DHXM 2.45 15,989 Evelo Biosciences EVLO 15.01 39,080 FT Brazil AlphaDEX FBZ 12.35 23,395 FT Latin Am AlphaDEX FLN 17.69 70,274 Hancock Jaffe Labs HJLI 4.05 11,940 IZEA IZEA 1.13 718,636 JMU ADR JMU 0.45 23,149 LM Funding America LMFA 0.45 117,082 Midatech Pharma ADR MTP 0.66 31,402 MiMedx Group MDXG 5.79 10,763,051 Neos Therapeutics NEOS 6.04 1,735,738 One Horizon Group OHGI 0.49 262,128 Oxbridge Re Holdings OXBR 1.00 168,909 Parkervision PRKR 0.67 52,662 Puma Biotechnology PBYI 47.75 324,795
Subject: Bank acquisitions & mergers; Banking; Pharmaceuticals
Location: Ohio Valley Brazil Utah United States--US Ohio
Company / organization: Name: Ultimate Software Group Inc; NAICS: 511210; Name: BGC Partners; NAICS: 523120; Name: Nasdaq Stock Market Inc; NAICS: 523210; Name: NetApp Inc; NAICS: 334112, 518210; Name: Shoe Carnival Inc; NAICS: 448210; Name: Horizon Group; NAICS: 531210; Name: Xencor Inc; NAICS: 325412, 541711; Name: PacWest Bancorp; NAICS: 551111; Name: MB Financial Inc; NAICS: 551111; Name: Phibro Animal Health Corp; NAICS: 311119, 325412, 333131; Name: Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc; NAICS: 325413; Name: RiceBran Technologies; NAICS: 311212; Name: Jazz Pharmaceuticals; NAICS: 325412; Name: iRhythm Technologies Inc; NAICS: 334510; Name: PTC Inc; NAICS: 511210; Name: LivaNova PLC; NAICS: 339112; Name: Zynga Game Network Inc; NAICS: 511210; Name: 21st Century Fo x; NAICS: 515120; Name: Microsoft Corp; NAICS: 334614, 511210; Name: Mirati Therapeutics Inc; NAICS: 325412; Name: Primo Water Corp; NAICS: 424490; Name: O Reilly Automotive Inc; NAICS: 441310; Name: Jack Henry & Associates Inc; NAICS: 511210, 522320; Name: Veritex Holdings; NAICS: 551111
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 7, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2051448952
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2051448952?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Jun 7, 2018
Last updated: 2018-06-08
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 275 of 474
NASDAQ New 52-Week Highs And Lows -2-
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]07 June 2018. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
(MORE TO FOLLOW)
June 07, 2018 16:18 ET (20:18 GMT)Invesco DWA Momentum ETF PDP 57.23 44,778 Invesco DWA SC Momentum DWAS 55.35 29,883 Invsc DWA Tactical DWTR 30.88 102,453 Invsc FTSE US 1500 S-M PRFZ 141.35 33,593 Invsc KBW Hi Div Yd Fin KBWD 23.77 65,290 Invsc KBW Reg Banking KBWR 62.03 11,137 Invesco NASDAQ Internet PNQI 141.66 28,264 Invesco QQQ Trust I QQQ 175.93 33,210,358 Invsc S&P SC Cons Disc PSCD 67.22 14,968 Invesco S&P SC Financials PSCF 59.38 7,741 Invsc S&P SC Health Care PSCH 129.38 77,626 Invsc S&P SC Info Tech PSCT 85.95 12,135 iRhythm Technologies IRTC 81.85 299,784 iSh Core S&P U.S. Growth IUSG 58.92 347,804 iSh Gl Timber & Forestry WOOD 83.88 50,381 iShares S&P SC 600 Growth IJT 193.51 98,032 Jack Henry & Associates JKHY 129.66 165,361 Janus S/MC Growth Alpha JSMD 43.95 3,646 Jazz Pharmaceuticals JAZZ 176.62 633,743 Krystal Biotech KRYS 13.00 85,383 LivaNova LIVN 96.83 304,099 LivePerson LPSN 22.40 486,174 Logitech International LOGI 44.38 443,153 Lonestar Resources US A LONE 7.55 176,998 MB Financial MBFI 51.59 478,103 MYR Group MYRG 40.81 34,783 Macatawa Bank MCBC 12.65 31,293 MakeMyTrip MMYT 38.85 258,821 Medallion Financial MFIN 5.83 289,898 Mercer International MERC 16.95 207,647 Microchip Technology MCHP 103.42 1,575,861 Microsoft MSFT 102.69 20,714,178 Mirati Therapeutics MRTX 47.90 2,415,107 Mobile Mini MINI 48.65 95,928 Monolithic Power Systems MPWR 137.80 228,627 Morningstar MORN 127.25 72,463 NF Energy Saving NFEC 3.98 453,028 Nasdaq NDAQ 95.71 998,783 National Commerce NCOM 47.35 17,124 Navigators Group NAVG 61.30 52,889 NetApp NTAP 75.40 2,376,607 Northwest Bancshares NWBI 17.88 200,075 NuCana ADR NCNA 32.00 28,957 Nuvectra NVTR 19.54 136,286 Nuv NASDAQ 100 Dyn Over QQQX 28.19 156,000 O'Reilly Automotive ORLY 287.66 573,481 OceanFirst Financial OCFC 30.89 287,762 Ohio Valley Banc OVBC 55.02 11,726 Okta Cl A OKTA 61.00 8,324,088 Old Natl Bancorp ONB 18.95 486,608 Oncolytics Biotech ONCY 7.40 75,804 Ophthotech OPHT 4.50 23,877,335 Osprey Energy Acqn Un OSPRU 11.11 1,775 PC Connection CNXN 31.00 62,951 PRA Group PRAA 40.85 105,928 PTC Inc. PTC 89.45 770,734 PacWest Bancorp PACW 55.69 492,504 Parke Bancorp PKBK 22.85 8,075 Paylocity Holding PCTY 62.20 158,805 People's Utah Bancorp PUB 38.10 38,441 Peoples Bancorp (Ohio) PEBO 38.75 46,320 Phibro Animal Health PAHC 48.40 46,173 Preferred Bank LA PFBC 67.88 48,539 Primo Water PRMW 17.89 213,076 QAD Cl B QADB 43.18 8,817 QAD Cl A QADA 55.00 107,418 REGENXBIO RGNX 57.98 503,139 R1 RCM RCM 9.27 553,052 Radware RDWR 24.14 109,036 Renasant RNST 49.78 196,307 Republic Bancorp KY Cl A RBCAA 47.98 7,651 Rhythm Pharmaceuticals RYTM 34.99 104,959 RiceBran Technologies RIBT 1.70 299,427 S&T Bancorp STBA 46.44 36,699 SIGA Technologies SIGA 7.33 151,604 Sabre Corp. SABR 25.61 1,880,764 Sandy Spring Bancorp SASR 43.87 173,217 Seacoast Banking of FL SBCF 32.24 199,331 Seattle Genetics SGEN 66.94 821,956 Semtech SMTC 51.40 354,315 ServisFirst Bancshares SFBS 44.72 60,107 Shoe Carnival SCVL 34.63 116,021 ShotSpotter SSTI 36.64 310,099 Sierra Bancorp BSRR 29.73 13,910 Silicon Laboratories SLAB 110.70 251,444 Simmons First Natl Cl A SFNC 33.45 263,908 Simulations Plus SLP 20.20 36,298 Sonic SONC 31.00 3,132,629 Splunk SPLK 119.15 1,939,376 Stamps.com STMP 264.00 154,143 State Auto Financial STFC 33.02 26,534 State Bank Financial STBZ 34.97 318,471 Steven Madden SHOO 55.25 178,012 TFS Financial TFSL 16.62 97,522 T Rowe Price Group TROW 127.43 683,210 Timberland Bancorp TSBK 35.84 7,107 Tonix Pharmaceuticals TNXP 5.11 1,126,919 Transcat TRNS 19.95 5,182 Trident Acquisitions Un TDACU 10.12 120,130 Turtle Beach HEAR 20.85 5,339,937 21st Century Fox Cl A FOXA 39.63 11,745,312 21st Century Fox Cl B FOX 39.15 1,962,460 Ultimate Software Group ULTI 274.38 204,946 Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical RARE 80.99 841,062 Umpqua Holdings UMPQ 24.81 1,677,635 Union Bankshares UBSH 42.31 492,080 Utd Community Banks UCBI 34.10 251,896 Utd Community Fincl UCFC 10.95 369,481 United Fire Group UFCS 56.98 57,320 Urban Outfitters URBN 47.22 1,853,115 Vanguard Russ 1000 Growth VONG 150.92 35,699 Vanguard Russell 2000 VTWO 134.30 70,982 Vanguard Russ 2000 Growth VTWG 151.98 11,362 Vanguard Russ 2000 Value VTWV 117.17 4,602 Verastem VSTM 6.43 3,167,576 Verint Systems VRNT 44.70 618,211 VeriSign VRSN 137.65 432,424 Verisk Analytics VRSK 109.59 563,706 Veritex Holdings VBTX 32.73 139,490 VicSh US SC Hi Div Vol CSB 45.96 1,880 VicSh US SC Vol Wtd CSA 49.26 2,968 WD-40 WDFC 143.50 39,180 WSFS Financial WSFS 54.85 53,472 Washington Trust Bancorp WASH 63.25 23,386 WesBanco WSBC 48.37 56,789 WisTree US SmCp Qlty Div DGRS 37.20 43,164 Xencor Inc. XNCR 43.39 246,273 Zebra Technologies Cl A ZBRA 159.83 203,786 Zillow Group Cl C Z 62.54 1,022,652 Zillow Group Cl A ZG 62.39 350,844 Zscaler ZS 42.16 10,124,788 Zynga ZNGA 4.57 10,638,234 New Lows 31 COMPANY SYMBOL LOW VOLUME ------- ------ ---- ------ BGC Partners Cl A BGCP 10.65 3,056,273 Canadian Solar CSIQ 12.04 2,050,959 Checkpoint Therapeutics CKPT 2.97 87,990 Clearfield CLFD 10.35 19,017 DHX Media DHXM 2.45 33,144 Evelo Biosciences EVLO 14.71 49,711 FT Brazil AlphaDEX FBZ 11.90 29,721 FT Latin Am AlphaDEX FLN 17.33 103,873 Hancock Jaffe Labs HJLI 4.05 17,592 IZEA IZEA 1.13 1,493,891 iPath US Trea 10-yr Bull DTYL 72.41 209
Subject: Bank acquisitions & mergers; Banking; Pharmaceuticals
Location: Ohio Valley Brazil Utah United States--US Ohio
Company / organization: Name: Ultimate Software Group Inc; NAICS: 511210; Name: BGC Partners; NAICS: 523120; Name: Nasdaq Stock Market Inc; NAICS: 523210; Name: NetApp Inc; NAICS: 334112, 518210; Name: Shoe Carnival Inc; NAICS: 448210; Name: Xencor Inc; NAICS: 325412, 541711; Name: PacWest Bancorp; NAICS: 551111; Name: MB Financial Inc; NAICS: 551111; Name: Phibro Animal Health Corp; NAICS: 311119, 325412, 333131; Name: Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc; NAICS: 325413; Name: RiceBran Technologies; NAICS: 311212; Name: Jazz Pharmaceuticals; NAICS: 325412; Name: iRhythm Technologies Inc; NAICS: 334510; Name: PTC Inc; NAICS: 511210; Name: LivaNova PLC; NAICS: 339112; Name: Zynga Game Network Inc; NAICS: 511210; Name: 21st Century Fox; NAICS: 515120; Name: Microsoft Corp; NAICS: 334614, 511210; Name: Mirati Therapeutics Inc; NAICS: 325412; Name: Primo Water Corp; NAICS: 424490; Name: O Reilly Automotive Inc; NAICS: 441310; Name: Jack Henry & Associates Inc; NAICS: 511210, 522320; Name: Veritex Holdings; NAICS: 551111
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 7, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2051451410
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2051451410?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Jun 7, 2018
Last updated: 2018-06-08
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 276 of 474
NASDAQ New 52-Week Highs And Lows -2-
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]07 June 2018. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
(MORE TO FOLLOW)
June 07, 2018 15:18 ET (19:18 GMT)Invsc DWA Tactical DWTR 30.88 99,903 Invsc FTSE US 1500 S-M PRFZ 141.35 30,450 Invsc KBW Hi Div Yd Fin KBWD 23.77 54,051 Invsc KBW Reg Banking KBWR 62.03 10,430 Invesco NASDAQ Internet PNQI 141.66 26,135 Invesco QQQ Trust I QQQ 175.93 28,965,240 Invsc S&P SC Cons Disc PSCD 67.22 14,934 Invesco S&P SC Financials PSCF 59.38 7,510 Invsc S&P SC Health Care PSCH 129.38 62,043 Invsc S&P SC Info Tech PSCT 85.95 11,508 iRhythm Technologies IRTC 81.85 248,310 iSh Core S&P U.S. Growth IUSG 58.92 315,488 iSh Gl Timber & Forestry WOOD 83.88 44,629 iShares S&P SC 600 Growth IJT 193.51 78,315 Jack Henry & Associates JKHY 129.66 131,761 Janus S/MC Growth Alpha JSMD 43.95 3,146 Jazz Pharmaceuticals JAZZ 176.62 567,853 Krystal Biotech KRYS 13.00 78,305 LivaNova LIVN 96.83 260,734 LivePerson LPSN 22.40 450,476 Logitech International LOGI 44.38 398,609 Lonestar Resources US A LONE 7.55 160,194 MB Financial MBFI 51.59 413,864 MYR Group MYRG 40.81 24,794 Macatawa Bank MCBC 12.65 28,171 MakeMyTrip MMYT 38.85 189,307 Medallion Financial MFIN 5.83 264,335 Mercer International MERC 16.95 178,663 Microchip Technology MCHP 103.42 1,417,859 Microsoft MSFT 102.69 17,737,421 Mirati Therapeutics MRTX 46.40 2,046,425 Mobile Mini MINI 48.65 80,677 Monolithic Power Systems MPWR 137.80 148,417 Morningstar MORN 126.88 57,602 NF Energy Saving NFEC 3.98 436,114 Nasdaq NDAQ 95.71 786,577 National Commerce NCOM 47.35 13,025 Navigators Group NAVG 61.30 31,190 NetApp NTAP 75.40 1,988,217 Northwest Bancshares NWBI 17.88 149,860 NuCana ADR NCNA 32.00 25,219 Nuvectra NVTR 19.54 112,033 Nuv NASDAQ 100 Dyn Over QQQX 28.19 142,363 O'Reilly Automotive ORLY 287.66 482,086 OceanFirst Financial OCFC 30.89 218,545 Ohio Valley Banc OVBC 55.02 8,600 Okta Cl A OKTA 61.00 7,188,608 Old Natl Bancorp ONB 18.95 378,110 Oncolytics Biotech ONCY 7.40 42,425 Ophthotech OPHT 4.50 22,237,820 Osprey Energy Acqn Un OSPRU 11.11 675 PC Connection CNXN 31.00 58,528 PRA Group PRAA 40.85 73,476 PTC Inc. PTC 89.45 548,372 PacWest Bancorp PACW 55.69 404,083 Parke Bancorp PKBK 22.85 6,787 Paylocity Holding PCTY 62.20 125,384 People's Utah Bancorp PUB 38.10 36,307 Peoples Bancorp (Ohio) PEBO 38.75 43,178 Phibro Animal Health PAHC 48.40 34,004 Preferred Bank LA PFBC 67.67 36,896 Primo Water PRMW 17.89 183,741 QAD Cl B QADB 43.18 8,817 QAD Cl A QADA 55.00 88,620 REGENXBIO RGNX 57.98 421,233 R1 RCM RCM 9.27 462,265 Radware RDWR 24.14 93,850 Renasant RNST 49.78 161,677 Republic Bancorp KY Cl A RBCAA 47.98 4,741 Rhythm Pharmaceuticals RYTM 34.99 68,397 RiceBran Technologies RIBT 1.70 282,342 S&T Bancorp STBA 46.44 27,913 SIGA Technologies SIGA 7.33 132,645 Sabre Corp. SABR 25.61 1,504,968 Sandy Spring Bancorp SASR 43.87 154,945 Seacoast Banking of FL SBCF 32.24 138,756 Seattle Genetics SGEN 66.94 686,937 Semtech SMTC 51.40 281,478 ServisFirst Bancshares SFBS 44.72 43,544 Shoe Carnival SCVL 34.63 93,879 ShotSpotter SSTI 36.64 278,567 Sierra Bancorp BSRR 29.73 12,887 Silicon Laboratories SLAB 110.70 184,320 Simmons First Natl Cl A SFNC 33.45 152,324 Simulations Plus SLP 20.20 24,964 Sonic SONC 30.84 2,580,522 Splunk SPLK 119.15 1,714,333 Stamps.com STMP 264.00 111,888 State Auto Financial STFC 33.02 21,476 State Bank Financial STBZ 34.97 230,918 Steven Madden SHOO 55.25 140,933 TFS Financial TFSL 16.62 80,725 T Rowe Price Group TROW 127.43 594,666 Timberland Bancorp TSBK 35.84 6,790 Tonix Pharmaceuticals TNXP 5.11 1,115,121 Transcat TRNS 19.95 3,716 Trident Acquisitions Un TDACU 10.12 113,850 21st Century Fox Cl A FOXA 39.63 10,603,274 21st Century Fox Cl B FOX 39.15 1,579,112 Ultimate Software Group ULTI 274.38 161,453 Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical RARE 80.32 609,154 Umpqua Holdings UMPQ 24.81 1,376,102 Union Bankshares UBSH 42.31 389,910 Utd Community Banks UCBI 34.10 184,065 Utd Community Fincl UCFC 10.95 340,361 United Fire Group UFCS 56.67 38,691 Urban Outfitters URBN 47.22 1,588,343 Vanguard Russ 1000 Growth VONG 150.92 30,157 Vanguard Russell 2000 VTWO 134.30 59,396 Vanguard Russ 2000 Growth VTWG 151.98 9,001 Vanguard Russ 2000 Value VTWV 117.17 3,797 Verastem VSTM 6.43 2,671,512 Verint Systems VRNT 44.70 449,216 VeriSign VRSN 137.65 328,596 Verisk Analytics VRSK 109.59 439,519 Veritex Holdings VBTX 32.73 122,704 VicSh US SC Hi Div Vol CSB 45.93 1,595 VicSh US SC Vol Wtd CSA 49.26 2,902 WD-40 WDFC 143.50 34,303 WSFS Financial WSFS 54.85 44,865 Washington Trust Bancorp WASH 63.25 18,999 WesBanco WSBC 48.37 46,311 WisTree US SmCp Qlty Div DGRS 37.20 42,597 Xencor Inc. XNCR 43.39 187,356 Zebra Technologies Cl A ZBRA 159.83 169,932 Zillow Group Cl C Z 62.54 807,877 Zillow Group Cl A ZG 62.39 272,481 Zscaler ZS 42.16 9,064,242 Zynga ZNGA 4.57 9,171,664 New Lows 30 COMPANY SYMBOL LOW VOLUME ------- ------ ---- ------ BGC Partners Cl A BGCP 10.65 2,529,366 Canadian Solar CSIQ 12.04 1,673,068 Checkpoint Therapeutics CKPT 2.97 87,624 Clearfield CLFD 10.35 15,982 DHX Media DHXM 2.45 25,073 Evelo Biosciences EVLO 14.98 46,132 FT Brazil AlphaDEX FBZ 11.90 29,421 FT Latin Am AlphaDEX FLN 17.33 91,278 Hancock Jaffe Labs HJLI 4.05 12,187 IZEA IZEA 1.13 1,343,788 iShares MSCI Brazil SC EWZS 12.00 276,768 JMU ADR JMU 0.45 30,255 LM Funding America LMFA 0.45 135,032 Midatech Pharma ADR MTP 0.66 42,718
Subject: Bank acquisitions & mergers; Banking; Pharmaceuticals
Location: Ohio Valley Brazil Utah United States--US Ohio
Company / organization: Name: Ultimate Software Group Inc; NAICS: 511210; Name: BGC Partners; NAICS: 523120; Name: Nasdaq Stock Market Inc; NAICS: 523210; Name: NetApp Inc; NAICS: 334112, 518210; Name: Shoe Carnival Inc; NAICS: 448210; Name: Xencor Inc; NAICS: 325412, 541711; Name: PacWest Bancorp; NAICS: 551111; Name: MB Financial Inc; NAICS: 551111; Name: Phibro Animal Health Corp; NAICS: 311119, 325412, 333131; Name: Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc; NAICS: 325413; Name: RiceBran Technologies; NAICS: 311212; Name: Jazz Pharmaceuticals; NAICS: 325412; Name: iRhythm Technologies Inc; NAICS: 334510; Name: PTC Inc; NAICS: 511210; Name: LivaNova PLC; NAICS: 339112; Name: Zynga Game Network Inc; NAICS: 511210; Name: 21st Century Fox; NAICS: 515120; Name: Microsoft Corp; NAICS: 334614, 511210; Name: Mirati Therapeutics Inc; NAICS: 325412; Name: Primo Water Corp; NAICS: 424490; Name: O Reilly Automotive Inc; NAICS: 441310; Name: Jack Henry & Associates Inc; NAICS: 511210, 522320; Name: Veritex Holdings; NAICS: 551111
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 7, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2051451738
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2051451738?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Jun 7, 2018
Last updated: 2018-06-08
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 277 of 474
NASDAQ New 52-Week Highs And Lows -2-
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]07 June 2018. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
(MORE TO FOLLOW)
June 07, 2018 17:33 ET (21:33 GMT)Invsc DWA Cons Cyc Mom PEZ 55.96 17,528 Invesco DWA Momentum ETF PDP 57.23 50,036 Invesco DWA SC Momentum DWAS 55.35 42,279 Invsc DWA Tactical DWTR 30.88 102,979 Invsc FTSE US 1500 S-M PRFZ 141.35 34,384 Invsc KBW Hi Div Yd Fin KBWD 23.77 68,322 Invsc KBW Reg Banking KBWR 62.03 11,458 Invesco NASDAQ Internet PNQI 141.66 30,441 Invesco QQQ Trust I QQQ 175.93 36,977,708 Invsc S&P SC Cons Disc PSCD 67.22 15,043 Invesco S&P SC Financials PSCF 59.38 8,259 Invsc S&P SC Health Care PSCH 129.38 83,848 Invsc S&P SC Info Tech PSCT 85.95 12,745 iRhythm Technologies IRTC 81.85 326,283 iSh Core S&P U.S. Growth IUSG 58.92 366,613 iSh Gl Timber & Forestry WOOD 83.88 53,549 iShares S&P SC 600 Growth IJT 193.51 109,778 Jack Henry & Associates JKHY 129.66 251,636 Janus S/MC Growth Alpha JSMD 43.95 3,646 Jazz Pharmaceuticals JAZZ 176.62 717,235 Kforce KFRC 34.35 191,550 Krystal Biotech KRYS 13.00 93,130 LivaNova LIVN 96.83 375,966 LivePerson LPSN 22.40 563,546 Logitech International LOGI 44.38 475,042 Lonestar Resources US A LONE 7.55 192,185 MB Financial MBFI 51.59 585,431 MYR Group MYRG 40.81 47,262 Macatawa Bank MCBC 12.65 38,762 MakeMyTrip MMYT 39.10 355,995 Medallion Financial MFIN 5.83 304,240 Mercer International MERC 16.95 264,538 Microchip Technology MCHP 103.42 2,095,706 Microsoft MSFT 102.69 25,922,175 Mirati Therapeutics MRTX 47.90 2,833,899 Mobile Mini MINI 48.65 125,454 Monolithic Power Systems MPWR 137.80 289,278 Morningstar MORN 127.45 99,221 NF Energy Saving NFEC 3.98 465,578 Nasdaq NDAQ 95.71 1,246,347 National Commerce NCOM 47.35 24,101 Navigators Group NAVG 61.30 90,708 NetApp NTAP 75.40 3,290,328 Northwest Bancshares NWBI 17.88 267,978 NuCana ADR NCNA 32.00 34,799 Nuvectra NVTR 19.54 155,325 Nuv NASDAQ 100 Dyn Over QQQX 28.19 168,432 O'Reilly Automotive ORLY 287.66 708,566 OceanFirst Financial OCFC 30.89 316,686 Ohio Valley Banc OVBC 55.02 14,034 Okta Cl A OKTA 61.00 8,959,620 Old Natl Bancorp ONB 18.95 594,481 Oncolytics Biotech ONCY 7.40 78,920 Ophthotech OPHT 4.50 24,721,827 Osprey Energy Acqn Un OSPRU 11.11 1,781 PC Connection CNXN 31.00 67,831 PRA Group PRAA 40.85 155,414 PTC Inc. PTC 89.45 1,072,552 PacWest Bancorp PACW 55.69 636,255 Parke Bancorp PKBK 22.85 9,624 Paylocity Holding PCTY 62.20 199,081 People's Utah Bancorp PUB 38.10 44,993 Peoples Bancorp (Ohio) PEBO 38.75 51,953 Phibro Animal Health PAHC 48.40 62,187 Preferred Bank LA PFBC 67.88 65,890 Primo Water PRMW 17.89 254,794 QAD Cl B QADB 43.18 10,492 QAD Cl A QADA 55.00 123,703 REGENXBIO RGNX 57.98 695,677 R1 RCM RCM 9.27 657,867 Radware RDWR 24.14 137,875 Renasant RNST 49.78 227,303 Republic Bancorp KY Cl A RBCAA 47.98 13,246 Rhythm Pharmaceuticals RYTM 34.99 124,057 RiceBran Technologies RIBT 1.70 320,537 S&T Bancorp STBA 46.44 59,266 SIGA Technologies SIGA 7.33 165,520 Sabre Corp. SABR 25.61 3,334,323 Sandy Spring Bancorp SASR 43.87 217,931 Seacoast Banking of FL SBCF 32.24 236,335 Seattle Genetics SGEN 66.94 976,508 Semtech SMTC 51.40 421,206 ServisFirst Bancshares SFBS 44.72 75,899 Shoe Carnival SCVL 34.63 184,094 ShotSpotter SSTI 36.64 335,992 Sierra Bancorp BSRR 29.73 18,476 Silicon Laboratories SLAB 110.70 325,396 Simmons First Natl Cl A SFNC 33.45 326,879 Simulations Plus SLP 20.20 40,249 Sonic SONC 31.00 3,532,108 Splunk SPLK 119.15 2,225,822 Stamps.com STMP 264.00 190,377 State Auto Financial STFC 33.02 31,735 State Bank Financial STBZ 34.97 372,418 Steven Madden SHOO 55.25 218,013 TFS Financial TFSL 16.62 144,751 T Rowe Price Group TROW 127.43 918,576 Timberland Bancorp TSBK 35.84 8,603 Tonix Pharmaceuticals TNXP 5.11 1,156,244 Transcat TRNS 19.95 6,704 Trident Acquisitions Un TDACU 10.12 121,730 Turtle Beach HEAR 21.57 6,003,306 21st Century Fox Cl A FOXA 39.68 13,116,320 21st Century Fox Cl B FOX 39.24 2,497,139 Ultimate Software Group ULTI 274.38 247,252 Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical RARE 80.99 991,596 Umpqua Holdings UMPQ 24.81 2,151,573 Union Bankshares UBSH 42.31 555,955 Utd Community Banks UCBI 34.10 332,857 Utd Community Fincl UCFC 10.95 408,218 United Fire Group UFCS 58.46 272,757 Urban Outfitters URBN 47.22 2,631,732 Vanguard Russ 1000 Growth VONG 150.92 47,350 Vanguard Russell 2000 VTWO 134.30 75,448 Vanguard Russ 2000 Growth VTWG 151.98 11,493 Vanguard Russ 2000 Value VTWV 117.17 4,773 Verastem VSTM 6.43 3,316,815 Verint Systems VRNT 45.00 826,169 VeriSign VRSN 137.65 539,953 Verisk Analytics VRSK 109.59 775,606 Veritex Holdings VBTX 32.73 168,379 VicSh US SC Hi Div Vol CSB 46.04 2,042 VicSh US SC Vol Wtd CSA 49.26 2,968 WD-40 WDFC 143.50 49,474 WSFS Financial WSFS 54.85 74,235 Washington Trust Bancorp WASH 63.25 31,456 WesBanco WSBC 48.37 70,733 WisTree US SmCp Qlty Div DGRS 37.20 43,413 Xencor Inc. XNCR 43.39 336,277 Zebra Technologies Cl A ZBRA 159.83 326,508 Zillow Group Cl C Z 62.54 1,220,734 Zillow Group Cl A ZG 62.39 471,121 Zscaler ZS 42.16 10,838,107 Zynga ZNGA 4.57 11,628,431 New Lows 32 COMPANY SYMBOL LOW VOLUME ------- ------ ---- ------ Achieve Life Sciences ACHV 8.17 17,638 BGC Partners Cl A BGCP 10.65 3,622,599 Canadian Solar CSIQ 12.04 2,531,272 Checkpoint Therapeutics CKPT 2.97 89,313 Clearfield CLFD 10.35 22,741 DHX Media DHXM 2.45 34,434 Evelo Biosciences EVLO 14.71 59,720 FT Brazil AlphaDEX FBZ 11.90 29,731 FT Latin Am AlphaDEX FLN 17.33 104,802
Subject: Bank acquisitions & mergers; Banking; Pharmaceuticals
Location: Ohio Valley Brazil Utah United States--US Ohio
Company / organization: Name: Ultimate Software Group Inc; NAICS: 511210; Name: BGC Partners; NAICS: 523120; Name: Nasdaq Stock Market Inc; NAICS: 523210; Name: NetApp Inc; NAICS: 334112, 518210; Name: Shoe Carnival Inc; NAICS: 448210; Name: Xencor Inc; NAICS: 325412, 541711; Name: PacWest Bancorp; NAICS: 551111; Name: MB Financial Inc; NAICS: 551111; Name: Phibro Animal Health Corp; NAICS: 311119, 325412, 333131; Name: Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc; NAICS: 325413; Name: RiceBran Technologies; NAICS: 311212; Name: Jazz Pharmaceuticals; NAICS: 325412; Name: iRhythm Technologies Inc; NAICS: 334510; Name: PTC Inc; NAICS: 511210; Name: LivaNova PLC; NAICS: 339112; Name: Zynga Game Network Inc; NAICS: 511210; Name: 21st Century Fox; NAICS: 515120; Name: Microsoft Corp; NAICS: 334614, 511210; Name: Mirati Therapeutics Inc; NAICS: 325412; Name: Primo Water Corp; NAICS: 424490; Name: O Reilly Automotive Inc; NAICS: 441310; Name: Jack Henry & Associates Inc; NAICS: 511210, 522320; Name: Veritex Holdings; NAICS: 551111
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 7, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2051455284
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2051455284?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Jun 7, 2018
Last updated: 2018-06-08
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 278 of 474
Easy on palate and pocket [Asia Region]
Author: JancisRobinson
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]09 June 2018: 21.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: M y eye was caught recently by a friend's answers to one of those newspaper questionnaires. He seemed proud that his suits are made to measure by Paul Smith and his chairs are by Ron Arad, yet he is reluctant to spend more than £25 on a bottle of wine. I can only assume he relaxes this rule when eating at his favourite restaurant, London's River Café, but it encouraged me to think about wines to recommend to those who will not or cannot splurge on what goes into their glass. I had already been sniffing round for bargains on behalf of a young friend who is getting married this summer and was orphaned at 13, so has no friendly bank of mum or dad to help out. He is Scottish and the wedding will be in Scotland, so drink could be taken in fair quantity. I was determined not simply to head for the cheapest wine available but to recommend something that would satisfy the palate as much as the pocket. In the UK, we all know that the sort of quantities ordered by the big supermarket chains tend to result in the lowest prices, if rarely the best value, and presumably at great cost to producers. There was a time when the wine departments of these chains vied with each other to assemble the best range. But most now seem to be buying on price alone. There is far too little wine with real character available in the British mass market. In the UK, thanks to successive duty increases and the weakness of sterling, the minimum retail price of a bottle of wine, even from a supermarket shelf, has increased rapidly so that £6 now seems quite a bargain. I was surprised, therefore, when I recently went to a showing of wines from Marks and Spencer, whose buying team seems to be more interested in intrinsic wine quality than most, by how many wines it was offering at £5. It claims to have put in quite a bit of work on these, its cheapest wines. I chose a handful of my favourites, as well as a couple of keenly priced sparkling wines (see panel), and suggested the happy couple buy a bottle of each off the shelf and try them. They were then able to take advantage of M&S's recent offer of 25 per cent off orders of a dozen bottles or more, bringing the price of the still wines down to £3.75 a bottle. Most UK supermarkets make these sorts of offers now and then, but are understandably reluctant to publicise them in advance. It was a fair bet, however, that at least some of them would time a special offer to coincide with the recent royal wedding and its opportunities for screen-side libation. The August bank holiday weekend may see similar offers. Of course, none of my Scottish selections is going to make the heart of a serious connoisseur beat faster. But it always pays to buy in quantity — whether it's six assorted bottles to secure the uninflated price per bottle at Majestic (which has dropped its 12-bottle minimum purchase requirement) or buying a mixed dozen at a superior independent retailer such as Lea & Sandeman to benefit from a seriously worthwhile discount on the price per bottle. There is one retailer I always recommend to UK residents with a real interest in wine. The advantage of The Wine Society is that it is a venerable wine-buying co-operative whose shareholders are fellow enthusiasts, so there is no inexorable drive to maximise profits. There is an entry price, however, of £40 for a lifetime's share (of which £20 can be redeemed on the first order if it is placed the minute you join). So it could be argued that it makes sense to amortise this by buying as much wine from them as possible. They boast that their 1,500-strong range starts at £5.75 a bottle and, at a recent tasting of 36 of their summer wares, I found myself marking 13 of them either GV (good value) or VGV (very good value). That's a much higher proportion than at most tastings I go to — although I managed to find 12 GVs from the 57 wines I tasted at M&S recently, which is a pretty good ratio for a high-street retailer. The only problem with M&S is its merchandising. It's not always easy to find what you're looking for on the shelf and it can be more convenient to order online. My blanket recommendations for sources of value have been South Africa and Muscadet for whites, and Chile and Beaujolais for reds. But four of the bargains I picked out from this recent Wine Society tasting were from the Loire, two whites and two reds and none of them Muscadet. There was a super-fresh, Loire-ish young Chardonnay from the Pays des Mauges (a new one on me, between Muscadet country and Saumur) made by someone unforgettably named Réthoré Davy. It might be a bit light to drink with hearty food but would make a lovely aperitif. Wine Society buyers have sourced two of their Loire bargains from co-ops, a wise move if the co-ops are well run. The Vouvray co-op has supplied a delicious wine that qualifies for the beautifully named sec tendre category, an off-dry wine that counterbalances the naturally high acidity of Loire Chenin Blanc grapes with lightly toasty richness, but has no more than 7g/l residual sugar (not much at all). Made from clearly very healthy, ripe grapes, this wine is not dirt cheap at £11.50 but it is extremely good value. Of the reds, the St-Pourçain co-op has supplied a much cheaper Loire version of the modish Bourgogne Passetoutgrains (two parts Gamay to one part Pinot Noir) that would make a great summer aperitif for those who do not drink white wine. A more serious Loire red is Clos des Cordeliers 2015 Saumur-Champigny, also £11.50, which shares the heady fragrance of Cabernet Franc with full, satisfying ripeness. The 2015 vintage was quite special, certainly in the Loire and in much of Europe. But the supplier of the Wine Society's greatest bargains is Portugal, source of many wines with a massive characterper-penny ratio. Portugal may export some poor-quality wine but it is delightfully difficult to find. [email protected] More columns at ft.com/robinson Value from the vine MARKS & SPENCER SPARKLING ? Salton, Rio Carnival Sparkling Glera NV Serra Gaúcha, Brazil £9.50 ? Yalumba, Craft 3 Sparkling Brut NV, South Australia £12 WHITES ? Murviedro, Las Falleras Blanco 2017 Valencia, Spain £5 ? Indómita, Tierra y Hombre Sauvignon Blanc 2017 Casablanca, Chile £7 ? Pérez Barquero, Fresquito Vino Nuevo de Tinaja 2017 Montilla-Moriles, Spain £9 REDS ? Qualia Shiraz 2017, South Eastern Australia £5 ? C? Cave de Puilacher, Le Fleuve Bleu 2017 Vin de France £6 ? Indómita, Tierra y Hombre Pinot Noir 2017 Casablanca, Chile £7 THE WINE SOCIETY WHITES ? Quinta da Bacalhôa, JP Azeitão 2017 Setúbal, Portugal £6.50 (arriving July 13) ? Réthoré Davy, Les Parcelles Chardonnay 2017 IGP, Val de Loire £7.75 ? Thymiopoulos, Atma Malagousia/Xynomavro 2017 Náoussa, Greece £8.50 ? Schloss Maissau, Pepp Riesling 2017 Weinviertel, Austria £8.95 REDS ? Almeida Garrett, Entre Serras 2015 Beira Interior, Portugal £6.25 ? Union des Vignerons de St-Pourçain, Réserve Spéciale 2016, St-Pourçain £7.75 ? Kanonkop, Kadette 2015 Stellenbosch, South Africa, £19 per 150cl magnum More stockists on winesearcher.com CREDIT: Jancis Robinson Wine
Subject: Wines
Location: Spain Greece South Africa Scotland United Kingdom--UK Portugal Australia Chile Brazil South Australia Australia Austria France Europe
Company / organization: Name: Wine Society; NAICS: 445310, 454111
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 21
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 9, 2018
Section: Life and Arts
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2066848408
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2066848408?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Jun 9, 2018
Last updated: 2018-08-14
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 279 of 474
Value from the vine [Asia Region]
Author: Marks; Spencer
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]09 June 2018: 37.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Sparkling • Salton, Rio Carnival Sparkling Glera NV Serra Gaúcha, Brazil £9.50 • Yalumba, Craft 3 Sparkling Brut NV, South Australia £12 Whites • Murviedro, Las Falleras Blanco 2017 Valencia, Spain £5 • Indómita, Tierra y Hombre Sauvignon Blanc 2017 Casablanca, Chile £7 • Pérez Barquero, Fresquito Vino Nuevo de Tinaja 2017 Montilla-Moriles, Spain £9 Reds • Qualia Shiraz 2017, South Eastern Australia £5 • Cave de Puilacher, Le Fleuve Bleu 2017 Vin de France £6 • Indómita, Tierra y Hombre Pinot Noir 2017 Casablanca, Chile £7 THE WINE SOCIETY Whites • Quinta da Bacalhôa, JP Azeitão 2017 Setúbal, Portugal £6.50 (arriving July 13) • Réthoré Davy, Les Parcelles Chardonnay 2017 IGP, Val de Loire £7.75 • Thymiopoulos, Atma Malagousia/Xynomavro 2017 Náoussa, Greece £8.50 • Schloss Maissau, Pepp Riesling 2017 Weinviertel, Austria £8.95 Reds • Almeida Garrett, Entre Serras 2015 Beira Interior, Portugal £6.25 • Union des Vignerons de St-Pourçain, Réserve Spéciale 2016, St-Pourçain £7.75 • Kanonkop, Kadette 2015 Stellenbosch, South Africa, £19 per 150cl magnum Tasting notes on JancisRobinson.com. Other stockists via winesearcher.com CREDIT: MARKS AND SPENCER CAPTION: As imagined by Leillo
Subject: Wines
Location: Portugal Australia Chile Brazil Spain Greece South Australia Australia South Africa Austria France Asia
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 37
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 9, 2018
Section: FT Weekend Magazine
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2066849203
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2066849203?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Jun 9, 2018
Last updated: 2018-07-10
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 280 of 474
Value from the vine [Europe Region]
Author: Marks; Spencer
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]09 June 2018: 37. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Sparkling • Salton, Rio Carnival Sparkling Glera NV Serra Gaúcha, Brazil £9.50 • Yalumba, Craft 3 Sparkling Brut NV, South Australia £12 Whites • Murviedro, Las Falleras Blanco 2017 Valencia, Spain £5 • Indómita, Tierra y Hombre Sauvignon Blanc 2017 Casablanca, Chile £7 • Pérez Barquero, Fresquito Vino Nuevo de Tinaja 2017 Montilla-Moriles, Spain £9 Reds • Qualia Shiraz 2017, South Eastern Australia £5 • Cave de Puilacher, Le Fleuve Bleu 2017 Vin de France £6 • Indómita, Tierra y Hombre Pinot Noir 2017 Casablanca, Chile £7 THE WINE SOCIETY Whites • Quinta da Bacalhôa, JP Azeitão 2017 Setúbal, Portugal £6.50 (arriving July 13) • Réthoré Davy, Les Parcelles Chardonnay 2017 IGP, Val de Loire £7.75 • Thymiopoulos, Atma Malagousia/Xynomavro 2017 Náoussa, Greece £8.50 • Schloss Maissau, Pepp Riesling 2017 Weinviertel, Austria £8.95 Reds • Almeida Garrett, Entre Serras 2015 Beira Interior, Portugal £6.25 • Union des Vignerons de St-Pourçain, Réserve Spéciale 2016, St-Pourçain £7.75 • Kanonkop, Kadette 2015 Stellenbosch, South Africa, £19 per 150cl magnum Tasting notes on JancisRobinson.com. Other stockists via winesearcher.com CREDIT: MARKS AND SPENCER CAPTION: As imagined by Leillo
Subject: Wines
Location: Portugal Australia Chile Brazil Spain Greece South Australia Australia South Africa Austria France Europe
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 37
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 9, 2018
Section: FT Weekend Magazine
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2066849243
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2066849243?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Jun 9, 2018
Last updated: 2018-07-10
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 281 of 474
Easy on palate and pocket [Europe Region]
Author: JancisRobinson
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]09 June 2018: 21. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: M y eye was caught recently by a friend's answers to one of those newspaper questionnaires. He seemed proud that his suits are made to measure by Paul Smith and his chairs are by Ron Arad, yet he is reluctant to spend more than £25 on a bottle of wine. I can only assume he relaxes this rule when eating at his favourite restaurant, London's River Café, but it encouraged me to think about wines to recommend to those who will not or cannot splurge on what goes into their glass. I had already been sniffing round for bargains on behalf of a young friend who is getting married this summer and was orphaned at 13, so has no friendly bank of mum or dad to help out. He is Scottish and the wedding will be in Scotland, so drink could be taken in fair quantity. I was determined not simply to head for the cheapest wine available but to recommend something that would satisfy the palate as much as the pocket. In the UK, we all know that the sort of quantities ordered by the big supermarket chains tend to result in the lowest prices, if rarely the best value, and presumably at great cost to producers. There was a time when the wine departments of these chains vied with each other to assemble the best range. But most now seem to be buying on price alone. There is far too little wine with real character available in the British mass market. In the UK, thanks to successive duty increases and the weakness of sterling, the minimum retail price of a bottle of wine, even from a supermarket shelf, has increased rapidly so that £6 now seems quite a bargain. I was surprised, therefore, when I recently went to a showing of wines from Marks and Spencer, whose buying team seems to be more interested in intrinsic wine quality than most, by how many wines it was offering at £5. It claims to have put in quite a bit of work on these, its cheapest wines. I chose a handful of my favourites, as well as a couple of keenly priced sparkling wines (see panel), and suggested the happy couple buy a bottle of each off the shelf and try them. They were then able to take advantage of M&S's recent offer of 25 per cent off orders of a dozen bottles or more, bringing the price of the still wines down to £3.75 a bottle. Most UK supermarkets make these sorts of offers now and then, but are understandably reluctant to publicise them in advance. It was a fair bet, however, that at least some of them would time a special offer to coincide with the recent royal wedding and its opportunities for screen-side libation. The August bank holiday weekend may see similar offers. Of course, none of my Scottish selections is going to make the heart of a serious connoisseur beat faster. But it always pays to buy in quantity — whether it's six assorted bottles to secure the uninflated price per bottle at Majestic (which has dropped its 12-bottle minimum purchase requirement) or buying a mixed dozen at a superior independent retailer such as Lea & Sandeman to benefit from a seriously worthwhile discount on the price per bottle. There is one retailer I always recommend to UK residents with a real interest in wine. The advantage of The Wine Society is that it is a venerable wine-buying co-operative whose shareholders are fellow enthusiasts, so there is no inexorable drive to maximise profits. There is an entry price, however, of £40 for a lifetime's share (of which £20 can be redeemed on the first order if it is placed the minute you join). So it could be argued that it makes sense to amortise this by buying as much wine from them as possible. They boast that their 1,500-strong range starts at £5.75 a bottle and, at a recent tasting of 36 of their summer wares, I found myself marking 13 of them either GV (good value) or VGV (very good value). That's a much higher proportion than at most tastings I go to — although I managed to find 12 GVs from the 57 wines I tasted at M&S recently, which is a pretty good ratio for a high-street retailer. The only problem with M&S is its merchandising. It's not always easy to find what you're looking for on the shelf and it can be more convenient to order online. My blanket recommendations for sources of value have been South Africa and Muscadet for whites, and Chile and Beaujolais for reds. But four of the bargains I picked out from this recent Wine Society tasting were from the Loire, two whites and two reds and none of them Muscadet. There was a super-fresh, Loire-ish young Chardonnay from the Pays des Mauges (a new one on me, between Muscadet country and Saumur) made by someone unforgettably named Réthoré Davy. It might be a bit light to drink with hearty food but would make a lovely aperitif. Wine Society buyers have sourced two of their Loire bargains from co-ops, a wise move if the co-ops are well run. The Vouvray co-op has supplied a delicious wine that qualifies for the beautifully named sec tendre category, an off-dry wine that counterbalances the naturally high acidity of Loire Chenin Blanc grapes with lightly toasty richness, but has no more than 7g/l residual sugar (not much at all). Made from clearly very healthy, ripe grapes, this wine is not dirt cheap at £11.50 but it is extremely good value. Of the reds, the St-Pourçain co-op has supplied a much cheaper Loire version of the modish Bourgogne Passetoutgrains (two parts Gamay to one part Pinot Noir) that would make a great summer aperitif for those who do not drink white wine. A more serious Loire red is Clos des Cordeliers 2015 Saumur-Champigny, also £11.50, which shares the heady fragrance of Cabernet Franc with full, satisfying ripeness. The 2015 vintage was quite special, certainly in the Loire and in much of Europe. But the supplier of the Wine Society's greatest bargains is Portugal, source of many wines with a massive characterper-penny ratio. Portugal may export some poor-quality wine but it is delightfully difficult to find. [email protected] More columns at ft.com/robinson Value from the vine MARKS & SPENCER SPARKLING ? Salton, Rio Carnival Sparkling Glera NV Serra Gaúcha, Brazil £9.50 ? Yalumba, Craft 3 Sparkling Brut NV, South Australia £12 WHITES ? Murviedro, Las Falleras Blanco 2017 Valencia, Spain £5 ? Indómita, Tierra y Hombre Sauvignon Blanc 2017 Casablanca, Chile £7 ? Pérez Barquero, Fresquito Vino Nuevo de Tinaja 2017 Montilla-Moriles, Spain £9 REDS ? Qualia Shiraz 2017, South Eastern Australia £5 ? C? Cave de Puilacher, Le Fleuve Bleu 2017 Vin de France £6 ? Indómita, Tierra y Hombre Pinot Noir 2017 Casablanca, Chile £7 THE WINE SOCIETY WHITES ? Quinta da Bacalhôa, JP Azeitão 2017 Setúbal, Portugal £6.50 (arriving July 13) ? Réthoré Davy, Les Parcelles Chardonnay 2017 IGP, Val de Loire £7.75 ? Thymiopoulos, Atma Malagousia/Xynomavro 2017 Náoussa, Greece £8.50 ? Schloss Maissau, Pepp Riesling 2017 Weinviertel, Austria £8.95 REDS ? Almeida Garrett, Entre Serras 2015 Beira Interior, Portugal £6.25 ? Union des Vignerons de St-Pourçain, Réserve Spéciale 2016, St-Pourçain £7.75 ? Kanonkop, Kadette 2015 Stellenbosch, South Africa, £19 per 150cl magnum More stockists on winesearcher.com CREDIT: Jancis Robinson Wine
Subject: Wines
Location: Spain Greece South Africa Scotland United Kingdom--UK Portugal Australia Chile Brazil South Australia Australia Austria France
Company / organization: Name: Wine Society; NAICS: 445310, 454111
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 21
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 9, 2018
Section: Life and Arts
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2066850166
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2066850166?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Jun 9, 2018
Last updated: 2018-08-14
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 282 of 474
Value from the vine
Author: Marks; Spencer
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]09 June 2018: 37. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Sparkling • Salton, Rio Carnival Sparkling Glera NV Serra Gaúcha, Brazil £9.50 • Yalumba, Craft 3 Sparkling Brut NV, South Australia £12 Whites • Murviedro, Las Falleras Blanco 2017 Valencia, Spain £5 • Indómita, Tierra y Hombre Sauvignon Blanc 2017 Casablanca, Chile £7 • Pérez Barquero, Fresquito Vino Nuevo de Tinaja 2017 Montilla-Moriles, Spain £9 Reds • Qualia Shiraz 2017, South Eastern Australia £5 • Cave de Puilacher, Le Fleuve Bleu 2017 Vin de France £6 • Indómita, Tierra y Hombre Pinot Noir 2017 Casablanca, Chile £7 THE WINE SOCIETY Whites • Quinta da Bacalhôa, JP Azeitão 2017 Setúbal, Portugal £6.50 (arriving July 13) • Réthoré Davy, Les Parcelles Chardonnay 2017 IGP, Val de Loire £7.75 • Thymiopoulos, Atma Malagousia/Xynomavro 2017 Náoussa, Greece £8.50 • Schloss Maissau, Pepp Riesling 2017 Weinviertel, Austria £8.95 Reds • Almeida Garrett, Entre Serras 2015 Beira Interior, Portugal £6.25 • Union des Vignerons de St-Pourçain, Réserve Spéciale 2016, St-Pourçain £7.75 • Kanonkop, Kadette 2015 Stellenbosch, South Africa, £19 per 150cl magnum Tasting notes on JancisRobinson.com. Other stockists via winesearcher.com CREDIT: MARKS AND SPENCER CAPTION: As imagined by Leillo
Subject: Wines
Location: Portugal Australia Chile Brazil Spain Greece South Australia Australia South Africa Austria France
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 37
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 9, 2018
Section: FT Weekend Magazine
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2066855670
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2066855670?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Jun 9, 2018
Last updated: 2018-07-10
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 283 of 474
Easy on palate and pocket [Usa Region]
Author: JancisRobinson
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]09 June 2018: 21. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: M y eye was caught recently by a friend's answers to one of those newspaper questionnaires. He seemed proud that his suits are made to measure by Paul Smith and his chairs are by Ron Arad, yet he is reluctant to spend more than £25 on a bottle of wine. I can only assume he relaxes this rule when eating at his favourite restaurant, London's River Café, but it encouraged me to think about wines to recommend to those who will not or cannot splurge on what goes into their glass. I had already been sniffing round for bargains on behalf of a young friend who is getting married this summer and was orphaned at 13, so has no friendly bank of mum or dad to help out. He is Scottish and the wedding will be in Scotland, so drink could be taken in fair quantity. I was determined not simply to head for the cheapest wine available but to recommend something that would satisfy the palate as much as the pocket. In the UK, we all know that the sort of quantities ordered by the big supermarket chains tend to result in the lowest prices, if rarely the best value, and presumably at great cost to producers. There was a time when the wine departments of these chains vied with each other to assemble the best range. But most now seem to be buying on price alone. There is far too little wine with real character available in the British mass market. In the UK, thanks to successive duty increases and the weakness of sterling, the minimum retail price of a bottle of wine, even from a supermarket shelf, has increased rapidly so that £6 now seems quite a bargain. I was surprised, therefore, when I recently went to a showing of wines from Marks and Spencer, whose buying team seems to be more interested in intrinsic wine quality than most, by how many wines it was offering at £5. It claims to have put in quite a bit of work on these, its cheapest wines. I chose a handful of my favourites, as well as a couple of keenly priced sparkling wines (see panel), and suggested the happy couple buy a bottle of each off the shelf and try them. They were then able to take advantage of M&S's recent offer of 25 per cent off orders of a dozen bottles or more, bringing the price of the still wines down to £3.75 a bottle. Most UK supermarkets make these sorts of offers now and then, but are understandably reluctant to publicise them in advance. It was a fair bet, however, that at least some of them would time a special offer to coincide with the recent royal wedding and its opportunities for screen-side libation. The August bank holiday weekend may see similar offers. Of course, none of my Scottish selections is going to make the heart of a serious connoisseur beat faster. But it always pays to buy in quantity — whether it's six assorted bottles to secure the uninflated price per bottle at Majestic (which has dropped its 12-bottle minimum purchase requirement) or buying a mixed dozen at a superior independent retailer such as Lea & Sandeman to benefit from a seriously worthwhile discount on the price per bottle. There is one retailer I always recommend to UK residents with a real interest in wine. The advantage of The Wine Society is that it is a venerable wine-buying co-operative whose shareholders are fellow enthusiasts, so there is no inexorable drive to maximise profits. There is an entry price, however, of £40 for a lifetime's share (of which £20 can be redeemed on the first order if it is placed the minute you join). So it could be argued that it makes sense to amortise this by buying as much wine from them as possible. They boast that their 1,500-strong range starts at £5.75 a bottle and, at a recent tasting of 36 of their summer wares, I found myself marking 13 of them either GV (good value) or VGV (very good value). That's a much higher proportion than at most tastings I go to — although I managed to find 12 GVs from the 57 wines I tasted at M&S recently, which is a pretty good ratio for a high-street retailer. The only problem with M&S is its merchandising. It's not always easy to find what you're looking for on the shelf and it can be more convenient to order online. My blanket recommendations for sources of value have been South Africa and Muscadet for whites, and Chile and Beaujolais for reds. But four of the bargains I picked out from this recent Wine Society tasting were from the Loire, two whites and two reds and none of them Muscadet. There was a super-fresh, Loire-ish young Chardonnay from the Pays des Mauges (a new one on me, between Muscadet country and Saumur) made by someone unforgettably named Réthoré Davy. It might be a bit light to drink with hearty food but would make a lovely aperitif. Wine Society buyers have sourced two of their Loire bargains from co-ops, a wise move if the co-ops are well run. The Vouvray co-op has supplied a delicious wine that qualifies for the beautifully named sec tendre category, an off-dry wine that counterbalances the naturally high acidity of Loire Chenin Blanc grapes with lightly toasty richness, but has no more than 7g/l residual sugar (not much at all). Made from clearly very healthy, ripe grapes, this wine is not dirt cheap at £11.50 but it is extremely good value. Of the reds, the St-Pourçain co-op has supplied a much cheaper Loire version of the modish Bourgogne Passetoutgrains (two parts Gamay to one part Pinot Noir) that would make a great summer aperitif for those who do not drink white wine. A more serious Loire red is Clos des Cordeliers 2015 Saumur-Champigny, also £11.50, which shares the heady fragrance of Cabernet Franc with full, satisfying ripeness. The 2015 vintage was quite special, certainly in the Loire and in much of Europe. But the supplier of the Wine Society's greatest bargains is Portugal, source of many wines with a massive characterper-penny ratio. Portugal may export some poor-quality wine but it is delightfully difficult to find. [email protected] More columns at ft.com/robinson Value from the vine MARKS & SPENCER SPARKLING ? Salton, Rio Carnival Sparkling Glera NV Serra Gaúcha, Brazil £9.50 ? Yalumba, Craft 3 Sparkling Brut NV, South Australia £12 WHITES ? Murviedro, Las Falleras Blanco 2017 Valencia, Spain £5 ? Indómita, Tierra y Hombre Sauvignon Blanc 2017 Casablanca, Chile £7 ? Pérez Barquero, Fresquito Vino Nuevo de Tinaja 2017 Montilla-Moriles, Spain £9 REDS ? Qualia Shiraz 2017, South Eastern Australia £5 ? C? Cave de Puilacher, Le Fleuve Bleu 2017 Vin de France £6 ? Indómita, Tierra y Hombre Pinot Noir 2017 Casablanca, Chile £7 THE WINE SOCIETY WHITES ? Quinta da Bacalhôa, JP Azeitão 2017 Setúbal, Portugal £6.50 (arriving July 13) ? Réthoré Davy, Les Parcelles Chardonnay 2017 IGP, Val de Loire £7.75 ? Thymiopoulos, Atma Malagousia/Xynomavro 2017 Náoussa, Greece £8.50 ? Schloss Maissau, Pepp Riesling 2017 Weinviertel, Austria £8.95 REDS ? Almeida Garrett, Entre Serras 2015 Beira Interior, Portugal £6.25 ? Union des Vignerons de St-Pourçain, Réserve Spéciale 2016, St-Pourçain £7.75 ? Kanonkop, Kadette 2015 Stellenbosch, South Africa, £19 per 150cl magnum More stockists on winesearcher.com CREDIT: Jancis Robinson Wine
Subject: Wines
Location: Spain Greece South Africa Scotland United Kingdom--UK Portugal Australia Chile Brazil South Australia Australia Austria France Europe
Company / organization: Name: Wine Society; NAICS: 445310, 454111
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 21
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 9, 2018
Section: Life and Arts
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2066859183
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2066859183?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Jun 9, 2018
Last updated: 2018-07-10
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 284 of 474
Value from the vine [Usa Region]
Author: Marks; Spencer
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]09 June 2018: 37. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Sparkling • Salton, Rio Carnival Sparkling Glera NV Serra Gaúcha, Brazil £9.50 • Yalumba, Craft 3 Sparkling Brut NV, South Australia £12 Whites • Murviedro, Las Falleras Blanco 2017 Valencia, Spain £5 • Indómita, Tierra y Hombre Sauvignon Blanc 2017 Casablanca, Chile £7 • Pérez Barquero, Fresquito Vino Nuevo de Tinaja 2017 Montilla-Moriles, Spain £9 Reds • Qualia Shiraz 2017, South Eastern Australia £5 • Cave de Puilacher, Le Fleuve Bleu 2017 Vin de France £6 • Indómita, Tierra y Hombre Pinot Noir 2017 Casablanca, Chile £7 THE WINE SOCIETY Whites • Quinta da Bacalhôa, JP Azeitão 2017 Setúbal, Portugal £6.50 (arriving July 13) • Réthoré Davy, Les Parcelles Chardonnay 2017 IGP, Val de Loire £7.75 • Thymiopoulos, Atma Malagousia/Xynomavro 2017 Náoussa, Greece £8.50 • Schloss Maissau, Pepp Riesling 2017 Weinviertel, Austria £8.95 Reds • Almeida Garrett, Entre Serras 2015 Beira Interior, Portugal £6.25 • Union des Vignerons de St-Pourçain, Réserve Spéciale 2016, St-Pourçain £7.75 • Kanonkop, Kadette 2015 Stellenbosch, South Africa, £19 per 150cl magnum Tasting notes on JancisRobinson.com. Other stockists via winesearcher.com CREDIT: MARKS AND SPENCER CAPTION: As imagined by Leillo
Subject: Wines
Location: Portugal Australia Chile Brazil Spain Greece South Australia Australia South Africa Austria France
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 37
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 9, 2018
Section: FT Weekend Magazine
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingd om, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2066859440
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2066859440?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Jun 9, 2018
Last updated: 2018-07-10
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 285 of 474
This FIFA World Cup, let Ronaldo, Messi teach you few investing lessons [Wealth-Invest]
Author: Mudgill, Amit
Publication info: The Economic Times ; New Delhi [New Delhi]12 June 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: NEW DELHI: Germany, Brazil, Spain or Argentina? Which team are you betting on this World Cup? Football fever is gripping Dalal Street too, with market veterans such as value investor Abhishek Basumallik flying to Russia to cheer their favourite players in the once-in-a-four-year carnival, called the FIFA World Cup. If you are a stock investor and an avid football fan, the soccer field can be a good place for investing lessons. Be it star strikers like Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo or Gabriel Jesus or goalkeepers like David de Gea and even top coaches, each one's game plan offers life lessons, and how! Known from his witty tweets, Samir Arora of Singapore-based Helios Capital says it is simple rules that make football so popular. Investing also works if the rules are simple. "Football has become a global sport, because it was able to expand geographically and across economic groups, unlike tennis or golf. One should understand the real reasons why football could achieve this scalability and invest in scalable businesses. Simple rules: just a ball and goal post; that is what is needed in investing. No fancy stuff," Arora told ETMarkets.com. Like in football, management is the key aspect in investment, says celebrated value investor Vijay Kedia. In football, each of the 11 players in a team performs differently under two different managers. Similarly, different asset classes work differently in a portfolio. Under Sir Alex Ferguson's (SAF) management, Manchester United always finished among top three in English Premier League. But after SAF's retirement in 2013, things changed, Kedia points out. "They have undergone three management changes since 2013 and in the following seasons, they finished seventh, fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively. The second thing one learns is that perseverance and passion can do wonders. In the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, Gabriel Jesus was literally painting the streets to beautify the city. Four years later, he is one of the most important prospects of the Brazilian national team going to Russia," Kedia said. Mutual fund industry veteran Nilesh Shah of Kotak Mutual Fund says win or loss is part of the game. What is important is to stay in the game. "Stock prices go up and down, but investment goals could only be achieved if you stay invested. Star power do wonders, but it is the teamwork that matters," Shah said to emphasise the need for portfolio construction. "Not one star striker, but teamwork only can deliver," he said. Shah also underlines the need for a never say die spirit. "Don't go about investing half-heartedly, come Germany, Argentina or Brazil." Basumallik says he always looks at the goalkeeper in football as the core defensive position. "This is like the stock that holds value even in market carnage." He compares the defenders with stocks whose main objective is to retain value. "Compounders, high quality stocks would fall in this category. Largecaps or midcaps would fit the bill here," he said. Four midfielders are stocks that can generate good returns; will have characteristics of both defenders and forwards and which may have multi-year sector tailwinds, so typical of the midcap space. And then comes the forwards, the attacking stocks. The sole purpose of these stocks is to generate alpha returns. Opportunistic bets or smallcaps or turnaround stories and maybe stocks with a less than one-year view fit in here, Basumallik said. Then there are five substitutes, which are stocks on the watchlist. In football, even if a couple of players are not performing, the team is good as long as its performance is satisfactory, says value investor Safir Anand. In a falling market, a portfolio reporting no returns is itself an achievement when others are down 20 per cent. A short-term hiccup in the stock market should not bother much, says Anand. Risk minimisation is as important as earning returns. It is possible that a player or two would get yellow cards in the match. So Anand suggests making a portfolio of diversified stocks and rejig it when necessary. He advises investors to have select smallcaps with high earnings potential but with the attendant risks, and a few performing midcaps with transparent managements that can join the largecap league some day. Also, there should be heavy blue chips that can provide stability to the portfolio. Ashish Chopra, vice-president for research (IT sector) at Motilal Oswal Institutional Equities, is a football devotee who cheers for Ronaldo as individual player and Belgium as a team, but believes Germany is too strong to be displaced. Germany won the 2014 World Cup. Chopra says not all 11 players can be Ronaldo or David de Gea (Spanish goalkeeper). A portfolio of all aggressive or all defensives stocks may not be enough to win in the market. There are many football players who got million dollar deals with re-owned football clubs. Why not devote time to spotting them (read stocks) early on, ask Chopra? Many a time, the price that these clubs pay to these players and the performance they deliver later on does not match the hype. Finding a stock at the right value is important, says he. For instance, Kaka's 2009 transfer to Real Madrid from Milan for £56m made a lot of news. He was to play alongside Cristiano Ronaldo, and battle rivals Barcelona for every trophy available. Neither came to fruition. Kaka failed to find his prolific form from Italy Anand says it is good to be influenced by a Messi and a Ronaldo (big investors); everyone does, but do not try to ape one. Mimicking their investing style may not always help you perform well, as the biggies may have big arsenals (read portfolios) and an investment deemed risky may only be a fraction of their investments, in totality. Thankfully, Chopa says, only one team or country can have Ronaldo (Brazil), but in stock investing, one can have his own pie of a Ronaldo!
Subject: Mutual funds; Mid cap investments; Tournaments & championships; Soccer; Stock exchanges
Location: Italy Russia Spain Germany Singapore Argentina Brazil Belgium
People: Ronaldo, Cristiano Ferguson, Alex Messi, Lionel
Company / organization: Name: English Premier League; NAICS: 813990; Name: Federation Internationale de Football Association--FIFA; NAICS: 813990
Publication title: The Economic Times; New Delhi
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 12, 2018
Publisher: Bennett, Coleman & Company Limited
Place of publication: New Delhi
Country of publication: India, New Delhi
Publication subject: Business And Economics, General Interest Periodicals--India
ISSN: 09718680
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2053073384
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2053073384?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Bennett, Coleman & Company Limited Jun 12, 2018
Last updated: 2018-06-12
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 286 of 474
The Strange Case of the Missing Joyce Scholar
Author: Hitt, Jack
Publication info: New York Times (Online) , New York: New York Times Company. Jun 12, 2018.
Abstract:
Two decades ago, a renowned professor promised to produce a flawless version of one of the 20th century’s most celebrated novels: “Ulysses.” Then he disappeared.
Full text: Some 16 years ago, The Boston Globe published an article about a jobless man who haunted Marsh Plaza, at the center of Boston University. The picture showed a curious figure in a long overcoat, hunched beneath a black fedora near the central sculpture. He spent his days talking with pigeons to whom he had given names: Checkers and Wingtip and Speckles. The article could have been just another human-interest story about our society’s failing commitment to mental health, except that the man crouched in conversation with the birds was John Kidd, once celebrated as the greatest James Joyce scholar alive. Kidd had been the director of the James Joyce Research Center, a suite of offices on the campus of Boston University dedicated to the study of “Ulysses,” arguably the greatest and definitely the most-obsessed-over novel of the 20th century. Armed with generous endowments and cutting-edge technology, he led a team dedicated to a single goal: producing a perfect edition of the text. I saved the Boston Globe story on my computer and would occasionally open it and just stare. Long ago, I contacted Kidd about working on an article together, because I was fascinated by one of his other projects — he had produced a digital edition, one that used embedded hyperlinks to make the novel’s vast thicket of references and allusions, patterns and connections all available to the reader at a click. Joyce once said about “Ulysses” — and it’s practically a requirement of any article about the novel to use this quote — “I’ve put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant.” And that has always been part of how the novel works. For most of the book, what you are reading are the fractured bits of memory and observation kicking around in the head of a single schlub named Leopold Bloom as he wanders about Dublin on a single day, June 16, 1904. It’s the sensation of putting these bits together and the pleasure, when it happens, of suddenly getting it — the joke, the story, the book — that compels you throughout. This is why “Ulysses,” through most of the 20th century and into this one, still catches up all kinds of nonacademic readers who form clubs or stage readings on June 16. I remember wandering into an all-night read-a-thon on the Upper West Side, at Shakespeare & Co. on 81st Street, when I moved to New York in the 1980s. I arrived at the beginning, in the late afternoon, with good intentions, but staggered home and then returned the next day for the final chapter and suddenly realized that, read aloud, the 24 hours of the book’s action take 24 hours to read. The running time in your head is the same as the running time in the book. For a few minutes, I thought I was onto something brilliant, until another yawning fan in the bookstore mentioned a set of connections she had found and I realized, Oh, right, we’re all doing this. So was Kidd one of Joyce’s prophesied professors, made so busy by the puzzles and enigmas that he was driven to literal madness? It seemed impossible to say, because not long after that newspaper article was published, Kidd simply vanished. Over the last 10 years, I would occasionally pick up the telephone, trying to scratch out some other ending to the story. I harbored this idea, a fantasy really, that John Kidd had abandoned the perfect “Ulysses” to become the perfect Joycean — so consumed by the infinite interpretations of the book that he departed this grid of understanding. I started by contacting all the homeless shelters in Brookline. Then I wrote all of Kidd’s old colleagues on the faculty at Boston University, working my way through the directory. “I’d heard that he died,” wrote John Matthews, a Faulkner scholar, “and I suspect that actually is true. ... Kidd was a public eccentric in town — the whole ‘talking to the squirrels’ deal. A sad ending.” James Winn, a Dryden man, now retired, wrote that he had “heard rumor of his death, but nothing substantive.” And, if you scour the very bottom of the internet, the last tiny mentions in stray comment sections all speak of a miserable death. Not long ago, I came upon a Romanian scholar, Mircea Mihaies, who confirmed it. In fact, Mihaies wrote about the calamity in his history of “Ulysses.” In an interview for the release of the book, Mihaies explained: John Kidd “died under sordid circumstances in 2010, buried in debt, detested, insulted, alone, abandoned by everyone, communicating only with pigeons on a Boston campus.” That sounded like a complete story, except for one thing. I couldn’t find an obituary. John Kidd’s early life is like a Wes Anderson newsreel of an American upbringing — extraordinary and crackpot, bending toward fabulism. He grew up with a brother of the same name, just without the ‘h.’ John and Jon were the sons of Capt. John William Kidd, a naval officer known to the sailors on board as Starbuck. As a young scholar, Kidd gained notice from professors, won prizes and quickly ascended the graduate-studies ladder. His love, though, was the big book, the grand epic — thinking through the theories and details of wide-ranging and all-encompassing narratives. He was drawn to Jungian theory, the one school of 20th-century psychoanalysis that theorized about the spiritual quest for completedness. The self, Jung wrote, “expresses the unity of the personality as a whole.” Then, in graduate school, Kidd proposed a project on Joyce’s “Ulysses,” which he had read in three days as a teenager. But Kidd didn’t just study the novel; he went to Joyce’s tomb in Zurich and started to buy and collect every possible known, and many not-so-known, editions of the book. He compared every draft and every page. He became, in short, a kind of uber-Joycean. But he didn’t take the normal graduate route, luring someone famous to be his mentor (like the critic Hugh Kenner or the biographer Richard Ellmann). Instead, he became a self-directed scholar, holed up in his garret with scores of different versions of “Ulysses.” “I never studied Joyce with anyone, and I’ve never taught him,” Kidd said during his rising fame . “Isn’t that frightening?” Kidd had his work cut out for him. Joyce wrote “Ulysses” over a period of seven years, amid world war and personal chaos. Not long after it appeared, poverty and disease quickly wasted Joyce. The walking stick “that he used for swagger as a young bachelor,” Kevin Birmingham writes in “The Most Dangerous Book,” “became a blind man’s cane in Paris.” If you harbor in your mind, somewhere, the stereotype of a writer as a perfectionist in exile (usually in Paris), working in cold-water poverty on his masterpiece, that cliché owes much to the lived reality of James Joyce as a young man. By nature, he was a scattershot writer, scribbling on scraps of paper, composing in notebooks and revising excerpts after they appeared in magazines — and in 1922, when “Ulysses” first appeared, all that chaos was botched into print by French typesetters, most of whom spoke no English. That flawed version was banned in America, so a notorious pornographer, Sam Roth, rushed into print a pirated and even more corrupt edition. What had riled the censors (and attracted the vanguard readers) were a few scenes in “Ulysses” where women indulge sexual fantasies. What we nowadays like to call “female agency” was — back then — elevated to a matter of national security. Customs agents scoured incoming ships to ensure that no American ever saw these pages. It’s not a coincidence that so many women of that time championed the book, including the two famously gay editors of Little Review in Greenwich Village, Margaret Anderson and Jane Heap. In England, Harriet Weaver, and in Paris, Sylvia Beach. Finally, in 1933, a federal judge in the United States ruled in favor of publishing the novel, and Random House accidentally relied on the wildly corrupt Roth text to produce the official “Ulysses,” which would go on to occupy American bookshelves for much of the 20th century. Among scholars and Joyce freaks, everyone knew “Ulysses” was an odyssey of errors. Over the decades, there were rumors that some great textual fanatic was about to take on the brute task of cleaning it up. In the 1960s, excitement centered on Jack Dalton’s work, but the task seemed to overwhelm him, and he died in 1981 without producing his edition. By the mid-1980s, European scholars took up the charge, culminating in the announcement of a coming version — “Ulysses: The Corrected Text” — that would set straight 5,000 mistakes and give the world “ ‘Ulysses’ as Joyce wrote it.” This updated edition was the product of years of fine-tooth-combing through manuscripts and copy-sheets, one letter at a time, all done according to a dense new textual theory that almost no one could understand. The entire project felt authoritative and dour, very German and all consuming, right down to the chief editor’s name, Hans Walter Gabler. Right away, Gabler was challenged by a New World scholar no one had ever heard of, his name right out of some early American morality play — John Kidd. It seemed as if the great watchmaker of the universe had handled the casting: German versus American, Old World versus New, credentialed versus self-taught. The face-off managed to draw an audience far outside academe. Try to imagine this today: For almost a year, textual criticism was happening, and red-hot copies of The New York Review of Books flew off the newsstands. In the June 30, 1988, issue of The New York Review of Books , Kidd opened his essay on a tiny mistake made by Gabler — the air of absurdity catching the reader at once, because all the hype until this point had been celebrating this new error-free version. About a third of the way through “Ulysses,” Joyce lists a roster of bicycle racers, among them “H. Thrift.” Harry Thrift, it turns out, was a real person who did enter a race back then. But now, Gabler had mistakenly corrected him to “H. Shrift.” For any devotee of the novel, this was mildly concerning. Of all the sets of references and allusions in a book built out of them, Joyce seemed particularly obsessed with his detailed invocation of 1904 Dublin. Or, as Joyce himself said (and every Joyce freak can quote), if Dublin “one day disappeared from the earth, it could be reconstructed out of my book.” Kidd wrote: “Harry Thrift’s good works, sturdy frame, and jolly demeanor may fade to a misremembered blur, because he is deposed in Ulysses: The Corrected Text.” And he added: “Did it occur to anyone to check whether Thrift was a real person before changing him to Shrift? Apparently not.” I remember getting up from my desk where I worked, pouring a fresh cup of coffee and then closing my office door so I wouldn’t be disturbed. This was going to be good. Not a few paragraphs later, Kidd called out a slew of new mistakes and then guffawed, “Is no one awake at the wheel?” The piece carried on like this, as the tone gathered more of this vernacular force. After another volley of attacks about a misspelling here, a single dropped letter there, it read: “The Corrected Text is marbled with the fat of such pseudo-restorations from shoulder to shank.” Who wrote like this in the literary world? Seducing us into textual minutiae with the prim tone of the academic before pieing us with vulgar prose? A vicious snap of proto-snark seemed to end every paragraph as Kidd resumed his formal stance, all textual scholar, only to be preparing for the next parry. Responding in a subsequent issue, Gabler maintained a stiff, dismissive stance. “The scanty array of examples,” he wrote, “provides not even the flimsiest of foundations for a critique, let alone a condemnation.” Kidd was permitted to reply in the same issue, and his rebuttal preened with unforgiving attitude. After challenging Gabler on substance, he slipped into mischievous singsong: “Irony abounds. What redounds to Dr. Kidd rebounds. On several grounds, it sounds, he’s out of bounds.” Even though all the contested changes Kidd and others found might appear inconsequential, a few fundamentally affected the novel. In the book, Stephen Dedalus muses several times about the “word known to all men.” Was it death? Love? Some obscure Greek term (a Joyce specialty)? It’s another tiny enigma that readers and professors have argued over for almost a century. Gabler found a passage in a manuscript where Joyce did reveal it, but it disappeared in the next version. Gabler deduced that to be a typist’s error. And so, in a novel most famous for its elliptical style, the reader now comes across a passage containing this thunder of nuance: “Love, yes. Word known to all men.” To get a sense of just how huffy Joyce readers might react to this, imagine an editor saying he found new parts of “Hamlet,” and you picked up the new edition to read the words “To be or not to be, that is the question” now followed by “and the answer is definitely ‘be.’ ” Just as egregious to many was the sacrilege concerning a single dot of ink. At the end of the last chapter featuring the protagonist Leopold Bloom, you find literature’s largest period — a giant black dot on the page — the size of which Joyce worried over, instructing his French printers to make the first edition’s big dot even “more visible.” The big dot ends a long, hilarious chapter that parodies the kind of crisp, cold tone associated with scientific discourse. The Q. and A. format is precise to the point of exasperation. By the end of the chapter and hundreds of questions — “In what directions did listener and narrator lie?” “In what posture?” — the pesky interrogator finally asks, “Where?” To which Joyce drops his big fat dot, as if to say: Just shut up. But of course, that’s just one interpretation. Some see the big dot as Earth, viewed from the heavenly throne of God, who is often understood to be the annoyingly precise narrator of this chapter. Some think it’s a black hole or maybe Bloom’s open mouth, finally collapsing into sleep at the interrogator’s moronic questions. (Anthony Burgess thought that when reading the chapter aloud, the dot should be pronounced as a big snore.) Others think it’s a portal, or an egg, or Molly Bloom’s anus. There are lots of lively interpretations. In the most common Random House edition, it’s there, it’s final and it’s huge — an inky one-eighth of an inch in diameter, the head of a twopenny nail stabbed into the book. But for some reason, Gabler’s dot is barely larger than the period at the end of this sentence. When I reached him in his office in Germany, Gabler assured me that even though “it is not a large one, it is a very black one.” Kidd first took on Gabler at various Joyce symposiums. But the fuming struggle broke into the popular press when a Washington Post reporter named David Remnick got wind of a “brash, young scholar” with a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Cruz, who would soon be damning the greatest reworking of modern literature as a “mess.” By the time the asymmetrical warfare went supernova in The New York Review of Books, the fight was really no match. Kidd shredded Gabler in one allez after another, revealing that this edition seemed riddled with errors. Eminent academics and writers leapt into the fray, most of them on Kidd’s side. For this brief moment, every point of argument mattered, and no detail was too small for concern or lamentation. John Updike wrote to The New York Review of Books to complain bitterly about — I am not making this up — Gabler’s blasphemous choices regarding paragraph indentations. As Kidd’s challenge gained a wider audience, another academic named Charles Rossman wrote in with some big news. He had discovered that the Joyce Estate, run by Stephen Joyce, the author’s notoriously prickly grandson, had authorized the Gabler edition for the reason of creating enough “new” content to extend the copyright, which in Europe was expiring in 1992. This was not an inconsequential claim. At the time, “Ulysses” sold an estimated 100,000 copies a year. A renewal of the copyright would protect revenues for decades to come, for both the publisher and Stephen Joyce, who had to legally authorize this new edition. Once Rossman’s piece went public, the entire Gabler enterprise was cast into the sordid shadow of greed. Outrage mounted, and in the end, Random House announced it would bring back its old edition, however corrupt it might be. The smoke cleared to reveal that a vagabond scholar had waged a transoceanic battle and won. In those days, a superstar ethos was emerging among elite universities, and Boston University jumped at the chance to snatch up Kidd, giving him an entire institute. Its mission was epic — not merely a perfect text, “as Joyce wrote it,” but also a marriage of modern technology and literary genius. The manifold connections and allusions would now be instantly visible via hyperlinks, and the common reader would be able to appreciate the infinite recesses of Joyce’s brilliance. W.W. Norton promised the kind of advance for the book that, back then, went only to best-selling writers — $350,000. The world waited for it. And then forgot. When I started contacting Boston University to find out what happened to Kidd, I was stunned to discover that the old jealousies and resentments had survived the years intact. “A never-proven scholar.” “A neglectful, abusive teacher.” One or two who had been told Kidd was dead had also heard other, even wilder rumors. Prof. Michael Prince wrote back to say, “I lost track of John after he left, but heard he had transplanted to South America.” He mentioned Keith Botsford, a critic and writer who had reportedly relocated to Costa Rica. It was not easy to make contact with Botsford. I tried to get a hold of some of his relatives, but while I was doing that, a strange clue turned up. Sifting through some obscure Joyce-related hits on Google, I came upon an internet figure in Central America named Miguel, who burned off a lot of blog space expressing his love of naturism. Miguel liked to spend a lot of time naked. One of those posts noted that during a brief sojourn, back among the attired, Miguel attended a fiesta with a famous Joyce scholar. Miguel was based in Rio de Janeiro, a fact that suddenly reminded me of a brief exchange I had with a scholar in Bucharest named Lidia Vianu. When she herself tried to find Kidd a few years ago — she and a colleague were dedicating a book to him, a 31,802-page tome called “The Manual for the Advanced Study of James Joyce’s ‘Finnegans Wake’ ” — someone had given her an email address in Brazil. But, she said, “I didn’t get very far.” The email address was dead. Still, on a Sunday afternoon, I typed out a simple note to the address she passed on to me. I wrote about when we first corresponded, back in the days of textual triumphalism, and I casually mentioned a possible trip to Rio. I hit send. First thing, Monday morning: “I remember you very well. ... When do you plan to be in Rio?” Carnival was coming soon, so I jumped on a plane. John Kidd, who is 65, is well above 6 feet tall and comfortably carries the emerging evidence of many a fine dinner. He no longer has the tidy short blond hair of 30 years ago. It’s now grown out snowy white and halfway down his back, deep into Gandalf territory. He’s a devoted fan of loosefitting Hawaiian shirts, flip-flops and shorts. He has a high-water booty and takes rapid tiny steps, making every excursion feel as if we’re running late. Right off, he wants to talk about that Boston Globe article with the pigeons. His outrage is still raw. He’s particularly miffed that he was called “broke.” He wants me to know he’s flush and always has been. He has, at the ready, a notarized letter from Fleet Bank in Brookline dated 14 years ago, stating: “six months avg balance in this checking account has been $15,618.00.” I want to talk about how he left Boston University, but when the bitter memories of departmental fights at B.U. or old quarrels with students over grades come up, it’s as if he’s bitten a lemon and his entire face focuses darkly on a point just beyond his nose. Kidd told me he quit. And he did, but only after there were stories in The Boston Globe noting his temper, his treatment of students and his clashes with campus security over birds. He lingered on campus for a while, haunting Marsh Plaza, and then he disappeared. He told me he set off to Beijing. He had read “Dream of the Red Chamber,” China’s great epic novel, and become a “redologist,” an actual term for those who submerge themselves in the study of this one book. He later moved to Brazil and became fluent in Portuguese before plunging, as seemed inevitable, into that language’s own works of heroic fiction. He is obsessed now with a 19th-century book about a helpless young girl, “The Slave Isaura,” a popular work that in its early days helped end slavery (essentially, Brazil’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”). Kidd’s compulsion to understand any culture’s big book is still what gets him out of bed in the morning. As we settle down to breakfast at a swanky hotel, it’s clear that the controversies of 1988 are all still very much alive for him. Of the 5,000 or so corrections Gabler claimed to have made to “Ulysses,” there is not one of them Kidd cannot discuss, in rich detail, 30 years later. In particular, he is still steamed up about the Penelope chapter. He flipped open the book and stabbed his finger at the dead center of the famous 42-page interior monologue of Molly Bloom. Joyce originally punctuated the chapter with two periods, one at the end and one at the center, appropriately after Molly muses over the word “ashpit.” Gabler’s edition eliminated the ashpit period — then replaced it not long after Kidd made a ruckus. But when asked by a journalist once about how he came to correct this mistake, Gabler said he heard about it from a stranger who showed him a newspaper article. (More recently, Gabler assured me that he’d heard it from a “number” of sources.) “Of course, the article was Remnick’s Washington Post piece,” Kidd said, highly agitated. “There were three different portraits of me in that one article,” he went on, “huge pictures of John Kidd, one of which is like seven inches tall or something, a picture of me!” Kidd didn’t merely remember every textual change in the Gabler edition, but every minor grudge match attending each change. The old fight, it seemed, had moldered into a snit about credit. And indeed, it’s possible to dismiss Kidd as a man who found a handful of serious errors and then used his fussy mastery of minutiae to inflate a few hundred other flecks into a raging scandal. But it’s also true “Ulysses” is a book whose every detail matters. Joyce himself was consumed by his own compulsion for details, his love of coincidence and his obsession for superstition — he built the novel out of them. He once wrote to Harriet Weaver worrying about the year 1921, whose digits total 13. One outlying theory connects this arithmetic fear to Joyce’s decision to publish Ulysses on his birthday the following year, which had a sublime smoothness when written down on paper: 2/2/22. It’s also fair to wonder about Kidd’s sanity. He is fairly manic when discussing these preciously irrelevant textual changes. They all get explained in the rushed, self-interrupting fervor of the zealot. But in his encyclopedic way of talking, of thinking, of seeing, an undeniable brilliance comes through. This quality was on vivid display the afternoon he welcomed me into his apartment, a unit in a high rise with a nice view of Rio. The place is neat and walled with books on shelves. There are lots of bureaus and built-in dressers, and at one point, when he went to retrieve a book, every drawer he opened was packed top to bottom, side to side, with even more books. “You really have to read Fernando Pessoa,” he said, handing me a collection of poems, in Portuguese, by this early-20th-century Lisbon writer, titled “A Little Larger Than the Entire Universe.” I cracked open Kidd’s copy to find a swarm of marginal notes on nearly every page, cataloging textual alternatives in the many other Portuguese editions he owns. This is how John Kidd reads everything — as a search for the perfected text. It’s not just an aesthetic choice for Kidd but a kind of compulsion toward completedness, suffusing not just how he reads literature but also how he talks about it. We discussed “Gargantua and Pantagruel” and “Don Quixote” and “Tristram Shandy.” He considers them all to be “antic” works, his coinage for books that are marked by a “comic take on the encyclopedic narrative just as the ‘Iliad’ is a tragic take on an encyclopedic narrative.” Those novels are playful, like “Ulysses,” but they mean to embrace and comprehend a sense of everything, and it’s this sense of totality and the longing for it that drives Kidd, too. Theorists who study folk art sometimes describe those crowded, image-packed creations, like Howard Finster’s “Paradise Garden” or Grandma Moses’ “Country Fair,” not merely as a prominent theme but as a kind of mental illness common to the form. They argue that these artists’ works are expressions of a compulsion to fill an existential emptiness. This anxiety has its own Latin name, horror vacui, fear of the void — and Kidd brings this intensity to his understanding of every book he reads. When critics talk about Joyce’s mind, they typically resort to comparable terms, referring to Joyce’s encyclopedic knowledge of history, myth and language. “Ulysses,” as every beginning reader quickly picks up, contains a schematic view of downtown Dublin, and “Finnegans Wake” can be understood as all of history and literature written in a mash-up of every language. Joyce was well aware of his compendious cast of mind and proud to find it manifest among his children. When it became clear that his daughter Lucia was suffering a profound kind of schizophrenia, he came to see her difference as an improvement on himself. He cared for her, sometimes shelving his own ambitions to convince the world that the true genius in the family was his incoherent, troubled daughter. “Foolish fond like Lear” is how his biographer would later describe Joyce’s paternal affection. Joyce declared that Lucia’s jarring language and bizarre portmanteau words were evidence that she was an innovator of language, like him, just in ways not yet understood. He insisted that she would be ushering in a new kind of literature. The monumental incoherence and inaccessibility of “Finnegans Wake,” it’s easy to argue, is the best evidence of Joyce’s horror vacui and an epic paean to a father’s conviction of his daughter’s genius. Lucia would eventually be institutionalized in Geneva, but Joyce was the last to let go. At one point, Joyce enlisted the help of Carl Jung, who like Joyce explored the deep channels of consciousness. Jung summed up their father-daughter relationship as “two people going to the bottom of a river, one falling and the other diving.” One day, Kidd and I got up early to make our way to the Brazilian Academy of Letters, where he works. Crossing a vacant square beneath an aqueduct, we suddenly realized that five men with knives were tailing us; soon, they were chasing us. Kidd, a former high school sprinter, grunted a suggestion — run! — and we poured out our best 100-yard dash to a nearby food cart. Street vendors, Kidd explained later, collect money all day and are typically armed and tough. As we sailed under the cart’s umbrella, our churrasquinho-monger stepped up beside us and glared. The thugs melted away. Inside the refuge of the academy, Kidd keeps a permanent cubicle occupied by a big old PC and a few books. For years he has been working on the first English edition of the novel “The Slave Isaura.” Kidd is translating the 19th-century book with a few rules he felt compelled to devise. The work will be in two parts, and every word in Part 1 will have its lexicographic partner in Part 2. If “cat feet” appears in Part 1, expect “cattail” in Part 2. His sense of what pairs up can get quite intricate, but that’s part of the fun, he told me. So he maintains lists of all the possible pairings and where and whether he has used one: six foot, six foot under, footing, foothills, footloose, footprint. There is a logic to the work, and the part I read resounded with the baroque tone you might expect of a translation that will obey his other rule: It will use every word exactly once. Already, the work is nearly twice as plump as Joyce’s “Ulysses.” Kidd was particularly excited to show me his key apparatus — the homemade thesaurus where he keeps a running crosscheck on the entirety of the English language. So far, it runs to some 3,000 pages. “As much as humanly possible, the 19th-century dictionary of English is in here,” he told me. His translation is titled “Isaura Unbound,” and he wanted me to understand its ambition: When the book is finished, it will be a complete reordering of one entire English dictionary into a single work of art. Take that, void. I asked him that afternoon, one more time, about the perfect “Ulysses.” It always seems so close. Back in the 1960s, again in 1980s. What happened to his work in Boston? Why can’t we just publish the thing? A few errors — how hard can it be? He told me a story, a parable, really. “There are the gauchos and the gauleiters,” he explained. It’s a mixed metaphor, but one that nicely captures his view of the world and of Joyce scholars too. Gauchos, I knew, were Argentine cowboys, but gauleiters (pronounced gow-lieders), I learned, were municipal bureaucrats in the early Nazi government; in other words, menacing apparatchiks. Across the great landscape of understanding are the gauchos, at once both rugged and audacious. “They roam the pampas,” he told me, taking care of the vast terrain by knowing its vastness intimately. Meanwhile back at the edge of the pampas, in civilization, are the gauleiters. They are everywhere, they are busy, they are overwhelming. The gauchos are few — iconoclasts like himself, or the occasional Joyce fanatic like Jorn Barger, a polymath who in the earliest days of the internet wrote a lot of brilliant Joyce analysis on his weblog (a word he also coined). But, Kidd said, it doesn’t matter. In the end, the victory always goes to the gauleiters because of their peevish concern for “administrative efficiency.” When I pressed him on real-world specifics, the manuscripts, the work that must have been on disks somewhere, he recalled that, yes, he had assembled a draft of an edition with a complete introduction. One of Kidd’s editors at Norton, Julia Reidhead, confirmed that both existed but said that one delay after another — “an infinite loop of revision” — ran into the legal wall of new copyright extensions, and so Norton “stopped the project.” One Joyce scholar remembers reading the introduction but no longer has a copy, and Kidd doesn’t have one either. Instead, we are left with bizarre relics of what could have been. Early on in the Joyce wars, in fact, Arion Press issued a new edition of “Ulysses” that included some of the preliminary Kidd edits. The book was luxurious, with prints by Robert Motherwell, and only 175 of them were printed. I found one for sale on Amazon. The seller wanted $25,678.75. In the years after Kidd’s disappearance, an uncanny thing happened. The very book Kidd had tried to shame into disrepute was embraced by the world of scholarship. In 1993, the “Gabler Edition” of “Ulysses,” a bright red tome, appeared on the bookshelves. There are various printings of this book now, and many have no dot at all at the end of the Bloom chapter. No period of any size, which Gabler has said is a printing error — making this nondot an error miscorrected so many times that it is now perfectly invisible. Gabler’s book thrives because it now has its own captive audience: academics. “Scholars have quietly gone back to Gabler,” said Robert Spoo, a former editor of The James Joyce Quarterly. “By not publishing his own edition, Kidd never completed the argument against Gabler,” he said, adding that the Gabler edition “has one great advantage, you can cite it by line numbers; that is very handy for scholars.” That whole “ ’80s and ’90s thing,” as Spoo called it, receded long ago. “Scholars have made peace with the Gabler.” In that stretch when the original edition fell out of copyright in the mid-1990s, a lot of editors rushed to publish their own editions. Some have dots, some don’t. Some with “love,” some not. Some editors reversed a selection of Gabler’s changes, some didn’t. Other editions have gone off the rails, as the Joyce scholar Sam Slote told me: One “Ulysses,” currently available online, has a long, weird riff inserted on Page 160, announcing that you will now be reading “The Secret Confessions of a Conservative,” where the anonymous writer explains that his pro-life, pro-death-penalty positions are so consistent that “if an embryo or fetus commits murder, then he should be aborted.” Out in the distant pampas, meanwhile, the perfect edition remains always close at hand and just out of reach. “I am almosting it,” Stephen Dedalus muttered early on in the novel. The thing is, on Amazon alone, there are nearly a dozen slightly different versions of the novel “as James Joyce wrote it.” None of them are absolutely perfect, but each of them, nevertheless, is “Ulysses.” It’s almost too pat an ending for an author who was asked about all those errors nearly a century ago. “These are not misprints,” he said, “but beauties of my style hitherto undreamt of.” Credit: Jack Hitt
Subject: Copyright; Scholars; 20th century; Deaths; Books; Homeless people
People: Joyce, James (1882-1941)
Company / organization: Name: Boston University; NAICS: 611310; Name: Boston Globe; NAICS: 511110
Identifier / keyword: Books and Literature Joyce, James Ulysses (Book) Writing and Writers
Publication title: New York Times (Online); New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 12, 2018
Section: magazine
Publisher: New York Times Company
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Blogs, Podcasts, & Websites
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2054134894
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2054134894?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright 2018 The New York Times Company
Last updated: 2018-06-17
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 287 of 474
Telstar 18: From satellites to microchips - The tech behind FIFA World Cup 2018 ball
Author: Tiwari, Manas
Publication info: Financial Express ; New Delhi [New Delhi]13 June 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: We are just one day away from the start of FIFA World Cup 2018 -- the biggest carnival of football. While the fans have their schedule sorted for the grand tournament, the scientists will be probing all facets of the game for insights into disciplines as divergent as aerodynamics, psychology and the human physique. We are just one day away from the start of FIFA World Cup 2018 - the biggest carnival of football. While the fans have their schedule sorted for the grand tournament, the scientists will be probing all facets of the game for insights into disciplines as divergent as aerodynamics, psychology and the human physique. The one thing that fascinates the football fans in every world cup is the official ball. Every four years there is a chatter about the ball which Adidas has designed since 1970. This year, Telstar 18 will be the official ball and has already been criticised by some goalkeepers for being too flighty and hard to grip. The scientists, however, are of the opinion that it is actually more stable that Jabulani - the much-denigrated official ball for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. The ball comes as a nostalgic tribute from FIFA to 'Telstar' - Adidas' first-ever World Cup ball used in Mexico for the 1970 World Cup. This was also the first black and white sphere made for a World Cup and was designed for better visibility on monochrome TV screens. The latest offering is white, black and grey, with gold lettering. Telstar takes its inspiration from the 1962 Telstar satellite which is still there even after finishing that job it was originally intended to do: serve as the world's first communication satellite, instantly making the world feel connected by truly space-age technology. The satellite was a result of a joint venture between NASA and Bell Telephone Laboratories (now AT&T). The Telstar satellite was put out of action because of the Cold War, specifically the radiation from nuclear bombs tested by both the US and the USSR. The ball-design for this year's @FIFAWorldCup is called the @adidas "Telstar 18". Nice. Telstar: World's first communication satellite, launched in 1962 by @NASA for @ATT Bell Labs. Dead but still up there, inspiring spheres the world over. pic.twitter.com/Kjf6LNnHYb - Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) June 3, 2018 The Telstar 18 comes with the latest communication technology. It sports an NFC chip embedded into the ball, and there's even a little Wi-Fi symbol on it calling attention to the tech inside. This isn't the first time when Addidas has used a technology like this. It used a similar technology with its miCoach Smart Ball, which was designed to help coaches monitor performance. This time, however, the technology won't be measuring things like power of the shot or speed of the ball but offers information about the World Cup, and will allow users to enter a variety of competitions. The researchers have found that Telstar experiences more "drag" or resistance as it flies through the air when compared to Brazuca - its predecessor used in Brazil in 2014. This means that Telstar 18 will travel shorter distances - about eight to ten per cent less than Brazuca - when kicked at high impact speeds of more than 90 kilometres (56 miles) per hour. This comes as a bad news for the strikers as they will have to generate more power for the ball to reach a great distance but will help the goalkeepers as the ball will reach them slower than Brazuca did in 2014. Like Brazuca, Telstar 18 has six panels, compared to Jabulani's eight - far fewer than the traditional 32-panel recipe long followed. However, these panels are shaped differently and the seam that holds them together is 30 per cent longer in total than Brazuca's, though also narrower and more shallow. FIFA would be hoping that the experiment pays off as it has faced backlash on last few occassions. In 2002, it had introduced Fevernova as a lighter ball and had pitched it as 'the most precise ball ever made'. As it turned out, it was one of the bounciest. The Jabulani in 2010, on the other hand, became the talking point of the tournament with players such as Spanish goalkeeper Iker Casillas hating the ball because of the unpredictable way in which it moved through the air, while strikers seemed to like hitting the thing. Copyright 2018 IE Online Media Services Pvt. Ltd., distributed by Contify.com Credit: Manas Tiwari
Subject: Tournaments & championships; Communication; Satellites; Soccer
Location: Mexico Brazil United States--US South Africa Union of Soviet Socialist Republics--USSR
Company / organization: Name: Adidas AG; NAICS: 315220, 316210, 339920; Name: National Aeronautics & Space Administration--NASA; NAICS: 927110; Name: Federation Internationale de Football Association--FIFA; NAICS: 813990; Name: AT & T Inc; NAICS: 517110, 517210
Publication title: Financial Express; New Delhi
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 13, 2018
Publisher: Athena Information Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
Place of publication: New Delhi
Country of publication: India, New Delhi
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2053858786
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu. edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2053858786?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright 2018 IE Online Media Services Pvt. Ltd., distributed by Contify.com
Last updated: 2018-06-13
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 288 of 474
World Cup, a classroom for business leaders
Publication info: Mint ; New Delhi [New Delhi]13 June 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: New Delhi, June 13 -- India may not have qualified for the finals of the 2018 Fifa World Cup but a strong contingent of Indian spectators will be there in Russia for the month-long carnival of football. Among them a whole host of Indian business leaders, there to savour the on-field action, soak in the atmosphere and in general, enjoy themselves. But it needn't be all play and no work for them. The grand stage of the world's most popular sport is also a good place to pick up a few lessons in running companies. Here's a cheat sheet of five possible takeaways: There are no shortcuts to success: Over the 20 editions of the world cup, there have been teams that have flattered to deceive with one flashy win or one great performance. But on the road to the pinnacle, only consistency counts. The winning teams prepare for the long haul, never mind the skirmishes on the way. In 2010, Spain lost its first pool game to outsider Switzerland. Yet, it went on to win the tournament. By contrast, North Korea created a sensation by beating Italy in a group game at the 1966 World Cup, as did Cameroon in 1990 when it beat Argentina but neither team went on to win the tournament. Solo performers may win kudos but it is the teams that lift the trophies: Diego Maradona's goals against England and Belgium in 1986 may have mesmerized spectators but what won Argentina its second title was his pin-point pass to Jorge Burruchaga in the finals for the winning goal. It is the reason why the world's top two players, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, stay empty handed at the World Cup. Spain and Germany, the winners in 2010 and 2014, were well-rounded combinations of players, each of who knew exactly what his role was and excelled at that. By contrast, Hungary, because of its over-reliance on Ferenc Puskas lost the 1954 finals despite being the overwhelming favourites. No wonder that Louis van Gaal who coached the Netherlands to a third place finish in 2014, initially refused to select the country's best-known player Wesley Sneijder for the World Cup because he didn't think Sneijder was in good enough shape. Winning captains inspire their team mates to give their best: Look at the names given to them. Jose Nasazzi, captain of the Uruguay team which won the first World Cup in 1930 was called El Gran Mariscal, the Grand Marshal. Another Uruguayan Obdulio Varela led his team to victory in 1950 beating overwhelming favourites Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. His vital contribution was a pep talk before the finals where he encouraged his players to go on the offensive. Ask any English player of the winning 1966 squad about who was the catalyst for that win and they will point unhesitatingly to inspirational team captain Bobby Moore. You can't rest on your laurels: Past success isn't insurance against future failures. Italy won the World Cup in 2006. Yet, just four years later, in the 2010 World Cup, the Azzurri flopped miserably failing to even make it out of a group comprising lightweights Paraguay, Slovakia and New Zealand. It wasn't the end of the team's miseries. The team continued the trend in 2014 failing to make it to the second round and has now failed to qualify for the 2018 finals. Finally, learn some humility: You can't win them all. That talismanic genius Roberto Baggio fluffed a penalty and sent his team out of the world cup. With minutes to go and his team down 0-1 in the finals against Germany in 2014, Messi, one of the world's best players in dead ball situations got a free kick in a reasonable position. Sadly, his shot didn't even test the goal keeper. The US which hosted the tournament in 1994 hasn't made it to the 2018 finals despite being placed in an easy group. Iran, which has barely enough training grounds to practise in, did and that from a region which comprises gross domestic product (GDP) heavyweights like China and India. Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from MINT. For any query with respect to this article or any other content requirement, please contact Editor at [email protected]
Subject: Teams; Tournaments & championships; Soccer
Location: Italy Russia Paraguay Cameroon Iran England Argentina Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil Uruguay New Zealand North Korea Hungary Switzerland Spain Netherlands United States--US India Germany China Slovakia Belgium
People: Puskas, Ferenc Maradona, Diego Ronaldo, Cristiano Baggi o, Roberto Messi, Lionel
Publication title: Mint; New Delhi
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 13, 2018
Dateline: New Delhi
Publisher: HT Digital Streams Limited
Place of publication: New Delhi
Country of publication: Iceland, New Delhi
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2054047613
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview /2054047613?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright © HT Media Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Last updated: 2018-06-13
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 289 of 474
Russia Has Set the World Cup Table. Will Russians Embrace the Party?
Author: Smith, Rory
Publication info: New York Times (Online) , New York: New York Times Company. Jun 14, 2018.
Abstract:
The powers that be in the host nation have succeeded in preparing the country for the tournament, but its citizens will set the mood over the next month.
Full text: MOSCOW — At last, for Russia, it is over. The stadiums, as promised, are ready — shimmering space-age bowls dotting the skylines of 11 cities across the country. The 32 teams are here, ensconced in state-of-the-art training facilities. The fans have arrived, flags draped over their backs, from Kaliningrad to Ekaterinburg. This country has done what it promised to do eight long years ago. It has done what it said it could. It has delivered a World Cup. All that is left, now, is the trifling matter of some soccer matches. The long wait for the 2018 World Cup was never really about the sport. For Russia — or, rather, for the Russian government (the next month may illuminate that those two are not synonyms) — it has been about flexing the nation’s muscles, proving to its people as much as to its rivals that it can deliver the world’s most-watched sporting spectacle just as well as any of its detractors and foes could. For everyone else, much of the focus has been on anything but the sport: the precise mechanics, still shrouded in doubt, as to how Russia won the right to host the tournament in the first place; the dismantling of what détente there had been between Russia and Europe, and between Russia and North America in the course of eight fraught, bloodied years; the specter of racism and homophobia and hooliganism defacing soccer’s great carnival. There have been times, not long past, when it has felt so improbable — and, in some ways, inappropriate — that the world would descend on Russia for this party that it has been hard to conceive of this World Cup as a sporting event at all, rather than a test of a nation’s strength and an international community’s resolve. The fact that, at some point, some soccer would break out amid all the politics has seemed like an afterthought. Certainly it has to Russia: As Stanislav Cherchesov, its national team’s manager, said on Wednesday, a little more than 24 hours before his team was to face Saudi Arabia in the opening game, “half the country will only realize there is a World Cup happening” in the hours before kickoff. All of the investment, all of the attention, has been spent on making sure the house looks good before the guests arrive. Russia, in a sporting sense, has done little to ensure it actually has a good time. It was telling, as Cherchesov faced the news media Wednesday, how many of his interrogators started off by wishing him and his team good luck, how keen they were to offer examples of how the country is behind them, unwavering in their support. It has not felt like that, at times, as Russia observed possibly its weakest national team as an independent nation; Artem Dzyuba, its towering striker, felt compelled this week to issue an impassioned cri de coeur to try to bring an end to the negativity surrounding the squad. There has been little attempt by President Vladimir V. Putin, too, to identify himself with the team; the possibility of not winning the tournament, or even of failing to acquit itself well, is simply too great a risk. Russia’s potentate has, instead, focused on the one victory he could guarantee. “What we know already for sure is that the winners of the tournament already are the organizers,” Cherchesov said, parroting the party line. Putin does not need the team to win so much as a game to get his message across. As long as it fails in spectacular surroundings, he has what he wanted, what he promised. For everyone else, however, it will not be the backdrop that ensures a memorable World Cup. That requires something much less tangible, much harder to impose from above. All World Cups, to some extent, feel the same. The host cities are sanitized, homogenized by the experience. First the government arrives and casts a pall over whatever problems they may find — stray dogs are disposed of when required, ugly buildings are covered with cloth facades — and then, to complete the job, FIFA appears with its vast apparatus in its wake, transforming unique towns and cities into its embassies. There is a fan zone, a boulevard of sponsors’ tents, lurid blue signs offering directions in a childlike font. That is what the fans see: a Disneyland version of a place. Everyone, of course, has a good time at Disneyland. The fans bring the color and the noise and the vibrancy. And it is authentic, but still somehow detached, displaced, disorientated by the meaninglessness of its backdrop. It only transcends that when the host nation’s population buys into it, as it did in Germany in 2006, or in South Africa in 2010 or, in parts, in a strife-torn Brazil in 2014. That has not yet happened in Russia, as Cherchesov’s comments alluded to. Such is the lot of the party host, of course: The guests come for fun, and you are always wondering how much clearing up there will be afterward. But Russia is too vast and too unwieldy to be expected to react as one, even to an event as vast, and unwieldy, as the modern World Cup. There was a poetic moment during Cherchesov’s news conference, when a Danish journalist asked him if he had a message for the Russian people. “You are Danish,” he said, smiling. “From Denmark? You’re Danish, from Denmark. How could you be expected to know the labyrinths of the Russian soul?” How Russia — not its government; not Putin; not the Kremlin — will respond to this World Cup is the one question that can only be answered over the next month. It will not celebrate because it has a batch of glimmering new arenas that it scarcely needs, or because the World Cup has been bent to Putin’s will. It will celebrate, perhaps, because the mood of a World Cup can be infectious. A country used to playing with identity, as the author Peter Pomerantsev has noted, may delight in assuming the visage of a modern, international nation for a month; perhaps that identity has been there all along, awaiting its chance. It may even celebrate because its team does better than expected, though hope for that is thin on the ground. “All we want is to make the people proud,” Aleksandr Samedov, the midfielder, said Wednesday. A strong performance from Russia would, if past experience is anything to go by, help the tournament’s atmosphere. It is not easy to predict — all countries defy easy definition, and Russia more than most — but it is crucial. Russia, the Russia of power and Putin, has done what it said it would: It has delivered a World Cup. It is the people of Russia, their role so little discussed in those eight long years, as much as the stars of Brazil and Spain and Germany, that can make it a memorable one. Credit: Rory Smith
Subject: Tournaments & championships; Soccer; Host country
Location: Russia
People: Putin, Vladimir
Company / organization: Name: Federation Internationale de Football Association--FIFA; NAICS: 813990
Identifier / keyword: World Cup 2018 (Soccer) Soccer Putin, Vladimir V Russia
Publication title: New York Times (Online); New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 14, 2018
Section: sports
Publisher: New York Times Company
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Blogs, Podcasts, & Websites
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2054508035
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2054508035?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright 2018 The New York Times Company
Last updated: 2018-09-17
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 290 of 474
A Chance for the Hosts to Embrace the Party: [Sports Desk]
Author: Smith, Rory
Publication info: New York Times , Late Edition (East Coast); New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]14 June 2018: B.8.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: MOSCOW -- At last, for Russia, it is over. The stadiums, as promised, are ready -- shimmering space-age bowls dotting the skylines of 11 cities across the country. The 32 teams are here, ensconced in state-of-the-art training facilities. The fans have arrived, flags draped over their backs, from Kaliningrad to Ekaterinburg. This country has done what it promised to do eight long years ago. It has done what it said it could. It has delivered a World Cup. All that is left, now, is the trifling matter of some soccer matches. The long wait for the 2018 World Cup was never really about the sport. For Russia -- or, rather, for the Russian government (the next month may illuminate that those two are not synonyms) -- it has been about flexing the nation's muscles, proving to its people as much as to its rivals that it can deliver the world's most-watched sporting spectacle just as well as any of its detractors and foes could. For everyone else, much of the focus has been on anything but the sport: the precise mechanics, still shrouded in doubt, as to how Russia won the right to host the tournament in the first place; the dismantling of what détente there had been between Russia and Europe, and between Russia and North America in the course of eight fraught, bloodied years; the specter of racism and homophobia and hooliganism defacing soccer's great carnival. There have been times, not long past, when it has felt so improbable -- and, in some ways, inappropriate -- that the world would descend on Russia for this party that it has been hard to conceive of this World Cup as a sporting event at all, rather than a test of a nation's strength and an international community's resolve. The fact that, at some point, some soccer would break out amid all the politics has seemed like an afterthought. Certainly it has to Russia: As Stanislav Cherchesov, its national team's manager, said on Wednesday, a little more than 24 hours before his team was to face Saudi Arabia in the opening game, "half the country will only realize there is a World Cup happening" in the hours before kickoff. All of the investment, all of the attention, has been spent on making sure the house looks good before the guests arrive. Russia, in a sporting sense, has done little to ensure it actually has a good time. It was telling, as Cherchesov faced the news media Wednesday, how many of his interrogators started off by wishing him and his team good luck, how keen they were to offer examples of how the country is behind them, unwavering in their support. It has not felt like that, at times, as Russia observed possibly its weakest national team as an independent nation; Artem Dzyuba, its towering striker, felt compelled this week to issue an impassioned cri de coeur to try to bring an end to the negativity surrounding the squad. There has been little attempt by President Vladimir V. Putin, too, to identify himself with the team; the possibility of not winning the tournament, or even of failing to acquit itself well, is simply too great a risk. Russia's potentate has, instead, focused on the one victory he could guarantee. "What we know already for sure is that the winners of the tournament already are the organizers," Cherchesov said, parroting the party line. Putin does not need the team to win so much as a game to get his message across. As long as it fails in spectacular surroundings, he has what he wanted, what he promised. For everyone else, however, it will not be the backdrop that ensures a memorable World Cup. That requires something much less tangible, much harder to impose from above. All World Cups, to some extent, feel the same. The host cities are sanitized, homogenized by the experience. First the government arrives and casts a pall over whatever problems they may find -- stray dogs are disposed of when required, ugly buildings are covered with cloth facades -- and then, to complete the job, FIFA appears with its vast apparatus in its wake, transforming unique towns and cities into its embassies. There is a fan zone, a boulevard of sponsors' tents, lurid blue signs offering directions in a childlike font. That is what the fans see: a Disneyland version of a place. Everyone, of course, has a good time at Disneyland. The fans bring the color and the noise and the vibrancy. And it is authentic, but still somehow detached, displaced, disorientated by the meaninglessness of its backdrop. It only transcends that when the host nation's population buys into it, as it did in Germany in 2006, or in South Africa in 2010 or, in parts, in a strife-torn Brazil in 2014. That has not yet happened in Russia, as Cherchesov's comments alluded to. Such is the lot of the party host, of course: The guests come for fun, and you are always wondering how much clearing up there will be afterward. But Russia is too vast and too unwieldy to be expected to react as one, even to an event as vast, and unwieldy, as the modern World Cup. There was a poetic moment during Cherchesov's news conference, when a Danish journalist asked him if he had a message for the Russian people. "You are Danish," he said, smiling. "From Denmark? You're Danish, from Denmark. How could you be expected to know the labyrinths of the Russian soul?" How Russia -- not its government; not Putin; not the Kremlin -- will respond to this World Cup is the one question that can only be answered over the next month. It will not celebrate because it has a batch of glimmering new arenas that it scarcely needs, or because the World Cup has been bent to Putin's will. It will celebrate, perhaps, because the mood of a World Cup can be infectious. A country used to playing with identity, as the author Peter Pomerantsev has noted, may delight in assuming the visage of a modern, international nation for a month; perhaps that identity has been there all along, awaiting its chance. It may even celebrate because its team does better than expected, though hope for that is thin on the ground. "All we want is to make the people proud," Aleksandr Samedov, the midfielder, said Wednesday. A strong performance from Russia would, if past experience is anything to go by, help the tournament's atmosphere. It is not easy to predict -- all countries defy easy definition, and Russia more than most -- but it is crucial. Russia, the Russia of power and Putin, has done what it said it would: It has delivered a World Cup. It is the people of Russia, their role so little discussed in those eight long years, as much as the stars of Brazil and Spain and Germany, that can make it a memorable one.Photograph
Subject: Tournaments & championships; Soccer
Location: Russia Spain South Africa Denmark Saudi Arabia North America Germany Argentina Brazil Europe
People: Pomerantsev, Peter Putin, Vladimir
Company / organization: Name: Disneyland; NAICS: 713110; Name: Federation Internationale de Football Association--FIFA; NAICS: 813990
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/14/sports/world-cup/russia.html
Publication title: New York Times, Late Edition (East Coast); New York, N.Y.
Pages: B.8
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 14, 2018
column: On Soccer
Section: B
Publisher: New York Times Company
Place of publication: New York, N.Y.
Country of publication: United States, New York, N.Y.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
ISSN: 03624331
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2054557199
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2054557199?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright New York Times Company Jun 14, 2018
Last updated: 2018-11-13
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 291 of 474
Ordinary players hope for shot at immortality
Author: Kuper, Simon
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]14 June 2018: 6.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: A day before the tournament began, it was easier to spot Peruvian or Chinese fans dressed in their national colours in Moscow than Russian supporters, even though China haven't qualified. Hardly any Russian flags hang from apartment windows, and few shops or restaurants have adopted World Cup themes. The main evidence that the tournament kicks off today, with Russia meeting Saudi Arabia in the city's Luzhniki Stadium, is the policemen who have flooded the area. Many locals have left, renting their apartments to visiting fans. The historian Sergey Bondarenko jokes: "Not since Napoleon's invasion have so many Muscovites fled Moscow." The hosts of the previous two World Cups, in South Africa and Brazil, were rather more enthusiastic. This is partly because many liberal Muscovites are shunning national symbols after the jingoistic frenzy that surrounded Russia's invasion of Crimea in 2014. But Russians are also dismayed by their dismal national team, the Sbornaya, which stands 70th in the Fifa rankings. They should console themselves: they aren't alone. Very few teams at this World Cup could match the best European club teams. The tournament isn't about brilliant football. It's about the global carnival, and — for the journeymen players who make up most of the 32 teams — a one-off chance to mark history. The Sbornaya haven't reached the knockout rounds since 1986, when they were a largely Ukrainian-staffed all-Soviet team. But even longtime Sbornaya fans can't remember a team as poor as today's. Almost the whole squad, including 38-year-old central defender Sergei Ignashevich, is drawn from the mediocre yet lavishly paid Russian league. No wonder President Vladimir Putin has been distancing himself from the team. By an amazing stroke of luck, the hosts find themselves in the tournament's weakest group, with the Saudis, Uruguay and Egypt. Given that home advantage is worth about a goal a game in international football, the Sbornaya ought to win today's "petrol derby". The Saudis, ranked 67th by Fifa, are winless in 10 World Cup games since 1994. Realising that their better players needed to escape their own poor but highly paid domestic league, they sent nine to Spanish clubs last winter. However, the plan misfired. Only two played any minutes, and then only in meaningless games. Spain's language, culture, diet and football baffled them all. Yet Russia-Saudi Arabia will probably draw a bigger global television audience than the Super Bowl final of American gridiron football. Viewers in Mumbai or Shanghai, used to a weekly diet of Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Manchester City, may be aghast. The tournament should improve after the opener, but the first round may still prove the most overwatched sporting event per unit of quality in history. The problem is that western Europe and southern Latin America remain years ahead of Asian, African and North American football. The rest of the world's long-expected catch-up hasn't happened, either in quality or in tactics. The best European clubs — and Germany — play rapid attacking pressing football. Most teams at this World Cup will use a much simpler, duller tactic: a 10-man defensive wall, or "parking the bus" in the phrase of Manchester United's manager José Mourinho. And yet World Cups matter to more people than even the best club football. The tournament offers ordinary players a shot at immortality. Siphiwe Tshabalala is an unremarkable South African midfielder who has spent his career in his own domestic league. Fans worldwide will always remember him for just one moment: his sweet top-corner goal in the opening game of the 2010 World Cup against Mexico. Italy's Salvatore "Toto" Schillaci and Cameroon's Roger Milla had moderate club careers, but entered football's pantheon at World Cups. On the downside, Barbosa, Brazil's goalkeeper from the 1950 tournament, remains unforgotten for his slip-up that handed the World Cup to Uruguay. Now the Russians and Saudis are playing for immortality of one sort or the other. Simon Kuper will be writing a daily column throughout the World Cup The first round may prove the most overwatched sporting event per unit of quality in history CREDIT: WORLD CUP Simon Kuper
Subject: Teams; Tournaments & championships; Soccer
Location: Italy Mexico Spain Russia South Africa Cameroon Saudi Arabia Crimea Egypt Germany Latin America China Brazil Uruguay Mumbai India Europe
People: Ronaldo, Cristiano Milla, Roger Messi, Lionel Putin, Vladimir
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 6
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 14, 2018
Section: News
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2069682302
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2069682302?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Jun 14, 2018
Last updated: 2018-07-15
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 292 of 474
Ordinary players hope for shot at immortality [Usa Region]
Author: Kuper, Simon
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]14 June 2018: 3. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: A day before the tournament began, it was easier to spot Peruvian or Chinese fans dressed in their national colours in Moscow than Russian supporters, even though China haven't qualified. Hardly any Russian flags hang from apartment windows, and few shops or restaurants have adopted World Cup themes. The main evidence that the tournament kicks off today, with Russia meeting Saudi Arabia in the city's Luzhniki Stadium, is the policemen who have flooded the area. Many locals have left, renting their apartments to visiting fans. The historian Sergey Bondarenko jokes: "Not since Napoleon's invasion have so many Muscovites fled Moscow." The hosts of the previous two World Cups, in South Africa and Brazil, were rather more enthusiastic. This is partly because many liberal Muscovites are shunning national symbols after the jingoistic frenzy that surrounded Russia's invasion of Crimea in 2014. But Russians are also dismayed by their dismal national team, the Sbornaya, which stands 70th in the Fifa rankings. They should console themselves: they aren't alone. Very few teams at this World Cup could match the best European club teams. The tournament isn't about brilliant football. It's about the global carnival, and — for the journeymen players who make up most of the 32 teams — a one-off chance to mark history. The Sbornaya haven't reached the knockout rounds since 1986, when they were a largely Ukrainian-staffed all-Soviet team. But even longtime Sbornaya fans can't remember a team as poor as today's. Almost the whole squad, including 38-year-old central defender Sergei Ignashevich, is drawn from the mediocre yet lavishly paid Russian league. No wonder President Vladimir Putin has been distancing himself from the team. By an amazing stroke of luck, the hosts find themselves in the tournament's weakest group, with the Saudis, Uruguay and Egypt. Given that home advantage is worth about a goal a game in international football, the Sbornaya ought to win today's "petrol derby". The Saudis, ranked 67th by Fifa, are winless in 10 World Cup games since 1994. Realising that their better players needed to escape their own poor but highly paid domestic league, they sent nine to Spanish clubs last winter. However, the plan misfired. Only two played any minutes, and then only in meaningless games. Spain's language, culture, diet and football baffled them all. Yet Russia-Saudi Arabia will probably draw a bigger global television audience than the Super Bowl final of American gridiron football. Viewers in Mumbai or Shanghai, used to a weekly diet of Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Manchester City, may be aghast. The tournament should improve after the opener, but the first round may still prove the most overwatched sporting event per unit of quality in history. The problem is that western Europe and southern Latin America remain years ahead of Asian, African and North American football. The rest of the world's long-expected catch-up hasn't happened, either in quality or in tactics. The best European clubs — and Germany — play rapid attacking pressing football. Most teams at this World Cup will use a much simpler, duller tactic: a 10-man defensive wall, or "parking the bus" in the phrase of Manchester United's manager José Mourinho. And yet World Cups matter to more people than even the best club football. The tournament offers ordinary players a shot at immortality. Siphiwe Tshabalala is an unremarkable South African midfielder who has spent his career in his own domestic league. Fans worldwide will always remember him for just one moment: his sweet top-corner goal in the opening game of the 2010 World Cup against Mexico. Italy's Salvatore "Toto" Schillaci and Cameroon's Roger Milla had moderate club careers, but entered football's pantheon at World Cups. On the downside, Barbosa, Brazil's goalkeeper from the 1950 tournament, remains unforgotten for his slip-up that handed the World Cup to Uruguay. Now the Russians and Saudis are playing for immortality of one sort or the other. Simon Kuper will be writing a daily column throughout the World Cup The first round may prove the most overwatched sporting event per unit of quality in history CREDIT: WORLD CUP Simon Kuper
Subject: Teams; Tournaments & championships; Soccer
Location: Italy Mexico Spain Russia South Africa Cameroon Saudi Arabia Crimea Egypt Germany Latin America China Brazil Uruguay Mumbai India Europe
People: Ronaldo, Cristiano Milla, Roger Messi, Lionel Putin, Vladimir
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 3
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 14, 2018
Section: News
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2069682961
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2069682961?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Jun 14, 2018
Last updated: 2018-07-15
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 293 of 474
Ordinary players hope for shot at immortality [Europe Region]
Author: Kuper, Simon
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]14 June 2018: 3. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: A day before the tournament began, it was easier to spot Peruvian or Chinese fans dressed in their national colours in Moscow than Russian supporters, even though China haven't qualified. Hardly any Russian flags hang from apartment windows, and few shops or restaurants have adopted World Cup themes. The main evidence that the tournament kicks off today, with Russia meeting Saudi Arabia in the city's Luzhniki Stadium, is the policemen who have flooded the area. Many locals have left, renting their apartments to visiting fans. The historian Sergey Bondarenko jokes: "Not since Napoleon's invasion have so many Muscovites fled Moscow." The hosts of the previous two World Cups, in South Africa and Brazil, were rather more enthusiastic. This is partly because many liberal Muscovites are shunning national symbols after the jingoistic frenzy that surrounded Russia's invasion of Crimea in 2014. But Russians are also dismayed by their dismal national team, the Sbornaya, which stands 70th in the Fifa rankings. They should console themselves: they aren't alone. Very few teams at this World Cup could match the best European club teams. The tournament isn't about brilliant football. It's about the global carnival, and — for the journeymen players who make up most of the 32 teams — a one-off chance to mark history. The Sbornaya haven't reached the knockout rounds since 1986, when they were a largely Ukrainian-staffed all-Soviet team. But even longtime Sbornaya fans can't remember a team as poor as today's. Almost the whole squad, including 38-year-old central defender Sergei Ignashevich, is drawn from the mediocre yet lavishly paid Russian league. No wonder President Vladimir Putin has been distancing himself from the team. By an amazing stroke of luck, the hosts find themselves in the tournament's weakest group, with the Saudis, Uruguay and Egypt. Given that home advantage is worth about a goal a game in international football, the Sbornaya ought to win today's "petrol derby". The Saudis, ranked 67th by Fifa, are winless in 10 World Cup games since 1994. Realising that their better players needed to escape their own poor but highly paid domestic league, they sent nine to Spanish clubs last winter. However, the plan misfired. Only two played any minutes, and then only in meaningless games. Spain's language, culture, diet and football baffled them all. Yet Russia-Saudi Arabia will probably draw a bigger global television audience than the Super Bowl final of American gridiron football. Viewers in Mumbai or Shanghai, used to a weekly diet of Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Manchester City, may be aghast. The tournament should improve after the opener, but the first round may still prove the most overwatched sporting event per unit of quality in history. The problem is that western Europe and southern Latin America remain years ahead of Asian, African and North American football. The rest of the world's long-expected catch-up hasn't happened, either in quality or in tactics. The best European clubs — and Germany — play rapid attacking pressing football. Most teams at this World Cup will use a much simpler, duller tactic: a 10-man defensive wall, or "parking the bus" in the phrase of Manchester United's manager José Mourinho. And yet World Cups matter to more people than even the best club football. The tournament offers ordinary players a shot at immortality. Siphiwe Tshabalala is an unremarkable South African midfielder who has spent his career in his own domestic league. Fans worldwide will always remember him for just one moment: his sweet top-corner goal in the opening game of the 2010 World Cup against Mexico. Italy's Salvatore "Toto" Schillaci and Cameroon's Roger Milla had moderate club careers, but entered football's pantheon at World Cups. On the downside, Barbosa, Brazil's goalkeeper from the 1950 tournament, remains unforgotten for his slip-up that handed the World Cup to Uruguay. Now the Russians and Saudis are playing for immortality of one sort or the other. Simon Kuper will be writing a daily column throughout the World Cup The first round may prove the most overwatched sporting event per unit of quality in history CREDIT: WORLD CUP Simon Kuper
Subject: Teams; Tournaments & championships; Soccer
Location: Italy Mexico Spain Russia South Africa Cameroon Saudi Arabia Crimea Egypt Germany Latin America China Brazil Uruguay Mumbai India
People: Ronaldo, Cristiano Milla, Roger Messi, Lionel Putin, Vladimir
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 3
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 14, 2018
Section: News
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2069683036
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2069683036?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financi al Times Limited Jun 14, 2018
Last updated: 2019-06-05
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 294 of 474
Ordinary players hope for shot at immortality [Asia Region]
Author: Kuper, Simon
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]14 June 2018: 3. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: A day before the tournament began, it was easier to spot Peruvian or Chinese fans dressed in their national colours in Moscow than Russian supporters, even though China haven't qualified. Hardly any Russian flags hang from apartment windows, and few shops or restaurants have adopted World Cup themes. The main evidence that the tournament kicks off today, with Russia meeting Saudi Arabia in the city's Luzhniki Stadium, is the policemen who have flooded the area. Many locals have left, renting their apartments to visiting fans. The historian Sergey Bondarenko jokes: "Not since Napoleon's invasion have so many Muscovites fled Moscow." The hosts of the previous two World Cups, in South Africa and Brazil, were rather more enthusiastic. This is partly because many liberal Muscovites are shunning national symbols after the jingoistic frenzy that surrounded Russia's invasion of Crimea in 2014. But Russians are also dismayed by their dismal national team, the Sbornaya, which stands 70th in the Fifa rankings. They should console themselves: they aren't alone. Very few teams at this World Cup could match the best European club teams. The tournament isn't about brilliant football. It's about the global carnival, and — for the journeymen players who make up most of the 32 teams — a one-off chance to mark history. The Sbornaya haven't reached the knockout rounds since 1986, when they were a largely Ukrainian-staffed all-Soviet team. But even longtime Sbornaya fans can't remember a team as poor as today's. Almost the whole squad, including 38-year-old central defender Sergei Ignashevich, is drawn from the mediocre yet lavishly paid Russian league. No wonder President Vladimir Putin has been distancing himself from the team. By an amazing stroke of luck, the hosts find themselves in the tournament's weakest group, with the Saudis, Uruguay and Egypt. Given that home advantage is worth about a goal a game in international football, the Sbornaya ought to win today's "petrol derby". The Saudis, ranked 67th by Fifa, are winless in 10 World Cup games since 1994. Realising that their better players needed to escape their own poor but highly paid domestic league, they sent nine to Spanish clubs last winter. However, the plan misfired. Only two played any minutes, and then only in meaningless games. Spain's language, culture, diet and football baffled them all. Yet Russia-Saudi Arabia will probably draw a bigger global television audience than the Super Bowl final of American gridiron football. Viewers in Mumbai or Shanghai, used to a weekly diet of Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Manchester City, may be aghast. The tournament should improve after the opener, but the first round may still prove the most overwatched sporting event per unit of quality in history. The problem is that western Europe and southern Latin America remain years ahead of Asian, African and North American football. The rest of the world's long-expected catch-up hasn't happened, either in quality or in tactics. The best European clubs — and Germany — play rapid attacking pressing football. Most teams at this World Cup will use a much simpler, duller tactic: a 10-man defensive wall, or "parking the bus" in the phrase of Manchester United's manager José Mourinho. And yet World Cups matter to more people than even the best club football. The tournament offers ordinary players a shot at immortality. Siphiwe Tshabalala is an unremarkable South African midfielder who has spent his career in his own domestic league. Fans worldwide will always remember him for just one moment: his sweet top-corner goal in the opening game of the 2010 World Cup against Mexico. Italy's Salvatore "Toto" Schillaci and Cameroon's Roger Milla had moderate club careers, but entered football's pantheon at World Cups. On the downside, Barbosa, Brazil's goalkeeper from the 1950 tournament, remains unforgotten for his slip-up that handed the World Cup to Uruguay. Now the Russians and Saudis are playing for immortality of one sort or the other. Simon Kuper will be writing a daily column throughout the World Cup The first round may prove the most overwatched sporting event per unit of quality in history CREDIT: WORLD CUP Simon Kuper
Subject: Teams; Tournaments & championships; Soccer
Location: Italy Mexico Spain Russia South Africa Cameroon Saudi Arabia Crimea Egypt Germany Latin America China Brazil Uruguay Mumbai India Europe
People: Ronaldo, Cristiano Milla, Roger Messi, Lionel Putin, Vladimir
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 3
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 14, 2018
Section: News
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2069683052
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2069683052?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Jun 14, 2018
Last updated: 2019-06-04
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 295 of 474
Journeymen footballers shoot for World Cup immortality
Author: Kuper, Simon
Publication info: FT.com ; London (Jun 14, 2018).
Abstract:
The Saudis, currently ranked 67th by Fifa, are winless in ten World Cup games since 1994. Yet Russia-Saudi Arabia will probably draw a bigger global television audience than the Super Bowl final of American gridiron football. Most teams at this World Cup will use a much simpler, duller tactic: a ten-man defensive wall, or “parking the bus” in the phrase of Manchester United’s manager José Mourinho.Full text: A day before the World Cup began, it was easier to spot Peruvian or Chinese fans dressed in their national colours in Moscow than Russian supporters, even though China have not qualified. Hardly any Russian flags hang from apartment windows, and few shops or restaurants have adopted World Cup themes. The main evidence that the tournament kicks off today, with Russia meeting Saudi Arabia in the city’s Luzhniki Stadium, is the policemen who have flooded the city. Many locals have left, renting their apartments to visiting fans. The historian Sergey Bondarenko jokes: “Not since Napoleon’s invasion have so many Muscovites fled Moscow.” The hosts of the previous two World Cups, in South Africa and Brazil, were rather more enthusiastic. This is partly because many liberal Muscovites are shunning national symbols after the jingoistic frenzy that surrounded Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2014. But it is also because Russians are dismayed by their dismal national team, the Sbornaya, which stands 70th in the Fifa rankings. They should console themselves: they aren’t alone. Very few teams at this World Cup could match the best European club teams. The tournament isn’t about brilliant football. It’s about the global carnival, and — for the journeymen players who make up most of the 32 teams — a one-off chance to mark history. Pelé once joked that Russia would win football’s World Cup only when his Brazil won in ice hockey. The Sbornaya haven’t reached the knockout rounds since 1986, when they were a largely Ukrainian-staffed all-Soviet team. But even longtime Sbornaya fans can’t remember a team as poor as today’s. Almost the whole squad, including 38-year-old central defender Sergei Ignashevich, is drawn from the mediocre yet lavishly paid Russian league. No wonder President Vladimir Putin has been distancing himself from the team. By an amazing stroke of luck, the hosts find themselves in the tournament’s weakest group, with the Saudis, Uruguay and Egypt. Given that home advantage is worth about a goal a game in international football, the Sbornaya ought to win Thursday’s “petrol derby”. The Saudis, currently ranked 67th by Fifa, are winless in ten World Cup games since 1994. Realising that their better players needed to escape their own poor domestic league, they sent nine to Spanish clubs last winter. However, the plan misfired. Only two played any minutes, and then only in meaningless games. Spain’s language, culture, diet and football baffled them all. Yet Russia-Saudi Arabia will probably draw a bigger global television audience than the Super Bowl final of American gridiron football. Viewers in Mumbai or Shanghai, used to a weekly diet of Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Manchester City, may be aghast. The tournament should improve after the opener, but the first round may still prove the most overwatched sporting event per unit of quality in history. The problem is that western Europe and southern Latin America remain years ahead of Asian, African and North American football. The rest of the world’s long-expected catch-up hasn’t happened, either in quality or in tactics. The best European clubs — and Germany — play rapid attacking pressing football. Most teams at this World Cup will use a much simpler, duller tactic: a ten-man defensive wall, or “parking the bus” in the phrase of Manchester United’s manager José Mourinho. And yet World Cups matter to more people than even the best club football. The tournament offers ordinary players a shot at immortality. Siphiwe Tshabalala is an unremarkable South African midfielder who has spent his career in his own domestic league. Fans worldwide will always remember him for just one moment: his sweet top-corner goal in the opening game of the 2010 World Cup against Mexico. Italy’s Salvatore “Toto” Schillaci and Cameroon’s Roger Milla had moderate club careers, but entered football’s pantheon at World Cups. On the downside, Barbosa, Brazilian goalkeeper from the 1950 tournament, remains unforgotten for his slip-up that handed the World Cup to Uruguay. Now the Russians and Saudis are playing for immortality of one sort or the other. Simon Kuper will be writing a daily column throughout the 2018 World Cup Credit: Simon Kuper in Moscow
Subject: Teams; Tournaments & championships; Soccer
Location: Italy Mexico Spain Russia South Africa Cameroon Saudi Arabia Crimea Egypt Germany Latin America China Brazil Uruguay Mumbai India Europe
People: Ronaldo, Cristiano Milla, Roger Messi, Lionel Putin, Vladimir
Publication title: FT.com; London
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 14, 2018
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Trade Journals
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2072675991
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2072675991?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Jun 14, 2018
Last updated: 2018-07-21
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 296 of 474
FIFA World Cup 2018: The economics of football; who invests money, who makes money, and how much
Author: Srivastava, Pragya
Publication info: Financial Express ; New Delhi [New Delhi]15 June 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: FIFA World Cup 2018: Every four years, for almost a month, the entire world is gripped with excitement - and numerous nail-biting and adrenaline pumping moments - when the biggest sporting carnival takes place: The FIFA World Cup. And while the football fans around the world would not be more thrilled to lose their sleep over watching their favourite teams score the winning goal, there would be many who had, by then, invested a lot of money and made a lot of money in the tournament that kick-started last night in Moscow. To begin with, there is Russia, there is FIFA, and there are advertisers. The FIFA World Cup 2018 has cost Russia billions of dollars to host the game, and FIFA is going to take home millions of dollars as profit, Associated Press reported. Russia has spent $11.6 billion on projects for the tournament and the economic impact of the tournament could boost country's GDP by $26-$30 billion by 2023. On the other hand, FIFA is expected to make $6 billion in revenue this year. Even as the marquee tournament is overwhelmingly the main source of FIFA income, the $6 billion figure is conservative as it comes amid the federal investigations of bribery that rocked FIFA. Meanwhile, companies around the world are expected to boost advertising spend by $2.4 billion, despite the absence of the United States and China. Banks are predicting winners. UBS says it will be Germany, Goldman Sachs says it will be Brazil and DBS gives a too close to call prediction between the two. Football and Asia - how they stack up together! DBS says that not only are the Asian footballing nations poorly ranked, they have by and large become worse over the past two decades including China that made a huge investment bet. "High ranking in football is the playground of middle-and upper-income economies," DBS research said. But some investments bore some fruits. After President Xi Jinping announced that "Football Dream" must be included in his "Chinese Dream" in 2013, more radical reforms and aggressive investment plans have been put in place. The world ranking of the national team has improved to 75 in 2018 from 92 in 2013. South Korea and Japan are the most successful teams in Asia and India is far behind. And while somebody is definitely making money, hosting the World Cup didn't lift the economy of South Korea and Japan out of the doldrums of sluggish growth and deflation, DBS said in a research report. But benefits in certain sectors such as tourism cannot be ruled out. Singapore dollar and the Thai baht were the only Asian currencies that appreciated during every World Cup after the 1985 Plaza Accord, and the Indian Rupee alternated between appreciation and depreciation with each World Cup since 1978. Copyright 2018 IE Online Media Services Pvt. Ltd., distributed by Contify.com Credit: Pragya Srivastava
Subject: Tournaments & championships; Soccer
Location: Russia United States--US India Germany Singapore China Brazil Asia Japan South Korea
People: Xi Jinping
Company / organization: Name: Goldman Sachs Group Inc; NAICS: 523110, 523120; Name: Federation Internationale de Football Association--FIFA; NAICS: 813990; Name: UBS AG; NAICS: 522110, 523110, 523120, 523920, 523930
Publication title: Financial Express; New Delhi
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 15, 2018
Publisher: Athena Information Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
Place of publication: New Delhi
Country of publication: India, New Delhi
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2055570235
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2055570235?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright 2018 IE Online Media Services Pvt. Ltd., distributed by Contify.com
Last updated: 2018-06-15
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 297 of 474
World Cup football brings the world together
Publication info: Gulf News ; Dubai [Dubai]15 June 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: By Osama Al Sharif, Special to Gulf News,Thinker Russian President Vladimir Putin was absolutely right when he asserted at the inauguration of Russia World Cup 2018 that the love for football can bring the world together, irrespective of people’s ideological differences. There is certainly no other sporting event, including the Summer Olympics, which appeals to the masses around the world in the way the World Cup does. Images from around the globe over the past few weeks are ample proof of the World Cup fever. The pictures of a group of kids at a backstreet of Rio de Janeiro having a ball as huge murals of Neymar and Jesus loom over them, or the self-taught sculptor who carves out giant images of football stars on the beach in Puri in India — they all reflect the united colours of football. To the legion of lovers of this beautiful game, one does not have to be from a participating nation to soak in the spirit of this carnival. Otherwise, how do you explain the madness of a city like Kolkata in India where football fans stay divided into Brazil and Argentina camps for a month? The allure of the World Cup continues to bring together the best players from around the world. A global audience in the billions will tune into the games, testifying to its tremendous popularity. The 64 games over 32 days will, no doubt, produce some exciting contests that will shine the spotlight on a new generation of players while burnishing the reputation of some of the stars. With no clear favourites, this World Cup is perhaps the most open contest in recent times. Let the best team win. © Al Nisr Publishing LLC 2018. All rights reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).
Subject: Tournaments & championships; Contests; Soccer
Location: Argentina Brazil Russia Rio de Janeiro Brazil India
People: Putin, Vladimir
Company / organization: Name: Gulf News; NAICS: 511110
Publication title: Gulf News; Dubai
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 15, 2018
Publisher: SyndiGate Media Inc
Place of publication: Dubai
Country of publication: United States, Dubai
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United Arab Emirates
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2055638004
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2055638004?accountid=4840
Copyright: © Al Nisr Publishing LLC 2018. All rights reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).
Last updated: 2018-09-20
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 298 of 474
Feature and TV films
Author: Compiled by Ed Stockly
Publication info: Los Angeles Times (Online) , Los Angeles: Tribune Interactive, LLC. Jun 15, 2018. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
Four Star Films, Box Office Hits, Indies and Imports, Movies A - Z FOUR STAR FILMS Top rated movies and made-for-TV films airing the week of the week of June 17 - 23 The Terminator 1984 IFC Sun. 8:30 a.m. Father of the Bride 1950 TCM Sun. 9 a.m. Unforgiven 1992 AMC Sun. 11:30 a.m. Rain Man 1988 OVA Sun. noon, KCOP Sun. 1 p.m., OVA Tue. 7 p.m., Wed. 4 p.m. The Entertainer 1960 TCM Sun. 12:30 p.m. Death of a Salesman 1985 TCM Sun. 2:30 p.m. Finding Nemo 2003 Freeform Sun. 6 p.m. Stand by Me 1986 Encore Sun. 7 p.m., Mon. 5 a.m., noon, Fri. 6:30 a.m. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior 1981 Syfy Mon. 3:30 a.m. The Shawshank Redemption 1994 AMC Mon. 6 p.m., Tue. 2 p.m. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial 1982 HBO Tue. 10 a.m. Singin' in the Rain 1952 TCM Tue. 5 p.m. An American in Paris 1951 TCM Tue. 7 p.m. Raiders of the Lost Ark 1981 PARMOUNT Tue. 9 p.m., Wed. 3 p.m. Gigi 1958 TCM Tue. 9 p.m. Pulp Fiction 1994 LOGO Wed. 12:30 a.m. Tootsie 1982 Sundance Wed. 8:30 a.m. The Philadelphia Story 1940 TCM Wed. 5 p.m. The Graduate 1967 TCM Thur. 12:30 a.m. Bonnie and Clyde 1967 OVA Thur. 1:30 p.m. A Star Is Born 1954 TCM Thur. 7 p.m. Platoon 1986 Starz Fri. 5 a.m., 6:30 p.m. The Good Earth 1937 TCM Fri. 7 a.m. The Deer Hunter 1978 Cinemax Fri. 1:30 p.m. The Thin Man 1934 KCET Fri. 10 p.m. Forbidden Planet 1956 TCM Sat. 11 a.m. Jaws 1975 AMC Sat. 2:30 p.m., 8 p.m. Saving Private Ryan 1998 Starz Sun. 1:30 a.m. A Star Is Born 1937 TCM Sun. 3 a.m. ------------
Four Star Films, Box Office Hits, Indies and Imports, Movies A - Z BOX OFFICE HITS Movies that scored big at the box office, airing the week of the week of June 17 - 23 Steel Magnolias 1989 Showtime Sun. 6 a.m. The Green Mile 1999 A&E Sun. 8 a.m. The Terminator 1984 IFC Sun. 8:30 a.m. An Officer and a Gentleman 1982 OVA Sun. 9:30 a.m., Wed. 8 p.m., Thur. 4 p.m. Unforgiven 1992 AMC Sun. 11:30 a.m. National Lampoon's Vacation 1983 BBC America Sun. noon, 6 p.m. Rain Man 1988 OVA Sun. noon, KCOP Sun. 1 p.m., OVA Tue. 7 p.m., Wed. 4 p.m. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest 2006 TMC Sun. noon, 8 p.m., Fri. 5 p.m. Batman Begins 2005 TNT Sun. noon, 11 p.m. The Hunt for Red October 1990 Sundance Sun. 12:30 p.m. Ratatouille 2007 Freeform Sun. 1:30 p.m., Thur. 5:30 p.m., Fri. 11 a.m. Inception 2010 IFC Sun. 1:30 p.m., Fri. 12:30 p.m., Sat. 2:30 a.m. Boyz N the Hood 1991 VH1 Sun. 1:30 p.m., BET Wed. 7:30 p.m., Thur. 1 p.m. Cool Runnings 1993 CMT Sun. 2:30 p.m., 7:30 p.m., Sat. 5 p.m., 10 p.m. The Hangover 2009 Cinemax Sun. 2:30 p.m., Fri. 6:30 p.m. Despicable Me 2010 Freeform Sun. 4 p.m. Men in Black 1997 Comedy Central Sun. 4 p.m., 8:30 p.m., Fri. 8:30 p.m., Sat. 5 p.m. Tightrope 1984 Cinemax Sun. 4:30 p.m. Transformers: Age of Extinction 2014 FXX Sun. 4:30 p.m. Skyfall 2012 IFC Sun. 5 p.m. Armageddon 1998 USA Sun. 5 p.m. Broken Arrow 1996 OVA Sun. 5:30 p.m. Avengers: Age of Ultron 2015 TNT Sun. 6 p.m. Finding Nemo 2003 Freeform Sun. 6 p.m. Men in Black II 2002 Comedy Central Sun. 6:30 p.m., 11 p.m. Stand by Me 1986 Encore Sun. 7 p.m., Mon. 5 a.m., noon, Fri. 6:30 a.m. Double Jeopardy 1999 OVA Sun. 7:30 p.m., Mon. 4:30 p.m., Fri. 10 p.m., Sat. 4:30 p.m. Braveheart 1995 IFC Sun. 8 p.m., Mon. midnight, Wed. 6 p.m., Thur. 10:30 a.m. The Lost World: Jurassic Park 1997 USA Sun. 8 p.m., WGN A Mon. 7 p.m. The Lion King 1994 Freeform Sun. 8:30 p.m., Mon. 6 p.m. The Patriot 2000 Encore Sun. 9 p.m., 2:30 a.m. Rambo: First Blood Part II 1985 Sundance Sun. 9 p.m., Mon. 6 p.m. Rambo III 1988 Sundance Sun. 11 p.m., Mon. 1:30 p.m. Born on the Fourth of July 1989 Cinemax Mon. 1 a.m., Thur. 1:30 a.m., Sat. 8:30 a.m. The Mask of Zorro 1998 Encore Mon. 2:30 a.m., 3 p.m. X-Men Origins: Wolverine 2009 HBO Mon. 4:30 a.m., Tue. 1 p.m. The Poseidon Adventure 1972 IFC Mon. 6 a.m., 11 a.m. The Golden Child 1986 TMC Mon. 6 a.m., 2 p.m. Big Momma's House 2000 Encore Mon. 6:30 a.m., 5:30 p.m., Fri. 5:30 p.m. Scrooged 1988 Starz Mon. 7 a.m. Coming to America 1988 Encore Mon. 8:30 a.m., 10:30 p.m. Spider-Man 3 2007 AMC Mon. 9:30 a.m. Rush Hour 2 2001 Encore Mon. 10:30 a.m. Gone in 60 Seconds 2000 HBO Mon. 11:30 a.m., Sat. 3:30 a.m. The Bourne Identity 2002 Cinemax Mon. noon, Fri. 2:30 a.m. The Bourne Ultimatum 2007 AMC Mon. 12:30 p.m., Tue. 9 a.m. Stepmom 1998 TNT Mon. 3 p.m., TBS Sat. 7:30 a.m. First Blood 1982 Sundance Mon. 4 p.m. Jurassic Park 1993 WGN A Mon. 4 p.m. Pretty Woman 1990 TNT Mon. 5:30 p.m. A League of Their Own 1992 LOGO Mon. 5:30 p.m., 11 p.m. Blazing Saddles 1974 BBC America Mon. 7 p.m., 10 p.m., IFC Sat. 11 a.m. Miss Congeniality 2000 E! Mon. 8 p.m., Tue. 1 p.m., Bravo Fri. 8:30 p.m., 10:30 p.m. Furious 7 2015 FX Mon. 8 p.m., 11 p.m. Big 1988 POP Mon. 8 p.m., Tue. 1:30 a.m. Sweet Home Alabama 2002 Freeform Mon. 9 p.m., Tue. 5:30 p.m. Total Recall 1990 Sundance Mon. 10:30 p.m., Tue. 4 p.m., Sat. 1 p.m., Sun. 2:30 a.m. Field of Dreams 1989 PARMOUNT Tue. 1 a.m., CMT Sat. noon, Sun. 12:30 a.m. Psycho II 1983 Cinemax Tue. 4 a.m. La Bamba 1987 Encore Tue. 6 a.m., 9 p.m., Wed. 5:30 a.m. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian 2009 HBO Tue. 8 a.m. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial 1982 HBO Tue. 10 a.m. Tron 1982 Showtime Tue. 10 a.m. GoldenEye 1995 AMC Tue. 11 a.m., Wed. 9 a.m. Revenge of the Nerds 1984 Encore Tue. noon Interview With the Vampire 1994 OVA Tue. 1:30 p.m. Jurassic Park III 2001 WGN A Tue. 5 p.m. Stripes 1981 Sundance Tue. 6:30 p.m., Wed. 1 a.m., Sat. 3:30 p.m. Hancock 2008 AMC Tue. 8 p.m., 11 p.m., Wed. noon Beverly Hills Cop 1984 CMT Tue. 8 p.m., 10:30 p.m. Raiders of the Lost Ark 1981 PARMOUNT Tue. 9 p.m., Wed. 3 p.m. Caddyshack 1980 Sundance Tue. 9 p.m., 11 p.m. Poltergeist II: The Other Side 1986 Encore Tue. 10:30 p.m. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade 1989 PARMOUNT Tue. 11:30 p.m., Wed. 6 p.m. Pulp Fiction 1994 LOGO Wed. 12:30 a.m. The Last of the Mohicans 1992 Cinemax Wed. 1 a.m., Sat. 5 p.m. Bad Boys II 2003 HBO Wed. 3:30 a.m., Thur. 8 p.m. Tootsie 1982 Sundance Wed. 8:30 a.m. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull 2008 PARMOUNT Wed. 9 a.m. X-Men: The Last Stand 2006 Encore Wed. 9 a.m., 9 p.m., Thur. 4 a.m. Pretty in Pink 1986 Sundance Wed. 10:30 a.m., IFC Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. midnight Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom 1984 PARMOUNT Wed. noon Cast Away 2000 Encore Wed. 4:30 p.m. Captain America: The Winter Soldier 2014 FX Wed. 5 p.m., Thur. 3 p.m. Tombstone 1993 AMC Wed. 7 p.m., 10 p.m. Jurassic World 2015 FX Wed. 8 p.m., 10:30 p.m. The Sum of All Fears 2002 Showtime Wed. 8 p.m. American Sniper 2014 TNT Wed. 8 p.m. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective 1994 Freeform Wed. 9 p.m., Thur. 1:30 p.m. Mission: Impossible 1996 Encore Thur. 12:30 a.m., 9 a.m., Sat. 3 p.m., 10:30 p.m. The Graduate 1967 TCM Thur. 12:30 a.m. The Blues Brothers 1980 Cinemax Thur. 6 a.m. Gravity 2013 FX Thur. 7 a.m. Spies Like Us 1985 Cinemax Thur. 8 a.m. Wild Wild West 1999 VH1 Thur. 9:30 a.m. Bonnie and Clyde 1967 OVA Thur. 1:30 p.m. Anger Management 2003 AMC Thur. 3:30 p.m. Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls 1995 Freeform Thur. 3:30 p.m., Fri. midnight Crimson Tide 1995 Showtime Thur. 4 p.m. Bull Durham 1988 EPIX Thur. 4 p.m., 10 p.m. Backdraft 1991 IFC Thur. 5 p.m. Mission: Impossible 2 2000 Encore Thur. 6:30 p.m., Sat. 5 p.m. Ocean's Eleven 2001 TNT Thur. 7:30 p.m., Sat. noon Twins 1988 BBC America Thur. 8 p.m., 10:30 p.m. The Karate Kid 1984 OVA Thur. 8:30 p.m., Fri. 11 a.m. Dirty Dancing 1987 AMC Thur. 10:30 p.m., Fri. 12:30 p.m. Cocktail 1988 POP Fri. 1 a.m., 12:30 p.m. The General's Daughter 1999 Starz Fri. 1 a.m. Platoon 1986 Starz Fri. 5 a.m., 6:30 p.m. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King 2003 Encore Fri. 8 a.m., 9 p.m. Jerry Maguire 1996 AMC Fri. 9:30 a.m. Ghost 1990 Encore Fri. 1:30 p.m., Sat. 2 a.m. The Karate Kid Part II 1986 OVA Fri. 2 p.m., Sat. noon Iron Man 2008 FX Fri. 4:30 p.m., Sat. 12:30 p.m. RoboCop 1987 Showtime Fri. 5:30 p.m., TMC Sat. 7 p.m. Meet the Fockers 2004 Bravo Fri. 6 p.m., Sat. 2:30 p.m. X-Men: Days of Future Past 2014 FX Fri. 7:30 p.m., Sat. midnight Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl 2003 AMC Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 11:30 a.m. The Perfect Storm 2000 AMC Fri. 11 p.m., Sat. 8:30 a.m. Rise of the Planet of the Apes 2011 FX Sat. 8 a.m. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows 2011 WGN A Sat. 9 a.m. The Firm 1993 Encore Sat. 9 a.m. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe 2005 HBO Sat. 9:30 a.m. Days of Thunder 1990 Encore Sat. 11:30 a.m. Top Gun 1986 Encore Sat. 1 p.m. Jaws 1975 AMC Sat. 2:30 p.m., 8 p.m. Wayne's World 1992 Comedy Central Sat. 2:30 p.m. Iron Man 2 2010 FX Sat. 3:30 p.m. Brewster's Millions 1985 MLB Sat. 5 p.m. Jaws 2 1978 AMC Sat. 5:30 p.m., 11 p.m. Uncle Buck 1989 IFC Sat. 5:30 p.m., 10 p.m. The Incredibles 2004 Disney Sat. 6 p.m. Iron Man 3 2013 FX Sat. 6 p.m. Mr. Deeds 2002 Freeform Sat. 6:30 p.m. The Last Samurai 2003 OVA Sat. 7 p.m. Independence Day 1996 Starz Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 4:30 a.m. Guardians of the Galaxy 2014 FX Sat. 9 p.m. Saving Private Ryan 1998 Starz Sun. 1:30 a.m. S.W.A.T. 2003 HBO Sun. 6 a.m. ------------
Four Star Films, Box Office Hits, Indies and Imports, Movies A - Z BRAVO, IFC & SUNDANCE IN PRIMETIME Bravo, IFC & Sundance in primetime, airing the week of the week of June 17 - 23 Salt 2010 IFC Sun. 6:30 a.m., Thur. 8 p.m., Fri. 12:30 a.m., 8 a.m. Braveheart 1995 IFC Sun. 8 p.m., Mon. midnight, Wed. 6 p.m., Thur. 10:30 a.m. Rambo: First Blood Part II 1985 Sundance Sun. 9 p.m., Mon. 6 p.m. Blazing Saddles 1974 BBC America Mon. 7 p.m., 10 p.m., IFC Sat. 11 a.m. Predators 2010 Sundance Mon. 8 p.m., Tue. 1:30 p.m. Total Recall 1990 Sundance Mon. 10:30 p.m., Tue. 4 p.m., Sat. 1 p.m., Sun. 2:30 a.m. Jumper 2008 IFC Tue. 6 p.m., 10 p.m. Red Riding Hood 2011 IFC Tue. 8 p.m., Wed. midnight, Fri. 10:30 a.m., Sat. midnight Caddyshack 1980 Sundance Tue. 9 p.m., 11 p.m. Pretty in Pink 1986 Sundance Wed. 10:30 a.m., IFC Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. midnight The Day the Earth Stood Still 2008 IFC Wed. 10:30 p.m., Thur. 1:30 a.m. The Last Stand 2013 IFC Thur. 2:30 p.m., 10 p.m. Uncle Buck 1989 IFC Sat. 5:30 p.m., 10 p.m. ------------
Four Star Films, Box Office Hits, Indies and Imports, Movies A - Z THIS WEEK'S MOVIES A-Z An alphabetical listing of movies on TV the week of the week of June 17 - 23 a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z ------------ A Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
Abandon (2002) Katie Holmes, Benjamin Bratt. A detective discovers new facts regarding the disappearance of a collegian's boyfriend two years earlier. (PG-13) 1 hr. 39 mins. Cinemax Tues., June 19, 11 a.m.
About Last Night (2014) Kevin Hart, Michael Ealy. Four Los Angeles singles experience undeniable chemistry and pair off to follow their attraction to its logical conclusion. Afterward, each new couple tries to make love last in the real world. (R) 1 hr. 40 mins. FX Tues., June 19, 10 a.m.
Absolute Power (1997) Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman. A veteran thief catches the president of the United States in adultery and a murder cover-up. (R) 2 hrs. HBO Thur., June 21, 2 a.m.
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994) Jim Carrey, Courteney Cox. A bungling gumshoe uncovers more than just a simple kidnapping when he searches for the Miami Dolphins' missing mascot. (PG-13) 1 hr. 26 mins. Freeform Wed., June 20, 9 p.m. Freeform Thur., June 21, 1 p.m.
Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995) Jim Carrey, Ian McNeice. A sacred white bat's disappearance begets bloodshed between African tribes and puts the goofy pet sleuth on the case. (PG-13) 1 hr. 32 mins. Freeform Thur., June 21, 3:30 p.m. Freeform Thur., June 21, 11:30 p.m.
Adaptation (2002) Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep. A screenwriter asks his identical twin, who is in the same profession, for advice on a story about a serial killer. (R) 1 hr. 54 mins. Cinemax Fri., June 22, 4:30 p.m.
Adventures of Don Juan (1948) Errol Flynn, Viveca Lindfors. The Spanish swordsman joins the royal fencing academy and duels a duke who wants to be dictator. (NR) 1 hr. 50 mins. TCM Wed., June 20, 3 p.m.
After Earth (2013) Jaden Smith, Will Smith. With his father trapped in the wreckage of their spacecraft, a youth treks across Earth's now-hostile terrain to recover their rescue beacon and signal for help. (PG-13) 1 hr. 39 mins. FXX Sun., June 17, 11 a.m.
Aftermath (2017) Arnold Schwarzenegger, Scoot McNairy. Two strangers' lives become inextricably bound together after an error by an air traffic controller causes the death of a construction foreman's wife and daughter. (R) 1 hr. 32 mins. EPIX Thur., June 21, 3 a.m.
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (2014) Steve Carell, Jennifer Garner. An 11-year-old boy experiences the worst day of his young life but soon learns that he's not alone when other members of his family encounter their own calamities. (PG) 1 hr. 21 mins. Disney Sun., June 17, 6:30 p.m.
The All-American Boy (1973) Jon Voight, E.J. Peaker. A self-destructive small-town boxer uses women and indulges himself as he tries to make the big time. (R) 1 hr. 58 mins. TCM Sun., June 24, 1 a.m.
All of My Heart: Inn Love (2017) Lacey Chabert, Brennan Elliott. Brian and Jenny are preparing for the grand opening of their bed and breakfast, Emily's Country Inn, when a big storm hits Buck County. Brian agrees to go back to Wall Street to boost their funds, while Jenny scrambles to keep the opening on track. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Hallmark Sat., June 23, 5 p.m.
All of My Heart (2015) Lacey Chabert, Brennan Elliott. After inheriting half of a house, a young woman develops an unexpected friendship with her co-owner. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Hallmark Sat., June 23, 3 p.m. Hallmark Wed., June 20, 4 p.m.
All Saints (2017) John Corbett, Cara Buono. Pastor Michael Spurlock receives an assignment to close a country church and sell the prime piece of land where it sits. He soon has a change of heart when the church starts to welcome refugees from Burma who know how to farm. (PG) 1 hr. 48 mins. Starz Tues., June 19, 7:30 a.m.
All the Right Moves (1983) Tom Cruise, Craig T. Nelson. A Pennsylvania steel-town high-school coach tries to spoil a football hero's scholarship dream. (R) 1 hr. 31 mins. Encore Sat., June 23, 7 a.m.
Altitude (2010) Jessica Lowndes, Julianna Guill. A plane full of teens with a rookie pilot battles against a supernatural force. (R) 1 hr. 28 mins. Cinemax Tues., June 19, 7:30 a.m.
Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007) Jason Lee, David Cross. Live action/animated. Musical but mischievous chipmunks Alvin, Simon and Theodore wreak havoc in the life of songwriter Dave Seville. (PG) 1 hr. 31 mins. Nickelodeon Thur., June 21, 8 p.m.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone. The emergence of a powerful new villain and the return of an old friend bring Peter Parker to the realization that all his enemies have one thing in common: Oscorp. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 21 mins. FXX Sun., June 17, 1 p.m.
An American in Paris (1951) Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron. An American soldier stays in Paris after World War II to paint and falls in love with a French beauty. (NR) 1 hr. 53 mins. TCM Tues., June 19, 7 p.m.
American Made (2017) Tom Cruise, Domhnall Gleeson. The true story of pilot Barry Seal, who transported contraband for the CIA and the Medellin cartel in the 1980s. (R) 1 hr. 55 mins. HBO Sun., June 17, 5 p.m. HBO Sun., June 24, 3:30 a.m. HBO Wed., June 20, 8 p.m.
American Reunion (2012) Jason Biggs, Alyson Hannigan. Jim, Stifler and their former classmates from East Great Falls learn what has changed and what has not when they gather for their high-school reunion. (R) 1 hr. 52 mins. FXX Sat., June 23, 2 p.m.
American Sniper (2014) Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller. Sniper and U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle saves many lives on battlefields in Iraq while striving to be a good husband and father to his loved ones back in America. (R) 2 hrs. 12 mins. TNT Wed., June 20, 8 p.m.
Amistad (1997) Morgan Freeman, Anthony Hopkins. U.S. lawyers defend Africans who revolted against their Spanish captors aboard a slave ship in 1839. (R) 2 hrs. 32 mins. TMC Sat., June 23, 12:30 p.m. TMC Sun., June 17, 10:30 p.m. TMC Wed., June 20, 1 p.m.
Anger Management (2003) Adam Sandler, Jack Nicholson. A meek businessman clashes with an aggressive therapist after being ordered to undergo 20 hours of counseling. (PG-13) 1 hr. 46 mins. AMC Thur., June 21, 3 p.m.
The Angriest Man in Brooklyn (2014) Robin Williams, Mila Kunis. After learning that a brain aneurysm will kill him in about 90 minutes, a perpetually unhappy man struggles to come to terms with his fate and make amends with everyone he has ever hurt. (R) 1 hr. 24 mins. Encore Mon., June 18, 1:30 a.m.
The Animal Kingdom (1932) Ann Harding, Leslie Howard. A publisher marries a socialite instead of the artist he loves. (NR) 1 hr. 25 mins. TCM Mon., June 18, 8 p.m.
Annie Get Your Gun (1950) Betty Hutton, Howard Keel. Sharpshooter Annie Oakley joins Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and aims to win her man. (NR) 1 hr. 47 mins. TCM Tues., June 19, 11 p.m.
Ant-Man (2015) Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas. Armed with a suit that allows him to shrink in size but grow in strength, Ant-Man must prevent Dr. Hank Pym's former protg, also known as Yellowjacket, from perfecting the same technology and using it as a weapon for evil. (PG-13) 1 hr. 57 mins. TNT Tues., June 19, 6:30 p.m.
Are We Done Yet? (2007) Ice Cube, Nia Long. A contractor with a bizarre business plan complicates a man's attempt to move his new family to the suburbs. (PG) 1 hr. 32 mins. BET Sun., June 17, 2:30 p.m.
Armageddon (1998) Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton. A NASA rep recruits an oil driller and his team of mavericks to save Earth from an oncoming asteroid. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 30 mins. USA Sun., June 17, 5 p.m.
Armored (2009) Matt Dillon, Jean Reno. Armored-truck guards turn against one another after their plan to rob their company goes terribly awry. (PG-13) 1 hr. 28 mins. Starz Mon., June 18, 10:30 a.m. Starz Mon., June 18, 2:30 a.m. Starz Thur., June 21, 11:30 p.m.
Arrival (2016) Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner. A linguistics professor leads an elite team of investigators in a race against time to communicate with extraterrestrial visitors. (PG-13) 1 hr. 56 mins. EPIX Mon., June 18, 1:30 p.m. EPIX Mon., June 18, 9 p.m. EPIX Sun., June 17, 4:30 p.m. EPIX Tues., June 19, 5:30 p.m.
As I AM: The Life and Times of DJ AM (2015) The life and work of the mash-up pioneer and his influence on electronic music. (NR) 1 hr. 37 mins. TMC Fri., June 22, 12 p.m. TMC Mon., June 18, 6 p.m.
Assassin's Creed (2016) Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard. A descendant of the mysterious secret society known as the Assassins uses his newfound knowledge and physical skills to battle the power-hungry Templar Order. (PG-13) 1 hr. 56 mins. Cinemax Sun., June 17, 10:30 p.m.
Assault on Precinct 13 (2005) Ethan Hawke, Laurence Fishburne. A cop must arm prisoners to help fend off an attack by gunmen who want to kill a gangster locked away in the crumbling station. (R) 1 hr. 49 mins. Showtime Sat., June 23, 1 p.m.
Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958) Allison Hayes, William Hudson. Turned into a giantess by an alien, a woman finds her husband in a bar with a floozy. (NR) 1 hr. 6 mins. TCM Mon., June 18, 7:30 a.m.
Attack of the Killer Donuts (2016) Kayla Compton, Justin Ray. A chemical accident turns ordinary donuts into bloodthirsty killers. Now it's up to a group of friends to save their town from the fried fiends. (NR) 1 hr. 38 mins. TMC Tues., June 19, 9:30 a.m.
At the Devil's Door (2013) Catalina Sandino Moreno, Naya Rivera. Leigh, an ambitious young real estate agent, is asked to sell a house with a dubious past. When she finds the runaway daughter of the couple trying to sell the home, Leigh becomes entangled with a supernatural force with sinister plans. (NR) 1 hr. 33 mins. TMC Mon., June 18, 11 a.m. TMC Fri., June 22, 10:30 a.m.
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth. When Tony Stark's jumpstart of a dormant peacekeeping program goes awry, the Avengers must reassemble to battle a terrifying technological villain hell-bent on human extinction. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 21 mins. TNT Sun., June 17, 6 p.m. ------------ B Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
Babe: Pig in the City (1998) Magda Szubanski, James Cromwell. A farmer's wife and her young porker are detained in a city rooming house with a menagerie. Live action/animatronics. (G) 1 hr. 37 mins. TMC Thur., June 21, 7:30 a.m.
Baby Boom (1987) Diane Keaton, Harold Ramis. A Manhattan career woman with a live-in boyfriend suddenly inherits a baby girl and moves to Vermont. (PG) 1 hr. 51 mins. EPIX Thur., June 21, 8 p.m.
Backdraft (1991) Kurt Russell, William Baldwin. Two brothers fight each other and an outbreak of arson as Chicago firefighters. (R) 2 hrs. 17 mins. IFC Thur., June 21, 4:30 p.m.
Backtrack (2015) Adrien Brody, Sam Neill. A troubled psychologist returns to his hometown to uncover the truth behind his strange visions. (R) 1 hr. 30 mins. Syfy Sun., June 24, 3:30 a.m.
The Back-up Plan (2010) Jennifer Lopez, Alex O'Loughlin. A single woman meets the man of her dreams on the same day she becomes pregnant through artificial insemination. (PG-13) 1 hr. 44 mins. POP Thur., June 21, 1 a.m. POP Wed., June 20, 10:30 p.m.
Bad Boys II (2003) Martin Lawrence, Will Smith. Two detectives uncover a conspiracy involving a drug kingpin while trying to stop the trafficking of Ecstasy in Miami. (R) 2 hrs. 26 mins. HBO Thur., June 21, 8 p.m. HBO Wed., June 20, 3 a.m.
Bad Grandmas (2017) Florence Henderson, Randall Batinkoff. Four grandmothers accidentally kill a con man and must cover it up when his partner arrives. (NR) 1 hr. 32 mins. TMC Wed., June 20, 9 a.m.
Bad Santa (2003) Billy Bob Thornton, Tony Cox. Two criminals disguise themselves as St. Nick and an elf to rob stores at Christmastime. (R) 1 hr. 33 mins. Showtime Mon., June 18, 3:30 p.m.
Bad Teacher (2011) Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake. A rude, drug-abusing educator vies with a perky colleague for the attentions of a rich and handsome substitute teacher. (R) 1 hr. 32 mins. MTV Sat., June 23, 10:30 p.m. MTV Sat., June 23, 4 p.m.
Balalaika (1939) Nelson Eddy, Ilona Massey. A Russian prince behaves in a proletarian fashion to woo a cafe singer, then flees to Paris and becomes a singer. (NR) 1 hr. 42 mins. TCM Fri., June 22, 5 a.m.
La Bamba (1987) Lou Diamond Phillips, Esai Morales. Mexican-American Ritchie Valens becomes a rock 'n' roll star, then dies at 17 in a 1959 plane crash. (PG-13) 1 hr. 48 mins. Encore Tues., June 19, 6 a.m. Encore Tues., June 19, 8 p.m. Encore Wed., June 20, 5:30 a.m.
Band Aid (2017) Zoe Lister-Jones, Adam Pally. A bickering couple make one last effort to save their marriage by turning their arguments into songs and forming a band. (R) 1 hr. 34 mins. TMC Wed., June 20, 8 p.m.
The Band Wagon (1953) Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse. Two playwrights bring a movie dancer to New York for a Broadway show with a ballerina. (NR) 1 hr. 52 mins. TCM Tues., June 19, 11 a.m.
Batman Begins (2005) Christian Bale, Michael Caine. Following the death of his parents, young heir Bruce Wayne becomes a masked avenger who fights the forces of evil in Gotham City. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 20 mins. TNT Sun., June 17, 12 p.m. TNT Sun., June 17, 11 p.m.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill. Convinced that Superman is now a threat to humanity, Batman embarks on a personal vendetta to end his reign on Earth, while the conniving Lex Luthor launches his own crusade against the Man of Steel. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 33 mins. TNT Sun., June 17, 2:30 p.m.
Battle: Los Angeles (2011) Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez. After the world's great cities fall, a Marine staff sergeant and his platoon make a last stand against alien invaders. (PG-13) 1 hr. 56 mins. AMC Tues., June 19, 5 p.m. AMC Wed., June 20, 1:30 p.m.
Battle Scars (2015) Zane Holtz, Heather McComb. Luke Stephens must contend with physical wounds and post-traumatic stress disorder after returning home from a tour of duty in Afghanistan. He soon crosses paths with a woman who leads him into a similarly violent and dangerous world. (NR) 1 hr. 34 mins. TMC Mon., June 18, 12:30 p.m.
B&B (2017) Tom Bateman, Paul McGann. A gay couple seek revenge against a hotel owner after they are turned away. (NR) 1 hr. 27 mins. TMC Wed., June 20, 3 a.m.
Beat the Devil (1954) Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Jones. International swindlers are diverted from their sinister dealings when an explosion wrecks the ship they are aboard. (NR) 1 hr. 32 mins. KVCR Sat., June 23, 10 p.m.
Bedtime Stories (2008) Adam Sandler, Keri Russell. A hotel handyman tries to make the most of the situation when he learns that the outlandish tales he tells his niece and nephew are coming true. (PG) 1 hr. 39 mins. Encore Fri., June 22, 7 p.m. Encore Sat., June 23, 4 a.m.
Berkeley Square (1933) Leslie Howard, Heather Angel. An American travels back in time to 18th-century London, inhabits the body of his look-alike ancestor and falls in love with a woman of that time period. (NR) 1 hr. 27 mins. TCM Mon., June 18, 5 p.m.
Beverly Hills Cop (1984) Eddie Murphy, Judge Reinhold. A hip Detroit detective drives out to Los Angeles and shows local police how to catch a killer. (R) 1 hr. 45 mins. CMT Tues., June 19, 10 p.m. CMT Tues., June 19, 8 p.m.
Bewitched (2005) Nicole Kidman, Will Ferrell. An actual witch and a neurotic movie star land the lead roles in a television remake of the 1960s sitcom. (PG-13) 1 hr. 40 mins. Encore Sun., June 24, 5 a.m.
Beyond the Opposite Sex (2018) A transgender man and woman face the challenges of maintaining relationships. (NR) 1 hr. 29 mins. Showtime Wed., June 20, 12 a.m.
Bigfoot and the Burtons (2015) Tristan Culbert, Michele Bailey. A boy and his siblings try to save Bigfoot from a group of hunters. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. TMC Thur., June 21, 4:30 a.m. TMC Wed., June 20, 7 a.m.
The Big Lebowski (1998) Jeff Bridges, John Goodman. Bowling buddies become involved with a multimillionaire and his family wanted by mobsters in 1990s Los Angeles. (R) 1 hr. 57 mins. Cinemax Tues., June 19, 2 p.m.
Big Momma's House (2000) Martin Lawrence, Nia Long. To protect a woman and her son from a robber, a male FBI agent assumes the guise of a large grandmother. (PG-13) 1 hr. 38 mins. Encore Fri., June 22, 5:30 p.m. Encore Mon., June 18, 5:30 p.m. Encore Mon., June 18, 6:30 a.m.
Big (1988) Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Perkins. A wishing machine turns a boy into a 35-year-old man with a fun job and a girlfriend. (PG) 1 hr. 44 mins. POP Mon., June 18, 8 p.m. POP Tues., June 19, 1:30 a.m.
Bitter Harvest (2017) Max Irons, Aneurin Barnard. A young man's life is changed forever when the burgeoning Soviet Union's ambition leads to Stalin's army spilling into rural Ukraine. (R) 1 hr. 43 mins. EPIX Fri., June 22, 11 a.m.
The Black Book (1949) Robert Cummings, Richard Basehart. An enemy of Robespierre steals the secret book listing his candidates for the guillotine. (NR) 1 hr. 29 mins. TCM Fri., June 22, 3 a.m.
Blade Runner 2049 (2017) Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford. After discovering a long-buried secret that jeopardizes what's left of society, a new blade runner embarks on a quest to find Rick Deckard, a former blade runner who's been missing for 30 years. (R) 2 hrs. 44 mins. HBO Fri., June 22, 4:30 p.m.
Blade (1998) Wesley Snipes, Stephen Dorff. A man with vampire blood and his mortal partner hunt a rebel vampire and his coterie of undead. (R) 2 hrs. Encore Wed., June 20, 12 p.m. Encore Wed., June 20, 1:30 a.m. Encore Wed., June 20, 6:30 p.m.
Blankman (1994) Damon Wayans, David Alan Grier. An inventive oddball takes matters into his own hands when crime overruns the Illinois city he calls home. (PG-13) 1 hr. 32 mins. OVA Sat., June 23, 2:30 p.m. OVA Thur., June 21, 11 a.m. OVA Wed., June 20, 10:30 p.m.
Blazing Saddles (1974) Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder. A black railroad worker is appointed sheriff of a town marked for destruction by a scheming politician. (R) 1 hr. 33 mins. BBC America Mon., June 18, 10 p.m. BBC America Mon., June 18, 6:30 p.m. IFC Sat., June 23, 11 a.m.
Bleed for This (2016) Miles Teller, Aaron Eckhart. With help from trainer Kevin Rooney, champion boxer Vinny Pazienza tries to make a comeback after breaking his neck in a car accident. (R) 1 hr. 56 mins. Showtime Thur., June 21, 10:30 a.m.
Blended (2014) Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore. Soon after their blind date goes disastrously wrong, two single parents and their children end up sharing a suite together at an African resort. (PG-13) 1 hr. 57 mins. Comedy Central Sat., June 23, 7 p.m. Comedy Central Sun., June 24, 12 a.m.
The Blues Brothers (1980) John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd. Joliet Jake and Elwood Blues, brothers on a mission from God, bomb around Chicago in an old police car, reuniting their hot band. (R) 2 hrs. 13 mins. Cinemax Thur., June 21, 5 a.m.
Bonnie and Clyde (1967) Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway. Acclaimed account of the gun-toting bank robbers and the trail of terror they blazed through the Southwest in the '30s. (R) 1 hr. 51 mins. OVA Thur., June 21, 1:30 p.m.
The Book of Eli (2010) Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman. A lone warrior faces many dangers as he carries hope for humanity's redemption across a post-apocalyptic wasteland. (R) 1 hr. 52 mins. Cinemax Tues., June 19, 9 a.m.
The Book of Life (2014) Voices of Diego Luna, Zo Saldana. Animated. Torn between family expectations and following his heart, a young man journeys through three fantastic worlds and faces his greatest fears. (PG) 1 hr. 35 mins. FXX Thur., June 21, 6 p.m. FXX Fri., June 22, 3:30 p.m.
Bootmen (2000) Adam Garcia, Sophie Lee. Not wanting to spend his life working in an Australian steel mill, a young man pursues his dream of becoming a great tap dancer. (R) 1 hr. 32 mins. Cinemax Tues., June 19, 6 a.m.
Born on the Fourth of July (1989) Tom Cruise, Willem Dafoe. Based on the story of Ron Kovic, a Marine who returned from Vietnam a paraplegic and later became an anti-war activist. (R) 2 hrs. 24 mins. Cinemax Mon., June 18, 12:30 a.m. Cinemax Thur., June 21, 1:30 a.m. Cinemax Sat., June 23, 8:30 a.m.
The Bounty Hunter (2010) Jennifer Aniston, Gerard Butler. Originally hired to track down his bail-jumping ex-wife, a bounty hunter soon finds himself on the run for his life. (PG-13) 1 hr. 51 mins. Starz Thur., June 21, 6:30 a.m. Starz Thur., June 21, 4 p.m.
The Bourne Identity (2002) Matt Damon, Franka Potente. A woman helps an amnesiac, who has a dangerous past, to dodge assassins as he tries to learn about himself. (PG-13) 1 hr. 53 mins. Cinemax Fri., June 22, 2:30 a.m. Cinemax Mon., June 18, 12 p.m.
The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) Matt Damon, Julia Stiles. Jason Bourne continues his international quest to uncover his true identity while staying one step ahead of those who want to kill him. (PG-13) 1 hr. 55 mins. AMC Mon., June 18, 12:30 p.m. AMC Tues., June 19, 8:30 a.m.
Boyz N the Hood (1991) Larry Fishburne, Ice Cube. Three boys become men, one guided by his father, in their racially divided Los Angeles neighborhood. (R) 1 hr. 52 mins. BET Thur., June 21, 1 p.m. BET Wed., June 20, 7 p.m. VH1 Sun., June 17, 1:30 p.m.
Brake (2012) Stephen Dorff, Chyler Leigh. A federal agent is taken captive by terrorists who want to know the location of the U.S. president's secret bunker. (R) 1 hr. 32 mins. IFC Mon., June 18, 3:30 a.m.
Braveheart (1995) Mel Gibson, Sophie Marceau. Enraged by the killing of his wife, Scotsman William Wallace leads a revolt against the tyrannical English king in the 13th century. (R) 2 hrs. 57 mins. IFC Mon., June 18, 12 a.m. IFC Sun., June 17, 8 p.m. IFC Thur., June 21, 10 a.m. IFC Wed., June 20, 6 p.m.
Breakdown (1997) Kurt Russell, J.T. Walsh. A man's wife disappears in the desert Southwest after accepting a trucker's help with car trouble. (R) 1 hr. 33 mins. KDOC Sun., June 24, 2:30 a.m.
Brewster's Millions (1985) Richard Pryor, John Candy. A minor-league pitcher inherits $300 million but must spend $30 million in 30 days to get it. (PG) 1 hr. 37 mins. MLB Sat., June 23, 5 p.m.
Bridal Wave (2015) Arielle Kebbel, Andrew W. Walker. A woman planning for her wedding at a resort meets a charming local right before the ceremony and has to choose between the man who can care for her financially or the man who truly understands her. (NR) 1 hr. 35 mins. Hallmark Sat., June 23, 10 a.m.
Bride Wars (2009) Kate Hudson, Anne Hathaway. After a clerical error schedules their weddings on the same day, two longtime best friends declare all-out war on each other. (PG) 1 hr. 30 mins. E! Sat., June 23, 11 p.m. E! Sat., June 23, 5 p.m.
Bridge of Spies (2015) Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance. During the Cold War, a CIA operative recruits New York lawyer James Donovan to negotiate a prisoner exchange for captured U.S. pilot Francis Gary Powers. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 21 mins. USA Sun., June 17, 2 p.m.
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004) Rene Zellweger, Hugh Grant. An attractive lawyer and Bridget's former boss threaten her newfound happiness with Mark Darcy. (R) 1 hr. 46 mins. Showtime Sun., June 17, 8 a.m. Showtime Thur., June 21, 8 p.m. Showtime Fri., June 22, 3 a.m.
Brigadoon (1954) Gene Kelly, Van Johnson. New Yorkers hunting in the Scottish Highlands find a magic village that fell asleep in 1754. (G) 1 hr. 48 mins. TCM Tues., June 19, 3 p.m.
Bring It On: All or Nothing (2006) Hayden Panettiere, Solange Knowles. When her family moves across town, a teenager must win over the head cheerleader to make the squad. (PG-13) 1 hr. 39 mins. VH1 Fri., June 22, 4:30 p.m.
Bring It On: Fight to the Finish (2009) Christina Milian, Vanessa Born. A teenager clashes with a cheerleading captain while finding romance with the girl's brother. (PG-13) 1 hr. 43 mins. VH1 Fri., June 22, 2:30 p.m.
Bring It On (2000) Kirsten Dunst, Eliza Dushku. An urban cheerleading squad accuses a champion team's captain of stealing its choreography on the eve of a national competition. (PG-13) 1 hr. 38 mins. VH1 Fri., June 22, 7 p.m.
Broken Arrow (1996) John Travolta, Christian Slater. An Air Force pilot matches wits with a renegade colleague who is threatening to detonate a pair of nuclear warheads. (R) 1 hr. 48 mins. OVA Sun., June 17, 5 p.m.
The Brothers Grimsby (2016) Sacha Baron Cohen, Mark Strong. Wrongfully accused and on the run, a top MI6 agent joins forces with his dimwitted brother to save the world from a sinister plot. (R) 1 hr. 23 mins. FXX Sun., June 24, 12 a.m. FXX Sun., June 24, 1:30 a.m.
Brothers (2009) Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal. After his brother is presumed dead in Afghanistan, a drifter and his sister-in-law are drawn together through their grief and unexpected attraction. (R) 1 hr. 44 mins. EPIX Sun., June 17, 2:30 p.m. EPIX Fri., June 22, 2:30 p.m. EPIX Fri., June 22, 11 p.m.
Brown Sugar (2002) Taye Diggs, Sanaa Lathan. A producer for a record company falls for his longtime friend shortly after proposing to his girlfriend. (PG-13) 1 hr. 49 mins. Starz Sat., June 23, 1 a.m. Starz Sat., June 23, 11:30 a.m.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992) Kristy Swanson, Luke Perry. Valley girl Buffy departs from cheerleading to train with her recruiter for a vampire invasion. (PG-13) 1 hr. 26 mins. Starz Wed., June 20, 2:30 p.m. Starz Wed., June 20, 6 a.m.
Bull Durham (1988) Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon. A literary baseball groupie romances a pitcher and a catcher on a minor-league North Carolina team. (R) 1 hr. 48 mins. EPIX Thur., June 21, 4 p.m. EPIX Thur., June 21, 9:30 p.m.
Bulworth (1998) Warren Beatty, Halle Berry. After hiring a hit man to kill him, a disillusioned senator starts speaking the blunt truth at campaign rallies. (R) 1 hr. 46 mins. Encore Thur., June 21, 6 a.m.
The 'Burbs (1989) Tom Hanks, Bruce Dern. A suburban homeowner's week off with his wife turns sour after odd neighbors move in next door. (PG) 1 hr. 43 mins. EPIX Thur., June 21, 6 p.m. ------------ C Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
Caddyshack (1980) Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield. Oddballs and gophers undermine a country-club caddy out to win a college scholarship. (R) 1 hr. 38 mins. Sundance Tues., June 19, 11 p.m. Sundance Tues., June 19, 9 p.m.
Cahill, United States Marshal (1973) John Wayne, George Kennedy. A U.S. marshal neglects his two sons and finds them mixed up with an outlaw in a bank robbery. (PG) 1 hr. 43 mins. TCM Sat., June 23, 3 p.m.
Calamity Jane (1953) Doris Day, Howard Keel. Wild West sharpshooter Jane falls for Wild Bill Hickok and tries to act more ladylike. (NR) 1 hr. 41 mins. TCM Thur., June 21, 6:30 a.m.
Cantinflas (2014) scar Jaenada, Michael Imperioli. Desde sus humildes inicios, Cantinflas viaja desde los escenarios pequeos hasta las luces brillantes de Hollywood y se convierte en una querida estrella de los filmes de comedia en Mxico. (PG) 1 hr. 43 mins. KMEX Sun., June 17, 9:30 a.m.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson. Captain America, the Black Widow and a new ally, the Falcon, face an unexpected enemy as they struggle to expose a far-reaching conspiracy that puts the world at risk. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 15 mins. FX Wed., June 20, 4:30 p.m. FX Thur., June 21, 2:30 p.m.
Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951) Gregory Peck, Virginia Mayo. C.S. Forester's British naval hero woos the Duke of Wellington's sister and fights in the Napoleonic wars. (NR) 1 hr. 57 mins. TCM Fri., June 22, 4:30 p.m.
The Care Bears Movie (1985) Voices of Georgia Engel, Mickey Rooney. Animated. An evil spirit attempts to undermine the Care Bears' mission to spread goodwill to children around the world. (G) 1 hr. 16 mins. EPIX Sat., June 23, 12 p.m.
The Carey Treatment (1972) James Coburn, Jennifer O'Neill. A Boston doctor hunts a killer to clear a colleague charged with an abortion-related manslaughter. (PG) 1 hr. 41 mins. TCM Sat., June 23, 5 p.m.
Carlito's Way (1993) Al Pacino, Sean Penn. A reformed ex-convict is torn between his girlfriend and his crooked lawyer in 1975. (R) 2 hrs. 24 mins. TMC Tues., June 19, 1 p.m.
Carrie (1976) Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie. A social misfit with psychic powers wreaks havoc at her prom to get even with pranksters. (R) 1 hr. 38 mins. EPIX Wed., June 20, 11 p.m. EPIX Wed., June 20, 12:30 p.m.
Cast Away (2000) Tom Hanks, Helen Hunt. After a plane crash at sea, a Federal Express engineer survives on a remote island for four years in complete isolation. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 23 mins. Encore Wed., June 20, 4:30 p.m.
Catch and Release (2007) Jennifer Garner, Timothy Olyphant. A woman struggles to rebuild her life in the wake of her fiance's untimely death and the discovery of secrets he kept from her. (PG-13) 1 hr. 51 mins. Starz Wed., June 20, 12:30 p.m. Starz Thur., June 21, 10:30 a.m.
The Catered Affair (1956) Bette Davis, Ernest Borgnine. An Irish cabby in the Bronx watches his wife go overboard planning their daughter's wedding. (NR) 1 hr. 33 mins. TCM Wed., June 20, 9 p.m.
Caught in the Crossfire (2010) Chris Klein, Richard T. Jones. Two detectives are targeted by gangsters and crooked cops as they investigate an important case. (R) 1 hr. 25 mins. Cinemax Sun., June 17, 8 a.m.
Certain Women (2016) Kristen Stewart, Laura Dern. Three strong-willed women strive to forge their own paths amidst the wide-open plains of the American Northwest. (R) 1 hr. 47 mins. TMC Tues., June 19, 10 p.m.
The Champ (1979) Jon Voight, Faye Dunaway. A has-been boxer trains in Florida for a comeback and fights his ex-wife for custody of their son. (PG) 2 hrs. 2 mins. TCM Sat., June 23, 10:30 p.m.
Chance at Romance (2013) Erin Krakow, Ryan McPartlin. A woman begins an online relationship with a famous photographer, not realizing that she is actually communicating with the man's young son. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Hallmark Sun., June 17, 1 p.m. Hallmark Mon., June 18, 4 p.m.
The Change-Up (2011) Ryan Reynolds, Jason Bateman. Envious of each other's lives, an overworked lawyer and his seemingly carefree buddy awake after a drunken binge and find they have somehow switched bodies. (R) 1 hr. 52 mins. TBS Sun., June 17, 11 a.m.
Chaos (2005) Jason Statham, Ryan Phillippe. A veteran detective and a rookie cop have to stop a master thief's computer virus before it drains all the funds from a bank's accounts. (R) 1 hr. 46 mins. Cinemax Mon., June 18, 2 p.m.
Charade (1963) Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn. A suave stranger helps a chic widow stalked by four men looking for loot in Paris. (NR) 1 hr. 54 mins. KVCR Sat., June 23, 8 p.m.
Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003) Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore. Three private detectives work under cover to retrieve two rings that contain cryptic information. (PG-13) 1 hr. 51 mins. HBO Sun., June 17, 8 a.m.
CHIPS (2017) Michael Pea, Dax Shepard. Undercover FBI agent Frank ``Ponch'' Poncherello works with rookie motorcycle cop Jon Baker to investigate police corruption in California. (R) 1 hr. 41 mins. HBO Sat., June 23, 4 p.m. HBO Wed., June 20, 12 a.m.
Christine (1983) Keith Gordon, John Stockwell. When a gawky teen restores a 1958 Plymouth Fury, the car takes on a life of its own and begins terrorizing those in its way. (R) 1 hr. 50 mins. Showtime Fri., June 22, 11:30 a.m.
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) Tilda Swinton, Georgie Henley. Children join forces with the lion mystic Aslan to free the land of Narnia from the White Witch's wintry spell. (PG) 2 hrs. 20 mins. HBO Sat., June 23, 9:30 a.m.
The Chronicles of Riddick (2004) Vin Diesel, Colm Feore. On the run from mercenaries, a fugitive lands on a planet endangered by an invading ruler and his bloodthirsty army. (PG-13) 1 hr. 59 mins. A&E Mon., June 18, 12:30 p.m.
Click (2006) Adam Sandler, Kate Beckinsale. An overworked architect obtains a universal remote that allows him to control the world around him. (PG-13) 1 hr. 48 mins. FX Mon., June 18, 7 a.m. FX Sun., June 17, 12 p.m.
Closer (2004) Julia Roberts, Jude Law. A writer, a photographer, a young woman and a successful dermatologist grapple with love and betrayal. (R) 1 hr. 41 mins. Starz Thur., June 21, 1 a.m. Starz Thur., June 21, 2 p.m.
Cloverfield (2008) Michael Stahl-David, Mike Vogel. A video camera records the horrific events that unfold as a monstrous creature attacks New York, leaving death and destruction in its wake. (PG-13) 1 hr. 25 mins. Showtime Fri., June 22, 8 a.m. Showtime Sat., June 23, 4 a.m.
Clueless (1995) Alicia Silverstone, Stacey Dash. A Beverly Hills teen plays matchmaker for teachers, transforms a bad dresser and examines her own existence. (PG-13) 1 hr. 37 mins. Encore Thur., June 21, 11 a.m. Encore Wed., June 20, 10:30 p.m. Encore Wed., June 20, 2:30 p.m.
Cocktail (1988) Tom Cruise, Bryan Brown. The hottest bartender in Manhattan leaves his partner, goes to Jamaica and falls for a nice girl. (R) 1 hr. 44 mins. POP Fri., June 22, 12 p.m. POP Fri., June 22, 12:30 a.m.
College (2008) Drake Bell, Andrew Caldwell. Three high-school seniors spend a wild weekend with members of Fairmont University's rowdiest fraternity. (R) 1 hr. 34 mins. Showtime Wed., June 20, 1:30 a.m.
Colonia (2015) Emma Watson, Daniel Brhl. A determined stewardess tries to rescue her boyfriend when he becomes a prisoner during a military coup in Chile in 1973. (R) 1 hr. 50 mins. KCOP Sun., June 17, 11:30 p.m.
The Comedian (2016) Robert De Niro, Leslie Mann. Sentenced to community service for accosting an audience member, an aging comic icon develops a strong bond with the daughter of a sleazy real estate mogul. (R) 2 hrs. Starz Wed., June 20, 7:30 a.m.
Come on, Danger! (1932) Tom Keene, Julie Haydon. A Texas Ranger helps a woman forced to rob to save her ranch. (NR) 54 mins. TCM Sat., June 23, 5 a.m.
Coming to America (1988) Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall. Pampered Prince Akeem of Zamunda comes to New York with his royal sidekick to find a true-love bride. (R) 1 hr. 56 mins. Encore Mon., June 18, 10:30 p.m. Encore Mon., June 18, 8 a.m.
The Company (2003) Neve Campbell, Malcolm McDowell. A young woman works as a nightclub waitress while becoming a rising ballerina in Chicago. (PG-13) 1 hr. 52 mins. HBO Fri., June 22, 8:30 a.m.
Conan the Barbarian (2011) Jason Momoa, Rachel Nichols. The Cimmerian warrior slashes his way across Hyboria on a mission that begins as a personal vendetta but turns into an epic battle against a supernatural evil. (R) 1 hr. 53 mins. IFC Sun., June 17, 11 a.m.
The Convenient Groom (2016) Vanessa Marcil, David Sutcliffe. When a celebrity marriage counselor is left high and dry at the altar, her contractor steps in as the groom to help her save face. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Hallmark Fri., June 22, 2 p.m.
The Cool Ones (1967) Roddy McDowall, Debbie Watson. A millionaire manager pairs an aspiring singer with a fading rock star in a duo made for Hollywood. (NR) 1 hr. 35 mins. TCM Mon., June 18, 4 a.m.
Cool Runnings (1993) Leon, Doug E. Doug. Two Jamaicans make their way to Calgary as long-shot bobsledders in the 1988 Olympics. (PG) 1 hr. 37 mins. CMT Sat., June 23, 10 p.m. CMT Sat., June 23, 5 p.m. CMT Sun., June 17, 2:30 p.m. CMT Sun., June 17, 7 p.m.
Courageous (2011) Alex Kendrick, Kevin Downes. Four police officers begin to question their faith and their abilities as fathers after a tragedy hits close to home. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 10 mins. KTBN Sun., June 17, 8:30 p.m.
The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1963) Glenn Ford, Shirley Jones. A young boy uses a peculiar and humorous standard to determine the ``perfect'' wife for his widowed father. (NR) 1 hr. 57 mins. TCM Sun., June 17, 5 p.m.
The Cove (2009) Hayden Panettiere, Isabel Lucas. A former dolphin trainer, Richard O'Barry becomes an activist to end the slaughter of dolphins in Japan, especially in Taiji, where the marine mammals are routinely trapped and killed. (PG-13) 1 hr. 34 mins. EPIX Fri., June 22, 4 p.m.
Cradle 2 the Grave (2003) Jet Li, DMX. A Taiwanese intelligence agent and a thief try to recover stolen diamonds and the latter's kidnapped daughter. (R) 1 hr. 39 mins. Cinemax Thur., June 21, 12 a.m.
Crank: High Voltage (2009) Jason Statham, Amy Smart. Powered by an artificial heart, Chev Chelios embarks on a frantic chase through Los Angeles to find the thief who stole his own, nearly indestructible, one. (R) 1 hr. 37 mins. EPIX Tues., June 19, 12:30 p.m. EPIX Tues., June 19, 10 p.m.
Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011) Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling. A self-styled Lothario teaches a suddenly single 40-something how to be a hit with the ladies. (PG-13) 1 hr. 58 mins. VH1 Fri., June 22, 9 p.m. VH1 Sat., June 23, 10:30 a.m.
Crimson Tide (1995) Denzel Washington, Gene Hackman. Two U.S. Navy officers clash aboard a nuclear submarine bound for Russia, while that country is under rebel siege. (R) 1 hr. 55 mins. Showtime Thur., June 21, 4 p.m.
The Crooked Man (2016) Angelique Rivera, Cameron Jebo. The singing of a nursery rhyme sets in motion a bloody curse that awakens a demonic figure. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Syfy Sat., June 23, 10 a.m.
Crossing Over (2009) Harrison Ford, Ray Liotta. An immigration official and his associates become personally involved in the lives of many people who try to cross the border into the United States. (R) 1 hr. 54 mins. TMC Mon., June 18, 1 a.m. TMC Sun., June 24, 3 a.m.
Cruise of the Zaca (1952) Narrated by Errol Flynn. Erroll Flynn takes scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography on an expedition to the South Seas. (NR) 17 mins. TCM Wed., June 20, 3:30 a.m.
Curious George (2006) Voices of Will Ferrell, Drew Barrymore. Animated. The Man in the Yellow Hat is on hand to help an inquisitive monkey out of trouble on a series of misadventures. (G) 1 hr. 27 mins. Starz Wed., June 20, 11 a.m.
Cursed to Kill (2016) Anney Reese, Brett Brooks. A paraplegic woman is tormented and cursed by malevolent spirits. Anyone who hears her voice will die, unless she offers the soul of her nephew in place of her own. (NR) 1 hr. 34 mins. TMC Tues., June 19, 5:30 a.m. ------------ D Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
Daddy Day Care (2003) Eddie Murphy, Jeff Garlin. After company downsizing, two former executives decide to open a day-care center for kids in their neighborhood. (PG) 1 hr. 32 mins. Showtime Tues., June 19, 2 p.m.
Daddy's Home (2015) Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg. An insecure man competes for the affection of his stepchildren when their freewheeling father breezes back into town. (PG-13) 1 hr. 36 mins. FX Mon., June 18, 6 p.m. FX Sun., June 17, 6:30 p.m.
Daddy's Little Girls (2007) Gabrielle Union, Idris Elba. An unexpected romance blooms between a struggling mechanic and the attorney who is representing him in a custody battle for his young daughters. (PG-13) 1 hr. 35 mins. BET Sun., June 17, 11:30 a.m.
Damn the Defiant! (1962) Alec Guinness, Dirk Bogarde. The 18th-century captain of the H.M.S. Defiant finds the mate has driven the men to mutiny. (NR) 1 hr. 41 mins. TCM Fri., June 22, 9 p.m.
Dark Skies (2013) Keri Russell, Josh Hamilton. A couple and their children gather their courage and determination to combat a terrifying threat that may be from an alien force. (PG-13) 1 hr. 37 mins. Syfy Sat., June 23, 8 a.m.
Date Night (2010) Steve Carell, Tina Fey. Mistaken identity creates an unforgettable adventure for two suburbanites who were trying to invigorate their marriage with an evening at a bistro. (PG-13) 1 hr. 28 mins. TBS Sat., June 23, 12 p.m. TBS Sun., June 24, 1:30 a.m. TNT Mon., June 18, 11 p.m.
Dater's Handbook (2016) Kristoffer Polaha, Meghan Markle. After reading a book about dating and changing her personality to find a lover, a woman realizes the man she wants is right in front of her. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Hallmark Sun., June 17, 8:30 a.m.
Dawn of the Dead (2004) Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames. A nurse, a policeman and other residents of Milwaukee fight flesh-eating zombies while trapped in a mall. (NR) 1 hr. 50 mins. Cinemax Sat., June 23, 9:30 p.m.
Days of Thunder (1990) Tom Cruise, Robert Duvall. An upstart stock-car driver goes to the edge for his manager, his brain-surgeon girlfriend and himself. (PG-13) 1 hr. 47 mins. Encore Sat., June 23, 11:30 a.m.
The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Connelly. A woman and her stepson learn the chilling meaning behind the proclamation of an alien visitor that he is a ``friend to the Earth.'' (PG-13) 1 hr. 44 mins. IFC Wed., June 20, 10:30 p.m. IFC Thur., June 21, 1 a.m.
A Deadly Affair (2017) Valerie Azlynn, Luke Edwards. A woman who suspects her contractor husband of having an affair trails him to a house and finds him dead. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Lifetime Sun., June 17, 2 p.m.
Dead Still (2014) Ben Browder, Gavin Casalegno. A photographer must save his son from a supernatural camera that causes bizarre deaths. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Syfy Fri., June 22, 7 a.m. Syfy Thur., June 21, 11:30 a.m.
Dean (2016) Demetri Martin, Kevin Kline. An illustrator falls in love with a woman while trying to keep his father from burning down the family home after his wife dies. (PG-13) 1 hr. 34 mins. Showtime Tues., June 19, 5 p.m. Showtime Wed., June 20, 3 a.m.
Death at a Funeral (2010) Keith David, Loretta Devine. Sibling rivalry, family secrets and a mysterious stranger threaten to blow the lid off the coffin when a man tries to give his late father a proper memorial. (R) 1 hr. 28 mins. Encore Mon., June 18, 7 p.m.
Death of a Salesman (1985) Dustin Hoffman, Kate Reid. Arthur Miller's Willy Loman shoots for the American dream and misses, and his wife and son try to pick up the pieces. (NR) 2 hrs. 15 mins. TCM Sun., June 17, 2:30 p.m.
Deepwater Horizon (2016) Mark Wahlberg, Kurt Russell. Chief electronics technician Mike Williams and other crew members fight for survival when the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explodes on April 20, 2010, in the Gulf of Mexico. (PG-13) 1 hr. 47 mins. HBO Mon., June 18, 1:30 p.m.
The Deer Hunter (1978) Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken. The horrors of Vietnam affect three Pennsylvania steelworkers, lifelong friends who serve together. (R) 3 hrs. 3 mins. Cinemax Fri., June 22, 1 p.m.
Definitely, Maybe (2008) Ryan Reynolds, Isla Fisher. At his young daughter's urging, a man on the cusp of divorce reminisces about his past romances and has her guess which one became her mother. (PG-13) 1 hr. 52 mins. Freeform Fri., June 22, 7 p.m. Freeform Sat., June 23, 3:30 p.m.
Delta Farce (2007) Larry the Cable Guy, Bill Engvall. An Army officer mistakes three buddies for Army Reservists and deploys them to Iraq, but their vehicle is prematurely ejected over Mexico. (PG-13) 1 hr. 30 mins. TMC Mon., June 18, 9:30 a.m. TMC Thur., June 21, 1 p.m.
Desert Dreams: Celebrating Five Seasons in the Sonoran Desert (2013) Filmmaker Thomas Wiewandt films five seasons in the Sonoran Desert. (NR) 52 mins. KCET Thur., June 21, 12:30 p.m.
Desperado (1995) Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek. A guitar-playing stranger shoots up a Mexican cantina while seeking the drug dealer who killed his girlfriend. (R) 1 hr. 43 mins. Encore Fri., June 22, 3:30 p.m. Encore Fri., June 22, 5 a.m. Encore Thur., June 21, 10:30 p.m.
Despicable Me (2010) Voices of Steve Carell, Jason Segel. Animated. As he tries to execute a fiendish plot to steal the moon, a supervillain meets his match in three little orphan girls who want to make him their dad. (PG) 1 hr. 35 mins. Freeform Sun., June 17, 4 p.m.
Despite the Falling Snow (2016) Rebecca Ferguson, Antje Traue. During the Cold War, a female spy steals secrets from a politician after falling in love with him. (PG-13) 1 hr. 33 mins. Showtime Fri., June 22, 4:30 a.m.
Destination Wedding (2017) Alexa PenaVega, Jeremy Guilbaut. Ellie has been painstakingly planning her sister Mandy's destination wedding for a very long time. When Mandy and her fiance don't show up, Ellie and her ex-boyfriend find themselves reconnecting while frantically trying to prevent a disaster. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Hallmark Fri., June 22, 8 p.m.
The Devil Inside (2012) Fernanda Andrade, Simon Quarterman. A woman recruits two young exorcists to help her determine whether her mother, who murdered three people, is mentally ill or possessed by demons. (R) 1 hr. 23 mins. EPIX Wed., June 20, 6 p.m.
The Devil's Own (1997) Harrison Ford, Brad Pitt. A New York policeman learns that his Irish houseguest is an IRA terrorist seeking U.S. weapons. (R) 1 hr. 50 mins. Sundance Tues., June 19, 1 a.m. Sundance Tues., June 19, 10 a.m.
The Devil's Rejects (2005) Sid Haig, Bill Moseley. A vengeful sheriff and two bounty hunters track a murderous family on the run. (R) 1 hr. 49 mins. IFC Mon., June 18, 11 p.m. IFC Tues., June 19, 1 a.m.
The Devil Wears Prada (2006) Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway. A recent college graduate lands a job working for a famous and diabolical editor of a New York fashion magazine. (PG-13) 1 hr. 49 mins. HBO Mon., June 18, 4:30 p.m.
Devotion (1931) Ann Harding, Leslie Howard. A young Londoner disguises herself to become governess of the son of the barrister she loves. (NR) 1 hr. 20 mins. TCM Mon., June 18, 3 p.m.
Did I Kill My Mother? (2018) Megan Park, Alicia Davis Johnson. Natalie's mother is found dead in their home, and police suspect that Natalie may be the killer. With the help of friends Brody and Shelby, Natalie sets out to prove her innocence and uncover the real killer's identity. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Lifetime Sat., June 23, 8 p.m. Lifetime Sun., June 24, 12 a.m.
Different Flowers (2017) Emma Bell, Hope Lauren. A young woman embarks on an adventure with her free-spirited sister after leaving her fiance at the altar. (PG-13) 1 hr. 39 mins. TMC Tues., June 19, 7 a.m.
Dinner for Schmucks (2010) Steve Carell, Paul Rudd. Comic misadventures follow when a rising executive brings a blundering IRS agent to a monthly gathering hosted by his boss. (PG-13) 1 hr. 54 mins. HBO Sat., June 23, 1 p.m.
Dirty Dancing (1987) Jennifer Grey, Patrick Swayze. A doctor's teenage daughter gets slinky with the dance teacher at a Catskills resort in the summer of 1963. (PG-13) 1 hr. 40 mins. AMC Fri., June 22, 12:30 p.m. AMC Thur., June 21, 10:30 p.m.
Dirty Harry (1971) Clint Eastwood, Harry Guardino. A police detective defies his superiors to capture a sniper terrorizing San Francisco. (R) 1 hr. 43 mins. OVA Fri., June 22, 4:30 p.m. OVA Sun., June 17, 3 p.m.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988) Steve Martin, Michael Caine. An American con man and his British rival target a soap heiress from Cleveland on the French Riviera. (PG) 1 hr. 50 mins. EPIX Sat., June 23, 8:30 a.m.
Disturbing Behavior (1998) James Marsden, Katie Holmes. High-school students suspect that sinister forces are controlling their too-perfect classmates. (R) 1 hr. 23 mins. Starz Sat., June 23, 3 a.m.
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004) Vince Vaughn, Christine Taylor. The owner of a gym and an overbearing entrepreneur form dodgeball teams to compete for $50,000 in Las Vegas. (PG-13) 1 hr. 32 mins. Comedy Central Sat., June 23, 10 p.m.
The Dogs of War (1980) Christopher Walken, Tom Berenger. Jamie, a mercenary, is hired by a large corporation to help liberate Zangaro, a small African nation, from an iron-fisted despot. Once there, Jamie learns more about the plight of the country's people and joins the Zangaro people's fight. (R) 1 hr. 45 mins. EPIX Mon., June 18, 3 a.m.
Don't Breathe (2016) Jane Levy, Dylan Minnette. Three trapped thieves must fight for their lives after breaking into the home of a blind veteran. (R) 1 hr. 28 mins. Starz Mon., June 18, 1 p.m. Starz Mon., June 18, 12 a.m.
Don't Knock Twice (2016) Katee Sackhoff, Lucy Boynton. A mother looking to reconnect with her estranged daughter attracts the attention of a demonic witch. (R) 1 hr. 33 mins. TMC Fri., June 22, 3:30 a.m.
Double Daddy (2015) Mollee Gray, Brittany Curran. A teen's life turns upside down when her boyfriend impregnates both her and a new student at school. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Lifetime Sun., June 17, 12 p.m.
Double Jeopardy (1999) Tommy Lee Jones, Ashley Judd. While in jail for murdering her husband, a woman discovers he is living under a new identity with their son. (R) 1 hr. 45 mins. OVA Fri., June 22, 10 p.m. OVA Mon., June 18, 4 p.m. OVA Sat., June 23, 4:30 p.m. OVA Sun., June 17, 7:30 p.m.
Double Take (2001) Eddie Griffin, Orlando Jones. Framed for money laundering, an investment banker switches places with a petty thief. (PG-13) 1 hr. 28 mins. TMC Thur., June 21, 4 p.m.
Double Wedding (1937) William Powell, Myrna Loy. A dress designer falls for a lazy artist after deeming him unworthy of her sister. (NR) 1 hr. 27 mins. TCM Wed., June 20, 10:30 p.m.
Doubt (2008) Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman. Suspicions of child abuse fuel a traditionalist nun's personal crusade against a popular priest who wants to reform her school's strict customs. (PG-13) 1 hr. 44 mins. Starz Wed., June 20, 12:30 a.m.
Down (2001) James Marshall, Naomi Watts. A mechanic and a reporter investigate deaths related to an elevator in a New York building. (R) 1 hr. 50 mins. TMC Wed., June 20, 6 p.m.
Dracula Untold (2014) Luke Evans, Sarah Gadon. Vlad III, prince of Wallachia, trades his humanity for the power to defend his land and people from the ruthless forces of the Ottoman Empire. (PG-13) 1 hr. 32 mins. FXX Wed., June 20, 10:30 a.m. FXX Thur., June 21, 1 a.m.
Drag Me to Hell (2009) Alison Lohman, Justin Long. After actions trigger the loss of an old woman's home, an ambitious loan officer finds herself the victim of a powerful curse that will damn her soul for eternity. (PG-13) 1 hr. 39 mins. Cinemax Wed., June 20, 2 p.m.
Dreamgirls (2006) Jamie Foxx, Beyonc Knowles. After an ambitious manager gives them a shot at stardom, three singers learn that fame can carry a high personal cost. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 11 mins. KTLA Sun., June 24, 1 a.m.
Drug War (2012) Louis Koo, Honglei Sun. After he's taken into custody, a drug lord must help the police bust his former associates or else face the death penalty. (R) 1 hr. 45 mins. TMC Tues., June 19, 1 a.m.
The Drum (1938) Sabu, Raymond Massey. A boy prince flees from his uncle to a British captain and his wife in colonial India. (NR) 1 hr. 36 mins. TCM Sat., June 23, 3 a.m.
Drunkboat (2010) John Malkovich, John Goodman. A teenager manipulates his troubled, boozy uncle into helping him acquire a beaten-up wooden sailboat. (NR) 1 hr. 38 mins. TMC Fri., June 22, 8:30 a.m. TMC Sat., June 23, 5 a.m.
The Dukes of Hazzard (2005) Johnny Knoxville, Seann William Scott. Bo, Luke and Daisy Duke try to thwart a scheme by Boss Hogg involving a high-profile auto race. (PG-13) 1 hr. 45 mins. OVA Mon., June 18, 8 p.m. OVA Tues., June 19, 4:30 p.m.
Duplicity (2009) Julia Roberts, Clive Owen. Spies for rival corporations carry on a clandestine love affair while trying to find the formula for a product that will earn a fortune for the company that patents it first. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 5 mins. HBO Tues., June 19, 4 a.m. HBO Wed., June 20, 5:30 a.m. HBO Fri., June 22, 2 p.m. ------------ E Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
An Eastern Westerner (1920) Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis. Silent. A boy from the East is sent to a Wild West ranch. (NR) 23 mins. TCM Sun., June 17, 9 p.m.
Easy A (2010) Emma Stone, Penn Badgley. The escape of a little white lie teaches a clean-cut teenager to use the high-school rumor mill to her advantage. (PG-13) 1 hr. 33 mins. MTV Sat., June 23, 6 p.m.
Ella Enchanted (2004) Anne Hathaway, Hugh Dancy. A young woman embarks on a journey to break the curse of obedience placed upon her by a fairy godmother. (PG) 1 hr. 41 mins. Freeform Sat., June 23, 6:30 a.m.
The Emperor's New Groove (2000) Voices of David Spade, John Goodman. Animated. A peasant comes to the aid of an arrogant ruler after a conspirator turns him into a llama. (G) 1 hr. 19 mins. Disney XD Sun., June 17, 12 p.m.
Ender's Game (2013) Harrison Ford, Asa Butterfield. A youth exhibits an unusual gift that gets him selected for advanced military training to lead Earth's forces in an intense war against Formics, alien invaders that nearly destroyed the planet once before. (PG-13) 1 hr. 54 mins. TBS Sat., June 23, 12:30 a.m.
The Entertainer (1960) Laurence Olivier, Brenda De Banzie. British song-and-dance man Archie knows he's a failure, and so does his alcoholic wife. (NR) 1 hr. 37 mins. TCM Sun., June 17, 12:30 p.m.
Envy (2004) Ben Stiller, Jack Black. A man becomes jealous after his best friend's invention, a spray that dissolves animal feces, brings him wealth. (PG-13) 1 hr. 39 mins. Cinemax Fri., June 22, 7:30 a.m.
Equity (2016) Anna Gunn, Sarah Megan Thomas. An investment banker tries to work her way up the Wall Street ladder while a prosecutor keeps an eye out for corrupt practices. (R) 1 hr. 40 mins. Encore Tues., June 19, 4:30 a.m.
Escape From Alcatraz (1979) Clint Eastwood, Patrick McGoohan. Based on the true story of a hardened convict who engineered an elaborate plan to bust out of the famed prison in 1962. (PG) 1 hr. 47 mins. EPIX Mon., June 18, 3:30 p.m. EPIX Sun., June 24, 1 a.m.
Escape Me Never (1947) Errol Flynn, Ida Lupino. A composer returns to his wife in circa-1900 Europe after a fling with his brother's fiancee. (NR) 1 hr. 41 mins. TCM Wed., June 20, 6 a.m.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) Henry Thomas, Dee Wallace. A boy's close encounter with an alien stranded on Earth leads to a unique friendship in Steven Spielberg's Oscar-winning film. (PG) 1 hr. 55 mins. HBO Tues., June 19, 10 a.m.
Evan Almighty (2007) Steve Carell, Morgan Freeman. A newly elected congressman faces a crisis of biblical proportions when God commands him to build an ark. (PG) 1 hr. 36 mins. Nickelodeon Mon., June 18, 8 p.m.
Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014) Christian Bale, Joel Edgerton. Raised as an Egyptian prince | and the favorite of Pharaoh Seti | Moses learns of his actual Hebrew heritage and vows to free his people from bondage, even if it destroys his brotherly bond with Seti's son, Ramses. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 30 mins. Syfy Sun., June 17, 9 a.m.
The Expendables (2010) Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham. A mercenary and his men learn that their assignment to overthrow a South American dictator is a suicide mission. (R) 1 hr. 43 mins. PARMOUNT Sat., June 23, 9 a.m. PARMOUNT Sat., June 23, 5 p.m.
The Expendables 3 (2014) Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham. After a former associate makes it his mission to end the Expendables, Barney Ross assembles a team of younger, tech-savvy recruits to help take down their enemy. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 7 mins. PARMOUNT Sat., June 23, 2 p.m. PARMOUNT Sat., June 23, 10 p.m.
The Expendables 2 (2012) Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham. Mercenary Barney Ross and his team cut a swath of destruction through opposing forces as they take revenge for the vicious murder of a comrade. (R) 1 hr. 43 mins. PARMOUNT Sat., June 23, 11:30 a.m. PARMOUNT Sat., June 23, 7:30 p.m.
The Ex (2006) Zach Braff, Amanda Peet. A chronic underachiever takes a job at his father-in-law's advertising firm and locks horns with his wife's paraplegic former lover. (PG-13) 1 hr. 30 mins. Starz Mon., June 18, 2:30 p.m.
Eye for an Eye (1996) Sally Field, Kiefer Sutherland. A slain girl's mother considers vigilantism after police and the courts botch the case against the killer. (R) 1 hr. 37 mins. EPIX Sun., June 24, 3 a.m.
Eye on the 60s: The Iconic Photography of Rowland Scherman (2013) Photographer Rowland Scherman captures images of the March on Washington, Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Woodstock and the Kennedys. (NR) 1 hr. 28 mins. KLCS Sun., June 17, 2 p.m. KLCS Tues., June 19, 7 p.m. KLCS Wed., June 20, 1:30 a.m. ------------ F Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
Fahrenheit 451 (2018) Michael B. Jordan, Michael Shannon. In a future society where books are banned and burned, a fireman begins to read in secret and discovers an underground rebellion committed to protecting literature. (NR) HBO Sun., June 17, 12 p.m.
A Family Man (2016) Gerard Butler, Gretchen Mol. Dane Jensen is a hard-driven headhunter who's gearing up for the professional battle of his life. When his young son is given a harrowing diagnosis, Dane is pulled between achieving his dream and spending time with the family that needs him. (R) 1 hr. 50 mins. Encore Tues., June 19, 3 p.m.
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007) Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba. Reed, Susan, Johnny and Ben face an intergalactic messenger who has arrived to prepare Earth for destruction. (PG) 1 hr. 32 mins. Starz Wed., June 20, 9:30 a.m. Starz Wed., June 20, 4 p.m.
The Fantasticks (1995) Joel Grey, Brad Sullivan. Widowers trick their respective children into falling in love by appealing to their sense of defiance and staging a feud between families. (PG) 1 hr. 26 mins. Showtime Mon., June 18, 7 a.m.
Faster (2010) Dwayne Johnson, Billy Bob Thornton. A veteran cop and an assassin track an ex-convict who is on a mission to take revenge on his brother's killers. (R) 1 hr. 38 mins. Syfy Sun., June 17, 12 p.m.
Father of the Bride (1950) Spencer Tracy, Elizabeth Taylor. An overwhelmed patriarch sums up his daughter's wedding, from engagement to reception. (NR) 1 hr. 33 mins. TCM Sun., June 17, 9 a.m.
Father's Little Dividend (1951) Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett. Father hears Daughter is pregnant in this sequel to ``Father of the Bride.'' (NR) 1 hr. 22 mins. TCM Sun., June 17, 11 a.m.
Festival in Cannes (2001) Jenny Gabrielle, Greta Scacchi. An American actress as well as an aging icon and her estranged husband gather for the annual film festival. (PG-13) 1 hr. 39 mins. TMC Thur., June 21, 6 a.m.
Field of Dreams (1989) Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan. An inspired Iowa farmer builds a baseball field, then sees Shoeless Joe Jackson's ghost and other marvels. (PG) 1 hr. 46 mins. CMT Sat., June 23, 11:30 a.m. CMT Sun., June 24, 12 a.m. PARMOUNT Tues., June 19, 1 a.m.
The Fifth Element (1997) Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman. A New York City cabdriver tries to save 2259 Earth from impact with an onrushing anti-life force. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 7 mins. LOGO Tues., June 19, 3 p.m. LOGO Tues., June 19, 9 p.m.
50/50 (2011) Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen. After learning that he has malignant tumors along his spine, a young man vows to beat his illness. (R) 1 hr. 39 mins. Showtime Mon., June 18, 9:30 a.m.
Fighting Elegy (1966) Hideki Takahashi, Junko Asano. Kiroku boards with a Roman Catholic family and falls for the daughter Michiko. He ignores his feelings, joins a gang, gets in fights and, eventually, becomes involved with the radical Kita Ikki group. (NR) 1 hr. 26 mins. TCM Mon., June 18, 1 a.m.
The Fighting Temptations (2003) Cuba Gooding Jr., Beyonc Knowles. To collect his aunt's inheritance, an unemployed man must form a gospel choir and lead it to success. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 2 mins. BET Fri., June 22, 2:30 p.m. BET Thur., June 21, 9 p.m.
Finders Keepers (2014) Jaime Pressly, Patrick Muldoon. A divorced mother's life is thrown into turmoil when her young daughter becomes obsessed with an evil doll left behind by the previous owners. (R) 1 hr. 30 mins. Syfy Wed., June 20, 9 a.m.
Finding Nemo (2003) Voices of Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres. Animated. A clown fish embarks on a journey to find his son after losing him in the Great Barrier Reef. (G) 1 hr. 40 mins. Freeform Sun., June 17, 6 p.m.
Firewall (2006) Harrison Ford, Paul Bettany. A vicious criminal kidnaps the family of a bank-security expert, forcing him to find a way to break into the theft-proof computer system he designed, to ransom his loved ones. (PG-13) 1 hr. 45 mins. Cinemax Mon., June 18, 10:30 p.m. Cinemax Thur., June 21, 11:30 a.m.
The Firm (1993) Tom Cruise, Jeanne Tripplehorn. A law-school grad uncovers a sinister secret about the Tennessee firm that made him an offer he couldn't refuse. (R) 2 hrs. 34 mins. Encore Sat., June 23, 9 a.m.
First Blood (1982) Sylvester Stallone, Richard Crenna. Green Beret veteran Rambo takes on a Pacific Northwest sheriff and the National Guard. (R) 1 hr. 35 mins. Sundance Mon., June 18, 4 p.m.
Fist Fight (2017) Charlie Day, Ice Cube. Fired from his teaching job for losing his cool, a disgruntled man challenges the colleague who snitched on him to a fight after school. (R) 1 hr. 31 mins. HBO Fri., June 22, 2 a.m.
The Five Heartbeats (1991) Robert Townsend, Michael Wright. A wealth of songs propels this story about five black singers pursuing their dreams of stardom in the turbulent '60s. (R) 2 hrs. 2 mins. BET Sun., June 17, 4:30 p.m.
Flight 7500 (2013) Ryan Kwanten, Leslie Bibb. A supernatural force terrorizes airline passengers. (PG-13) 1 hr. 37 mins. Syfy Fri., June 22, 11 a.m. Syfy Sat., June 23, 2:30 a.m.
For Better or for Worse (2014) Lisa Whelchel, Kim Fields. A widow who coordinates weddings meets a lawyer who specializes in divorces. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Hallmark Sun., June 17, 7 a.m.
Forbidden Planet (1956) Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis. An astronaut and crew land on Altair-4 in 2200 and find a mad doctor, his daughter and Robby the robot. (G) 1 hr. 38 mins. TCM Sat., June 23, 11 a.m.
Forces of Nature (1999) Sandra Bullock, Ben Affleck. A bridegroom hurries by plane to his wedding, but he and his seatmate must find other modes of travel. (PG-13) 1 hr. 44 mins. KDOC Sun., June 17, 7:30 p.m.
Foreign Correspondent (1940) Joel McCrea, Laraine Day. A political assassination plunges an American reporter into international intrigue in pre-World War II Europe. (NR) 1 hr. 59 mins. TCM Sat., June 23, 9 a.m.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) Jason Segel, Kristen Bell. In Hawaii struggling to get over a bad breakup, a musician encounters his former lover and her new boyfriend. (R) 1 hr. 52 mins. Freeform Sat., June 23, 11 p.m.
The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005) Steve Carell, Catherine Keener. Three dysfunctional co-workers embark on a mission to help their newfound friend lose his sexual innocence. (R) 1 hr. 56 mins. E! Thur., June 21, 8 p.m. E! Thur., June 21, 11 p.m.
Four's a Crowd (1938) Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland. A PR man flirts with a newswoman and his client's daughter while changing a skinflint tycoon's image. (NR) 1 hr. 31 mins. TCM Wed., June 20, 1 p.m.
Free State of Jones (2016) Matthew McConaughey, Gugu Mbatha-Raw. In Jones County, Miss., Newt Knight joins forces with other farmers and a group of runaway slaves to lead a violent rebellion against the Confederacy. (R) 2 hrs. 19 mins. TMC Wed., June 20, 3 p.m.
The Free World (2016) Boyd Holbrook, Elisabeth Moss. Released from prison for a crime he didn't commit, a man goes on the run with a woman who's suspected of killing her abusive husband. (R) 1 hr. 40 mins. TMC Wed., June 20, 12 a.m.
Friday After Next (2002) Ice Cube, Mike Epps. Working as security guards, Craig and Day-Day run into the thief who stole their Christmas presents. (R) 1 hr. 22 mins. VH1 Sat., June 23, 10 p.m.
Friday Night Lights (2004) Billy Bob Thornton, Derek Luke. A high-school football coach in Odessa, Texas, tries to lead his players to the state championship. (PG-13) 1 hr. 57 mins. Sundance Fri., June 22, 12:30 p.m. Sundance Sun., June 17, 10 a.m. Sundance Tues., June 19, 8:30 a.m.
From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) Harvey Keitel, George Clooney. Desperado brothers kidnap a preacher and his kids, commandeer their RV and wind up in a Mexican strip joint where vampires lurk. (R) 1 hr. 47 mins. Encore Tues., June 19, 12:30 a.m.
From Hell It Came (1957) Tod Andrews, Tina Carver. Atomic researchers flee from a tribal prince, back from the dead as a walking tree stump. (NR) 1 hr. 11 mins. TCM Mon., June 18, 12 p.m.
Frost/Nixon (2008) Frank Langella, Michael Sheen. An on-air battle of wits ensues when former President Richard Nixon selects British TV personality David Frost for an exclusive post-Watergate interview. (R) 2 hrs. 2 mins. Cinemax Thur., June 21, 3 p.m.
The Fugitive (1947) Henry Fonda, Dolores del Ro. An outlawed priest posing as a peasant is betrayed south of the border. (NR) 1 hr. 44 mins. TCM Fri., June 22, 1 p.m.
Furious 7 (2015) Vin Diesel, Paul Walker. A smooth-talking government agent offers to help Dominic Toretto and his gang eliminate a dangerous enemy in exchange for their help in rescuing a kidnapped computer hacker. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 17 mins. FX Mon., June 18, 8 p.m. FX Mon., June 18, 11 p.m.
F/X (1986) Bryan Brown, Brian Dennehy. Federal agents hire a special-effects man to stage the fake assassination of a mob witness. (R) 1 hr. 48 mins. EPIX Tues., June 19, 11 a.m. ------------ G Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
Galaxy Quest (1999) Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver. Aliens, believing actors to be real heroes, enlist cast members of a sci-fi TV series to help save their people. (PG) 1 hr. 44 mins. IFC Sat., June 23, 3 p.m. IFC Sat., June 23, 8:30 a.m.
Gamer (2009) Gerard Butler, Michael C. Hall. A death-row inmate is caught between the inventor of a deadly online game and a group that opposes the inventor's high-tech slavery. (R) 1 hr. 35 mins. EPIX Tues., June 19, 2:30 p.m.
The Game (1997) Michael Douglas, Sean Penn. A control freak's disreputable brother introduces him to a mysterious game that invades his ordered existence. (R) 2 hrs. 8 mins. Showtime Thur., June 21, 6 a.m.
Gangster Land (2017) Sean Faris, Milo Gibson. Al Capone recruits ``Machine Gun'' Jack McGurn to help protect his criminal empire in 1920s Chicago. McGurn soon rises through the ranks of the Italian mob, igniting the most brutal gang war the country has ever seen. (NR) 1 hr. 28 mins. TMC Fri., June 22, 2 p.m.
The General's Daughter (1999) John Travolta, Madeleine Stowe. Two investigators find an underworld of sex and cover-ups behind an Army captain's murder. (R) 1 hr. 51 mins. Starz Fri., June 22, 1 a.m.
George A. Romero's Land of the Dead (2005) Simon Baker, John Leguizamo. A mercenary leader squares off with a rebellious comrade, while flesh-eating zombies threaten their fortified city. (R) 1 hr. 33 mins. Cinemax Sat., June 23, 8 p.m.
Georgia Rule (2007) Jane Fonda, Lindsay Lohan. Exasperated with her rebellious daughter, a woman sends the teen to Idaho to live with her own stern mother. (R) 1 hr. 53 mins. Freeform Fri., June 22, 4:30 p.m. Freeform Sat., June 23, 11 a.m.
Geostorm (2017) Gerard Butler, Jim Sturgess. Satellites designed to prevent natural disasters begin to fail, threatening to create a worldwide geostorm that could wipe out everything and everyone. (PG-13) 1 hr. 49 mins. Cinemax Mon., June 18, 10 a.m. Cinemax Mon., June 18, 8 p.m. Cinemax Fri., June 22, 12:30 a.m.
Get Carter (1971) Michael Caine, Ian Hendry. A small-time London gangster ties his brother's murder to a porno movie and a crime boss. (R) 1 hr. 51 mins. TCM Sat., June 23, 1 p.m.
Get Out and Get Under (1920) Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis. Silent. Car trouble and more prove significant obstacles to an actor who will lose his part to a rival if he fails to make it to the theater on time. (NR) 25 mins. TCM Sun., June 17, 10 p.m.
Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2005) Curtis ``50 Cent'' Jackson, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. A drug dealer wants to leave his violent life behind and pursue his dream of becoming a rap artist. (R) 1 hr. 57 mins. VH1 Sun., June 17, 4:30 p.m.
Get the Gringo (2012) Mel Gibson, Daniel Gimnez Cacho. A youngster helps an American career criminal learn to survive behind the walls of a brutal Mexican prison. (R) 1 hr. 36 mins. TMC Sun., June 17, 2:30 p.m.
Ghostbusters (2016) Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig. Armed with proton packs and plenty of attitude, four women prepare for an epic battle as mischievous ghosts start to wreak havoc in New York. (PG-13) 1 hr. 57 mins. Encore Tues., June 19, 2:30 a.m. Encore Tues., June 19, 10 a.m. Encore Tues., June 19, 5 p.m.
Ghost in the Shell (2017) Scarlett Johansson, Pilou Asb`aek. A one-of-a-kind, cyber-enhanced soldier must battle a new enemy who can hack into people's minds and control them. (PG-13) 1 hr. 47 mins. Showtime Sat., June 23, 7:30 a.m. Showtime Sat., June 23, 7 p.m.
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009) Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner. Spirits of jilted lovers take a photographer on an odyssey through his many failed relationships to find out what made him such a cad, and if there is any hope for true love. (PG-13) 1 hr. 40 mins. Cinemax Tues., June 19, 2 a.m.
Ghost Storm (2012) Crystal Allen, Carlos Bernard. A supernatural electrical storm threatens an island community. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Syfy Wed., June 20, 3 a.m.
The Ghost Writer (2010) Pierce Brosnan, Ewan McGregor. A newly hired ghostwriter exposes evidence that suggests his late predecessor knew a dark secret about their subject, the former prime minister of Britain. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 9 mins. Cinemax Mon., June 18, 3 a.m.
Ghost (1990) Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore. A slain Manhattan yuppie reaches out to his lover, with a medium as his middlewoman. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 7 mins. Encore Fri., June 22, 1:30 p.m. Encore Sat., June 23, 2 a.m.
Gigi (1958) Leslie Caron, Maurice Chevalier. An heir finds that he wants to marry the teen groomed to be his mistress in Gay '90s Paris. (G) 1 hr. 56 mins. TCM Tues., June 19, 9 p.m.
G.I. Jane (1997) Demi Moore, Viggo Mortensen. A female Navy SEALs recruit completes rigorous training under a tough officer's command. (R) 2 hrs. 4 mins. TMC Thur., June 21, 8 p.m. TMC Tues., June 19, 5:30 p.m.
G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013) Dwayne Johnson, Bruce Willis. The G.I. Joe team faces threats both from COBRA and from within the U.S. government. (PG-13) 1 hr. 50 mins. Syfy Sun., June 17, 2 p.m.
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009) Channing Tatum, Dennis Quaid. The elite G.I. Joe team uses the latest technology in its battle against corrupt arms dealer Destro and a mysterious organization known as Cobra. (PG-13) 1 hr. 58 mins. Syfy Thur., June 21, 6:30 p.m. Syfy Fri., June 22, 3 p.m.
Gimme Shelter (2014) Vanessa Hudgens, Rosario Dawson. A pregnant teen learns to break the bonds of her past and embrace her future after taking refuge at a shelter for homeless youths. (PG-13) 1 hr. 40 mins. EPIX Wed., June 20, 4:30 a.m. EPIX Sat., June 23, 5:30 a.m.
Girl, Interrupted (1999) Winona Ryder, Angelina Jolie. A young woman with a borderline personality disorder stays in a 1960s mental institution for 18 months. (R) 2 hrs. 7 mins. Starz Tues., June 19, 1:30 a.m.
Girl Most Likely (2012) Kristen Wiig, Annette Bening. After losing her job and her boyfriend, a woman moves in with her estranged mother and finds an assortment of strange characters inhabiting the home. (PG-13) 1 hr. 42 mins. POP Wed., June 20, 1 a.m.
The Glass Castle (2017) Brie Larson, Woody Harrelson. Based on a memoir, four children struggle to grow up in a rambling, poverty-stricken, wildly unconventional environment overseen by their dysfunctional yet uniquely loving parents. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 7 mins. EPIX Tues., June 19, 7 a.m.
Gnomeo & Juliet (2011) Voices of James McAvoy, Emily Blunt. Animated. Love-struck garden gnomes become part of a feud between rival neighbors in Stratford-Upon-Avon, Shakespeare's birthplace. (G) 1 hr. 24 mins. Freeform Sun., June 17, 11:30 a.m.
Gods of Egypt (2016) Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Brenton Thwaites. A defiant mortal forms an unlikely alliance with the powerful god Horus to save the world from Set, the merciless god of darkness. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 1 mins. Syfy Sat., June 23, 8:30 p.m.
Going in Style (2017) Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine. Desperate for money, three lifelong buddies hatch a scheme to rob the bank that took away their pension funds. (PG-13) 1 hr. 36 mins. HBO Mon., June 18, 9 a.m.
The Golden Child (1986) Eddie Murphy, Charles Dance. A professional child-finder is recruited to rescue a mystical Tibetan boy from a shape-shifting villain. (PG-13) 1 hr. 31 mins. TMC Mon., June 18, 2 p.m. TMC Mon., June 18, 6 a.m.
GoldenEye (1995) Pierce Brosnan, Sean Bean. A secret weapon's theft sends Agent 007 to Russia, where a pretty computer programmer helps him track an ex-cohort believed dead. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 10 mins. AMC Tues., June 19, 11 a.m. AMC Wed., June 20, 8:30 a.m.
Gone in 60 Seconds (2000) Nicolas Cage, Angelina Jolie. A former thief must agree to steal 50 cars in one night to save his brother from being killed by a vehicle smuggler. (PG-13) 1 hr. 57 mins. HBO Mon., June 18, 11 a.m. HBO Sat., June 23, 3:30 a.m.
The Good Earth (1937) Paul Muni, Luise Rainer. Drought, famine and greed take their toll on a Chinese farming couple in this adaptation of the Pearl Buck novel. (NR) 2 hrs. 18 mins. TCM Fri., June 22, 7 a.m.
The Good Shepherd (2006) Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie. During the early years of the Central Intelligence Agency, a founding member finds that, as the country slides deeper into the Cold War, dedication to duty has a price. (R) 2 hrs. 48 mins. TMC Mon., June 18, 10 p.m.
The Goods: Live Hard. Sell Hard. (2009) Jeremy Piven, Ving Rhames. In town to save a struggling car dealership from bankruptcy, a high-powered salesman unexpectedly falls in love and finds his soul. (R) 1 hr. 29 mins. EPIX Sat., June 23, 2 a.m.
Goosebumps (2015) Jack Black, Dylan Minnette. Author R.L. Stine, his young daughter and their new neighbor must save the day when the monsters from the ``Goosebumps'' books magically come to life. (PG) 1 hr. 43 mins. FXX Thur., June 21, 3:30 p.m. FXX Fri., June 22, 2 p.m.
The Graduate (1967) Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft. An aimless college man lets an older woman seduce him, then finds himself falling for her daughter. (PG) 1 hr. 45 mins. TCM Thur., June 21, 12:30 a.m.
Graveyard Shift (1990) David Andrews, Kelly Wolf. The owner of an ancient mill hires a drifter to rid the basement of rats. (R) 1 hr. 27 mins. Sundance Tues., June 19, 3 a.m.
Gravity (2013) Sandra Bullock, George Clooney. The destruction of their shuttle leaves two astronauts stranded in space with no hope of rescue. (PG-13) 1 hr. 31 mins. FX Thur., June 21, 6:30 a.m.
Grease 2 (1982) Maxwell Caulfield, Michelle Pfeiffer. A square British exchange student turns hip motorcyclist to woo a cool girl in his 1961 high school. (PG) 1 hr. 55 mins. Starz Tues., June 19, 5 a.m.
The Great Debaters (2007) Denzel Washington, Forest Whitaker. In 1930s Texas, Mel Tolson inspires students at a predominately black college to form a debate team and strive for the national championship. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 7 mins. TMC Sun., June 17, 9:30 a.m.
The Great Outdoors (1988) Dan Aykroyd, John Candy. A Chicago man and his family go camping with his obnoxious brother-in-law and his family. (PG) 1 hr. 31 mins. AMC Fri., June 22, 3 p.m. AMC Thur., June 21, 5:30 p.m.
Green Lantern (2011) Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively. A test pilot becomes the first human to join a band of warriors sworn to preserve peace and justice throughout the universe. (PG-13) 1 hr. 54 mins. TNT Tues., June 19, 4 p.m.
The Green Mile (1999) Tom Hanks, David Morse. In 1935 a head prison guard realizes a man on death row may be innocent and have a supernatural ability to heal others. (R) 3 hrs. 9 mins. A&E Sun., June 17, 7:30 a.m.
Grindhouse Presents: Death Proof (2007) Kurt Russell, Rosario Dawson. A veteran stuntman uses his car to stalk and kill unsuspecting young women in the South. (NR) 1 hr. 54 mins. IFC Tues., June 19, 9 a.m. IFC Tues., June 19, 3 p.m.
Grindhouse Presents: Planet Terror (2007) Rose McGowan, Freddy Rodriguez. A one-legged go-go dancer and her ex-lover join forces with other survivors to battle a horde of flesh-eating zombies invading their Texas town. (R) 1 hr. 26 mins. IFC Wed., June 20, 1:30 p.m.
Grosse Pointe Blank (1997) John Cusack, Minnie Driver. A hit man returns to his hometown for a high-school reunion and meets the prom date he stood up years before. (R) 1 hr. 47 mins. Cinemax Thur., June 21, 9:30 a.m. Cinemax Tues., June 19, 8 p.m.
Grown Ups 2 (2013) Adam Sandler, Kevin James. Lenny Feder moves his family back to his hometown to be with his old friends and finds out that he didn't leave the crazy life behind in Los Angeles. (PG-13) 1 hr. 40 mins. FX Sun., June 17, 5 p.m. FX Mon., June 18, 4 p.m.
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana. A space adventurer becomes the quarry of bounty hunters after he steals an orb coveted by a treacherous villain, but after he discovers the orb's true power, he must find a way to unite four ragtag rivals to save the universe. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 1 mins. FX Sat., June 23, 9 p.m.
The Guilt Trip (2012) Barbra Streisand, Seth Rogen. Pressured into taking his overbearing mother along for the ride, a man embarks on the road trip of a lifetime. (PG-13) 1 hr. 35 mins. FX Fri., June 22, 6:30 a.m. FX Thur., June 21, 9 a.m.
The Gunman (2015) Sean Penn, Idris Elba. A former Special Forces soldier who has PTSD tries to reconnect with his longtime lover, but must first find out who wants him dead... and why. (R) 1 hr. 55 mins. Showtime Wed., June 20, 6 p.m.
Guys and Dolls (1955) Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons. A Broadway gambler bets that a Runyonesque high roller cannot take a sidewalk soul-saver on a date to Havana. (NR) 2 hrs. 30 mins. TCM Thur., June 21, 2:30 p.m. ------------ H Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
Hancock (2008) Will Smith, Charlize Theron. A scruffy superhero protects the citizens of Los Angeles but leaves horrendous collateral damage in the wake of every well-intentioned feat. (PG-13) 1 hr. 32 mins. AMC Tues., June 19, 8 p.m. AMC Tues., June 19, 11 p.m. AMC Wed., June 20, 11:30 a.m.
The Hangover (2009) Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms. After a wild stag party in Las Vegas, three hazy groomsmen must find their missing friend and get him back to Los Angeles in time for his wedding. (R) 1 hr. 39 mins. Cinemax Sun., June 17, 2:30 p.m. Cinemax Fri., June 22, 6 p.m.
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013) Jeremy Renner, Gemma Arterton. Brother and sister, Hansel and Gretel, are the ultimate witch-hunting vigilantes. Now, unknown to them, they have become the hunted and must face a greater evil than witches: their past. (R) 1 hr. 28 mins. FXX Tues., June 19, 6 p.m. FXX Wed., June 20, 3:30 p.m.
Hasta que la Muerte Nos Separe (2015) Alexandra Braun, Zapata 666. Otto, ``La Avispa'', un campen de boxeo, deber ganar la mayor batalla de su vida al luchar contra las manipulaciones y negocios sucios de su hermano y enfrentar su debilidad ante los celos enfermizos que siente por su linda novia. (NR) 1 hr. 38 mins. KMEX Sat., June 23, 8:30 p.m.
Havana Motor Club (2015) Underground drag racers try to organize Cuba's first official car race since shortly after the revolution ended in 1959. (NR) 1 hr. 24 mins. EPIX Mon., June 18, 10 a.m.
He Knows You're Alone (1980) Don Scardino, Caitlin O'Heaney. A bride's ex-boyfriend has a showdown with a slasher in a morgue. (R) 1 hr. 30 mins. TCM Fri., June 22, 11:30 p.m.
Hell or High Water (2016) Jeff Bridges, Chris Pine. With a Texas Ranger hot on their tail, an ex-convict and his brother plan a series of heists against the bank that's about to foreclose on their family ranch. (R) 1 hr. 37 mins. TMC Sun., June 17, 4 p.m. TMC Mon., June 18, 4:30 a.m. TMC Sat., June 23, 7 a.m.
Hemingway's Garden of Eden (2008) Mena Suvari, Jack Huston. During an extended honeymoon in Europe, a restless wife tests her husband's devotion by inviting a sultry Italian woman into their inner circle. (R) 1 hr. 51 mins. EPIX Wed., June 20, 2:30 a.m.
Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005) Lindsay Lohan, Michael Keaton. The independent-minded Volkswagen helps the feisty daughter of a NASCAR champion find her way to the fast lane. (G) 1 hr. 40 mins. HBO Tues., June 19, 6:30 a.m.
He's Just Not That Into You (2009) Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston. Friends and lovers try to navigate their way through the complexities of modern relationships, sometimes misconstruing the true intentions of the opposite sex. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 9 mins. Cinemax Tues., June 19, 9 p.m. Cinemax Fri., June 22, 9 a.m.
Hide and Seek (2005) Robert De Niro, Dakota Fanning. Strange events plague a widowed psychologist and his daughter who claims her imaginary friend is real. (R) 1 hr. 40 mins. Cinemax Mon., June 18, 6 p.m. Cinemax Sun., June 24, 12 a.m. Cinemax Thur., June 21, 8 p.m.
High and Dizzy (1920) Harold Lloyd, Roy Brooks. A drunken doctor finds his patient sleepwalking on a ledge. (NR) 26 mins. TCM Sun., June 17, 10 p.m.
High Plains Drifter (1973) Clint Eastwood, Verna Bloom. A mysterious stranger forces cowardly citizens of Lago to prepare a garish welcome for three escaped convicts. (R) 1 hr. 45 mins. Cinemax Thur., June 21, 4 a.m.
High Society (1956) Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly. A socialite's ex-husband and a magazine writer show up for her wedding and cause havoc. (NR) 1 hr. 47 mins. TCM Thur., June 21, 10:30 a.m.
History of the World: Part I (1981) Mel Brooks, Dom DeLuise. Bawdy segments include the dawn of man, Moses, Nero, an empress, the Inquisition and the French Revolution. (R) 1 hr. 33 mins. IFC Sat., June 23, 6 a.m. IFC Sat., June 23, 1 p.m.
The Hitman's Bodyguard (2017) Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson. The world's top protection agent gets a new client: a hitman who came in from the cold. After being on the opposite ends of a bullet for years, they must team up and have only 24 hours to get to The Hague to bring down a murderous dictator. (R) 1 hr. 58 mins. HBO Sat., June 23, 5:30 p.m.
Hoffa (1992) Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito. Teamsters union boss Jimmy Hoffa makes mob deals, organizes a bitter strike, faces powerful public figures and finally, disappears without a trace. (R) 2 hrs. 20 mins. Cinemax Sat., June 23, 6 a.m.
Home by Spring (2018) Poppy Drayton, Steven R. McQueen. When an event planner gets an opportunity she can't refuse, she poses as her boss and returns to her hometown. With the help of her family and the man she left behind, she pulls off the event, but she must determine if the heart belongs at home. (NR) 1 hr. 23 mins. Hallmark Tues., June 19, 1:30 p.m.
Home (2015) Voices of Jim Parsons, Rihanna. Animated. After an alien race called the Boov take over Earth, a resourceful human girl becomes a banished Boov's ally. (PG) 1 hr. 34 mins. FX Tues., June 19, 2:30 p.m. FX Wed., June 20, 7 a.m.
Honey (2003) Jessica Alba, Mekhi Phifer. A dancer/choreographer organizes a benefit to raise money for a new studio for inner-city youth. (PG-13) 1 hr. 34 mins. VH1 Sat., June 23, 12 a.m. VH1 Sat., June 23, 2 p.m.
Hostel Part II (2007) Lauren German, Roger Bart. Three American women traveling abroad take a weekend excursion and become pawns in a grisly game designed to entertain privileged deviants. (R) 1 hr. 34 mins. Showtime Thur., June 21, 1:30 a.m.
Hostel (2006) Jay Hernandez, Derek Richardson. Backpackers find that their decision to stay at a Slovakian hostel is a gruesome mistake. (R) 1 hr. 35 mins. Showtime Sun., June 24, 3 a.m. Showtime Thur., June 21, 12:30 a.m.
The Host (2013) Saoirse Ronan, Jake Abel. A human refuses to relinquish control of her mind to the alien invader who has taken possession of her body. When outside forces make the pair reluctant allies, they set out on a perilous quest to save the men they each love. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 5 mins. Showtime Fri., June 22, 3 p.m.
The House (2017) Will Ferrell, Amy Poehler. Desperate for money, a couple and their neighbor start an underground casino in their quiet suburban neighborhood. As the money rolls in and the good times fly, they soon learn that they may have bitten off more than they can chew. (R) 1 hr. 28 mins. HBO Thur., June 21, 12:30 a.m.
How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998) Angela Bassett, Taye Diggs. A 40ish San Francisco stockbroker has a fling with a 20-year-old while vacationing in Jamaica. (R) 2 hrs. 4 mins. VH1 Tues., June 19, 10 a.m. VH1 Wed., June 20, 12 a.m.
How to Be Single (2016) Dakota Johnson, Rebel Wilson. Fresh out of college and a long-term relationship, a young woman moves to New York and befriends a partying co-worker who shows her how to have fun. (R) 1 hr. 50 mins. TBS Sun., June 24, 3 a.m.
How to Eat (1939) Robert Benchley, Ruth Lee. The dramatic ways that different situations can affect one's ability to consume and digest food. (NR) TCM Sat., June 23, 5 a.m.
How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014) Voices of Jay Baruchel, Cate Blanchett. Animated. After discovering a secret cave filled with wild dragons and their mysterious benefactor, Hiccup and Toothless find themselves at the center of a battle to protect the peace of Berk. (PG) 1 hr. 42 mins. FX Tues., June 19, 4:30 p.m. FX Wed., June 20, 9 a.m.
The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014) Helen Mirren, Om Puri. A haughty French restaurateur objects to a nearby Indian eatery until she tastes food made by the chef and recognizes his remarkable ability to create delicious dishes. (PG) 2 hrs. 2 mins. TMC Sun., June 17, 7:30 a.m. TMC Sat., June 23, 12 a.m.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2 (2015) Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson. Katniss faces mortal traps, deadly enemies and moral choices when she and her closest friends leave District 13 to assassinate President Snow and liberate the citizens of war-torn Panem. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 16 mins. TNT Mon., June 18, 8 p.m. TNT Sat., June 23, 8 p.m.
The Hunt for Red October (1990) Sean Connery, Alec Baldwin. Moscow, Washington and a CIA analyst track a renegade Soviet captain and his new submarine. (PG) 2 hrs. 17 mins. Sundance Sun., June 17, 12 p.m.
Hustle & Flow (2005) Terrence Howard, Anthony Anderson. A pimp in Memphis, Tenn., sees rap music as the way to escape his dead-end existence and achieve something meaningful. (R) 1 hr. 55 mins. BET Fri., June 22, 11:30 a.m. ------------ I Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
Idiocracy (2006) Luke Wilson, Maya Rudolph. Selected for a human hibernation project, an average soldier awakens 500 years in the future, where society is so dumbed-down that he is the smartest person alive. (R) 1 hr. 24 mins. Starz Tues., June 19, 11 a.m.
Imagine That (2009) Eddie Murphy, Thomas Haden Church. Consumed by career woes and personal crises, a financial executive finds the answers to all his problems within his daughter's imaginary world. (PG) 1 hr. 47 mins. EPIX Sat., June 23, 2:30 p.m. EPIX Sat., June 23, 11 p.m.
Inception (2010) Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt. A thief who enters people's dreams and steals their secrets gets a shot at redemption when he is given the dangerous task of planting an idea in someone's subconscious. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 28 mins. IFC Sun., June 17, 1:30 p.m. IFC Fri., June 22, 12:30 p.m. IFC Sat., June 23, 2:30 a.m.
An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power (2017) Al Gore. Former Vice President Al Gore continues his tireless fight, traveling around the world to train an army of activists and influence international climate policy. (PG) 1 hr. 40 mins. EPIX Mon., June 18, 7 a.m. EPIX Fri., June 22, 9:30 p.m.
The Incredibles (2004) Voices of Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter. Animated. Now fighting boredom in suburbia, a former superhero and his family get a chance to save the world. (PG) 1 hr. 55 mins. Disney Sat., June 23, 5:30 p.m.
Independence Day (1996) Will Smith, Bill Pullman. A fighter pilot, a computer whiz and others fight back after 15-mile-wide alien ships zap Earth's major cities. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 25 mins. Starz Sat., June 23, 8 p.m. Starz Sun., June 24, 4:30 a.m.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett. Indy and a young adventurer must ferret out a powerful artifact and keep it out of the hands of a deadly Soviet agent. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 2 mins. PARMOUNT Wed., June 20, 9 a.m.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) Harrison Ford, Sean Connery. Archaeologist Jones rescues his kidnapped father, and the two race the Nazis to find the Holy Grail. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 7 mins. PARMOUNT Tues., June 19, 11:30 p.m. PARMOUNT Wed., June 20, 6 p.m.
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) Harrison Ford, Kate Capshaw. In 1935 archaeologist Jones, a lounge singer and a Chinese orphan search for mystical stones stolen from an Indian tribe. (PG) 1 hr. 58 mins. PARMOUNT Wed., June 20, 12 p.m.
Inescapable (2012) Alexander Siddig, Joshua Jackson. Adib Abdel Kareem desperately searches for his daughter in the chaotic Middle East. (R) 1 hr. 33 mins. IFC Fri., June 22, 6 a.m.
Inferno (2016) Tom Hanks, Felicity Jones. Amnesiac symbologist Robert Langdon and a doctor race across Europe and against time to stop a madman from unleashing a virus that could wipe out half of the world's population. (PG-13) 1 hr. 56 mins. Starz Mon., June 18, 11:30 p.m. Starz Tues., June 19, 9:30 a.m. Starz Tues., June 19, 3:30 p.m.
Inherent Vice (2014) Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin. A dope-smoking private detective navigates a psychedelic world of surfers, rockers, stoners, LAPD cops and more as he looks for a missing ex-girlfriend and her wealthy boyfriend. (R) 2 hrs. 28 mins. Cinemax Wed., June 20, 2:30 a.m.
Inside Man (2006) Denzel Washington, Clive Owen. An enigmatic woman threatens to push past the breaking point a volatile game between a bank robber and a detective. (R) 2 hrs. 9 mins. TMC Tues., June 19, 3:30 p.m. TMC Wed., June 20, 4 a.m.
Internal Affairs (1990) Richard Gere, Andy Garcia. A Los Angeles policeman toys with the mind of a division investigator on his case. (R) 1 hr. 57 mins. EPIX Sat., June 23, 3 a.m.
The Internship (2013) Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson. Two old-school, unemployed salesmen finagle internships at Google, then must compete with younger, smarter candidates for prime positions. (PG-13) 1 hr. 59 mins. FXX Sat., June 23, 7 p.m. FXX Sat., June 23, 9:30 p.m.
Interstellar (2014) Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway. As mankind's time on Earth comes to an end, a group of explorers begins the most important mission in human history: traveling beyond the galaxy to discover if there is a future for man among the stars. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 45 mins. FX Sun., June 17, 8 a.m.
Interview With the Vampire (1994) Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt. The immortal Louis tells of his life as a vampire recruited by Lestat in 1791 Louisiana. (R) 2 hrs. 2 mins. OVA Tues., June 19, 1 p.m.
In the Land of Women (2007) Adam Brody, Meg Ryan. After a bad breakup leaves him heartbroken, a young man moves in with his ailing grandmother and gets involved with the family across the street. (PG-13) 1 hr. 40 mins. HBO Mon., June 18, 6 a.m.
In the Valley of Elah (2007) Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron. A sympathetic police detective helps a retired Army sergeant uncover the fate of his son, who went missing shortly after returning from Iraq. (R) 2 hrs. 1 mins. Cinemax Sun., June 17, 11:30 a.m.
Intruders (2015) Beth Riesgraf, Martin Starr. Anna suffers from a severe case of agoraphobia and cannot escape from her house when three people break in. The intruders think they will get away easily, until Anna's other psychosis' break free. (R) 1 hr. 30 mins. TMC Fri., June 22, 7 a.m.
Invincible (2006) Mark Wahlberg, Greg Kinnear. At 30 years old, bartender Vince Papale sees his wildest dreams come true when he becomes a member of the Philadelphia Eagles football team. (PG) 1 hr. 44 mins. Cinemax Wed., June 20, 6:30 a.m.
Iron Man 3 (2013) Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow. After a malevolent enemy reduces his world to rubble, Tony Stark must rely on instinct and ingenuity to protect those he loves as he searches for a way to avenge his losses. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 10 mins. FX Sat., June 23, 6 p.m.
Iron Man 2 (2010) Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow. With the world now aware that he is Iron Man, billionaire inventor Tony Stark must forge new alliances and confront a powerful new enemy. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 4 mins. FX Sat., June 23, 3 p.m.
Iron Man (2008) Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard. A wealthy industrialist builds an armored suit and uses it to defeat criminals and terrorists. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 6 mins. FX Fri., June 22, 4 p.m. FX Sat., June 23, 12:30 p.m.
The Italian Job (2003) Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron. A master thief and his crew plan to steal back a fortune in gold bullion after they lose it to a double-crossing gang member. (PG-13) 1 hr. 51 mins. HBO Wed., June 20, 4 p.m.
It's Always Fair Weather (1955) Gene Kelly, Dan Dailey. A talk-show staffer puts a fight manager, adman and cook on TV 10 years after they parted as GIs. (NR) 1 hr. 42 mins. TCM Tues., June 19, 1 p.m.
It's Kind of a Funny Story (2010) Keir Gilchrist, Zach Galifianakis. A depressed teenager checks himself into a psychiatric facility and winds up in the adult ward, where a fellow patient takes him under his wing. (PG-13) 1 hr. 40 mins. IFC Sun., June 24, 2 a.m.
It's Love I'm After (1937) Leslie Howard, Bette Davis. An infatuated debutante renews a Shakespearean actor's running feud with his leading lady. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. TCM Mon., June 18, 9 p.m.
It Will Be Chaos (2018) Two refugee stories unfold between Italy and the Balkan corridor, both highlighting the clash between newcomers and locals. (NR) 1 hr. 33 mins. HBO Fri., June 22, 12 a.m. HBO Mon., June 18, 8 p.m. HBO Tues., June 19, 2:30 a.m. HBO Wed., June 20, 5:30 p.m. ------------ J Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
Jackals (2016) Stephen Dorff, Deborah Kara Unger. After the Powells hire a cult deprogrammer to take back their teenage son from a murderous cult, they find themselves under siege when the cultists surround their cabin, demanding the boy back. (NR) 1 hr. 25 mins. Showtime Fri., June 22, 1:30 p.m.
Jackass: The Movie (2002) Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera. Nitwits perform outrageous stunts and pull practical jokes on an unsuspecting public. (R) 1 hr. 24 mins. Cinemax Mon., June 18, 5 a.m.
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016) Tom Cruise, Cobie Smulders. Investigator Jack Reacher goes on the lam to uncover the truth behind a major government conspiracy that involves the death of U.S. soldiers. (PG-13) 1 hr. 53 mins. EPIX Sun., June 17, 6:30 p.m. EPIX Sun., June 17, 11 p.m.
Jailhouse Rock (1957) Elvis Presley, Judy Tyler. An inmate learns guitar from his cellmate, then gets an agent and turns rock 'n' roll star. (NR) 1 hr. 36 mins. TCM Fri., June 22, 12 a.m.
Jason Bourne (2016) Matt Damon, Tommy Lee Jones. Living off the grid for 10 years, former CIA operative Jason Bourne finds himself back in action battling a sinister network that utilizes terror and technology to maintain unchecked power. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 3 mins. Cinemax Wed., June 20, 8 p.m.
Jaws the Revenge (1987) Lorraine Gary, Lance Guest. A huge white shark harasses a New England widow and her marine-biologist son in the Bahamas. (PG-13) 1 hr. 29 mins. AMC Sun., June 24, 3:30 a.m.
Jaws 3 (1983) Dennis Quaid, Bess Armstrong. An engineer and a marine biologist face a mother white shark at a Florida sea park. (PG) 1 hr. 37 mins. AMC Sun., June 24, 1:30 a.m.
Jaws 2 (1978) Roy Scheider, Lorraine Gary. Amity's citizens and police chief dread another tourist season with a huge white shark near the beach. (PG) 1 hr. 57 mins. AMC Sat., June 23, 10:30 p.m. AMC Sat., June 23, 5 p.m.
Jaws (1975) Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw. A New England police chief, a shark hunter and a scientist have a showdown with a huge white shark. (PG) 2 hrs. 4 mins. AMC Sat., June 23, 2 p.m. AMC Sat., June 23, 7:30 p.m.
Jenny's Wedding (2015) Katherine Heigl, Tom Wilkinson. When Jenny decides to marry a woman, her conventional family must accept who she is or risk losing her forever. (PG-13) 1 hr. 34 mins. TMC Wed., June 20, 11 p.m.
Jerry Maguire (1996) Tom Cruise, Cuba Gooding Jr. A Los Angeles sports agent finds love with a pretty accountant after an attack of conscience costs him his job and fiancee. (R) 2 hrs. 18 mins. AMC Fri., June 22, 9:30 a.m.
Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2001) Voices of Megan Cavanagh, Mark DeCarlo. Animated. A smart child and his mechanical dog blast into outer space after aliens kidnap adults from his hometown. (G) 1 hr. 23 mins. TMC Thur., June 21, 9:30 a.m. TMC Fri., June 22, 5:30 a.m.
Joe Dirt (2001) David Spade, Dennis Miller. A goofy janitor tells a radio talk-show host about his search for the parents who abandoned him. (PG-13) 1 hr. 30 mins. CMT Mon., June 18, 10:30 p.m. CMT Tues., June 19, 12:30 a.m.
John Q (2002) Denzel Washington, Robert Duvall. A desperate man takes hostages at a hospital in order to force doctors to save his dying son. (PG-13) 1 hr. 58 mins. Starz Sat., June 23, 1 p.m. Starz Sat., June 23, 11 p.m.
John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017) Keanu Reeves, Common. Legendary hit man John Wick comes out of retirement when a former associate plots to seize control of an international assassins' guild. Bound by a blood oath to help him, Wick travels to Rome to square off against the world's deadliest killers. (R) 2 hrs. 2 mins. Cinemax Sun., June 17, 9:30 a.m. Cinemax Sun., June 17, 8 p.m. Cinemax Wed., June 20, 5 p.m. Cinemax Sat., June 23, 12:30 p.m.
Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008) Brendan Fraser, Josh Hutcherson. A science professor and his nephew encounter strange creatures and stranger lands as they travel beneath the Earth's surface. (PG) 1 hr. 33 mins. Syfy Sun., June 17, 9 p.m. Syfy Mon., June 18, 7 p.m.
Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012) Dwayne Johnson, Michael Caine. Sean Anderson and his new stepfather find an island of secrets, strange life forms, and gold when they answer a coded distress signal. (PG) 1 hr. 34 mins. Syfy Sun., June 17, 7 p.m.
Jumper (2008) Hayden Christensen, Jamie Bell. A young man's ability to teleport himself anywhere in the world makes him a target for those who have sworn to kill him and others like him. (PG-13) 1 hr. 28 mins. IFC Tues., June 19, 6 p.m. IFC Tues., June 19, 10 p.m.
June Bride (1948) Bette Davis, Robert Montgomery. The editor of a women's magazine falls in love with her right-hand man while doing a wedding feature. (NR) 1 hr. 37 mins. TCM Wed., June 20, 7 p.m.
Jurassic Park III (2001) Sam Neill, William H. Macy. A paleontologist and a couple outrun cloned dinosaurs after their plane crashes on an island. (PG-13) 1 hr. 31 mins. WGN A Tues., June 19, 5 p.m.
Jurassic Park (1993) Sam Neill, Laura Dern. An entrepreneur invites scientists, a mathematics theorist and others to his jungle theme-park featuring dinosaurs regenerated from DNA. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 6 mins. WGN A Mon., June 18, 4 p.m.
Jurassic World (2015) Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard. An ex-military man and animal expert must use his special skills to save tourists at the Jurassic World island resort from rampaging, genetically engineered dinosaurs, including the vicious and intelligent Indominus rex. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 4 mins. FX Wed., June 20, 8 p.m. FX Wed., June 20, 10:30 p.m.
Just Go With It (2011) Adam Sandler, Jennifer Aniston. A plastic surgeon enlists the aid of his assistant and her children to help him win the heart of a beautiful woman. (PG-13) 1 hr. 55 mins. Freeform Sat., June 23, 8:30 p.m. ------------ K Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
The Karate Kid Part III (1989) Ralph Macchio, Noriyuki ``Pat'' Morita. Mr. Miyagi and his student open a bonsai-tree shop, then fight thugs sent by a millionaire toxic-waste dumper. (PG) 1 hr. 51 mins. OVA Tues., June 19, 10 p.m. OVA Wed., June 20, 1 p.m.
The Karate Kid Part II (1986) Ralph Macchio, Noriyuki ``Pat'' Morita. Mr. Miyagi returns to Okinawa with his karate student and meets an old foe's challenge to a duel. (PG) 1 hr. 53 mins. OVA Fri., June 22, 2 p.m. OVA Sat., June 23, 12 p.m.
The Karate Kid (1984) Ralph Macchio, Noriyuki ``Pat'' Morita. A New Jersey teen moves to California, meets bullies and learns karate from a handyman, Mr. Miyagi. (PG) 2 hrs. 6 mins. OVA Fri., June 22, 11 a.m. OVA Thur., June 21, 8 p.m.
Kick-Ass (2010) Aaron Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse. Despite a complete lack of extraordinary powers, a teenager reinvents himself as a superhero and, together with a father/daughter team of vigilantes, takes on a mob boss. (R) 1 hr. 57 mins. TBS Mon., June 18, 12 a.m.
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu. Awaking from a coma, an assassin seeks vengeance against her former boss and his ruthless gang. (R) 1 hr. 50 mins. TMC Thur., June 21, 10 p.m.
Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004) Uma Thurman, David Carradine. Before confronting her former boss, an assassin goes after the man's younger brother and her one-eyed counterpart. (R) 2 hrs. 17 mins. TMC Fri., June 22, 12 a.m.
Killing Them Softly (2012) Brad Pitt, Scoot McNairy. After a rival crook hires a pair of bumbling thieves to rob their card game, mobsters hire a reluctant hit man to settle the score. (R) 1 hr. 37 mins. IFC Wed., June 20, 11 a.m.
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017) Charlie Hunnam, Astrid Bergs-Frisbey. Robbed of his birthright, Arthur grows up the hard way in the back alleys of the city, not knowing who he truly is. When fate leads him to pull the Excalibur sword from stone, Arthur embraces his true destiny to become a legendary fighter and leader. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 6 mins. HBO Sun., June 17, 9:30 a.m.
King Arthur (2004) Clive Owen, Keira Knightley. Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table embark on a rescue mission as Saxon hordes prepare to invade. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 6 mins. Showtime Wed., June 20, 4 p.m.
Kingpin (1996) Woody Harrelson, Randy Quaid. A one-handed salesman, an Amish farm boy and a pretty con artist pull bowling scams to get to a $1 million tournament in Reno. (PG-13) 1 hr. 53 mins. Encore Sun., June 24, 12:30 a.m. Encore Tues., June 19, 7:30 a.m. Encore Tues., June 19, 7 p.m.
Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017) Colin Firth, Julianne Moore. With their headquarters destroyed and the world held hostage, members of Kingsman join forces with their American counterparts to battle a ruthless and common enemy. (R) 2 hrs. 21 mins. HBO Sat., June 23, 8 p.m. HBO Sun., June 24, 12:30 a.m.
Kinsey (2004) Liam Neeson, Laura Linney. Zoologist Alfred Kinsey's research on human sexuality challenges the status quo of the late 1940s. (R) 1 hr. 58 mins. Cinemax Sat., June 23, 4 a.m.
Kismet (1955) Howard Keel, Ann Blyth. A roguish poet is given the run of the scheming Wazir's harem while pretending to help him usurp the young caliph. (NR) 1 hr. 53 mins. TCM Tues., June 19, 4:30 a.m.
Kiss Me Kate (1953) Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel. Lilli and Fred act the same way offstage as they do in ``The Taming of the Shrew.'' (NR) 1 hr. 49 mins. TCM Thur., June 21, 8 a.m.
Krampus (2015) Emjay Anthony, Adam Scott. Members of a dysfunctional family face the wrath of Krampus, an ancient demon from European folklore who punishes naughty children at Christmastime. (PG-13) 1 hr. 38 mins. FXX Wed., June 20, 6 p.m. FXX Thur., June 21, 1:30 p.m.
Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016) Voices of Jack Black, Bryan Cranston. Animated. After reuniting with his long-lost father, Po must train a village of clumsy pandas to help him defeat a supernatural warrior who becomes stronger with each battle. (PG) 1 hr. 35 mins. FX Tues., June 19, 6:30 p.m. FX Tues., June 19, 9 p.m. ------------ L Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
Lake Placid 3 (2010) Colin Ferguson, Yancy Butler. Game warden Nathan Bickerman moves his family to Black Lake, where his son discovers a clutch of baby crocodiles that, as they grow, begin to feast on humans. (R) 1 hr. 30 mins. Syfy Sat., June 23, 4 p.m.
Land of the Lost (2009) Will Ferrell, Anna Friel. A time-space vortex sucks a scientific has-been and his companions into an alternate dimension populated by dinosaurs and painfully slow creatures called Sleestaks. (PG-13) 1 hr. 42 mins. Cinemax Mon., June 18, 8:30 a.m.
The Land (2016) Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Moises Arias. Four inner-city teens face the wrath of a Cleveland crime boss after stealing a car that's stashed with drugs. (R) 1 hr. 41 mins. TMC Thur., June 21, 11 a.m.
Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003) Angelina Jolie, Gerard Butler. A globe-trotter must find Pandora's box before a maniacal scientist can harness its power for world domination. (PG-13) 1 hr. 58 mins. Cinemax Wed., June 20, 12 p.m. Cinemax Sun., June 24, 2 a.m.
The Last Exorcism (2010) Patrick Fabian, Ashley Bell. While a film crew documents his final days as an exorcist, a deceitful cleric must summon true faith when he encounters real evil at a Louisiana farm. (PG-13) 1 hr. 30 mins. EPIX Wed., June 20, 2 p.m. EPIX Thur., June 21, 12:30 a.m.
Last Girl Standing (2015) Akasha Villalobos, Danielle Evon Ploeger. After surviving a massacre, a woman tries to recover her life, but echoes from the past return. (NR) 1 hr. 31 mins. TMC Sat., June 23, 10:30 p.m. TMC Sun., June 24, 1:30 a.m.
Last Knights (2015) Clive Owen, Cliff Curtis. A fallen swordsman leads a small army against a sadistic ruler to avenge his dishonored master. (R) 1 hr. 55 mins. Syfy Wed., June 20, 4 p.m.
The Last of the Mohicans (1992) Daniel Day-Lewis, Madeleine Stowe. Colonial guide Hawkeye, with his Indian friends, Chingachgook and Uncas, rescue British sisters from the Huron to take them to their father, the commander of Fort William Henry. (R) 1 hr. 54 mins. Cinemax Wed., June 20, 12:30 a.m. Cinemax Sat., June 23, 5 p.m.
The Last Samurai (2003) Tom Cruise, Ken Watanabe. In the 1870s a Westerner is caught in the middle of a battle between Japan's emperor and the samurai. (R) 2 hrs. 34 mins. OVA Sat., June 23, 7 p.m.
The Last Song (2010) Miley Cyrus, Greg Kinnear. In a Southern beach town, a man tries to reconnect with his estranged daughter through their shared love of music. (PG) 1 hr. 48 mins. Freeform Fri., June 22, 2 p.m. Freeform Thur., June 21, 9 p.m.
The Last Stand (2013) Arnold Schwarzenegger, Forest Whitaker. A sheriff must take matters into his own hands when a notorious drug lord escapes from FBI custody and comes speeding toward a showdown in the lawman's quiet border town. (R) 1 hr. 46 mins. IFC Thur., June 21, 2 p.m. IFC Thur., June 21, 10 p.m.
The Last Witch Hunter (2015) Vin Diesel, Elijah Wood. The fate of the human race hangs in the balance when the Witch Queen rises from the dead, seeking revenge against Kaulder, the immortal warrior who slayed her centuries ago. (PG-13) 1 hr. 46 mins. Syfy Thur., June 21, 9 p.m. Syfy Fri., June 22, 5:30 p.m.
A League of Their Own (1992) Tom Hanks, Geena Davis. The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League begins in 1943 with a major-league has-been as a manager. (PG) 2 hrs. 6 mins. LOGO Mon., June 18, 5:30 p.m. LOGO Mon., June 18, 11 p.m.
Lee Daniels' The Butler (2013) Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey. A White House butler has a front-row seat to history through three decades and seven presidential administrations, including those of Eisenhower, Kennedy and Nixon. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 12 mins. BET Sun., June 17, 8 p.m. BET Mon., June 18, 2 p.m.
The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000) Will Smith, Matt Damon. A golf caddy shows a disillusioned young war veteran how to master challenges and find meaning in life. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 6 mins. Golf Thur., June 21, 9 a.m.
The Legend of Billie Jean (1985) Helen Slater, Keith Gordon. A Texas teen cuts her hair short and becomes an outlaw martyr with her brother and friends. (PG-13) 1 hr. 36 mins. OVA Wed., June 20, 11:30 a.m.
The Legend of Hercules (2014) Kellan Lutz, Scott Adkins. Exiled and sold into slavery because of a forbidden love, Hercules must use his formidable powers to fight his way back to his rightful kingdom. (PG-13) 1 hr. 38 mins. IFC Wed., June 20, 9 a.m. IFC Wed., June 20, 4 p.m. IFC Thur., June 21, 3:30 a.m.
Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen (2010) Donnie Yen, Qi Shu. Chen fakes his death and returns as a caped crime fighter. (R) 1 hr. 45 mins. TMC Sat., June 23, 2 a.m. TMC Tues., June 19, 3 a.m.
Leslie Howard: The Man Who Gave a Damn (2015) The life and career of Leslie Howard. (NR) 1 hr. 24 mins. TCM Tues., June 19, 1:30 a.m.
Less Than Zero (1987) Andrew McCarthy, Jami Gertz. Beverly Hills rich kids help their friend who is hooked on cocaine. (R) 1 hr. 37 mins. Encore Sat., June 23, 12 a.m.
Lethal Admirer (2018) Karissa Lee Staples, Drew Seeley. Megan moves across the country to rebuild her life. When she runs into one of her former colleagues, she is pleasantly surprised and the pair become close friends. When he wants more from her, he begins sabotaging everything in Megan's life. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Lifetime Sun., June 17, 6 p.m.
Let's Be Cops (2014) Jake Johnson, Damon Wayans Jr. Two buddies dress as police officers for a costume party, then must put their fake badges on the line after they become entangled with a real web of crooks and dirty detectives. (R) 1 hr. 44 mins. FXX Mon., June 18, 4 p.m. FXX Tues., June 19, 1 p.m.
Leviathan (1989) Peter Weller, Richard Crenna. Precious-metals miners become trapped on the ocean floor with an eellike genetic alteration. (R) 1 hr. 38 mins. Encore Fri., June 22, 3 a.m.
The Liberator (2013) Edgar Ramirez, Mara Valverde. Eighteen-century Venezuelan aristocrat Simn Bolvar fights to free his country and other South American territories from Spanish rule. (R) 1 hr. 59 mins. KCET Fri., June 22, 7:30 p.m. KCET Sat., June 23, 3:30 p.m.
Life Is Beautiful (1997) Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi. With a game, an Italian Jew shields his son from Nazi horrors in a concentration camp during World War II. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 2 mins. Showtime Wed., June 20, 6 a.m.
Life With Father (1947) William Powell, Irene Dunne. A New Yorker and her four sons experience love and laughter from their opinionated but well-meaning family patriarch. (NR) 1 hr. 58 mins. TCM Sun., June 17, 7 p.m.
Life (1999) Eddie Murphy, Martin Lawrence. Wrongly convicted of murder, two men become close friends during decades in a Mississippi penitentiary. (R) 1 hr. 48 mins. Encore Mon., June 18, 1:30 p.m. Encore Mon., June 18, 9 p.m. Encore Wed., June 20, 10:30 a.m. Encore Wed., June 20, 3:30 a.m.
Life (2017) Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson. Terror strikes when astronauts aboard the International Space Station discover a rapidly evolving life-form from Mars that threatens Earth. (R) 1 hr. 43 mins. Starz Fri., June 22, 3 a.m. Starz Fri., June 22, 11 a.m.
The Light Between Oceans (2016) Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander. A lighthouse keeper and his wife raise a baby after finding her in a rowboat but must make a life-changing decision when they meet the child's biological mother on the mainland. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 13 mins. Showtime Wed., June 20, 8 a.m.
Lili (1953) Leslie Caron, Mel Ferrer. A French teen joins a carnival and meets a lying magician and a loving puppeteer. (G) 1 hr. 21 mins. TCM Tues., June 19, 3 a.m.
Limitless (2011) Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro. An unemployed writer rises to the top of the financial world after an experimental drug gives him extraordinary mental acuity. (PG-13) 1 hr. 45 mins. A&E Sun., June 17, 11:30 a.m.
The Lion King II: Simba's Pride (1998) Voices of Matthew Broderick, Neve Campbell. Animated. Kiara, the daughter of Simba and Nala, loves the son of exiled lioness Zira, who is out for revenge. (G) 1 hr. 15 mins. Freeform Sun., June 17, 11 p.m.
The Lion King (1994) Voices of Matthew Broderick, Jeremy Irons. Animated. After the death of his royal father, a young lion returns to battle his scheming uncle for the jungle throne. (G) 1 hr. 27 mins. Freeform Sun., June 17, 8:30 p.m. Freeform Mon., June 18, 6 p.m.
Little Fockers (2010) Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller. As two clans descend on the scene of young twins' birthday, Greg Focker's moonlighting at a pharmaceutical company threatens to derail his position of trust with Jack, his uptight father-in-law. (PG-13) 1 hr. 37 mins. Bravo Sat., June 23, 12 a.m. Bravo Sat., June 23, 4:30 p.m.
The Little Hours (2017) Alison Brie, Dave Franco. A young servant fleeing from his master takes refuge at a dysfunctional convent in medieval Tuscany, disguising himself as a deaf-mute. (R) 1 hr. 30 mins. EPIX Thur., June 21, 11:30 a.m.
Live Free or Die Hard (2007) Bruce Willis, Justin Long. John McClane grapples with a villain who plans to shut down the United States by attacking the country's vulnerable computer infrastructure. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 9 mins. TNT Wed., June 20, 11 p.m. TNT Sat., June 23, 11 p.m.
Logan (2017) Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart. In the near future, a weary Logan cares for an ailing Professor X while protecting a young mutant girl from the dark forces that want to capture her. (R) 2 hrs. 17 mins. HBO Thur., June 21, 5 p.m.
London Has Fallen (2016) Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart. Secret Service agent Mike Banning springs into action to save captive U.S. President Benjamin Asher from the terrorists who attacked London. (R) 1 hr. 39 mins. TNT Fri., June 22, 8 p.m. TNT Sat., June 23, 12 a.m.
The Longest Ride (2015) Scott Eastwood, Britt Robertson. As conflicting paths test their bond, a couple find inspiration in the romantic tales of an elderly man whose great love for his wife stood the test of time. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 8 mins. FX Tues., June 19, 6:30 a.m.
The Longest Yard (2005) Adam Sandler, Chris Rock. At a Texas penitentiary, jailed NFL veterans train their fellow inmates for a football game against the guards. (PG-13) 1 hr. 53 mins. MTV Sat., June 23, 9 a.m. MTV Sun., June 24, 12:30 a.m.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen. Frodo and Sam march toward Mount Doom to destroy the ring, while Gandalf and warriors prepare for a final confrontation with Sauron and his allies. (PG-13) 3 hrs. 20 mins. Encore Fri., June 22, 8 a.m. Encore Fri., June 22, 8:30 p.m.
The Lost Wife of Robert Durst (2017) Katharine McPhee, Daniel Gillies. Young and wide-eyed Kathie falls in love with charming, yet quirky real estate scion Robert Durst, only to find their marriage turning stranger, darker and more disturbing as time passes. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Lifetime Sun., June 17, 10 a.m.
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore. Mercenaries and scientists pursue genetically engineered dinosaurs inhabiting a Costa Rican island. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 14 mins. USA Sun., June 17, 8 p.m. WGN A Mon., June 18, 7 p.m.
Lottery Ticket (2010) Bow Wow, Brandon T. Jackson. After winning $370 million, a young man must survive a holiday weekend with greedy neighbors before he can claim the prize. (PG-13) 1 hr. 35 mins. VH1 Sun., June 24, 12 a.m.
Love at First Dance (2018) Niall Matter, Becca Tobin. Hope is tasked with teaching Manhattan's former most eligible bachelor how to dance for his extravagant wedding. As the dance lessons progress, complications ensue when feelings begin to develop between the student and the instructor. (NR) 2 hrs. Hallmark Sun., June 17, 7 p.m. Hallmark Sat., June 23, 7 p.m.
Love Don't Cost a Thing (2003) Nick Cannon, Christina Milian. To improve his reputation, an unpopular teenager hires a cheerleader to pose as his girlfriend. (PG-13) 1 hr. 41 mins. VH1 Sat., June 23, 4 p.m.
Love Means Zero (2017) Tennis coach Nick Bollettieri's relentless desire to win at all costs leads to the destruction of an important relationship. (NR) 1 hr. 29 mins. Showtime Sat., June 23, 10:30 p.m. Showtime Sat., June 23, 9 p.m.
Love, Once and Always (2018) Amanda Schull, Peter Porte. When Lucy's childhood sweetheart plans to tear down the Gilded Age estate and replace it with a golf course, Lucy fights to preserve it. As they set out to find a compromise, they learn that embracing the past may be the key to protecting the future. (NR) 2 hrs. Hallmark Tues., June 19, 3:30 p.m.
Love the Coopers (2015) Alan Arkin, John Goodman. A man and his estranged wife welcome their two children and four generations of extended family into their home for an annual Christmas Eve celebration. (PG-13) 1 hr. 47 mins. Showtime Tues., June 19, 4 a.m.
Lucky Number Slevin (2006) Josh Hartnett, Morgan Freeman. A conflict between black and Jewish gangsters in New York City and a case of mistaken identity land a man in the middle of a revenge plot of a crime boss. (R) 1 hr. 50 mins. Encore Thur., June 21, 2 a.m. ------------ M Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
Madea's Family Reunion (2006) Tyler Perry, Blair Underwood. A Southern matriarch deals with a host of personal and family issues while planning her clan's upcoming reunion. (PG-13) 1 hr. 47 mins. BET Sat., June 23, 2:30 p.m. BET Sat., June 23, 10:30 p.m.
Made of Honor (2008) Patrick Dempsey, Michelle Monaghan. A commitment-shy guy realizes he is in love with his best friend and accepts a spot in her bridal party in the hope of stopping her wedding. (PG-13) 1 hr. 41 mins. POP Tues., June 19, 11 p.m. POP Wed., June 20, 8 p.m.
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) Mel Gibson, Tina Turner. Aunty Entity will return Mad Max's camels if he will fight the giant Blaster in a barbaric caged arena. (PG-13) 1 hr. 46 mins. Syfy Mon., June 18, 1 a.m.
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron. Fortified in a massive, armored truck, loner Mad Max joins Imperator Furiosa and her band of rebels as they try to outrun a warlord and his henchmen in a deadly high-speed chase through the Wasteland. (R) 2 hrs. Syfy Sun., June 17, 4:30 p.m.
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981) Mel Gibson, Bruce Spence. Loner lawman Mad Max fights barbarian bikers for gasoline in the wasteland of the future. (R) 1 hr. 35 mins. Syfy Mon., June 18, 3 a.m.
Maggie (2015) Arnold Schwarzenegger, Abigail Breslin. After his daughter is infected with a virus that transforms her into a zombie, a small-town farmer will stop at nothing to save her. (PG-13) 1 hr. 34 mins. Syfy Fri., June 22, 3 a.m. Syfy Fri., June 22, 9:30 a.m.
The Magnificent Seven (2016) Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt. Desperate townspeople hire seven mercenaries to battle a greedy industrialist and his ruthless henchmen in the Old West. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 8 mins. EPIX Tues., June 19, 8 p.m. EPIX Wed., June 20, 10:30 a.m.
Magnum Force (1973) Clint Eastwood, Hal Holbrook. Inspector ``Dirty Harry'' Callahan links vigilante killings to the San Francisco Police Department. (R) 2 hrs. 4 mins. OVA Fri., June 22, 6:30 p.m. OVA Mon., June 18, 1:30 p.m. OVA Sun., June 17, 10 p.m.
Major League II (1994) Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger. Cleveland's new coach whips his lackluster baseball players into winning shape. (PG) 1 hr. 44 mins. MLB Sat., June 23, 8:30 a.m. MLB Sun., June 17, 5 p.m.
Maniac (2012) Elijah Wood, Nora Arnezeder. A serial killer removes his victims' scalps and attaches them to the vintage mannequins he restores in his late mother's shop. (NR) 1 hr. 29 mins. TMC Sat., June 23, 9 p.m. TMC Sun., June 24, 12 a.m.
The Man in the Moon (1991) Sam Waterston, Tess Harper. A couple's two daughters catch the eye of their new teenage neighbor in 1957 Louisiana. (PG-13) 1 hr. 39 mins. EPIX Thur., June 21, 9:30 a.m.
Man on a Ledge (2012) Sam Worthington, Elizabeth Banks. While trying to convince a disgraced ex-cop to come in from a high-rise ledge, a police negotiator begins to realize that the man has an ulterior motive. (PG-13) 1 hr. 42 mins. Showtime Sat., June 23, 6 a.m. Showtime Sat., June 23, 3 p.m.
The Man Who Came to Dinner (1941) Monty Woolley, Bette Davis. A critic breaks his hip in someone's home and stays there, in charge, until it mends. (NR) 1 hr. 52 mins. TCM Sun., June 24, 5 a.m.
The Man Who Cheated Himself (1950) Lee J. Cobb, John Dall. A woman in the process of divorce shoots her husband and gets her police lieutenant boyfriend to help hide the body. (NR) 1 hr. 26 mins. TCM Sat., June 23, 9 p.m.
Marathon Man (1976) Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier. The CIA and a Nazi death-camp dentist chase a New York graduate student. (R) 2 hrs. 5 mins. EPIX Mon., June 18, 5:30 p.m.
Margin Call (2011) Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany. When an analyst uncovers information that could ruin them all, the key players at an investment firm take extreme measures to control the damage. (R) 1 hr. 49 mins. Showtime Wed., June 20, 1 p.m. Showtime Thur., June 21, 4 a.m. Showtime Sat., June 23, 9:30 a.m.
Marley & Me (2008) Owen Wilson, Jennifer Aniston. Newlyweds John and Jenny Grogan adopt a playful puppy named Marley, who soon grows into an incorrigible handful. (PG) 1 hr. 56 mins. Lifetime Fri., June 22, 8 p.m. Lifetime Sat., June 23, 12 a.m.
Married to the Mob (1988) Michelle Pfeiffer, Matthew Modine. An FBI agent gets close to a gangster's widow in order to nab a crime boss. (R) 1 hr. 43 mins. EPIX Thur., June 21, 1 p.m. EPIX Thur., June 21, 11:30 p.m.
The Mask of Zorro (1998) Antonio Banderas, Anthony Hopkins. The fabled avenger trains an uncouth protege to drive a Spanish tyrant out of California once and for all. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 16 mins. Encore Mon., June 18, 2:30 a.m. Encore Mon., June 18, 3 p.m.
Maximum Overdrive (1986) Emilio Estevez, Pat Hingle. A truck-stop cook and a hitchhiker flee big rigs demonized by a rogue comet. (R) 1 hr. 37 mins. Sundance Sat., June 23, 10:30 a.m.
Max 2: White House Hero (2017) Zane Austin, Carrie Genzel. Max, a military service dog, is assigned to serve on the U.S. president's Secret Service detail. (PG) 1 hr. 25 mins. EPIX Sat., June 23, 1 p.m. EPIX Sat., June 23, 9:30 p.m. EPIX Tues., June 19, 5 a.m.
Meet the Fockers (2004) Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller. A man fears the worst when he accompanies his fiancee's uptight father and mother to meet his free-spirited mom and dad. (PG-13) 1 hr. 55 mins. Bravo Fri., June 22, 5:30 p.m. Bravo Sat., June 23, 2:30 p.m.
Megamind (2010) Voices of Will Ferrell, Brad Pitt. Animated. An evil genius must create a powerful new opponent after defeating his heroic nemesis leaves him without purpose. (PG) 1 hr. 36 mins. HBO Wed., June 20, 8 a.m.
Men in Black II (2002) Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith. Two interstellar agents try to stop an alien disguised as a lingerie model from destroying the world. (PG-13) 1 hr. 28 mins. Comedy Central Sun., June 17, 11 p.m. Comedy Central Sun., June 17, 6:30 p.m.
Men in Black (1997) Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith. A veteran agent and a rookie protect mankind from dangerous extraterrestrials roaming the Earth. (PG-13) 1 hr. 38 mins. Comedy Central Fri., June 22, 8:30 p.m. Comedy Central Sat., June 23, 5 p.m. Comedy Central Sun., June 17, 4 p.m. Comedy Central Sun., June 17, 8 p.m.
Men of Honor (2000) Robert De Niro, Cuba Gooding Jr. The U.S. Navy's first black diver battles a salty chief, racial prejudice and a crippling setback. (R) 2 hrs. 9 mins. WGN A Sun., June 17, 6 a.m.
Miami Vice (2006) Colin Farrell, Jamie Foxx. A case involving drug lords and murder in South Florida turns personal for detectives Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs. (R) 2 hrs. 15 mins. Starz Tues., June 19, 10 p.m.
Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life (2016) Griffin Gluck, Lauren Graham. Live action/animated. After transferring to a new school, an imaginative student and his mischievous friend concoct schemes to drive their tyrannical principal crazy. (PG) 1 hr. 32 mins. Showtime Mon., June 18, 8:30 a.m.
MI-5 (2015) Kit Harington, Peter Firth. A former MI5 agent investigates the disappearance of Harry Pearce when the operative is blamed for the escape of a ruthless terrorist. (R) 1 hr. 44 mins. Syfy Mon., June 18, 12 p.m. Syfy Sun., June 17, 11 p.m.
The Mighty Ducks (1992) Emilio Estevez, Joss Ackland. To get out of trouble, a hotshot lawyer opts for community service coaching rowdies in peewee hockey. (PG) 1 hr. 41 mins. CMT Sat., June 23, 2:30 p.m. CMT Sat., June 23, 7 p.m. CMT Sun., June 17, 12 p.m. CMT Sun., June 17, 4:30 p.m.
Million Dollar Mermaid (1952) Esther Williams, Victor Mature. Australian swimmer Annette Kellerman becomes a promoter's star in a shocking one-piece bathing suit. (NR) 1 hr. 55 mins. TCM Thur., June 21, 10 p.m.
Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous (2005) Sandra Bullock, Regina King. FBI agent Gracie Hart clashes with her superiors when she jumps in to save two kidnapped friends in Las Vegas. (PG-13) 1 hr. 55 mins. E! Mon., June 18, 9:30 p.m. E! Tues., June 19, 9:30 a.m. Bravo Sat., June 23, 10 a.m. Bravo Sat., June 23, 12 p.m.
Miss Congeniality (2000) Sandra Bullock, Michael Caine. An image consultant transforms a tomboyish FBI agent into a beauty queen so she can work under cover. (PG-13) 1 hr. 45 mins. Bravo Fri., June 22, 10 p.m. Bravo Fri., June 22, 8 p.m. E! Mon., June 18, 7 p.m. E! Tues., June 19, 12:30 p.m.
Mission: Impossible 2 (2000) Tom Cruise, Dougray Scott. IMF agent Ethan Hunt and his team try to stop a former agent from unleashing a deadly, engineered virus. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 3 mins. Encore Sat., June 23, 5 p.m. Encore Thur., June 21, 6:30 p.m.
Mission: Impossible (1996) Tom Cruise, Jon Voight. Branded a traitor, an elite intelligence agent investigates a failed Prague mission to retrieve a computer disk. (PG-13) 1 hr. 50 mins. Encore Sat., June 23, 3 p.m. Encore Sat., June 23, 10:30 p.m. Encore Thur., June 21, 12 a.m. Encore Thur., June 21, 9 a.m.
Mission to Mars (2000) Gary Sinise, Tim Robbins. In 2020 after the crew of a spaceflight to Mars disappears, a second team goes to investigate and makes an incredible discovery. (PG) 1 hr. 52 mins. TMC Sun., June 17, 6 p.m.
Mississippi River Sharks (2017) Jeremy London, Cassie Steele. When sharks congregate in the Mississippi River, it's up to an actor to stop them. (NR) 1 hr. 40 mins. Syfy Mon., June 18, 10:30 a.m.
Mona Lisa Smile (2003) Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst. In 1953 a professor of art history challenges her female students to re-examine the traditional roles of women. (PG-13) 1 hr. 57 mins. Showtime Thur., June 21, 6 p.m. Showtime Tues., June 19, 6 a.m. TMC Fri., June 22, 8 p.m.
Mondays at Racine (2011) On the third Monday of every month, two sisters open their Long Island hair salon to women diagnosed with cancer. (NR) 39 mins. HBO Sat., June 23, 3 p.m.
Monster-in-Law (2005) Jennifer Lopez, Jane Fonda. A woman fights back when her fiance's shrewish mother tries to destroy their relationship. (PG-13) 1 hr. 40 mins. TBS Sat., June 23, 10 a.m.
Monster Trucks (2016) Lucas Till, Jane Levy. Live action/animated. A high school senior befriends a strange subterranean creature after building a monster truck from bits and pieces of scrapped cars. (PG) 1 hr. 45 mins. EPIX Sat., June 23, 4:30 p.m.
mother! (2017) Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem. A woman's tranquil existence gets upended when her husband invites a man, his wife and their two children as guests in their Victorian mansion. Terror soon strikes when she tries to figure out why her husband is so accommodating to everyone but her. (R) 2 hrs. EPIX Wed., June 20, 4 p.m.
The Mountain Between Us (2017) Kate Winslet, Idris Elba. Stranded on a mountain after a plane crash, two strangers must work together to survive the extreme elements of the remote, snow-covered terrain. Realizing that help is not on the way, they embark on a perilous journey across hundreds of miles. (PG-13) 1 hr. 44 mins. HBO Sun., June 17, 7 p.m. HBO Tues., June 19, 3 p.m. HBO Fri., June 22, 10:30 a.m. HBO Fri., June 22, 8 p.m.
Mr. Deeds (2002) Adam Sandler, Winona Ryder. A television producer tries to get the scoop on a small-town pizzeria owner after he inherits $40 billion. (PG-13) 1 hr. 36 mins. Freeform Sat., June 23, 6:30 p.m.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005) Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie. A husband and wife are unaware that each is an international assassin who has just been assigned to kill the other. (PG-13) 2 hrs. AMC Mon., June 18, 11:30 p.m. AMC Mon., June 18, 3 p.m.
Ms. Matched (2016) Alexa PenaVega, Shawn Roberts. Despite differing viewpoints, a wedding planner and a financial adviser find out that they have more in common than they thought. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Hallmark Thur., June 21, 2 p.m.
The Mummy (2017) Tom Cruise, Russell Crowe. A battle in the Middle East accidentally unearths Ahmanet, a betrayed Egyptian princess who was entombed under the desert. Now, a soldier of fortune must stop the resurrected monster as she embarks on a furious rampage through London. (PG-13) 1 hr. 47 mins. Cinemax Wed., June 20, 4 p.m.
Murder at 1600 (1997) Wesley Snipes, Diane Lane. A homicide detective and a Secret Service agent investigate a secretary's murder in the White House. (R) 1 hr. 47 mins. Cinemax Thur., June 21, 1:30 p.m.
Muscle Beach Party (1964) Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello. A contessa has her eyes on a surfer whose beach faces a threat from imposing bodybuilders. (NR) 1 hr. 34 mins. TCM Mon., June 18, 6 a.m.
The Music Never Stopped (2011) J.K. Simmons, Lou Taylor Pucci. A man hires a therapist to utilize music as a way to communicate with his brain-damaged son. (PG) 1 hr. 45 mins. EPIX Fri., June 22, 2:30 a.m.
My Bloody Valentine (2009) Jensen Ackles, Jaime King. Ten years after he accidentally caused the deaths of five miners, a man returns to the town of Harmony and faces a pickaxe-wielding killer. (R) 1 hr. 41 mins. EPIX Sun., June 24, 5:30 a.m.
My Cousin Vinny (1992) Joe Pesci, Marisa Tomei. A wise-guy Brooklyn lawyer and his motormouth girlfriend go to Alabama to defend his innocent cousin for murder. (R) 1 hr. 59 mins. AMC Fri., June 22, 5 p.m. AMC Thur., June 21, 7:30 p.m.
My Dead Boyfriend (2016) Heather Graham, Kate Moennig. A woman goes on a manic quest to learn the truth about her boyfriend after she finds him dead on their couch. (R) 1 hr. 30 mins. EPIX Mon., June 18, 8:30 a.m.
My Little Pony: The Movie (2017) Voices of Emily Blunt, Kristin Chenoweth. Animated. Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Rarity embark on an epic journey to save Ponyville from a dark force. (PG) 1 hr. 39 mins. EPIX Sat., June 23, 8 p.m.
My Secret Valentine (2018) Lacey Chabert, Andrew Walker. A young woman takes advice from the chalkboard notes that her mysterious tenant leaves when a slick sales rep arrives with plans to buy her family's prized winery. (NR) 2 hrs. Hallmark Wed., June 20, 2 p.m.
My Stepmother Is an Alien (1988) Dan Aykroyd, Kim Basinger. An innocent beauty from another planet becomes the wife of a scientist who has a teenage daughter. (PG-13) 1 hr. 48 mins. Sundance Sun., June 24, 4:30 a.m. ------------ N Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear (1991) Leslie Nielsen, Priscilla Presley. Frank and Ed of ``Police Squad'' blunder through another case, an energy-related plot in Washington, D.C. (PG-13) 1 hr. 25 mins. Starz Mon., June 18, 5:30 a.m.
Nanny Killer (2018) Morgan Obenreder, Danielle Bisutti. Hardworking student Sarah takes a well-paying summer job as a nanny at a winery to offset tuition expenses. But she soon realizes something is off with the children she cares for when their mischievous pranks lead to deadly consequences. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Lifetime Sun., June 17, 10 p.m. Lifetime Mon., June 18, 1:30 a.m.
Nanny McPhee Returns (2010) Emma Thompson, Maggie Gyllenhaal. Magical Nanny McPhee helps a harried mother who is trying to care for five children and tend to the family farm while her husband is away at war. (PG) 1 hr. 49 mins. Freeform Sun., June 17, 6:30 a.m.
Napoleon Dynamite (2004) Jon Heder, Jon Gries. A gawky teenager from an odd family helps his new friend run for class president against a popular student. (PG) 1 hr. 26 mins. HBO Fri., June 22, 12:30 p.m. HBO Tues., June 19, 5:30 p.m.
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989) Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo. The Griswolds spend the holiday in a garish way, especially when a country cousin pulls up in an RV. (PG-13) 1 hr. 37 mins. BBC America Sun., June 17, 1:30 p.m. BBC America Sun., June 17, 8 p.m. BBC America Wed., June 20, 7:30 p.m. BBC America Wed., June 20, 9:30 p.m.
National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985) Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo. The Chicago Griswolds win a grand tour and head for the Old World to soak up culture. (PG-13) 1 hr. 34 mins. BBC America Sun., June 17, 3:30 p.m. BBC America Sun., June 17, 9:30 p.m.
National Lampoon's Vacation (1983) Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo. The Griswolds and family head by station wagon for the California fun park Walley World. (R) 1 hr. 38 mins. BBC America Sun., June 17, 12 p.m. BBC America Sun., June 17, 5:30 p.m.
National Security (2003) Martin Lawrence, Steve Zahn. Two Los Angeles security guards try to stop a criminal mastermind and his gang of robbers. (PG-13) 1 hr. 28 mins. HBO Sun., June 24, 5:30 a.m.
National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007) Nicolas Cage, Jon Voight. A page from the diary of John Wilkes Booth implicates Ben Gates' great-great grandfather as a major conspirator in the assassination of President Lincoln. (PG) 2 hrs. 10 mins. USA Sun., June 17, 11:30 a.m.
Neighbors (2014) Seth Rogen, Zac Efron. Parents go to war with a neighboring fraternity president who refuses to tone down his house's raucous activities. (R) 1 hr. 37 mins. FXX Sat., June 23, 12 p.m.
Next Friday (2000) Ice Cube, Mike Epps. To avoid being beaten up, a young man goes to live with his uncle, who just won the lottery. (R) 1 hr. 39 mins. BET Thur., June 21, 3:30 p.m. BET Wed., June 20, 10 p.m.
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009) Ben Stiller, Robin Williams. Larry Daley joins forces with Teddy Roosevelt, Amelia Earhart and others to prevent four of history's worst villains from conquering the world. (PG) 1 hr. 45 mins. HBO Tues., June 19, 8 a.m.
90 Minutes in Heaven (2015) Hayden Christensen, Kate Bosworth. Pronounced dead by rescue workers after a car accident, Texas pastor Don Piper believes that he visited heaven before springing back to life 90 minutes later. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 1 mins. Lifetime Fri., June 22, 10 p.m. Lifetime Sat., June 23, 1:30 a.m.
Norm of the North (2016) Voices of Rob Schneider, Heather Graham. Animated. A polar bear and three mischievous lemmings travel to New York to stop a shady developer from building luxury condos in the Arctic. (PG) 1 hr. 30 mins. EPIX Sat., June 23, 6 p.m.
Northern Pursuit (1943) Errol Flynn, Julie Bishop. A Mountie's fiancee joins him as he leads a Nazi pilot and spies into a trap. (NR) 1 hr. 34 mins. TCM Wed., June 20, 9:30 a.m.
Nossa Chape (2018) Filmmakers Jeff Zimbalist and Michael Zimbalist track the rebuilding of the Chapecoense football club in Brazil after an airplane carrying the team crashes on Nov. 28, 2016, and left all but three of the players dead. (NR) 1 hr. 41 mins. KTTV Sat., June 23, 1 p.m.
The Notebook (2004) Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams. A man tells a story to a woman about two young people who become lovers in 1940s North Carolina. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 4 mins. Bravo Sat., June 23, 10 p.m. Bravo Sat., June 23, 6:30 p.m.
Notorious: Unrated (2009) Angela Bassett, Derek Luke. Christopher Wallace rises from the streets of Brooklyn as rap artist Notorious B.I.G., then is shot to death in 1997. (NR) 2 hrs. 9 mins. VH1 Sun., June 17, 7 p.m.
Novitiate (2017) Margaret Qualley, Melissa Leo. A 17-year-old trains to become a nun as the Roman Catholic Church undergoes radical changes in the early 1960s. (R) 2 hrs. 3 mins. Starz Thur., June 21, 2 a.m.
Now You See Me (2013) Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo. A federal agent and an Interpol detective play a cat-and-mouse game with cunning illusionists who rob corrupt business leaders during their performances, then funnel the money to members of the audience. (PG-13) 1 hr. 56 mins. TBS Fri., June 22, 8:30 p.m.
Number, Please? (1920) Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis. Silent. Two men at an amusement park pull out the stops to win a young woman's affection. (NR) 23 mins. TCM Sun., June 17, 11 p.m. ------------ O Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) George Clooney, John Turturro. A mysterious lawman tracks three escaped convicts searching for buried treasure in 1930s Mississippi. (PG-13) 1 hr. 46 mins. CMT Fri., June 22, 8 p.m. CMT Fri., June 22, 10:30 p.m.
Ocean's Eleven (2001) George Clooney, Matt Damon. A parolee organizes a gang to steal $150 million from three Las Vegas casinos in a single heist. (PG-13) 1 hr. 56 mins. TNT Sat., June 23, 12 p.m. TNT Thur., June 21, 7 p.m.
Ocean's Thirteen (2007) George Clooney, Brad Pitt. Danny Ocean and his gang plot revenge against a casino owner who wronged one of their own. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 2 mins. TNT Sat., June 23, 5:30 p.m. TNT Thur., June 21, 5 p.m.
Ocean's Twelve (2004) George Clooney, Brad Pitt. To pay back casino boss Terry Benedict, Danny Ocean and his team of criminals plan an elaborate heist in Europe. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 5 mins. TNT Sat., June 23, 2:30 p.m.
Office Christmas Party (2016) Jason Bateman, Olivia Munn. Hoping to close a sale and save their jobs, two co-workers must rally their colleagues to throw an epic Christmas party. (R) 1 hr. 45 mins. Showtime Fri., June 22, 7 p.m.
An Officer and a Gentleman (1982) Richard Gere, Debra Winger. A hardened loner shapes up for a military drill instructor and a factory girl from town. (R) 2 hrs. 5 mins. OVA Sun., June 17, 9:30 a.m. OVA Thur., June 21, 4 p.m. OVA Wed., June 20, 8 p.m.
Old Dogs (2009) John Travolta, Robin Williams. While preparing for an important business deal, two clueless bachelors become the unexpected caretakers of twin children. (PG) 1 hr. 28 mins. FXX Mon., June 18, 7 a.m. FXX Sun., June 17, 9 a.m.
Olympus Has Fallen (2013) Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart. America's national security team must rely on a disgraced former guard to save the president after terrorists seize control of the White House, taking the chief of state hostage. (R) 2 hrs. TNT Fri., June 22, 10 p.m.
Only the Brave (2017) Josh Brolin, Miles Teller. The Granite Mountain Hotshots become one of the most elite firefighting teams in the country. Watching over lives, homes and everything people hold dear, they forge a unique brotherhood that comes into focus with one fateful fire in Yarnell, Ariz. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 14 mins. Starz Wed., June 20, 2 a.m. Starz Wed., June 20, 8 p.m.
Open Water 2: Adrift (2006) Susan May Pratt, Richard Speight Jr. Six long-time friends try to stay afloat in the ocean after they forget to lower the ladder from a luxury yacht. (R) 1 hr. 35 mins. Syfy Tues., June 19, 1:30 a.m.
Operation Dumbo Drop (1995) Danny Glover, Ray Liotta. Two U.S. Army captains wheel and deal to replace a Vietnam village's prized elephant after it dies. (PG) 1 hr. 47 mins. HBO Fri., June 22, 7 a.m.
The Other Guys (2010) Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg. Two deskbound detectives get more than they bargain for when they take on a seemingly minor case that may turn out to be New York's biggest crime. (PG-13) 1 hr. 47 mins. TBS Mon., June 18, 2 a.m.
The Other Woman (2014) Cameron Diaz, Leslie Mann. A wife and two mistresses join forces to take revenge on the suave cad who betrayed all of them. (PG-13) 1 hr. 49 mins. FXX Sat., June 23, 4 p.m.
The Outsiders (1983) Matt Dillon, C. Thomas Howell. In 1960s Oklahoma a sensitive youth gets in over his head when his best friend kills a member of a rival gang. (PG) 1 hr. 31 mins. Cinemax Sun., June 17, 6:30 a.m.
Overboard (1987) Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell. A yachtsman's wife falls overboard, forgets who she is and becomes an Oregon carpenter's mate. (PG) 1 hr. 52 mins. OVA Mon., June 18, 10 p.m. OVA Thur., June 21, 6 p.m. POP Mon., June 18, 10:30 p.m. POP Tues., June 19, 8 p.m. REELZ Sat., June 23, 5 p.m. REELZ Sat., June 23, 7:30 p.m.
Ozark Sharks (2016) Laura Cayouette, Allisyn Ashley Arm. A survivalist helps a family survive when freshwater sharks attack. (NR) 1 hr. 28 mins. Syfy Mon., June 18, 8:30 a.m. ------------ P Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
Pacific Rim (2013) Charlie Hunnam, Diego Klattenhoff. A washed-up ex-pilot and an untested trainee must drive an old, obsolete robot in a last-ditch effort to repel a lethal force of monstrous invaders. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 11 mins. FXX Tues., June 19, 2:30 p.m. FXX Wed., June 20, 1 p.m.
The Pact (2012) Caity Lotz, Casper Van Dien. Disturbing visions and her sister's disappearance lead a woman to call a cop and a psychic to her childhood home. (R) 1 hr. 29 mins. TMC Thur., June 21, 3 a.m.
Painted Woman (2017) Stef Dawson, Matt Dallas. A troubled woman finds escape with two very different men. (NR) 1 hr. 49 mins. Starz Wed., June 20, 4:30 a.m.
Pal Joey (1957) Rita Hayworth, Frank Sinatra. A singer flirts with a chorus girl from Albuquerque after a San Francisco socialite buys him a nightclub. (NR) 1 hr. 51 mins. TCM Thur., June 21, 12:30 p.m.
Palm Swings (2017) Sugar Lyn Beard, Tia Carrere. After moving to Palm Springs, a young married couple are surprised to learn that neighbors are swingers. (NR) 1 hr. 35 mins. TMC Fri., June 22, 2 a.m.
Paranormal Activity (2007) Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat. A young couple move into their first new home but are disturbed by what appears to be a supernatural presence that is most active at night. (R) 1 hr. 26 mins. EPIX Wed., June 20, 9:30 p.m.
Parental Guidance (2012) Billy Crystal, Bette Midler. Modern problems collide with old-school methods when a man and his eager-to-please wife baby-sit for their three grandchildren. (PG) 1 hr. 44 mins. FXX Fri., June 22, 11:30 a.m. FXX Sat., June 23, 8 a.m.
The Parent Trap (1998) Lindsay Lohan, Dennis Quaid. An 11-year-old meets her California twin, and they plot to reunite their divorced parents. (PG) 2 hrs. 7 mins. Hallmark Sat., June 23, 12 p.m.
Parker (2013) Jason Statham, Jennifer Lopez. After his crew double-crosses him and leaves him for dead, a professional thief takes on an unlikely partner in a plan to hijack the crew's next big score. (R) 1 hr. 58 mins. USA Sun., June 17, 9 a.m.
Passenger 57 (1992) Wesley Snipes, Bruce Payne. An airline-security expert tries to bring down a skyjacker who, with his gang, has seized a jet. (R) 1 hr. 23 mins. Cinemax Fri., June 22, 4 a.m.
Passengers (2016) Jennifer Lawrence, Chris Pratt. Awakened from their hibernation pods 90 years early, two space travelers enjoy the pleasures of a budding romance until they discover that their ship is in imminent danger. (PG-13) 1 hr. 51 mins. Starz Fri., June 22, 7 a.m. Starz Fri., June 22, 4 p.m.
The Patriot (2000) Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger. A pacifist farmer of South Carolina reluctantly joins the Revolutionary War and fights alongside his son. (R) 2 hrs. 38 mins. Encore Sun., June 17, 9 p.m. Encore Sun., June 24, 2:30 a.m.
Patti Cake$ (2017) Danielle Macdonald, Bridget Everett. Patricia, aka Patti Cake$, hopes to achieve stardom as a rapper. With help from her best friend, a musician and her loving grandmother, Patti leads the charge against an army of haters, unpaid bills and the broken dreams that are holding her back. (R) 1 hr. 48 mins. HBO Sat., June 23, 1 a.m.
Paul Blart: Mall Cop (2009) Kevin James, Jayma Mays. When crooks shut down a suburban New Jersey shopping mall, a security officer must find his inner policeman to save the day. (PG) 1 hr. 31 mins. Nickelodeon Wed., June 20, 8 p.m.
Paul (2011) Simon Pegg, Nick Frost. On a pilgrimage to America's UFO heartland, two British sci-fi geeks meet an extraterrestrial and hatch a plan to help him return to his spaceship. (R) 1 hr. 44 mins. Syfy Mon., June 18, 4:30 p.m. Syfy Tues., June 19, 2 p.m.
Pendragon: Sword of His Father (2008) Aaron Burns, Marilyn Burns. In the year A.D. 411, Artos, a former slave, joins the British army to battle invading Saxons. (NR) 1 hr. 50 mins. KTBN Sat., June 23, 9:30 p.m.
Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (2013) Logan Lerman, Brandon T. Jackson. To find the magic Golden Fleece and save Camp Half-Blood, demigod Percy and his friends undertake a dangerous odyssey into the area known to humans as the Bermuda Triangle. (PG) 1 hr. 46 mins. TBS Sat., June 23, 3 a.m.
The Perfect Bride: Wedding Bells (2018) Pascale Hutton, Kavan Smith. After their wedding venue reserves the wrong date, Nick and Molly have six weeks to plan the wedding of their dreams. Things get even more complicated when Steven, who once left Molly at the altar, comes back into her life with a business offer. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Hallmark Sun., June 17, 3 p.m.
A Perfect Getaway (2009) Steve Zahn, Timothy Olyphant. Newlyweds find terror in paradise when they encounter other hikers who claim that some tourists were found brutally murdered. (R) 1 hr. 37 mins. Cinemax Tues., June 19, 12 p.m. Cinemax Sat., June 23, 2 a.m.
Perfect Match (2015) Danica McKellar, Paul Greene. Forced to work together, two wedding planners learn that opposites can produce the most unexpected results. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Hallmark Mon., June 18, 2 p.m.
The Perfect Storm (2000) George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg. At sea in October 1991, the crewmen of the Andrea Gail encounter a storm with hurricane-strength winds and 100-foot waves. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 9 mins. AMC Fri., June 22, 10:30 p.m. AMC Sat., June 23, 8 a.m.
A Perfect World (1993) Kevin Costner, Clint Eastwood. A Texas Ranger hunts an escaped convict who takes a 7-year-old boy hostage in 1963. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 17 mins. HBO Thur., June 21, 1:30 p.m.
Perrier's Bounty (2009) Cillian Murphy, Brendan Gleeson. A petty crook, his ailing father and a pretty neighbor go on the run from an Irish mobster's goons. (R) 1 hr. 28 mins. TMC Mon., June 18, 3 a.m.
Personal Shopper (2016) Kristen Stewart, Lars Eidinger. A young American in Paris works as a personal shopper for a celebrity. She seems to have the ability to communicate with spirits, like her recently deceased twin brother. Soon, she starts to receive ambiguous messages from an unknown source. (R) 1 hr. 45 mins. TMC Thur., June 21, 6 p.m.
Pet Sematary Two (1992) Edward Furlong, Anthony Edwards. A teen and his buddy take a shot-dead dog to a sacred burial ground where it comes back to life, riled. (R) 1 hr. 40 mins. Sundance Thur., June 21, 1 p.m.
Pet Sematary (1989) Dale Midkiff, Fred Gwynne. A family's life in small-town Maine is shattered by the evil unleashed from an ancient American Indian burial ground. (R) 1 hr. 39 mins. Sundance Thur., June 21, 10:30 a.m.
The Philadelphia Story (1940) Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn. A snooty socialite fights with her ex-husband and flirts with a reporter. (NR) 1 hr. 52 mins. TCM Wed., June 20, 5 p.m.
The Pink Panther (2006) Steve Martin, Kevin Kline. A bumbling French inspector investigates the murder of a famous soccer coach and the theft of his priceless pink diamond. (PG) 1 hr. 33 mins. Cinemax Tues., June 19, 6 p.m.
Pirate Party on Catalina Isle (1935) Charles ``Buddy'' Rogers. Hollywood stars put on a pirate-themed variety show. (NR) 19 mins. TCM Sat., June 23, 8:30 a.m.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom. Capt. Jack Sparrow must find a way to avoid the clutches of ghostly pirate Davy Jones and his crew or be damned for all eternity. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 31 mins. TMC Sun., June 17, 12 p.m. TMC Sun., June 17, 8 p.m. TMC Fri., June 22, 5 p.m.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush. A swashbuckler must rescue a governor's daughter from a pirate and his mates, who turn into skeletons by moonlight. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 23 mins. AMC Fri., June 22, 8 p.m. AMC Sat., June 23, 11 a.m.
The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie (2008) Voices of Mike Nawrocki, Phil Vischer. Animated. Three vegetable friends, employed at a pirate-theme restaurant, find they have been tossed back to the 17th-century to rescue a royal family from a tyrant. (G) 1 hr. 31 mins. HBO Sat., June 23, 5:30 a.m.
Pitch Perfect 2 (2015) Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson. When a scandal threatens to derail the Barden Bellas, the women must get their act together and redeem themselves at the world championships in Copenhagen, Denmark. (PG-13) 1 hr. 55 mins. FX Thur., June 21, 8 p.m. FX Thur., June 21, 10:30 p.m.
Pitch Perfect (2012) Anna Kendrick, Skylar Astin. When a new student joins her college's female a cappella group, she takes the women out of their comfort zone of traditional pieces and introduces them to innovative arrangements. (PG-13) 1 hr. 52 mins. MTV Sun., June 17, 11 a.m. MTV Sun., June 17, 10 p.m. MTV Mon., June 18, 1:30 p.m.
Pitfall (1948) Dick Powell, Lizabeth Scott. An insurance man's affair with a blonde leads to guilt, murder and a confession to his wife. (NR) 1 hr. 24 mins. TCM Sun., June 17, 7 a.m.
Pixels (2015) Adam Sandler, Kevin James. Live action/animated. A home-theater installer leads a team of old-school arcade champs and a military specialist in a battle against aliens who base their attacks on 1980s-era video games. (PG-13) 1 hr. 46 mins. FX Thur., June 21, 6 p.m. FX Fri., June 22, 8:30 a.m.
Platoon (1986) Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe. Two sergeants and a private join others lost in war along the 1967 Cambodian border. (R) 2 hrs. Starz Fri., June 22, 5 a.m. Starz Fri., June 22, 6:30 p.m.
Pocket Listing (2015) Rob Lowe, Burt Reynolds. When a power player and his sultry wife hire a disgraced property broker to discreetly market and sell their Malibu villa, double crosses, adultery, murder and revenge ensue. (R) 1 hr. 32 mins. EPIX Tues., June 19, 3:30 a.m.
Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986) JoBeth Williams, Craig T. Nelson. An American Indian helps a broke and homeless family, once again prey to a poltergeist. (PG-13) 1 hr. 32 mins. Encore Tues., June 19, 10:30 p.m.
Pork Pie (2017) Dean O'Gorman, James Rolleston. Accidental outlaws travel New Zealand in a yellow mini, protesting conformity and chasing lost love, with the cops and the media hot on their tail. (NR) 1 hr. 45 mins. Showtime Mon., June 18, 2 p.m.
The Poseidon Adventure (1972) Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine. A clergyman leads survivors of a capsized luxury liner through the ship's innards to its highest point. (PG) 1 hr. 57 mins. IFC Mon., June 18, 5:30 a.m. IFC Mon., June 18, 11 a.m.
Post Grad (2009) Alexis Bledel, Zach Gilford. An optimistic graduate gets a rude awakening when she fails to find a job and must move back in with her eccentric family. (PG-13) 1 hr. 29 mins. HBO Thur., June 21, 10:30 a.m.
Practical Magic (1998) Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman. Raised by their aunts, two sisters use different means to avoid a family legacy of witchcraft. (PG-13) 1 hr. 45 mins. Cinemax Wed., June 20, 8:30 a.m.
The Preacher's Wife (1996) Denzel Washington, Whitney Houston. A handsome angel saves a New York Baptist and his wife from spiritual doubt and marital woe. (PG) 2 hrs. 4 mins. TMC Sat., June 23, 9 a.m. TMC Wed., June 20, 9 p.m.
Precious Cargo (2016) Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Bruce Willis. To get back in the good graces of her murderous boss, a seductive thief recruits an ex-lover to steal rare and valuable gems. (R) 1 hr. 35 mins. EPIX Mon., June 18, 4:30 a.m.
Precious (2009) Gabourey Sidibe, Mo'Nique. Pregnant and abused, a Harlem teen enrolls in an alternative school in an attempt to bring value to her life. (R) 1 hr. 49 mins. EPIX Fri., June 22, 5:30 a.m.
Predators (2010) Adrien Brody, Topher Grace. On an alien planet, a mercenary and his ragtag band of fighters struggle to survive against an onslaught of fearsome warriors who hunt them for sport. (R) 1 hr. 47 mins. Sundance Mon., June 18, 8 p.m. Sundance Tues., June 19, 1:30 p.m.
Prescription for Danger (2018) Joanne Kelly, Shaun Benson. A highly successful and driven businesswoman is blindsided by a crippling illness. Enter Dr. Mark Ryan, a corrupt doctor who sees her illness as a means to fuel his own ambitions. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Lifetime Sat., June 23, 10 p.m. Lifetime Sun., June 24, 2 a.m.
Pretty in Pink (1986) Molly Ringwald, Jon Cryer. A rich teen asks an unpopular student to the senior prom, creating problems among their separate circles of friends. (PG-13) 1 hr. 36 mins. IFC Sat., June 23, 8 p.m. IFC Sun., June 24, 12 a.m. Sundance Wed., June 20, 10:30 a.m.
Pretty Woman (1990) Richard Gere, Julia Roberts. A corporate raider pays a gorgeous hooker to be his escort for a business week in Beverly Hills. (R) 1 hr. 54 mins. TNT Mon., June 18, 5 p.m.
Pride (2007) Terrence Howard, Bernie Mac. In the 1970s an aficionado and a janitor renovate an abandoned pool and establish a swim team in one of Philadelphia's roughest neighborhoods. (PG) 1 hr. 44 mins. Showtime Tues., June 19, 11:30 a.m.
Priest (2011) Paul Bettany, Karl Urban. A warrior priest from a dystopian wasteland sets aside his sacred vows and embarks on a quest to save his niece from a nest of vampires. (PG-13) 1 hr. 27 mins. Syfy Sat., June 23, 6 p.m.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010) Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton. A prince and princess confront dark forces as they attempt to safeguard an ancient dagger that can reverse time and allow its possessor to rule the world. (PG-13) 1 hr. 56 mins. Syfy Wed., June 20, 6:30 p.m. Syfy Thur., June 21, 4 p.m.
The Princess Bride (1987) Cary Elwes, Robin Wright. A storybook stableboy turns pirate and rescues his beloved, who is about to marry a dreadful prince. (PG) 1 hr. 38 mins. BBC America Tues., June 19, 8 p.m. BBC America Tues., June 19, 9:30 p.m.
The Promise (2016) Oscar Isaac, Charlotte Le Bon. An Armenian medical student and an American photojournalist compete for the love of the same woman as the Ottoman Empire crumbles into war-torn chaos. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 14 mins. Showtime Mon., June 18, 4:30 a.m. Showtime Wed., June 20, 10:30 a.m.
Psycho Ex-Girlfriend (2018) Elisabeth Harnois, Morgan Kelly. Kara and Tyler are planning on getting married when Tyler's ex-girlfriend returns from rehab, determined to get her life back - starting with Tyler. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Lifetime Sat., June 23, 6 p.m.
Psycho II (1983) Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles. Out of the asylum after 22 years, murderer Norman Bates comes home and again hears Mother. (R) 1 hr. 53 mins. Cinemax Tues., June 19, 4 a.m.
Psycho (1998) Vince Vaughn, Anne Heche. A woman steals cash at work, hits the road and stays at a desolate motel run by mad, mother-fixated Norman Bates. (R) 1 hr. 49 mins. Cinemax Sat., June 23, 11 a.m.
Pulp Fiction (1994) John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson. Two hit men, a boxer, a crime boss and others meet their fates over the course of two days. (R) 2 hrs. 33 mins. LOGO Wed., June 20, 12:30 a.m.
The Punisher (2004) Thomas Jane, John Travolta. An FBI agent becomes a gun-toting vigilante after a crooked businessman orders hit men to murder his family. (R) 2 hrs. 4 mins. Showtime Tues., June 19, 6:30 p.m.
Push (2009) Chris Evans, Dakota Fanning. A 13-year-old clairvoyant and the son of a murdered assassin join forces against a covert government agency that dabbles in psychic drugs and warfare. (PG-13) 1 hr. 51 mins. Showtime Mon., June 18, 11:30 a.m. Showtime Sat., June 23, 11 a.m. ------------ Q Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
Queen of the Desert (2015) Nicole Kidman, James Franco. Gertrude Bell's life as an explorer, cartographer, and archaeologist for the British Empire. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 8 mins. TMC Fri., June 22, 10 p.m. TMC Mon., June 18, 8 p.m. ------------ R Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
Race to Witch Mountain (2009) Dwayne Johnson, AnnaSophia Robb. A Las Vegas taxi driver unexpectedly becomes the guardian of two runaways who possess paranormal powers. (PG) 1 hr. 39 mins. Starz Sat., June 23, 10 a.m. Starz Sat., June 23, 6 p.m.
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) Harrison Ford, Karen Allen. Globe-trotting archaeologist Indiana Jones races the Nazis for possession of a legendary religious artifact. (PG) 1 hr. 55 mins. PARMOUNT Tues., June 19, 9 p.m. PARMOUNT Wed., June 20, 3 p.m.
Rain Man (1988) Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise. A wheeler-dealer meets his brother, an institutionalized autistic-savant, heir to $3 million. (R) 2 hrs. 13 mins. KCOP Sun., June 17, 12:30 p.m. OVA Sun., June 17, 12 p.m. OVA Tues., June 19, 7 p.m. OVA Wed., June 20, 4 p.m.
Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) Sylvester Stallone, Richard Crenna. A former Green Beret goes on a reconnaissance mission to spring MIAs from a Viet Cong prison. (R) 1 hr. 35 mins. Sundance Mon., June 18, 6 p.m. Sundance Sun., June 17, 9 p.m.
Rambo: First Blood (1982) Sylvester Stallone, Richard Crenna. Green Beret veteran Rambo takes on a Pacific Northwest sheriff and the National Guard. (R) 1 hr. 35 mins. Sundance Sun., June 17, 7 p.m.
Rambo III (1988) Sylvester Stallone, Richard Crenna. Loner Rambo leaves a Buddhist monastery to free his Green Beret mentor from Soviets in Afghanistan. (R) 1 hr. 41 mins. Sundance Mon., June 18, 1:30 p.m. Sundance Sun., June 17, 11 p.m.
Ratatouille (2007) Voices of Patton Oswalt, Ian Holm. Animated. A Parisian rat who enjoys fine food lives beneath a famous restaurant and longs to be a great chef. (G) 1 hr. 51 mins. Freeform Fri., June 22, 10:30 a.m. Freeform Sun., June 17, 1:30 p.m. Freeform Thur., June 21, 5:30 p.m.
Rat Race (2001) Rowan Atkinson, John Cleese. A hotel owner devises a contest where six Las Vegas gamblers frantically search for a bag containing $2 million. (PG-13) 1 hr. 52 mins. Starz Mon., June 18, 4 a.m.
Real Genius (1985) Val Kilmer, Gabe Jarret. Tech-school prodigies learn their laser project is actually a death beam funded by the military. (PG) 1 hr. 46 mins. BBC America Tues., June 19, 11:30 p.m. BBC America Wed., June 20, 2 a.m.
Red Riding Hood (2011) Amanda Seyfried, Gary Oldman. A young woman begins to suspect that the werewolf terrorizing her village is someone she loves. (PG-13) 1 hr. 40 mins. IFC Fri., June 22, 10 a.m. IFC Sat., June 23, 12 a.m. IFC Tues., June 19, 8 p.m. IFC Wed., June 20, 12 a.m.
Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004) Milla Jovovich, Sienna Guillory. Survivors of a deadly virus must fight their way through Raccoon City's legion of undead inhabitants. (R) 1 hr. 33 mins. Syfy Thur., June 21, 2 p.m. Syfy Wed., June 20, 10 p.m.
Resident Evil: Extinction (2007) Milla Jovovich, Oded Fehr. Genetically altered by Umbrella Corp., Alice and her cohorts try to eradicate an undead virus before it infects everyone on Earth. (R) 1 hr. 34 mins. Syfy Fri., June 22, 1 a.m. Syfy Fri., June 22, 1 p.m.
Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise (1987) Robert Carradine, Curtis Armstrong. Skolnick, Poindexter and Booger attend a big fraternity convention in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (PG-13) 1 hr. 28 mins. Encore Sat., June 23, 5:30 a.m.
Revenge of the Nerds (1984) Robert Carradine, Anthony Edwards. College freshmen Skolnick and Gilbert form their own fraternity for computer-whiz misfits. (R) 1 hr. 30 mins. Encore Tues., June 19, 12 p.m.
Ride Along (2014) Ice Cube, Kevin Hart. A veteran cop and his future brother-in-law, a fast-talking trainee, tangle with Atlanta's most-dangerous criminal. (PG-13) 1 hr. 39 mins. FX Tues., June 19, 10:30 p.m. FX Wed., June 20, 2:30 p.m.
Rings (2017) Matilda Lutz, Alex Roe. A young woman makes a horrifying discovery after her boyfriend investigates a story about a mysterious video that kills people seven days after they watch it. (PG-13) 1 hr. 37 mins. EPIX Wed., June 20, 8 p.m.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) James Franco, Freida Pinto. A scientist's quest to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease unintentionally results in a highly intelligent chimpanzee, which may signal the end of man's dominion over Earth. (PG-13) 1 hr. 45 mins. FX Sat., June 23, 8 a.m.
Road House (1989) Patrick Swayze, Kelly Lynch. Hired to tame a rowdy Missouri bar, a Ph.D. bouncer romances a doctor and tames the whole town. (R) 1 hr. 52 mins. Encore Fri., June 22, 11:30 a.m. Encore Thur., June 21, 4 p.m.
Road to Bali (1952) Bing Crosby, Bob Hope. Two vaudeville guys turn deep-sea divers and save a treasure belonging to a Polynesian princess. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. TCM Thur., June 21, 2:30 a.m.
Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993) Cary Elwes, Richard Lewis. The Sherwood Forest archer leads his melting pot of outlaws against Prince John and the Sheriff of Rottingham. (PG-13) 1 hr. 42 mins. CMT Mon., June 18, 12 a.m. CMT Sun., June 17, 10 p.m.
Robin Hood (2010) Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett. In 13th-century England, a skilled archer and his men confront a despot in a local village and set out to prevent their homeland from erupting in civil war. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 19 mins. Syfy Wed., June 20, 1 p.m. Syfy Thur., June 21, 12 a.m.
RoboCop (1987) Peter Weller, Nancy Allen. Scientists use the mangled remains of a dead police officer to create the ultimate crime-fighter | an indestructible cyborg. (R) 1 hr. 42 mins. Showtime Fri., June 22, 5 p.m. TMC Sat., June 23, 7 p.m.
Rock Around the Clock (1956) Bill Haley & the Comets, Alan Freed. An unknown rock 'n' roll band becomes famous. (NR) 1 hr. 17 mins. TCM Fri., June 22, 1:30 a.m.
Rock, Rock, Rock! (1956) Alan Freed, Tuesday Weld. A teenager wants to wear a strapless gown to the prom. (NR) 1 hr. 25 mins. TCM Mon., June 18, 2:30 a.m.
Rogue (2007) Radha Mitchell, Michael Vartan. A cynical American travel writer is among the stranded riverboat passengers who become fodder for a monstrous crocodile. (R) 1 hr. 32 mins. IFC Tues., June 19, 3:30 a.m.
Roll Bounce (2005) Bow Wow, Chi McBride. The closure of their favorite rink forces a roller-skater and his friends to gather at an uptown establishment. (PG-13) 1 hr. 47 mins. VH1 Sun., June 17, 11 a.m.
Rollerball (2002) Chris Klein, Jean Reno. A businessman wants to see more violence in a dangerous sport where athletes already risk their lives. (PG-13) 1 hr. 38 mins. Starz Sat., June 23, 8 a.m.
Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997) Mira Sorvino, Lisa Kudrow. Two pinheads try to impress former classmates with far-fetched success stories. (R) 1 hr. 31 mins. LOGO Tues., June 19, 1:30 a.m.
Royal Matchmaker (2018) Bethany Joy Lenz, Will Kemp. A struggling matchmaker is hired by a king to find his son a suitable wife in time for a national celebration. As the clock ticks toward the deadline, the matchmaker finds him the perfect wife | only to realize that she's fallen in love with him. (NR) Hallmark Fri., June 22, 6 p.m.
Royal Wedding (1951) Fred Astaire, Jane Powell. A brother and sister take their act to 1947 London. Includes Astaire's famous dance on the ceiling. (NR) 1 hr. 32 mins. TCM Tues., June 19, 7 a.m.
Rush Hour 2 (2001) Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker. Two detectives battle a Hong Kong gangster and his henchmen after a bombing at the U.S. Embassy. (PG-13) 1 hr. 30 mins. Encore Mon., June 18, 10:30 a.m. ------------ S Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
Safe Haven (2013) Josh Duhamel, Julianne Hough. Dark secrets intrude on the blossoming romance between a widowed merchant and a new arrival in a small North Carolina town. (PG-13) 1 hr. 55 mins. Bravo Sat., June 23, 7:30 a.m. Bravo Sun., June 24, 12:30 a.m.
Salt (2010) Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber. After a defector accuses her of spying for the Russians, a CIA officer goes on the run and tries to come up with a way to establish her innocence. (PG-13) 1 hr. 40 mins. IFC Sun., June 17, 6 a.m. IFC Thur., June 21, 8 p.m. IFC Fri., June 22, 12:30 a.m. IFC Fri., June 22, 7:30 a.m.
Sandokan the Great (1965) Steve Reeves, Genevive Grad. A man leads rebellion against British troops that are occupying his East Indian village in the late 1800's. (NR) 1 hr. 45 mins. TCM Fri., June 22, 11 a.m.
Santiago (1956) Alan Ladd, Rossana Podesta. Rival gunrunners run a Spanish blockade with a Cuban rebel taking arms to her people. (NR) 1 hr. 33 mins. TCM Fri., June 22, 9:30 a.m.
Saving Private Ryan (1998) Tom Hanks, Edward Burns. A World War II captain and his squad risk all to locate and send home a soldier whose three brothers died in combat. (R) 2 hrs. 49 mins. Starz Sun., June 24, 1:30 a.m.
Saw III (2006) Tobin Bell, Shawnee Smith. A kidnapped doctor must keep dying Jigsaw alive while a fellow victim completes his own maniacal test. (R) 1 hr. 47 mins. Syfy Mon., June 18, 2:30 p.m.
Saw II (2005) Donnie Wahlberg, Tobin Bell. A detective races against time to save his son from a sadistic madman holding a group of people captive. (R) 1 hr. 33 mins. Syfy Sat., June 23, 2 p.m. Syfy Sun., June 24, 1:30 a.m.
Saw (2004) Cary Elwes, Danny Glover. A serial murderer will slaughter a captive doctor's wife and daughter unless the man kills a fellow prisoner. (R) 1 hr. 43 mins. Syfy Sat., June 23, 12 p.m.
Scream 3 (2000) David Arquette, Neve Campbell. Murders draw a young woman, a reporter and an ex-policeman to the set of a movie inspired by horrific events that they survived. (R) 1 hr. 56 mins. IFC Mon., June 18, 8:30 a.m. IFC Mon., June 18, 1 p.m.
Scrooged (1988) Bill Murray, Karen Allen. A ruthless TV-network chief meets the ghosts of Christmases past, present and yet to come. (PG-13) 1 hr. 41 mins. Starz Mon., June 18, 7 a.m.
Secrets (1933) Mary Pickford, Leslie Howard. A couple overcomes the hardships of moving West, only to find their marriage challenged by the husband's past when he moves into politics. (NR) 1 hr. 25 mins. TCM Mon., June 18, 6 p.m.
The Sense of an Ending (2017) Jim Broadbent, Charlotte Rampling. A business owner reunites with his first love after a letter and a diary force him to confront the past. (PG-13) 1 hr. 48 mins. TMC Fri., June 22, 3 p.m. TMC Tues., June 19, 8 p.m.
Serpico (1973) Al Pacino, John Randolph. Based on the true story of Frank Serpico, who sacrificed his career to expose widespread corruption in the NYPD. (R) 2 hrs. 9 mins. Encore Fri., June 22, 1 a.m.
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) Howard Keel, Jane Powell. When an Oregon trapper decides to marry, his six rowdy brothers aim to follow suit, though not one has a sweetheart yet. (G) 1 hr. 43 mins. TCM Thur., June 21, 5 p.m.
17 Again (2009) Zac Efron, Leslie Mann. A 37-year-old gets the chance to correct the mistakes of his past when he is miraculously transformed into a teenager. (PG-13) 1 hr. 42 mins. Cinemax Mon., June 18, 6:30 a.m.
Seventh Son (2014) Jeff Bridges, Julianne Moore. A supernatural champion has little time to train a new apprentice for a battle against a malevolent and vengeful witch. (PG-13) 1 hr. 42 mins. Syfy Mon., June 18, 11:30 p.m. Syfy Tues., June 19, 4 p.m.
Shadows of the Dead (2016) Kennedy Tucker, Thomas Miguel Ruff. A creature that lives in the shadows single-mindedly hunts down a group of teenagers. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Syfy Wed., June 20, 11 a.m.
Shallow Hal (2001) Gwyneth Paltrow, Jack Black. A self-help guru makes a superficial man see only the inner beauty of a very fat woman. (PG-13) 1 hr. 54 mins. Starz Thur., June 21, 12 p.m. Starz Thur., June 21, 4:30 a.m.
Shanghai Noon (2000) Jackie Chan, Owen Wilson. A Chinese Imperial Guardsman teams up with a robber to rescue a princess, taken to the Old West by the guard's former captain. (PG-13) 1 hr. 50 mins. Showtime Fri., June 22, 6 a.m.
The Shawshank Redemption (1994) Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman. Two life sentences for a 1947 double murder land an innocent man in a corrupt Maine penitentiary. (R) 2 hrs. 22 mins. AMC Mon., June 18, 5:30 p.m. AMC Tues., June 19, 2 p.m.
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law. The murder of Austria's crown prince leads Holmes, Watson and a Gypsy to a showdown with an evil genius named Moriarty. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 9 mins. WGN A Sat., June 23, 9 a.m.
Shine (1996) Geoffrey Rush, Justin Braine. A domineering father, then a supportive wife profoundly shape Australian prodigy David Helfgott's life and musical career. (PG-13) 1 hr. 45 mins. Cinemax Fri., June 22, 5:30 a.m.
Show Boat (1951) Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel. The captain's daughter marries a gambler who turns performer on a Mississippi riverboat. (NR) 1 hr. 47 mins. TCM Wed., June 20, 1:30 a.m.
Silence (2016) Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver. Two 17th-century Portuguese missionaries face the ultimate test of faith when they travel to Japan to find their missing mentor. (R) 2 hrs. 41 mins. EPIX Mon., June 18, 11 p.m.
Silk Stockings (1957) Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse. A Russian commissar tries to lure back a defector, while an American producer is determined to thwart her every move. (NR) 1 hr. 57 mins. TCM Tues., June 19, 9 a.m.
Silverado (1985) Kevin Kline, Scott Glenn. Old West drifters Jake, Emmett, Mal and Paden shoot it out with a crooked sheriff and clan. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 12 mins. KCOP Sat., June 23, 1:30 p.m.
A Simple Plan (1998) Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton. A Minnesotan, his dimwitted brother and his brother's redneck friend find and decide to keep $4 million. (R) 2 hrs. 1 mins. EPIX Mon., June 18, 11:30 a.m.
Sin City (2005) Jessica Alba, Devon Aoki. Lawmen, prostitutes, a hulking thug and other sordid characters run amok in a crime-ridden metropolis. (R) 2 hrs. 4 mins. IFC Fri., June 22, 3 a.m. IFC Thur., June 21, 7 a.m.
Singin' in the Rain (1952) Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds. A silent-film star loves a chorus girl who dubs his squeaky-voiced co-star in a 1927 Hollywood talkie. (G) 1 hr. 42 mins. TCM Tues., June 19, 5 p.m.
Single White Female 2: The Psycho (2005) Kristen Miller, Allison Lange. A warped woman takes deadly measures to help a new roommate get rid of her problems. (R) 1 hr. 33 mins. Showtime Tues., June 19, 2:30 a.m.
Single White Female (1992) Bridget Fonda, Jennifer Jason Leigh. A software designer shares her Manhattan apartment with a young woman who's dangerous. (R) 1 hr. 47 mins. Showtime Tues., June 19, 1 a.m.
The Sisters (1938) Errol Flynn, Bette Davis. One Montana sister marries a San Francisco sportswriter; another, a rich man; and the third, a banker's son. (NR) 1 hr. 38 mins. TCM Wed., June 20, 11:30 a.m.
68 Kill (2017) Matthew Gray Gubler, AnnaLynne McCord. A hardworking man's inability to say no to a beautiful women gets him in trouble when he agrees to steal $68,000. (R) 1 hr. 33 mins. Showtime Wed., June 20, 11 p.m.
Skyfall (2012) Daniel Craig, Judi Dench. When M's past comes back to haunt her, James Bond must track down and destroy the threat to her and MI6, no matter how personal the cost. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 23 mins. IFC Sun., June 17, 5 p.m.
Sleepless (2017) Jamie Foxx, Michelle Monaghan. An undercover Las Vegas police officer must race against time to save his kidnapped son from a crew of murderous gangsters. (R) 1 hr. 35 mins. TMC Sat., June 23, 3 p.m.
Sleepwalkers (1992) Brian Krause, Madchen Amick. Mother-and-son monsters who survive on the blood of young women move to a sleepy town in Indiana. (R) 1 hr. 30 mins. Showtime Fri., June 22, 10 a.m.
Small Town Girl (1953) Jane Powell, Farley Granger. A judge's daughter keeps an eye on a playboy who gets 30 days in jail for speeding. (NR) 1 hr. 33 mins. TCM Thur., June 21, 4:30 a.m.
Smilin' Through (1932) Norma Shearer, Leslie Howard. A Victorian Englishman's niece and her suitor resemble his long-dead bride and tragic rival. (NR) 1 hr. 37 mins. TCM Mon., June 18, 11 p.m.
Smokey and the Bandit II (1980) Burt Reynolds, Jackie Gleason. Sheriff Buford T. Justice chases a trucker and his girlfriend hauling a pregnant elephant to Dallas. (PG) 1 hr. 41 mins. AMC Thur., June 21, 10:30 a.m.
Smokey and the Bandit (1977) Burt Reynolds, Sally Field. Sheriff Buford T. Justice chases a trucker, his buddy, a runaway bride and 400 cases of beer. (PG) 1 hr. 40 mins. AMC Thur., June 21, 1 p.m.
The Smurfs (2011) Hank Azaria, Neil Patrick Harris. Live action/animated. A magic portal transports the little blue people to Manhattan, where they must find a way back to their village before evil wizard Gargamel can find them. (PG) 1 hr. 42 mins. Freeform Sun., June 17, 9:30 a.m.
Snowden (2016) Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley. Former CIA employee Edward Snowden becomes a fugitive after leaking classified information from the National Security Agency. (R) 2 hrs. 14 mins. Showtime Thur., June 21, 8 a.m.
Solace (2015) Anthony Hopkins, Colin Farrell. A psychic and a federal agent hunt a serial killer. (R) 1 hr. 41 mins. EPIX Fri., June 22, 9 a.m.
A Soldier's Story (1984) Howard E. Rollins Jr., Adolph Caesar. An Army lawyer probes the slaying of a sergeant from an all-black unit in 1944 Louisiana. (PG) 1 hr. 41 mins. OVA Sat., June 23, 10:30 p.m.
Soul Plane (2004) Kevin Hart, Tom Arnold. Passengers and crew enjoy a wild party aboard an airliner flying from Los Angeles to New York. (R) 1 hr. 26 mins. BET Tues., June 19, 8 p.m. BET Wed., June 20, 5 p.m.
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999) Voices of Trey Parker, Matt Stone. Animated. Kyle, Stan and Cartman orchestrate a resistance to an imminent war between Canada and the United States. (R) 1 hr. 20 mins. Encore Thur., June 21, 7:30 a.m.
Spider-Man 3 (2007) Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst. Peter Parker undergoes an ominous transformation when his Spider-Man suit turns black and brings out the dark, vengeful side of his personality. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 13 mins. AMC Mon., June 18, 9:30 a.m.
Spies Like Us (1985) Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd. Two clumsy bureaucrats are trained as spies, then sent to Pakistan to create a diversion. (PG) 1 hr. 49 mins. Cinemax Thur., June 21, 8 a.m.
Split (2016) James McAvoy, Anya Taylor-Joy. A psychotic man who has 23 personalities holds three teenage girls captive in an underground cell. (PG-13) 1 hr. 57 mins. Cinemax Mon., June 18, 4 p.m. Cinemax Thur., June 21, 9:30 p.m.
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water (2015) Voice of Tom Kenny, Voice of Bill Fagerbakke. Live action/animated. Perpetual adversaries SpongeBob and Plankton join forces and come ashore to battle a pirate who has plans for the stolen Krabby Patties recipe. (PG) 1 hr. 32 mins. Nickelodeon Sun., June 17, 6 p.m. Nickelodeon Mon., June 18, 2:30 p.m. Nickelodeon Fri., June 22, 8 p.m. Nickelodeon Sat., June 23, 8 a.m.
The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004) Voices of Tom Kenny, Bill Fagerbakke. Animated. SpongeBob and Patrick head for Shell City to retrieve King Neptune's stolen crown and save the life of Mr. Krabs. (PG) 1 hr. 23 mins. Nickelodeon Tues., June 19, 8 p.m.
Stake Land II (2016) Connor Paolo, Nick Damici. A revitalized Brotherhood sacks New Eden, forcing Martin out into badlands on his own. (NR) 1 hr. 35 mins. Syfy Wed., June 20, 7 a.m.
Stalked by My Neighbor (2015) Kelcie Stranahan, Amy Pietz. A rape victim races against time to learn the identity of a mysterious killer. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Lifetime Sat., June 23, 4 p.m.
Stand by Me (1986) Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix. A boy and his three buddies set out in the summer of 1959 on a hike to find a dead body. (R) 1 hr. 29 mins. Encore Fri., June 22, 6:30 a.m. Encore Mon., June 18, 12 p.m. Encore Mon., June 18, 5 a.m. Encore Sun., June 17, 7 p.m.
A Star Is Born (1937) Janet Gaynor, Fredric March. A matinee idol turns to alcohol in response to his wife's heightened popularity in this Oscar-winning classic. (NR) 1 hr. 51 mins. TCM Sun., June 24, 3 a.m.
A Star Is Born (1954) Judy Garland, James Mason. A Hollywood star drinks away his career, as his singer wife becomes famous. (PG) 2 hrs. 34 mins. TCM Thur., June 21, 6:30 p.m.
Starship Troopers (1997) Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer. Members of Earth's space fleet battle a vicious army of gigantic insects bent on destroying humanity. (R) 2 hrs. 9 mins. LOGO Tues., June 19, 6 p.m.
Starting Out in the Evening (2007) Frank Langella, Lauren Ambrose. A complex but invigorating relationship forms between an aging novelist and a graduate student who wants to write her thesis about him. (PG-13) 1 hr. 50 mins. EPIX Thur., June 21, 8 a.m.
Stealth (2005) Josh Lucas, Jessica Biel. Three naval pilots must stop a fighter jet controlled by artificial intelligence that has run amok. (PG-13) 2 hrs. Showtime Thur., June 21, 12 p.m.
Steel Magnolias (1989) Sally Field, Dolly Parton. Based on the play about six Southern women who become close friends despite their eccentricities and complicated lives. (PG) 1 hr. 58 mins. Showtime Sun., June 17, 6 a.m.
The Stepfather (2009) Dylan Walsh, Sela Ward. A young man becomes increasingly suspicious that his mother's new lover is concealing an evil side. (PG-13) 1 hr. 41 mins. Encore Sun., June 17, 11:30 p.m.
Stepmom (1998) Julia Roberts, Susan Sarandon. A New York fashion photographer contends with her boyfriend's children and ex-wife. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 4 mins. TBS Sat., June 23, 7 a.m. TNT Mon., June 18, 3 p.m.
Still Dreaming (2014) Elderly entertainers living at the Lillian Booth Actors Home outside of Manhattan return to the stage. As the process unfolds, the residents experience the pain and exhilaration of having a meaningful engagement. (NR) 1 hr. 33 mins. KLCS Sun., June 17, 6 p.m.
Strange Days (1995) Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett. A black-marketeer who sells virtual-reality experiences tries to save his ex-flame from a sadistic gangster in 1999 Los Angeles. (R) 2 hrs. 25 mins. Cinemax Thur., June 21, 5 p.m.
Stranger Fruit (2017) On Aug. 9, 2014, in Ferguson, Mo., Officer Darren Wilson kills 18-year-old Michael Brown.Now, Michael Brown's family discusses the events of that day. (NR) 1 hr. 35 mins. Starz Mon., June 18, 9 p.m. Starz Tues., June 19, 4 a.m. Starz Tues., June 19, 1 p.m.
Stranger in the House (2016) Emmanuelle Vaugier, Matthew MacCaull. Jade discovers that her father secretly married his caregiver. When he dies suddenly, Jade suspects foul play and fights to expose the truth. (NR) 1 hr. 28 mins. Lifetime Sat., June 23, 12 p.m.
Stratton (2017) Dominic Cooper, Connie Nielsen. After the death of his American counterpart, an MI6 agent and his team must race against time to stop a madman from unleashing stolen chemical weapons. (R) 1 hr. 35 mins. Cinemax Fri., June 22, 8 p.m. Cinemax Fri., June 22, 11:30 p.m.
Street Kings (2002) Jon Seda, Mario Lopez. An undercover policeman tries to thwart an old friend, now a Los Angeles gang leader. (R) 1 hr. 31 mins. Sundance Sun., June 17, 7:30 a.m.
Stripes (1981) Bill Murray, Harold Ramis. A lazy New York cabby quits his job and convinces his bored buddy they should join the Army. (R) 1 hr. 45 mins. Sundance Sat., June 23, 3:30 p.m. Sundance Tues., June 19, 6 p.m. Sundance Wed., June 20, 1 a.m.
Striptease (1996) Demi Moore, Armand Assante. A stripper seeking custody of her daughter becomes involved with a libidinous congressman. (NR) 1 hr. 57 mins. Cinemax Wed., June 20, 10 p.m. Cinemax Wed., June 20, 9:30 a.m.
Sucker Punch (2011) Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish. Retreating into a fantasy world, a captive young woman finds four allies to join in a fight to escape from the terrible fate that awaits them. (PG-13) 1 hr. 50 mins. IFC Tues., June 19, 7 a.m. IFC Wed., June 20, 2:30 a.m.
Suited (2016) Six clients get measured and fitted for new clothes at Bindle & Keep, a tailoring outfit specializing in making clothing for those outside of the gender binary. (NR) 1 hr. 17 mins. HBO Thur., June 21, 12 p.m.
Summer Rental (1985) John Candy, Richard Crenna. A stressed air-traffic controller takes his family to Florida and makes a fool of himself. (PG) 1 hr. 28 mins. AMC Thur., June 21, 8:30 a.m.
The Sum of All Fears (2002) Ben Affleck, Morgan Freeman. Jack Ryan and the CIA director try to stop terrorists who are planning a nuclear attack. (PG-13) 1 hr. 58 mins. Showtime Wed., June 20, 8 p.m.
Superbad (2007) Jonah Hill, Michael Cera. Separation anxiety poses a problem for two co-dependent high-school seniors who hope to score booze and babes at a party. (R) 1 hr. 53 mins. E! Fri., June 22, 9:30 p.m.
Superstar (1999) Molly Shannon, Will Ferrell. An energetic schoolgirl hopes to win a talent contest where a prize as a movie extra might lead to her first kiss. (PG-13) 1 hr. 22 mins. EPIX Fri., June 22, 1 a.m. EPIX Thur., June 21, 2:30 p.m.
S.W.A.T. Firefight (2011) Gabriel Macht, Robert Patrick. A relentless assassin tries to eliminate members of a Detroit SWAT unit. (R) 1 hr. 28 mins. Showtime Thur., June 21, 2:30 p.m.
S.W.A.T. (2003) Samuel L. Jackson, Colin Farrell. A Los Angeles Special Weapons and Tactics team must protect a criminal after he offers $100 million to his prospective rescuers. (PG-13) 1 hr. 56 mins. HBO Sun., June 24, 5:30 a.m.
Sweet Home Alabama (2002) Reese Witherspoon, Josh Lucas. Separated from her Southern husband, an engaged New York fashion designer confronts him about a divorce. (PG-13) 1 hr. 48 mins. Freeform Mon., June 18, 9 p.m. Freeform Tues., June 19, 5 p.m.
Sydney White (2007) Amanda Bynes, Sara Paxton. A college freshman joins forces with seven misfits to take over the student government and promote fair treatment for nerd and noted alike. (PG-13) 1 hr. 48 mins. Freeform Wed., June 20, 11:30 p.m. ------------ T Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
Taken (2008) Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace. A former spy puts his extensive training to the test when he must rescue his kidnapped daughter from sex-slave traffickers. (PG-13) 1 hr. 31 mins. Cinemax Sun., June 17, 6 p.m.
The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009) Denzel Washington, John Travolta. A subway dispatcher calls on his extensive knowledge of the transit system to outwit hijackers who are threatening to kill passengers unless a ransom is paid. (R) 1 hr. 46 mins. Starz Wed., June 20, 11 p.m. Starz Thur., June 21, 8:30 a.m.
Taking Woodstock (2009) Demetri Martin, Imelda Staunton. Elliot Tiber plays a pivotal role in the generation-defining concert by helping to secure Max Yasgur's farm as a venue and offering his parents' motel as a base for organizers. (R) 2 hrs. Cinemax Fri., June 22, 11:30 a.m.
The Tale of Despereaux (2008) Voices of Matthew Broderick, Dustin Hoffman. Animated. In the faraway kingdom of Dor, a misfit mouse must find his inner knight in order to rescue a kidnapped princess. (G) 1 hr. 34 mins. HBO Sat., June 23, 7 a.m.
Tarzan's Peril (1951) Lex Barker, Virginia Huston. The ape man saves a jungle queen's tribe from a rival tribe armed by a gunrunner. (NR) 1 hr. 19 mins. TCM Sat., June 23, 7 a.m.
Teenagers on Trial (1955) Narrated by Bob Hite. A look at some of the social causes of adolescent delinquency, including over-crowded and under-funded schools. (NR) 19 mins. TCM Mon., June 18, 1:30 p.m.
10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) John Goodman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead. A woman discovers the horrifying truth about the outside world while living in an underground shelter with two men. (PG-13) 1 hr. 43 mins. EPIX Sun., June 17, 1 p.m.
10 Things I Hate About You (1999) Heath Ledger, Julia Stiles. A pretty, popular student can't date until her rebellious older sister gets a suitor of her own. (PG-13) 1 hr. 37 mins. Freeform Sat., June 23, 1:30 p.m.
Terminator Genisys (2015) Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Clarke. Kyle Reese goes back to 1984 to save Sarah Connor and emerges in an alternate timeline in which Sarah has been raised as a warrior by a Terminator guardian. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 6 mins. FX Fri., June 22, 1:30 p.m. FX Sat., June 23, 9:30 a.m.
The Terminator (1984) Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton. A cyborg from the future arrives in 20th-century Los Angeles to kill the woman who will give birth to mankind's post-apocalyptic savior. (R) 1 hr. 48 mins. IFC Sun., June 17, 8 a.m.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 (1986) Dennis Hopper, Caroline Williams. A retired Texas Ranger pursues a killer named Leatherface and his family of chainsaw-wielding cannibals. (NR) 1 hr. 40 mins. EPIX Fri., June 22, 7:30 a.m.
Texas Rangers (2001) James Van Der Beek, Dylan McDermott. Young men band together to stop a ruthless bandit from engineering raids on cattle ranchers. (PG-13) 1 hr. 30 mins. Showtime Tues., June 19, 8 a.m.
That Forsyte Woman (1950) Errol Flynn, Greer Garson. Scandal follows when a Forsyte's wife loves her niece's fiance in Victorian England. (NR) 1 hr. 54 mins. TCM Wed., June 20, 3:30 a.m.
That Hamilton Woman (1941) Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier. British naval hero Lord Nelson's affair with another man's wife ends at Trafalgar in 1805. (NR) 2 hrs. 8 mins. TCM Fri., June 22, 7 p.m.
That's My Boy (2012) Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg. A groom's world comes crashing down when his estranged father | who is desperate to reconnect with his son | shows up on the eve of the young man's wedding. (R) 1 hr. 56 mins. FX Sun., June 17, 2:30 p.m. FX Mon., June 18, 9 a.m.
Think Like a Man (2012) Michael Ealy, Jerry Ferrara. When the women in their lives buy a book by Steve Harvey and take its advice to heart, four men conspire to use the book's insider information to turn the tables on the ladies and teach them a lesson. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 2 mins. VH1 Sat., June 23, 7 p.m.
The Thin Man (1934) William Powell, Myrna Loy. Sophisticated Nick and Nora Charles solve a murder mystery with their wire-haired terrier, Asta. (NR) 1 hr. 33 mins. KCET Fri., June 22, 10 p.m.
13 Going on 30 (2004) Jennifer Garner, Mark Ruffalo. An uncool girl magically becomes a successful adult after making a wish at her disastrous birthday party. (PG-13) 1 hr. 37 mins. Freeform Tues., June 19, 9 p.m. Freeform Wed., June 20, 5:30 p.m. FXX Sat., June 23, 10 a.m.
This Is Home: A Refugee Story (2018) Four Syrian families struggle to find their way in America. (NR) 1 hr. 31 mins. EPIX Fri., June 22, 8 p.m. EPIX Sat., June 23, 10 a.m.
This Isn't Funny (2015) Danielle Panabaker, Mimi Rogers. A comedian with an anxiety disorder falls in love with a traveler who cannot settle down. (NR) 1 hr. 26 mins. TMC Mon., June 18, 7 a.m.
300 (2006) Gerard Butler, Lena Headey. Sparta's King Leonidas and his badly outnumbered warriors fight to the death against King Xerxes' massive Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae. (R) 1 hr. 57 mins. PARMOUNT Fri., June 22, 11 p.m.
3:10 to Yuma (2007) Russell Crowe, Christian Bale. A rancher and the captive outlaw in his charge learn to respect each other on a dangerous journey to catch a train. (R) 2 hrs. AMC Wed., June 20, 4 p.m.
Tightrope (1984) Clint Eastwood, Genevive Bujold. A New Orleans police detective finds he has some of the same traits as a serial killer of prostitutes. (R) 1 hr. 54 mins. Cinemax Sun., June 17, 4 p.m.
TMNT (2007) Voices of Chris Evans, Sarah Michelle Gellar. Animated. Though Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo have grown apart since their last adventure, they must join forces again to battle an army of monsters. (PG) 1 hr. 27 mins. HBO Fri., June 22, 5 a.m.
Tokyo Drifter (1966) Tetsuya Watari, Chieko Matsubara. Enemies old and new hunt a Japanese gangster who lives by an outdated code of ethics. Directed by Seijun Suzuki. (NR) 1 hr. 23 mins. TCM Sun., June 17, 11 p.m.
Tombstone (1993) Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer. Doc Holliday joins Wyatt Earp and his brothers for an OK Corral showdown with the Clanton gang. (R) 2 hrs. 14 mins. AMC Wed., June 20, 10 p.m. AMC Wed., June 20, 6:30 p.m.
Tommy Boy (1995) Chris Farley, David Spade. A ne'er-do-well auto-parts heir must stop his father's widow from selling the business. (PG-13) 1 hr. 38 mins. Starz Fri., June 22, 9 a.m. Starz Sat., June 23, 4:30 a.m.
Tommy's Honour (2016) Peter Mullan, Jack Lowden. Tom and Tommy Morris, father and son pioneers of professional golf, relied on skill, business acumen and working-class street smarts to make Tommy one of the world's first sports superstars and found the modern game of golf. (PG) 1 hr. 52 mins. EPIX Wed., June 20, 7 a.m.
Tomorrowland (2015) George Clooney, Hugh Laurie. A scientist and a gifted young woman travel to the mysterious city Tomorrowland to uncover its secrets. (PG) 2 hrs. 9 mins. Syfy Mon., June 18, 9 p.m. Syfy Tues., June 19, 6 p.m.
Tootsie (1982) Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange. The Oscar-winning tale of a temperamental actor who becomes a sensation while posing as a woman on a hit TV soap opera. (PG) 1 hr. 51 mins. Sundance Wed., June 20, 8:30 a.m.
Top Gun (1986) Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis. A hot-shot Navy jet pilot tangles with MiGs and flirts with a civilian astrophysicist. (PG) 1 hr. 49 mins. Encore Sat., June 23, 1 p.m.
Total Recall (1990) Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin. Recurring nightmares of the planet Mars lead a confused earthling into the center of an intergalactic conspiracy. (R) 1 hr. 49 mins. Sundance Mon., June 18, 10:30 p.m. Sundance Sat., June 23, 1 p.m. Sundance Sun., June 24, 2 a.m. Sundance Tues., June 19, 4 p.m.
Touchback (2011) Brian Presley, Kurt Russell. A man seeks counsel from his longtime mentor when he gets a unique opportunity to revisit his youth and the injury that ended his promising football career. (PG-13) 1 hr. 58 mins. TMC Mon., June 18, 4 p.m.
Touched With Fire (2015) Katie Holmes, Luke Kirby. While staying at a psychiatric hospital, two manic-depressive poets begin a romance that continues to blossom after their release. (R) 1 hr. 46 mins. EPIX Tues., June 19, 1:30 a.m. EPIX Tues., June 19, 9 a.m.
Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014) Mark Wahlberg, Stanley Tucci. As humanity picks up the pieces after an epic battle, a shadowy group emerges to gain control of history. Meanwhile, a powerful new menace sets its sights on Earth. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 45 mins. FXX Sun., June 17, 4:30 p.m.
Tron (1982) Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner. Live action/animated. A video-game programmer is trapped in a computerized world where survival rests on his mastery of electronic games. (PG) 1 hr. 36 mins. Showtime Tues., June 19, 10 a.m.
Troop Beverly Hills (1989) Shelley Long, Craig T. Nelson. An idle rich woman's husband challenges her to lead their daughter's troop of campers. (PG) 1 hr. 45 mins. Freeform Sat., June 23, 12 a.m. Freeform Sat., June 23, 9 a.m.
Troy (2004) Brad Pitt, Eric Bana. The fierce warrior Achilles leads Greek forces in the Trojan War, ignited when Paris abducts Helen of Troy. (R) 2 hrs. 42 mins. Sundance Mon., June 18, 1 a.m. Sundance Sun., June 17, 3 p.m.
The Truth About Lies (2017) Fran Kranz, Odette Annable. A desperate, unemployed man who lives with his mother weaves an ever-growing web of lies to impress a beautiful woman. (NR) 1 hr. 34 mins. Showtime Wed., June 20, 4:30 a.m.
28 Days (2000) Sandra Bullock, Viggo Mortensen. When a court order sends a New York journalist to a rehabilitation center for substance abusers, she meets a ballplayer. (PG-13) 1 hr. 43 mins. Encore Thur., June 21, 3 p.m.
25th Hour (2002) Edward Norton, Philip Seymour Hoffman. The day before he begins a prison sentence, a New York drug dealer spends time with his father and friends. (R) 2 hrs. 14 mins. TMC Sat., June 23, 5 p.m. TMC Wed., June 20, 10:30 a.m.
27 Dresses (2008) Katherine Heigl, James Marsden. A perpetual bridesmaid balks upon learning that her next assignment would be standing up for her sister, who will marry the man the bridesmaid secretly loves. (PG-13) 1 hr. 47 mins. E! Sat., June 23, 7 p.m. E! Sat., June 23, 9 p.m.
Twin Betrayal (2018) Jen Lilley, Peter Douglas. A struggling single mother who is in the midst of a fierce custody battle is framed for the murder of her wealthy father by her ambitious identical twin. (NR) 2 hrs. 2 mins. Lifetime Sat., June 23, 2 p.m.
Twins (1988) Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny DeVito. A genetically perfected specimen meets his pint-size, wise-guy long-lost twin. (PG) 1 hr. 52 mins. BBC America Thur., June 21, 10 p.m. BBC America Thur., June 21, 8 p.m.
2012 (2009) John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor. A man tries to lead his family to safety, as the world collapses around them. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 38 mins. Encore Sat., June 23, 7 p.m.
Tyler Perry's Daddy's Little Girls (2007) Gabrielle Union, Idris Elba. An unexpected romance blooms between a struggling mechanic and the attorney who is representing him in a custody battle for his young daughters. (PG-13) 1 hr. 35 mins. KTLA Sun., June 17, 2:30 p.m.
Tyler Perry's The Single Moms Club (2014) Nia Long, Amy Smart. Brought together by their children's potential expulsion from school, diverse single mothers form a support group to help one another overcome life's challenges. (PG-13) 1 hr. 50 mins. Lifetime Tues., June 19, 8 p.m. Lifetime Wed., June 20, 12 a.m. ------------ U Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
U-571 (2000) Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton. American servicemen sneak aboard a disabled German sub to steal an encryption device they hope will help the Allies win the war. (PG-13) 1 hr. 56 mins. HistoryXKABC ABCXKCBS CBSXKNBC NBCXKTTV Fox Sat., June 23, 7 a.m.
The Ugly Truth (2009) Katherine Heigl, Gerard Butler. A chauvinist puts a romantically challenged producer through a series of outrageous tests to prove his theories about relationships. (R) 1 hr. 35 mins. Starz Mon., June 18, 8:30 a.m. Starz Mon., June 18, 4 p.m. Starz Sat., June 23, 6:30 a.m.
Ultraviolet (2006) Milla Jovovich, Cameron Bright. As worldwide civil war looms, a superhuman woman becomes the protector of a boy who is perceived as a threat to humanity. (PG-13) 1 hr. 28 mins. Encore Wed., June 20, 7:30 a.m.
Unbreakable (2000) Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson. The sole survivor of a horrific train crash, questioning his existence, finds counsel in a mysterious stranger. (PG-13) 1 hr. 47 mins. TMC Tues., June 19, 11 a.m.
Uncertain Glory (1944) Errol Flynn, Paul Lukas. Hounded by a police inspector, a condemned criminal turns noble in World War II France. (NR) 1 hr. 42 mins. TCM Wed., June 20, 7:30 a.m.
Uncle Buck (1989) John Candy, Amy Madigan. Chicago parents in a pinch have a bachelor uncle baby-sit their teenage daughter and little ones. (PG) 1 hr. 40 mins. IFC Sat., June 23, 10 p.m. IFC Sat., June 23, 5:30 p.m.
Unfinished Business (2015) Vince Vaughn, Tom Wilkinson. A business trip to Europe goes disastrously awry for a business owner and his associates, who are hoping to close the most important deal of their lives. (R) 1 hr. 30 mins. FXX Sun., June 17, 7 a.m. FXX Mon., June 18, 12 a.m.
Unforgiven (1992) Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman. An old gunslinger, his ex-partner and a quick-draw kid go bounty hunting in a town called Big Whiskey. (R) 2 hrs. 10 mins. AMC Sun., June 17, 11:30 a.m.
Unleashing Mr. Darcy (2016) Ryan Paevey, Cindy Busby. When Elizabeth decides to show her dog in competition, she clashes with the arrogant, complicated judge Donovan Darcy. (NR) 1 hr. 24 mins. Hallmark Sun., June 17, 10 a.m. Hallmark Thur., June 21, 4 p.m.
Untamed Youth (1957) Mamie Van Doren, Lori Nelson. Vagrant sisters work for crooked characters at a rock 'n' roll prison-farm. (NR) 1 hr. 19 mins. TCM Mon., June 18, 2 p.m.
Urge (2015) Justin Chatwin, Ashley Greene. An island getaway turns deadly when a mysterious nightclub owner introduces a group of friends to a drug that can't be taken more than one time. (NR) 1 hr. 25 mins. EPIX Wed., June 20, 9 a.m. ------------ V Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
Vacation (2015) Ed Helms, Christina Applegate. Following in his father's footsteps, Rusty Griswold takes his wife and two sons on a cross-country road trip to America's favorite fun park, Walley World. (R) 1 hr. 39 mins. TBS Sun., June 17, 1 p.m.
Valhalla Rising (2009) Mads Mikkelsen, Gary Lewis. A mute warrior with supernatural strength escapes his captors and sails to an unknown land with a ship full of Vikings. (NR) 1 hr. 40 mins. IFC Wed., June 20, 7 a.m.
Veronica Mars (2014) Kristen Bell, Jason Dohring. On the eve of her law-school graduation, Veronica turns amateur sleuth once again after ex-boyfriend, Logan, becomes a murder suspect. (PG-13) 1 hr. 47 mins. POP Sun., June 17, 10 p.m. POP Mon., June 18, 12:30 a.m. POP Fri., June 22, 9:30 a.m.
View From the Top (2003) Gwyneth Paltrow, Christina Applegate. A woman from a small Nevada town makes friends while training to become a flight attendant. (PG-13) 1 hr. 27 mins. HBO Thur., June 21, 9 a.m. ------------ W Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
Waitress (2007) Keri Russell, Nathan Fillion. A pregnant waitress is caught between her controlling husband and the new town doctor, with whom she is having a steamy affair. (PG-13) 1 hr. 47 mins. HBO Wed., June 20, 9:30 a.m.
Walking Out (2017) Matt Bomer, Josh Wiggins. When a city teen travels to Montana to go hunting with his estranged father, the trip becomes a battle for survival when they encounter a grizzly bear. (PG-13) 1 hr. 35 mins. Showtime Tues., June 19, 3:30 p.m.
Walking Tall (2004) The Rock, Johnny Knoxville. A former Special Forces soldier becomes sheriff and deputizes an old friend to help rid their town of thugs. (PG-13) 1 hr. 26 mins. CMT Wed., June 20, 7 p.m. CMT Wed., June 20, 8:30 p.m.
War Dogs (2016) Jonah Hill, Miles Teller. Two international arms dealers find themselves in over their heads after landing a $300 million contract to supply weapons to the Afghan military. (R) 1 hr. 54 mins. Cinemax Tues., June 19, 12 a.m. Cinemax Sun., June 24, 4 a.m.
War (2007) Jet Li, Jason Statham. A federal agent seeks revenge on an elusive assassin after his partner and family are killed, but the target ignites a war between rival Asian mobsters. (R) 1 hr. 43 mins. A&E Mon., June 18, 10:30 a.m.
The Wasp Woman (1960) Susan Cabot, Fred Eisley. A cosmetics queen is transformed into a murderous monster after she uses an insect chemical to preserve her beauty. (NR) 1 hr. 6 mins. TCM Mon., June 18, 9 a.m.
Wasted! The Story of Food Waste (2017) Massimo Bottura, Dan Barber. Every year 1.3 billion tons of food is thrown away. Filmmakers explore the reasons for this waste and ways to fix the problem. (NR) 1 hr. 25 mins. Starz Fri., June 22, 12:30 p.m.
Wayne's World (1992) Mike Myers, Dana Carvey. Metal-head friends Wayne and Garth sell their basement cable-access TV show to a city slicker. (PG-13) 1 hr. 35 mins. Comedy Central Sat., June 23, 2:30 p.m.
We Are Marshall (2006) Matthew McConaughey, Matthew Fox. Jack Lengyel, the new coach at West Virginia's Marshall University, vows to rebuild the school's football program after a plane crash claims the lives of 75 players, staff and fans. (PG) 2 hrs. 7 mins. Lifetime Thur., June 21, 8 p.m. Lifetime Fri., June 22, 12 a.m.
Wedding Bells (2016) Danica McKellar, Kavan Smith. When they're asked to be best man and maid of honor at a friend's wedding, two commitment phobic professionals never expect that they're about to get a romance of their own. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Hallmark Sun., June 17, 5 p.m. Hallmark Fri., June 22, 4 p.m. Hallmark Sat., June 23, 8 a.m.
Wedding March 4: Something Old, Something New (2018) Jack Wagner, Josie Bissett. Mick, Olivia and the rest of the Willow Lake Inn team help a couple set up the wedding of their dreams, but complications soon arise when the bride starts to have second thoughts about the plans. (NR) 1 hr. 54 mins. Hallmark Sat., June 23, 9 p.m.
The Wedding Ringer (2015) Kevin Hart, Josh Gad. A socially awkward groom begins an unexpected bromance with the guy he hired to pose as his best man at his upcoming nuptials. (R) 1 hr. 41 mins. E! Fri., June 22, 8 p.m.
We Were Soldiers (2002) Mel Gibson, Madeleine Stowe. A lieutenant colonel and approximately 400 U.S. troops battle 2,000 North Vietnamese in 1965. (R) 2 hrs. 17 mins. Encore Sun., June 17, 6:30 a.m. Encore Thur., June 21, 12:30 p.m. Encore Thur., June 21, 8:30 p.m.
Where the Heart Is (2000) Natalie Portman, Ashley Judd. The boyfriend of a pregnant teenager leaves her broke and abandoned in Oklahoma, where she begins living secretly at Wal-Mart. (PG-13) 2 hrs. Lifetime Tues., June 19, 10 p.m. Lifetime Wed., June 20, 2 a.m.
Where to Invade Next (2015) Michael Moore. Filmmaker Michael Moore visits various countries, including France, Italy, Germany, Finland and Slovenia, to examine how Europeans view work, education, health care, sex, equality, and other issues. (R) 1 hr. 59 mins. EPIX Fri., June 22, 6 p.m.
White Chicks (2004) Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans. Two male FBI agents pose as female socialites to foil a kidnapping plot and save their jobs. (PG-13) 1 hr. 48 mins. MTV Sun., June 17, 1:30 p.m. MTV Sun., June 17, 8 p.m.
The White King (2016) Voices of Olivia Williams, Jonathan Pryce. A care-free 12-year-old boy rebels after a brutal government labels his father a traitor and imprisons him. (NR) 1 hr. 29 mins. Showtime Sun., June 24, 4 a.m.
The Whole Nine Yards (2000) Bruce Willis, Matthew Perry. A hit man in the Witness Protection Program and his next-door neighbor team up to find out who is trying to kill them. (R) 1 hr. 41 mins. Showtime Mon., June 18, 5 p.m. TMC Thur., June 21, 2:30 p.m.
Whoopi Goldberg Presents Moms Mabley (2013) Filmmaker Whoopi Goldberg examines the life and work of stand-up comic Moms Mabley. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. HBO Wed., June 20, 11:30 a.m.
Why Did I Get Married? (2007) Tyler Perry, Janet Jackson. Revelations of infidelity and other secrets force eight married friends to take a hard look at issues of commitment, betrayal and forgiveness. (PG-13) 1 hr. 58 mins. BET Mon., June 18, 5:30 p.m. BET Tues., June 19, 4:30 p.m.
Why Him? (2016) James Franco, Bryan Cranston. An overprotective businessman panics after learning that his daughter's wealthy but socially awkward boyfriend plans to ask for her hand in marriage. (R) 1 hr. 51 mins. Cinemax Tues., June 19, 4 p.m. Cinemax Sat., June 23, 3 p.m.
The Wild, Wild Planet (1967) Tony Russel, Lisa Gastoni. A space cowboy saves planetary leaders from an alien shrinker's army of inflatable females. (NR) 1 hr. 33 mins. TCM Mon., June 18, 10:30 a.m.
Wild Wild West (1999) Will Smith, Kevin Kline. Secret agent James T. West and his partner fight evil inventor Dr. Loveless who plans to assassinate President Grant. (PG-13) 1 hr. 41 mins. VH1 Thur., June 21, 9:30 a.m.
Winter's Bone (2010) Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes. Facing the loss of her home and siblings if she fails, a gutsy teenager sets out on a dangerous quest to learn the fate of her missing father. (R) 1 hr. 39 mins. EPIX Fri., June 22, 12:30 p.m.
Winter's Tale (2014) Colin Farrell, Jessica Brown Findlay. A thief battles the forces of time and darkness to save his one true love, a young woman dying of consumption in a mythic New York. (PG-13) 1 hr. 58 mins. HBO Thur., June 21, 6 a.m.
The Wood (1999) Omar Epps, Taye Diggs. Young men, one of whom is about to be married, reminisce about their childhood during the 1980s in Inglewood, Calif. (R) 1 hr. 47 mins. BET Tues., June 19, 10 p.m. BET Wed., June 20, 3 p.m.
Word Is Bond (2017) Sacha Jenkins explores lyricism and the artists that practice the art form in hip-hop music. (NR) 1 hr. 27 mins. TMC Sat., June 23, 3:30 a.m.
World War Z (2013) Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos. When a zombie pandemic threatens to destroy humanity, a former United Nations investigator is forced back into service to try to uncover the source of the infection. (PG-13) 1 hr. 55 mins. FXX Wed., June 20, 8 p.m. FXX Wed., June 20, 10 p.m.
Wrath of the Titans (2012) Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson. Perseus enlists the aid of Queen Andromeda, Hephaestus and Poseidon's son to rescue Zeus from the underworld, defeat the Titans and save mankind. (PG-13) 1 hr. 39 mins. PARMOUNT Fri., June 22, 9 p.m.
The Wrong Girl (2015) Jamie Luner, Kirsten Prout. A teen's budding friendship with a new student takes a sinister turn when the girl starts to disrupt the lives of her family. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Lifetime Sun., June 17, 4 p.m.
The Wrong Son (2018) Olivia d'Abo, Tammy Blanchard. Thirteen years after disappearing, Matt returns home to his mother. Suspicions grow when her older son is injured, causing her to wonder if Matt is really her missing son. (NR) 1 hr. 30 mins. Lifetime Sun., June 17, 8 p.m. Lifetime Mon., June 18, 12 a.m. ------------ X Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy. The X-Men join forces with their younger selves in order to change the past and save mankind's future as well as their own. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 11 mins. FX Fri., June 22, 7 p.m. FX Sat., June 23, 12 a.m.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber. Explores Wolverine's violent past, the death of his lover and his complex relationship with Victor Creed. (PG-13) 1 hr. 48 mins. HBO Mon., June 18, 4:30 a.m. HBO Tues., June 19, 1 p.m.
X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart. An all-out war looms when the discovery of a cure for mutations draws a line between the followers of Charles Xavier and those of Magneto. (PG-13) 1 hr. 45 mins. Encore Wed., June 20, 9 a.m. Encore Wed., June 20, 9 p.m. Encore Thur., June 21, 4 a.m.
X2 (2003) Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman. After a mutant-hating militarist named Stryker invades their school, the X-Men must join forces with Magneto to rescue Professor Xavier and neutralize the threat posed by Stryker. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 14 mins. HBO Mon., June 18, 10:30 p.m.
xXx: Return of Xander Cage (2017) Vin Diesel, Donnie Yen. Daredevil operative Xander Cage springs into action when four dangerous criminals steal Pandora's Box, a device that controls every military satellite in the world. (PG-13) 1 hr. 42 mins. EPIX Tues., June 19, 4 p.m. EPIX Wed., June 20, 12 a.m. ------------ Y Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
The Year of Living Dangerously (1982) Mel Gibson, Sigourney Weaver. An Australian reporter betrays his friend and his lover in volatile 1965 Indonesia. (PG) 1 hr. 55 mins. TCM Fri., June 22, 2:30 p.m.
Yes Man (2008) Jim Carrey, Zooey Deschanel. After attending a self-help seminar, a negative-thinking man brings about an amazing change in his life by saying yes to everything. (PG-13) 1 hr. 44 mins. HBO Sun., June 17, 1:30 p.m. HBO Wed., June 20, 1 p.m.
You Again (2010) Kristen Bell, Jamie Lee Curtis. An upcoming family wedding brings a young woman and her mother face to face once more with their high-school tormentors. (PG) 1 hr. 45 mins. CMT Thur., June 21, 10 p.m.
The Young Doctors (1961) Fredric March, Ben Gazzara. Two pathologists, old and young, clash over critical cases at their big-city hospital. (NR) 1 hr. 40 mins. TCM Sat., June 23, 7 p.m. ------------ Z Four Star Films | Box Office Hits | Indies and Imports | Movies A - Z a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z
Zodiac (2007) Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo. Investigators and reporters become obsessed with finding the elusive serial killer terrorizing San Francisco in the late 1960s and '70s. (R) 2 hrs. 40 mins. EPIX Sun., June 17, 7 a.m.
Zombieland (2009) Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg. Survivors of a zombie apocalypse use creative means to dispatch the undead as they make their way toward a rumored safe haven in Los Angeles. (R) 1 hr. 27 mins. Encore Tues., June 19, 1:30 p.m. Encore Wed., June 20, 12 a.m.
The Zookeeper's Wife (2017) Jessica Chastain, Johan Heldenbergh. The true story about the keepers of the Warsaw Zoo who helped save hundreds of people from Nazi hands during World War II. (PG-13) 2 hrs. 5 mins. HBO Thur., June 21, 4 a.m.
Zoolander (2001) Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson. A supermodel befriends a rival while becoming mixed-up in a brainwashing and assassination plot. (PG-13) 1 hr. 29 mins. Starz Fri., June 22, 2 p.m. Starz Sat., June 23, 12 a.m. Starz Sat., June 23, 4:30 p.m. Credit: Compiled by Ed Stockly
Subject: Motion pictures
Location: United States--US
Company / organization: Name: Comedy Central; NAICS: 515210; Name: BBC America; NAICS: 515210; Name: Cinemax; NAICS: 515210
Publication title: Los Angeles Times (Online); Los Angeles
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 15, 2018
Section: Entertainment - Tv - Showtracker
Publisher: Tribune Interactive, LLC
Place of publication: Los Angeles
Country of publication: United States, Los Angeles
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Blogs, Podcasts, & Websites
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2055972892
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2055972892?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Tribune Interactive, LLC Jun 15, 2018
Last updated: 2019-03-12
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 299 of 474
China scores in Latin America
Author: Rathbone, John Paul
Publication info: FT.com ; London (Jun 15, 2018).
Abstract:
The US’s National Endowment for Democracy has called China’s increasing penetration of Latin America — be that in finance, infrastructure, cultural exchange, or shelling out a record £60m in 2016 for the transfer of Brazilian player Oscar dos Santos Emboaba to Shanghai SIPG from Chelsea — an example of rivals’ growing “sharp power” in the region. Chart of the week Voting intentions in Mexico’s presidential election What else we’re reading * FARC and the forest: Peace is destroying Colombia’s jungle — and opening it to science (Nature) * Former workers for the Uribe family reveal links with paramilitaries (El País) * Inside the former Walmart that is now a shelter for almost 1,500 migrant children (NYT) * Venezuela considers refining foreign crude for first time (Reuters) * Mexico studies tariffs on billions of dollars of US corn and soy (Reuters) Credit: John Paul RathboneFull text: Last week it was China’s expanding financial presence in Latin America that raised eyebrows. Argentina’s central bank said it was negotiating a $5bn swap line with the People’s Bank of China, alongside its$50bn bailout packagefrom the IMF. Meanwhile, state-owned Bank of China opened in Chile, with plans to expand into Argentina and Mexico. This week, fittingly, it is China’s growing role in Latin American football that is drawing attention. Although China is not a football superpower, the beautiful game is known to be President Xi Jinping’s favourite sport. Indeed, the central government has set out targets for the national team to become Asia’s best by 2030, and to win a World Cup by 2050, according to Novam Portam, a Sino-Latin consultancy. To foster that rise, Beijing has spent lavishly on foreign football players, especially Latin American stars. In 2012, Chinese clubs spent $51m on transfers. By 2016, that spending has rocketed to $451m. China’s growing role in Latin America is well known — and a longstanding worry for those in the US who fear it signals ebbing influence in the hemisphere. Between 2006 and 2016, trade between the two regions grew more than 200 per cent, while US/Latin American trade grew just 38 per cent. Many of China’s bets in the region have, of course, since gone sour, notably the $60bn it loaned to Venezuela in return for oil. That is why Chinese state-to-state finance to Latin America fell to “just” $9bn in 2017. But China’s role in Latin America is far from shrinking. It is diversifying into non-traditional sectors, such as technology and ride-hailing withUber competitor Didi. It is also diversifying away from leftist states that have struggled with financial market access, such as Venezuela and Ecuador, to better managed and bigger countries where Beijing can export its excess capacity, be that in finance or infrastructure. China has built two nuclear plants in Argentina, a motorway in Colombia, a container port in Brazil, and owns a 35 per cent stake in Brazil’s third-biggest energy company. Although Mexico has been a laggard so far, it is not hard to imagine China playing a major role in plans by Mexico’s likely next president Andrés Manuel López Obrador to build a transnational railway. Indeed, Mr López Obrador’s team has already mentioned China as a potential partner. The US’s National Endowment for Democracy has called China’s increasing penetration of Latin America — be that in finance, infrastructure, cultural exchange, or shelling out a record £60m in 2016 for the transfer of Brazilian player Oscar dos Santos Emboaba to Shanghai SIPG from Chelsea — an example of rivals’ growing “sharp power” in the region. But that may be alarmism taken too far. For one, China is now such a major trade partner that, as Jorge Heine, a former Chilean ambassador to China, put it recently: “When I hear the argument for Latin America to reconsider the relationship with China . . . they wouldn't be able to.”Latin America is certainly no ingénue when it comes to the mixed blessings of China’s growing presence. Many complain it is hollowing out their countries’ manufacturing bases: most of Brazil’s carnival costumes, for example, are made in China, and in 2003 economist Barry Eichengreen observed that more sombreros were made in China than in Mexico. But China’s growing role is hardly surprising given the US’s “blunt power” approach to the region under Donald Trump, or Washington's evisceration of its experienced Latin American diplomatic corps. Furthermore, isn’t competition the very basis of the democratic capitalism that the US promotes? Other news * Former Panamanian president Ricardo Martinelli was extradited from the US to face corruption charges. * A national strike paralysed Nicaragua as pressure mounted on President Daniel Ortega to leave office and call early elections. More than 160 people have died in protests since April 18. * Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro named close ally Delcy Rodríguez as vice-president, replacing Tareck El Aissami who will now serve as the government’s top economic policymaker. Mr Maduro said the shuffle set the stage for a “new start” for the country. * Prosecutors in Honduras accused politicians, officials and others of diverting $11.7m in government funds to political parties, including the 2013 campaign of President Juan Orlando Hernández. Quote of the week “Having the 2026 World Cup in three North American countries will be a balm on some of the wounds the US has triggered in the region” — Arturo Sarukhán, who first floated the idea in 2010 when he was Mexico’s ambassador to the US. Chart of the week Voting intentions in Mexico’s presidential election What else we’re reading * FARC and the forest: Peace is destroying Colombia’s jungle — and opening it to science (Nature) * Former workers for the Uribe family reveal links with paramilitaries (El País) * Inside the former Walmart that is now a shelter for almost 1,500 migrant children (NYT) * Venezuela considers refining foreign crude for first time (Reuters) * Mexico studies tariffs on billions of dollars of US corn and soy (Reuters) Credit: John Paul Rathbone
Subject: Diplomatic & consular services; Presidents; Football; Tournaments & championships; Soccer
Location: Nicaragua Beijing China Latin America Argentina Brazil Ecuador Asia Mexico Honduras United States--US Venezuela China Chile Colombia
People: Trump, Donald J Martinelli, Ricardo Xi Jinping Ortega Saavedra, Daniel Rathbone, John Paul El Aissami, Tareck
Company / organization: Name: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia; NAICS: 813940; Name: Walmart Inc; NAICS: 452112, 452910, 454111; Name: National Endowment for Democracy; NAICS: 813319
Publication title: FT.com; London
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 15, 2018
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Trade Journals
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2072675878
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2072675878?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Jun 15, 2018
Last updated: 2018-07-21
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 300 of 474
Programme summary of Russian Channel One 'Voskresnoye Vremya'
Publication info: BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union ; London [London]17 June 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: 1700 gmt 17 Jun 18 Summary of programme broadcast on state-controlled Russian Channel One TV on 17 June at 17:00 GMT Because of the World Cup football matches that are being aired live by Channel One, this Sunday's edition of Voskresnoye Vremya was significantly shorter than usual. Instead of its regular host Valery Fadeyev, it was presented by Vremya's day-to-day anchor Ekaterina Andreeva . All times are gmt: 18:00:33 Headlines: A "grand start" to the World Cup; gradually and without abrupt changes - the government's proposal to raise the pension age; who is smarter - Trump or Kim Jong-un? 1. 18:01:44 A look at today's World Cup matches. Report from Rostov-on-Don ahead of the Brazil-Switzerland clash. 2. 18:03:19 Germany lost to Mexico 0:1. A "mega sensation", the presenter says. In the world of "big football" everything is possible, she comments, giving details of the match. 3. 18:04:03 German fan Gubert Wirt has driven all the way to Russia in a tractor to see his national team. He is shown praising Russian hospitality and thanking Moscow authorities for providing him with a free ticket for the Germany - Mexico game. 4. 18:04:47 Russian fans are still celebrating the 5:0 win over Saudi Arabia in the opening game of the World Cup on Thursday, the presenter says. The opening ceremony itself was held "at the highest level" - world stars, presidents and even a prince took part, Andreeva comments. Report on the opening ceremony of the championship with Putin's welcome statement and the Russia-Saudi Arabia clash. "And even the British, who dreamed of hosting this world championship themselves, have paid tribute to the greatness of the moment," the reporter comments. "A strong start" to the World Cup, The Times newspaper is quoted as saying. The opening Russia- Saudi Arabia game was seen in person by 17 heads of state - a good opportunity to also discuss international affairs, the reporter says. 5. 18:12:18 This week, the Russian government announced that it is starting a pension reform, Andreeva says. A bill to raise the pension age has been submitted to the Duma and it is something that "the whole country is talking about", she adds. 6. 18:19:22 Tribute to Russian film director Stanislav Govorukhin who passed away this week. Putin is shown praising him, saying that he knew him personally and that he was honoured that Govorukhin was among his supporters. "He will be remembered by millions. He will be forever in my heart," the Russian president says. Report recalls the director's life and work. 18:24:21 Still to come, commercials 7. 18:27:32 The Trump-Kim summit in Singapore this week was historic, the presenter says. These were the first ever talks between the leaders of the US and North Korea. However, the signed document is nothing more than "an agreement of good intentions", she remarks. To break promises is "a common thing that Americans do". Nevertheless, "Kim Jong-un is playing his own game and for now, according to experts, is winning", she adds. Report on the Trump-Kim meeting says that from the moment he first shook Trump's hand, Kim Jong-un and North Korea stopped being international "pariahs". In principle, Pyongyang is ready to disarm in exchange for security guarantees from Washington, reporter Evgeny Baranov explains. However, these guarantees may become the main stumbling block in further negotiations, he predicts. The problem is that even if such guarantees are given, nobody will believe in them anyway. In the current situation, if North Korea is ready for partial disarmament, only China and Russia can truly guarantee its sovereignty, Baranov comments. He recalls that immediately after the summit with Trump, a North Korean official came to Moscow with a "personal message" from Kim Jong-un to Vladimir Putin. The Russian president then invited Kim to visit Russia for the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok in September. The leaders of all important states in the region will be at the forum and its results will determine the real prospects of a Korean settlement, Baranov declares. "And what is Trump doing?" he asks. The US president says that "he is willing to meet with Vladimir Putin", Baranov adds. 8. 18:33:54 More news from today's World Cup games, followed by a report on football fans who have come to Russia for the tournament and the "carnival atmosphere" on the streets of Russian cities. Foreign fans are interviewed praising Russian hospitality, saying that the country is so much different than the bad image created by Western media. "Russia has opened its doors," the reporter declares. Even the UK press, which was the "most zealous" in spreading rumours about the championship, now notes a "sharp contrast between expectations and reality", the reporter remarks. Jonathan Northcroft, The Sunday Times football correspondent, is shown saying that "we heard all sorts of stories that we will have problems at the airport, with our accreditations... But there have been no problems so far... This is an excellent start to the World Cup". 9. 18:40:46 Presenter signs off. CREDIT: Channel One TV, Moscow, in Russian 1700 gmt 17 June 18
Subject: Reporters; Tournaments & championships; Soccer; Economic summit conferences
Location: North Korea Mexico Switzerland Russia United States--US Saudi Arabia Germany United Kingdom--UK Singapore China Brazil
People: Kim Jong Un Putin, Vladimir
Company / organization: Name: Sunday Times; NAICS: 511110
Publication title: BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union; London
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 17, 2018
Dateline: RUSSIA
Publisher: BBC Worldwide Limited
Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Political Science
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2056262809
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2056262809?accountid=4840
Copyright: Channel One TV, Moscow, in Russian 1700 gmt 17 June 18/BBC Monitoring/© BBC
Last updated: 2018-06-17
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 301 of 474
FIFA World Cup 2018: 5 star players who may be playing their last World Cup
Publication info: Financial Express ; New Delhi [New Delhi]18 June 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: FIFA World Cup 2018: The excitement of the football carnival that opened with Russia's stellar 5-0 win over Saudi Arabia in the inaugural clash appears to be acquiring new proportions with each passing game. The emergence of new teams has upped the competition among teams and the excitement amongst fans is only set to grow from here. Many big teams have stumbled in the group of 32. Germany losing to Mexico and Brazil's disappointing start are not what fans had expected. While one may argue that the expectations and the attention on the likes of Lionel Messi and Christiano Ronaldo are misplaced, the time is apt to look out for some players who may be playing their last World Cup. Here are 5 players who could retire after FIFA World Cup 2018: 1. Andres Iniesta Andres Iniesta, 34-years old, is one the most prominent players in the football world. Iniesta has recently retired from his club Barcelona after playing for 16 long years and may retire from the Spanish team too. With terrific dribbling techniques and control over the ball, Iniesta's talent was an important asset for the team. Iniesta's retirement will be a great loss for the team and might be an end of an era in Spanish Football. Having appeared for 3 times in the World Cup, the 4th might be the time for him to hang his boots. 2. Thiago Silva Brazillian footballer, Thiago Silva is an important center back defender in both Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and his national team Brazil. The 32-year-old footballer has made one appearance in FIFA World cup 2014. This is his second appearance in World Cup tournaments. Known for playing short passes and not diving for tackles, started playing for Brazil in Olympic Football Tournament against China PR. 3. Lionel Messi Argentine mid striker, Lionel Messi is amongst the most famous footballer. Any layman will know who Messi is. Currently aged 30, he is one of the best strikers in the world. His stamina, agility, speed, flexibility, and his swiftness are qualities which every footballer dreams for. For Messi, being a footballer is a fun profession. He believes that being able to enjoy a profession and being able to do it in front of a lot of public is the best thing about his profession. This 31-year-old may also be playing his last world cup this year. 4. Cristiano Ronaldo Portugal's talented striker, Ronaldo is one of the fittest players in the football world. The 33-year-old striker is another football star known by everyone across the globe. Despite a poor history in earlier World Cup editions, Ronaldo opened this year's World Cup with a hat-trick against Spain and proved to teams that it won't be easy for them to win against Portugal. The debate on who is the better footballer of the generation, Messi or Ronaldo, continues unabated. But going by the current performance, Ronaldo may have an edge. 5. Manuel Peter Neuer The 36-year-old German goalkeeper plays for both Bayern Munich and his national team Germany. One of the best goalkeepers around, Neuer is among the favorites of fans and players alike. For many players including Messi, he is one of the toughest keepers to score against. His diving skills, fast reflexes help him save lots of difficult goals. He was also a Golden Glove winner in the last world cup. Copyright 2018 IE Online Media Services Pvt. Ltd., distributed by Contify.com Credit: FE Online
Subject: Teams; Tournaments & championships; Soccer
Location: Mexico Spain Russia Saudi Arabia Germany Portugal China Brazil
People: Ronaldo, Cristiano Iniesta, Andres Messi, Lionel
Company / organization: Name: Federation Internationale de Football Association--FIFA; NAICS: 813990
Publication title: Financial Express; New Delhi
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 18, 2018
Publisher: Athena Information Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
Place of publication: New Delhi
Country of publication: India, New Delhi
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2056375090
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2056375090?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright 2018 IE Online Media Services Pvt. Ltd., distributed by Contify.com
Last updated: 2018-06-18
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 302 of 474
New restaurant leadership team at InterContinental Abu Dhabi
Publication info: TradeArabia ; Manama [Manama]18 June 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: InterContinental Abu Dhabi has appointed a full management team to head each of its six award-winning restaurants. Six young, dedicated personalities will embody the culinary concepts and support the ever-evolving high expectations of our guests. Circo – Lorenzo Monaco Originating from Rome and having built a passionate career in Italy, Monaco will be the emblem of traditional Italian lifestyle, synonymous with the Circo experience. Circo offers cuisine centred around Tuscany yet celebrating Italy, served with flare in a lively setting. Monaco is supported by Chef Andrea Pastore from Puglia, South Italy, to offer a truly authentic dining experience, only at Circo. Chamas Churrascaria – Marcus Felipe Main Veiguinha A global citizen hailing from Portugal, Felipe welcomes guests with an impressive array of languages. His energy, charm and effervescent personality shine through the whole team to bring you a wonderful experience of both food and service in the colourful carnival style that is Brazil. Chef Wanderson from Brazil brings the real Churrascaria experience to life at Chamas, using his special meat marination that gives the delicious and authentic taste. Belgian Café – Peter Van Den Berg Den Berg joins the city's leading hangout amongst locals, expats, and tourists. His experience originally in South Africa and then around the world combined with his interest in brewing hops make him the perfect person to advise guests on their beer selection! His attentive care through the entire team will bring to life guests' time in The Belgian Café. Cho Gao Marina Walk – Tomy Irawan Irawan presents an adventurous Pan-Asian journey, infused with authentic Indonesian flavour from his home country of Indonesia. He brings a unique blend of energy and Chi balance to the restaurant allowing guests to really enjoy the incredible cocktails and creative cuisine and yet leave with a zen-like inner calm. Irawan is supported by Chef Luthfi, who presents the most scrumptious dishes from across Asia. Fishmarket – Ahmed Ibrahim Ibrahim heads up the illustrious Fishmarket, the hotel's legendary seafood market-style restaurant. Bringing an unsurpassed depth of experience of over 18 years of remarkable hospitality, he will almost certainly assure a memorable meal at Fishmarket, offering wonderful views across the beach and Gulf of Arabia. Byblos Sur Mer – Elias El Ghazal Lebanese El Ghazal showcases true Arabian hospitality. A prominent personality in the Abu Dhabi dining scene, El Ghazal achieved number one Trip Advisor status for Byblos Sur Mer in 2015 and 2016 and consistently maintained a top five position over the last three years for the best Lebanese restaurant in town. The many awards and accolades speak for themselves and position Byblos Sur Mer as the benchmark as lead by Elias and supported by our acclaimed Chef Raed, guaranteeing a very special and authentic dining experience. Neil Houghton, general manager for InterContinental Abu Dhabi, said: “I am absolutely delighted to work alongside these restaurateurs and count myself very fortunate to have such experienced and professional leaders for all the restaurants at InterContinental Abu Dhabi. I am confident whatever the guest's mood, that one of these award-winning restaurants combined with the talents of the kitchen teams’ and the guidance from each of the managers will leave them having tasted wonderful food and received attentive care from the entire team. New menus are being launched in the coming months and the team want to share their passion for food and the “joie de vivre”, the joy of life with guests soon!” - TradeArabia News Service آ© Copyright 2014 www.tradearabia.com Copyright 2018 Al Hilal Publishing and Marketing Group Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).
Subject: Copyright; Awards & honors; Restaurants; Leadership
Location: Abu Dhabi United Arab Emirates Italy Monaco Portugal Brazil South Africa Asia Indonesia
Publication title: TradeArabia; Manama
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 18, 2018
Publisher: SyndiGate Media Inc
Place of publication: Manama
Country of publication: United States, Manama
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Newsp apers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2056724967
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2056724967?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright 2018 Al Hilal Publishing and Marketing Group Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).
Last updated: 2019-04-09
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 303 of 474
Brazilian soap opera brings racism into focus: South America. Black inequality TV show's predominantly white cast dismays activists as social tensions run high [Europe Region]
Author: Leahy, Joe; Schipani, Andres
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]18 June 2018: 4. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Set in the sun-soaked state of Bahia, the latest soap opera from Brazil's Globo television network could hardly do a better job of showcasing one of the country's most scenic regions. The story about a Rastafarian singer who leads a double life after he is mistakenly presumed to have died in an aircraft accident, Segundo Sol, or Second Sun, features the state capital Salvador's famous carnival, remote beaches and beautiful people. But for the telenovela's critics, there is one essential element missing — black actors. Segundo Sol's cast is more than 80 per cent white in a state that is more than 80 per cent black. Even its Rastafarian protagonist is of pallid complexion. The show has dismayed black activists in a country with more people of African descent than any country outside Africa. Activists argue that many are treated as second-class citizens. "This country that Globo is showing — it never existed," said Douglas Elias Belchior, an activist with UNEafro Brasil, a non-governmental organisation that helps young blacks from under-privileged backgrounds. "How is it possible that you can talk about Bahia without blacks?" The casting of the soap opera has touched a raw nerve at a time when social tensions are high ahead of elections in October seen as the most unpredictable in decades. Conservative politicians are pushing for tighter spending on social programmes and a radical crackdown on crime, policies that could disproportionately affect poor black neighbourhoods, activists argue. This comes amid high unemployment as the economy crawls out of its worst recession in history. Blacks, who accounted for 55 per cent of Brazil's population of 205.5m in 2016, were about 50 per cent more likely to be unemployed than whites, according to the country's statistics bureau, the IBGE. The economic downturn has also been accompanied by a crime wave, with homicides rising above 30 per 100,000 for the first time in 2016, Ipea, a research institute, reported. Blacks accounted for 71.5 per cent of those murdered, with a homicide rate 2.5 times greater than whites. Violence involving blacks was highlighted by the murder this year of Marielle Franco, a black Rio de Janeiro city councillor and an outspoken critic of police violence in the slums. Two months later, no one has been charged. This reality is contrary to Brazil's selfimage as a rainbow society, a narrative that dates to the 1930s when the Brazilian sociologist Gilberto Freyre argued that the country's mixed breeding between white masters and black slaves produced a sort of ethnic democracy. The economic and political reality is different, analysts say. Blacks occupy only 4.7 per cent of executive posts in Brazil's top 500 companies while black workers are paid about 40 per cent less than their white counterparts. Blacks also comprise only about 20 per cent of Brazil's lower house of Congress. "Racism à la brasileira is different to the institutionalised racism of the US, which had the segregation laws, or South Africa, which had apartheid," said Kabengele Munanga, a Congolese professor of anthropology at the University of São Paulo. "In Brazil, it's de facto racism. It's not openly admitted, there is no law ... therefore it is difficult to fight." Brazil, which took the largest number of African slaves in the world, was the last big nation to abolish the practice, academics say. While slavery may no longer exist, racial inequality is very much alive, they say. "The reality of the 18th century has continued until today in the 21st century," said Emanoel Araújo, director of the Afro-Brasil Museum. Others dispute the idea that racism remains embedded in Brazilian society, saying inequality is more the result of blacks' disadvantaged history as the descendants of slaves. Activists should push to improve the quality of Brazil's dismal state schools so that blacks received a better education and were empowered to enter university, said Paulo Cruz, a teacher and columnist. "Blacks still get the worst jobs but I don't think it's because of racism," he said. But Mr Belchior, who is running for Congress with the leftist Socialism and Liberal party, said blacks and their problems had been rendered invisible and any discussion of racial issues taboo. He laid the blame for that partly with Globo, the dominant media company. "It has always sold this idea of a multicultural, racially mixed, racially democratic country. It has always sold this false image of the country," he said. In response to criticisms of Segundo Sol, Globo provided a list of previous productions in which it highlighted racial issues. It said the second part of Segundo Sol would address issues of "diversity in society", adding: "We do still have a lower representation than we would like to have and we will work to see an evolution of this question." 'In Brazil, it's de facto racism. It's not openly admitted, there is no law ... therefore it is difficult to fight' CREDIT: JOE LEAHY AND ANDRES SCHIPANI SÃO PAULO CAPTION: Leo Correa/AP; A protest after the murder of Marielle Franco, a black Rio de Janeiro city councillor. Tensions are high in Brazil, where 'Segundo Sol', starring Emílio Dantas, right, has been criticised for its; lack of black actors Leo Correa/AP
Subject: Chief executive officers; Local elections; Racism; Activists; Society; Soap operas
Location: Africa Brazil United States--US South Africa Rio de Janeiro Brazil
Company / organization: Name: Congress; NAICS: 921120
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 4
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 18, 2018
Section: News
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2071403309
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2071403309?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Jun 18, 2018
Last updated: 2018-07-19
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 304 of 474
Brazilian soap opera brings racism into focus: South America. Black inequality TV show's predominantly white cast dismays activists as social tensions run high [Asia Region]
Author: Leahy, Joe; Schipani, Andres
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]18 June 2018: 4. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Set in the sun-soaked state of Bahia, the latest soap opera from Brazil's Globo television network could hardly do a better job of showcasing one of the country's most scenic regions. The story about a Rastafarian singer who leads a double life after he is mistakenly presumed to have died in an aircraft accident, Segundo Sol, or Second Sun, features the state capital Salvador's famous carnival, remote beaches and beautiful people. But for the telenovela's critics, there is one essential element missing — black actors. Segundo Sol's cast is more than 80 per cent white in a state that is more than 80 per cent black. Even its Rastafarian protagonist is of pallid complexion. The show has dismayed black activists in a country with more people of African descent than any country outside Africa. Activists argue that many are treated as second-class citizens. "This country that Globo is showing — it never existed," said Douglas Elias Belchior, an activist with UNEafro Brasil, a non-governmental organisation that helps young blacks from under-privileged backgrounds. "How is it possible that you can talk about Bahia without blacks?" The casting of the soap opera has touched a raw nerve at a time when social tensions are high ahead of elections in October seen as the most unpredictable in decades. Conservative politicians are pushing for tighter spending on social programmes and a radical crackdown on crime, policies that could disproportionately affect poor black neighbourhoods, activists argue. This comes amid high unemployment as the economy crawls out of its worst recession in history. Blacks, who accounted for 55 per cent of Brazil's population of 205.5m in 2016, were about 50 per cent more likely to be unemployed than whites, according to the country's statistics bureau, the IBGE. The economic downturn has also been accompanied by a crime wave, with homicides rising above 30 per 100,000 for the first time in 2016, Ipea, a research institute, reported. Blacks accounted for 71.5 per cent of those murdered, with a homicide rate 2.5 times greater than whites. Violence involving blacks was highlighted by the murder this year of Marielle Franco, a black Rio de Janeiro city councillor and an outspoken critic of police violence in the slums. Two months later, no one has been charged. This reality is contrary to Brazil's selfimage as a rainbow society, a narrative that dates to the 1930s when the Brazilian sociologist Gilberto Freyre argued that the country's mixed breeding between white masters and black slaves produced a sort of ethnic democracy. The economic and political reality is different, analysts say. Blacks occupy only 4.7 per cent of executive posts in Brazil's top 500 companies while black workers are paid about 40 per cent less than their white counterparts. Blacks also comprise only about 20 per cent of Brazil's lower house of Congress. "Racism à la brasileira is different to the institutionalised racism of the US, which had the segregation laws, or South Africa, which had apartheid," said Kabengele Munanga, a Congolese professor of anthropology at the University of São Paulo. "In Brazil, it's de facto racism. It's not openly admitted, there is no law ... therefore it is difficult to fight." Brazil, which took the largest number of African slaves in the world, was the last big nation to abolish the practice, academics say. While slavery may no longer exist, racial inequality is very much alive, they say. "The reality of the 18th century has continued until today in the 21st century," said Emanoel Araújo, director of the Afro-Brasil Museum. Others dispute the idea that racism remains embedded in Brazilian society, saying inequality is more the result of blacks' disadvantaged history as the descendants of slaves. Activists should push to improve the quality of Brazil's dismal state schools so that blacks received a better education and were empowered to enter university, said Paulo Cruz, a teacher and columnist. "Blacks still get the worst jobs but I don't think it's because of racism," he said. But Mr Belchior, who is running for Congress with the leftist Socialism and Liberal party, said blacks and their problems had been rendered invisible and any discussion of racial issues taboo. He laid the blame for that partly with Globo, the dominant media company. "It has always sold this idea of a multicultural, racially mixed, racially democratic country. It has always sold this false image of the country," he said. In response to criticisms of Segundo Sol, Globo provided a list of previous productions in which it highlighted racial issues. It said the second part of Segundo Sol would address issues of "diversity in society", adding: "We do still have a lower representation than we would like to have and we will work to see an evolution of this question." 'In Brazil, it's de facto racism. It's not openly admitted, there is no law ... therefore it is difficult to fight' CREDIT: JOE LEAHY AND ANDRES SCHIPANI SÃO PAULO
Subject: Chief executive officers; Racism; Activists; Society; Soap operas
Location: Africa Brazil United States--US South Africa Rio de Janeiro Brazil
Company / organization: Name: Congress; NAICS: 921120
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 4
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 18, 2018
Section: News
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2071403467
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib. fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2071403467?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Jun 18, 2018
Last updated: 2018-07-19
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 305 of 474
Brazilian soap opera brings racism into focus: South America. Black inequality TV show's predominantly white cast dismays activists as social tensions run high
Author: Leahy, Joe; Schipani, Andres
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]18 June 2018: 7. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Set in the sun-soaked state of Bahia, the latest soap opera from Brazil's Globo television network could hardly do a better job of showcasing one of the country's most scenic regions. The story about a Rastafarian singer who leads a double life after he is mistakenly presumed to have died in an aircraft accident, Segundo Sol, or Second Sun, features the state capital Salvador's famous carnival, remote beaches and beautiful people. But for the telenovela's critics, there is one essential element missing — black actors. Segundo Sol's cast is more than 80 per cent white in a state that is more than 80 per cent black. Even its Rastafarian protagonist is of pallid complexion. The show has dismayed black activists in a country with more people of African descent than any country outside Africa. Activists argue that many are treated as second-class citizens. "This country that Globo is showing — it never existed," said Douglas Elias Belchior, an activist with UNEafro Brasil, a non-governmental organisation that helps young blacks from under-privileged backgrounds. "How is it possible that you can talk about Bahia without blacks?" The casting of the soap opera has touched a raw nerve at a time when social tensions are high ahead of elections in October seen as the most unpredictable in decades. Conservative politicians are pushing for tighter spending on social programmes and a radical crackdown on crime, policies that could disproportionately affect poor black neighbourhoods, activists argue. This comes amid high unemployment as the economy crawls out of its worst recession in history. Blacks, who accounted for 55 per cent of Brazil's population of 205.5m in 2016, were about 50 per cent more likely to be unemployed than whites, according to the country's statistics bureau, the IBGE. The economic downturn has also been accompanied by a crime wave, with homicides rising above 30 per 100,000 for the first time in 2016, Ipea, a research institute, reported. Blacks accounted for 71.5 per cent of those murdered, with a homicide rate 2.5 times greater than whites. Violence involving blacks was highlighted by the murder this year of Marielle Franco, a black Rio de Janeiro city councillor and an outspoken critic of police violence in the slums. Two months later, no one has been charged. This reality is contrary to Brazil's selfimage as a rainbow society, a narrative that dates to the 1930s when the Brazilian sociologist Gilberto Freyre argued that the country's mixed breeding between white masters and black slaves produced a sort of ethnic democracy. The economic and political reality is different, analysts say. Blacks occupy only 4.7 per cent of executive posts in Brazil's top 500 companies while black workers are paid about 40 per cent less than their white counterparts. Blacks also comprise only about 20 per cent of Brazil's lower house of Congress. "Racism à la brasileira is different to the institutionalised racism of the US, which had the segregation laws, or South Africa, which had apartheid," said Kabengele Munanga, a Congolese professor of anthropology at the University of São Paulo. "In Brazil, it's de facto racism. It's not openly admitted, there is no law … therefore it is difficult to fight." Brazil, which took the largest number of African slaves in the world, was the last big nation to abolish the practice, academics say. While slavery may no longer exist, racial inequality is very much alive, they say. "The reality of the 18th century has continued until today in the 21st century," said Emanoel Araújo, director of the Afro-Brasil Museum. Others dispute the idea that racism remains embedded in Brazilian society, saying inequality is more the result of blacks' disadvantaged history as the descendants of slaves. Activists should push to improve the quality of Brazil's dismal state schools so that blacks received a better education and were empowered to enter university, said Paulo Cruz, a teacher and columnist. "Blacks still get the worst jobs but I don't think it's because of racism," he said. But Mr Belchior, who is running for Congress with the leftist Socialism and Liberal party, said blacks and their problems had been rendered invisible and any discussion of racial issues taboo. He laid the blame for that partly with Globo, the dominant media company. "It has always sold this idea of a multicultural, racially mixed, racially democratic country. It has always sold this false image of the country," he said. In response to criticisms of Segundo Sol, Globo provided a list of previous productions in which it highlighted racial issues. It said the second part of Segundo Sol would address issues of "diversity in society", adding: "We do still have a lower representation than we would like to have and we will work to see an evolution of this question." 'In Brazil, it's de facto racism. It's not openly admitted, there is no law … therefore it is difficult to fight' CREDIT: JOE LEAHY AND ANDRES SCHIPANI SÃO PAULO CAPTION: A protest after the murder of Marielle Franco, a black Rio de Janeiro city councillor. Tensions are high in Brazil, where 'Segundo Sol', starring Emílio Dantas, right, has been criticised for its lack of black actors Leo Correa/AP
Subject: Chief executive officers; Local elections; Racism; Activists; Society; Soap operas
Location: Africa Brazil United States--US South Africa Rio de Janeiro Brazil
Company / organization: Name: Congress; NAICS: 921120
Publication title: Fin ancial Times; London (UK)
First page: 7
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 18, 2018
Section: News
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2071408089
Document URL: https: //login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2071408089?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Jun 18, 2018
Last updated: 2018-07-19
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 306 of 474
Brazilian soap opera brings racism into focus: South America. Black inequality TV show's predominantly white cast dismays activists as social tensions run high [Usa Region]
Author: Leahy, Joe; Schipani, Andres
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]18 June 2018: 4.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Set in the sun-soaked state of Bahia, the latest soap opera from Brazil's Globo television network could hardly do a better job of showcasing one of the country's most scenic regions. The story about a Rastafarian singer who leads a double life after he is mistakenly presumed to have died in an aircraft accident, Segundo Sol, or Second Sun, features the state capital Salvador's famous carnival, remote beaches and beautiful people. But for the telenovela's critics, there is one essential element missing — black actors. Segundo Sol's cast is more than 80 per cent white in a state that is more than 80 per cent black. Even its Rastafarian protagonist is of pallid complexion. The show has dismayed black activists in a country with more people of African descent than any country outside Africa. Activists argue that many are treated as second-class citizens. "This country that Globo is showing — it never existed," said Douglas Elias Belchior, an activist with UNEafro Brasil, a non-governmental organisation that helps young blacks from under-privileged backgrounds. "How is it possible that you can talk about Bahia without blacks?" The casting of the soap opera has touched a raw nerve at a time when social tensions are high ahead of elections in October seen as the most unpredictable in decades. Conservative politicians are pushing for tighter spending on social programmes and a radical crackdown on crime, policies that could disproportionately affect poor black neighbourhoods, activists argue. This comes amid high unemployment as the economy crawls out of its worst recession in history. Blacks, who accounted for 55 per cent of Brazil's population of 205.5m in 2016, were about 50 per cent more likely to be unemployed than whites, according to the country's statistics bureau, the IBGE. The economic downturn has also been accompanied by a crime wave, with homicides rising above 30 per 100,000 for the first time in 2016, Ipea, a research institute, reported. Blacks accounted for 71.5 per cent of those murdered, with a homicide rate 2.5 times greater than whites. Violence involving blacks was highlighted by the murder this year of Marielle Franco, a black Rio de Janeiro city councillor and an outspoken critic of police violence in the slums. Two months later, no one has been charged. This reality is contrary to Brazil's selfimage as a rainbow society, a narrative that dates to the 1930s when the Brazilian sociologist Gilberto Freyre argued that the country's mixed breeding between white masters and black slaves produced a sort of ethnic democracy. The economic and political reality is different, analysts say. Blacks occupy only 4.7 per cent of executive posts in Brazil's top 500 companies while black workers are paid about 40 per cent less than their white counterparts. Blacks also comprise only about 20 per cent of Brazil's lower house of Congress. "Racism à la brasileira is different to the institutionalised racism of the US, which had the segregation laws, or South Africa, which had apartheid," said Kabengele Munanga, a Congolese professor of anthropology at the University of São Paulo. "In Brazil, it's de facto racism. It's not openly admitted, there is no law ... therefore it is difficult to fight." Brazil, which took the largest number of African slaves in the world, was the last big nation to abolish the practice, academics say. While slavery may no longer exist, racial inequality is very much alive, they say. "The reality of the 18th century has continued until today in the 21st century," said Emanoel Araújo, director of the Afro-Brasil Museum. Others dispute the idea that racism remains embedded in Brazilian society, saying inequality is more the result of blacks' disadvantaged history as the descendants of slaves. Activists should push to improve the quality of Brazil's dismal state schools so that blacks received a better education and were empowered to enter university, said Paulo Cruz, a teacher and columnist. "Blacks still get the worst jobs but I don't think it's because of racism," he said. But Mr Belchior, who is running for Congress with the leftist Socialism and Liberal party, said blacks and their problems had been rendered invisible and any discussion of racial issues taboo. He laid the blame for that partly with Globo, the dominant media company. "It has always sold this idea of a multicultural, racially mixed, racially democratic country. It has always sold this false image of the country," he said. In response to criticisms of Segundo Sol, Globo provided a list of previous productions in which it highlighted racial issues. It said the second part of Segundo Sol would address issues of "diversity in society", adding: "We do still have a lower representation than we would like to have and we will work to see an evolution of this question." 'In Brazil, it's de facto racism. It's not openly admitted, there is no law ... therefore it is difficult to fight' CREDIT: JOE LEAHY AND ANDRES SCHIPANI SÃO PAULO
Subject: Chief executive officers; Racism; Activists; Society; Soap operas
Location: Africa Brazil United States--US South Africa Rio de Janeiro Brazil
Company / organization: Name: Congress; NAICS: 921120
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 4
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 18, 2018
Section: News
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2071414592
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.f su.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2071414592?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Jun 18, 2018
Last updated: 2018-07-19
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 307 of 474
Soap opera row shines light on treatment of black Brazilians
Author: Leahy, Joe; Schipani, Andres
Publication info: FT.com ; London (Jun 18, 2018).
Abstract:
The story about a Rastafarian singer who leads a double life after he is mistakenly presumed to have died in an aircraft accident features state capital Salvador’s famous carnival, remote beaches and beautiful people. Blacks accounted for 71.5 per cent of those murdered, many of them school-age youths, with a homicide rate 2.5 times greater than whites. Widespread violence involving blacks was highlighted by the murder this year of Marielle Franco, a black Rio de Janeiro city councillor and an outspoken critic of police violence in the slums.Full text: Set in the sun-soaked state of Bahia, the latest soap opera from Brazil’s Globo television could hardly do a better job of showcasing one of the country’s most scenic regions. The story about a Rastafarian singer who leads a double life after he is mistakenly presumed to have died in an aircraft accident features state capital Salvador’s famous carnival, remote beaches and beautiful people. But for the telenovela’s critics, there is one essential element missing — black actors. The cast of Segundo Sol, or Second Sun, is more than 80 per cent white in a state that is over 80 per cent black. Even its Rastafarian protagonist is of pallid complexion. The show has dismayed black activists in a country with more people of African descent than any country outside Africa. Activists argue that many are treated as second-class citizens. “This country that Globo is showing — it never existed,” said Douglas Elias Belchior, an activist with UNEafro Brasil, a non-governmental organisation that helps young blacks from under-privileged backgrounds. “How is it possible that you can talk about Bahia without blacks?” The casting of the soap opera has touched a raw nerve with activists at a time when social tensions are running high ahead ofelectionsin October that are seen as the most unpredictable in decades. Conservative politicians are pushing for tighterspendingon social programmes and aradical crackdownon crime, policies that could disproportionately affect poor black neighbourhoods, activists argue. This comes amid high unemployment as the economy crawls out of its worst recession in history. Blacks, who accounted for 55 per cent of Brazil’s population of 205.5m in 2016, were about 50 per cent more likely to be unemployed than whites, according to figures from the country’s statistics bureau. The economic downturn has also been accompanied by acrime wave, with homicides rising above 30 per 100,000 inhabitants for the first time in 2016, Ipea, a research institute, reported. Blacks accounted for 71.5 per cent of those murdered, many of them school-age youths, with a homicide rate 2.5 times greater than whites. Widespread violence involving blacks was highlighted by the murder this year of Marielle Franco, a black Rio de Janeiro city councillor and an outspoken critic of police violence in the slums. Two months later, no one has yet been charged. This reality is contrary to Brazil’s self-image as a rainbow society, a narrative that dates to the 1930s when Brazilian sociologist Gilberto Freyre argued that Brazil’s mixed breeding between white masters and black slaves produced a sort of ethnic democracy. The economic and political reality is much different, analysts say. Blacksoccupyonly 4.7 per cent of executive posts in Brazil’s top 500 companies while black workers are paid about 40 per cent less than their white counterparts. Blacks also comprise only about 20 per cent of Brazil’s lower house of congress. “Racism à la brasileira is different to the institutionalised racism of the US, which had the segregation laws, or South Africa, which had apartheid,” said Kabengele Munanga, a Congolese professor of anthropology at the University of São Paulo. “In Brazil, it is de facto racism. It is not openly admitted, there is no law . . . therefore it is difficult to fight.” Brazil, which took in the largest number of African slaves in the world, was the last major nation to abolish the practice, academics say. While slavery may no longer exist, racial inequality is very much alive, they say. “The reality of the 18th century has continued until today in the 21st century,” said Emanoel Araújo, director of the Afro-Brasil Museum. Others dispute the idea that racism remains irrevocably embedded in Brazilian society, saying inequality is more the result of blacks’ disadvantaged history as the descendants of slaves. Activists should push to improve the quality of Brazil’s dismal state schools so that blacks receive a better education and be empowered to enter university, said Paulo Cruz, a school teacher and columnist. “Blacks still get the worse jobs but I don’t think it’s because of racism,” he said. But Mr Belchior of UNEafro Brasil, who is running for congress with the leftist Socialism and Liberal party, said blacks and their problems have been rendered invisible and any discussion of racial issues is taboo. He lays the blame for that partly with Globo, the dominant media company. “It has always sold this idea of a multicultural, racially mixed, racially democratic country. It has always sold this false image of the country,” he said. In response to criticisms of Segundo Sol, Globo provided a list of previous productions in which it highlighted racial issues, including Side by Side, a 2012 novella about African culture in Brazil for which it won an International Emmy Award. It said the second part of Segundo Sol would address issues of “diversity in society”. “Indeed, we do still have a lower representation than we would like to have and we will work to see an evolution of this question,” Globo said. Credit: Joe Leahy and Andres Schipani in São Paulo
Subject: Racism; Activists; Society; Soap operas
Location: Africa Brazil United States--US South Africa Rio de Janeiro Brazil
Publication title: FT.com; London
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 18, 2018
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Trade Journals
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2072698436
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2072698436?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Jun 18, 2018
Last updated: 2018-07-21
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 308 of 474
Travel: Tommy Walker reports from Russia as World Cup 2018 gets underway
Author: Staff Reporter11 Staff Reporter
Publication info: Northern Echo ; Darlington (UK) [Darlington (UK)]19 June 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: TRAVEL writer Tommy Walker is in Russia as the World Cup is in full swing. Here is his report so far. Vibrating Volgograd Last week I arrived in Moscow, and this week I watched England snatch a last-gasp victory against Tunisia. It was buzzing to say the least! The hours travelled to Russia, the hours travelled inland to Volgograd, the wait for England’s World Cup opener all came to fruition. It had an away day feeling to this game, with England fans being the minority. Yet, the euphoria experienced when England won was one of the best I’ve ever experienced in a football match – and I’ve been to a fair few! Harry Kane grabbed his second of the evening as myself and the rest of the 1,800 travelling England fans went into utter delirium. Up until then, I’d accepted we might have to settle for a draw despite looking like a fresh, new team under Gareth Southgate’s vision. The game itself, played at the Volgograd Arena, was largely dominated by England and in the first half it should have been out of sight. But still, a victory is a victory and it’s good to see England create many good chances. Not since 1966 v Portugal in the World Cup semi-final had England created more chances in the first half of World Cup football. That shows a sign of optimism. Volgograd which is into the deep west of Russia is only a few hours away from the borders of Kazakhstan. It took many travellers around 15 hours to get into Volgograd, most by train or bus. I took the overnight bus, which wasn’t comfy at all, add in the fact daylight ends at 10pm and rises again at 4am, I didn’t get much sleep. But, it was absolutely worth it. Volgograd, formerly known as Stalingrad, is famous for the Battle of Stalingrad during WW2 where Germany forces fought against Soviets in an attempt to cease control of the city. It was here, an away day sized army of England fans travelled to see their teams World Cup opener. The World Cup in Russia Just like four years ago when I went to Brazil for the 2014 World Cup, football has been in the air and it’s been fantastic to experience. Although the Brazilian carnival atmosphere doesn’t exist in Russia, the friendly vibe has grown as the tournament has opened. Many fans have been flooding into Moscow the past week, most notably fans from South America. The Peruvian fans have been like the Irish fans of the Euro's, out-singing everyone and just having a fantastic time. Locals of Russia, many of whom don’t speak fluent English, are generally enjoying the tournament, despite numbers not at their maximum. This doesn't seem to bother many of the fans but it does mean there's a lack of quality interaction with the locals. Something that in Brazil made the whole World Cup better because everyone was in on the party together. Food prices are steady and the beer prices range from about £3. There isn't too much of a spike in prices, especially British prices - for me it's cheaper than Hong Kong where I'm currently residing! If you’re thinking of coming to Russia, hotel prices are understandably higher than normal with cheap options from £50 and upwards, if available. To keep busy there have been plenty of touristy things to do in Russia. I've visited some fantastic buildings such as the iconic Saint Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow and the Motherland Calls in Volgograd, the latter being one of the tallest statues in the world. The food is starchy, meat, potatoes and bliny (pancakes in Russian) and has been quite good. As for the drinks, the vodka has been flowing a lot more than usual, as you’d expect! Trouble In The Past Of course there has been worry from England fans about the prospect of trouble from Russian hooligans and that has been evident when leading up to the game v Tunisia. Marred by controversy at the Euro's 2016 in France (I reported on the trouble for BBC Tees Radio in Marseille), many England fans have declined to come to Russia because they have expected trouble. Marseille was an unprovoked and military like attack from Russian thugs, cowardly if anything. It appears some Russian fans just see England fans in that light - a group of hooligans like it was in 70's & 80's. No one has told them that despite the odd Danny Dyer film influencing the football madmen and the fact you can get a banning order for something as frivolous as falling asleep at a match in England - football hooliganism doesn't happen like it is use to, if barely at all. Nothing has happened of note in Russia, yet. The Russian police haven’t been overly aggressive, although they do love to boast that proud sense of power and protection, if that’s what you can call it. I've noticed a couple of times authorities interrupting harmless celebrations and unnecessarily re-directing fans from getting from A to B. On the opening day, I was on the way to the FIFA Fan Fest - a space for thousands to watch the games on big screens - some police decided to tell people that the Fan Fest wasn't available and they were closing off people entering. Yet, fans from South American countries, who are currently the majority of fans at here in Russia, didn't care and without trouble, barged passed them to enter the FIFA Fan Fest vicinity. I followed suit of course! Speaking with local journalists, Russians who have had a criminal record in the past 20 years for related offences have been warned by local authorities to stay at home and stop any urges to cause any violence. Russia is on show to the world so after the first game went off without any incident, there’s more optimism that there won’t be so much hooliganism after all. Still, my feeling is the minority of Russian fans want to antagonise England fans and according to my Russian friends 'just love to fight'. Fingers crossed nothing happens though. Stay Tuned Still, I'm excited for exploring more of Russia. Next up is England’s game v Panama in Niznhy Novgorod - unknown to many of us – where I’ll be attending. Like all of you, I’m confident we’ll get a win there and confirm our knockout stages spot. I’ll be writing some more features during my time here in Russia, the games, the adventurers and anything else worth reporting back to you with. Ciao for now. Credit: Staff reporter
Subject: Journalists; Tournaments & championships; Soccer
Location: Russia Tunisia Germany South America Portugal England Kazakhstan Hong Kong Brazil France Panama
People: Southgate, Gareth
Company / organization: Name: Federation Internationale de Football Association--FIFA; NAICS: 813990
Publication title: Northern Echo; Darlington (UK)
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 19, 2018
Publisher: Newsquest (North East) Ltd.
Place of publication: Darlington (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, Darlington (UK)
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--Great Britain
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2056893895
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2056893895?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Newsquest (North East) Ltd. Jun 19, 2018
Last updated: 2018-06-20
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 309 of 474
The World Cup Extends to Siberia, Although It Isn’t an Easy Reach
Author: Smith, Rory
Publication info: New York Times (Online) , New York: New York Times Company. Jun 21, 2018.
Abstract:
The Russia-Egypt game ended at 4 a.m., local time, but so what? Russia won, 3-1, and hugs were exchanged among the hardy who watched the match at a pub.
Full text: ULAN-UDE, Russia — It is light by the time they stumble out of the bar, arms clasped around one another for support, taking greedy drags on long-awaited cigarettes. In Moscow, St. Petersburg and other Russian cities hosting the World Cup, the party is just about to start: thousands of fans streaming onto the streets, waving flags and blaring car horns, to celebrate Russia’s 3-1 victory on Tuesday night over Egypt. The win will help put the country into the tournament’s knockout round for the first time since the Soviet years. Here in Ulan-Ude, 3,500 miles and five time zones from Moscow, the night is already over. The roads, normally choked with traffic, are empty. The city is quiet. The hundred or so hardy souls who stayed up until 4 a.m. to watch the game in the Pelikan sports bar say their goodbyes, exchange heartfelt hugs and head off: to work, to home, to sleep it off. When Gianni Infantino, the FIFA president, addressed the crowd at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow before the opening game of the World Cup, he promised that in the coming month, soccer would “conquer” Russia. He invited the host to “enjoy the biggest celebration on Earth.” Over the last week or so, the 11 host cities have lived up to his promise. Hundreds of thousands of fans from across the planet have descended on Russia; on the days before and after games, there has often been the feel of a carnival, a riot of color and noise enveloping Kaliningrad in the west, Yekaterinburg in the east, and all points in between. At first glance — but only the first — that festival spirit does not appear to have traveled as far as Ulan-Ude, nestled between Lake Baikal and the Mongolian border. The nearest host city — Yekaterinburg — is some 2,200 miles away by road, or two days by train across the desolate expanse of Siberia and through the towering Ural Mountains. It is six hours by air. There are no direct flights. There is little or no sign, here, that the “biggest celebration on Earth” is happening in Russia at all: no flags fluttering from lampposts, no signs wishing the Sbornaya — as the national team is known — good luck. At the city’s stadium, its artificial turf given over to amateurs to play pickup games in the warm summer evening, there are Barcelona jerseys and Real Madrid jerseys and a Chelsea top or two, but no Russian shirts. The World Cup would seem to be very far away, indeed. So, too, does Russia, or at least the Russia we conceive of in the West. Ulan-Ude is geographically closer to Beijing than Moscow and, culturally, it feels Asian: Buryatia, the republic of which it is the capital, is one of two Buddhist states in the Russian Federation. Its cuisine draws heavily on the Buryats’ nomadic tradition: The food has more in common with Mongolia than Moscow. One or two traditional yurts sit at the roadside, turned into attractions for the crowds of Mongolian and Chinese tourists who come here to visit Baikal, or stop off on the Trans-Siberian Railway to see the monumental statue of Lenin’s head in the city’s main square. Many of the cars are right-hand drive, bought secondhand from Japan and driven across the steppe. Wrestling is the national sport here, not soccer. Archery and horse riding have their followers, too. So it would be easy to see in Ulan-Ude the limit of the World Cup’s power to captivate such a huge, diverse country as Russia: The centers of action are too far away, by distance, by time and by culture, too, for the tournament to truly permeate the consciousness here. Maybe Russia is too big, too varied, to come together as one, even for the World Cup. And yet, on closer inspection, that does not really seem to be the case. For people here actually speak of little else but the World Cup and lives are being arranged around the schedule of the games. “My plan is to play football now,” said Sergei Sogolov, a local television newsreader. It is about 8 p.m. — Russia’s game with Egypt kicks off in six hours. Wearing a full Real Madrid kit, he is getting ready to play with friends at the Republic of Buryatia stadium. Half of its seats are arranged in blue, white and yellow, the colors of the Buryat flag. The other half is red, white and blue, for Russia. “Then I’ll go home, have a sleep and set my alarm for just before 2 a.m.,’’ he said. “ Then I’ll wake up, watch the game and go back to sleep. I think that’s what most people are doing. Everyone is watching the matches, even people who don’t like sports.” Some from the area have even traveled to see games live, said Bair Tsydypov, an amateur goalkeeper who has just finished playing. “I have a friend who has tickets for seven games,” he said. “Not just the Russia matches, but for lots of different teams. You see lots of people sharing photos from matches on social media: from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Saransk.” Sogolov has friends who have tickets, too. “Everyone knows someone who has gone,” he said. “I thought it was better to watch it on television, with the replays and the commentary.” Those who are left behind, though, have still bought into the tournament. For Russia’s opening game, a giant screen was wheeled into the stadium, and anyone with an official fan identification document was invited to come down and watch. The game started at 6 p.m. in Moscow, 11 p.m. here. Exactly how many turned up is a matter of some debate: Sogolov puts it at around 2,000 people; Tsydypov estimates double that. The stadium will be open again for Russia’s last group game, against Uruguay, which will begin at 10 p.m. local time on Monday; the Egypt match, starting at 2 a.m., was simply too late to invite thousands to come. “It has united the country,” said Erdem Shagdurov, a television producer about to enter the stadium. Russian identity is a complex, nuanced thing: Many here identify as much with their ethnic group as their nation state. “There are lots of different groups in Buryatia,” he said. “Russians, Buryats, Kazakhs, Old Believers,” an offshoot of the Russian Orthodox Church. “They are all supporting Russia.” Shagdurov is wearing a Manchester United training top to play, but is quick to mention that he “loves Chelsea, too.” He adds: “And on my MP3 I have that song: ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone.’ ’’ He then recites, word for word, Liverpool’s club anthem. By 11 p.m., the city is quiet. The fountain on the city’s main square is abruptly turned off; families who had been staring as it changed color — from green to the red, white and blue of the Russian flag, begin to disperse. Most will watch the game from home, if they can stay awake. In the Pelikan bar, though, Anna Abadieva is a little disappointed. “I thought we would have more people here,” she said as midnight came and went. “There were a lot more for the opening game.” Still, though, by the time the 2 a.m. kickoff arrives, there are 100 or so here, split between two floors. Waitresses deliver huge steins of dark, malty beer to customers. They laugh as the presenter describes the weather in St. Petersburg, where the game is being played, as distinctly “Petersburgian.” It was still 34 degrees Celsius in Ulan-Ude — which is more than 90 degrees Fahrenheit — when most of them arrived at the bar. It is a different world. The atmosphere, though, is just the same: nervous during a tense, tight first half; delirious in the second as Russia races into a three-goal lead. Those present scream when Mohamed Salah, Egypt’s star, wins a penalty; they chant, “Igor, Igor,” to encourage Russia’s goalkeeper, Igor Akinfeev, to save it (he does not). Pelikan’s ceilings are decorated with European club scarves — Manchester City, Chelsea, Napoli — and the walls have been festooned with the flags of competing nations specifically for the World Cup: the red and yellow of Spain, the green and yellow of Brazil. There is no Russian flag, though, only the colors of Buryatia. “It feels like a holiday,” said Bair Nydanov, a 22-year-old human resources student at one of three local universities, and a devoted fan of the Italian team A.C. Milan. He has come with three friends, all students, none of whom have to be up in the morning. “There is a special feeling in the city, in the country.” That will only grow, of course, the longer Russia stays in the tournament. Nydanov, though, believes that it is not simply a matter of national pride in the team — “we were surprised to win the first game so well,” he said — but of genuine enjoyment of the tournament, of the sport. “People will keep on watching even when Russia is out,” he said. “We love football as much here as they do anywhere in Europe.” He and his friends are devotees, of course — his knowledge of Milan’s financial situation is remarkable — but what makes the World Cup different, what acts as its unique power, is that it can reach parts of the world the ordinary club game cannot. A few miles outside Ulan-Ude is the Ivolginsky Datsan, a Buddhist shrine, monastery and study center. Monks in saffron robes wander the site, guiding the groups of tourists who come from Russia, Mongolia and China to visit the Hambo Lama, the body of a monk who died in 1927 and was exhumed in 2002, his body said to be remarkably preserved. It feels as far from the Russian World Cup as it is possible to be: a peaceful, pious place, a world away from the frenzy and the international festival being held in Moscow and St. Petersburg, a speck of civilization adrift in the endlessness of Siberia. The monastery’s abbot, Ayur Lama Tsyrendylykov, is pouring tea. Zhargal Bagsha Dugdanov, his deputy, is sitting on a couch in his robes. It is quiet, contemplative. Has anyone here followed the World Cup, or is it all too far away? “Well,” Dugdanov said, perking up. “We were all very surprised by winning the first game, 5-0.” Credit: Rory Smith
Subject: Tournaments & championships; Sleep; Soccer; Cities; Flags
Location: Mongolia Siberia Russia Egypt
Identifier / keyword: World Cup 2018 (Soccer) Soccer Russia
Publication title: New York Times (Online); New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 21, 2018
Section: sports
Publisher: New York Times Company
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Blogs, Podcasts, & Websites
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2057257319
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2057257319?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright 2018 The New York Times Company
Last updated: 2018-09-17
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 310 of 474
The Party Extends All the Way to Siberia: [Sports Desk]
Author: Smith, Rory
Publication info: New York Times , Late Edition (East Coast); New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]21 June 2018: B.13.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: ULAN-UDE, Russia -- It is light by the time they stumble out of the bar, arms clasped around one another for support, taking greedy drags on long-awaited cigarettes. In Moscow, St. Petersburg and other Russian cities hosting the World Cup, the party is just about to start: thousands of fans streaming onto the streets, waving flags and blaring car horns, to celebrate Russia's 3-1 victory on Tuesday night over Egypt. The win will help put the country into the tournament's knockout round for the first time since the Soviet years. Here in Ulan-Ude, 3,500 miles and five time zones from Moscow, the night is already over. The roads, normally choked with traffic, are empty. The city is quiet. The hundred or so hardy souls who stayed up until 4 a.m. to watch the game in the Pelikan sports bar say their goodbyes, exchange heartfelt hugs and head off: to work, to home, to sleep it off. When Gianni Infantino, the FIFA president, addressed the crowd at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow before the opening game of the World Cup, he promised that in the coming month, soccer would "conquer" Russia. He invited the host to "enjoy the biggest celebration on Earth." Over the last week or so, the 11 cities selected to serve as the hosts of various first-round matches have lived up to his promise. Hundreds of thousands of fans from across the planet have descended on Russia; on the days before and after games, there has often been the feel of a carnival, a riot of color and noise enveloping Kaliningrad in the west, Yekaterinburg in the east, and all points in between. At first glance -- but only the first -- that festival spirit does not appear to have traveled as far as Ulan-Ude, nestled between Lake Baikal and the Mongolian border. The nearest host city -- Yekaterinburg -- is some 2,200 miles away by road, or two days by train across the desolate expanse of Siberia and through the towering Ural Mountains. It is six hours by air. There are no direct flights. There is little or no sign, here, that the "biggest celebration on Earth" is happening in Russia at all: no flags fluttering from lampposts, no signs wishing the Sbornaya -- as the national team is known -- good luck. At the city's stadium, its artificial turf given over to amateurs to play pickup games in the warm summer evening, there are Barcelona jerseys and Real Madrid jerseys and a Chelsea top or two, but no Russian shirts. The World Cup would seem to be very far away, indeed. So, too, does Russia, or at least the Russia we conceive of in the West. Ulan-Ude is geographically closer to Beijing than Moscow and, culturally, it feels Asian: Buryatia, the republic of which it is the capital, is one of two Buddhist states in the Russian Federation. Its cuisine draws heavily on the Buryats' nomadic tradition: The food has more in common with Mongolia than Moscow. One or two traditional yurts sit at the roadside, turned into attractions for the crowds of Mongolian and Chinese tourists who come here to visit Baikal, or stop off on the Trans-Siberian Railway to see the monumental statue of Lenin's head in the city's main square. Many of the cars are right-hand drive, bought secondhand from Japan and driven across the steppe. Wrestling is the national sport here, not soccer. Archery and horse riding have their followers, too. So it would be easy to see in Ulan-Ude the limit of the World Cup's power to captivate such a huge, diverse country as Russia: The centers of action are too far away, by distance, by time and by culture, too, for the tournament to truly permeate the consciousness here. Maybe Russia is too big, too varied, to come together as one, even for the World Cup. And yet, on closer inspection, that does not really seem to be the case. "My plan is to play football now," said Sergei Sogolov, a local television newsreader. It is about 8 p.m. -- Russia's game with Egypt kicks off in six hours. Wearing a full Real Madrid kit, he is getting ready to play with friends at the Republic of Buryatia stadium. Half of its seats are arranged in blue, white and yellow, the colors of the Buryat flag. The other half is red, white and blue, for Russia. "Then I'll go home, have a sleep and set my alarm for just before 2 a.m.," he said. " Then I'll wake up, watch the game and go back to sleep. I think that's what most people are doing. Everyone is watching the matches, even people who don't like sports." Some from the area have even traveled to see games live, said Bair Tsydypov, an amateur goalkeeper who has just finished playing. "I have a friend who has tickets for seven games," he said. "Not just the Russia matches, but for lots of different teams. You see lots of people sharing photos from matches on social media: from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Saransk." Sogolov has friends who have gone, too. "Everyone knows someone who has gone," he said. "I thought it was better to watch it on television, with the replays and the commentary." Others who have not been fortunate enough to get tickets, though, have still bought into the tournament. For Russia's opening game, a giant screen was wheeled into the stadium, and anyone with an official fan identification document was invited to come down and watch. The game started at 6 p.m. in Moscow, 11 p.m. here. Exactly how many turned up is a matter of some debate: Sogolov puts it at around 2,000 people; Tsydypov estimates double that. The stadium will be open again for Russia's last group game, against Uruguay, which will begin at 10 p.m. local time on Monday; the Egypt match, starting at 2 a.m., was simply too late to invite thousands to come. "It has united the country," said Erdem Shagdurov, a television producer about to enter the stadium. Russian identity is a complex, nuanced thing: Many here identify as much with their ethnic group as their nation state. "There are lots of different groups in Buryatia," he said. "Russians, Buryats, Kazakhs, Old Believers," an offshoot of the Russian Orthodox Church. "They are all supporting Russia." Shagdurov is wearing a Manchester United training top to play, but is quick to mention that he "loves Chelsea, too." He adds: "And on my MP3 I have that song: 'You'll Never Walk Alone.' " He then recites, word for word, Liverpool's club anthem. By 11 p.m., the city is quiet. The fountain on the city's main square is abruptly turned off; families who had been staring as it changed color -- from green to the red, white and blue of the Russian flag, begin to disperse. Most will watch the game from home, if they can stay awake. In the Pelikan bar, though, Anna Abadieva is a little disappointed. "I thought we would have more people here," she said as midnight came and went. "There were a lot more for the opening game." Still, though, by the time the 2 a.m. kickoff arrives, there are 100 or so here, split between two floors. Waitresses deliver huge steins of dark, malty beer to customers. They laugh as the presenter describes the weather in St. Petersburg, where the game is being played, as distinctly "Petersburgian." It was still 34 degrees Celsius in Ulan-Ude -- which is more than 90 degrees Fahrenheit -- when most of them arrived at the bar. It is a different world. The atmosphere, though, is just the same: nervous during a tense, tight first half; delirious in the second as Russia races into a three-goal lead. Those present scream when Mohamed Salah, Egypt's star, wins a penalty; they chant, "Igor, Igor," to encourage Russia's goalkeeper, Igor Akinfeev, to save it (he does not). Pelikan's ceilings are decorated with European club scarves -- Manchester City, Chelsea, Napoli -- and the walls have been festooned with the flags of competing nations specifically for the World Cup: the red and yellow of Spain, the green and yellow of Brazil. There is no Russian flag, though, only the colors of Buryatia. "It feels like a holiday," said Bair Nydanov, a 22-year-old human resources student at one of three local universities, and a devoted fan of the Italian team A.C. Milan. He has come with three friends, all students, none of whom have to be up in the morning. "There is a special feeling in the city, in the country." That will only grow, of course, the longer Russia stays in the tournament. Nydanov, though, believes that it is not simply a matter of national pride in the team -- "we were surprised to win the first game so well," he said -- but of genuine enjoyment of the tournament, of the sport. "People will keep on watching even when Russia is out," he said. "We love football as much here as they do anywhere in Europe." He and his friends are devotees, of course -- his knowledge of Milan's financial situation is remarkable -- but what makes the World Cup different, what acts as its unique power, is that it can reach parts of the world the ordinary club game cannot. A few miles outside Ulan-Ude is the Ivolginsky Datsan, a Buddhist shrine, monastery and study center. Monks in saffron robes wander the site, guiding the groups of tourists who come from Russia, Mongolia and China to visit the Hambo Lama, the body of a monk who died in 1927 and was exhumed in 2002, his body said to be remarkably preserved. It feels as far from the Russian World Cup as it is possible to be: a peaceful, pious place, a world away from the frenzy and the international festival being held in Moscow and St. Petersburg, a speck of civilization adrift in the endlessness of Siberia. The monastery's abbot, Ayur Lama Tsyrendylykov, is pouring tea. Zhargal Bagsha Dugdanov, his deputy, is sitting on a couch in his robes. It is quiet, contemplative. Has anyone here followed the World Cup, or is it all too far away? "Well," Dugdanov said, perking up. "We were all very surprised by winning the first game, 5-0."Photograph
Subject: Tournaments & championships; Sleep; Soccer; Cities; Flags
Location: Mongolia Siberia Russia Egypt
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/21/sports/world-cup/world-cup-russia-siberia-buddhist.html
Publication title: New York Times, Late Edition (East Coast); New York, N.Y.
Pages: B.13
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 21, 2018
Section: B
Publisher: New York Times Company
Place of publication: New York, N.Y.
Country of publication: United States, New York, N.Y.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
ISSN: 03624331
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2057301753
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2057301753?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright New York Times Company Jun 21, 2018
Last updated: 2018-11-14
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 311 of 474
New York Today: Suburbs in the City
Author: Levine, Alexandra S
Publication info: New York Times (Online) , New York: New York Times Company. Jun 22, 2018.
Abstract:
Friday: Marble Hill in Manhattan, your weekend lineup, and a wheat field off Wall Street.
Full text: Good morning on this clear-to-cloudy Friday. You don’t need to travel far to find serenity on summer weekends. There are parts of the city that feel about as peaceful and airy as the suburbs, often a short subway ride away. Today, we take you to Marble Hill in Manhattan, the first stop in our “Suburbs in the City” series. Marble Hill Avenue, about 100 steps from the 1 train stop at 225th Street and Broadway, resembles a steep San Francisco street, lined with trees and charming three- and four-floor homes, several with brightly painted front doors. A few facades seem to have faces — with windows as eyes, drapes for brows and a terrace or two smiling below. There are picket fences and vine-covered trellises; driveways with basketball hoops; doorways with wind chimes; and medleys of bicycles packed on porches. (Even — gasp — empty curbside parking spaces. And individual family garages.) The settlement has a storied past, a tale of geographic technicalities and borough pride. Marble Hill was originally the northern tip of Manhattan but became an island in 1895 after being cut off by the building of the Harlem Ship Canal. Over the next decades, Spuyten Duyvil Creek (to its north) was filled in, and the land joined with the Bronx but remained, technically, part of Manhattan. So began a cross-borough tug of war. In 1939 , James J. Lyons, the Bronx borough president, planted flags in Marble Hill, claiming it as Bronx territory; residents of Marble Hill banded together to fight the attempted annexation. Today — despite confusion over the border and oversight by Community Board 8 in the Bronx — Marble Hill is still officially part of Manhattan. The Marble Hill Houses, a Nycha development, anchor the bottom of the neighborhood near commercial Broadway; the turn-of-the-century private, residential homes grace the winding roads above. Turnover is low , in case the thought of moving there crossed your mind. But even so, with the swipe of a MetroCard, you can experience a part of Manhattan with no grid — a true suburb in the city. We need your help: Where are other secret neighborhood getaways in the city? We’re looking for places that feel like the suburbs — where the hum of birds replaces the cries of car horns or the smell of grass replaces the stench of garbage, and backyard swing sets and lemonade stands are common. Tell us by filling out the form below. We may feature the neighborhood in a future column. Here’s what else is happening: Weather An up-and-down kind of weekend calling for both umbrellas and sunscreen. Today will grow increasingly cloudy, with a high of 75. Saturday will see rain with a high of 77. And sunny Sunday will be our saving grace, with clear skies and a high of 86. In the News • Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo brought the New York Times along for a rare look inside a center for children separated from their parents at the border. [ New York Times ] • No congressional Democrat in America has lost a primary in 2018. That could change on Tuesday in New York. [ New York Times ] • At the end of the session, lawmakers in Albany left incomplete a large amount of work. [ New York Times ] • Alain E. Kaloyeros, who was once lauded as a genius by Governor Cuomo and played a prominent role in the state’s economic development initiatives, may not have had as great a relationship with the governor as it seems. [ New York Times ] • Hundreds of children have come to New York after being taken from their parents at the country’s southern border. City officials are now scrambling to help them. [ New York Times ] • The SHSAT exam to gain admittance to New York’s elite public schools has come under scrutiny for contributing to school segregation. Here’s how city officials propose to fix it. [ New York Times ] • Alumni, donors and others have filed lawsuits to challenge the sale of Westminster Choir College in Princeton, N.J., to a Chinese firm. [ New York Times ] • Activists gathered at La Guardia Airport to welcome children who were separated from their immigrant parents. [ New York Times ] • The U.S. Court of Appeals warned city officials against the longtime misuse of material witness warrants. [ New York Times ] • Jay-Z, former part-owner of the Brooklyn Nets, has been named the creative director for Puma basketball. [ New York Times ] • Need something to do with the kids this weekend? Here are our ideas. [ New York Times ] • Of all the ratty places to live in New York, Brooklyn is the rattiest. [ Bklyner ] • In SoHo, a new immersive exhibit hopes to boost your mood. [ am New York ] • Today’s Metropolitan Diary: “ Bronx Zoo ” • For a global look at what’s happening, see Your Morning Briefing . Coming Up Today • “ One Spa on a Time ,” a three-day pop-up spa with specialty treatments, performances and more, at Flux Factory in Long Island City, Queens. Times vary. [Free, R.S.V.P. ] • “ Court Yard Fridays ” brings a concert by the Afro-Latin musician Papo Vázquez to the courtyard between Staten Island Borough Hall and the old Supreme Court in St. George. 5 p.m. [Free] • “ Salute to the Crescent City: New Orleans at 300 ,” part of the summer concert series at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. 7 p.m. [$48, tickets here ] • Outdoor movie night: “ Despicable Me 3 ” and “ Back to the Future ” in Queens; “ Wonder Woman ” and “ Pushing Hands ” in Manhattan; “ The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie ” and “ Yogi Bear ” on Staten Island; “ The Art of the Score ” in Brooklyn. Times vary. [Free] • Yankees at Rays, 7:10 p.m. (WPIX). Mets host Dodgers, 7:10 p.m. (SNY). New York Liberty at Las Vegas Aces, 10 p.m. • The World Cup continues! Brazil versus Costa Rica, 8 a.m.; Nigeria versus Iceland, 11 a.m.; Serbia versus Switzerland, 2 p.m. Here’s a guide for where to watch in New York City . • Alternate-side parking remains in effect until July 4. • Weekend travel hassles: Check subway disruptions and a list of street closings . The Weekend Saturday • Children can meet an escape artist and learn about Houdini’s acts as part of “ Summer of Magic ” at the New-York Historical Society on the Upper West Side. 1 to 4 p.m. [Prices vary] • A Superhero Sci-Fi Festival with carnival games , lightsaber-making, comic characters and more, at Heckscher Community Garden in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. 2 to 6 p.m. [Free] • Rising opera stars perform arias and duets in an afternoon show, part of the Metropolitan Opera summer recital series, at Williamsbridge Oval in the Bronx. 3 p.m. [Free] • Outdoor movie night: “ The Lego Ninjago Movie ” in Queens; “ Marshall ” in Harlem; “ Dunkirk ” on Staten Island; “ Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature ” in Brooklyn. Times vary. [Free] • Yankees at Rays, 4:10 p.m. (FS1). New York Red Bulls host F.C. Dallas, 6 p.m. Mets host Dodgers, 7:15 p.m. (FOX). • The World Cup: Belgium versus Tunisia, 8 a.m.; South Korea versus Mexico, 11 a.m.; Germany versus Sweden, 2 p.m. Sunday • New York Road Runners hosts guided morning jogs through Silver Lake Park and Conference House Park on Staten Island. 9 a.m. [Free] • The 2018 Pride March winds through downtown Manhattan , stepping off from 16th Street and Seventh Avenue in Chelsea at noon. This year’s theme: “Defiantly Different.” [Free] • Shakespeare in the Park gives its final performance of “ Othello ” at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. 8 p.m. [Free, tickets here ] • Culture Hub , a pop-up arts center with family-friendly music, theater, food and entertainment, continues through June 30 at Inwood Art Works in northern Manhattan. Times and prices vary. • Yankees at Rays, 1:10 p.m. (YES). Mets host Dodgers, 1:10 p.m. (WPIX). New York City F.C. host Toronto F.C., 5 p.m. (YES). New York Liberty at Los Angeles Sparks, 5 p.m. • The World Cup: England versus Panama, 8 a.m.; Japan versus Senegal, 11 a.m.; Poland versus Colombia, 2 p.m. • For more events, see The New York Times’s Arts & Entertainment guide . And Finally... In 1982, a New Yorker harvested a two-acre field of golden wheat on a landfill off Wall Street — the World Trade Center poking out from behind the blades — over what is now Battery Park City. An unusual sight in a city of skyscrapers. The project by Agnes Denes, called “Wheatfield — A Confrontation,” became one of the most significant artworks in New York history. Decades later, she reappeared in our city with “The Living Pyramid,” a grassy ziggurat at Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens. But it’s not until now, at 87, that Ms. Denes is about to have her first solo show at a major New York institution. T: The New York Times Style Magazine profiled Ms. Denes in its recent art issue , exploring what she has accomplished since that summer in the 1980s and what’s next. (Other local stories in the issue worth checking out: “ The Stories Behind 5 New York Art Scene Legends ” and “ The New York Neighborhood Where the Art Bookstore Is Alive and Well .”) New York Today is a morning roundup that is published weekdays at 6 a.m. If you don’t get it in your inbox already, you can sign up to receive it by email here . For updates throughout the day, like us on Facebook . What would you like to see here to start your day? Post a comment, email us at [email protected] , or reach us via Twitter using #NYToday . Follow the New York Today columnists, Alexandra S. Levine and Jonathan Wolfe , on Twitter. You can find the latest New York Today at nytoday.com . Credit: Alexandra S. Levine
Subject: Social networks; Tournaments & championships; Families & family life; Art; Neighborhoods; Marble
Location: New York
Company / organization: Name: New York Times Co; NAICS: 511110, 511120, 515112, 515120; Name: Twitter Inc; NAICS: 519130
Identifier / keyword: New York City
Publication title: New York Times (Online); New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 22, 2018
Section: nyregion
Publisher: New York Times Company
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Blogs, Podcasts, & Websites
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2057800557
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2057800557?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright 2018 The New York Times Company
Last updated: 2018-06-22
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 312 of 474
Brazilian booty: Trend | A new generation of designers is taking the carnival vibe worldwide. Grace Cook goes searching for treasure [Asia Region]
Author: Cook, Grace
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]23 June 2018: 5. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: B razil is paradise," says the accessories designer Serpui Marie of her home. "My parents were immigrants; they loved the tropical aspect of the country. Our garden was filled with colourful flora and fauna, and we had macaws as pets. We even kept fish in our backyard pool, instead of using it for swimming," she continues. "That vivid childhood continues to inspire me and my designs today." Indeed. Her mood-enhancing collections, under her namesake label, Serpui, include raffia baskets and exotic-bird wicker bags. Based in São Paulo, Serpui is now stocked everywhere, from Bloomingdale's to Shopbop. Serpui is just one of a number of Brazil-based brands currently experiencing a surge in global popularity. Matches Fashion picked up Vanda Jacintho's chunky wooden and resin earrings, bangles and chokers last November; by December, it was the site's best-selling jewellery brand. The etailer has also started stocking the Rio-based bag brand Waiwai. Moda Operandi sells baskets by Nannacay, while ready-to-wear label Isolda's flouncy printed dresses are sold at Luisaviaroma. The luxury resort and swim label Adriana Degreas now retails in more than 30 countries worldwide. So synonymous is Brazil with fun that Frescobol Carioca has created an entire swimwear brand peddling the atmosphere of Rio's beaches to luxury jet-setters — for £120 for a beach bat. Brazil's new position as luxury leader has been driven by the growth of the resortwear category. With their emphasis on colourful beachwear by niche, artisanal designers, these new brands have become some of the most dynamic in retail. "They complement our vacation offer," says Natalie Kingham, buying director of Matches Fashion. "Brazilian designers aren't afraid of colour but their aesthetic is luxurious, which engages our global customer." The brands' relative exclusivity is also to their advantage: "The Brazilian market is relatively untapped as a lot of brands don't show on the international buying calendar," says Kingham. "You have to look for them." The domestic market has also been a trigger. Brazil is home to many highwealth individuals (43 of Latin America's 87 registered billionaires reside in the country, according to Forbes), but its 2014-16 economic crisis offered clients a chance to rethink the local market. "People still shop abroad, but not as much as they did," says the fashion journalist and gallerist turned entrepreneur Gabriella Paschoal. In December, she opened a multi-brand concept store, Pinga, in São Paulo, which stocks a rotating roster of Brazilian labels. "The exchange rate on the dollar and euro has dropped and international goods are now much more expensive. It's made people shop more domestically." Importing is costly. "Tax on importing luxury goods is crazy; Gucci is three times the price," says Jacintho, who formerly worked at Vogue Brazil before founding her label in 2015. Her colourful jewellery, which can take three to four days to hand make and costs up to £520 for a chunky, resin necklace, is also stocked at Barneys and Moda Operandi. "Fifteen years ago, there was no import in Brazil at all," she says. "It's forced us to forge our own sartorial identity. What do you do if you don't have what other countries have? You create." Lane Marinho, who crafts 30 pairs of handmade rope sandals per week from her São Paulo atelier, agrees. "It's made us more expressive. We can create new ways of making things without the weight that comes with years of tradition. That means real freedom." Brazil's resortwear offers something unique. The swimwear is as directional as it is functional: Clube Bossa sells puffsleeved bandeau bikini tops, while Adriana Degreas offers plunge-front swimsuits with belted waists, with turbans and kaftans to match. "We have almost 10 months of summer here, so swimwear is not restricted to sunbathing," says Guilherme Vieira, founder of Clube Bossa. "You wear it to have a coconut water in a kiosk by the seashore, to tan in the pool of a chic hotel, on a boat, in a restaurant ... " And a huge focus is placed on fit. This season, Matches Fashion picked up the swimwear brand Haight. "Their pieces are made from a crepe-Lycra mix that really holds you in," says Kingham. Fit comes with a price tag. Haight's swimsuits cost upwards of £175; Adri-ana Degreas' green printed one-piece sells for £240; while the matching silk kaftan costs £1,065. All the same, says Vieira: "The beach is the most democratic place in a country full of social inequalities. What you wear there has become a tool for differentiation." Degreas produces five annual collections in São Paulo; 150 staff work out of a 2,000 sq foot space in the city. And while her stockist list has tripled in the last three years, 73 per cent of the brand's sales come from Brazil. "Resortwear is in our roots," she says. "We go to work wearing resort brands, we go out at night and mix eveningwear with a bodysuit that you can wear to the beach." Colour is synonymous with these brands. "Colour has a heartbeat and an energy that reflects our enthusiastic way of living," says the accessories designer Paula Cademartori. "We grow up waiting for Carnival day." Artisanal production is equally a focus. Waiwai's raffia and acrylic-mix bags are handcrafted across Brazil. Nannacay's Marcia Kemp sustainably sources her straw baskets from Peru, which are then assembled in Rio. "Global customers value the artisanal craft; they don't need to say, 'I'm wealthy because I'm using a Valentino', like some Brazilian women do," says Kemp. Kemp, who has recently won stockists in Australia, has her sights set on global basket domination. "My brand does not belong to Brazil," she says. "Nannacay is a brand with no frontiers." Global visibility encourages further sales at home, too. "International retailers have brought us more credibility," says founder and former stylist Leo Neves. "Now that we have presence outside of Brazil, local luxury consumers and retailers look for us here." As Brazil's economy looks set to recover — forecasters expect it will grow by 2.2 per cent in 2018 — these new brands could skyrocket. Jacintho has relocated to London to boost her label's European presence, while Adriana Degreas — whose collaboration with the British designer Charlotte Olympia launched this month — will open two stores this year. But what is it specifically that the global fashion consumer finds so intoxicating about Brazilian brands? "We have a special bossa; there is no translation for that word," says Isolda's Affonso Ferreira. "You know, that je ne sais quoi, that spice." Spice: the must-have seasoning for any vacation wardrobe. 'Colour has a heartbeat and an energy that reflects our way of living. We grow up waiting for Carnival day' CREDIT: Grace Cook CAPTION: Clockwise from main: Waiwai SS18; Adriana Degreas SS18 ;
Subject: Clothing; Swimwear; Jewelry; Designers
Location: Australia Brazil Latin America Peru
Company / organization: Name: Bloomingdales; NAICS: 452111; Name: Vogue; NAICS: 511120; Name: Moda Operandi Inc; NAICS: 454111
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 5
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 23, 2018
Section: Life and Arts
Publisher: Th e Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2073878982
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2073878982?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Jun 23, 2018
Last updated: 2018-07-24
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 313 of 474
Brazilian booty: Trend | A new generation of designers is taking the carnival vibe worldwide. Grace Cook goes searching for treasure [Europe Region]
Author: Cook, Grace
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]23 June 2018: 5. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: B razil is paradise," says the accessories designer Serpui Marie of her home. "My parents were immigrants; they loved the tropical aspect of the country. Our garden was filled with colourful flora and fauna, and we had macaws as pets. We even kept fish in our backyard pool, instead of using it for swimming," she continues. "That vivid childhood continues to inspire me and my designs today." Indeed. Her mood-enhancing collections, under her namesake label, Serpui, include raffia baskets and exotic-bird wicker bags. Based in São Paulo, Serpui is now stocked everywhere, from Bloomingdale's to Shopbop. Serpui is just one of a number of Brazil-based brands currently experiencing a surge in global popularity. Matches Fashion picked up Vanda Jacintho's chunky wooden and resin earrings, bangles and chokers last November; by December, it was the site's best-selling jewellery brand. The etailer has also started stocking the Rio-based bag brand Waiwai. Moda Operandi sells baskets by Nannacay, while ready-to-wear label Isolda's flouncy printed dresses are sold at Luisaviaroma. The luxury resort and swim label Adriana Degreas now retails in more than 30 countries worldwide. So synonymous is Brazil with fun that Frescobol Carioca has created an entire swimwear brand peddling the atmosphere of Rio's beaches to luxury jet-setters — for £120 for a beach bat. Brazil's new position as luxury leader has been driven by the growth of the resortwear category. With their emphasis on colourful beachwear by niche, artisanal designers, these new brands have become some of the most dynamic in retail. "They complement our vacation offer," says Natalie Kingham, buying director of Matches Fashion. "Brazilian designers aren't afraid of colour but their aesthetic is luxurious, which engages our global customer." The brands' relative exclusivity is also to their advantage: "The Brazilian market is relatively untapped as a lot of brands don't show on the international buying calendar," says Kingham. "You have to look for them." The domestic market has also been a trigger. Brazil is home to many highwealth individuals (43 of Latin America's 87 registered billionaires reside in the country, according to Forbes), but its 2014-16 economic crisis offered clients a chance to rethink the local market. "People still shop abroad, but not as much as they did," says the fashion journalist and gallerist turned entrepreneur Gabriella Paschoal. In December, she opened a multi-brand concept store, Pinga, in São Paulo, which stocks a rotating roster of Brazilian labels. "The exchange rate on the dollar and euro has dropped and international goods are now much more expensive. It's made people shop more domestically." Importing is costly. "Tax on importing luxury goods is crazy; Gucci is three times the price," says Jacintho, who formerly worked at Vogue Brazil before founding her label in 2015. Her colourful jewellery, which can take three to four days to hand make and costs up to £520 for a chunky, resin necklace, is also stocked at Barneys and Moda Operandi. "Fifteen years ago, there was no import in Brazil at all," she says. "It's forced us to forge our own sartorial identity. What do you do if you don't have what other countries have? You create." Lane Marinho, who crafts 30 pairs of handmade rope sandals per week from her São Paulo atelier, agrees. "It's made us more expressive. We can create new ways of making things without the weight that comes with years of tradition. That means real freedom." Brazil's resortwear offers something unique. The swimwear is as directional as it is functional: Clube Bossa sells puffsleeved bandeau bikini tops, while Adriana Degreas offers plunge-front swimsuits with belted waists, with turbans and kaftans to match. "We have almost 10 months of summer here, so swimwear is not restricted to sunbathing," says Guilherme Vieira, founder of Clube Bossa. "You wear it to have a coconut water in a kiosk by the seashore, to tan in the pool of a chic hotel, on a boat, in a restaurant ... " And a huge focus is placed on fit. This season, Matches Fashion picked up the swimwear brand Haight. "Their pieces are made from a crepe-Lycra mix that really holds you in," says Kingham. Fit comes with a price tag. Haight's swimsuits cost upwards of £175; Adri-ana Degreas' green printed one-piece sells for £240; while the matching silk kaftan costs £1,065. All the same, says Vieira: "The beach is the most democratic place in a country full of social inequalities. What you wear there has become a tool for differentiation." Degreas produces five annual collections in São Paulo; 150 staff work out of a 2,000 sq foot space in the city. And while her stockist list has tripled in the last three years, 73 per cent of the brand's sales come from Brazil. "Resortwear is in our roots," she says. "We go to work wearing resort brands, we go out at night and mix eveningwear with a bodysuit that you can wear to the beach." Colour is synonymous with these brands. "Colour has a heartbeat and an energy that reflects our enthusiastic way of living," says the accessories designer Paula Cademartori. "We grow up waiting for Carnival day." Artisanal production is equally a focus. Waiwai's raffia and acrylic-mix bags are handcrafted across Brazil. Nannacay's Marcia Kemp sustainably sources her straw baskets from Peru, which are then assembled in Rio. "Global customers value the artisanal craft; they don't need to say, 'I'm wealthy because I'm using a Valentino', like some Brazilian women do," says Kemp. Kemp, who has recently won stockists in Australia, has her sights set on global basket domination. "My brand does not belong to Brazil," she says. "Nannacay is a brand with no frontiers." Global visibility encourages further sales at home, too. "International retailers have brought us more credibility," says founder and former stylist Leo Neves. "Now that we have presence outside of Brazil, local luxury consumers and retailers look for us here." As Brazil's economy looks set to recover — forecasters expect it will grow by 2.2 per cent in 2018 — these new brands could skyrocket. Jacintho has relocated to London to boost her label's European presence, while Adriana Degreas — whose collaboration with the British designer Charlotte Olympia launched this month — will open two stores this year. But what is it specifically that the global fashion consumer finds so intoxicating about Brazilian brands? "We have a special bossa; there is no translation for that word," says Isolda's Affonso Ferreira. "You know, that je ne sais quoi, that spice." Spice: the must-have seasoning for any vacation wardrobe. 'Colour has a heartbeat and an energy that reflects our way of living. We grow up waiting for Carnival day' CREDIT: Grace Cook CAPTION: Clockwise from main: Waiwai SS18; Adriana Degreas SS18 ;
Subject: Clothing; Swimwear; Jewelry; Designers
Location: Australia Brazil Latin America Peru
Company / organization: Name: Bloomingdales; NAICS: 452111; Name: Vogue; NAICS: 511120; Name: Moda Operandi Inc; NAICS: 454111
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 5
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 23, 2018
Section: Life and Arts
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2073882710
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2073882710?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Jun 23, 2018
Last updated: 2018-07-24
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 314 of 474
Brazilian booty: Trend | A new generation of designers is taking the carnival vibe worldwide. Grace Cook goes searching for treasure
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]23 June 2018: 5. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: B razil is paradise," says the accessories designer Serpui Marie of her home. "My parents were immigrants; they loved the tropical aspect of the country. Our garden was filled with colourful flora and fauna, and we had macaws as pets. We even kept fish in our backyard pool, instead of using it for swimming," she continues. "That vivid childhood continues to inspire me and my designs today." Indeed. Her mood-enhancing collections, under her namesake label, Serpui, include raffia baskets and exotic-bird wicker bags. Based in São Paulo, Serpui is now stocked everywhere, from Bloomingdale's to Shopbop. Serpui is just one of a number of Brazil-based brands currently experiencing a surge in global popularity. Matches Fashion picked up Vanda Jacintho's chunky wooden and resin earrings, bangles and chokers last November; by December, it was the site's best-selling jewellery brand. The etailer has also started stocking the Rio-based bag brand Waiwai. Moda Operandi sells baskets by Nannacay, while ready-to-wear label Isolda's flouncy printed dresses are sold at Luisaviaroma. The luxury resort and swim label Adriana Degreas now retails in more than 30 countries worldwide. So synonymous is Brazil with fun that Frescobol Carioca has created an entire swimwear brand peddling the atmosphere of Rio's beaches to luxury jet-setters — for £120 for a beach bat. Brazil's new position as luxury leader has been driven by the growth of the resortwear category. With their emphasis on colourful beachwear by niche, artisanal designers, these new brands have become some of the most dynamic in retail. "They complement our vacation offer," says Natalie Kingham, buying director of Matches Fashion. "Brazilian designers aren't afraid of colour but their aesthetic is luxurious, which engages our global customer." The brands' relative exclusivity is also to their advantage: "The Brazilian market is relatively untapped as a lot of brands don't show on the international buying calendar," says Kingham. "You have to look for them." The domestic market has also been a trigger. Brazil is home to many highwealth individuals (43 of Latin America's 87 registered billionaires reside in the country, according to Forbes), but its 2014-16 economic crisis offered clients a chance to rethink the local market. "People still shop abroad, but not as much as they did," says the fashion journalist and gallerist turned entrepreneur Gabriella Paschoal. In December, she opened a multi-brand concept store, Pinga, in São Paulo, which stocks a rotating roster of Brazilian labels. "The exchange rate on the dollar and euro has dropped and international goods are now much more expensive. It's made people shop more domestically." Importing is costly. "Tax on importing luxury goods is crazy; Gucci is three times the price," says Jacintho, who formerly worked at Vogue Brazil before founding her label in 2015. Her colourful jewellery, which can take three to four days to hand make and costs up to £520 for a chunky, resin necklace, is also stocked at Barneys and Moda Operandi. "Fifteen years ago, there was no import in Brazil at all," she says. "It's forced us to forge our own sartorial identity. What do you do if you don't have what other countries have? You create." Lane Marinho, who crafts 30 pairs of handmade rope sandals per week from her São Paulo atelier, agrees. "It's made us more expressive. We can create new ways of making things without the weight that comes with years of tradition. That means real freedom." Brazil's resortwear offers something unique. The swimwear is as directional as it is functional: Clube Bossa sells puffsleeved bandeau bikini tops, while Adriana Degreas offers plunge-front swimsuits with belted waists, with turbans and kaftans to match. "We have almost 10 months of summer here, so swimwear is not restricted to sunbathing," says Guilherme Vieira, founder of Clube Bossa. "You wear it to have a coconut water in a kiosk by the seashore, to tan in the pool of a chic hotel, on a boat, in a restaurant ... " And a huge focus is placed on fit. This season, Matches Fashion picked up the swimwear brand Haight. "Their pieces are made from a crepe-Lycra mix that really holds you in," says Kingham. Fit comes with a price tag. Haight's swimsuits cost upwards of £175; Adri-ana Degreas' green printed one-piece sells for £240; while the matching silk kaftan costs £1,065. All the same, says Vieira: "The beach is the most democratic place in a country full of social inequalities. What you wear there has become a tool for differentiation." Degreas produces five annual collections in São Paulo; 150 staff work out of a 2,000 sq foot space in the city. And while her stockist list has tripled in the last three years, 73 per cent of the brand's sales come from Brazil. "Resortwear is in our roots," she says. "We go to work wearing resort brands, we go out at night and mix eveningwear with a bodysuit that you can wear to the beach." Colour is synonymous with these brands. "Colour has a heartbeat and an energy that reflects our enthusiastic way of living," says the accessories designer Paula Cademartori. "We grow up waiting for Carnival day." Artisanal production is equally a focus. Waiwai's raffia and acrylic-mix bags are handcrafted across Brazil. Nannacay's Marcia Kemp sustainably sources her straw baskets from Peru, which are then assembled in Rio. "Global customers value the artisanal craft; they don't need to say, 'I'm wealthy because I'm using a Valentino', like some Brazilian women do," says Kemp. Kemp, who has recently won stockists in Australia, has her sights set on global basket domination. "My brand does not belong to Brazil," she says. "Nannacay is a brand with no frontiers." Global visibility encourages further sales at home, too. "International retailers have brought us more credibility," says founder and former stylist Leo Neves. "Now that we have presence outside of Brazil, local luxury consumers and retailers look for us here." As Brazil's economy looks set to recover — forecasters expect it will grow by 2.2 per cent in 2018 — these new brands could skyrocket. Jacintho has relocated to London to boost her label's European presence, while Adriana Degreas — whose collaboration with the British designer Charlotte Olympia launched this month — will open two stores this year. But what is it specifically that the global fashion consumer finds so intoxicating about Brazilian brands? "We have a special bossa; there is no translation for that word," says Isolda's Affonso Ferreira. "You know, that je ne sais quoi, that spice." Spice: the must-have seasoning for any vacation wardrobe. 'Colour has a heartbeat and an energy that reflects our way of living. We grow up waiting for Carnival day' CAPTION: Clockwise from main: Waiwai SS18; Adriana Degreas SS18 ;
Subject: Clothing; Swimwear; Jewelry; Designers
Location: Australia Brazil Latin America Peru
Company / organization: Name: Bloomingdales; NAICS: 452111; Name: Vogue; NAICS: 511120; Name: Moda Operandi Inc; NAICS: 454111
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 5
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 23, 2018
Section: Life and Arts
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Placeof publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2073886866
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2073886866?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Jun 23, 2018
Last updated: 2018-07-24
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 315 of 474
Brazilian booty: Trend | A new generation of designers is taking the carnival vibe worldwide. Grace Cook goes searching for treasure [Usa Region]
Author: Cook, Grace
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]23 June 2018: 5.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: B razil is paradise," says the accessories designer Serpui Marie of her home. "My parents were immigrants; they loved the tropical aspect of the country. Our garden was filled with colourful flora and fauna, and we had macaws as pets. We even kept fish in our backyard pool, instead of using it for swimming," she continues. "That vivid childhood continues to inspire me and my designs today." Indeed. Her mood-enhancing collections, under her namesake label, Serpui, include raffia baskets and exotic-bird wicker bags. Based in São Paulo, Serpui is now stocked everywhere, from Bloomingdale's to Shopbop. Serpui is just one of a number of Brazil-based brands currently experiencing a surge in global popularity. Matches Fashion picked up Vanda Jacintho's chunky wooden and resin earrings, bangles and chokers last November; by December, it was the site's best-selling jewellery brand. The etailer has also started stocking the Rio-based bag brand Waiwai. Moda Operandi sells baskets by Nannacay, while ready-to-wear label Isolda's flouncy printed dresses are sold at Luisaviaroma. The luxury resort and swim label Adriana Degreas now retails in more than 30 countries worldwide. So synonymous is Brazil with fun that Frescobol Carioca has created an entire swimwear brand peddling the atmosphere of Rio's beaches to luxury jet-setters — for £120 for a beach bat. Brazil's new position as luxury leader has been driven by the growth of the resortwear category. With their emphasis on colourful beachwear by niche, artisanal designers, these new brands have become some of the most dynamic in retail. "They complement our vacation offer," says Natalie Kingham, buying director of Matches Fashion. "Brazilian designers aren't afraid of colour but their aesthetic is luxurious, which engages our global customer." The brands' relative exclusivity is also to their advantage: "The Brazilian market is relatively untapped as a lot of brands don't show on the international buying calendar," says Kingham. "You have to look for them." The domestic market has also been a trigger. Brazil is home to many highwealth individuals (43 of Latin America's 87 registered billionaires reside in the country, according to Forbes), but its 2014-16 economic crisis offered clients a chance to rethink the local market. "People still shop abroad, but not as much as they did," says the fashion journalist and gallerist turned entrepreneur Gabriella Paschoal. In December, she opened a multi-brand concept store, Pinga, in São Paulo, which stocks a rotating roster of Brazilian labels. "The exchange rate on the dollar and euro has dropped and international goods are now much more expensive. It's made people shop more domestically." Importing is costly. "Tax on importing luxury goods is crazy; Gucci is three times the price," says Jacintho, who formerly worked at Vogue Brazil before founding her label in 2015. Her colourful jewellery, which can take three to four days to hand make and costs up to £520 for a chunky, resin necklace, is also stocked at Barneys and Moda Operandi. "Fifteen years ago, there was no import in Brazil at all," she says. "It's forced us to forge our own sartorial identity. What do you do if you don't have what other countries have? You create." Lane Marinho, who crafts 30 pairs of handmade rope sandals per week from her São Paulo atelier, agrees. "It's made us more expressive. We can create new ways of making things without the weight that comes with years of tradition. That means real freedom." Brazil's resortwear offers something unique. The swimwear is as directional as it is functional: Clube Bossa sells puffsleeved bandeau bikini tops, while Adriana Degreas offers plunge-front swimsuits with belted waists, with turbans and kaftans to match. "We have almost 10 months of summer here, so swimwear is not restricted to sunbathing," says Guilherme Vieira, founder of Clube Bossa. "You wear it to have a coconut water in a kiosk by the seashore, to tan in the pool of a chic hotel, on a boat, in a restaurant ... " And a huge focus is placed on fit. This season, Matches Fashion picked up the swimwear brand Haight. "Their pieces are made from a crepe-Lycra mix that really holds you in," says Kingham. Fit comes with a price tag. Haight's swimsuits cost upwards of £175; Adri-ana Degreas' green printed one-piece sells for £240; while the matching silk kaftan costs £1,065. All the same, says Vieira: "The beach is the most democratic place in a country full of social inequalities. What you wear there has become a tool for differentiation." Degreas produces five annual collections in São Paulo; 150 staff work out of a 2,000 sq foot space in the city. And while her stockist list has tripled in the last three years, 73 per cent of the brand's sales come from Brazil. "Resortwear is in our roots," she says. "We go to work wearing resort brands, we go out at night and mix eveningwear with a bodysuit that you can wear to the beach." Colour is synonymous with these brands. "Colour has a heartbeat and an energy that reflects our enthusiastic way of living," says the accessories designer Paula Cademartori. "We grow up waiting for Carnival day." Artisanal production is equally a focus. Waiwai's raffia and acrylic-mix bags are handcrafted across Brazil. Nannacay's Marcia Kemp sustainably sources her straw baskets from Peru, which are then assembled in Rio. "Global customers value the artisanal craft; they don't need to say, 'I'm wealthy because I'm using a Valentino', like some Brazilian women do," says Kemp. Kemp, who has recently won stockists in Australia, has her sights set on global basket domination. "My brand does not belong to Brazil," she says. "Nannacay is a brand with no frontiers." Global visibility encourages further sales at home, too. "International retailers have brought us more credibility," says founder and former stylist Leo Neves. "Now that we have presence outside of Brazil, local luxury consumers and retailers look for us here." As Brazil's economy looks set to recover — forecasters expect it will grow by 2.2 per cent in 2018 — these new brands could skyrocket. Jacintho has relocated to London to boost her label's European presence, while Adriana Degreas — whose collaboration with the British designer Charlotte Olympia launched this month — will open two stores this year. But what is it specifically that the global fashion consumer finds so intoxicating about Brazilian brands? "We have a special bossa; there is no translation for that word," says Isolda's Affonso Ferreira. "You know, that je ne sais quoi, that spice." Spice: the must-have seasoning for any vacation wardrobe. 'Colour has a heartbeat and an energy that reflects our way of living. We grow up waiting for Carnival day' CREDIT: Grace Cook CAPTION: Clockwise from main: Waiwai SS18; Adriana Degreas SS18 ;
Subject: Clothing; Swimwear; Jewelry; Designers
Location: Australia Brazil Latin America Peru
Company / organization: Name: Bloomingdales; NAICS: 452111; Name: Vogue; NAICS: 511120; Name: Moda Operandi Inc; NAICS: 454111
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 5
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 23, 2018
Section: Life and Arts
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2073888886
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2073888886?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Jun 23, 2018
Last updated: 2018-07-24
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 316 of 474
Tulio Andrade: 'Diversity is beautiful'
Author: Williamson, Claire
Publication info: TCA Regional News ; Chicago [Chicago]24 June 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: June 24--Name: Tulio Andrade Age: 33 Nationality: Brazilian Occupation: Cultural Attache at the Brazilian Embassy Likes: Freedom, arts, architecture, music, outdoor activities, philosophy, harmony Dislikes: Natto (fermented beans), repression, narrow-mindedness, pretentiousness ------ 1. How did you get from Brazil to Tokyo? I joined the Brazilian Foreign Service in 2009 and was posted to Brazil's Embassy in London in 2014 before coming to Japan at the beginning of 2018. Living in Tokyo has always appealed to me as a fundamentally Eastern experience that could tremendously expand my perspective in life. 2. What do you miss most about Brazil? Family, friends ... and the carnival. 3. Describe your role at the Brazilian Embassy in three words. Representation, information, negotiation. 4. How effective is soft power? I believe soft power is the capacity to influence behavior through "attractiveness." Attraction is powerful because it is sustainable in the long term, but it's also more challenging to gain and manage. 5. Is there an aspect of Brazilian culture you want to see adopted in Japan? Diversity. It is beautiful to witness the heterogeneity of colors, origins, customs and traditions within Brazilian society, including what we gained from Japanese immigration. This year marks 110 years of "human bonds" between Brazil and Japan. 6. If you could work with any Japanese icon for an event, who would you pick? I would be delighted to collaborate with Pikotaro, who has been personally engaged in the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). One of our main cultural projects at the embassy is the concept "From Rio to Tokyo," in relation to the Olympic and Paralympic Games. We expect to promote sustainability. 7. How do you manage the challenges of working in an international group? I try to manage cultural differences through openness, humility and detachment. Sharing different visions can be extremely enriching, but it has to be a horizontal exercise to be truly effective. 8. What are the essential tools of your trade? In any circumstance, the only tools that are absolutely essential to fulfilling my needs are my intellect and my emotions. 9. You are upfront about your sexuality. Did you have any concerns about being LGBTQ in Japan? I had no concerns about being gay in Japan because the country has no notable record of physical violence against the LGBTQ community. But I was surprised by the extent to which sexual orientation and gender identity are subject to social pressure here. 10. What challenges have you confronted being gay in Japan? A feeling that I had to constantly "get out of the closet" in Japan, which is out-of-date in relation to where I am in my own life and where Brazil and the U.K. are in terms of LGBTQ rights recognition. 11. Where are the most LGBTQ-friendly places in Tokyo? Cultural and art-related venues tend to be LGBTQ-friendly, because if they fail to promote freedom of expression they would forfeit their own purpose. 12. What is the best and worst thing about being out in Japan? I feel my level of comfort in my homosexuality and my own experience is inspiring to other people. The worst part is being confronted with cases of individuals who are subject to so much social pressure that they have no hope of living the way they want. 13. Do you have any advice for someone who is considering coming out in Japan? Go on and persevere. Coming out is a hard and sometimes long process, but it is worthwhile. It made me so much happier, stronger, more resilient and more respected by those who truly deserve my respect. 14. What would make the world a better place? If people were more empathetic. 15. What would you title your memoir? "The Revolution of Everyday Life." This actually comes from a 1967 book by Raoul Vaneigem. Impermanence is a constitutive nature of my character and something I learned to accept. 16. Favorite movie quote? "With great power comes great responsibility," from "Spider-Man." 17. What do you always have in your refrigerator? Water, milk, orange juice, Greek yogurt, cheese, eggs and wine. 18. If you had a signature scent, what would you call it and what would it smell like? "Grama" (which means both grass and gram in Portuguese). It would smell like lemongrass. 19. All-you-can-eat churrascarias -- good or bad? I must say there are very nice Brazilian churrascarias in Tokyo. What is important is to avoid overeating and food waste. 20. Who is going to win the 2018 FIFA World Cup? The politically correct answer would be that everyone wins ... but what I really want to say is Brazil. LATEST PEOPLE STORIES Child star: At age 5, Haruka Kuroda knew she wanted to be an actress and has since appeared in TV dramas, such as "Killing Eve," "Jonathan Creek" and "The Bill." Haruka Kuroda: Taking advantage of stereotypes Best-known for her role voicing Noodle in Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett's virtual band Gorillaz, Haruka Kuroda has been working in the British entertainment industry for nearly two decades. The... CREDIT: By Claire Williamson
Subject: Paralympic Games; Power; Diplomatic & consular services
Location: Brazil United Kingdom--UK Japan
People: Albarn, Damon
Company / organization: Name: United Nations--UN; NAICS: 928120; Name: Federation Internationale de Football Association--FIFA; NAICS: 813990; Name: Gorillaz; NAICS: 711130
Publication title: TCA Regional News; Chicago
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 24, 2018
Publisher: Tribune Content Agency LLC
Place of publication: Chicago
Country of publication: United States, Chicago
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2058332163
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2058332163?accountid=4840
Copyright: (c)2018 the Japan Times (Tokyo) Visit the Japan Times (Tokyo) at www.japantimes.co.jp/ Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Last updated: 2018-06-24
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 317 of 474
In Russia, a safe environment for fans to enjoy the Beautiful Game
Author: Singh, Malminderjit
Publication info: The Business Times ; Singapore [Singapore]25 June 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Moscow ARMED with four match tickets, lots of paraphernalia and bellies of passion, I joined a group of 16 other Singaporeans to head to Russia to watch the World Cup. We departed on June 14 - the first day of the month-long tournament - to begin our two-week adventure. Admittedly, although I was excited at the prospect of going to football's holy grail once again, I had my doubts over whether the trip would be a success. There were concerns among the scores of travelling fans in Russia, with issues such as racism and credit card fraud high on their minds. Having been to the last World Cup in Brazil in 2014, I also wondered if this year's tournament - this is the first time Russia is hosting the quadrennial event - would be able to live up to the electric atmosphere the Brazilians managed to create. After all, Brazil lives, eats and breathes football so to many people, including this writer, I felt it would be difficult for any other host country to match those high standards. After being here for more than a week now, I am happy to note that Russia has provided a very safe environment for World Cup fans to enjoy the Beautiful Game. Just as in Brazil, the presence of uniformed security forces has helped marshall large crowds, sometimes overzealously, while local Russians have been very hospitable. What has surprised me most has been the atmosphere and here is where it differs from the last tournament in Brazil. While every street corner in Brazil boasted a carnival World Cup atmosphere, in Russia that has been contained, with little or even no indication of the country hosting the World Cup. Even at Moscow's international airport, the gateway to most of the fans coming into the country, there was hardly any trace of the World Cup except for a small banner on the screen above the baggage collection belt. However, if you proceed to Moscow's famed Red Square, or any of the designated fan zones, you will immediately be transported to a different environment altogether. Throngs of singing and dancing football fans, mostly from South America, create an unforgettable experience as crowds of curious and giggling Russians join in this carnival. But where the atmosphere has been contained, the Russian government has characteristically pulled no punches in ensuring that the administrative details of the fans' experience are taken care of. There are the unique Fan ID passes that were mailed in advance to every fan around the world who was planning to go to Russia. These first-of-its-kind passes need to be produced along with a valid match ticket to enter the stadium. There are also free overnight sleeper trains for fans to shuttle back and forth between the 11 host cities. It is evident that Russia, as the host nation, has prioritised administrative and security efficiency over the marketing of the tournament. Another feature of the World Cup that has divided opinions so far has been the use of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) for the first time to help referees make crucial decisions during the matches. The purists feel that it is disruptive to the natural flow of the game and takes away the excitement and frustration that dubious referee calls previously produced. Others, particularly the younger fans, feel that it allows for more equitable and fair judgment during matches. That may have been true, except that the use of the VAR has been anything but consistent. Before introducing it at the World Cup, Fifa - the world governing body of football - could have done better to ensure that referees have better context on when the VAR should be used, for which decisions and how the footage should be evaluated. Then, perhaps, it would have met its intended purpose and not be a distraction to a free-flowing game. Lastly, this tournament has certainly not gone well for many of the favourites at all. Argentina has struggled with only one point from two games, while the defending champions Germany lost its first game to Mexico but rebounded to beat Sweden with an injury-time goal. The likes of Spain, Brazil and France have all managed to accumulate points but have not really impressed anyone. So, what is behind this slide? At the risk of over generalising, I offer that the decline of the favourites is not new and the writing has been on the wall if one looks at recent international footballing tournaments. Are we then seeing a shift in the balance of power in football? Perhaps, but most likely it will take place gradually. You will still see Germany, Brazil and Spain rule the football world for the next few years but the time seems ripe for many others, like Portugal, Mexico and Croatia, to move up the ranks to the top tier. Clearly, this hypothesis requires much more analysis, and it is one that I shall ponder over during my next overnight train ride in Russia. CREDIT: Malminderjit Singh CAPTION: Singaporean Malminderjit Singh (standing, fifth from left) and his football-mad Singapore contingent are currently in Russia for two weeks to catch four matches at the World Cup.
Subject: Tournaments & championships; Soccer
Location: Sweden Croatia Mexico Spain Russia Germany Singapore South America Portugal Argentina Brazil France
Publication title: The Business Times; Singapore
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 25, 2018
column: WORLD CUP 2018
Section: Life & Culture
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: Singapore
Country of publication: United Kingdom, Singapore
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2058462850
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2058462850?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright © 2018 Singapore Press Holdings
Last updated: 2018-06-25
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 318 of 474
Coke Turns Into Fanta In New Campaign To Fight Homophobic Slurs
Publication info: B & T Weekly ; Surry Hills (Jun 25, 2018).
Abstract: None available.
Full text: As any gay man will tell you, when it comes to insults, they’ve probably heard them all - Pillow biter, fairy or sword swallower to name just a few inappropriate ones. However, Coca-Cola in Brazil has turned a common local insult into a strong anti-homophobia campaign. Apparently, “this Coke’s a Fanta” is a common insult to describe gay men in the South American country. And now Coke in Brazil’s done that. Introduced a can of Coke full of Fanta. The TVC states: “A single can turned a homophobic expression into a symbol of Pride.” The phrase became a hit during Brazil’s annual Carnival earlier this year, with many taking to social media to express how much they liked it. It even got the attention of Brazil’s hugely successful drag entertainer Pabllo Vittar. She said on Instagram: “I am amazed by Coke Fanta!” Check the ad out below: Sign in with LinkedIn Please login with linkedin to comment Ad campaigns Coca Cola homophobia
Subject: Homophobia; Soft drink industry; Gays & lesbians
Location: Brazil
Company / organization: Name: LinkedIn Corp; NAICS: 518210
Publication title: B & T Weekly; Surry Hills
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 25, 2018
Section: Campaigns
Publisher: The Misfits Media Company Pty Ltd.
Place of publication: Surry Hills
Country of publication: Australia, Surry Hills
Publication subject: Advertising And Public Relations, Business And Economics--Marketing And Purchasing
ISSN: 13259210
Source type: Trade Journals
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2058829869
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2058829869?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Misfits Media Company Pty Ltd. Jun 25, 2018
Last updated: 2018-06-27
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 319 of 474
Auto & Transport Roundup: Market Talk
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]25 June 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
The latest Market Talks covering the Auto and Transport sector. Published exclusively on at 4:20 ET, 12:20 ET and 16:50 ET.
1546 GMT - European shares fall 2.1% as tech stocks lose ground in the face of trade-war jitters and cruise operator Carnival encounters choppy waters. The Stoxx Europe 600 drops 7.96 points to 377.05 while Germany's DAX declines 2.5% and France's CAC 40 retreats 1.9%. "Indices across the world have fallen sharply, as trade war fears prompt another reduction in risk appetite," says Chris Beauchamp at IG. "It seems the U.S. is hell-bent on falling out with everyone," he adds. Carnival drops 11% after it cut its full-year outlook. Semiconductor makers fall and Eutelsat drops 6.2% on fears that it will get involved in a bidding war for rival Inmarsat, whose shares rose 4.3%. ([email protected])
1423 GMT - A major truckers strike in Brazil last month is to blame for a widening in the country's current-account deficit, the central bank said today. The 12-month deficit widened to $13B as of May, from $8.9B as of April. The strike halted transportation for 10 days, disrupting cargo getting to seaports and all but stopping foreign trade, a significant element of current accounts. Still, the country managed to pull off a monthly surplus of $729M, much lower than the $2.8Bllion of a year earlier, but higher than the $620M recorded in April. ([email protected]; @ptrevisani)
1235 GMT - The so-called FANG+ index in the U.S. is on track to outpace Nasdaq's gains during the Millennium tech bubble, raising fears of another market crash, says A.J. Bell. The brokerage notes that the index--which includes Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google owner Alphabet, Nvidia, Tesla, Baidu, Tencent and Twitter--has just passed the 3,000 level for the first time. "Those who remember how the technology, media and telecoms bubble burst will shake their heads at how shares in Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Alphabet are performing," says A.J. Bell's Russ Mould. "The Nasdaq's collapse in 2000 to 2002 does look to offer a stark warning to those investors who argue it's different this time."([email protected])
1218 GMT - Harley-Davidson shares fell in heavy trade Friday, and now the bike maker announces it is shifting some production to counter tariffs imposed by the EU, its one island of growth in a tough market. Europe accounts for more than 15% of sales, but Harley will have to accept a hit to margins to avoid growth slowing. One danger is that ongoing trade talks with India -- where it already makes bikes -- falter and unleash fresh tariffs on imported components. Shares down 1.7% in pre-open trading. ([email protected]; @dougcameron)
0938 GMT - European shares fall as tech stocks and car makers take a hit from the latest trade spat between the U.S. and China. The Stoxx Europe 600 drops 1%, or 3.91 points, to 381.1 after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 20% tariff on EU cars on Friday. The biggest faller among car makers was Ferrari, down 2.5%, followed by Porsche, Volkswagen and Renault. Also facing pressure were tech stocks such as Siltronic, down 4.3%, Micro Focus International declining 4.3% and BE Semiconductor Industries, falling 4%. ([email protected])
0921 GMT - "It comes as no surprise to see European car manufacturers taking a hit in early trade, with Trump threatening to impose a 20% tariff on EU cars on Friday," says brokerage IG, adding that relations between the U.S. and its allies seem to be deteriorating further. "It is clear that this disruption is not going away any time soon," it says, noting that the People's Bank of China has cut capital reserve requirements to free up funding in the face of a trade-war-induced economic slowdown. The Stoxx Europe Autos & Parts trades 1.7% lower. ([email protected]; @mxbernhard)
0847 GMT - Europe's automotive industry is facing substantial risks from escalating trade disputes with the U.S., says Kepler Cheuvreux. "As long as Europe remains reluctant to engage the reassessment of its strategic relationship with America directly, at the highest level, it seems reasonable to assume that U.S. import tariffs on autos will come eventually," it says. The brokerage cuts its sector rating to underweight from neutral. A 20% tariff, as threatened by President Trump, would make exporting cars to the U.S. unprofitable, it says. Worries over potential tariffs have led to a risk premium, but "European autos will probably be a buy once the tariff damage is clear," KC adds. The Stoxx Europe Autos & Parts trades 1.4% lower. ([email protected]; @mxbernhard)
0653 GMT - The outlook for steelmaking coal will depend on output from mines in Australia and China, says Wood Mackenzie as the consultancy cuts its 2018 prediction on the former 1%. As the price outlook overall for Australian supply "should improve," the consultancy predicts the dispute between railroader Aurizon and the Queensland government on pricing "is likely to affect supplies" at least through September. ([email protected]; @RhiannonHoyle)
0357 GMT - Additional flight capacity to Germany, Poland and the UK boosted Singapore-Europe air traffic by 17% in May. That as increases have been modest in closer-to-home activity between Singapore and places like China and India. With Singapore Air due to resume nonstop flights to New York and possibly two more US cities, long-haul activity will increase further--good news for the likes of airport-service providers SATS. Overall passenger movements rose 5.8% from a year earlier in May at Changi Airport. ([email protected])
0305 GMT - Shares of Cathay Pacific were under pressure after traffic data out last week showed weaker May passenger levels. But Daiwa turns bullish on the stock and boosts its price target 3.6% to HK$14.50 following Friday's analyst meeting, with the investment bank anticipating "strong yield improvement in 2018." That as higher fuel costs have been "mostly factor in" Cathay's current HK$13.04 stock price, up 7.6% this year to outpace the broader market but down 12% from March's high. Daiwa also highlights the carrier's "robust" cargo business and the potential that Hong Kong will allow Cathay to raise its fuel surcharge. ([email protected]; @chester_yung)
0119 GMT - A jump in property sales at Malaysia's logistics firm Tiong Nam prompts an upgrade to buy at TA Securities. Tiong Nam has recently locked in deal worth MYR85 million ($21.2 million) as the company says the current 3-month tax-free window in Malaysia after GST was killed has encouraged buyers to snap up commercial properties. TA says the sales uptick has mitigated its previous concern about Tiong Nam's cash flow. Its stock target has also risen 8.4% to MYR1.16. Shares are down 25% this year at MYR1. ([email protected]; @yantoultra)
2359 GMT - Canaccord remains bullish about AMA despite the demise of Blackstone's A$508 million ($378 million) bid for its vehicle-panel repair operations. AMA said Friday that Australia's tax office had refused its request for relief, prompting AMA to halt the deal. Shares slid 3.1% as a result. Even if Blackstone doesn't revisit its offer, the investment bank says AMA's future looks good because the panel division continues to expand, AMA's balance sheet is in good shape and management can still grow the automotive-procurement business. Shares have fallen 8.7% this year. ([email protected]; @dwinningWSJ)
(END)
June 25, 2018 12:20 ET (16:20 GMT)
Subject: Investments; Technology stocks; Automobile sales; Automobile industry; Tariffs; Surcharges; Stock exchanges
Location: United Kingdom--UK Malaysia Australia Hong Kong Poland Brazil France Europe Queensland Australia United States--US New York India Germany Singapore China
People: Trump, Donald J
Company / organization: Name: Renault SA; NAICS: 336111; Name: Peoples Bank of China; NAICS: 521110; Name: Eutelsat; NAICS: 517410; Name: Netflix Inc; NAICS: 512120, 518210, 532230; Name: Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd; NAICS: 481111; Name: Facebook Inc; NAICS: 518210, 519130; Name: Changi Airport Group; NAICS: 488119; Name: Twitter Inc; NAICS: 519130; Name: Harley-Davidson Inc; NAICS: 336111, 336213, 336214, 336991; Name: Volkswagen AG; NAICS: 336111, 336390; Name: Google Inc; NAICS: 334310, 519130
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 25, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2058864802
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2058864802?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Jun 25, 2018
Last updated: 2018-06-26
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 320 of 474
Auto & Transport Roundup: Market Talk
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]25 June 2018. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
The latest Market Talks covering the Auto and Transport sector. Published exclusively on at 4:20 ET, 12:20 ET and 16:50 ET.
1339 ET - Atlas Air says it will have 22 Boeing 767 freighters operating for Amazon by year end, including two cargo jets kept as spares. Atlas already has 15 of the planes in service and said it was on track to have the expected 20 flying by year end. The two spares hadn't been previously disclosed, and suggest the high tempo of Amazon's operations are pushing it to evolve its existing fleet plan. ATSG already operates 20 jets on behalf of Amazon's Prime Air unit. ([email protected]; @dougcameron)
1146 ET - European shares fall 2.1% as tech stocks lose ground in the face of trade-war jitters and cruise operator Carnival encounters choppy waters. The Stoxx Europe 600 drops 7.96 points to 377.05 while Germany's DAX declines 2.5% and France's CAC 40 retreats 1.9%. "Indices across the world have fallen sharply, as trade war fears prompt another reduction in risk appetite," says Chris Beauchamp at IG. "It seems the U.S. is hell-bent on falling out with everyone," he adds. Carnival drops 11% after it cut its full-year outlook. Semiconductor makers fall and Eutelsat drops 6.2% on fears that it will get involved in a bidding war for rival Inmarsat, whose shares rose 4.3%. ([email protected])
1023 ET - A major truckers strike in Brazil last month is to blame for a widening in the country's current-account deficit, the central bank said today. The 12-month deficit widened to $13B as of May, from $8.9B as of April. The strike halted transportation for 10 days, disrupting cargo getting to seaports and all but stopping foreign trade, a significant element of current accounts. Still, the country managed to pull off a monthly surplus of $729M, much lower than the $2.8Bllion of a year earlier, but higher than the $620M recorded in April. ([email protected]; @ptrevisani)
0835 ET - The so-called FANG+ index in the U.S. is on track to outpace Nasdaq's gains during the Millennium tech bubble, raising fears of another market crash, says A.J. Bell. The brokerage notes that the index--which includes Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google owner Alphabet, Nvidia, Tesla, Baidu, Tencent and Twitter--has just passed the 3,000 level for the first time. "Those who remember how the technology, media and telecoms bubble burst will shake their heads at how shares in Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Alphabet are performing," says A.J. Bell's Russ Mould. "The Nasdaq's collapse in 2000 to 2002 does look to offer a stark warning to those investors who argue it's different this time."([email protected])
0818 ET - Harley-Davidson shares fell in heavy trade Friday, and now the bike maker announces it is shifting some production to counter tariffs imposed by the EU, its one island of growth in a tough market. Europe accounts for more than 15% of sales, but Harley will have to accept a hit to margins to avoid growth slowing. One danger is that ongoing trade talks with India -- where it already makes bikes -- falter and unleash fresh tariffs on imported components. Shares down 1.7% in pre-open trading. ([email protected]; @dougcameron)
0538 ET - European shares fall as tech stocks and car makers take a hit from the latest trade spat between the U.S. and China. The Stoxx Europe 600 drops 1%, or 3.91 points, to 381.1 after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 20% tariff on EU cars on Friday. The biggest faller among car makers was Ferrari, down 2.5%, followed by Porsche, Volkswagen and Renault. Also facing pressure were tech stocks such as Siltronic, down 4.3%, Micro Focus International declining 4.3% and BE Semiconductor Industries, falling 4%. ([email protected])
0521 ET - "It comes as no surprise to see European car manufacturers taking a hit in early trade, with Trump threatening to impose a 20% tariff on EU cars on Friday," says brokerage IG, adding that relations between the U.S. and its allies seem to be deteriorating further. "It is clear that this disruption is not going away any time soon," it says, noting that the People's Bank of China has cut capital reserve requirements to free up funding in the face of a trade-war-induced economic slowdown. The Stoxx Europe Autos & Parts trades 1.7% lower. ([email protected]; @mxbernhard)
0447 ET - Europe's automotive industry is facing substantial risks from escalating trade disputes with the U.S., says Kepler Cheuvreux. "As long as Europe remains reluctant to engage the reassessment of its strategic relationship with America directly, at the highest level, it seems reasonable to assume that U.S. import tariffs on autos will come eventually," it says. The brokerage cuts its sector rating to underweight from neutral. A 20% tariff, as threatened by President Trump, would make exporting cars to the U.S. unprofitable, it says. Worries over potential tariffs have led to a risk premium, but "European autos will probably be a buy once the tariff damage is clear," KC adds. The Stoxx Europe Autos & Parts trades 1.4% lower. ([email protected]; @mxbernhard)
0253 ET - The outlook for steelmaking coal will depend on output from mines in Australia and China, says Wood Mackenzie as the consultancy cuts its 2018 prediction on the former 1%. As the price outlook overall for Australian supply "should improve," the consultancy predicts the dispute between railroader Aurizon and the Queensland government on pricing "is likely to affect supplies" at least through September. ([email protected]; @RhiannonHoyle)
2357 ET - Additional flight capacity to Germany, Poland and the UK boosted Singapore-Europe air traffic by 17% in May. That as increases have been modest in closer-to-home activity between Singapore and places like China and India. With Singapore Air due to resume nonstop flights to New York and possibly two more US cities, long-haul activity will increase further--good news for the likes of airport-service providers SATS. Overall passenger movements rose 5.8% from a year earlier in May at Changi Airport. ([email protected])
2305 ET - Shares of Cathay Pacific were under pressure after traffic data out last week showed weaker May passenger levels. But Daiwa turns bullish on the stock and boosts its price target 3.6% to HK$14.50 following Friday's analyst meeting, with the investment bank anticipating "strong yield improvement in 2018." That as higher fuel costs have been "mostly factor in" Cathay's current HK$13.04 stock price, up 7.6% this year to outpace the broader market but down 12% from March's high. Daiwa also highlights the carrier's "robust" cargo business and the potential that Hong Kong will allow Cathay to raise its fuel surcharge. ([email protected]; @chester_yung)
2119 ET - A jump in property sales at Malaysia's logistics firm Tiong Nam prompts an upgrade to buy at TA Securities. Tiong Nam has recently locked in deal worth MYR85 million ($21.2 million) as the company says the current 3-month tax-free window in Malaysia after GST was killed has encouraged buyers to snap up commercial properties. TA says the sales uptick has mitigated its previous concern about Tiong Nam's cash flow. Its stock target has also risen 8.4% to MYR1.16. Shares are down 25% this year at MYR1. ([email protected]; @yantoultra)
(END)
June 25, 2018 16:50 ET (20:50 GMT)
Subject: Technology stocks; Automobile sales; Automobile industry; Tariffs; Surcharges; Stock exchanges
Location: United Kingdom--UK Malaysia Australia Hong Kong Poland Brazil France Europe Queensland Australia United States--US New York India Germany Singapore China
People: Trump, Donald J
Company / organization: Name: Renault SA; NAICS: 336111; Name: Peoples Bank of China; NAICS: 521110; Name: Eutelsat; NAICS: 517410; Name: Netflix Inc; NAICS: 512120, 518210, 532230; Name: Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd; NAICS: 481111; Name: Facebook Inc; NAICS: 518210, 519130; Name: Changi Airport Group; NAICS: 488119; Name: Twitter Inc; NAICS: 519130; Name: Boeing Co; NAICS: 336411, 336413, 336414; Name: Harley-Davidson Inc; NAICS: 336111, 336213, 336214, 336991; Name: Volkswagen AG; NAICS: 336111, 336390; Name: Google Inc; NAICS: 334310, 519130
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 25, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jo nes & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2058866738
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2058866738?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Jun 25, 2018
Last updated: 2018-06-26
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 321 of 474
Auto & Transport Roundup: Market Talk
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]26 June 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
The latest Market Talks covering the Auto and Transport sector. Published exclusively on at 4:20 ET, 12:20 ET and 16:50 ET.
0126 GMT - Hopes that Malaysia's East Coast Rail Link and Pan Borneo Highway Sabah big infrastructure projects will proceed should reignite interest in shares of construction firm Gabungan AQRS, says UOB Kay Hian. The bull sees the firm, via JVs, targeting more than MYR2 billion ($498 million) of contracts for those projects, and the bank says there's a good likelihood of the rail project happening as the government would have to compensate China Communications Construction more than MYR20 billion for work already done. Shares have popped 86% this month, but are still down 38% this year. ([email protected]; @yantoultra)
2305 GMT [Dow Jones] -- Roskill is forecasting lofty growth of almost 16% a year in lithium demand over the coming decade, as hybrid and electric vehicle sales surge. It expects rechargeable batteries, which accounted for 46% of demand last year, to comprise roughly 83% of the market by 2027. The extent that there will be enough supply to meet that demand is expected to vary: Roskill tips prices will peak this year and fall back in 2019 as mine output increases, before rebounding again around 2021 as demand growth starts to outpace supplies. ([email protected]; @RhiannonHoyle)
2249 GMT -- AMA's decision to call off a deal to sell its vehicle-panels repair business to Blackstone doesn't necessarily mean a transaction won't happen. Bell Potter floats another scenario: Blackstone bids for whole company, although there's no indication this has happened. "Alternatively, if no such bid is forthcoming then there still may be potential for AMA to provide procurement services to the panel businesses of Blackstone which would provide some earnings upside," the bull says. ([email protected]; @dwinningWSJ)
1739 GMT - Atlas Air says it will have 22 Boeing 767 freighters operating for Amazon by year end, including two cargo jets kept as spares. Atlas already has 15 of the planes in service and said it was on track to have the expected 20 flying by year end. The two spares hadn't been previously disclosed, and suggest the high tempo of Amazon's operations are pushing it to evolve its existing fleet plan. ATSG already operates 20 jets on behalf of Amazon's Prime Air unit. ([email protected]; @dougcameron)
1546 GMT - European shares fall 2.1% as tech stocks lose ground in the face of trade-war jitters and cruise operator Carnival encounters choppy waters. The Stoxx Europe 600 drops 7.96 points to 377.05 while Germany's DAX declines 2.5% and France's CAC 40 retreats 1.9%. "Indices across the world have fallen sharply, as trade war fears prompt another reduction in risk appetite," says Chris Beauchamp at IG. "It seems the U.S. is hell-bent on falling out with everyone," he adds. Carnival drops 11% after it cut its full-year outlook. Semiconductor makers fall and Eutelsat drops 6.2% on fears that it will get involved in a bidding war for rival Inmarsat, whose shares rose 4.3%. ([email protected])
1423 GMT - A major truckers strike in Brazil last month is to blame for a widening in the country's current-account deficit, the central bank said today. The 12-month deficit widened to $13B as of May, from $8.9B as of April. The strike halted transportation for 10 days, disrupting cargo getting to seaports and all but stopping foreign trade, a significant element of current accounts. Still, the country managed to pull off a monthly surplus of $729M, much lower than the $2.8Bllion of a year earlier, but higher than the $620M recorded in April. ([email protected]; @ptrevisani)
1235 GMT - The so-called FANG+ index in the U.S. is on track to outpace Nasdaq's gains during the Millennium tech bubble, raising fears of another market crash, says A.J. Bell. The brokerage notes that the index--which includes Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google owner Alphabet, Nvidia, Tesla, Baidu, Tencent and Twitter--has just passed the 3,000 level for the first time. "Those who remember how the technology, media and telecoms bubble burst will shake their heads at how shares in Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Alphabet are performing," says A.J. Bell's Russ Mould. "The Nasdaq's collapse in 2000 to 2002 does look to offer a stark warning to those investors who argue it's different this time."([email protected])
1218 GMT - Harley-Davidson shares fell in heavy trade Friday, and now the bike maker announces it is shifting some production to counter tariffs imposed by the EU, its one island of growth in a tough market. Europe accounts for more than 15% of sales, but Harley will have to accept a hit to margins to avoid growth slowing. One danger is that ongoing trade talks with India -- where it already makes bikes -- falter and unleash fresh tariffs on imported components. Shares down 1.7% in pre-open trading. ([email protected]; @dougcameron)
0938 GMT - European shares fall as tech stocks and car makers take a hit from the latest trade spat between the U.S. and China. The Stoxx Europe 600 drops 1%, or 3.91 points, to 381.1 after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 20% tariff on EU cars on Friday. The biggest faller among car makers was Ferrari, down 2.5%, followed by Porsche, Volkswagen and Renault. Also facing pressure were tech stocks such as Siltronic, down 4.3%, Micro Focus International declining 4.3% and BE Semiconductor Industries, falling 4%. ([email protected])
0921 GMT - "It comes as no surprise to see European car manufacturers taking a hit in early trade, with Trump threatening to impose a 20% tariff on EU cars on Friday," says brokerage IG, adding that relations between the U.S. and its allies seem to be deteriorating further. "It is clear that this disruption is not going away any time soon," it says, noting that the People's Bank of China has cut capital reserve requirements to free up funding in the face of a trade-war-induced economic slowdown. The Stoxx Europe Autos & Parts trades 1.7% lower. ([email protected]; @mxbernhard)
0847 GMT - Europe's automotive industry is facing substantial risks from escalating trade disputes with the U.S., says Kepler Cheuvreux. "As long as Europe remains reluctant to engage the reassessment of its strategic relationship with America directly, at the highest level, it seems reasonable to assume that U.S. import tariffs on autos will come eventually," it says. The brokerage cuts its sector rating to underweight from neutral. A 20% tariff, as threatened by President Trump, would make exporting cars to the U.S. unprofitable, it says. Worries over potential tariffs have led to a risk premium, but "European autos will probably be a buy once the tariff damage is clear," KC adds. The Stoxx Europe Autos & Parts trades 1.4% lower. ([email protected]; @mxbernhard)
(END)
June 26, 2018 04:20 ET (08:20 GMT)
Subject: Automobile industry; Technology stocks; Tariffs; Stock exchanges
Location: United States--US India Germany Malaysia China Brazil France Europe Borneo
People: Trump, Donald J
Company / organization: Name: Renault SA; NAICS: 336111; Name: Peoples Bank of China; NAICS: 521110; Name: Eutelsat; NAICS: 517410; Name: Twitter Inc; NAICS: 519130; Name: Boeing Co; NAICS: 336411, 336413, 336414; Name: Harley-Davidson Inc; NAICS: 336111, 336213, 336214, 336991; Name: Netflix Inc; NAICS: 512120, 518210, 532230; Name: Facebook Inc; NAICS: 518210, 519130; Name: Volkswagen AG; NAICS: 336111, 336390; Name: Google Inc; NAICS: 334310, 519130
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 26, 2018
Publisher: Do w Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2059363898
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2059363898?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Jun 26, 2018
Last updated: 2018-06-27
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 322 of 474
Market Talk Roundup: Latest on Trump, U.S. Politics
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]26 June 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
The latest Market Talks covering President Donald Trump and U.S. politics. Published exclusively on throughout the day.
1121 ET - Canada's tariffs against US goods must inflict pain on US consumers if there's any hope to get the Trump administration to change course on steel and aluminum levies, warns CEO of Canada's largest steel producer. Sean Donnelly, head of ArcelorMittal Dofasco, said Canada needs via tariffs to create "the impetus in US" to reverse US tariffs on Canadian metals on national-security grounds. Canada plans to slap tariffs starting July 1, with a final list due out in days. Otherwise, the US "doesn't give a heck about us, or our profitability." He said in gatherings with US peers, through the American Iron and Steel Institute, US steel makers "are laughing because they are making all sorts of money. They don't care about their steel shipments into Canada." ([email protected], @paulvieira)
1112 ET - European shares edge 0.01% lower as trade-war fears continue to unsettle markets, with the euro falling against the dollar. The Stoxx Europe 600 drops 0.04 points to 377.13 while Germany's DAX falls 0.4%. France's CAC 40 edges 0.06% higher. Connor Campbell at Spreadex notes that the Dow Jones Industrial Average managed to rise 0.3% after the opening bell. "This despite another strong day for the dollar, with the greenback rising 0.4% against both the pound and the euro," he says. Inmarsat falls more than 11% after Eutelsat Communications pulled its interest in the U.K. satellite group. Eutelsat shares gain 2.5%. ([email protected])
1059 ET - Canada shouldn't "poke the bear" too much in its dealings with President Trump, a Canadian auto dealer warns lawmakers. Bob Verwey, who runs a car dealership in the Toronto area, tells a parliamentary committee that auto tariffs from the US would be disastrous to his business and the broader industry. Comments by Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau during the G-7 Summit earlier this month that Canada wouldn't be "pushed around" by the US prompted a spirited attack by Trump, who has threatened to impose 25% tariffs against Canadian-made auto parts and vehicle imports. "I believe Trump is a bear. We shouldn't be poking him too much," Verwey tells lawmakers. "The bear will start roaring." Verwey said he's already had to put his business's expansion on hold. " All I'm doing is asking you, please step quietly." ([email protected]; @kimmackrael)
1053 ET - London shares rise 0.5% in late-afternoon trading as the dollar benefits from gains against the pound and euro due to trade-war fears. The FTSE 100 Index gains 35.76 points to 7,545.60. Foreign-exchange trader Oanda's Craig Erlam says the dollar continues to benefit from a safe-haven shift, with U.S. 10-year Treasury yields creeping back below 2.9%. "With tariffs already being implemented and U.S. President Donald Trump promising more in retaliation against the European Union and China, it seems the situation is going to get much worse before it improves," he says. Carnival rises more than 3% on upbeat analyst comments. U.K. grocers are among the biggest fallers after downbeat market-share data. ([email protected])
1037 ET - Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore) fires a shot at high drug prices in a new report prepared by the Democratic staff of the Senate Finance Committee. "The various financial arrangements between different businesses in the pharmaceutical delivery system means that every part of the supply chain - except patients and the Medicare program - stand to benefit from higher prices in some way," he writes. The 78-page report aims to untangle the complex and opaque web of financial arrangements among drug manufacturers, distributors and insurers, which the report concludes contribute to high drug costs. Sen. Wyden also says President Trump's recent plan to tackle drug costs isn't sufficient. ([email protected]; @Loftus)
1034 ET - The chief lobbyist for Canadian auto-parts producers warns of "carmageddon" in the event the Trump administration pursues 25% tariffs against Canadian-made vehicles and parts. Flavio Volpe, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association, tells Canadian lawmakers at a parliamentary committee the Trump administration's threat of car tariffs on national security grounds is meant to pressure Canadian officials in Nafta talks. "Their doctrine appears to be disruption ... to the benefit of their current investment prospects," Volpe says. "They are hurting the auto industry at a time when we are under the gun with Nafta." He warns the Canadian auto sector "would grind to an immediate halt" with US tariffs, noting the industry is operating on single-digit margins and US dealers would cease taking Canadian-made cars. ([email protected]; @paulvieira)
1028 ET -- Mexico's retaliatory tariffs placed on US dairy exports are jeopardizing America's place in the world export market, 60 cheese and dairy producers argue in a letter to the Trump administration. "Our share of the Mexican market is in grave jeopardy," the letter says. Mexico imposed tariffs starting at 10% and growing to as high as 25% next month on US cheeses in retaliation for the Trump administration's levies on metal imports from the country. Mexico is the biggest importer of US dairy. ([email protected]; @heatherhaddon)
1015 ET - China will remove tariffs on soybean imports from some Asian countries, all while it plans to introduce duties on US imports next week. The State Council says that it will scrap 3% tariffs on soybeans from India, South Korea, Bangladesh, Laos and Sri Lanka, while duties of 25% on American imports will go into effect July 6. The US has been a major supplier of soybeans to China, meaning the Asian nation will need to source beans elsewhere. But those countries are unlikely to offer a solution. All except India produce negligible amounts of soybeans. Even India's recent output of around 10M metric tons pales in comparison with almost 120M produced by the US and Brazil. ([email protected]; @b_parkyn)
0956 ET - The MSCI Emerging Markets Foreign Exchange Index has been falling since April and now "it is a make or break for the bulls and the bears," says Rabobank. Those who think it's still worth investing in EM "may argue that current levels provide an opportunity to re-establish long positions in EM currencies." But those who think it's not "will be looking for a break lower" in the index. Rabobank says at this stage the odds are "skewed in favour of the bears." The U.S. and China "are on the path that could lead to a full-scale trade war," which is likely to hurt EM growth, lowering investors' appetite for EM assets. ([email protected]; @OlgaCotaga)
0937 ET - The Mexican peso recovers days before elections in Mexico, with USD/MXN falling to a three-week low of 19.7864 on Tuesday, according to Factset. "Investors have trimmed short MXN positions and are hoping for a market friendly outcome on Sunday," says Societe Generale. Also, Banxico, Mexico's central bank, increased interest rates last week, strengthening the currency, which until mid-June had been falling sharply. "A relief rally has the potential to extend down to 19.45 for USD/MXN," SocGen says. "But further gains will be contingent on NAFTA discussions coming to a good end," SocGen adds. USD/MXN is last flat at 19.80.([email protected]; @OlgaCotaga)
0858 ET - The Chinese yuan is falling versus the U.S. dollar, with USD/CNY having risen earlier to a seven-month high of 6.5785, causing worries that China is devaluing its currency as a response to U.S. protectionism. ING says "if one views it from the lens of the Chinese, any self-engineered weakening of the yuan is an inefficient way to deal with a more protectionist White House." Commerzbank says it sees "no signs that the Chinese authorities are using the currency as a weapon in the trade war," adding that a "moderate weakness is justified due to the more pessimistic growth prospects" for China. USD/CNY is last up 0.5% at 6.5744. ([email protected]; @OlgaCotaga)
0851 ET - Harley Davidson's decision to move some of its production abroad as a result of U.S. protectionism adds to global trade war uncertainties and proves "once again that the subject of a trade war is here to stay," says Commerzbank. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Twitter that Harley Davidson's announcement is unlikely to be because of tariffs and that he has "fought hard for them and ultimately they will not pay tariffs selling into the EU." ([email protected]; @OlgaCotaga)
(END)
June 26, 2018 11:21 ET (15:21 GMT)
Subject: Currency; Automobile dealers; Presidents; Soybeans; Protectionism; American dollar; International trade; Renminbi; Tariffs; Legislators; Parliamentary committees; Steel industry; Congressional committees
Location: Bangladesh Canada United Kingdom--UK Laos Brazil France Europe South Korea Mexico United States--US India Germany China Sri Lanka
People: Trump, Donald J Wyden, Ron
Company / organization: Name: Senate-Finance, Committee on; NAICS: 921120; Name: Eutelsat; NAICS: 517410; Name: ArcelorMittal Dofasco; NAICS: 331110; Name: Dow Jones & Co Inc; NAICS: 511110, 511120, 511130, 519130, 523210; Name: Twitter Inc; NAICS: 519130; Name: Group of Seven; NAICS: 926110; Name: European Union; NAICS: 926110, 928120; Name: Societe Generale; NAICS: 522110, 522120, 523110, 523120
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 26, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuestdocument ID: 2059388863
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2059388863?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Jun 26, 2018
Last updated: 2018-06-27
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 323 of 474
Auto & Transport Roundup: Market Talk
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]26 June 2018. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
The latest Market Talks covering the Auto and Transport sector. Published exclusively on at 4:20 ET, 12:20 ET and 16:50 ET.
1532 GMT - Harley-Davidson isn't the only Wisconsin export that's run into a delicate spot. As the US and China face off over trade, Beijing recently introduced tariffs on American exports of ginseng, whose root is prized in Chinese medicine, bringing duties to 30%. Some 85% of US ginseng is exported, most of which ends up in China. Around Marathon City, Wis.--the US's ginseng capital--the 180 or so producers that make up the bulk of the industry are due to start harvesting this year's crop in the fall. Come September, they're concerned that they'll have fewer places to sell it. Producers are reluctant to try and pass along the costs to consumers, says Bob Kaldunski, president of the Ginseng Board of Wisconsin, lest that shift demand to rival Canadian producers. US farmers will likely plan to swallow the cost themselves. " It's something we're concerned about," he says. ([email protected]; @b_parkyn)
1459 GMT - Canada shouldn't "poke the bear" too much in its dealings with President Trump, a Canadian auto dealer warns lawmakers. Bob Verwey, who runs a car dealership in the Toronto area, tells a parliamentary committee that auto tariffs from the US would be disastrous to his business and the broader industry. Comments by Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau during the G-7 Summit earlier this month that Canada wouldn't be "pushed around" by the US prompted a spirited attack by Trump, who has threatened to impose 25% tariffs against Canadian-made auto parts and vehicle imports. "I believe Trump is a bear. We shouldn't be poking him too much," Verwey tells lawmakers. "The bear will start roaring." Verwey said he's already had to put his business's expansion on hold. " All I'm doing is asking you, please step quietly." ([email protected]; @kimmackrael)
1453 GMT - London shares rise 0.5% in late-afternoon trading as the dollar benefits from gains against the pound and euro due to trade-war fears. The FTSE 100 Index gains 35.76 points to 7,545.60. Foreign-exchange trader Oanda's Craig Erlam says the dollar continues to benefit from a safe-haven shift, with U.S. 10-year Treasury yields creeping back below 2.9%. "With tariffs already being implemented and U.S. President Donald Trump promising more in retaliation against the European Union and China, it seems the situation is going to get much worse before it improves," he says. Carnival rises more than 3% on upbeat analyst comments. U.K. grocers are among the biggest fallers after downbeat market-share data. ([email protected])
1434 GMT - The chief lobbyist for Canadian auto-parts producers warns of "carmageddon" in the event the Trump administration pursues 25% tariffs against Canadian-made vehicles and parts. Flavio Volpe, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association, tells Canadian lawmakers at a parliamentary committee the Trump administration's threat of car tariffs on national security grounds is meant to pressure Canadian officials in Nafta talks. "Their doctrine appears to be disruption ... to the benefit of their current investment prospects," Volpe says. "They are hurting the auto industry at a time when we are under the gun with Nafta." He warns the Canadian auto sector "would grind to an immediate halt" with US tariffs, noting the industry is operating on single-digit margins and US dealers would cease taking Canadian-made cars. ([email protected]; @paulvieira)
1419 GMT - Some analysts say yesterday's Carnival Corp. sell-off was an overreaction to conservative guidance from the cruise-ship company, but could provide a compelling entry point for the stock. Stifel analysts cut their price target to $78 from $81, noting that areas outside the Caribbean are doing well while the Caribbean shows "signs of marked improvement" following 2017's intense hurricane season. SunTrust Robinson Humphrey analysts lower their price target to $79 from $86, saying that Carnival's demand trends are still encouraging while risks include a possibly brutal hurricane season next year and increases in oil prices. Susquehanna analysts also trim their price target to $74 from $76. The Miami-based company led the S&P 500 down Monday, falling by 7.85% percent after it lowered its guidance for fiscal 2018 in its 2Q earnings report. Today Carnival shares are down 0.6%. ([email protected])
1256 GMT - Construction challenges offset the financial benefits to Heathrow airport on the back of the U.K. government's decision to approve a new third runway, Moody's says. The credit-rating agency says the new runway would allow Heathrow to remain a hub airport and reinforce its status as London's main airport. Still, Moody's sees it as credit-neutral for special-purpose vehicle Heathrow Finance PLC. "The benefits of operating an expanded airport are counter-balanced by the challenges of managing and completing a project including construction of a new runway up to 3,500 meters long, as well as developing new terminal buildings, at an estimated cost of GBP14.3 billion," Moody's says. ([email protected])
1247 GMT - Shares in International Consolidated Airlines Group are 2.5% down as oil prices rise and U.K. lawmakers overwhelmingly vote to approve the construction of a new third runway at London's Heathrow airport. Accendo Markets reckons a third runway could mean more competition, both short and long-haul, for IAG at Heathrow as rivals take advantage of the extra space. Still, the rising oil price is also likely to have had an impact on airline shares, with easyJet stock also falling 0.6% as the price of a barrel of Brent crude gains 1% to $75.28. ([email protected])
1242 GMT - The U.K. must stay in the EU's customs union if it eventually leaves the trading bloc, a body representing automakers says. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) says the U.K. needs a deal that, as a minimum, maintains customs union membership and single market benefits. "With investment slowing and time running out, negotiators must get on with agreeing a deal that will end uncertainty and prioritize the needs of the automotive sector," the SMMT says in a statement. The call came as latest industry figures showed record turnover, the result of long planned investments, but growing concern that progress could be reversed without clarity on EU-UK relations.([email protected])
1208 GMT - Brazil's central bank says that last month's truckers strike is likely to impact inflation in June, too, after it caused widespread price increases in May. In minutes to last week's monetary decision to hold rates at a 6.5% historic low, the bank also said global trade tensions are pressuring down emerging market currencies, in yet another inflationary factor. However, economic weakness in Brazil may counter those price pressures, so the bank will keep monitoring indicators before raising rates, something many pundits forecast for later this year. ([email protected]; @ptrevisani)
1057 GMT - China's Ministry of Commerce set to seal Cosco's $6.3B takeover of Orient Overseas (International) Ltd by Friday and the deal is expected to close by July 6, despite concerns by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US over the ownership of the Long Beach container terminal, which is part of the deal. Cosco has offered CFIUS to put LBCT in a US-run trust and then sell it within a year or so. "Cosco has done all that needs to be done and LBCT won't stand in the way of the transaction," a person with direct knowledge of the matter said. ([email protected])
1005 GMT - U.K. postal operator Royal Mail shares look more fairly valued after a recent slide, with the stock offering long-term restructuring potential, RBC says. Royal Mail remains a "low growth" story but offers a 5.1% dividend yield and is trading in-line with European peers, RBC says. Royal Mail has potential to fill a productivity gap compared with its competitors, but costs and capital expenditure are likely to be front-loaded, according to RBC, which raises its rating on the stock to sector perform from underperform, and maintains a target of 500 pence. Shares are up 1.7% at 500.40 pence. ([email protected])
0848 GMT - European industry associations are concerned about the potential introduction of import tariffs or quotas by the European Union to protect the bloc's steel industry. These would negatively affect downstream users of steel products, a group of industry associations that include auto industry group ACEA and agricultural machinery industry group CEMA, says in a letter to EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom. "We are convinced that the imposition of safeguard measures is not in Europe's interest," the group says. The European Commission started a safeguard investigation in March amid worries that steel imports to the EU could surge as foreign steel producers look to sell their products elsewhere following the U.S. decision to impose stiff tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. ([email protected]; @mxbernhard)
(END)
June 26, 2018 12:20 ET (16:20 GMT)
Subject: Investments; Automobile dealers; Rating services; Presidents; Union membership; Steel products; Capital expenditures; Competition; International trade; Tariffs; Legislators; Parliamentary committees; Committees; Steel industry
Location: Beijing China Wisconsin Canada United Kingdom--UK Brazil Europe United States--US China
People: Trump, Donald J Malmstrom, Cecilia
Company / organization: Name: SunTrust Robinson Humphrey; NAICS: 523110; Name: Ginseng Board of Wisconsin; NAICS: 813910; Name: Carnival Corp; NAICS: 483112; Name: Moodys Investors Service Inc; NAICS: 522110, 523930, 561450; Name: European Commission; NAICS: 928120; Name: Group of Seven; NAICS: 926110; Name: Harley-Davidson Inc; NAICS: 336111, 336213, 336214, 336991; Name: European Union; NAICS: 926110, 928120
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 26, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2059389046
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2059389046?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Jun 26, 2018
Last updated: 2018-06-27
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 324 of 474
Market Talk Roundup: Latest on Trump, U.S. Politics
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]26 June 2018. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
The latest Market Talks covering President Donald Trump and U.S. politics. Published exclusively on throughout the day.
1337 ET - Amid heightened trade uncertainty, Canada's factory sector was unequivocal in testimony before country's lawmakers: An imperfect Nafta is far superior to no Nafta and a trade war with the US, Canada's most important customer. The testimony from Matthew Wilson, vice president of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, was meant to get lawmakers to focus on a kickstarting the Nafta talks, which have stalled, Wilson said a renegotiated Nafta would likely bring an end to US tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum, and remove threat of levies on Canada's car sector. "We need to find a path forward on Nafta talks," Wilson told parliamentary trade committee. ([email protected]; @paulvieira)
1225 ET - USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue says the agency aims to have a plan in place by this fall's harvest to financially shield US farmers from low crop prices arising from trade disputes. Perdue acknowledges farmers prefer "trade, not aid" and that they'd rather the US-China trade dispute be resolved before China's tariffs on US soybeans kick in early next month. But he also says that farmers are "patriotic" and understand the Trump administration needs to be tough with China, hence the need for a "compensation plan" that would help cover bills if crop prices dive on reduced exports to China. "We're hoping we can have some type of plan out there to producers by the time they start harvesting this fall." ([email protected])
1146 ET - A Canadian steel producer with customers in Canada and the northeastern US says its business model will no longer work if 25% tariffs on US steel imports continue. Stephen Young, from Ontario-based Janco Steel, tells lawmakers at a parliamentary committee the firm's US business dropped by 60% in June compared with April and May, after the US tariffs were implemented. Young says the firm has frozen all hiring and may have to lay off workers as a result of the tariffs. Janco is also facing cash-flow problems because it must pay its customs broker within 5-6 business days to cover the cost of tariffs, but doesn't get paid by customers for 50-60 days, he says. Young calls for the Canadian government to provide money received through its retaliatory tariffs to steel companies to help with cash flow and keep them competitive. "If these tariffs remain in effect for much longer, our current business model simply does not work," he says. ([email protected]; @kimmackrael)
1132 ET - Harley-Davidson isn't the only Wisconsin export that's run into a delicate spot. As the US and China face off over trade, Beijing recently introduced tariffs on American exports of ginseng, whose root is prized in Chinese medicine, bringing duties to 30%. Some 85% of US ginseng is exported, most of which ends up in China. Around Marathon City, Wis.--the US's ginseng capital--the 180 or so producers that make up the bulk of the industry are due to start harvesting this year's crop in the fall. Come September, they're concerned that they'll have fewer places to sell it. Producers are reluctant to try and pass along the costs to consumers, says Bob Kaldunski, president of the Ginseng Board of Wisconsin, lest that shift demand to rival Canadian producers. US farmers will likely plan to swallow the cost themselves. " It's something we're concerned about," he says. ([email protected]; @b_parkyn)
1121 ET - Canada's tariffs against US goods must inflict pain on US consumers if there's any hope to get the Trump administration to change course on steel and aluminum levies, warns CEO of Canada's largest steel producer. Sean Donnelly, head of ArcelorMittal Dofasco, said Canada needs via tariffs to create "the impetus in US" to reverse US tariffs on Canadian metals on national-security grounds. Canada plans to slap tariffs starting July 1, with a final list due out in days. Otherwise, the US "doesn't give a heck about us, or our profitability." He said in gatherings with US peers, through the American Iron and Steel Institute, US steel makers "are laughing because they are making all sorts of money. They don't care about their steel shipments into Canada." ([email protected], @paulvieira)
1112 ET - European shares edge 0.01% lower as trade-war fears continue to unsettle markets, with the euro falling against the dollar. The Stoxx Europe 600 drops 0.04 points to 377.13 while Germany's DAX falls 0.4%. France's CAC 40 edges 0.06% higher. Connor Campbell at Spreadex notes that the Dow Jones Industrial Average managed to rise 0.3% after the opening bell. "This despite another strong day for the dollar, with the greenback rising 0.4% against both the pound and the euro," he says. Inmarsat falls more than 11% after Eutelsat Communications pulled its interest in the U.K. satellite group. Eutelsat shares gain 2.5%. ([email protected])
1059 ET - Canada shouldn't "poke the bear" too much in its dealings with President Trump, a Canadian auto dealer warns lawmakers. Bob Verwey, who runs a car dealership in the Toronto area, tells a parliamentary committee that auto tariffs from the US would be disastrous to his business and the broader industry. Comments by Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau during the G-7 Summit earlier this month that Canada wouldn't be "pushed around" by the US prompted a spirited attack by Trump, who has threatened to impose 25% tariffs against Canadian-made auto parts and vehicle imports. "I believe Trump is a bear. We shouldn't be poking him too much," Verwey tells lawmakers. "The bear will start roaring." Verwey said he's already had to put his business's expansion on hold. " All I'm doing is asking you, please step quietly." ([email protected]; @kimmackrael)
1053 ET - London shares rise 0.5% in late-afternoon trading as the dollar benefits from gains against the pound and euro due to trade-war fears. The FTSE 100 Index gains 35.76 points to 7,545.60. Foreign-exchange trader Oanda's Craig Erlam says the dollar continues to benefit from a safe-haven shift, with U.S. 10-year Treasury yields creeping back below 2.9%. "With tariffs already being implemented and U.S. President Donald Trump promising more in retaliation against the European Union and China, it seems the situation is going to get much worse before it improves," he says. Carnival rises more than 3% on upbeat analyst comments. U.K. grocers are among the biggest fallers after downbeat market-share data. ([email protected])
1037 ET - Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore) fires a shot at high drug prices in a new report prepared by the Democratic staff of the Senate Finance Committee. "The various financial arrangements between different businesses in the pharmaceutical delivery system means that every part of the supply chain - except patients and the Medicare program - stand to benefit from higher prices in some way," he writes. The 78-page report aims to untangle the complex and opaque web of financial arrangements among drug manufacturers, distributors and insurers, which the report concludes contribute to high drug costs. Sen. Wyden also says President Trump's recent plan to tackle drug costs isn't sufficient. ([email protected]; @Loftus)
1034 ET - The chief lobbyist for Canadian auto-parts producers warns of "carmageddon" in the event the Trump administration pursues 25% tariffs against Canadian-made vehicles and parts. Flavio Volpe, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association, tells Canadian lawmakers at a parliamentary committee the Trump administration's threat of car tariffs on national security grounds is meant to pressure Canadian officials in Nafta talks. "Their doctrine appears to be disruption ... to the benefit of their current investment prospects," Volpe says. "They are hurting the auto industry at a time when we are under the gun with Nafta." He warns the Canadian auto sector "would grind to an immediate halt" with US tariffs, noting the industry is operating on single-digit margins and US dealers would cease taking Canadian-made cars. ([email protected]; @paulvieira)
1028 ET -- Mexico's retaliatory tariffs placed on US dairy exports are jeopardizing America's place in the world export market, 60 cheese and dairy producers argue in a letter to the Trump administration. "Our share of the Mexican market is in grave jeopardy," the letter says. Mexico imposed tariffs starting at 10% and growing to as high as 25% next month on US cheeses in retaliation for the Trump administration's levies on metal imports from the country. Mexico is the biggest importer of US dairy. ([email protected]; @heatherhaddon)
1015 ET - China will remove tariffs on soybean imports from some Asian countries, all while it plans to introduce duties on US imports next week. The State Council says that it will scrap 3% tariffs on soybeans from India, South Korea, Bangladesh, Laos and Sri Lanka, while duties of 25% on American imports will go into effect July 6. The US has been a major supplier of soybeans to China, meaning the Asian nation will need to source beans elsewhere. But those countries are unlikely to offer a solution. All except India produce negligible amounts of soybeans. Even India's recent output of around 10M metric tons pales in comparison with almost 120M produced by the US and Brazil. ([email protected]; @b_parkyn)
(END)
June 26, 2018 13:37 ET (17:37 GMT)
Subject: International trade; Compensation plans; Automobile dealers; Tariffs; Legislators; Parliamentary committees; Aluminum; Presidents; Costs; Exports; Steel industry; Soybeans; Business models; American dollar; Congressional committees
Location: Mexico United States--US Canada India United Kingdom--UK China
People: Trump, Donald J
Company / organization: Name: Eutelsat; NAICS: 517410
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 26, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2059389825
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2059389825?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Jun 26, 2018
Last updated: 2018-06-27
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 325 of 474
What you need to know: The day in the markets [Asia Region]
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]27 June 2018: 20.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: ? US and European stocks stabilise after sell-off ? Shanghai Composite enters bear market territory ? Brent oil regains $76 a barrel ? Turkish lira rallies against dollar US and European stock markets adopted a steadier tone following the previous day's sharp falls although the mood remained cautious as concerns grew about the potential impact of a global trade war on China's economy. Indeed, the Shanghai Composite index fell 0.5 per cent, leaving it 20 per cent down from a two-year high hit in January — the usual definition of a bear market. The renminbi also weakened to a fresh six-month low in the wake of the decision at the weekend by the country's central bank to lower the reserve requirement ratio for most of its banks. Alan Ruskin at Deutsche Bank said: "Until now, China has appeared to take a view that the last thing it needs is to interject renminbi weakness into the equation and complicate trade negotiations with the US. The price action itself suggests this resolve to keep dollar/renminbi stable is weakening." Hao Zhou, an analyst at Commerzbank, said: "Clearly, China's growth outlook has turned gloomier due to weak domestic demand and rising trade tensions, and sentiment has become quite bearish as the market views that the RRR cut indicates that the authorities are worried about the downside risks facing the economy." The "risk-off" tone that enveloped global markets on Monday faded, with Treasuries trading flat and the yen losing ground against the dollar. The dollar index headed back towards the 2018 high it hit last week, helping to push gold to a fresh six-month low. The Turkish lira stood out as the improvement in risk appetite helped a number of emerging markets currencies. The lira was up 1.3 per cent against the dollar. Trading was volatile as participants continued to weigh up the monetary policy outlook for the country following President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's reelection last weekend. Energy was the best performing sector in the S&P 500 as Brent oil reversed an early fall to trade back above $76 a barrel for the first time in seven sessions. Oil markets have been choppy since major producers agreed at the end of last week to raise production. Dave Shellock Markets update US Eurozone Japan UK China Brazil Stocks S&P 500 Eurofirst 300 Nikkei 225 FTSE100 Shanghai Comp Bovespa Level 2723.98 1474.48 22342.00 7537.92 2844.51 70864.47 % change on day 0.25 0.09 0.02 0.37 -0.50 -0.12 Currency $ index (DXY) $ per € Yen per $ $ per £ Rmb per $ Real per $ Level 94.456 1.167 109.885 1.323 6.557 3.774 % change on day 0.191 -0.171 0.182 -0.301 0.487 -0.175 Govt. bonds 10-year Treasury 10-year Bund 10-year JGB 10-year Gilt 10-year bond 10-year bond Yield 2.878 0.337 0.029 1.302 3.587 11.568 Basis point change on day 0.180 1.300 0.480 0.900 -0.600 -24.600 World index, Commods FTSE All-World Oil - Brent Oil - WTI Gold Silver Metals (LMEX) Level 333.64 76.46 70.40 1268.70 16.38 3241.60 % change on day 0.13 2.03 3.29 -0.04 -0.30 -1.00 Yesterday's close apart from: Currencies = 16:00 GMT; S&P, Bovespa, All World, Oil = 17:00 GMT; Gold, Silver = London pm fix. Bond data supplied by Tullett Prebon. Biggest movers % US Eurozone UK Ups General Electric 8.08 Lennar 5.75 Netflix 3.83 Ihs Markit Ltd 3.47 J.m. Smucker (the) 3.47 Credit Suisse 2.88 Swisscom 2.87 Adecco 2.52 Beiersdorf 2.21 Roche 2.02 Carnival 3.13 Bhp Billiton 2.51 Next 2.42 Smith (ds) 2.23 London Stock Exchange 2.11 % Downs yte -6.20 Nektar Therapeutics -3.78 Akamai -3.25 Brighthouse Fin -2.41 Fortive -2.09 Prices taken at 17:00 GMT Seadrill -9.89 Iliad -3.44 Telecom Italia -2.89 Kone -2.79 Thyssenkrupp -2.65 Based on the constituents of the FTSE Eurofirst 300 Eurozone Int Consolidated Airlines S.a. -3.53 Compass -2.26 Micro Focus Int -2.24 Sainsbury (j) -2.21 Whitbread -1.69 All data provided by Morningstar unless otherwise noted.
Subject: Gold; Eurozone; Bond issues; International finance; Stock exchanges
Location: United States--US United Kingdom--UK China Brazil Japan
People: Erdogan, Recep Tayyip
Company / organization: Name: Nektar Therapeutics; NAICS: 325412; Name: Credit Suisse Group; NAICS: 522110; Name: Sao Paulo Stock Exchange; NAICS: 523210; Name: London Stock Exchange; NAICS: 523210; Name: General Electric Co; NAICS: 332510, 334290, 334512, 334519; Name: Netflix Inc; NAICS: 512120, 518210, 532230; Name: Tullett Prebon; NAICS: 523120; Name: Deutsche Bank AG; NAICS: 522110, 551111
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 20
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 27, 2018
Section: Companies and Markets
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2077260122
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2077260122?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Jun 27, 2018
Last updated: 2018-07-28
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 326 of 474
What you need to know: The day in the markets [Europe Region]
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]27 June 2018: 20. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: ? US and European stocks stabilise after sell-off ? Shanghai Composite enters bear market territory ? Brent oil regains $76 a barrel ? Turkish lira rallies against dollar US and European stock markets adopted a steadier tone following the previous day's sharp falls although the mood remained cautious as concerns grew about the potential impact of a global trade war on China's economy. Indeed, the Shanghai Composite index fell 0.5 per cent, leaving it 20 per cent down from a two-year high hit in January — the usual definition of a bear market. The renminbi also weakened to a fresh six-month low in the wake of the decision at the weekend by the country's central bank to lower the reserve requirement ratio for most of its banks. Alan Ruskin at Deutsche Bank said: "Until now, China has appeared to take a view that the last thing it needs is to interject renminbi weakness into the equation and complicate trade negotiations with the US. The price action itself suggests this resolve to keep dollar/renminbi stable is weakening." Hao Zhou, an analyst at Commerzbank, said: "Clearly, China's growth outlook has turned gloomier due to weak domestic demand and rising trade tensions, and sentiment has become quite bearish as the market views that the RRR cut indicates that the authorities are worried about the downside risks facing the economy." The "risk-off" tone that enveloped global markets on Monday faded, with Treasuries trading flat and the yen losing ground against the dollar. The dollar index headed back towards the 2018 high it hit last week, helping to push gold to a fresh six-month low. The Turkish lira stood out as the improvement in risk appetite helped a number of emerging markets currencies. The lira was up 1.3 per cent against the dollar. Trading was volatile as participants continued to weigh up the monetary policy outlook for the country following President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's reelection last weekend. Energy was the best performing sector in the S&P 500 as Brent oil reversed an early fall to trade back above $76 a barrel for the first time in seven sessions. Oil markets have been choppy since major producers agreed at the end of last week to raise production. Dave Shellock Markets update US Eurozone Japan UK China Brazil Stocks S&P 500 Eurofirst 300 Nikkei 225 FTSE100 Shanghai Comp Bovespa Level 2723.98 1474.48 22342.00 7537.92 2844.51 70864.47 % change on day 0.25 0.09 0.02 0.37 -0.50 -0.12 Currency $ index (DXY) $ per € Yen per $ $ per £ Rmb per $ Real per $ Level 94.456 1.167 109.885 1.323 6.557 3.774 % change on day 0.191 -0.171 0.182 -0.301 0.487 -0.175 Govt. bonds 10-year Treasury 10-year Bund 10-year JGB 10-year Gilt 10-year bond 10-year bond Yield 2.878 0.337 0.029 1.302 3.587 11.568 Basis point change on day 0.180 1.300 0.480 0.900 -0.600 -24.600 World index, Commods FTSE All-World Oil - Brent Oil - WTI Gold Silver Metals (LMEX) Level 333.64 76.46 70.40 1268.70 16.38 3241.60 % change on day 0.13 2.03 3.29 -0.04 -0.30 -1.00 Yesterday's close apart from: Currencies = 16:00 GMT; S&P, Bovespa, All World, Oil = 17:00 GMT; Gold, Silver = London pm fix. Bond data supplied by Tullett Prebon. Biggest movers % US Eurozone UK Ups General Electric 8.08 Lennar 5.75 Netflix 3.83 Ihs Markit Ltd 3.47 J.m. Smucker (the) 3.47 Credit Suisse 2.88 Swisscom 2.87 Adecco 2.52 Beiersdorf 2.21 Roche 2.02 Carnival 3.13 Bhp Billiton 2.51 Next 2.42 Smith (ds) 2.23 London Stock Exchange 2.11 % Downs yte -6.20 Nektar Therapeutics -3.78 Akamai -3.25 Brighthouse Fin -2.41 Fortive -2.09 Prices taken at 17:00 GMT Seadrill -9.89 Iliad -3.44 Telecom Italia -2.89 Kone -2.79 Thyssenkrupp -2.65 Based on the constituents of the FTSE Eurofirst 300 Eurozone Int Consolidated Airlines S.a. -3.53 Compass -2.26 Micro Focus Int -2.24 Sainsbury (j) -2.21 Whitbread -1.69 All data provided by Morningstar unless otherwise noted.
Subject: Gold; Eurozone; Bond issues; International finance; Stock exchanges
Location: United States--US United Kingdom--UK China Brazil Japan
People: Erdogan, Recep Tayyip
Company / organization: Name: Nektar Therapeutics; NAICS: 325412; Name: Credit Suisse Group; NAICS: 522110; Name: Sao Paulo Stock Exchange; NAICS: 523210; Name: London Stock Exchange; NAICS: 523210; Name: General Electric Co; NAICS: 332510, 334290, 334512, 334519; Name: Netflix Inc; NAICS: 512120, 518210, 532230; Name: Tullett Prebon; NAICS: 523120; Name: Deutsche Bank AG; NAICS: 522110, 551111
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 20
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 27, 2018
Section: Companies and Markets
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2077260292
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2077260292?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Jun 27, 2018
Last updated: 2018-07-28
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 327 of 474
What you need to know: The day in the markets [Usa Region]
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]27 June 2018: 20. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: ? US and European stocks stabilise after sell-off ? Shanghai Composite enters bear market territory ? Brent oil regains $76 a barrel ? Turkish lira rallies against dollar US and European stock markets adopted a steadier tone following the previous day's sharp falls although the mood remained cautious as concerns grew about the potential impact of a global trade war on China's economy. Indeed, the Shanghai Composite index fell 0.5 per cent, leaving it 20 per cent down from a two-year high hit in January — the usual definition of a bear market. The renminbi also weakened to a fresh six-month low in the wake of the decision at the weekend by the country's central bank to lower the reserve requirement ratio for most of its banks. Alan Ruskin at Deutsche Bank said: "Until now, China has appeared to take a view that the last thing it needs is to interject renminbi weakness into the equation and complicate trade negotiations with the US. The price action itself suggests this resolve to keep dollar/renminbi stable is weakening." Hao Zhou, an analyst at Commerzbank, said: "Clearly, China's growth outlook has turned gloomier due to weak domestic demand and rising trade tensions, and sentiment has become quite bearish as the market views that the RRR cut indicates that the authorities are worried about the downside risks facing the economy." The "risk-off" tone that enveloped global markets on Monday faded, with Treasuries trading flat and the yen losing ground against the dollar. The dollar index headed back towards the 2018 high it hit last week, helping to push gold to a fresh six-month low. The Turkish lira stood out as the improvement in risk appetite helped a number of emerging markets currencies. The lira was up 1.3 per cent against the dollar. Trading was volatile as participants continued to weigh up the monetary policy outlook for the country following President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's reelection last weekend. Energy was the best performing sector in the S&P 500 as Brent oil reversed an early fall to trade back above $76 a barrel for the first time in seven sessions. Oil markets have been choppy since major producers agreed at the end of last week to raise production. Dave Shellock Markets update US Eurozone Japan UK China Brazil Stocks S&P 500 Eurofirst 300 Nikkei 225 FTSE100 Shanghai Comp Bovespa Level 2723.98 1474.48 22342.00 7537.92 2844.51 70864.47 % change on day 0.25 0.09 0.02 0.37 -0.50 -0.12 Currency $ index (DXY) $ per € Yen per $ $ per £ Rmb per $ Real per $ Level 94.456 1.167 109.885 1.323 6.557 3.774 % change on day 0.191 -0.171 0.182 -0.301 0.487 -0.175 Govt. bonds 10-year Treasury 10-year Bund 10-year JGB 10-year Gilt 10-year bond 10-year bond Yield 2.878 0.337 0.029 1.302 3.587 11.568 Basis point change on day 0.180 1.300 0.480 0.900 -0.600 -24.600 World index, Commods FTSE All-World Oil - Brent Oil - WTI Gold Silver Metals (LMEX) Level 333.64 76.46 70.40 1268.70 16.38 3241.60 % change on day 0.13 2.03 3.29 -0.04 -0.30 -1.00 Yesterday's close apart from: Currencies = 16:00 GMT; S&P, Bovespa, All World, Oil = 17:00 GMT; Gold, Silver = London pm fix. Bond data supplied by Tullett Prebon. Biggest movers % US Eurozone UK Ups General Electric 8.08 Lennar 5.75 Netflix 3.83 Ihs Markit Ltd 3.47 J.m. Smucker (the) 3.47 Credit Suisse 2.88 Swisscom 2.87 Adecco 2.52 Beiersdorf 2.21 Roche 2.02 Carnival 3.13 Bhp Billiton 2.51 Next 2.42 Smith (ds) 2.23 London Stock Exchange 2.11 % Downs yte -6.20 Nektar Therapeutics -3.78 Akamai -3.25 Brighthouse Fin -2.41 Fortive -2.09 Prices taken at 17:00 GMT Seadrill -9.89 Iliad -3.44 Telecom Italia -2.89 Kone -2.79 Thyssenkrupp -2.65 Based on the constituents of the FTSE Eurofirst 300 Eurozone Int Consolidated Airlines S.a. -3.53 Compass -2.26 Micro Focus Int -2.24 Sainsbury (j) -2.21 Whitbread -1.69 All data provided by Morningstar unless otherwise noted.
Subject: Gold; Eurozone; Bond issues; International finance; Stock exchanges
Location: United States--US United Kingdom--UK China Brazil Japan
People: Erdogan, Recep Tayyip
Company / organization: Name: Nektar Therapeutics; NAICS: 325412; Name: Credit Suisse Group; NAICS: 522110; Name: Sao Paulo Stock Exchange; NAICS: 523210; Name: London Stock Exchange; NAICS: 523210; Name: General Electric Co; NAICS: 332510, 334290, 334512, 334519; Name: Netflix Inc; NAICS: 512120, 518210, 532230; Name: Tullett Prebon; NAICS: 523120; Name: Deutsche Bank AG; NAICS: 522110, 551111
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 20
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 27, 2018
Section: Companies and Markets
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2077265011
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2077265011?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Jun 27, 2018
Last updated: 2018-07-28
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 328 of 474
Day of the Ancestors: Festival of Masks Celebrates Brazil!
Author: Carter, Brian W
Publication info: Los Angeles Sentinel ; Los Angeles, Calif. [Los Angeles, Calif]28 June 2018: B1.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: The annual festival celebrated another piece of the African Diaspora with Samba, drums and more! "It really is an assertion of identity," said Karen Mack, executive director of L.A. Commons about this year's Day of the Ancestors: Festival of Masks. "We're really proud of our African connection [so] let's come together and celebrate that." On Sunday, June 24, L.A. Commons hosted its eighth annual Day of the Ancestors: Festival ofMasks in Leimert Park. It's a festival of pure culture featuring live musical performances, traditional artists, youth groups, diverse community members, vendors and lots of pride. This year's festival highlighted Brazil and its diasporic, artistic connections to Leimert Park. Founded by Mack in 2003, L.A. Commons was created with the intention of creating a place where Black culture would act as a tapestry knitting the surrounding communities of Los Angeles together. Najite Agindotan, a local drummer, began the idea of the festival with wanting to bring the idea of honoring the ancestors. "The idea is that Leimert Park continues to become a center in Los Angeles for people coming together and celebrating," said Mack. "If you think about the African Diaspora, we're all part of [it] because that's where life started." Held in the African American cultural hub of Los Angeles, the community and attendees engage in the festival by celebrating the global African village, venerating ancestors, and paying homage to their shared heritage through maskmaking and dance. Brazil itself is a key node in African culture and has one of the largest Black populations in the world. The vibrant spirit of the country was on full display at the festival with dynamic drumming and Samba. "Every year, we try and focus on a different place in the world and Salvador de Bahia [in Brazil] is wonderful because it's got the second largest Black population in the I world outside Nigeria," said Mack. "A lot of the same issues they're dealing with in terms of racism and just asserting Black identity and they actually use carnival as that vehicle." This year's festival theme was "Asuwada," which is a Yoruba principle describing an energetic phenomenon when the community unites with a collective positive intention in pursuit of a common goal for the greater good. "In a time of challenge, amassing the energies to assist us in moving forward positively, so that's what today is about," said Mack. Asuwada highlights the importance of compassion and solidarity in a time of unprecedented divisiveness. The festival started with a Yoruba blessing to cleanse and get everyone in the right spirit for the festival. After the blessing, the parade began which started on Leimert Blvd, then onto W. 43rd St. and then down Degnan towards Leimert Park Plaza. The parade was full of music, dancing, floats, puppetry and beautifully handmade masks. The post parade festivities consisted of drummers, dance performances by groups including performers from Viver Brasil and a performance by two-time Grammy award-winner and credited drummer/composer for the film, "Black Panther," Magatte Fall. The Festival is produced in partnership with the Leimert Park Art Walk as an effort to promote the vibrancy, culture, legacy, and economy of the historic area. Following the festival, local businesses displayed the festival's masks and puppets, extending the public's opportunity to view these ancient and modern artifacts. Members of the public had the opportunity to participate in a series of workshops in May and June. For more information, please visit www.lacommons.orgHeadnote
Subject: Community; Masks; Diaspora; Festivals
Location: Brazil Los Angeles California Nigeria
Ethnicity: African American/Caribbean/African
Publication title: Los Angeles Sentinel; Los Angeles, Calif.
Pages: B1
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 28, 2018
Section: CRENSHAW & Around
Publisher: Los Angeles Sentinel
Place of publication: Los Angeles, Calif.
Country of publication: United States, Los Angeles, Calif.
Publication subject: African American/Caribbean /African, Ethnic Interests, General Interest Periodicals--United States
ISSN: 08904340
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2076277021
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2076277021?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Los Angeles Sentinel Jun 28, 2018
Last updated: 2018-07-26
Database: Ethnic NewsWatch
Document 329 of 474
This Is When the World Cup Surprises End. Usually.
Author: Smith, Rory
Publication info: New York Times (Online) , New York: New York Times Company. Jun 29, 2018.
Abstract:
The carnival spirit and upsets of the World Cup’s group stage rarely continue in the knockout rounds, but international soccer is more democratic than ever.
Full text: MOSCOW — As Joachim Löw, Germany's coach, considers all the things that went wrong for his team over the last two weeks, all the myriad factors that contributed to the reigning World Cup champion’s ignominious exit, one moment, in particular, will cause him to cringe. A few minutes after Germany lost to Mexico in its opening game — not fortuitously, but deservedly, less happenstance than harbinger — Löw was informed that, in three of the previous four World Cups, the team that entered the tournament as the titleholder had fallen in the group stage. He waved off the notion that Germany might go the same way. “I guarantee we will be in the knockout round,” he said. [Up Next: Follow our live coverage of England vs. Colombia ] This, as the last two weeks have amply proved, is not a World Cup where anyone should be offering guarantees. Germany, that great constant of international soccer, the permanent semifinalist, has gone, to the raucous delight of Brazil and England and the more understated relief of Spain, France, Argentina and the rest. Those nations that remain should have seen enough to know the dangers of hubris, though. Spain sacked its manager on the eve of the tournament and came within a single goal, and a video review, of an early exit. So, too, did Portugal. Argentina has spent two weeks in a state of existential crisis and sneaked into the last 16 because its central defender scored with his weaker foot with four minutes to play. Even those contenders whose progress has been a little more serene — Brazil, France, Belgium and England — can have little doubt that the old rules no longer apply. Brazil has played only in flashes. France has conceded one goal, but scored only three. The most impressive performances have come from nations outside the established elite: Croatia’s ruthless demolition of an admittedly chaotic Argentina; Mexico’s perfectly planned, expertly executed exploitation of all of Germany’s flaws; Colombia’s riotous return to form against Poland. This tournament, thus far, has belonged not to soccer’s great aristocratic houses, but to its petite bourgeoisie. Perhaps we should have seen that coming, when Argentina only crept into the tournament by the skin of its teeth, and when both the Dutch and the Italians failed to do even that. At a time when the gap between the richest clubs and the rest has been allowed — encouraged, in fact — to become a chasm, international soccer has, refreshingly, blessedly, traveled in the opposite direction. It is more democratic than ever. Nations with less glittering histories — but good coaching, a sense of identity and players littered throughout Europe’s great leagues — no longer have quite so much to fear. The giants do not look quite so fearsome when you see them every week. Of course, it is easy to say that after the group stage of a World Cup. The pattern of the tournament is familiar, and yet somehow forgotten, every four years. The first round of group games is cagey, cautious; everyone worries that this year’s competition will be the worst in history. In the second, teams cut loose. By the third, when the stakes are highest, and it is do or die, mayhem ensues, favorites tumble, and enthusiasm peaks. It rarely, if ever, lasts. Partly, that is a matter of perspective: It is hard to see how the knockout rounds, this year, can possibly surpass the adventures of Argentina, Spain and Germany for drama, no matter how compelling they are. And partly, it is natural, unavoidable, a consequence of the shifting nature of the competition. For the first two weeks, the World Cup is a carnival. The planet is captivated by the color and the noise and the bravado of some of the less familiar nations: the buccaneering spirit and boisterous support of Peru; the pride and joy of Panama; the technical accomplishment, and the rotten luck, of Morocco and Iran. After that, the tournament becomes what it is meant to be: a competition. The tension sets in. The incentives change. For much of the group stage, there is a premium on winning. It pays to attack, to score goals, to cast off any fear and go for the throat. The knockout rounds are different. Now, all of a sudden, the vital thing is not to lose. That fundamentally alters the experience, for players and for viewers. After all the unpredictability of the past two weeks, there is a startling familiarity to the last 16 (apart from the absence of Germany). Of the 16 teams still standing, 10 are from Europe. Four are from South America, because Argentina and Colombia rallied. That leaves just Mexico and Japan from outside the two historically dominant confederations. The instinct is to say that the surprises are done now, that the fun is over, that Russia 2018 will be like all the others: a war of attrition, in which the superpower with the deepest resources — in personnel, fortune, spirit and will — ultimately prevails. There is, though, reason to hope. There is no outstanding team. There is no pre-eminent coach. There is no evidence to establish, conclusively, that Croatia could not knock Spain out in the quarterfinals, or that Uruguay and Portugal should be afraid of running into France or Argentina at the same stage. Mexico picked off Germany, complacent and sluggish, only a little more than a week ago. Who is to say the same plan cannot work against Brazil? The test for its opponents will not be technical, or tactical, but psychological. Can they see those canary-yellow jerseys and resist the urge to shrink into themselves? Can they treat a knockout game as if it is a group match? Can they shake off the fear of losing and focus on what it would mean to win? Can they retain that carnival spirit, even in the heat of competition? Ordinarily, the answer is no. Eventually, history and experience start to tell. But this time, as Joachim Löw would be the first to acknowledge, while Germany experiences the latter stages of the World Cup as an observer rather than a participant, it feels as if there can be no guarantees. Credit: Rory Smith
Subject: Tournaments & championships; Soccer
Location: Croatia Mexico Spain Russia Germany Peru South America Iran Portugal England Argentina Poland Brazil Belgium France Uruguay Japan Colombia Panama Europe Morocco
Identifier / keyword: World Cup 2018 (Soccer) Soccer Brazil Colombia France
Publication title: New York Times (Online); New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 29, 2018
Section: sports
Publisher: New York Times Company
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Blogs, Podcasts, & Websites
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2061305869
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2061305869?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright 2018 The New York Times Company
Last updated: 2018-09-17
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 330 of 474
Globalism 1, Nationalism 0
Author: Kuper, Simon
Publication info: FT.com ; London (Jun 29, 2018).
Abstract:
England’s fans in Nizhny Novgorod last weekend chanted nothing more aggressive than: “Are you watching, Scotland?” In fact, the violence we should be worrying about during World Cups isn’t nationalist but domestic: the awful “holy trinity” of sport, alcohol and “hegemonic masculinity” encourages some men to hit their partners, write Damien Williams and Fergus Neville of the University of St Andrews. Derk Sauer, founder of The Moscow Times newspaper, reports Russian and Ukrainian fans in central Moscow singing Ukrainian songs together, something they could have been arrested for a fortnight before — while simultaneously the Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov, serving 20 years in a Russian jail, is critically ill on hunger strike. The fan who lives in a shack without air conditioning in Bangkok or Lagos, who will never earn $8,000 a year or attend a World Cup, and whose children’s school is bad, has just one indisputably world-class thing in his life: his attachment to Ronaldo.Full text: I write this on the train from Nizhny Novgorod to Moscow. Going around Russia this World Cup, I’ve been thinking about George Orwell. “Sport is an unfailing cause of ill will,” he wrote after Dynamo Moscow’s football tour of Britain in 1945. “If such a visit as this had any effect at all on Anglo-Soviet relations, it could only be to make them slightly worse than before.” Orwell blamed the ill will on “the rise of nationalism… the lunatic modern habit of identifying oneself with large power units and seeing everything in terms of competitive prestige”. He concluded that “serious sport” was “war minus the shooting”. War minus the shooting doesn’t sound so dreadful. Still, Orwell as ever raises the right issues beyond the grave. Is the World Cup — the planet’s biggest festival — more nationalist hate-fest than cosmopolitan carnival? In part, this is a question about our era. The French nativist leader Marine Le Pen has said that today’s political divide is no longer right against left but “patriots” against “globalists”. Her “patriots” now seem dominant, from Trump to Brexit to Putin to Erdogan. Yet the World Cup suggests that the long-term advantage is with the globalists. Before every World Cup, pundits predict nationalist mayhem. This time, there were supposed to be “battles” between Russian and English hooligans. That may yet happen but, so far, apart from a fight between a handful of Argentines and Croats, it’s the fifth peaceable World Cup in a row. England’s fans in Nizhny Novgorod last weekend chanted nothing more aggressive than: “Are you watching, Scotland?” In fact, the violence we should be worrying about during World Cups isn’t nationalist but domestic: the awful “holy trinity” of sport, alcohol and “hegemonic masculinity” encourages some men to hit their partners, write Damien Williams and Fergus Neville of the University of St Andrews. The World Cup only superficially looks nationalist. This is a party nationalism, where you paint the flag on your face and belt out the anthem but wouldn’t dream of dying for your country. Fans of many countries laugh together at goalkeeping blunders, swap predictions, then fall asleep on each other’s shoulders on the train. The expected racism from the home fans hasn’t materialised yet, but I did see a Russian supporter stop a black Tunisian for a joint selfie on what was once a battlefield at Stalingrad. Derk Sauer, founder of The Moscow Times newspaper, reports Russian and Ukrainian fans in central Moscow singing Ukrainian songs together, something they could have been arrested for a fortnight before — while simultaneously the Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov, serving 20 years in a Russian jail, is critically ill on hunger strike. Even fans in national colours aren’t always what they seem. At Brazil-Costa Rica, many people in Brazil shirts turned out on closer inspection to be Chinese. A group of American college students I saw in Moscow each wore a different country’s shirt. True, most fans here are well travelled and well off. But those watching from home also tend towards globalism. Younger people worldwide are more connected to their phones than to their nations, so they develop international tastes. In football, Brazil are a retro global brand, while leading players have planetary appeal. Cristiano Ronaldo has 122 million Facebook followers, 12 times the population of his native Portugal. The fan who lives in a shack without air conditioning in Bangkok or Lagos, who will never earn $8,000 a year or attend a World Cup, and whose children’s school is bad, has just one indisputably world-class thing in his life: his attachment to Ronaldo. That can be a stronger pull than nation. The only notable nationalist tension here so far has been between Swiss players of Kosovar origin and Serbs at the Switzerland-Serbia game. Otherwise, the players are cosmopolitans, more at home in first-class airline lounges than in the streets of their native countries. Opponents hug after brutal games, because they feel closer to each other than to their own compatriots in the stands. Regimes, too, have given up using the tournament to stir nationalist frenzy. When Argentina won 40 years ago, the country’s finance minister, Martínez de Hoz, crowed: “The day that 25 million Argentines aim for the same goal, Argentina will be a winner not once, but a thousand times over.” Today’s politicians merely use the tournament to distract. Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov hosts a banquet for Egyptian striker Mo Salah. Other governments seize the chance to bury bad news. During the last World Cup, Israel attacked Gaza, knowing that most media would be looking elsewhere. This time, the day before the Russia-Saudi Arabia opening match, Saudi Arabia launched a bloody offensive in Yemen. On match day, Russia’s government announced a rise in the pension age. The opposition politician Alexei Navalny is organising protest rallies for Sunday, but the government has banned most demonstrations in the World Cup’s 11 host cities, which include Moscow and St Petersburg. Nationalists are having their moment. But the World Cup reminds us that many bits of globalisation are very popular. If you are a subscriber and would like to receive alerts when Simon’s articles are published, just click the button “add to myFT”, which appears at the top of this page beside the author’s name. Not a subscriber? Follow Simon on @KuperSimon or email him at [email protected] Follow @FTMag on Twitter to find out about our latest stories first. Subscribe to FT Life on YouTube for the latest FT Weekend videos Credit: Simon Kuper
Subject: Tournaments & championships; Nationalism; Soccer
Location: Russia Israel Scotland United Kingdom--UK Portugal England Argentina Yemen Brazil Serbia Switzerland Bangkok Thailand Saudi Arabia Costa Rica Gaza Strip
People: Navalny, Alexei Sentsov, Oleg Le Pen, Marine Ronaldo, Cristiano Orwell, George (Eric Blair) (1903-50)
Company / organization: Name: University of St Andrews; NAICS: 611310; Name: Facebook Inc; NAICS: 518210, 519130; Name: Twitter Inc; NAICS: 519130; Name: YouTube Inc; NAICS: 519130
Publication title: FT.com; London
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 29, 2018
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United Kingdom, Londo n
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Trade Journals
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2071780593
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2071780593?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Jun 29, 2018
Last updated: 2018-07-19
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 331 of 474
World Cup: the story so far in five charts
Author: Murad, Ahmed; Burn-Murdoch, John
Publication info: FT.com ; London (Jun 29, 2018).
Abstract:
For this reason, we have adjusted for teams’ winning probabilities based on pre-match odds, helping to account for lopsided fixtures as well as games between well-matched sides. Match of the day Having already qualified for the next round, Belgium and England rested key players and sent out second string XIs in their final group game. If you are a subscriber and would like to receive alerts when World Cup 2018 stories are published, just click the button “add to MyFT”, which appears at the top of this page.Full text: Stats of the day The group stages are over and all 32 teams have at least managed to score at the World Cup. In a festival of attacking football and questionable defending, it can be hard to work out how strong teams really are. Using data from Statsbomb, a football analytics company, we have analysed all the matches so far to reach a few conclusions in advance of the knockout stages. Why did Germany fail? Much of the planet succumbed to Schadenfreude as the reigning champions exited the tournament following defeat to South Korea. Yet anyone who has watched their matches could see that Germany spent a lot of time attacking. What gives? We analysed the “expected goals” in all World Cup games, assessing the quality of scoring chances created based on where and when these occur. Germany went for goal often but were also impatient, often shooting from distance and at angles from which it is hard to convert. Indeed, Germany had more shots than any other team, yet still managed just two goals. The failure to break down opponents is unsurprising, as the quality of shots taken was as poor as lower-rated sides such as Tunisia and Morocco, which are also boarding early planes home. So which teams are good in attack? A problem with focusing on “expected goals” is that the data are heavily skewed by playing weak opponents. England battering Panama 6-1 is less impressive than, say, Colombia sweeping past Poland 3-0. For this reason, we have adjusted for teams’ winning probabilities based on pre-match odds, helping to account for lopsided fixtures as well as games between well-matched sides. Germany’s struggles are in stark contrast to rivals who have lived up to their billing as pre-tournament favourites. Even after taking into account the relatively low strength of many of the teams they have faced, Brazil, Spain and Belgium have impressed. And which are best in defence? The toughest teams to crack have been France and Uruguay. The South Americans have secured three consecutive clean sheets. France are yet to concede in open play, having only given up a goal to an Australian penalty after defender Samuel Umtiti brainlessly handled the ball. Both sides are stingy because they allow opponents few high-quality shots on goal. Which teams have struck the right balance? Football is a low-scoring sport, which requires teams to balance the risk of conceding goals with the rewards for attacking. Uruguay have struck a good balance, while the attacking strengths of Spain and Belgium are slightly offset by relatively weak defences. By our measures, Brazil look ominously strong, a team that has created plenty of goalscoring opportunities yet is miserly at the back. The South Americans look best placed to lift the trophy if they can continue to mix their traditional jogo bonito with a dash of Italian-style catenaccio. From our global network Supporters from Latin America have travelled to Russia in their thousands and delighted local fans, writes Max Seddon Few fans can have celebrated a 3-0 defeat as raucously as Mexico’s did in Ekaterinburg on Wednesday. Watching their team fruitlessly try to pull back a goal against Sweden, supporters in the stadium erupted noisily when news filtered through that South Korea had scored the goals against Germany that secured Mexico’s passage to the knockout stages. Mexican fans seized passing Asians in celebration and chanted, “Corea! Hermano! Ya eres Mexicano!” (roughly: “Korea! Brother! You are now Mexican!”) At this World Cup, fans from countries such as Mexico, Peru and Colombia have been an undoubted hit with Russians — many of whom had never encountered any Hispanic people before. Peruvian fans marched in their thousands in the unglamorous city of Saransk. Mexicans in sombreros, lucha libre masks and Aztec outfits are mobbed by locals for photos wherever they go. “Russia is one of the best countries in the world,” said Jorge Cardenas, a 26-year-old Mexican lawyer. “They are like Mexicans — they’re so warm and friendly.” Though they had the farthest to travel, Latin countries made up five of the top 10 in ticket sales for the tournament, with a combined 262,000. That does not include the US, which came first and is likely to have provided a significant chunk of fans supporting countries such as Mexico. Supporters tell anecdotal accounts of fans who had put themselves in financial difficulty to make it to Russia. “You bet people sold their houses, took out loans, quit their jobs — in Latin America, it’s very hard to get three weeks’ vacation,” said one Mexico fan, Yuriker Pacheco. Latin fever has particularly taken hold in cities such as Ekaterinburg, an industrial centre in the Ural Mountains that is also the easternmost World Cup host city. Bars put out signs saying, “Hola, Amigos!” One local posted a flyer on social media from an Ekaterinburg stairwell asking “anyone who sees a lost Peruvian to give him advice or help him reach apartment 81”. The author went on: “I’m not making money out of this. Peru’s not a rich country: my Peruvians are electricians who took out a loan to get here. They’re staying for free — don’t try to con them or make money out of them, you’ll be sorry!” With the group stage ending, the more remote cities such as Ekaterinburg and Saransk will no longer host World Cup games; Peru, many Russians’ favourites, are already out. As a group of Mexicans sang along to a mariachi band, local fan Evgeny Lebedev said he would be sorry to see them go. “They created a total carnival atmosphere. They came such a long way and it cost them a lot. We’re really going to miss it.” Match of the day Having already qualified for the next round, Belgium and England rested key players and sent out second string XIs in their final group game. The result was disjointed performances from both sides. Belgium won 1-0 thanks to the one moment of quality in the match, a curling strike from Adnan Januzaj. Belgium gain a dubious prize, a round of 16 tie against Japan, one of the weaker teams left in the tournament. However, they enter the same side of the draw as Brazil, France, Argentina, Portugal and Uruguay. Tougher challenges await, then. England, meanwhile, face a strong-looking Colombia side in the next round. If they survive that test, they have a theoretically easier passage through the rest of the competition. Given the last time England won a World Cup knockout match is 2006, that remains a big if. World Cup Extra will be appearing each Wednesday and Friday morning. Find us on ft.com/worldcup2018 or follow World Cup 2018 on MyFT. Next edition: Wednesday July 4. If you are a subscriber and would like to receive alerts when World Cup 2018 stories are published, just click the button “add to MyFT”, which appears at the top of this page. You can find World Cup Extra on ft.com/worldcup2018 or follow World Cup 2018 on MyFT Credit: Murad Ahmed and John Burn-Murdoch
Subject: Football; Teams; Tournaments & championships; Soccer
Location: Russia Tunisia Latin America Peru Portugal England Argentina Ural Mountains Poland Brazil France Uruguay Panama South Korea Morocco Sweden Mexico Spain United States--US Germany Belgium Japan Colombia
People: Januzaj, Adnan
Company / organization: Name: Murad Inc; NAICS: 325620
Publication title: FT.com; London
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 29, 2018
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Trade Journals
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2071783202
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2071783202?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Jun 29, 2018
Last updated: 2018-07-19
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 332 of 474
Russia revels in World Cup feelgood factor
Author: Seddon, Max
Publication info: FT.com ; London (Jun 29, 2018).
Abstract:
[...]neither the vast distance to the banks of the Volga nor the national team’s sobering defeat could damp his delight at being a small part of a feelgood factor sweeping the country. Aided by a strong start by the previously underwhelming national team, Russia has embraced the country’s largest ever international sporting event to a degree that few had expected. Political protests, including attempted rallies by Mr Navalny against a recent decision to raise the retirement age, are banned in World Cup host cities.Full text: Alexei Sidorov had travelled from his home inside the Arctic Circle to see Russia play — and lose — its final group game in the World Cup in far-off Samara. But neither the vast distance to the banks of the Volga nor the national team’s sobering defeat could damp his delight at being a small part of a feelgood factor sweeping the country. “I think everyone realises this is the sort of thing that happens once in your life. Everyone wants to get a part of it before it ends,” said Mr Sidorov, a 35-year-old civil servant from Novy Urengoy, as he joined the throng on the streets. Aided by a strong start by the previously underwhelming national team, Russia has embraced the country’s largest ever international sporting event to a degree that few had expected. For citizens of a nation treated with suspicion by western rivals, encounters with unprecedented numbers of foreign visitors have helped them feel that relations with the rest of the world need not be as mistrustful and hostile as global geopolitics would sometimes suggest. To a degree that has surprised some Russians, the Kremlin under President Vladimir Putin has played its part. The heavy-handed policing that usually accompanies mass gatherings in Russia has been dropped, allowing supporters from as far away as Peru and Australia to create a party atmosphere around the clock, both in the heart of Moscow and in provincial cities. Bars have run out of beer and fast-food chains have opened around the clock. “The Australians made off with half the town, they were just grabbing stuff left and right. They drink beer out of shoes. Apparently it’s their tradition,” said Dmitry, a volunteer in Samara. “We were totally unprepared for it.” Cheap travel has helped fans join in; Mr Sidorov had taken advantage of special five-rouble tickets for Russia fans on Aeroflot to follow the Russian team. “They’ve made it so convenient for everyone to come to the games,” he said. Mr Putin has used aggressive nationalism to help rally domestic support in recent years, but the World Cup has allowed patriotism to find broader expression. The country united in cheering the national team as it scored eight goals in its first two games; after a 3-1 win against Egypt, thousands of fans flooded central St Petersburg, waving flags and singing songs. Nationalists hailed the scenes — the biggest outpouring of popular joy since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 — as a triumph. “Russia is coming to life as a civilisation. It is rising from its knees to free itself from colonial dependency on the west,” said theatre producer Eduard Boyakov. “That process needs signs and symbols. Here’s one. What a team.” But the team has also won over many of Mr Putin’s opponents. Opposition leader Alexei Navalny, in court over probation for a fraud conviction that he says was concocted by the Kremlin to stop him running for president, watched the Uruguay game on his laptop during a hearing. Singer Semyon Slepakov, who had a viral hit before the tournament lamenting Russia’s poor play, recorded a new one to apologise. Legions of foreign fans have joined the enthusiasm. After Russia defeated Egypt, fans from Mexico and Brazil joined chants of “Ros-si-ya!” and gave Russians high-fives on the metro escalator. “Russia’s been the ‘bad boy’ of the world in the last few years and everyone’s got used to only hearing bad news from it,” said Dmitry Navosha, publisher of sports.ru, a popular independent website. “Travelling around the Russia during the World Cup has made me feel that Russians are becoming more open now than before — and that they’re sick of this forced ‘us against the world’ stance.” Russians’ euphoria is tinged with a niggling fear the country’s authoritarian streak will soon reappear. In normal times, much of the revelry would be illegal: Peru fans in Saransk and Sweden fans in Nizhny Novgorod paraded through the cities on the way to matches — an activity that requires receiving a hard-to-get permission from the mayor’s office and is often violently dispersed. Political protests, including attempted rallies by Mr Navalny against a recent decision to raise the retirement age, are banned in World Cup host cities. Moscow State University students were detained and fined when they protested against a loud fan zone set up near their study halls during final exams. Few of Mr Putin’s critics believe the Russian police’s friendly face will last beyond the World Cup. “Obviously, a month from now you will not be able to go up to that cop in the metro who took a photo in a sombrero, [who will say] ‘What sombrero? Get your documents out and let’s go’,” columnist Oleg Kashin said on Republic, a website. Others believe, however, that simply showing a side to Russia at odds with perceptions abroad and the Kremlin’s own behaviour is a triumph to be enjoyed while it lasts. “I’ve never seen anything like this in Russia,” said accountant Daria Strekhnina, 28, enjoying the aftermath of another match in a “fan zone” in the capital. “It’s like having a Brazilian carnival in Moscow.” Mr Navosha said: “Hopefully people will understand Russia isn’t just the people who take foreign policy decisions in the country’s name.” Credit: Max Seddon in Samara
Subject: Tournaments & championships
Location: Sweden Mexico Russia Arctic region Crimea Egypt Peru Australia Brazil Uruguay
People: Navalny, Alexei Kashin, Oleg Putin, Vladimir
Company / organization: Name: Aeroflot Russian Airlines; NAICS: 481111; Name: Moscow State University; NAICS: 611310
Publication title: FT.com; London
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 29, 2018
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Trade Journals
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2071823745
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2071823745?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Jun 29, 2018
Last updated: 2018-07-19
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 333 of 474
Typically, Surprises End Here. This Isn't Typical.: [Sports Desk]
Author: Smith, Rory
Publication info: New York Times , Late Edition (East Coast); New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]30 June 2018: D.1.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: MOSCOW -- As Joachim Löw, Germany's coach, considers all the things that went wrong for his team over the last two weeks, all the myriad factors that contributed to the reigning World Cup champion's ignominious exit, one moment, in particular, will cause him to cringe. A few minutes after Germany lost to Mexico in its opening game -- not fortuitously, but deservedly, less happenstance than harbinger -- Löw was informed that, in three of the previous four World Cups, the team that entered the tournament as the titleholder had fallen in the group stage. He waved off the notion that Germany might go the same way. "I guarantee we will be in the knockout round," he said. This, as the last two weeks have amply proved, is not a World Cup where anyone should be offering guarantees. Germany, that great constant of international soccer, the permanent semifinalist, has gone, to the raucous delight of Brazil and England and the more understated relief of Spain, France, Argentina and the rest. Those nations that remain should have seen enough to know the dangers of hubris, though. Spain sacked its manager on the eve of the tournament and came within a single goal, and a video review, of an early exit. So, too, did Portugal. Argentina has spent two weeks in a state of existential crisis and sneaked into the last 16 because its central defender scored with his weaker foot with four minutes to play. Even those contenders whose progress has been a little more serene -- Brazil, France, Belgium and England -- can have little doubt that the old rules no longer apply. Brazil has played only in flashes. France has conceded one goal, but scored only three. The most impressive performances have come from nations outside the established elite: Croatia's ruthless demolition of an admittedly chaotic Argentina; Mexico's perfectly planned, expertly executed exploitation of all of Germany's flaws; Colombia's riotous return to form against Poland. This tournament, thus far, has belonged not to soccer's great aristocratic houses, but to its petite bourgeoisie. Perhaps we should have seen that coming, when Argentina only crept into the tournament by the skin of its teeth, and when both the Dutch and the Italians failed to do even that. At a time when the gap between the richest clubs and the rest has been allowed -- encouraged, in fact -- to become a chasm, international soccer has, refreshingly, blessedly, traveled in the opposite direction. It is more democratic than ever. Nations with less glittering histories -- but good coaching, a sense of identity and players littered throughout Europe's great leagues -- no longer have quite so much to fear. The giants do not look quite so fearsome when you see them every week. Of course, it is easy to say that after the group stage of a World Cup. The pattern of the tournament is familiar, and yet somehow forgotten, every four years. The first round of group games is cagey, cautious; everyone worries that this year's competition will be the worst in history. In the second, teams cut loose. By the third, when the stakes are highest, and it is do or die, mayhem ensues, favorites tumble, and enthusiasm peaks. It rarely, if ever, lasts. Partly, that is a matter of perspective: It is hard to see how the knockout rounds, this year, can possibly surpass the adventures of Argentina, Spain and Germany for drama, no matter how compelling they are. And partly, it is natural, unavoidable, a consequence of the shifting nature of the competition. For the first two weeks, the World Cup is a carnival. The planet is captivated by the color and the noise and the bravado of some of the less familiar nations: the buccaneering spirit and boisterous support of Peru; the pride and joy of Panama; the technical accomplishment, and the rotten luck, of Morocco and Iran. After that, the tournament becomes what it is meant to be: a competition. The tension sets in. The incentives change. For much of the group stage, there is a premium on winning. It pays to attack, to score goals, to cast off any fear and go for the throat. The knockout rounds are different. Now, all of a sudden, the vital thing is not to lose. That fundamentally alters the experience, for players and for viewers. After all the unpredictability of the past two weeks, there is a startling familiarity to the last 16 (apart from the absence of Germany). Of the 16 teams still standing, 10 are from Europe. Four are from South America, because Argentina and Colombia rallied. That leaves just Mexico and Japan from outside the two historically dominant confederations. The instinct is to say that the surprises are done now, that the fun is over, that Russia 2018 will be like all the others: a war of attrition, in which the superpower with the deepest resources -- in personnel, fortune, spirit and will -- ultimately prevails. There is, though, reason to hope. There is no outstanding team. There is no pre-eminent coach. There is no evidence to establish, conclusively, that Croatia could not knock Spain out in the quarterfinals, or that Uruguay and Portugal should be afraid of running into France or Argentina at the same stage. Mexico picked off Germany, complacent and sluggish, only a little more than a week ago. Who is to say the same plan cannot work against Brazil? The test for its opponents will not be technical, or tactical, but psychological. Can they see those canary-yellow jerseys and resist the urge to shrink into themselves? Can they treat a knockout game as if it is a group match? Can they shake off the fear of losing and focus on what it would mean to win? Can they retain that carnival spirit, even in the heat of competition? Ordinarily, the answer is no. Eventually, history and experience start to tell. But this time, as Joachim Löw would be the first to acknowledge, while Germany experiences the latter stages of the World Cup as an observer rather than a participant, it feels as if there can be no guarantees.Photograph
Subject: Tournaments & championships; Coaches & managers; Professional soccer; Soccer
Location: Argentina Croatia Spain Germany
People: Low, Joachim
Company / organization: Name: Federation Internationale de Football Association--FIFA; NAICS: 813990
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/29/sports/world-cup/world-cup-knockout-round-16.html
Publication title: New York Times, Late Edition (East Coast); New York, N.Y.
Pages: D.1
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 30, 2018
column: On Soccer
Section: D
Publisher: New York Times Company
Place of publication: New York, N.Y.
Country of publication: United States, New York, N.Y.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
ISSN: 03624331
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2061744376
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2061744376?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright New York Times Company Jun 30, 2018
Last updated: 2018-11-14
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 334 of 474
Russia revels in World Cup carnival atmosphere: Image boost. Friendly face Encounters with foreign fans feed feelgood factor as nation's 'bad boy' stance takes a break [Asia Region]
Author: Seddon, Max
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]30 June 2018: 3.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Alexei Sidorov had travelled from his home inside the Arctic Circle to see Russia play — and lose — its final group game in the World Cup in far-off Samara. But neither the vast distance to the banks of the Volga nor the national team's sobering defeat could damp his delight at being a small part of a feelgood factor sweeping the country. "I think everyone realises this is the sort of thing that happens once in your life. Everyone wants to get a part of it before it ends," said Mr Sidorov, a 35-year-old civil servant from Novy Urengoy, as he joined the throng on the streets. Aided by a strong start by the previously underwhelming national team, Russia has embraced the country's largest ever international sporting event to a degree that few had expected. For citizens of a nation treated with suspicion by western rivals, encounters with unprecedented numbers of foreign visitors have helped them feel that relations with the rest of the world need not be as mistrustful and hostile as global geopolitics would sometimes suggest. To a degree that has surprised some Russians, the Kremlin under President Vladimir Putin has played its part. The heavy-handed policing that usually accompanies mass gatherings in Russia has been dropped, allowing supporters from as far away as Peru and Australia to create a party atmosphere both in the heart of Moscow and in provincial cities. Bars have run out of beer and fast-food chains have opened around the clock. "The Australians made off with half the town, they were just grabbing stuff left and right. They drink beer out of shoes. Apparently it's their tradition," said Dmitry, a volunteer in Samara. "We were totally unprepared for it." Cheap travel has helped fans join in; Mr Sidorov had taken advantage of special five-rouble tickets for Russia fans on Aeroflot to follow the Russian team. "They've made it so convenient for everyone to come to the games," he said. Mr Putin has used aggressive nationalism to help rally domestic support in recent years, but the World Cup has allowed patriotism to find broader expression. The country united in cheering the national team as it scored eight goals in its first two games; after a 3-1 win against Egypt, thousands of fans flooded central St Petersburg, waving flags and singing songs. Nationalists hailed the scenes — the biggest outpouring of popular joy since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 — as a triumph. "Russia is coming to life as a civilisation. It is rising from its knees to free itself from colonial dependency on the west," said theatre producer Eduard Boyakov. "That process needs signs and symbols. Here's one. What a team." But the team has also won over many of Mr Putin's opponents. Opposition leader Alexei Navalny, in court over probation for a fraud conviction that he says was concocted by the Kremlin to stop him running for president, watched the Uruguay game on his laptop during a hearing. Singer Semyon Slepakov, who had a viral hit before the tournament lamenting Russia's poor play, recorded a new one to apologise. Legions of foreign fans have joined the enthusiasm. After Russia defeated Egypt, fans from Mexico and Brazil joined chants of "Ros-si-ya!" and gave Russians high-fives on the metro escalator. "Russia's been the 'bad boy' of the world in the last few years and everyone's got used to only hearing bad news from it," said Dmitry Navosha, publisher of sports.ru, a popular independent website. "Travelling around the Russia during the World Cup has made me feel that Russians are becoming more open now than before — and that they're sick of this forced 'us against the world' stance." Russians' euphoria is tinged with a niggling fear the country's authoritarian streak will soon reappear. In normal times, much of the revelry would be illegal: Peru fans in Saransk and Sweden fans in Nizhny Novgorod paraded through the cities on the way to matches — an activity that requires receiving a hard-to-get permission from the mayor's office and is often violently dispersed. Political protests, including attempted rallies by Mr Navalny against a recent decision to raise the retirement age, are banned in World Cup host cities. Moscow State University students were detained and fined when they protested against a loud fan zone set up near their study halls during final exams. Few of Mr Putin's critics believe the Russian police's friendly face will last beyond the World Cup. "Obviously, a month from now you will not be able to go up to that cop in the metro who took a photo in a sombrero, [who will say] 'What sombrero? Get your documents out and let's go'," columnist Oleg Kashin said on Republic, a website. Others believe, however, that simply showing a side to Russia at odds with perceptions abroad and the Kremlin's own behaviour is a triumph to be enjoyed while it lasts. "I've never seen anything like this in Russia," said accountant Daria Strekhnina, 28, enjoying the aftermath of another match in a "fan zone" in the capital. "It's like having a Brazilian carnival in Moscow." Mr Navosha said: "Hopefully people will understand Russia isn't just the people who take foreign policy decisions in the country's name." 'This is the sort of thing that happens once in your life. Everyone wants to get a part of it before it ends' CREDIT: MAX SEDDON — SAMARA CAPTION: The heavyhanded policing that usually accompanies mass gatherings in Russia has been suspended Gleb Garanich/Reuters
Subject: Tournaments & championships
Location: Sweden Mexico Russia Arctic region Crimea Egypt Peru Australia Brazil Uruguay
People: Navalny, Alexei Kashin, Oleg Putin, Vladimir
Company / organization: Name: Aeroflot Russian Airlines; NAICS: 481111; Name: Moscow State University; NAICS: 611310
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 3
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 30, 2018
Section: News
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2079526728
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2079526728?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Jun 30, 2018
Last updated: 2018-07-31
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 335 of 474
Globalism 1 Nationalism 0: OPENING SHOT [Europe Region]
Author: Kuper, Simon
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]30 June 2018: 5.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Iwrite this on the train from Nizhny Novgorod to Moscow. Going around Russia this World Cup, I've been thinking about George Orwell. "Sport is an unfailing cause of ill will," he wrote after Dynamo Moscow's football tour of Britain in 1945. "If such a visit as this had any effect at all on Anglo-Soviet relations, it could only be to make them slightly worse than before." Orwell blamed the ill will on "the rise of nationalism.... the lunatic modern habit of identifying oneself with large power units and seeing everything in terms of competitive prestige". He concluded that "serious sport" was "war minus the shooting". War minus the shooting doesn't sound so dreadful. Still, Orwell as ever raises the right issues beyond the grave. Is the World Cup - the planet's biggest festival - more nationalist hate-fest than cosmopolitan carnival? In part, this is a question about our era. The French nativist leader Marine Le Pen has said that today's political divide is no longer right against left but "patriots" against "globalists". Her "patriots" now seem dominant, from Trump to Brexit to Putin to Erdogan. Yet the World Cup suggests that the long-term advantage is with the globalists. Before every World Cup, pundits predict nationalist mayhem. This time, there were supposed to be "battles" between Russian and English hooligans. That may yet happen, but so far, apart from a fight between a handful of Argentines and Croats, it's the fifth peaceable World Cup in a row. England's fans in Nizhny Novgorod last weekend chanted nothing more aggressive than: "Are you watching, Scotland?" In fact, the violence we should be worrying about during World Cups isn't nationalist but domestic: the awful "holy trinity" of sport, alcohol and "hegemonic masculinity" encourages some men to hit their partners, write Damien Williams and Fergus Neville of the University of St Andrews. The World Cup only superficially looks nationalist. This is a party nationalism, where you paint the flag on your face and belt out the anthem but wouldn't dream of dying for your country. Fans of many countries laugh together at goalkeeping blunders, swap predictions, then fall asleep on each other's shoulders on the train. The expected racism from the home fans hasn't materialised yet, but I did see a Russian supporter stop a black Tunisian for a joint selfie on what was once a battlefield at Stalingrad. Derk Sauer, founder of The Moscow Times newspaper, reports Russian and Ukrainian fans in central Moscow singing Ukrainian songs together, something they could have been arrested for a fortnight before - while simultaneously the Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov, serving 20 years in a Russian jail, is critically ill on hunger strike. Even fans in national colours aren't always what they seem. At Brazil-Costa Rica, many people in Brazil shirts turned out on closer inspection to be Chinese. A group of American college students I saw in Moscow each wore a different country's shirt. True, most fans here are well travelled and well off. But those watching from home also tend towards globalism. Younger people worldwide are more connected to their phones than to their nations, so they develop international tastes. In football, Brazil are a retro global brand, while leading players have planetary appeal. Cristiano Ronaldo has 122 million Facebook followers, 12 times the population of his native Portugal. The fan who lives in a shack without air conditioning in Bangkok or Lagos, who will never earn $8,000 a year or attend a World Cup, and whose children's school is bad, has just one indisputably world-class thing in his life: his attachment to Ronaldo. That can be a stronger pull than nation. The only notable nationalist tension here so far has been between Swiss players of Kosovar origin and Serbs at the Switzerland-Serbia game. Otherwise, the players are cosmopolitans, more at home in first-class airline lounges than in the streets of their native countries. Opponents hug after brutal games, because they feel closer to each other than to their own compatriots in the stands. Regimes, too, have given up using the tournament to stir nationalist frenzy. When Argentina won 40 years ago, the country's Old Etonian finance minister, Martinez de Hoy, crowed: "The day that 25 million Argentines aim for the same goal, Argentina will be a winner not once, but a thousand times over." Today's politicians merely use the tournament to distract. Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov hosts a banquet for Egyptian striker Mo Salah. Other governments seize the chance to bury bad news. During the last World Cup, Israel attacked Gaza, knowing that most media would be looking elsewhere. This time, the day before the Russia-Saudi Arabia opening match, Saudi Arabia launched a bloody offensive in Yemen. On match day, Russia's government announced a rise in the pension age. The opposition politician Alexei Navalny is organising protest rallies for Sunday, but the government has banned most demonstrations in the World Cup's 11 host cities, which include Moscow and St Petersburg. Nationalists are having their moment. But the World Cup reminds us that many bits of globalisation are very popular. [email protected] @KuperSimon Read Simon Kuper's regular columns from the World Cup at ft.com/worldcup2018 'Different fans laugh together at goalkeeping blunders, swap predictions, then fall asleep on each other's shoulders on the train' CREDIT: SIMON KUPER
Subject: Tournaments & championships; Nationalism; Soccer
Location: Switzerland Russia Bangkok Thailand Saudi Arabia Israel Scotland United Kingdom--UK Costa Rica Portugal England Argentina Yemen Gaza Strip Brazil Serbia
People: Le Pen, Marine Ronaldo, Cristiano Navalny, Alexei Sentsov, Oleg Orwell, George (Eric Blair) (1903-50)
Company / organization: Name: University of St Andrews; NAICS: 611310; Name: Facebook Inc; NAICS: 518210, 519130
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 5
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 30, 2018
Section: FT Weekend Magazine
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2079530092
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2079530092?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limi ted Jun 30, 2018
Last updated: 2018-07-31
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 336 of 474
Globalism 1 Nationalism 0: OPENING SHOT [Asia Region]
Author: Kuper, Simon
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]30 June 2018: 5. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Iwrite this on the train from Nizhny Novgorod to Moscow. Going around Russia this World Cup, I've been thinking about George Orwell. "Sport is an unfailing cause of ill will," he wrote after Dynamo Moscow's football tour of Britain in 1945. "If such a visit as this had any effect at all on Anglo-Soviet relations, it could only be to make them slightly worse than before." Orwell blamed the ill will on "the rise of nationalism.... the lunatic modern habit of identifying oneself with large power units and seeing everything in terms of competitive prestige". He concluded that "serious sport" was "war minus the shooting". War minus the shooting doesn't sound so dreadful. Still, Orwell as ever raises the right issues beyond the grave. Is the World Cup - the planet's biggest festival - more nationalist hate-fest than cosmopolitan carnival? In part, this is a question about our era. The French nativist leader Marine Le Pen has said that today's political divide is no longer right against left but "patriots" against "globalists". Her "patriots" now seem dominant, from Trump to Brexit to Putin to Erdogan. Yet the World Cup suggests that the long-term advantage is with the globalists. Before every World Cup, pundits predict nationalist mayhem. This time, there were supposed to be "battles" between Russian and English hooligans. That may yet happen, but so far, apart from a fight between a handful of Argentines and Croats, it's the fifth peaceable World Cup in a row. England's fans in Nizhny Novgorod last weekend chanted nothing more aggressive than: "Are you watching, Scotland?" In fact, the violence we should be worrying about during World Cups isn't nationalist but domestic: the awful "holy trinity" of sport, alcohol and "hegemonic masculinity" encourages some men to hit their partners, write Damien Williams and Fergus Neville of the University of St Andrews. The World Cup only superficially looks nationalist. This is a party nationalism, where you paint the flag on your face and belt out the anthem but wouldn't dream of dying for your country. Fans of many countries laugh together at goalkeeping blunders, swap predictions, then fall asleep on each other's shoulders on the train. The expected racism from the home fans hasn't materialised yet, but I did see a Russian supporter stop a black Tunisian for a joint selfie on what was once a battlefield at Stalingrad. Derk Sauer, founder of The Moscow Times newspaper, reports Russian and Ukrainian fans in central Moscow singing Ukrainian songs together, something they could have been arrested for a fortnight before - while simultaneously the Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov, serving 20 years in a Russian jail, is critically ill on hunger strike. Even fans in national colours aren't always what they seem. At Brazil-Costa Rica, many people in Brazil shirts turned out on closer inspection to be Chinese. A group of American college students I saw in Moscow each wore a different country's shirt. True, most fans here are well travelled and well off. But those watching from home also tend towards globalism. Younger people worldwide are more connected to their phones than to their nations, so they develop international tastes. In football, Brazil are a retro global brand, while leading players have planetary appeal. Cristiano Ronaldo has 122 million Facebook followers, 12 times the population of his native Portugal. The fan who lives in a shack without air conditioning in Bangkok or Lagos, who will never earn $8,000 a year or attend a World Cup, and whose children's school is bad, has just one indisputably world-class thing in his life: his attachment to Ronaldo. That can be a stronger pull than nation. The only notable nationalist tension here so far has been between Swiss players of Kosovar origin and Serbs at the Switzerland-Serbia game. Otherwise, the players are cosmopolitans, more at home in first-class airline lounges than in the streets of their native countries. Opponents hug after brutal games, because they feel closer to each other than to their own compatriots in the stands. Regimes, too, have given up using the tournament to stir nationalist frenzy. When Argentina won 40 years ago, the country's Old Etonian finance minister, Martinez de Hoy, crowed: "The day that 25 million Argentines aim for the same goal, Argentina will be a winner not once, but a thousand times over." Today's politicians merely use the tournament to distract. Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov hosts a banquet for Egyptian striker Mo Salah. Other governments seize the chance to bury bad news. During the last World Cup, Israel attacked Gaza, knowing that most media would be looking elsewhere. This time, the day before the Russia-Saudi Arabia opening match, Saudi Arabia launched a bloody offensive in Yemen. On match day, Russia's government announced a rise in the pension age. The opposition politician Alexei Navalny is organising protest rallies for Sunday, but the government has banned most demonstrations in the World Cup's 11 host cities, which include Moscow and St Petersburg. Nationalists are having their moment. But the World Cup reminds us that many bits of globalisation are very popular. [email protected] @KuperSimon Read Simon Kuper's regular columns from the World Cup at ft.com/worldcup2018 'Different fans laugh together at goalkeeping blunders, swap predictions, then fall asleep on each other's shoulders on the train' CREDIT: SIMON KUPER
Subject: Tournaments & championships; Nationalism; Soccer
Location: Switzerland Russia Bangkok Thailand Saudi Arabia Israel Scotland United Kingdom--UK Costa Rica Portugal England Argentina Yemen Gaza Strip Brazil Serbia
People: Le Pen, Marine Ronaldo, Cristiano Navalny, Alexei Sentsov, Oleg Orwell, George (Eric Blair) (1903-50)
Company / organization: Name: University of St Andrews; NAICS: 611310; Name: Facebook Inc; NAICS: 518210, 519130
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 5
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 30, 2018
Section: FT Weekend Magazine
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2079531992
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2079531992?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limi ted Jun 30, 2018
Last updated: 2018-07-31
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 337 of 474
Globalism 1 Nationalism 0 [Asia Region]
Author: Kuper, Simon
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]30 June 2018: 2.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Iwrite this on the train from Nizhny Novgorod to Moscow. Going around Russia this World Cup, I've been thinking about George Orwell. "Sport is an unfailing cause of ill will," he wrote after Dynamo Moscow's UK tour in 1945. "If such a visit as this had any effect at all on Anglo-Soviet relations, it could only be to make them slightly worse than before." Orwell blamed the ill will on "the rise of nationalism ... the lunatic modern habit of identifying oneself with large power units and seeing everything in terms of competitive prestige". He concluded that "serious sport" was "war minus the shooting". War minus the shooting doesn't sound so dreadful. Yet Orwell, as ever, raises the right issues. Is the World Cup — the planet's biggest festival — more nationalist hate-fest than cosmopolitan carnival? In part, this is a question about our era. The French nativist leader Marine Le Pen says that today's political divide is no longer right against left but "patriots" against "globalists". Her "patriots" now seem dominant, from Trump to Brexit to Putin to Erdogan. Yet the World Cup suggests that the longterm advantage is with the globalists. Before every World Cup, pundits predict nationalist mayhem — this time, "battles" between Russian and English hooligans. That may yet happen; but so far, apart from a fight between a handful of Argentines and Croats, it's the fifth peaceable World Cup in a row. England's fans in Nizhny last weekend chanted nothing more aggressive than: "Are you watching, Scotland?" In fact, the violence we should be worrying about during World Cups isn't nationalist but domestic: the awful "holy trinity" of sport, alcohol and "hegemonic masculinity" encourages some men to hit their partners, write Damien Williams and Fergus Neville of the University of St Andrews. The World Cup only superficially looks nationalist. This is a party nationalism, where you paint the flag on your face and belt out the anthem, but wouldn't dream of dying for your country. Fans from many countries laugh together at players' blunders, swap predictions, then fall asleep on each other's shoulders on the train. The expected racism from the home fans hasn't materialised yet, but I did see a Russian supporter stop a black Tunisian for a joint selfie. Derk Sauer, founder of The Moscow Times newspaper, reports Ukrainian and Russian fans in Moscow singing Ukrainian songs together, something they could have been arrested for a fortnight before — at the same time as Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov, serving 20 years in a Russian jail, is critically ill on hunger strike. Even fans in national colours aren't always what they seem. At Brazil-Costa Rica, many people in Brazil shirts turned out on closer inspection to be Chinese. A group of American college students I saw in Moscow each wore a different country's shirt. True, most fans here are well-off and well-travelled. But even those watching from home tend towards globalism too. Younger people across the world are more connected to their phones than to their nations, so they develop international tastes, while leading players have planetary appeal. Cristiano Ronaldo has 122m Facebook followers, 12 times the population of his native Portugal. The fan who lives in a shack without air conditioning in Bangkok or Lagos, who will never earn $8,000 a year or attend a World Cup has just one indisputably world-class thing in his life: his attachment to Ronaldo. That can be a stronger pull than nation. So far the only notable nationalist tension here has been between Swiss players of Kosovar origin and Serbs at the Switzerland-Serbia game. But most players are cosmopolitans, more at home in first-class airline lounges than in the streets of their native countries. Opponents hug after brutal games, because they feel closer to each other than to their own compatriots in the stands. Regimes, too, have given up using the World Cup to stir up nationalism. When Argentina won 40 years ago, its Old Etonian finance minister, Martinez de Hoy, crowed: "The day that 25m Argentines aim for the same goal, Argentina will be a winner not once, but a thousand times over." Today's politicians merely use it to distract. Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov hosts a banquet for Egypt striker Mo Salah. Other governments seize the chance to bury bad news. During the last World Cup, Israel attacked Gaza, knowing that most media would be looking elsewhere. This time, the day before the Russia-Saudi Arabia opening match, Saudi Arabia launched a bloody offensive in Yemen. On match day, Russia's government announced a rise in the pension age. Opposition politician Alexei Navalny is organising protest rallies for Sunday, but the Kremlin has banned most demonstrations in the World Cup's 11 host cities, which include Moscow and St Petersburg. Nationalists are having their moment. But the World Cup reminds us how many bits of globalisation are very popular. Read Simon Kuper's columns from the World Cup at ft.com/worldcup2018 CREDIT: Simon Kuper Opening shot
Subject: Tournaments & championships; Nationalism
Location: Russia Israel Egypt Scotland United Kingdom--UK Portugal England Argentina Yemen Brazil Serbia Switzerland Bangkok Thailand Saudi Arabia Costa Rica Gaza Strip
People: Navalny, Alexei Sentsov, Oleg Le Pen, Marine Ronaldo, Cristiano Orwell, George (Eric Blair) (1903-50)
Company / organization: Name: University of St Andrews; NAICS: 611310; Name: Facebook Inc; NAICS: 518210, 519130
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 2
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 30, 2018
Section: Life and Arts
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2079533567
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2079533567?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Fina ncial Times Limited Jun 30, 2018
Last updated: 2019-06-04
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 338 of 474
Globalism 1 Nationalism 0 [Europe Region]
Author: Kuper, Simon
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]30 June 2018: 2. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Iwrite this on the train from Nizhny Novgorod to Moscow. Going around Russia this World Cup, I've been thinking about George Orwell. "Sport is an unfailing cause of ill will," he wrote after Dynamo Moscow's UK tour in 1945. "If such a visit as this had any effect at all on Anglo-Soviet relations, it could only be to make them slightly worse than before." Orwell blamed the ill will on "the rise of nationalism ... the lunatic modern habit of identifying oneself with large power units and seeing everything in terms of competitive prestige". He concluded that "serious sport" was "war minus the shooting". War minus the shooting doesn't sound so dreadful. Yet Orwell, as ever, raises the right issues. Is the World Cup — the planet's biggest festival — more nationalist hate-fest than cosmopolitan carnival? In part, this is a question about our era. The French nativist leader Marine Le Pen says that today's political divide is no longer right against left but "patriots" against "globalists". Her "patriots" now seem dominant, from Trump to Brexit to Putin to Erdogan. Yet the World Cup suggests that the longterm advantage is with the globalists. Before every World Cup, pundits predict nationalist mayhem — this time, "battles" between Russian and English hooligans. That may yet happen; but so far, apart from a fight between a handful of Argentines and Croats, it's the fifth peaceable World Cup in a row. England's fans in Nizhny last weekend chanted nothing more aggressive than: "Are you watching, Scotland?" In fact, the violence we should be worrying about during World Cups isn't nationalist but domestic: the awful "holy trinity" of sport, alcohol and "hegemonic masculinity" encourages some men to hit their partners, write Damien Williams and Fergus Neville of the University of St Andrews. The World Cup only superficially looks nationalist. This is a party nationalism, where you paint the flag on your face and belt out the anthem, but wouldn't dream of dying for your country. Fans from many countries laugh together at players' blunders, swap predictions, then fall asleep on each other's shoulders on the train. The expected racism from the home fans hasn't materialised yet, but I did see a Russian supporter stop a black Tunisian for a joint selfie. Derk Sauer, founder of The Moscow Times newspaper, reports Ukrainian and Russian fans in Moscow singing Ukrainian songs together, something they could have been arrested for a fortnight before — at the same time as Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov, serving 20 years in a Russian jail, is critically ill on hunger strike. Even fans in national colours aren't always what they seem. At Brazil-Costa Rica, many people in Brazil shirts turned out on closer inspection to be Chinese. A group of American college students I saw in Moscow each wore a different country's shirt. True, most fans here are well-off and well-travelled. But even those watching from home tend towards globalism too. Younger people across the world are more connected to their phones than to their nations, so they develop international tastes, while leading players have planetary appeal. Cristiano Ronaldo has 122m Facebook followers, 12 times the population of his native Portugal. The fan who lives in a shack without air conditioning in Bangkok or Lagos, who will never earn $8,000 a year or attend a World Cup has just one indisputably world-class thing in his life: his attachment to Ronaldo. That can be a stronger pull than nation. So far the only notable nationalist tension here has been between Swiss players of Kosovar origin and Serbs at the Switzerland-Serbia game. But most players are cosmopolitans, more at home in first-class airline lounges than in the streets of their native countries. Opponents hug after brutal games, because they feel closer to each other than to their own compatriots in the stands. Regimes, too, have given up using the World Cup to stir up nationalism. When Argentina won 40 years ago, its Old Etonian finance minister, Martinez de Hoy, crowed: "The day that 25m Argentines aim for the same goal, Argentina will be a winner not once, but a thousand times over." Today's politicians merely use it to distract. Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov hosts a banquet for Egypt striker Mo Salah. Other governments seize the chance to bury bad news. During the last World Cup, Israel attacked Gaza, knowing that most media would be looking elsewhere. This time, the day before the Russia-Saudi Arabia opening match, Saudi Arabia launched a bloody offensive in Yemen. On match day, Russia's government announced a rise in the pension age. Opposition politician Alexei Navalny is organising protest rallies for Sunday, but the Kremlin has banned most demonstrations in the World Cup's 11 host cities, which include Moscow and St Petersburg. Nationalists are having their moment. But the World Cup reminds us how many bits of globalisation are very popular. Read Simon Kuper's columns from the World Cup at ft.com/worldcup2018 CREDIT: Simon Kuper Opening shot
Subject: Tournaments & championships; Nationalism
Location: Russia Israel Egypt Scotland United Kingdom--UK Portugal England Argentina Yemen Brazil Serbia Switzerland Bangkok Thailand Saudi Arabia Costa Rica Gaza Strip
People: Navalny, Alexei Sentsov, Oleg Le Pen, Marine Ronaldo, Cristiano Orwell, George (Eric Blair) (1903-50)
Company / organization: Name: University of St Andrews; NAICS: 611310; Name: Facebook Inc; NAICS: 518210, 519130
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 2
Publicationyear: 2018
Publication date: Jun 30, 2018
Section: Life and Arts
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2079544442
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2079544442?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Fi nancial Times Limited Jun 30, 2018
Last updated: 2019-06-04
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 339 of 474
Globalism 1 Nationalism 0: OPENING SHOT
Author: Kuper, Simon
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]30 June 2018: 5. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Iwrite this on the train from Nizhny Novgorod to Moscow. Going around Russia this World Cup, I've been thinking about George Orwell. "Sport is an unfailing cause of ill will," he wrote after Dynamo Moscow's football tour of Britain in 1945. "If such a visit as this had any effect at all on Anglo-Soviet relations, it could only be to make them slightly worse than before." Orwell blamed the ill will on "the rise of nationalism.... the lunatic modern habit of identifying oneself with large power units and seeing everything in terms of competitive prestige". He concluded that "serious sport" was "war minus the shooting". War minus the shooting doesn't sound so dreadful. Still, Orwell as ever raises the right issues beyond the grave. Is the World Cup - the planet's biggest festival - more nationalist hate-fest than cosmopolitan carnival? In part, this is a question about our era. The French nativist leader Marine Le Pen has said that today's political divide is no longer right against left but "patriots" against "globalists". Her "patriots" now seem dominant, from Trump to Brexit to Putin to Erdogan. Yet the World Cup suggests that the long-term advantage is with the globalists. Before every World Cup, pundits predict nationalist mayhem. This time, there were supposed to be "battles" between Russian and English hooligans. That may yet happen, but so far, apart from a fight between a handful of Argentines and Croats, it's the fifth peaceable World Cup in a row. England's fans in Nizhny Novgorod last weekend chanted nothing more aggressive than: "Are you watching, Scotland?" In fact, the violence we should be worrying about during World Cups isn't nationalist but domestic: the awful "holy trinity" of sport, alcohol and "hegemonic masculinity" encourages some men to hit their partners, write Damien Williams and Fergus Neville of the University of St Andrews. The World Cup only superficially looks nationalist. This is a party nationalism, where you paint the flag on your face and belt out the anthem but wouldn't dream of dying for your country. Fans of many countries laugh together at goalkeeping blunders, swap predictions, then fall asleep on each other's shoulders on the train. The expected racism from the home fans hasn't materialised yet, but I did see a Russian supporter stop a black Tunisian for a joint selfie on what was once a battlefield at Stalingrad. Derk Sauer, founder of The Moscow Times newspaper, reports Russian and Ukrainian fans in central Moscow singing Ukrainian songs together, something they could have been arrested for a fortnight before - while simultaneously the Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov, serving 20 years in a Russian jail, is critically ill on hunger strike. Even fans in national colours aren't always what they seem. At Brazil-Costa Rica, many people in Brazil shirts turned out on closer inspection to be Chinese. A group of American college students I saw in Moscow each wore a different country's shirt. True, most fans here are well travelled and well off. But those watching from home also tend towards globalism. Younger people worldwide are more connected to their phones than to their nations, so they develop international tastes. In football, Brazil are a retro global brand, while leading players have planetary appeal. Cristiano Ronaldo has 122 million Facebook followers, 12 times the population of his native Portugal. The fan who lives in a shack without air conditioning in Bangkok or Lagos, who will never earn $8,000 a year or attend a World Cup, and whose children's school is bad, has just one indisputably world-class thing in his life: his attachment to Ronaldo. That can be a stronger pull than nation. The only notable nationalist tension here so far has been between Swiss players of Kosovar origin and Serbs at the Switzerland-Serbia game. Otherwise, the players are cosmopolitans, more at home in first-class airline lounges than in the streets of their native countries. Opponents hug after brutal games, because they feel closer to each other than to their own compatriots in the stands. Regimes, too, have given up using the tournament to stir nationalist frenzy. When Argentina won 40 years ago, the country's Old Etonian finance minister, Martinez de Hoy, crowed: "The day that 25 million Argentines aim for the same goal, Argentina will be a winner not once, but a thousand times over." Today's politicians merely use the tournament to distract. Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov hosts a banquet for Egyptian striker Mo Salah. Other governments seize the chance to bury bad news. During the last World Cup, Israel attacked Gaza, knowing that most media would be looking elsewhere. This time, the day before the Russia-Saudi Arabia opening match, Saudi Arabia launched a bloody offensive in Yemen. On match day, Russia's government announced a rise in the pension age. The opposition politician Alexei Navalny is organising protest rallies for Sunday, but the government has banned most demonstrations in the World Cup's 11 host cities, which include Moscow and St Petersburg. Nationalists are having their moment. But the World Cup reminds us that many bits of globalisation are very popular. [email protected] @KuperSimon Read Simon Kuper's regular columns from the World Cup at ft.com/worldcup2018 'Different fans laugh together at goalkeeping blunders, swap predictions, then fall asleep on each other's shoulders on the train' CREDIT: SIMON KUPER
Subject: Tournaments & championships; Nationalism; Soccer
Location: Switzerland Russia Bangkok Thailand Saudi Arabia Israel Scotland United Kingdom--UK Costa Rica Portugal England Argentina Yemen Gaza Strip Brazil Serbia
People: Le Pen, Marine Ronaldo, Cristiano Navalny, Alexei Sentsov, Oleg Orwell, George (Eric Blair) (1903-50)
Company / organization: Name: University of St Andrews; NAICS: 611310; Name: Facebook Inc; NAICS: 518210, 519130
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 5
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 30, 2018
Section: FT Weekend Magazine
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2079544444
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2079544444?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Jun 30, 2018
Last updated: 2018-07-31
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 340 of 474
Russia revels in World Cup carnival atmosphere: Image boost. Friendly face Encounters with foreign fans feed feelgood factor as nation's 'bad boy' stance takes a break [Europe Region]
Author: Seddon, Max
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]30 June 2018: 3. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Alexei Sidorov had travelled from his home inside the Arctic Circle to see Russia play — and lose — its final group game in the World Cup in far-off Samara. But neither the vast distance to the banks of the Volga nor the national team's sobering defeat could damp his delight at being a small part of a feelgood factor sweeping the country. "I think everyone realises this is the sort of thing that happens once in your life. Everyone wants to get a part of it before it ends," said Mr Sidorov, a 35-year-old civil servant from Novy Urengoy, as he joined the throng on the streets. Aided by a strong start by the previously underwhelming national team, Russia has embraced the country's largest ever international sporting event to a degree that few had expected. For citizens of a nation treated with suspicion by western rivals, encounters with unprecedented numbers of foreign visitors have helped them feel that relations with the rest of the world need not be as mistrustful and hostile as global geopolitics would sometimes suggest. To a degree that has surprised some Russians, the Kremlin under President Vladimir Putin has played its part. The heavy-handed policing that usually accompanies mass gatherings in Russia has been dropped, allowing supporters from as far away as Peru and Australia to create a party atmosphere both in the heart of Moscow and in provincial cities. Bars have run out of beer and fast-food chains have opened around the clock. "The Australians made off with half the town, they were just grabbing stuff left and right. They drink beer out of shoes. Apparently it's their tradition," said Dmitry, a volunteer in Samara. "We were totally unprepared for it." Cheap travel has helped fans join in; Mr Sidorov had taken advantage of special five-rouble tickets for Russia fans on Aeroflot to follow the Russian team. "They've made it so convenient for everyone to come to the games," he said. Mr Putin has used aggressive nationalism to help rally domestic support in recent years, but the World Cup has allowed patriotism to find broader expression. The country united in cheering the national team as it scored eight goals in its first two games; after a 3-1 win against Egypt, thousands of fans flooded central St Petersburg, waving flags and singing songs. Nationalists hailed the scenes — the biggest outpouring of popular joy since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 — as a triumph. "Russia is coming to life as a civilisation. It is rising from its knees to free itself from colonial dependency on the west," said theatre producer Eduard Boyakov. "That process needs signs and symbols. Here's one. What a team." But the team has also won over many of Mr Putin's opponents. Opposition leader Alexei Navalny, in court over probation for a fraud conviction that he says was concocted by the Kremlin to stop him running for president, watched the Uruguay game on his laptop during a hearing. Singer Semyon Slepakov, who had a viral hit before the tournament lamenting Russia's poor play, recorded a new one to apologise. Legions of foreign fans have joined the enthusiasm. After Russia defeated Egypt, fans from Mexico and Brazil joined chants of "Ros-si-ya!" and gave Russians high-fives on the metro escalator. "Russia's been the 'bad boy' of the world in the last few years and everyone's got used to only hearing bad news from it," said Dmitry Navosha, publisher of sports.ru, a popular independent website. "Travelling around the Russia during the World Cup has made me feel that Russians are becoming more open now than before — and that they're sick of this forced 'us against the world' stance." Russians' euphoria is tinged with a niggling fear the country's authoritarian streak will soon reappear. In normal times, much of the revelry would be illegal: Peru fans in Saransk and Sweden fans in Nizhny Novgorod paraded through the cities on the way to matches — an activity that requires receiving a hard-to-get permission from the mayor's office and is often violently dispersed. Political protests, including attempted rallies by Mr Navalny against a recent decision to raise the retirement age, are banned in World Cup host cities. Moscow State University students were detained and fined when they protested against a loud fan zone set up near their study halls during final exams. Few of Mr Putin's critics believe the Russian police's friendly face will last beyond the World Cup. "Obviously, a month from now you will not be able to go up to that cop in the metro who took a photo in a sombrero, [who will say] 'What sombrero? Get your documents out and let's go'," columnist Oleg Kashin said on Republic, a website. Others believe, however, that simply showing a side to Russia at odds with perceptions abroad and the Kremlin's own behaviour is a triumph to be enjoyed while it lasts. "I've never seen anything like this in Russia," said accountant Daria Strekhnina, 28, enjoying the aftermath of another match in a "fan zone" in the capital. "It's like having a Brazilian carnival in Moscow." Mr Navosha said: "Hopefully people will understand Russia isn't just the people who take foreign policy decisions in the country's name." 'This is the sort of thing that happens once in your life. Everyone wants to get a part of it before it ends' CREDIT: MAX SEDDON — SAMARA CAPTION: The heavyhanded policing that usually accompanies mass gatherings in Russia has been suspended Gleb Garanich/Reuters
Subject: Tournaments & championships
Location: Sweden Mexico Russia Arctic region Crimea Egypt Peru Australia Brazil Uruguay
People: Navalny, Alexei Kashin, Oleg Putin, Vladimir
Company / organization: Name: Aeroflot Russian Airlines; NAICS: 481111; Name: Moscow State University; NAICS: 611310
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 3
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 30, 2018
Section: News
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2079544661
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2079544661?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Jun 30, 2018
Last updated: 2018-07-31
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 341 of 474
Globalism 1 Nationalism 0 [Usa Region]
Author: Kuper, Simon
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]30 June 2018: 2. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Iwrite this on the train from Nizhny Novgorod to Moscow. Going around Russia this World Cup, I've been thinking about George Orwell. "Sport is an unfailing cause of ill will," he wrote after Dynamo Moscow's UK tour in 1945. "If such a visit as this had any effect at all on Anglo-Soviet relations, it could only be to make them slightly worse than before." Orwell blamed the ill will on "the rise of nationalism ... the lunatic modern habit of identifying oneself with large power units and seeing everything in terms of competitive prestige". He concluded that "serious sport" was "war minus the shooting". War minus the shooting doesn't sound so dreadful. Yet Orwell, as ever, raises the right issues. Is the World Cup — the planet's biggest festival — more nationalist hate-fest than cosmopolitan carnival? In part, this is a question about our era. The French nativist leader Marine Le Pen says that today's political divide is no longer right against left but "patriots" against "globalists". Her "patriots" now seem dominant, from Trump to Brexit to Putin to Erdogan. Yet the World Cup suggests that the longterm advantage is with the globalists. Before every World Cup, pundits predict nationalist mayhem — this time, "battles" between Russian and English hooligans. That may yet happen; but so far, apart from a fight between a handful of Argentines and Croats, it's the fifth peaceable World Cup in a row. England's fans in Nizhny last weekend chanted nothing more aggressive than: "Are you watching, Scotland?" In fact, the violence we should be worrying about during World Cups isn't nationalist but domestic: the awful "holy trinity" of sport, alcohol and "hegemonic masculinity" encourages some men to hit their partners, write Damien Williams and Fergus Neville of the University of St Andrews. The World Cup only superficially looks nationalist. This is a party nationalism, where you paint the flag on your face and belt out the anthem, but wouldn't dream of dying for your country. Fans from many countries laugh together at players' blunders, swap predictions, then fall asleep on each other's shoulders on the train. The expected racism from the home fans hasn't materialised yet, but I did see a Russian supporter stop a black Tunisian for a joint selfie. Derk Sauer, founder of The Moscow Times newspaper, reports Ukrainian and Russian fans in Moscow singing Ukrainian songs together, something they could have been arrested for a fortnight before — at the same time as Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov, serving 20 years in a Russian jail, is critically ill on hunger strike. Even fans in national colours aren't always what they seem. At Brazil-Costa Rica, many people in Brazil shirts turned out on closer inspection to be Chinese. A group of American college students I saw in Moscow each wore a different country's shirt. True, most fans here are well-off and well-travelled. But even those watching from home tend towards globalism too. Younger people across the world are more connected to their phones than to their nations, so they develop international tastes, while leading players have planetary appeal. Cristiano Ronaldo has 122m Facebook followers, 12 times the population of his native Portugal. The fan who lives in a shack without air conditioning in Bangkok or Lagos, who will never earn $8,000 a year or attend a World Cup has just one indisputably world-class thing in his life: his attachment to Ronaldo. That can be a stronger pull than nation. So far the only notable nationalist tension here has been between Swiss players of Kosovar origin and Serbs at the Switzerland-Serbia game. But most players are cosmopolitans, more at home in first-class airline lounges than in the streets of their native countries. Opponents hug after brutal games, because they feel closer to each other than to their own compatriots in the stands. Regimes, too, have given up using the World Cup to stir up nationalism. When Argentina won 40 years ago, its Old Etonian finance minister, Martinez de Hoy, crowed: "The day that 25m Argentines aim for the same goal, Argentina will be a winner not once, but a thousand times over." Today's politicians merely use it to distract. Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov hosts a banquet for Egypt striker Mo Salah. Other governments seize the chance to bury bad news. During the last World Cup, Israel attacked Gaza, knowing that most media would be looking elsewhere. This time, the day before the Russia-Saudi Arabia opening match, Saudi Arabia launched a bloody offensive in Yemen. On match day, Russia's government announced a rise in the pension age. Opposition politician Alexei Navalny is organising protest rallies for Sunday, but the Kremlin has banned most demonstrations in the World Cup's 11 host cities, which include Moscow and St Petersburg. Nationalists are having their moment. But the World Cup reminds us how many bits of globalisation are very popular. Read Simon Kuper's columns from the World Cup at ft.com/worldcup2018 CREDIT: Simon Kuper Opening shot
Subject: Tournaments & championships; Nationalism
Location: Switzerland Russia Bangkok Thailand Saudi Arabia Israel Egypt Scotland United Kingdom--UK Costa Rica Portugal England Argentina Yemen Gaza Strip Brazil Serbia
People: Le Pen, Marine Ronaldo, Cristiano Navalny, Alexei Sentsov, Oleg Orwell, George (Eric Blair) (1903-50)
Company / organization: Name: University of St Andrews; NAICS: 611310; Name: Facebook Inc; NAICS: 518210, 519130
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 2
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 30, 2018
Section: Life and Arts
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2079557030
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2079557030?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Finan cial Times Limited Jun 30, 2018
Last updated: 2018-07-31
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 342 of 474
Globalism 1 Nationalism 0: OPENING SHOT [Usa Region]
Author: Kuper, Simon
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]30 June 2018: 5. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Iwrite this on the train from Nizhny Novgorod to Moscow. Going around Russia this World Cup, I've been thinking about George Orwell. "Sport is an unfailing cause of ill will," he wrote after Dynamo Moscow's football tour of Britain in 1945. "If such a visit as this had any effect at all on Anglo-Soviet relations, it could only be to make them slightly worse than before." Orwell blamed the ill will on "the rise of nationalism.... the lunatic modern habit of identifying oneself with large power units and seeing everything in terms of competitive prestige". He concluded that "serious sport" was "war minus the shooting". War minus the shooting doesn't sound so dreadful. Still, Orwell as ever raises the right issues beyond the grave. Is the World Cup - the planet's biggest festival - more nationalist hate-fest than cosmopolitan carnival? In part, this is a question about our era. The French nativist leader Marine Le Pen has said that today's political divide is no longer right against left but "patriots" against "globalists". Her "patriots" now seem dominant, from Trump to Brexit to Putin to Erdogan. Yet the World Cup suggests that the long-term advantage is with the globalists. Before every World Cup, pundits predict nationalist mayhem. This time, there were supposed to be "battles" between Russian and English hooligans. That may yet happen, but so far, apart from a fight between a handful of Argentines and Croats, it's the fifth peaceable World Cup in a row. England's fans in Nizhny Novgorod last weekend chanted nothing more aggressive than: "Are you watching, Scotland?" In fact, the violence we should be worrying about during World Cups isn't nationalist but domestic: the awful "holy trinity" of sport, alcohol and "hegemonic masculinity" encourages some men to hit their partners, write Damien Williams and Fergus Neville of the University of St Andrews. The World Cup only superficially looks nationalist. This is a party nationalism, where you paint the flag on your face and belt out the anthem but wouldn't dream of dying for your country. Fans of many countries laugh together at goalkeeping blunders, swap predictions, then fall asleep on each other's shoulders on the train. The expected racism from the home fans hasn't materialised yet, but I did see a Russian supporter stop a black Tunisian for a joint selfie on what was once a battlefield at Stalingrad. Derk Sauer, founder of The Moscow Times newspaper, reports Russian and Ukrainian fans in central Moscow singing Ukrainian songs together, something they could have been arrested for a fortnight before - while simultaneously the Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov, serving 20 years in a Russian jail, is critically ill on hunger strike. Even fans in national colours aren't always what they seem. At Brazil-Costa Rica, many people in Brazil shirts turned out on closer inspection to be Chinese. A group of American college students I saw in Moscow each wore a different country's shirt. True, most fans here are well travelled and well off. But those watching from home also tend towards globalism. Younger people worldwide are more connected to their phones than to their nations, so they develop international tastes. In football, Brazil are a retro global brand, while leading players have planetary appeal. Cristiano Ronaldo has 122 million Facebook followers, 12 times the population of his native Portugal. The fan who lives in a shack without air conditioning in Bangkok or Lagos, who will never earn $8,000 a year or attend a World Cup, and whose children's school is bad, has just one indisputably world-class thing in his life: his attachment to Ronaldo. That can be a stronger pull than nation. The only notable nationalist tension here so far has been between Swiss players of Kosovar origin and Serbs at the Switzerland-Serbia game. Otherwise, the players are cosmopolitans, more at home in first-class airline lounges than in the streets of their native countries. Opponents hug after brutal games, because they feel closer to each other than to their own compatriots in the stands. Regimes, too, have given up using the tournament to stir nationalist frenzy. When Argentina won 40 years ago, the country's Old Etonian finance minister, Martinez de Hoy, crowed: "The day that 25 million Argentines aim for the same goal, Argentina will be a winner not once, but a thousand times over." Today's politicians merely use the tournament to distract. Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov hosts a banquet for Egyptian striker Mo Salah. Other governments seize the chance to bury bad news. During the last World Cup, Israel attacked Gaza, knowing that most media would be looking elsewhere. This time, the day before the Russia-Saudi Arabia opening match, Saudi Arabia launched a bloody offensive in Yemen. On match day, Russia's government announced a rise in the pension age. The opposition politician Alexei Navalny is organising protest rallies for Sunday, but the government has banned most demonstrations in the World Cup's 11 host cities, which include Moscow and St Petersburg. Nationalists are having their moment. But the World Cup reminds us that many bits of globalisation are very popular. [email protected] @KuperSimon Read Simon Kuper's regular columns from the World Cup at ft.com/worldcup2018 'Different fans laugh together at goalkeeping blunders, swap predictions, then fall asleep on each other's shoulders on the train' CREDIT: SIMON KUPER
Subject: Tournaments & championships; Nationalism; Soccer
Location: Switzerland Russia Bangkok Thailand Saudi Arabia Israel Scotland United Kingdom--UK Costa Rica Portugal England Argentina Yemen Gaza Strip Brazil Serbia
People: Le Pen, Marine Ronaldo, Cristiano Navalny, Alexei Sentsov, Oleg Orwell, George (Eric Blair) (1903-50)
Company / organization: Name: University of St Andrews; NAICS: 611310; Name: Facebook Inc; NAICS: 518210, 519130
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 5
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 30, 2018
Section: FT Weekend Magazine
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2079568900
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2079568900?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limi ted Jun 30, 2018
Last updated: 2018-07-31
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 343 of 474
Russia revels in World Cup carnival atmosphere: Image boost. Friendly face Encounters with foreign fans feed feelgood factor as nation's 'bad boy' stance takes a break
Author: Seddon, Max
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]30 June 2018: 8. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Alexei Sidorov had travelled from his home inside the Arctic Circle to see Russia play — and lose — its final group game in the World Cup in far-off Samara. But neither the vast distance to the banks of the Volga nor the national team's sobering defeat could damp his delight at being a small part of a feelgood factor sweeping the country. "I think everyone realises this is the sort of thing that happens once in your life. Everyone wants to get a part of it before it ends," said Mr Sidorov, a 35-year-old civil servant from Novy Urengoy, as he joined the throng on the streets. Aided by a strong start by the previously underwhelming national team, Russia has embraced the country's largest ever international sporting event to a degree that few had expected. For citizens of a nation treated with suspicion by western rivals, encounters with unprecedented numbers of foreign visitors have helped them feel that relations with the rest of the world need not be as mistrustful and hostile as global geopolitics would sometimes suggest. To a degree that has surprised some Russians, the Kremlin under President Vladimir Putin has played its part. The heavy-handed policing that usually accompanies mass gatherings in Russia has been dropped, allowing supporters from as far away as Peru and Australia to create a party atmosphere both in the heart of Moscow and in provincial cities. Bars have run out of beer and fast-food chains have opened around the clock. "The Australians made off with half the town, they were just grabbing stuff left and right. They drink beer out of shoes. Apparently it's their tradition," said Dmitry, a volunteer in Samara. "We were totally unprepared for it." Cheap travel has helped fans join in; Mr Sidorov had taken advantage of special five-rouble tickets for Russia fans on Aeroflot to follow the Russian team. "They've made it so convenient for everyone to come to the games," he said. Mr Putin has used aggressive nationalism to help rally domestic support in recent years, but the World Cup has allowed patriotism to find broader expression. The country united in cheering the national team as it scored eight goals in its first two games; after a 3-1 win against Egypt, thousands of fans flooded central St Petersburg, waving flags and singing songs. Nationalists hailed the scenes — the biggest outpouring of popular joy since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 — as a triumph. "Russia is coming to life as a civilisation. It is rising from its knees to free itself from colonial dependency on the west," said theatre producer Eduard Boyakov. "That process needs signs and symbols. Here's one. What a team." But the team has also won over many of Mr Putin's opponents. Opposition leader Alexei Navalny, in court over probation for a fraud conviction that he says was concocted by the Kremlin to stop him running for president, watched the Uruguay game on his laptop during a hearing. Singer Semyon Slepakov, who had a viral hit before the tournament lamenting Russia's poor play, recorded a new one to apologise. Legions of foreign fans have joined the enthusiasm. After Russia defeated Egypt, fans from Mexico and Brazil joined chants of "Ros-si-ya!" and gave Russians high-fives on the metro escalator. "Russia's been the 'bad boy' of the world in the last few years and everyone's got used to only hearing bad news from it," said Dmitry Navosha, publisher of sports.ru, a popular independent website. "Travelling around the Russia during the World Cup has made me feel that Russians are becoming more open now than before — and that they're sick of this forced 'us against the world' stance." Russians' euphoria is tinged with a niggling fear the country's authoritarian streak will soon reappear. In normal times, much of the revelry would be illegal: Peru fans in Saransk and Sweden fans in Nizhny Novgorod paraded through the cities on the way to matches — an activity that requires receiving a hard-to-get permission from the mayor's office and is often violently dispersed. Political protests, including attempted rallies by Mr Navalny against a recent decision to raise the retirement age, are banned in World Cup host cities. Moscow State University students were detained and fined when they protested against a loud fan zone set up near their study halls during final exams. Few of Mr Putin's critics believe the Russian police's friendly face will last beyond the World Cup. "Obviously, a month from now you will not be able to go up to that cop in the metro who took a photo in a sombrero, [who will say] 'What sombrero? Get your documents out and let's go'," columnist Oleg Kashin said on Republic, a website. Others believe, however, that simply showing a side to Russia at odds with perceptions abroad and the Kremlin's own behaviour is a triumph to be enjoyed while it lasts. "I've never seen anything like this in Russia," said accountant Daria Strekhnina, 28, enjoying the aftermath of another match in a "fan zone" in the capital. "It's like having a Brazilian carnival in Moscow." Mr Navosha said: "Hopefully people will understand Russia isn't just the people who take foreign policy decisions in the country's name." 'This is the sort of thing that happens once in your life. Everyone wants to get a part of it before it ends' CREDIT: MAX SEDDON — SAMARA CAPTION: The heavyhanded policing that usually accompanies mass gatherings; in Russia has been suspended Gleb Garanich/Reuters
Subject: Tournaments & championships
Location: Sweden Mexico Russia Arctic region Crimea Egypt Peru Australia Brazil Uruguay
People: Navalny, Alexei Kashin, Oleg Putin, Vladimir
Company / organization: Name: Aeroflot Russian Airlines; NAICS: 481111; Name: Moscow State University; NAICS: 611310
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 8
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 30, 2018
Section: News
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2079568955
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2079568955?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Jun 30, 2018
Last updated: 2018-07-31
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 344 of 474
Russia revels in World Cup carnival atmosphere: Image boost. Friendly face Encounters with foreign fans feed feelgood factor as nation's 'bad boy' stance takes a break [Usa Region]
Author: Seddon, Max
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]30 June 2018: 3. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Alexei Sidorov had travelled from his home inside the Arctic Circle to see Russia play — and lose — its final group game in the World Cup in far-off Samara. But neither the vast distance to the banks of the Volga nor the national team's sobering defeat could damp his delight at being a small part of a feelgood factor sweeping the country. "I think everyone realises this is the sort of thing that happens once in your life. Everyone wants to get a part of it before it ends," said Mr Sidorov, a 35-year-old civil servant from Novy Urengoy, as he joined the throng on the streets. Aided by a strong start by the previously underwhelming national team, Russia has embraced the country's largest ever international sporting event to a degree that few had expected. For citizens of a nation treated with suspicion by western rivals, encounters with unprecedented numbers of foreign visitors have helped them feel that relations with the rest of the world need not be as mistrustful and hostile as global geopolitics would sometimes suggest. To a degree that has surprised some Russians, the Kremlin under President Vladimir Putin has played its part. The heavy-handed policing that usually accompanies mass gatherings in Russia has been dropped, allowing supporters from as far away as Peru and Australia to create a party atmosphere both in the heart of Moscow and in provincial cities. Bars have run out of beer and fast-food chains have opened around the clock. "The Australians made off with half the town, they were just grabbing stuff left and right. They drink beer out of shoes. Apparently it's their tradition," said Dmitry, a volunteer in Samara. "We were totally unprepared for it." Cheap travel has helped fans join in; Mr Sidorov had taken advantage of special five-rouble tickets for Russia fans on Aeroflot to follow the Russian team. "They've made it so convenient for everyone to come to the games," he said. Mr Putin has used aggressive nationalism to help rally domestic support in recent years, but the World Cup has allowed patriotism to find broader expression. The country united in cheering the national team as it scored eight goals in its first two games; after a 3-1 win against Egypt, thousands of fans flooded central St Petersburg, waving flags and singing songs. Nationalists hailed the scenes — the biggest outpouring of popular joy since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 — as a triumph. "Russia is coming to life as a civilisation. It is rising from its knees to free itself from colonial dependency on the west," said theatre producer Eduard Boyakov. "That process needs signs and symbols. Here's one. What a team." But the team has also won over many of Mr Putin's opponents. Opposition leader Alexei Navalny, in court over probation for a fraud conviction that he says was concocted by the Kremlin to stop him running for president, watched the Uruguay game on his laptop during a hearing. Singer Semyon Slepakov, who had a viral hit before the tournament lamenting Russia's poor play, recorded a new one to apologise. Legions of foreign fans have joined the enthusiasm. After Russia defeated Egypt, fans from Mexico and Brazil joined chants of "Ros-si-ya!" and gave Russians high-fives on the metro escalator. "Russia's been the 'bad boy' of the world in the last few years and everyone's got used to only hearing bad news from it," said Dmitry Navosha, publisher of sports.ru, a popular independent website. "Travelling around the Russia during the World Cup has made me feel that Russians are becoming more open now than before — and that they're sick of this forced 'us against the world' stance." Russians' euphoria is tinged with a niggling fear the country's authoritarian streak will soon reappear. In normal times, much of the revelry would be illegal: Peru fans in Saransk and Sweden fans in Nizhny Novgorod paraded through the cities on the way to matches — an activity that requires receiving a hard-to-get permission from the mayor's office and is often violently dispersed. Political protests, including attempted rallies by Mr Navalny against a recent decision to raise the retirement age, are banned in World Cup host cities. Moscow State University students were detained and fined when they protested against a loud fan zone set up near their study halls during final exams. Few of Mr Putin's critics believe the Russian police's friendly face will last beyond the World Cup. "Obviously, a month from now you will not be able to go up to that cop in the metro who took a photo in a sombrero, [who will say] 'What sombrero? Get your documents out and let's go'," columnist Oleg Kashin said on Republic, a website. Others believe, however, that simply showing a side to Russia at odds with perceptions abroad and the Kremlin's own behaviour is a triumph to be enjoyed while it lasts. "I've never seen anything like this in Russia," said accountant Daria Strekhnina, 28, enjoying the aftermath of another match in a "fan zone" in the capital. "It's like having a Brazilian carnival in Moscow." Mr Navosha said: "Hopefully people will understand Russia isn't just the people who take foreign policy decisions in the country's name." 'This is the sort of thing that happens once in your life. Everyone wants to get a part of it before it ends' CREDIT: MAX SEDDON — SAMARA CAPTION: The heavyhanded policing that usually accompanies mass gatherings in Russia has been suspended Gleb Garanich/Reuters
Subject: Tournaments & championships
Location: Sweden Mexico Russia Arctic region Crimea Egypt Peru Australia Brazil Uruguay
People: Navalny, Alexei Kashin, Oleg Putin, Vladimir
Company / organization: Name: Aeroflot Russian Airlines; NAICS: 481111; Name: Moscow State University; NAICS: 611310
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 3
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jun 30, 2018
Section: News
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2079571260
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2079571260?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Jun 30, 2018
Last updated: 2018-07-31
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 345 of 474
REGIONAL THREAT OVERVIEW: LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
Author: Anonymous
Publication info: Special Warfare ; Fort Bragg Vol. 31, Iss. 3, (Jul-Sep 2018): 12.
Abstract:
The region's threats have evolved in the last several decades from regional insurgencies to more complex transnational issues such as illegal trafficking of arms, humans and drugs, as well as terrorism, illegal migration and socio-economic political concerns. Since its establishment in Panama in 1986, SOCSOUTH has remained vigilant in countering threats in the region and against the United States by working jointly with U.S. Interagency, allies and partner nations. At the height of its strength in the 2000s, the FARC claimed to have some 18,000 men and women. Since the signing of the accord, the FARC has renounced violence and handed over its weapons to the government and UN verification observers. When it first started its period of terrorism in 1980, its stated goal was to replace the bourgeois democracy with "New Democracy." Since the capture of its founder, Abimael Guzman, in 1992, the group has gradually faded and is now largely confined to a rugged coca growing region in south-central Peru.Full text: The U.S. Special Operations Command South area of responsibility encompasses Latin America and the Caribbean, which are comprised of 32 countries, 20 dependencies and a land area of 8.15 million square miles, or almost 13 percent of the Earth's land mass. Central and South America are defined by their mountain ranges, while South America also contains the Amazon Region. Much of South America's population lives in the Andes mountain range, while the Amazon is sparsely inhabited. The region's widespread riverine network is as important as land transportation. Spanish, Portuguese and English are the primary languages, though French, Dutch and numerous indigenous dialects are also spoken. The region has a variety of religions, with Catholicism being predominant. Indigenous faiths are practiced by many in Bolivia, Guatemala and Peru. In Brazil, Cuba and Haiti, Afro-Latin traditions and tribalvoodoo religions are also practiced. Though a small percentage in comparison, Islam has its strongest representation in Suriname, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago. Other world religions include Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism. Latin America has a long history of insurgencies, most recently from the 1970s to the 1990s. In Central America, Nicaragua had a violent change of government in 1979, while civil war in El Salvador concluded with a peace agreement in 1992, and the civil war in Guatemala concluded with a peace agreement in 1996. For more than 50 years, civil war threatened Colombia with groups such as M-19, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia National Liberation Front and paramilitaries conducting attacks against security forces, civilians and the infrastructure. In Peru, Sendero Luminoso posed a significant threat to the government until 1992 when its founder and several high profile leaders were captured. Since the late 1990s and early 2000s, democracy has made a return to most of Latin America. Throughout much of the region, elections have resulted in the successful turnover of governments and economic progress has resulted in the lowering of poverty levels. Although Latin America experienced a revival of democracy in the 1990s and early 2000s, the region continues to experiences many challenges. In Central America, the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and 18th Street gangs have replaced the insurgents and, in conjunction with drug traffickers, threaten the governability of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras through crime and violence. The violence has been a major push factor for migrants heading for the United States. In South America, narcotics production and the ensuing violent crime remain a persistent problem. Cocaine production in Bolivia, Colombia and Peru remains high and Paraguay is the region's top supplier of marijuana. Drug traffickers and gangs also remain active throughout South America, undermining democratic gains through violence and corruption. Of the world's top 50 violent cities, 43 are located in Latin America and eight of the top 10 cities are in Central and South America; the remaining two are in Mexico which does not fall under SOCSOUTH's area of responsibility. Venezuela's political and economic crises have evolved into a regional challenge, affecting not only Venezuela, but many of the region's countries, as tens of thousands of Venezuelans migrate in search of food, medicine and safe haven from the violence; most of the migrants have spread throughout South America which further strains social and security services. In the Caribbean, natural disasters are a significant issue that threatens economic security every year and require persistent support from other countries. The Caribbean also serves as a critical node in the transshipment of illegal trafficking of arms, humans and drugs. Although past mass migration events have been curtailed due to government policies, to a lesser extent, migration remains a persistent challenge. Even though the threat of terrorism in Latin America and the Caribbean has been reduced in recent years, threats persist. Many countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have porous borders, limited law enforcement capabilities and established smuggling routes. These vulnerabilities offer opportunities to local and international terrorist groups and pose challenges to regional governments. In Colombia, although a peace agreement was signed between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the National Liberation Front has yet to do so. The government and the ELN are conducting talks, but since the end of the bilateral cease fire in January 2018, the ELN has resumed attacks on security forces and infrastructure. In Peru, Sendero Luminoso remains active and while it no longer threatens the state, it continues to spread its propaganda and has morphed into a criminal enterprise. In the Caribbean, Middle Eastern-based terrorist groups have found support. In particular, Trinidad and Tobago has been a source of more than 100 foreign terrorist fighters who attempted or traveled to Iraq and Syria to join the Islamic State of Iraq. In early 2018, Trinidadian authorities arrested several individuals suspected of plotting attacks during Carnival. In 2016, Brazil arrested 12 individuals for alleged terrorist plotting prior to the Rio Olympics. Lebanese Hezballah, the alleged perpetrator of the 1992 and 1994 bombings in Argentina, is suspected of maintaining a terrorist infrastructure in the region. The region's threats have evolved in the last several decades from regional insurgencies to more complex transnational issues such as illegal trafficking of arms, humans and drugs, as well as terrorism, illegal migration and socio-economic political concerns. Since its establishment in Panama in 1986, SOCSOUTH has remained vigilant in countering threats in the region and against the United States by working jointly with U.S. Interagency, allies and partner nations. Through its adaptability, cultural knowledge and language skills, SOCSOUTH continues to play a unique role in fostering regional partnerships, countering threats and mutually developing SOF interoperability between the United States and the region's nations.Sidebar
Subject: Terrorism; Violence; Migration; Peace negotiations; Gangs; Civil war
Location: Nicaragua Paraguay Bolivia Latin America Iraq Peru Argentina Suriname Guyana Brazil Syria Haiti El Salvador Panama Mexico Honduras United States--US Trinidad & Tobago Venezuela Guatemala South America Cuba Los Angeles California Central America Colombia
Company / organization: Name: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia; NAICS: 813940; Name: MS-13 (Mara Salvatrucha); NAICS: 813410; Name: Shining Path-Peru; NAICS: 813940; Name: Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant--ISIS; NAICS: 813940; Name: Special Operations Command; NAICS: 928110
Publication title: Special Warfare; Fort Bragg
Volume: 31
Issue: 3
First page: 12
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jul-Sep 2018
Publisher: John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School
Place of publication: Fort Bragg
Country of publication: United States, Fort Bragg
Publication subject: Aeronautics And Space Flight
ISSN: 10580123
Source type: Trade Journals
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2161260708
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2161260708?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School Jul-Sep 2018
Last updated: 2018-12-29
Database: SciTech Premium Collection
Document 346 of 474
VALENCIA CAMPUS HOST 4-NIGHT FILM FESTIVAL
Author: McCaffrey, Robert
Publication info: University Wire ; Carlsbad [Carlsbad]02 July 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Publication: The Valencia Source, Valencia Community College, Orlando FL. By Collin Dever[email protected]
For the second year in a row Valencia Community College plays host to a four night Brazilian film festival highlighting the rich diversity of Brazilian cinema. On hand will be distinguished filmmakers Elisa Tolomelli and Malu de Martino.
Ms. Tolomelli was an executive producer on the film City of God which was nominated for four Oscars including best writing, and best cinematography. Ms. Martino and Ms. Tolomelli worked together on the film Mulheres do Brasil (Women of Brazil) as director and producer respectively. Which covers the story of five women living in Brazilaccording to imdb. Professor of Portuguese Richard Sansone organized the film festival as a way to provide people with a view of what modern day Brazil really looks like, and for his students the film festival is a living laboratory to practice their language and tie it into the Brazilian culture.
The opening night of the festival, which happened this past Thursday, Feb. 19, was a screening of Ó Paí, Ó (Look at This!) on the West campus in Building 5-111.
“Look at This!” follows the stories of the tenement dwellers of the city of Salvador as they celebrate Carnival. With a diverse range of characters the film leaves the audience “curious to dive in but fearful of drowning,” according to Mr. Sansone.
The second night of the festival took place on Monday, Feb. 23 at East campus’ at the Performing Arts Center. Guests were invited to see the 2008 Berlin International Film Festival best film award winner Tropa de Elite (Elite Squad). Suggested by the students that attended last year’s Brazilian Film Festival, Elite Squad illustrates the power struggle in Rio de Janeiro’s Favelas (slums) between the special operations police and the drug lords. The movie is based on the accounts of Rodrigo Pimentel who was an elite squad captain for nineteen years.
Moving over to the Osceola Campus the third film will be Lisbella E O Prisioneiro (Lisbella). A classic love story with a Brazilian twist all focused around a movie theatre. Lisbella is a movie for all age groups. The film was shown Feb. 24 in Building two in the auditorium.
Finally the Brazilian film festival will conclude with Polaróides Urbanas (Urban Snapshots). Following the lives of woman living in urban Brazil the film shows the joy and sorrow as the characters lives pitch between comedy and tragedy. Returning to the West campus Urban Snapshots will be screened Feb. 25 in building five room 111.
In addition to a rich cultural experience, the film festival also helps to partner the college with the community at large, a strategic goal of Valencia community college. The festival has partnered with the Central Florida Brazilian American Chamber of Commerce a lively and eclectic group of business owners who are as diverse as Brazil itself.
All Films are open to the public and anyone can attend. For each film there will be a reception starting at 6pm followed by the screening at 7pm. All films will be shown in Portuguese with English subtitles.
Credit: Robert McCaffrey
Subject: Motion picture directors & producers; Motion picture festivals; Community colleges
Location: Brazil Florida Rio de Janeiro Brazil
Company / organization: Name: American Chamber of Commerce; NAICS: 813910; Name: Berlin International Film Festival; NAICS: 512131, 711 320; Name: Valencia Community College; NAICS: 611210
Publication title: University Wire; Carlsbad
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jul 2, 2018
Section: News
Publisher: Uloop, Inc.
Place of publication: Carlsbad
Country of publication: United States, Carlsbad
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2065073439
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2065073439?accountid=4840
Copyright: © 2018 UWIRE, a division of Uloop
Last updated: 2018-07-06
Database: Social Science Premium Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 347 of 474
Hooligans admit defeat in World Cup 'carnival': Russians make English fans feel welcome as the troublemakers keep their distance
Author: Seddon, Max; Kuper, Simon; Mance, Henry
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]02 July 2018: 3.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Two years after England fans clashed violently with Russian hooligans in Marseille, memories remain strong enough to deter most from braving the journey to Russia, despite optimism about their team's fortunes. But those making the journey have found a country going out of its way to make them feel welcome. "It's been a total football carnival — exactly how the Russians wanted it to be perceived," said Ryan Keeble, a floorlayer supervisor from Bedfordshire. When Mr Keeble flew to England's first game in Volgograd, he was greeted by local schoolchildren singing songs of welcome. "It's been just incredible, the place and the people," he said. The brawl in France and years of geopolitical tensions — heightened most recently by the Skripal poisoning in March — have made England one of the worst supported teams at the tournament. And fears of a police crackdown have left Russia and England supporters on their best behaviour. While fans from as far away as Argentina and Peru have come in the tens of thousands, England's first two games against Tunisia and Panama each drew fewer than 2,000 fans, according to official figures. As of March, only 24,000 England supporters had applied for tickets — compared with 94,000 at a similar stage before Brazil 2014. The FA believes there has been a steady increase of England fans through this World Cup, with about 1,500 attending the first match against Tunisia but around 5,000 at the latest game against Belgium. More are expected for England's round of 16 tie against Colombia in Moscow tomorrow evening. The number in Russia may even be smaller than the 20,000 people who travelled from the UK to watch Arsenal play CSKA Moscow in April, a month after the Skripals were poisoned. The smooth start to the tournament is particularly notable given that the British embassy official in charge of fan security was kicked out of Russia as part of the diplomatic crisis between the two countries. Both countries spent the two years since the Marseille fight cleaning up their act. Russia arrested hundreds of hooligans and used the Fan ID system that acts as a visa for foreign fans with tickets to ban notorious Russian supporters from matches. "Respected, well known people in our scene can't get to the stadium. They have total control over everyone who comes to the terraces," said Denis, a CSKA hooligan who fought England fans in France. The Home Office this month ordered 1,300 Britons who have been banned from football matches to surrender their passports until the World Cup final. According to Vladimir Kolokoltsev, Russia's interior minister, violent clashes have been limited to "isolated incidents" and have not involved Russians. "If we had the chance to ruin it then we would, but I'm a sensible man, so I am staying away from this circus," said Denis, who is hiding abroad and asked for his last name not to be used. Besides, he added, after routing their English counterparts, Russian hooligans had little desire for a repeat encounter. "We don't need to beat our chests and yell that we are kings of the Russian land to get three years in prison or a five-year European ban," he said. Hardcore England fans appear to have come to the same conclusion and stayed away. Joe Smith, a cab driver in London, noted that the thrill-seeking young men who often followed England around western Europe had avoided the trip. "Usually it's 17 to 22-year-olds coming for a fight and the beer, not even interested in the game," he said. When Russians in the crowd at England matches chanted "Rossiya", the "England fans weren't even booing", he added. "That just shows you the type of people who travelled. They are respectful of the Russians." Even Russian "ultras" are keen to make a good impression. Will Chatters and Howard Keyworth, students from Stockport, recalled an encounter with feared supporters of Zenit St Petersburg. The Russians — dressed in Fred Perry gear, the traditional brand of British hooligans — said they wanted to practise their English, took them to a local bar and showed them their favourite beers. "They idolised the British hooligan culture of the 1980s. They saw that as the pinnacle. Now they think they are the pinnacle," said Mr Chatters. Ahead of Thursday's match in Kaliningrad, Mr Chatters and his friends played in a football tournament with Belgian fans and a local team, which culminated with everyone singing each others' songs. "Russians have all said the same thing: 'There is more to Russia than vodka and bears,'" said Mr Chatters. 'If we had the chance to ruin it then we would, but I'm a sensible man, so I am staying away from this circus' CREDIT: MAX SEDDON — MOSCOW SIMON KUPER — KALININGRAD HENRY MANCE — LONDON CAPTION: England fans in Nizhny Novgorod ahead of the match against Panama. Below, British supporters clash with Russians in Marseille during the Euro 2016 tournament - Aaron Chown/PA, Carl Court/Getty ;
Subject: Football; Diplomatic & consular services; Marketing management; Tournaments & championships; Soccer
Location: Russia Tunisia United Kingdom--UK Peru England Argentina Brazil Belgium France Colombia Panama Europe
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 3
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jul 2, 2018
Section: News
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2081213790
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2081213790?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Jul 2, 2018
Last updated: 2018-08-02
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 348 of 474
Brazil: Basic data
Publication info: EIU ViewsWire ; New York [New York]05 July 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Brazil: Basic data
Land area
8,547,400 sq km. Population
207.7m (2017 estimate) Main cities
Population at last census (2012 official estimate; m) São Paulo: 11.4 Rio de Janeiro: 6.4 Salvador: 2.7 Brasília (capital): 2.6 Fortaleza: 2.5 Belo Horizonte: 2.4 Climate
Mainly tropical and sub-tropical; mild on the southern coast and in the higher regions Weather in São Paulo (altitude 760 metres)
Hottest month, December, 23-30°C; coldest month, June, 15-22°C, average monthly minimum and maximum; driest month, August; wettest month, February Language
Portuguese Measures
Metric system Currency
Real (R); average exchange rate in 2017: R3.2:US$1 Time
The states along the coast, as well as eastern Pará, Brasília-DF, Minas Gerais, Goiás and Tocantins, are three hours behind GMT (official time in Brazil); the states of Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Rondônia, most of Amazonas, Roraima and western Pará are four hours behind GMT; the states of Acre and the south-western part of Amazonas are five hours behind GMT Public holidays
January 1st (New Year's Day); February 10th-14th (Carnival); March 30th (Good Friday); April 21st (Tiradentes); May 1st (Labour Day); September 7th (Independence Day); October 12th (Nossa Senhora Aparecida, the patron saint of Brazil; also Children's Day); November 2nd (All Saints' Day); November 15th (Proclamation of the Republic); December 25th (Christmas Day)
Subject: Economic conditions; Economic indicators; Background
Location: Brazil Latin America
Publication title: EIU ViewsWire; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jul 5, 2018
Publisher: The Economist Intelligence Unit N.A., Incorporated
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Political Science--International Relations
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2065162569
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2065162569?accountid=4840
Copyright: (c) 2018 The Economist Intelligence Unit Ltd. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. No further reproduction is permitted.
Last updated: 2018-07-07
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 349 of 474
CURRENCIES
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]05 July 2018: 20.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: MARKET DATA Based on the constituents of the S&P500 Based on the constituents of the FTSE 350 index Based on the constituents of the FTSEurofirst 300 Eurozone index Based on the constituents of the Nikkei 225 index Jul 04 %Chg %Chg FTSE 100 price(p) week ytd Winners Imperial Brands 2900.00 6.1 -8.1 Bt 229.00 4.9 -16.7 Just Eat 791.80 4.8 1.9 Shire 4264.00 4.1 9.6 British American Tobacco 3931.50 4.0 -20.4 Severn Trent 2023.00 3.9 -5.4 Sainsbury (j) 328.00 3.7 36.0 United Utilities 773.80 2.6 -5.2 Bae Systems 640.00 2.5 11.2 Sse 1381.50 2.4 6.3 National Grid 855.30 2.3 -0.8 Reckitt Benckiser 6366.00 2.2 -6.4 Losers Glencore 319.45 -13.5 -19.0 Smith & Nephew 1311.50 -6.3 3.8 Antofagasta 944.00 -6.3 -5.7 Barratt Developments 492.90 -5.5 -24.6 Rio Tinto 3966.00 -5.3 -0.6 Johnson Matthey 3500.00 -5.0 14.1 Micro Focus Int 1258.00 -4.9 -49.4 Carnival 4270.00 -4.7 -12.9 Evraz 490.20 -4.6 38.2 Smith (ds) 503.20 -4.5 -2.1 Melrose Industries 205.70 -4.3 -2.6 Burberry 2054.00 -4.2 15.2 Jul 04 %Chg %Chg FTSE 250 price(p) week ytd Winners Integrafin Holdings 384.00 8.8 - Syncona 263.50 5.6 30.8 3i Infrastructure 226.95 2.7 -14.5 Pantheon Int 2040.00 1.0 9.1 Pershing Square Holdings Ltd 1126.00 0.4 10.4 Woodford Patient Capital Trust 81.80 0.2 -3.0 Finsbury Growth & ome Trust 810.00 0.2 5.2 City Of London Investment Trust 430.00 0.1 -1.8 Fidelity Special Values 271.00 0.0 6.3 Personal Assets Trust 39850.00 0.6 -2.4 Scottish Investment Trust 872.00 -0.2 0.0 Mercantile Investment Trust (the) 216.60 -0.6 -0.4 Losers Playtech 540.20 -29.4 -38.0 Elementis 240.60 -16.5 -15.7 Greene King 560.40 -12.2 -1.4 Ferrexpo 173.55 -10.3 -42.7 Hunting 749.00 -9.2 23.6 Alfa Fin Software Holdings 167.00 -8.4 -69.2 Tullow Oil 229.90 -8.2 12.1 Convatec 199.95 -7.6 -1.8 Intermediate Capital 1058.00 -7.2 -7.2 Serco 94.20 -6.5 -4.3 Wood (john) 621.40 -6.3 -5.1 Premier Oil 118.40 -6.0 55.0 Jul 04 %Chg %Chg FTSE SmallCap price(p) week ytd Winners Robert Walters 756.00 7.4 30.3 Puretech Health 150.00 7.1 0.7 Communisis 56.60 4.8 -12.9 Jpmorgan Japan Smaller Co Tst 428.00 1.9 -2.5 Jpmorgan Russian Securities 524.00 4.0 2.7 Anglo-eastern Plantations 730.00 3.7 0.0 Blackrock Latin American Investment Trust 395.00 3.4 -14.0 Lindsell Train Investment Trust 962.00 1.5 14.9 Nb Private Equity Partners 1070.00 2.9 2.9 Ecofin Global Utilities And Infrastructure Trust 126.50 3.7 -4.5 Henderson Diversified ome Trust 88.80 2.5 -7.1 Schroder Uk Growth Fund 195.00 2.1 9.6 Losers Petra Diamonds 53.50 -8.9 5.3 Allied Minds 98.60 -8.2 -40.2 Hollywood Bowl 216.00 -7.7 3.8 Cambian 143.40 -7.6 -26.2 Mcbride 123.00 -7.5 -45.6 Georgia Capital 1025.00 -7.0 - Enquest 33.70 -7.2 13.9 Moss Bros 44.00 -6.8 -49.7 Restaurant 278.20 -6.4 -5.8 Premier Oil 118.40 -6.0 55.0 Ao World 147.00 -5.6 36.6 Headlam 479.00 -5.5 -15.7 Jul 04 %Chg %Chg Industry Sectors price(p) week ytd Winners Fixed Line Telecommunication 2638.95 4.6 - Tobacco 44199.46 4.3 - Electricity 8174.22 2.5 5.6 Aerospace & Defense 5505.35 2.3 12.6 Gas Water & Multiutilities 5178.30 2.3 0.0 Mobile Telecommunications 4181.85 2.0 - Personal Goods 37189.16 1.1 2.5 Pharmaceuticals & Biotech. 13904.38 1.0 8.2 Automobiles & Parts 10433.53 0.8 38.0 Food & Drug Retailers 4240.43 0.4 30.0 Real Estate Investment Trusts 3136.10 0.3 -1.0 Beverages 21739.20 0.2 -0.1 Losers Mining 17743.50 -6.0 -5.3 Industrial Metals 4457.28 -5.7 15.6 Oil Equipment & Services 13128.46 -5.6 1.7 Health Care Equip.& Services 7601.71 -5.0 0.1 Chemicals 15565.49 -4.1 9.9 Electronic & Electrical Equip. 6753.96 -3.8 2.5 Software & Computer Services 1834.14 -3.2 - Construction & Materials 6372.97 -2.9 -2.5 Industrial Engineering 12829.72 -2.9 2.4 Travel & Leisure 10007.39 -2.0 -1.8 General Industrials 6659.55 -1.7 4.4 Oil & Gas Producers 9678.20 -1.6 7.2 Based on last week's performance. †Price at suspension. CURRENCIES DOLLAR EURO POUND Closing Day's Closing Day's Closing Day's Jul 4 Currency Mid Change Mid Change Mid Change DOLLAR EURO POUND Closing Day's Closing Day's Closing Day's Jul 4 Currency Mid Change Mid Change Mid Change DOLLAR EURO POUND Closing Day's Closing Day's Closing Day's Jul 4 Currency Mid Change Mid Change Mid Change DOLLAR EURO POUND Closing Day's Closing Day's Closing Day's Jul 4 Currency Mid Change Mid Change Mid Change Argentina Argentine Peso 27.9500 0.0550 32.5465 0.0504 36.9221 0.1702 Australian Dollar 1.3554 -0.0003 1.5783 -0.0010 1.7905 0.0044 Bahrain Bahrainin Dinar 0.3795 -0.0005 0.4419 -0.0008 0.5013 0.0007 Bolivia Bolivian Boliviano 6.9100 - 8.0464 -0.0034 9.1281 0.0242 Brazil Brazilian Real 3.9075 0.0186 4.5501 0.0198 5.1618 0.0382 Canada Canadian Dollar 1.3155 -0.0013 1.5318 -0.0021 1.7377 0.0030 Chile Chilean Peso 653.3500 0.3500 760.7974 0.0887 863.0779 2.7467 China Chinese Yuan 6.6205 -0.0457 7.7093 -0.0565 8.7457 -0.0370 Colombia Colombian Peso 2906.5600 -9.2600 3384.5621 -12.2071 3839.5778 -2.0326 Costa Rica Costa Rican Colon 567.6400 0.8750 660.9919 0.7421 749.8547 3.1386 Czech Republic Czech Koruna 22.3754 -0.0505 26.0551 -0.0698 29.5579 0.0117 Denmark Danish Krone 6.3974 0.0011 7.4495 -0.0018 8.4510 0.0238 Egyptian Pound 17.8901 0.0136 20.8322 0.0071 23.6329 0.0805 Hong Kong Hong Kong Dollar 7.8434 -0.0026 9.1333 -0.0068 10.3612 0.0241 Hungary Hungarian Forint 279.5998 -0.7256 325.5817 -0.9818 369.3524 0.0222 Indian Rupee 68.7450 0.1400 80.0505 0.1295 90.8124 0.4249 Indonesian Rupiah 14352.0000 -28.0000 16712.2912 -39.6147 18959.0712 13.3261 Israeli Sraeli Shekel 3.6486 -0.0020 4.2486 -0.0042 4.8198 0.0101 Japanese Yen 110.5400 -0.0900 128.7190 -0.1588 146.0238 0.2681 ..One Month 110.5398 -0.0905 128.7190 -0.1588 146.0237 0.2679 ..Three Month 110.5393 -0.0914 128.7190 -0.1587 146.0234 0.2674 ..One Year 110.5369 -0.0963 128.7191 -0.1585 146.0237 0.2664 Kenyan Shilling 100.7500 -0.0500 117.3190 -0.1074 133.0912 0.2866 Kuwaiti Dinar 0.3025 -0.0003 0.3522 -0.0004 0.3996 0.0007 Malaysia Malaysian Ringgit 4.0460 -0.0025 4.7114 -0.0049 5.3448 0.0109 Mexico Mexican Peson 19.4343 -0.2185 22.6303 -0.2640 25.6727 -0.2199 New Zealand New Zealand Dollar 1.4796 -0.0035 1.7230 -0.0048 1.9546 0.0006 Nigeria Nigerian Naira 359.5000 -1.5000 418.6220 -1.9230 474.9009 -0.7186 Norway Norwegian Krone 8.1107 -0.0287 9.4446 -0.0374 10.7143 -0.0094 Pakistan Pakistani Rupee 121.4500 - 141.4232 -0.0593 160.4359 0.4249 Peru Peruvian Nuevo Sol 3.2899 0.0046 3.8309 0.0038 4.3460 0.0176 Philippines Philippine Peso 53.4015 0.0150 62.1837 -0.0086 70.5436 0.2066 Poland Polish Zloty 3.7618 -0.0066 4.3805 -0.0095 4.9694 0.0045 Romania Romanian Leu 4.0034 0.0047 4.6618 0.0035 5.2885 0.0202 Russian Ruble 63.2675 -0.0563 73.6722 -0.0964 83.5766 0.1472 Saudi Arabia Saudi Riyal 3.7503 -0.0001 4.3670 -0.0019 4.9541 0.0130 Singapore Dollar 1.3651 -0.0010 1.5895 -0.0019 1.8032 0.0034 South Africa South African Rand 13.7163 0.0012 15.9720 -0.0052 18.1192 0.0496 South Korea South Korean Won 1114.6500 -4.1500 1297.9611 -5.3789 1472.4572 -1.5684 Sweden Swedish Krona 8.7876 -0.0544 10.2328 -0.0677 11.6085 -0.0409 Switzerland Swiss Franc 0.9930 0.0003 1.1564 -0.0001 1.3118 0.0039 Taiwan New Taiwan Dollar 30.4895 -0.0900 35.5037 -0.1197 40.2768 -0.0119 Thailand Thai Baht 33.1575 -0.0225 38.6105 -0.0424 43.8012 0.0863 Tunisian Dinar 2.6227 0.0067 3.0540 0.0065 3.4645 0.0180 Turkey Turkish Lira 4.6723 -0.0050 5.4407 -0.0081 6.1721 0.0098 United Arab Emirates UAE Dirham 3.6732 0.0001 4.2772 -0.0017 4.8522 0.0130 United Kingdom Pound Sterling 0.7570 -0.0020 0.8815 -0.0027 - - ..One Month 0.7572 -0.0020 0.8814 -0.0027 - - ..Three Month 0.7575 -0.0020 0.8812 -0.0027 - - ..One Year 0.7593 -0.0020 0.8803 -0.0027 - -United States United States Dollar ..-- 1.1645 -0.0005 1.3210 0.0035 ..One Month - - 1.1642 -0.1530 1.3212 0.0035 ..Three Month - - 1.1636 -0.1531 1.3215 0.0035 ..One Year - - 1.1609 -0.1531 1.3233 0.0035 Venezuelan Bolivar Fuerte 114850.0000 138.0000 133737.7878 104.6754 151717.305 2 583.5915 Vietnamese Dong 23039.0000 -7.0000 26827.9204 -19.4470 30434.6371 71.3402 European Union Euro 0.8588 0.0004 - - 1.1344 0.0035 ..One Month 0.8585 0.0004 - - 1.1344 0.0035 ..Three Month 0.8579 0.0003 - - 1.1342 0.0035 ..One Year 0.8552 0.0003 - - 1.1333 0.0034
Subject: Currency; Bond issues; International finance; American dollar
Location: Czech Republic Bolivia Denmark Canada Nigeria Peru Georgia Malaysia Argentina Hong Kong Poland Pakistan Brazil Bahrain New Zealand Mexico Hungary Romania Philippines Costa Rica China Chile Norway Japan Colombia
Company / organization: Name: Travel & Leisure; NAICS: 511120; Name: Reckitt Benckiser PLC; NAICS: 325412, 325611; Name: Ferrexpo PLC; NAICS: 212210; Name: British American Tobacco PLC; NAICS: 312230; Name: Private Equity Partners; NAICS: 523110; Name: Rio Tinto Group; NAICS: 212112, 212291; Name: National Grid; NAICS: 221122; Name: Elementis; NAICS: 325199; Name: Hollywood Bowl; NAICS: 711310; Name: European Union; NAICS: 926110, 928120
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 20
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jul 5, 2018
Section: Companies and Markets
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2082904776
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2082904776?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Jul 5, 2018
Last updated: 2018-08-05
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 350 of 474
CURRENCIES [Usa Region]
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]05 July 2018: 17.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Based on the constituents of the S&P500 Based on the constituents of the FTSE 350 index Based on the constituents of the FTSEurofirst 300 Eurozone index Based on the constituents of the Nikkei 225 index Jul 04 %Chg %Chg FTSE 100 price(p) week ytd Winners Imperial Brands 2900.00 6.1 -8.1 Bt 229.00 4.9 -16.7 Just Eat 791.80 4.8 1.9 Shire 4264.00 4.1 9.6 British American Tobacco 3931.50 4.0 -20.4 Severn Trent 2023.00 3.9 -5.4 Sainsbury (j) 328.00 3.7 36.0 United Utilities 773.80 2.6 -5.2 Bae Systems 640.00 2.5 11.2 Sse 1381.50 2.4 6.3 National Grid 855.30 2.3 -0.8 Reckitt Benckiser 6366.00 2.2 -6.4 Losers Glencore 319.45 -13.5 -19.0 Smith & Nephew 1311.50 -6.3 3.8 Antofagasta 944.00 -6.3 -5.7 Barratt Developments 492.90 -5.5 -24.6 Rio Tinto 3966.00 -5.3 -0.6 Johnson Matthey 3500.00 -5.0 14.1 Micro Focus Int 1258.00 -4.9 -49.4 Carnival 4270.00 -4.7 -12.9 Evraz 490.20 -4.6 38.2 Smith (ds) 503.20 -4.5 -2.1 Melrose Industries 205.70 -4.3 -2.6 Burberry 2054.00 -4.2 15.2 Jul 04 %Chg %Chg FTSE 250 price(p) week ytd Winners Integrafin Holdings 384.00 8.8 - Syncona 263.50 5.6 30.8 3i Infrastructure 226.95 2.7 -14.5 Pantheon Int 2040.00 1.0 9.1 Pershing Square Holdings Ltd 1126.00 0.4 10.4 Woodford Patient Capital Trust 81.80 0.2 -3.0 Finsbury Growth & ome Trust 810.00 0.2 5.2 City Of London Investment Trust 430.00 0.1 -1.8 Fidelity Special Values 271.00 0.0 6.3 Personal Assets Trust 39850.00 0.6 -2.4 Scottish Investment Trust 872.00 -0.2 0.0 Mercantile Investment Trust (the) 216.60 -0.6 -0.4 Losers Playtech 540.20 -29.4 -38.0 Elementis 240.60 -16.5 -15.7 Greene King 560.40 -12.2 -1.4 Ferrexpo 173.55 -10.3 -42.7 Hunting 749.00 -9.2 23.6 Alfa Fin Software Holdings 167.00 -8.4 -69.2 Tullow Oil 229.90 -8.2 12.1 Convatec 199.95 -7.6 -1.8 Intermediate Capital 1058.00 -7.2 -7.2 Serco 94.20 -6.5 -4.3 Wood (john) 621.40 -6.3 -5.1 Premier Oil 118.40 -6.0 55.0 Jul 04 %Chg %Chg FTSE SmallCap price(p) week ytd Winners Robert Walters 756.00 7.4 30.3 Puretech Health 150.00 7.1 0.7 Communisis 56.60 4.8 -12.9 Jpmorgan Japan Smaller Co Tst 428.00 1.9 -2.5 Jpmorgan Russian Securities 524.00 4.0 2.7 Anglo-eastern Plantations 730.00 3.7 0.0 Blackrock Latin American Investment Trust 395.00 3.4 -14.0 Lindsell Train Investment Trust 962.00 1.5 14.9 Nb Private Equity Partners 1070.00 2.9 2.9 Ecofin Global Utilities And Infrastructure Trust 126.50 3.7 -4.5 Henderson Diversified ome Trust 88.80 2.5 -7.1 Schroder Uk Growth Fund 195.00 2.1 9.6 Losers Petra Diamonds 53.50 -8.9 5.3 Allied Minds 98.60 -8.2 -40.2 Hollywood Bowl 216.00 -7.7 3.8 Cambian 143.40 -7.6 -26.2 Mcbride 123.00 -7.5 -45.6 Georgia Capital 1025.00 -7.0 - Enquest 33.70 -7.2 13.9 Moss Bros 44.00 -6.8 -49.7 Restaurant 278.20 -6.4 -5.8 Premier Oil 118.40 -6.0 55.0 Ao World 147.00 -5.6 36.6 Headlam 479.00 -5.5 -15.7 Jul 04 %Chg %Chg Industry Sectors price(p) week ytd Winners Fixed Line Telecommunication 2638.95 4.6 - Tobacco 44199.46 4.3 - Electricity 8174.22 2.5 5.6 Aerospace & Defense 5505.35 2.3 12.6 Gas Water & Multiutilities 5178.30 2.3 0.0 Mobile Telecommunications 4181.85 2.0 - Personal Goods 37189.16 1.1 2.5 Pharmaceuticals & Biotech. 13904.38 1.0 8.2 Automobiles & Parts 10433.53 0.8 38.0 Food & Drug Retailers 4240.43 0.4 30.0 Real Estate Investment Trusts 3136.10 0.3 -1.0 Beverages 21739.20 0.2 -0.1 Losers Mining 17743.50 -6.0 -5.3 Industrial Metals 4457.28 -5.7 15.6 Oil Equipment & Services 13128.46 -5.6 1.7 Health Care Equip.& Services 7601.71 -5.0 0.1 Chemicals 15565.49 -4.1 9.9 Electronic & Electrical Equip. 6753.96 -3.8 2.5 Software & Computer Services 1834.14 -3.2 - Construction & Materials 6372.97 -2.9 -2.5 Industrial Engineering 12829.72 -2.9 2.4 Travel & Leisure 10007.39 -2.0 -1.8 General Industrials 6659.55 -1.7 4.4 Oil & Gas Producers 9678.20 -1.6 7.2 Based on last week's performance. †Price at suspension. CURRENCIES DOLLAR EURO POUND Closing Day's Closing Day's Closing Day's Jul 4 Currency Mid Change Mid Change Mid Change DOLLAR EURO POUND Closing Day's Closing Day's Closing Day's Jul 4 Currency Mid Change Mid Change Mid Change DOLLAR EURO POUND Closing Day's Closing Day's Closing Day's Jul 4 Currency Mid Change Mid Change Mid Change DOLLAR EURO POUND Closing Day's Closing Day's Closing Day's Jul 4 Currency Mid Change Mid Change Mid Change Argentina Argentine Peso 27.9500 0.0550 32.5465 0.0504 36.9221 0.1702 Australian Dollar 1.3554 -0.0003 1.5783 -0.0010 1.7905 0.0044 Bahrain Bahrainin Dinar 0.3795 -0.0005 0.4419 -0.0008 0.5013 0.0007 Bolivia Bolivian Boliviano 6.9100 - 8.0464 -0.0034 9.1281 0.0242 Brazil Brazilian Real 3.9075 0.0186 4.5501 0.0198 5.1618 0.0382 Canada Canadian Dollar 1.3155 -0.0013 1.5318 -0.0021 1.7377 0.0030 Chile Chilean Peso 653.3500 0.3500 760.7974 0.0887 863.0779 2.7467 China Chinese Yuan 6.6205 -0.0457 7.7093 -0.0565 8.7457 -0.0370 Colombia Colombian Peso 2906.5600 -9.2600 3384.5621 -12.2071 3839.5778 -2.0326 Costa Rica Costa Rican Colon 567.6400 0.8750 660.9919 0.7421 749.8547 3.1386 Czech Republic Czech Koruna 22.3754 -0.0505 26.0551 -0.0698 29.5579 0.0117 Denmark Danish Krone 6.3974 0.0011 7.4495 -0.0018 8.4510 0.0238 Egyptian Pound 17.8901 0.0136 20.8322 0.0071 23.6329 0.0805 Hong Kong Hong Kong Dollar 7.8434 -0.0026 9.1333 -0.0068 10.3612 0.0241 Hungary Hungarian Forint 279.5998 -0.7256 325.5817 -0.9818 369.3524 0.0222 Indian Rupee 68.7450 0.1400 80.0505 0.1295 90.8124 0.4249 Indonesian Rupiah 14352.0000 -28.0000 16712.2912 -39.6147 18959.0712 13.3261 Israeli Sraeli Shekel 3.6486 -0.0020 4.2486 -0.0042 4.8198 0.0101 Japanese Yen 110.5400 -0.0900 128.7190 -0.1588 146.0238 0.2681 ..One Month 110.5398 -0.0905 128.7190 -0.1588 146.0237 0.2679 ..Three Month 110.5393 -0.0914 128.7190 -0.1587 146.0234 0.2674 ..One Year 110.5369 -0.0963 128.7191 -0.1585 146.0237 0.2664 Kenyan Shilling 100.7500 -0.0500 117.3190 -0.1074 133.0912 0.2866 Kuwaiti Dinar 0.3025 -0.0003 0.3522 -0.0004 0.3996 0.0007 Malaysia Malaysian Ringgit 4.0460 -0.0025 4.7114 -0.0049 5.3448 0.0109 Mexico Mexican Peson 19.4343 -0.2185 22.6303 -0.2640 25.6727 -0.2199 New Zealand New Zealand Dollar 1.4796 -0.0035 1.7230 -0.0048 1.9546 0.0006 Nigeria Nigerian Naira 359.5000 -1.5000 418.6220 -1.9230 474.9009 -0.7186 Norway Norwegian Krone 8.1107 -0.0287 9.4446 -0.0374 10.7143 -0.0094 Pakistan Pakistani Rupee 121.4500 - 141.4232 -0.0593 160.4359 0.4249 Peru Peruvian Nuevo Sol 3.2899 0.0046 3.8309 0.0038 4.3460 0.0176 Philippines Philippine Peso 53.4015 0.0150 62.1837 -0.0086 70.5436 0.2066 Poland Polish Zloty 3.7618 -0.0066 4.3805 -0.0095 4.9694 0.0045 Romania Romanian Leu 4.0034 0.0047 4.6618 0.0035 5.2885 0.0202 Russian Ruble 63.2675 -0.0563 73.6722 -0.0964 83.5766 0.1472 Saudi Arabia Saudi Riyal 3.7503 -0.0001 4.3670 -0.0019 4.9541 0.0130 Singapore Dollar 1.3651 -0.0010 1.5895 -0.0019 1.8032 0.0034 South Africa South African Rand 13.7163 0.0012 15.9720 -0.0052 18.1192 0.0496 South Korea South Korean Won 1114.6500 -4.1500 1297.9611 -5.3789 1472.4572 -1.5684 Sweden Swedish Krona 8.7876 -0.0544 10.2328 -0.0677 11.6085 -0.0409 Switzerland Swiss Franc 0.9930 0.0003 1.1564 -0.0001 1.3118 0.0039 Taiwan New Taiwan Dollar 30.4895 -0.0900 35.5037 -0.1197 40.2768 -0.0119 Thailand Thai Baht 33.1575 -0.0225 38.6105 -0.0424 43.8012 0.0863 Tunisian Dinar 2.6227 0.0067 3.0540 0.0065 3.4645 0.0180 Turkey Turkish Lira 4.6723 -0.0050 5.4407 -0.0081 6.1721 0.0098 United Arab Emirates UAE Dirham 3.6732 0.0001 4.2772 -0.0017 4.8522 0.0130 United Kingdom Pound Sterling 0.7570 -0.0020 0.8815 -0.0027 - - ..One Month 0.7572 -0.0020 0.8814 -0.0027 - - ..Three Month 0.7575 -0.0020 0.8812 -0.0027 - - ..One Year 0.7593 -0.0020 0.8803 -0.0027 - -United States United States Dollar ..-- 1.1645 -0.0005 1.3210 0.0035 ..One Month - - 1.1642 -0.1530 1.3212 0.0035 ..Three Month - - 1.1636 -0.1531 1.3215 0.0035 ..One Year - - 1.1609 -0.1531 1.3233 0.0035 Venezuelan Bolivar Fuerte 114850.0000 138.0000 133737.7878 104.6754 151717.305 2 583.5915 Vietnamese Dong 23039.0000 -7.0000 26827.9204 -19.4470 30434.6371 71.3402 European Union Euro 0.8588 0.0004 - - 1.1344 0.0035 ..One Month 0.8585 0.0004 - - 1.1344 0.0035 ..Three Month 0.8579 0.0003 - - 1.1342 0.0035 ..One Year 0.8552 0.0003 - - 1.1333 0.0034 MARKET DATA
Subject: Currency; Bond issues; International finance; American dollar
Location: Czech Republic Bolivia Denmark Canada Nigeria Peru Georgia Malaysia Argentina Hong Kong Poland Pakistan Brazil Bahrain New Zealand Mexico Hungary Romania Philippines Costa Rica China Chile Norway Japan Colombia
Company / organization: Name: Travel & Leisure; NAICS: 511120; Name: Reckitt Benckiser PLC; NAICS: 325412, 325611; Name: Ferrexpo PLC; NAICS: 212210; Name: British American Tobacco PLC; NAICS: 312230; Name: Private Equity Partners; NAICS: 523110; Name: Rio Tinto Group; NAICS: 212112, 212291; Name: National Grid; NAICS: 221122; Name: Elementis; NAICS: 325199; Name: Hollywood Bowl; NAICS: 711310; Name: European Union; NAICS: 926110, 928120
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 17
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jul 5, 2018
Section: Companies and Markets
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2082908149
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2082908149?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Jul 5, 2018
Last updated: 2018-08-05
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 351 of 474
POLITICO Playbook Power Briefing: Trump to ‘almost entirely avoid London’ during trip to U.K.
Author: Palmer, Anna; Lippman, Daniel; Lacy, Akela; Sherman, Jake
Publication info: Politico , Arlington: POLITICO LLC. Jul 6, 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: TRUMP IN EUROPE … TOM MCTAGUE IN LONDON: “Donald Trump visit sidesteps London 'carnival of resistance'”: “Donald Trump will stay in the U.K. for three full days after arriving for his first official visit to the country Thursday — but will spend hardly any time in London. The U.S. president and the first lady will jet into the U.K. from the NATO summit in Brussels on Thursday afternoon, before a black-tie dinner at Blenheim Palace, Winston Churchill’s birthplace, later that evening, according to a briefing for journalists by No. 10 Downing Street. “On Friday, Trump will hold talks with Theresa May at the U.K. prime minister’s rural retreat, Chequers, before making the 25-mile journey south to Windsor Castle — the site of Prince Harry’s wedding to Meghan Markle — to meet the queen. In the evening, the Trumps will fly to Scotland, where they will spend the weekend before moving on to Helsinki, Finland, to meet Russian leader Vladimir Putin … Throughout the three-day official visit to the U.K., Trump will only venture into the capital once, to stay overnight at the U.S. ambassador’s official residence, Winfield House, on Thursday evening, which is less than a quarter of a mile from London’s Central Mosque where a call to morning prayer sounds at 3:05 a.m. “For the rest of the visit, Trump will be kept away from the tens of thousands expected to flock into London for a rally protesting his visit. Activists from across Europe are expected to attend a ‘carnival of resistance’ against the president and a six meter-tall ‘baby Trump’ blimp will fly above the city during the trip.” https://politi.co/2J0iQRY A BIG LINGERING QUESTION … How will House Republicans handle the scandal swirling around REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OHIO). If you haven’t been paying attention, five former Ohio State wrestlers -- including the former UFC champion -- have said the Freedom Caucus leader was aware of sexual misconduct by the team doctor but did nothing about it. (The most recent story, by the WSJ https://on-wsj-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/2MUFMV4) THIS QUOTE, from Mark Coleman, the former UFC champion, is particularly damning: “‘There’s no way unless he’s got dementia or something that he’s got no recollection of what was going on at Ohio State,’ Mr. Coleman, the mixed martial arts champion, said of Mr. Jordan in an interview Wednesday. Messrs. Coleman and Jordan roomed together on several wrestling trips, Mr. Coleman said. ‘I have nothing but respect for this man, I love this man, but he knew as far as I’m concerned.’” JORDAN -- in an interview earlier this week with our colleague Rachael Bade -- has categorically denied knowing of any of this alleged behavior. In other words, he doesn’t have a ton of room to walk this back. At this point, it’s five peoples’ word versus one. Jordan, at the moment, is mostly alone. JORDAN, ALSO, doesn’t have a ton of friends in GOP leadership. He’s openly discussed running for speaker. So it will be interesting to see how this is handled. ANOTHER BIG QUESTION: How will members of the Freedom Caucus handle the allegations against Jordan? AS OF NOW, THERE has been silence -- Congress is on recess. We’ll see if that’s sustainable. NEW … UPDATED COOK HOUSE RATINGS … DAVE WASSERMAN (@redistrict): “We see 62 highly at-risk seats (56 GOP-held, 6 Dem-held)” http://bit.ly/2D9BM1Y -- NOTABLE: Virginia Republican Rep. Dave Brat, who beat Eric Cantor, is now in a toss-up seat in the Richmond area. TRADE WARS … -- DOUG PALMER: “U.S. trade deficit with China widens as trade war starts”: “The U.S. goods trade deficit with China increased significantly in May, a Commerce Department report showed on Friday, as the United States and China lunged into a tit-for-tat trade war ignited by President Donald Trump. “The data was released on the same day that Trump formally imposed a 25 percent duty on $34 billion worth of Chinese exports to the United States … Although Trump blames the trade gap with China on unfair trade policies and bad trade deals, most economists say that other factors — such as differential growth and savings rates — play a far bigger role.” https://politi.co/2zgi5or -- FARMERS WALLOPED: “U.S. farmers hit hard by Chinese tariffs,” by Catherine Boudreau: “China’s retaliatory tariffs on $34 billion worth of U.S. goods are directly aimed at rural regions of the country that voted heavily for President Donald Trump. … The move and countermoves are the most severe trade actions so far, and likely to cut deep into the incomes of farmers, ranchers and agribusinesses. “[The tariff targets] agricultural products such as soybeans, cotton, rice, sorghum, beef, pork, dairy, nuts and produce. The brunt of the penalties are likely to affect U.S. soybean growers. … Now that the commodity is about to become significantly more expensive, Brazil and other alternative soybean growers will be the beneficiaries of the escalating tensions.” JOBS REPORT -- IAN KULLGREN: “Jobs growth declined in June”: “Job growth decelerated in June, the government reported Friday, as employers struggled to find qualified workers to fill an abundance of job openings. The Labor Department reported 213,000 new jobs in June, down from 244,000 in May. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4 percent after falling to 3.8 percent in May. “The tight labor market continued to produce bafflingly weak wage growth, with average hourly earnings up 2.7 percent over the previous year, unchanged from May. Although government data show there are roughly enough jobs for every person seeking one, experts say businesses are struggling to find qualified applicants.” https://politi.co/2KUbzoP Good Friday afternoon. KELLY WATCH -- THE NEW YORKER’S SUSAN GLASSER: “John Kelly, Scott Pruitt, And The Epic Turnover Of The Trump Administration”: “It may not even matter if Kelly makes it to the one-year mark. The President has, by all accounts, effectively unleashed himself from the strictures, processes, and constraints that Kelly sought to impose on him. … [I]t has become a new reality for a tumultuous White House in which Trump himself has assumed the role of chief of staff. … “It’s now clear that Trump is making major decisions without even a nod to the process and order that Kelly was supposedly bringing to his office… [Trump] has systematically undermined Kelly’s authority, telling both his new national-security adviser, John Bolton, and his chief economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, that they should report to him directly, not to Kelly. “Turnover among the White House staff, already record-setting in Trump’s first year, has spiked recently, now that no one is really in charge. … Martha Joynt Kumar, a scholar who has tracked White House staff during the past six Presidencies, reported that the Trump White House has an astonishing turnover rate of sixty-one per cent so far among its top-level advisers. No other Administration she has tracked comes close: Trump’s two immediate predecessors were at fourteen per cent (Barack Obama) and five percent (George W. Bush) at this point in their Presidencies. Bill Clinton, the highest after Trump, was at forty-two per cent, and that number was mostly made up of advisers who were reassigned to other senior White House roles, not fired or pushed out, according to Kumar.” https://bit.ly/2zedJy1 PRUITT FILES -- TICK TOCK … THE ATLANTIC’S ELAINA PLOTT, “Inside Scott Pruitt’s Tumultuous Final Months as EPA Administrator: Many members of his inner circle apparently couldn’t stand their boss”: “One former official remembered Pruitt’s anxiety upon seeing wall-to-wall cable coverage of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and then-Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly’s joint trip to the U.S.-Mexico border in late April. ‘He was jealous of other members being on TV,” the former official said, ‘so he was always pressuring us to book him on more shows.’” http://bit.ly/2KQlhLV THE INVESTIGATIONS -- JOSH GERSTEIN: “Manafort judge emerges as skeptic of long mandatory minimum sentences”: “The judge overseeing former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort's looming trial on tax and bank fraud charges is known as a tough jurist, often snapping at attorneys for ignoring his directions and rebuking defendants he views as insufficiently contrite. But, in recent years, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis has begun to direct his public ire at an unusual target for a Reagan-appointed judge: laws that impose lengthy mandatory minimum sentences judges have no authority to waive or reduce. “Ellis has complained directly to Congress about what he's called the ‘excessive’ sentences required for some offenders. He’s also publicly lamented the situation, as he did recently during a drug dealer's sentencing that took place in an Alexandria, Virginia courtroom packed with national media, high-powered prosecutors and others awaiting a key hearing in the case against Manafort.” https://politi.co/2KRaxcV CORRECTION: Yesterday we put in an AP story “Sanctioned Russian oligarch linked to Cohen has vast U.S. ties.” This story has been updated and corrected, including to “reflect that it was [Andrew] Intrater’s investment firm that hired Cohen as a consultant, not Intrater himself.” https://bit.ly/2zeRfgq PAGING SUSAN COLLINS -- BILL SCHER: “Will Susan Collins Get Snookered Again?”: “Senator Susan Collins of Maine really wants you know that she’s not going to rubber stamp just anyone who President Donald Trump nominates for the Supreme Court. “In recent days she has embarked on a mini-media tour, telling viewers of CNN, ABC and listeners of the New York Times’ ‘The Daily’ podcast that a nominee “‘who would overturn Roe v. Wade would not be acceptable to me.’ Also disqualifying would be an ‘activist judge’ who ‘demonstrated a disrespect for the vital principle of stare decisis,’ meaning deference to past Supreme Court precedents. “Her problem? Nobody believes her.” https://politi.co/2Nx0V91 BORDER TALES – NYT’s Caitlin Dickerson: “In hundreds of cases, Customs agents deleted the initial records in which parents and children were listed together as a family with a ‘family identification number,’ according to two officials at the Department of Homeland Security, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the process. As a result, the parents and children appeared in federal computers to have no connection to one another.” https://nyti.ms/2zix9SA -- DHS SPOKESPERSON KATIE WALDMAN pushes back at the claim: “Not only is it categorically false that DHS destroyed records, but the opposite is true: DHS personnel has worked hand-in-hand with HHS personnel to share clear data in the most useful formats possible for HHS – which included names, dates of apprehension, and identifying alien numbers for both children and parents who were separated as a result of zero-tolerance.” ON THE WORLD STAGE -- “NATO, Under Fire From Trump, to Trumpet Its Heightened Readiness,” by WSJ’s Daniel Michaels: “Broadsides against NATO from U.S. President Donald Trump on European defense spending—and worries about Russia’s resurgence—have sped a transformation that has put the trans-Atlantic military alliance on its best operational footing in years. Officials and diplomats at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization hope to convey that message at a summit next week. “Many fear Mr. Trump will attack the alliance, as he did at a NATO gathering last year, or condemn the broader Western multilateral order, as he did at a Group of Seven meeting last month. … Only four of NATO’s 27 European members met defense-budget targets last year, while under Mr. Trump, U.S. defense spending on Europe has more than doubled. “Yet signs of improvement are evident. The number of troops ready to deploy is rising and their readiness is increasing, alliance officials say. NATO is conducting maneuvers to show it can mobilize forces quickly, putting troops from one country under command of another to boost integration and working to improve basic infrastructure such as roads and bridges to support military equipment. Eight members are expected to hit their spending targets by year-end, and at least 16 are on a path to get there.” https://on-wsj-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/2m0d9dX FOR YOUR RADAR -- “U.K. police race to find source of new nerve agent poisoning,” by AP’s Matt Dunham and Gregory Katz in Amesbury, England: “British police scoured sections of Salisbury and Amesbury in southwest England on Friday, searching for a small vial feared to be contaminated with traces of the deadly nerve agent Novichok. … Police believe the couple may have come in contact with a contaminated vial or other item discarded in a public place after a March nerve agent attack on ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in Salisbury. British officials blamed the Skripals’ poisoning on Russia. The Kremlin denies any involvement.” https://bit.ly/2NxVnLp HMM -- “NYC’s De Blasio shuttled from Canada vacation in counterterrorism plane,” by Fox’s Bradford Betz: “A $3 million NYPD counterterrorism plane on Thursday was used to transport Mayor Bill de Blasio from his Canada vacation to the Bronx for a brief memorial appearance, The New York Post reported, citing police sources. “De Blasio’s decision was questioned by some police sources, who noted that the cost far exceeded commercial transportation. One source estimated the mayor’s trip cost in the thousands. … A spokesman for the mayor’s office told the paper it was the mayor’s first time using the plane but didn’t comment on why the decision was made. The NYPD made no comment on their decision to transport the mayor.” https://fxn.ws/2lWelPp MEDIAWATCH -- JACK SHAFER: “The State of New Jersey Wants to Subsidize News. Uh-oh”: “Unless you live in a bomb shelter and have canceled your cable TV and internet services, you’ve heard that the newspaper business has run aground. … The state of New Jersey thinks it’s found the secret to making the desert bloom: A $5 million subsidy for a university-led consortium that will dispense grants for local news coverage. “‘Never before has a state taken the lead to address the growing crisis in local news,’ said Mike Rispoli of the Free Press Action Fund, the advocacy group that advanced the consortium idea. ... If you think $5 million won’t go very far in a state the size, and with the corruption problems, of New Jersey, you’re right. … According to NJBiz, a staff of four will be hired to oversee the non-profit program while taking direction from a 13-member board of directors chosen by the governor, the legislature, five participating universities and others. “With so many hands stirring the pot, how good will the consortium soup be? FiveThirtyEight ranks New Jersey as one of the most corrupt states in the country despite having the most vigilant anti-corruption laws, so the state obviously needs watchdogging. But what confidence should we have that the state will happily fund investigations into its own malfeasance? … If ‘trustworthy’ news is the objective, a government consortium can’t be the solution.” https://politi.co/2tXssZa TV TONIGHT -- Bob Costa has the Boston Herald’s Kimberly Atkins, WaPo’s Seung Min Kim and NYT’s Mark Landler tonight on PBS’ “Washington Week” at 8 p.m. WHITE HOUSE DEPARTURE LOUNGE -- Jordan Eason has left as press secretary of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and moved over to the VA, where he is now special assistant to the secretary. ENGAGED – André Bauer, a CNN political commentator, businessman and former South Carolina lieutenant governor, proposed to Meredith Carter, a registered nurse who also works with him on his real estate portfolio. “The proposal happened Tuesday atop the iconic Ravenel Bridge in Charleston, S.C. The next day he surprised her with a trip to Washington, D.C. to celebrate the Fourth of July at the White House.” Pic http://bit.ly/2NrQEei -- Benjamin Feit, general counsel for Massachusetts Secretary of State candidate Josh Zakim, proposed to Nicole Gill, executive director of Tax March and an SKDKnickerbocker alum. Pic http://bit.ly/2IWLcwF WEEKEND WEDDING -- Austin Ramzy, a Hong Kong correspondent for the New York Times and a Time alum, recently married Angie Baecker, a doctoral candidate in modern Chinese cultural studies at the University of Michigan. The couple wed at the Frank Lloyd Wright Estate in Orinda, Calif. Pics http://bit.ly/2zhIr9A ... http://bit.ly/2NwDVqH WELCOME TO THE WORLD -- Allison Ball, Kentucky’s state treasurer and at 36 currently the nation’s youngest female statewide elected official, and Asa James Swan, chief of staff for the Kentucky Dept. of Transportation and an alum of former Rep. Ron Lewis (R-Ky.) and the Senate Republican Conference, on Tuesday welcomed a son, Levi Adrian Swan, who came in at 6 lbs., 15 oz. and 20.5 inches. Pic http://bit.ly/2KyYipj HAPPY 50TH ANNIVERSARY to lawyer Tim Ryan and Kayo Ryan, celebrating on Catalina Island where they had their first kiss and where their daughter Kiki and Tim Burger got engaged in August 2012. BONUS BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Jill Zuckman, managing director and president of D.C. public affairs at SKDKnickerbocker. A trend she thinks deserves more attention: “There’s been a lot of attention paid to the opioid crisis afflicting our nation. But we haven’t focused enough on the fact that the quantity of synthetic opioids coming into our country through the U.S. mail is skyrocketing. It has truly become a threat to our national security.” Q&A: https://politi.co/2NzlsKm
Subject: Agriculture; Tariffs; Trade deficit; Presidents; Agribusiness; Soybeans; Leadership
Location: United States--US New York Massachusetts Ohio United Kingdom--UK Washington DC New Jersey China Kentucky
People: Trump, Donald J
Company / organization: Name: Republican Party; NAICS: 813940; Name: SKDKnickerbocker; NAICS: 541820; Name: Freedom Caucus; NAICS: 813940
Publication title: Politico, U.S. edition; Arlingto n
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jul 6, 2018
Publisher: POLITICO LLC
Place of publication: Arlington
Country of publication: United States, Arlington
Publication subject: Political Science
Source type: Blogs, Podcasts, & Websites
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2064822332
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2064822332?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright POLITICO LLC Jul 6, 2018
Last updated: 2018-07-06
Database: US Southeast Newsstream
Document 352 of 474
Bar by Bar, Heineken Battles AB Inbev in Brazil
Author: Anonymous
Publication info: The Epoch Times , New York ed.; New York (NY) [New York (NY)]06 July 2018: A16.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: SAO PAULO-Sao Paulo bar owner Arthur Santi has long served up boatloads of ice-cold Skol, one of Brazil's most popular beer brands and a mainstay of brewing giant Ambev SA. Then last year, rival Heineken NV made him an offer he could not turn down. Santi was launching another saloon in the same working-class neighborhood. The Dutch brewer wanted top billing for its products at the new location. Heineken paid him 90,000 reais ($23,000) for a three-year commitment to sell Heineken as its only big-name premium beer. The company also threw in new refrigerators, tables, and chairs, all emblazoned with its familiar green logo with the red star. Bar by bar, Heineken is fighting for a bigger share of the world's third-largest beer market and an end to Ambev's dominance in Brazil. While beer consumption has stagnated in much of the world, growth is still forecast for Latin America's largest economy, which is why Brazil has become a key battleground for global brewers. Heineken made a big move last year with its $1.2 billion purchase of the money-losing Brazil operations of Kirin Holdings Co. Ltd. That transaction doubled Heineken's market share to nearly 20 percent. But to catch Ambev, which still controls nearly two-thirds of the action here, Heineken has opened a multi-pronged front. The company is aggressively marketing its products in bars and street corner watering holes, spots where convivial Brazilians guzzle nearly half of the nation's beer annually. And it is trying to plug holes in its strategy, both geographically and in terms of product offerings, according to interviews with several executives, analysts, consultants, distributors and bar owners. The company is pushing hard into Brazil's vast northeast, home to one-third of the nation's 210 million people. While one of Brazil's poorest areas, it is home to a number of sizeable cities, including Salvador, Fortaleza, and Recife. Heineken is also focusing on the mainstream market throughout the country, according to Marc Busain, the company's Americas chief. Prior to the Kirin deal, the company had beers at the high and low ends of the market, but little in between. It now plans to promote its mid-tier offerings, including Devassa, a mark acquired from Kirin, and Amstel, a Heineken brand that has been in Brazil only since 2015. "Today we have a portfolio that allows us to play in all segments that matter in Brazil," Busain said. "We have plans to transform Brazil into one of Heineken's top markets." The Brazil duel is a microcosm of a wider global jousting match between Ambev's parent company Anheuser-Busch InBev NV, the world's largest beer maker with $56 billion in annual revenue, and Heineken, the No. 2 player, with $25 billion, based on current exchange rates. If InBev is worried about its Brazil lead evaporating, CEO Carlos Brito is not showing it. A native of Rio de J aneiro, he sounded unfazed at a March news conference where he discounted Heineken as an immediate threat on his home turf. "Most of their business today, volume-wise, is on the value side," Brito said. "It's too early in the process." Analysts Skeptical Brazil is already Heineken's largest market in volume terms, Busain said in a telephone interview. He said the company hopes that within two to three years Brazil will produce profits on a par with Mexico and Vietnam, the brewer's biggest money-spinners. Some analysts are skeptical of that sunny projection. Heineken's margins will be constrained by its small market share, says Andrew Holland, beverage analyst at Societe Generale, given that economies of scale in marketing, distribution, and procurement are only available to high-volume breweries. He sees Heineken's operating profit in Brazil at less than half the level in Mexico and Vietnam by 2020. Heineken is still No. 2 in both those countries, but the gap between it and the market leader is much narrower than in Brazil. "What they are doing is transitioning from, effectively, a niche player into a full portfolio player, and the challenge then is to gain market share," Holland said. To that end, Heineken is banking on winning new customers in the northeast, defined as the states of Ceara, Maranhao, Piaui, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraiba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe, and Bahia. Per-capita beer consumption there is half what it is Brazil's prosperous southeast, home to Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. But northeast incomes are low, an average of just $4,500 a year, while sugarcane rum known as cachaça is the favored tipple. Some home-brewed varieties sell for as little as $2 for a liter bottle. "You can find cachaça cheaper than beer, which is insane," said Didier Debrosse, the Frenchman who has led Heineken in Brazil for the past five years. To reach these consumers, Heineken's bargain-priced Schin brand, which it acquired from Kirin, has spent an estimated 100 million reais since 2015 sponsoring the famous carnival celebration in Salvador. The company is also upgrading a brewery in Bahia state to make a wider range of beers, including its premium Heineken. And it may shrink bottle sizes in the region to lower prices, said Mauricio Giamellaro, Heineken's vice president of Brazilian sales. From ReutersSidebar
Subject: Bars; Consumption; Breweries; Beer; Market shares
Location: Mexico Americas Vietnam Latin America Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil Rio Grande do Norte Brazil
Company / organization: Name: InBev SA; NAICS: 312120; Name: Heineken NV; NAICS: 312120; Name: Anheuser-Busch InBev; NAICS: 312120; Name: Societe Generale; NAICS: 522110, 522120, 523110, 523120
Publication title: The Epoch Times, New York ed.; New York (NY)
Issue: 224
Pages: A16
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jul 6, 2018
Section: BUSINESS
Publisher: The Epoch Times
Place of publication: New York (NY)
Country of publication: United States, New York (NY)
Publication subject: Asian/Pacific Islander, General Interest Periodicals--United States, General Interest Periodicals--China
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2069494346
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2069494346?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Epoch Times Jul 6, 2018
Last updated: 2019-04-11
Database: Ethnic NewsWatch
Document 353 of 474
Pedro Morelli's the Faction Is the New Netflix Brazilian Original Series
Publication info: Targeted News Service ; Washington, D.C. [Washington, D.C]11 July 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Netflix, an Internet television network provider, issued the following news release: Netflix, the world's leading internet entertainment service, will bring the eight-episode series The Faction to members worldwide in 2019. Set in the 90s the thriller will follow the story of Cristina, an honest and dedicated lawyer that finds that her missing brother has been jailed for years and is a leader of an ascendant criminal faction. Coerced by the police, she is forced to become an informant and work against her brother. But as Cristina infiltrates the faction, she begins to question her own values about law and justice and comes into contact with a dark side of herself she did not imagine she had. "What drew us to The Faction is that through the perspective of Cristina the series invites the audience to explore the inhospitable prison universe of Sao Paulo of the 90s through an electrifying dramatic thriller.", said Erik Barmack, Vice President, Original Content for Netflix. "Cristina's trajectory of empowerment and corruption is intertwined with that of the faction and will appeal to Netflix members around the globe." "We are thrilled to be producing for Netflix a show about such a relevant issue. In a country where people have grown used to appalling levels of violence, The Faction addresses the contradictory Brazilian reality as a way of better understanding the origin of the problem. At the same time, this is a suspenseful and high voltage thriller that will get the audience hooked", says showrunner Pedro Morelli, from O2 Films. An original series produced by O2 Fimes for Netflix, The Faction will feature eight episodes in its first season. The series was created by Pedro Morelli, who will also direct. The show was written by Felipe Sant'Angelo, Iris Junges, Leonardo Lev, Mirna Nogueira and Francine Barbosa and produced by Andrea Barata Ribeiro and Bel Berlinck. About Netflix Netflix is the world's leading internet entertainment service with 125 million memberships in over 190 countries enjoying TV series, documentaries and feature films across a wide variety of genres and languages. Members can watch as much as they want, anytime, anywhere, on any Internet-connected screen. Members can play, pause and resume watching, all without commercials or commitments. About O2 Films Founded in 1991 by Fernando Meirelles, Paulo Morelli, and Andrea Barata Ribeiro, O2 Films produces independent projects and in partnership with major international studios and television broadcasting companies, and is considered one of the most creative and important Brazilian production company in the world today. The production company has already made more than 20 feature films including "City of God" and "Blindness", both directed by Fernando Meirelles, "City of Men"by Paulo Morelli and Sheep's Clothing" by Paulo Morelli and Pedro Morelli, "Adrift" , by Heitor Dhalia, "Xingu" by Cao Hamburger, "Waste Land", nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary, "Trash" by Stephen Daldry, "Last Night" by Fabio Mendonca, "Zoom" with Rhombus Media directed by Pedro Morelli and Hank Levine's documentary "Exodus". O2 is the only Brazilian production house with 5 Oscar nominations. It also produced more than 10 television series, such as "Happily Ever After?", "The Wise Ones" and "Vade Retro" for Rede Globo, "Sons of Carnival", "Destino: Sao Paulo", "Destino: Rio de Janeio ", "Destino: Salvador", "Dia Um" and seasons of" PSI" and "A Vaga" for HBO, "Conto do Edgar" for FOX, the two seasons of "Lili a Ex" for GNT and "Rua Augusta" for TNT. Still in production are the documentary feature "The Meaning Of Life" by Miguel Goncalves Mendes and "Marighella" Wagner Moura's debut in the direction; in addition to the series "Friend For Rent" for NBC Universal, "PSI4" and "Pico da Neblina" for HBO. In 2017, O2 Films released "Malasartes e O Duelo com a Morte" a feature film by Paulo Morelli, and in 2018 will launch "Mulheres Alteradas" by Luis Pinheiro. MSTRUCK-6366260 MSTRUCK
Subject: Internet; Documentary films
People: Daldry, Stephen Dhalia, Heitor Morelli, Paulo Meirelles, Fernando
Company / organization: Name: NBCUniversal Inc; NAICS: 512110, 515120; Name: Netflix Inc; NAICS: 512120, 518210, 532230
Publication title: Targeted News Service; Washington, D.C.
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jul 11, 2018
Dateline: SAO PAULO, Brazil
Publisher: Targeted News Service
Place of publication: Washington, D.C.
Country of publication: United States, Washington, D.C.
Publication subject: Public Administration
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2068379846
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2068379846?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright © Targeted News Service. All Rights Reserved.
Last updated: 2018-07-12
Database: US Southeast Newsstream
Document 354 of 474
4th of July Fireworks Extravaganza in Exposition Park
Author: Richardson, Ricky
Publication info: Los Angeles Sentinel ; Los Angeles, Calif. [Los Angeles, Calif]12 July 2018: B3.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Los Angeles City Councilmember Curren D. Price and The New 9th, presented the annual 4th of July Community Festival and Fireworks Show, Wednesday, July 4, 2018. This extremely popular Independence Day celebration was held on the South Lawn of Exposition Park. All attendees were able to enjoy and experience a day of engaging fun with delectable food, games and activities for all ages, followed by an awesome over-the-top fireworks extravaganza around 9:00pm. Greg Johnson, Marketing and Promotion Director, 102.3FM Radio Free KJLH served as Master of Ceremonies and welcomed early arrivals to the celebration. The live entertainment got underway at noon, presented by The City of Los Angeles and KJLH Radio with a stellar line-up of R&B, soul and Latin music. This year's celebration featured an eclectic world music showcase allowing attendees to visually and musically travel to various countries on the 4th of July. Our first trip found us in the mist of Carnival, or better yet, World Cup fever in Brazil. Guadalupae D'Lushus & Sambalushus Dancers visually captivating performance was one of many highlights throughout the afternoon. The leader sang and danced to the tunes "Brazilian Funk Ain't Got No Color," "Mas Que Nada" by Sergio Mendes and concluded with "Conga" by Gloria Estefan. AprilFoolChild is a rising star in the making. The crowd and I were pleased to be vibing with her throughout her set, along with her back dancers Luis and Coco and DJ Marco Dash. Her set featured the songs "Mangos," "Forever," "Highs and Lows," and "Hear Me." The show continued with another crowd favorite from Los Angeles. Iman Europe dazzled the crowd with her set of original tunes accompanied by DJ Wavy Baby on the ones and twos. Iman Europe were vibing on the tunes "Let's Ride," "Studio," "Blessing," and concluded her set with "Westside." Tropi Corrilo aspires to preserve Afro-Tropical music and culture by honoring their roots as they write and perform innovative music that will transcend those traditions into today's times. Throughout their set they fused sounds of Colombia (Cumbia), Puerto Rico (Bomba), and rhythms of Cuba, Trinidad Y Tabagos and Dominican Republic. Their set featured the tunes "Oye Mi Ritmo," "Ay Morena," "Descarga de la Selva" which allowed everyone to stretch out. They continued with "Selva de Cemento," "Negro Yo Soy" and concluded their set with "Capital." The band is led by Richard Hererra-congas/ vocals, Amber Morseguitar/vocals, Hector Torres-guitar, Fermin Sifontes-keyboards, Fredirico Zuniga-bass and Caityn Moss on drum. Check out their latest CD Tropi Corillo de Los Angeles on Cambio Colores Records, and/ or check them out in person performing around town. Vocalist Maurice Smith rocked the stag beginning with "Let's Go Crazy," followed by "Do You Remember the Time," and "She's Always in my Head" to name a few. Lady KeishaCali and Guy Black introduced characters from Teen's Titans Go! To the Movies onstage to promote the upcoming release of the movie at the end of the month. Singer, songwriter, guitarist Tyler Conti is another person deserving of greater recognition. He held his own during his time in the spotlight on the following tunes "Like the Way You Work It," "I Want to Rock With you," "Time Today" and concluded his set with What's Going On" by Marvin Gaye. Conganas took the crowd and I on our final global journey musically. They opened their set with "Azucar," "Scheherezada," and Vampiro Tropical" to name a few. Conganas which means "with passion" features some of the most talented and experienced players in the Los Angeles music scene today. Band members not only perform with their own bands, they are also touring musicians with some of the greatest bands and musicians in the Latin Jazz, R&B, Pop ans Soul Music genres. The musicians on this gig consisted of Christian Moraga-leader, drums/percussions, from Chile, Fermin Sifonteskeyboards, from Cuba, Juan Carlos Portillo-bass, and Joel Nunes on Eiwi, from Cuba. The stage was LIT before the first explosive fireworks was set off with a fantastic performance by Jade Novah followed by the headlining set by YOYO. The 4th of July Community Festival and Fireworks Show was sponsored by The Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles, 102.3FM Radio Free KJLH, Exposition Park California, University of Southern California, USC Civic Engagement, Arrowhead Water and McDonald's.
Subject: Fireworks; Independence Day; Musicians & conductors; Musical performances
Location: Dominican Republic Puerto Rico Cuba California Chile Brazil Los Angeles California Colombia Europe
People: Gaye, Marvin Jr (1939-84) Estefan, Gloria
Company / organization: Name: University of Southern California; NAICS: 611310
Publication title: Los Angeles Sentinel; Los Angeles, Calif.
Pages: B3
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jul 12, 2018
Section: NEWS
Publisher: Los Angeles Sentinel
Place of publication: Los Angeles, Calif.
Country of publication: United States, Los Angeles, Calif.
Publication subject: African American/Caribbean/African, Ethnic Interests, General Interest Periodicals--United States
ISSN: 08904340
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2085791370
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2085791370?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Los Angeles Sentinel Jul 12, 2018
Last updated: 2018-08-09
Database: Ethnic NewsWatch
Document 355 of 474
Global Cruise is expected to grow at a CAGR 5.0% and reach 57.6 billion USD in 2023, from 42.9 billion USD in 2017
Publication info: M2 Presswire ; Coventry [Coventry]16 July 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: M2 PRESSWIRE-July 16, 2018-Global Cruise is expected to grow at a CAGR 5.0% and reach 57.6 billion USD in 2023, from 42.9 billion USD in 2017 (C)2018 M2 COMMUNICATIONS http://www.m2.com July 16, 2018 New Global Cruise Market Report Covers market forecast and top Companies like Carnival, RCI, NCLH, MSC, Disney and others. The worldwide market for Cruise is expected to grow at a CAGR of roughly 5.0% over the next five years, will reach 57600 million US$ in 2023, from 42900 million US$ in 2017, according to a new study. Cruise is a passenger ship used for recreational and leisure voyages, in which the journey itself and the onboard amenities, attractions, activities and entertainment options are integrant part of the cruise experience. Scope of the Report: This report focuses on the Cruise in global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application. For industry structure analysis, the Cruise Industry is concentrate. Carnival, RCI and NCLH account about 72.67% of the revenue market. Regionally, Europe is the biggest sales area of Cruise, also the leader in the whole Cruise. North America occupied 55.99% of the revenue market in 2015. It is followed by Europe and Asia, which respectively have around 29.99% and 5.32% of the global total industry. Other countries have a small amount of revenue. Cruise prices can change at a moment's notice. The price of cruise is different by the destination, cruise length, date and other factors. For forecast, the North America and Europe Cruise revenue would keep increasing with annual growth rate with 3~6%. The growth rate of Asia is about 13%-23%. We tend to believe that this industry still has a bright future, considering the current demand of Cruise. As for product prices, the slow downward trend in recent years will continue in the next few years, as competition intensifies. Similarly, there will be fluctuations in gross margin. The worldwide market for Cruise is expected to grow at a CAGR of roughly 5.0% over the next five years, will reach 57600 million US$ in 2023, from 42900 million US$ in 2017, according to a new study. Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report covers Carnival RCI NCLH MSC Disney Genting Hurtigruten Silversea TUI Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers North America (United States, Canada and Mexico) Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy) Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia) South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia etc.) Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa) Market Segment by Type, covers Contemporary Cruise Premium Cruise Luxury Cruise Others Market Segment by Applications, can be divided into Transportation Entertainment Others There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Cruise market. Chapter 1, to describe Cruise Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force; Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Cruise, with sales, revenue, and price of Cruise, in 2016 and 2017; Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017; Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Cruise, for each region, from 2013 to 2018; Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the market by countries, by type, by application and by manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions; Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2013 to 2018; Chapter 12, Cruise market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2018 to 2023; Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Cruise sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source Spanning over 128 pages "Forecast of Global Cruise Market 2023" report covers Market Overview, Manufacturers Profiles, Global Cruise Market Competition, by Manufacturer, Global Cruise Market Analysis by Regions, North America Cruise by Countries, Type, Application and Manufacturers, Europe Cruise by Countries, Type, Application and Manufacturers, Asia-Pacific Cruise by Countries, Type, Application and Manufacturers, South America Cruise by Countries, Type, Application and Manufacturers, Middle East and Africa Cruise by Countries, Type, Application and Manufacturers, Global Cruise Market Segment by Type, Global Cruise Market Segment by Application, Cruise Market Forecast (2018-2023), Sales Channel, Distributors, Traders and Dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, Appendix. Please visit this link for more details: https://www.marketresearchreports.com/mrrpb1/forecast-global-cruise-market-2023 Find all Automotive Reports at: https://www.marketresearchreports.com/automotive For related reports please visit: https://www.marketresearchreports.com/search/site/Cruise Read our Interactive Market Research Blog About Market Research Reports, Inc. Market Research Reports® Inc. is world's largest store offering quality market research, SWOT analysis, competitive intelligence and industry reports. We help Fortune 500 to Start-Ups with the latest market research reports on global & regional markets which comprise key industries, leading market players, new products and latest industry analysis & trends. Press Contact: Mr. Sudeep Chakravarty Director - Operations MarketResearchReprots.com USA: +1-302-703-9904 Contact us for your market research requirements:https://www.marketresearchreports.com/contact ( MarketResearchReprots.com ) ((Comments on this story may be sent to [email protected])) .EN
Subject: SWOT analysis; Growth rate; Market research; Market segments; Cruises
Location: Italy Middle East Russia Canada Nigeria Egypt North America United Kingdom--UK Africa Argentina Brazil France Asia Europe Southeast Asia Mexico United States--US South Africa Saudi Arabia India Germany South America China Japan Colombia
Publication title: M2 Presswire; Coventry
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jul 16, 2018
Publisher: Normans Media Ltd
Place of publication: Coventry
Country of publication: United Kingdom, Coventry
Publication subject: Communications
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2070114586
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2070114586?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright © M2 Communications, 2018
Last updated: 2018-07-16
Database: SciTech Premium Collection
Document 356 of 474
After the carnival Russia faces struggle to fill World Cup stadiums [Europe Region]
Author: Seddon, Max
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]16 July 2018: 2. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Sochi's Fisht stadium has seen some of the best games of this year's World Cup: Spain's thrilling 3-3 draw with Portugal, Germany's last-minute victory against Sweden, and underdog Russia's hardfought loss on penalties to Croatia. But to ensure any football would be played there at all after the tournament ended yesterday, local authorities had to get a friend of President Vladimir Putin to move a team to Sochi. How to prevent state of the art stadiums becoming white elephants after a big tournament has been a headache for many host nations. Officials in Manaus have even mooted turning a World Cup stadium in the Brazilian Amazon into a prison. The predicament is particularly acute in Russia, where vast distances between host cities, a lack of a strong football tradition outside of Moscow and St Petersburg, and tight regional finances mean local governments are seeking creative ways to keep the stadiums in use. Sochi, which built its stadium for the 2014 Winter Olympics and then converted it to a football ground, has perhaps gone the furthest. The Black Sea resort city has been unable to support a top-flight football team — Zhemchuzhina, a leading side in the 1990s, went bankrupt in 2003, while FK Sochi lasted two seasons in lower divisions a decade later. To ensure the pitch stays in use, local authorities enlisted Boris Rotenberg, a childhood friend of Mr Putin's, as an investor. Mr Rotenberg bought Dinamo St Petersburg, a second-division side, and moved it to Sochi, where it will play as FK Sochi when the new season starts this month. In Samara, where local side Krylia Sovietov is traditionally Russia's most popular, the local government wants to turn the out-of-the way stadium into a sports cluster. Training pitches and adjoining facilities are to be used to house a sports medicine centre, and create new homes for sports ranging from competitive dance to beach volleyball. Sergei Yurchenko, the deputy mayor, is keen to promote Mr Rotenberg's investment as a rare triumph for privatisation in Russian football. Only five top-flight sides are privately owned, while the local governments and staterun companies that own the rest struggle to fund their teams. "We're going to be in the premier league in a year or two at most. We have a serious investor so we don't need state funding," Mr Yurchenko said. But Mr Rotenberg's investment carries hallmarks of the state. Arkady Rotenberg, Mr Rotenberg's older brother and Mr Putin's judo partner, became a billionaire after his friend became president through winning pipeline contracts for state gas monopoly Gazprom. The brothers are under US sanctions. Other cities without Sochi's prestige and patronage are seeking more creative solutions to keep their stadiums occupied. Four do not have top-flight teams and lack the money to fund a push for Russia's premier league without outside sponsors. Nizhny Novgorod's governor Gleb Nikitin said he was negotiating with foreign investors about developing the stadium, home to a second-division team the city recently created from scratch. "Our beaches sadly aren't as good as in Brazil. It might be 30 degrees now, but it could be minus 30 in the winter, so we need to help them train," said Alexander Fetisov, deputy governor of Samara. A trickier issue is funding reconstruction. Mr Fetisov estimated the upkeep would cost Rbs500m ($8m) a year, which he hoped Moscow would fund. Alexei Kosolapov, the Volgograd mayor, expects to spend Rbs350m a year keeping the stadium running for local side Rotor. He hopes the shortfall will be compensated by more tourism to the site of the battle of Stalingrad. Most cities are still likely to rely on subsidies or debt. World Cup expenses accounted for significant rises in several host provinces' net debt since 2012, including nearly all of Samara's, according to Moody's. Nonetheless, some officials argue their cities will still save money. "We're moving the Greco-Roman wrestling centre into the stadium," said Alexei Merkushkin, head of World Cup preparations in Saransk. "Now we don't need to build them a new gym — we just have to give them some new mats." CREDIT: MAX SEDDON — SOCHI CAPTION: Sochi's Fisht stadium: a friend of Vladimir Putin is moving a football team to the city to use the facility
Subject: Football; Teams; Tournaments & championships; Soccer; Cities
Location: Sweden Croatia Spain Russia United States--US Black Sea Germany Portugal Brazil
People: Rotenberg, Arkady Putin, Vladimir
Company / organization: Name: Moodys Investors Service Inc; NAICS: 522110, 523930, 561450; Name: OAO Gazprom; NAICS: 211111, 221210
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 2
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jul 16, 2018
Section: News
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2088495527
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2088495527?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Jul 16, 2018
Last updated: 2019-06-05
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 357 of 474
After the carnival Russia faces struggle to fill World Cup stadiums [Asia Region]
Author: Seddon, Max
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]16 July 2018: 2. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Sochi's Fisht stadium has seen some of the best games of this year's World Cup: Spain's thrilling 3-3 draw with Portugal, Germany's last-minute victory against Sweden, and underdog Russia's hardfought loss on penalties to Croatia. But to ensure any football would be played there at all after the tournament ended yesterday, local authorities had to get a friend of President Vladimir Putin to move a team to Sochi. How to prevent state of the art stadiums becoming white elephants after a big tournament has been a headache for many host nations. Officials in Manaus have even mooted turning a World Cup stadium in the Brazilian Amazon into a prison. The predicament is particularly acute in Russia, where vast distances between host cities, a lack of a strong football tradition outside of Moscow and St Petersburg, and tight regional finances mean local governments are seeking creative ways to keep the stadiums in use. Sochi, which built its stadium for the 2014 Winter Olympics and then converted it to a football ground, has perhaps gone the furthest. The Black Sea resort city has been unable to support a top-flight football team — Zhemchuzhina, a leading side in the 1990s, went bankrupt in 2003, while FK Sochi lasted two seasons in lower divisions a decade later. To ensure the pitch stays in use, local authorities enlisted Boris Rotenberg, a childhood friend of Mr Putin's, as an investor. Mr Rotenberg bought Dinamo St Petersburg, a second-division side, and moved it to Sochi, where it will play as FK Sochi when the new season starts this month. In Samara, where local side Krylia Sovietov is traditionally Russia's most popular, the local government wants to turn the out-of-the way stadium into a sports cluster. Training pitches and adjoining facilities are to be used to house a sports medicine centre, and create new homes for sports ranging from competitive dance to beach volleyball. Sergei Yurchenko, the deputy mayor, is keen to promote Mr Rotenberg's investment as a rare triumph for privatisation in Russian football. Only five top-flight sides are privately owned, while the local governments and staterun companies that own the rest struggle to fund their teams. "We're going to be in the premier league in a year or two at most. We have a serious investor so we don't need state funding," Mr Yurchenko said. But Mr Rotenberg's investment carries hallmarks of the state. Arkady Rotenberg, Mr Rotenberg's older brother and Mr Putin's judo partner, became a billionaire after his friend became president through winning pipeline contracts for state gas monopoly Gazprom. The brothers are under US sanctions. Other cities without Sochi's prestige and patronage are seeking more creative solutions to keep their stadiums occupied. Four do not have top-flight teams and lack the money to fund a push for Russia's premier league without outside sponsors. Nizhny Novgorod's governor Gleb Nikitin said he was negotiating with foreign investors about developing the stadium, home to a second-division team the city recently created from scratch. "Our beaches sadly aren't as good as in Brazil. It might be 30 degrees now, but it could be minus 30 in the winter, so we need to help them train," said Alexander Fetisov, deputy governor of Samara. A trickier issue is funding reconstruction. Mr Fetisov estimated the upkeep would cost Rbs500m ($8m) a year, which he hoped Moscow would fund. Alexei Kosolapov, the Volgograd mayor, expects to spend Rbs350m a year keeping the stadium running for local side Rotor. He hopes the shortfall will be compensated by more tourism to the site of the battle of Stalingrad. Most cities are still likely to rely on subsidies or debt. World Cup expenses accounted for significant rises in several host provinces' net debt since 2012, including nearly all of Samara's, according to Moody's. Nonetheless, some officials argue their cities will still save money. "We're moving the Greco-Roman wrestling centre into the stadium," said Alexei Merkushkin, head of World Cup preparations in Saransk. "Now we don't need to build them a new gym — we just have to give them some new mats." CREDIT: MAX SEDDON — SOCHI CAPTION: Sochi's Fisht stadium: a friend of Vladimir Putin is moving a football team to the city to use the facility
Subject: Football; Teams; Tournaments & championships; Soccer; Cities
Location: Sweden Croatia Spain Russia United States--US Black Sea Germany Portugal Brazil
People: Rotenberg, Arkady Putin, Vladimir
Company / organization: Name: Moodys Investors Service Inc; NAICS: 522110, 523930, 561450; Name: OAO Gazprom; NAICS: 211111, 221210
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 2
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jul 16, 2018
Section: News
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2088497756
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2088497756?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Jul 16, 2018
Last updated: 2019-06-05
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 358 of 474
After the carnival Russia faces struggle to fill World Cup stadiums
Author: Seddon, Max
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]16 July 2018: 4. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Sochi's Fisht stadium has seen some of the best games of this year's World Cup: Spain's thrilling 3-3 draw with Portugal, Germany's last-minute victory against Sweden, and underdog Russia's hardfought loss on penalties to Croatia. But to ensure any football would be played there at all after the tournament ended yesterday, local authorities had to get a friend of President Vladimir Putin to move a team to Sochi. How to prevent state of the art stadiums becoming white elephants after a big tournament has been a headache for many host nations. Officials in Manaus have even mooted turning a World Cup stadium in the Brazilian Amazon into a prison. The predicament is particularly acute in Russia, where vast distances between host cities, a lack of a strong football tradition outside of Moscow and St Petersburg, and tight regional finances mean local governments are seeking creative ways to keep the stadiums in use. Sochi, which built its stadium for the 2014 Winter Olympics and then converted it to a football ground, has perhaps gone the furthest. The Black Sea resort city has been unable to support a top-flight football team — Zhemchuzhina, a leading side in the 1990s, went bankrupt in 2003, while FK Sochi lasted two seasons in lower divisions a decade later. To ensure the pitch stays in use, local authorities enlisted Boris Rotenberg, a childhood friend of Mr Putin's, as an investor. Mr Rotenberg bought Dinamo St Petersburg, a second-division side, and moved it to Sochi, where it will play as FK Sochi when the new season starts this month. In Samara, where local side Krylia Sovietov is traditionally Russia's most popular, the local government wants to turn the out-of-the way stadium into a sports cluster. Training pitches and adjoining facilities are to be used to house a sports medicine centre, and create new homes for sports ranging from competitive dance to beach volleyball. Sergei Yurchenko, the deputy mayor, is keen to promote Mr Rotenberg's investment as a rare triumph for privatisation in Russian football. Only five top-flight sides are privately owned, while the local governments and staterun companies that own the rest struggle to fund their teams. "We're going to be in the premier league in a year or two at most. We have a serious investor so we don't need state funding," Mr Yurchenko said. But Mr Rotenberg's investment carries hallmarks of the state. Arkady Rotenberg, Mr Rotenberg's older brother and Mr Putin's judo partner, became a billionaire after his friend became president through winning pipeline contracts for state gas monopoly Gazprom. The brothers are under US sanctions. Other cities without Sochi's prestige and patronage are seeking more creative solutions to keep their stadiums occupied. Four do not have top-flight teams and lack the money to fund a push for Russia's premier league without outside sponsors. Nizhny Novgorod's governor Gleb Nikitin said he was negotiating with foreign investors about developing the stadium, home to a second-division team the city recently created from scratch. "Our beaches sadly aren't as good as in Brazil. It might be 30 degrees now, but it could be minus 30 in the winter, so we need to help them train," said Alexander Fetisov, deputy governor of Samara. A trickier issue is funding reconstruction. Mr Fetisov estimated the upkeep would cost Rbs500m ($8m) a year, which he hoped Moscow would fund. Alexei Kosolapov, the Volgograd mayor, expects to spend Rbs350m a year keeping the stadium running for local side Rotor. He hopes the shortfall will be compensated by more tourism to the site of the battle of Stalingrad. Most cities are still likely to rely on subsidies or debt. World Cup expenses accounted for significant rises in several host provinces' net debt since 2012, including nearly all of Samara's, according to Moody's. Nonetheless, some officials argue their cities will still save money. "We're moving the Greco-Roman wrestling centre into the stadium," said Alexei Merkushkin, head of World Cup preparations in Saransk. "Now we don't need to build them a new gym — we just have to give them some new mats." CREDIT: MAX SEDDON — SOCHI CAPTION: Sochi's Fisht stadium: a friend of Vladimir Putin is moving a football team to the city to use the facility
Subject: Football; Teams; Tournaments & championships; Soccer; Cities
Location: Sweden Croatia Spain Russia United States--US Black Sea Germany Portugal Brazil
People: Rotenberg, Arkady Putin, Vladimir
Company / organization: Name: Moodys Investors Service Inc; NAICS: 522110, 523930, 561450; Name: OAO Gazprom; NAICS: 211111, 221210
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 4
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jul 16, 2018
Section: News
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2088502272
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2088502272?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Jul 16, 2018
Last updated: 2018-08-16
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 359 of 474
After the carnival Russia faces struggle to fill World Cup stadiums [Usa Region]
Author: Seddon, Max
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]16 July 2018: 2.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Sochi's Fisht stadium has seen some of the best games of this year's World Cup: Spain's thrilling 3-3 draw with Portugal, Germany's last-minute victory against Sweden, and underdog Russia's hardfought loss on penalties to Croatia. But to ensure any football would be played there at all after the tournament ended yesterday, local authorities had to get a friend of President Vladimir Putin to move a team to Sochi. How to prevent state of the art stadiums becoming white elephants after a big tournament has been a headache for many host nations. Officials in Manaus have even mooted turning a World Cup stadium in the Brazilian Amazon into a prison. The predicament is particularly acute in Russia, where vast distances between host cities, a lack of a strong football tradition outside of Moscow and St Petersburg, and tight regional finances mean local governments are seeking creative ways to keep the stadiums in use. Sochi, which built its stadium for the 2014 Winter Olympics and then converted it to a football ground, has perhaps gone the furthest. The Black Sea resort city has been unable to support a top-flight football team — Zhemchuzhina, a leading side in the 1990s, went bankrupt in 2003, while FK Sochi lasted two seasons in lower divisions a decade later. To ensure the pitch stays in use, local authorities enlisted Boris Rotenberg, a childhood friend of Mr Putin's, as an investor. Mr Rotenberg bought Dinamo St Petersburg, a second-division side, and moved it to Sochi, where it will play as FK Sochi when the new season starts this month. In Samara, where local side Krylia Sovietov is traditionally Russia's most popular, the local government wants to turn the out-of-the way stadium into a sports cluster. Training pitches and adjoining facilities are to be used to house a sports medicine centre, and create new homes for sports ranging from competitive dance to beach volleyball. Sergei Yurchenko, the deputy mayor, is keen to promote Mr Rotenberg's investment as a rare triumph for privatisation in Russian football. Only five top-flight sides are privately owned, while the local governments and staterun companies that own the rest struggle to fund their teams. "We're going to be in the premier league in a year or two at most. We have a serious investor so we don't need state funding," Mr Yurchenko said. But Mr Rotenberg's investment carries hallmarks of the state. Arkady Rotenberg, Mr Rotenberg's older brother and Mr Putin's judo partner, became a billionaire after his friend became president through winning pipeline contracts for state gas monopoly Gazprom. The brothers are under US sanctions. Other cities without Sochi's prestige and patronage are seeking more creative solutions to keep their stadiums occupied. Four do not have top-flight teams and lack the money to fund a push for Russia's premier league without outside sponsors. Nizhny Novgorod's governor Gleb Nikitin said he was negotiating with foreign investors about developing the stadium, home to a second-division team the city recently created from scratch. "Our beaches sadly aren't as good as in Brazil. It might be 30 degrees now, but it could be minus 30 in the winter, so we need to help them train," said Alexander Fetisov, deputy governor of Samara. A trickier issue is funding reconstruction. Mr Fetisov estimated the upkeep would cost Rbs500m ($8m) a year, which he hoped Moscow would fund. Alexei Kosolapov, the Volgograd mayor, expects to spend Rbs350m a year keeping the stadium running for local side Rotor. He hopes the shortfall will be compensated by more tourism to the site of the battle of Stalingrad. Most cities are still likely to rely on subsidies or debt. World Cup expenses accounted for significant rises in several host provinces' net debt since 2012, including nearly all of Samara's, according to Moody's. Nonetheless, some officials argue their cities will still save money. "We're moving the Greco-Roman wrestling centre into the stadium," said Alexei Merkushkin, head of World Cup preparations in Saransk. "Now we don't need to build them a new gym — we just have to give them some new mats." CREDIT: MAX SEDDON — SOCHI CAPTION: Sochi's Fisht stadium: a friend of Vladimir Putin is moving a football team to the city to use the facility
Subject: Football; Teams; Tournaments & championships; Soccer; Cities
Location: Sweden Croatia Spain Russia Black Sea Germany Portugal Brazil
People: Rotenberg, Arkady Putin, Vladimir
Company / organization: Name: Moodys Investors Service Inc; NAICS: 522110, 523930, 561450; Name: OAO Gazprom; NAICS: 211111, 221210
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 2
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jul 16, 2018
Section: News
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2088507711
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2088507711?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Jul 16, 2018
Last updated: 2019-06-04
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 360 of 474
Global Cruise is expected to grow at a CAGR 5.0% and reach 57.6 billion USD in 2023, from 42.9 billion USD in 2017
Publication info: M2 Presswire ; Coventry [Coventry]17 July 2018. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: M2 PRESSWIRE-July 17, 2018-Global Cruise is expected to grow at a CAGR 5.0% and reach 57.6 billion USD in 2023, from 42.9 billion USD in 2017 (C)2018 M2 COMMUNICATIONS http://www.m2.com July 17, 2018 The worldwide market for Cruise is expected to grow at a CAGR of roughly 5.0% over the next five years, will reach 57600 million US$ in 2023, from 42900 million US$ in 2017, according to a new study. Cruise is a passenger ship used for recreational and leisure voyages, in which the journey itself and the onboard amenities, attractions, activities and entertainment options are integrant part of the cruise experience. Scope of the Report: This report focuses on the Cruise in global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application. For industry structure analysis, the Cruise Industry is concentrate. Carnival, RCI and NCLH account about 72.67% of the revenue market. Regionally, Europe is the biggest sales area of Cruise, also the leader in the whole Cruise. North America occupied 55.99% of the revenue market in 2015. It is followed by Europe and Asia, which respectively have around 29.99% and 5.32% of the global total industry. Other countries have a small amount of revenue. Cruise prices can change at a moment's notice. The price of cruise is different by the destination, cruise length, date and other factors. For forecast, the North America and Europe Cruise revenue would keep increasing with annual growth rate with 3~6%. The growth rate of Asia is about 13%-23%. We tend to believe that this industry still has a bright future, considering the current demand of Cruise. As for product prices, the slow downward trend in recent years will continue in the next few years, as competition intensifies. Similarly, there will be fluctuations in gross margin. The worldwide market for Cruise is expected to grow at a CAGR of roughly 5.0% over the next five years, will reach 57600 million US$ in 2023, from 42900 million US$ in 2017, according to a new study. Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report covers Carnival RCI NCLH MSC Disney Genting Hurtigruten Silversea TUI Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers North America (United States, Canada and Mexico) Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy) Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia) South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia etc.) Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa) Market Segment by Type, covers Contemporary Cruise Premium Cruise Luxury Cruise Others Market Segment by Applications, can be divided into Transportation Entertainment Others There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Cruise market. Chapter 1, to describe Cruise Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force; Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Cruise, with sales, revenue, and price of Cruise, in 2016 and 2017; Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017; Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Cruise, for each region, from 2013 to 2018; Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the market by countries, by type, by application and by manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions; Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2013 to 2018; Chapter 12, Cruise market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2018 to 2023; Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Cruise sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source Spanning over 128 pages "Forecast of Global Cruise Market 2023" report covers Market Overview, Manufacturers Profiles, Global Cruise Market Competition, by Manufacturer, Global Cruise Market Analysis by Regions, North America Cruise by Countries, Type, Application and Manufacturers, Europe Cruise by Countries, Type, Application and Manufacturers, Asia-Pacific Cruise by Countries, Type, Application and Manufacturers, South America Cruise by Countries, Type, Application and Manufacturers, Middle East and Africa Cruise by Countries, Type, Application and Manufacturers, Global Cruise Market Segment by Type, Global Cruise Market Segment by Application, Cruise Market Forecast (2018-2023), Sales Channel, Distributors, Traders and Dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, Appendix. Please visit this link for more details: https://www.marketresearchreports.com/mrrpb1/forecast-global-cruise-market-2023 Find all Automotive Reports at: https://www.marketresearchreports.com/automotive For related reports please visit: https://www.marketresearchreports.com/search/site/Cruise Read our Interactive Market Research Blog: https://www.marketresearchreports.com/blog About Market Research Reports, Inc. Market Research Reports® Inc. is world's largest store offering quality market research, SWOT analysis, competitive intelligence and industry reports. We help Fortune 500 to Start-Ups with the latest market research reports on global & regional markets which comprise key industries, leading market players, new products and latest industry analysis & trends. Press Contact: Mr. Sudeep Chakravarty Director - Operations MarketResearchReprots.com USA: +1-302-703-9904 Contact us for your market research requirements:https://www.marketresearchreports.com/contact ((Comments on this story may be sent to [email protected])) .EN
Subject: SWOT analysis; Growth rate; Market research; Market segments; Cruises
Location: Italy Middle East Russia Canada Nigeria Egypt North America United Kingdom--UK Africa Argentina Brazil France Asia Europe Southeast Asia Mexico United States--US South Africa Saudi Arabia India Germany South America China Japan Colombia
Publication title: M2 Presswire; Coventry
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jul 17, 2018
Publisher: Normans Media Ltd
Place of publication: Coventry
Country of publication: United Kingdom, Coventry
Publication subject: Communications
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2070715916
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2070715916?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright © M2 Communications, 2018
Last updated: 2018-07-17
Database: SciTech Premium Collection
Document 361 of 474
Auto & Transport Roundup: Market Talk
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]17 July 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
The latest Market Talks covering the Auto and Transport sector. Published exclusively on at 4:20 ET, 12:20 ET and 16:50 ET.
1530 GMT - Major global auto suppliers see the risks of a trade war instigated by the US increasing, a shift from two months ago when they considered the threat negligible, according to Evercore. The firm says it calculates that suppliers are now pricing in a trade-war scenario at up to a 40% likelihood on average, up from just 5% eight weeks ago. A trade war would likely reduce EPS by an average of 14% at top suppliers, including Aptiv, Delphi Technologies, Lear, BorgWarner and Valeo, Evercore says. That's bad, but less than an estimated 31% average drop to these companies' EPS from the onset of a future recession, it says.([email protected]; @DecodeTheFirm)
1516 GMT - Italian shipyard Fincantieri, which specializes in building cruise ships, hits a record number of orders with 80 vessels of all types waiting to be built through most of the next decade. Cruise operators like Carnival and Royal Caribbean are growing by double-digit figures over the past few years, making the cruise sector a rare bright spot in an otherwise depressed shipping industry. Vincenzo Petrone, chairman of the Italian shipbuilders association Assonave, says Fincantieri and other Italian yards have stayed "in the right part of the market" by focusing on cruise-ships and naval vessels and avoiding overproduction in other ship types like tankers and bulk vessels, which pushed most Asian yards deeply into the red over the past five years. ([email protected])
1244 GMT - Air Lease boosts its order book close to 400 jetliners with a 23-plane deal with Boeing at the Farnborough Airshow, plus commitments for another 55. The leasing company had a backlog of Airbus and Boeing orders valued at $27B at March 21 and has been taking additional opportunistic delivery slots, making it a proxy for the fortunes of the big plane makers. Still, the shares have struggled this year -- down 15% -- underperforming rival AerCap as well as Airbus and Boeing. ([email protected]; @dougcameron)
1031 GMT - Brazilian container-terminal assets potentially being sold by the main operating subsidiary of Ocean Wilsons could be valued at between $700 million and $900 million, according to Cantor Fitzgerald. The broker says Brazil has a strategic shortage of container-handling capacity, and notes that a 90% stake in a rival terminal operator was sold for $750 million in 2017. Ocean Wilsons currently trades at a 38% discount to its net asset value and a 30% discount to the wider logistics-and-maritime sector, Cantor says. Cantor acts as corporate broker to Ocean Wilsons. Shares are up 8.9% at 1,105 pence. ([email protected])
0907 GMT - New Royal Mail CEO Rico Back has to find more productivity improvements as the postal operator focuses on improving its parcel-delivery business, AJ Bell says. The investment platform says Royal Mail's 1Q update contained no surprises, as letter volumes continue falling and being replaced by rising parcel deliveries, with the real challenge continuing to be competition for parcel business. "New Chief Executive Rico Back may be under pressure from shareholders to find ways to accelerate the pace of change in the business. Fortunately he's worked for the business for more than 18 years and so can hit the ground running," AJ Bell says. ([email protected])
0857 GMT - South Korean delegates led by Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong visiting the US this week will likely insist that their country deserve an exemption from Trump's planned tariffs on auto imports because of concessions it has already made for US carmakers to revise a bilateral free-trade deal, Seoul officials say. The government has agreed to allow the US to extend a tariff on South Korean pickups by 20 years, addressing American concerns about Korea's trade surplus and settling a dispute on new US steel tariffs. Hyundai Motor has joined global carmakers in campaigning against Trump's planned 25% auto tariffs, warning the levy could jeopardize its multibillion-dollar investment plans for the US. ([email protected]; @kwanwoo)
0845 GMT - U.K. postal operator Royal Mail remains vulnerable to cost headwinds and short-term deterioration in its letter business, despite an in line first-quarter trading update, says Liberum. The brokerage says Royal Mail's acceleration in revenue in U.K. and European parcel operations isn't enough to raise consensus expectations due to the continued drag from its letters business. Liberum says Royal Mail's current valuation remains too high considering the company's lack of long-term growth, the risk of productivity gains not offsetting rising costs, and the possibility of letters revenue falling faster than expected. ([email protected])
0834 GMT - Royal Mail's first-quarter trading update was slightly ahead of expectations, with the company getting a boost from U.K. parcel volume growth, says Jefferies. At 7%, quarterly parcel volume growth already exceeds Royal Mail's full-year guidance of a 5% increase, the investment bank says, though this was offset by a negative price effect. Figures for U.K. letter volume declines and European logistics growth were both in line with expectations, says Jefferies. Shares in Royal Mail are up 3.2% at 496 pence. ([email protected])
0820 GMT - Shares in U.K. postal operator Royal Mail top the FTSE 100 index, rising 3.1% after a trading update. Royal Mail left fiscal 2019 expectations unchanged and said 1Q underlying revenue rose 2%, with a strong performance from its European parcel-delivery operations offset by a decline in letter and parcel deliveries. Richard Hunter at Interactive Investor notes that although the shares have lost around 14% in recent months on profit taking, they still have a "punchy valuation" and may be vulnerable in future without "strikingly good news." Yields fall on Royal Mail's only outstanding bond, the 2.375% April 2024, reaching 1.105%, having initially risen to 1.120%, according to Tradeweb. ([email protected]; [email protected])
0817 GMT - Michelin's share-price fall, paired with recent acquisitions and a high, stable cash flow make the tire maker's stock a very attractive investment among European car and parts manufacturers, says HSBC. The bank raises its rating for the stock to buy, while cutting its price target to EUR125 from EUR130, citing lower operating-profit forecasts for the tire maker. Looking to 2019 and 2020, HSBC notes Michelin's "constructive" outlook regarding cash flow. Michelin shares trade 0.9% higher at EUR107.15. ([email protected]; @mxbernhard)
0804 GMT - Greek ship owner Evangelos Marinakis has placed an order for 4 LNG carriers and 3 options from Korean yard Hyundai Heavy Industries worth some $1.3 billion for his new vehicle Capital Gas, according to people involved in the matter. Gas-carrier orders are a bright spot in an otherwise depressed shipbuilding industry amid rising LNG demand in Asia and exports increasing, notably from the US. They quadrupled in America last year with shipments going to 25 countries, according to the government. Hyundai Heavy's stock is up 0.8% this year after 2017's 27% slide. ([email protected])
0803 GMT - U.K. postal operator Royal Mail's first-quarter update suggests little has changed as the company continues to replace falling letters business with parcel deliveries, Interactive Investor says. A 2% rise in Royal Mail's underlying revenue represents a "pedestrian" start to the year, although the company's transition to a leaner operation has boosted its share price over the last year, Interactive Investor says. "In the absence of some strikingly good news as Royal Mail's financial year unfolds, the market consensus of the shares as a sell could well remain intact," the online trading platform says. ([email protected])
(END)
July 17, 2018 12:20 ET (16:20 GMT)
Subject: International trade; Productivity; Cash flow; Investments; Tariffs; Shipping industry
Location: Brazil United States--US Asia United Kingdom--UK
Company / organization: Name: Hyundai Motor Co Ltd; NAICS: 336111; Name: AerCap; NAICS: 522220, 532411; Name: Boeing Co; NAICS: 336411, 336413, 336414
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jul 17, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2071038762
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2071038762?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Jul 17, 2018
Last updated: 2018-07-18
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 362 of 474
Auto & Transport Roundup: Market Talk
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]17 July 2018. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
The latest Market Talks covering the Auto and Transport sector. Published exclusively on at 4:20 ET, 12:20 ET and 16:50 ET.
1300 ET - Republic Airways announces plans at the Farnborough Airshow to order another 100 Embraer E175 jets alongside purchase rights on another 100, settling the US regional's fleet plan for the next several years. Republic, which exited bankruptcy protection last year, already operates almost 200 of Embraer's existing jetliners, and has the option to convert the planned order into the new E2 models. United said Monday it will buy 25 Embraer E-175s to replace flying now done by Bombardier jets, but hasn't said who will operate the aircraft. ([email protected]; @dougcameron)
1130 ET - Major global auto suppliers see the risks of a trade war instigated by the US increasing, a shift from two months ago when they considered the threat negligible, according to Evercore. The firm says it calculates that suppliers are now pricing in a trade-war scenario at up to a 40% likelihood on average, up from just 5% eight weeks ago. A trade war would likely reduce EPS by an average of 14% at top suppliers, including Aptiv, Delphi Technologies, Lear, BorgWarner and Valeo, Evercore says. That's bad, but less than an estimated 31% average drop to these companies' EPS from the onset of a future recession, it says.([email protected]; @DecodeTheFirm)
1116 ET - Italian shipyard Fincantieri, which specializes in building cruise ships, hits a record number of orders with 80 vessels of all types waiting to be built through most of the next decade. Cruise operators like Carnival and Royal Caribbean are growing by double-digit figures over the past few years, making the cruise sector a rare bright spot in an otherwise depressed shipping industry. Vincenzo Petrone, chairman of the Italian shipbuilders association Assonave, says Fincantieri and other Italian yards have stayed "in the right part of the market" by focusing on cruise-ships and naval vessels and avoiding overproduction in other ship types like tankers and bulk vessels, which pushed most Asian yards deeply into the red over the past five years. ([email protected])
0844 ET - Air Lease boosts its order book close to 400 jetliners with a 23-plane deal with Boeing at the Farnborough Airshow, plus commitments for another 55. The leasing company had a backlog of Airbus and Boeing orders valued at $27B at March 21 and has been taking additional opportunistic delivery slots, making it a proxy for the fortunes of the big plane makers. Still, the shares have struggled this year -- down 15% -- underperforming rival AerCap as well as Airbus and Boeing. ([email protected]; @dougcameron)
0631 ET - Brazilian container-terminal assets potentially being sold by the main operating subsidiary of Ocean Wilsons could be valued at between $700 million and $900 million, according to Cantor Fitzgerald. The broker says Brazil has a strategic shortage of container-handling capacity, and notes that a 90% stake in a rival terminal operator was sold for $750 million in 2017. Ocean Wilsons currently trades at a 38% discount to its net asset value and a 30% discount to the wider logistics-and-maritime sector, Cantor says. Cantor acts as corporate broker to Ocean Wilsons. Shares are up 8.9% at 1,105 pence. ([email protected])
0507 ET - New Royal Mail CEO Rico Back has to find more productivity improvements as the postal operator focuses on improving its parcel-delivery business, AJ Bell says. The investment platform says Royal Mail's 1Q update contained no surprises, as letter volumes continue falling and being replaced by rising parcel deliveries, with the real challenge continuing to be competition for parcel business. "New Chief Executive Rico Back may be under pressure from shareholders to find ways to accelerate the pace of change in the business. Fortunately he's worked for the business for more than 18 years and so can hit the ground running," AJ Bell says. ([email protected])
0457 ET - South Korean delegates led by Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong visiting the US this week will likely insist that their country deserve an exemption from Trump's planned tariffs on auto imports because of concessions it has already made for US carmakers to revise a bilateral free-trade deal, Seoul officials say. The government has agreed to allow the US to extend a tariff on South Korean pickups by 20 years, addressing American concerns about Korea's trade surplus and settling a dispute on new US steel tariffs. Hyundai Motor has joined global carmakers in campaigning against Trump's planned 25% auto tariffs, warning the levy could jeopardize its multibillion-dollar investment plans for the US. ([email protected]; @kwanwoo)
0445 ET - U.K. postal operator Royal Mail remains vulnerable to cost headwinds and short-term deterioration in its letter business, despite an in line first-quarter trading update, says Liberum. The brokerage says Royal Mail's acceleration in revenue in U.K. and European parcel operations isn't enough to raise consensus expectations due to the continued drag from its letters business. Liberum says Royal Mail's current valuation remains too high considering the company's lack of long-term growth, the risk of productivity gains not offsetting rising costs, and the possibility of letters revenue falling faster than expected. ([email protected])
0434 ET - Royal Mail's first-quarter trading update was slightly ahead of expectations, with the company getting a boost from U.K. parcel volume growth, says Jefferies. At 7%, quarterly parcel volume growth already exceeds Royal Mail's full-year guidance of a 5% increase, the investment bank says, though this was offset by a negative price effect. Figures for U.K. letter volume declines and European logistics growth were both in line with expectations, says Jefferies. Shares in Royal Mail are up 3.2% at 496 pence. ([email protected])
0420 ET - Shares in U.K. postal operator Royal Mail top the FTSE 100 index, rising 3.1% after a trading update. Royal Mail left fiscal 2019 expectations unchanged and said 1Q underlying revenue rose 2%, with a strong performance from its European parcel-delivery operations offset by a decline in letter and parcel deliveries. Richard Hunter at Interactive Investor notes that although the shares have lost around 14% in recent months on profit taking, they still have a "punchy valuation" and may be vulnerable in future without "strikingly good news." Yields fall on Royal Mail's only outstanding bond, the 2.375% April 2024, reaching 1.105%, having initially risen to 1.120%, according to Tradeweb. ([email protected]; [email protected])
0417 ET - Michelin's share-price fall, paired with recent acquisitions and a high, stable cash flow make the tire maker's stock a very attractive investment among European car and parts manufacturers, says HSBC. The bank raises its rating for the stock to buy, while cutting its price target to EUR125 from EUR130, citing lower operating-profit forecasts for the tire maker. Looking to 2019 and 2020, HSBC notes Michelin's "constructive" outlook regarding cash flow. Michelin shares trade 0.9% higher at EUR107.15. ([email protected]; @mxbernhard)
0404 ET - Greek ship owner Evangelos Marinakis has placed an order for 4 LNG carriers and 3 options from Korean yard Hyundai Heavy Industries worth some $1.3 billion for his new vehicle Capital Gas, according to people involved in the matter. Gas-carrier orders are a bright spot in an otherwise depressed shipbuilding industry amid rising LNG demand in Asia and exports increasing, notably from the US. They quadrupled in America last year with shipments going to 25 countries, according to the government. Hyundai Heavy's stock is up 0.8% this year after 2017's 27% slide. ([email protected])
(END)
July 17, 2018 16:50 ET (20:50 GMT)
Subject: International trade; Productivity; Investments; Tariffs; Aircraft industry; Cash flow; Shipping industry
Location: United States--US United Kingdom--UK Brazil Asia
Company / organization: Name: Hyundai Motor Co Ltd; NAICS: 336111; Name: Republic Airways Holdings; NAICS: 481111; Name: AerCap; NAICS: 522220, 532411; Name: Boeing Co; NAICS: 336411, 336413, 336414
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jul 17, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2071040728
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2071040728?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Jul 17, 2018
Last updated: 2018-07-18
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 363 of 474
Global Energy Roundup: Market Talk
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]17 July 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
The latest Market Talks covering Energy markets. Published exclusively on throughout the day.
1818 ET -- Z Energy's profit warning wasn't entirely unexpected, which helps to explain the relatively muted fall in its share price on Wednesday. Z Energy falls 1.3% to NZ$7.40 after lowering its FY19 ebitdaf guidance to NZ$420 million-NZ$455 million, citing delays to the restart of Refining NZ's Marsden Point refinery that supplies its gas-station network with fuels. Z Energy also blamed record-high pump prices in 1Q for paring guidance from an earlier NZ$450 million-NZ$485 million range, although its dividend outlook was unchanged. Oil prices have recently been hovering near 4-year highs, although they dropped drop to their lowest level in nearly a month overnight on expectations global producers will bring additional crude oil to market to make up for recent deficits. Earlier this month, UBS had drawn parallels between the headwinds buffeting Z Energy now and in January when it also scaled back its FY18 earnings view. ([email protected]; @dwinningWSJ)
1815 ET -- New Zealand's NZX-50 index opens 0.1% lower at 8971.73, despite positive leads from Wall Street where the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained on Fed Chairman Powell's Senate testimony. Z Energy falls 2% to NZ$7.35 after lowering its FY19 ebitdaf guidance to NZ$420 million-NZ$455 million, citing delays to the restart of Refining NZ's Marsden Point refinery that supplies its gas-station network with fuels. Z Energy also blamed record-high pump prices in 1Q for paring guidance from an earlier NZ$450 million-NZ$485 million range. A2 Milk edged 0.2% higher to NZ$11.12, despite another fall in the Global Dairy Trade index overnight. "Dairy prices have declined for the last 4 auctions, with the shine starting to come off our commodity prices of late," Australia & New Zealand Banking Group says. Synlait Milk was unchanged at NZ$10.88. ([email protected]; @dwinningWSJ)
1800 ET - Australia is likely to be among countries that help fill a void with China if liquefied natural gas eventually is added to the escalating trade war between it and the US, EnergyQuest suggests. The consultancy notes China bought about 22% of all US LNG exports, though US supplies accounted for about 8% of China's imports of the fuel. China accounted for 34% of Australian LNG deliveries in the year through June. And while Japan remains a bigger market for Australia's LNG exports, EnergyQuest estimates China accounted for a hefty chunk of the almost 19% surge in exports to 59.7M metric tons in the last fiscal year that has Australia tracking to leapfrog Qatar are the world's biggest LNG exporter. ([email protected]; @RobbMStewart)
1649 ET - American Petroleum Institute reports inventories of crude oil in the US surprisingly increased by 629k bbls in the latest week, a source citing the report says, while gasoline supplies rose by 425k bbls. The bearish results were released ahead of official inventories data from the Department of Energy scheduled to be published Wednesday morning. Average forecasts in a WSJ survey indicate the DOE report will show crude supplies fell by 3.3M bbls from the previous week and that gasoline supplies fell by 400k bbls from the previous week. In late trading, US benchmark oil prices fall, and are now down 0.6% on the day at $67.65/bbl. ([email protected])
1116 ET - Italian shipyard Fincantieri, which specializes in building cruise ships, hits a record number of orders with 80 vessels of all types waiting to be built through most of the next decade. Cruise operators like Carnival and Royal Caribbean are growing by double-digit figures over the past few years, making the cruise sector a rare bright spot in an otherwise depressed shipping industry. Vincenzo Petrone, chairman of the Italian shipbuilders association Assonave, says Fincantieri and other Italian yards have stayed "in the right part of the market" by focusing on cruise-ships and naval vessels and avoiding overproduction in other ship types like tankers and bulk vessels, which pushed most Asian yards deeply into the red over the past five years. ([email protected])
1023 ET - Rio Tinto's second-quarter production figures were decent, showing recovery from a softer first quarter, Barclays analysts say. Rio Tinto's all-important iron-ore operations delivered second-quarter sales growth of 10% while guidance for the year is now at the top end of the 330 million-340 million ton range and in line with Barclays' estimates. The bank notes that there is some cause for concern regarding ongoing cost inflation, particularly in aluminum. Following the update, Barclays says it expects a modestly negative impact on consensus estimates. London-listed shares at 1406 GMT are up 1.9% at 4,078 pence.([email protected]; @OliGGriffin)
0813 ET - Oil prices that fell sharply Monday are little changed early in New York, with the US benchmark WTI up 0.1% at $68.11/bbl while the global benchmark Brent is flat at $71.84/bbl. Investors are weighing bearish expectations for an future rise in global supplies against a current scenario of bullish supply deficits. "Reports that the US is mulling an SPR [strategic petroleum reserve] release and a softer stance on Iranian exports, along with comments from other large producers reassuring markets that they would continue to balance the market, helped fuel the perception that more oil is re-entering the market," says JBC Energy. Meantime, weekly US inventory data starting with private API at 4:30pm ET, could show another fall. ([email protected])
0631 ET - Brazilian container-terminal assets potentially being sold by the main operating subsidiary of Ocean Wilsons could be valued at between $700 million and $900 million, according to Cantor Fitzgerald. The broker says Brazil has a strategic shortage of container-handling capacity, and notes that a 90% stake in a rival terminal operator was sold for $750 million in 2017. Ocean Wilsons currently trades at a 38% discount to its net asset value and a 30% discount to the wider logistics-and-maritime sector, Cantor says. Cantor acts as corporate broker to Ocean Wilsons. Shares are up 8.9% at 1,105 pence. ([email protected])
0605 ET - Dutch utilities, most of which were cash flow negative in 2017, will need to make heavy investments in coming years to meet new carbon-neutral targets in the Netherlands, says Rabobank in a credit strategy note. The measures are part of new climate change regulation expected to become law after the summer. Dutch state-owned gas network operator Gasunie is likely to be hit the hardest as the draft law speeds up plans to phase out natural gas from the energy mix in 2050, says Rabobank. The Netherlands is the EU's second largest gas supplier, although the country has been winding down production in recent years due to environmental concerns as drilling has caused earthquakes.([email protected]; @lorena_rbal)
0428 ET September Brent, on a 30-minute chart, keeps trading on the downside after losing over 4% yesterday (July 16). Currently, it has further plunged to levels below the lower Bollinger band, calling for acceleration to the downside. Moreover, the 20-period MA stays far below the 50-period one. Strong downward momentum is also evidenced by the relative strength index, which has breached the over-sold level of 30. Intraday bearishness persists, and the pair is expected to return to 70.40 on the downside before sinking further toward 69.80 Alternatively, breaking above $73.00 would turn the intraday outlook bullish and call for a further advance toward $74.10. September Brent is trading at $72.18 a barrel. [This piece contains the opinions of Trading Central and does not constitute personalized investment advice or form part of any invitation or inducement to buy or sell any security. The author has been prohibited by Trading Central from purchasing or otherwise directly or indirectly acquiring any direct or indirect beneficial ownership of any instruments or markets for which Trading Central or its affiliates issues recommendations. To read more, visit bit.ly/1MehCU9.] ([email protected])
0423 ET - Hong Kong stocks were the region's worst performer throughout today's trading, with the Hang Seng's tiny gain amid yesterday's selling in much of Asia turning into a 1.25% drop that barely set a fresh 2018 closing low. The benchmark, after having risen 3-straight days, finished at 28181.68 while the China Enterprises Index lost 1.05% today. China's big banks and tech were weak, with China Construction and ICBC falling nearly 2%. Meanwhile, Sunny Optical skidded 6.8% as the lensmaker reversed the jump seen last Thursday. Energy also pressured the market on oil's Monday swoon and mainland consumer names lagged. ([email protected])
0404 ET - Greek ship owner Evangelos Marinakis has placed an order for 4 LNG carriers and 3 options from Korean yard Hyundai Heavy Industries worth some $1.3 billion for his new vehicle Capital Gas, according to people involved in the matter. Gas-carrier orders are a bright spot in an otherwise depressed shipbuilding industry amid rising LNG demand in Asia and exports increasing, notably from the US. They quadrupled in America last year with shipments going to 25 countries, according to the government. Hyundai Heavy's stock is up 0.8% this year after 2017's 27% slide. ([email protected])
(END)
July 17, 2018 18:18 ET (22:18 GMT)
Subject: Crude oil prices; Energy industry; Natural gas; International trade; Strategic petroleum reserve; Inventory; Supplies; LNG; Exports; Shipping industry; Crude oil
Location: Qatar Australia Hong Kong Brazil Asia New Zealand Netherlands United States--US New York China Japan
Company / organization: Name: Department of Energy; NAICS: 926130; Name: Rio Tinto Group; NAICS: 212112, 212291; Name: Dow Jones & Co Inc; NAICS: 511110, 511120, 511130, 519130, 523210; Name: 3M Co; NAICS: 322230, 325412, 332216, 334417, 339114; Name: American Petroleum Institute; NAICS: 541820, 813910; Name: Senat e; NAICS: 921120; Name: UBS AG; NAICS: 522110, 523110, 523120, 523920, 523930
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jul 17, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2071042131
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2071042131?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Jul 17, 2018
Last updated: 2018-07-18
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 364 of 474
Auto & Transport Roundup: Market Talk
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]18 July 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
The latest Market Talks covering the Auto and Transport sector. Published exclusively on at 4:20 ET, 12:20 ET and 16:50 ET.
0749 GMT - Shares in easyJet rise 2.8%, making them the second biggest riser in the FTSE 100 index, after the budget airline reported higher 3Q unit revenue and raised its expectations for fiscal 2018 headline pretax profit to between GBP550 million and GBP590 million. "This is a positive update," says Richard Hunter, head of markets at online broker Interactive Investor. "With the outlook being upbeat, the market consensus of the shares as a cautious buy may need to be nudged rather higher." Shares in Severn Trent, however, fall 2.2% after the water company said its outlook for fiscal 2019 remained unchanged. ([email protected])
0724 GMT - Investment banks are applauding with investors about Great Wall Motor's 1H update, which predicted 52% earnings growth thanks to its "optimized product structure." The news implies a solid 2Q with resilient selling prices and margins despite tough competition, says UBS. It expects further earnings upside in 2H. CICC is also impressed and boosted its 2018 profit forecasts 9% on the automaker. Great Wall is up 5.7%, cutting the year's drop to 38%. ([email protected])
0440 GMT - Malaysian auto sales may have hit a record high last month with GST's scrappage, says MIDF ahead of this week's data for June. It notes sales slowed in 2H May after the new government said GST would go as of June 1 and be replaced by a new regime that goes into effect in September. MIDF expects UMW Toyota to stage a strong rebound while Mazda's waiting list exceeds 5 months, which could bode well for distributor Bermaz. ([email protected]; @yantoultra)
0206 GMT - Though Xiaomi has found some legs following its Day 1 softness last week, some much-smaller IPOs haven't been doing well in the bookbuilding process. Shandong-based toll road Qilu Expressway operator saw only 14% of the stock set aside for retail investors get ordered. The institutional side was also underbooked, leaving the HK$1.25 billion ($159 million) deal's 2 sponsors with unwanted shares "not subject to lockup." Trading will start Thursday. This as 1/4 of the 28 IPOs in Hong Kong which have done bookbuilding this month have seen some of the retail portion of the offerings not get taken up. That includes online-game developer 7Road, which is at its IPO price in today's debut. Meanwhile, semiconductor-equipment maker Kinergy is up 1.7% in initial trading while Byleasing gains 18% and home furnisher Pacific Legend doubles. ([email protected])
0024 GMT - AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes said last month that the Malaysian-based budget carrier has yet to decide on plane orders and wouldn't attend this week's Farnborough Air Show. Bloomberg reported Monday that France-based Airbus is working on an agreement to sell $23 billion worth of aircraft to AirAsia, with at least part of the sale possibly being announced at the event. AirAsia has grown from a 2-plane operation in 2002 to become one of Asia's largest budget airlines. Fernandes said the company is looking to expand in countries such as China and India and definitely needs more planes. ([email protected]; @yantoultra)
1700 GMT - Republic Airways announces plans at the Farnborough Airshow to order another 100 Embraer E175 jets alongside purchase rights on another 100, settling the US regional's fleet plan for the next several years. Republic, which exited bankruptcy protection last year, already operates almost 200 of Embraer's existing jetliners, and has the option to convert the planned order into the new E2 models. United said Monday it will buy 25 Embraer E-175s to replace flying now done by Bombardier jets, but hasn't said who will operate the aircraft. ([email protected]; @dougcameron)
1530 GMT - Major global auto suppliers see the risks of a trade war instigated by the US increasing, a shift from two months ago when they considered the threat negligible, according to Evercore. The firm says it calculates that suppliers are now pricing in a trade-war scenario at up to a 40% likelihood on average, up from just 5% eight weeks ago. A trade war would likely reduce EPS by an average of 14% at top suppliers, including Aptiv, Delphi Technologies, Lear, BorgWarner and Valeo, Evercore says. That's bad, but less than an estimated 31% average drop to these companies' EPS from the onset of a future recession, it says.([email protected]; @DecodeTheFirm)
1516 GMT - Italian shipyard Fincantieri, which specializes in building cruise ships, hits a record number of orders with 80 vessels of all types waiting to be built through most of the next decade. Cruise operators like Carnival and Royal Caribbean are growing by double-digit figures over the past few years, making the cruise sector a rare bright spot in an otherwise depressed shipping industry. Vincenzo Petrone, chairman of the Italian shipbuilders association Assonave, says Fincantieri and other Italian yards have stayed "in the right part of the market" by focusing on cruise-ships and naval vessels and avoiding overproduction in other ship types like tankers and bulk vessels, which pushed most Asian yards deeply into the red over the past five years. ([email protected])
1244 GMT - Air Lease boosts its order book close to 400 jetliners with a 23-plane deal with Boeing at the Farnborough Airshow, plus commitments for another 55. The leasing company had a backlog of Airbus and Boeing orders valued at $27B at March 21 and has been taking additional opportunistic delivery slots, making it a proxy for the fortunes of the big plane makers. Still, the shares have struggled this year -- down 15% -- underperforming rival AerCap as well as Airbus and Boeing. ([email protected]; @dougcameron)
1031 GMT - Brazilian container-terminal assets potentially being sold by the main operating subsidiary of Ocean Wilsons could be valued at between $700 million and $900 million, according to Cantor Fitzgerald. The broker says Brazil has a strategic shortage of container-handling capacity, and notes that a 90% stake in a rival terminal operator was sold for $750 million in 2017. Ocean Wilsons currently trades at a 38% discount to its net asset value and a 30% discount to the wider logistics-and-maritime sector, Cantor says. Cantor acts as corporate broker to Ocean Wilsons. Shares are up 8.9% at 1,105 pence. ([email protected])
0907 GMT - New Royal Mail CEO Rico Back has to find more productivity improvements as the postal operator focuses on improving its parcel-delivery business, AJ Bell says. The investment platform says Royal Mail's 1Q update contained no surprises, as letter volumes continue falling and being replaced by rising parcel deliveries, with the real challenge continuing to be competition for parcel business. "New Chief Executive Rico Back may be under pressure from shareholders to find ways to accelerate the pace of change in the business. Fortunately he's worked for the business for more than 18 years and so can hit the ground running," AJ Bell says. ([email protected])
0857 GMT - South Korean delegates led by Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong visiting the US this week will likely insist that their country deserve an exemption from Trump's planned tariffs on auto imports because of concessions it has already made for US carmakers to revise a bilateral free-trade deal, Seoul officials say. The government has agreed to allow the US to extend a tariff on South Korean pickups by 20 years, addressing American concerns about Korea's trade surplus and settling a dispute on new US steel tariffs. Hyundai Motor has joined global carmakers in campaigning against Trump's planned 25% auto tariffs, warning the levy could jeopardize its multibillion-dollar investment plans for the US. ([email protected]; @kwanwoo)
(END)
July 18, 2018 04:20 ET (08:20 GMT)
Subject: Corporate profits; Airlines; Investments; Budgets; Tariffs; Initial public offerings; Aircraft industry; Earnings per share; Shipping industry
Location: United States--US India China Hong Kong Brazil France Asia
Company / organization: Name: Hyundai Motor Co Ltd; NAICS: 336111; Name: Republic Airwa ys Holdings; NAICS: 481111; Name: AerCap; NAICS: 522220, 532411; Name: Boeing Co; NAICS: 336411, 336413, 336414; Name: UBS AG; NAICS: 522110, 523110, 523120, 523920, 523930
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jul 18, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2071423569
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2071423569?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Jul 18, 2018
Last updated: 2019-01-23
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 365 of 474
Jasmin.com Earns its Place at Independent Short Film Festivals
Publication info: PR Newswire ; New York [New York]19 July 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Contact: Guillame, [email protected] , [email protected], +35226111825 LUXEMBOURG, July 19, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Jasmin, an adult-centric entertainment and lifestyle magazine, is expanding its portfolio and branching out into the world of independent short films. Jasmin is the first website of its kind to undertake such a project, further solidifying itself as a trendsetter in its own industry. This year, the website has already made appearances at several prominent independent film festivals. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/720542/Jasmin_Logo.jpg ) The livecam website won its first award at the Intendence Film Festival in Colorado Two short movies from Jasmin superstar models, EvaTalksSS and MariPoppins, were nominated for individual awards at the annual, community-focused Intendence Film Festival, held this year again in Colorado. EvaTalksSS walked away with the well-deserved Audience Favorite Award in the experimental/ art film category for her short film "Brazil Carnival". Jasmin attended the 28th Universe Multicultural Film Festival Even though Jasmin did not take home an award from the festival, it was still out in full force, with the regional CEO, Gábor Gáspár, representing the website and rubbing shoulders with independent filmmakers and the next big names in the movie industry. Further nominations for Jasmin models Another video from one of Jasmin's popular models, Noomi, was accepted into the prestigious Frozen Film Festival in San Francisco. The 12-year-old annual event is a prime place for aspiring filmmakers to get together and discuss their work. Jasmin plans to steal the show at the Action on Film in Las Vegas and The Other Venice Film festival The year is not over yet! Jasmin intends to be present at even more film festivals, receiving two nominations for two separate short films from their model, NatalyBierdes, at the Action on Film festival, happening in August. Another one of their models, xGabyMoor, received a nomination for an Abbot Award at the Other Venice Film festival for her short film Deserted Island. The humorously named film festival will take place in October. About us: Jasmin.com is adult-centric lifestyle and entertainment website that has won numerous awards over the decade since its inception. The service delivers high quality, chic content with a focus on the more alluring aspect of glamor work. The website is home to over 200 000 active models, with 2000 of them online at any time of the day and over 35 million daily users are a testament to Jasmin.com's quality and quantity of service. SOURCE Jasmin CREDIT: Jasmin
Subject: Nominations; Web sites; Awards & honors; Motion picture festivals
Location: Colorado Brazil Las Vegas Nevada San Francisco California
Company / organization: Name: Jasmin.com; NAICS: 446120
Publication title: PR Newswire; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jul 19, 2018
Dateline: LUXEMBOURG
Publisher: PR Newswire Association LLC
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2071463556
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2071463556?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright PR Newswire Association LLC Jul 19, 2018
Last updated: 2018-07-19
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 366 of 474
Q2 2018 Crown Holdings Inc Earnings Call - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]19 July 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Presentation OPERATOR: Good morning, and welcome to Crown Holdings Second Quarter 2018 Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Please be advised that this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Thomas Kelly, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Sir, you may begin. THOMAS A. KELLY, SENIOR VP & CFO, CROWN HOLDINGS, INC.: Thank you, Haley, and good morning. With me on today's call is Tim Donahue, President and Chief Executive Officer. On this call, as in the earnings release, we will be making a number of forward-looking statements. Actual results could vary materially from such statements. Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to vary is contained in the press release and in our SEC filings, including in our Form 10-K for 2017 and subsequent filings. Earnings for the quarter were $0.99 per share compared to $0.94 in the prior year quarter. Adjusted earnings per share were $1.55 in the quarter compared to $1.17 in 2017. Net sales on a currency-neutral basis and excluding the impact of Transit Packaging were up 9% for the quarter, primarily due to increased beverage can volumes and the pass-through of higher material costs. Segment income in the quarter improved primarily due to the Signode acquisition as higher global beverage can volumes were offset by continuing inflation in North American freight costs and soft volumes in the Middle East. On the cash flow statement, adjusted cash used for operating activities for the 6 months is above the prior year amount, primarily due to higher exchange rates compared to the first 6 months of 2017 and higher material costs that will be recovered from customers as inventories are sold and receivables are collected. Net leverage at the end of 2018 is expected to be approximately 4.6x, and we expect the ratio to decline by about half a turn each year going forward as we use cash flow to delever. As outlined in the release, we estimate third quarter 2018 adjusted earnings of between $1.60 and $1.70 per share and full year earnings of between $5.15 and $5.30 per share. The source of the revision to full year guidance is about evenly split between currency impacts and freight costs at the midpoints of the range. These estimates assume a full year tax rate of between 25% and 26% and that exchange rates remain at current levels. We are maintaining full year adjusted free cash flow of approximately $625 million after approximately $460 million in capital spending. We expect the shortfall in operations from our previous guidance will be offset by working capital improvements. We have identified some additional areas for improvement, including in the Transit Packaging business, that we expect will benefit cash flow in both 2018 and 2019. With that, I'll turn the call over to Tim TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE, PRESIDENT, CEO & DIRECTOR, CROWN HOLDINGS, INC.: Thank you, Tom, and good morning to everyone. I'll try to be brief, and then we'll open the call to questions. As Tom just discussed and as reflected in last night's earnings release, we had a good second quarter and 6 months. Operationally, we're ahead of plan for the 6 months as strong global beverage demand and a stronger-than-initial expected contribution from the Transit business offset most of the headwinds associated with higher freight costs and the weakness in the Brazilian reais against the U.S. dollar. The strengthening of the U.S. dollar against the major currencies in which we operate and elevated freight costs, which at this time we expect will persist over the balance of the year, require us to revise our full year earnings guidance back towards the initial expectations for the year before the guidance raise offered after the first quarter. Just on currencies. From April 17, when we last spoke to you, the major currencies that we operate in have devalued about 5% to 8% against the dollar. Free cash flow guidance, as Tom described for the year, remains unchanged at $625 million. As a reminder and as discussed in April, the double-digit increases in tinplate, steel and aluminum have been successfully passed through to customers. Accordingly, you will see significant increases in revenues compared to last year with the result and denominator effect on percentage margins. There is no absolute margin impact from the higher cost of metal this year. In the second quarter, net sales advanced 41% over the prior year, largely due to the addition of the Transit Packaging business. Adjusting for Transit, sales were up 12% in the quarter, primarily as a result of higher global beverage volumes, the pass-through of higher raw material costs and foreign exchange. Segment income improved 32% over the 2017 second quarter as a result of the Transit acquisition as higher global beverage volumes offset the inflationary impact of higher transportation costs in North America and expected volume softness in our Middle Eastern beverage can businesses. In Americas Beverage, overall unit volumes were up mid-single digits with strong volumes in both North America and Brazil. In North America, volumes were up mid-single digits, ahead of a flat market, reflecting our under-weighting to mass beer in that market and generally strong performances by our CSD customers, notably private label. In Brazil, we were up high single digits in line with the market. Segment income, up 2% versus the prior year, benefited from the strong volumes, including an oversold position in North America, but faced higher freight costs as discussed earlier. Our oversold position is expected to continue throughout the balance of the summer. Unit volumes in European Beverage were down mid-single digits as strong performances in France and throughout the Mediterranean were more than offset by demand weakness in the U.K., Spain and Saudi Arabia. As we expected, segment income was impacted by the planned and ongoing rebalancing of our geographic mix more towards Western Europe. Unit volumes in European Food were down low single digits in the second quarter compared to the prior year as cold weather caused some delay in the early vegetable packs. We do expect a normal packing season overall this year so our production schedule remain full throughout the quarter. Strong operating performance, including the benefits from prior year cost-reduction activities and a $7 million benefit from foreign exchange, all contributed to the near-20% growth in segment income. Segment income in Asia Pacific advanced 4% in the quarter as mid-single-digit volume growth in Southeast Asia offset planned volume declines in China and initial startup costs at the new plant in Myanmar. This is the first quarter that we report the results of the Transit Packaging business. Sales at $620 million were up 7%, and segment income was up 17% over the prior year at $94 million. Traditionally, the second quarter is the Transit business's strongest quarter, and this year's second quarter reflects that. All businesses experienced firm demand and benefited from the effective pass-throughs of inflationary increases during the quarter. It's only one quarter, but the business is performing well ahead of our expectations, and we remain confident that the addition of this premium business will create long-term value for our shareholders. Segment income in the nonreportables businesses reflect timing associated with some Q1 pull-ahead in European aerosols. So in summary, a solid first half operating result. Demand has been and is expected to remain firm throughout most of our businesses. We continue to tightly manage those items in our control. And while we still have the important third quarter food pack to come, all current signs point to a good season. And with that, Haley, we're now ready to take questions. Questions and Answers OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) Our first question is coming from the line of Ghansham Panjabi from R.W. Baird. GHANSHAM PANJABI, SENIOR RESEARCH ANALYST, ROBERT W. BAIRD & CO. INCORPORATED, RESEARCH DIVISION: So I guess first off, on Transit. Can you just give us some more color as to how the business is being integrated, some early takeaways, how are they handling higher freight costs and also raw material costs that the other businesses are handling? Just sort of an update there. TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Sure. So I think integration is well underway. It's going according to plan. We -- as we described to you in December and again in February and April, this was not an acquisition designed to create massive synergies between the 2 companies. There will be some synergy. We've achieved some of that already, and there are ongoing cost reductions that will be achieved within the Signode business itself. But in line with our expectations, the integration is going according to plan. I think as we look at the performance that the Transit business had in the second quarter, I think traditionally, the second quarter is the biggest quarter. As we say, last year in 2017 and reviewing their numbers and speaking to the managers in the business, they had a flatter experience last year in Q1 and Q2 than normal. So this year, the so-called outperformance in the second quarter versus last year's second quarter, a bit skewed by the flatness last year. But this is probably a bit closer to what we would expect going forward in terms of the phasing of quarterly performance. In large part, the volume and margin growth that we're seeing is coming from the equipment and tools business. Hard to expect you all to be so familiar with the various product lines and equipment and tools that they offer throughout the world, but they offer leading equipment and tools and service across not just strapping, but stretch and other hood wraps and other materials as well that are used by a variety of industries, not just food and beverage. And that continues to go well as well as the introduction of several back-end automation products, projects that they have underway to help their customers in various industries deal with rising costs and rising labor costs, i.e., become more efficient and take costs out of their own systems, so very well-positioned business. The consumables businesses, that is stretch film strapping, protective products, extremely firm throughout the first half of the year and in the second quarter. And perhaps we benefited a little bit just in terms of timing when we closed the deal April 3. In large part, some of the headwinds, they would have faced in Q1 in terms of material increases or freight increases. Some of that getting passed through in the second quarter that wasn't recovered in the first quarter. So a lot of reasons. It's -- as we've described to you before, it's a very broadly diversified business across not only a number of products, but across a number of end markets, and certainly, much more broadly diversified than it was 10 years ago. So how they deal with passing through rising material costs, they certainly have a different model in their business than we have in the metal can business. And so they deal with the passing through materials into their end markets, I don't want to say on a more real-time basis. But they have more opportunity during the year to do that than we do in the metals businesses as we are largely -- as the year begins, we're largely fixed on price, and we recover increases or decreases in our nonmetal costs in the prior year on a formula basis. And they have -- they do have some formulas, but they have a large part of their business which is not formula-driven, which gives them the opportunity to recover or not throughout the year, whether that's one or more times. GHANSHAM PANJABI: Okay, that's helpful. And I guess just for my second question, did European Beverage play out the way you thought it would for the second quarter? Because it's quite a bit weaker than what we had modeled. And can you just give us some color as to what's actually happening in the U.K., et cetera, apart from the weakness in the Middle East? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Yes. So the Middle East, I think, Ghansham, is something we've been -- I think we've been pretty open. We were down about, I don't know, 10% or 11% in volumes in the Middle East again this quarter. This is an ongoing transformation of our European Beverage business, where we are less reliant on the Middle East and more reliant on Continental or Western Europe, and this is ongoing. We've expected this. We're planning for it. We've added capacity in Europe. We're transforming our steel business in Spain to aluminum. We've modestly sped up and added other capacity in Europe to rebalance our business and obviously meet the demands of our customers, who are growing year in and year out in European Beverage. The European Beverage business continues to grow 2% to 3% to 4% every year, and so that requires capacity increases, not only by us, but by our competitors as well. And that is -- that's what's going on there. We would expect the weakness that we -- that you saw in Q2 to, on a year-on-year basis, continue in Q3 and Q4, but that's within the guidance we've given you. So you should expect Q3 and Q4 European Beverage results to be down versus the prior year, but that's well within plan. The U.K., I think much of the decline we saw in the U.K. was related to the CO2 shortage that's been well publicized in the media, but that's something that'll be rectified throughout the balance of the year. We don't expect that to be an ongoing issue. OPERATOR: Our next question is coming from the line of Adam Josephson from KeyBanc. ADAM JESSE JOSEPHSON, DIRECTOR AND SENIOR EQUITY RESEARCH ANALYST, KEYBANC CAPITAL MARKETS INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: Tim, just on the freight issue in North America. Can you just help us understand precisely what your exposure is, your ability to pass on changes in freight costs to your customers, how much you cover, how much your customers cover? Just help us better understand what exactly is happening there. TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: So we have a variety of contracts. Some customers under contract actually pick up, and some of the businesses delivered pricing. And as I just said to Ghansham's question, the formula for us to recover freight, labor, utilities, et cetera, anything that's nonmetal generally is associated with the formula, and that formula is typically revisited and adjusted up or down in the year following. So we are -- we're doing our best to manage the situation now, and obviously, freight has persisted to be much higher through the second quarter. We probably expected at the end of the first quarter in mid-April when we talked to you for freight to moderate a bit. I think the economy stayed exceptionally strong. Our demand had stayed strong. So we have a -- we've got a volume situation where we're oversold, but we've also -- we're asking the freight haulers for more and more service. So that kind of exacerbates the issue. But we'll get a chance to adjust or recover some of this freight with the formula price that we have next year. ADAM JESSE JOSEPHSON: Tom, on the FX situation, can you separate the estimated impact from the -- of the FX losses in Brazil from the full year, FX translation impact that you're guiding to and just help us what your updated sensitivity is post-Signode and what assumptions are embedded in your guidance? THOMAS A. KELLY: Yes. So the impact that we called out for the full year of more or less $0.11 includes the second quarter impact in Brazil after tax and minority interest. So the headline number of $10 million gets diluted a bit by those 2 items. So that's probably a few cents. And then beyond that, we have a few cents from the euro, and that sensitivity hasn't really changed with the addition of the Transit Packaging. And we have a rate going from $1.23 in the previous guidance to $1.19 in the revised guidance. So in addition to the first quarter impact of Brazil and the euro, which we've always had, we do have some impact in the second half of the year in Transit Packaging compared to our previous guidance because of declines in other currencies, like the rupees, Swiss franc and Swedish kroner. ADAM JESSE JOSEPHSON: Tim, just one last one on North America Bev cans. You talked about some of your CSD customers, particularly private label, doing really well. I know your Pepsi had almost 5% volume decline in CSD in the quarter. Can you just help me understand why one large customer might be doing so badly and others might be doing so well within CSD? I just -- it doesn't obviously make sense to me. TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Well, I wouldn't describe the customer that you mentioned as doing badly. Keep in mind that they are selling volume in a variety of packages. And as we've described to you, the can continues to be increasingly favored, not only by our customers, but by retailers and by consumers. And so you look at the total industry, I think CSD for the total industry was up a couple of percent in the quarter. And that's the can industry, right? So you've got a mix going on, mix shift going on from other packages towards the can. I think the other thing that's going on, and it's sometimes overlooked by a lot of people, not overlooked by us in the can industry, there has been a huge move towards carbonated flavored waters, which largely are being delivered in cans, given the can's superior properties to hold carbonation and flavor versus other package types. So there's a lot going on, and I don't -- the industry is down about 0.5%. CMI data has us down about 0.5% this year, and that's largely being driven by this near-term or recent decline in mass beer. That'll moderate and come back in the future. I'm confident of that. I think the marketers of mass beer have too much invested to let that go away. That's going to come back. And I think there's pretty good signs, as we look forward, on the beverage can side for growth, as we see not only CSDs, but also other carbonated drinks or flat drinks in cans, be they waters or teas or juices. So I wouldn't -- you pick out one customer, and from what they release and you can make -- you can come to a lot of bad assumptions, Adam, if you just pick out one customer, one release because it's a much broader business and -- than one customer, and it's a much broader business than one customer's overall volume, which doesn't specifically deal with the package that we provide. OPERATOR: The next one is coming from the line of George Staphos from Bank of America Merrill Lynch. GEORGE LEON STAPHOS, MD AND CO-SECTOR HEAD IN EQUITY RESEARCH, BOFA MERRILL LYNCH, RESEARCH DIVISION: I just wanted to go back to Europe, so to speak, Tim, first, 1 or 2 questions. So could you help us bridge, year-on-year, the various factors you cited in terms of the percentage growth in revenue? And the context for the question, well, obviously, first quarter, you saw, I think, something around 20%-plus growth year-on-year. This quarter, obviously, had the CO2 shortages, but you're still passing through aluminum. So that would tend to bias revenues, as you pointed out, up, but we had a flat quarter. So can you -- more or less. Can help us understand a bit more in terms of what happened sequentially in the quarter in terms of those factors? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Yes. So just one clarification, George. We had a flat quarter in Continental Europe. We were down 10% or 11% in the Middle East. So overall, volumes are down. GEORGE LEON STAPHOS: I'm just looking at European Beverage revenue. You did $402 million last year. You did $405 million this year. So you're up fractionally, so more or less flat. TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: No. So the revenue's flat, which is the pass-through of higher aluminum, offset by the decline in overall volumes, right? GEORGE LEON STAPHOS: Correct. And so if you could help us understand what was the effect of the CO2 shortage in terms of volume and other factors that -- was there any kind of price compression, that sort of thing. TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: No, there's no price compression. Price hasn't changed from January 1. I think CO2 in the U.K., maybe U.K. volumes are down 3%, 4%, but that'll come back, George. That's a near-term thing that will get resolved, and the fillers and the retailers will look to restock their inventories. And so that's not something that concerns us. That's something that happens 2 weeks in the quarter that gets fixed 2 weeks in the next quarter. So I wouldn't spend a lot of time on that. I think the bigger issue is, and as we've planned for, has been the change in the Middle Eastern landscape. There's been, over the last couple of years, several fillers that have decided to install their own can lines, and we saw that coming. And we've made efforts to reposition our business geographically, and I think that'll -- you'll see that next year. That'll prove out quite healthy for us. So I think the first quarter, one of the things that helped us in the first quarter on a year-on-year comparison is we had both lines up in the Custines factory after the steel-to-aluminum conversion in Custines. That was completed in probably mid or at least the second quarter of '17. So we had the benefit of 2 lines in Custines versus only one line. And you're selling aluminum cans, not steel cans, so you get a higher revenue. GEORGE LEON STAPHOS: Okay. So the comparison got tougher on that, because by second quarter last year, you had both lines more or less running in Custines, whereas 1Q versus 1Q, there's only 1 line. TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: That's true. And then I think the other thing -- don't lose sight of the fact that Q1 '17 would've been our lowest euro rate quarter last year, and Q1 '18 would've had a much higher euro rate year-on-year. So currency probably had a bigger impact in Q1. But I think what you're seeing in European Beverages, as we expected, we're -- this year, we knew it's going to be tough, given what's going on in the Middle East. We planned for it. And it may not match your models, but it's well within our expectations. GEORGE LEON STAPHOS: Okay. And did the Middle East decline year-on-year in volume? If we look at the 1Q over 1Q trend to the 2Q over 2Q trend, I don't remember it being down 11% in the first quarter. But if you can remind us, that'd be great. TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: I forget what it was down in the first quarter, but we would have sold more cans in the second quarter just because of the season. Yes, second quarter sales are higher than first quarter sales in gross numbers. I think the decline is slightly greater in the second quarter than the first quarter. But if it's 10% or 11% in the second quarter, it was 9% or 10% in the first quarter. GEORGE LEON STAPHOS: Okay. And I remember my last question on this, and I'll add a quick follow-on and turn it over. I remember in the first quarter, Europe benefited from the fact that you're absorbing more fixed cost because you had both lines running in Custines. This quarter, obviously, EBIT is down quite a bit. Again, could you help us bridge the $71 million to $59 million? Is that all more or less Middle Eastern volume decline? Or is there anything else that we should be mindful of in terms that EBIT variance? And then quickly on freight. From April, what intensified in terms of freight pressure relative to your guidance? Again, because from our vantage point, a little -- you're the first quarter report earnings, so we'll find out what happens over the next couple of weeks, it didn't seem like freight got any worse from our own trade checks. It was high at a relatively high level, but no further intensity. What changed there? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: So the biggest decline in the Middle East is the decline in Middle Eastern volumes, coupled with the mix that Middle Eastern cans have higher margin traditionally than Western Europeans. So that's the whole story in European Beverage. On the freight side, a couple of things. As I said earlier, we expected freight costs to somewhat moderate when we talked to you back in April, mid-April. They haven't done that. And in fact, line haul rates have continued to escalate as well as the fuel surcharge, coupled with stronger volume than we had anticipated earlier in the year, which exacerbates the situation because now you're scrambling to find more freight carriers to handle the increased volume to get cans to your suppliers and -- or your customers. And everybody's doing the same thing. The economy is generally very healthy right now. So line haul rates are up. And this -- if you're a freight hauler, now is your time to make money. It's a strong economy. It'll probably moderate when the economy weakens, whenever that is sometime in the future. But right now, it's their time to make money, and they're making money. OPERATOR: The next one is coming from the line of Scott Gaffner from Barclays. SCOTT LOUIS GAFFNER, DIRECTOR & SENIOR ANALYST, BARCLAYS BANK PLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: Tim, I -- just focusing a little bit more on the U.S. and the oversold position you keep mentioning in the U.S. I mean, can you talk about where that came from? Is it -- did you pick up some new contract wins in the business? Or is this more you've shuttered some capacity and so now your volumes are coming in better? Just kind of what drove the overcapacity and where are those cans actually coming from? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Yes, so I think it's all CSD, largely private label, as I've said. They're doing exceptionally well, coupled with the fact we closed our Lawrence, Massachusetts plant in January, and perhaps we closed it too soon. Perhaps, we should have kept it open till the end of March and built some inventory. So -- but it is what it is at this point, and we'll just have to do a better job of planning and building inventory ahead of next season. But it's largely private label, and their demand has been exceptionally strong. Their promotions, not only for their carbonated sodas, but also the carbonated water, flavored waters, is -- has gone great guns for them this year, so. SCOTT LOUIS GAFFNER: So if we think about the excess freight costs, I mean, how much of that do you think is self-imposed from -- I don't -- maybe self-impose is a bad word. But how much of it is driven by this tight supply/demand situation for you and how much is just higher freight costs? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Well, I mean, I think if we looked at line haul rates and fuel charge -- fuel surcharges, that's the large majority of our freight increase. Volume is up. So we've got more freight costs because of volume. You would expect to make similar margins with higher volume. But as I said, it exacerbates the problem. So you've got even higher line haul rates because of more volume. But the self-imposed, it's not a big number. That's not the issue. I think the issue is the economy is strong. The market is tight for freight, and the freight guys are -- this is their time to make money and shine, and they're trying to shine. SCOTT LOUIS GAFFNER: Okay. And just as far as the pass-throughs are concerned, I mean, if we see a moderation freight rates as the year progresses, is that something you can still recover in 2019? Or how exactly do the pass-throughs generally work for freight? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: I think as we've said before, not all contracts, but depending on contract, we have formulas to recover nonmetal costs, and freight is one component of that formula. So it'll be an average over the period blended with other costs, whether it be labor, utilities, et cetera. SCOTT LOUIS GAFFNER: Okay. One last one for me, just on Signode. I mean, obviously, a strong quarter. But can you talk a little bit about the volumes, say, equipment versus consumables? Was there one that stuck out versus the other in the current quarter? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: No. I think as we've described to you before, they have a leading equipment and tools franchise, and they had exceptional growth, not only in equipment, but also tools and consumables that have been firm, depending on the region and the consumable, anywhere from flat to up 5% on consumables. But equipment and tools, the growth this year has been quite strong, on the order of 10% so far. SCOTT LOUIS GAFFNER: So similar though, for equipment and tools, one -- there's not one that's leading the charge. TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Yes. Well, I mean, tools has a -- there are a lot more tools at a lower revenue number than the equipment. But tools -- in volume terms, tools are up a lot more than equipment. But the revenue associated with the tools is certainly much lower than a piece of equipment. OPERATOR: The next question is coming from the line of Mark Wilde from Bank of Montreal. MARK WILLIAM WILDE, SENIOR ANALYST, BMO CAPITAL MARKETS EQUITY RESEARCH: Tim, I wondered -- just going back down to Brazil first. Did you have any meaningful impact from that trucker strike? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Well, the strike happened, Mark. You guys have written a lot about it. The strike happened sometime in late May, and it was resolved in early June. And it's kind of -- I ran into a fellow who was born in Bulgaria, and he reminded me of his life in Bulgaria as a child where they had toilet paper Tuesday. And if he didn't get to the supermarket on Tuesday, he didn't get any toilet paper. It's kind of the same thing happened in Brazil. The shelves -- everybody was out of beer very quickly as well as all kinds of products in Brazil by the time you got to the middle or the end of that trucker strike, which means by the time the trucker strike was resolved, everybody was back to full production. And we largely made up all of the impact from that 10 or 11-day strike that we had. And there was enough -- I -- my view is there was enough time remaining in the month of June for the industry to make up the volume that was soft during that trucker strike. So I don't -- overall in the quarter, was there any impact? I don't think so. I think the market was up about 10%. The market was up 10% in the second quarter over last year. We were up about 9%. I don't think we had any impact. Now should the market have been up 14 because of the World Cup? I don't know. But the market was up 10%, which largely tells me that the market corrected itself in the last 3 weeks of June and was able to replenish the supply chain once trucks started moving again. MARK WILLIAM WILDE: Okay. So there'd be no carryover effect into the third quarter then? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: I don't believe so. I think we're expecting a pretty healthy second half in Brazil. And as usual, we're going to have a firm fourth quarter, which, as you know, is their strongest quarter ahead of Carnival, and nothing to suggest that materially moves one way or the other. MARK WILLIAM WILDE: Okay. Could you also -- just going a little further north in Latin America. Could you just talk about sort of how the Mexican business ran in both cans and glass in the second quarter? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Yes. So I think we had pretty good performance in both countries -- or in both product lines, I'm sorry. As you know, we had some startup costs in the glass facility in Q1. That's largely behind us. We've got a few little nits to work out, but we're shipping all the tonnage we can put through the furnace. And then I think on the can side, demand has remained firm. It's the summer. So we're sold out from -- essentially, we're oversold from April 1 through the end of September. And obviously, given the oversold position we have in the United States, we are trying to move some cans from Mexico into the United States. So it's a pretty tight season in North America, especially when you consider Mexico into the North American marketplace and the proximity of Monterrey to the Texas market. So all things going well. MARK WILLIAM WILDE: Okay. And any thoughts on that second line down at Monterrey that you were looking at one point? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Yes. I think we continue to evaluate it. We have other demand needs from our customers in various regions of the world. So we don't have an unlimited balance sheet, as you know, and so we try to be prudent with capital when and where we put it in. And we continue to monitor that market for the possibility and when it would be required for us to put a second line in. MARK WILLIAM WILDE: Okay, all right. Last question I had. Just could you give us an update on when Mark Burgess is going to be leaving Signode? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Yes. So as we stated in the release, Bob Bourque will take over August 1. Mark has agreed to stay with the company from August 1 through the end of September, so 60 days to help with the transition. It could be that beyond that, we have some soft agreement for him to stay on a little longer to help with other matters, if he's still available. But you know Mark. He's a pretty well-respected, seasoned packaging executive across -- and respected by a lot of people. And so he'll have, I have no doubt, numerous opportunities, which he wants, to run another company. And -- but to the extent he doesn't have one of those in the interim, perhaps we benefit by having him still around. OPERATOR: Next one is coming from the line of Arun Viswanathan from RBC Capital Markets. ARUN SHANKAR VISWANATHAN, ANALYST, RBC CAPITAL MARKETS, LLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: I guess first question was just maybe you can just help us bridge. It looks like you're reducing EPS guidance by about 4% for the year. What are the offsets that keep your free cash flow guidance relatively whole? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: It's working capital. I think, Arun, you'll remember, in Q1, we took the guidance up about 2.5%, 3%, and we didn't change free cash flow at that point. So we're coming down 4%, which is a touch below the -- i.e., a touch below the initial guidance we gave you for EPS. And so the cash flow stays the same. ARUN SHANKAR VISWANATHAN: Great. And then you made a comment that reduction is due to equal parts freight and FX. I guess what's your confidence level in this new level of guidance? I mean, is there a possibility that freight could get worse? What's embedded? Are you expecting a moderation in freight costs or just freight costs kind of stay where they are? And similarly, maybe just some of the other items in the guidance, like volume and price. Obviously, price is mostly pass-through. But volumes, do you expect more deterioration in Mid-East or Europe or a reacceleration because you're on easier comps? If you can just help us understand what the swing factors are within the guidance. TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: I think freight -- we expect freight to remain at these levels for the balance of the year, that is we don't expect it to moderate. On volumes, I think we expect demand to remain exceptionally firm throughout most of the businesses through the balance of the year. It's been a strong campaign from demand side, and it doesn't look like that's going to let up certainly through the end of the summer. I think on price, price is largely fixed early in the year, as you know. So we don't expect any changes on price. And the Middle East, I think what you're seeing in the Middle East is what we expected and what we planned for. We're not somebody that's going to give you our model at the beginning of the year. So you're going to have -- you're going to be right or wrong in your model compared to actuals as we go along, but I think the Middle East is largely as we expected. And as I've said earlier, you should expect the Middle East to drive down the reported or the comparable European Beverage numbers in the third and fourth quarter. And we'll get a reset, and we'll have increases in 2019. ARUN SHANKAR VISWANATHAN: And then just lastly, on Signode. It's encouraging to see the growth year-on-year. Maybe you can just help us understand what's going on there. You described maybe an equipment cycle in the past, replacement, and then strong growth. How much do you expect this to continue? Or how long do you expect this to continue? Is Signode kind of experiencing anything unusual per se that's driving better performance? Or is it something that you think will be sustained? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Yes. So I think what we saw in the second quarter is a -- is largely a function, as we said earlier. The -- traditionally, the second quarter is their strongest quarter. And as I mentioned, they were a little flatter in 2017 between Q1 and Q2, that is Q1 of '17 might have been a little stronger and Q2 of '17 a little weaker than historically did. And so I think this year, they're back to more traditional performance, and that's why Q2 this year looked so strong compared to Q2 last year. But in large part, that explains it, plus the inflection point at when we closed the deal and they recover some of the material increases that they've had this year, perhaps they recovered more in Q2 and less in Q1. But what's driving the business overall is their customer's desire to reduce their cost, become more efficient, automate more, take labor and other costs out, and they're a huge beneficiary of that, as we say. And I think we've described the consumable business has been firmed up, and the equipment and tool business has been exceptionally strong, which is what we saw when we looked at the business. And we were extremely impressed, not only with the technology, but the folks who ran that business and the opportunities for further growth, be they organic or bolt-ons as we look into the future. So I think the back half of this year probably looks a bit flatter compared to last year. You're not going to see the remarkable upside in Qs 3, 4 like you saw in Q2, but largely, they're going to be on a number that we described to you earlier. If you want to think about EBITDA, $390 million to $400 million. But short of $400 million, it'll just be the currency impact that Tom took you through earlier. So that'll be a handful of EBITDA dollars and currency that we didn't anticipate. They're probably -- if we thought -- when we talked to you in December, we gave you an adjusted EBITDA number, which embedded some currency improvement year-on-year versus their actual reported number. And so we probably don't see that currency improvement, but they're going to significantly be above last year. I think if last year, the EBITDA was $370 million, they're going to be in the $390 million to $400 million range, plus or minus some currency. So going to be a strong performance, and the business is really set up well to continue to perform well in the future. ARUN SHANKAR VISWANATHAN: Great. And last one I have was just on deleveraging. Is there anything you can do to accelerate that process? We saw another transaction with the competitor's food can business here in North America. Is that something that you'd be open to? Or any other businesses, i.e., China, that could be viewed as noncore or potentially you could accelerate your deleveraging with? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Well, I think Tom has described, we -- leverage will be down to about 4.6x by the end of the year. And by the time you get to that end of '19, it'll be about 4.14x, and we're going to delever pretty rapidly just from free cash flow. And obviously, we look at all our alternatives. We review any and all alternatives with the board, and we'll look at that. But we're not going to do something foolish and trade assets that generate very good cash and meaningful contribution to earnings just to accelerate a deleveraging target that you may feel pressure for us, but we don't feel any pressure. Given our capital structure and the debt we have, that we've got a significant amount of debt that's fixed at very attractive rates for 8 to 10 years and the floating rate debt, we're going to quickly pay off with the cash flow in '18, '19 and '20. And by the end of '20, we've described to you we're going to be back in the mid-3s, and that doesn't give us any heartburn. It may give you heartburn, but we're pretty confident in our ability to generate cash flow and delever as we've done post other acquisitions. OPERATOR: The next one is coming from the line of Brian Maguire from Goldman Sachs. BRIAN P. MAGUIRE, EQUITY ANALYST, GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: Just wondered if you could provide any updates on the European competitiveness investigation. That's been a couple of months since the new developments there. Just wondered if you had an opportunity to size what the incremental impact could be from that or lay out for us any timing you'd expect for resolution of that. TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Well, I think there's no update to provide you. We'll file our 10-Q in a couple of weeks. I don't think you'll really see any meaningful update. We may change some disclosure language. Clearly, our disclosure was a bit more belt and braces than the others. But I think we continue to maintain that there are no actions across Continental Europe which give rise to the European Commission to investigate. This was largely transferred to the European Commission because the German authorities were disappointed that if they found a wrongdoing and they thought they could assess a fine, that given the laws in Germany, we and one of the other companies had the opportunity to restructure our businesses, and therefore, we were immune from German -- any German assessment of fine. And so they kind of got themselves in a knicker and decided to transfer it to European Commission. We still maintain we don't have any liability at the European level, and we're going to continue to fight this. BRIAN P. MAGUIRE: Okay, appreciate that. The corporate line was a little bit higher than we were expecting. Just wondered if there was any impact from Signode there, like transferring any corporate expenses that they might had into that bucket, or just sort of general guidance on where you think corporate might be coming in for the rest of the year. TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: All -- well, I'll answer very quickly, and then Tom will give you some detail. All the costs for Signode are in the Transit Packaging line. There is no corporate cost -- there is no Transit Packaging cost in the corporate line. Tom, you've got any details? THOMAS A. KELLY: Yes. I think, Brian, if we look to about $150 million for the full year, at this point, that feels about right, although it will be choppy. It's just the nature of what's in the account. BRIAN P. MAGUIRE: Okay. And just one last one for me also, the nonreportable one with the kind of various smaller businesses. It was also a little bit lower on the EBITDA than were expected. Just -- I think, Tim, you called out the aerosol European business, maybe some pull-forward there. But I just wondered about the other segments, like food and closures. Any comments on that... TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: No. So I think year-to-date, we're flat year-on-year on that business. Obviously, we're a few short in the second quarter, we were a few long in the first quarter. Largely, all the businesses on year-to-date business -- basis are performing in line with the prior year. We had some pull-ahead in Q1 in European aerosols. We just gave it back here in Q2. But the businesses are firm and fairly strong, so nothing really to report. Food's doing okay in North America, and we continue to do well in Food North America. Just -- it's a collection of 3-piece metal packaging businesses where we do well, where we're committed to. And we don't spend a lot of capital there, but they generate pretty good returns and they generate a lot of cash flows. So we continue to press ahead. OPERATOR: Next one is from Gabe Hajde from Wells Fargo. GABRIAL SHANE HAJDE, ASSOCIATE ANALYST, WELLS FARGO SECURITIES, LLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: First one is on the Transit Packaging business. Tim, now you've had a chance to truly look under the hood of business, is there anything in your mind that's changed in terms of the vision or strategy? And I'm sort of asking the question in the context of you talked about it being a pretty fragmented market while Signode has a leading position. Just help us maybe with timing or how you're thinking about growing that business. TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Yes. So I think the one thing that's perhaps a little bit different from when we looked at the business, the difference between looking at the business and now, we kind of -- we've kind of learned a lot, even after the announcement in December, because we've had pretty good access to the team. We've been working with the team for a long time. I think the one thing that's a little different is the number of opportunities for bolt-on or medium-size acquisitions, perhaps a little bit greater than we had thought, which obviously affords us numerous opportunities to grow the business in the future and either expand businesses in existing markets and product lines that we're currently in or get into other adjacencies or other back-end automation opportunities. And so with that, it allows us to be certainly much more selective in terms of what we might want to buy. And obviously, when you're allowed to be much more selective, you're allowed to be much more selective on what you're willing to offer in terms of price. But as we've said to you, the primary goal for the next couple of years is to delever rapidly. And so we're going to be pushing most, if not all, of the free cash flow we generate towards delevering the business over the next couple of years, and -- but there is no shortage of opportunities to grow that business as we look ahead. GABRIAL SHANE HAJDE: Okay. And then one just quick one on Brazil. I know demand has been tracking a little bit below expectations or at least what some people were looking for, and it seems like it started this year a little bit better in what is traditionally their seasonally slower period. You talked about running pretty well through the back end of the year. I mean, how do you feel inventories are positioned down there? And do we roll forward to next year and maybe we see flattish demand because we had the World Cup stuff? Just trying to understand that dynamic. TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Yes. I mean, listen, we're -- I think we're up 9% in the second quarter, we were up probably mid-single digits, I guess, in the first quarter, and the market continues to be strong. We have an estimated crown. We think the market will be up 7% to 8% for the year. So that's not disappointing. I don't -- I'm not sure why you would call that disappointing. But I think next year, too early to say what demand will be next year. But certainly, the Brazilian economy is a strong, strong global economy. It is -- it has its socioeconomic issues from time to time, as many countries do, but it is truly a global economy. And regardless of politics or other social issues, they continue to press ahead and they continue to grow their economy. And beer continues to -- beer consumption continues to grow in liters, and the can continues to take share from other packages. So we're extremely positive and we're extremely confident on the future of the can business in Brazil. And if you want to look at any one quarter or any 1 year compared to the prior year or prior quarter, again, you're going to make assumption or a conclusion that's pretty short-sighted. Because when you look at Brazil in 3 or 5-year chunks, it's done nothing but continue to grow at pretty attractive rates over the last decade. GABRIAL SHANE HAJDE: Understood. Maybe one last one for you, Tom. The working capital benefit, can you help us understand magnitude of that? I mean, I'm coming up, with a back of the envelope, maybe $25 million to $40 million. You mentioned that you could get some, I think, from the Signode business, even into next year. Can you help with that? THOMAS A. KELLY: No. That's exactly right, Gabe. So essentially, we're offsetting the earning shortfall with working capital, and the numbers are in the range of what you just mentioned. GABRIAL SHANE HAJDE: Okay. Anything for next year, to quantify what Tim said? THOMAS A. KELLY: Yes. I think there are additional opportunities next year. We're working on that now. We'll see what falls out. But we're comfortable that as -- equally, as we go into 2019, we can make up. If the -- if you start with this year's earnings down, we can make it up in working capital next year as well. TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Earnings are going to be (inaudible) next year. OPERATOR: Next one is coming from the line of Anthony Pettinari from Citigroup. ANTHONY JAMES PETTINARI, VP AND PAPER, PACKAGING & FOREST PRODUCTS ANALYST, CITIGROUP INC, RESEARCH DIVISION: Just on European Food. You had a pretty strong quarter there. Any color on what drove that? Did you see any prebuying in the quarter or anything that would be a read for 3Q, either positive or negative? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: No. I think what we said in the prepared remarks is currency was $7 million, so that's about half of the improvement. And in fact, the volumes were actually down a bit compared to the prior year's second quarter. So there was no buy ahead. The -- some of the early crops peas and some of the early bean crops were a little slow. They've been delayed, just given some of the weather, colder weather -- colder, wet weather in Northwest Europe. So no read-through into the third quarter. I think as we said, we expect the packing season to be a normal or a good packing season. So we expect a firm result in the third quarter. ANTHONY JAMES PETTINARI: Okay, that's helpful. And then, Tim, you talked about... TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: I'm sorry. To answer your question, we did -- our production schedule was full, so you're recovering fix when you're producing. And we had some cost-reduction activities we undertook last year, so we had some benefit of that as well. ANTHONY JAMES PETTINARI: Okay, okay. And then switching to freight. You talked about Transit passing through raw material costs in kind of a real time basis. Did they do something similar with freight? Or do they have a different model? I guess I'm just wondering how Transit handles freight? Is it better or worse in the current environment than the bev can business and the food can business? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Well, I don't know if it's a better or worse than the bev can business. It's different. Different in that on the can side, we have this convention where, annually, we adjust based on an index, and we've got to wait till next year to get that annual indexation. Signode has some of that, but a large part of their business is more open. And as we've described to you before, their customer base is highly fragmented in that no customer accounts for more than 1% of sales globally. So they have a better ability to recover cost in the current year. I don't want to say real term, whether that's -- real time, whether that's real time or whether it's 1 month or 3 months, they certainly have a better opportunity, given the fragmented nature of their customer base, to try to recover that within the same calendar year. OPERATOR: Next one is coming from the line of Debbie Jones from Deutsche Bank. DEBORAH ANNE JONES, DIRECTOR, DEUTSCHE BANK AG, RESEARCH DIVISION: Obviously, deleveraging is pretty important to you. You've made that clear. But I think you sound pretty optimistic about some of the growth opportunities that are out there. You did a great job the last 2 years of growing the business. Can you help us understand where some of the capital allocation decisions lie in the next couple of years? So what is most interesting to you, either by segment or region? I know you can't get too specific. TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Well, I think, Debbie -- thank you for your comments, first of all. I think the -- as we look at the global beverage can business, we continue, at least at Crown, to have beverage can volume growth year in and year out of 3%, 4%, 5%. So we expect there's going to continue to be opportunities to grow the beverage can business around the world. And whether that's parts of Asia or parts of Europe, South America, we're going to continue. Mexico, we're going to continue to look at the opportunities that are presented and try to make the investments at the right time to get the quickest payback possible. That is not try to get there too early and not try to miss the opportunity by waiting too long. So I think that's principally the capital allocation beyond debt paydown at this point. DEBORAH ANNE JONES: Okay. So my second question on Asia Pac. I mean, you called out a few things on Myanmar and China volumes, which were expected. But it's a little unclear to me if I should start seeing earnings growth accelerate in the back half of the year. I think it was up about $2 million in the quarter. Could you just comment on that and when we start lapping some of these headwinds? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Yes. I mean, it's -- trying to looking for something here. But just trying to remind myself where we're at through the middle of the year. I think we're going to see -- if we're up -- we're up $7 million year-to-date, right, which is on the order of 9%. Year-to-date, I think we probably see something similar to that in the back half of the year. How it split between Q3 and Q4, I don't know. OPERATOR: Next one is from the line of Tyler Langton from JPMorgan. TYLER J. LANGTON, RESEARCH ANALYST, JP MORGAN CHASE & CO, RESEARCH DIVISION: I just had a question on, I guess, beer volumes in the U.S. I think cans were down 5%. I know, Tim, you said you're sort of confident they were to come back. I just wondered if you could provide some color on that, sort of what you're seeing, I guess, with domestic sort of beer consumption in the U.S. versus the imports. Just any color on that situation would be helpful. TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Yes. So we don't have a big beer position in North America, as you know. We have a very strong position with Canadian beer and a very small position in U.S. beer. The Canadian beer guys have not had the same volume declines as the U.S. beer guys. So that business has been exceptionally firm. U.S. beer, U.S. mass beer has been down. And we basically ship beer from one factory in the United States for U.S. beer, and so we don't have a great read into that market. You'll have to talk to some others. But imports from Mexico have been strong and continue to be strong. So I think in the near term, certainly, for the next couple of quarters, we would expect Mexican imports to continue to be strong. What the mass U.S. guys do to counteract that is -- remains to be seen. But it's not something that impacts our business a whole lot, given our under-weighting to U.S. beer. TYLER J. LANGTON: Got it, understood. And then just last question on Brazil. I think your volume was up 9%. I think you said industry up 10%, which I'm guessing is cans. But just -- I mean, does that growth -- give a sense from how much might be cans taking share from glass, like you mentioned, versus just underlying beer production growth. TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: I think -- boy, the last number I saw, and I saw a number the other day, I think if cans are -- cans are probably 48.5% of the beer mix, and maybe that was 48.3% or 48.4% last year. So it's a little bit of that. But overall, beer liter-age is up year-on-year. So it's just -- it's volume. OPERATOR: Next one is from the line of Chip Dillon from Vertical Research. CLYDE ALVIN DILLON, PARTNER, VERTICAL RESEARCH PARTNERS, LLC: First question is -- Tim, you mentioned the heavily sold -- I don't know if you said sold out or just full business in North America for the rest of the year. Could you talk a little bit about your mix in terms of standard and specialty cans and how that's changing over time? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: So we said sold out, and we said it'll remain that way through the summer. Our nonstandard 12-ounce volume is probably 13% to 15% of our overall volume, and that's up from 10% to 12% a few years ago. CLYDE ALVIN DILLON: Got you. Okay, that's helpful. And I know it's still early. But as you think about the CapEx levels and you think about what your plans over the balance sheet, should we expect any significant change in CapEx levels next year? It sounds like at current levels, you're adding 2 to 3 lines somewhere in the world on an annualized basis. Is that something that we should expect in '19 and/or '20, especially as we think about your deleveraging guidance? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Yes. I think what we've said is that if in the can business, we had capital of $425 million in 2018, we're probably looking at a number more like $400 million in 2019. Yes, add $30 million to $40 million for the Transit business. But the can business will come -- and that'll be steady, and the can business will come down $25 million year-on-year. CLYDE ALVIN DILLON: Got you. And I don't know if you look at it this way. But it seems to me that if you take that $390 million to $400 million of EBITDA, you apply your tax rate to whatever that EBIT is, net of the amortization, and you subtract that CapEx and you allocate interest, it looks like your free cash flow conversion is still safely north of 50%. Is that the way you look at it when you think about Signode? And therefore, if we did hit an economic air pocket, wouldn't it be hard to see it ever become a detraction from free cash flow? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: We agree with you. OPERATOR: The next one is from the line of Edlain Rodriguez from UBS. EDLAIN S. RODRIGUEZ, DIRECTOR AND EQUITY RESEARCH ASSOCIATE, CHEMICALS, UBS INVESTMENT BANK, RESEARCH DIVISION: Just one quick clarification. Maybe I missed something. I thought -- like in the comments, in the opening comments, you have mentioned something about achieving some synergies at Signode. Can you elaborate on that? Like how much are we talking about? And where are they coming from? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: No. I think what we said -- not in the opening comments, but in reference to one of the earlier questions, this was not a deal that was predicated on synergies. The accretion, both earnings and cash flow, they stand on their own without the need for significant synergies to justify the deal. But we will experience and have experienced some synergies already. There's some back office synergies we've already experienced, but -- if you want to think about a number in the $5 million to $10 million, $5 million to $15 million range. But we're early in that process, and the goal is to run the business well and to continue to grow the business, not to shrink it. OPERATOR: At this time, speakers, there are no further questions. TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Okay. Haley, well, thank you very much, and thank you to everybody who joined us today. And we'll look forward to speaking with you again in October. Bye now. OPERATOR: And that concludes today's conference. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect. [Thomson Financial reserves the right to make changes to documents, content, or other information on this web site without obligation to notify any person of such changes. In the conference calls upon which Event Transcripts are based, companies may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding a variety of items. Such forward-looking statements are based upon current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those stated in any forward-looking statement based on a number of important factors and risks, which are more specifically identified in the companies' most recent SEC filings. 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Subject: Currency; Acquisitions & mergers; Foreign exchange rates; Copyright; Costs; Earnings per share; Cash flow statements; Capital expenditures; American dollar
Location: United States--US North America Brazil
Company / organization: Name: Thomson Financial; NAICS: 511210, 518210, 519190; Name: Crown Holdings Inc; NAICS: 551112
Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jul 19, 2018
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: Linthicum
Country of publication: United States, Linthicum
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Law--Corporate Law
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Documenttype: News
ProQuest document ID: 2081532839
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2081532839?accountid=4840
Copyright: 2018 Thomson Financial and ASC LLC
Last updated: 2018-08-02
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 367 of 474
Event Brief of Q2 2018 Crown Holdings Inc Earnings Call - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]19 July 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: CORPORATE PARTICIPANTS . Thomas A. Kelly - Crown Holdings, Inc.,Senior VP & CFO . Timothy J. Donahue - Crown Holdings, Inc.,President, CEO & Director CONFERENCE CALL PARTICIPANTS . Adam Jesse Josephson - KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc., Research Division,Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst . Anthony James Pettinari - Citigroup Inc, Research Division,VP and Paper, Packaging & Forest Products Analyst . Arun Shankar Viswanathan - RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division,Analyst . Brian P. Maguire - Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division,Equity Analyst . Clyde Alvin Dillon - Vertical Research Partners, LLC,Partner . Deborah Anne Jones - Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division,Director . Edlain S. Rodriguez - UBS Investment Bank, Research Division,Director and Equity Research Associate, Chemicals . Gabrial Shane Hajde - Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division,Associate Analyst . George Leon Staphos - BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division,MD and Co-Sector Head in Equity Research . Ghansham Panjabi - Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Research Division,Senior Research Analyst . Mark William Wilde - BMO Capital Markets Equity Research,Senior Analyst . Scott Louis Gaffner - Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division,Director & Senior Analyst . Tyler J. Langton - JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division,Research Analyst OVERVIEW Co. reported 2Q18 EPS of $0.99. Expects 3Q18 adjusted EPS to be $1.60-1.70 and full-year 2018 adjusted EPS to be $5.15-5.30. FINANCIAL DATA 1. 2Q18 EPS = $0.99. 2. 2Q18 adjusted EPS = $1.55. 3. 3Q18 adjusted EPS guidance = $1.60-1.70. 4. Full-year 2018 adjusted EPS guidance = $5.15-5.30. PRESENTATION SUMMARY - 2Q18 Financials (T.K.) 1. Highlights: 1. EPS: 1. 2Q18 $0.99. 2. 2Q17 $0.94. 2. Adjusted EPS: 1. 2Q18 $1.55. 2. 2Q17 $1.17. 3. Net sales, on currency-neutral basis and excluding impact of Transit Packaging, up 9%; primarily due to: 1. Increased beverages can volumes. 2. Pass-through of higher material costs. 4. Segment income improved primarily due to Signode acquisition as higher global beverage can volumes were offset by: 1. Continued inflation in Northern American freight costs. 2. Soft volumes in Middle East. 5. Adjusted cash used for operating activities for six months is above prior-year amount, primarily due to higher exchange rates vs. 1H17 and higher material costs that will be recovered from customers as inventories are sold and receivables are collected. 6. Net leverage at 2018-end is expected to be approx. 4.6 times. 1. Expects the ratio to decline by about 0.5 turn each year going forward as Co. uses cash flow to delever. 2. Guidance: 1. Estimates 3Q18 adjusted EPS of $1.60-1.70 and full-year EPS of $5.15-5.30. 1. Source of revision to full-year guidance is about evenly split between currency impacts and freight costs at mid-point of range. 2. These estimates assume full-year tax rate of 25-26% and exchange rate remain at current levels. 3. Maintaining full-year adjusted free cash flow of approx. $625m after approx. $460m in capital spending. 4. Expects shortfall in operations from previous guidance will be offset by working capital improvements. 5. Identified some additional areas for improvement, including in Transit Packaging business that Co. expects will benefit cash flow in both 2018 and 2019. 2Q18 Business Review (T.D.) 1. Overview: 1. Operationally, head of plan through six months as strong global beverage demand and stronger than initial expected contribution from Transit business offset most of headwinds associated with higher freight costs and weakness in Brazilian Real against US dollar. 2. Strengthening of US dollar against major currencies in which Co. operates and elevated freight costs, which at this time expects will persist over balance of year, require Co. to revise full-year earnings guidance back towards initial expectations for year before the guidance raise offered after 1Q. 3. From April 17, major currencies that Co. operates in have devalued about 5-8% against dollar. 4. Free cash flow guidance for year remains unchanged at $625m. 5. As reminder, double-digit increases in tin plates steel and aluminum have been successfully pass through to customers. 1. Accordingly, will see significant increases in revenues vs. last year with resulting denominator effect on percentage margins. 2. No absolute margin impact from higher cost of metal this year. 6. Net sales advanced 41% YoverY, largely due to addition of Transit Packaging business. 1. Adjusting for Transit, sales up 12%; primarily due to: 1. Higher global beverage volumes. 2. Pass through of higher raw material costs and FX. 7. Segment income improved 32% YoverY, due to Transit acquisition as higher global beverage volumes offset inflationary impact of higher transportation costs in North America and expected volume softness in Middle Eastern beverage can businesses. 2. Americas Beverage: 1. Overall unit volumes were up mid-single-digits, with strong volumes in North America and Brazil. 2. North America: 1. Volumes up mid-single-digits, ahead of flat market; reflecting: 1. Underweighting to mass beer in this market. 2. Generally strong performances by CSD customers, notably private label. 3. Brazil: 1. Up high single-digits; in line with market. 4. Segment income 2% vs. prior year. 1. Benefited from strong volumes, including oversold position in North America but faced higher freight costs. 2. Oversold position is expected to continue throughout balance of summer. 3. European Beverage: 1. Unit volumes were down mid-single-digits as strong performances in France and throughout Mediterranean were more than offset by demand weakness in UK, Spain, and Saudi Arabia. 2. As expected, segment income was impacted by planned and ongoing rebalancing of geographic mix more towards western Europe. 4. European Food: 1. Unit volumes down low single-digits vs. prior year, as cold weather caused some delay in early vegetable packs. 2. Expects normal packing season overall this year. 1. Production schedule remain full throughout qtr. 3. Strong operating performance, including benefits from prior year cost reduction activities and $7m benefit from FX all contributed to near 20% growth in segment income. 5. Asia Pacific: 1. Segment income advanced 4%; mid-single-digit volume growth in Southeast Asia offset planned volume declines in China and initial startup costs at new plant in Myanmar. 6. Transit Packaging: 1. First qtr. that Co. reports the result. 2. Sales $620m; up 7%. 3. Segment income $94m; up 17% YoverY. 4. Traditionally, 2Q is Transit businesses strongest qtr.; 2Q18 reflects this. 5. All businesses experienced firm demand and benefited from effective pass through of inflationary increases. 6. Only one qtr., but business is performing well ahead of expectations. 7. Remains confident that addition of this premium business will create long-term value for shareholders. 7. Non-Reportable Businesses: 1. Segment income reflect timing associated with some 1Q pull ahead in European aerosol. 8. Summary: 1. Solid 1H operating result. 2. Demand has been and is expected to remain firm throughout most of businesses. 3. Continues to tightly manage those items in Co.'s control. 4. While Co. still have important 3Q food pack to come, all current signs point to good season. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) Our first question is coming from the line of Ghansham Panjabi from R.W. Baird. GHANSHAM PANJABI, SENIOR RESEARCH ANALYST, ROBERT W. BAIRD & CO. INCORPORATED, RESEARCH DIVISION: So I guess first off, on Transit. Can you just give us some more color as to how the business is being integrated, some early takeaways, how are they handling higher freight costs and also raw material costs that the other businesses are handling? Just sort of an update there. TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE, PRESIDENT, CEO & DIRECTOR, CROWN HOLDINGS, INC.: Sure. So I think integration is well underway. It's going according to plan. We -- as we described to you in December and again in February and April, this was not an acquisition designed to create massive synergies between the 2 companies. There will be some synergy. We've achieved some of that already, and there are ongoing cost reductions that will be achieved within the Signode business itself. But in line with our expectations, the integration is going according to plan. I think as we look at the performance that the Transit business had in the second quarter, I think traditionally, the second quarter is the biggest quarter. As we say, last year in 2017 and reviewing their numbers and speaking to the managers in the business, they had a flatter experience last year in Q1 and Q2 than normal. So this year, the so-called outperformance in the second quarter versus last year's second quarter, a bit skewed by the flatness last year. But this is probably a bit closer to what we would expect going forward in terms of the phasing of quarterly performance. In large part, the volume and margin growth that we're seeing is coming from the equipment and tools business. Hard to expect you all to be so familiar with the various product lines and equipment and tools that they offer throughout the world, but they offer leading equipment and tools and service across not just strapping, but stretch and other hood wraps and other materials as well that are used by a variety of industries, not just food and beverage. And that continues to go well as well as the introduction of several back-end automation products, projects that they have underway to help their customers in various industries deal with rising costs and rising labor costs, i.e., become more efficient and take costs out of their own systems, so very well-positioned business. The consumables businesses, that is stretch film strapping, protective products, extremely firm throughout the first half of the year and in the second quarter. And perhaps we benefited a little bit just in terms of timing when we closed the deal April 3. In large part, some of the headwinds, they would have faced in Q1 in terms of material increases or freight increases. Some of that getting passed through in the second quarter that wasn't recovered in the first quarter. So a lot of reasons. It's -- as we've described to you before, it's a very broadly diversified business across not only a number of products, but across a number of end markets, and certainly, much more broadly diversified than it was 10 years ago. So how they deal with passing through rising material costs, they certainly have a different model in their business than we have in the metal can business. And so they deal with the passing through materials into their end markets, I don't want to say on a more real-time basis. But they have more opportunity during the year to do that than we do in the metals businesses as we are largely -- as the year begins, we're largely fixed on price, and we recover increases or decreases in our nonmetal costs in the prior year on a formula basis. And they have -- they do have some formulas, but they have a large part of their business which is not formula-driven, which gives them the opportunity to recover or not throughout the year, whether that's one or more times. GHANSHAM PANJABI: Okay, that's helpful. And I guess just for my second question, did European Beverage play out the way you thought it would for the second quarter? Because it's quite a bit weaker than what we had modeled. And can you just give us some color as to what's actually happening in the U.K., et cetera, apart from the weakness in the Middle East? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Yes. So the Middle East, I think, Ghansham, is something we've been -- I think we've been pretty open. We were down about, I don't know, 10% or 11% in volumes in the Middle East again this quarter. This is an ongoing transformation of our European Beverage business, where we are less reliant on the Middle East and more reliant on Continental or Western Europe, and this is ongoing. We've expected this. We're planning for it. We've added capacity in Europe. We're transforming our steel business in Spain to aluminum. We've modestly sped up and added other capacity in Europe to rebalance our business and obviously meet the demands of our customers, who are growing year in and year out in European Beverage. The European Beverage business continues to grow 2% to 3% to 4% every year, and so that requires capacity increases, not only by us, but by our competitors as well. And that is -- that's what's going on there. We would expect the weakness that we -- that you saw in Q2 to, on a year-on-year basis, continue in Q3 and Q4, but that's within the guidance we've given you. So you should expect Q3 and Q4 European Beverage results to be down versus the prior year, but that's well within plan. The U.K., I think much of the decline we saw in the U.K. was related to the CO2 shortage that's been well publicized in the media, but that's something that'll be rectified throughout the balance of the year. We don't expect that to be an ongoing issue. OPERATOR: Our next question is coming from the line of Adam Josephson from KeyBanc. ADAM JESSE JOSEPHSON, DIRECTOR AND SENIOR EQUITY RESEARCH ANALYST, KEYBANC CAPITAL MARKETS INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: Tim, just on the freight issue in North America. Can you just help us understand precisely what your exposure is, your ability to pass on changes in freight costs to your customers, how much you cover, how much your customers cover? Just help us better understand what exactly is happening there. TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: So we have a variety of contracts. Some customers under contract actually pick up, and some of the businesses delivered pricing. And as I just said to Ghansham's question, the formula for us to recover freight, labor, utilities, et cetera, anything that's nonmetal generally is associated with the formula, and that formula is typically revisited and adjusted up or down in the year following. So we are -- we're doing our best to manage the situation now, and obviously, freight has persisted to be much higher through the second quarter. We probably expected at the end of the first quarter in mid-April when we talked to you for freight to moderate a bit. I think the economy stayed exceptionally strong. Our demand had stayed strong. So we have a -- we've got a volume situation where we're oversold, but we've also -- we're asking the freight haulers for more and more service. So that kind of exacerbates the issue. But we'll get a chance to adjust or recover some of this freight with the formula price that we have next year. ADAM JESSE JOSEPHSON: Tom, on the FX situation, can you separate the estimated impact from the -- of the FX losses in Brazil from the full year, FX translation impact that you're guiding to and just help us what your updated sensitivity is post-Signode and what assumptions are embedded in your guidance? THOMAS A. KELLY, SENIOR VP & CFO, CROWN HOLDINGS, INC.: Yes. So the impact that we called out for the full year of more or less $0.11 includes the second quarter impact in Brazil after tax and minority interest. So the headline number of $10 million gets diluted a bit by those 2 items. So that's probably a few cents. And then beyond that, we have a few cents from the euro, and that sensitivity hasn't really changed with the addition of the Transit Packaging. And we have a rate going from $1.23 in the previous guidance to $1.19 in the revised guidance. So in addition to the first quarter impact of Brazil and the euro, which we've always had, we do have some impact in the second half of the year in Transit Packaging compared to our previous guidance because of declines in other currencies, like the rupees, Swiss franc and Swedish kroner. ADAM JESSE JOSEPHSON: Tim, just one last one on North America Bev cans. You talked about some of your CSD customers, particularly private label, doing really well. I know your Pepsi had almost 5% volume decline in CSD in the quarter. Can you just help me understand why one large customer might be doing so badly and others might be doing so well within CSD? I just -- it doesn't obviously make sense to me. TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Well, I wouldn't describe the customer that you mentioned as doing badly. Keep in mind that they are selling volume in a variety of packages. And as we've described to you, the can continues to be increasingly favored, not only by our customers, but by retailers and by consumers. And so you look at the total industry, I think CSD for the total industry was up a couple of percent in the quarter. And that's the can industry, right? So you've got a mix going on, mix shift going on from other packages towards the can. I think the other thing that's going on, and it's sometimes overlooked by a lot of people, not overlooked by us in the can industry, there has been a huge move towards carbonated flavored waters, which largely are being delivered in cans, given the can's superior properties to hold carbonation and flavor versus other package types. So there's a lot going on, and I don't -- the industry is down about 0.5%. CMI data has us down about 0.5% this year, and that's largely being driven by this near-term or recent decline in mass beer. That'll moderate and come back in the future. I'm confident of that. I think the marketers of mass beer have too much invested to let that go away. That's going to come back. And I think there's pretty good signs, as we look forward, on the beverage can side for growth, as we see not only CSDs, but also other carbonated drinks or flat drinks in cans, be they waters or teas or juices. So I wouldn't -- you pick out one customer, and from what they release and you can make -- you can come to a lot of bad assumptions, Adam, if you just pick out one customer, one release because it's a much broader business and -- than one customer, and it's a much broader business than one customer's overall volume, which doesn't specifically deal with the package that we provide. OPERATOR: The next one is coming from the line of George Staphos from Bank of America Merrill Lynch. GEORGE LEON STAPHOS, MD AND CO-SECTOR HEAD IN EQUITY RESEARCH, BOFA MERRILL LYNCH, RESEARCH DIVISION: I just wanted to go back to Europe, so to speak, Tim, first, 1 or 2 questions. So could you help us bridge, year-on-year, the various factors you cited in terms of the percentage growth in revenue? And the context for the question, well, obviously, first quarter, you saw, I think, something around 20%-plus growth year-on-year. This quarter, obviously, had the CO2 shortages, but you're still passing through aluminum. So that would tend to bias revenues, as you pointed out, up, but we had a flat quarter. So can you -- more or less. Can help us understand a bit more in terms of what happened sequentially in the quarter in terms of those factors? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Yes. So just one clarification, George. We had a flat quarter in Continental Europe. We were down 10% or 11% in the Middle East. So overall, volumes are down. GEORGE LEON STAPHOS: I'm just looking at European Beverage revenue. You did $402 million last year. You did $405 million this year. So you're up fractionally, so more or less flat. TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: No. So the revenue's flat, which is the pass-through of higher aluminum, offset by the decline in overall volumes, right? GEORGE LEON STAPHOS: Correct. And so if you could help us understand what was the effect of the CO2 shortage in terms of volume and other factors that -- was there any kind of price compression, that sort of thing. TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: No, there's no price compression. Price hasn't changed from January 1. I think CO2 in the U.K., maybe U.K. volumes are down 3%, 4%, but that'll come back, George. That's a near-term thing that will get resolved, and the fillers and the retailers will look to restock their inventories. And so that's not something that concerns us. That's something that happens 2 weeks in the quarter that gets fixed 2 weeks in the next quarter. So I wouldn't spend a lot of time on that. I think the bigger issue is, and as we've planned for, has been the change in the Middle Eastern landscape. There's been, over the last couple of years, several fillers that have decided to install their own can lines, and we saw that coming. And we've made efforts to reposition our business geographically, and I think that'll -- you'll see that next year. That'll prove out quite healthy for us. So I think the first quarter, one of the things that helped us in the first quarter on a year-on-year comparison is we had both lines up in the Custines factory after the steel-to-aluminum conversion in Custines. That was completed in probably mid or at least the second quarter of '17. So we had the benefit of 2 lines in Custines versus only one line. And you're selling aluminum cans, not steel cans, so you get a higher revenue. GEORGE LEON STAPHOS: Okay. So the comparison got tougher on that, because by second quarter last year, you had both lines more or less running in Custines, whereas 1Q versus 1Q, there's only 1 line. TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: That's true. And then I think the other thing -- don't lose sight of the fact that Q1 '17 would've been our lowest euro rate quarter last year, and Q1 '18 would've had a much higher euro rate year-on-year. So currency probably had a bigger impact in Q1. But I think what you're seeing in European Beverages, as we expected, we're -- this year, we knew it's going to be tough, given what's going on in the Middle East. We planned for it. And it may not match your models, but it's well within our expectations. GEORGE LEON STAPHOS: Okay. And did the Middle East decline year-on-year in volume? If we look at the 1Q over 1Q trend to the 2Q over 2Q trend, I don't remember it being down 11% in the first quarter. But if you can remind us, that'd be great. TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: I forget what it was down in the first quarter, but we would have sold more cans in the second quarter just because of the season. Yes, second quarter sales are higher than first quarter sales in gross numbers. I think the decline is slightly greater in the second quarter than the first quarter. But if it's 10% or 11% in the second quarter, it was 9% or 10% in the first quarter. GEORGE LEON STAPHOS: Okay. And I remember my last question on this, and I'll add a quick follow-on and turn it over. I remember in the first quarter, Europe benefited from the fact that you're absorbing more fixed cost because you had both lines running in Custines. This quarter, obviously, EBIT is down quite a bit. Again, could you help us bridge the $71 million to $59 million? Is that all more or less Middle Eastern volume decline? Or is there anything else that we should be mindful of in terms that EBIT variance? And then quickly on freight. From April, what intensified in terms of freight pressure relative to your guidance? Again, because from our vantage point, a little -- you're the first quarter report earnings, so we'll find out what happens over the next couple of weeks, it didn't seem like freight got any worse from our own trade checks. It was high at a relatively high level, but no further intensity. What changed there? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: So the biggest decline in the Middle East is the decline in Middle Eastern volumes, coupled with the mix that Middle Eastern cans have higher margin traditionally than Western Europeans. So that's the whole story in European Beverage. On the freight side, a couple of things. As I said earlier, we expected freight costs to somewhat moderate when we talked to you back in April, mid-April. They haven't done that. And in fact, line haul rates have continued to escalate as well as the fuel surcharge, coupled with stronger volume than we had anticipated earlier in the year, which exacerbates the situation because now you're scrambling to find more freight carriers to handle the increased volume to get cans to your suppliers and -- or your customers. And everybody's doing the same thing. The economy is generally very healthy right now. So line haul rates are up. And this -- if you're a freight hauler, now is your time to make money. It's a strong economy. It'll probably moderate when the economy weakens, whenever that is sometime in the future. But right now, it's their time to make money, and they're making money. OPERATOR: The next one is coming from the line of Scott Gaffner from Barclays. SCOTT LOUIS GAFFNER, DIRECTOR & SENIOR ANALYST, BARCLAYS BANK PLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: Tim, I -- just focusing a little bit more on the U.S. and the oversold position you keep mentioning in the U.S. I mean, can you talk about where that came from? Is it -- did you pick up some new contract wins in the business? Or is this more you've shuttered some capacity and so now your volumes are coming in better? Just kind of what drove the overcapacity and where are those cans actually coming from? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Yes, so I think it's all CSD, largely private label, as I've said. They're doing exceptionally well, coupled with the fact we closed our Lawrence, Massachusetts plant in January, and perhaps we closed it too soon. Perhaps, we should have kept it open till the end of March and built some inventory. So -- but it is what it is at this point, and we'll just have to do a better job of planning and building inventory ahead of next season. But it's largely private label, and their demand has been exceptionally strong. Their promotions, not only for their carbonated sodas, but also the carbonated water, flavored waters, is -- has gone great guns for them this year, so. SCOTT LOUIS GAFFNER: So if we think about the excess freight costs, I mean, how much of that do you think is self-imposed from -- I don't -- maybe self-impose is a bad word. But how much of it is driven by this tight supply/demand situation for you and how much is just higher freight costs? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Well, I mean, I think if we looked at line haul rates and fuel charge -- fuel surcharges, that's the large majority of our freight increase. Volume is up. So we've got more freight costs because of volume. You would expect to make similar margins with higher volume. But as I said, it exacerbates the problem. So you've got even higher line haul rates because of more volume. But the self-imposed, it's not a big number. That's not the issue. I think the issue is the economy is strong. The market is tight for freight, and the freight guys are -- this is their time to make money and shine, and they're trying to shine. SCOTT LOUIS GAFFNER: Okay. And just as far as the pass-throughs are concerned, I mean, if we see a moderation freight rates as the year progresses, is that something you can still recover in 2019? Or how exactly do the pass-throughs generally work for freight? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: I think as we've said before, not all contracts, but depending on contract, we have formulas to recover nonmetal costs, and freight is one component of that formula. So it'll be an average over the period blended with other costs, whether it be labor, utilities, et cetera. SCOTT LOUIS GAFFNER: Okay. One last one for me, just on Signode. I mean, obviously, a strong quarter. But can you talk a little bit about the volumes, say, equipment versus consumables? Was there one that stuck out versus the other in the current quarter? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: No. I think as we've described to you before, they have a leading equipment and tools franchise, and they had exceptional growth, not only in equipment, but also tools and consumables that have been firm, depending on the region and the consumable, anywhere from flat to up 5% on consumables. But equipment and tools, the growth this year has been quite strong, on the order of 10% so far. SCOTT LOUIS GAFFNER: So similar though, for equipment and tools, one -- there's not one that's leading the charge. TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Yes. Well, I mean, tools has a -- there are a lot more tools at a lower revenue number than the equipment. But tools -- in volume terms, tools are up a lot more than equipment. But the revenue associated with the tools is certainly much lower than a piece of equipment. OPERATOR: The next question is coming from the line of Mark Wilde from Bank of Montreal. MARK WILLIAM WILDE, SENIOR ANALYST, BMO CAPITAL MARKETS EQUITY RESEARCH: Tim, I wondered -- just going back down to Brazil first. Did you have any meaningful impact from that trucker strike? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Well, the strike happened, Mark. You guys have written a lot about it. The strike happened sometime in late May, and it was resolved in early June. And it's kind of -- I ran into a fellow who was born in Bulgaria, and he reminded me of his life in Bulgaria as a child where they had toilet paper Tuesday. And if he didn't get to the supermarket on Tuesday, he didn't get any toilet paper. It's kind of the same thing happened in Brazil. The shelves -- everybody was out of beer very quickly as well as all kinds of products in Brazil by the time you got to the middle or the end of that trucker strike, which means by the time the trucker strike was resolved, everybody was back to full production. And we largely made up all of the impact from that 10 or 11-day strike that we had. And there was enough -- I -- my view is there was enough time remaining in the month of June for the industry to make up the volume that was soft during that trucker strike. So I don't -- overall in the quarter, was there any impact? I don't think so. I think the market was up about 10%. The market was up 10% in the second quarter over last year. We were up about 9%. I don't think we had any impact. Now should the market have been up 14 because of the World Cup? I don't know. But the market was up 10%, which largely tells me that the market corrected itself in the last 3 weeks of June and was able to replenish the supply chain once trucks started moving again. MARK WILLIAM WILDE: Okay. So there'd be no carryover effect into the third quarter then? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: I don't believe so. I think we're expecting a pretty healthy second half in Brazil. And as usual, we're going to have a firm fourth quarter, which, as you know, is their strongest quarter ahead of Carnival, and nothing to suggest that materially moves one way or the other. MARK WILLIAM WILDE: Okay. Could you also -- just going a little further north in Latin America. Could you just talk about sort of how the Mexican business ran in both cans and glass in the second quarter? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Yes. So I think we had pretty good performance in both countries -- or in both product lines, I'm sorry. As you know, we had some startup costs in the glass facility in Q1. That's largely behind us. We've got a few little nits to work out, but we're shipping all the tonnage we can put through the furnace. And then I think on the can side, demand has remained firm. It's the summer. So we're sold out from -- essentially, we're oversold from April 1 through the end of September. And obviously, given the oversold position we have in the United States, we are trying to move some cans from Mexico into the United States. So it's a pretty tight season in North America, especially when you consider Mexico into the North American marketplace and the proximity of Monterrey to the Texas market. So all things going well. MARK WILLIAM WILDE: Okay. And any thoughts on that second line down at Monterrey that you were looking at one point? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Yes. I think we continue to evaluate it. We have other demand needs from our customers in various regions of the world. So we don't have an unlimited balance sheet, as you know, and so we try to be prudent with capital when and where we put it in. And we continue to monitor that market for the possibility and when it would be required for us to put a second line in. MARK WILLIAM WILDE: Okay, all right. Last question I had. Just could you give us an update on when Mark Burgess is going to be leaving Signode? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Yes. So as we stated in the release, Bob Bourque will take over August 1. Mark has agreed to stay with the company from August 1 through the end of September, so 60 days to help with the transition. It could be that beyond that, we have some soft agreement for him to stay on a little longer to help with other matters, if he's still available. But you know Mark. He's a pretty well-respected, seasoned packaging executive across -- and respected by a lot of people. And so he'll have, I have no doubt, numerous opportunities, which he wants, to run another company. And -- but to the extent he doesn't have one of those in the interim, perhaps we benefit by having him still around. OPERATOR: Next one is coming from the line of Arun Viswanathan from RBC Capital Markets. ARUN SHANKAR VISWANATHAN, ANALYST, RBC CAPITAL MARKETS, LLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: I guess first question was just maybe you can just help us bridge. It looks like you're reducing EPS guidance by about 4% for the year. What are the offsets that keep your free cash flow guidance relatively whole? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: It's working capital. I think, Arun, you'll remember, in Q1, we took the guidance up about 2.5%, 3%, and we didn't change free cash flow at that point. So we're coming down 4%, which is a touch below the -- i.e., a touch below the initial guidance we gave you for EPS. And so the cash flow stays the same. ARUN SHANKAR VISWANATHAN: Great. And then you made a comment that reduction is due to equal parts freight and FX. I guess what's your confidence level in this new level of guidance? I mean, is there a possibility that freight could get worse? What's embedded? Are you expecting a moderation in freight costs or just freight costs kind of stay where they are? And similarly, maybe just some of the other items in the guidance, like volume and price. Obviously, price is mostly pass-through. But volumes, do you expect more deterioration in Mid-East or Europe or a reacceleration because you're on easier comps? If you can just help us understand what the swing factors are within the guidance. TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: I think freight -- we expect freight to remain at these levels for the balance of the year, that is we don't expect it to moderate. On volumes, I think we expect demand to remain exceptionally firm throughout most of the businesses through the balance of the year. It's been a strong campaign from demand side, and it doesn't look like that's going to let up certainly through the end of the summer. I think on price, price is largely fixed early in the year, as you know. So we don't expect any changes on price. And the Middle East, I think what you're seeing in the Middle East is what we expected and what we planned for. We're not somebody that's going to give you our model at the beginning of the year. So you're going to have -- you're going to be right or wrong in your model compared to actuals as we go along, but I think the Middle East is largely as we expected. And as I've said earlier, you should expect the Middle East to drive down the reported or the comparable European Beverage numbers in the third and fourth quarter. And we'll get a reset, and we'll have increases in 2019. ARUN SHANKAR VISWANATHAN: And then just lastly, on Signode. It's encouraging to see the growth year-on-year. Maybe you can just help us understand what's going on there. You described maybe an equipment cycle in the past, replacement, and then strong growth. How much do you expect this to continue? Or how long do you expect this to continue? Is Signode kind of experiencing anything unusual per se that's driving better performance? Or is it something that you think will be sustained? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Yes. So I think what we saw in the second quarter is a -- is largely a function, as we said earlier. The -- traditionally, the second quarter is their strongest quarter. And as I mentioned, they were a little flatter in 2017 between Q1 and Q2, that is Q1 of '17 might have been a little stronger and Q2 of '17 a little weaker than historically did. And so I think this year, they're back to more traditional performance, and that's why Q2 this year looked so strong compared to Q2 last year. But in large part, that explains it, plus the inflection point at when we closed the deal and they recover some of the material increases that they've had this year, perhaps they recovered more in Q2 and less in Q1. But what's driving the business overall is their customer's desire to reduce their cost, become more efficient, automate more, take labor and other costs out, and they're a huge beneficiary of that, as we say. And I think we've described the consumable business has been firmed up, and the equipment and tool business has been exceptionally strong, which is what we saw when we looked at the business. And we were extremely impressed, not only with the technology, but the folks who ran that business and the opportunities for further growth, be they organic or bolt-ons as we look into the future. So I think the back half of this year probably looks a bit flatter compared to last year. You're not going to see the remarkable upside in Qs 3, 4 like you saw in Q2, but largely, they're going to be on a number that we described to you earlier. If you want to think about EBITDA, $390 million to $400 million. But short of $400 million, it'll just be the currency impact that Tom took you through earlier. So that'll be a handful of EBITDA dollars and currency that we didn't anticipate. They're probably -- if we thought -- when we talked to you in December, we gave you an adjusted EBITDA number, which embedded some currency improvement year-on-year versus their actual reported number. And so we probably don't see that currency improvement, but they're going to significantly be above last year. I think if last year, the EBITDA was $370 million, they're going to be in the $390 million to $400 million range, plus or minus some currency. So going to be a strong performance, and the business is really set up well to continue to perform well in the future. ARUN SHANKAR VISWANATHAN: Great. And last one I have was just on deleveraging. Is there anything you can do to accelerate that process? We saw another transaction with the competitor's food can business here in North America. Is that something that you'd be open to? Or any other businesses, i.e., China, that could be viewed as noncore or potentially you could accelerate your deleveraging with? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Well, I think Tom has described, we -- leverage will be down to about 4.6x by the end of the year. And by the time you get to that end of '19, it'll be about 4.14x, and we're going to delever pretty rapidly just from free cash flow. And obviously, we look at all our alternatives. We review any and all alternatives with the board, and we'll look at that. But we're not going to do something foolish and trade assets that generate very good cash and meaningful contribution to earnings just to accelerate a deleveraging target that you may feel pressure for us, but we don't feel any pressure. Given our capital structure and the debt we have, that we've got a significant amount of debt that's fixed at very attractive rates for 8 to 10 years and the floating rate debt, we're going to quickly pay off with the cash flow in '18, '19 and '20. And by the end of '20, we've described to you we're going to be back in the mid-3s, and that doesn't give us any heartburn. It may give you heartburn, but we're pretty confident in our ability to generate cash flow and delever as we've done post other acquisitions. OPERATOR: The next one is coming from the line of Brian Maguire from Goldman Sachs. BRIAN P. MAGUIRE, EQUITY ANALYST, GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: Just wondered if you could provide any updates on the European competitiveness investigation. That's been a couple of months since the new developments there. Just wondered if you had an opportunity to size what the incremental impact could be from that or lay out for us any timing you'd expect for resolution of that. TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Well, I think there's no update to provide you. We'll file our 10-Q in a couple of weeks. I don't think you'll really see any meaningful update. We may change some disclosure language. Clearly, our disclosure was a bit more belt and braces than the others. But I think we continue to maintain that there are no actions across Continental Europe which give rise to the European Commission to investigate. This was largely transferred to the European Commission because the German authorities were disappointed that if they found a wrongdoing and they thought they could assess a fine, that given the laws in Germany, we and one of the other companies had the opportunity to restructure our businesses, and therefore, we were immune from German -- any German assessment of fine. And so they kind of got themselves in a knicker and decided to transfer it to European Commission. We still maintain we don't have any liability at the European level, and we're going to continue to fight this. BRIAN P. MAGUIRE: Okay, appreciate that. The corporate line was a little bit higher than we were expecting. Just wondered if there was any impact from Signode there, like transferring any corporate expenses that they might had into that bucket, or just sort of general guidance on where you think corporate might be coming in for the rest of the year. TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: All -- well, I'll answer very quickly, and then Tom will give you some detail. All the costs for Signode are in the Transit Packaging line. There is no corporate cost -- there is no Transit Packaging cost in the corporate line. Tom, you've got any details? THOMAS A. KELLY: Yes. I think, Brian, if we look to about $150 million for the full year, at this point, that feels about right, although it will be choppy. It's just the nature of what's in the account. BRIAN P. MAGUIRE: Okay. And just one last one for me also, the nonreportable one with the kind of various smaller businesses. It was also a little bit lower on the EBITDA than were expected. Just -- I think, Tim, you called out the aerosol European business, maybe some pull-forward there. But I just wondered about the other segments, like food and closures. Any comments on that... TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: No. So I think year-to-date, we're flat year-on-year on that business. Obviously, we're a few short in the second quarter, we were a few long in the first quarter. Largely, all the businesses on year-to-date business -- basis are performing in line with the prior year. We had some pull-ahead in Q1 in European aerosols. We just gave it back here in Q2. But the businesses are firm and fairly strong, so nothing really to report. Food's doing okay in North America, and we continue to do well in Food North America. Just -- it's a collection of 3-piece metal packaging businesses where we do well, where we're committed to. And we don't spend a lot of capital there, but they generate pretty good returns and they generate a lot of cash flows. So we continue to press ahead. OPERATOR: Next one is from Gabe Hajde from Wells Fargo. GABRIAL SHANE HAJDE, ASSOCIATE ANALYST, WELLS FARGO SECURITIES, LLC, RESEARCH DIVISION: First one is on the Transit Packaging business. Tim, now you've had a chance to truly look under the hood of business, is there anything in your mind that's changed in terms of the vision or strategy? And I'm sort of asking the question in the context of you talked about it being a pretty fragmented market while Signode has a leading position. Just help us maybe with timing or how you're thinking about growing that business. TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Yes. So I think the one thing that's perhaps a little bit different from when we looked at the business, the difference between looking at the business and now, we kind of -- we've kind of learned a lot, even after the announcement in December, because we've had pretty good access to the team. We've been working with the team for a long time. I think the one thing that's a little different is the number of opportunities for bolt-on or medium-size acquisitions, perhaps a little bit greater than we had thought, which obviously affords us numerous opportunities to grow the business in the future and either expand businesses in existing markets and product lines that we're currently in or get into other adjacencies or other back-end automation opportunities. And so with that, it allows us to be certainly much more selective in terms of what we might want to buy. And obviously, when you're allowed to be much more selective, you're allowed to be much more selective on what you're willing to offer in terms of price. But as we've said to you, the primary goal for the next couple of years is to delever rapidly. And so we're going to be pushing most, if not all, of the free cash flow we generate towards delevering the business over the next couple of years, and -- but there is no shortage of opportunities to grow that business as we look ahead. GABRIAL SHANE HAJDE: Okay. And then one just quick one on Brazil. I know demand has been tracking a little bit below expectations or at least what some people were looking for, and it seems like it started this year a little bit better in what is traditionally their seasonally slower period. You talked about running pretty well through the back end of the year. I mean, how do you feel inventories are positioned down there? And do we roll forward to next year and maybe we see flattish demand because we had the World Cup stuff? Just trying to understand that dynamic. TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Yes. I mean, listen, we're -- I think we're up 9% in the second quarter, we were up probably mid-single digits, I guess, in the first quarter, and the market continues to be strong. We have an estimated crown. We think the market will be up 7% to 8% for the year. So that's not disappointing. I don't -- I'm not sure why you would call that disappointing. But I think next year, too early to say what demand will be next year. But certainly, the Brazilian economy is a strong, strong global economy. It is -- it has its socioeconomic issues from time to time, as many countries do, but it is truly a global economy. And regardless of politics or other social issues, they continue to press ahead and they continue to grow their economy. And beer continues to -- beer consumption continues to grow in liters, and the can continues to take share from other packages. So we're extremely positive and we're extremely confident on the future of the can business in Brazil. And if you want to look at any one quarter or any 1 year compared to the prior year or prior quarter, again, you're going to make assumption or a conclusion that's pretty short-sighted. Because when you look at Brazil in 3 or 5-year chunks, it's done nothing but continue to grow at pretty attractive rates over the last decade. GABRIAL SHANE HAJDE: Understood. Maybe one last one for you, Tom. The working capital benefit, can you help us understand magnitude of that? I mean, I'm coming up, with a back of the envelope, maybe $25 million to $40 million. You mentioned that you could get some, I think, from the Signode business, even into next year. Can you help with that? THOMAS A. KELLY: No. That's exactly right, Gabe. So essentially, we're offsetting the earning shortfall with working capital, and the numbers are in the range of what you just mentioned. GABRIAL SHANE HAJDE: Okay. Anything for next year, to quantify what Tim said? THOMAS A. KELLY: Yes. I think there are additional opportunities next year. We're working on that now. We'll see what falls out. But we're comfortable that as -- equally, as we go into 2019, we can make up. If the -- if you start with this year's earnings down, we can make it up in working capital next year as well. TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Earnings are going to be (inaudible) next year. OPERATOR: Next one is coming from the line of Anthony Pettinari from Citigroup. ANTHONY JAMES PETTINARI, VP AND PAPER, PACKAGING & FOREST PRODUCTS ANALYST, CITIGROUP INC, RESEARCH DIVISION: Just on European Food. You had a pretty strong quarter there. Any color on what drove that? Did you see any prebuying in the quarter or anything that would be a read for 3Q, either positive or negative? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: No. I think what we said in the prepared remarks is currency was $7 million, so that's about half of the improvement. And in fact, the volumes were actually down a bit compared to the prior year's second quarter. So there was no buy ahead. The -- some of the early crops peas and some of the early bean crops were a little slow. They've been delayed, just given some of the weather, colder weather -- colder, wet weather in Northwest Europe. So no read-through into the third quarter. I think as we said, we expect the packing season to be a normal or a good packing season. So we expect a firm result in the third quarter. ANTHONY JAMES PETTINARI: Okay, that's helpful. And then, Tim, you talked about... TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: I'm sorry. To answer your question, we did -- our production schedule was full, so you're recovering fix when you're producing. And we had some cost-reduction activities we undertook last year, so we had some benefit of that as well. ANTHONY JAMES PETTINARI: Okay, okay. And then switching to freight. You talked about Transit passing through raw material costs in kind of a real time basis. Did they do something similar with freight? Or do they have a different model? I guess I'm just wondering how Transit handles freight? Is it better or worse in the current environment than the bev can business and the food can business? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Well, I don't know if it's a better or worse than the bev can business. It's different. Different in that on the can side, we have this convention where, annually, we adjust based on an index, and we've got to wait till next year to get that annual indexation. Signode has some of that, but a large part of their business is more open. And as we've described to you before, their customer base is highly fragmented in that no customer accounts for more than 1% of sales globally. So they have a better ability to recover cost in the current year. I don't want to say real term, whether that's -- real time, whether that's real time or whether it's 1 month or 3 months, they certainly have a better opportunity, given the fragmented nature of their customer base, to try to recover that within the same calendar year. OPERATOR: Next one is coming from the line of Debbie Jones from Deutsche Bank. DEBORAH ANNE JONES, DIRECTOR, DEUTSCHE BANK AG, RESEARCH DIVISION: Obviously, deleveraging is pretty important to you. You've made that clear. But I think you sound pretty optimistic about some of the growth opportunities that are out there. You did a great job the last 2 years of growing the business. Can you help us understand where some of the capital allocation decisions lie in the next couple of years? So what is most interesting to you, either by segment or region? I know you can't get too specific. TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Well, I think, Debbie -- thank you for your comments, first of all. I think the -- as we look at the global beverage can business, we continue, at least at Crown, to have beverage can volume growth year in and year out of 3%, 4%, 5%. So we expect there's going to continue to be opportunities to grow the beverage can business around the world. And whether that's parts of Asia or parts of Europe, South America, we're going to continue. Mexico, we're going to continue to look at the opportunities that are presented and try to make the investments at the right time to get the quickest payback possible. That is not try to get there too early and not try to miss the opportunity by waiting too long. So I think that's principally the capital allocation beyond debt paydown at this point. DEBORAH ANNE JONES: Okay. So my second question on Asia Pac. I mean, you called out a few things on Myanmar and China volumes, which were expected. But it's a little unclear to me if I should start seeing earnings growth accelerate in the back half of the year. I think it was up about $2 million in the quarter. Could you just comment on that and when we start lapping some of these headwinds? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Yes. I mean, it's -- trying to looking for something here. But just trying to remind myself where we're at through the middle of the year. I think we're going to see -- if we're up -- we're up $7 million year-to-date, right, which is on the order of 9%. Year-to-date, I think we probably see something similar to that in the back half of the year. How it split between Q3 and Q4, I don't know. OPERATOR: Next one is from the line of Tyler Langton from JPMorgan. TYLER J. LANGTON, RESEARCH ANALYST, JP MORGAN CHASE & CO, RESEARCH DIVISION: I just had a question on, I guess, beer volumes in the U.S. I think cans were down 5%. I know, Tim, you said you're sort of confident they were to come back. I just wondered if you could provide some color on that, sort of what you're seeing, I guess, with domestic sort of beer consumption in the U.S. versus the imports. Just any color on that situation would be helpful. TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Yes. So we don't have a big beer position in North America, as you know. We have a very strong position with Canadian beer and a very small position in U.S. beer. The Canadian beer guys have not had the same volume declines as the U.S. beer guys. So that business has been exceptionally firm. U.S. beer, U.S. mass beer has been down. And we basically ship beer from one factory in the United States for U.S. beer, and so we don't have a great read into that market. You'll have to talk to some others. But imports from Mexico have been strong and continue to be strong. So I think in the near term, certainly, for the next couple of quarters, we would expect Mexican imports to continue to be strong. What the mass U.S. guys do to counteract that is -- remains to be seen. But it's not something that impacts our business a whole lot, given our under-weighting to U.S. beer. TYLER J. LANGTON: Got it, understood. And then just last question on Brazil. I think your volume was up 9%. I think you said industry up 10%, which I'm guessing is cans. But just -- I mean, does that growth -- give a sense from how much might be cans taking share from glass, like you mentioned, versus just underlying beer production growth. TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: I think -- boy, the last number I saw, and I saw a number the other day, I think if cans are -- cans are probably 48.5% of the beer mix, and maybe that was 48.3% or 48.4% last year. So it's a little bit of that. But overall, beer liter-age is up year-on-year. So it's just -- it's volume. OPERATOR: Next one is from the line of Chip Dillon from Vertical Research. CLYDE ALVIN DILLON, PARTNER, VERTICAL RESEARCH PARTNERS, LLC: First question is -- Tim, you mentioned the heavily sold -- I don't know if you said sold out or just full business in North America for the rest of the year. Could you talk a little bit about your mix in terms of standard and specialty cans and how that's changing over time? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: So we said sold out, and we said it'll remain that way through the summer. Our nonstandard 12-ounce volume is probably 13% to 15% of our overall volume, and that's up from 10% to 12% a few years ago. CLYDE ALVIN DILLON: Got you. Okay, that's helpful. And I know it's still early. But as you think about the CapEx levels and you think about what your plans over the balance sheet, should we expect any significant change in CapEx levels next year? It sounds like at current levels, you're adding 2 to 3 lines somewhere in the world on an annualized basis. Is that something that we should expect in '19 and/or '20, especially as we think about your deleveraging guidance? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Yes. I think what we've said is that if in the can business, we had capital of $425 million in 2018, we're probably looking at a number more like $400 million in 2019. Yes, add $30 million to $40 million for the Transit business. But the can business will come -- and that'll be steady, and the can business will come down $25 million year-on-year. CLYDE ALVIN DILLON: Got you. And I don't know if you look at it this way. But it seems to me that if you take that $390 million to $400 million of EBITDA, you apply your tax rate to whatever that EBIT is, net of the amortization, and you subtract that CapEx and you allocate interest, it looks like your free cash flow conversion is still safely north of 50%. Is that the way you look at it when you think about Signode? And therefore, if we did hit an economic air pocket, wouldn't it be hard to see it ever become a detraction from free cash flow? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: We agree with you. OPERATOR: The next one is from the line of Edlain Rodriguez from UBS. EDLAIN S. RODRIGUEZ, DIRECTOR AND EQUITY RESEARCH ASSOCIATE, CHEMICALS, UBS INVESTMENT BANK, RESEARCH DIVISION: Just one quick clarification. Maybe I missed something. I thought -- like in the comments, in the opening comments, you have mentioned something about achieving some synergies at Signode. Can you elaborate on that? Like how much are we talking about? And where are they coming from? TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: No. I think what we said -- not in the opening comments, but in reference to one of the earlier questions, this was not a deal that was predicated on synergies. The accretion, both earnings and cash flow, they stand on their own without the need for significant synergies to justify the deal. But we will experience and have experienced some synergies already. There's some back office synergies we've already experienced, but -- if you want to think about a number in the $5 million to $10 million, $5 million to $15 million range. But we're early in that process, and the goal is to run the business well and to continue to grow the business, not to shrink it. OPERATOR: At this time, speakers, there are no further questions. TIMOTHY J. DONAHUE: Okay. Haley, well, thank you very much, and thank you to everybody who joined us today. And we'll look forward to speaking with you again in October. Bye now. OPERATOR: And that concludes today's conference. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect. [Thomson Financial reserves the right to make changes to documents, content, or other information on this web site without obligation to notify any person of such changes. In the conference calls upon which Event Briefs are based, companies may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding a variety of items. Such forward-looking statements are based upon current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those stated in any forward-looking statement based on a number of important factors and risks, which are more specifically identified in the companies' most recent SEC filings. 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Subject: Currency; Acquisitions & mergers; Capital markets; Copyright; Costs; Equity; Cash flow; Earnings per share; Packaging; Capital expenditures; American dollar
Location: United States--US North America Brazil
Company / organization: Name: Thomson Financial; NAICS: 511210, 518210, 519190; Name: Crown Holdings Inc; NAICS: 551112
Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jul 19, 2018
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: Linthicum
Country of publication: United States, Linthicum
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Law--Corporate Law
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: Englis h
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2081668816
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2081668816?accountid=4840
Copyright: 2018 Thomson Financial and ASC LLC
Last updated: 2018-08-02
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 368 of 474
Can Brazil fix its democracy?
Author: Dyer, Geoff
Publication info: FT.com ; London (Jul 31, 2018).
Abstract:
With their mixture of melodrama, violence, cronyism and politics-as-personality, the last days of Vargas highlight the central narrative of Schwarcz and Starling’s history — the stuttering, fragile and incomplete effort to construct a robust Brazilian state that can deliver stable politics and the protection of basic rights. The latest polls suggest that the presidential election in October could end up as a run-off between Jair Bolsonaro, a tropical Trump who talks wistfully about the torture-filled military dictatorship that started in 1964, and Ciro Gomes, a leftwing candidate whose truculent personality and elastic economic logic have many of the hallmarks of a new populist adventure. Schwarcz and Starling’s blunt conclusion that “although democracy has moved forward, the Republic has stayed on the drawing board” — written when the book was originally published in Brazil in 2015 — seems almost too upbeat in the current climate. In describing the “tortuous process of building citizenship”, Schwarcz and Starling tell two inter-related stories — the often stumbling efforts to establish durable political institutions, especially after the end of monarchy in 1889, and the way that race and racial identity have changed over time in the country that received more slaves from Africa than any other.Full text: On August 24 1954, Getúlio Vargas, Brazil’s president and the dominant figure in its politics for the previous two decades, was facing an ignominious end to his career. For a year, his government had been assailed by corruption allegations, and strikes had brought the country to a standstill. Even worse, one of his aides had been involved in an assassination attempt on a rival. After most of his ministers pushed him to resign at an early meeting, Vargas did the one thing he could to outsmart the opponents he accused of orchestrating a coup: he retired to his room at the Catete Palace in Rio de Janeiro, lay down on the bed and put a pistol to the left side of his chest. He then pulled the trigger. It was 8.30 in the morning. As Lilia Schwarcz and Heloisa Starling recount in Brazil: A Biography, their compelling and insightful history, “the country went mad”. Crowds vented their fury in many of the main cities with stones and clubs. In Rio, a mob attacked anything that had to do with the opposition and its perceived allies — including the offices of Standard Oil and the American embassy. Around a million people gathered in front of the presidential palace in the hope of seeing the body. In case political tensions were not high enough, Vargas left behind a self-pitying suicide note in which he blamed his death on everyone he believed to be against his development programme, from the opposition to foreign business. “If the birds of prey want someone’s blood, if they want to continue sucking the Brazilian people’s, I offer my own life in sacrifice,” he wrote. With their mixture of melodrama, violence, cronyism and politics-as-personality, the last days of Vargas highlight the central narrative of Schwarcz and Starling’s history — the stuttering, fragile and incomplete effort to construct a robust Brazilian state that can deliver stable politics and the protection of basic rights. In their telling, Brazil has not developed the values needed to sustain an effective republic that can weed out corruption. Instead of impersonal government, Schwarcz and Starling chronicle an endless cycle of “immediatism [that] takes the place of planning substantive, long-term changes”. Brazil, they write, has often been a “country on the lookout for the daily miracle, or some unexpected saviour”. A decade or so ago, such a note of pessimism would have seemed out of place. Not only was Brazil growing at a rapid clip, but its democracy seemed to have built solid foundations. Power had been passed seamlessly from one democratically elected government to another, from Fernando Henrique Cardoso to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. A durable consensus also appeared to have developed around the core ideas of governance — a conviction that stable public finances are not the enemy of ambitious social policy but the necessary starting point. Yet after several years of overlapping political and economic crises, Brazilian democracy is fraying in ways that echo many of the patterns Schwarcz and Starling describe, especially from the last century. The current mood is more dejected and the politics more fractious than at any time since elections were restored in 1985. The once-fetedLula da Silva is in prisonafter being convicted of corruption — a legal predicament he has even tried to hint could be the work of the US. Much of what goes for the political centre has also been decimated by graft accusations. The latest polls suggest that the presidential election in October could end up as a run-off between Jair Bolsonaro, a tropical Trump who talks wistfully about the torture-filled military dictatorship that started in 1964, and Ciro Gomes, a leftwing candidate whose truculent personality and elastic economic logic have many of the hallmarks of a new populist adventure. Schwarcz and Starling’s blunt conclusion that “although democracy has moved forward, the Republic has stayed on the drawing board” — written when the book was originally published in Brazil in 2015 — seems almost too upbeat in the current climate. In its timeframe, Brazil: A Biography is nothing if not conventional. It spans the 500 or so years from when Pedro Alvares Cabral, a minor Portuguese aristocrat, landed in 1500 in what is now Bahia in Brazil’s north-east, to Cardoso’s comfortable election victory in 1994 on the back of an inflation-busting economic plan. But what marks it out from other histories of Brazil is the way it mixes the public and the private, the well-trodden and the obscure. It moves effortlessly from the high politics of the Portuguese court fleeing Napoleon in 1807 to install itself in a disease-ridden Rio “that looked like an African coastal town”, as one observer described it, to the myriad micro-rebellions against slavery that marked the 17th and 18th centuries. Schwarcz, in particular, who divides her time between São Paulo university and Princeton, has been a pioneer in drawing out often-neglected aspects of Brazil’s slave-owning past. In describing the “tortuous process of building citizenship”, Schwarcz and Starling tell two inter-related stories — the often stumbling efforts to establish durable political institutions, especially after the end of monarchy in 1889, and the way that race and racial identity have changed over time in the country that received more slaves from Africa than any other. Schwarcz and Starling write that one of the keys to understanding Brazilian politics and the pervasiveness of corruption is what they call “familyism”, in which important politicians are known by their first name — Getúlio! Lula! — and treated as if they were a relative, rather than judged by their commitment to the public good. They endorse the historian Sérgio Buarque de Holanda’s famous description of the Brazilian “cordial man”, not as the compliment the phrase has sometimes been interpreted as being, but as a criticism of “the precedence of affection and emotion over the rigorous impersonality of principles that organise society”. These contradictions are nowhere more evident than in the era of Getúlio Vargas from the 1930s and to the early 1950s — which still profoundly mark Brazil today in positive and negative ways and provide some of the most engaging chapters in the book. Vargas was not only the most important figure in 20th-century Brazil, but also one of the most ambiguous. The era saw Brazil’s first major strides towards urbanisation and industrialisation and Vargas introduced some of the first social protections, including working day limits, sick leave and pensions. To this day, he is admired by some on the left. Yet he ruled at times as a dictator, especially during the Estado Novo period from 1937 to 1945. He also openly admired many of the ideas and liturgy of European fascism, including the organisation of society through major interest groups, the exaltation of nationalism and the primacy of a dominant leader. Schwarcz and Starling describe the Estado Novo regime as “authoritarian, modernising and pragmatic”. They also note the more disparaging contemporary verdict of the writer Graciliano Ramos, who called it, referring to one of the main indigenous peoples, “our tiny little Tupinambá fascism”. Most of all, the Vargas era cemented in the Brazilian political DNA a brand of corporatism that encourages an often cosy co-operation between the state and big business. Success in Brazilian capitalism still depends too little on innovation and too much on political connections. Race provides the other spine of the book. Brazil, which received as many as 40 per cent of the slaves brought from Africa, was the last country in the western hemisphere to abolish slavery in 1888. The authors are unsparing in their descriptions of the violence and cruelty — at 25, the life expectancy of Brazilian slaves was even lower than the 35 years in the US. On one estate in Bahia they examine, five new slaves were purchased a year because of “the constant deaths”. One of Schwarcz and Starling’s great strengths is their dissection of changing racial identity. Again, the 1930s proved to be a major turning point. As the society and culture modernised, Brazil embraced elements of a mixed-race identity. With radio taking off, samba and its Afro-Brazilian rhythms became the national music, and carnival the national holiday. In the propaganda of the Estado Novo, “being of mixed race was no longer seen as a disadvantage, but rather to be celebrated”. Up to a point. Schwarcz and Starling describe the proliferation of biological theories in the early 20th century that tried to demonstrate the inferiority of blacks and mestizos, or their likely disappearance. The brutal barriers of slavery were replaced with more subtle distinctions. “After abolition, black people were treated with a kind of silent and perverse prejudice . . . based as it was on a hierarchy constructed according to gradations of colour,” they write. Or as a popular saying from the years after abolition went: “Freedom might be black, but equality is white.” Schwarcz and Starling’s conclusions are by no means downbeat. On race, they believe the country has turned a corner, part of a broader “civil rights” movement they identify that is pushing for greater equality. Yet they also note that “outrage” at the growth of corruption in recent years could “lead to a loss in credibility of the democratic institutions”. That question will be the sub-plot of this October’s elections. Brazil: A Biography , by Heloisa Starling and Lilia Schwarcz, Allen Lane, RRP£30, 800 pages Geoff Dyer is the FT’s analysis editor and a former São Paulo bureau chief Join our online book group on Facebook at FTBooksCafe. Subscribe to FT Life on YouTube for the latest FT Weekend videos Credit: Geoff Dyer
Subject: Fascism; Abolition of slavery; Biographies; Books; Politics; Corruption; Society; Racial identity; Race; Democracy; Elections
Location: United States--US Africa Brazil
Publication title: FT.com; London
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Jul 31, 2018
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Trade Journals
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2080407124
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2080407124?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Jul 31, 2018
Last updated: 2018-08-01
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 369 of 474
Brazil: Basic data
Publication info: EIU ViewsWire ; New York [New York]02 Aug 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Brazil: Basic data
Land area
8,547,400 sq km. Population
207.7m (2017 estimate) Main cities
Population at last census (2012 official estimate; m) São Paulo: 11.4 Rio de Janeiro: 6.4 Salvador: 2.7 Brasília (capital): 2.6 Fortaleza: 2.5 Belo Horizonte: 2.4 Climate
Mainly tropical and sub-tropical; mild on the southern coast and in the higher regions Weather in São Paulo (altitude 760 metres)
Hottest month, December, 23-30°C; coldest month, June, 15-22°C, average monthly minimum and maximum; driest month, August; wettest month, February Language
Portuguese Measures
Metric system Currency
Real (R); average exchange rate in 2017: R3.2:US$1 Time
The states along the coast, as well as eastern Pará, Brasília-DF, Minas Gerais, Goiás and Tocantins, are three hours behind GMT (official time in Brazil); the states of Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Rondônia, most of Amazonas, Roraima and western Pará are four hours behind GMT; the states of Acre and the south-western part of Amazonas are five hours behind GMT Public holidays
January 1st (New Year's Day); February 10th-14th (Carnival); March 30th (Good Friday); April 21st (Tiradentes); May 1st (Labour Day); September 7th (Independence Day); October 12th (Nossa Senhora Aparecida, the patron saint of Brazil; also Children's Day); November 2nd (All Saints' Day); November 15th (Proclamation of the Republic); December 25th (Christmas Day)
Subject: Economic conditions; Economic indicators; Background
Location: Brazil Latin America
Publication title: EIU ViewsWire; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Aug 2, 2018
Publisher: The Economist Intelligence Unit N.A., Incorporated
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Political Science--International Relations
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2081893664
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2081893664?accountid=4840
Copyright: (c) 2018 The Economist Intelligence Unit Ltd. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. No further reproduction is permitted.
Last updated: 2018-08-03
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 370 of 474
newsbox.ch/ Dufry grows turnover 7.2% and -2-
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]03 Aug 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
(END)
August 03, 2018 00:45 ET (04:45 GMT)Net debt stood at CHF 3,150.9 million at the end of June 2018, CHF 536.0 million lower when compared to CHF 3,686.9 million in December 2017. Apart from the events already seen in the first quarter (proceeds from the Hudson IPO and purchase of treasury shares), the overall cash out related to the dividend payment in May amounted to CHF 198.7 million, while CHF 102.3 million were related to the share buyback in place. Last but not least, net debt was positively impacted by CHF 82.7 million from currency changes. The main covenant, net debt/adjusted EBITDA, stood at 2.95x as per 30 June 2018 (31 December 2017: 3.59x) against a maximum threshold of 4.00x. First half results solid and in line with the targets set for 2018 Julián Díaz, CEO of Dufry Group, commented: "The first half year results were solid and in line with Dufry's expected targets for 2018. I am particularly pleased with the EBITDA and cash generation for the period, a record for the first semester due to our good operational performance. In general, most of our operations continued to perform well. Our European business has been stable with some shifts in destinations. Especially Turkey and Greece are more popular this year at the expense of Spain, where in order to drive sales we have implemented several actions including shop openings and refurbishments as well as various marketing initiatives. Given our diversified portfolio and our leading position in Europe, we are in the best possible position to capture passengers in almost any market. Eastern Europe, Middle East, Asia and Australia continued with stellar performance. Especially in Asia, the strong growth in Chinese passenger has been a key driver. North America has been performing stronger than ever with continuous business development by adding retail space in existing and new locations. Latin America had a mixed picture: while Central America and the Caribbean have performed well, especially Argentina and Brazil had a weak performance in the second quarter. The devaluation of the Brazilian Real and the Argentinean Peso are affecting our sales in US Dollar. Having said this, when measured in local currencies, the performance of the business is stable, which is a sign that the overall consumer sentiment is still positive. Regarding profitability, the Business Operational Model further contributed by generating efficiencies and improvements in the cost structure, positively impacting the EBITDA margin. Until June, the BOM has been launched in 39 countries in total, of which 14 countries were already certified by the program. We continued to actively foster the opening of additional retail space and refurbishments across the Group. During the year until June, we added 13,200 m2 and refurbished 22,400 m2 of retail space. As for the remainder of 2018 and 2019, we have already secured agreements, which amount to 14,100 m2 to be opened in existing and new locations, and plan to revamp further 33,000 m2 along 2018. In this context, I would like to highlight the several successful wins of new contracts seen in the first semester, which include new retail operations across different channels - train stations, cruise lines, downtown locations and airports - and covering all divisions. The most recent one being our footprint expansion in Australia with the new concession in Perth; while earlier this year we signed contracts for a total of 10 cruise vessels of Holland America, Carnival Cruise Line and Norwegian Cruise Line as well as the duty-free concession for the new high-speed railway station in Hong Kong. During the first half year, Dufry also moved forward to return cash to shareholders, one of its main priorities for 2018 and beyond. In May, we paid a CHF 3.75 cash dividend per share and launched a share buyback program over a period of up to 12 months. Overall, we returned CHF 380.2 million to our shareholders since the beginning of 2018. Going forward and given the positive outlook for the business, which includes a sustainable cash flow generation derived by its organic growth, Dufry aims to continuing with the dividend payment. Finally, the good results and new developments during the first six months of 2018 are positive signs that we are moving in the right direction to meet the priorities we have set for the year. We will keep our focus on the main drivers through the BOM implementation, the further development of our digital initiatives and expansion of our presence in the travel retail industry. Last but not least, we expect market conditions to remain positive supported by a healthy growth of passengers globally. The weakness seen in specific markets is likely to persist during the second half, but we expect to compensate this with the good performance in our other operations. The third quarter is the most relevant for cash generation and deleveraging, and Dufry is ready to capture the full potential of the high season." [1] EBITDA before Other operational result [2] Before interest costs and minorities Key Figures Dufry Group +-----------------------------+-+-------+-+-----+-+-------+-+-----+-+--------+ |In CHF million | |HY 2018| | | |HY 2017| | | |Var. | +-----------------------------+-+-------+-+-----+-+-------+-+-----+-+--------+ |Turnover | |4,097.1| | | |3,821.3| | | |7.2% | +-----------------------------+-+-------+-+-----+-+-------+-+-----+-+--------+ |Gross Profit | |2,450.6| |59.8%| |2,274.6| |59.5%| |7.7% | +-----------------------------+-+-------+-+-----+-+-------+-+-----+-+--------+ |EBITDA (before other | |464.1 | |11.3%| |411.2 | |10.8%| |12.9% | |operational results) | | | | | | | | | | | +-----------------------------+-+-------+-+-----+-+-------+-+-----+-+--------+ |Net Earnings to Equity | |-9.6 | |-0.2%| |-24.9 | |-0.7%| | | |Holders | | | | | | | | | | | +-----------------------------+-+-------+-+-----+-+-------+-+-----+-+--------+ |Cash EPS (in CHF) | |2.68 | | | |2.34 | | | |14.5% | +-----------------------------+-+-------+-+-----+-+-------+-+-----+-+--------+ Dufry's HY 2018 Financial Report is available at the following link: https://www.dufry.com/en/investors/ir-reports-presentations-and-publications For further information please contact: +-----------------------------------------+------------------------------------+ |Renzo Radice |Rafael Duarte | +-----------------------------------------+------------------------------------+ |Corporate Communications & Investor |Global Investor Relations | |Relations | | +-----------------------------------------+------------------------------------+ |Phone: +41 61 266 44 19 |Phone: +41 61 266 45 77 | +-----------------------------------------+------------------------------------+ |[email protected] |[email protected] | +-----------------------------------------+------------------------------------+ | | | +-----------------------------------------+------------------------------------+ |Sara Lizi |Karen Sharpes | +-----------------------------------------+------------------------------------+ |Investor Relations Americas & |Global Media & | | | | | | | | | | |Communications Div. 4 |Events | +-----------------------------------------+------------------------------------+ |Phone: +55 21 2157 9901 |Phone: +44 0 208 624 4326 | +-----------------------------------------+------------------------------------+ |[email protected] |[email protected] | +-----------------------------------------+------------------------------------+ Dufry Group - A leading global travel retailer Dufry AG (SIX: DUFN; B3 - Brasil, Bolsa, Balcão: DAGB33) is a leading global travel retailer operating over 2,200 duty-free and duty-paid shops in airports, cruise lines, seaports, railway stations and downtown tourist areas. Dufry employs over 30,000 people. The Company, headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, operates in 65 countries in all five continents. Social Responsibility Dufry cares for children and supports social projects from SOS Kinderdorf in Brazil, Cambodia, Mexico, Morocco and Ivory Coast. SOS Children's Villages is an independent, non-political and non-demonstrational organization established for orphaned and destitute children all over the world. Media Release +---------------------------++--------------++--------------------------------+ |Provider ||Channel ||Contact | +---------------------------++--------------++--------------------------------+ |EQS Group Ltd., Switzerland||newsbox.ch ||Provider/Channel related | |switzerland.eqs.com ||www.newsbox.ch||enquiries | | || ||[email protected] | | || ||+41 41 763 00 50 | +---------------------------++--------------++--------------------------------+
Subject: Retail stores; Dividends; Airports; Stockholders; Cruise lines; Stock prices; Securities buybacks
Location: Cambodia Middle East Turkey Americas North America Latin America Australia Argentina Hong Kong Brazil Asia Europe Morocco Mexico Switzerland Spain Greece United States--US Ivory Coast Eastern Europe Central America
Company / organization: Name: Dufry Group; NAICS: 453220; Name: SOS Childrens Villages International; NAICS: 813319
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Aug 3, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2082423910
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2082423910?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Aug 3, 2018
Last updated: 2018-08-04
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 371 of 474
Q2 2018 Dufry AG Earnings Call - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]03 Aug 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Presentation OPERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, good morning or good afternoon. Welcome to the Dufry's Half Year 2018 Results Presentation Conference Call and Live Webcast. I'm Alice, the Chorus Call operator. (Operator Instructions) The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Mr. Julián Díaz, CEO of Dufry. Please go ahead, sir. JULIáN DíAZ GONZáLEZ, CEO & DIRECTOR, DUFRY AG: Thank you very much. Good afternoon and thank you for participating in the call. These are Andreas Schneiter and Julián Díaz participating from Dufry. We are going as in previous calls to use the presentation disclosure this morning in our website. Please go to Page 6 of the presentation highlights. In half year we delivered 7.2% turnover increase compared with 2017, reaching CHF 4.1 billion. The main driver was organic growth, increasing by 5.5%. During the second quarter, organic growth was 4.2% and was impacted by the seasonal calendar effect and the slowdown of our operations in Spain, Brazil and Argentina. We are also continuing with our very healthy growth in most of all the other operations worldwide, especially in Asia, U.K. and U.S. As part of the organic growth, like-for-like contributed 3.5%. And the new concessions net 2%, confirming, again, the value of our diversified concession portfolio, creating positive results at company-consolidated level. During Half 1, we have opened 109 shops with 13,200 square meters of new commercial space. The plan for this year is to open around 28,000 square meters. We also refurbished 22,400 square meters out of our plan of 43,000 full year, including a good -- very good new generation store in Heathrow Terminal 3. During the first 6 months, we have signed 14,100 square meters of new commercial space. 10,000 will be opened alone 2018 and 4,000 in 2019, including the new MTR fast train terminal in Hong Kong, the new Al-Jazeera terminal in Kuwait, the retail operations in Chicago Midway and Perth Airport in Australia and first increases with different companies among other projects. At June 2018, the group's pipeline opportunities were 40,000 square meters. Most of them, as is obviously commented on several times, focusing Division 3 Asia with 43% of the total. The total, and just for reference point, the total number of square meters operated by Dufry on June 2018 was 446,700. Moving to gross profit margin, we reached 59.8% compared with 59.5% last year due to the renegotiation of better terms with global and local suppliers. EBITDA expanded by 50 basis points to 11.3% from 10.8% in 2017, reaching CHF 464 million, plus 13% compared with previous year. EBITDA was in line with our objectives 2018 for half year. On top of the gross profit margin, 30 basis points of improvement, the contribution of cost rationalization due to our business operating model implementation and efficiency plans are on track and deliver savings in personnel expenses and general expenses of 40 basis points on turnover. Concession fees increased by 30 basis points, in line with the forecast commented on during our last call, where we mentioned concession fees will increase between 20 and 30 basis points this year and this is still our target by year-end. Cash EPS increased by 14.5%, reaching CHF 2.68 compared with CHF 2.34 in 2017. With a significant good performance of financial expenses due to the financial reorganization negotiated last year and despite the negative impact of the increasing one-off income taxes, where an important part is related with no cash payment. Free cash flow reached record for the period of CHF 330 million, more than double than previous year, showing on top of EBITDA growth and better performance in net working capital, 4.9% on turnover compared with 5.3% last year and a continued CapEx growth 3.1% on turnover compared with 4% last year. And finally, with the free cash flow reached CHF 222 million versus CHF 16 million in the previous year. If -- then we move to Page 7. Here we have, again, the information regarding the turnover where we increased by 7.2%, 5.5% organically but I would like to comment on the performance, division by division. Division 1, Southern Europe and Africa. Turnover increased by 7.3%, reaching CHF 833 million compared with CHF 766 million in 2017. Organic growth was 0.5%. On top of the seasonal effect due to Easter and the slowdown affected Spain with single-digit negative growth due to the shifting of international passengers, mainly British, to other destinations, especially Turkey and Greece and substituted by local Spanish passengers with lower spend per head. Good double-digit positive performance in Turkey, Malta, France and African countries, single-digit positive growth in Italy and Greece. During the first weeks of July, also it is still very early for reaching any conclusions about it, the trend in the performance is very similar. Division 1 performed single-digit positive growth with Spain remaining with the same negative performance compared with previous quarter. Division 2, U.K. and Central Europe. Turnover increased by 3.5% compared with previous year and reaching CHF 910 million. Organic growth increased by 3.3%, excluding the contract exited in Geneva and minus 1.2% taking into consideration this operation. Very good performance in U.K., Switzerland, Sweden and Finland with single-digit positive growth. Slightly better performance during the first weeks of July also with single-digit growth led by good performance in U.K. and Switzerland. Division 3, Asia and Middle East, Eastern Europe and Australia. Turnover increased by 20.3%, reaching CHF 546 million. Organic growth remained very high, 22.1%. Double-digit growth performance in Macau, South Korea, Indonesia, Cambodia, India, Jordan, Kuwait, Russia, Kazakhstan, Bulgaria, Armenia and Australia and single-digit growth in Emirates and Serbia. The good performance in operations targeting Chinese and Russian passengers continued also during the second quarter. The performance during the first weeks of July continued double-digit growth but a lower level due to the tough comparables. Division 4, Latin America. Turnover reached CHF 820 million. Organic growth reached 4.2%. Double-digit growth in Dominican Republic, sales onboard cruise lines and Mexico. Single-digit positive growth in Ecuador, Chile, Peru, Aruba and (inaudible) Caribbean. Brazil is likely negative performance and Argentina single-digit negative performance deteriorated during the last part of the quarter. Also measured in local currency, all these operations performing very well, especially Argentina. During the first weeks of July, the situation in South America has lowered down, in same path. Division 5, North America. Turnover increased by 5.5% expressed in Swiss francs, reaching CHF 850 million in 2018. Very positive organic growth of 7.7%, driven for a significant increase in productivity and new contracts added to the portfolio. Both retail concepts performed well, duty-free double-digit growth and duty-paid single-digit growth. During the third weeks of July, the trend has been similar than in-house half year results. If we move now to Page 8. We always comment on the trends in terms of the passengers, especially international passengers' growth. The only information we can comment so far, officially disclosure, is April. And in April, the increase in international passengers worldwide was 7.1%. In locations where Dufry is operating, this number was 5%. The leading regions were Africa and Asia Pacific. Regarding international passenger growth forecast, remained very strong and continued to be very positive in terms of the outlook. 7.2% in 2018, 6.3% in 2019 and 5.7% in 2020, led by Asia Pacific, Europe and Latin America. If we move to Page 9 of the presentation. A bit more detail about the gross retail space opened. We have opened 13,200 square meters. The total target for this year is 28,000 with several important openings. In Madrid, new Hudson International shops. In Malaysia, the first downtown shop in the region in this specific country. In cruise lines, 12 new ships that were opened during the last part of the first half of the year. In Holland America, in Carnival and in P&O and in several locations as always, small locations in 23 new stores in North America. Regarding the refurbished shops, we have complete 22,400 square meters, with a total target for the year of 43,000. I would like also to comment that this is an important part of the like-for-like growth. And we are so far expecting that during the second part of the year, these 43,000 will be complete. Every time that there is a renovation, the spend per location increased between 15% and 25%. The reality of the refurbishment done during the first half are here listed. Málaga, 3 stores, Heraklion in Greece, Toulouse, Malta, Heathrow Terminal 3 and Liverpool. If we move to Page 10 of the presentation, new space signed so far during the year, 14,100 square meters. Main contract already disclosure: MTR railway station in Hong Kong, Perth in Australia, Chicago Midway and Boston Logan. The project pipeline's opportunities remains obviously significantly high, 40,000 square meters. 43% of lease, 40,000 square meters are located in Division 3 in Eastern Europe, Middle East, Far East and Australia. If we move to Page 11, segmentation. What we have seen on the right side of the slide, bottom and top part is the confirmation of a rediversification strategy in the different divisions. We have reached 23% of the business in division U.K. and Central Europe, 21% in Southern Europe, 22% in North America and 20% in Latin America. Probably the most relevant issue is that we have increased the mix participation of Eastern Europe, Middle East, Asia and Australia from 13% to 14% this year, as a consequence of the accelerated growth that we have had in this division. By channel, we confirm we are -- April retail 91% of the total sales but we are growing now in the 3 strategic channels that we have identified for diversification. On top of the April retail duty free and duty paid, we are now trying to develop cruise lines, border shops and downtown shops especially in Division 3. If we move to Page 12. Top and bottom side, on the right part of the slide, shows the performance during the first 6 months. We are still focusing personal care, perfume and cosmetics, 32% of the total sales with an increase of around 7% compared with previous year. Food and confectionary, with 18% of total sales with an increase of close to 9% compared with previous year. And luxury products with 13% of total sales with a growth of 6% compared with previous year. Dufry by sector. The operations in duty free generated 63% of the total sales and duty paid 37%, quite in line with previous year. And if we move to Page 13, in Page 13 and Page 14, I'm going to explain the status of 2 of the most important projects we are developing so far. One is the business operating model in Page 13, many times repeated. This is a way of increasing the efficiency of the operation but also is impacting the P&L in 2018 and 2019. The business operating model implementation is right now being implemented in Europe, Middle East and South Africa as expected, launched in 39 countries where 14 areas already certified. And we expect that all the countries will be fully implemented by year-end 2018. The expected efficiencies that will be impacting the P&L, CHF 50 million, will be split CHF 26 million in 2018 and the difference in 2019. The scope of the business, meaning that what is the -- what are the pillars of implementing the business operating model. The first one is the standardization of IT systems, the second one is the standardization of organizations, meaning the footprint of each organization. The third one is process and procedures. The fourth one is supply chain, the standardization with the 3 platforms that we have already announced it in the past. And finally, the global implementation of E-Motion. I am going to comment on E-Motion in the next page. Everything is on track and the efficiencies announced are expected to be delivered in the timing also of disclosure. Let's move to Page 14. This is one of the more relevant strategies for the present and especially for the future of the company. Digitalization is the most important foundation on top of the number of passengers for accelerating organic growth like-for-like on new concessions and for improving the efficiency. We have identified 3 types of priorities in this digitalization process. Number one is drive revenue. We are now going to be digital. What we want to be is a very efficient company, a more efficient company based in digital. This initiative will drive revenue growth, especially organic, as I said, from now to the year 2023. The second one is drive cost savings and efficiencies. The initiative will drive better and more efficient process and procedures and this will be also impacting the P&L. And finally, we are preparing the company for the future, building capabilities and building the platform that will develop the future Dufry. For developing this new Dufry in the future, we need to have very solid technological platform with areas that the company is going to implement during the first part of 2019. And during the first and second part of 2019, we are going to develop the platform that will allow us to really implement at the maximum level the idea of digitalization in Dufry. This is going to be reflected in 2 projects. One is E-Motion. E-Motion is in this page. In the bottom side is the update of the project. In the top side are the initiatives. Starting with initiatives, just for reminding, the first one is reserve and collect. It's an online site. The idea is expand internationally this reserve and collect service for pickup on departures and arrivals the merchandise ordered from the digital devices led by Dufry, the loyalty program. Personalized benefits depending on the customer and creating a CRM database. Sales tablet for the employees in the digital shops in the new generation stores, improving the mobile payments and training and personalizations for expanding all the know-how of the company through the different employees in the new generation stores. Social media forum is our obviously social media platform forum connecting the airports, brands in the social channels and the new generation stores that are today in several countries, Melbourne, Madrid, Cancun Terminal 4, Zurich, London, Heathrow. In the future, we'll be in Cancun Terminal 3 planning for 2018, Buenos Aires and Amman in 2019. And this part of the digitalization is allowing us to increase the sales in most of these locations in close to double-digit growth and over double-digit growth, especially in Asia. Strengthen communications with brand stories and novelties. Reserve and collect already launched in 20 countries. CRM and RED already launched in 32 countries and social media FORUM already available in online. With all these rollouts with the tablets, the shop employees in new generation stores are ready to attend and welcome any type of nationality and customers with specific subjects, including products offered, pricing policies, products that could be related with their experience in the past. There are many aspects of this program that will be very relevant in order to increase the spend per passenger. It's very interesting because in the different research that we have done, if the ticket is 100 in a standard transaction when the customers don't interact with employees. If the customers interact with employees, the spend per ticket is multiplied by 2. And this specific move from noninteraction to interaction is one of the areas that we are developing more with digitalization. Finally, 3 focus: customers, employees, omni-channel and new product and services. If we move to Page 15. In Page 15, what we remind here is the cash return to shareholders during 2018. The dividend that we paid in May 17, 2018, CHF 3.75 per share. Total dividend was CHF 198 million. And in the future years, our commitment is to pay minimum CHF 200 million and the sustainable return to shareholders, 40% of cash net earnings as a target. In terms of the share buyback program already announced. The share buyback program is up to CHF 400 million during 12 months. Shares purchased until July 27 is 1,352,000. Total amount of share buyback program executed by July 27 is CHF 182 million. The intention as is already announced is to cancel the shares bought back. And I am going to pass through Andreas Schneiter, CFO, for continuing with the financials. ANDREAS SCHNEITER, CFO, DUFRY AG: Thank you, Julian, and good afternoon and good morning, everyone. If we move directly to Page 17, there we have the organic growth, which in the second quarter was 4.2% after first quarter growth of 7.1%. Apart from the very strong comparables that we had in the second quarter last year, we also had the impact of the Easter effect in 2018, which was negative in the second quarter, as the start of Easter was in Q1. Now the Easter effect is about 70 to 80 basis points of quarterly growth. So this was contributing to Q1 this year, but not to Q2 where it was missing. So adjusting for this effect, the expected run rate in Q2 was about 5.5%. So the remaining difference of this 5.5% to the 4.2% was actually driven by the lower growth of Spain, Brazil and Argentina as already commented by Julian. Now on the organic growth by division, Julian already explained that in detail. So in a nutshell, division Eastern Europe, Middle East and Asia continue to perform very strong as did North America. U.K. and Central Europe had stable growth and division Southern Europe and Africa as well as Latin America both slowed down relative to the first quarter. Then on Page 18, we have the FX translation effect, which in the second quarter was strongly positive, with 3.5% due to the weaker Swiss franc against the euro and the British pound. Based on the current rates, we do expect that the FX translation effect remains positive for the full year, 2018. Then if we move to Page 19 where we have the income statement. We always talk about turnover, so let's move to gross margin. Gross margin improved by 30 basis points, driven by the negotiations with the suppliers and also the initiatives that we developed together with the brands, mainly on promotion and the brands' plan. Concession fees increased by 30 basis points to 27.7% in the half year. The increase is actually fully attributable to the performance in Spain where the lack of growth in combination with the increase in minimum guarantees has led to a relative increase in concession fee charge. For all the rest of the business, there were actually some plusses and minuses but the overall concession fees as a percentage remained stable. Personnel expenses and other expenses together improved by 40 basis points in the period. This is mainly due to the efficiencies from the business operating model as explained by Julian. As a result, EBITDA grew to CHF 464 million and EBITDA margin improved by 0.5 percentage point to 11.3%. Then moving on, depreciation was slightly higher than in previous quarters at 2% -- 2.3% of turnover, and this is a result of our continuous investment in refurbishments as well as new space. Amortization increased slightly as an absolute amount to CHF 183 million. As a percentage of turnover, the ratio improved to 4.5%. Linearization was CHF 40 million as anticipated. As a reminder, linearization comprises of the noncash elements of the Spanish contract, i.e., the straight-lining of the minimum guarantee increases as well as the prepaid concession fees. Due to the seasonality of the Spanish business linearization charge will be positive for Q3 but for Q4 there will be a charge again. For the full year, the linearization charge will be around CHF 50 million. Other operational results for the half year was CHF 23 million. Of this amount, about CHF 14 million are related to new projects and startups as well as restructurings and closings. Financial results improved by almost 30% to CHF 64 million. This is mainly due to the refinancing and the tax returns that we got and this is something we executed in 2017. Income tax was CHF 47 million in the half year. Of this charge, about CHF 35 million, so 3 quarters roughly, relate to deferred taxes and are noncash in nature. This amount includes one-off charges of about CHF 20 million, which are in majority related to the restructuring in the U.S. that we did due to the Hudson IPO. The other part is a mix or a shift effect, whereby we accrue more profits on taxes in the faster-growing operations. Taxes are quite difficult to forecast. Our best guess at this stage is that in 2018, we will end up with a tax rate of around 25% for the recurring income plus the one-offs of about CHF 20 million that will come on top of it. Moving on. Noncontrolling interest were CHF 23 million, of which the largest part is due to our business in North America. The CHF 23 million already includes the Hudson minorities since the IPO in February this year. And the result then basically is cash earnings, which improved by CHF 15 million to CHF 142 million. Then let's move to Page 20 where we have the cash EPS. The growth was about 15% for the half year. This growth trajectory is a little below our target for the full year and was mainly impacted by the tax charges, which I just explained, which however should carry less weight in the second half of the year. So if everything goes to plan, we should have an acceleration there, again. Then moving to Page 21 where we have the cash flow statement. We had a record cash generation with free cash flow at CHF 330 million and equity free cash flow at CHF 222 million for the half year. The first half did not have any exceptional items or major projects. So this really does reflect the full performance of the business as it stands. We will review the various key elements in more detail in a minute but just as a side comment, and because I commented on the taxes and the income statement beforehand, you do see here in the cash flow statement that cash taxes are much more stable and growing in line. Below the equity free cash flow, we have the proceeds from the Hudson IPO of CHF 665 million as well as the cash that we returned to the shareholders, i.e. the share buyback and the purchase of treasury shares on one hand and the dividend payment that we made in May on the other hand. Together, we returned about CHF 420 million to our shareholders since the beginning of the year. Now let's look at the different cash flow elements in a bit more detail. Let's start with the seasonality on Page 22. So the third quarter, as you see, is typically the quarter with the highest cash generation. As you also see, we had an outstanding second quarter in terms of cash generation, which was even higher than the third quarter last year. Now given that we already have a good improvement on working capital in the second quarter and we're going to see that just in a minute, we should expect less relative improvement from working capital in Q3 this year compared to 2017. Moving then to Page 23. In the first half of 2018, core net working capital improved by CHF 40 million and the percentage of turnover improved by 0.6 percentage points. Looking at the same period last year, core net working capital was flat, with no improvement there. So typically, the core net working capital is below 5% in Q3 and then it moves back above 5% at year-end. Overall, across the year, our goal is to keep the core net working capital at around 5% on average. For CapEx in the first H -- first half 2018, we were at 3.1% of turnover and this is fully in line with our target range of 3% to 3.5% of turnover, and we do expect to end up within the same range for the full year, so no changes there. Then if we move to Page 24, we have again our key performance indicators on cash flow. In both cases, for the free cash flow and the equity free cash flow, our expectation for the full year remain largely unchanged compared to previous calls. For the free cash flow we expect to reach an EBITDA conversion of 50% to 55%. And for the equity free cash flow, we expect to end up at the higher end of the initial range, which was CHF 300 million to CHF 400 million, i.e., our expectation today is that we can generate an equity free cash flow between CHF 350 million and CHF 400 million for the full year 2018. Then, moving to the balance sheet on Page 25, the asset side hasn't any major changes. What you see that is concession rights continue to decrease as we amortize them. You may remember concession rights are mostly due to acquisitions. On the liabilities and equity side, we have an increase in equity, which is due to the Hudson IPO and a decrease in net debt, which is due to a combination of IPO proceeds from Hudson as well as the cash generation that I explained beforehand. Then on Page 26, to conclude, there we have the net debt as usual. So we reduced our net debt to CHF 3.15 billion as per June and our covenant was at 2.95x net debt-to-EBITDA. So we are within our target range of 2 to 3x net debt-to-EBITDA on one hand and well within the threshold that we have agreed with the banks of 4x leverage. As mentioned in earlier calls, we have a long-term financing in place and there are no maturities before 2022. So this concludes my part of the presentation and I hand back to Julián. JULIáN DíAZ GONZáLEZ: Thank you, Andreas. Let's move to Page 28. As a conclusion, in my view, we have had a good first half of the year with strong turnover growth, organic growth, margin improvements in all levels, especially in EBITDA margin and record of cash generation. We have also communicated a significant number of new contract wins across all the channels, including downtown, border shops and sales onboard cruise lines. The first efficiencies of the business operating model are already reflected in the P&L and full year, this 2018, we expect CHF 26 million above EBITDA. The share buyback program under execution and the dividend payment that happened in May. And the priority for 2018 remains unchanged. Number one is the implementation of the business operating model in 2018, number two is the digitalization and the implementation of initiatives that will become the company more efficient. The strategic initiatives in order to expand the business in other channels, as I mentioned before. And as a consequence of all of these, focus on cash generation and deleveraging what is reflected in the information that we just comment on. I think from our side, in terms of the presentation, is done and now, I suggest we open the Q&A section. Questions and Answers OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) The first question comes from Rohit Ranjan from Morgan Stanley. EDOUARD AUBIN, HEAD OF LUXURY GOODS, MORGAN STANLEY, RESEARCH DIVISION: Can you hear me? JULIáN DíAZ GONZáLEZ: Yes. Yes. We can hear you now. EDOUARD AUBIN: So it's Edouard Aubin from Morgan Stanley, I guess there was some confusion. Two questions for me, one on southern Europe and one on your free cash flow. The first one on southern Europe, just to get an order of magnitude, am I right in thinking that when you look at the transfer of traffic from -- away from Spain to Greece and Turkey, am I right in thinking that Spain is roughly 10% of your sales and Greece is roughly 4% and Turkey 1%. So that's number one. In terms of the sales evolution, I think you, just to clarify, I think you mentioned that sales were down in Spain in Q2 but if you could give us an indication of how much sales were up in Greece and Turkey? And lastly, on southern Europe, am I right in thinking that your EBITDA margin is very high in Greece, maybe 25%, 30% but it's all variable when it comes to concession fees but they are all variable versus fixed in Spain? So that's for southern Europe. And then on free cash flow, so historically, you had significant cash flow leakage in the past and then clearly that was not the case in the first half. So just a few clarifications, am I right in assuming that the one-offs, the negative one-offs were around CHF 100 million in the first half '17? Also Andreas, if you could please comment on the working capital improvement in the first half '18 not related to the one-offs? And lastly, on the free cash flow, I think Andreas, if I heard you correctly, I think you talked about an equity free cash flow of around CHF 350 million to CHF 450 million for the year. Is there any reason to believe that the number, the amount would not be more or less similar next year? I know it's a bit premature but for example, are you aware of any upfront payments you need to make in terms of concessions next year? JULIáN DíAZ GONZáLEZ: Okay. I will answer regarding the first part, Andreas, and you will take the second part. Regarding sales in Europe, what is happening, as I mentioned, is that the international passengers, mainly British, are now flying -- more are flying to north of Africa and in all operations, especially to Turkey and to Greece. This is correct. And they are substituted by Spanish passengers, what impact in terms of this pampered passenger as a consequence of the profitability of this operation and sales. The participation of Spain, Turkey and Greece is more or less what you said. And as a consequence, obviously, the impact is different in Turkey. The growth has been double digit, very high. And in Greece, the increase has been single digit. Regarding the increase of sales or decrease of sales in Spain. In Spain, the problem is that being too large. As I said many times, we are paying a minimum guarantee. And as a consequence, the minimum guarantee is impact -- as the sales are dropping, is impacted more and higher this year, and this is public information. You can obviously check it in the Internet. The mark increased by 6%. As a consequence, the percentage of trend on the total sales because the sales are dropping will be higher. This is more or less what you asked. Is there anything else? EDOUARD AUBIN: No. So yes, that's perfect. And on the variable concession fees in Greece, if you could comment on that, that would be great? JULIáN DíAZ GONZáLEZ: No. I cannot comment on that. It's information that we don't disclose and it's not possible to disclose it because it's confidential basing the contract. EDOUARD AUBIN: Right. And so just to follow up on Spain, on my calculation, your profitability is going to be extremely low this year likely. So if the terms of the contract will not change when you have to renew them end of '19, beginning of 2020, would you basically walk away from the contract in Spain? JULIáN DíAZ GONZáLEZ: If it is exactly like today, yes but there are opportunities and I think I answered this question in the past. If there are opportunities for increasing significantly the sales but this is based in 3 aspects. One is configuration of the shops in size, the second one is configuration of the assortment and the third one is the configuration of the traffic flow. And if this is happening, I think, the [max] or the minimal annual guarantees is not going to be a problem. The problem is the way we operate today that is subject to the contract signed 5 or 6 years ago. But I am very confident. First of all that this year, in 2018, the situation is not going to be at the level that probably looks like today just because a few days of the high season in June. And the second part of the year, I hope the situation will improve. The second level of the discussion here is what is going to happen at the time that this concession will finish if I can say so. With the current scope of the contract, it's very difficult that anybody will operate this in a profitable way. What we'll -- you need to do is changes that will improve and increase the performance and those changes in the incumbent side that, we are the incumbents are very clear. We have been operating this company for 30 years, and we know exactly what to do. And this is a conversation that is already opened with the airport authority, and we will discuss with them our initiatives in order to really implement these initiatives as soon as possible. EDOUARD AUBIN: And on the free cash flow, please Andreas? ANDREAS SCHNEITER: Yes. So on your first point, on the 2017 numbers, you are absolutely right. There has been projects or extraordinary projects of about CHF 104 million cash outflow, of which about CHF 75 million or CHF 74 million were covered in working capital and CHF 30 million were covered in CapEx. So if you were to normalize 2017, first H1 2017, we would have had a normalized cash flow of about CHF 233 million. So the increase year-on-year on a normalized basis is about 43%, of which about half is working capital improvements and the other half is really growth in profitability. Now to the equity free cash flow. So what we are currently thinking is that we will get between CHF 350 million and CHF 400 million of equity free cash flow this year. And we should have at least the same, if not slightly higher numbers in 2019 as we continue to grow. And there is no leakage, as you pointed out, or no specific project that would require material cash that we have currently in the pipeline that we do see for 2019. So based on today's position, we should see at least the same, if not higher cash flow also in 2019, equity free cash flow in 2019. OPERATOR: The next question comes from Jon Cox from Kepler. JON COX, HEAD OF SWISS EQUITIES AND HEAD OF EUROPEAN CONSUMER EQUITIES, KEPLER CHEUVREUX, RESEARCH DIVISION: A couple of questions for you. Just on the tax rate, Andreas, you're talking about 25% plus CHF 20 million this year. Any thoughts about the coming years? Because I think most people assume your tax rate would be below 20% amid the U.S. tax changes. I don't know if you can just give us a rough breakdown of what the cash outflow, the taxes would be and what you think as well in the coming years. To go back to free cash flow, Andreas, I thought you said CHF 350 million to CHF 400 million. My colleague was saying CHF 350 million to CHF 450 million, which you seem to agree with. Can you just give us a bit of clarification on that? And as an add-on on that, the fact that you've done so well already in Q2, and it's still the -- it's not even the high season. Q3 is, obviously, the high season. I'm surprised if you just keep it at CHF 400 million on the top, why aren't you nudging up the top end of the range given the sort of size of the beat? And then just sort of a last question on Latin America. Can you just give us a bit of an update on what's happening there? And what maybe you're doing to try and offset the issues there? And maybe if you can just tell us, I think, in terms of profitability, Brazil is actually one of your poorest profitable operations these days. Is that still correct? ANDREAS SCHNEITER: So let me start with the tax rate and the cash flow question and then Julián will take the Latin America and Brazil question. So on the tax rate, yes, the tax rate has actually increased. I think, there are a couple of elements that I tried to explain but maybe I wasn't fully clear. So you are right that in the U.S., actually, the tax rate is reduced but, for our purposes, we didn't pay any taxes in the U.S. in the past because we have tax loss carryforwards. Now with a change in tax regulation, we have started to pay taxes, this is still relatively marginal, so it's not a huge amount. But with the IPO and the changes in the tax rate, tax flows, we are slightly less efficient in the U.S. today as we were in the past. So that is if you want the marginal contributor to the tax rate. The other part that is happening is that we are growing in markets, and we're growing profits in markets where typically, we have either higher tax rates or less tax loss carryforwards available. So if you want the tax structure that we have historically had, has become somewhat less efficient. So that's why, based on what we see today, the tax rate is actually moving up. It's not something that is actually new. We have seen that already in the past but it has accelerated to a certain extent in 2018 in the first half. As I said, look, it's very hard to forecast taxes. So take everything I said with a pinch of salt. But that's our best guess going forward. On the cash taxes, the simple way of, or the most simple way of doing it at least from my perspective, is if you take the EBT that we have in the income statement and add back the acquisition-related amortization because that is typically not -- or that is not typically, that is not tax deductible and then you will have actually a very good base of taxable profit where then you can apply the tax rate. So what I want to say here is like, if we look on how the taxes, the cash taxes are trending, you can assume that they should grow in line with profit growth at an EBT level, if you want, in the cost. Then to the equity free cash flow, our guidance is CHF 350 million to CHF 400 million, not CHF 450 million for 2018. But obviously, for 2019, as we continue to grow, hopefully, they should be able -- we should be able to increase that. Now why do we not go for a higher guidance? And this is because if you look at how cash flow in 2017 developed, we did have a very strong working capital improvement in the third quarter and this year, we already have preempted that, if I can call it that way in the second quarter. So in a way, what I want to say here is like the Q3 2018, I don't too expect it relatively as much stronger as Q2 was. And that's why maybe the CHF 350 million to CHF 400 million are slightly cautious. I may take that. But I feel more comfortable with that also in view of the fact that there are some new projects coming. We have one Perth. We have Hong Kong coming up. So there is also CapEx that will be kicking in. So we feel more comfortable with the CHF 350 million to CHF 400 million at this stage. JON COX: So Andreas, just on the tax. So you assume it will be 25% over the next few years then? ANDREAS SCHNEITER: Sorry, yes. Correct. That will be my best guess at this stage. JULIáN DíAZ GONZáLEZ: Okay. Jon, regarding South America, what we have seen over the last 3 months, especially during the second quarter, is this acceleration in terms of sales in US dollars. As I mentioned, the performance in local currency is very high, especially in Argentina, high double-digit growth. And in Brazil, is single-digit growth in local currency. And don't forget that most of the costs in these locations are in local currency. We don't pay the cost in U.S. dollars. As a consequence, the profitability, especially in margins, is not affected a lot, especially in Argentina is increasing. Regarding the profitability in Brazil, Brazil is not a low profitable company. You need to take into consideration depending on, obviously, in the calculations you do, the allocation of the different, obviously, cost and margins in the distribution centers. If you ask me the question, is in line with the other locations, worldwide, I would tell you, yes, in terms of margins, it's very similar. Even that, obviously, it's a very sizable operation. OPERATOR: The next question comes from Volker Bosse from Baader Bank. VOLKER BOSSE, CO-HEAD OF EQUITY RESEARCH, BAADER-HELVEA EQUITY RESEARCH: Three questions for my side. First of all, on gross profit margin, Julián, you indicated in previous conference calls gross profit margin could be up by 50 basis points in '18 and the full year. So after H1, you're at 29%. So would you confirm your indications of 50 basis points as of today? And the second question would be on concession fees. They are up by 40 basis points in H1. So what can we expect here on a full year basis? I mean, the run rate historically, I think, is 25 to 30 basis points on average, so is it fair to assume concession fees to be slightly ahead of the historical average? And the third question, sorry to come back on taxes. Just a clarification, Andreas, what is the CHF 20 million one-off related to? JULIáN DíAZ GONZáLEZ: I will start with the gross profit margin. The 30 basis points of increase in second quarter and first quarter is mainly due to the mix effect. And I think I mentioned that there are new operations started by the company that are impacting this gross profit margin. By year-end, my best estimate is that we will be between 30 and 40 basis points. Because I think again, with the mix in summer, we will come back to that. To reach 50 basis points straight to the P&L, it's possible, but I prefer to say between 30 and 40 basis points of increase. Regarding the concession fees, it will be in line, 20, 30 basis points of increase by year-end, if this is still the same. This is, obviously, based also in the sales calculation and because most of the concessions are variable but it depends on the performance, but I confirm 20, 30 basis points. The meaning is by year-end, we will be mitigating or above the gross profit margin on top of the concession fees. And then the leverage and the efficiency, business operating model plans that so far have delivered 40 basis points. But as I said in previous times, we would be between CHF 50 million and CHF 60 million -- CHF 55 million and CHF 60 million full year impact. This is what is obviously becoming the EBITDA in line or I confirm that we are in line with the projections or with the consensus by year-end. Regarding the -- what else, taxes. ANDREAS SCHNEITER: The taxes. So on the CHF 20 million, as part of the Hudson IPO preparation, we needed actually to restructure parts of the U.S. legal organization in order to be able to carve out, if you want, the Hudson business and that has led to some internal profits. But for tax purposes, they obviously are still profits in that context. And for that reason, we have deferred taxes of CHF 20 million that you see on top of that normal taxes on the tax income line. So the exact amount for Hudson was CHF 13 million and there are some other smaller stuff then related to other projects and other restructurings that we did, which accounted for the other CHF 7 million to get to the CHF 20 million. But the largest part, as I said, was the Hudson IPO, if I can call it restructuring -- or legal reorganization actually to be more specific. OPERATOR: The next question comes from Paul Bonnet from Bank of America Merrill Lynch. PAUL JACQUES PHILIPPE BONNET, ANALYST, BOFA MERRILL LYNCH, RESEARCH DIVISION: So I had a quick question on first, the 5% to 7% organic growth guidance. Because we've seen the slowdown in Spain and Latin America and that Spain gets slightly bigger in Q3, I guess, in terms of percentage of sales and Latin America, the depreciation happened throughout the second quarter, I guess, we should see that extend into Q3? Are you still comfortable with the 5% to 7% organic growth guidance for the full year? Is the first question. Then, the second. Okay, fine. JULIáN DíAZ GONZáLEZ: Yes. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. PAUL JACQUES PHILIPPE BONNET: And the second question is about the distribution center. What can we expect there? Because I see that they increased 200%, so almost CHF 30 million of impact on the revenue. What can we expect there for the second half of the year? JULIáN DíAZ GONZáLEZ: Okay. Thank you very much for the questions. Regarding organic growth, I confirm that we expect to be above 5% full year. This is our best estimate still today. Obviously, there will be 2 different parts. One is the high season, the other one is the fourth quarter. In the third quarter, I think, we'll be, obviously, below 5%. I mean, specific probably will be around 3%. But I think due to the -- obviously, the information we managed today that during the fourth quarter, we will recover and the estimation we have today is above 5%. Regarding the distribution centers, it's difficult to really forecast because the distribution centers depend on contracts between companies and depending on the level of sales of each of the company, the allocation of the gross profit margin could be higher or lower. It's not something that we manage. It's a contract between the distribution center and the different companies. This is official contract. Obviously, all is transparent but we cannot guess if it's going to be higher or lower. And presently, I suggest because this is a trend that we -- you use the same proportions and during the half year because this is -- probably is going to give you a better understanding. ANDREAS SCHNEITER: Sorry if I can just -- if I just can chip in on that one. So what you do see is like, because of the business operating model, there is now a higher proportion of sourcing shifted through the distribution centers, especially for Division 1 for southern Europe and Africa. So when you look at the overall change in southern Europe and Africa that is somewhat overstated because, due to the supply chain change that we have done there, part of the profits have shifted to the distribution centers. So in a way, the change in Europe and Africa looks overproportionally bad, which is not fully the case. It is lower than it is before but parts of it is also in the distribution centers. And just to remind you, all of the distribution center profits are internal profits. So it's a pure profit allocation between distribution centers and the divisions, if you want. OPERATOR: The next question comes from Jörn Iffert, UBS. JöRN IFFERT, DIRECTOR AND ANALYST, UBS INVESTMENT BANK, RESEARCH DIVISION: The first one would be please on the EBITDA margin. The key drivers for the EBITDA margin improvement, in particular, in Q2 but also for the first half seems to be advertising income and the improving results from share of associates. And my question is linked to the business operating model, the CHF 26 million, are they only fully coming through then in the second half? Or are they across and if you need to deduct something on the net line coming from the business operating model? And the second question please would be on the line below EBITDA, the other operating expenses. We have CHF 22 million now and after first half, what do you expect here then for the second half? And what do you also think could be the run rate then for 2019? JULIáN DíAZ GONZáLEZ: Okay. Regarding the first part, I will answer the first part, Jörn, is the margin, the gross profit margin especially is obviously due to advertising and to cost of products. Sometimes you cannot separate because the negotiation is done together. It's not in a -- split. Advertising is not only the advertising, it's also the negotiation process basing the number of employees they provide us, the number of obviously promotions. It's not easy to split both in order to understand the margin. I would say please take the ratio of the 59.8 gross profit margin as a reference point. And the business operating model so far is not impacting this gross profit margin. It's only in negotiations. Regarding the business operating model impact, it's above EBITDA line is personnel expenses, especially personnel expenses and general expenses. The impact so far has been CHF 60 million more or less until June. And we expect the remaining CHF 10 million by year-end. But there is another part that I mentioned in previous calls. That is regarding the efficiency plan of reorganization of central offices in the different divisions and headquarters, where we are going to deliver this total CHF 55 million, CHF 60 million of savings compared with previous year. This is the key point. You have CHF 26 million due to the business operating model and the remaining balance is the CHF 55 million, CHF 60 million is due to the efficiency plan that I comment on in previous calls. ANDREAS SCHNEITER: And on the -- so maybe if I just can make one side comment. The share of results of associates, we had a negative one-off last year. So I think, this was more a negative impact last year than a positive this year. So what we are -- this year we are completely recurring, so there is no adjustment if you want or normalization in that line required. But then to your point, to your question specifically to the other operational results. So we have in half year 2018, we have about CHF 5 million give or take of, let's say, something that I would consider really nonrecurring, which is Hudson-related or other projects that are more one-off in nature related. So I would argue that for the full year, we probably should be ending up above CHF 30 million to CHF 35 million. And then, for the full year 2019, my best guess at this stage would be somewhere between CHF 20 million to CHF 30 million depending on how the year goes. JöRN IFFERT: All right. Maybe if I may come back also to the organic growth. You indicated that organic growth in Q3 is likely around 3%. And what makes you confident that Q4 is improving again to reach your full year target? JULIáN DíAZ GONZáLEZ: We have almost -- well, I cannot comment on it specifically because they are not open but we are scheduling to open new operations too now. OPERATOR: The next question comes from Charlie Muir-Sands from Deutsche Bank. CHARLIE MUIR-SANDS, RESEARCH ANALYST, DEUTSCHE BANK AG, RESEARCH DIVISION: Two questions, please. First one is staying with that organic growth plan or ambition. To put another way, should we expect the contribution from net new space, which was 2% in H1, should we expect that to build in the second half? And my second question relates to your RED loyalty program. Can you share with us any metrics around the level of penetration you are achieving in the stores where you have deployed that RED program such as the proportion of sales, where you are capturing the passenger details? JULIáN DíAZ GONZáLEZ: Okay. Regarding the second part of the year, I think, the 2% as a target is a realistic target, 2%, 2.5% for the new concessions. Regarding RED, it's obviously compared with the total company, still is not important but there are locations, so there are companies where we are reaching 10% of increase in terms of the penetration due to the (inaudible) and RED because all is connected. And the target for the future, I am talking about 2023, 2024 is to reach around 10% of the sales at that time. OPERATOR: The next question is a follow-up question from Mr. Cox from Kepler. JON COX: Sorry to come back. Julián, you said that you can -- sort of you're okay with consensus. Did I hear you correctly? And what were you referring to, the absolute EBITDA number or the margin expectations, which I think, you're plus 50, plus 60 basis points this year? EBITDA is around CHF 1.1 billion plus? So is it the margins? JULIáN DíAZ GONZáLEZ: No, this is both. Jon, this is both in terms of total value and margin. OPERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Díaz and Mr. Schneiter for any closing remarks. JULIáN DíAZ GONZáLEZ: Okay. Thank you very much. It has been always a pleasure to communicate about Dufry. Thank you for the questions and the participation, and I look forward to meeting you soon. Thank you. OPERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now over. Thank you for choosing Chorus Call and thank you for participating in the conference. You may now disconnect your lines. Goodbye. [Thomson Financial reserves the right to make changes to documents, content, or other information on this web site without obligation to notify any person of such changes. In the conference calls upon which Event Transcripts are based, companies may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding a variety of items. Such forward-looking statements are based upon current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those stated in any forward-looking statement based on a number of important factors and risks, which are more specifically identified in the companies' most recent SEC filings. Although the companies may indicate and believe that the assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements are reasonable, any of the assumptions could prove inaccurate or incorrect and, therefore, there can be no assurance that the results contemplated in the forward-looking statements will be realized. THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN EVENT TRANSCRIPTS IS A TEXTUAL REPRESENTATION OF THE APPLICABLE COMPANY'S CONFERENCE CALL AND WHILE EFFORTS ARE MADE TO PROVIDE AN ACCURATE TRANSCRIPTION, THERE MAY BE MATERIAL ERRORS, OMISSIONS, OR INACCURACIES IN THE REPORTING OF THE SUBSTANCE OF THE CONFERENCE CALLS. IN NO WAY DOES THOMSON FINANCIAL OR THE APPLICABLE COMPANY OR THE APPLICABLE COMPANY ASSUME ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY INVESTMENT OR OTHER DECISIONS MADE BASED UPON THE INFORMATION PROVIDED ON THIS WEB SITE OR IN ANY EVENT TRANSCRIPT. USERS ARE ADVISED TO REVIEW THE APPLICABLE COMPANY'S CONFERENCE CALL ITSELF AND THE APPLICABLE COMPANY'S SEC FILINGS BEFORE MAKING ANY INVESTMENT OR OTHER DECISIONS.] [Copyright: Content copyright 2018 Thomson Financial. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Electronic format, layout and metadata, copyright 2018 ASC LLC (www.ascllc.net) ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No license is granted to the user of this material other than for research. 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Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Aug 3, 2018
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Document 372 of 474
Brazil on the brink: Essay | Wracked by economic and political crisis, Brazilians are searching for a saviour in this year's elections. According to a compelling five-century history, it has been ever thus, writes Geoff Dyer [Asia Region]
Author: Dyer, Geoff
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]04 Aug 2018: 8.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: On August 24 1954, Getúlio Vargas, Brazil's president and the dominant figure in its politics for the previous two decades, was facing an ignominious end to his career. For a year, his government had been assailed by corruption allegations, and strikes had brought the country to a standstill. Even worse, one of his aides had been involved in an assassination attempt on a rival. After most of his ministers pushed him to resign at an early meeting, Vargas did the one thing he could to outsmart the opponents he accused of orchestrating a coup: he retired to his room at the Catete Palace in Rio de Janeiro, lay down on the bed and put a pistol to the left side of his chest. He then pulled the trigger. It was 8.30 in the morning. As Lilia Schwarcz and Heloisa Starling recount in Brazil: A Biography, their compelling and insightful history, "the country went mad". Crowds vented their fury in many of the main cities with stones and clubs. In Rio, a mob attacked anything that had to do with the opposition and its perceived allies — including the offices of Standard Oil and the American embassy. Around a million people gathered in front of the presidential palace in the hope of seeing the body. In case political tensions were not high enough, Vargas left behind a selfpitying suicide note in which he blamed his death on everyone he believed to be against his development programme, from the opposition to foreign business. "If the birds of prey want someone's blood, if they want to continue sucking the Brazilian people's, I offer my own life in sacrifice," he wrote. With their mixture of melodrama, violence, cronyism and politics-as-personality, the last days of Vargas highlight the central narrative of Schwarcz and Starling's history — the stuttering, fragile and incomplete effort to construct a robust Brazilian state that can deliver stable politics and the protection of basic rights. In their telling, Brazil has not developed the values needed to sustain an effective republic that can weed out corruption. Instead of impersonal government, Schwarcz and Starling chronicle an endless cycle of "immediatism [that] takes the place of planning substantive, long-term changes". Brazil, they write, has often been a "country on the lookout for the daily miracle, or some unexpected saviour". A decade or so ago, such a note of pessimism would have seemed out of place. Not only was Brazil growing at a rapid clip, but its democracy seemed to have built solid foundations. Power had been passed seamlessly from one democratically elected government to another, from Fernando Henrique Cardoso to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. A durable consensus also appeared to have developed around the core ideas of governance — a conviction that stable public finances are not the enemy of ambitious social policy but the necessary starting point. Yet after several years of overlapping political and economic crises, Brazilian democracy is fraying in ways that echo many of the patterns Schwarcz and Starling describe, especially from the last century. The current mood is more dejected and the politics more fractious than at any time since elections were restored in 1985. The once-feted Lula da Silva is in prison after being convicted of corruption — a legal predicament he has even tried to hint could be the work of the US. Much of what goes for the political centre has also been decimated by graft accusations. The latest polls suggest that the presidential election in October could end up as a run-off between Jair Bolsonaro, a tropical Trump who talks wistfully about the torture-filled military dictatorship that started in 1964, and Ciro Gomes, a leftwing candidate whose truculent personality and elastic economic logic have many of the hallmarks of a new populist adventure. Schwarcz and Starling's blunt conclusion that "although democracy has moved forward, the Republic has stayed on the drawing board" — written when the book was originally published in Brazil in 2015 — seems almost too upbeat in the current climate. In its timeframe, Brazil: A Biography is nothing if not conventional. It spans the 500 or so years from when Pedro Alvares Cabral, a minor Portuguese aristocrat, landed in 1500 in what is now Bahia in Brazil's north-east, to Cardoso's comfortable election victory in 1994 on the back of an inflation-busting economic plan. But what marks it out from other histories of Brazil is the way it mixes the public and the private, the well-trodden and the obscure. It moves effortlessly from the high politics of the Portuguese court fleeing Napoleon in 1807 to install itself in a disease-ridden Rio "that looked like an African coastal town", as one observer described it, to the myriad micro-rebellions against slavery that marked the 17th and 18th centuries. Schwarcz, in particular, who divides her time between São Paulo university and Princeton, has been a pioneer in drawing out often-neglected aspects of Brazil's slave-owning past. In describing the "tortuous process of building citizenship", Schwarcz and Starling tell two inter-related stories — the often stumbling efforts to establish durable political institutions, especially after the end of monarchy in 1889, and the way that race and racial identity have changed over time in the country that received more slaves from Africa than any other. Schwarcz and Starling write that one of the keys to understanding Brazilian politics and the pervasiveness of corruption is what they call "familyism", in which important politicians are known by their first name — Getúlio! Lula! — and treated as if they were a relative, rather than judged by their commitment to the public good. They endorse the historian Sérgio Buarque de Holanda's famous description of the Brazilian "cordial man", not as the compliment the phrase has sometimes been interpreted as being, but as a criticism of "the precedence of affection and emotion over the rigorous impersonality of principles that organise society". These contradictions are nowhere more evident than in the era of Getúlio Vargas from the 1930s and to the early 1950s — which still profoundly mark Brazil today in positive and negative ways and provide some of the most engaging chapters in the book. Vargas was not only the most important figure in 20th-century Brazil, but also one of the most ambiguous. The era saw Brazil's first major strides towards urbanisation and industrialisation and Vargas introduced some of the first social protections, including working day limits, sick leave and pensions. To this day, he is admired by some on the left. Yet he ruled at times as a dictator, especially during the Estado Novo period from 1937 to 1945. He also openly admired many of the ideas and liturgy of European fascism, including the organisation of society through major interest groups, the exaltation of nationalism and the primacy of a dominant leader. Schwarcz and Starling describe the Estado Novo regime as "authoritarian, modernising and pragmatic". They also note the more disparaging contemporary verdict of the writer Graciliano Ramos, who called it, referring to one of the main indigenous peoples, "our tiny little Tupinambá fascism". Most of all, the Vargas era cemented in the Brazilian political DNA a brand of corporatism that encourages an often cosy co-operation between the state and big business. Success in Brazilian capitalism still depends too little on innovation and too much on political connections. Race provides the other spine of the book. Brazil, which received as many as 40 per cent of the slaves brought from Africa, was the last country in the western hemisphere to abolish slavery in 1888. The authors are unsparing in their descriptions of the violence and cruelty — at 25, the life expectancy of Brazilian slaves was even lower than the 35 years in the US. On one estate in Bahia they examine, five new slaves were purchased a year because of "the constant deaths". One of Schwarcz and Starling's great strengths is their dissection of changing racial identity. Again, the 1930s proved to be a major turning point. As the society and culture modernised, Brazil embraced elements of a mixed-race identity. With radio taking off, samba and its Afro-Brazilian rhythms became the national music, and carnival the national holiday. In the propaganda of the Estado Novo, "being of mixed race was no longer seen as a disadvantage, but rather to be celebrated". Up to a point. Schwarcz and Starling describe the proliferation of biological theories in the early 20th century that tried to demonstrate the inferiority of blacks and mestizos, or their likely disappearance. The brutal barriers of slavery were replaced with more subtle distinctions. "After abolition, black people were treated with a kind of silent and perverse prejudice ... based as it was on a hierarchy constructed according to gradations of colour," they write. Or as a popular saying from the years after abolition went: "Freedom might be black, but equality is white." Schwarcz and Starling's conclusions are by no means downbeat. On race, they believe the country has turned a corner, part of a broader "civil rights" movement they identify that is pushing for greater equality. Yet they also note that "outrage" at the growth of corruption in recent years could "lead to a loss in credibility of the democratic institutions". That question will be the subplot of this October's elections. Geoff Dyer is the FT's analysis editor and a former São Paulo bureau chief Brazilian capitalism still depends too little on innovation and too much on political connections CREDIT: Geoff Dyer CAPTION: Brazil: A Biography by Heloisa Starling and Lilia Schwarcz Allen Lane £30, 800 pages il i h; ; Demonstrators in São Paulo, Brazil, celebrate the sentencing of former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in July 2017— Eyevine
Subject: Abolition of slavery; Biographies; Books; Politics; Corruption; Society; Capitalism; Racial identity; Race; Democracy; Elections
Location: United States--US Africa Brazil
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 8
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Aug 4, 2018
Section: Life and Arts
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2098901767
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2098901767?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Aug 4, 2018
Last updated: 2018-12-03
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 373 of 474
Brazil on the brink: Essay | Wracked by economic and political crisis, Brazilians are searching for a saviour in this year's elections. According to a compelling five-century history, it has been ever thus, writes Geoff Dyer [Europe Region]
Author: Dyer, Geoff
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]04 Aug 2018: 8. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: On August 24 1954, Getúlio Vargas, Brazil's president and the dominant figure in its politics for the previous two decades, was facing an ignominious end to his career. For a year, his government had been assailed by corruption allegations, and strikes had brought the country to a standstill. Even worse, one of his aides had been involved in an assassination attempt on a rival. After most of his ministers pushed him to resign at an early meeting, Vargas did the one thing he could to outsmart the opponents he accused of orchestrating a coup: he retired to his room at the Catete Palace in Rio de Janeiro, lay down on the bed and put a pistol to the left side of his chest. He then pulled the trigger. It was 8.30 in the morning. As Lilia Schwarcz and Heloisa Starling recount in Brazil: A Biography, their compelling and insightful history, "the country went mad". Crowds vented their fury in many of the main cities with stones and clubs. In Rio, a mob attacked anything that had to do with the opposition and its perceived allies — including the offices of Standard Oil and the American embassy. Around a million people gathered in front of the presidential palace in the hope of seeing the body. In case political tensions were not high enough, Vargas left behind a selfpitying suicide note in which he blamed his death on everyone he believed to be against his development programme, from the opposition to foreign business. "If the birds of prey want someone's blood, if they want to continue sucking the Brazilian people's, I offer my own life in sacrifice," he wrote. With their mixture of melodrama, violence, cronyism and politics-as-personality, the last days of Vargas highlight the central narrative of Schwarcz and Starling's history — the stuttering, fragile and incomplete effort to construct a robust Brazilian state that can deliver stable politics and the protection of basic rights. In their telling, Brazil has not developed the values needed to sustain an effective republic that can weed out corruption. Instead of impersonal government, Schwarcz and Starling chronicle an endless cycle of "immediatism [that] takes the place of planning substantive, long-term changes". Brazil, they write, has often been a "country on the lookout for the daily miracle, or some unexpected saviour". A decade or so ago, such a note of pessimism would have seemed out of place. Not only was Brazil growing at a rapid clip, but its democracy seemed to have built solid foundations. Power had been passed seamlessly from one democratically elected government to another, from Fernando Henrique Cardoso to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. A durable consensus also appeared to have developed around the core ideas of governance — a conviction that stable public finances are not the enemy of ambitious social policy but the necessary starting point. Yet after several years of overlapping political and economic crises, Brazilian democracy is fraying in ways that echo many of the patterns Schwarcz and Starling describe, especially from the last century. The current mood is more dejected and the politics more fractious than at any time since elections were restored in 1985. The once-feted Lula da Silva is in prison after being convicted of corruption — a legal predicament he has even tried to hint could be the work of the US. Much of what goes for the political centre has also been decimated by graft accusations. The latest polls suggest that the presidential election in October could end up as a run-off between Jair Bolsonaro, a tropical Trump who talks wistfully about the torture-filled military dictatorship that started in 1964, and Ciro Gomes, a leftwing candidate whose truculent personality and elastic economic logic have many of the hallmarks of a new populist adventure. Schwarcz and Starling's blunt conclusion that "although democracy has moved forward, the Republic has stayed on the drawing board" — written when the book was originally published in Brazil in 2015 — seems almost too upbeat in the current climate. In its timeframe, Brazil: A Biography is nothing if not conventional. It spans the 500 or so years from when Pedro Alvares Cabral, a minor Portuguese aristocrat, landed in 1500 in what is now Bahia in Brazil's north-east, to Cardoso's comfortable election victory in 1994 on the back of an inflation-busting economic plan. But what marks it out from other histories of Brazil is the way it mixes the public and the private, the well-trodden and the obscure. It moves effortlessly from the high politics of the Portuguese court fleeing Napoleon in 1807 to install itself in a disease-ridden Rio "that looked like an African coastal town", as one observer described it, to the myriad micro-rebellions against slavery that marked the 17th and 18th centuries. Schwarcz, in particular, who divides her time between São Paulo university and Princeton, has been a pioneer in drawing out often-neglected aspects of Brazil's slave-owning past. In describing the "tortuous process of building citizenship", Schwarcz and Starling tell two inter-related stories — the often stumbling efforts to establish durable political institutions, especially after the end of monarchy in 1889, and the way that race and racial identity have changed over time in the country that received more slaves from Africa than any other. Schwarcz and Starling write that one of the keys to understanding Brazilian politics and the pervasiveness of corruption is what they call "familyism", in which important politicians are known by their first name — Getúlio! Lula! — and treated as if they were a relative, rather than judged by their commitment to the public good. They endorse the historian Sérgio Buarque de Holanda's famous description of the Brazilian "cordial man", not as the compliment the phrase has sometimes been interpreted as being, but as a criticism of "the precedence of affection and emotion over the rigorous impersonality of principles that organise society". These contradictions are nowhere more evident than in the era of Getúlio Vargas from the 1930s and to the early 1950s — which still profoundly mark Brazil today in positive and negative ways and provide some of the most engaging chapters in the book. Vargas was not only the most important figure in 20th-century Brazil, but also one of the most ambiguous. The era saw Brazil's first major strides towards urbanisation and industrialisation and Vargas introduced some of the first social protections, including working day limits, sick leave and pensions. To this day, he is admired by some on the left. Yet he ruled at times as a dictator, especially during the Estado Novo period from 1937 to 1945. He also openly admired many of the ideas and liturgy of European fascism, including the organisation of society through major interest groups, the exaltation of nationalism and the primacy of a dominant leader. Schwarcz and Starling describe the Estado Novo regime as "authoritarian, modernising and pragmatic". They also note the more disparaging contemporary verdict of the writer Graciliano Ramos, who called it, referring to one of the main indigenous peoples, "our tiny little Tupinambá fascism". Most of all, the Vargas era cemented in the Brazilian political DNA a brand of corporatism that encourages an often cosy co-operation between the state and big business. Success in Brazilian capitalism still depends too little on innovation and too much on political connections. Race provides the other spine of the book. Brazil, which received as many as 40 per cent of the slaves brought from Africa, was the last country in the western hemisphere to abolish slavery in 1888. The authors are unsparing in their descriptions of the violence and cruelty — at 25, the life expectancy of Brazilian slaves was even lower than the 35 years in the US. On one estate in Bahia they examine, five new slaves were purchased a year because of "the constant deaths". One of Schwarcz and Starling's great strengths is their dissection of changing racial identity. Again, the 1930s proved to be a major turning point. As the society and culture modernised, Brazil embraced elements of a mixed-race identity. With radio taking off, samba and its Afro-Brazilian rhythms became the national music, and carnival the national holiday. In the propaganda of the Estado Novo, "being of mixed race was no longer seen as a disadvantage, but rather to be celebrated". Up to a point. Schwarcz and Starling describe the proliferation of biological theories in the early 20th century that tried to demonstrate the inferiority of blacks and mestizos, or their likely disappearance. The brutal barriers of slavery were replaced with more subtle distinctions. "After abolition, black people were treated with a kind of silent and perverse prejudice ... based as it was on a hierarchy constructed according to gradations of colour," they write. Or as a popular saying from the years after abolition went: "Freedom might be black, but equality is white." Schwarcz and Starling's conclusions are by no means downbeat. On race, they believe the country has turned a corner, part of a broader "civil rights" movement they identify that is pushing for greater equality. Yet they also note that "outrage" at the growth of corruption in recent years could "lead to a loss in credibility of the democratic institutions". That question will be the subplot of this October's elections. Geoff Dyer is the FT's analysis editor and a former São Paulo bureau chief Brazilian capitalism still depends too little on innovation and too much on political connections CREDIT: Geoff Dyer CAPTION: Brazil: A Biography by Heloisa Starling and Lilia Schwarcz Allen Lane £30, 800 pages il i h; ; Demonstrators in São Paulo, Brazil, celebrate the sentencing of former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in July 2017— Eyevine
Subject: Abolition of slavery; Biographies; Books; Politics; Corruption; Society; Capitalism; Racial identity; Race; Democracy; Elections
Location: United States--US Africa Brazil
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 8
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Aug 4, 2018
Section: Life and Arts
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2098909589
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2098909589?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Aug 4, 2018
Last updated: 2018-12-03
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 374 of 474
Brazil on the brink: Essay | Wracked by economic and political crisis, Brazilians are searching for a saviour in this year's elections. According to a compelling five-century history, it has been ever thus, writes Geoff Dyer
Author: Dyer, Geoff
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]04 Aug 2018: 8. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: On August 24 1954, Getúlio Vargas, Brazil's president and the dominant figure in its politics for the previous two decades, was facing an ignominious end to his career. For a year, his government had been assailed by corruption allegations, and strikes had brought the country to a standstill. Even worse, one of his aides had been involved in an assassination attempt on a rival. After most of his ministers pushed him to resign at an early meeting, Vargas did the one thing he could to outsmart the opponents he accused of orchestrating a coup: he retired to his room at the Catete Palace in Rio de Janeiro, lay down on the bed and put a pistol to the left side of his chest. He then pulled the trigger. It was 8.30 in the morning. As Lilia Schwarcz and Heloisa Starling recount in Brazil: A Biography, their compelling and insightful history, "the country went mad". Crowds vented their fury in many of the main cities with stones and clubs. In Rio, a mob attacked anything that had to do with the opposition and its perceived allies — including the offices of Standard Oil and the American embassy. Around a million people gathered in front of the presidential palace in the hope of seeing the body. In case political tensions were not high enough, Vargas left behind a selfpitying suicide note in which he blamed his death on everyone he believed to be against his development programme, from the opposition to foreign business. "If the birds of prey want someone's blood, if they want to continue sucking the Brazilian people's, I offer my own life in sacrifice," he wrote. With their mixture of melodrama, violence, cronyism and politics-as-personality, the last days of Vargas highlight the central narrative of Schwarcz and Starling's history — the stuttering, fragile and incomplete effort to construct a robust Brazilian state that can deliver stable politics and the protection of basic rights. In their telling, Brazil has not developed the values needed to sustain an effective republic that can weed out corruption. Instead of impersonal government, Schwarcz and Starling chronicle an endless cycle of "immediatism [that] takes the place of planning substantive, long-term changes". Brazil, they write, has often been a "country on the lookout for the daily miracle, or some unexpected saviour". A decade or so ago, such a note of pessimism would have seemed out of place. Not only was Brazil growing at a rapid clip, but its democracy seemed to have built solid foundations. Power had been passed seamlessly from one democratically elected government to another, from Fernando Henrique Cardoso to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. A durable consensus also appeared to have developed around the core ideas of governance — a conviction that stable public finances are not the enemy of ambitious social policy but the necessary starting point. Yet after several years of overlapping political and economic crises, Brazilian democracy is fraying in ways that echo many of the patterns Schwarcz and Starling describe, especially from the last century. The current mood is more dejected and the politics more fractious than at any time since elections were restored in 1985. The once-feted Lula da Silva is in prison after being convicted of corruption — a legal predicament he has even tried to hint could be the work of the US. Much of what goes for the political centre has also been decimated by graft accusations. The latest polls suggest that the presidential election in October could end up as a run-off between Jair Bolsonaro, a tropical Trump who talks wistfully about the torture-filled military dictatorship that started in 1964, and Ciro Gomes, a leftwing candidate whose truculent personality and elastic economic logic have many of the hallmarks of a new populist adventure. Schwarcz and Starling's blunt conclusion that "although democracy has moved forward, the Republic has stayed on the drawing board" — written when the book was originally published in Brazil in 2015 — seems almost too upbeat in the current climate. In its timeframe, Brazil: A Biography is nothing if not conventional. It spans the 500 or so years from when Pedro Alvares Cabral, a minor Portuguese aristocrat, landed in 1500 in what is now Bahia in Brazil's north-east, to Cardoso's comfortable election victory in 1994 on the back of an inflation-busting economic plan. But what marks it out from other histories of Brazil is the way it mixes the public and the private, the well-trodden and the obscure. It moves effortlessly from the high politics of the Portuguese court fleeing Napoleon in 1807 to install itself in a disease-ridden Rio "that looked like an African coastal town", as one observer described it, to the myriad micro-rebellions against slavery that marked the 17th and 18th centuries. Schwarcz, in particular, who divides her time between São Paulo university and Princeton, has been a pioneer in drawing out often-neglected aspects of Brazil's slave-owning past. In describing the "tortuous process of building citizenship", Schwarcz and Starling tell two inter-related stories — the often stumbling efforts to establish durable political institutions, especially after the end of monarchy in 1889, and the way that race and racial identity have changed over time in the country that received more slaves from Africa than any other. Schwarcz and Starling write that one of the keys to understanding Brazilian politics and the pervasiveness of corruption is what they call "familyism", in which important politicians are known by their first name — Getúlio! Lula! — and treated as if they were a relative, rather than judged by their commitment to the public good. They endorse the historian Sérgio Buarque de Holanda's famous description of the Brazilian "cordial man", not as the compliment the phrase has sometimes been interpreted as being, but as a criticism of "the precedence of affection and emotion over the rigorous impersonality of principles that organise society". These contradictions are nowhere more evident than in the era of Getúlio Vargas from the 1930s and to the early 1950s — which still profoundly mark Brazil today in positive and negative ways and provide some of the most engaging chapters in the book. Vargas was not only the most important figure in 20th-century Brazil, but also one of the most ambiguous. The era saw Brazil's first major strides towards urbanisation and industrialisation and Vargas introduced some of the first social protections, including working day limits, sick leave and pensions. To this day, he is admired by some on the left. Yet he ruled at times as a dictator, especially during the Estado Novo period from 1937 to 1945. He also openly admired many of the ideas and liturgy of European fascism, including the organisation of society through major interest groups, the exaltation of nationalism and the primacy of a dominant leader. Schwarcz and Starling describe the Estado Novo regime as "authoritarian, modernising and pragmatic". They also note the more disparaging contemporary verdict of the writer Graciliano Ramos, who called it, referring to one of the main indigenous peoples, "our tiny little Tupinambá fascism". Most of all, the Vargas era cemented in the Brazilian political DNA a brand of corporatism that encourages an often cosy co-operation between the state and big business. Success in Brazilian capitalism still depends too little on innovation and too much on political connections. Race provides the other spine of the book. Brazil, which received as many as 40 per cent of the slaves brought from Africa, was the last country in the western hemisphere to abolish slavery in 1888. The authors are unsparing in their descriptions of the violence and cruelty — at 25, the life expectancy of Brazilian slaves was even lower than the 35 years in the US. On one estate in Bahia they examine, five new slaves were purchased a year because of "the constant deaths". One of Schwarcz and Starling's great strengths is their dissection of changing racial identity. Again, the 1930s proved to be a major turning point. As the society and culture modernised, Brazil embraced elements of a mixed-race identity. With radio taking off, samba and its Afro-Brazilian rhythms became the national music, and carnival the national holiday. In the propaganda of the Estado Novo, "being of mixed race was no longer seen as a disadvantage, but rather to be celebrated". Up to a point. Schwarcz and Starling describe the proliferation of biological theories in the early 20th century that tried to demonstrate the inferiority of blacks and mestizos, or their likely disappearance. The brutal barriers of slavery were replaced with more subtle distinctions. "After abolition, black people were treated with a kind of silent and perverse prejudice ... based as it was on a hierarchy constructed according to gradations of colour," they write. Or as a popular saying from the years after abolition went: "Freedom might be black, but equality is white." Schwarcz and Starling's conclusions are by no means downbeat. On race, they believe the country has turned a corner, part of a broader "civil rights" movement they identify that is pushing for greater equality. Yet they also note that "outrage" at the growth of corruption in recent years could "lead to a loss in credibility of the democratic institutions". That question will be the subplot of this October's elections. Geoff Dyer is the FT's analysis editor and a former São Paulo bureau chief Brazilian capitalism still depends too little on innovation and too much on political connections CREDIT: Geoff Dyer CAPTION: Brazil: A Biography by Heloisa Starling and Lilia Schwarcz Allen Lane £30, 800 pages il i h; ; Demonstrators in São Paulo, Brazil, celebrate the sentencing of former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in July 2017— Eyevine
Subject: Abolition of slavery; Biographies; Books; Politics; Corruption; Society; Capitalism; Racial identity; Race; Democracy; Elections
Location: United States--US Africa Brazil
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 8
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Aug 4, 2018
Section: Life and Arts
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2098916302
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2098916302?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Aug 4, 2018
Last updated: 2018-12-03
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 375 of 474
Brazil on the brink: Essay | Wracked by economic and political crisis, Brazilians are searching for a saviour in this year's elections. According to a compelling five-century history, it has been ever thus, writes Geoff Dyer [Usa Region]
Author: Dyer, Geoff
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]04 Aug 2018: 8. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: On August 24 1954, Getúlio Vargas, Brazil's president and the dominant figure in its politics for the previous two decades, was facing an ignominious end to his career. For a year, his government had been assailed by corruption allegations, and strikes had brought the country to a standstill. Even worse, one of his aides had been involved in an assassination attempt on a rival. After most of his ministers pushed him to resign at an early meeting, Vargas did the one thing he could to outsmart the opponents he accused of orchestrating a coup: he retired to his room at the Catete Palace in Rio de Janeiro, lay down on the bed and put a pistol to the left side of his chest. He then pulled the trigger. It was 8.30 in the morning. As Lilia Schwarcz and Heloisa Starling recount in Brazil: A Biography, their compelling and insightful history, "the country went mad". Crowds vented their fury in many of the main cities with stones and clubs. In Rio, a mob attacked anything that had to do with the opposition and its perceived allies — including the offices of Standard Oil and the American embassy. Around a million people gathered in front of the presidential palace in the hope of seeing the body. In case political tensions were not high enough, Vargas left behind a selfpitying suicide note in which he blamed his death on everyone he believed to be against his development programme, from the opposition to foreign business. "If the birds of prey want someone's blood, if they want to continue sucking the Brazilian people's, I offer my own life in sacrifice," he wrote. With their mixture of melodrama, violence, cronyism and politics-as-personality, the last days of Vargas highlight the central narrative of Schwarcz and Starling's history — the stuttering, fragile and incomplete effort to construct a robust Brazilian state that can deliver stable politics and the protection of basic rights. In their telling, Brazil has not developed the values needed to sustain an effective republic that can weed out corruption. Instead of impersonal government, Schwarcz and Starling chronicle an endless cycle of "immediatism [that] takes the place of planning substantive, long-term changes". Brazil, they write, has often been a "country on the lookout for the daily miracle, or some unexpected saviour". A decade or so ago, such a note of pessimism would have seemed out of place. Not only was Brazil growing at a rapid clip, but its democracy seemed to have built solid foundations. Power had been passed seamlessly from one democratically elected government to another, from Fernando Henrique Cardoso to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. A durable consensus also appeared to have developed around the core ideas of governance — a conviction that stable public finances are not the enemy of ambitious social policy but the necessary starting point. Yet after several years of overlapping political and economic crises, Brazilian democracy is fraying in ways that echo many of the patterns Schwarcz and Starling describe, especially from the last century. The current mood is more dejected and the politics more fractious than at any time since elections were restored in 1985. The once-feted Lula da Silva is in prison after being convicted of corruption — a legal predicament he has even tried to hint could be the work of the US. Much of what goes for the political centre has also been decimated by graft accusations. The latest polls suggest that the presidential election in October could end up as a run-off between Jair Bolsonaro, a tropical Trump who talks wistfully about the torture-filled military dictatorship that started in 1964, and Ciro Gomes, a leftwing candidate whose truculent personality and elastic economic logic have many of the hallmarks of a new populist adventure. Schwarcz and Starling's blunt conclusion that "although democracy has moved forward, the Republic has stayed on the drawing board" — written when the book was originally published in Brazil in 2015 — seems almost too upbeat in the current climate. In its timeframe, Brazil: A Biography is nothing if not conventional. It spans the 500 or so years from when Pedro Alvares Cabral, a minor Portuguese aristocrat, landed in 1500 in what is now Bahia in Brazil's north-east, to Cardoso's comfortable election victory in 1994 on the back of an inflation-busting economic plan. But what marks it out from other histories of Brazil is the way it mixes the public and the private, the well-trodden and the obscure. It moves effortlessly from the high politics of the Portuguese court fleeing Napoleon in 1807 to install itself in a disease-ridden Rio "that looked like an African coastal town", as one observer described it, to the myriad micro-rebellions against slavery that marked the 17th and 18th centuries. Schwarcz, in particular, who divides her time between São Paulo university and Princeton, has been a pioneer in drawing out often-neglected aspects of Brazil's slave-owning past. In describing the "tortuous process of building citizenship", Schwarcz and Starling tell two inter-related stories — the often stumbling efforts to establish durable political institutions, especially after the end of monarchy in 1889, and the way that race and racial identity have changed over time in the country that received more slaves from Africa than any other. Schwarcz and Starling write that one of the keys to understanding Brazilian politics and the pervasiveness of corruption is what they call "familyism", in which important politicians are known by their first name — Getúlio! Lula! — and treated as if they were a relative, rather than judged by their commitment to the public good. They endorse the historian Sérgio Buarque de Holanda's famous description of the Brazilian "cordial man", not as the compliment the phrase has sometimes been interpreted as being, but as a criticism of "the precedence of affection and emotion over the rigorous impersonality of principles that organise society". These contradictions are nowhere more evident than in the era of Getúlio Vargas from the 1930s and to the early 1950s — which still profoundly mark Brazil today in positive and negative ways and provide some of the most engaging chapters in the book. Vargas was not only the most important figure in 20th-century Brazil, but also one of the most ambiguous. The era saw Brazil's first major strides towards urbanisation and industrialisation and Vargas introduced some of the first social protections, including working day limits, sick leave and pensions. To this day, he is admired by some on the left. Yet he ruled at times as a dictator, especially during the Estado Novo period from 1937 to 1945. He also openly admired many of the ideas and liturgy of European fascism, including the organisation of society through major interest groups, the exaltation of nationalism and the primacy of a dominant leader. Schwarcz and Starling describe the Estado Novo regime as "authoritarian, modernising and pragmatic". They also note the more disparaging contemporary verdict of the writer Graciliano Ramos, who called it, referring to one of the main indigenous peoples, "our tiny little Tupinambá fascism". Most of all, the Vargas era cemented in the Brazilian political DNA a brand of corporatism that encourages an often cosy co-operation between the state and big business. Success in Brazilian capitalism still depends too little on innovation and too much on political connections. Race provides the other spine of the book. Brazil, which received as many as 40 per cent of the slaves brought from Africa, was the last country in the western hemisphere to abolish slavery in 1888. The authors are unsparing in their descriptions of the violence and cruelty — at 25, the life expectancy of Brazilian slaves was even lower than the 35 years in the US. On one estate in Bahia they examine, five new slaves were purchased a year because of "the constant deaths". One of Schwarcz and Starling's great strengths is their dissection of changing racial identity. Again, the 1930s proved to be a major turning point. As the society and culture modernised, Brazil embraced elements of a mixed-race identity. With radio taking off, samba and its Afro-Brazilian rhythms became the national music, and carnival the national holiday. In the propaganda of the Estado Novo, "being of mixed race was no longer seen as a disadvantage, but rather to be celebrated". Up to a point. Schwarcz and Starling describe the proliferation of biological theories in the early 20th century that tried to demonstrate the inferiority of blacks and mestizos, or their likely disappearance. The brutal barriers of slavery were replaced with more subtle distinctions. "After abolition, black people were treated with a kind of silent and perverse prejudice ... based as it was on a hierarchy constructed according to gradations of colour," they write. Or as a popular saying from the years after abolition went: "Freedom might be black, but equality is white." Schwarcz and Starling's conclusions are by no means downbeat. On race, they believe the country has turned a corner, part of a broader "civil rights" movement they identify that is pushing for greater equality. Yet they also note that "outrage" at the growth of corruption in recent years could "lead to a loss in credibility of the democratic institutions". That question will be the subplot of this October's elections. Geoff Dyer is the FT's analysis editor and a former São Paulo bureau chief Brazilian capitalism still depends too little on innovation and too much on political connections CREDIT: Geoff Dyer CAPTION: Brazil: A Biography by Heloisa Starling and Lilia Schwarcz Allen Lane £30, 800 pages il i h; ; Demonstrators in São Paulo, Brazil, celebrate the sentencing of former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in July 2017— Eyevine
Subject: Abolition of slavery; Biographies; Books; Politics; Corruption; Society; Capitalism; Racial identity; Race; Democracy; Elections
Location: United States--US Africa Brazil
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 8
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Aug 4, 2018
Section: Life and Arts
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2098922695
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2098922695?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Aug 4, 2018
Last updated: 2018-12-03
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 376 of 474
Kathleen Manafort takes front-row seat in husband's fraud trial
Author: LeVine, Marianne; Samuelsohn, Darren
Publication info: Politico , Arlington: POLITICO LLC. Aug 10, 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Kathleen Manafort has stood by her husband every day in court, listening in silence as her name pops up while prosecutors present allegations of bank fraud and tax evasion against former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Her name has been mentioned in the context of family car purchases, home renovations, joint tax filings and foreign bank accounts. Yet, she appears unfazed as she sits daily in the front row of the courtroom. When Paul Manafort enters, he often blows her a kiss. As a mortgage assistant from Citizens Bank gave testimony Thursday about a $3.4 million mortgage loan that both Kathleen Manafort and her husband received, which prosecutors say was based on false documents designed to defraud the bank, she whispered in a friend’s ear and shook her head. Prosecutors displayed the loan documents, which showed her signature. Paul Manafort’s trial has thrown his wife into the public eye. Yet despite the potentially uncomfortable level of attention, legal experts say it is unlikely that she will face any criminal charges. “I would be surprised if Mueller’s team did not gather evidence related to Mrs. Manafort and consider whether they had sufficient evidence to charge her,” said Renato Mariotti, a former prosecutor and a partner at Thompson Coburn. “Based on what I’ve seen, it appears they did not have enough evidence to do so.” Paul Manafort faces charges of tax and bank fraud stemming from his work in Ukraine for a pro-Russia political party. It is the first trial in special counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, but most of the activity covered in the courtroom dates to before the longtime GOP operative joined President Donald Trump’s campaign. Prosecutors have detailed lavish spending by the couple on designer suits and home renovations to show the jury how the Manaforts used money he allegedly hid from U.S. authorities. This week, Paul Manafort' former deputy, Rick Gates, told the jury that his ex-boss became increasingly secretive about his business and finances as his work in Ukraine fizzled. Other family members have gotten in legal trouble recently. Jeffrey Yohai, an ex-son-in-law of the Manaforts, pleaded guilty earlier this year to criminal charges of fraud in obtaining real estate loans and agreed to cooperate in federal investigations such as Mueller’s. Throughout the trial, Kathleen Manafort has appeared supportive of her husband, sitting in the front row, right behind him and his team of lawyers on the courtroom’s uncomfortable wooden benches. On Thursday, she sat on a green stadium cushion emblazoned with a logo from the 2011 Carnival in Brazil. She also has been spotted at the restaurant at the Westin Hotel across the street from the courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, where the trial is underway. Approached there recently by a reporter, she declined to be interviewed. Jason Maloni, a spokesperson for the Manaforts, declined to comment Thursday. Kathleen Manafort's name came up several times in court Thursday. The Citizens Bank official, Melinda James, testified that the couple together had declared a New York City condo a second home on a loan application, even though prosecutors say Paul Manafort also filed tax returns declaring the property a rental that had been listed on Airbnb. Later, the prosecution questioned a California bank executive about a $1 million loan Paul Manafort obtained in March 2016 to help his then son-in-law Yohai “flip” several high-end homes on the west side of Los Angeles. Prosecutors say Paul Manafort lied about his income and hid some of his debt to secure the money. Banc of California official Gary Seferian said Paul Manafort and Yohai initially sought a $5 million loan, but the amount was reduced after the bank discovered that a Long Island home Paul Manafort listed as one of his assets was titled in Kathleen Manafort’s name. In a memo that was shown to jurors, Seferian suggested that the loan for Yohai would have been more viable had Kathleen Manafort agreed to guarantee it. That didn’t happen. It was unclear whether Kathleen Manafort declined to be part of the loan application or whether her husband didn’t want to involve her. The Manaforts’ daughter Jessica filed for divorce from Yohai in March 2017. Kathleen Manafort’s name also came up Wednesday, when Internal Revenue Service agent Michael Welch testified that he saw evidence of payments directly made to her from offshore accounts in Cyprus. Welch said it was unclear whether those payments were used for business or personal expenses. Regardless of all the attention, the bar for being charged with criminal activity is high in a bank-fraud case, according to lawyers familiar with the issue. Federal prosecutors would have to prove that Kathleen Manafort both participated and “knew that she was submitting false statements to obtain loans,” said Barbara McQuade, a former attorney and law professor at the University of Michigan who has watched the trial in the courtroom. For the tax violations, McQuade said federal prosecutors would need to prove she knew she was making false statements on tax returns. Prosecutors have not made either argument. Gene Rossi, a former prosecutor in Virginia who is now at Carlton Fields, said prosecutors also likely wanted to focus on Paul Manafort and Gates, his former business partner and now the federal government’s star witness. Rossi, who has also been watching the trial in person, described a case against Kathleen Manafort as “an incredibly tough sell” to a grand jury. In rare cases, federal prosecutors have gone after spouses. Maureen McDonnell, wife of former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, faced federal corruption charges with her husband for taking vacations, gifts and loans from a Richmond businessman. Federal prosecutors dropped the case after the Supreme Court overturned the former governor’s conviction. “Jurors and judges do not like prosecutors going after the spouses of husbands who are deep in alleged criminal activity,’ Rossi said. Josh Gerstein also contributed to this report.
Subject: Evidence; Public prosecutors; Convictions; Tax returns; Bank fraud; Juries; Foreign bank accounts; Trials; Loans; Political campaigns
Location: Russia Long Island New York Brazil Virginia Cyprus Ukraine United States--US New York California Los Angeles California
People: Trump, Donald J Yohai, Jeffrey McDonnell, Maureen Gates, Richard Mueller, Robert S III McDonnell, Bob Manafort, Paul
Company / organization: Name: Airbnb; NAICS: 561599; Name: Thompson Coburn; NAICS: 541110; Name: Internal Revenue Service--IRS; NAICS: 921130; Name: Republican Party; NAICS: 813940; Name: University of Michigan; NAICS: 611310
Publication title: Politico, U.S. edition; Arlington
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Aug 10, 2018
Publisher: POLITICO LLC
Place of publication: Arlington
Country of publication: United States, Arlington
Publication subject: Political Science
Source type: Blogs, Podcasts, & Websites
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2085948161
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2085948161?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright POLITICO LLC Aug 10, 2018
Last updated: 2018-08-14
Database: US Southeast N ewsstream
Document 377 of 474
Cruise stakeholders in India unite to set up India Cruise Lines Association (INCLA)
Author: Disha Shah Ghosh
Publication info: TravelBiz Monitor ; Mumbai (Aug 14, 2018).
Abstract:
In order to give a shot in the arm to the domestic cruise sector in India, it is imperative to improve port infrastructure as well as offer hassle-free soft services to the passengers. [...]for the sector to grow at a fast pace, investment from global cruise players has to flow in, along with a need for a dedicated tax structure. According to Jurgen Bailom, Convener, INCLA, "India is in a similar position as China was some years ago and so was Brazil; it is the domestic cruise market that needs to be developed for the industry to grow. According to Nalini Gupta, Executive Committee Member, INCLA, "It is crucial to make the Ministry of Finance aware about the benefits of cruise tourism.Full text: The cruise sector in India has finally found a unified voice with the formation of the India Cruise Lines Association (INCLA), bringing together all the stakeholders on a common platform with a vision to create a road map for development of the sector in the country. Notably, in the past few years, cruise travel has emerged as the fastest growing outbound vertical in India. There has been a growing interest largely for sailings from Singapore for first-time cruise travellers and the Mumbai-Maldives sailing by Costa Cruises since the past two seasons, along with a number of ships calling on the Indian ports. In this scenario, there was a sentiment that time is opportune to come together and make a representation to the government of the all encompassing benefits of cruising to develop the sector in India with a dedicated time-frame and bring in foreign investment to meet the desired goals. As a first step in this direction, INCLA is set to organise a mega event, 'Global Cruise Conclave' in Mumbai on August 30 at the Grand Hyatt. The event will be graced by Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport Highways & Shipping and Water Resource, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation, Government of India and Subhash Chandra, Chairman, Essel and ZEE Group. In order to give a shot in the arm to the domestic cruise sector in India, it is imperative to improve port infrastructure as well as offer hassle-free soft services to the passengers. Moreover, for the sector to grow at a fast pace, investment from global cruise players has to flow in, along with a need for a dedicated tax structure. With these concerns in mind, stakeholders of the cruise sector in India - cruise liners and PSAs came together to create a non-aligned forum in association with TravelBiz Monitor magazine to present a charter of suggestions and demands through a White Paper to the Shipping Minister at the Global Cruise Conclave in a first-ever unified move by the industry towards growing cruising in India. According to Jurgen Bailom, Convener, INCLA, "India is in a similar position as China was some years ago and so was Brazil; it is the domestic cruise market that needs to be developed for the industry to grow. The order of the day is to come together as an association and take quick steps to develop the market in India since globally, cruising is a USD 51 billion net profit industry. India has the potential to reach USD 20 billion net profit cruise industry. However, currently, India is not among the top 10 global cruise markets." Ratna Chadha, Chairperson, INCLA said, "India is the only country that allows multiple destinations within a country. This is a unique position, and we are wasting the opportunity. The number of ships making a port of call in India is hardly 40, and worrisome. A nation like Croatia with a population of 48,000 residents has 400 ships making port of calls." According to Nalini Gupta, Executive Committee Member, INCLA, "It is crucial to make the Ministry of Finance aware about the benefits of cruise tourism. The situation in the cruise sector today is exactly the position of airlines was in the 1990s." Hemal Zobalia, Executive Committee Member, INCLA, said, "Each of the cruise lines in India is making an individual effort to create awareness, but a unified body like INCLA brings together a weight age to create a unique position, especially about cabotage taxation." As a first step, INCLA has formed a Core Committee that will take forward its agenda. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF INCLA * Jurgen Bailom, President & CEO, Zen Cruises * Ratna Chadha, Chief Executive, TIRUN Travel Marketing, India Representative of Royal Caribbean International * Rajiv Duggal, CEO - Tourism Business, ESSEL Group * Naresh Rawal, VP - Sales, Genting Cruise Lines * Manoj Singh, Country Head, Norwegian Cruise Lines Holdings - India * Nalini Gupta, Managing Director, Lotus Destinations, GSA Costa Cruises India * Kunal Sampat, General Manager - India, MSC Cruises * Captain Nitin Dhond, Managing Director, Angriya Sea Eagle Pvt. Ltd. * Siddharth Newalkar, Director, Angriya Sea Eagle Pvt. Ltd. * Mark Mendes, Country Director - India, Discover the World, PSA to Carnival Cruises * Anju Tandon, Director, Ark Travels * Pradeep Saboo, CEO, Guideline Travels LLP * Ian Banerjee, Founder & Director, Global Anchor Cruises * Kiran Bhandari, Co Founder, Cruise Club * Saud Masood, Deputy General Manager, Wholesale & Leisure Product, FCM Travels * Amentha Marques, Business Development Manager - West India, Avalon Waterways * Harshali Darpel, Senior Manager Business Development, Cruise Professionals * Hemal Zobalia, Partner, Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP * Sheldon Santwan, Editor & COO, TravelBiz Monitor Copyright 2018 Saffron Synergies Pvt Ltd, distributed by Contify.com Credit: Disha Shah Ghosh
Subject: Cruise lines; Ports; Tourism
Location: Croatia China Brazil Maldives India Singapore Mumbai India
Company / organization: Name: Royal Caribbean International; NAICS: 483112; Name: Haskins & Sells; NAICS: 541211; Name: Avalon Waterways; NAICS: 483112
Publication title: TravelBiz Monitor; Mumbai
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Aug 14, 2018
Publisher: Athena Information Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
Place of publication: Mumbai
Country of publication: India, Mumbai
Publication subject: Travel And Tourism
Source type: Magazines
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2088008238
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2088008238?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright 2018 Saffron Synergies Pvt Ltd, distributed by Contify.com
Last updated: 2018-08-14
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 378 of 474
ResearchAndMarkets.com Adds Report: Brazil Vehicle Rental Market
Publication info: Manufacturing Close - Up ; Jacksonville (Aug 17, 2018).
Abstract: None available.
Full text: The "Brazil Vehicle Rental Market - Overview and Forecast (2018 - 2023)" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Brazilian vehicle rental market accounted to USD 4.68 billion in 2017 and is estimated to exceed USD 6.08 billion by 2023, at a CAGR of 4.54 percent during the forecast period. Increased concern and awareness of lower emissions have primarily led to the increase in vehicle rental options, where car rental and carpooling significantly help reduce the number of cars on the road. Budget cars, commonly known as "popular cars," make up the largest proportion of the car rental industry's fleet. This is principally a result of the comparatively low purchasing power of the Brazilian population. Brazil's total fleet is strongly concentrated in the Southeast region. Additionally, the country has been home to various historical sites including opera house in Manaus, colonial towns, and churches along with numerous cultural celebrations (especially the Rio-de-Janeiro carnival), which are grandly celebrated, making the country one of the preferred destinations for inbound tourism in Latin America. Key Highlights -Strong Domestic Tourism Industry and Increase in International Tourism -Leisure/Tourism - Fastest Growing Segment Notable Developments in the Market -March 2018: Localiza is expected to use Uber services for its vehicle rental fleet. The number of people without a car has led to the growth of potential customers for Localiza. The company announced that they will use Uber services, in order to cater to the customers who need a one-way trip ride. According to this innovation, the Uber services shall contribute to about 5 percent of Localiza's rental car volume. -March 2018: Brazilian car rental firm Locamerica acquired its smaller rival Auto Ricci SA, leading to the creation of the largest automotive rental company. According to the contract, Locamerica will acquire 33.7 percent share of the Ricci firm. Key Topics Covered 1. Introduction 2. Executive Summary 3. Market Overview and Trends 4. Market Dynamics 5. Brazil Vehicle Rental Market, by Application Type 6. Brazil Vehicle Rental Market, by Booking Type 7. Brazil Vehicle Rental Market, by Vehicle Type 8. Brazil Vehicle Rental Market, by Usage 9. Brazil Vehicle Rental Market, by End User 10. Competitive Landscape 11. Key Vendor Analysis -Localiza -Locamerica -Unidas -Movida -Avis Budget -Enterprise Group -Ouro Verde 12. Future of the Market Report Information: https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/tgtggg/the_vehicle?w=4 ((Comments on this story may be sent to [email protected]))
Subject: Events planning; Succession planning; Tourism
Location: Brazil Latin America
Publication title: Manufacturing Close - Up; Jacksonville
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Aug 17, 2018
Publisher: Close-Up Media, Inc.
Place of publication: Jacksonville
Country of publication: United States, Jacksonville
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Production of Goods And Services
Source type: Trade Journals
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2089154981
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2089154981?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Close-Up Media, Inc. Aug 17, 2018
Last updated: 2018-08-17
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; SciTech Premium Collection
Document 379 of 474
A Guide to Rio de Janeiro’s Coastal Cool
Author: Thessaly La Force
Publication info: New York Times (Online) , New York: New York Times Company. Aug 17, 2018.
Abstract:
From historical gardens to feats of Modernist architecture, what to see and where to stay in the beloved Brazilian city.
Full text: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s second most populated city, is beloved by pleasure seekers for its sexy beaches and celebratory Carnival festival, which is the largest in the world. Located along a beautiful coastline and encircled by mountains, the city was originally founded in the 16th century by the Portuguese. But after hosting the 2016 Summer Olympics, Rio experienced economic turmoil and political upheaval — it is fair to say that the city is as famous for its glamorous Ipanema Beach as it is its impoverished favelas. Read more: Oscar Niemeyer Defined Modern Brazil. Now, an Artist Is Rethinking One of His Houses. Rio de Janeiro is also the birthplace of the great Modernist architect Oscar Niemeyer, who designed several monumental buildings as well as a handful of private residences across the city. Niemeyer’s influence on Brazil, and in particular, Rio, is unmistakable, but there is also a wealth of architecture, design and art across the city that reflects Brazil’s rich past. Stay This 1923 landmark , in the style of a grand European hotel, has managed to retain its old-world charm without relinquishing modern comforts. The best rooms of this Art Deco palace overlook the famous Copacabana Beach, whose bossa-nova-patterned boardwalk was designed by the Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx. There are three excellent restaurants to choose from: the casual Pergula, where breakfast is served every morning; the Pan-Asian (though mostly Japanese) Mee; and the more refined Cipriani’s. Smaller touches, including the chamomile-scented eye mask by the bedside table and the fresh orange- and lemon-infused water available in the lobby during the afternoons, make this classic destination feel new but not trendy. Conceived by the restaurateur and hotelier Rogério Fasano, this eponymously named hotel in Rio de Janeiro’s beachside Zona Sul neighborhood (the original Fasano is in São Paulo) is a glamorous destination for the more flashy and jet-setting crowd. Philippe Starck designed the interiors, with beautiful dark wood floors, Dalí-like mirrors shaped like ears and worn leather chairs by Sergio Rodrigues. The tasteful ground-floor restaurant, Fasano al Mare, offers grilled langoustines and handmade pasta amid sheer white curtains and Murano crystal lights. But the real reason to book a room here is for the rooftop pool, with stunning views of Ipanema Beach. Located in a century-old mansion in the Santa Teresa neighborhood, this boutique hotel offers a more rustic choice of accommodations. Still, there is a romantic sensibility that you can’t find elsewhere: Each room is dedicated to a different starlet (e.g., Carmen Miranda or Josephine Baker), and the colonial architecture is tastefully juxtaposed with a healthy collection of Brazilian contemporary art. The rooms feature high ceilings and sumptuous bathtubs — plus the hotel has a veranda and an elegant outdoor swimming pool for all to enjoy. Breakfast is served in the rooms, but there is no restaurant in the establishment. Eat Situated on a hilltop in Santa Teresa, this restaurant feels more like a treehouse, with its thatched-roof verandas and unfussy wooden tables. Its chef and owner, Ana Castilho, who runs the place with her two sons, features cuisine from all parts of the country; try the dishes from Castilho’s home state of Minas Gerais, such as the chicken and rice with plantains and greens. There are Brazilian takes on vegan dishes, too, such as gnocchi made with hearts of palm. It goes without saying that sampling the variety of caipirinhas is a must. In the jungly neighborhood of Jardim Botânico, this casual establishment spotlights chef Roberta Sudbrack’s commitment to delicious, uncomplicated food above all else. Reminiscent of what Alice Waters pioneered with Chez Panisse, the restaurant’s menu changes with the seasons. A recent sampling included fresh burrata, roasted corn and handmade sausage. It’s best to show up early or late: There are a limited number of tables, and the establishment doesn’t take reservations. +55 21 3114 0464 This upscale Mediterranean-style restaurant is a necessary stop, beloved by locals for having some of the best seafood in the city. The displays of fresh fish, as well as the tanks filled with live lobsters and other shellfish, show how much the owners, Marly and Leopardi Miro, prize quality above all else. The menu offers every imaginable creature from the sea: squid, octopus, haddock, tuna, prawns, oysters, clams, swordfish, to name just a few, and prepared every which way. Vegetarians can enjoy the selection of salads and pasta, and the expansive wine cellar does not disappoint. See Located in the nearby city of Niterói, and designed by Oscar Niemeyer late in his career, the Niterói Contemporary Art Museum opened in 1996 and is considered one of the last great buildings by the Brazilian Modernist. Shaped like a giant saucer, with a decadent entrance ramp curling out like a giant red snake, the building appears to hover just above Guanabara Bay, offering beautiful views of Rio de Janeiro. Inside, see expertly curated Brazilian and Latin American art. +55 21 2620 2400 Oscar Niemeyer designed this house for himself, which he built early in his career. With views of both the ocean and the mountains, Casa das Canoas incorporates many of the principles that made the architect famous: The pool melds with a large boulder; the curving walls and windows undulate to a silent rhythm; light flings itself across the upstairs space. These days, it is run and maintained by the Niemeyer Foundation. You will need to book an appointment in advance to visit. +55 21 3322 0642 The Museum of Modern Art ’s building, made of concrete, was designed by Affonso Eduardo Reidy in the 1950s. Roberto Burle Marx (who is also responsible for the nearby Flamengo Park) oversaw the surrounding gardens. Despite a tragic fire in 1978 that destroyed much of the art, the museum still has a spectacular permanent collection of Brazil’s most renowned artists, such as Lygia Clark, Lygia Pape and Mira Schendel. At the end of the 16th century, monks traveling south from the city of Salvador built this Roman Catholic house of worship. Do not be fooled by the simple exterior; inside is a breathtaking example of the Baroque style of architecture associated with Portuguese colonialism. Details include the gilded altar and painted ceiling, plus giant silver chandeliers that weigh over 300 pounds apiece. The Parque Lage Art School is another relic of Rio’s colonial past. Built in the 1920s, it was once a mansion for a wealthy Brazilian shipbuilder Henrique Late, who wanted to impress his new wife, the Italian singer Gabriela Besanzoni. In 1975, it opened as a multidisciplinary art school. Right next door is the great botanical garden of Rio, which is worth strolling through before it closes at sunset. The landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx’s original home, this beautiful estate is an hour and a half drive from Rio’s center, and worth an afternoon trip. Visit a 17th-century Benedictine chapel along with Marx’s original farmhouse and studio, where his paintings and sculptures are still on display. Walk through the gardens, which showcase thousands of different plant species, and pack a lunch — the establishment doesn’t have a restaurant. Tours are by appointment only. +55 21 2410 1412 Situated in a mansion initially designed in 1948 for the ambassador Walther Moreira Salles by another important Modernist architect, Olavo Redig de Campos, this beautiful house in the Gávea neighborhood has been transformed into a cultural center devoted to film and photography . The several pavilions showcase a variety of exhibitions at once, and a small indoor cafe offers the chance to sit down for a meal, preferably by Salles’s original swimming pool. Credit: Thessaly La Force
Subject: Swimming pools; Art galleries & museums; Contemporary art; Hotels & motels; Landscape architecture; Restaurants; 16th century; Architects; Modernism; Colonialism; Neighborhoods; Vegetarianism
Location: Guanabara Bay Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil Copacabana Beach
People: La Force, Thessaly Waters, Alice Miranda, Carmen
Company / organization: Name: Chez Panisse; NAICS: 722511
Identifier / keyword: Restaurants Travel and Vacations Museums Brazil Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
Publication title: New York Times (Online); New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Aug 17, 2018
Section: t-magazine
Publisher: New York Times Company
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Blogs, Podcasts, & Websites
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2089271627
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2089271627?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright 2018 The New York Times Company
Last updated: 2018-12-05
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 380 of 474
ResearchAndMarkets.com Offers Report: Brazil Vehicle Rental Market
Publication info: Professional Services Close - Up ; Jacksonville (Aug 18, 2018).
Abstract: None available.
Full text: The "Brazil Vehicle Rental Market - Overview and Forecast (2018 - 2023)" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Brazilian vehicle rental market accounted to USD 4.68 billion in 2017 and is estimated to exceed USD 6.08 billion by 2023, at a CAGR of 4.54 percent during the forecast period. Increased concern and awareness of lower emissions have primarily led to the increase in vehicle rental options, where car rental and carpooling significantly help reduce the number of cars on the road. Budget cars, commonly known as "popular cars," make up the largest proportion of the car rental industry's fleet. This is principally a result of the comparatively low purchasing power of the Brazilian population. Brazil's total fleet is strongly concentrated in the Southeast region. Additionally, the country has been home to various historical sites including opera house in Manaus, colonial towns, and churches along with numerous cultural celebrations (especially the Rio-de-Janeiro carnival), which are grandly celebrated, making the country one of the preferred destinations for inbound tourism in Latin America. Key Highlights -Strong Domestic Tourism Industry and Increase in International Tourism -Leisure/Tourism - Fastest Growing Segment Notable Developments in the Market -March 2018: Localiza is expected to use Uber services for its vehicle rental fleet. The number of people without a car has led to the growth of potential customers for Localiza. The company announced that they will use Uber services, in order to cater to the customers who need a one-way trip ride. According to this innovation, the Uber services shall contribute to about 5 percent of Localiza's rental car volume. -March 2018: Brazilian car rental firm Locamerica acquired its smaller rival Auto Ricci SA, leading to the creation of the largest automotive rental company. According to the contract, Locamerica will acquire 33.7 percent share of the Ricci firm. Key Topics Covered 1. Introduction 2. Executive Summary 3. Market Overview and Trends 4. Market Dynamics 5. Brazil Vehicle Rental Market, by Application Type 6. Brazil Vehicle Rental Market, by Booking Type 7. Brazil Vehicle Rental Market, by Vehicle Type 8. Brazil Vehicle Rental Market, by Usage 9. Brazil Vehicle Rental Market, by End User 10. Competitive Landscape 11. Key Vendor Analysis -Localiza -Locamerica -Unidas -Movida -Avis Budget -Enterprise Group -Ouro Verde 12. Future of the Market Report Information: https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/tgtggg/the_vehicle?w=4 ((Comments on this story may be sent to [email protected]))
Subject: Events planning; Succession planning; Tourism
Location: Brazil Latin America
Publication title: Professional Services Close - Up; Jacksonville
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Aug 18, 2018
Publisher: Close-Up Media, Inc.
Place of publication: Jacksonville
Country of publication: United States, Jacksonville
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Trade Journals
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2090435828
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2090435828?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Close-Up Media, Inc. Aug 18, 2018
Last updated: 2018-08-21
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 381 of 474
12 dead in Rio de Janeiro shootouts
Author: Christafaro, Beatrice
Publication info: Charleston Gazette - Mail ; Charleston, W.V. [Charleston, W.V]21 Aug 2018: A.11.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: RIO DE JANEIRO - At least 11 suspects and one soldier died during shootouts with military personnel and police in greater Rio de Janeiro on Monday as violence erupted in several areas of the city that hosted the Summer Olympics two years ago. The direct confrontations between soldiers and armed traffickers also marked a deepening of the military's role in Rio's security. Since the military was put in charge of the state's security earlier this year, soldiers have mostly played supporting roles to police during operations, such as securing perimeters or setting up checkpoints. On Monday, soldiers were clearly in the lead. "Our goal is only to make arrests. If there are deaths, the criminals are to blame, Carlos Cinelli, a military spokesman, told reporters while adding that military personnel came under fire during operations that began at 4:30 a.m. "The soldiers have a right to defend themselves. Cinelli told reporters that five suspects were killed and another 10 were arrested when soldiers stormed the neighborhoods of Mare, Complexo do Alemao and Penha. In a press note later in the afternoon, the military command said one soldier died and another was injured in the operations. Cinelli said the operations, which included more than 4,000 military personnel, were aimed at finding wanted traffickers in the areas. The operation netted four pistols, two grenades and 440 pounds of marijuana paste, he said. Brazilian news site G1 reported that many residents in the areas stayed at home, skipping work and school. An Associated Press video journalist saw a public bus that had been torched close to Complexo do Alemao, possibly a response to the anti-drug operation. Meanwhile Monday, police said they killed six suspects during confrontations in Niteroi, across the bay from Rio de Janeiro. Police said the shootouts happened while pursuing suspects on one of the access points to the bridge that joins the two cities. The bridge, one of the area's most traversed roads, was temporarily shut. Three suspects and one police officer were injured, according to a police statement. By decree, in February President Michel Temer put the military in charge of security in the state of Rio. He made the decision after muggings and beatings were captured on camera during Rio's world-famous Carnival celebrations. Human rights groups have criticized the intervention, saying it's disproportionately impacting people, particularly blacks, in poor neighborhoods. Credit: By Beatrice Christafaro The Associated Press
Subject: Military personnel
Location: Rio de Janeiro Brazil
People: Temer, Michel
Publication title: Charleston Gazette - Mail; Charleston, W.V.
First page: A.11
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Aug 21, 2018
Section: News
Publisher: Charleston Newspapers
Place of publication: Charleston, W.V.
Country of publication: United States, Charleston, W.V.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2090717566
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2090717566?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Charleston Newspapers Aug 21, 2018
Last updated: 2018-08-21
Database: US Southeast Newsstream
Document 382 of 474
Aruba Hosts Record Breaking 500 Guests At Caribbean's Largest Vow Renewal Ceremony For Second Year: Lovebirds Renew Their I Do's on World's No. 4 Beach
Publication info: PR Newswire ; New York [New York]22 Aug 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
ORANJESTAD, Aruba, Aug. 22, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Following the overwhelming success of the inaugural vow renewal ceremony held in 2017, Aruba touted hundreds of amorous lovebirds from around the world on the panoramic, powdery-white sands of Aruba's world-famous Eagle Beach, on Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2018. A global event, couples traveled to the romantic island from Germany, Italy, Brazil and all over the United States, eager to renew their I Do's at sunset. More than 500 guests gathered for the iconic celebration, solidifying Aruba as the primary Caribbean destination to say "I Do" times two. A historical milestone for the One happy island, the ceremony provided newlyweds and spouses with the opportunity to participate in the Caribbean's largest vow renewal ceremony for the second year in a row, exclusively in Aruba.
"As one of the most romantic islands in the world, Aruba continues to attract an increasing number of lovebirds to our beloved destination. With countless award-winning beaches to choose from, Aruba is a staple landmark for visitors traveling to the Caribbean," said Ronella Tjin Asjoe-Croes, CEO of Aruba Tourism Authority (ATA). "The energy was palpable and truly magnetic as we witnessed hundreds of couples, young and old, publicly renew their commitment to one another in paradise. We wish each of our guests an endless supply of happiness and lifetime of love and look forward to welcoming them back to our One happy island."
Among the 500+ participants were travel influencers and celebrity couples – including Lydia and Doug McLaughlin, famously known from Bravo TV's "The Real Housewives of Orange County" and Ashley and J.P. Rosenbaum from season seven of "The Bachelorette."
"There's nowhere else we'd rather 'renew our I Do's' than in Aruba, it's absolutely breathtaking," said Ashley Rosenbaum. "We're overjoyed to have shared this experience with the company of our children and know this moment in time is one we'll treasure for the rest of our lives. The One happy island is truly magical."
The enchanting evening displayed twinkling lights, tropical décor and chic ambiance, inspired by real destination weddings in Aruba, and featured elegant white linen with pops of vibrant Caribbean colors. Couples relished in the opportunity to celebrate their love on the world's No. 4 beach – while enjoying champagne, hors d'oeuvres, local music and Carnival-like festivities.
Aruba's complimentary vow renewal ceremony occurred Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2018 from 5:30-7:30 pm on Eagle Beach. For more details: www.aruba.com/arubaido.
About Aruba
As one of the most revisited destinations in the Caribbean, Aruba — One happy island — is an island of contradictions, where pristine turquoise waters collide against the desert-like terrain of the north shore; where peace and relaxation coexist with wild and rugged adventures; where Dutch influence meets American ease and where a diverse history parallels a bright future. Nestled in the southern Caribbean outside the fringes of the hurricane belt, the island is just a two-and-a-half-hour flight from Miami, a four-hour flight from New York City and boasts year-round cooling trade winds with an average 82-degree temperature. Aruba offers beach-lovers, adrenaline junkies, relaxation-seekers and everyone in between a slice of paradise with breathtaking beaches, a booming culinary scene of over 300 restaurants with 25+ located ideally on the water, world-famous festivals and events, exciting land and water activities, art galleries and museums, sumptuous spas, championship golf, exclusive shopping and signature experiences such as cooling off in Conchi, Aruba's natural pool— accessible only by foot or off-road vehicle. With all-inclusive options, boutique properties in charming Eagle Beach, high-rise branded resorts in Palm Beach and cosmopolitan city hotels in Oranjestad, the island of contradictions provides the perfect getaway for both first-time guests and loyal visitors.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
THE ZIMMERMAN AGENCY · 850.668.2222
[email protected]
View original content with multimedia: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/aruba-hosts-record-breaking-500-guests-at-caribbeans-largest-vow-renewal-ceremony-for-second-year-300701382.html
SOURCE Aruba Tourism Authority
CREDIT: Aruba Tourism Authority
Subject: Art galleries & museums; Rites & ceremonies; Resorts & spas; Couples; Tourism; Beaches
Location: Italy Brazil United States--US New York Aruba Germany
Publication title: PR Newswire; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Aug 22, 2018
Dateline: ORANJESTAD, Aruba, Aug. 22, 2018
Publisher: PR Newswire Association LLC
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2091442272
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2091442272?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright PR Newswire Association LLC Aug 22, 2018
Last updated: 2018-12-03
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 383 of 474
12 reasons to visit the beautiful Cape Verde islands
Author: Yogerst, Joe
Publication info: CNN Wire Service ; Atlanta [Atlanta]23 Aug 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Once a hugely important gateway used by explorers en route to "discover" the Americas, the Cape Verde islands fell into obscurity in more recent times. But the archipelago, located in the North Atlantic about 570 kilometers (about 350 miles) off the extreme western tip of Africa, is enjoying a renewed surge in visitors. It was named as one of CNN Travel's top 18 places to visit in 2018, Shaped like a huge horseshoe, Cape Verde's 10 islands are have a dramatic landscape that blends gorgeous beaches and gargantuan volcanoes, picture-postcard sea ports and sunsets enhanced by wind-blown sand from the nearby Sahara. Cape Verde culture is equally diverse, a vibrant mix of African and Iberian influences, with a touch of Brazil and even maritime New England (the islands have a long and very strong relationship with coastal Massachusetts.) "Cape Verde offers a great diversity of landscape, from volcanic peaks to verdant islands all surrounded by a beautiful blue equatorial ocean," says Jon Nicholson, director of planning for Zegrahm Expeditions, an adventure travel company specializing in small ship expedition cruises, tours, and safaris. "And once on shore, you feel as if you are in Portugal with a blend of Africa mixed in. People speaking Portuguese, with Creole food and music everywhere. The secluded islands were uninhabited when Portuguese mariners chanced upon them in the 1540s, but quickly evolved into the front line of global exploration. "We're very proud of the part that Cape Verde played in many discoveries," says Delisio Leite, a hiking and history guide based in Mindelo on São Vicente island. "Vasco da Gama, Columbus and even Charles Darwin, they all stopped here. And some people think fleet in the early 1400s." Tourism growth Given its strategic location, Cape Verde was also a vital cog in the transatlantic slave trade and a major player in 19th century whaling. After gaining independence from Portugal in 1975, the newly born nation, which was almost devoid of natural resources, initially struggled to find its footing. Given their long history of self reliance, it was only a matter of time before the Cape Verdeans found their way. With one of the highest economic growth rates in sub-Saharan Africa, Cape Verde has managed to slash its poverty level by around 50% and jumped from the least developed to middle income status on the World Trade Organization (WTO) chart. Tourism has been one of its main engines of economic growth. The islands have gone from receiving almost zero tourism in the 1990s, even among normally intrepid backpack travelers, to becoming one of the new frontiers of African tourism. What makes Cape Verde so appealing is its sheer variety. Many of the islands feel like their own little country, some culturally oriented, others steeped in nature, and still others that feel more like a Mediterranean beach getaway. Diverse islands Sal and Boa Vista, with their white sand strands, trendy beach resorts (like the Riu, Melia, and Iberostar,) and international airport with direct flights form Europe. The easternmost of the Cape Verde islands are the go-to place for sun, sea and sand vacations. Fogo, the primordial isle, is an ancient landscape spangled with lava flows, cinder cones, black sand strands and a mighty active volcano. São Vincent, the archipelago's cultural capital, is a place of writers and artists, as well as the home island of World Beat superstar Cesaria Evora, known as the "Barefoot Diva." Meanwhile some of the world's most imposing sea cliffs frame the island of Santo Antão, which is the westernmost point in all of Africa and a magnet for both hardcore trekkers and history buffs. There's also São Tiago, which is the most African of the Cape Verde islands culturally and home to its own unique musical genres, Funana and Finacan. The tiny island of Brava, renowned for its lush gardens and verdant landscapes, was once a home away from home for New England whalers and homeland of many of the Cape Verdeans who live in Massachusetts today. Hard working isle Santiago boasts half of Cape Verde's half a million residents as well as its capital city, Praia. Complete with an international airport and a deep water harbor, it's become the port of choice for the increasing number of cruise ships visiting the archipelago. When is the best time to visit? "October to April," says Delisio Leite, especially if you're trekking. With five international carriers, Praia airport offers direct flights from Boston, Lisbon and Casablanca. As the main gateway for sun seeking visitors, Sal island's airport is served by more than a dozen airlines and routes from Europe and Brazil to Cape Verde. Morabeza Despite a multitude of sights and activities, and the advent of tourism, Cape Verde remains a place where you can get away from it all. "Sorry, no Wi-Fi," reads an English language sign on the entrance to the Caleta Bar & Restaurant on Santo Antão island. "Talk to each other and get drunk." The Creole term Morabeza means "hospitality" or "kindness" toward strangers, a reference to the fact that Cape Verde islanders go out of their way to smile, greet you in the street and make visitors feel welcome. Relatively new to the tourism game, they display little of the cynicism about tourism or ambivalence to travelers often found in other paradise islands. Cape Verdeans are proud of their homeland and eager to show their country to visitors. Volcanic landscapes Much like Hawaii and other geothermal hotspots, Cape Verde is defined by its volcanoes and volcanic landscapes. The biggest and baddest of the bunch is Pico do Fogo, a 9,000-foot giant that dominates the island of the same name. Although it last erupted around 2014 to 2015, destroying one of the villages in the caldera, the peak is considered safe enough to summit and the most popular trek in the archipelago. Morna music One of the cradles of the World Beat sound, Cape Verde music fuses African, Brazilian and Iberian beats and harmonies. Half a dozen genres have emerged from the islands including morna, the national music of Cape Verde. Cape Verdean singer Cesária Évora, who died in 2011, is one of many local crooners who have achieved global recognition. With its annual carnival and musical bodegas, Mindelo on São Vicente is the heartbeat of island music. Black sand beaches Saharan deposits give the two easternmost islands (Sal and Boa Vista) incredible white sand strands framed by coastal dunes and salt flats. At the other extreme are the gorgeous black sand strands of Fogo and Santo Antão. While there may not be a lot of beach side amenities at some of the more secluded shores, there's a very good chance that yours will be the only towel on the sand. Local beverages and cuisine Cape Verde produces several indigenous libations including surprisingly tasty red and white wines, and grog that harkens back to the days of sail. Introduced by Casimir, Comte de Montrond (an exiled French aristocrat) in the 1870s, the vines are grown exclusively in the dark volcanic soil of Fogo island caldera. Vintners in Chã das Caldeiras village produce around 140,000 bottles per year, which visitors can sip with the volcano looming in the background at places like Casa Marisa bodega. A throwback to the archipelago's hardcore maritime days, grogue (84 proof rum) is made from sugar cane by a small, family run distillers on Santo Antão island. Meanwhile island cuisine offers a melting pot of Iberian and African dishes, ingredients and cooking styles. Cachupa, the national dish, is a tasty blend that often mixes corn, beans, plantains, yams and some kind of meat or fish, drawing inspiration from Africa. Fresh off the boat seafood is another specialty here, while a goat cheese pastry called pudim de queijo (goat cheese wrapped in sisal) is among the dairy delights. Street art and architecture More than 500 years of cultural fusion has endowed Cape Verde with a rich and varied architectural heritage. Styles range from Portuguese colonial forts and churches to conical funco huts made with volcanic stone and sobrado colonial mansions transformed into museums, boutique hotels and restaurants. Full of colorful buildings, the islands have morphed graffiti into a national art form, with municipalities inviting artists to decorate walls and buildings. Some of the most impressive works can be found in Ribeira Grande on Santo Antão and São Filipe on Fogo. Festival Sete Sóis Sete Luas, which takes place on Santo Antão in November, has a street art component that complements local music and food. Trekking trails A growing number of hikers are drawn to Cape Verde by the rugged topography, unspoiled landscapes and challenging trails. Routes range from the single day jaunt to the summit of Pico do Fogo to week long treks across the mountainous spine of Santo Antão. Santiago, São Tiago and São Nicolau islands also boast great trails. One of the most dramatic routes is the vertiginous path across the top of the sea cliffs from Ponta do Sol to Cruzinha via a cliff hanging village called Fontainhas, founded by French pirates who shipwrecked nearby. While Cape Verde only has one World Heritage site at present, the Cidade Velha or "old town" of Ribeira Grande, the first European style town built in the tropics, there are plenty more on UNESCO's tentative list. This includes the historic center of Nova Sintra town on Brava, the Salinas de Pedra de Lume salt water crater on Sal, and the mountainous heart of Santo Antão island including the Cova crater, the lush Paul Valley and the grand canyon of the Ribeira da Torre. Cruising and water sports Cruise companies have finally discovered Cape Verde. Zegrahm Expeditions, the Seattle-based adventure cruise company, introduced a "Sea to Sahara" itinerary this year that includes four of the islands. Noble Caledonia, Variety Cruises, Ponant and Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines are among the other companies that now offer Cape Verde cruises and itineraries often combine it with the Canary islands. A place surrounded by the deep blue sea are expected to have great water sports, and Cape Verde doesn't disappoint in that regard. With a steady wind blowing from the Sahara, Sal island is a hub for windsurfing, kite surfing and good old "hang ten" board surfing. Named one of the world's top winter scuba destinations by PADI, the rich Atlantic waters around the islands teem with sharks, rays, turtles, tropical fish and migrating whales. Outfitters like Scuba Caribe and Cabo Verde Diving offer a number of underwater options in the islands.
Subject: Music; Architecture; Airports; Volcanoes; Economic growth; Travel; Public art; Tourism; Water sports
Location: Cape Verde Islands Massachusetts Africa England Portugal Brazil Europe
Company / organization: Name: Zegrahm Expeditions; NAICS: 561520; Name: World Trade Organization; NAICS: 928120
Identifier / keyword: Africa Cape Verde Continents and regions Travel and tourism Western Africa Adventure travel Arts and entertainment Beaches Cruises Destinations and attractions Environment and natural resources Hiking Islands and reefs Landforms and ecosystems Music Music and dance Outdoor recreation Points of interest Sports and recreation Tourism Visual arts Volcanoes Business and industry sectors Business, economy and trade Consumer products Dairy products Food and drink Food products Kinds of foods and beverages
Publication title: CNN Wire Service; Atlanta
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Aug 23, 2018
Section: Style
Publisher: CNN Newsource Sales, Inc.
Place of publication: Atlanta
Country of publication: United States, Atlanta
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2091624218
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2091624218?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright 2018 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Last updated: 2018-08-23
Database: US Southeast Newsstream
Document 384 of 474
UAE’s heritage showcased at Sao Paulo International Book Fair
Publication info: Gulf News ; Dubai [Dubai]27 Aug 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Staff Report Dubai: Sharjah put up a spectacular 10-day showcase of Emirati and Arab cultures to honour its selection as the first guest of honour at the Sao Paulo International Book Fair in Brazil. The UAE flag was hoisted high at the fair, which saw the Sharjah Book Authority (SBA) take the lead in a plethora of activities organised at the massive Sharjah Pavilion. The platform brought together Brazilian and Emirati cultures, offering space for an open dialogue between the two nations to enhance bilateral relations. Dozens of Emirati and Arab authors, intellectuals and artists engaged thousands of visitors in discussions on Emirati literature, plays and novels translated into Portuguese for the first time. Brazilians visiting the fair engaged with a spectrum of panels unveiling the similarities and uniqueness of the two cultures. Sao Paulo’s streets came alive with an Emirati carnival featuring traditional song and dance performances steeped in the UAE’s history, whose protagonists married Samba beats to the tempo of Tanbura, Mizmar, Shindo and other Arab musical instruments as they narrated old tales of the UAE’s sailors and pearl divers in crowd-pulling performances. An overwhelming number of visitors turned up at the pavilion to have their Portuguese copies of Emirati titles signed by the authors. Over 40 contemporary Emirati authors and intellectuals were in attendance at the fair. The pavilion had also witnessed a number of Brazilian visitors getting their names written in a variety of Arabic calligraphy types, had delicate henna drawn on their palms and watched Emirati artisans creating the UAE’s traditional crafts of Talli and Safeefa. A section displayed Portuguese editions of two popular works by His Highness Shaikh Dr Sultan Bin Mohammad Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah. Sharjah offered its Brazilian publishing counterparts a comprehensive picture of the writing and publishing industry in the UAE and the Gulf region, as well as the emirate’s ongoing cultural and creative initiatives, which seek to boost its leading cultural project. All these efforts were made to communicate the message of Shaikh Sultan on the importance of a globalised world built on cross-cultural dialogue, and culture and knowledge exchange, based on which His Highness launched the emirate’s vibrant cultural project five decades ago. © Al Nisr Publishing LLC 2018. All rights reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).
Subject: Publishing; Book fairs
Location: Brazil Dubai United Arab Emirates
Publication title: Gulf News; Dubai
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Aug 27, 2018
Publisher: SyndiGate Media Inc
Place of publication: Dubai
Country of publication: United States, Dubai
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United Arab Emirates
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2093394157
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2093394157?accountid=4840
Copyright: © Al Nisr Publishing LLC 2018. All rights reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).
Last updated: 2018-08-27
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 385 of 474
Brazil: Basic data
Publication info: EIU ViewsWire ; New York [New York]01 Sep 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Brazil: Basic data
Land area
8,547,400 sq km. Population
207.7m (2017 estimate) Main cities
Population at last census (2012 official estimate; m) São Paulo: 11.4 Rio de Janeiro: 6.4 Salvador: 2.7 Brasília (capital): 2.6 Fortaleza: 2.5 Belo Horizonte: 2.4 Climate
Mainly tropical and sub-tropical; mild on the southern coast and in the higher regions Weather in São Paulo (altitude 760 metres)
Hottest month, December, 23-30°C; coldest month, June, 15-22°C, average monthly minimum and maximum; driest month, August; wettest month, February Language
Portuguese Measures
Metric system Currency
Real (R); average exchange rate in 2017: R3.2:US$1 Time
The states along the coast, as well as eastern Pará, Brasília-DF, Minas Gerais, Goiás and Tocantins, are three hours behind GMT (official time in Brazil); the states of Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Rondônia, most of Amazonas, Roraima and western Pará are four hours behind GMT; the states of Acre and the south-western part of Amazonas are five hours behind GMT Public holidays
January 1st (New Year's Day); February 10th-14th (Carnival); March 30th (Good Friday); April 21st (Tiradentes); May 1st (Labour Day); September 7th (Independence Day); October 12th (Nossa Senhora Aparecida, the patron saint of Brazil; also Children's Day); November 2nd (All Saints' Day); November 15th (Proclamation of the Republic); December 25th (Christmas Day)
Subject: Economic conditions; Economic indicators; Background
Location: Brazil Latin America
Publication title: EIU ViewsWire; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Sep 1, 2018
Publisher: The Economist Intelligence Unit N.A., Incorporated
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Political Science--International Relations
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2098284049
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2098284049?accountid=4840
Copyright: (c) 2018 The Economist Intelligence Unit Ltd. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. No further reproduction is permitted.
Last updated: 2018-09-02
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 386 of 474
Brett Kavanaugh Confirmation Hearing; Trump Slams Sessions; Tech on the Hill; Chinese Auto Stocks Drop; Amazon Looks to Online Ad Market; DJ Khaled Launches Luxury Furniture Line; Luxury for Less; Nike and Kaepernick Team Up; James Bullard on State of Economy
Publication info: International Wire ; Lanham [Lanham]04 Sep 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MARIA BARTIROMO, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK HOST: Welcome back. Good Tuesday morning, everybody. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Maria Bartiromo. And it is Tuesday, September 4th. Your top stories right now just after at 7:00 a.m. on the East Coast. Tariffs and trade in investors' sights this week. Wall Street waiting on a possible deal with Canada and the possibility for more potential tariffs on Chinese goods could be implemented this Thursday. Futures indicating the markets will open flat -- take a look. Dow Industrials down about 30 points right now. This is the low of the morning on the Dow. The S&P 500 is unchanged and the Nasdaq is up just a fraction. Mixed performance on Friday meanwhile for the major indices. As you can see Friday's close had the Dow down 20 points, the S&P and the Nasdaq up fractionally. In Europe this morning markets are lower -- take a look. Money coming out of equities-- FT100 down a quarter of a percent, CAC 40 in Paris down 1 percent, and the DAX index in Germany down almost 1 percent. Asian markets meanwhile finishing mostly in positive territory overnight with just the Nikkei average ending lower, just a fraction. Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing is on -- the Supreme Court nominee headed to Capitol Hill this morning to be grilled by both sides of the aisle. Senator Lindsey Graham is optimistic. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: I think there are a handful of Democrats who will vote for Judge Kavanaugh if he does well and maybe even more. A lot of people should vote for Judge Kavanaugh. If you're looking to a Republican president to pick a qualified conservative he would be on the top of anyone's list. (END VIDEO CLIP) BARTIROMO: The hearing is set to begin this morning at 9:15 a.m. We will carry it live. Plus, outrage this morning as Nike makes Colin Kaepernick the face of its new campaign. We break down the backlash this morning. And move over IKEA, DJ Khaled going from producing music to producing your home. The DJ's new venture that could change the way you live. All those stories coming up this Tuesday morning and joining me to break it all down our own Dagen McDowell, "The Wall Street Journal's" global economics editor Jon Hilsenrath, and The King's College business and economics professor Brian Brenberg. Great to see everybody. BRIAN BRENBERG, BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS PROFESSOR, THE KINGS COLLEGE: So good to be here this morning. BARTIROMO: Welcome back. BRENBERG: Yes. Burning right into the fall here with the Kavanaugh hearings this week, right. No stalling here, straight into it. BARTIROMO: Real busy. We'll see. And they're supposed to get Democratic support, but we'll see. JON HILSENRATH, GLOBAL ECONOMICS EDITOR, "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL": Big week. We also have the jobs report coming up, end of the week. BARTIROMO: What are you expecting? Another good number -- Jon? HILSENRATH: More good numbers. Yes. I mean there's no evidence out there that, you know, the economy is slowing down. So -- DAGEN MCDOWELL, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK HOST: -- which I said on "OUTNUMBERED" yesterday, loudly. It's incredible what the job market's been able to do this year because the first seven months of the year job growth on average every month is actually faster than it was the seven months -- the first seven months of last year which deep into an expansion is pretty incredible. BARTIROMO: Which is why the Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates next meeting -- September 26th -- we are expecting a hike in rates. And of course, then we've got third quarter earnings on tap, amazing that the third quarter is over in just three weeks and then we'll have the earnings period beginning once again. HILSENRATH: And we just reported last week the Commerce Department came out with really strong earnings numbers, 16 percent year over year earnings growth for the economy as a whole in the second quarter. That too is on a boom level. MCDOWELL: And speaking of tax cuts, one of the reasons the economy's going great guns, 2.9 percent growth year over year in disposable income adjusting for inflation. That's a solid number that deserves to get -- (CROSSTALK) HILSENRATH: I think you were asking earlier, say one bad thing about the economy. I'll tell you the one bad thing is borrowed money. We're running towards trillion dollar budget deficits and no one is paying attention to that. That's not going to help a couple of years down the road. BARTIROMO: That's a very good point especially s interest rates move higher. All of that on the agenda this morning. And joining the conversation this morning, we've got the President of the St. Louis Federal Reserve here in studio, James Bullard, president and CEO at the St. Louis Fed is here. Plus Harvard law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz is going to will handicap the hearings today. And former presidential candidate and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee here as well. All ahead -- don't miss a moment of it. But first, our top story this hour. And that is the battle for Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation. The Supreme Court nominee will face the Senate Judiciary Committee this morning. Republicans and Democrats remain largely divided over securing this nomination. Watch. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SENATOR CHUCK GRASSLEY (R-IA), SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: I think you're hearing from a lot of people that can't find anything wrong with the qualifications of Kavanaugh. And so many Democrats that said even before he was nominated they were going to vote against anybody that was on that list. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right. GRASSLEY: So the bottom line is how much more do you need to know to vote no? SENATOR DICK DURBIN (D-IL), SENATE MINORITY WHIP: There's a serious question as to whether this president, given the opportunity, will end the Mueller investigation -- something which most Republicans and the overwhelming majority of Americans say would be a serious mistake. And we asked, of course, Judge Kavanaugh what do you think and he says it's hands off when it comes to a president during his term in office. I think that's a mistake. And it's one of the major reasons people have misgivings about his nomination. (END VIDEO CLIP) BARTIROMO: Joining me right now to talk more about that and a lot of other things, California Congressman, member of the House Judiciary Committee, Darrell Issa. Congressman -- it's good to see you this morning. Thanks so much for joining us. DARRELL ISSA (R-CA), HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Thank you -- Maria. Thanks for teeing it up that way. It is always amazing. Dick Durbin and so many of those who are the "I'm going to vote no" no what matter, are now grousing overnight that they got 42,000 additional documents that they had absolutely no right to get out of the Bush One Library. And they're complaining they don't have enough time to read them. BARTIROMO: Yes. I mean it's interesting about all of the outrage over the documents. Meanwhile, I know that I've been covering and watching this document holdout by the FBI and the Department of Justice now for a year and-a-half, where Congress has been asking for documents. And it's no problem, they're just not giving the documents. And yet this holdback on documents has created outrage. What is your take in terms of what documents should be given over Brett Kavanaugh, what should be seen, what should be widely distributed and what shouldn't? ISSA: Well, I think the one thing that has really stood out is that the Bush -- H. Bush Library was willing to give any documents. President Bush, the father is still alive and those documents are historically not shared. You know, many years ago, Justice Roberts actually told me that, you know, he was uncomfortable with the fact that Reagan's documents came out which would be fine, Reagan had passed away, but how about the chief justice who hadn't? So the idea that these documents between a lawyer and his client become available is pretty unprecedented and it gives the -- if they want it, it gives them more information than they would ordinarily get. There's not one senator that would say oh, yes, give everything I've ever said to my attorney, just give that out and forget about attorney/client privilege much less the normal presidential privilege. Here's the thing that's important is if you can't find anything wrong in over a million documents that were given without selection -- in other words, they didn't hold back certain ones, why is it you think that if you just get a few more you're going to get something. This man's been an open book. The problem for the Democrats is they don't like the book. BARTIROMO: Yes, that's a really important point that you make. Do you think that there are the votes to nominate Judge Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, sir? ISSA: Yes, I think he'll get exactly as Lindsey Graham said 55 or more. In the ordinary course of a different environment, most of these Democrats would vote for him. They have no reason not to. Politically they're just choosing to vote no, no matter what. BARTIROMO: Let me switch gears, Congressman -- and ask about you what's going on between the President and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Once again, the President is out publicly calling him out, this time accusing Sessions of hurting the GOP's chances in the midterms. So here are these tweets that the President put out this weekend. Two long running Obama era investigations of two very popular Republican congressmen were brought to a well-publicized charge, just ahead of the midterms by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department. Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job, Jeff," the President writes. Then he writes "The Democrats, none of whom voted for Jeff Sessions, must love him now. Same thing with lying James Comey -- the Dems all hated him, wanted him out, thought he was disgusting until I fired him. Immediately he became a wonderful man, a saint-like figure, in fact. Really sick." Your reaction to what the President is saying about Jeff Sessions, first off. It's odd to see a President calling out his attorney general repeatedly. But then again it's odd to see your attorney general not doing the things that you would expect. ISSA: Well, I think those are the two balancing acts. The President wants to motivate Attorney General Jeff Sessions to be, if you will, the Senator Sessions that he had hired -- somebody who would be aggressive in getting documents out that should be released and clearly in the case of the two congressmen that were indicted three years after their assistant U.S. attorneys knew about the offenses and fully vetted them is a good example where the Justice Department is not following its own guidelines, its own rules on not interfering with elections and putting these out exactly when neither candidate could get off the ballot, but very likely one or both of them could be defeated because of these indictments for which there will be no trial until after the elections. So it is an example of, Jeff -- get with the program. The program is enforce the laws and regulations, hold these people accountable. In other words, run the department. And so I think any president looks at his cabinet and says are you running your department according to the normal rules. This isn't a political statement. This is purely a -- they've got Justice Department guidelines and they seem to be ignoring them in one direction, which is against Republicans. BARTIROMO: Well, why is he doing that -- Congressman? I mean what do you think is going on? Is there something that he's against the President on? Why is he not moving forward on things that seem quite obvious in terms of action from the A.G.? ISSA: Well, look, Jeff and I worked together for a long time when he was a senator. And the one thing that I didn't expect is a deer in the headlights kind of action where there is so much inaction. But candidly, it's not that Jeff Sessions is doing something wrong, it's that he isn't doing something. And that's the part where Republicans are getting frustrated because they want an attorney general that if he has not recused will be engaged. And if he is recused, limit only his deputy to that area that he recused himself. Jeff Sessions is still the attorney general and should be doing 99 percent of overseeing the department. And yet it seems like very often he does nothing. And that's -- I think that's frustrating the President. But you know, when there's about 24 people in the greater cabinet, you want every one of them doing their job. BARTIROMO: Sure. ISSA: When you see one that is under-performing, it worries you. And the President, of course, worries over Twitter. BARTIROMO: I want to ask you about Twitter and about these testimonies that are going to happen this week. But before I move on to that, real quick, if the President were to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions, how hard would it be for him to get a new A.G. in there? Would the Democrats slow walk the process and not appoint somebody? ISSA: It will take 30 hours to replace him. That's the known is 30 hours of somebody that 51 or 50 plus the Vice President will vote for and that will be what they'll have to do. The question is, who. They have to choose somebody who has already been well vetted, somebody the President has confidence in, somebody that really knows how to take over that department from day one. That is the challenge. And I think until they find that person, the Attorney General will stay where he is. BARTIROMO: All right. Let's talk tech for a moment. As I first reported here Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg will face questions over allowing foreign entities to use their platforms to influence elections. This happens tomorrow. Both will testify. Jack Dorsey is also going to testify in front of the Commerce and Energy Committee. What should we expect to come out of this? ISSA: I think you should expect questions on that subject but also I think on this whole sort of shadow blocking the bias that these media seem to have. I think the important thing -- Energy and Commerce, I'm a member on leave of absence from that committee -- Energy and Commerce oversees a lot of things. One of them is, are these entities operating because they have certain liability exemptions? Are they operating properly under those? And that becomes a real question. If they're not doing their job the way you would expect a common carrier to do it, they in fact could expose themselves to considerable liability. If they in fact aren't doing their job relative to elections, they could really distort our ability to get, if you will, a democracy that we can believe in -- so both are going to be important subjects. I think you're going to see some varying onto other subjects because a lot of people are frustrated with these mediums, if you will, being hard left. BARTIROMO: What's the worst thing that could happen to these companies? ISSA: The worst thing that could happen to them is that they don't get the kind of exemptions they have and that they could be sued by people who feel they've been done wrong in any number of ways. BARTIROMO: That's a very important point. Congressman -- it's great to see you this morning. Thanks so much. ISSA: Thanks -- Maria. BARTIROMO: We'll see you soon. Congressman Darrell Issa. Stay tuned for live coverage of Judge Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation hearings. It begins today at 9:15 a.m. We will have it live for you right here on Fox Business. First though coming up next, Nike's controversial move -- the backlash after the company named Colin Kaepernick the face of its "Just Do It" campaign. That's coming up. Then from music producer to interior designer, we check out DJ Khaled' new home furniture line. Back in a minute. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Chinese automakers hit hard by falling sales. Cheryl Casone with the details and headlines now -- Cheryl. CHERYL CASONE, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK, CORRESPONDENT: That's right -- Maria. Chinese auto stocks have dropped about 40 percent this year. Sales are falling as the government clamps down on credit to their car buyers there. Dong Feng Motor, Geely Automobile, and Guangzhou Automobile have lost about $25 billion in their market cap in Hong Kong just this year. In fact in July, new car sales in China were 5.5 percent lower than in the same month last year -- pretty substantial drop there. Well, Amazon reportedly looking to raise its profile in the $88 billion online advertising market. "The New York Times" says the company is gearing up to take on industry leaders Google and Facebook with targeted ads that consumers are likely to see as suggestions instead of intrusions. Shares of Amazon are actually trading higher in the premarket, up more than a quarter percent right now. Well, DJ Khaled has started his own furniture line, as part of some of his best known phrases (ph). Khaled is teaming up with designer Collective Goldition to launch his "We the Best" home luxury furniture line. The rapper/producer is He is now offering his social media followers Keys to Life. There's this key-shaped bed for $1,200, you can buy a king sized version of the Dreams Unlocked Bed. You want to feel like a king again -- this is the kingdom of Khalid Throne Chair. The flagship piece has red velvet and gold accents. It's available for $2,500. Yes Khaled's new line is currently only available at El Dorado Furniture but that is expected to change in the future. So a lot of bling there -- Maria, if you're interested. BARTIROMO: That is a hot looking living room. CASONE: Like the king. BARTIROMO: All right. Thank you. Comments? HILSENRATH: How does it clean up if your kids spill yogurt on it? That's what I want to know, right. I don't think it's going to pass that test. BRENBERG: You might not be the target demographic. MCDOWELL: If you grew up in the south, you know that the good furniture has plastic on it. BARTIROMO: There's that. MCDOWELL: I think that's -- that's true. That would have some plastic all over it -- BARTIROMO: That is true. MCDOWELL: -- in a southern living room. BARTIROMO: Coming up, making a splash -- we're checking out Carnival's largest cruise ship ever that can accommodate nearly 7,000 passengers. That's coming up. Wait until you check this out. Then luxury for less -- we're revealing how to get an expensive Rolex watch on a budget. Back in a minute right here. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Luxury for less -- Gerri Willis is breaking down how to buy a Rolex watch on a budget. GERRI WILLIS, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK HOST: We didn't want to pay $8,000 for the submarine (ph), all right. No way. So we took a look at how do we buy it on the cheap -- take a look. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) WILLIS: Ah, the statement watch. Cardi B isn't the only one dripping in finesse and timeless luxury. You see them everywhere, mostly on the arms of celebrities. But with price tags of $3,000 to millions of dollars, how can you buy one without breaking the bank? PAUL ALTIERI, BOB'S WATCHES: What we encourage people to do is to go online, go to Google, you know, shop around. And you can buy and save 15 to 25 percent by buying pre-owned versus -- WILLIS: What do you mean -- so a used Rolex? ALLEN: Yes, a used or what we call pre-owned Rolex. So you go online -- there's a lot of reputable dealers. We always encourage people to buy from a reputable dealer. WILLIS: Paul Altieri owns the online retail store Bob's Watches, one of the world's biggest online secondhand watch vendors with $32 million in sales last year. It's primary offering, the Rolex -- the most recognizable among luxury watch brands and popular. When actor Paul Newman's sporty Rolex watch went up for auction at Phillips in New York -- UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is history now. WILLIS: -- it sold for a record $17.8 million. The iconic Rolex takes a full year to make, according to the Swiss maker, and the enclosure clasp on each watch is closed a thousand times before the watch is sold. Some experts say that no Rolex design is approved unless it's visible from 20 feet away. The trick for the buyer -- getting the real thing. ALTIERI: We always say buy from a reputable dealer, number 1. Number 2 is when you're looking at the watch, if the deal seems too good to be true it's probably not a real watch. So if you see a watch and it's $50 or $100, it's probably not a genuine Rolex. WILLIS: Check out these Rolexes -- beautiful, right. They're going to be auctioned off starting September 5th on Bob's Watches. And If you want to know if a Rolex is real or not, check out the serial number. First of all there should be one on the case and secondly, it has to be quality etched. (END VIDEOTAPE) BARTIROMO: Cool. WILLIS: So this is a lot of fun. I have to tell you, another sign that you've got a real Rolex as opposed to a fake -- that secondhand sweeps instead of ticking along. So you've got to watch for all the particulars. But you've got to buy from, you know, somebody you can trust at the end of the day -- a real dealer. BARTIROMO: Good stuff. Gerri -- thank you. WILLIS: You're most welcome. BARTIROMO: All right. Gerri Willis. Coming up -- backlash over Nike's new deal, the boycott after the company selects Colin Kaepernick for its "Just Do It" ad campaign. That's next. Then we talk interest rates with the Federal Reserve. I'll speak with St. Louis Federal Reserve President and CEO James Bullard in the studio here this morning. We'll discuss the economy, the future of the fed and a lot more. Stay with us right here. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Good Tuesday morning everybody. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Maria Bartiromo. And it is Tuesday, September 4th. Your top stories right now at 7:30 on the East Coast right now. Waiting for a trade deal with Canada and more tariffs possible on the way for China. That has investors' attention this morning. Futures are indicating a mixed market at the start of trading this morning. As you can see, things have worsened quite a bit. Dow Industrials down now 80 points. We're expecting a decline right out of the gate of about a third of a percent on the Dow. The S&P 500 is down a fraction. And the Nasdaq with a 16-point decline, down a quarter of a percent. This after a mixed performance on Friday for the major indices. As you can see, the Dow is down 20 but the S&P and the Nasdaq were up on the session on Friday. In Europe this morning declines across the board, take a look, FT-100 down almost one half a percent. CAC Quarante in Paris down 1-1/3 percent. And the DAX Index in Germany down better than one percent. Right here, these are the lows of the morning in Europe as well as on Wall Street. Asian markets finished mostly in positive territory overnight. Just the Nikkei Average in Japan was lower. Best performer was China. Shanghai Composite up, better than one percent. Outrage this morning over former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick being named the new face of Nike's ad campaign, Just Do It. We will break it down. And then making a splash, Carnival unveils its largest ever crew ship. We've got the details on that, coming up. Then, the tale of two tigers as Tiger Woods took to the links at this 2018 Dell Technologies Championship. He was also spotted taking pictures with fans. We will explain all of that, coming up. But first, our top story this hour, and that is Wall Street's winning streak, the U.S. is dominating the global stock market. A performance calendar amid a streak of stock market highs. The S&P 500, the NASDAQ, ripping its new records last week. While the Dow remains in striking distance of its own all-time high. Joining us right now to look at the backdrop for investing the economy, James Bullard is the President and the CEO of the St. Louis Federal Reserve. Good to see you sir. Thank you so much for joining us. JAMES BULLARD, PRESIDENT AND CEO, FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF ST. LOUIS: Thanks for having me. BARTIROMO: Characterize the backdrop for us in terms of economic success that we've seen. BULLARD: Well, from a Central Bank's perspective it doesn't get any better than this. You've got relatively rapid economic growth considering the slow growth over the expansion, we're about three percent year over year growth rate, low unemployment, good, strong labor markets, inflation just now right at target on the Fed's preferred measure. So, I think we're in a very good -- very good shape right now. BARTIROMO: Yes. I mean, when you look at two straight quarters of four percent growth, which is pretty incredible. BULLARD: Got to love it. BARTIROMO: Is that -- is that sustainable? BULLARD: Well, most forecasts have this slowing down. I think the potential growth rate for the U.S. economy is slower, down around two percent or even less, so we're definitely growing above trend right now. BARTIROMO: Let me ask you what could get in the way. Because the Federal Reserve, Bank of St. Louis recently published a study on how the trade dispute could sabotage this growth story here in the economy. Tell us about that. BULLARD: Yes, on trade I would -- I would say it's important to get to some deals somewhere to reduce the uncertainty in this topic because you don't want to have perpetual uncertainty and perpetual chaos around possible trade relationships. So I thought this announcement of the Mexico deal was very important. You can seal that deal and get it done, that will show that sometimes this does come to a resolution at some point and that will reduce the uncertainty and give investors more confidence, I think. BARTIROMO: Yes, it's interesting. Because while these whole trade uncertainty has been going on, the markets I feel like have given this administration the benefit of the doubt and not -- because the markets would be much lower if people really thought that we were in this massive trade war. BULLARD: Yes. BARTIROMO: But we're still waiting on this uncertainties. I mean, we could see additional tariffs go on China this Thursday. How worried are you about the U.S.-China relationship in that regard? BULLARD: Yes, on China, I'm not seeing as much progress being made, both sides, you know, I suppose is shadow boxing at this point. But I just don't see much happening there. And the Chinese might have different attitude about what they need to do. BARTIROMO: So, you think the Mexico deal was optimistic but you're still waiting on Canada of course. BULLARD: Yes, they've got to -- I don't know how that's going to turn out this week. Obviously the deal seems pretty close. Then you've got -- you know, parliamentary approval on things like that. So, there's further to go. But to reach an initial deal would be important. BARTIROMO: What's -- let's talk jobs, James because one of the issues was the fact that we've been waiting for wages to move for so long, wages have moved, 2.9 percent growth year over year. And yet now there's a lot of outcry about now things are getting overheated and the Federal Reserve should not raise interest rates too much. What's your take on where we are in terms of wages and the strength of the jobs market? BULLARD: Yes, the employment cost index is up about 2.9 percent year over year. That's not a great number compared to past expansions, but productivity growth has been low and inflation's about at two percent. So if you think productivity growth is about one percent on average and inflation's at two, that adds up to three, that should be where wages are. We're pretty close to that. So, I've say, something more like steady state wages and wage growth instead of above average wage growth right now, anyway. BARTIROMO: Well, how do you ensure that the Fed does sort of balance out strength that we're seeing but not overdo it. Because I know we're in an unprecedented period right now with the Federal Reserve has to unwind the $4.5 trillion balance sheet at the same time of raising interest rates coming out from zero, coming up. So how do you balance that? Tell us what's most important. BULLARD: Maria, this I should say about the Fed, we've already been preemptive. We raised rates while the inflation rate was below our target. We started shrinking the size of the balance sheets before inflation came up to target. So we've done these things over the last two years. Now we're in pretty good shape and I think what we could do is take signals from financial markets that are telling us that we're about where we need to be right now. Yield curve, for instance, is very flat. I'd rather not see an inverted yield curve in the U.S. That's usually a harbinger of a slowdown ahead. And inflation expectations based on market based measures are low and remain right around our target. I think -- I think it shows that we've got a pretty good policy right now and we should stay where we are and see how the data come in. BARTIROMO: So, do you worry that the Fed could overheat, could overdo it in terms of too many rate hikes? BULLARD: Yes, I've been concerned about this because -- you know, our models say one thing but our models are flawed and then financial markets are saying something else, especially through the yield curve. BARTIROMO: So, tell us where you see the growth in the economy today. I mean, you've got a very good unemployment number at 3.9 percent. You've got a very good GDP number. And we know the job creation has happened steadily. Are there areas of the economy that you see growing faster than others? BULLARD: Well, the tech sector continues to power the U.S. economy and I think a great question for investors and I don't have an answer this morning but, you know, how far can we go in valuing these companies? Are they really going to dominate the entire economy or is there going to be some limit to what they can do? And I think everyone is kind of scratching their head about that. It -- these are really a long winning streak for these companies. BARTIROMO: You know, you're right. Because technology has changed virtually every industry from health care to automotive. BULLARD: Every CEO I talk to is worried about getting disrupted especially by Amazon. BARTIROMO: And what would that mean for the growth story of the economy, the disruption part of it? BULLARD: Well, you could take an optimistic view and say well, that's keeping people on their toes and they're thinking more about how to use information technology to improve their businesses. That's one way to look at it. Another way to look at it is maybe they're running scared and they're trying to get shorter term profits while it can. BARTIROMO: So, you know, Alan Greenspan I know, used to look at the stock market as a really important indicator in terms of the wealth effect. Do you -- do you look at the markets because you mentioned the valuations of the tech companies. Is this something that you take into account when looking at monetary policy? BULLARD: Yes, I think, you know, conventional wisdom is that if the market goes up by $100, consumption -- and on a sustained basis, you'll get about $5.00 in consumption spending. So, it does have an effect on consumption. BARTIROMO: Now, there is a narrative that while things are going really well right now, over the next year or two things will slow down quite a bit. Do you buy into that? I mean, you know, we spoke with your colleague Robert Kaplan from Dallas who also said look, we're talking about a three percent growth number for 2018. But when you look out to 2020, you're talking about all the way down to 1.9 percent. How do you get there? BULLARD: Yes, I think the projections are that the economy's going to slow but -- and I think that's the right thing to base policy on, that that should be how you plan and then you hope for the best. You hope that productivity will improve in the U.S. economy and you'll actually get faster growth. That would be great news. If productivity would improve, but we need to see it before we can bake that into policy. BARTIROMO: Why all the projections that things will slow? I mean, I'm just trying to understand what it is that would be causing the slowdown. BULLARD: Because the potential growth rate is thought to be only about, you know, two percent in the U.S. economy, maybe one percent productivity growth and one percent labor force growth. And the demographics we'll probably not going to be able to fix anytime soon. So, if we're going to get sustained faster growth, it's got to come through productivity. There's a good angle on that story, because, yes, you could -- you could see productivity improvement given all the fantastic technology that's around but that technology has to diffuse into actual production processes and make things -- you know, make things more productive and I'm not sure that's always happening. BARTIROMO: So, when you look out let's call it three years, I mean, the Federal Reserve has been really the one who has provided the stimulus for this economy over the last 10 years. And after the financial crisis, it was all on you and your colleagues. BULLARD: Yes. BARTIROMO: I mean, we know that. And you did a terrific job. BULLARD: Thank you. BARTIROMO: But going out, when you look at where the Fed funds rate should be. Let's call it three or four years, what's an appropriate number? BULLARD: Well, like I said, I think we're about where we need to be today. We've already been preemptive. We've got inflation right at target. It doesn't look like there's a lot of inflation pressure in the U.S. economy based on tips based type inflation expectations. So I think we're in good shape for today and we should just play it going forward by taking in incoming data and reacting to incoming data and I don't think we have this -- should have this idea that we have another 150 basis points to go before we even get to normal. I think that would be overkill. BARTIROMO: A lot of conversation about what the president has said about Jay Powell, the president last week said he does not regret appointing Jay Powell as the chairman of the Federal Reserve. But he's been consistently critical of the chairman's gradual rate hikes. Your take on the Fed's action? Is this a conversation that's happening at the Fed that the president talking about the Fed or sort of questioning the independence. Does it question the independence? BULLARD: I don't really think so. I think the independence is baked into the law. So, and the law says that the committee is supposed to try to get the best employment results we can get and get the best inflation results we can get simultaneously. So we have to continue to make decisions that we think will deliver on those mandates. We've talked before, but monetary policy in the U.S. is a global 24 hour a day debate that's going on. All kinds of people are weighing in including politicians, senators, congress -- members of congress can all weigh in during hearings. BARTIROMO: It's true. BULLARD: So if the president weighs in some ways it's just one more voice. Now, he does have influence over the Fed because he has the appointment still process. We just got a new vice chair, Rich Clarida. I think he'll be a great addition to the team. So, I think, to the extent he's going to have influence on the conversation, it's going to be through those appointments more than through the tweets. BARTIROMO: I see. Compare the business climate, business spending with the consumer right now. Give us your state of health for both of those areas. Because for a long time we were waiting for businesses to start unleashing money in terms of IIT, and R&D and investing in their businesses. But they were sitting on cash for so long because of the regulatory environment. That's been unleashed. Seems like businesses have started to spend again. And then we were worried about the consumer but the last consumer and retail numbers looked pretty good. Your take on both. BULLARD: You know, when I talk to businesses, they're all saying really great things about -- at least about current results. They feel very good, especially about the second quarter. I'm sure you're hearing all the same things. A lot of bullishness out there in these -- in these businesses. I think the trick is to say how are they going to invest in information technology and use information technology, let's say, over the next five years to make their businesses better and -- or are they going to get disrupted by somebody coming from the outside who maybe doesn't know that much about the business but knows more about how to use information technology and sort of -- sort of upsets the apple cart for them. That's the kind of concern i'm hearing a lot. BARTIROMO: How about the consumer? How's the consumer doing? BULLARD: Consumer seems to be very happy, things seem to be going well. One of the best contributors to GDP growth, I'm happy right now. BARTIROMO: Any worries or you know, uncertainties in terms of where the consumer spending part of this goes, two-thirds of the economy, obviously we want to know. BULLARD: I'm not concerned right now. I think -- I think we're in good shape right now. Obviously, things can happen. And so, if they do, we'll have to react at that point. But for right now things look good. BARTIROMO: And looks like we're going to see another rate hike in September, then. BULLARD: Well, markets are putting a very high probability on it. And if you talk to my colleagues, most of them seem to put a high probability as well. BARTIROMO: Mr. President, James Bullard of the St. Louis Federal Reserve, thank you so much for joining us. BULLARD: All right. Thanks very much. BARTIROMO: Great to see you. BULLARD: Thanks for having me this morning. BARTIROMO: And to you, James Bullard. Coming up, a massive maiden voyage, we are checking out Carnival's largest cruise ship ever. Boasting dozens of bars, a casino and a water park. That's next. And then, talk about a double take, details on the Tiger Woods impersonator taking the internet by storm. Back in a moment. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Cheryl Casone with the details now A strike by ferry cruise in Greece causing travel problems for thousands, Cheryl. CHERYL CASONE, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK ANCHOR: Now, unhappy holiday there Maria. Thousands of tourists were stranded after a one day strike paralyzed the Ferry. That round between some of the most popular Greek island. Ferry cruise returning to work after the main Greek seamen union accepted a two percent pay hike following an eight year pay freeze. Seeming from Greece's ongoing death crisis. The union was initially seeking a five percent raise. Travel though we should say now expected to be hopefully back to normal at the end of the summer holiday in Greece. Well, a heart breaking loss in Brazil. A fire turn to the country's national museum on Sunday. It destroyed 90 percent of the collection there including the America's oldest human fossil. The government is now seeking funding from banks and companies to rebuild the museum. Many appointed out that the treasures house there can frankly just never be restored. Investigators trying to determine the cause of that massive blaze. Well, Carnival has christened its largest cruise ship ever. The AIDAnova in Germany, that is the ship now. The ship can hold up to 6600 people. It's 1100 feet long, it's got 20 decks, 11 of those for passengers, the rooms. Amenities includes 17 restaurants, 23 bars, a casino, a water park, a scaling wall, even a miniature golf course. The ship cost nearly $810 million to build. It's going to set sail in December for the Canary Islands. Taking a look at shares of Carnival, they're trading lower in the premarket. Maria, this thing we should just say, this ship weighs 184,000 tons. BARTIROMO: Wow. That looks like something. That's incredible. CASONE: Agree. Yes, I mean, and it's going to be crowded. BARTIROMO: Golf course, water park. JON HILSENRATH, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK CONTRIBUTOR: It's like a floating block of New York City, right? I mean, look at it, it's like a block, actually. 184 tons. BARTIROMO: All those people. DAGEN MCDOWELL, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK ANCHOR: That sounds like, my gosh, how does it fly? HILSENRATH: That's what I mean. I'm with you. BARTIROMO: Amazing. Thank you, Cheryl. Stepping up into controversy, Nike is facing new backlash this morning after picking Colin Kaepernick for its Just Do It ad campaign. We've got all the details. Stay with us. Back in a minute. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Now this, Nike is facing new backlash this morning after choosing Colin Kaepernick for its face of the Just Do It campaign. Jared Max with the details, Jared. JARED MAX, FOX NEWS SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Maria, as we enter our second straight NFL season with Colin Kaepernick unable to protest the national anthem on an NFL field. The one time pro athlete remains under contract with Nike. In fact, he's the new poster boy. This advertisement revealed Monday, it's part of Nike's 30th anniversary celebration of the Just Do It campaign. It reads, believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything. Nike says the ad is targeted to teen agers 15-17. Nike has had Kaepernick on payroll since 2011. His deal was about to expire. But Nike reportedly gave him a new multiyear contract with reported interest from other companies like Adidas and Puma. Nike's vice president of branding in North America told the ESPN we believe Colin is one of the most inspirational athletes of this generation who has leveraged the power of sport to help move the world forward. The ad reads believe in something even if it means sacrificing everything. Well, how much did Nike sacrifice to align like this with Kaepernick? Already seeing backlash, several people posting videos on social media burning Nike shoes, ripping logos off their clothing. Major upsets outside of this story. In sports last night at the U.S. Open, not only did Maria Sharapova lose for the first time ever in a night match at Arthur Ashe Stadium. Five time champ Roger Federer lost for the first time ever to a player not ranked in the top 50. He'd been 40 in (INAUDIBLE) matches but Federer double faulted a dozen times lost in four sets to the 55th rank player John Millman. And the best headlines about Tigers Woods at the Dell Technology Championship Monday, his doppelganger. Check this out dressed like Tiger, this fellow here posed with several fans. He even got spoken about on the T.V. broadcast. There's the side-by-side shot. At one point, he tried to get a little fist bump from Tiger Woods but it did not work out. HILSENRATH: It's pretty good, it looks like just him, right? MAX: Tiger tied for ninth. BARTIROMO: And all those fans are totally hood winked. HILSENRATH: Look at that guy. BARTIROMO: Do they know that it's not him or they just -- MCDOWELL: Probably not. MAX: Depends how many beers they've had. BARTIROMO: My God. MCDOWELL: Can I say something about the Nike? MAX: Please. MCDOWELL: Campaign. This is a business calculation. Colin Kaepernick even since he hasn't been playing in the NFL, his jersey has been a top selling jersey for Nike. So, they know that this is a way to still make money and a little bit of corporate virtue signaling for a company that had can nearly -- MAX: It's really great. MCDOWELL: Wait, let me finish. Nearly a dozen employees have left Nike amid complaints about inappropriate workplace behavior. Two former Nike employees have filed a lawsuit alleging gender discrimination, specific accounts of alleged harassment. So, this is a way for Nike to get us to talk about that and not the problems within the company. BARTIROMO: Look over here. MCDOWELL: Yes, ma'am. BARTIROMO: Jared. MAX: To be continued. BARTIROMO: Yes, for sure, Jared Max. Catch Jared sports reports on Fox News Headlines, 24/7 or on Sirius Radio XM 115. We'll slip in a break, then brewing up something new. We're checking out the ramen dish inspired by beer, that's next hour, MORNINGS WITH MARIA, right here. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Good Tuesday morning everybody. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Maria Bartiromo. And it is Tuesday, September 4th. Your top stories right now, 8:00 a.m. on the East Coast. END [Copy: Content and Programming Copyright 2018 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2018 ASC Services II Media, LLC. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of ASC Services II Media, LLC. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.]
Subject: Nominations; Hearings & confirmations; Interest rates; Tariffs; Copyright; Political appointments; Sex discrimination; Congressional committees
Location: United States--US
People: Bullard, James Kavanaugh, Brett Khaled, Khaled Mohamed Kaepernick, Colin Powell, Jerome
Company / organization: Name: Fox News Channel; NAICS: 515120; Name: Nike Inc; NAICS: 315220, 315240, 316210, 339920, 424340
Publication title: International Wire; Lanham
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Sep 4, 2018
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: Lanham
Country of publication: United States, Lanham
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2099520996
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2099520996?accountid=4840
Copyright: 2018 ASC Services II Media, LLC
Last updated: 2019-06-26
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 387 of 474
Brett Kavanaugh Confirmation Hearing; Trump Slams Sessions; Tech on the Hill; Chinese Auto Stocks Drop; Amazon Looks to Online Ad Market; DJ Khaled Launches Luxury Furniture Line; Luxury for Less; Nike and Kaepernick Team Up; James Bullard on State of Economy
Publication info: Finance Wire ; Lanham [Lanham]04 Sep 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MARIA BARTIROMO, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK HOST: Welcome back. Good Tuesday morning, everybody. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Maria Bartiromo. And it is Tuesday, September 4th. Your top stories right now just after at 7:00 a.m. on the East Coast. Tariffs and trade in investors' sights this week. Wall Street waiting on a possible deal with Canada and the possibility for more potential tariffs on Chinese goods could be implemented this Thursday. Futures indicating the markets will open flat -- take a look. Dow Industrials down about 30 points right now. This is the low of the morning on the Dow. The S&P 500 is unchanged and the Nasdaq is up just a fraction. Mixed performance on Friday meanwhile for the major indices. As you can see Friday's close had the Dow down 20 points, the S&P and the Nasdaq up fractionally. In Europe this morning markets are lower -- take a look. Money coming out of equities-- FT100 down a quarter of a percent, CAC 40 in Paris down 1 percent, and the DAX index in Germany down almost 1 percent. Asian markets meanwhile finishing mostly in positive territory overnight with just the Nikkei average ending lower, just a fraction. Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing is on -- the Supreme Court nominee headed to Capitol Hill this morning to be grilled by both sides of the aisle. Senator Lindsey Graham is optimistic. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: I think there are a handful of Democrats who will vote for Judge Kavanaugh if he does well and maybe even more. A lot of people should vote for Judge Kavanaugh. If you're looking to a Republican president to pick a qualified conservative he would be on the top of anyone's list. (END VIDEO CLIP) BARTIROMO: The hearing is set to begin this morning at 9:15 a.m. We will carry it live. Plus, outrage this morning as Nike makes Colin Kaepernick the face of its new campaign. We break down the backlash this morning. And move over IKEA, DJ Khaled going from producing music to producing your home. The DJ's new venture that could change the way you live. All those stories coming up this Tuesday morning and joining me to break it all down our own Dagen McDowell, "The Wall Street Journal's" global economics editor Jon Hilsenrath, and The King's College business and economics professor Brian Brenberg. Great to see everybody. BRIAN BRENBERG, BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS PROFESSOR, THE KINGS COLLEGE: So good to be here this morning. BARTIROMO: Welcome back. BRENBERG: Yes. Burning right into the fall here with the Kavanaugh hearings this week, right. No stalling here, straight into it. BARTIROMO: Real busy. We'll see. And they're supposed to get Democratic support, but we'll see. JON HILSENRATH, GLOBAL ECONOMICS EDITOR, "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL": Big week. We also have the jobs report coming up, end of the week. BARTIROMO: What are you expecting? Another good number -- Jon? HILSENRATH: More good numbers. Yes. I mean there's no evidence out there that, you know, the economy is slowing down. So -- DAGEN MCDOWELL, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK HOST: -- which I said on "OUTNUMBERED" yesterday, loudly. It's incredible what the job market's been able to do this year because the first seven months of the year job growth on average every month is actually faster than it was the seven months -- the first seven months of last year which deep into an expansion is pretty incredible. BARTIROMO: Which is why the Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates next meeting -- September 26th -- we are expecting a hike in rates. And of course, then we've got third quarter earnings on tap, amazing that the third quarter is over in just three weeks and then we'll have the earnings period beginning once again. HILSENRATH: And we just reported last week the Commerce Department came out with really strong earnings numbers, 16 percent year over year earnings growth for the economy as a whole in the second quarter. That too is on a boom level. MCDOWELL: And speaking of tax cuts, one of the reasons the economy's going great guns, 2.9 percent growth year over year in disposable income adjusting for inflation. That's a solid number that deserves to get -- (CROSSTALK) HILSENRATH: I think you were asking earlier, say one bad thing about the economy. I'll tell you the one bad thing is borrowed money. We're running towards trillion dollar budget deficits and no one is paying attention to that. That's not going to help a couple of years down the road. BARTIROMO: That's a very good point especially s interest rates move higher. All of that on the agenda this morning. And joining the conversation this morning, we've got the President of the St. Louis Federal Reserve here in studio, James Bullard, president and CEO at the St. Louis Fed is here. Plus Harvard law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz is going to will handicap the hearings today. And former presidential candidate and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee here as well. All ahead -- don't miss a moment of it. But first, our top story this hour. And that is the battle for Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation. The Supreme Court nominee will face the Senate Judiciary Committee this morning. Republicans and Democrats remain largely divided over securing this nomination. Watch. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SENATOR CHUCK GRASSLEY (R-IA), SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: I think you're hearing from a lot of people that can't find anything wrong with the qualifications of Kavanaugh. And so many Democrats that said even before he was nominated they were going to vote against anybody that was on that list. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right. GRASSLEY: So the bottom line is how much more do you need to know to vote no? SENATOR DICK DURBIN (D-IL), SENATE MINORITY WHIP: There's a serious question as to whether this president, given the opportunity, will end the Mueller investigation -- something which most Republicans and the overwhelming majority of Americans say would be a serious mistake. And we asked, of course, Judge Kavanaugh what do you think and he says it's hands off when it comes to a president during his term in office. I think that's a mistake. And it's one of the major reasons people have misgivings about his nomination. (END VIDEO CLIP) BARTIROMO: Joining me right now to talk more about that and a lot of other things, California Congressman, member of the House Judiciary Committee, Darrell Issa. Congressman -- it's good to see you this morning. Thanks so much for joining us. DARRELL ISSA (R-CA), HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Thank you -- Maria. Thanks for teeing it up that way. It is always amazing. Dick Durbin and so many of those who are the "I'm going to vote no" no what matter, are now grousing overnight that they got 42,000 additional documents that they had absolutely no right to get out of the Bush One Library. And they're complaining they don't have enough time to read them. BARTIROMO: Yes. I mean it's interesting about all of the outrage over the documents. Meanwhile, I know that I've been covering and watching this document holdout by the FBI and the Department of Justice now for a year and-a-half, where Congress has been asking for documents. And it's no problem, they're just not giving the documents. And yet this holdback on documents has created outrage. What is your take in terms of what documents should be given over Brett Kavanaugh, what should be seen, what should be widely distributed and what shouldn't? ISSA: Well, I think the one thing that has really stood out is that the Bush -- H. Bush Library was willing to give any documents. President Bush, the father is still alive and those documents are historically not shared. You know, many years ago, Justice Roberts actually told me that, you know, he was uncomfortable with the fact that Reagan's documents came out which would be fine, Reagan had passed away, but how about the chief justice who hadn't? So the idea that these documents between a lawyer and his client become available is pretty unprecedented and it gives the -- if they want it, it gives them more information than they would ordinarily get. There's not one senator that would say oh, yes, give everything I've ever said to my attorney, just give that out and forget about attorney/client privilege much less the normal presidential privilege. Here's the thing that's important is if you can't find anything wrong in over a million documents that were given without selection -- in other words, they didn't hold back certain ones, why is it you think that if you just get a few more you're going to get something. This man's been an open book. The problem for the Democrats is they don't like the book. BARTIROMO: Yes, that's a really important point that you make. Do you think that there are the votes to nominate Judge Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, sir? ISSA: Yes, I think he'll get exactly as Lindsey Graham said 55 or more. In the ordinary course of a different environment, most of these Democrats would vote for him. They have no reason not to. Politically they're just choosing to vote no, no matter what. BARTIROMO: Let me switch gears, Congressman -- and ask about you what's going on between the President and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Once again, the President is out publicly calling him out, this time accusing Sessions of hurting the GOP's chances in the midterms. So here are these tweets that the President put out this weekend. Two long running Obama era investigations of two very popular Republican congressmen were brought to a well-publicized charge, just ahead of the midterms by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department. Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job, Jeff," the President writes. Then he writes "The Democrats, none of whom voted for Jeff Sessions, must love him now. Same thing with lying James Comey -- the Dems all hated him, wanted him out, thought he was disgusting until I fired him. Immediately he became a wonderful man, a saint-like figure, in fact. Really sick." Your reaction to what the President is saying about Jeff Sessions, first off. It's odd to see a President calling out his attorney general repeatedly. But then again it's odd to see your attorney general not doing the things that you would expect. ISSA: Well, I think those are the two balancing acts. The President wants to motivate Attorney General Jeff Sessions to be, if you will, the Senator Sessions that he had hired -- somebody who would be aggressive in getting documents out that should be released and clearly in the case of the two congressmen that were indicted three years after their assistant U.S. attorneys knew about the offenses and fully vetted them is a good example where the Justice Department is not following its own guidelines, its own rules on not interfering with elections and putting these out exactly when neither candidate could get off the ballot, but very likely one or both of them could be defeated because of these indictments for which there will be no trial until after the elections. So it is an example of, Jeff -- get with the program. The program is enforce the laws and regulations, hold these people accountable. In other words, run the department. And so I think any president looks at his cabinet and says are you running your department according to the normal rules. This isn't a political statement. This is purely a -- they've got Justice Department guidelines and they seem to be ignoring them in one direction, which is against Republicans. BARTIROMO: Well, why is he doing that -- Congressman? I mean what do you think is going on? Is there something that he's against the President on? Why is he not moving forward on things that seem quite obvious in terms of action from the A.G.? ISSA: Well, look, Jeff and I worked together for a long time when he was a senator. And the one thing that I didn't expect is a deer in the headlights kind of action where there is so much inaction. But candidly, it's not that Jeff Sessions is doing something wrong, it's that he isn't doing something. And that's the part where Republicans are getting frustrated because they want an attorney general that if he has not recused will be engaged. And if he is recused, limit only his deputy to that area that he recused himself. Jeff Sessions is still the attorney general and should be doing 99 percent of overseeing the department. And yet it seems like very often he does nothing. And that's -- I think that's frustrating the President. But you know, when there's about 24 people in the greater cabinet, you want every one of them doing their job. BARTIROMO: Sure. ISSA: When you see one that is under-performing, it worries you. And the President, of course, worries over Twitter. BARTIROMO: I want to ask you about Twitter and about these testimonies that are going to happen this week. But before I move on to that, real quick, if the President were to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions, how hard would it be for him to get a new A.G. in there? Would the Democrats slow walk the process and not appoint somebody? ISSA: It will take 30 hours to replace him. That's the known is 30 hours of somebody that 51 or 50 plus the Vice President will vote for and that will be what they'll have to do. The question is, who. They have to choose somebody who has already been well vetted, somebody the President has confidence in, somebody that really knows how to take over that department from day one. That is the challenge. And I think until they find that person, the Attorney General will stay where he is. BARTIROMO: All right. Let's talk tech for a moment. As I first reported here Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg will face questions over allowing foreign entities to use their platforms to influence elections. This happens tomorrow. Both will testify. Jack Dorsey is also going to testify in front of the Commerce and Energy Committee. What should we expect to come out of this? ISSA: I think you should expect questions on that subject but also I think on this whole sort of shadow blocking the bias that these media seem to have. I think the important thing -- Energy and Commerce, I'm a member on leave of absence from that committee -- Energy and Commerce oversees a lot of things. One of them is, are these entities operating because they have certain liability exemptions? Are they operating properly under those? And that becomes a real question. If they're not doing their job the way you would expect a common carrier to do it, they in fact could expose themselves to considerable liability. If they in fact aren't doing their job relative to elections, they could really distort our ability to get, if you will, a democracy that we can believe in -- so both are going to be important subjects. I think you're going to see some varying onto other subjects because a lot of people are frustrated with these mediums, if you will, being hard left. BARTIROMO: What's the worst thing that could happen to these companies? ISSA: The worst thing that could happen to them is that they don't get the kind of exemptions they have and that they could be sued by people who feel they've been done wrong in any number of ways. BARTIROMO: That's a very important point. Congressman -- it's great to see you this morning. Thanks so much. ISSA: Thanks -- Maria. BARTIROMO: We'll see you soon. Congressman Darrell Issa. Stay tuned for live coverage of Judge Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation hearings. It begins today at 9:15 a.m. We will have it live for you right here on Fox Business. First though coming up next, Nike's controversial move -- the backlash after the company named Colin Kaepernick the face of its "Just Do It" campaign. That's coming up. Then from music producer to interior designer, we check out DJ Khaled' new home furniture line. Back in a minute. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Chinese automakers hit hard by falling sales. Cheryl Casone with the details and headlines now -- Cheryl. CHERYL CASONE, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK, CORRESPONDENT: That's right -- Maria. Chinese auto stocks have dropped about 40 percent this year. Sales are falling as the government clamps down on credit to their car buyers there. Dong Feng Motor, Geely Automobile, and Guangzhou Automobile have lost about $25 billion in their market cap in Hong Kong just this year. In fact in July, new car sales in China were 5.5 percent lower than in the same month last year -- pretty substantial drop there. Well, Amazon reportedly looking to raise its profile in the $88 billion online advertising market. "The New York Times" says the company is gearing up to take on industry leaders Google and Facebook with targeted ads that consumers are likely to see as suggestions instead of intrusions. Shares of Amazon are actually trading higher in the premarket, up more than a quarter percent right now. Well, DJ Khaled has started his own furniture line, as part of some of his best known phrases (ph). Khaled is teaming up with designer Collective Goldition to launch his "We the Best" home luxury furniture line. The rapper/producer is He is now offering his social media followers Keys to Life. There's this key-shaped bed for $1,200, you can buy a king sized version of the Dreams Unlocked Bed. You want to feel like a king again -- this is the kingdom of Khalid Throne Chair. The flagship piece has red velvet and gold accents. It's available for $2,500. Yes Khaled's new line is currently only available at El Dorado Furniture but that is expected to change in the future. So a lot of bling there -- Maria, if you're interested. BARTIROMO: That is a hot looking living room. CASONE: Like the king. BARTIROMO: All right. Thank you. Comments? HILSENRATH: How does it clean up if your kids spill yogurt on it? That's what I want to know, right. I don't think it's going to pass that test. BRENBERG: You might not be the target demographic. MCDOWELL: If you grew up in the south, you know that the good furniture has plastic on it. BARTIROMO: There's that. MCDOWELL: I think that's -- that's true. That would have some plastic all over it -- BARTIROMO: That is true. MCDOWELL: -- in a southern living room. BARTIROMO: Coming up, making a splash -- we're checking out Carnival's largest cruise ship ever that can accommodate nearly 7,000 passengers. That's coming up. Wait until you check this out. Then luxury for less -- we're revealing how to get an expensive Rolex watch on a budget. Back in a minute right here. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Luxury for less -- Gerri Willis is breaking down how to buy a Rolex watch on a budget. GERRI WILLIS, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK HOST: We didn't want to pay $8,000 for the submarine (ph), all right. No way. So we took a look at how do we buy it on the cheap -- take a look. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) WILLIS: Ah, the statement watch. Cardi B isn't the only one dripping in finesse and timeless luxury. You see them everywhere, mostly on the arms of celebrities. But with price tags of $3,000 to millions of dollars, how can you buy one without breaking the bank? PAUL ALTIERI, BOB'S WATCHES: What we encourage people to do is to go online, go to Google, you know, shop around. And you can buy and save 15 to 25 percent by buying pre-owned versus -- WILLIS: What do you mean -- so a used Rolex? ALLEN: Yes, a used or what we call pre-owned Rolex. So you go online -- there's a lot of reputable dealers. We always encourage people to buy from a reputable dealer. WILLIS: Paul Altieri owns the online retail store Bob's Watches, one of the world's biggest online secondhand watch vendors with $32 million in sales last year. It's primary offering, the Rolex -- the most recognizable among luxury watch brands and popular. When actor Paul Newman's sporty Rolex watch went up for auction at Phillips in New York -- UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is history now. WILLIS: -- it sold for a record $17.8 million. The iconic Rolex takes a full year to make, according to the Swiss maker, and the enclosure clasp on each watch is closed a thousand times before the watch is sold. Some experts say that no Rolex design is approved unless it's visible from 20 feet away. The trick for the buyer -- getting the real thing. ALTIERI: We always say buy from a reputable dealer, number 1. Number 2 is when you're looking at the watch, if the deal seems too good to be true it's probably not a real watch. So if you see a watch and it's $50 or $100, it's probably not a genuine Rolex. WILLIS: Check out these Rolexes -- beautiful, right. They're going to be auctioned off starting September 5th on Bob's Watches. And If you want to know if a Rolex is real or not, check out the serial number. First of all there should be one on the case and secondly, it has to be quality etched. (END VIDEOTAPE) BARTIROMO: Cool. WILLIS: So this is a lot of fun. I have to tell you, another sign that you've got a real Rolex as opposed to a fake -- that secondhand sweeps instead of ticking along. So you've got to watch for all the particulars. But you've got to buy from, you know, somebody you can trust at the end of the day -- a real dealer. BARTIROMO: Good stuff. Gerri -- thank you. WILLIS: You're most welcome. BARTIROMO: All right. Gerri Willis. Coming up -- backlash over Nike's new deal, the boycott after the company selects Colin Kaepernick for its "Just Do It" ad campaign. That's next. Then we talk interest rates with the Federal Reserve. I'll speak with St. Louis Federal Reserve President and CEO James Bullard in the studio here this morning. We'll discuss the economy, the future of the fed and a lot more. Stay with us right here. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Good Tuesday morning everybody. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Maria Bartiromo. And it is Tuesday, September 4th. Your top stories right now at 7:30 on the East Coast right now. Waiting for a trade deal with Canada and more tariffs possible on the way for China. That has investors' attention this morning. Futures are indicating a mixed market at the start of trading this morning. As you can see, things have worsened quite a bit. Dow Industrials down now 80 points. We're expecting a decline right out of the gate of about a third of a percent on the Dow. The S&P 500 is down a fraction. And the Nasdaq with a 16-point decline, down a quarter of a percent. This after a mixed performance on Friday for the major indices. As you can see, the Dow is down 20 but the S&P and the Nasdaq were up on the session on Friday. In Europe this morning declines across the board, take a look, FT-100 down almost one half a percent. CAC Quarante in Paris down 1-1/3 percent. And the DAX Index in Germany down better than one percent. Right here, these are the lows of the morning in Europe as well as on Wall Street. Asian markets finished mostly in positive territory overnight. Just the Nikkei Average in Japan was lower. Best performer was China. Shanghai Composite up, better than one percent. Outrage this morning over former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick being named the new face of Nike's ad campaign, Just Do It. We will break it down. And then making a splash, Carnival unveils its largest ever crew ship. We've got the details on that, coming up. Then, the tale of two tigers as Tiger Woods took to the links at this 2018 Dell Technologies Championship. He was also spotted taking pictures with fans. We will explain all of that, coming up. But first, our top story this hour, and that is Wall Street's winning streak, the U.S. is dominating the global stock market. A performance calendar amid a streak of stock market highs. The S&P 500, the NASDAQ, ripping its new records last week. While the Dow remains in striking distance of its own all-time high. Joining us right now to look at the backdrop for investing the economy, James Bullard is the President and the CEO of the St. Louis Federal Reserve. Good to see you sir. Thank you so much for joining us. JAMES BULLARD, PRESIDENT AND CEO, FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF ST. LOUIS: Thanks for having me. BARTIROMO: Characterize the backdrop for us in terms of economic success that we've seen. BULLARD: Well, from a Central Bank's perspective it doesn't get any better than this. You've got relatively rapid economic growth considering the slow growth over the expansion, we're about three percent year over year growth rate, low unemployment, good, strong labor markets, inflation just now right at target on the Fed's preferred measure. So, I think we're in a very good -- very good shape right now. BARTIROMO: Yes. I mean, when you look at two straight quarters of four percent growth, which is pretty incredible. BULLARD: Got to love it. BARTIROMO: Is that -- is that sustainable? BULLARD: Well, most forecasts have this slowing down. I think the potential growth rate for the U.S. economy is slower, down around two percent or even less, so we're definitely growing above trend right now. BARTIROMO: Let me ask you what could get in the way. Because the Federal Reserve, Bank of St. Louis recently published a study on how the trade dispute could sabotage this growth story here in the economy. Tell us about that. BULLARD: Yes, on trade I would -- I would say it's important to get to some deals somewhere to reduce the uncertainty in this topic because you don't want to have perpetual uncertainty and perpetual chaos around possible trade relationships. So I thought this announcement of the Mexico deal was very important. You can seal that deal and get it done, that will show that sometimes this does come to a resolution at some point and that will reduce the uncertainty and give investors more confidence, I think. BARTIROMO: Yes, it's interesting. Because while these whole trade uncertainty has been going on, the markets I feel like have given this administration the benefit of the doubt and not -- because the markets would be much lower if people really thought that we were in this massive trade war. BULLARD: Yes. BARTIROMO: But we're still waiting on this uncertainties. I mean, we could see additional tariffs go on China this Thursday. How worried are you about the U.S.-China relationship in that regard? BULLARD: Yes, on China, I'm not seeing as much progress being made, both sides, you know, I suppose is shadow boxing at this point. But I just don't see much happening there. And the Chinese might have different attitude about what they need to do. BARTIROMO: So, you think the Mexico deal was optimistic but you're still waiting on Canada of course. BULLARD: Yes, they've got to -- I don't know how that's going to turn out this week. Obviously the deal seems pretty close. Then you've got -- you know, parliamentary approval on things like that. So, there's further to go. But to reach an initial deal would be important. BARTIROMO: What's -- let's talk jobs, James because one of the issues was the fact that we've been waiting for wages to move for so long, wages have moved, 2.9 percent growth year over year. And yet now there's a lot of outcry about now things are getting overheated and the Federal Reserve should not raise interest rates too much. What's your take on where we are in terms of wages and the strength of the jobs market? BULLARD: Yes, the employment cost index is up about 2.9 percent year over year. That's not a great number compared to past expansions, but productivity growth has been low and inflation's about at two percent. So if you think productivity growth is about one percent on average and inflation's at two, that adds up to three, that should be where wages are. We're pretty close to that. So, I've say, something more like steady state wages and wage growth instead of above average wage growth right now, anyway. BARTIROMO: Well, how do you ensure that the Fed does sort of balance out strength that we're seeing but not overdo it. Because I know we're in an unprecedented period right now with the Federal Reserve has to unwind the $4.5 trillion balance sheet at the same time of raising interest rates coming out from zero, coming up. So how do you balance that? Tell us what's most important. BULLARD: Maria, this I should say about the Fed, we've already been preemptive. We raised rates while the inflation rate was below our target. We started shrinking the size of the balance sheets before inflation came up to target. So we've done these things over the last two years. Now we're in pretty good shape and I think what we could do is take signals from financial markets that are telling us that we're about where we need to be right now. Yield curve, for instance, is very flat. I'd rather not see an inverted yield curve in the U.S. That's usually a harbinger of a slowdown ahead. And inflation expectations based on market based measures are low and remain right around our target. I think -- I think it shows that we've got a pretty good policy right now and we should stay where we are and see how the data come in. BARTIROMO: So, do you worry that the Fed could overheat, could overdo it in terms of too many rate hikes? BULLARD: Yes, I've been concerned about this because -- you know, our models say one thing but our models are flawed and then financial markets are saying something else, especially through the yield curve. BARTIROMO: So, tell us where you see the growth in the economy today. I mean, you've got a very good unemployment number at 3.9 percent. You've got a very good GDP number. And we know the job creation has happened steadily. Are there areas of the economy that you see growing faster than others? BULLARD: Well, the tech sector continues to power the U.S. economy and I think a great question for investors and I don't have an answer this morning but, you know, how far can we go in valuing these companies? Are they really going to dominate the entire economy or is there going to be some limit to what they can do? And I think everyone is kind of scratching their head about that. It -- these are really a long winning streak for these companies. BARTIROMO: You know, you're right. Because technology has changed virtually every industry from health care to automotive. BULLARD: Every CEO I talk to is worried about getting disrupted especially by Amazon. BARTIROMO: And what would that mean for the growth story of the economy, the disruption part of it? BULLARD: Well, you could take an optimistic view and say well, that's keeping people on their toes and they're thinking more about how to use information technology to improve their businesses. That's one way to look at it. Another way to look at it is maybe they're running scared and they're trying to get shorter term profits while it can. BARTIROMO: So, you know, Alan Greenspan I know, used to look at the stock market as a really important indicator in terms of the wealth effect. Do you -- do you look at the markets because you mentioned the valuations of the tech companies. Is this something that you take into account when looking at monetary policy? BULLARD: Yes, I think, you know, conventional wisdom is that if the market goes up by $100, consumption -- and on a sustained basis, you'll get about $5.00 in consumption spending. So, it does have an effect on consumption. BARTIROMO: Now, there is a narrative that while things are going really well right now, over the next year or two things will slow down quite a bit. Do you buy into that? I mean, you know, we spoke with your colleague Robert Kaplan from Dallas who also said look, we're talking about a three percent growth number for 2018. But when you look out to 2020, you're talking about all the way down to 1.9 percent. How do you get there? BULLARD: Yes, I think the projections are that the economy's going to slow but -- and I think that's the right thing to base policy on, that that should be how you plan and then you hope for the best. You hope that productivity will improve in the U.S. economy and you'll actually get faster growth. That would be great news. If productivity would improve, but we need to see it before we can bake that into policy. BARTIROMO: Why all the projections that things will slow? I mean, I'm just trying to understand what it is that would be causing the slowdown. BULLARD: Because the potential growth rate is thought to be only about, you know, two percent in the U.S. economy, maybe one percent productivity growth and one percent labor force growth. And the demographics we'll probably not going to be able to fix anytime soon. So, if we're going to get sustained faster growth, it's got to come through productivity. There's a good angle on that story, because, yes, you could -- you could see productivity improvement given all the fantastic technology that's around but that technology has to diffuse into actual production processes and make things -- you know, make things more productive and I'm not sure that's always happening. BARTIROMO: So, when you look out let's call it three years, I mean, the Federal Reserve has been really the one who has provided the stimulus for this economy over the last 10 years. And after the financial crisis, it was all on you and your colleagues. BULLARD: Yes. BARTIROMO: I mean, we know that. And you did a terrific job. BULLARD: Thank you. BARTIROMO: But going out, when you look at where the Fed funds rate should be. Let's call it three or four years, what's an appropriate number? BULLARD: Well, like I said, I think we're about where we need to be today. We've already been preemptive. We've got inflation right at target. It doesn't look like there's a lot of inflation pressure in the U.S. economy based on tips based type inflation expectations. So I think we're in good shape for today and we should just play it going forward by taking in incoming data and reacting to incoming data and I don't think we have this -- should have this idea that we have another 150 basis points to go before we even get to normal. I think that would be overkill. BARTIROMO: A lot of conversation about what the president has said about Jay Powell, the president last week said he does not regret appointing Jay Powell as the chairman of the Federal Reserve. But he's been consistently critical of the chairman's gradual rate hikes. Your take on the Fed's action? Is this a conversation that's happening at the Fed that the president talking about the Fed or sort of questioning the independence. Does it question the independence? BULLARD: I don't really think so. I think the independence is baked into the law. So, and the law says that the committee is supposed to try to get the best employment results we can get and get the best inflation results we can get simultaneously. So we have to continue to make decisions that we think will deliver on those mandates. We've talked before, but monetary policy in the U.S. is a global 24 hour a day debate that's going on. All kinds of people are weighing in including politicians, senators, congress -- members of congress can all weigh in during hearings. BARTIROMO: It's true. BULLARD: So if the president weighs in some ways it's just one more voice. Now, he does have influence over the Fed because he has the appointment still process. We just got a new vice chair, Rich Clarida. I think he'll be a great addition to the team. So, I think, to the extent he's going to have influence on the conversation, it's going to be through those appointments more than through the tweets. BARTIROMO: I see. Compare the business climate, business spending with the consumer right now. Give us your state of health for both of those areas. Because for a long time we were waiting for businesses to start unleashing money in terms of IIT, and R&D and investing in their businesses. But they were sitting on cash for so long because of the regulatory environment. That's been unleashed. Seems like businesses have started to spend again. And then we were worried about the consumer but the last consumer and retail numbers looked pretty good. Your take on both. BULLARD: You know, when I talk to businesses, they're all saying really great things about -- at least about current results. They feel very good, especially about the second quarter. I'm sure you're hearing all the same things. A lot of bullishness out there in these -- in these businesses. I think the trick is to say how are they going to invest in information technology and use information technology, let's say, over the next five years to make their businesses better and -- or are they going to get disrupted by somebody coming from the outside who maybe doesn't know that much about the business but knows more about how to use information technology and sort of -- sort of upsets the apple cart for them. That's the kind of concern i'm hearing a lot. BARTIROMO: How about the consumer? How's the consumer doing? BULLARD: Consumer seems to be very happy, things seem to be going well. One of the best contributors to GDP growth, I'm happy right now. BARTIROMO: Any worries or you know, uncertainties in terms of where the consumer spending part of this goes, two-thirds of the economy, obviously we want to know. BULLARD: I'm not concerned right now. I think -- I think we're in good shape right now. Obviously, things can happen. And so, if they do, we'll have to react at that point. But for right now things look good. BARTIROMO: And looks like we're going to see another rate hike in September, then. BULLARD: Well, markets are putting a very high probability on it. And if you talk to my colleagues, most of them seem to put a high probability as well. BARTIROMO: Mr. President, James Bullard of the St. Louis Federal Reserve, thank you so much for joining us. BULLARD: All right. Thanks very much. BARTIROMO: Great to see you. BULLARD: Thanks for having me this morning. BARTIROMO: And to you, James Bullard. Coming up, a massive maiden voyage, we are checking out Carnival's largest cruise ship ever. Boasting dozens of bars, a casino and a water park. That's next. And then, talk about a double take, details on the Tiger Woods impersonator taking the internet by storm. Back in a moment. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Cheryl Casone with the details now A strike by ferry cruise in Greece causing travel problems for thousands, Cheryl. CHERYL CASONE, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK ANCHOR: Now, unhappy holiday there Maria. Thousands of tourists were stranded after a one day strike paralyzed the Ferry. That round between some of the most popular Greek island. Ferry cruise returning to work after the main Greek seamen union accepted a two percent pay hike following an eight year pay freeze. Seeming from Greece's ongoing death crisis. The union was initially seeking a five percent raise. Travel though we should say now expected to be hopefully back to normal at the end of the summer holiday in Greece. Well, a heart breaking loss in Brazil. A fire turn to the country's national museum on Sunday. It destroyed 90 percent of the collection there including the America's oldest human fossil. The government is now seeking funding from banks and companies to rebuild the museum. Many appointed out that the treasures house there can frankly just never be restored. Investigators trying to determine the cause of that massive blaze. Well, Carnival has christened its largest cruise ship ever. The AIDAnova in Germany, that is the ship now. The ship can hold up to 6600 people. It's 1100 feet long, it's got 20 decks, 11 of those for passengers, the rooms. Amenities includes 17 restaurants, 23 bars, a casino, a water park, a scaling wall, even a miniature golf course. The ship cost nearly $810 million to build. It's going to set sail in December for the Canary Islands. Taking a look at shares of Carnival, they're trading lower in the premarket. Maria, this thing we should just say, this ship weighs 184,000 tons. BARTIROMO: Wow. That looks like something. That's incredible. CASONE: Agree. Yes, I mean, and it's going to be crowded. BARTIROMO: Golf course, water park. JON HILSENRATH, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK CONTRIBUTOR: It's like a floating block of New York City, right? I mean, look at it, it's like a block, actually. 184 tons. BARTIROMO: All those people. DAGEN MCDOWELL, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK ANCHOR: That sounds like, my gosh, how does it fly? HILSENRATH: That's what I mean. I'm with you. BARTIROMO: Amazing. Thank you, Cheryl. Stepping up into controversy, Nike is facing new backlash this morning after picking Colin Kaepernick for its Just Do It ad campaign. We've got all the details. Stay with us. Back in a minute. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Now this, Nike is facing new backlash this morning after choosing Colin Kaepernick for its face of the Just Do It campaign. Jared Max with the details, Jared. JARED MAX, FOX NEWS SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Maria, as we enter our second straight NFL season with Colin Kaepernick unable to protest the national anthem on an NFL field. The one time pro athlete remains under contract with Nike. In fact, he's the new poster boy. This advertisement revealed Monday, it's part of Nike's 30th anniversary celebration of the Just Do It campaign. It reads, believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything. Nike says the ad is targeted to teen agers 15-17. Nike has had Kaepernick on payroll since 2011. His deal was about to expire. But Nike reportedly gave him a new multiyear contract with reported interest from other companies like Adidas and Puma. Nike's vice president of branding in North America told the ESPN we believe Colin is one of the most inspirational athletes of this generation who has leveraged the power of sport to help move the world forward. The ad reads believe in something even if it means sacrificing everything. Well, how much did Nike sacrifice to align like this with Kaepernick? Already seeing backlash, several people posting videos on social media burning Nike shoes, ripping logos off their clothing. Major upsets outside of this story. In sports last night at the U.S. Open, not only did Maria Sharapova lose for the first time ever in a night match at Arthur Ashe Stadium. Five time champ Roger Federer lost for the first time ever to a player not ranked in the top 50. He'd been 40 in (INAUDIBLE) matches but Federer double faulted a dozen times lost in four sets to the 55th rank player John Millman. And the best headlines about Tigers Woods at the Dell Technology Championship Monday, his doppelganger. Check this out dressed like Tiger, this fellow here posed with several fans. He even got spoken about on the T.V. broadcast. There's the side-by-side shot. At one point, he tried to get a little fist bump from Tiger Woods but it did not work out. HILSENRATH: It's pretty good, it looks like just him, right? MAX: Tiger tied for ninth. BARTIROMO: And all those fans are totally hood winked. HILSENRATH: Look at that guy. BARTIROMO: Do they know that it's not him or they just -- MCDOWELL: Probably not. MAX: Depends how many beers they've had. BARTIROMO: My God. MCDOWELL: Can I say something about the Nike? MAX: Please. MCDOWELL: Campaign. This is a business calculation. Colin Kaepernick even since he hasn't been playing in the NFL, his jersey has been a top selling jersey for Nike. So, they know that this is a way to still make money and a little bit of corporate virtue signaling for a company that had can nearly -- MAX: It's really great. MCDOWELL: Wait, let me finish. Nearly a dozen employees have left Nike amid complaints about inappropriate workplace behavior. Two former Nike employees have filed a lawsuit alleging gender discrimination, specific accounts of alleged harassment. So, this is a way for Nike to get us to talk about that and not the problems within the company. BARTIROMO: Look over here. MCDOWELL: Yes, ma'am. BARTIROMO: Jared. MAX: To be continued. BARTIROMO: Yes, for sure, Jared Max. Catch Jared sports reports on Fox News Headlines, 24/7 or on Sirius Radio XM 115. We'll slip in a break, then brewing up something new. We're checking out the ramen dish inspired by beer, that's next hour, MORNINGS WITH MARIA, right here. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Good Tuesday morning everybody. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Maria Bartiromo. And it is Tuesday, September 4th. Your top stories right now, 8:00 a.m. on the East Coast. END [Copy: Content and Programming Copyright 2018 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2018 ASC Services II Media, LLC. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of ASC Services II Media, LLC. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.]
Subject: Nominations; Hearings & confirmations; Interest rates; Tariffs; Copyright; Political appointments; Sex discrimination; Congressional committees
Location: United States--US
People: Bullard, James Kavanaugh, Brett Khaled, Khaled Mohamed Kaepernick, Colin Powell, Jerome
Company / organization: Name: Fox News Channel; NAICS: 515120; Name: Nike Inc; NAICS: 315220, 315240, 316210, 339920, 424340
Publication title: Finance Wire; Lanham
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Sep 4, 2018
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: Lanham
Country of publication: United States, Lanham
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2099522634
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2099522634?accountid=4840
Copyright: 2018 ASC Services II Media, LLC
Last updated: 2019-06-26
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 388 of 474
Trade, Tariffs, and More; Here Comes the Judge; Gordon to Gulf Coast; Report: Leader of Taliban-Linked Haqqani Terror Network Dies; Trump to Syria: It's A Humanitarian Mistake to Attack Idlib Province; U.S.-North Korea Relations; Officer Shot In Head; New Yorker Festival Drops Steve Bannon As Headliner; Ditching College Degrees
Publication info: International Wire ; Lanham [Lanham]04 Sep 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: LAUREN SIMONETTI, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK ANCHOR: And thank you for joining us on FBN:AM. We're going to say good morning to Maria Bartiromo. Good to see you. Welcome back. MARIA BARTIROMO, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK ANCHOR: Hey there ladies, thanks so much. Great to be back. Good morning everybody, welcome back from the summertime. I'm Maria Bartiromo, happy Tuesday. It is Tuesday September 4th. Your top stories right now just before 6:00 a.m. on the East Coast. Investors have a lot to keep their eyes on this week between waiting for a trade deal with Canada and expected tariffs on more Chinese goods. Plus, news on the political front. Futures this morning showing the markets will open mix. Dow Industrials down about 20 points right now. Fractional moves on the upside though for the S&P500, up almost one point and the NASDAQ up eight and a half right now. This after a mixed close on Friday for the major indices, take a look at Friday's performance, August, still finishing in the green though despite Friday's decline of about 22 points on the Dow. S&P and the NASDAQ were up as you can see. The Dow adding just over two percent for the month of August, the S&P500 was up three percent for the month of August, and the NASDAQ is the big winner with an additional 5.7 percent move for the month of August alone. Check out markets in Europe this morning, take a look, we are looking at a down session with the FT-100 down 11 points, CAC Quarante down about 55, better than one percent, and the DAX Index in Germany down almost one percent despite reports that President Trump is ready to drop another round of tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods as early as this week. Asian markets finished mostly in positive territory overnight with the exception of Japan. Nikkei Average down just marginally. Here comes the judge, Brett Kavanaugh is set to be begin Senate confirmation hearings today, this as the Trump Administration announced that it will withhold more than 100,000 pages of documents on Kavanaugh. They say that the documents are protected by constitutional privilege. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) AL D'AMATO, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: His records speaks for itself. So those who raise questions now about 100,000 documents, et cetera, that they'd like to see when he works for the White House years ago, you know, that's just an attempt to slowdown the proceedings to embarrass him. But his record is going to carry him through. (END VIDEO CLIP) BARTIROMO: The administration did release more than 42,000 pages on Kavanaugh just yesterday. Extreme weather to report, Tropical Storm Gordon is now barrowing toward the Gulf Coast. The very latest on Gordon's move. Then outrage after Colin Kaepernick was named the new face of Nike, the backlash coming up. All those stories coming up this Tuesday morning and joining me to break it all down, our own Dagen McDowell. The Wall Street Journal's Global Economics Editor Jon Hilsenrath. And Kings College Business and Economics Professor Brian Brenberg. Great to see you. BRIAN BRENBERG, BUSINESS ECONOMICS PROFESSOR, KING'S COLLEGE: Good morning. Good to be here. BARTIROMO: Welcome back from the summer. JON HILSENRATH, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK CONTRIBUTOR: It's great to be here. BARTIROMO: Great to be back. I missed you. DAGEN MCDOWELL, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK ANCHOR: I missed you so much. But you're the hardest worker and woman in the news business, so you deserve some time off. BARTIROMO: Thank you. MCDOWELL: But I am dying to hear what you think about everything that's going on. BARTIROMO: So much going on. Jon, it's good to see you again. HILSENRATH: It is good to be here. BARTIROMO: A lot on the economic front as well. HILSENRATH: Lot to talk about on trade. We have a great story on paper today on the dairy market. I was going to send this to you over the weekend Dagen. A good points and hypocrisy on both sides about dairy trade, is it the center of U.S.-Canada trade arguments right now? And both sides are rigging our dairy markets, so we should -- and our viewers should take a look at that. MCDOWELL: And look what I've printed out this morning, "Why Milk Matters?" The U.S. and Canada trade fight. HILSENRATH: I knew Dagen was going to (INAUDIBLE) MCDOWELL: There is apparently a -- again, this is why it's not that big of a stumbling block I don't think in the -- in the negotiations with Canada to be part of the NAFTA rewrite because we actually benefit from the current policy in Canada. HILSENRATH: We're running a trade surplus. MCDOWELL: $650 million trade surplus on dairy. HILSENRATH: We're actually dumping surplus milk into Canada and we want to be able to dump more. MCDOWELL: Yes. Yes. BARTIROMO: Well, we'll see. I mean, the -- a deal with Mexico is, what, a handshake? I mean, it's done. HILSENRATH: Yes. BARTIROMO: Will Canada follow up soon? HILSENRATH: Well, that's the big question. And then there was an interesting episode last week where the president had an interview with Bloomberg News and somehow it leaked out. He -- where he made some comments off the record saying he's not going to give Canada any ground whatsoever and they either have to take it or leave, so let's see. MCDOWELL: One thing that Jon pointed out last week though that in order to get fast-track status on this trade and that is pass it with just a simple majority instead of 60 votes in the Senate, Canada according to, like, Senator Toomey for example, he says among others that Canada has to be part of it to get fast-track approval. HILSENRATH: And the president was tweeting about this week -- BARTIROMO: And Congress has to sign off on this. HILSENRATH: -- he was tweeting to Congress, "Stay out of this, take whatever deal I give you." Or else -- he's saying he's going to pull out of all these trade deals. BRENBERG: But the fact is it makes zero sense from Canada's perspective to not get something done. If they didn't get something done, they would be the big losers in this. That's why ultimately I think they'll come the president's way and get something done. BARTIROMO: Very important point. I think I agree with you. HILSENRATH: That's why dairy matters so much because if they get the wrong side of the dairy deal, it's a very politically powerful industry and particularly in Quebec and we'll have to see how much they dig their heels in on that. BARTIROMO: We've got a lot on that coming up, that's one of the key stories of course. Joining the conversation this morning, St. Louis Federal Reserve President and CEO James Bullard is here. Of course, we got a Federal Reserve meeting this month and we are expecting rates to move higher again. House Judiciary Committee Member, California Congressman Darrell Issa is with us this morning, along with former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz here as well. Big three hours ahead, don't miss moments of it. Let's kick it off right here with this top story this hour and that is on the hot seat, Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh goes before the Senate Judiciary Committee later this morning. That will set off a partisan battle over what is a consequential lifetime appointment. Senator Lindsey Graham a member of the Judiciary Committee sounding off and confident that Kavanaugh will be confirmed potentially with democratic votes as well. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does he have the votes to win confirmation of the court? SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC), SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE MEMBER: If he does well at the hearing he will get -- my belief is he does well and I'm sure he will do well. I think there are a handful of democrats who will vote for Judge Kavanaugh if he does well and maybe even more. (END VIDEO CLIP) BARTIROMO: You know Dagen, you've got democrats from states that Trump won which people are expecting those states, those democrats actually vote yes for Kavanaugh, what do you say? MCDOWELL: There are 10 democratic senators up for re-election in states that President Trump won. Half of those Trump won those states by double digits. The three to watch particularly are Joe Manchin in West Virginia, Joe Donnelly in Indiana, and Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota. Why are we watching these three democrats? Because they all voted for Neil Gorsuch. They were the three senators who stepped up and gave a thumbs up to Gorsuch. But as the Wall Street Journal Editorial Page points out in a lengthy editorial titled, "The Kavanaugh Hazing" that democrats are going to use these hearings to try and drive people to the polls and try and drive votes coming up on the midterms. And they are going to portray a nightmare scenario that this man is put on the Supreme Court. BARTIROMO: Right. And they're raising the question of Roe v. Wade. HILSENRATH: Yes. BARTIROMO: Something that's been in place for 50 years which people are not expecting to -- has any movement whatsoever. BRENBERG: Well -- and they're making this huge think about documents and access to documents which has really nothing to do this -- with this. When you think about somebody who's been the district court for 12 years, has 300 opinions under his belt, you know where he stands. It's not hard to assess where he is, that's not the point for democrats, they simply want to score points in the midterm election and they're going to use this week as a grandstand to do it. BARTIROMO: I love -- I love this outrage -- HILSENRATH: That's right. I think this -- this question of Roe v. Wade is an important one. You know, the rally big issue for a lot of people is will he uphold the presidents of the court or will he be willing to move them in another direction not just on Roe v. Wade but also on gay marriage. I think that's where he's going to be pressed. BARTIROMO: But hasn't he made suggestions already that he's not interested in changing something that's been in place for 650 years? HILSENRATH: It sounds like -- it sounds like he has -- BARTIROMO: Yes. HILSENRATH: -- in closed door meetings and now we have to see -- BRENBERG: And it's a -- and it's a John Roberts Court. He's not going to move the court. He cares very much about presidents. So, for that very reason I think it's less of an issue than democrats are making (INAUDIBLE) BARTIROMO: I love this outrage over the documents. Meanwhile, we're still waiting on documents from the FBI and the DOJ. Congress is still waiting on all these documents for a year and a half right now and yet there's all this outrage over the documents over Brett Kavanaugh. And then there's -- go ahead Dagen. MCDOWELL: No. I was just going to say that -- so we -- on Trump Administration withheld 101,000 document pages entirely under executive privilege. Senators and their staff were allowed to view 147,000 or so in a secure room on Capitol Hill. This is very similar to how the Obama White House handled the documents for Elena Kagan when she was up for Congress. BARTIROMO: It's a good point. That's a very good point. HILSENRATH: I think there's two issues on the documents, one is he was a staff secretary. My understanding of that job is you control documents, your whole job is deciding what -- how documents are managed. So you could basically ask for all White House documents that came through his desk. That's (INAUDIBLE) MCDOWELL: Well Chuck Grassley did the -- but when he was the staff secretary in the White House, Chuck Grassley I do not believe actually asks for those documents to be even turned over because they would be under executive public. HILSENRATH: But then there's another issue of how the -- how the U.S. treated prisoners and the whole war against Islamic terror, there's some questions on the democratic side about what position he took in the states. BARTIROMO: That's why they want to see the document. HILSENRATH: And that's where -- I think that's where the -- a lot of contention is. BRENBERG: But -- MCDOWELL: To your point, what these -- what the justices look at in terms of overturning why they will never overturn some of these major decisions because they look at, I think the legal term is (INAUDIBLE) where it's become part of our social fabric and the way that we live our lives. Like Roe v. Wade for example or even Miranda, this is something the Journal writes about that Justice William Rehnquist was a critic of the 1966 decision but in 2000 he refused a chance to overturn the Miranda ruling because it become -- it had been universally in use for so long. So it becomes part of our everyday lives. BARTIROMO: That's right. MCDOWELL: A part of the legal process. HILSENRATH: But you see why when he said -- BARTIROMO: And he said that repeatedly that this has been in place, he's not interested in changing something that's been in place for 50 years. HILSENRATH: But that matters a lot to social conservatives. Don't they want -- don't social conservatives want to hear him say, "Yes, I am going to move on Roe v. Wade." BARTIROMO: I don't know. HILSENRATH: So I think everybody wants to hear what he has to say on it. BRENBERG: I think the left is upset because they like to use the Supreme Court as a super congressional body to make law instead of interpret law. MCDOWELL: Thank you. BRENBERG: And they know Kavanaugh is not somebody who will allow that to happen. It's not about what's happened in the past, it's about what they won't be able to get done in the future that's happening. BARTIROMO: It's such an important point. MCDOWELL: If democrats -- in -- if democrats in Congress want to make law that is progressive, then make law. Do not use the court to do that -- BRENBERG: Pass it through Congress. BARTIROMO: Right. MCDOWELL: -- to do that on your behalf because you're position is so weak you could never pass a law basically pushing us to the left. BRENBERG: That's the central issue. BARTIROMO: Well all of this comes up this morning. The hearing begins I guess just after nine or -- MCDOWELL: 9:30a.m. BARTIROMO: 9:30a.m. this morning. We will obviously have it live here for you, so stay with us on those hearings. Turning to technology, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey as well as Facebook's Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg are going to be testifying tomorrow in front of these Senate Intel Committee. They will answer questions about foreign use of social media to influence elections. Separately, Mr. Dorsey will testify before the House Commerce Committee as you heard here first regarding the tribute of conservative voices on Twitter. Let's talk about this, what are we going to hear tomorrow from these technology chiefs tomorrow and from both of these -- HILSENRATH: Well, they're going to get it from every side. Conservatives feel, you know, that the conservative voices are being repressed on social media. Democrats are concerned about, you know, about Russian meddling and other meddling. So I think it's going to be -- it's going to be a tough couple of days for these executives. BARTIROMO: You know it's interesting because conservatives usually do not want to see more government, more regulation in business, in free enterprise. And yet, these companies have become so big and so powerful more so than they expected initially, so what do you do? BRENBERG: And they shouldn't want to see more involvement from the government here. But the problem is with Twitter especially, it looks like Dorsey is stepping in at the last moment and making decisions. They don't have a process, they don't have clear guidelines, it looks personality-driven and conservatives look at that and say the personalities at the top are progressive liberal and that's why our voices are being -- are suffering here. BARTIROMO: They're going to -- they're going to have to explain how they actually do decide when to take somebody off the platform. Dorsey's going to have to explain in detail how his platform actually ban certain voices, right? HILSENRATH: And, you know -- and there's also the whole issue of privacy of how they're letting information out to -- you know, to the public. MCDOWELL: How they make money off the backs of people's most private personal information because I don't think -- like particularly with Google. Google has a lot of explaining to do and I don't think -- BARTIROMO: They keep blowing off the invitations, right? MCDOWELL: Right. And I don't think -- it's a question as to who shows up because Sundar Pichai that Senator Burr wanted the CEO of Google there, he's not going. BARTIROMO: Yes. MCDOWELL: There's some question as to whether Larry Page shows up, that remains to be seen, one of the two founders of Google. But again, how much access they have to -- our -- the way that we behave online. BARTIROMO: But we know they have a lot of access to it Dagen. MCDOWELL: The interesting -- BARTIROMO: We know that, you know, there are certain things that have been taken off these platforms and you have to scratch your head and say, why? HILSENRATH: I don't think this story is going away. BARTIROMO: No way. HILSENRATH: It's going to be with us -- it's going to be with us for a while and who knows if it ends up in some kind of anti-trust movement either in Congress or out of -- BARTIROMO: To break these companies up because they're too big. HILSENRATH: To -- that's one thing. And then there's the question of, you know, rules of how they -- of how they deal with -- of how they deal with privacy and private (INAUDIBLE) MCDOWELL: And I'll -- but one thing I'll add because I raise this issue because Congress quite frankly let Facebook as one example get to the size that it is with the acquisition of, say, Instagram, number one. Number two, it's interesting that Amazon is now moving deeper into the advertising space giving potentially Google a run for its money. That's really one thing that will also at the power of these platforms is if you have a lot more competition. BARTIROMO: Yes. And there was one search engine that raised millions is recently DuckDuckGo. So you're seeing an effort at competition because that's what people would like, competition, as opposed to regulation. BRENBERG: And ultimately that's the best regulator. But what's been interesting is we've been talking about this for a very long time. The big tech names have not been able to inspire confidence. They've been very bad upon their story that's why they're in this position right now. MCDOWELL: Think until you make it. It's in their entire mantra. BRENBERG: Not very good at faking it anymore. MCDOWELL: And, you know -- and, again, it come to bite them in the, well, where the sun doesn't shine. BARTIROMO: All right. We got a lot coming up. Keep it right here for the live coverage of all of that, the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings starts at 9:30 this morning and then, of course, tomorrow on the technology testimonies as well. We'll take a short break. When we come back, bracing for impact, Tropical Storm Gordon is now gaining strength as it marches toward the Gulf. We've got the very latest on the hurricane warning now in effect. And then Nike take sides, the backlash after the company taps Colin Kaepernick for its Just Do It Campaign, back in a minute. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Bracing for impact, Gulf Coast states on high alert this morning as Tropical Storm Gordon is expected to strengthen into a hurricane. Cheryl Casone with the details and headlines now, Cheryl. CHERYL CASONE, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK ANCHOR: Good morning Maria. Gordon bearing down on the Gulf Coast overnight lashing South Florida with heavy rains and high winds. The storm expected to turn into a hurricane later today when it makes landfall. Gordon whipping winds at 60 miles per hour causing flash flooding. Storm surge warnings also in effect right now, a hurricane warning put into effect as far north as Mississippi. As much as eight inches of rain could fall in some parts of the Gulf States through late Thursday which we should say that some of those rigs are already being shut down in the Gulf. Those oil rigs that, of course, watch here. Well, billionaire CEO of JD.com Richard Liu is now back in China after being released by police in Minneapolis. He was arrested late Friday on suspicion of sexual misconduct. Details of the allegations have not been released and Liu is denying the claims. Police say the investigation is considered active and they are intense reactions in China. News outlets and social media are certainly talking about his arrest. China's foreign minister says it is looking into the circumstances surrounding his arrest. JD.com is China's second largest online shopping site after Alibaba. Shares of the company trading lower by down -- down by more than three percent right now in the premarket actually. Well, Nike is feeling the heat after naming former quarterback Colin Kaepernick the face of its 30th Just Do It Campaign. The new ad features the line "Believe in something even if it means sacrificing everything." Nike customers are clearly not happy about the company getting political Many videos being shared on social media, show people burning their Nike shoes as you can see in this video, that's one instance of many. But Nike, they're standing by their decision. They say, "We believe Colin is one of the most inspirational athletes of this generation who has leveraged the power of sports to help move the world forward." Kaepernick hasn't played in the NFL since the 2016 season, folks, when he began protesting on the field during the national anthem. And to kick it off, shares of Nike are down in the premarket, down more than half a percent Maria. Big news at Nike, back to you. BARTIROMO: All right. Thank you so much Cheryl. Coming up, stock soaring to new highs, will the market run continue into autumn? We're breaking down what's important for markets coming up next. We got a Federal Reserve meeting coming up this month. Then liberal backlash, the New Yorker uninviting Steve Bannon from its festival after a celebrity outcry. What Bannon is saying now, next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Well, a lot happening in the couple of months ahead, that could be impactful for the market. Wall Street rallying as stocks are at. We're near record highs heading into the first trading day of the month. Some investors though are fearing that the market could trade down in September, a historical volatile stretch for global markets. Joining us right now to walk through the catalyst for stocks, Mark Lehman is JMP Securities President. Mark, it's good to see you, thanks so much for joining us. MARK LEHMAN, PRESIDENT, JMP SECURITIES: Good morning. BARTIROMO: What's going to be the big catalyst in your view for the markets in the fourth quarter? LEHMAN: Well, you're going to see obviously third quarter earnings which will be interesting. You're going to see a bunch of IPOs. Post Labor Day you're going to see filing after filing. We saw one last week with SurveyMonkey which will obviously be an important bell weather for the tech market. But you also have trade talks and, of course, 60 days away with the midterm elections. So there's lots to things for investors to be excited about and plenty for them to be worried about. BRENBERG: We keep talking about trade and how it's going to affect markets and yet all summer the story has been, markets have shrugged. Why do you think they're going to care potentially coming up here in the fall or is it going to be another case where we think it's a big deal and it's not? LEHMAN: Well, I think like most things we've been in kind of the denial and anger phase for a little bit. That's the way we start things and we're in the middle of kind of figuring things out. I think we're going to find out after a quarter or two of how these tariffs are looking and obviously between Canada and Mexico we're not quite sure how that's going to look in their biggest trade partners. I think it's clarity comes into those places. But right now business is pretty good, I think people are on the sidelines deciding how it's going to -- how they're going to react. But I think right now we're still in the figuring out phase. HILSENRATH: Mark, we know that 2018 earnings numbers are really good, you know, well into the double digits. What's 2019 looking like? What's 2020 looking like on the earnings front? LEHMAN: You know, I think '19 -- this has been such a good year, you have such a good response from the tax cuts at least from earnings perspective. I think expecting a little bit of a down draft year-over-year. It's a lot large numbers will probably cause earnings to come down and expectations to be tempered. It will be interesting to see how these numbers turn out. Obviously, '18 was supposed to be a good year, not a great year but it's been turn -- turning into a great year for earnings. I would expect '19 to be temper and we'll see how Wall Street reacts. Seeing the three percent bond or seeing an umbrella of a three percent bond puts a I think a real catalyst for earnings because that low rate continues to make people want to put more money in equities and I think that will continue into the fall and in 2019. MCDOWELL: But this has been the stock market rally that has had more naysayers than I can remember in recent history, people who have been doubters all along. The Wall Street Journal on its front page today talks about how global fund managers are holding higher than average levels of cash in their portfolios. And even some major investment banks like Morgan Stanley have already recommended trimming their technology allocations. So that bodes well for the market the fact that people are what -- so worried about it. LEHMAN: Well, you know, you can -- I've been on this show, I've called it the most disrespected bull market in history. MCDOWELL: Right. LEHMAN: I think having people who don't believe ascribe to the high enough to buy theory of stocks which obviously I don't know that's Warren Buffett. I mean, people will have to have exposure and people are those fund managers you talk about are not supposed to be a fund manager of cash, they're supposed to money inactively manage it. And I think as these stocks trade higher and earnings continue to accelerate you will see more of that belief and I think you're going to see more of that into the fall. HILSENRATH: Isn't that skepticism a great thing? I mean the last two expansions were short circuited by over exuberance. If we have under exuberance right now, isn't that -- MCDOWELL: That was my point. HILSENRATH: But that's what -- LEHMAN: (INAUDIBLE) no, I look -- I have been very -- MCDOWELL: No. Really, he made it better than I did. LEHMAN: Right. Well -- and listen -- BARTIROMO: But look at all these uncertainty that a Federal Reserve meeting this month the were expecting that the Fed raises rates in September, correct? HILSENRATH: Uh-hmm. Right. BARTIROMO: You've got the midterm elections which can go either way, and of course, the uncertainty about trade. LEHMAN: It's true. And I think people have continued to look at tech as kind of anomalous and tech is not anomalous. You know, people look at Amazon and saying, "Wow, it's one of the great companies" or "Apple is one of the great companies." Apple is far from being just a tech company, it's a healthcare company, it's an autonomous company, it's an entertainment company, it's a media company. You have all these parts of it and people are not really paying attention of the fact that these are much bigger than the narrowness of a tech company. And I think you'll see this in the fall, you're going to see, again, SurveyMonkey's one of the companies, you're going to see a bunch of companies that you really want to pay attention to because that's where the growth of the economy is and the growth of the markets and I think you're going to continue to see that. BARTIROMO: If you have all the supply, doesn't that hurt markets in terms of performance? LEHMAN: Well, supply obviously is having that despite of any imbalances there. But listen, you have plenty of M&A going on, you have lots of that already relative to previous peaks that we've been a part of. This is nothing compared to an IPO market in the past, nothing at all. BARTIROMO: OK. MCDOWELL: One thing I'll add really quickly, Sam Stovall said on the -- this program last week that in the fourth quarter of midterm election years the S&P on average is up 7.5 percent in the fourth quarter and it's up 90 percent of the time. And that's some -- once that uncertainty falls away. HILSENRATH: From his mouth. BARTIROMO: Yes. BARTIROMO: It's amazing that the third the third quarter is up in just a couple of weeks. LEHMAN: Yes. BARTIROMO: And the earnings period will likely be dictating performance. Mark, great to have you. Thank you so much, good to see you always. LEHMAN: Thanks so much. Appreciate it. BARTIROMO: Mark Lehman joining us there. Coming up, the founder of the notorious Taliban linked Haqqani network now dead. What it means for the war in terror in Afghanistan. Plus, no college diploma, no problem. Apparently more big companies like Apple among others ditching college degree requirements for jobs, the impact next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Good Tuesday morning, everybody, thanks so much for joining us. I'm Maria Bartiromo, and it is Tuesday, September 4th, your top stories right now, 6:32 a.m. on the East Coast. Trade under President Trump, investors are reacting to the future of America's trade policies with Canada and China, the two uncertainties right now. Futures are currently mixed. Take a look, indicating the market will open with the Dow, down about 20 points and the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ higher by a fraction. The Dow Industrials finishing lower on Friday, falling 22 points at the close, with the NASDAQ up 21 at the close. This coming as the NASDAQ posted the biggest gain in August in 18 years. It was a good month for the month of August, for the NASDAQ, as you can see. In Europe this morning, markets are lower across the board. Take a look, FT-100 down a quarter of a percent, the CAC Quarante in Paris, down better than one percent, and the DAX Index in Germany, down almost one percent. In Asia overnight, markets closed mostly higher, with the exception of Japan. It was down just a fraction. Fighting for his life, a Georgia police officer is shot while responding to a shoplifting report at a Wal-Mart, the very latest developments, coming up. Plus, a dis-invitation for Steve Bannon, the New Yorker Festival is dropping the former White House Chief Strategist after celebrities like Jim Carrey, Judd Apatow said they would not participate if Bannon remained on the schedule, the backlash, coming up. And no college degree no problem, we're breaking down the major hiring shift for big-technology companies later this hour, where college degree may not be required any longer. All that coming up this morning, but first, our top story this half an hour, the war on terror continues this morning, the Taliban, announcing earlier this morning that the leader of the notorious Haqqani network has died. This comes as unnamed U.S. service member was killed in Afghanistan, and what the military is describing, as an insider attack, one other member was wounded. Joining me to discuss that is retired four-star general, Fox News Senior Strategic Analyst, General Jack Keane. General, it's always a pleasure, good to see you this morning. GEN. JACK KEANE (RET.), FOX NEWS SENIOR STRATEGIC ANALYST: Yes. Good to see you, Maria. BARTIROMO: Your thoughts on the developments here, the fact that this leader is now dead, does that change anything? KEANE: Well, he's been an iconic leader for some time, he's been sick, he's elderly, he was paralyzed and he really was not involved in day to day operations. He turned that over to his son a year ago. But if anything, you know, his death just further commits the ideological fighters that the Haqqani people are, you know, to this -- to this cause that they have. And so they're going to continue. This network has been a real thorn on the side of Afghanistan and U.S. forces ever since 2001. And the problem is that they take up residence inside Pakistan, in north western Pakistan, is where their bases are, and it's from those bases that they attack into Afghanistan and conduct operations against U.S. and Afghan forces. They are responsible for most of these horrific suicide bombings that take place in Kabul. Recently, some of that has been done by ISIS, but over these last 17 years, Haqqani has done most of all of that. Our problem has been this, Maria, we have never attacked the Haqqani network the way we did the Al-Qaeda network, which is also in north western Pakistan, why? Because the Pakistanis refused to let us do that, why is that? Because they absolutely support the Haqqani network, their intelligence service supports them. We have evidence of the military providing training for them, they've given them logistics, they've given them resources, and this has been a horrific thing for 17 years. We are on our third president trying to do something about that, the past two failed miserably. This network continues to thrive and they continue to kill Afghans and Afghan people and U.S. soldiers. BARTIROMO: What is the state of this network, of ISIS right now, for a year and a half, we have been talking about ISIS being on the run. But recently, we're seeing issues of, in certain corners, where they are back, and now you've got this Taliban-linked network as well. Where are we, in the state, in terms of against terrorism, right now? KEANE: Yes, well, first of all, the Al-Qaeda network is thriving and ISIS is thriving outside of Syria and Iraq, we did take their territory away from them. That was something that had to be done because that was a major recruiting tool for them and also a place where they could direct actions in other parts. There's 30 affiliates that are outside of Syria and Iraq, and there's one that is a growing menace inside of Afghanistan. The Al-Qaeda itself, still -- their headquarters are still in north western Pakistan, and they have other networks in Africa, a significant one in Syria that they're about to conduct campaigns against. But the radical Islamist Global Jihad is out there and is doing well. We've been at this for 17 years and the fact is, if we are totally honest with ourselves, despite all of our efforts this -- there has been expansion in their capabilities over these years. BARTIROMO: Wow. Let me -- let me zero in on Syria, because the President has made it clear, this weekend, he will not tolerate an assault from President Bashar al-Assad and his allies on rebel fighters in the Idlib Province. Here's yesterday's tweet from the President and he says, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria must not recklessly attack Idlib Province. The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Don't let that happen. The President writes. This comes after Iran's foreign minister said that terrorists must be purged from the region. What do you make of the President's strategy in such a volatile region? KEANE: You know, what's happening here has set the -- set the framework for everybody. The Iranians and the Russians successfully propped up the Assad regime. And what they've been doing -- and that began with the Russians in 2015. And what they've been doing this last year or so, is consolidating those gains. And this is one of the last opposition forces strongholds in Idlib Province. The problem is, there are about 3 million people and residents there. Now, these fighters are largely Al-Qaeda fighters and there's about 10,000 of them strong, and some other few thousands of other fighters there as well. This is -- this is the most fiercest, toughest of the opposition forces that the Assad regime will have to deal with and that's why they have put this off as long as they have. The Turks are also trying to deter this from happening and they moved some forces down into northern Syria. The President is using some rhetoric to do that. But to be frank about it, we have very little leverage, in Syria, to stop this. They're in the planning and preparation phase, I do believe they eventually will execute this at some point. We will know when the campaign begins because the bombing will begin. And believe me, the Russians do most of the bombing in Syria, they've been doing that for well over a year now. And their way of war here is the same way that Putin made war in Chechnya, in a place called Grozny, the inside of Chechnya in 2000. And that is to go in there, where conventional bombs and eliminate as much of the population as possible, thereby depriving the terrorists as they call them, or insurgence from support from the people and obviously, killing terrorists as well. BARTIROMO: Wow. KEANE: But the objective for the Russians will be as it is for Assad, to go kill as many people as we possibly can, destroy their homes, destroy their facilities, destroy their hospitals, destroy their warehouses, taking much all of their quality of life away from them, and thus -- therefore, dry up the terrorist support that they're getting from the people. BARTIROMO: Still, such an incredibly dangerous situation, General. Let me switch gears because this week, one of the big issues will likely be the trade issues between China and the U.S., we actually could see the U.S. impose that additional $200 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods, this Thursday, the 6th, and we are waiting on that. What's your take on where we are with China and also the trade story around Canada as the U.S. successfully does a deal with Mexico, and now awaits China's -- Canada's participation, rather, so China and Canada, the unknowns? KEANE: Yes. Well, I think the major issue certainly is China. Canada is a major trading partner as well. But I generally agree that taking on these trade imbalances is the right thing to do and try to fix some of it as much as possible. We've obviously had some success with the European Union. We'll have to see the final result of that, at least that's been the goal, the goal to zero tariffs that would be really something that we could do internationally, unlikely to be sure. But listen, China has been conducting economic warfare on the United States and our allies for years and it's about time that somebody is calling them on this, not just the trade imbalance but the incredible amount of intellectual property theft, the incredible amount of cyber espionage that's taking place. We are on a collision course with China, not just economically, but also in terms of what their militarization of the Western Pacific, their geopolitical goals, all at the expense of the -- of the United States. The president maintains public diplomacy, you know, President Xi is my friend, we've got a great relationship. BARTIROMO: Right. KEANE: And that's fine, but the team that's working beneath him, his economic team, and also his national security team, very clear eyed about China, they know that they are a major obstacle to the United States interest around the world. BARTIROMO: Obstacles, but now, also an issue for the North Korea story, so now we know for sure that the trade issues between the U.S. and China have begun to impact the general discussion about denuclearization in North Korea, China teaming up with North Korea, and the President basically calling back Pompeo from even going to North Korea because of it. KEANE: Yes, that occurs as a result of some original letter we received from the North Korean official prior to the visit, and the President read that attitude as much as he saw an attitude change just prior to the Singapore Summit and he cancelled it. He's using that cancellation of the visit as leverage. We'll see if that attitude changes. We are just waiting for the North Koreans to do something positive on denuclearization, which they have not done to date. And I think that we'll give them a little bit more rope there. But the President and his team are running out of rope, frankly, and after a number of weeks, they are going to have to start slapping sanctions, harder sanctions on North Korea. And here is the big one, because China has opened up the aperture and has provided some sanction relief to North Korea ever since the Singapore Summit. If they don't stop that, we'll going to have to sanction China as well, we'll have to go after some of their banking systems. BARTIROMO: Wow, all right, more will be revealed here. General, it's good to talk to you as always. Thanks so much. KEANE: Yes, good talking to you, Maria. BARTIROMO: General Jack Keane, there. Coming up, a Georgia police officer is fighting for his life this morning, after being shot in the head while responding to a shoplifting call at Wal-Mart, the very latest on his condition, coming up. Then, liberal backlash, the New Yorker uninviting Steve Bannon from its festival, after celebrities outcries, what Bannon is now saying, next, back in a minute. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back, a police officer is fighting for his life this morning after he was shot in the head. Cheryl Casone with the details, Cheryl. CASONE: Maria, 34-year-old officer Matt Cooper was responding to a call of men shoplifting bandanas at a Walmart, near Atlanta. He was shot while he was chasing a suspect across the street. The suspect then killed himself; two others are in custody. The six-year veteran on the force is in serious condition this morning. He's also an army veteran, a husband, and a father of two. Well, Steve Bannon has been dropped from the annual New Yorker festival after liberal outrage. The former White House adviser was disinvited from the event after several celebrities, including Jim Carry, Patton Oswalt, and Judd Apatow said they would boycott the festival if Bannon showed up. Well, Bannon responded in a statement, he called David Remnick, the Editor of the New Yorker gutless. Well, "Crazy Rich Asians" continues to dominate theaters for third weekend in a row. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We can't afford this. So, your family is rich. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're comfortable. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That is exactly what a super-rich person would say. (END VIDEO CLIP) CASONE: The movie brought in just over $22 million. Its domestic gross now totals over 110 million -- forget the global box office, it's bigger. Also, for the third weekend in a row, "The Meg" made $10.5 million. That scary thriller is still doing well. Third place, "Mission Impossible: Fallout" with $7 million. Rounding up the top five: "Operation Finale" and "Searching," each earned about 6 million. Maria, back to "Mission Impossible: Fallout" topped the international box office this weekend. $77.3 million in China, global take at 649. Tom Cruise is 56-years-old, maybe this bodes for the "Top Gun" sequel that's going to be coming out soon. BARTIROMO: We'll see about that. I got to see "Crazy Rich Asians," that is good. CASONE: I know. Me too. BARTIROMO: Thank you, Cheryl. Coming up, no college diploma, apparently no problem. More big companies such as Google, Apple, they're ditching college degree requirements for jobs. We've got that story coming up right after this short break. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. No diploma, no problem, apparently. More and more companies are scrapping degree requirements for jobs those degrees of college. Lauren Simonetti with all the details now, Lauren. SIMONETTI: Hey, great to see you. I know. No B.A., no problem is what the companies are saying. They're not saying don't go get a college degree, they're just saying if you don't have one, it's not going to be a barrier for you to work in certain jobs at our company. So, what are these 15 major companies that's saying no B.A. is totally fine? Nordstrom, Bank of America, (INAUDIBLE), Apple, Google, IBM, you might not expect to see some of those names on that list, and they're doing this as we get the August job report -- it comes down on Friday. But we do have the numbers from July. The national unemployment rate is 3.9 percent, it is going down and it is going down among those who do not have college degrees. If you look at those with high school diplomas, the unemployment rate in July went down to four percent. And if you look at those with less than a high school diploma, it went from one year ago, seven percent to 5.1 percent now. That's not terrible. The big question is why is this happening? Is it that college is too expense with the average tuition and fees for private school about $32,000 and we're graduating with a combined, what, $1.5 trillion in student loan debt, or is it that -- and you might know the answer to this, Brian -- the colleges aren't preparing and training the students (INAUDIBLE) as workers, whether it's coding, or some of the vocational skills, have we lowered our standards, what's the problem right now? BARTIROMO: You're a college professor. You can't be happy about this. BRENBERG: No, actually I am happy about it. Because, look, the fact is, for many, many students they're going to college for four, five, six years. If they're getting out, when they're getting out with a degree, they don't have the skills that employers want and employers are just saying, if we're going through that process and you're going to spend that kind of money? Forget about it. Come work for us. SIMONETTI: So, it's the school's problems. BRENBERG: Yes. I mean, in so many cases, these degree programs aren't preparing them to add value in the workplace, they're not teaching how to be good professionals, they are sitting in classrooms, they're hearing ideological rants; walking with a distorted view of reality. Come on, why would a company want to hire somebody like that? HILSENRATH: Well, not only that, but they're taking on thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars of debt -- BRENBERG: Which makes it even worse. HILSENRATH: -- to get all of that. And I think a lot of people on the worker side are saying, do I need to go through all of this and take on all of this debt to be prepared for the workplace? But on the other side I think, you know, you said there's a 3.9 percent unemployment rate. That is really the crux of the whole thing; the worker shortages in industries all across the economy and companies are saying, well, you know, maybe we don't need college graduates for this job or that job, maybe we need to broaden our horizon. BARTIROMO: Good point. Big worker shortage right now in truck drivers. Amazon needs truck drivers. Construction. SIMONETTI: Home care aid. BARTIROMO: Exactly. SIMONETTI: Even financial advisers. As people get older, as this generation gets older, yes. MCDOWELL: I've been an advocate for -- my brother and I, for years, have had this conversation, if we could go back and do it again we would out of high school try to go and work for a major corporation and get on the job training. Because ultimately, it keeps you -- people are literally spending a quarter of a million dollars for an education and social justice, and gender pronounce. That's what they -- that's what the people at these liberal arts colleges are worried about. And if more of these technology companies start educating people right out of high school, find smart kids and basically make them sign a contract say, you know, we'll teach you -- give you on the job training, you're going to work here for five years and you can go up and do whatever you want. HILSENRATH: Having said all of this -- Brian, I'm sure you can speak to this, the research shows, unequivocally, that people with college degrees fare much better in life. Your lifetime earnings are much higher if you have a college degree than if you -- BARTIROMO: That's a really important point. HILSENRATH: -- encouraging people to skip college altogether. BRENBERG: That doesn't imply causation; it's the reason they're getting these jobs because they went to college, would they get them anyway. BARTIROMO: All right. All good questions. Lauren, great to see you. Thank you so much, Lauren Simonetti. Still ahead, Nike takes side. The backlash after the company taps Colin Kaepernick for its "Just Do It" campaign, next hour, right here in MORNINGS WITH MARIA. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Good Tuesday morning, everybody. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Maria Bartiromo, and it is Tuesday, September 4th. Your top stories right now just after 7:00 a.m. on the East Coast. END [Copy: Content and Programming Copyright 2018 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2018 ASC Services II Media, LLC. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of ASC Services II Media, LLC. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.] [Show: MORNINGS WITH MARIA] [Date: September 4, 2018] [Time: 07:00:00] [Tran: 090402cb.231] [Type: SHOW] [Head: Brett Kavanaugh Confirmation Hearing; Trump Slams Sessions; Tech on the Hill; Chinese Auto Stocks Drop; Amazon Looks to Online Ad Market; DJ Khaled Launches Luxury Furniture Line; Luxury for Less; Nike and Kaepernick Team Up; James Bullard on State of Economy] [Sect: News; Financial] [Byline: Maria Bartiromo, Dagen McDowell, Cheryl Casone, Gerri Willis, Jared Max, Jon Hilsenrath] [Guest: Brian Brenberg, Jon Hilsenrath, Darrell Issa, James Bullard] [Spec: Supreme Court; Carnival; Nike; NFL; Tiger Woods; Congress; Government; Justice Department; Technology; Consumers; Lifestyle] (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MARIA BARTIROMO, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK HOST: Welcome back. Good Tuesday morning, everybody. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Maria Bartiromo. And it is Tuesday, September 4th. Your top stories right now just after at 7:00 a.m. on the East Coast. Tariffs and trade in investors' sights this week. Wall Street waiting on a possible deal with Canada and the possibility for more potential tariffs on Chinese goods could be implemented this Thursday. Futures indicating the markets will open flat -- take a look. Dow Industrials down about 30 points right now. This is the low of the morning on the Dow. The S&P 500 is unchanged and the Nasdaq is up just a fraction. Mixed performance on Friday meanwhile for the major indices. As you can see Friday's close had the Dow down 20 points, the S&P and the Nasdaq up fractionally. In Europe this morning markets are lower -- take a look. Money coming out of equities-- FT100 down a quarter of a percent, CAC 40 in Paris down 1 percent, and the DAX index in Germany down almost 1 percent. Asian markets meanwhile finishing mostly in positive territory overnight with just the Nikkei average ending lower, just a fraction. Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing is on -- the Supreme Court nominee headed to Capitol Hill this morning to be grilled by both sides of the aisle. Senator Lindsey Graham is optimistic. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: I think there are a handful of Democrats who will vote for Judge Kavanaugh if he does well and maybe even more. A lot of people should vote for Judge Kavanaugh. If you're looking to a Republican president to pick a qualified conservative he would be on the top of anyone's list. (END VIDEO CLIP) BARTIROMO: The hearing is set to begin this morning at 9:15 a.m. We will carry it live. Plus, outrage this morning as Nike makes Colin Kaepernick the face of its new campaign. We break down the backlash this morning. And move over IKEA, DJ Khaled going from producing music to producing your home. The DJ's new venture that could change the way you live. All those stories coming up this Tuesday morning and joining me to break it all down our own Dagen McDowell, "The Wall Street Journal's" global economics editor Jon Hilsenrath, and The King's College business and economics professor Brian Brenberg. Great to see everybody. BRIAN BRENBERG, BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS PROFESSOR, THE KINGS COLLEGE: So good to be here this morning. BARTIROMO: Welcome back. BRENBERG: Yes. Burning right into the fall here with the Kavanaugh hearings this week, right. No stalling here, straight into it. BARTIROMO: Real busy. We'll see. And they're supposed to get Democratic support, but we'll see. JON HILSENRATH, GLOBAL ECONOMICS EDITOR, "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL": Big week. We also have the jobs report coming up, end of the week. BARTIROMO: What are you expecting? Another good number -- Jon? HILSENRATH: More good numbers. Yes. I mean there's no evidence out there that, you know, the economy is slowing down. So -- DAGEN MCDOWELL, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK HOST: -- which I said on "OUTNUMBERED" yesterday, loudly. It's incredible what the job market's been able to do this year because the first seven months of the year job growth on average every month is actually faster than it was the seven months -- the first seven months of last year which deep into an expansion is pretty incredible. BARTIROMO: Which is why the Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates next meeting -- September 26th -- we are expecting a hike in rates. And of course, then we've got third quarter earnings on tap, amazing that the third quarter is over in just three weeks and then we'll have the earnings period beginning once again. HILSENRATH: And we just reported last week the Commerce Department came out with really strong earnings numbers, 16 percent year over year earnings growth for the economy as a whole in the second quarter. That too is on a boom level. MCDOWELL: And speaking of tax cuts, one of the reasons the economy's going great guns, 2.9 percent growth year over year in disposable income adjusting for inflation. That's a solid number that deserves to get -- (CROSSTALK) HILSENRATH: I think you were asking earlier, say one bad thing about the economy. I'll tell you the one bad thing is borrowed money. We're running towards trillion dollar budget deficits and no one is paying attention to that. That's not going to help a couple of years down the road. BARTIROMO: That's a very good point especially s interest rates move higher. All of that on the agenda this morning. And joining the conversation this morning, we've got the President of the St. Louis Federal Reserve here in studio, James Bullard, president and CEO at the St. Louis Fed is here. Plus Harvard law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz is going to will handicap the hearings today. And former presidential candidate and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee here as well. All ahead -- don't miss a moment of it. But first, our top story this hour. And that is the battle for Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation. The Supreme Court nominee will face the Senate Judiciary Committee this morning. Republicans and Democrats remain largely divided over securing this nomination. Watch. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SENATOR CHUCK GRASSLEY (R-IA), SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: I think you're hearing from a lot of people that can't find anything wrong with the qualifications of Kavanaugh. And so many Democrats that said even before he was nominated they were going to vote against anybody that was on that list. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right. GRASSLEY: So the bottom line is how much more do you need to know to vote no? SENATOR DICK DURBIN (D-IL), SENATE MINORITY WHIP: There's a serious question as to whether this president, given the opportunity, will end the Mueller investigation -- something which most Republicans and the overwhelming majority of Americans say would be a serious mistake. And we asked, of course, Judge Kavanaugh what do you think and he says it's hands off when it comes to a president during his term in office. I think that's a mistake. And it's one of the major reasons people have misgivings about his nomination. (END VIDEO CLIP) BARTIROMO: Joining me right now to talk more about that and a lot of other things, California Congressman, member of the House Judiciary Committee, Darrell Issa. Congressman -- it's good to see you this morning. Thanks so much for joining us. DARRELL ISSA (R-CA), HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Thank you -- Maria. Thanks for teeing it up that way. It is always amazing. Dick Durbin and so many of those who are the "I'm going to vote no" no what matter, are now grousing overnight that they got 42,000 additional documents that they had absolutely no right to get out of the Bush One Library. And they're complaining they don't have enough time to read them. BARTIROMO: Yes. I mean it's interesting about all of the outrage over the documents. Meanwhile, I know that I've been covering and watching this document holdout by the FBI and the Department of Justice now for a year and-a-half, where Congress has been asking for documents. And it's no problem, they're just not giving the documents. And yet this holdback on documents has created outrage. What is your take in terms of what documents should be given over Brett Kavanaugh, what should be seen, what should be widely distributed and what shouldn't? ISSA: Well, I think the one thing that has really stood out is that the Bush -- H. Bush Library was willing to give any documents. President Bush, the father is still alive and those documents are historically not shared. You know, many years ago, Justice Roberts actually told me that, you know, he was uncomfortable with the fact that Reagan's documents came out which would be fine, Reagan had passed away, but how about the chief justice who hadn't? So the idea that these documents between a lawyer and his client become available is pretty unprecedented and it gives the -- if they want it, it gives them more information than they would ordinarily get. There's not one senator that would say oh, yes, give everything I've ever said to my attorney, just give that out and forget about attorney/client privilege much less the normal presidential privilege. Here's the thing that's important is if you can't find anything wrong in over a million documents that were given without selection -- in other words, they didn't hold back certain ones, why is it you think that if you just get a few more you're going to get something. This man's been an open book. The problem for the Democrats is they don't like the book. BARTIROMO: Yes, that's a really important point that you make. Do you think that there are the votes to nominate Judge Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, sir? ISSA: Yes, I think he'll get exactly as Lindsey Graham said 55 or more. In the ordinary course of a different environment, most of these Democrats would vote for him. They have no reason not to. Politically they're just choosing to vote no, no matter what. BARTIROMO: Let me switch gears, Congressman -- and ask about you what's going on between the President and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Once again, the President is out publicly calling him out, this time accusing Sessions of hurting the GOP's chances in the midterms. So here are these tweets that the President put out this weekend. Two long running Obama era investigations of two very popular Republican congressmen were brought to a well-publicized charge, just ahead of the midterms by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department. Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job, Jeff," the President writes. Then he writes "The Democrats, none of whom voted for Jeff Sessions, must love him now. Same thing with lying James Comey -- the Dems all hated him, wanted him out, thought he was disgusting until I fired him. Immediately he became a wonderful man, a saint-like figure, in fact. Really sick." Your reaction to what the President is saying about Jeff Sessions, first off. It's odd to see a President calling out his attorney general repeatedly. But then again it's odd to see your attorney general not doing the things that you would expect. ISSA: Well, I think those are the two balancing acts. The President wants to motivate Attorney General Jeff Sessions to be, if you will, the Senator Sessions that he had hired -- somebody who would be aggressive in getting documents out that should be released and clearly in the case of the two congressmen that were indicted three years after their assistant U.S. attorneys knew about the offenses and fully vetted them is a good example where the Justice Department is not following its own guidelines, its own rules on not interfering with elections and putting these out exactly when neither candidate could get off the ballot, but very likely one or both of them could be defeated because of these indictments for which there will be no trial until after the elections. So it is an example of, Jeff -- get with the program. The program is enforce the laws and regulations, hold these people accountable. In other words, run the department. And so I think any president looks at his cabinet and says are you running your department according to the normal rules. This isn't a political statement. This is purely a -- they've got Justice Department guidelines and they seem to be ignoring them in one direction, which is against Republicans. BARTIROMO: Well, why is he doing that -- Congressman? I mean what do you think is going on? Is there something that he's against the President on? Why is he not moving forward on things that seem quite obvious in terms of action from the A.G.? ISSA: Well, look, Jeff and I worked together for a long time when he was a senator. And the one thing that I didn't expect is a deer in the headlights kind of action where there is so much inaction. But candidly, it's not that Jeff Sessions is doing something wrong, it's that he isn't doing something. And that's the part where Republicans are getting frustrated because they want an attorney general that if he has not recused will be engaged. And if he is recused, limit only his deputy to that area that he recused himself. Jeff Sessions is still the attorney general and should be doing 99 percent of overseeing the department. And yet it seems like very often he does nothing. And that's -- I think that's frustrating the President. But you know, when there's about 24 people in the greater cabinet, you want every one of them doing their job. BARTIROMO: Sure. ISSA: When you see one that is under-performing, it worries you. And the President, of course, worries over Twitter. BARTIROMO: I want to ask you about Twitter and about these testimonies that are going to happen this week. But before I move on to that, real quick, if the President were to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions, how hard would it be for him to get a new A.G. in there? Would the Democrats slow walk the process and not appoint somebody? ISSA: It will take 30 hours to replace him. That's the known is 30 hours of somebody that 51 or 50 plus the Vice President will vote for and that will be what they'll have to do. The question is, who. They have to choose somebody who has already been well vetted, somebody the President has confidence in, somebody that really knows how to take over that department from day one. That is the challenge. And I think until they find that person, the Attorney General will stay where he is. BARTIROMO: All right. Let's talk tech for a moment. As I first reported here Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg will face questions over allowing foreign entities to use their platforms to influence elections. This happens tomorrow. Both will testify. Jack Dorsey is also going to testify in front of the Commerce and Energy Committee. What should we expect to come out of this? ISSA: I think you should expect questions on that subject but also I think on this whole sort of shadow blocking the bias that these media seem to have. I think the important thing -- Energy and Commerce, I'm a member on leave of absence from that committee -- Energy and Commerce oversees a lot of things. One of them is, are these entities operating because they have certain liability exemptions? Are they operating properly under those? And that becomes a real question. If they're not doing their job the way you would expect a common carrier to do it, they in fact could expose themselves to considerable liability. If they in fact aren't doing their job relative to elections, they could really distort our ability to get, if you will, a democracy that we can believe in -- so both are going to be important subjects. I think you're going to see some varying onto other subjects because a lot of people are frustrated with these mediums, if you will, being hard left. BARTIROMO: What's the worst thing that could happen to these companies? ISSA: The worst thing that could happen to them is that they don't get the kind of exemptions they have and that they could be sued by people who feel they've been done wrong in any number of ways. BARTIROMO: That's a very important point. Congressman -- it's great to see you this morning. Thanks so much. ISSA: Thanks -- Maria. BARTIROMO: We'll see you soon. Congressman Darrell Issa. Stay tuned for live coverage of Judge Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation hearings. It begins today at 9:15 a.m. We will have it live for you right here on Fox Business. First though coming up next, Nike's controversial move -- the backlash after the company named Colin Kaepernick the face of its "Just Do It" campaign. That's coming up. Then from music producer to interior designer, we check out DJ Khaled' new home furniture line. Back in a minute. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Chinese automakers hit hard by falling sales. Cheryl Casone with the details and headlines now -- Cheryl. CHERYL CASONE, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK, CORRESPONDENT: That's right -- Maria. Chinese auto stocks have dropped about 40 percent this year. Sales are falling as the government clamps down on credit to their car buyers there. Dong Feng Motor, Geely Automobile, and Guangzhou Automobile have lost about $25 billion in their market cap in Hong Kong just this year. In fact in July, new car sales in China were 5.5 percent lower than in the same month last year -- pretty substantial drop there. Well, Amazon reportedly looking to raise its profile in the $88 billion online advertising market. "The New York Times" says the company is gearing up to take on industry leaders Google and Facebook with targeted ads that consumers are likely to see as suggestions instead of intrusions. Shares of Amazon are actually trading higher in the premarket, up more than a quarter percent right now. Well, DJ Khaled has started his own furniture line, as part of some of his best known phrases (ph). Khaled is teaming up with designer Collective Goldition to launch his "We the Best" home luxury furniture line. The rapper/producer is He is now offering his social media followers Keys to Life. There's this key-shaped bed for $1,200, you can buy a king sized version of the Dreams Unlocked Bed. You want to feel like a king again -- this is the kingdom of Khalid Throne Chair. The flagship piece has red velvet and gold accents. It's available for $2,500. Yes Khaled's new line is currently only available at El Dorado Furniture but that is expected to change in the future. So a lot of bling there -- Maria, if you're interested. BARTIROMO: That is a hot looking living room. CASONE: Like the king. BARTIROMO: All right. Thank you. Comments? HILSENRATH: How does it clean up if your kids spill yogurt on it? That's what I want to know, right. I don't think it's going to pass that test. BRENBERG: You might not be the target demographic. MCDOWELL: If you grew up in the south, you know that the good furniture has plastic on it. BARTIROMO: There's that. MCDOWELL: I think that's -- that's true. That would have some plastic all over it -- BARTIROMO: That is true. MCDOWELL: -- in a southern living room. BARTIROMO: Coming up, making a splash -- we're checking out Carnival's largest cruise ship ever that can accommodate nearly 7,000 passengers. That's coming up. Wait until you check this out. Then luxury for less -- we're revealing how to get an expensive Rolex watch on a budget. Back in a minute right here. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Luxury for less -- Gerri Willis is breaking down how to buy a Rolex watch on a budget. GERRI WILLIS, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK HOST: We didn't want to pay $8,000 for the submarine (ph), all right. No way. So we took a look at how do we buy it on the cheap -- take a look. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) WILLIS: Ah, the statement watch. Cardi B isn't the only one dripping in finesse and timeless luxury. You see them everywhere, mostly on the arms of celebrities. But with price tags of $3,000 to millions of dollars, how can you buy one without breaking the bank? PAUL ALTIERI, BOB'S WATCHES: What we encourage people to do is to go online, go to Google, you know, shop around. And you can buy and save 15 to 25 percent by buying pre-owned versus -- WILLIS: What do you mean -- so a used Rolex? ALLEN: Yes, a used or what we call pre-owned Rolex. So you go online -- there's a lot of reputable dealers. We always encourage people to buy from a reputable dealer. WILLIS: Paul Altieri owns the online retail store Bob's Watches, one of the world's biggest online secondhand watch vendors with $32 million in sales last year. It's primary offering, the Rolex -- the most recognizable among luxury watch brands and popular. When actor Paul Newman's sporty Rolex watch went up for auction at Phillips in New York -- UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is history now. WILLIS: -- it sold for a record $17.8 million. The iconic Rolex takes a full year to make, according to the Swiss maker, and the enclosure clasp on each watch is closed a thousand times before the watch is sold. Some experts say that no Rolex design is approved unless it's visible from 20 feet away. The trick for the buyer -- getting the real thing. ALTIERI: We always say buy from a reputable dealer, number 1. Number 2 is when you're looking at the watch, if the deal seems too good to be true it's probably not a real watch. So if you see a watch and it's $50 or $100, it's probably not a genuine Rolex. WILLIS: Check out these Rolexes -- beautiful, right. They're going to be auctioned off starting September 5th on Bob's Watches. And If you want to know if a Rolex is real or not, check out the serial number. First of all there should be one on the case and secondly, it has to be quality etched. (END VIDEOTAPE) BARTIROMO: Cool. WILLIS: So this is a lot of fun. I have to tell you, another sign that you've got a real Rolex as opposed to a fake -- that secondhand sweeps instead of ticking along. So you've got to watch for all the particulars. But you've got to buy from, you know, somebody you can trust at the end of the day -- a real dealer. BARTIROMO: Good stuff. Gerri -- thank you. WILLIS: You're most welcome. BARTIROMO: All right. Gerri Willis. Coming up -- backlash over Nike's new deal, the boycott after the company selects Colin Kaepernick for its "Just Do It" ad campaign. That's next. Then we talk interest rates with the Federal Reserve. I'll speak with St. Louis Federal Reserve President and CEO James Bullard in the studio here this morning. We'll discuss the economy, the future of the fed and a lot more. Stay with us right here. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Good Tuesday morning everybody. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Maria Bartiromo. And it is Tuesday, September 4th. Your top stories right now at 7:30 on the East Coast right now. Waiting for a trade deal with Canada and more tariffs possible on the way for China. That has investors' attention this morning. Futures are indicating a mixed market at the start of trading this morning. As you can see, things have worsened quite a bit. Dow Industrials down now 80 points. We're expecting a decline right out of the gate of about a third of a percent on the Dow. The S&P 500 is down a fraction. And the Nasdaq with a 16-point decline, down a quarter of a percent. This after a mixed performance on Friday for the major indices. As you can see, the Dow is down 20 but the S&P and the Nasdaq were up on the session on Friday. In Europe this morning declines across the board, take a look, FT-100 down almost one half a percent. CAC Quarante in Paris down 1-1/3 percent. And the DAX Index in Germany down better than one percent. Right here, these are the lows of the morning in Europe as well as on Wall Street. Asian markets finished mostly in positive territory overnight. Just the Nikkei Average in Japan was lower. Best performer was China. Shanghai Composite up, better than one percent. Outrage this morning over former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick being named the new face of Nike's ad campaign, Just Do It. We will break it down. And then making a splash, Carnival unveils its largest ever crew ship. We've got the details on that, coming up. Then, the tale of two tigers as Tiger Woods took to the links at this 2018 Dell Technologies Championship. He was also spotted taking pictures with fans. We will explain all of that, coming up. But first, our top story this hour, and that is Wall Street's winning streak, the U.S. is dominating the global stock market. A performance calendar amid a streak of stock market highs. The S&P 500, the NASDAQ, ripping its new records last week. While the Dow remains in striking distance of its own all-time high. Joining us right now to look at the backdrop for investing the economy, James Bullard is the President and the CEO of the St. Louis Federal Reserve. Good to see you sir. Thank you so much for joining us. JAMES BULLARD, PRESIDENT AND CEO, FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF ST. LOUIS: Thanks for having me. BARTIROMO: Characterize the backdrop for us in terms of economic success that we've seen. BULLARD: Well, from a Central Bank's perspective it doesn't get any better than this. You've got relatively rapid economic growth considering the slow growth over the expansion, we're about three percent year over year growth rate, low unemployment, good, strong labor markets, inflation just now right at target on the Fed's preferred measure. So, I think we're in a very good -- very good shape right now. BARTIROMO: Yes. I mean, when you look at two straight quarters of four percent growth, which is pretty incredible. BULLARD: Got to love it. BARTIROMO: Is that -- is that sustainable? BULLARD: Well, most forecasts have this slowing down. I think the potential growth rate for the U.S. economy is slower, down around two percent or even less, so we're definitely growing above trend right now. BARTIROMO: Let me ask you what could get in the way. Because the Federal Reserve, Bank of St. Louis recently published a study on how the trade dispute could sabotage this growth story here in the economy. Tell us about that. BULLARD: Yes, on trade I would -- I would say it's important to get to some deals somewhere to reduce the uncertainty in this topic because you don't want to have perpetual uncertainty and perpetual chaos around possible trade relationships. So I thought this announcement of the Mexico deal was very important. You can seal that deal and get it done, that will show that sometimes this does come to a resolution at some point and that will reduce the uncertainty and give investors more confidence, I think. BARTIROMO: Yes, it's interesting. Because while these whole trade uncertainty has been going on, the markets I feel like have given this administration the benefit of the doubt and not -- because the markets would be much lower if people really thought that we were in this massive trade war. BULLARD: Yes. BARTIROMO: But we're still waiting on this uncertainties. I mean, we could see additional tariffs go on China this Thursday. How worried are you about the U.S.-China relationship in that regard? BULLARD: Yes, on China, I'm not seeing as much progress being made, both sides, you know, I suppose is shadow boxing at this point. But I just don't see much happening there. And the Chinese might have different attitude about what they need to do. BARTIROMO: So, you think the Mexico deal was optimistic but you're still waiting on Canada of course. BULLARD: Yes, they've got to -- I don't know how that's going to turn out this week. Obviously the deal seems pretty close. Then you've got -- you know, parliamentary approval on things like that. So, there's further to go. But to reach an initial deal would be important. BARTIROMO: What's -- let's talk jobs, James because one of the issues was the fact that we've been waiting for wages to move for so long, wages have moved, 2.9 percent growth year over year. And yet now there's a lot of outcry about now things are getting overheated and the Federal Reserve should not raise interest rates too much. What's your take on where we are in terms of wages and the strength of the jobs market? BULLARD: Yes, the employment cost index is up about 2.9 percent year over year. That's not a great number compared to past expansions, but productivity growth has been low and inflation's about at two percent. So if you think productivity growth is about one percent on average and inflation's at two, that adds up to three, that should be where wages are. We're pretty close to that. So, I've say, something more like steady state wages and wage growth instead of above average wage growth right now, anyway. BARTIROMO: Well, how do you ensure that the Fed does sort of balance out strength that we're seeing but not overdo it. Because I know we're in an unprecedented period right now with the Federal Reserve has to unwind the $4.5 trillion balance sheet at the same time of raising interest rates coming out from zero, coming up. So how do you balance that? Tell us what's most important. BULLARD: Maria, this I should say about the Fed, we've already been preemptive. We raised rates while the inflation rate was below our target. We started shrinking the size of the balance sheets before inflation came up to target. So we've done these things over the last two years. Now we're in pretty good shape and I think what we could do is take signals from financial markets that are telling us that we're about where we need to be right now. Yield curve, for instance, is very flat. I'd rather not see an inverted yield curve in the U.S. That's usually a harbinger of a slowdown ahead. And inflation expectations based on market based measures are low and remain right around our target. I think -- I think it shows that we've got a pretty good policy right now and we should stay where we are and see how the data come in. BARTIROMO: So, do you worry that the Fed could overheat, could overdo it in terms of too many rate hikes? BULLARD: Yes, I've been concerned about this because -- you know, our models say one thing but our models are flawed and then financial markets are saying something else, especially through the yield curve. BARTIROMO: So, tell us where you see the growth in the economy today. I mean, you've got a very good unemployment number at 3.9 percent. You've got a very good GDP number. And we know the job creation has happened steadily. Are there areas of the economy that you see growing faster than others? BULLARD: Well, the tech sector continues to power the U.S. economy and I think a great question for investors and I don't have an answer this morning but, you know, how far can we go in valuing these companies? Are they really going to dominate the entire economy or is there going to be some limit to what they can do? And I think everyone is kind of scratching their head about that. It -- these are really a long winning streak for these companies. BARTIROMO: You know, you're right. Because technology has changed virtually every industry from health care to automotive. BULLARD: Every CEO I talk to is worried about getting disrupted especially by Amazon. BARTIROMO: And what would that mean for the growth story of the economy, the disruption part of it? BULLARD: Well, you could take an optimistic view and say well, that's keeping people on their toes and they're thinking more about how to use information technology to improve their businesses. That's one way to look at it. Another way to look at it is maybe they're running scared and they're trying to get shorter term profits while it can. BARTIROMO: So, you know, Alan Greenspan I know, used to look at the stock market as a really important indicator in terms of the wealth effect. Do you -- do you look at the markets because you mentioned the valuations of the tech companies. Is this something that you take into account when looking at monetary policy? BULLARD: Yes, I think, you know, conventional wisdom is that if the market goes up by $100, consumption -- and on a sustained basis, you'll get about $5.00 in consumption spending. So, it does have an effect on consumption. BARTIROMO: Now, there is a narrative that while things are going really well right now, over the next year or two things will slow down quite a bit. Do you buy into that? I mean, you know, we spoke with your colleague Robert Kaplan from Dallas who also said look, we're talking about a three percent growth number for 2018. But when you look out to 2020, you're talking about all the way down to 1.9 percent. How do you get there? BULLARD: Yes, I think the projections are that the economy's going to slow but -- and I think that's the right thing to base policy on, that that should be how you plan and then you hope for the best. You hope that productivity will improve in the U.S. economy and you'll actually get faster growth. That would be great news. If productivity would improve, but we need to see it before we can bake that into policy. BARTIROMO: Why all the projections that things will slow? I mean, I'm just trying to understand what it is that would be causing the slowdown. BULLARD: Because the potential growth rate is thought to be only about, you know, two percent in the U.S. economy, maybe one percent productivity growth and one percent labor force growth. And the demographics we'll probably not going to be able to fix anytime soon. So, if we're going to get sustained faster growth, it's got to come through productivity. There's a good angle on that story, because, yes, you could -- you could see productivity improvement given all the fantastic technology that's around but that technology has to diffuse into actual production processes and make things -- you know, make things more productive and I'm not sure that's always happening. BARTIROMO: So, when you look out let's call it three years, I mean, the Federal Reserve has been really the one who has provided the stimulus for this economy over the last 10 years. And after the financial crisis, it was all on you and your colleagues. BULLARD: Yes. BARTIROMO: I mean, we know that. And you did a terrific job. BULLARD: Thank you. BARTIROMO: But going out, when you look at where the Fed funds rate should be. Let's call it three or four years, what's an appropriate number? BULLARD: Well, like I said, I think we're about where we need to be today. We've already been preemptive. We've got inflation right at target. It doesn't look like there's a lot of inflation pressure in the U.S. economy based on tips based type inflation expectations. So I think we're in good shape for today and we should just play it going forward by taking in incoming data and reacting to incoming data and I don't think we have this -- should have this idea that we have another 150 basis points to go before we even get to normal. I think that would be overkill. BARTIROMO: A lot of conversation about what the president has said about Jay Powell, the president last week said he does not regret appointing Jay Powell as the chairman of the Federal Reserve. But he's been consistently critical of the chairman's gradual rate hikes. Your take on the Fed's action? Is this a conversation that's happening at the Fed that the president talking about the Fed or sort of questioning the independence. Does it question the independence? BULLARD: I don't really think so. I think the independence is baked into the law. So, and the law says that the committee is supposed to try to get the best employment results we can get and get the best inflation results we can get simultaneously. So we have to continue to make decisions that we think will deliver on those mandates. We've talked before, but monetary policy in the U.S. is a global 24 hour a day debate that's going on. All kinds of people are weighing in including politicians, senators, congress -- members of congress can all weigh in during hearings. BARTIROMO: It's true. BULLARD: So if the president weighs in some ways it's just one more voice. Now, he does have influence over the Fed because he has the appointment still process. We just got a new vice chair, Rich Clarida. I think he'll be a great addition to the team. So, I think, to the extent he's going to have influence on the conversation, it's going to be through those appointments more than through the tweets. BARTIROMO: I see. Compare the business climate, business spending with the consumer right now. Give us your state of health for both of those areas. Because for a long time we were waiting for businesses to start unleashing money in terms of IIT, and R&D and investing in their businesses. But they were sitting on cash for so long because of the regulatory environment. That's been unleashed. Seems like businesses have started to spend again. And then we were worried about the consumer but the last consumer and retail numbers looked pretty good. Your take on both. BULLARD: You know, when I talk to businesses, they're all saying really great things about -- at least about current results. They feel very good, especially about the second quarter. I'm sure you're hearing all the same things. A lot of bullishness out there in these -- in these businesses. I think the trick is to say how are they going to invest in information technology and use information technology, let's say, over the next five years to make their businesses better and -- or are they going to get disrupted by somebody coming from the outside who maybe doesn't know that much about the business but knows more about how to use information technology and sort of -- sort of upsets the apple cart for them. That's the kind of concern i'm hearing a lot. BARTIROMO: How about the consumer? How's the consumer doing? BULLARD: Consumer seems to be very happy, things seem to be going well. One of the best contributors to GDP growth, I'm happy right now. BARTIROMO: Any worries or you know, uncertainties in terms of where the consumer spending part of this goes, two-thirds of the economy, obviously we want to know. BULLARD: I'm not concerned right now. I think -- I think we're in good shape right now. Obviously, things can happen. And so, if they do, we'll have to react at that point. But for right now things look good. BARTIROMO: And looks like we're going to see another rate hike in September, then. BULLARD: Well, markets are putting a very high probability on it. And if you talk to my colleagues, most of them seem to put a high probability as well. BARTIROMO: Mr. President, James Bullard of the St. Louis Federal Reserve, thank you so much for joining us. BULLARD: All right. Thanks very much. BARTIROMO: Great to see you. BULLARD: Thanks for having me this morning. BARTIROMO: And to you, James Bullard. Coming up, a massive maiden voyage, we are checking out Carnival's largest cruise ship ever. Boasting dozens of bars, a casino and a water park. That's next. And then, talk about a double take, details on the Tiger Woods impersonator taking the internet by storm. Back in a moment. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Cheryl Casone with the details now A strike by ferry cruise in Greece causing travel problems for thousands, Cheryl. CHERYL CASONE, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK ANCHOR: Now, unhappy holiday there Maria. Thousands of tourists were stranded after a one day strike paralyzed the Ferry. That round between some of the most popular Greek island. Ferry cruise returning to work after the main Greek seamen union accepted a two percent pay hike following an eight year pay freeze. Seeming from Greece's ongoing death crisis. The union was initially seeking a five percent raise. Travel though we should say now expected to be hopefully back to normal at the end of the summer holiday in Greece. Well, a heart breaking loss in Brazil. A fire turn to the country's national museum on Sunday. It destroyed 90 percent of the collection there including the America's oldest human fossil. The government is now seeking funding from banks and companies to rebuild the museum. Many appointed out that the treasures house there can frankly just never be restored. Investigators trying to determine the cause of that massive blaze. Well, Carnival has christened its largest cruise ship ever. The AIDAnova in Germany, that is the ship now. The ship can hold up to 6600 people. It's 1100 feet long, it's got 20 decks, 11 of those for passengers, the rooms. Amenities includes 17 restaurants, 23 bars, a casino, a water park, a scaling wall, even a miniature golf course. The ship cost nearly $810 million to build. It's going to set sail in December for the Canary Islands. Taking a look at shares of Carnival, they're trading lower in the premarket. Maria, this thing we should just say, this ship weighs 184,000 tons. BARTIROMO: Wow. That looks like something. That's incredible. CASONE: Agree. Yes, I mean, and it's going to be crowded. BARTIROMO: Golf course, water park. JON HILSENRATH, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK CONTRIBUTOR: It's like a floating block of New York City, right? I mean, look at it, it's like a block, actually. 184 tons. BARTIROMO: All those people. DAGEN MCDOWELL, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK ANCHOR: That sounds like, my gosh, how does it fly? HILSENRATH: That's what I mean. I'm with you. BARTIROMO: Amazing. Thank you, Cheryl. Stepping up into controversy, Nike is facing new backlash this morning after picking Colin Kaepernick for its Just Do It ad campaign. We've got all the details. Stay with us. Back in a minute. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Now this, Nike is facing new backlash this morning after choosing Colin Kaepernick for its face of the Just Do It campaign. Jared Max with the details, Jared. JARED MAX, FOX NEWS SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Maria, as we enter our second straight NFL season with Colin Kaepernick unable to protest the national anthem on an NFL field. The one time pro athlete remains under contract with Nike. In fact, he's the new poster boy. This advertisement revealed Monday, it's part of Nike's 30th anniversary celebration of the Just Do It campaign. It reads, believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything. Nike says the ad is targeted to teen agers 15-17. Nike has had Kaepernick on payroll since 2011. His deal was about to expire. But Nike reportedly gave him a new multiyear contract with reported interest from other companies like Adidas and Puma. Nike's vice president of branding in North America told the ESPN we believe Colin is one of the most inspirational athletes of this generation who has leveraged the power of sport to help move the world forward. The ad reads believe in something even if it means sacrificing everything. Well, how much did Nike sacrifice to align like this with Kaepernick? Already seeing backlash, several people posting videos on social media burning Nike shoes, ripping logos off their clothing. Major upsets outside of this story. In sports last night at the U.S. Open, not only did Maria Sharapova lose for the first time ever in a night match at Arthur Ashe Stadium. Five time champ Roger Federer lost for the first time ever to a player not ranked in the top 50. He'd been 40 in (INAUDIBLE) matches but Federer double faulted a dozen times lost in four sets to the 55th rank player John Millman. And the best headlines about Tigers Woods at the Dell Technology Championship Monday, his doppelganger. Check this out dressed like Tiger, this fellow here posed with several fans. He even got spoken about on the T.V. broadcast. There's the side-by-side shot. At one point, he tried to get a little fist bump from Tiger Woods but it did not work out. HILSENRATH: It's pretty good, it looks like just him, right? MAX: Tiger tied for ninth. BARTIROMO: And all those fans are totally hood winked. HILSENRATH: Look at that guy. BARTIROMO: Do they know that it's not him or they just -- MCDOWELL: Probably not. MAX: Depends how many beers they've had. BARTIROMO: My God. MCDOWELL: Can I say something about the Nike? MAX: Please. MCDOWELL: Campaign. This is a business calculation. Colin Kaepernick even since he hasn't been playing in the NFL, his jersey has been a top selling jersey for Nike. So, they know that this is a way to still make money and a little bit of corporate virtue signaling for a company that had can nearly -- MAX: It's really great. MCDOWELL: Wait, let me finish. Nearly a dozen employees have left Nike amid complaints about inappropriate workplace behavior. Two former Nike employees have filed a lawsuit alleging gender discrimination, specific accounts of alleged harassment. So, this is a way for Nike to get us to talk about that and not the problems within the company. BARTIROMO: Look over here. MCDOWELL: Yes, ma'am. BARTIROMO: Jared. MAX: To be continued. BARTIROMO: Yes, for sure, Jared Max. Catch Jared sports reports on Fox News Headlines, 24/7 or on Sirius Radio XM 115. We'll slip in a break, then brewing up something new. We're checking out the ramen dish inspired by beer, that's next hour, MORNINGS WITH MARIA, right here. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Good Tuesday morning everybody. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Maria Bartiromo. And it is Tuesday, September 4th. Your top stories right now, 8:00 a.m. on the East Coast. END [Copy: Content and Programming Copyright 2018 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2018 ASC Services II Media, LLC. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of ASC Services II Media, LLC. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.] [Show: MORNINGS WITH MARIA] [Date: September 4, 2018] [Time: 08:00:00] [Tran: 090403cb.231] [Type: SHOW] [Head: Tropical Storm Gordon Slows Down Slightly In Gulf; Strengthening; Nike Shares Fall Amid Backlash Over Colin Kaepernick Ads; President Trump Lashes Out At Attorney General] [Sect: News; Financial] [Byline: Maria Bartiromo, Jon Hilsenrath, Dagen McDowell, Blake Burman, Mike Huckabee, Janice Dean, Charles Payne, Nicole Petallides, ] [Guest: Brian Brenberg, Tom Kloza, Janice Dean] [Spec: Brett Kavanaugh; Colin Kaepernick; Nike; Labor Day; NAFTA; Senate Judiciary Committee; Obamacare; Just Do It; NFL; Gordon; Tiffany's; Amazon; AAA; Energy Information Administration; Strategic Petroleum Reserve] (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MARIA BARTIROMO, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK ANCHOR: Welcome back. Good Tuesday morning. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Maria Bartiromo. And it is Tuesday, September 4th. Your top stories right now 8:00 a.m. on the East Coast. The markets are waiting for the latest on trade talks with Canada and more tariffs on Chinese goods, could be going into effect this week. Markets down as a result of that futures indicating a decline of about 80 points on Dow out of the gate this morning, a third of a percent lower. NASDAQ is also down a third of a percent, this after a mixed performance on Friday for major indices. On Friday, the Dow Industrials were down but the S&P and the NASDAQ were up fractionally. In Europe this morning, markets down across the board, take a look. Money coming out of equities, FT-100 down a half percent. The CAC quarante in Paris down 1-2/3 percent. And the DAX Index in Germany down 1-1/3 percent. Asian markets finishing mostly in positive territory overnight with the exception of Japan, it was down a fraction. Meanwhile, Supreme Court showdown this morning, nominee Brett Kavanaugh will head to Capitol Hill this morning for Senate confirmation hearings. We will bring the hearings live at 9:30 a.m. Eastern. They will be happening all week. It begins today. Nike tripping off. The company under fire for making embattled former quarterback Colin Kaepernick, its new face of its new ad campaign, just do it. The outrage coming up. Take a look at this frothy beverage, no, it is not beer, its ramen soup. The details on this daring drink later in the show this morning. All those stories coming up this Tuesday morning, and joining me, our own Dagen McDowell, the Wall Street Journal's Global Economics Editor, Jon Hilsenrath, and the King's College Business and Economics Professor, Brian Brenberg. Welcome back from the summer. JON HILSENRATH, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK CONTRIBUTOR: We get to try out the ramen? BARTIROMO: The ramen? You want to try out the ramen? (CROSSTALK) BARTIROMO: I don't know if we have on set today actually but -- DAGEN MCDOWELL, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK ANCHOR: If we had on set, there would be -- we would have given you a bib already. HILSENRATH: Brian said, it looks like a typical college breakfast beer, right? Beer and ramen noodle. BRIAN BRENBERG, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, THE KING'S COLLEGE: This is going to replace all nutrition in any of my student's diet. (CROSSTALK) BARTIROMO: Good stuff. A lot this morning to talk about after vacation summer. We got several things on the horizon. Federal Reserve meeting September 26, third-quarter earnings coming out in the next two weeks, the midterm elections, MCDOWELL: Jobs' report is out on Friday. HILSENRATH: Jobs' report Friday after Labor Day Monday. It's going to be a good another good jobs' report. MCDOWELL: We could possibly see the unemployment rate fall to 3.8 percent which is -- HILSENRATH: Well, I mean, before the end of the year we could be down 3- 1/2 percent. BARTIROMO: That is incredible. HILSENRATH: That's what a lot of people are projecting. BRENBERG: Or even more incredible considering all of this is happening in midst of the supposed uncertainty around trade. It seems like businesses aren't paying attention or at least at a widespread basis to those threats from trade because we see the hiring, we see the growth. MCDOWELL: They're paying attention because a lot of the -- particularly the retail CEOs on the earnings calls for the last quarter were talking about the diversity of their supply chains and, I guess we should be lucky that this is happening now because the supply chains are more diverse than they were -- BRENBERG: They've been able to adapt. Exactly. MCDOWELL: Except for Apple. HILSENRATH: How much better would thing be right now in the market, in the economy if we didn't have this trade uncertainty? MCDOWELL: Well, You know what, it kind of -- HILSENRATH: It would really unleash the markets. MCDOWELL: But we kind of saw that when the Mexico deal was announced, that huge run-up in stocks. HILSENRATH: It hit the highs. MCDOWELL: It raises the issue if the White House and the government could just get out of the way. And, you know, solve some of these trade problems rather than creating more of them, then we -- it could be off the races. BARTIROMO: Well, it sounds like you solved something for Mexico but now we're waiting on Canada. Will Canada join to create a new NAFTA? That's the question. HILSENRATH: And that isn't really -- there is still so many uncertainties hanging over. BARTIROMO: China. HILSENRATH: A lot of details even in the Mexico deal haven't come out and then we have to see if Canada comes on, will Congress do anything if Canada doesn't come on? Will the President just scrap it all if the Congress doesn't come along? There's a lot of uncertainties, even on North America. BARTIROMO: Which is what's pressuring markets this morning down about 80 points on the Dow, that as one of the stories that we're following. But our top story this hour, Supreme Court nominee judge Brett Kavanaugh, testifying this morning, later this morning as the battle over his confirmation is set to begin. Blake Burman is covering the story, he's at the White House right now. Blake, good morning to you. BLAKE BURMAN, FOX BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Maria, good morning to you as well. And according to excerpt server just passed on to us by the White House, Brett Kavanaugh will testify last this morning before the Senate Judiciary Committee that if he's put on to the Supreme Court, he will act, he see is it will just be one of nine justices, one of a team of nine as people testify later this morning. Kavanaugh adding of his judicial philosophy the following, saying "a good judge must be an umpire, a neutral and impartial arbiter who favors no litigant or policy." Kavanaugh will also go on to testify. I don't decide cases based on personal or policy preferences. I'm not a pro-plaintiff or pro-defendant judge, I'm not a pro-prosecution or pro-defense judge. I am a pro-law judge. Now, in a lead-up for the confirmation hearings, Democrats tried to delay the proceedings, saying they need more of Kavanaugh's documents. The top Democrat in the Senate, Chuck Schumer says another 42,000 pages worth were produced just last night. Democrats also decried the White House declaring executive privilege on another 100,000 pages from Kavanaugh's time in the Bush White House. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. DICK DURBIN (D), ILLINOIS: They are suppressing these documents. If we're lucky, we will see six percent -- six percent of all of the documents that have been produced -- could be produced to reflect on Kavanaugh's true position on issues. He is saying -- and the White House saying, the American people have no right to know. (END VIDEO CLIP) BURMAN: Republicans say though Kavanaugh has produced more documents than recent nominees and contend his credentials are impeccable. Yale Law School, a clerk for Justice Kennedy who he is seeking to replace in more than a decade on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Democrats Jim Donnelly, Heidi Heitkamp, and Joe Manchin who voted for Neil Gorsuch last year along with Doug Jones in Alabama are the Democratic votes to watch. Lindsey Graham predicting over the weekend that Kavanaugh could receive 55 votes. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: Yes. I think there are a handful of Democrats who will vote for Judge Kavanaugh if he does well. And maybe even more. A lot of people should vote for judge Kavanaugh. If you're looking to Republican President to pick a qualified conservative, he would be on the top of anyone's list, including not just Donald Trump. (END VIDEO CLIP) BURMAN: Reality though, Maria, if Kavanaugh gets every single Republican vote, that would be enough, they wouldn't need a single Democrat to come on their side. Opening statements later this morning and then the question and answer Session starts tomorrow. Maria? BARTIROMO: All right, Blake. Thank you so much. Blake Burman with the latest there. Stay with us, we've got live coverage of Judge Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court confirmation hearings this morning beginning at 9:30 a.m. Eastern. We will take you there live to the judiciary hearing. First now, former Arkansas Governor and Fox News contributor Mike Huckabee joins us. Governor, it's good to see you this morning. Thanks so much for joining us. MIKE HUCKABEE, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Always a pleasure, Maria. Thank you. BARTIROMO: Your expectation ahead of these Kavanaugh confirmation hearings this morning. HUCKABEE: Well, he is going to get confirmed, it's going to be a circus in a show, but it will eventually happen. I just find it amusing, if not embarrassing what Chuck Schumer, Dick Durbin are saying about the number of documents, they don't have time to read them. Heck, they didn't even read the Obamacare law before they voted on it. And for them to pretend that they're going to read these documents, I'd love to put them under oath. And ask them, how many pages of these documents have you read? I bet it's less than five pages. So it's just nonsense. He's eminently qualified. What I appreciate most about him is that he's not an activist. He understand that he's appointed to the court, he's not there to legislate. He is simply there to adjudicate and it's not his job to make up the law, simply to make sure that whatever law is legislated conforms to the constitution. BRENBERG: Governor, isn't that -- that's really the issue that you just hit on here at the end of your statement. Kavanaugh sees himself as an umpire and that is exactly what some won like Chuck Schumer doesn't want to see because they want the Supreme Court to be a place where laws are made not where the constitution is interpreted, Kavanaugh is a big threat because he's going to stand in the way of that happening. HUCKABEE: Well, let's hope he does because we've had decades of courts that decided that that they would do what a legislature didn't have the guts to do and that's pass a law. So they tossed it to the courts but what we've ended up, we've shredded the constitution. Anybody who passed Ninth grade Civics ought to know that the three branches of government are equal but they're distinct and different and they have different functions and roles. And the judiciary does not have the capacity to create law to make something out of thin air, they've been doing it for decades. And it's really hurt this great Republic of ours. It's time to get back to people who don't believe in this doctrine of judicial supremacy that is not just the Supreme Court but it's the supreme branch, it is not. It is an equal branch and it cannot act unless it's in concert with the executive and legislative. And, so I'm hoping that maybe this will be a great opportunity to showcase that constitutional role of the court. BARTIROMO: So, it sounds like you think he is going to be confirmed before the Supreme Court Session starts October 1? HUCKABEE: I think so, yes. I think the Republicans are going to vote for him, and I don't know how in the world some of these Democrats like Donnelly and Manchin and Heitkamp not vote for him and expect to still be a Senator. So it really depends do they want to be a Senator? And do they want to have the integrity of their office intact because how do they justify not voting for him, they can't. BARTIROMO: We want o move to one of the other big stories of the morning and that is former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick has signed a multi-year deal with Nike. It makes him the face of their famous Just Do It campaign. Nike is facing backlash over this move with some customers going so far as to burn their Nike shoes and this is going viral. Governor, does this move show Nike is out of touch? What's your take on Nike's plans here? HUCKABEE: You just wonder, what are they thinking? Are they so isolated in their corporate headquarters that they can't see that maybe some people have said it this I way that Colin Kaepernick is the real Al Bundy. He sucks at football and he's now selling shoes. I mean, this is a guy who has played no more in the NFL in the past two years than I have. And I've not even been on the field. So, why are they somehow elevating him to some hero status? I mean, they used to have guys like Michael Jordan and top athletes in their field and now they got a guy who nobody wants to have him on their team. And he's primarily known for his protests in wearing socks with policemen depicted as pigs. I'm wondering if Nike is going to sell those socks as part of new deal with him. BARTIROMO: Well, Dagen, you had idea in terms of why Nike would do this earlier. MCDOWELL: When its corporate virtue signaling number one, and it is a business calculation that the Kaepernick jersey even after he stopped playing in the NFL, he's still been a good if not best-selling jersey for Nike. So number two, they know that there is nothing lost in them using him as the face of this new campaign, and to do a little bit of -- show that they've got their social justice credibility. And Governor, I would argue that because that -- nearly a dozen people have left Nike because of complaints about inappropriate workplace behavior, that this is a way for them to draw attention away from that and to the new spokesman of their campaign. HUCKABEE: And is also a way to wave their middle finger at half the American voters and half the American public who were leaving the NFL in droves not only television ratings but in the purchase of merchandise and tickets and there are a lot of empty seats in NFL games right now because people are just fed up with, you know, what once was a sports efforts now becoming a political arena. People don't go to the movies and they don't go to these sports arenas because they want to be preached to and lectured at by people who are pushing their personal politics. Take it off the field, say whatever you want, but I mean I just can't imagine how Nike thinks this is a brilliant move for them. Everybody is talking about him, so maybe, you know, if that's their goal, they've got it but not everybody is talking favorably about the debate. (CROSSTALK) MCDOWELL: Just to note though, people, you know, in the -- because I criticized a left for the manufactured outrage and there is -- there is some of that on the right as well about this. So anybody who is bragging about their Converse tennis shoes, well, Nike owns Converse. So I will just point that out because you saw somebody taking a photo of their feet on Twitter, yesterday like, OK, you still bought those shoes from Nike. BARTIROMO: My favorite is still Stan Smith, Adidas. Just saying. MCDOWELL: Adidas. BARTIROMO: Yes. Let's turn to something close to you, Governor, back in June, your daughter White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders was refused service at that Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Virginia. Now, a local publication is reporting that the area's tourism board is spending money to repair the town's image. Interesting developments, sir. Your thoughts. HUCKABEE: Well, It is tragic that all of these other business owners, you know, are being hurt by the actions of one bigoted restaurant owner. The Red Hen I guess is going to have a new menu, bigots breakfast, leftist lunch, and discrimination dinner. But the tragedy is you've got all these other businesses there in Lexington Virginia that are suffering because of the discrimination of one restaurant owner in a small little restaurant. And I feel for those people and I hope they can rehab their image because it's a beautiful impunity, it's a beautiful part of Virginia. Washington at least, near there, great university, and frankly they don't deserve to all suffer because one person decided to take it upon herself to throw someone out of a restaurant because she represents the political point of view that is different than hers. BARTIROMO: Just incredible. HUCKABEE: That's hardly kind of America that is good for us. BARTIROMO: Governor, it's great to see you this morning. Thanks so much. HUCKABEE: You bet, Maria. Thank you. BARTIROMO: Former Governor Mike Huckabee joining us there. Coming up, raising for impact. We got all the details on tropical storm Gordon you can have be, breaking for impact details on tropical storm Gordon. He is gaining strength as it nears the Gulf Coast line. We've got the latest weather forecast next. Then brewing up something new. We check out this bowl of ramen inspired by beer, next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Bracing for impact. Tropical storm Gordon is racing is racing toward Gulf Coast this morning. Fox News Senior Meteorologist Janice Dean with the very latest details here. Janice, again. JANICE DEAN, FOX NEWS SENIOR METEOROLOGIST: Ah, Maria yes. And we're getting busy not only do we have Gordon, we have Florence also in the Atlantic behind that several other systems coming off the coast of Africa. But this is Gordon preparing here for a land falling tropical system. We think it will become a minimal hurricane as it approaches the coastline between 7:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. We hurricane warnings here from Southeastern Louisiana through much of Mississippi Coastal, Mississippi and Alabama as well tropical storm warnings for all of Louisiana, the Coast of Louisiana area up towards the panhandle of Florida. Here is the latest track as of 8:00 a.m. We think it's going to become a hurricane within the next four to six hours. And again, the minimum hurricane making landfall tonight overnight. And then heavy rainfall in its wake as it makes its way northward. The good news with this system is it is going to be a quick mover, so it's over pretty quickly but we're still going to see on order of three to six inches of heavy rainfall, three to six feet of storm surge and this rain is going to continue to move northward. Also, the potential of strong to severe storms including isolated tornados with these landfalling her. But I think the legacy will be the heavy rainfall and then behind this watching Florence for the East Coast, Maria, and several other systems. So hurricane season not done yet, we actually might see the busiest in the month of September. Back to you. BARTIROMO: All right. Well, it is that time of the year I guess. Janice, thank you. We'll be watching. Janice Dean. Coming up. Easing pain at the pump. The outlook on gasoline prices as summer winds down, that's next. And Tiffany's $250-million bet, check this out why classic jewelry store taking a chance on brick and mortar in the age of Amazon, next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Easing pain at the pump. AAA is forecasting gasoline prices to decline this summer as summer winds down but the looming threat of tropical storm Gordon could send oil prices soaring. Joining us now to discuss that is OPIS Global Head of Energy Analysis, Tom Kloza. Tom, good to see you. Thanks so much for joining us. TOM KLOZA, HEAD OF ENERGY ANALYSIS, OPIS GLOBAL: Nice to be here. Sorry to see a hurricane. BARTIROMO: Yes. We're sorry too. We've been talking about Gordon which is now a tropical storm but we'll see what happens next. Now we got Florence as well. Tom, as the summer is winding down, what are your expectations for gasoline? Typically when you go into fall where demand comes back down after a summer of demand, do prizes move? KLOZA: Typically, in three of the last four years we've dropped 40 or 50 cents from Labor Day to Christmas Day. This year that's not going to happen. First of all, we're going to see a head fake now with the storm possibly heading towards Southern Louisiana where there's a lot of refineries and there's a lot of offshore oil rigs. And after that we'll probably see prices bleed a little bit lower but it's really hurricane Iran that we need to worry about for the next 60 or 90 days. BARTIROMO: Hurricane Iran, OK. Jon? HILSENRATH: Why is that? Explain what your concerns are about Iran right now. KLOZA: Well, you know, the administration is really put the handcuffs on Iran and Iranian crude exports have already dropped by about 800,000 barrels a day or so. The world oil market is very tight, we're still seeing a lot of global growth, now, that may be offset if some of these developing countries have problems with their currency. But we should lose some more Iranian oil in the next 100 days or so. And this administration seems pretty definite that they want to bring Iran to their knees before they bring them to the negotiating table. HILSENRATH: Tom, we're talking about hurricanes now in the Gulf Coast. How are American refineries prepared for another big storm? Are they in better condition preparation wise than they were say more than a decade ago when Katrina hit? What steps have they -- have they taken to insulate themselves from natural disasters? KLOZA: Well, actually they're not in better shape, if you had a category, three, four, or five storm. They don't have let's say some of the retaining walls or some of the things to prevent that, but they're in very good shape to withstand tropical storm winds, category one or category two. Some of them have cogeneration, so that if the electric grid gets knocked out, they'll be OK. I think Gordon probably results in some precautionary shutdowns to tighten up gasoline for a while. The nice thing about September storm as opposed to August is we're on cusp of switching to winter specifications for gasoline. You can throw a lot more ingredients into the gasoline mixture. And my hunch is that if this storm made a beeline for New Orleans that we would probably see the Federal government many of these agencies just go ahead and say the summer is over, you can make autumn and winter gasoline. MCDOWELL: And we've got the SPR to open up in case there's actual supply disruption of crude. Tom, really quickly, so the Energy Information Administration announced last month that the port district of Houston- Galveston has now started exporting more crude oil than it imported for the very first time. We have a light -- a lighter crude versus kind of heavier crude than we -- that we import to refine here. Talk about our refineries basically switching over to be able to refine more of the oil that we're getting out of the ground. KLOZA: Well, we've had a lot of projects to run very light, tight, very, very sweet crude. We actually exported 66 million barrels of U.S. crude in the month of June. Now to put that in perspective, we're going to release maybe 11 million barrels of heavy crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in October and early November. So I think prices will be modest between now and say election time. After the election and after the November 4th deadline for Iran, you got to watch out for a winter of discontent. We could see much higher prices across the board. Not just gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, you name it. BARTIROMO: All right. We'll be watching that. Tom, great to have your insights as always. Thanks so much. KLOZA: Thanks, Maria. BARTIROMO: Tom Kloza joining us there. Coming up. Nike steps into new controversy this morning. The backlash after the company chooses Colin Kaepernick as the face of its latest ad campaign. Then, a hefty (INAUDIBLE) soup. Details on the beer ramen taking the internet by storm. Back in a minute. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Good Tuesday morning, everybody, thanks so much for joining us this morning. Happy Tuesday, welcome back from the summer. I'm Maria Bartiromo. And it is Tuesday, September 4th, your top stories right now 8:31 a.m. on the East Coast. Trade concerns weighing on markets this morning. Investors are waiting to hear if we will have a trade deal with Canada, as more tariffs on Chinese goods loom on the horizon, they could take effect this week. Futures heading lower this morning, indicating a decline of about 80 points on the Dow Jones Industrial Average in about an hour's time when the market opens. The S&P 500 is down five, and the NASDAQ off 23 right now. Bank of England Governor, Mark Carney, had planned to step down upon Britain's exit from the European Union. Now, he is reportedly in talks to extend his stay. Mark Carney, the Bank of England Governor. In Europe, this morning, markets are down across the board. This is basically where they've been for the last hour down 35 points on the FT-100 in London, CAC Quarante in Paris down 1-1/2 percent, that's 78 points lower, and the DAX Index in Germany down 150 points. Right here, this is the low of the morning on the CAC and the DAX. Asian markets finishing mostly positive overnight with the exception of Japan, it was down a fraction. Meanwhile, this, outrage over Colin Kaepernick being named the new face of Nike. Details on backlash ahead, the stock is down 2-1/2 percent ahead of open on this news. Tiffany's sparkling, why the classic brand is making a $250-million bet on brick and mortar. And check out this mug, it is not beer, it's ramen. We've got the details on this strange brew, coming up this morning. First, to our top story this half an hour, Judge Brett Kavanaugh on the hot seat this morning. President Trump's second Supreme Court nominee set to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee, one hour from right now, that will set off a partisan battle over a lifetime appointment to the high court. Joining me right now is Harvard Law Professor Emeritus and author of "The Case Against Impeaching Trump," Alan Dershowitz. Alan, good to see you, thanks so much for being here this morning. ALAN DERSHOWITZ, PROFESSOR EMERITUS, HARVARD LAW: Thank you. BARTIROMO: Your expectations for these hearings to set to begin in about an hour. DERSHOWITZ: Well, they're usually entirely predictable. They'll ask him about his judicial philosophy, he'll answer in general terms. They'll ask him a few things, Roe vs. Wade is established law, he'll say yes. They'll ask him whether he accepts the binding power of precedent, and he'll say, well, it's less binding on the Supreme Court than on the Court of Appeals, but he certainly respects precedent. The big question is will there be any surprises? Have the Democrats come up with any fact or information that we're not aware of that could catch him by surprise. Generally, these nominees are very, very well-prepared. Kavanaugh is off the charts brilliant, he has an incredible academic background and record from Yale, a terrific record as a Court of Appeals judge. He's eminently qualified for the job, but the Democrats have a right to ask him hard questions to see whether he's going to shift the Supreme Court way, way to the right. Look, Bork was well-qualified too and he didn't get the nomination primarily because he had written so much. Kavanaugh has written primarily through his opinions, but he also has some law review articles that are somewhat controversial. BARTIROMO: Yes, but let's not forget -- I mean, even before the documents were out, even before anything was known about Brett Kavanaugh, Chuck Schumer was very clear, we're going to make it hard as possible for the President to get another Supreme Court pick in place. DERSHOWITZ: Of course. Because it's tit-for-tat, the Republicans did the same thing when Merrick Garland, who is extraordinarily well-qualified, Kavanaugh's colleague, extremely well-qualified. The Republicans said we won't give him a hearing, we won't give him an up-and-down vote. So, what's happened is judicial nominations have become Ping-Pong balls and being, you know, back and forth on the table. It's a tragedy because it would be so much better if the most-qualified people were nominated and confirmed by both sides, but that's a dream that disappeared probably several decades ago. BARTIROMO: So, bottomline, do you think the votes are there to put Judge Kavanaugh on the court? DERSHOWITZ: Oh, without a doubt, absent some surprise. BARTIROMO: OK. DERSHOWITZ: The September surprise that we're not aware of. He'll be confirmed -- he'll be confirmed probably 53, 54 votes, something in that range. But it will be a partisan -- BARTIROMO: So, that includes Democrats in your view? DERSHOWITZ: It will be a partisan -- yes, there'll be a couple of Democrats that will come along. BARTIROMO: Let me -- let me switch gears, Alan, I got to ask you about what the President is talking about with regard to his to attorney general. Ahead of this big week, the President came out swinging against Jeff Sessions -- he said this, "Two long-running Obama-era investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well-publicized charge just ahead of the midterms by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department. Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job, Jeff." And then, the President is basically referring to charges of two Congressmen right before the midterm elections, Alan. Your reaction. DERSHOWITZ: Well, I don't think the President should be commenting on people who have been charged. We have to know what the facts are, one of them was charged by the Obama administration, the other one, the insider trading was charges by the Trump administration. I don't think that the Justice Department should be partisan, and should have a different standard for indicting Democrats or Republicans. There are rules about the midterm election but they --these indictments came within those rules. It's usually a two-month rule. So, I think it's a misplaced criticism by the President and could be dangerous if, you know, Democrats and Republicans alike started to try to politicize who was prosecuted and when they're prosecuted and what impact it can have on election. That's a dangerous trend. BARTIROMO: I think this is really -- you're right, you're right. This is a really important point that you're making. But, Alan, this is a bigger issue between the President and his attorney. You know that. I mean, Jeff Session has in place since the President got -- began his term and he recused himself from Russia, and as a result, in doing so, has been, you know, unwilling or unable to get involved in any of -- any of these headlines whereas we know what went on during the 2016 election at the top of the FBI and the DOJ. We know that there was really no investigation of Hillary Clinton, and Jeff Sessions doesn't do anything about it. DERSHOWITZ: Well, I think Jeff Sessions disappointed the President by not telling him in advance that he might have to recuse himself about the Russia -- he never would have gotten the job if he had told the President that. I think the second point is when he recused himself, he probably should have offered his letter of resignation. He did offer a letter of resignation later but it was at a time when it would be politically difficult. Right now, I think it's very, very difficult for the President to be seen as firing Jeff Sessions in order to influence the Russia investigation. Obviously, it would depend on who we replace him with. Remember that when we had the Watergate, Edward Levy, the President of the University of Chicago, the former dean of the law school was picked to be attorney general. If the President would have picked somebody like that, there'd be no criticism. But if he picked, quote, a loyalist, who would try to influence the investigation, that would be perceived as somehow putting his thumb on the scale of justice, and it would not affect -- it would not work well for him, I think he understands that. BARTIROMO: But remember how long it took for so many of the President's appointments to actually get put in place because the Dems did not want the President to execute his strategy, and they were slow walking all the appointments. Let's say, hypothetically speaking, the President fires Jeff Sessions after the midterm elections. How long will it take for him to get another A.G. in place? DERSHOWITZ: Well, it depends, if he appoints somebody with superb objective credentials, no time at all, but if he picks somebody that is perceived as perhaps wanting to slow down or end the investigation, the Democrats will do everything in their power to delay and prevent that from happening, because they want to see Rod Rosenstein -- BARTIROMO: But won't they do everything in their power to delay regardless of who it is? I mean, look, we just -- DERSHOWITZ: No. Well -- BARTIROMO: We just said a minute ago that even before we knew anything about Judge Brett Kavanaugh, Chuck Schumer said I'm going to make it as hard as possible for the President to get another Supreme Court pick in there. He just told us that. DERSHOWITZ: Well, I think there's a -- I think there's a big difference between a Supreme Court nominee who is supposed to be objective and independent, and a cabinet member, the President is entitled to pick his own person to be a cabinet member. Remember, John Kennedy picked his brother; Ronald Reagan picked his private lawyer; Barack Obama picked a very loyal friend. BARTIROMO: Well, how long does it take to get the CIA pick in there? Gina -- DERSHOWITZ: Look, it's become so -- everything is so political, everything is so partisan today. BARTIROMO: So, you say if it's a clear, you know, independent person, fine, but that's actually not true. There slowwalking everybody. DERSHOWITZ: Well, let him try. I would love to see them pick an objective, independent, brilliant person and of great credibility. And then, he wins the fight if they slow that down. But if he appoints a partisan then you're going to see partisan politics play a role. So, the President plays a role depending on who he picks, and then, Congress responds to that pick. BARTIROMO: Let me ask you about the Twitter CEO testimony tomorrow, Jack Dorsey CEO of Twitter, as I first reported will be testifying before two panels tomorrow along with Facebook Sheryl Sandberg. She's testifying before one committee in the Senate. The CEO of Twitter will like be asked about how his site polices users and content. What are you expecting to hear and how does this end, Alan? DERSHOWITZ: Well, nobody knows what the truth is. We need an objective independent, expert commission, looking into whether or not the social media do allow political considerations to impact their algorithms. I don't know the answer to that. We're going to hear no today from the people who have a stake in that. We're going to hear yes from people on the other side and none of us is going to know the answer. It's a technical, highly scientific issue. We ought to get to the bottom of it by experts who are objective. We don't have a stake and can tell us whether there is a thumb on the scale of free speech. We have the right to know the answer to that question. BARTIROMO: Yes. I mean, most people would like to see competition fix this problem, right? Alan, as a -- as oppose to a heavier government hand and regulating these business. DERSHOWITZ: I agree. BARTIROMO: But we don't know how this goes. DERSHOWITZ: I agree but we have to know the facts first thing we have to know is whether or not this problem exists, or whether or not, it's made up, and exaggerated I suspect that somewhere in between, and we, the public, have a right to know whether the social media which have such a major impact on all of our lives, are fair and objective, I hope they are. BARTIROMO: We've got the leadership of these two companies coming, but nobody really, in terms of leadership at Google. That's interesting. Do you think Google is going to be forced to testify as well? Owner of YouTube. DERSHOWITZ: Oh, of course. Of course, of course, everybody is going to have to come in and testify, and everybody is going to remember what happened when the cigarette industry leaders put hands up said we swear that there's no -- you know, nicotine is not an addictive -- we know that we don't always expect objective testimony from the leaders of company. I think we'll get good testimony. And Sheryl Sandberg was a student at Harvard, she's a terrific, terrific woman. I expect she'll tell the truth. It's not so clear that the whole truth, though, will emerge from adversarial questioning of adversarial leaders. I think we need scientific objective truth so we, the people, can make the final decision. BARTIROMO: Yes, because the -- they can say the algorithm does it and that's who decides. But somebody puts together the -- DERSHOWITZ: Who knows what that means? BARTIROMO: -- algorithm, right? Somebody programmed the algorithm? DERSHOWITZ: Of course. Of course. BARTIROMO: Oh, boy. Well, this would -- DERSHOWITZ: There are people who can tell us the truth, yes. BARTIROMO: All right, Alan, great to get your insights. As always, thanks so much. DERSHOWITZ: Thank you so much. BARTIROMO: Alan Dershowitz joining us. Stay with us, we've got a big interview, coming up. Susan Li will sit down in a "FIRST ON FOX BUSINESS" interview with the CEO of Uber, that's tomorrow -- the company gearing up to go public. Don't miss Susan's important interview tomorrow. First, though, coming up next, Nike's controversial move, the backlash after the company names Colin Kaepernick the face of its Just Do It campaign, that's next. And then, the big bet from Tiffany, how the jewelry giant is working to compete against other luxury retailers all in the age of Amazon, next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Nike, the biggest loser in the premarket this morning, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has many consumers are outraged over the company's deal with Colin Kaepernick. Nicole Petallides on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange with details. Nic, good morning. NICOLE PETALLIDES, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK ANCHOR: Hey, good morning. Great to see you, Maria. Do you know that I just went into one of the trading booths? I started an argument, discussing exactly this, Colin Kaepernick now being the face of the 30-year anniversary of Nike's Just Do It campaign. One of the traders said if you're going to talk about believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything, why don't you put a U.S. Marine, while the other trader says, he thinks more athletes will be at to sign with Nike and get onboard. So, while this is a very controversial topic, people are concerned about the type of business it might bring to Nike while one trader said it might bring more athletes to sign on, others have said it's bad business for Nike, couldn't they have chose somebody else? In the meantime, we've seen videos of people burning their Nike sneakers. #nikeboycott is one of the leading trending hashtags this morning, Maria. At the same time on social media, dear Nike, I appreciate you standing with Kaepernick. So, it certainly seems to be the talk, but look at what's happening to the stock. And maybe this is the indication of the true business of what it might mean for Nike, and that is down three percent this morning. Then, we'll take a look at Tiffany this morning, down a little bit, but the big news is that Tiffany is going to have a revamp, it will take about three years. They're investing $250 million redoing the 78-year-old store Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's just trying to bring in the younger folks, just like Target has done, they spent billions. Macy's has done the very same in order to remain competitive. Big-picture picture are feeling optimistic, still watching all about trade. We have a lot of Fed speakers, we have jobs Friday right here on MORNINGS WITH MARIA. And some of the numbers from abroad for manufacturing weakness in Europe, China factory growth slowed to a 14-month low, and Japan business sentiment 21-month low. Maria? BARTIROMO: All right. Nic, thank you so much. Coming up, have a drink and eat it too, details on the new ramen beer taking the internet by storm. We're going to tell you about it, next. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) CHERYL CASONE, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK ANCHOR: -- is coming out of Egypt this morning. Well, back to -- at home, United Airlines raising first checked bag fees from $25.00 to $30.00 And second bag fees have gone up from $35.00 to $40.00. This comes just days after JetBlue, Air Canada, and WestJet raised all of their baggage fees. United says higher fees are going to allow to continue investing in the overall customer experience. You know, the part where you're on the plane but without your checked luggage. OK. Ford, is (INAUDIBLE) future for its Mondeo sedan. The company denying published reports that it plans to stop making the vehicle, and said that they're going to actually upgrade it. London Sunday Times have reported that production of the Mondeo along with other models was going to be halted, that's part of this global restructuring that would have eliminated as many as 24,000 jobs. But Ford lower in the premarket, down almost a quarter percent and pushing back, we should say, on that report. And then, finally, check this out, a restaurant in British Columbia is putting a new spin on traditional Japanese dishes like ramen. They're serving ramen noodles inside of a beer mug. Now, topped with a foam that's made from a combination of egg whites and gelatin. And there's the thing, it looks like a pint of beer but there is no beer inside of this. How disappointing is that? It was supposed to be a summertime drink. They might extend it because it is popular without alcohol, even. Back to you. BARTIROMO: Well, it looks good, what is it -- (CROSSTALK) CASONE: British, Columbia, I would have been on it for you, you know that. BARTIROMO: Yes. CASONE: And British Columbia. MCDOWELL: I've heard of a mug of cup noodles, that's "muganoodles" (INAUDIBLE) noodles, I guess. HILSENRATH: We need some on set. I mean, we wanted to -- (CROSSTALK) BARTIROMO: Cheryl is on it. Thanks, Cheryl. All right. Quick break, and then we'll get final thoughts from this all-star panel. Back in a minute. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Earlier, we're having a conversation about plastic on furniture, Dagen, said. Everybody knows you have plastic on the furniture. That was photo of me as a five-year-old in my parents' living room with plastic on the chairs. I got my hair flip right though. I knew -- I knew I wanted to be on camera. Even then, at five years old. I love it. That was so funny when you said that, because I thought, you're right. I remember. BRENBERG: We've all seen it, yes. BARTIROMO: Great, great stuff. All right, final thoughts, you guys, great show, back from summer. Your thoughts BRENBERG: That back from summer, right, and I think there's going to be a lot of heat going on this week with the Kavanaugh hearings. At the end of the day, I think he gets through, and I think the Friday jobs' number really puts an exclamation point on what's happening -- BARTIROMO: It sure does. Jon? HILSENRATH: While we're talking about Kavanaugh and jobs, we got to talk about trade, you know, where we're going to get another 200 billion of tariffs on China, and as Canada comes to the table and get things done with the President, so it's a big week in trade. BARTIROMO: Most important issues, yes. MCDOWELL: And a caution to the Democrats, don't talk down this economy. It's good, and you didn't vote for the tax cuts that helped lift everybody's vote in this country, so find something else to complain about. BARTIROMO: I wonder if people are going to remember that, come the midterm elections, that not one Dem voted for the tax cut. MCDOWELL: Not one. BARTIROMO: We'll see. Have a great day, everybody. Go seize that day. Dagen McDowell, Jon Hilsenrath, Brian Brenberg, thank you so much. That will do it us. "VARNEY & COMPANY" now. Here's Charles Payne in for Stuart this morning. Charles, take it away. CHARLES PAYNE, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK ANCHOR: Thank you very much, Maria. END [Copy: Content and Programming Copyright 2018 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2018 ASC Services II Media, LLC. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of ASC Services II Media, LLC. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.]
Subject: Copyright; Presidents; Economics; Tariffs
Location: United States--US Canada
People: Powell, Jerome
Company / organization: Name: Senate; NAICS: 921120; Name: Nasdaq Stock Market Inc; NAICS: 523210; Name: Congress; NAICS: 921120
Publication title: International Wire; Lanham
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Sep 4, 2018
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: Lanham
Country of publication: United States, Lanham
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2099522686
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2099522686?accountid=4840
Copyright: 2018 ASC Services II Media, LLC
Last updated: 2018-11-28
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 389 of 474
Rio tallies 736 deaths attributed to crackdown against crime
Author: Prengaman, Peter; Ramalho, Sergio
Publication info: Philadelphia Tribune ; Philadelphia, Pa. [Philadelphia, Pa]04 Sep 2018: 2A.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: RIO DE JANEIRO - Rio de Janeiro's public security secretary said Friday that a rise in killings during police operations was a sign that authorities were more aggressively confronting crime, and not of a worsening situation. In an interview with The Associated Press on Friday, Gen. Richard Nunes pushed back against critics who argue that a military intervention is leading to more violence in the city that two years ago hosted the 2016 Summer Olympics. Nunes said that any analysis had to take into account the level of crime and problems in the police forces when the military was put in charge of security. "The situation was really bad," said Nunes, a Rio native and career Army member who was tapped to lead the state's public security secretariat as part of the intervention. Brazilian President Michel Temer decreed the intervention in February after muggings and beatings were captured on camera during Rio's world famous Carnival celebrations. From the onset, civil rights groups have criticized the move, fearing it would lead to more violence, particularly in marginalized neighborhoods. Six months in, there are some indications of increasing violence. Between February and July of this year, there were 736 deaths during police operations compared to 547 during the same period last year, according to state figures. Nunes lamented the deaths and predicted the numbers would start coming down. However, he said the situation wasn't comparable because a year ago police forces were suffering from underfunding and a lack of motivation, which added to a situation where many criminals groups were operating with few checks. Retraining, the hiring of some new recruits and cracking down on corruption within police ranks was having a positive impact, he said. Nunes cited a significant drop in robberies of cargo on long-bed trucks, a persistent problem in the state, as a sign of improvement. He noted that fewer robberies meant less associated crime. "We now have a much stronger police presence in the streets," said Nunes. Nunes said one of the biggest challenges had been working to find solutions amid large budget deficits. Brazil, with Latin America's largest economy, has struggled to fully emerge from its worst recession in decades. The state of Rio de Janeiro has been particularly hard hit in recent years due to a drop in world oil prices, mismanagement and corruption by previous governors. Beyond reducing criminality, Nunes said authorities were focused on being ready for October's general election. He said a "crisis cabinet" was being formed and that police were being trained to deal with many issues related to voting. Despite "realistic optimism" that the intervention will have positive long-term results, Nunes said it wouldn't make sense for it to continue beyond December, when Temer's term will end. Instead, he said the military would share with the incoming administration what had worked. Nunes expressed confidence that police would solve the murder of Marielle Franco, a black city councilwoman who along with her driver was gunned down in March. The killing shocked Brazil and led to demonstrations in the United States and several other countries. - (AP)
Subject: Violence; Olympic games
Location: Brazil United States--US Rio de Janeiro Brazil Latin America
People: Temer, Michel
Publication title: Philadelphia Tribune; Philadelphia, Pa.
Pages: 2A
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Sep 4, 2018
Publisher: Philadelphia Tribune
Place of publication: Philadelphia, Pa.
Country of publication: United States, Philadelphia, Pa.
Publication subject: African American/Caribbean/African, Ethnic Interests
ISSN: 0746956X
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2111715856
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2111715856?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Philadelphia Tribune Sep 4, 2018
Last updated: 2018-09-25
Database: Ethnic NewsWatch
Document 390 of 474
Business Destinations names its Top 10 destinations for Autumn 2018
Publication info: NASDAQ OMX's News Release Distribution Channel ; New York [New York]05 Sep 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: LONDON, Sept. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- From Hong Kong to Iceland and far beyond, in the magazine's latest edition, Business Destinations
counts down its top 10 destinations for Autumn 2018. The stunning natural beauty and dramatic landscapes of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital, have won the city a spot in the exclusive list. Here, visitors will enjoy truly unique experiences, from historic sites to gastronomic delights. Try the national dish, a flatbread called injera,
along with spice-filled curries, and do not leave without sampling a traditionally brewed cup of Ethiopian coffee. What's more, business travellers are in luck as the delightful Sheraton Addis offers the largest banquet and conference facilities in the country. Also on Business Destination's
list is Riga, nestled in the beautiful Gulf of Riga in the heart of Latvia. The sprawling city, itself a UNESCO World Heritage site, boasts an impressive collection of Art Nouveau buildings. But amid its deep layers of history lives an impressive, fast-growing start-up culture and a prime destination for meetings and events. Elsewhere in Europe is Vitoria-Gasteiz in Northern Spain's picturesque Basque Country. The city has a buzzing business environment and is home to the Europe Congress Palace. With a capacity for 5,700 people, the conference venue is one of the finest on the Iberian Peninsula. Vitoria-Gasteiz has also been recognised for having the largest surface area of green space of any city on the continent. It was awarded the title of European Green Capital in 2012. Another country building a name for itself in the meetings and event market is South Korea. Busan, the country's bustling principal port city, is a place where dualities happily coexist. The city is one of history and tradition, but it is also known for its modern spirit, resulting in thousand-year-old temples being dotted in between soaring residential skyscrapers. The One Asia Festival in October is not to be missed. Oceans away lies Brazil, home to the dynamic city of Rio de Janeiro. While it is best known for Carnival, the world-famous event where millions gather in the streets before Lent each year, Rio is beginning to attract more and more business travellers. The 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics sparked a string of new investments that are transforming the city. To discover more outstanding destinations, visit: https://www.businessdestinations.com/10-top-destinations/
World News Media is a leading publisher of quality financial and business magazines, which enjoys a global distribution network that includes subscriber lists of prominent decision-makers around the world. CONTACT INFORMATION
World News Media Elizabeth Matsangou Editorial Department +44 (0)20 7553 4162
Subject: News media
Location: Iceland Spain Latvia Ethiopia Iberian Peninsula Hong Kong Gulf of Riga Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil Asia Europe South Korea Addis Ababa Ethiopia
Company / organization: Name: Congress; NAICS: 921120; Name: United Nations Educational Scientific & Cultural Organization; NAICS: 928120
Publication title: NASDAQ OMX's News Release Distribution Channel; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Sep 5, 2018
Publisher: NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions, Inc.
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2099333781
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2099333781?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions, Inc. Sep 5, 2018
Last updated: 2018-09-05
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 391 of 474
Science - Science and Public Policy; Researchers from Federal University of Rio de Janeiro Describe Findings in Science and Public Policy (Windows of opportunity and death valleys in STI policy construction: Policy dialogues in Brazil)
Publication info: Politics & Government Week ; Atlanta [Atlanta]06 Sep 2018: 283.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: 2018 SEP 6 (VerticalNews) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Politics & Government Week -- Fresh data on Science - Science and Public Policy are presented in a new report. According to news reporting from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, by VerticalNews journalists, research stated, "This article explores the determinants of the agreements and consensus building along a complex policy dialogue process focusing on Local Innovation and Production System (LIPS) of Carnival in Brazil. We explore the role of leadership and agency within varying institutional arrangements." The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, "The main objective is to analyze the interplay of beneficiaries' mobilization and leadership capacity, political interests and power relations, and changing institutions. Along the experience of dialogue for policy construction, different phases can be observed, which vary from top-down-oriented voluntary initiatives of support organizations to an essentially bottom-up re-conceptualization of those propositions, based on the capacity of different actors to translate the understanding of specificities of this activity into policy-making language." According to the news reporters, the research concluded: "We suggest that success of dialogue and its capacity to lead to effective policy support is connected to a question of timing, taking or not advantage of 'institutional windows of opportunity' and avoiding dialogue 'death valleys." For more information on this research see: Windows of opportunity and death valleys in STI policy construction: Policy dialogues in Brazil. Science and Public Policy, 2018;45(3):318-328. Science and Public Policy can be contacted at: Oxford Univ Press, Great Clarendon St, Oxford OX2 6DP, England. (Oxford University Press - www.oup.com/; Science and Public Policy - spp.oxfordjournals.org) Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting M.P. de Matos, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Inst Econ, BR-22290175 Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. Additional authors for this research include J.E. Cassiolato and H.M.M. Lastres. and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation. Keywords for this news article include: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, South America, Science and Public Policy, Science, Legal Issues, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world. Copyright 2018, NewsRx LLC The citation for this news report is: NewsRx. Researchers from Federal University of Rio de Janeiro Describe Findings in Science and Public Policy (Windows of opportunity and death valleys in STI policy construction: Policy dialogues in Brazil). Politics & Government Week. September 6, 2018; p 283.
Subject: Research; Researchers; Science; Public policy
Location: South America England Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil
Company / organization: Name: Federal University of Rio de Janeiro; NAICS: 611310
Identifier / keyword: Rio de Janeiro Brazil South America Science and Public Policy Science Legal Issues
Publication title: Politics & Government Week; Atlanta
First page: 283
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Sep 6, 2018
Publisher: NewsRx
Place of publication: Atlanta
Country of publication: United States, Atlanta
Publication subject: Political Science
ISSN: 1944-2696
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2096612823
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2096612823?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright 2018, NewsRx LLC
Last updated: 2019-02-26
Database: Social Science Premium Collection
Document 392 of 474
The Playlist: Thom Yorke’s Chilling Ballad, and 13 More New Songs
Author: Pareles, Jon; Caramanica, Jon; Russonello, Giovanni
Publication info: New York Times (Online) , New York: New York Times Company. Sep 7, 2018.
Abstract:
Hear tracks from Charles Bradley, Paul Simon, Yves Tumor, Dawn and others.
Full text: Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week’s most notable new songs and videos — and anything else that strikes them as intriguing. Just want the music? Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes). Like what you hear? Let us know at [email protected] and sign up for our Louder newsletter , a once-a-week blast of our pop music coverage. Thom Yorke, ‘Suspirium’ [Video: Watch on YouTube. ] “This is a waltz thinking about our bodies,” Thom Yorke sings in “Suspirium,” which joins the long list of his sweetly chilling piano ballads . It’s from his score to Luca Guadagnino’s coming remake of “Suspiria,” the 1977 Dario Argento horror movie set in a dance school. Much of it is just his voice and an arpeggiated piano motif that’s at once dainty and relentless; organ tones and a flute join him. “All is well, as long as we keep spinning,” he intones, calmly raising the question of what happens when the spinning ends. JON PARELES Charles Bradley, ‘I Feel a Change’ [Video: Watch on YouTube. ] Charles Bradley, who died last year , was a soul shouter steeped in James Brown and Sam Cooke. “I Feel a Change,” from a collection due in November, is a long, aching crescendo, a fraught love song set over a patient vamp, exulting in togetherness only to realize it’s not to be. No wonder he screams at the end. PARELES Dawn, ‘Jealousy’ [Video: Watch on YouTube. ] Dawn Richard, who used to be in Danity Kane , was born in New Orleans, and her “Jealousy” video starts with a minute-long homage to the only-in-New-Orleans culture of Mardi Gras Indians , who work for a year to make their beaded costumes and sing traditional tunes in the streets at carnival time. But once “Jealousy” starts, it doesn’t use the Indians’ Afro-New Orleans beat at all. It sets out a slow, electronic R&B groove for a detailed put-down addressed to a boyfriend’s ex: “I know you feel he may be coming back to you,” Dawn sings with vicious directness. “He won’t.” PARELES Silk City featuring Dua Lipa, ‘Electricity’ [Video: Watch on YouTube. ] Unlike many would-be pop stars of the day, Dua Lipa sings with underrated husk. Her voice is both oily and punchy, nimble enough to be optimal for dance music but sturdy enough not to get stomped on by it. It’s also redolent of the club music of the early 1990s, when house music divas edged toward the pop charts. On “Electricity,” Silk City — the duo of Diplo and Mark Ronson — revisit this era on a song full of warm, bouncy synths and ecstatic buildup that Dua Lipa sounds like she’s confidently steering. JON CARAMANICA Kanye West and Lil Pump featuring Adele Givens, ‘I Love It’ This collaboration between Kanye West and Lil Pump had its premiere during the first PornHub Awards last night, of which Mr. West was one of the creative directors. He’s been exploring his salacious side recently (see also: “XTCY”) and the jubilance in this song verges on the puerile. The video is a mild corrective, though, putting the two men in oversized post-Hype Williams outfits and placing them under the spell of the comic Adele Givens, rendering them like naughty thumbsuckers. CARAMANICA Yves Tumor, ‘Lifetime’ [Video: Watch on YouTube. ] Yves Tumor piles sound on sound and style on style — noise, electronics, hip-hop, rock, R&B — throughout his new album, “Safe in the Hands of Love,” most of which channels his dense, ever-morphing productions into something like songs. “Lifetime” is simultaneously cavernous and claustrophobic. “I cannot breathe I swear/It’s torture/And I miss my brothers,” overlapping voices declare, in what could have simply been a despondent mope-rock anthem, complete with an orchestral backdrop. But it’s also bombarded by pummeling drums, allowing not a moment of respite. PARELES Yussef Dayes and Alfa Mist, ‘Blacked Out’ [Video: Watch on YouTube. ] Dollops of mysterious but resolute synths trace a stubborn curve. A looped, gently distorted harp adds another layer. A synth bass heaves underneath, and for a moment things feel darkly reassuring. But then the drummer Yussef Dayes starts to dismantle the certainty, playing with a rock drummer’s energy and syncopated, hip-hop innuendo. “Blacked Out” is the second single from a new collaboration between Alfa Mist and Mr. Dayes, who was one-half of the short-lived band Yussef Kamaal , a breakout success on the U.K. jazz scene . GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO Paul Simon, ‘The Teacher’ On Paul Simon’s new album, “In the Blue Light,” released as he plans to retire from touring this month , he rearranges and reconsiders 10 of his more idiosyncratic songs. Among them is “The Teacher,” a parable about following a charismatic leader, from his 2000 album, “You’re the One.” He replaced the 11-beat percussion pulse and sustained chords of the original arrangement with a counterpoint of plucked acoustic guitars (by the superb Assad Brothers, from Brazil) that makes the rhythm even more elusive, while the lyrics trade a yearning ending — “Carry me home, my teacher” — for a doomed one. It’s a radical transformation. PARELES New Reveille, ‘Babylon’ [Video: Watch on YouTube. ] String-band instruments and modal Appalachian melodies are at the core of New Reveille’s music, but there’s nothing old-fashioned about the perspective of its songs. “Looks like you were wrong when you swore that we would have it all,” Amy Kamm sings bluntly to the target of “Babylon,” over slide guitar and fiddle, in a foot-stomping breakup song that just gets angrier as it goes. PARELES Lee Brice, ‘Rumor’ [Video: Watch on YouTube. ] A sturdy blues-inflected ballad from Lee Brice, one of the least flashy country singers of recent years. The come-on here is slow, and earnest — people are already talking, so let’s really give them something to talk about. He’s not an aggressive salesman, and perhaps that’s why he’s so effective: because he sounds like he’s celebrating something that’s already happened, not that he’s yearning for. Also, if you’re keeping score in country music’s ongoing hat-switch game, in the video for this song, Mr. Brice doesn’t wear a cowboy hat, or a baseball cap, but rather, a fedora. CARAMANICA Hozier featuring Mavis Staples, ‘Nina Cried Power’ [Video: Watch on YouTube. ] Here’s humility coupled with mass-market access: Hozier, an Irish songwriter with the Top 10 knack , wants listeners to know where he learned how to couple a message with a gospelly beat, organ chords and a choir: “It is the heaven of the human spirit ringing.” He name-checks Nina (Simone), Billie (Holiday), James Brown, Woody (Guthrie), (Bob) Dylan and Mavis (Staples) — who joins him — among others, riding a backbeat and his own conviction. PARELES Pom Poko, ‘Follow the Lights’ Power chords punctuated by a thumping cowbell: It’s old-fashioned, but it still works. Pom Poko — a Norwegian band named after a Japanese anime film and topped by women singing in English — changes up the meters and cranks up the distortion in a track that, by the end, qualifies as both punk- and prog-rock, as well as a viable female threat. “If you don’t return my time I won’t forgive you,” they sing. PARELES Henry Conerway III, ‘Gingerbread Boy’ This playful hard-bop classic from Jimmy Heath is usually taken at a medium-fast tempo, with the song’s jerky structure making the musicians feel like they’re playing atop the pedals of an elliptical. But on his new version, the drummer Henry Conerway III manages to throw the song into an odd meter while actually smoothing it down, giving it a new kind of continuity. The track, featuring the pianist Kenny Banks Jr. and the bassist Kevin Smith, comes from Mr. Conerway’s debut album, “With Pride for Dignity.” RUSSONELLO Robbie Lee and Mary Halvorson, ‘Like a Ripple Made by the Wind’ The guitarist Mary Halvorson has been honing her ability to sound at once down-home and far-out — in her solo work; alongside the pedal steel guitar of Susan Alcorn or the piano of Jason Moran; and now with Robbie Lee, a versatile musician with a passion for exhuming old American instruments. On their new duo album, “Seed Triangular,” Mr. Lee and Ms. Halvorson experiment with a handful of instruments from centuries past; he plays mostly flutes and bells, while she uses guitars and banjos from the 19th and early 20th centuries that she had never touched before. Here Mr. Lee draws wind carefully but freely through an old flute as Ms. Halvorson’s 18-string harp guitar gently surrounds him, playing speckled melodies, then long single notes, and finally a few warm, pacifying chords. RUSSONELLO Credit: Jon Pareles, Jon Caramanica and Giovanni Russonello
Subject: Bands; Collaboration; Musical performances; Guitars; Sound
Location: New York United Kingdom--UK Brazil
People: Argento, Dario Guadagnino, Luca Halvorson, Mary West, Kanye Lipa, Dua Ronson, Mark Simon, Paul Cooke, Sam Richard, Dawn Pareles, Jon
Company / organization: Name: New York Times Co; NAICS: 511110, 511120, 515112, 515120; Name: Danity Kane; NAICS: 711130; Name: Spotify AB; NAICS: 519130; Name: YouTube Inc; NAICS: 519130
Identifier / keyword: Pop and Rock Music Rap and Hip-Hop Jazz Silk City (Music Group) Bradley, Charles (1948- ) Halvorson, Mary Hozier-Byrne, Andrew (Hozier) Lil Pump (Rapper) Lipa, Dua Pentz, Thomas (Diplo) Richard, Dawn (1983- ) Ronson, Mark Simon, Paul Staples, Mavis West, Kanye Yorke, Thom
Publication title: New York Times (Online); New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Sep 7, 2018
Section: arts
Publisher: New York Times Company
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Blogs, Podcasts, & Websites
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2100415473
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2100415473?ac countid=4840
Copyright: Copyright 2018 The New York Times Company
Last updated: 2018-09-10
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 393 of 474
BRAZIL - The military is back in Brazilian politics
Author: WHEELDON, Tom
Publication info: France 24 , English ed.; Paris Paris: SyndiGate Media Inc. (Sep 9, 2018)
Abstract: None available.
Full text: More than 30 years after Brazil’s junta left power, the consensus that the military should stay out of politics has been broken, amid widespread dissatisfaction with the political class after several years of corruption scandals and economic turmoil. The frontrunner in October’s general elections, Jair Bolsonaro – whose lurid far-right proclamations have earned him the moniker “the tropical Trump” – is a former military officer who has made numerous laudatory comments about the junta that ruled Brazil from 1964 to 1985. Giving a speech in parliament before voting in favour of the impeachment of the then centre-left president Dilma Rousseff in 2016, Bolsonaro announced that he was dedicating his vote to the memory of Colonel Brilhante Ustra, a former head of the military dictatorship’s internal intelligence agency, which was responsible for torturing Rousseff in the 1970s, when she was imprisoned for guerilla activities. Bolsonaro has consistently expressed a glowing view of military rule since he was first elected as a lawmaker in 1991. Most notably, he declared in 1999 that if he became president, he would use it as an opportunity to shut down parliament and launch a military coup: “I have no doubts – I would start the coup on the very first day – […] let’s make this a dictatorship.” ‘It will bring trouble’ Bolsonaro picked as his running mate Antonio Hamilton Mourao, a former general who retired from the military earlier this year. In 2017, Mourao said that senior military figures had talked about overthrowing the government in a coup, if the courts did not punish corrupt politicians. “Either the institutions solve the political problem through the courts, removing those elements involved in illegal acts from public life, or we will have to impose the solution,” he said in a speech at a Masonic lodge in Brasilia. “We have very well-made plans,” Mourao continued. “This solution won’t be easy. It will bring trouble, you can be sure of that.” Political comments by serving military officers are forbidden by Brazilian law. However, when questioned by a journalist about Mourao’s speech, the head of the army, Eduardo Villas Boas described him as a “great soldier” and insisted that the military has a constitutional right to “intervene” if Brazil is “on the edge of chaos”. Villas Boas’s statement was untruthful. The Brazilian constitution does not give the army the authority to intervene in such situations. ‘People are thinking of a coup as desirable’ Analysts say that the idea of a coup has sizeable support amongst a largely disillusioned Brazilian electorate. “People are thinking of a coup as desirable,” said Paula Armendariz Miranda, a researcher at the University of Minnesota specialising in Latin American politics. “They think it could solve the country’s problems,” she told FRANCE 24. A 2017 poll by Latinobarometro, which gauges political sentiments across Latin America, found that a mere 13 percent of Brazilians were happy with the state of democracy – the lowest proportion amongst the 18 countries surveyed. “There is a large feeling that Brazilians are very dissatisfied with the country’s political class, thanks to a combination of factors, including an economic crisis and corruption crisis,” said Fernando Bizzarro, a researcher on Brazilian politics at Harvard University, in an interview with FRANCE 24. “There is even less trust than there was historically,” Bizzarro continued. “Brazilians have always been sceptical of their politicians, but never as much as they are now.” ‘The sense of crisis has led to nostalgia’ In 2014, the country entered its most severe recession ever, which lasted for three years. The same year, judicial authorities launched the Operation Car Wash investigation into money laundering among Brazil’s political and business elite, starting with Petrobras, the majority state-owned oil company. Operation Car Wash sparked a variety of investigations into financial impropriety, leading to Rousseff’s impeachment, her popular social democratic predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva going to jail in a highly divisive verdict, and the current president, right-winger Michel Temer, facing an array of corruption allegations. Rising violence has exacerbated feelings of disenchantment with the political class. Brazil’s murder rate hit a record in 2017, with more than 63,000 homicides – a rate of 175 per day. In February 2018, Temer deployed troops to the state of Rio de Janeiro, in an attempt to shore up security after an upswing of violence during the Rio carnival. The general in charge of the operation said it was a “test case” for further military deployments across Brazil. For his part, Bolsonaro proposes a militarised police force, with the power to shoot and kill with impunity. “The sense of crisis has led to nostalgia, bolstering the idea of the old military government as clean and effective,” added Juan Albarracin, a Latin American politics specialist at Icesi University in Cali, Colombia, in an interview with FRANCE 24. “Several years ago, a certain section of the population wouldn’t have bought into this narrative,” he continued. “That makes it scary. Many of these people don’t know or don’t remember how bad the military regime was.” ‘Many negative consequences’ of amnesty laws Indeed, it seems there may be a fine line between amnesty and amnesia. Before the junta was removed from power, a law was passed protecting military government officials from crimes committed in the name of the regime. By contrast, officers in the junta that ruled neighbouring Argentina from 1976 to 1983 were tried and prosecuted in 1985, and a 2005 Supreme Court ruling annulled the pardons they were granted in 1989. “There is widespread evidence that amnesty laws are associated with many negative long-term consequences,” said Bizzarro. “When people who do bad things are not punished and are still around, it creates the perception that democracy is not that much different from authoritarianism.” Thus, amnesty laws “undermine the consolidation of the rule of law, undermine the consolidation of human rights – and they undermine democracy", he continued. Democracy ‘only game in town – for now’ Nevertheless, experts say that a coup is unlikely. “Whether it is an option or not is a question of whether political elites back it up, and I don’t think that would be possible,” said Armendariz Miranda. Brazil’s political and economic elites “recognise that democracy is the only game in town – for now”, said Albaraccin. Yet Bolsonaro’s approving remarks on military rule appear to give him a substantial edge as he campaigns for democratic elections. He currently tops the polls with 22 percent of the vote. Given that unpopular figures in the Brazilian establishment, such as Rousseff, were ardent opponents of the junta, “portraying himself as pro-military dictatorship adds to Bolsonaro’s image as anti-establishment", said Bizzarro. In addition to Bolsonaro’s run for the presidency, around 90 military veterans are standing for office at both national and regional levels, a factor that many view as a suggestion that Brazil will move even further to the right. “The combination of an anti-establishment mood and high violence means that voters favour candidates with hardline policies,” Bizzarro argued. If elected, the Harvard researcher continued, not only are these veterans likely to push for harsh policies on law and order, but also, “most are likely to favour socially conservative policies on issues like abortion”. Large-scale privatisations and severe cuts to welfare programmes are also on the cards. © 2006 - 2018 Copyright FRANCE 24. All rights reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).
Subject: Dictators; Politics; Corruption; Violence; Researchers; Speeches; Coups d etat; Democracy; Amnesties
Location: Latin America Argentina Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil Colombia
People: Rousseff, Dilma Lula da Silva, Luiz Inacio Bolsonaro, Jair Temer, Michel
Company / organization: Name: Harvard University; NAICS: 611310; Name: Icesi University; NAICS: 611310; Name: University of Minnesota; NAICS: 611310; Name: Petroleos Brasileiro SA; NAICS: 211111
Publication title: France 24, English ed.; Paris
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Sep 9, 2018
Publisher: SyndiGate Media Inc
Place of publication: Paris
Country of publication: United States, Paris
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--France
Source type: Other Sources
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2101023796
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2101023796?accountid=4840
Copyright: © 2006 - 2018 Copyright FRANCE 24. All rights reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).
Last updated: 2018-09-09
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 394 of 474
Thom Yorke's Chilling Ballad, Paul Simon's Reconsideration and More New Songs: [The Arts/Cultural Desk]
Author: Pareles, Jon; Caramanica, Jon; Russonello, Giovanni
Publication info: New York Times , Late Edition (East Coast); New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]10 Sep 2018: C.5.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week's most notable new songs and videos -- and anything else that strikes them as intriguing. Just want the music? Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes). Like what you hear? Let us know at [email protected] and sign up for our Louder newsletter , a once-a-week blast of our pop music coverage. Thom Yorke, 'Suspirium' [Video: Watch on YouTube.] "This is a waltz thinking about our bodies," Thom Yorke sings in "Suspirium," which joins the long list of his sweetly chilling piano ballads. It's from his score to Luca Guadagnino's coming remake of "Suspiria," the 1977 Dario Argento horror movie set in a dance school. Much of it is just his voice and an arpeggiated piano motif that's at once dainty and relentless; organ tones and a flute join him. "All is well, as long as we keep spinning," he intones, calmly raising the question of what happens when the spinning ends. JON PARELES Charles Bradley, 'I Feel a Change' [Video: Watch on YouTube.] Charles Bradley, who died last year, was a soul shouter steeped in James Brown and Sam Cooke. "I Feel a Change," from a collection due in November, is a long, aching crescendo, a fraught love song set over a patient vamp, exulting in togetherness only to realize it's not to be. No wonder he screams at the end. PARELES Dawn, 'Jealousy' [Video: Watch on YouTube.] Dawn Richard, who used to be in Danity Kane, was born in New Orleans, and her "Jealousy" video starts with a minute-long homage to the only-in-New-Orleans culture of Mardi Gras Indians, who work for a year to make their beaded costumes and sing traditional tunes in the streets at carnival time. But once "Jealousy" starts, it doesn't use the Indians' Afro-New Orleans beat at all. It sets out a slow, electronic R&B groove for a detailed put-down addressed to a boyfriend's ex: "I know you feel he may be coming back to you," Dawn sings with vicious directness. "He won't." PARELES Silk City featuring Dua Lipa, 'Electricity' [Video: Watch on YouTube.] Unlike many would-be pop stars of the day, Dua Lipa sings with underrated husk. Her voice is both oily and punchy, nimble enough to be optimal for dance music but sturdy enough not to get stomped on by it. It's also redolent of the club music of the early 1990s, when house music divas edged toward the pop charts. On "Electricity," Silk City -- the duo of Diplo and Mark Ronson -- revisit this era on a song full of warm, bouncy synths and ecstatic buildup that Dua Lipa sounds like she's confidently steering. JON CARAMANICA Kanye West and Lil Pump featuring Adele Givens, 'I Love It' This collaboration between Kanye West and Lil Pump had its premiere during the first PornHub Awards last night, of which Mr. West was one of the creative directors. He's been exploring his salacious side recently (see also: "XTCY") and the jubilance in this song verges on the puerile. The video is a mild corrective, though, putting the two men in oversized post-Hype Williams outfits and placing them under the spell of the comic Adele Givens, rendering them like naughty thumbsuckers. CARAMANICA Yves Tumor, 'Lifetime' [Video: Watch on YouTube.] Yves Tumor piles sound on sound and style on style -- noise, electronics, hip-hop, rock, R&B -- throughout his new album, "Safe in the Hands of Love," most of which channels his dense, ever-morphing productions into something like songs. "Lifetime" is simultaneously cavernous and claustrophobic. "I cannot breathe I swear/It's torture/And I miss my brothers," overlapping voices declare, in what could have simply been a despondent mope-rock anthem, complete with an orchestral backdrop. But it's also bombarded by pummeling drums, allowing not a moment of respite. PARELES Yussef Dayes and Alfa Mist, 'Blacked Out' [Video: Watch on YouTube.] Dollops of mysterious but resolute synths trace a stubborn curve. A looped, gently distorted harp adds another layer. A synth bass heaves underneath, and for a moment things feel darkly reassuring. But then the drummer Yussef Dayes starts to dismantle the certainty, playing with a rock drummer's energy and syncopated, hip-hop innuendo. "Blacked Out" is the second single from a new collaboration between Alfa Mist and Mr. Dayes, who was one-half of the short-lived band Yussef Kamaal, a breakout success on the U.K. jazz scene. GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO Paul Simon, 'The Teacher' On Paul Simon's new album, "In the Blue Light," released as he plans to retire from touring this month, he rearranges and reconsiders 10 of his more idiosyncratic songs. Among them is "The Teacher," a parable about following a charismatic leader, from his 2000 album, "You're the One." He replaced the 11-beat percussion pulse and sustained chords of the original arrangement with a counterpoint of plucked acoustic guitars (by the superb Assad Brothers, from Brazil) that makes the rhythm even more elusive, while the lyrics trade a yearning ending -- "Carry me home, my teacher" -- for a doomed one. It's a radical transformation. PARELES New Reveille, 'Babylon' [Video: Watch on YouTube.] String-band instruments and modal Appalachian melodies are at the core of New Reveille's music, but there's nothing old-fashioned about the perspective of its songs. "Looks like you were wrong when you swore that we would have it all," Amy Kamm sings bluntly to the target of "Babylon," over slide guitar and fiddle, in a foot-stomping breakup song that just gets angrier as it goes. PARELES Lee Brice, 'Rumor' [Video: Watch on YouTube.] A sturdy blues-inflected ballad from Lee Brice, one of the least flashy country singers of recent years. The come-on here is slow, and earnest -- people are already talking, so let's really give them something to talk about. He's not an aggressive salesman, and perhaps that's why he's so effective: because he sounds like he's celebrating something that's already happened, not that he's yearning for. Also, if you're keeping score in country music's ongoing hat-switch game, in the video for this song, Mr. Brice doesn't wear a cowboy hat, or a baseball cap, but rather, a fedora. CARAMANICA Hozier featuring Mavis Staples, 'Nina Cried Power' [Video: Watch on YouTube.] Here's humility coupled with mass-market access: Hozier, an Irish songwriter with the Top 10 knack, wants listeners to know where he learned how to couple a message with a gospelly beat, organ chords and a choir: "It is the heaven of the human spirit ringing." He name-checks Nina (Simone), Billie (Holiday), James Brown, Woody (Guthrie), (Bob) Dylan and Mavis (Staples) -- who joins him -- among others, riding a backbeat and his own conviction. PARELES Pom Poko, 'Follow the Lights' Power chords punctuated by a thumping cowbell: It's old-fashioned, but it still works. Pom Poko -- a Norwegian band named after a Japanese anime film and topped by women singing in English -- changes up the meters and cranks up the distortion in a track that, by the end, qualifies as both punk- and prog-rock, as well as a viable female threat. "If you don't return my time I won't forgive you," they sing. PARELES Henry Conerway III, 'Gingerbread Boy' This playful hard-bop classic from Jimmy Heath is usually taken at a medium-fast tempo, with the song's jerky structure making the musicians feel like they're playing atop the pedals of an elliptical. But on his new version, the drummer Henry Conerway III manages to throw the song into an odd meter while actually smoothing it down, giving it a new kind of continuity. The track, featuring the pianist Kenny Banks Jr. and the bassist Kevin Smith, comes from Mr. Conerway's debut album, "With Pride for Dignity." RUSSONELLO Robbie Lee and Mary Halvorson, 'Like a Ripple Made by the Wind' The guitarist Mary Halvorson has been honing her ability to sound at once down-home and far-out -- in her solo work; alongside the pedal steel guitar of Susan Alcorn or the piano of Jason Moran; and now with Robbie Lee, a versatile musician with a passion for exhuming old American instruments. On their new duo album, "Seed Triangular," Mr. Lee and Ms. Halvorson experiment with a handful of instruments from centuries past; he plays mostly flutes and bells, while she uses guitars and banjos from the 19th and early 20th centuries that she had never touched before. Here Mr. Lee draws wind carefully but freely through an old flute as Ms. Halvorson's 18-string harp guitar gently surrounds him, playing speckled melodies, then long single notes, and finally a few warm, pacifying chords. RUSSONELLO This is a more complete version of the story than the one that appeared in print.Photograph
Subject: Bands; Collaboration; Musical performances; Guitars; Sound
Location: New York United Kingdom--UK Brazil
People: Argento, Dario Guadagnino, Luca Halvorson, Mary West, Kanye Lipa, Dua Ronson, Mark Simon, Paul Cooke, Sam Richard, Dawn
Company / organization: Name: New York Times Co; NAICS: 511110, 511120, 515112, 515120; Name: Danity Kane; NAICS: 711130; Name: Spotify AB; NAICS: 519130; Name: YouTube Inc; NAICS: 519130
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/07/arts/music/playlist-thom-yorke-kanye-west-lil-pump-dua-lipa.html
Publication title: New York Times, Late Edition (East Coast); New York, N.Y.
Pages: C.5
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Sep 10, 2018
column: Playlist
Section: C
Publisher: New York Times Company
Place of publication: New York, N.Y.
Country of publication: United States, New York, N.Y.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
ISSN: 03624331
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2101153059
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2101153059?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright New York Times Company Sep 10, 2018
Last updated: 2018-11-19
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 395 of 474
Amusement Parks Market to Witness Huge Growth by 2025
Publication info: M2 Presswire ; Coventry [Coventry]13 Sep 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: M2 PRESSWIRE-September 13, 2018-Amusement Parks Market to Witness Huge Growth by 2025 (C)2018 M2 COMMUNICATIONS http://www.m2.com September 13, 2018 HTF MI recently introduced Global Amusement Parks Market study with in-depth overview, describing about the Product / Industry Scope and elaborates market outlook and status to 2023. The market Study is segmented by key regions which is accelerating the marketization. At present, the market is developing its presence and some of the key players from the complete study are Disney Parks and Resorts, Universal Studios Theme parks, OTC Parks China, SeaWorld Entertainment & Six Flags Entertainment Corporation etc. Request Sample of Global Amusement Parks Market Size, Status and Forecast 2025 @: https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/1269107-global-amusement-parks-market An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central theme, often featuring multiple areas with different themes. Unlike temporary and mobile funfairs and carnivals, amusement parks are stationary and built for long-lasting operation. They are more elaborate than city parks and playgrounds, usually providing attractions that cater to a variety of age groups. While amusement parks often contain themed areas, theme parks place a heavier focus with more intricately-designed themes that revolve around a particular subject or group of subjects. The North American and the European amusement parks markets are anticipated to witness substantial growth due to increasing per capita disposable income along with presence of major theme-based parks in the focused regions. Walt Disney World in Florida is considered as the most visited theme park in the world. Dubailand, an amusement park currently being constructed in Dubai is expected to be the largest theme-based park in the world. In India, Imagica, an amusement park owned by Adlabs, has surged in popularity. Hong Kong Disneyland, Ocean Park Hong Kong, Lotte World (South Korea), Everland (South Korea), Tokyo Disney Resort, and Universal Studios in Japan are some of the most visited amusement parks in Asia Pacific. In 2017, the global Amusement Parks market size was xx million US$ and it is expected to reach xx million US$ by the end of 2025, with a CAGR of xx% during 2018-2025. This report studies the Global Amusement Parks market size, industry status and forecast, competition landscape and growth opportunity. This research report categorizes the Global Amusement Parks market by companies, region, type and end-use industry. Browse 100+ market data Tables and Figures spread through Pages and in-depth TOC on " Amusement Parks Market by Type (, Science Theme-based Parks, Music/Art Theme-based Parks & Other Themes), by End-Users/Application (Children & Adult), Organization Size, Industry, and Region - Forecast to 2023". Early buyers will receive 10% customization on comprehensive study. In order to get a deeper view of Market Size, competitive landscape is provided i.e. Revenue (Million USD) by Players (2013-2018), Revenue Market Share (%) by Players (2013-2018) and further a qualitative analysis is made towards market concentration rate, product/service differences, new entrants and the technological trends in future. Enquire for customization in Report @ https://www.htfmarketreport.com/enquiry-before-buy/1269107-global-amusement-parks-market Competitive Analysis: The key players are highly focusing innovation in production technologies to improve efficiency and shelf life. The best long-term growth opportunities for this sector can be captured by ensuring ongoing process improvements and financial flexibility to invest in the optimal strategies. Company profile section of players such as Disney Parks and Resorts, Universal Studios Theme parks, OTC Parks China, SeaWorld Entertainment & Six Flags Entertainment Corporation includes its basic information like legal name, website, headquarters, its market position, historical background and top 5 closest competitors by Market capitalization / revenue along with contact information. Each player/ manufacturer revenue figures, growth rate and gross profit margin is provided in easy to understand tabular format for past 5 years and a separate section on recent development like mergers, acquisition or any new product/service launch etc. Market Segments: The Global Amusement Parks Market has been divided into type, application, and region. On The Basis Of Type: , Science Theme-based Parks, Music/Art Theme-based Parks & Other Themes. On The Basis Of Application: Children & Adult On The Basis Of Region, this report is segmented into following key geographies, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), and market share, growth rate of Amusement Parks in these regions, from 2013 to 2023 (forecast), covering * North America (U.S. & Canada) {Market Revenue (USD Billion), Growth Analysis (%) and Opportunity Analysis} * Latin America (Brazil, Mexico & Rest of Latin America) {Market Revenue (USD Billion), Growth Share (%) and Opportunity Analysis} * Europe (The U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Sweden & RoE) {Market Revenue (USD Billion), Growth Share (%) and Opportunity Analysis} * Asia-Pacific (China, India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Rest of Asia) {Market Revenue (USD Billion), Growth Share (%) and Opportunity Analysis} * Middle East & Africa (GCC, South Africa, North Africa, RoMEA) {Market Revenue (USD Billion), Growth Share (%) and Opportunity Analysis} * Rest of World {Market Revenue (USD Billion), Growth Analysis (%) and Opportunity Analysis} Buy Single User License of Global Amusement Parks Market Size, Status and Forecast 2025 @ https://www.htfmarketreport.com/buy-now?format=1&report=1269107 Have a look at some extracts from Table of Content Introduction about Global Amusement Parks Global Amusement Parks Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 2017 Amusement Parks Market by Application/End Users Global Amusement Parks Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Applications (2013-2023) table defined for each application/end-users like [Children & Adult] Global Amusement Parks Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2023) Amusement Parks Competition by Players/Suppliers, Region, Type and Application Amusement Parks (Volume, Value and Sales Price) table defined for each geographic region defined. Global Amusement Parks Players/Suppliers Profiles and Sales Data Additionally Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors list is being provided for each listed manufacturers Market Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018) table for each product type which include , Science Theme-based Parks, Music/Art Theme-based Parks & Other Themes Amusement Parks Manufacturing Cost Analysis Amusement Parks Key Raw Materials Analysis Amusement Parks Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers, Industrial Chain Analysis Market Forecast (2018-2023) ........and more in complete table of Contents Browse for Full Report at: https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/1269107-global-amusement-parks-market Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia. Media Contact Company Name: HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited Contact Person: Craig Francis Email: [email protected] Phone: 2063171218 Address:Unit No. 429, Parsonage Road City: Edison State: New Jersey Country: United States Website: https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/1269107-global-amusement-parks-market Source: www.abnewswire.com ((Comments on this story may be sent to [email protected]))
Subject: Manufacturing; Amusement parks; Parks & recreation areas; Growth rate; Competition; Market positioning; Market shares
Location: Italy North Africa Middle East Canada North America Latin America Dubai United Arab Emirates New Jersey Australia Africa Hong Kong Poland Brazil Florida France Asia Europe New Zealand Mexico South Africa India Germany Singapore China Japan
Company / organization: Name: Disneyland; NAICS: 713110; Name: Six Flags Entertainment Corp; NAICS: 713110; Name: Walt Disney World; NAICS: 713110; Name: Ocean Park Hong Kong; NAICS: 713110
Publication title: M2 Presswire; Coventry
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Sep 13, 2018
Publisher: Normans Media Ltd
Place of publication: Coventry
Country of publication: United Kingdom, Coventry
Publication subject: Communications
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2102983909
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2102983909?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright © M2 Communications, 2018
Last updated: 2018-09-13
Database: SciTech Premium Collection
Document 396 of 474
Paleontology; Reports from D. Sedorko et al Highlight Recent Findings in Paleontology (A Zoophycos carnival in Devonian beds: Paleoecological, paleobiological, sedimentological, and paleobiogeographic insights)
Publication info: Ecology, Environment & Conservation ; Atlanta [Atlanta]14 Sep 2018: 1004.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: 2018 SEP 14 (VerticalNews) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Ecology, Environment & Conservation -- Research findings on Paleontology are discussed in a new report. According to news reporting originating from Sao Leopoldo, Brazil, by VerticalNews correspondents, research stated, "Devonian occurrences of Zoophycos are often observed in successions representing shelfal deposits and have been interpreted as the first expansion of this trace fossil during the Paleozoic. Dense Zoophycos occurrences in storm generated Paleozoic beds have been interpreted as the result of ecological opportunist strategy when the tracemaker exploited quiet, nutrient garden substrates after storms." Financial supporters for this research include Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel, Brazilian Council for Scientific and Technological Development. Our news editors obtained a quote from the research, "In the Devonian Ponta Grossa Formation (Pragian to Frasnian) of the Parana Basin (Brazil), Zoophycos is both preserved in storm-generated strata indicating oxyc substrates, and in association with Chondrites and Phycosiphon suggesting dysoxic offshore deposition. This study focuses on the analysis of Zoophycos observed in the Devonian strata to understand the depositional context reflected by paleoecologic strategies and taphonomic signatures. We analyzed the ichnofabrics and sedimentary facies of Devonian sections from the Parana Basin, focusing on the occurrences of Zoophycos. The tiering structure involving dense Zoophycos ichnofabrics demonstrated that shallower burrows (e.g., Asterosoma, Palaeophycus, Cylindrichnus, Schaubcylindrichnus, Skolithos) reworked deep-tier burrows (Chondrites, Phycosiphon, and Zoophycos), indicating erosion of surficial levels. The dense Zoophycos ichnofabric representing the fair-weather suite obliterated primary sedimentary structures of storm deposits, which favored the visibility of deep-tier structures in a lam-scram pattern. In this sense, dense Zoophycos ichnofabric from Parana. Basin cannot be linked to an opportunistic behavior, but to an over-represented occurrence in space and time, being a taphonomic artifact related to low accommodation space in prograding context. The association with other trace fossils allowed the attribution of Zoophycos as a component of distal and archetypal expressions of Cruziana Ichnofacies rather than Zoophycos Ichnofacies. Concerning the vertical distribution of Zoophycos in the Parana Basin, this trace appears in strata related to the first occurrence of land plants, being common in the Pragian Eifelian interval, and declining in upper strata." According to the news editors, the research concluded: "This decline might be related to a potential structural change of the Parana Basin during Middle Devonian." For more information on this research see: A Zoophycos carnival in Devonian beds: Paleoecological, paleobiological, sedimentological, and paleobiogeographic insights. Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology, 2018;507():188-200. Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology can be contacted at: Elsevier Science Bv, PO Box 211, 1000 Ae Amsterdam, Netherlands. The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting D. Sedorko, Unisinos Univ, Geol Grad Program, BR-93022750 Sao Leopoldo, RS, Brazil. Additional authors for this research include R.G. Netto and R.S. Horodyski. and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation. Keywords for this news article include: Sao Leopoldo, Brazil, South America, Paleontology. Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world. Copyright 2018, NewsRx LLC The citation for this news report is: NewsRx. Reports from D. Sedorko et al Highlight Recent Findings in Paleontology (A Zoophycos carnival in Devonian beds: Paleoecological, paleobiological, sedimentological, and paleobiogeographic insights). Ecology, Environment & Conservation. September 14, 2018; p 1004.
Subject: Paleobiology; Paleontology; Paleoecology
Location: South America Brazil Netherlands
Identifier / keyword: Sao Leopoldo Brazil South America Paleontology
Publication title: Ecology, Environment & Conservation; Atlanta
First page: 1004
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Sep 14, 2018
Publisher: NewsRx
Place of publication: Atlanta
Country of publication: United States, Atlanta
Publication subject: Environmental Studies
ISSN: 1945-6492
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2100044555
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2100044555?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright 2018, NewsRx LLC
Last updated: 2018-09-06
Database: SciTech Premium Collection
Document 397 of 474
Huobi to Build Global Blockchain Resource Alliance
Publication info: PR Newswire ; New York [New York]19 Sep 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Tingyu, +65-8522-7502, [email protected] SINGAPORE, Sept. 19, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Influencers in the Huobi blockchain community have posted the "Huobi Global Elites Alliance: We're Recruiting" on social media accounts. This poster is to advocate the new recruitment program of Huobi Global Elites and the establishment of the Global Blockchain Resource Alliance of Huobi Global Elites. On September 19, the third phase of the Huobi Global Elites program launched. Since its launch in March this year, its members have covered more than 20 countries and regions on 5 continents, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, Russia, South Korea, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Nigeria and Brazil. The Huobi Global Elites program is aimed at boosting the development of Huobi partners in key business and regions. Meanwhile, it also serves Huobi's global strategic layout by promoting Huobi's local expansion as a "vanguard" of Huobi's local business. Huobi Global Elites can get help and earn rewards from Huobi mainly in the three areas: With the expansion of Global Elites, our partners have been upgraded to the Global Resource Alliance of Huobi Global Elites. The Global Resource Alliance is a resource sharing network centered on Global Elites, which connects them with global blockchain media, investment institutions, communities, mining pools and other ecological nodes. Compared to the previous phrases, the Global Resource Alliance has enabled partners to gain access to higher-quality ecological resources without a threshold. Partners are able to engage in blockchain events across multiple regions. They are regarded as tentacles and with the strength of the alliance, they can reach new markets. The expansion of Resource Alliance will be reflected by the economies of scale. In the current market, the establishment of the Global Resource Alliance of Global Elites for the industry builds a sharing pool of resources in order to unite everyone and overcome difficulties together. SOURCE Huobi CREDIT: Huobi
Huobi will provide a high percentage of rebate incentives for Huobi Global Elites. Huobi Global Elites can also share the dividend of the local natural flow growth, become certified OTC merchants to earn fees, and so on.
Huobi Global Elites can get first-hand information and research from Huobi News, Huobi Research, Huobi Capital, Huobi Labs, Huobi Global Ecosystem Fund and other ecosystems. Meanwhile, it can share relevant quality resources in the industry chain, such as global blockchain media, investment institutions, mining pools and project teams. Huobi Global Elites can also participate in in-depth business training, Huobi's global conferences and other events to ensure that user benefits can meet short- and long-term demands.
Huobi User Growth Department now includes the Global Elites Program Group, which provides help and support for Global Elites in marketing and promotions, brand building, operation and maintenance. In May, Huobi provided support for offline events hosted by Global Elites from Hong Kong and Taiwan - Huobi Central Digital Wealth Forum - Training of Trading and Taiwan Digital Asset Future Summit. In June, Huobi and Global Elites from the United Kingdom and Netherlands co-hosted the European Quantification Summit, which was an unprecedented event. At the Huobi Carnival in South Korea at the beginning of August, the Global Elites Program Group planned the Solution Conference to help high-quality project teams land in South Korea, and the response was overwhelming.
View original content to download multimedia: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/huobi-to-build-global-blockchain-resource-alliance-300715287.html
Subject: Blockchain
Location: Australia Hong Kong Brazil Russia Netherlands United States--US Nigeria United Kingdom--UK Taiwan South Korea
Company / organization: Name: Global Resource Alliance; NAICS: 813219
Publication title: PR Newswire; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Sep 19, 2018
Dateline: SINGAPORE, Sept. 19, 2018
Publisher: PR Newswire Association LLC
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2108764134
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2108764134?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright PR Newswire Association LLC Sep 19, 2018
Last updated: 2019-04-03
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 398 of 474
Global Cruise Market will grow at a CAGR 5.0% and reach USD 57.6 Billion by 2023, from USD 42.9 Billion in 2017
Publication info: M2 Presswire ; Coventry [Coventry]25 Sep 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: M2 PRESSWIRE-September 25, 2018-Global Cruise Market will grow at a CAGR 5.0% and reach USD 57.6 Billion by 2023, from USD 42.9 Billion in 2017 (C)2018 M2 COMMUNICATIONS http://www.m2.com September 25, 2018 New Global Cruise Players Market 2023 Report Covers market forecast and top Companies like Carnival, RCI, NCLH, MSC, Disney and others. Cruise Market will register a 5.0% CAGR in terms of revenue, reach US$ 57600 million by 2023, from US$ 42900 million in 2017. Cruise is a passenger ship used for recreational and leisure voyages, in which the journey itself and the onboard amenities, attractions, activities and entertainment options are integrant part of the cruise experience. For industry structure analysis, the Cruise Industry is concentrate. Carnival, RCI and NCLH account about 72.67% of the revenue market. Regionally, Europe is the biggest sales area of Cruise, also the leader in the whole Cruise. North America occupied 55.99% of the revenue market in 2015. It is followed by Europe and Asia, which respectively have around 29.99% and 5.32% of the global total industry. Other countries have a small amount of revenue. Cruise prices can change at a moment's notice. The price of cruise is different by the destination, cruise length, date and other factors. For forecast, the North America and Europe Cruise revenue would keep increasing with annual growth rate with 3~6%. The growth rate of Asia is about 13%-23%. We tend to believe that this industry still has a bright future, considering the current demand of Cruise. As for product prices, the slow downward trend in recent years will continue in the next few years, as competition intensifies. Similarly, there will be fluctuations in gross margin. Over the next five years, Study projects that Cruise will register a 5.0% CAGR in terms of revenue, reach US$ 57600 million by 2023, from US$ 42900 million in 2017. This report studies the global market, especially in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa, focuses on the top 5 players in each region, with sales, price, revenue and market share from 2013 to 2018, the top players: Carnival RCI NCLH MSC Disney Genting Hurtigruten Silversea TUI Market Segment by Regions, this report splits Global into several key Regions, with sales, revenue, market share of top players in these regions, from 2013 to 2018 (forecast), like North America (United States, Canada and Mexico) Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India and Korea) Europe (Germany, UK, France, Italy and Russia etc.) South America (Brazil, Chile, Peru and Argentina) Middle East and Africa (Egypt, South Africa, Saudi Arabia) Split by Product Types, with sales, revenue, price, market share of each type, can be divided into Contemporary Cruise Premium Cruise Luxury Cruise Others Split by applications, this report focuses on sales, market share and growth rate in each application, can be divided into Transportation Entertainment Others Spanning over 124 pages "Forecast of Global Cruise Players Market 2023" report covers Cruise Market Overview, Global Cruise Sales, Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Players, Global Cruise Sales, Revenue (Value) by Regions, Type and Application (2013-2018), North America Top 5 Players Cruise Sales, Revenue and Price, Europe Top 5 Players Cruise Sales, Revenue and Price, Asia-Pacific Top 5 Players Cruise Sales, Revenue and Price, South America Top 5 Players Cruise Sales, Revenue and Price, Middle East & Africa Top 5 Players Cruise Sales, Revenue and Price, Global Cruise Players Profiles/Analysis, Global Cruise Market Forecast (2018-2023), Cruise Manufacturing Cost Analysis, Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers, Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders, Market Effect Factors Analysis, Research Findings and Conclusion, Appendix. Please visit this link for more details: https://www.marketresearchreports.com/mrrpb2/forecast-global-cruise-players-market-2023 Find all Automotive Reports at: https://www.marketresearchreports.com/automotive For related reports please visit: https://www.marketresearchreports.com/search/site/Cruise Read our Interactive Market Research Blog About MarketResearchReports.com MarketResearchReports.com is world's largest store offering quality market research, SWOT analysis, competitive intelligence and industry reports. We help Fortune 500 to Start-Ups with the latest market research reports on global & regional markets which comprise key industries, leading market players, new products and latest industry analysis & trends. Press Contact: Mr. Sudeep Chakravarty Director - Operations MarketResearchReports.com USA: +1-302-703-9904 Contact us for your market research requirements: https://www.marketresearchreports.com/contact ((Comments on this story may be sent to [email protected]))
Subject: SWOT analysis; Growth rate; Market research; Cruises
Location: Italy Middle East Russia Canada Egypt North America United Kingdom--UK Peru Africa Argentina Brazil France Asia Europe Southeast Asia Mexico United States--US South Africa Saudi Arabia India Germany South America China Chile Japan
Publication title: M2 Presswire; Coventry
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Sep 25, 2018
Publisher: Normans Media Ltd
Place of publication: Coventry
Country of publication: United Kingdom, Coventry
Publication subject: Communications
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2111517032
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2111517032?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright © M2 Communications, 2018
Last updated: 2018-09-25
Database: SciTech Premium Collection
Document 399 of 474
Soccer Fans Must Pick Sides in Brazil’s Bitter Political Contest
Author: Douglas, Bruce; Iglesias, Simone
Publication info: Bloomberg Wire Service ; New York [New York]26 Sep 2018.
Abstract:
Army Captain, Rainforest Warrior or Academic: Who’ll Rule Brazil? “Bolsonaro represents absolutely everything we’re fighting to ban from football and society: repression, machismo, homophobia, racism and fascist ideas,” Inter Antifascista member Ricardo wrote. Mad Dog Speaks Bolsonaro, an ex-army captain, polls strongly among wealthy Brazilians, and has long ridiculed affirmative-action quotas for black students, a position that has hardly endeared him to many football followers, many of whom come from poor, black and mixed-race backgrounds. In 1958, Brazil’s so-called bossa nova president, Juscelino Kubitschek, rolled out the red carpet for the country’s first-ever World Cup-winning team.Full text: (Bloomberg) -- So bitterly divisive are Brazil’s presidential elections that even the country’s usually apolitical soccer fans are being dragged in. In recent days, supporters clubs from the biggest teams, including Corinthians, Palmeiras and Flamengo, have issued statements slamming Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right former paratrooper leading opinion polls. Rodrigo Gonzalez Tapia, president of the Corinthians’s Gavioes da Fiel, Brazil’s largest fan club at more than 100,000 members, wrote on Facebook that anyone who supports the candidate “can quit the organization.” He warned that Bolsonaro is an authoritarian and that the club was founded in 1969 not only to support the team but to oppose dictatorship. “Our founders suffered a lot of oppression for raising the flag in favor of democracy and people’s rights," he wrote. Jogo Bonito Polls point toward a showdown between Bolsonaro and leftist Workers’ Party candidate Fernando Haddad -- who also have the highest disapproval ratings. Critics of Bolsonaro believe he’s a threat to democracy and human rights, while Workers’ Party opponents fear Haddad would wreck the economy. The bad-tempered debate is bleeding into every aspect of Brazilian life, from show business to soccer. “This movement now is unprecedented,” said Juca Kfouri, a Brazilian sports journalist. “It’s a demonstration of a growing awareness of citizenship.” The ideal of free-flowing, joyful soccer is ingrained in Brazil’s culture -- its beautiful game, or jogo bonito. The fan clubs, thousands strong, organize trips around the country or abroad to help supporters follow their team. Over the years they’ve also branched out into marketing club merchandise and many help bankroll so-called samba schools, the huge dancing organizations that define carnival. But some have also been linked to organized crime. In the stadiums, the clubs organize chants and demonstrations to spur their favorites and mock -- often crudely -- hated opponents. But since the end of Brazil’s military dictatorship in the mid 1980s, the clubs have largely steered clear of politics. Nasty Chant One fan group that issued statements against Bolsonaro, Inter Antifascista, told Bloomberg via WhatsApp message that this was the first time it had taken sides in an election. Read more: Army Captain, Rainforest Warrior or Academic: Who’ll Rule Brazil? “Bolsonaro represents absolutely everything we’re fighting to ban from football and society: repression, machismo, homophobia, racism and fascist ideas,” Inter Antifascista member Ricardo wrote. He didn’t wish to give his surname as he said the group, which supports the Porto Alegre team Internacional, operated as a collective. But Edvande Alves de Sousa, a fan of Santos, another team with a supporters’ club that has criticized Bolsonaro, took exception to the group’s position. "I thought it was inappropriate," he said. "I think that saying you have to vote for candidate A or B in order to be part of the club flies in the face of the democracy that we are fighting for." To date, no fan club has come out in support of Bolsonaro and the teams themselves remain studiously neutral. The presidents of both Corinthians and Gremio told Bloomberg that they wouldn’t make political statements. A video of Atletico Mineiro supporters singing a homophobic, pro-Bolsonaro chant went viral, prompting a backlash that led the club’s directorate to apologize. Mad Dog Speaks Bolsonaro, an ex-army captain, polls strongly among wealthy Brazilians, and has long ridiculed affirmative-action quotas for black students, a position that has hardly endeared him to many football followers, many of whom come from poor, black and mixed-race backgrounds. The candidate’s campaign didn’t respond to repeated requests for comment. Bolsonaro himself is a fan of Palmeiras. Over the weekend, a campaign video showed him wearing the Sao Paulo team’s jersey as he recovered in a hospital from a stabbing at a rally. But when Felipe Melo, a player known as “Mad Dog,” dedicated a recent goal to "our future President Bolsonaro," the club quickly issued a statement clarifying that the opinion was entirely personal. Lucas Moura, a Brazilian player at the English Premier League Club Tottenham, has also irked and delighted his fellow citizens in equal measure with his outspoken support for Bolsonaro on Twitter. Corinthian Democracy Not since the 1980s, toward the end of the dictatorship, have so many Brazilian soccer fans advertised their politics. Then, Corinthians player and polymath Socrates crusaded for the “Direct Elections Now” movement and mobilized players in favor of democracy. He threatened to play abroad if the vote wasn’t restored. “One of the reasons people still talk about Corinthians democracy is the fact that it’s never been reproduced,” said Andrew Downie, author of a biography of Socrates. “This is the first time in a long time that fan groups have taken a political position, and that shows how polarized this election has become.” To be sure, politicians have long tried to take advantage of Brazilians’ love of soccer. In 1958, Brazil’s so-called bossa nova president, Juscelino Kubitschek, rolled out the red carpet for the country’s first-ever World Cup-winning team. Twelve years later, in the middle of the dictatorship, the government tried to parlay the national team’s victory into popular legitimacy. And President Fernando Henrique Cardoso went so far as to appoint Pelé, one of the greatest players of all time, as sports minister in 1995. Players themselves have often leveraged their popularity into electoral success. Romario, a FIFA World Cup winner in 1994, won election to the lower house in 2010, and became a a senator. He’s performing strongly in the race for the governorship of Rio de Janeiro in this election. (Updates with Santos fan comment in tenth paragraph.) To contact the reporters on this story: Bruce Douglas in Brasilia Newsroom at [email protected];Simone Iglesias in Brasília at [email protected] To contact the editors responsible for this story: Vivianne Rodrigues at [email protected], Stephen Merelman, Robert Jameson ©2018 Bloomberg L.P.
Subject: Sports fans; Homophobia; Dictators; Politics; Tournaments & championships; Democracy; Soccer
Location: Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil
People: Bolsonaro, Jair
Company / organization: Name: Twitter Inc; NAICS: 519130; Name: English Premier League; NAICS: 813990; Name: Federation Internationale de Football Association--FIFA; NAICS: 813990; Name: Facebook Inc; NAICS: 518210, 519130
Publication title: Bloomberg Wire Service; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Sep 26, 2018
Publisher: Bloomberg LP
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2112234459
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2112234459?accountid=4840
Copyright: ©2018 Bloomberg L. P.
Last updated: 2018-10-09
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 400 of 474
Thursday’s TV highlights: 'The Good Place' on NBC, and more
Author: Cooper, Matt
Publication info: Los Angeles Times (Online) , Los Angeles: Tribune Interactive, LLC. Sep 26, 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: SERIES Basketball: A Love Story New installments of Dan Klores’ docu-series feature segments on NBA greats, including Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan and LeBron James. 6, 7:55, 9:47 and 11:36 p.m. ESPN2 The Good Place This quirky fantasy-comedy resets itself once again as it enters Season 3 with a one-hour premiere set neither in heaven nor hell, but on Earth. Kristen Bell and Ted Danson star. 8 p.m. NBC Grey’s Anatomy This medical drama starring Ellen Pompeo opens Season 15 with a double-length premiere and new cast members Chris Carmack (“Nashville”) and Alex Landi. 8 p.m. ABC Young Sheldon This newly returned “Big Bang Theory” spinoff/prequel settles back into its regular time slot. Iain Armitage stars. 8:30 p.m. CBS Mom The Allison Janney-Anna Faris sitcom also returns with new episodes. 9 p.m. CBS Law & Order: Special Victims Unit The procedural drama launches its 20th season with a two-hour premiere. Mariska Hargitay stars. 9 p.m. NBC Flip or Flop Tarek and Christina look back on their careers as house-flippers on a new episode of the real estate-themed reality series. 9 p.m. HGTV Murphy Brown Candice Bergen returns to her Emmy-winning role as the titular television journalist when this hit sitcom relaunches two decades after it left the air. 9:30 p.m. CBS How to Get Away With Murder Annalise (Viola Davis) weighs offers from competing firms as this mystery drama returns for a fourth season. 10 p.m. ABC S.W.A.T. A major earthquake rocks Los Angeles on the action drama’s sophomore-season premiere. With Shemar Moore. 10:05 p.m. CBS SPECIALS Kavanaugh hearing Various broadcast and cable-news outlets will offer live coverage of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing on the allegations against Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, beginning at 7 a.m. MOVIES Black Orpheus The closing day of Turner Classic Movies’ monthlong series “The Black Experience on Film” includes this fantastical 1959 romance set against the backdrop of Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. 8:15 p.m. TCM TALK SHOWS CBS This Morning IMF managing director Christine Lagarde; Candice Bergen and Faith Ford (“Murphy Brown”). (N) 7 a.m. KCBS Today Kevin Hart; Today Food with Shaquille O’Neal. (N) 7 a.m. KNBC KTLA Morning News (N) 7 a.m. KTLA Good Morning America Alexander Skarsgard (“Hold the Dark”); deals and steals. (N) 7 a.m. KABC Good Day LA Rams chief operating officer Kevin Demoff; Rams cheerleaders and mascot; former NFL player Pastor Miles McPherson; tech expert Dr. Gadget: tech expert. (N) 7 a.m. KTTV Megyn Kelly Today Kassy Alia, founder of the nonprofit Serve & Connect. (N) 9 a.m. KNBC Live with Kelly and Ryan Kevin Hart; Faith Ford. (N) 9 a.m. KABC The View America Ferrera. (N) 10 a.m. KABC The Wendy Williams Show David Alan Grier; Hot Topics and Ask Wendy. (N) 10 a.m. KTTV The Dr. Oz Show A surgeon gets away with killing and paralyzing patients; one of his former patients speaks out. (N) 10 a.m. KCOP The Real Shanola Hampton and Stevey Howey (“Shameless”). (N) 11 a.m. KTTV The Doctors Cancer; viral superstar Sancho the therapy dog; refrigerator hacks. (N) 11 a.m. KCOP The Wendy Williams Show Omar Epps. noon KCOP The Talk Faith Ford; guest co-host Jodie Sweetin. (N) 1 p.m. KCBS The Real Saweetie; Aubrey Anderson-Emmons (“Modern Family”). 1 p.m. KCOP Steve Tim Allen; celebrity stylist Joe Zee. (N) 2 p.m. KNBC Rachael Ray Kate Beckinsale; Dr. Travis Stork. (N) 2 p.m. KTTV Dr. Phil A teen plays video games 24/7 to keep his mind from his family’s troubles. (N) 3 p.m. KCBS The Ellen DeGeneres Show Lady Gaga; a man who rescued six dogs during Hurricane Florence. (N) 3 p.m. KNBC Amanpour and Company (N) 10 p.m. KVCR, 11 p.m. KOCE, 1 a.m. KLCS Between the Lines With Barry Kibrick Record producer Bill Bentley. 11 p.m. KVCR The Daily Show With Trevor Noah America Ferrera. (N) 11 p.m. Comedy Central Conan Jim Gaffigan; Seann William Scott. (N) 11 p.m. TBS The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Ricky Gervais; Shawn Mendes performs. (N) 11:34 p.m. KNBC The Late Show With Stephen Colbert Jeff Bridges; Cedric the Entertainer; journalist Mark Leibovich. (N) 11:35 p.m. KCBS Jimmy Kimmel Live Jay Ellis; T.I. and Yo Gotti perform. (N) 11:35 p.m. KABC The Late Late Show With James Corden Damon Wayans Jr.; Gina Rodriguez; comic Mark Normand. (N) 12:37 a.m. KCBS Late Night With Seth Meyers Pete Davidson; Mary Lynn Rajskub; comic Zainab Johnson. (N) 12:37 a.m. KNBC Nightline (N) 12:37 a.m. KABC Amanpour and Company (N) 1 a.m. KLCS Last Call With Carson Daly Jameela Jamil (“The Good Place”); Rupert Grint (“Snatch”); William Elliott Whitmore performs. (N) 1:38 a.m. KNBC SPORTS Baseball The Angels take on the Texas Rangers. 3 p.m. FSN Football The Rams host the Minnesota Vikings. 5 p.m. Fox Customized TV listings are available here: Credit: Matt Cooper
Subject: Professional football; Television programs; Drama; Record producers; Murders & murder attempts
Location: Nashville Tennessee Minnesota Rio de Janeiro Brazil Texas Los Angeles California
People: Bridges, Jeff Johnson, Earvin (Magic Johnson) Colbert, Stephen Gervais, Ricky Jordan, Michael Cedric the Entertainer Janney, Allison Davis, Viola Corden, James Daly, Carson Danson, Ted Hargitay, Mariska Ellis, Jay Bergen, Candice Fallon, Jimmy DeGeneres, Ellen Gaffigan, Jim Ferrera, Amer ica Grint, Rupert Epps, Omar Faris, Anna Beckinsale, Kate James, LeBron Grier, David Alan Davidson, Pete
Company / organization: Name: HGTV; NAICS: 515120; Name: Comedy Central; NAICS: 515210; Name: Los Angeles Rams; NAICS: 711211; Name: National Football League--NFL; NAICS: 711211, 813990; Name: Turner Cla ssic Movies; NAICS: 515120; Name: Minnesota Vikings; NAICS: 711211; Name: Senate-Judiciary, Committee on the; NAICS: 921120; Name: Texas Rangers; NAICS: 711211
Publication title: Los Angeles Times (Online); Los Angeles
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Sep 26, 2018
Section: Entertainment - Tv
Publisher: Tribune Interactive, LLC
Place of publication: Los Angeles
Country of publication: Un ited States, Los Angeles
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Blogs, Podcasts, & Websites
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2112707679
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2112707679?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Tribune Interactive, LLC Sep 26, 2018
Last updated: 2018-10-09
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 401 of 474
The unsung cuisine of Spain's comfort-food capital, Asturias
Author: Kemper, Benjamin
Publication info: CNN Wire Service ; Atlanta [Atlanta]27 Sep 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: By now, you probably know your tapas from your pintxos and your Rioja from your cava. Manchego may grace your cheese boards and smoky pimentón might spice up your soups. But unless you're a booksy food geek or diehard Hispanophile, chances are you haven't discovered the unsung cuisine of Spain's comfort-food capital, Asturias. That's because most people who go to Spain stick to its sunnier vacation spots such as Madrid, Barcelona and Sevilla -- a misstep since Asturias boasts such standout scenery, music, religious sites and cuisine. Ask any Spaniard -- Asturias' shamrock-green pastures, teeming seas and fertile farmland bear some of the most prized delicacies on the Iberian Peninsula, from aged Asturian Valley beef to dayboat sea urchins to pungent mountain cheeses. The best part is, Asturias remains so far off the tourist track that -- at least for now -- you're more likely to run into herds of cows than hordes of selfie-snapping foreigners. So get there stat, and eat up: It's worth visiting for these nine dishes alone. Fabada Fabada is to Spain what feijoada is to Brazil and cassoulet is to France: a special-occasion bean stew that hinges on hyperlocal ingredients, exacting technique and the patience of a Tibetan monk. Every other neighborhood tavern lays claim to la mejor fabada, so your best bet is to ask a local for a recommendation. Great fabadas start with real-deal fabas de la granja, slender, finger-like white beans of outstanding quality that have been cultivated in Asturias for centuries. After being plumped to ultra-creamy perfection in a serrano ham broth for six to eight hours, the beans get a final hit of smoke and fat from compango, a medley of Asturian porcine delights including garlicky chorizo, morcilla (blood sausage), and pancetta. If a fabada is in your future, be sure to pencil in a postprandial siesta -- the body-warming broth and heavy meats induce a fairly immediate food coma. Chorizo a la sidra A recipe for chorizo a la sidra goes something like this: simmer chorizo in cider; serve. Deceptively simple and dangerously addictive, it's quintessential Asturian bar food -- a saucy, no-nonsense tapa that demands hunks of crusty bread for sopping and bottomless glasses of hard cider. Since chorizo a la sidra calls for just two ingredients, there's no cutting corners: Only the best oakwood-smoked chorizo and dry Asturian cider will suffice. Cachopo Walk into any mom-and-pop joint in Asturias, and you'll find dozens of diners tucking into cachopo, an Asturian specialty of deep-fried beef cutlets stuffed with ham and cheese and served with roasted red peppers and french fries. Forget what you've heard about European portion sizes -- this glistening hubcap of carne packs more caloric heft than a Cheesecake Factory entrée in Texas. The dish has such a cult following that an unofficial Spanish Academy of Friends of the Cachopo hosts periodical cachopo throwdowns, and every July, Madrid ushers in a hotly anticipated Cachopo Week. Cabrales One of the world's finest blue cheeses, Cabrales (cah-BRA-less) gets its signature tang (and pleasant putrescence) from six months' maturation in the dank mountain caves of eastern Asturias (some of which you can visit). The cool, dark environment -- always humid thanks to dripping stalactites -- is a perfect petri dish for the penicillin mold that slowly impregnates each wheel of cheese. Cabrales is on most restaurant menus and also makes a wonderful if odiferous souvenir: In local cheese shops, seek out ones made with a mixture of cow, sheep and goat milk if your cheese taste could be summed up by "the stinkier, the better." Otherwise, spring for a milder all-cow variety. Cabrales is so pungent and rich that it needs nothing more than hot toast and a butter knife to be a satisfying first course. And like most Asturian delicacies, it tastes best accompanied by an ice-cold glass of sidra. Cider Since pre-Roman times, sidra (hard cider) has been the tipple of choice in Asturias, whose cool, rainy climate favors apple trees over grapevines. Cloudy, briny, and refreshingly effervescent, sidra bears little resemblance to the one-note, oversweet Strongbows and Magners most of us are used to drinking. In chigres, the old-timey cider taverns you'll find across the region, bartenders make a show of pouring cider into glasses from high overhead, a technique said to aerate the wine and give it its characteristic fizziness. Chug down your glass in one gulp as tradition dictates, or risk disapproving looks from locals. Pastel de cabracho Often inelegantly translated as "fish loaf," pastel de cabracho is a delicate rosy-pink mousse made from onions, celery, cream, and the sweet flesh of the scorpion fish, which inhabits Asturias' rocky coastal areas. The humble dish got a high-brow rebrand in the 80s when Basque chef Juan Mari Arzak featured it front and center on his Michelin-starred menu at Arzak in San Sebastian. Spread the pastel on a toasted baguette slice, add a dollop of mayonnaise (a traditional sidekick), and wash it down with a crisp Galician albriño. Frixuelos When February's Antroxu (carnival) festivities roll around, Asturianos of all ages flock to the fairgrounds for frixuelos, hot crêpes rolled in sugar and eaten out of hand. Purists gobble them down plain, but Nutella, caramel, and strawberry jam are usually at an arm's reach for those with a sweet tooth. Frixuelos are so universally adored that you'll find them on dessert menus throughout the region. Afuega'l Pitu Handmade in small dairies called caserías, this crumbly cow's-milk cheese stands out for its striking roxu (red) varieties flavored with smoky, piquant pimentón. Nobody knows how the spice found its way into the traditional recipe, but it was probably a happy accident -- a bag of paprika toppled into the fermentation vat, perhaps. What's certain is that afuega'l pitu has long been prized in Asturias, so much so that in the 18th century, farmers used the cheese as a currency to pay taxes. If you can't find it on restaurant menus (sadly, it's often eclipsed by the more widely produced Cabrales), seek it out in local queserías and gourmet shops. Moscovitas With more pastry shops per capita than any other region in Spain, Asturias lays claim to some of the country's most delectable sweets --case in point: moscovitas. These chocolate-dipped cookies, baked in a small pastry shop in Oviedo called Confitería Rialto, have devotees across the peninsula. One taste and you'll understand why: Each silver-dollar-sized wafer is suffused with toasted Spanish almonds, crunchy toffee, and bitter chocolate.
Subject: Recipes; Cheese
Location: Iberian Peninsula Texas Brazil Spain France
Identifier / keyword: Business and industry sectors Business, economy and trade Consumer products Continents and regions Dairy products Europe Food and drink Food products Kinds of foods and beverages Southern Europe Spain Sweets and desserts Food and beverage industry Restaurant and food service industry Restaurant industry Restaurants
Publication title: CNN Wire Service; Atlanta
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Sep 27, 2018
Section: Style
Publisher: CNN Newsource Sales, Inc.
Place of publication: Atlanta
Country of publication: United States, Atlanta
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2112573756
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2112573756?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright 2018 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved .
Last updated: 2018-10-09
Database: US Southeast Newsstream
Document 402 of 474
Global Equities Roundup: Market Talk
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]27 Sep 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
The latest Market Talks covering Equities. Published exclusively on throughout the day.
1605 ET - US stocks rise as investors ponder the Fed's interest-rate increase. The Dow adds 0.2% to 26439, the S&P rises 0.3% to 2914 and the Nasdaq gains 0.6% to 8041. The S&P's communications-services sector rises 0.8%, with Take-Two and Activision both gaining more than 1.5% ahead of big videogame releases. Food companies are some of the worst performers, with ConAgra stumbling 8.5% on disappointing sales. Oil prices gain 0.8% to $72.12. ([email protected]; @jonvuocolo)
1553 ET - Carnival falls 4.7% after the cruise-ship company warned its earnings outlook for this year and 2019 will continue to be hurt by higher fuel prices and currency exchange rates. The company now expects changes in fuel prices and currency exchange rates to decrease earnings for 2018 by 18c/share compared to the prior year, although it guided net revenue yields in constant currency to be up about 3.5%. The company also expects 2019 to be hurt by about 27c. The stock fell despite the Miami-based company reporting better-than-expected 3Q results. ([email protected]; @aishaalmuslim)
1509 ET - A polarized political climate will make it difficult for Colombia President Duque to implement his plan to cut corporate taxes as well as public spending, Moody's says in a report. The credit rating agency says higher oil prices should allow Colombia's government to meet its fiscal deficit targets of 3.1% and 2.4% of GDP for 2018 and 2019, respectively. But the tax-cut pledges that helped Duque win the presidency earlier this year would eat into any increased oil revenue, Moody's warns. In addition, oil investments will only provide short-term relief because Colombia's oil reserves are dwindling, it notes. ([email protected])
1445 ET - It is surprising how the "non-GMO force" has grown in recent years and a sizeable gap in trust and lack of understanding on these products remain, says Bunge Limited CEO Soren Schroder. However, the agribusiness chief hopes the world will be able to come to a common understanding on what should be classified as GMO and how gene editing is dealt with by regulators. He says he fears that if these rules are not synchronized the world "could end up with some significant non-trade tariff barriers," as these regulations prevent products being sold in some markets. ([email protected])
1431 ET - Data science is taking root across the US farm belt, with companies from Silicon Valley startups to industry giants like Bayer developing data-crunching farm advisory services. For now, though, one of the main challenges is making sense of all the data farmers pile up when it comes to crop yields, fertilizer applications, weather patterns and planting dates. "It's easy to get overwhelmed by it all," says Kristin Duncanson, owner of Highland Family Farms, and getting some value out of it. ([email protected]; @jacobbunge)
1416 ET - Farmers will feel a "prolonged hangover" if trade disruptions continue, says Bunge Limited CEO Soren Schroder. The agribusiness chief says history shows tariffs are a bad idea as far as farmers are concerned, with prior trade disputes contributing to Brazil's emergence as a soybean behemoth. President Carter's grain embargo "ended up creating significant surpluses and a build-up of stocks that pressured prices for many years to come," Schroder said. "This is a world upside down for sure," he said. ([email protected];@jessenewman13)
1349 ET - FedEx CEO Fred Smith gives a blunt appraisal of the commercial prospects for mass use of drones for package delivery. "It is not feasible, in our opinion, for drones to displace surface delivery," he says at an aviation industry conference. Smith says drones have plenty of utility, for example to deliver medical supplies, but he cites safety issues and the sheer volume of packages. "It would be like the attack of the locusts," he said. ([email protected]; @dougcameron).
1300 ET - Gone are the days of significant couponing and discounting for Conagra, like the 10-for-$10 deals found in the grocery aisles, CEO Sean Connolly tells analysts on a call. Connolly says Conagra plans to direct more of its marketing spend toward digital and social media platforms to win consumers. Conagra also has increased investments in retail stores, which have helped bolster the visibility of its brands and consumer trials, Connolly says. ([email protected])
1250 ET - Dairy farmers need the Trump administration to work quickly on trade, according to a dairy industry executive. American dairy farmers largely support the president's push to open up the Canadian market to US dairy products, but they are struggling to stay in business during a painful downturn, says Beth Ford, CEO of Land O'Lakes. In August alone, 43 Wisconsin dairy farmers went out of business, Ford says at the WSJ Global Food Forum in New York. "We need market access," she says, adding that tariffs on dairy products from trading partners, excess food supplies and the strong dollar all have contributed to trouble in the dairy industry. "[Tariffs] are pressuring the market and many farmers aren't able to withstand that pressure after multiple years of a down cycle," she says. ([email protected]; @jessenewman13)
1236 ET - The transportation department expects to issue a final rule governing flying with emotional-support animals by next spring, DOT Deputy General Counsel James Owens says. "It's a significant rule," he says on a panel at an airline industry conference, noting it plans to issue guidance to airlines in the near future. Most carriers have clamped down on the type and number of emotional-support animals that can travel following a surge in traffic and a number of high-profile incidents involving misbehaving critters. ([email protected]; @dougcameron)
1231 ET - The Stoxx Europe 600 index closes up 0.35% at 386.62, a one-month high, helped by falls in the euro and the pound against a stronger dollar after the U.S. Federal Reserve interest-rate hike Wednesday. "European markets are pushing higher today, as the FOMC-fuelled dollar rebound helps devalue European currencies," says Joshua Mahony, market analyst at IG. Swedish fashion retailer H&M is the biggest gainer, up 11%, after upbeat third-quarter underlying sales. Italian stocks buck the trend, however, with the FTSE MIB index ending down 0.6% on reports of Italian politicians calling for a higher budget deficit in the upcoming 2019 budget. Germany's DAX ends up 0.4%, France's CAC 40 up 0.5%, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 up 0.45%, though Spain's Ibex 35 closes flat. ([email protected])
1228 ET - General Mills' head of emerging brands Carla Vernon says she's looking for the "secret sauce" of merging small brands it acquires with the larger corporate conglomerate. "We've done every acquisition differently," she said at WSJ's Global Food Forum. While smaller, start-up food brands are just a fraction of food sales, they are growing much faster than legacy brands. Vernon said her "bosses are outside the building not inside the building," because they are the consumers. And they are looking for purpose-driven brands. ([email protected])
(END)
September 27, 2018 16:05 ET (20:05 GMT)
Subject: Currency; Foreign exchange rates; Food; Investments; Rating services; Dairy industry; American dollar; Budget deficits; Tariffs; Consumers; Farms; Agribusiness; Dairy products; Stock exchanges
Location: Wisconsin United Kingdom--UK Brazil France Europe Silicon Valley-California Spain United States--US New York Germany Colombia
Company / organization: Name: Federal Open Market Committee--FOMC; NAICS: 921 130; Name: Moodys Investors Service Inc; NAICS: 522110, 523930, 561450; Name: General Mills Inc; NAICS: 311230, 311511, 311824, 311991; Name: Department of Transportation; NAICS: 926120; Name: FedEx Corp; NAICS: 484110, 492110, 551114
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Sep 27, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2113018092
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2113018092?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Sep 27, 2018
Last updated: 2018-10-11
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 403 of 474
Global Equities Roundup: Market Talk
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]27 Sep 2018. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
The latest Market Talks covering Equities. Published exclusively on throughout the day.
1712 ET - Beth Ford, CEO of Land O'Lakes, says her company works with start-ups making dairy products like ice cream because they have a lot to learn. "Who's winning in the marketplace? The agile," she says. "They're pulling a red wagon, and they're getting on the shelf. I want to know how they're doing that." She says it requires a different mindset for her organization to get faster at putting out new products, fearless about innovation and willing to eliminate products that aren't working. ([email protected])
1707 ET - Grubhub CEO Matt Maloney says signing on fast-food restaurants like Taco Bell and KFC enables the company to build scale in markets so it can lower costs to the diner. His goal, he says during the WSJ Global Food Forum, is to get the delivery fee to zero for consumers because then, "there's no reason not to order restaurant delivery." Despite a proliferation of third-party delivery services, he says there's still plenty of room for everyone. He said $200B worth of food is sold annually in US via restaurant pick-up and delivery but that all third-party services combined are processing just $10B of that. "It's not a zero-sum game," he says. "Someday it will be." ([email protected])
1646 ET - A few recent big exits from ag-tech investments are giving investors confidence, says ag-tech investor Seana Day of Mixing Bowl. Pockets of innovation are springing up around the country. But "Silicon Valley is where the money is." She says there's a long way to go in investing to solve issues like food waste and water shortages. "The challenge is to demonstrate a real return," Day says. ([email protected])
1619 ET - Toronto stocks follow global markets higher, as the benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index gains 35 points or 0.2% to 16204. The blue-chip S&P/TSX 60 Index increases 0.4% to 962. The S&P/TSX index is lead higher by oil and gas companies in the energy sector. Among the top gainers of the day are Cenovus Energy, up 9%, Advantage Oil and Gas, up 8.8%, and Birchcliff Energy, up 8%. ([email protected]; @francescamarief)
1615 ET - Tesla slides in after-hours trading after the SEC sues company CEO Elon Musk. The lawsuit adds to the list of troubles surrounding Musk, whose August claim that he had secured funding to take Tesla private has since drawn scrutiny by investors, the Department of Justice and the SEC. Tesla was recently down 4.4% after ending the day down 0.7%. ([email protected]; @akaneotani)
1605 ET - US stocks rise as investors ponder the Fed's interest-rate increase. The Dow adds 0.2% to 26439, the S&P rises 0.3% to 2914 and the Nasdaq gains 0.6% to 8041. The S&P's communications-services sector rises 0.8%, with Take-Two and Activision both gaining more than 1.5% ahead of big videogame releases. Food companies are some of the worst performers, with ConAgra stumbling 8.5% on disappointing sales. Oil prices gain 0.8% to $72.12. ([email protected]; @jonvuocolo)
1553 ET - Carnival falls 4.7% after the cruise-ship company warned its earnings outlook for this year and 2019 will continue to be hurt by higher fuel prices and currency exchange rates. The company now expects changes in fuel prices and currency exchange rates to decrease earnings for 2018 by 18c/share compared to the prior year, although it guided net revenue yields in constant currency to be up about 3.5%. The company also expects 2019 to be hurt by about 27c. The stock fell despite the Miami-based company reporting better-than-expected 3Q results. ([email protected]; @aishaalmuslim)
1509 ET - A polarized political climate will make it difficult for Colombia President Duque to implement his plan to cut corporate taxes as well as public spending, Moody's says in a report. The credit rating agency says higher oil prices should allow Colombia's government to meet its fiscal deficit targets of 3.1% and 2.4% of GDP for 2018 and 2019, respectively. But the tax-cut pledges that helped Duque win the presidency earlier this year would eat into any increased oil revenue, Moody's warns. In addition, oil investments will only provide short-term relief because Colombia's oil reserves are dwindling, it notes. ([email protected])
1445 ET - It is surprising how the "non-GMO force" has grown in recent years and a sizeable gap in trust and lack of understanding on these products remain, says Bunge Limited CEO Soren Schroder. However, the agribusiness chief hopes the world will be able to come to a common understanding on what should be classified as GMO and how gene editing is dealt with by regulators. He says he fears that if these rules are not synchronized the world "could end up with some significant non-trade tariff barriers," as these regulations prevent products being sold in some markets. ([email protected])
1431 ET - Data science is taking root across the US farm belt, with companies from Silicon Valley startups to industry giants like Bayer developing data-crunching farm advisory services. For now, though, one of the main challenges is making sense of all the data farmers pile up when it comes to crop yields, fertilizer applications, weather patterns and planting dates. "It's easy to get overwhelmed by it all," says Kristin Duncanson, owner of Highland Family Farms, and getting some value out of it. ([email protected]; @jacobbunge)
1416 ET - Farmers will feel a "prolonged hangover" if trade disruptions continue, says Bunge Limited CEO Soren Schroder. The agribusiness chief says history shows tariffs are a bad idea as far as farmers are concerned, with prior trade disputes contributing to Brazil's emergence as a soybean behemoth. President Carter's grain embargo "ended up creating significant surpluses and a build-up of stocks that pressured prices for many years to come," Schroder said. "This is a world upside down for sure," he said. ([email protected];@jessenewman13)
1349 ET - FedEx CEO Fred Smith gives a blunt appraisal of the commercial prospects for mass use of drones for package delivery. "It is not feasible, in our opinion, for drones to displace surface delivery," he says at an aviation industry conference. Smith says drones have plenty of utility, for example to deliver medical supplies, but he cites safety issues and the sheer volume of packages. "It would be like the attack of the locusts," he said. ([email protected]; @dougcameron).
(END)
September 27, 2018 17:12 ET (21:12 GMT)
Subject: Foreign exchange rates; Food; Investments; Rating services; Farms; Agribusiness; Energy industry; Natural gas utilities; Stock exchanges
Location: Silicon Valley-California United States--US Brazil Colombia
People: Musk, Elon
Company / organization: Name: Moodys Investors Service Inc; NAICS: 522110, 523930, 561450; Name: Department of Justice; NAICS: 922130; Name: Cenovus Energy Inc; NAICS: 211111; Name: FedEx Corp; NAICS: 484110, 492110, 551114
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Sep 27, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2113029450
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2113029450?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Sep 27, 2018
Last updated: 2018-10-11
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 404 of 474
Lotus in the Park offers free family fun
Author: Howell, Brittani
Publication info: TCA Regional News ; Chicago [Chicago]28 Sep 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Sept. 28--Musical mash-ups, mask-making, maracatu and more will be available Saturday at the Lotus World Music & Arts Festival Lotus in the Park event. While the festival provides a full weekend of international musical performances and artistic engagement, Lotus in the Park offers a condensed, family-friendly version the public can attend for free. The event is noon to 5 p.m. Saturday at the Waldron, Hill, and Buskirk Park on Third Street, behind the Bloomington police station. "It's our largest venue," said Loraine Martin, outreach director for the Lotus Education and Arts Foundation. "We have about 2,500 people who attend." The main stage will showcase four performances. Kaumakaiwa Kanaka'ole will bring Hawaiian hula and songs and join Anandi Bhattacharya's modern Indian vocals during their "Global Voices" set. During an American acoustic set, artists Molsky's Mountain Drifters, Sam Amidon and Hawktail will come together for a collaborative musical performance. Musician Jeff Cannon will lead a rendition of the Bloomington bicentennial song, and Orquesta el Macabeo from Puerto Rico will cap off the afternoon performances. "We really wanted to seek out a Puerto Rican artist, particularly with what happened there with Hurricane Maria," Martin said. "We're glad to be able to offer that to the community." In the Art Camp, festival-goers can dive into hands-on activities inspired by traditions from around the world and sponsored by local organizations. With the City of Bloomington Latino Outreach, they can fold Mexican paper flowers. They can join the Mathers Museum of World Cultures to create hats or musical instruments inspired by museum exhibits, or join Newfields to create masks based on the work of Master Bidou Yamaguchi. Visitors also can make Brazilian maracatu instruments, called ganzás, which are shakers used for percussion. Colleen Haas and the Women of Mass Percussion will lead a workshop in the IU Global Education Pavilion teaching people how to use ganzás, which patrons can shake during the Lotus Parade. "Maracatu is really about community and identity, a very festive tradition," Martin said. It's a carnival art form from northeast Brazil, but Martin sees connections between the maracatu tradition and local history. "Since it's our city's bicentennial, and because it's Lotus' 25th birthday, we thought it tied in well with what we were doing." CREDIT: By Brittani Howell
Subject: Musical instruments; Museums; Festivals
Location: Puerto Rico Brazil
People: Amidon, Sam
Publication title: TCA Regional News; Chicago
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Sep 28, 2018
Publisher: Tribune Content Agency LLC
Place of publication: Chicago
Country of publication: United States, Chicago
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2113640010
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2113640010?accountid=4840
Copyright: (c)2018 the Herald-Times (Bloomington, Ind.) Visit the Herald-Times (Bloomington, Ind.) at www.heraldtimesonline.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Last updated: 2019-04-15
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 405 of 474
Stocks Ex-Dividend October 04
Publication info: Dow Jones Institutional News ; New York [New York]02 Oct 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text:
(END)
October 02, 2018 17:01 ET (21:01 GMT) Company Symbol Yield(%) Amount Alliance CA Municipal AKP 3.7 0.04208 AllianceBernstein Glbl AWF 7.2 0.0699 AllianceBrnstn NtlMun AFB 4.4 0.04581 Brasil DistrGrupo Pao ADR CBD ... 0.11146 Bristol-Myers BMY 2.5 0.40 British Amer Tobacco ADR BTI 5.9 0.6792 Brixmor Property Group BRX 6.5 0.275 Cisco Systems CSCO 2.7 0.33 Community Financial TCFC 1.2 0.10 Eagle Materials EXP 0.5 0.10 Encore Wire WIRE 0.2 0.02 Genl Dynamics GD 1.8 0.93 Gentex GNTX 2.1 0.11 Horizon Bancorp HBNC 2.1 0.10 Independence Realty Trust IRT 7.0 0.18 Investar Holding ISTR 0.7 0.045 JPMorgan Chase JPM 2.8 0.80 Keurig Dr Pepper KDP 2.6 0.15 Kite Realty Group Trust KRG 7.8 0.3175 Legg Mason LM 4.3 0.34 Limoneira LMNR 1.0 0.0625 NetApp NTAP 1.9 0.40 Pacific Coast Oil Trust ROYT 12.1 0.02834 Preferred Bank LA PFBC 1.8 0.25 Quest Diagnostics DGX 1.9 0.50 Roper Technologies ROP 0.6 0.4125 Royal Gold RGLD 1.3 0.25 Shoe Carnival SCVL 0.9 0.08 Sun Hydraulics SNHY 0.7 0.09 Superior Industries SUP 2.1 0.09 Terreno Realty TRNO 2.6 0.24 Tootsie Roll Indus TR 1.3 0.09 Urstadt Biddle Properties UBP 5.6 0.24 Urstadt Biddle Prprts A UBA 5.1 0.27 WPP ADR WPP 3.9 1.4595 Source: SIX Financial Information
Subject: Acquisitions & mergers
Company / organization: Name: JPMorgan Chase & Co; NAICS: 522110, 522292, 523110; Name: Cisco Systems Inc; NAICS: 334118, 511210; Name: NetApp Inc; NAICS: 334112, 518210; Name: Shoe Carnival Inc; NAICS: 448210; Name: Quest Diagnostics Inc; NAICS: 511210, 621511; Name: SIX Financial Information; NAICS: 522320, 523110; Name: Kite Realty Group Trust; NAICS: 531130; Name: Bristol-Myers Squibb Co; NAICS: 325412, 325620
Publication title: Dow Jones Institutional News; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Oct 2, 2018
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2115586207
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2115586207?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Dow Jones & Company Inc Oct 2, 2018
Last updated: 2018-10-09
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 406 of 474
Kazu Miura and the Never-Ending Soccer Career
Author: Longman, Jeré
Publication info: New York Times (Online) , New York: New York Times Company. Oct 3, 2018.
Abstract:
Still going at age 51, the former Japan star represents the possibilities of aging productively in a country with an average life expectancy of 83.8 years.
Full text: YOKOHAMA, Japan — A typhoon approached. Rain arrived by kickoff. Everyone in the sparse crowd seemed to be wearing a poncho or holding an umbrella. There was little reason to attend a middling second-division match here on the last day of September, but Junichi Onishi, 61, had an assignment. He has covered soccer for three decades for Sports Nippon, Japan’s oldest sports newspaper. And he was on watch. “In case Kazu plays,” Onishi said. He was referring to Kazuyoshi Miura, the pioneering and flamboyant Japanese forward who is still going at age 51. Last year, Miura became what was believed to be the oldest professional player to score a goal, pouncing on a rebound at 50 years 14 days and launching into a samba strut known as the Kazu Dance. Of course, these things can never be said with complete certainty. Even Miura is quick to offer a caveat. “I’m sure there is someone in fourth or fifth league in Brazil who scored at 54,” he said. [Video: Watch on YouTube. ] His hair has gone gray and his playing time is scant, his dancing scarce. As September ended, Miura had made only eight appearances in Yokohama F.C.’s first 35 matches in the J2 League, all off the bench, and none since late July. And there has not been a single goal to leave him shaking his hips as if at Carnival. “When you are 51 years old, you lose power; fitness is very complicated,” said Edson Tavares, Yokohama’s Brazilian manager. “I have to be honest with him. When it’s possible, I use him.” Even on the bench, though, Miura still brings value, Tavares said, to a small club unaccustomed to big expectations. He maintains an ebullient attitude. He trains fastidiously. And he eats — well, everyone has a favorite story about the way he supposedly eats. He is up at 5 in the morning for breakfast, prepared by a personal nutritionist. If his iron levels are low, he finds a restaurant and eats liver. After training, he dips his legs in an ice bath and drinks what some say is a large amount of orange juice. Only it is not orange juice; it is special carbonated water from Italy. Into his 30s, according to the Japanese sports magazine Number, Miura could eat an entire cake by himself. Now it’s all high protein and low fat, steak fillets and salad with olive oil for dressing. A sports website called Spollup reported that he checks his weight and body fat four or five times a day. “Japan needs to grow little steps to be high professional,” Tavares said. “Kazu gives a good example, pushing people, motivating the players.” His face still appears on billboards, and his No. 11 can be found on everything from replica jerseys to cellphone covers. He is widely viewed as gracious, unpretentious, dutiful with fans to shake hands and sign autographs, even if his availability to the news media can be as elusive as his playing time. He is considered by many Japan’s first soccer superstar. He played in Brazil for Santos, Pelé’s old club, and for Genoa in Italy and Dynamo Zagreb in Croatia. When the J League began play in 1993, Miura brought flair with the way he played and spoke his mind. He was honored as the league’s first most valuable player, and accepted the award in a red suit. “Without Kazu, the league would never have been as successful as it is,” said Kenji Hattori, the general manager of Yokohama F.C. Beyond soccer, Miura represents the possibilities of aging productively in a country that, according to the World Economic Forum, is second only to Hong Kong with an average life expectancy of 83.8 years. “We cannot just sit and draw a line at a certain age,” said Nobuko Kamiya, 68, a retired teacher who follows Yokohama F.C. at home and on the road. “Kazu gave me the inspiration to keep on going; something may come to you.” Why does he keep playing at 51? Because he loves soccer and has avoided serious injury, Miura told The Japan Times last year. Some fans and reporters believe he is still spurred, two decades later, by the slight of being omitted from Japan’s team for its inaugural appearance in the World Cup, in 1998. That hope may drive him still; when FIFA last year approved an expansion of the World Cup to 48 teams , Miura, who last played for Japan nearly two decades ago, saw an opening. “It is important to keep dreaming,” Miura told Reuters . “So playing at the World Cup is still my dream.” Kota Ishijima, an interpreter who has worked with Japanese baseball players, including Hideki Irabu with the Yankees, compares Miura to Ichiro Suzuki, who has moved — at age 44 — from the field to the front office with the Seattle Mariners . Such players appear to be on an unending search of what the Japanese call “youshikibi,” the beauty of form, Ishijima said. “It’s like Chuck Yeager chasing demons beyond the sound barrier,” she said, referring to the famed American test pilot. Over the summer, Miura traveled with a friend, the photographer Goya Nagawa, to see Japan play in the World Cup in Russia. He exchanged emails with players on the national team, Nagawa said, and joked that they should tell Japan’s coach, Akira Nishino, “I’m available if he needs me; I can play 15 minutes.” He is always available. On Sept. 30, as Yokohama F.C. fell behind Renofa Yamaguchi F.C. in the first minute and scrambled futilely to catch up, Miura retreated to a sheltered area behind the bench. He placed a mat on the concrete and did planks and situps. He stayed ready but was not called on in a 3-2 defeat. Afterward, Miura stood with his teammates, bowed to the crowd, waved and then disappeared beneath the stands. It was midafternoon. Typhoon Trami churned toward Japan. A fierce wind was on the way. Some trains would soon stop operating. “Please go home early,” the public address announcer said. A while later, Miura left the stadium in a cap and sunglasses, without saying a word. Onishi, the sportswriter, would have to wait at least another week to get his story. Credit: Jeré Longman
Subject: Awards & honors; Tournaments & championships; Soccer; Fruit juices
Location: Italy Croatia Russia Hong Kong Brazil Japan
People: Suzuki, Ichiro
Company / organization: Name: World Economic Forum; NAICS: 926110; Name: YouTube Inc; NAICS: 519130; Name: Federation Internationale de Football Association--FIFA; NAICS: 813990; Name: Seattle Mariners; NAICS: 711211
Identifier / keyword: Soccer Miura, Kazuyoshi (1967- ) J-League Yokohama FC (Soccer Team) Age, Chronological
Publication title: New York Times (Online); New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Oct 3, 2018
Section: sports
Publisher: New York Times Company
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Blogs, Podcasts, & Websites
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2115833358
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2115833358?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright 2018 The New York Times Company
Last updated: 2018-10-08
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 407 of 474
At 51, a Japanese Star Tries to Show That He Still Has Game: [Sports Desk]
Author: Longman, Jere
Publication info: New York Times , Late Edition (East Coast); New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]04 Oct 2018: B.11.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: YOKOHAMA, Japan -- A typhoon approached. Rain arrived by kickoff. Everyone in the sparse crowd seemed to be wearing a poncho or holding an umbrella. There was little reason to attend a middling second-division match here on the last day of September, but Junichi Onishi, 61, had an assignment. He has covered soccer for three decades for Sports Nippon, Japan's oldest sports newspaper. And he was on watch. "In case Kazu plays," Onishi said. He was referring to Kazuyoshi Miura, the pioneering and flamboyant Japanese forward who is still going at age 51. Last year, Miura became what was believed to be the oldest professional player to score a goal, pouncing on a rebound at 50 years 14 days and launching into a samba strut known as the Kazu Dance. Of course, these things can never be said with complete certainty. Even Miura is quick to offer a caveat. "I'm sure there is someone in fourth or fifth league in Brazil who scored at 54," he said. [Video: Watch on YouTube.] His hair has gone gray and his playing time is scant, his dancing scarce. As September ended, Miura had made only eight appearances in Yokohama F.C.'s first 35 matches in the J2 League, all off the bench, and none since late July. And there has not been a single goal to leave him shaking his hips as if at Carnival. "When you are 51 years old, you lose power; fitness is very complicated," said Edson Tavares, Yokohama's Brazilian manager. "I have to be honest with him. When it's possible, I use him." Even on the bench, though, Miura still brings value, Tavares said, to a small club unaccustomed to big expectations. He maintains an ebullient attitude. He trains fastidiously. And he eats -- well, everyone has a favorite story about the way he supposedly eats. He is up at 5 in the morning for breakfast, prepared by a personal nutritionist. If his iron levels are low, he finds a restaurant and eats liver. After training, he dips his legs in an ice bath and drinks what some say is a large amount of orange juice. Only it is not orange juice; it is special carbonated water from Italy. Into his 30s, according to the Japanese sports magazine Number, Miura could eat an entire cake by himself. Now it's all high protein and low fat, steak fillets and salad with olive oil for dressing. A sports website called Spollup reported that he checks his weight and body fat four or five times a day. "Japan needs to grow little steps to be high professional," Tavares said. "Kazu gives a good example, pushing people, motivating the players." His face still appears on billboards, and his No. 11 can be found on everything from replica jerseys to cellphone covers. He is widely viewed as gracious, unpretentious, dutiful with fans to shake hands and sign autographs, even if his availability to the news media can be as elusive as his playing time. He is considered by many Japan's first soccer superstar. He played in Brazil for Santos, Pelé's old club, and for Genoa in Italy and Dynamo Zagreb in Croatia. When the J League began play in 1993, Miura brought flair with the way he played and spoke his mind. He was honored as the league's first most valuable player, and accepted the award in a red suit. "Without Kazu, the league would never have been as successful as it is," said Kenji Hattori, the general manager of Yokohama F.C. Beyond soccer, Miura represents the possibilities of aging productively in a country that, according to the World Economic Forum, is second only to Hong Kong with an average life expectancy of 83.8 years. "We cannot just sit and draw a line at a certain age," said Nobuko Kamiya, 68, a retired teacher who follows Yokohama F.C. at home and on the road. "Kazu gave me the inspiration to keep on going; something may come to you." Why does he keep playing at 51? Because he loves soccer and has avoided serious injury, Miura told The Japan Times last year. Some fans and reporters believe he is still spurred, two decades later, by the slight of being omitted from Japan's team for its inaugural appearance in the World Cup, in 1998. That hope may drive him still; when FIFA last year approved an expansion of the World Cup to 48 teams, Miura, who last played for Japan nearly two decades ago, saw an opening. "It is important to keep dreaming," Miura told Reuters. "So playing at the World Cup is still my dream." Kota Ishijima, an interpreter who has worked with Japanese baseball players, including Hideki Irabu with the Yankees, compares Miura to Ichiro Suzuki, who has moved -- at age 44 -- from the field to the front office with the Seattle Mariners. Such players appear to be on an unending search of what the Japanese call "youshikibi," the beauty of form, Ishijima said. "It's like Chuck Yeager chasing demons beyond the sound barrier," she said, referring to the famed American test pilot. Over the summer, Miura traveled with a friend, the photographer Goya Nagawa, to see Japan play in the World Cup in Russia. He exchanged emails with players on the national team, Nagawa said, and joked that they should tell Japan's coach, Akira Nishino, "I'm available if he needs me; I can play 15 minutes." He is always available. On Sept. 30, as Yokohama F.C. fell behind Renofa Yamaguchi F.C. in the first minute and scrambled futilely to catch up, Miura retreated to a sheltered area behind the bench. He placed a mat on the concrete and did planks and situps. He stayed ready but was not called on in a 3-2 defeat. Afterward, Miura stood with his teammates, bowed to the crowd, waved and then disappeared beneath the stands. It was midafternoon. Typhoon Trami churned toward Japan. A fierce wind was on the way. Some trains would soon stop operating. "Please go home early," the public address announcer said. A while later, Miura left the stadium in a cap and sunglasses, without saying a word. Onishi, the sportswriter, would have to wait at least another week to get his story.
Subject: Awards & honors; Tournaments & championships; Soccer; Fruit juices
Location: Italy Croatia Russia New York Hong Kong Brazil Japan
People: Suzuki, Ichiro
Company / organization: Name: New York Times Co; NAICS: 511110, 511120, 515112, 515120; Name: World Economic Forum; NAICS: 926110; Name: YouTube Inc; NAICS: 519130; Name: Federation Internationale de Football Association--FIFA; NAICS: 813990; Name: Seattle Mariners; NAICS: 711211
Publication title: New York Times, Late Edition (East Coast); New York, N.Y.
Pages: B.11
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Oct 4, 2018
column: On Soccer
Section: B
Publisher: New York Times Company
Place of publication: New York, N.Y.
Country of publication: United States, New York, N.Y.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
ISSN: 03624331
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2115960948
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2115960948?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright New York Times Company Oct 4, 2018
Last updated: 2018-10-09
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 408 of 474
Brazil: Basic data
Publication info: EIU ViewsWire ; New York [New York]05 Oct 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Brazil: Basic data
Land area
8,547,400 sq km. Population
207.7m (2017 estimate) Main cities
Population at last census (2012 official estimate; m) São Paulo: 11.4 Rio de Janeiro: 6.4 Salvador: 2.7 Brasília (capital): 2.6 Fortaleza: 2.5 Belo Horizonte: 2.4 Climate
Mainly tropical and sub-tropical; mild on the southern coast and in the higher regions Weather in São Paulo (altitude 760 metres)
Hottest month, December, 23-30°C; coldest month, June, 15-22°C, average monthly minimum and maximum; driest month, August; wettest month, February Language
Portuguese Measures
Metric system Currency
Real (R); average exchange rate in 2017: R3.2:US$1 Time
The states along the coast, as well as eastern Pará, Brasília-DF, Minas Gerais, Goiás and Tocantins, are three hours behind GMT (official time in Brazil); the states of Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Rondônia, most of Amazonas, Roraima and western Pará are four hours behind GMT; the states of Acre and the south-western part of Amazonas are five hours behind GMT Public holidays
January 1st (New Year's Day); February 10th-14th (Carnival); March 30th (Good Friday); April 21st (Tiradentes); May 1st (Labour Day); September 7th (Independence Day); October 12th (Nossa Senhora Aparecida, the patron saint of Brazil; also Children's Day); November 2nd (All Saints' Day); November 15th (Proclamation of the Republic); December 25th (Christmas Day)
Subject: Economic conditions; Economic indicators; Background
Location: Brazil Latin America
Publication title: EIU ViewsWire; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Oct 5, 2018
Publisher: The Economist Intelligence Unit N.A., Incorporated
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Political Science--International Relations
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2116529362
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2116529362?accountid=4840
Copyright: (c) 2018 The Economist Intelligence Unit Ltd. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. No further reproduction is permitted.
Last updated: 2018-10-06
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 409 of 474
Online Movie Ticketing Service Global Market Analysis, Growth, Opportunities, Top Key Players and Forecast to 2023
Publication info: M2 Presswire ; Coventry [Coventry]08 Oct 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: M2 PRESSWIRE-October 8, 2018-Online Movie Ticketing Service Global Market Analysis, Growth, Opportunities, Top Key Players and Forecast to 2023 (C)2018 M2 COMMUNICATIONS http://www.m2.com October 8, 2018 WiseGuyRerports.com Presents "Global Online Movie Ticketing Service Market 2018 by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2023" New Document to its Studies Database Online movie ticketing services provide customers convenient ways of booking movie tickets online without any time and location constraints. Websites and free mobile apps provided by service providers allow viewers to book their preferred seats. These services feature trailers of upcoming movies and also provide reviews and feedback of the movies running in theaters. The global online movie ticketing service market is likely to experience significant growth during the forecast period because of the increasing preference for online platforms for day-to-day activities by the majority of the population. Scope of the Report: This report studies the Online Movie Ticketing Service market status and outlook of Global and major regions, from angles of players, countries, product types and end industries; this report analyzes the top players in global market, and splits the Online Movie Ticketing Service market by product type and applications/end industries. The governments across the globe are increasingly focusing on reducing deforestation and environmental pollution. This is increasing their focus on promoting digital transactions to reduce the use of paper. Subsequently, telecom and banking organizations are adopting online platforms for monetary transactions. Movie ticket service providers are also adopting paperless transactions and are dispatching movie tickets through email and messages. This enables the convenience of online booking and eliminates the need for hard copies. The global Online Movie Ticketing Service market is valued at xx million USD in 2017 and is expected to reach xx million USD by the end of 2023, growing at a CAGR of xx% between 2017 and 2023. The Asia-Pacific will occupy for more market share in following years, especially in China, also fast growing India and Southeast Asia regions. North America, especially The United States, will still play an important role which cannot be ignored. Any changes from United States might affect the development trend of Online Movie Ticketing Service. Europe also play important roles in global market, with market size of xx million USD in 2017 and will be xx million USD in 2023, with a CAGR of xx%. Market Segment by Companies, this report covers Cineplex Entertainment Bigtree Cinemark Theatres VOX Cinemas Alibaba Group INOX Leisure Carnival Cinemas Fandango Kyazoonga Moviefone PVR Cinemas Reliance Media MovieTickets UA Cinema Circuit WANDA Group BookMyShow AMC Request For Sample Report @ https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/3431419-global-online-movie-ticketing-service-market-2018-by Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers North America (United States, Canada and Mexico) Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy) Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia) South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia) Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa) Market Segment by Type, covers Adventure Action Comedy Drama Thriller, suspense, and horror Market Segment by Applications, can be divided into Desktops Mobile devices Complete Report Details @ https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/3431419-global-online-movie-ticketing-service-market-2018-by Table Of Contents: 1 Online Movie Ticketing Service Market Overview 1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Online Movie Ticketing Service 1.2 Classification of Online Movie Ticketing Service by Types 1.2.1 Global Online Movie Ticketing Service Revenue Comparison by Types (2017-2023) 1.2.2 Global Online Movie Ticketing Service Revenue Market Share by Types in 2017 1.2.3 Adventure 1.2.4 Action 1.2.5 Comedy 1.2.6 Drama 1.2.7 Thriller, suspense, and horror 1.3 Global Online Movie Ticketing Service Market by Application 1.3.1 Global Online Movie Ticketing Service Market Size and Market Share Comparison by Applications (2013-2023) 1.3.2 Desktops 1.3.3 Mobile devices 1.4 Global Online Movie Ticketing Service Market by Regions 1.4.1 Global Online Movie Ticketing Service Market Size (Million USD) Comparison by Regions (2013-2023) 1.4.1 North America (USA, Canada and Mexico) Online Movie Ticketing Service Status and Prospect (2013-2023) 1.4.2 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy) Online Movie Ticketing Service Status and Prospect (2013-2023) 1.4.3 Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia) Online Movie Ticketing Service Status and Prospect (2013-2023) 1.4.4 South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia) Online Movie Ticketing Service Status and Prospect (2013-2023) 1.4.5 Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa) Online Movie Ticketing Service Status and Prospect (2013-2023) 1.5 Global Market Size of Online Movie Ticketing Service (2013-2023) 2 Manufacturers Profiles 2.1 Cineplex Entertainment 2.1.1 Business Overview 2.1.2 Online Movie Ticketing Service Type and Applications 2.1.2.1 Product A 2.1.2.2 Product B 2.1.3 Cineplex Entertainment Online Movie Ticketing Service Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017) 2.2 Bigtree 2.2.1 Business Overview 2.2.2 Online Movie Ticketing Service Type and Applications 2.2.2.1 Product A 2.2.2.2 Product B 2.2.3 Bigtree Online Movie Ticketing Service Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017) 2.3 Cinemark Theatres 2.3.1 Business Overview 2.3.2 Online Movie Ticketing Service Type and Applications 2.3.2.1 Product A 2.3.2.2 Product B 2.3.3 Cinemark Theatres Online Movie Ticketing Service Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017) 2.4 VOX Cinemas 2.4.1 Business Overview 2.4.2 Online Movie Ticketing Service Type and Applications 2.4.2.1 Product A 2.4.2.2 Product B 2.4.3 VOX Cinemas Online Movie Ticketing Service Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017) 2.5 Alibaba Group 2.5.1 Business Overview 2.5.2 Online Movie Ticketing Service Type and Applications 2.5.2.1 Product A 2.5.2.2 Product B 2.5.3 Alibaba Group Online Movie Ticketing Service Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017) Continued....... Media Contact Company Name: Wiseguyreports.com Contact Person: Norah Trent Email: [email protected] Phone: +1 646 845 9349, +44 208 133 9349 City: Pune State: Maharashtra Country: India Website: www.wiseguyreports.com Source: www.abnewswire.com ((Comments on this story may be sent to [email protected]))
Subject: Market strategy; Theaters & cinemas; Thrillers; Motion pictures; Market segments
Location: Italy Middle East Russia Canada Nigeria Egypt North America United Kingdom--UK Africa Argentina Brazil France Asia Europe Southeast Asia Mexico United States--US South Africa Saudi Arabia India Germany South America China Japan Colombia
Company / organization: Name: Alibaba Group; NAICS: 454111, 519130, 551112; Name: Cinemark USA Inc; NAICS: 512131
Publication title: M2 Presswire; Coventry
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Oct 8, 2018
Publisher: Normans Media Ltd
Place of publication: Coventry
Country of publication: United Kingdom, Coventry
Publication subject: Communications
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2116896164
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2116896164?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright © M2 Communications, 2018
Last updated: 2018-10-08
Database: SciTech Premium Collection
Document 410 of 474
Carnival: Second AIDA world tour startet in Hamburg
Publication info: News Bites - Leisure ; Melbourne [Melbourne]10 Oct 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: NEWS BITES - LEISURE Corporate Wire Date: 10 October 2018 06:35 BST ORIGINAL ANNOUNCEMENT On Monday, October 8th 2018, at 08:00 pm we said "Cast off and have a good trip!" to AIDAaura. After the grand send-off with fireworks, the ship sallied forth to its first world cruise. 20 countries and 41 ports are awaiting a visit from the globetrotter. Besides famous and popular destinations, new stops such as South Africa, Namibia, Melbourne, Tasmania and the archipelagos Fiji, Samoa, and New Caledonia are on the schedule. The first part of her world tour leads AIDAaura across the equator from Europe to South America. Dream destinations in Brazil and Argentina are awaiting the cruise guests. Alongside the breath-taking coast of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, the route leads to the southernmost city in the world, Ushuaia. After a few stops in Chile, the cruise gets exotic. On her way to Australia, AIDAaura visits Tahiti, Bora Bora, and Fiji, where guests get the chance to snorkel with colourful schooling fish, rays and turtles. After landings at New Caledonia, Australia and the wild landscapes of Tasmania, AIDAaura continues its voyage towards Mauritius, crossing the Indian Ocean. Animal lovers get their money worth at the coast of Africa. Newly included are ports in South Africa and Namibia, which not only inspire with their diversified nature but also offer the opportunity to see The Big Five with your own eyes. After crossing the equator a second time, ship and guests say Hola! to the Canary Islands, Salut! to Paris and eventually Moin! in Hamburg when, after 117 days, the journey comes to an end on February 2nd 2019. Booking and further information concerning AIDAaura at travel agencies, by calling the AIDA Customer Centre at +49381/20270707 or at http://www.aidaselection.de/. On October 28th 2019, the next world cruise will start: AIDAaura travels from Hamburg around the globe in 117 days, visiting 41 ports in 17 countries. ORIGINAL ANNOUNCEMENT Carnival: Second AIDA world tour startet in Hamburg can be viewed via the link below. Source: Company Website COMPANY IDENTIFIERS ISIN: GB0031215220 PermID: 4295896208 INSTITUTION IDENTIFIERS Source: www.BuySellSignals.com
Subject: Ports
Location: Fiji Canary Islands South Africa Tierra del Fuego Tasmania Australia Samoa Namibia New Caledonia South America Australia Africa Argentina Indian Ocean Chile Brazil Mauritius Tahiti Europe
Publication title: News Bites - Leisure; Melbourne
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Oct 10, 2018
Publisher: New s Bites Pty Ltd
Place of publication: Melbourne
Country of publication: Australia, Melbourne
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2117280301
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2117280301?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright News Bites Pty Ltd Oct 10, 2018
Last updated: 2018-10-10
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 411 of 474
Amusement Parks Market 2018 Share, Current Trends, Opportunities, Growth Size & Forecasts 2023
Publication info: M2 Presswire ; Coventry [Coventry]11 Oct 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: M2 PRESSWIRE-October 11, 2018-Amusement Parks Market 2018 Share, Current Trends, Opportunities, Growth Size & Forecasts 2023 (C)2018 M2 COMMUNICATIONS http://www.m2.com October 10, 2018 WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On -" Amusement Parks Market 2018 Share, Current Trends, Opportunities, Growth Size & Forecasts 2023". Description:- An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central theme, often featuring multiple areas with different themes. Unlike temporary and mobile funfairs and carnivals, amusement parks are stationary and built for long-lasting operation. They are more elaborate than city parks and playgrounds, usually providing attractions that cater to a variety of age groups. While amusement parks often contain themed areas, theme parks place a heavier focus with more intricately-designed themes that revolve around a particular subject or group of subjects. Scope of the Report: This report studies the Amusement Parks market status and outlook of Global and major regions, from angles of players, countries, product types and end industries; this report analyzes the top players in global market, and splits the Amusement Parks market by product type and applications/end industries. Get a Sample [email protected] https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/3453586-global-amusement-parks-market-2018-by-manufacturers-countries For more information or any query mail at [email protected] The North American and the European amusement parks markets are anticipated to witness substantial growth due to increasing per capita disposable income along with presence of major theme-based parks in the focused regions. Walt Disney World in Florida is considered as the most visited theme park in the world. Dubailand, an amusement park currently being constructed in Dubai is expected to be the largest theme-based park in the world. In India, Imagica, an amusement park owned by Adlabs, has surged in popularity. Hong Kong Disneyland, Ocean Park Hong Kong, Lotte World (South Korea), Everland (South Korea), Tokyo Disney Resort, and Universal Studios in Japan are some of the most visited amusement parks in Asia Pacific. The global Amusement Parks market is valued at xx million USD in 2017 and is expected to reach xx million USD by the end of 2023, growing at a CAGR of xx% between 2017 and 2023. The Asia-Pacific will occupy for more market share in following years, especially in China, also fast growing India and Southeast Asia regions. North America, especially The United States, will still play an important role which cannot be ignored. Any changes from United States might affect the development trend of Amusement Parks. Europe also play important roles in global market, with market size of xx million USD in 2017 and will be xx million USD in 2023, with a CAGR of xx%. Market Segment by Companies, this report covers Disney Parks and Resorts Universal Studios Theme parks OTC Parks China SeaWorld Entertainment Six Flags Entertainment Corporation Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers North America (United States, Canada and Mexico) Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy) Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia) South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia) Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa) Market Segment by Type, covers Science Theme-based Parks Music/Art Theme-based Parks Other Themes Market Segment by Applications, can be divided into Children Adult Enquiry About Report @ https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/3453586-global-amusement-parks-market-2018-by-manufacturers-countries Table Of Contents - Major Key Points 1 Amusement Parks Market Overview 1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Amusement Parks 1.2 Classification of Amusement Parks by Types 1.2.1 Global Amusement Parks Revenue Comparison by Types (2017-2023) 1.2.2 Global Amusement Parks Revenue Market Share by Types in 2017 1.2.3 Science Theme-based Parks 1.2.4 Music/Art Theme-based Parks 1.2.5 Other Themes 1.3 Global Amusement Parks Market by Application 1.3.1 Global Amusement Parks Market Size and Market Share Comparison by Applications (2013-2023) 1.3.2 Children 1.3.3 Adult 1.4 Global Amusement Parks Market by Regions 1.4.1 Global Amusement Parks Market Size (Million USD) Comparison by Regions (2013-2023) 1.4.1 North America (USA, Canada and Mexico) Amusement Parks Status and Prospect (2013-2023) 1.4.2 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy) Amusement Parks Status and Prospect (2013-2023) 1.4.3 Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia) Amusement Parks Status and Prospect (2013-2023) 1.4.4 South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia) Amusement Parks Status and Prospect (2013-2023) 1.4.5 Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa) Amusement Parks Status and Prospect (2013-2023) 1.5 Global Market Size of Amusement Parks (2013-2023) 2 Manufacturers Profiles 2.1 Disney Parks and Resorts 2.1.1 Business Overview 2.1.2 Amusement Parks Type and Applications 2.1.2.1 Product A 2.1.2.2 Product B 2.1.3 Disney Parks and Resorts Amusement Parks Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017) 2.2 Universal Studios Theme parks 2.2.1 Business Overview 2.2.2 Amusement Parks Type and Applications 2.2.2.1 Product A 2.2.2.2 Product B 2.2.3 Universal Studios Theme parks Amusement Parks Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017) 2.3 OTC Parks China 2.3.1 Business Overview 2.3.2 Amusement Parks Type and Applications 2.3.2.1 Product A 2.3.2.2 Product B 2.3.3 OTC Parks China Amusement Parks Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017) 2.4 SeaWorld Entertainment 2.4.1 Business Overview 2.4.2 Amusement Parks Type and Applications 2.4.2.1 Product A 2.4.2.2 Product B 2.4.3 SeaWorld Entertainment Amusement Parks Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017) 2.5 Six Flags Entertainment Corporation 2.5.1 Business Overview 2.5.2 Amusement Parks Type and Applications 2.5.2.1 Product A 2.5.2.2 Product B 2.5.3 Six Flags Entertainment Corporation Amusement Parks Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017) 3 Global Amusement Parks Market Competition, by Players 3.1 Global Amusement Parks Revenue and Share by Players (2013-2018) 3.2 Market Concentration Rate 3.2.1 Top 5 Amusement Parks Players Market Share 3.2.2 Top 10 Amusement Parks Players Market Share 3.3 Market Competition Trend Buy 1-user PDF @https://www.wiseguyreports.com/checkout?currency=one_user-USD&report_id=3453586 For more information or any query mail at [email protected] ABOUT US: Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories. Media Contact Company Name: Wiseguyreports.com Contact Person: Norah Trent Email: [email protected] Phone: +1 646 845 9349, +44 208 133 9349 City: Pune State: Maharashtra Country: India Website: http://www.wiseguyreports.com Source: http://www.abnewswire.com ((Comments on this story may be sent to [email protected]))
Subject: Trends; Amusement parks; Parks & recreation areas; Vacations; Market research; Market segments
Location: Italy Middle East Russia Canada Nigeria Egypt North America Dubai United Arab Emirates Africa Argentina Hong Kong Brazil Florida France Asia Europe Mexico South Africa Saudi Arabia India Germany South America China Japan Colombia
Company / organization: Name: Disneyland; NAICS: 713110; Name: Six Flags Entertainment Corp; NAICS: 713110; Name: Walt Disney World; NAICS: 713110; Name: Ocean Park Hong Kong; NAICS: 713110
Publication title: M2 Presswire; Coventry
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Oct 11, 2018
Publisher: Normans Media Ltd
Place of publication: Coventry
Country of publication: United Kingdom, Coventry
Publication subject: Communications
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2117691016
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2117691016?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright © M2 Communications, 2018
Last updated: 2018-10-11
Database: SciTech Premium Collection
Document 412 of 474
13th Annual International Festival Brings Worldwide Cultures to Statesboro
Publication info: Targeted News Service ; Washington, D.C. [Washington, D.C]12 Oct 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Georgia Southern University issued the following news release: Brazil, France, India, Japan, the United Kingdom and many other countries will be represented in Statesboro on October 27 at the 13th annual International Festival. International students from the Georgia Southern University Global Ambassadors Program will help local elementary, middle and high school students set up booths for the festival, which will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Mill Creek Regional Park. Angie Threatte, International Programming and Events coordinator, said the festival has not only grown over the years but also has given the University a chance to connect with local communities. "The goal of the festival is bringing diversity, as well as an educational, cross-cultural awareness and understanding to Bulloch County and the surrounding communities," she said. "We could not do it without the support of the various sponsors, schools who participate and the volunteers -- everyone involved in the organization of the festival has contributed to its continued growth and success." The festival will feature live singing and dance performances throughout the day as well as a Global Village, where students from local schools will have booths set up with information on each school's chosen country. Attendees will be able to create free international arts and crafts, including Brazilian carnival masks, English crowns, Eiffel Tower replicas, Lotus flowers, Japanese hanging fish, face painting, henna hand tattoos, calligraphy, origami and much more. There will also be an international food court where people can sample foods from China, India, Jamaica, Japan, Latin American countries, Nigeria, the Philippines, Thailand and Mexico. A World Craft Bazaar will have items for purchase. For more information on the festival visit GeorgiaSouthern.edu/intfest. MSTRUCK-6480392 MSTRUCK
Subject: Students; Festivals
Location: Thailand Mexico Jamaica India Nigeria Philippines United Kingdom--UK Georgia China Brazil France Japan Statesboro Georgia
Company / organization: Name: Georgia Southern University; NAICS: 611310
Publication title: Targeted News Service; Washington, D.C.
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Oct 12, 2018
Dateline: STATESBORO, Georgia
Publisher: Targeted News Service
Place of publication: Washington, D.C.
Country of publication: United States, Washington, D.C.
Publication subject: Public Administration
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2118769095
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url =https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2118769095?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright © Targeted News Service. All Rights Reserved.
Last updated: 2018-10-13
Database: US Southeast Newsstream
Document 413 of 474
'An integral part of American culture': Professor explains the sociology behind state fairs
Author: Martin, Amelia
Publication info: University Wire ; Carlsbad [Carlsbad]17 Oct 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Publication: The Duke Chronicle, Duke University, Durham NC. Lee Baker, Mrs. Alexander Hehmeyer professor of cultural anthropology, has done research on the traditions of fairs. Since the North Carolina State Fair is in town this week, The Chronicle spoke with Baker about his interest in the events and the sociological concepts behind them. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
The Chronicle: What sparked your interest in state fairs and similar rituals and celebrations?
Lee Baker: I’ve done research on world fairs in the United States and other countries during the turn of the century. As I’ve done this, I’ve found that there are many parallels between the historical genealogies of state fairs and those of these world fairs and other expositions—so that’s sort of how I became interested in the subject. I’m also a more general anthropologist of North America, so there are some principals and analysis that I can bring to bear to help explain these annual rituals in the United States and the parallels between them and those in other countries and cultures.
TC: What are some of these parallels between state fairs in the United States and other celebrations/expositions around the world?
LB : There are many. A lot of Americans think, “Oh we don’t really have culture,” but that’s not true. When you make that bonfire and burn the benches after the Carolina games, that’s a feature of an expressive culture that’s just as exotic as some sacrifice in the hills of Papua New Guinea. The state fair is another aspect of this culture.
Whether it’s in Minnesota, North Carolina, or Colorado, the fair not only marks the transitions between the seasons, but also celebrates family and community. These fairs are structured similarly to other big carnivals, like Carnival in Brazil or Mardi Gras. When people come together in big groups to celebrate something like this, unique things can happen. Rules are relaxed—you get to break them for a moment as part of a celebration of a larger community.
You can light something on fire in the middle of the quadrangle for a brief period of time to celebrate this sense of unity. So that’s where the fair comes in as well. You spend too much money. You eat stuff you would never eat on a normal day. People push the limits—deep fried anything. That’s all part of the fun and part of the celebration of community and family.
TC : How is the state fair historically similar to world fairs throughout the past century?
LB : World fairs have always been employed as opportunities to celebrate technology, new innovations and the like. This element of exposition is consistent between the world fairs of the last 100 years and modern state fairs. For state fairs, the focus is agriculture. Even though nowadays only a small percent of the population produces all the food and goods in the United States, the fair still stays true to its farming and husbandry traditions and maintains this exposition feel. It’s one of the few times farming and agriculture are raised to a level of respect and adoration.
TC : Do you foresee the fair evolving at all as parts of the United States become increasingly urbanized and a decreasing percentage of the population becomes involved in agriculture?
LB: I don’t think so. I think these fairs have established very durable traditions, so I don’t think the format, the structure, the celebration or the food is going to change too much. State fairs have been remarkably resilient in that they haven’t evolved much since the 1940s or 1950s. I think that one reason for this is that people want their kids to have experiences similar to the experiences that they had as kids.
There’s a generational link—the grandma’s fair is very similar to the mother’s fair, which is very similar to the daughter’s fair. I think state fairs in general appeal to nostalgia and hearken back to the “good old days.” It’s a moment to reflect upon the past or do something familiar that is not necessarily progressive. I don’t think there’s a widespread desire for the fair to evolve with the times. We could easily be playing virtual reality or high-tech shooter games, and instead we’re throwing softballs at milk cans and darts at balloons.
TC : What is your favorite aspect of the state fair? Does your family have any particular traditions associated with the event?
LB : My family has been going since my kids were young. I love gardening, and my hobby is collecting and growing house plants—drives my wife crazy—so I like to go to the exhibits on the plants. My wife is a quilter, so she gets excited about the quilting exhibits. We usually stop by the farm animals and the fun house for the kids. My son loves the fun house. Then we get food—our turkey legs, our corn and usually a funnel cake—and go on four or five rides. We try to only go on a few You can’t do 20 of them, you would go broke!
TC: Are there any aspects of the North Carolina State Fair specifically that you find particularly intriguing?
LB : Well it’s an integral part of American culture, that’s for sure. It’s a celebration of North Carolina and, by default, our diversity. When you walk through the state fair, the level of diversity is incredible. You see the South Asians from Cary, the Mexican families from Durham, the Republicans, the Democrats. You see rich people, poor people, working class, middle class. The full range of humanity is at the fair.
To me, that is a true celebration of North Carolina and North Carolina’s diversity. Everyone feels welcome—spending too much money and eating things that they shouldn’t be.
Credit: Amelia Martin
Subject: Cultural anthropology; Traditions; American culture
Location: Colorado Brazil United States--US North Carolina North America Papua New Guinea Minnesota
Company / organization: Name: North Carolina State Fair; NAICS: 711310; Name: Duke University; NAICS: 611310
Publication title: University Wire; Carlsbad
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Oct 17, 2018
Section: News
Publisher: Uloop, Inc.
Place of publication: Carlsbad
Country of publication: United States, Carlsbad
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2121169899
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2121169899?accountid=4840
Copyright: © 2018 UWIRE, a division of Uloop
Last updated: 2018-10-18
Database: Social Science Premium Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 414 of 474
Brazil’s home buyers bet on the ballot
Author: Cox, Hugo
Publication info: FT.com ; London (Oct 19, 2018).
Abstract:
“According to this argument, credit will then start flowing again, bringing Brazilian buyers back to the real estate market,” says Casaran. Casaran says that several US private equity funds have invested in commercial and residential property over the past year, betting that Brazil’s recovering economy and a favourable election outcome will see lower mortgage rates kick-start domestic demand. Buying guide * The quickest flights connect New York with Hercilio Luz International Airport, 10km from downtown Florianopolis, via São Paulo, in roughly 13 hours * Adjusting for inflation, average Brazilian house prices dropped 4 per cent in the first half of 2018, according to Oxford Economics * Sales taxes in Brazil are typically around 2 per cent What you can buy for . . . $500,000 A four-bedroom apartment with overlooking the ocean in Florianopolis $3m A five-bedroom villa on the Santa Catarina coast $8.5m A grand, five-bedroom penthouse in one of the most exclusive high-rises in São Paulo More homes at propertylistings.ft.com Follow @FTProperty on Twitter to find out about our latest stories first.Full text: Being a homeowner in Brazil is hard work. Although mortgage interest rates have been slowly coming down since last July — when the average rate peaked at 11.3 per cent, according to the Bank of Brazil — rates are still high. In August this year, the average rate was about 8 per cent, with deposits of 20 per cent usually being required to secure the purchase. The country’s economy is struggling to emerge from two years of recession and a contraction of nearly 8 per cent. Despite five successive quarters of growth, the recovery remains anaemic — latest figures for the second quarter show only a 0.2 per cent gain. Brazil’s consumer credit rates — which are among the highest in the world, according to Marcos Casaran, head of Latin America for Oxford Economics in Mexico — are helping to depress consumer confidence. With central bank interest rates at 6.5 per cent in August, the average borrowing rate on household debt was 30 per cent, according to the Central Bank of Brazil. The result has been a drop in housing demand, especially from rich buyers pulling back from discretionary second home purchases, says Andreas Hahn of Real Estate Brazil, an agent in São Paulo. In the past five years, house prices have gained just 1.7 per cent, according to Oxford Economics. Taking into account Brazil’s inflation over the period, the real price change is a fall of 15.3 per cent. Brazilian homeowners are hoping a new president — whom Brazilians will select from two candidates on October 28 — will help turn this around. If the winner can deliver much-needed political and economic stability, it is hoped that banks will again embrace consumer credit — including offering more competitive mortgage deals. “According to this argument, credit will then start flowing again, bringing Brazilian buyers back to the real estate market,” says Casaran. It’s not just Brazilians who are on tenterhooks for the election result. Local estate agents describe two very different bets taken by foreign buyers on the direction of Brazil’s top-end property market. The first group are staying on the sidelines until Brazil’s economic prospects become clear. “Nearly all my high net worth investors are sitting on the fence until the elections are complete and we have a definite outcome. This year has been a bit of a write-off for luxury home buyers but I expect the market to pick up once Bolsonaro is elected,” says Mike Smith who runs local agent Brazil Beach House in Natal. The bookies’ favourite is far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro, who won 46 per cent of the vote in the first round of the presidential election on October 7, ahead of Fernando Haddad, from the leftwing Workers’ party. Haddad, who won nearly 29 per cent of the vote and who will face Bolsonaro in the run-off on October 28, replaced former president Luiz Inácio da Silva as his party’s candidate when Brazil’s electoral court ruled that da Silva could not run for the presidency from jail, where he is serving a sentence for corruption. Bolsonaro has long expressed offensive views on women, the LGBTQ community (he once said he would rather have a son die than be gay), as well as frequent racism against Brazil’s black and mixed-race communities. However, he is favoured by investors, who believe that his proposals to privatise state-run enterprises and increase the independence of Brazil’s central bank will provide the country with much-needed economic stability. The problem with the wait-and-see strategy for overseas homebuyers is that they risk missing out on bargain prices. A combination ofBrazil’s uncertain economyand the corruption scandal that has engulfed many of the country’s senior politicians — including former president Dilma Rousseff, who was impeached in 2016 — has taken its toll on Brazil’s currency. The Brazilian real fell 29 per cent against the dollar in the 12 months to the middle of September. For bold foreign buyers, this has created huge discounts, which will narrow if Brazil’s economic recovery firms up and the real strengthens. Hahn says a higher number of his foreign clients have bought homes this year, taking advantage of the savings provided by Brazil’s weakening currency. “This year, the number of sales to this group increased by half on the same period in 2017,” he says, adding that buyers from abroad now make up two out of three sales. Most of Hahn’s clients are Swiss, French or German; many have established businesses in Brazil in the last year — typically in agriculture or tourism — betting on the country’s recovery. Much of the overseas money is invested in coastal villas or in prime properties in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. In the Jardins area of São Paulo — a district popular with international buyers and Brazil’s business elite — Christie’s International Real Estate is selling a three-bedroom apartment for R$4.9m ($1.35m). In Bertioga, a seaside town in the wider São Paulo state, Sotheby’s International Realty is selling a six-bedroom penthouse for R$18m. Outside Brazil’s major cities, Hahn points to the island city of Florianópolis — the capital of Santa Catarina, a state in Brazil’s south — and its surrounding neighbourhoods. For those attracted to the city buzz, apartments in the southerly neighbourhood of Abraão, just over the bridge on the mainland, are popular. Hahn says that the current fashion is for landscaped apartment complexes, which include gardens and swimming pools. In the nearby central district of Florianopolis, local agent Daniel Ferreira is selling a four-bedroom penthouse with a sea view for R$2.15m. When it comes to holiday homes, much of the hottest property is in the beachside neighbourhood of Jurerê Internacional, roughly 20 minutes’ drive from the city on the north of the island. Here minted expats as well as the great and good from Brazil stretch out in top-end villas — often in gated communities — as well as apartments near the beach. Nightly Ibiza-style DJ bars blend the creature comforts of the champagne set with Brazil’s carnival tradition. Imoveis de Luxo & Cia is selling a five-bedroom villa in Jurerê Internacional for R$9m. Brazil Beach House is selling a five-bedroom house with a pool in the same neighbourhood for R$7.8m. Well-heeled Europeans are not the only ones believing in a Brazilian housing market recovery. Casaran says that several US private equity funds have invested in commercial and residential property over the past year, betting that Brazil’s recovering economy and a favourable election outcome will see lower mortgage rates kick-start domestic demand. Both groups of buyers are taking a punt that the new president can keep the faltering economic recovery on track. That is a big gamble. US interest rate rises and Donald Trump’s trade wars have caused chaos in emerging markets this year. In the four weeks to June 18, Brazil’s flagship Bovespa equity index lost nearly a fifth of its value (it has since recovered some of the losses). Even with their favoured election result, investors could yet take flight, in which case the value of those smart villas in Jurerê Internacional could have much further to fall. Buying guide * The quickest flights connect New York with Hercilio Luz International Airport, 10km from downtown Florianopolis, via São Paulo, in roughly 13 hours * Adjusting for inflation, average Brazilian house prices dropped 4 per cent in the first half of 2018, according to Oxford Economics * Sales taxes in Brazil are typically around 2 per cent What you can buy for . . . $500,000 A four-bedroom apartment with overlooking the ocean in Florianopolis $3m A five-bedroom villa on the Santa Catarina coast $8.5m A grand, five-bedroom penthouse in one of the most exclusive high-rises in São Paulo More homes at propertylistings.ft.com Follow @FTProperty on Twitter to find out about our latest stories first. Subscribe to FT Life on YouTube for the latest FT Weekend videos Credit: Hugo Cox
Subject: Local elections; Houses; Interest rates; Apartments; Equity funds; Homeowners; Central banks; Presidents; Prices; Luxury homes
Location: Mexico Ibiza United States--US New York Latin America Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil
People: Trump, Donald J Rousseff, Dilma Bolsonaro, Jair
Company / organization: Name: Luxo; NAICS: 335122; Name: Twitter Inc; NAICS: 519130; Name: YouTube Inc; NAICS: 519130; Name: Banco Central do Brasil; NAICS: 521110; Name: Sao Paulo Stock Exchange; NAICS: 523210
Publication title: FT.com; London
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Oct 19, 2018
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Trade Journals
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2122910539
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2122910539?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Oct 19, 2018
Last updated: 2018-10-20
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 415 of 474
Betting on the ballot: Brazil property | Election could see the economy — and therefore house prices — go eitherway. By Hugo Cox [Europe Region]
Author: Cox, Hugo
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]20 Oct 2018: 10.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Being a homeowner in Brazil is hard work. Although mortgage interest rates have been slowly coming down since last July — when the average rate peaked at 11.3 per cent, according to the Bank of Brazil — rates are still high. In August this year, the average rate was about 8 per cent, with deposits of 20 per cent usually being required to secure thepurchase. The country's economy is struggling to emerge from two years of recession and a contraction of nearly 8 per cent. Despite five successive quarters of growth, the recovery remains anaemic — latest figures for the second quarter showonlya0.2 per cent gain. Brazil's consumer credit rates — which are among the highest in the world, according to Marcos Casaran, head of Latin America for Oxford Economics in Mexico — are helping to depress consumer confidence. With central bank interest rates at 6.5 per cent in August, the average borrowing rate on household debt was 30 per cent, according to the CentralBankof Brazil. The result has been a drop in housing demand, especially from rich buyers pulling back from discretionary second home purchases, says Andreas Hahn of Real Estate Brazil, an agent in São Paulo. In the past five years, house prices have gained just 1.7 per cent, according to Oxford Economics. Taking into account Brazil's inflation over the period, the real pricechangeis a fall of 15.3per cent. Brazilian homeowners are hoping a new president — whom Brazilians will select from two candidates on October 28 — will help turn this around. If the winner can deliver much-needed political and economic stability, it is hoped that banks will again embrace consumer credit—including offering more competitivemortgagedeals. "According to this argument, credit will then start flowing again, bringing Brazilian buyers back to the real estate market," says Casaran. It's not just Brazilians who are on tenterhooks for the election result. Local estates agents describe two very different bets taken by foreign buyers on the direction of Brazil's top-end property market. The first group are staying on the sidelines until Brazil's economicprospectsbecomeclear. "Nearly all my high net worth investors are sitting on the fence until the elections are complete and we have a definite outcome. This year has been a bit of a write-off for luxuryhomebuyers but I expect the market to pick up once Bolsonaro is elected," says Mike Smithwhoruns local agent Brazil Beach Housein Natal. The bookies' favourite is far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro, who won 46 per cent of the vote in the first round of the presidential election on October 7, ahead of Fernando Haddad, from the leftwing Workers' party. Haddad, who won nearly 29 per cent of the vote and whowill face Bolsonarointhe run-offon October 28, replaced former president Luiz Inácio da Silva as his party's candidate when Brazil's electoral court ruled that da Silva could not run for the presidency from jail, where he is serving a sentence for corruption. Bolsonaro has long expressed offensive views on women, the LGBTQ community (he once said he would rather have a son die than be gay), as well as frequent racism against Brazil's black and mixed-race communities. However, he is favoured by investors, who believe that his proposals to privatise state-run enterprises and increase the independence of Brazil's central bank will provide the country withmuch-neededeconomicstability. The problem with the wait-and-see strategyforoverseashomebuyers is that they risk missing out on bargain prices. A combination of Brazil's uncertain economy and the corruption scandal that has engulfed many of the country's senior politicians — including former president Dilma Rousseff, who was impeached in 2016 — has taken its toll on Brazil's currency. The Brazilian real fell 29 per cent against the dollar in the 12monthsto themiddleofSeptember. For bold foreign buyers, this has created huge discounts, which will narrow if Brazil's economic recovery firms up and the real strengthens. Hahn says a higher number of his foreign clients have bought homes this year, taking advantage of the savings provided by Brazil's weakening currency. "This year, the number of sales to this group increased by half on the same period in 2017," he says, adding that buyers from abroad now make up two out of three sales. Most of Hahn's clients are Swiss, French or German; many have established businesses in Brazil in the last year — typically in agriculture or tourism—bettingonthe country's recovery. Much of the overseas money is invested in coastal villas or in prime properties in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. In the Jardins area of São Paulo— a district popular with international buyers and Brazil's business elite — Christie's International Real Estate is selling a three-bedroom apartment for R$4.9m($1.35m). In Bertioga, a seaside town in the wider São Paulo state, Sotheby's International Realty is selling a six-bedroompenthouseforR$18m. Outside Brazil's major cities, Hahn points to the island city of Florianópolis —the capital of Santa Catarina, a state in Brazil's south — and its surrounding neighbourhoods. For those attracted to the city buzz, apartments in the southerly neighbourhood ofAbraão, just over the bridgeonthe mainland, arepopular. Hahnsays that the current fashion is for landscaped apartment complexes, which include gardens and swimming pools. In the nearby central district of Florianopolis, local agent Daniel Ferreira is selling a four-bedroom penthousewith a seaviewforR$2.15m. When it comes to holiday homes, much of the hottest property is in the beachside neighbourhood of Jurerê Internacional, roughly 20 minutes' drive from the city on the north of the island.Here minted expats as well as the greatandgood fromBrazil stretch out in top-end villas—often in gated communities — as well as apartments near the beach. Nightly Ibiza-style DJ bars blend the creature comforts of the champagne set with Brazil's carnival tradition. Imoveis de Luxo&Cia is selling a fivebedroom villa in Jurerê Internacional forR$9m.BrazilBeachHouseis selling a five-bedroom house with a pool in the sameneighbourhoodforR$7.8m. Well-heeled Europeans are not the only ones believing in a Brazilian housing market recovery. Casaran says that several US private equity funds have invested in commercial and residential property over the past year, betting that Brazil's recovering economy and a favourable election outcome will see lower mortgage rates kick-start domesticdemand. Both groups of buyers are taking a punt that the new president can keep the faltering economic recovery on track. That is a big gamble. US interest rate rises and Donald Trump's trade wars have caused chaos in emerging markets this year. In the four weeks to June 18, Brazil's flagship Bovespa equity index lost nearly a fifth of its value (it has since recovered some of the losses). Evenwith their favouredelection result, investors could yet take flight, in which case the value of those smart villas in Jurerê Internacional could have much further to fall. i /BUYING GUIDE The quickest flights connect New York with Hercilio Luz International Airport, 10km from downtown Florianopolis, via São Paulo, in roughly 13 hours Adjusting for inflation, average Brazilian house prices dropped 4 per cent in the first half of 2018, according to Oxford Economics Sales taxes in Brazil are typically around 2 per cent Whatyoucanbuyfor. .. $500,000 A four-bedroom apartment with overlooking the ocean in Florianopolis $3m A five-bedroom villa on the Santa Caterina coast $8.5mA grand, five-bedroom penthouse in one of the most exclusive high-rises in Sao Paulo More homes at propertylistings.ft.com BRAZIL Jurerê Internacional Bertioga Rio de Janeiro São Paulo STATE OF SANTA CATARINA Florianópolis 200 km maps4news.com/©HERE CREDIT: Hugo Cox CAPTION: Presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro — Bloomberg; Five-bedroomhouse in Florianópolis, R$7.8m; Ipanema beach, Rio de Janeiro — Giordano Cipriani/4Corners Images; Three-bedroom apartment in Jardins area of São Paulo, R$ 4.9m; Florianopolis, Santa Catarina Island Antonino Bartuccio/4Corners; Ibirapuera Park, São Paulo — Andre Vieira /Agentur Focus /eyevine
Subject: Local elections; Houses; Interest rates; Apartments; Equity funds; Homeowners; Central banks
Location: Mexico Ibiza United States--US New York Latin America Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil
People: Trump, Donald J Rousseff, Dilma Bolsonaro, Jair
Company / organization: Name: Sothebys; NAICS: 453920; Name: Luxo; NAICS: 335122; Name: Sao Paulo Stock Exchange; NAICS: 523210
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
Firstpage: 10
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Oct 20, 2018
Section: House and Home
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2135407429
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2135407429?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Oct 20, 2018
Last updated: 2018-11-20
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 416 of 474
Betting on the ballot: Brazil property Election could see the economy — and therefore house prices — go eitherway.
Author: Cox, Hugo
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]20 Oct 2018: 10. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Being a homeowner in Brazil is hard work. Although mortgage interest rates have been slowly coming down since last July — when the average rate peaked at 11.3 per cent, according to the Bank of Brazil — rates are still high. In August this year, the average rate was about 8 per cent, with deposits of 20 per cent usually being required to secure thepurchase. The country's economy is struggling to emerge from two years of recession and a contraction of nearly 8 per cent. Despite five successive quarters of growth, the recovery remains anaemic — latest figures for the second quarter showonlya0.2 per cent gain. Brazil's consumer credit rates — which are among the highest in the world, according to Marcos Casaran, head of Latin America for Oxford Economics in Mexico — are helping to depress consumer confidence. With central bank interest rates at 6.5 per cent in August, the average borrowing rate on household debt was 30 per cent, according to the CentralBankof Brazil. The result has been a drop in housing demand, especially from rich buyers pulling back from discretionary second home purchases, says Andreas Hahn of Real Estate Brazil, an agent in São Paulo. In the past five years, house prices have gained just 1.7 per cent, according to Oxford Economics. Taking into account Brazil's inflation over the period, the real pricechangeis a fall of 15.3per cent. Brazilian homeowners are hoping a new president — whom Brazilians will select from two candidates on October 28 — will help turn this around. If the winner can deliver much-needed political and economic stability, it is hoped that banks will again embrace consumer credit—including offering more competitivemortgagedeals. "According to this argument, credit will then start flowing again, bringing Brazilian buyers back to the real estate market," says Casaran. It's not just Brazilians who are on tenterhooks for the election result. Local estates agents describe two very different bets taken by foreign buyers on the direction of Brazil's top-end property market. The first group are staying on the sidelines until Brazil's economicprospectsbecomeclear. "Nearly all my high net worth investors are sitting on the fence until the elections are complete and we have a definite outcome. This year has been a bit of a write-off for luxuryhomebuyers but I expect the market to pick up once Bolsonaro is elected," says Mike Smithwhoruns local agent Brazil Beach Housein Natal. The bookies' favourite is far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro, who won 46 per cent of the vote in the first round of the presidential election on October 7, ahead of Fernando Haddad, from the leftwing Workers' party. Haddad, who won nearly 29 per cent of the vote and whowill face Bolsonarointhe run-offon October 28, replaced former president Luiz Inácio da Silva as his party's candidate when Brazil's electoral court ruled that da Silva could not run for the presidency from jail, where he is serving a sentence for corruption. Bolsonaro has long expressed offensive views on women, the LGBTQ community (he once said he would rather have a son die than be gay), as well as frequent racism against Brazil's black and mixed-race communities. However, he is favoured by investors, who believe that his proposals to privatise state-run enterprises and increase the independence of Brazil's central bank will provide the country withmuch-neededeconomicstability. The problem with the wait-and-see strategyforoverseashomebuyers is that they risk missing out on bargain prices. A combination of Brazil's uncertain economy and the corruption scandal that has engulfed many of the country's senior politicians — including former president Dilma Rousseff, who was impeached in 2016 — has taken its toll on Brazil's currency. The Brazilian real fell 29 per cent against the dollar in the 12monthsto themiddleofSeptember. For bold foreign buyers, this has created huge discounts, which will narrow if Brazil's economic recovery firms up and the real strengthens. Hahn says a higher number of his foreign clients have bought homes this year, taking advantage of the savings provided by Brazil's weakening currency. "This year, the number of sales to this group increased by half on the same period in 2017," he says, adding that buyers from abroad now make up two out of three sales. Most of Hahn's clients are Swiss, French or German; many have established businesses in Brazil in the last year — typically in agriculture or tourism—bettingonthe country's recovery. Much of the overseas money is invested in coastal villas or in prime properties in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. In the Jardins area of São Paulo— a district popular with international buyers and Brazil's business elite — Christie's International Real Estate is selling a three-bedroom apartment for R$4.9m($1.35m). In Bertioga, a seaside town in the wider São Paulo state, Sotheby's International Realty is selling a six-bedroompenthouseforR$18m. Outside Brazil's major cities, Hahn points to the island city of Florianópolis —the capital of Santa Catarina, a state in Brazil's south — and its surrounding neighbourhoods. For those attracted to the city buzz, apartments in the southerly neighbourhood ofAbraão, just over the bridgeonthe mainland, arepopular. Hahnsays that the current fashion is for landscaped apartment complexes, which include gardens and swimming pools. In the nearby central district of Florianopolis, local agent Daniel Ferreira is selling a four-bedroom penthousewith a seaviewforR$2.15m. When it comes to holiday homes, much of the hottest property is in the beachside neighbourhood of Jurerê Internacional, roughly 20 minutes' drive from the city on the north of the island.Here minted expats as well as the greatandgood fromBrazil stretch out in top-end villas—often in gated communities — as well as apartments near the beach. Nightly Ibiza-style DJ bars blend the creature comforts of the champagne set with Brazil's carnival tradition. Imoveis de Luxo&Cia is selling a fivebedroom villa in Jurerê Internacional forR$9m.BrazilBeachHouseis selling a five-bedroom house with a pool in the sameneighbourhoodforR$7.8m. Well-heeled Europeans are not the only ones believing in a Brazilian housing market recovery. Casaran says that several US private equity funds have invested in commercial and residential property over the past year, betting that Brazil's recovering economy and a favourable election outcome will see lower mortgage rates kick-start domesticdemand. Both groups of buyers are taking a punt that the new president can keep the faltering economic recovery on track. That is a big gamble. US interest rate rises and Donald Trump's trade wars have caused chaos in emerging markets this year. In the four weeks to June 18, Brazil's flagship Bovespa equity index lost nearly a fifth of its value (it has since recovered some of the losses). Evenwith their favouredelection result, investors could yet take flight, in which case the value of those smart villas in Jurerê Internacional could have much further to fall. i /BUYING GUIDE The quickest flights connect New York with Hercilio Luz International Airport, 10km from downtown Florianopolis, via São Paulo, in roughly 13 hours Adjusting for inflation, average Brazilian house prices dropped 4 per cent in the first half of 2018, according to Oxford Economics Sales taxes in Brazil are typically around 2 per cent Whatyoucanbuyfor. .. $500,000 A four-bedroom apartment with overlooking the ocean in Florianopolis $3m A five-bedroom villa on the Santa Caterina coast $8.5mA grand, five-bedroom penthouse in one of the most exclusive high-rises in Sao Paulo More homes at propertylistings.ft.com BRAZIL Jurerê Internacional Bertioga Rio de Janeiro São Paulo STATE OF SANTA CATARINA Florianópolis 200 km maps4news.com/©HERE CREDIT: By Hugo Cox CAPTION: Presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro Bloomberg; Five-bedroomhouse in Florianópolis, R$7.8m; Ipanema beach, Rio de Janeiro Giordano Cipriani/4Corners Images; Three-bedroom apartment in Jardins area of São Paulo, R$ 4.9m; Florianopolis, Santa Catarina Island Antonino Bartuccio/4Corners; Ibirapuera Park, São Paulo Andre Vieira /Agentur Focus /eyevine
Subject: Local elections; Houses; Interest rates; Apartments; Equity funds; Homeowners; Central banks
Location: Mexico Ibiza United States--US New York Latin America Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil
People: Trump, Donald J Rousseff, Dilma Bolsonaro, Jair
Company / organization: Name: Sothebys; NAICS: 453920; Name: Luxo; NAICS: 335122; Name: Sao Paulo Stock Exchange; NAICS: 523210
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 10
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Oct 20, 2018
Section: House and Home
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2135411201
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2135411201?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Oct 20, 2018
Last updated: 2018-11-20
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 417 of 474
Betting on the ballot: Brazil property | Election could see the economy — and therefore house prices — go eitherway. By Hugo Cox [Asia Region]
Author: Cox, Hugo
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]20 Oct 2018: 10. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Being a homeowner in Brazil is hard work. Although mortgage interest rates have been slowly coming down since last July — when the average rate peaked at 11.3 per cent, according to the Bank of Brazil — rates are still high. In August this year, the average rate was about 8 per cent, with deposits of 20 per cent usually being required to secure thepurchase. The country's economy is struggling to emerge from two years of recession and a contraction of nearly 8 per cent. Despite five successive quarters of growth, the recovery remains anaemic — latest figures for the second quarter showonlya0.2 per cent gain. Brazil's consumer credit rates — which are among the highest in the world, according to Marcos Casaran, head of Latin America for Oxford Economics in Mexico — are helping to depress consumer confidence. With central bank interest rates at 6.5 per cent in August, the average borrowing rate on household debt was 30 per cent, according to the CentralBankof Brazil. The result has been a drop in housing demand, especially from rich buyers pulling back from discretionary second home purchases, says Andreas Hahn of Real Estate Brazil, an agent in São Paulo. In the past five years, house prices have gained just 1.7 per cent, according to Oxford Economics. Taking into account Brazil's inflation over the period, the real pricechangeis a fall of 15.3per cent. Brazilian homeowners are hoping a new president — whom Brazilians will select from two candidates on October 28 — will help turn this around. If the winner can deliver much-needed political and economic stability, it is hoped that banks will again embrace consumer credit—including offering more competitivemortgagedeals. "According to this argument, credit will then start flowing again, bringing Brazilian buyers back to the real estate market," says Casaran. It's not just Brazilians who are on tenterhooks for the election result. Local estates agents describe two very different bets taken by foreign buyers on the direction of Brazil's top-end property market. The first group are staying on the sidelines until Brazil's economicprospectsbecomeclear. "Nearly all my high net worth investors are sitting on the fence until the elections are complete and we have a definite outcome. This year has been a bit of a write-off for luxuryhomebuyers but I expect the market to pick up once Bolsonaro is elected," says Mike Smithwhoruns local agent Brazil Beach Housein Natal. The bookies' favourite is far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro, who won 46 per cent of the vote in the first round of the presidential election on October 7, ahead of Fernando Haddad, from the leftwing Workers' party. Haddad, who won nearly 29 per cent of the vote and whowill face Bolsonarointhe run-offon October 28, replaced former president Luiz Inácio da Silva as his party's candidate when Brazil's electoral court ruled that da Silva could not run for the presidency from jail, where he is serving a sentence for corruption. Bolsonaro has long expressed offensive views on women, the LGBTQ community (he once said he would rather have a son die than be gay), as well as frequent racism against Brazil's black and mixed-race communities. However, he is favoured by investors, who believe that his proposals to privatise state-run enterprises and increase the independence of Brazil's central bank will provide the country withmuch-neededeconomicstability. The problem with the wait-and-see strategyforoverseashomebuyers is that they risk missing out on bargain prices. A combination of Brazil's uncertain economy and the corruption scandal that has engulfed many of the country's senior politicians — including former president Dilma Rousseff, who was impeached in 2016 — has taken its toll on Brazil's currency. The Brazilian real fell 29 per cent against the dollar in the 12monthsto themiddleofSeptember. For bold foreign buyers, this has created huge discounts, which will narrow if Brazil's economic recovery firms up and the real strengthens. Hahn says a higher number of his foreign clients have bought homes this year, taking advantage of the savings provided by Brazil's weakening currency. "This year, the number of sales to this group increased by half on the same period in 2017," he says, adding that buyers from abroad now make up two out of three sales. Most of Hahn's clients are Swiss, French or German; many have established businesses in Brazil in the last year — typically in agriculture or tourism—bettingonthe country's recovery. Much of the overseas money is invested in coastal villas or in prime properties in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. In the Jardins area of São Paulo— a district popular with international buyers and Brazil's business elite — Christie's International Real Estate is selling a three-bedroom apartment for R$4.9m($1.35m). In Bertioga, a seaside town in the wider São Paulo state, Sotheby's International Realty is selling a six-bedroompenthouseforR$18m. Outside Brazil's major cities, Hahn points to the island city of Florianópolis —the capital of Santa Catarina, a state in Brazil's south — and its surrounding neighbourhoods. For those attracted to the city buzz, apartments in the southerly neighbourhood ofAbraão, just over the bridgeonthe mainland, arepopular. Hahnsays that the current fashion is for landscaped apartment complexes, which include gardens and swimming pools. In the nearby central district of Florianopolis, local agent Daniel Ferreira is selling a four-bedroom penthousewith a seaviewforR$2.15m. When it comes to holiday homes, much of the hottest property is in the beachside neighbourhood of Jurerê Internacional, roughly 20 minutes' drive from the city on the north of the island.Here minted expats as well as the greatandgood fromBrazil stretch out in top-end villas—often in gated communities — as well as apartments near the beach. Nightly Ibiza-style DJ bars blend the creature comforts of the champagne set with Brazil's carnival tradition. Imoveis de Luxo&Cia is selling a fivebedroom villa in Jurerê Internacional forR$9m.BrazilBeachHouseis selling a five-bedroom house with a pool in the sameneighbourhoodforR$7.8m. Well-heeled Europeans are not the only ones believing in a Brazilian housing market recovery. Casaran says that several US private equity funds have invested in commercial and residential property over the past year, betting that Brazil's recovering economy and a favourable election outcome will see lower mortgage rates kick-start domesticdemand. Both groups of buyers are taking a punt that the new president can keep the faltering economic recovery on track. That is a big gamble. US interest rate rises and Donald Trump's trade wars have caused chaos in emerging markets this year. In the four weeks to June 18, Brazil's flagship Bovespa equity index lost nearly a fifth of its value (it has since recovered some of the losses). Evenwith their favouredelection result, investors could yet take flight, in which case the value of those smart villas in Jurerê Internacional could have much further to fall. i /BUYING GUIDE The quickest flights connect New York with Hercilio Luz International Airport, 10km from downtown Florianopolis, via São Paulo, in roughly 13 hours Adjusting for inflation, average Brazilian house prices dropped 4 per cent in the first half of 2018, according to Oxford Economics Sales taxes in Brazil are typically around 2 per cent Whatyoucanbuyfor. .. $500,000 A four-bedroom apartment with overlooking the ocean in Florianopolis $3m A five-bedroom villa on the Santa Caterina coast $8.5mA grand, five-bedroom penthouse in one of the most exclusive high-rises in Sao Paulo More homes at propertylistings.ft.com BRAZIL Jurerê Internacional Bertioga Rio de Janeiro São Paulo STATE OF SANTA CATARINA Florianópolis 200 km maps4news.com/©HERE CREDIT: Hugo Cox CAPTION: Presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro — Bloomberg; Five-bedroomhouse in Florianópolis, R$7.8m; Ipanema beach, Rio de Janeiro — Giordano Cipriani/4Corners Images; Three-bedroom apartment in Jardins area of São Paulo, R$ 4.9m; Florianopolis, Santa Catarina Island Antonino Bartuccio/4Corners; Ibirapuera Park, São Paulo — Andre Vieira /Agentur Focus /eyevine
Subject: Local elections; Houses; Interest rates; Apartments; Equity funds; Homeowners; Central banks
Location: Mexico Ibiza United States--US New York Latin America Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil
People: Trump, Donald J Rousseff, Dilma Bolsonaro, Jair
Company / organization: Name: Sothebys; NAICS: 453920; Name: Luxo; NAICS: 335122; Name: Sao Paulo Stock Exchange; NAICS: 523210
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 10
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Oct 20, 2018
Section: House and Home
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2135416767
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2135416767?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Oct 20, 2018
Last updated: 2018-11-20
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 418 of 474
Betting on the ballot: Brazil property | Election could see the economy — and therefore house prices — go eitherway. By Hugo Cox [Usa Region]
Author: Cox, Hugo
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]20 Oct 2018: 10. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Being a homeowner in Brazil is hard work. Although mortgage interest rates have been slowly coming down since last July — when the average rate peaked at 11.3 per cent, according to the Bank of Brazil — rates are still high. In August this year, the average rate was about 8 per cent, with deposits of 20 per cent usually being required to secure thepurchase. The country's economy is struggling to emerge from two years of recession and a contraction of nearly 8 per cent. Despite five successive quarters of growth, the recovery remains anaemic — latest figures for the second quarter showonlya0.2 per cent gain. Brazil's consumer credit rates — which are among the highest in the world, according to Marcos Casaran, head of Latin America for Oxford Economics in Mexico — are helping to depress consumer confidence. With central bank interest rates at 6.5 per cent in August, the average borrowing rate on household debt was 30 per cent, according to the CentralBankof Brazil. The result has been a drop in housing demand, especially from rich buyers pulling back from discretionary second home purchases, says Andreas Hahn of Real Estate Brazil, an agent in São Paulo. In the past five years, house prices have gained just 1.7 per cent, according to Oxford Economics. Taking into account Brazil's inflation over the period, the real pricechangeis a fall of 15.3per cent. Brazilian homeowners are hoping a new president — whom Brazilians will select from two candidates on October 28 — will help turn this around. If the winner can deliver much-needed political and economic stability, it is hoped that banks will again embrace consumer credit—including offering more competitivemortgagedeals. "According to this argument, credit will then start flowing again, bringing Brazilian buyers back to the real estate market," says Casaran. It's not just Brazilians who are on tenterhooks for the election result. Local estates agents describe two very different bets taken by foreign buyers on the direction of Brazil's top-end property market. The first group are staying on the sidelines until Brazil's economicprospectsbecomeclear. "Nearly all my high net worth investors are sitting on the fence until the elections are complete and we have a definite outcome. This year has been a bit of a write-off for luxuryhomebuyers but I expect the market to pick up once Bolsonaro is elected," says Mike Smithwhoruns local agent Brazil Beach Housein Natal. The bookies' favourite is far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro, who won 46 per cent of the vote in the first round of the presidential election on October 7, ahead of Fernando Haddad, from the leftwing Workers' party. Haddad, who won nearly 29 per cent of the vote and whowill face Bolsonarointhe run-offon October 28, replaced former president Luiz Inácio da Silva as his party's candidate when Brazil's electoral court ruled that da Silva could not run for the presidency from jail, where he is serving a sentence for corruption. Bolsonaro has long expressed offensive views on women, the LGBTQ community (he once said he would rather have a son die than be gay), as well as frequent racism against Brazil's black and mixed-race communities. However, he is favoured by investors, who believe that his proposals to privatise state-run enterprises and increase the independence of Brazil's central bank will provide the country withmuch-neededeconomicstability. The problem with the wait-and-see strategyforoverseashomebuyers is that they risk missing out on bargain prices. A combination of Brazil's uncertain economy and the corruption scandal that has engulfed many of the country's senior politicians — including former president Dilma Rousseff, who was impeached in 2016 — has taken its toll on Brazil's currency. The Brazilian real fell 29 per cent against the dollar in the 12monthsto themiddleofSeptember. For bold foreign buyers, this has created huge discounts, which will narrow if Brazil's economic recovery firms up and the real strengthens. Hahn says a higher number of his foreign clients have bought homes this year, taking advantage of the savings provided by Brazil's weakening currency. "This year, the number of sales to this group increased by half on the same period in 2017," he says, adding that buyers from abroad now make up two out of three sales. Most of Hahn's clients are Swiss, French or German; many have established businesses in Brazil in the last year — typically in agriculture or tourism—bettingonthe country's recovery. Much of the overseas money is invested in coastal villas or in prime properties in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. In the Jardins area of São Paulo— a district popular with international buyers and Brazil's business elite — Christie's International Real Estate is selling a three-bedroom apartment for R$4.9m($1.35m). In Bertioga, a seaside town in the wider São Paulo state, Sotheby's International Realty is selling a six-bedroompenthouseforR$18m. Outside Brazil's major cities, Hahn points to the island city of Florianópolis —the capital of Santa Catarina, a state in Brazil's south — and its surrounding neighbourhoods. For those attracted to the city buzz, apartments in the southerly neighbourhood ofAbraão, just over the bridgeonthe mainland, arepopular. Hahnsays that the current fashion is for landscaped apartment complexes, which include gardens and swimming pools. In the nearby central district of Florianopolis, local agent Daniel Ferreira is selling a four-bedroom penthousewith a seaviewforR$2.15m. When it comes to holiday homes, much of the hottest property is in the beachside neighbourhood of Jurerê Internacional, roughly 20 minutes' drive from the city on the north of the island.Here minted expats as well as the greatandgood fromBrazil stretch out in top-end villas—often in gated communities — as well as apartments near the beach. Nightly Ibiza-style DJ bars blend the creature comforts of the champagne set with Brazil's carnival tradition. Imoveis de Luxo&Cia is selling a fivebedroom villa in Jurerê Internacional forR$9m.BrazilBeachHouseis selling a five-bedroom house with a pool in the sameneighbourhoodforR$7.8m. Well-heeled Europeans are not the only ones believing in a Brazilian housing market recovery. Casaran says that several US private equity funds have invested in commercial and residential property over the past year, betting that Brazil's recovering economy and a favourable election outcome will see lower mortgage rates kick-start domesticdemand. Both groups of buyers are taking a punt that the new president can keep the faltering economic recovery on track. That is a big gamble. US interest rate rises and Donald Trump's trade wars have caused chaos in emerging markets this year. In the four weeks to June 18, Brazil's flagship Bovespa equity index lost nearly a fifth of its value (it has since recovered some of the losses). Evenwith their favouredelection result, investors could yet take flight, in which case the value of those smart villas in Jurerê Internacional could have much further to fall. i /BUYING GUIDE The quickest flights connect New York with Hercilio Luz International Airport, 10km from downtown Florianopolis, via São Paulo, in roughly 13 hours Adjusting for inflation, average Brazilian house prices dropped 4 per cent in the first half of 2018, according to Oxford Economics Sales taxes in Brazil are typically around 2 per cent Whatyoucanbuyfor. .. $500,000 A four-bedroom apartment with overlooking the ocean in Florianopolis $3m A five-bedroom villa on the Santa Caterina coast $8.5mA grand, five-bedroom penthouse in one of the most exclusive high-rises in Sao Paulo More homes at propertylistings.ft.com BRAZIL Jurerê Internacional Bertioga Rio de Janeiro São Paulo STATE OF SANTA CATARINA Florianópolis 200 km maps4news.com/©HERE CREDIT: Hugo Cox CAPTION: Presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro — Bloomberg; Five-bedroomhouse in Florianópolis, R$7.8m; Ipanema beach, Rio de Janeiro — Giordano Cipriani/4Corners Images; Three-bedroom apartment in Jardins area of São Paulo, R$ 4.9m; Florianopolis, Santa Catarina Island Antonino Bartuccio/4Corners; Ibirapuera Park, São Paulo — Andre Vieira /Agentur Focus /eyevine
Subject: Local elections; Houses; Interest rates; Apartments; Equity funds; Homeowners; Central banks
Location: Mexico Ibiza United States--US New York Latin America Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil
People: Trump, Donald J Rousseff, Dilma Bolsonaro, Jair
Company / organization: Name: Sothebys; NAICS: 453920; Name: Luxo; NAICS: 335122; Name: Sao Paulo Stock Exchange; NAICS: 523210
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 10
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Oct 20, 2018
Section: House and Home
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2135418713
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2135418713?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Oct 20, 2018
Last updated: 2018-11-20
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 419 of 474
Q3 2018 Localiza Rent a Car SA Earnings Call - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]25 Oct 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Presentation OPERATOR: Good morning, and welcome to Localiza Rent a Car Conference Call for the Third Quarter Results of 2018. With me in the event today are Mr. Mauricio Teixeira, CFO: and Mrs. Nora Lanari, Investor Relations Director. We would like to inform that the numbers in this presentation are stated in millions of Brazilian reais and based on IFRS. (Operator Instructions) And it will be recorded. (Operator Instructions) The conference call audio and the company's slide presentation are being broadcasted simultaneously over the Internet at www.localiza.com/ir. The slide presentation can be downloaded at the same address by clicking on the banner 3Q18 and 9M18 Webcast. Before proceeding, we would like to clarify that any statements made in this conference call concerning the business outlook of the company, forecasts as well as operating and financial targets represent the opinions and assumptions of the company's management, which may or may not occur. Investors will comprehend that economic conditions and other operating factors may affect the company's future and may lead to materially different results from those stated in this call. To start the third quarter of 2018 teleconference, I would like to turn over to the CFO, Mauricio Teixeira. MAURICIO FERNANDES TEIXEIRA, NON-STATUTORY EXECUTIVE OFFICER, LOCALIZA RENT A CAR S.A.: Good morning, and thank you for your presence. Localiza continued to show strong growth this quarter and also achieved an EBITDA margin expansion in Car Rental and Fleet Rental. We exceeded the mark of 220,000 cars in the fleet. And then Seminovos broke the record sales volume, selling more than 30,000 cars in this quarter. In September, we issued BRL 1 billion in local bonds in our 14th issuance, being BRL 800 million in the 8-year tenor series, which shows us funding capacity at differentiated costs and tenors. Even in a quarter of strong growth, the leverage ratios remained stable in relation to the last quarter. Another highlight was the appointment of Paulo Veras as an independent board member. Paulo brings additional skills to Localiza's management in respect to mobility and innovation. The operating environment remains positive, and we continue investing in technology, people and new products to capture market opportunities for mobility. This shows our confidence in the market potential and our growth capacity with value generation. I would like to take this opportunity and thank our analysts and investors in their choice to vote for Localiza to the Institutional Investors Award. This year, we won first place in all categories of the transportation industry. After the introduction, let's move on to our webcast with the third quarter highlights. On Page 2 of the presentation, we can see the operational highlights. We continue to present solid results with a strong growth pace. It's worth noting that 3Q '17 brings a more challenging comparison basis, since we had already incorporated Hertz in September and we grew the fleet organically in over 25,000 cars in that period. And still in 3Q '18, RAC demonstrated strong growth once again, with a 30% (sic) [36%] increase in the average rented fleet year-over-year. In Fleet Rental, we also had a significant performance in terms of growth, with a volume increase of approximately 21% year-over-year. Seminovos closed the quarter with record sales in over 30,000 cars sold, showing an increase of 26% year-over-year. Our fleet at the end of the period has reached the mark of 220,000 cars with growth in RAC, fleet rental and franchising. On Slide 3, we can see the quarter's financial highlights. In comparison to the same period last year, net revenues grow close to 33% with an EBITDA growing 19%, EBIT increase of 14% and net income of about 15%. To get to more details of the third quarter results, I would like to hand over to our Investor Relations Director, Mrs. Nora Lanari. NORA MASCARENHAS LANARI, NON-STATUTORY EXECUTIVE OFFICER, LOCALIZA RENT A CAR S.A.: Good afternoon to all, and thank you for attending. To give you a little more detail about the results of the quarter, I would like to start with the Car Rental division. As you can see on Page 4, in the third quarter, the company continued the growth pace year-over-year. And revenues grew strongly, 34.9%, as a result of a 36% growth in the average rented fleet. On Slide 5, we notice that the average daily (sic) rate of BRL 72.5 dropped 2.2% in 3Q '18 year-over-year, impacted by the stronger mix in lower rental rate segments and the competitive landscape. This is the lowest year-over-year decline over the past 2 years and reflects a slowdown in the average rental rate drop compared with previous quarters. Compared to Q2 '18, the quarter impacted by the truck drivers' strike, the average rental rate increased 4.3%, and the utilization rate increased by 4.1 percentage points due to efficient asset management and strong rental demand. On Page 6, we show that the own agency network was extended by 11 new locations compared to the end of 2017, of which 5 were formerly operated by franchisees. The decrease in the number of franchise locations abroad is due to adjustment in the network of franchisees in Argentina and Chile. Moving to Slide 7 in the Fleet Rental division, the growth pace remained accelerated in the last quarter, with the average rented fleet increasing 20.6% and net revenues increasing by 15.3%. Here the rental rate is down 6%, mainly reflecting the pricing of new contracts in the context of lower interest rates. Moving on to Slide 8, we show the change in the fleet size for the period. We bought 44,464 cars and sold 30,084 cars. The strong rental volume in 3Q '18 demanded an increase in the fleet. In addition, the addition of cars in the third quarter of last year resulted in a greater decommissioning and sale of cars in this quarter, demonstrating the company's selling capacity. The result was a fleet increase of 14,380 cars and a net investment of BRL 745.6 million in 3Q '18. On Slide 9, we show the Seminovos network, which reached the mark of 30,000 cars sold in 3Q '18. We closed the quarter with 101 points of sale. In the quarter, the number of cars sold grew 25.7%. And the average price of cars increased 7.5% in the Car Rental division and 6% in the Fleet Rental division. Seminovos operating expenses remained stable at 6.8% in relation to net sales when compared with 3Q '17. New points of sale will be opened to support the future need for renewal of the company's fleet. On Slide 10, we show the end of period fleet, which reached 222,177 cars, highlighting the Car Rental division, which grew 23%. Moving on to Page 11, we see consolidated net revenues grow by 32.6% compared with the third quarter of 2017, with rental revenue growing 29.2%. In Seminovos, the increase was 35.2% due to a 25.7% increase in sales volume and an increase in the average price of cars sold in both business division. Moving on to Page 12, the consolidated EBITDA gained 19.2% as a result of the growth in the company's business division. The RAC EBITDA margin increased 2.9 percentage points year-over-year due to the operational excellence that enabled gains of scale. Fleet Rental gained 3.3 basis points in margin due to a better cost management expenses and lower fleet age. Seminovos had a margin of 2.1%, which reflects the reduction of the depreciation of RAC cars that has been occurring for the last 4 months, causing the book value of the cars sold to be closer to the cars' sales price. On Page 3 (sic) [13], we can see that in RAC, the average annualized depreciation for 9 months of 2018 was BRL 946 per car, down 30% compared to 9M '17, due to the increase in the average price of cars sold and the higher efficiency of the company in the purchase and sale of its assets. However, if we compare 3Q '18 with 3Q '17, depreciation increased 6.8%, despite the increase in scale and efficient management of operational costs of Seminovos that's resulting from a higher price of new cars. In Fleet Rental, we see an increase in the level of depreciation to BRL 3,476 in the 9 months of '18. This number reflects the lower increases in new car prices and a higher depreciation by the use of the SOYD method, as the average age of fleet dropped from 17.5 to 14.5 months in this quarter and 18.6 months to 15.2 months in the 9 months of 2018. On Page 14, the consolidated EBIT for 3Q '18 achieved BRL 300 million, accounting for 13.9% growth year-over-year due to the 19.2% EBITDA increase, offset by a 39.9% increase in the depreciation line. The 3Q '18 EBIT margin in the Car Rental division was 29.8%, representing a decrease of 4.6 percentage points year-over-year. In the Fleet Rental division, the EBITDA (sic) [EBIT] margin was 50.4%, a reduction of 2.7 percentage points year-over-year. The lower EBIT margin reflects higher car depreciation despite the higher EBITDA. The decrease in the interest rate allows a lower EBIT margin, maintaining the spread, ROIC, over a greater base of capital, resulting in an increase of the company's value generation at healthy levels. The net income for the second quarter (sic) [third quarter] on Page 15 increased 14.6% year-over-year, primarily due to an increase of BRL 63.9 million in EBITDA, partially offset by the increase of BRL 27.3 million (sic) [BRL 26.3 million] in depreciation, BRL 4.4 million increase in net financial expenses, and BRL 11.8 million (sic) [BRL 11.8 million increase] in income tax due to a higher taxable income and an increase in the effective income tax and social contribution rates. On Slide 16, we demonstrate the cash generation of BRL 826.8 million before the fleet growth in the 9 months of 2018. In 3Q '18, the company continued to take advantage of its strong cash position and -- reducing its carrying costs, reducing discounts on credit card receivables and taking advantage of opportunities to advance accounts payable to suppliers. In the year-to-date, the net effect of these measures totaled BRL 288 million of impact on the company's working capital, highlighted in the next to last free cash flow line, and results in a reduction in net financial expenses. And we can see on Page 17, the investment of BRL 1 billion in growth impacted the net debt, which closed the quarter at BRL 4.8 billion with an increase of 23%. You'll see on Page 18 that in this quarter, despite the debt increase, the net debt-EBITDA ratio rose 0.2 percentage points if compared to the end of 2017. However, it remained stable when compared to 2Q '18 at 3.1x, a healthy level considering the company's growth rate as well as the covenants, which are 4x. We understand that the current leverage ratio is at a comfortable level, given the flexibility of our assets, the strong cash position and the term of our debt shown on Slide 19, and considering the current interest rates. On September 30, 2018, the cash position for Localiza was BRL 2.7 billion after raising BRL 1 billion with the local bonds issuance in 2 series: one of BRL 200 million with final maturity in 5 years and 4 months and a rate of 107.9% of the CDI; and the second of BRL 800 million with the maturity in 8 years and rate of 112.3% of the CDI. Localiza's financial strength and operational excellence ensures the stability in debt management with the goal of reducing average cost and increasing the duration of consolidated debt. Finally, I would like to pass over again to Mauricio for his closing remarks. MAURICIO FERNANDES TEIXEIRA: Thank you, Nora. To conclude, I would like to highlight the evolution of the ROIC spread versus the cost of debt, which can be observed on Page 20. In the 9 months year-to-date of 2018, we maintained last a similar -- a spread similar to last year's level with a much higher investment capital base, resulting in a higher value generation for our shareholders. This is the goal that we will always pursue: continue to enchant our customers while we maintain operating excellence, and thus we can grow with value generation. We're now open to answer your questions. Questions and Answers OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) The first question is from Alexandre Falcao from HSBC. ALEXANDRE PFRIMER FALCAO, SVP, HSBC, RESEARCH DIVISION: I have two questions. The first one is about growth perspectives for next year. So doing just rough math, you had a growth. It's 20% to 25%, pretty close to the covenants and officially would be consideration for an equity offer. Now that you're budgeting, and clearly your competitor, Lyft, did decide to grow less, given they would have to look for funding, that means you're not going to have such a benign competitive environment as you did this year. So I'd love to know what are your thoughts and the board's thoughts about this topic? MAURICIO FERNANDES TEIXEIRA: Falcao, well, we are working on next year's budget. We still don't have a close scenario. But we do see a market with a huge growth potential. And growth is our priority, growth with value generation, of course. So we're studying all our options and having a excellent capital structure to capture that. And considering those investment levels that we have currently in Brazil and long tenures, we're comfortable in growing that way. But we're always studying and assessing different scenarios and the options that we have to capture the growth. And in the -- we prefer to be an optimum structure, low cost and prioritizing growth with value generation, that's our main focus. ALEXANDRE PFRIMER FALCAO: So growth is the main focus, okay. In relation to car depreciation, my second question now, I'd like to understand how much of that is an actual adjustment of what you see in car sale prices? And how much did you have to sell outside the network being sold by third parties? And since you had record sales in vehicles, would the number of branches be able to bear that? Or would you have to increase the amount of points of sale? NORA MASCARENHAS LANARI: Thank you, Falcao, for your question. As you know, and you know the company well, our business has to consider depreciation and the Seminovos margin together. Those 2 indicators are related, and not just their current situation, but also what happened in the past and where they're at today. If doing -- we use the car too much, it will have a lower value and the Seminovos margin higher. If we depreciate it a bit too little, it's going to have a lower margin and be negative. And we really want that -- we don't want that to happen. So we have to balance out those 2 factors to have a slightly positive margin. In RAC, we've been reducing depreciation in the past 12 months. And that is reflected now in the Seminovos margin of approximately 2% in the consolidated. The depreciation or the lower margin had -- should already have happened in the first half year, but the inflation of new cars offset that, so the margin is a bit stronger. But we've been saying this for a while now, and so does Roberto, that we have a target Seminovos margin from 2% to 3%. But the inflation of cars enabled the margin to be higher in the past quarters, even with lower depreciation. So what we see now is the inflation for new cars is getting strong and we achieved the objective that we are already reporting. So there were no real changes or a higher -- or more aggressiveness or price reduction. We sold the volume that we had to sell, so we can renew our fleet. And what happened is we didn't piggyback on the inflation for Seminovos. So we can't forget that we are already -- depreciating less than the last 4 quarters. And now, it's time to sell a car at a value that's much closer to the book value. In relation to the number of POSs, we have to open their ways to sell -- we don't have to open necessarily. We can sell without growing the brick-and-mortar shops, but we have a roadmap for that in the middle of the year next year. To add, if we consider the sale per store, the number increase considerably. We're talking about 100 cars per store and -- to some rough math, roughly. And that shows the company's efficiency in managing this company's sales channel. So we're going to take advantage of the best opportunities in selling through close owned channels and third parties. It's good to reiterate that in the first quarter, the sales volume was lower, and maybe that's why the assumption of a stronger price. But on the other hand, you have less dilution of fixed cost. Now the volumes are higher, and any price pressure could be offset by the reduction in the SG&A. And that's a bit of what we saw in the third quarter. So compared to the second, SG&A was close to 7.8% at the sales revenue level. And now it went back to 6.8%. So it's worth stressing that the change in channel, any type of change in channel, and then eventually higher sales to resale, may have higher discounts. But the costs are lower as well, so it doesn't necessarily mean that it's a bad sale. But obviously, the company's objective is sell as much as it can in its own sales channel to dilute our fixed cost framework. OPERATOR: Next question is from Rogério Araújo from UBS. ROGéRIO ARAúJO, DIRECTOR AND EQUITY RESEARCH ANALYST, UBS INVESTMENT BANK, RESEARCH DIVISION: I have two. One's a follow-up on the one about the Seminovos. When we compare the price spread for car sale now compared to what you paid for it a year ago, it dropped a lot from the first half of the year to the third quarter. It's at 3% in the third quarter. And then higher age when we compare to the historical period, where the new car prices didn't go up. So my question is, is that stable? Is that the normal level? Can we consider a spread of how much you buy it for and then how much you sell it for? Is that the level that you expect looking -- moving forward? And on the same side, depreciation of BRL 1,300 from now, is that the depreciation that considers an EBITDA margin of Seminovo, the 2% for Seminovos? That's my first question. NORA MASCARENHAS LANARI: Rogério, thank you for your question. So my first disclaimer is when you look at the mix that was bought exactly a year ago, there's some fluctuation of what we saw in that quarter in fact. And if you remove the mix effect, we have a benefit of this -- of the prices of new cars that do help in this spread. But we always look at depreciation compared to the interest rate, because it's a total cost of the car for Localiza. We've been more efficient in managing our purchases. We've been more efficient in diluting the fixed cost. Just so to give you some flavor in Car Rental, the fixed cost in 2016 in SG&A was 8.9%. It went down to 7.4% and now it's 7%. So when I do the same comparison for fleet, it was the same too, 8.9% to 7% in 2017 and now it's down to 6%. So we have a gain in efficiency as well. So the main point here is that when you compare the average sales period, there's -- and there's a bit of a difference in the sales mix of what we're selling. So when we look at the base of, especially for rent a car, we have an increase of the average price found of 12% increase. So the sales price increased in the consolidated close to 7.5 and back at 7.5. So we don't necessarily see, when I look at it car by car, a relevant worsening of the spread. But obviously, that depends on new car inflation. ROGéRIO ARAúJO: And in the report and -- you're teasing us in that. Is that a new spread level? Should that lead to a depreciation of 2,000 per car? NORA MASCARENHAS LANARI: No, that's not part of our scenario. But again, I don't have a benefit of a strong increase of new car prices, but we are more efficient in the purchase and sale of cars. ROGéRIO ARAúJO: Great, Nora. Just a follow-up, the Seminovos margin, do you expect it close to 2% for the next quarters? NORA MASCARENHAS LANARI: That depends a lot on execution, Rogério. In RAC, it was close to 1.6 and fleet close to 5. Fleet is converging downwards, but we started to calibrate depreciation upwards. So that calibration is a -- will at some point start to reflect on the margin. I -- we don't provide guidance on that, but we don't necessarily see margin deterioration in Seminovos moving forward. ROGéRIO ARAúJO: Perfect, very clear. Just a second question about RAC growth. We see it growing compared to what you were presenting. So could you talk about the niches? They have been growing more that it justified the speed-up in growth, even when you have a seasonal adjustment. And what do you expect in terms of Uber growth perspectives in the next quarters? MAURICIO FERNANDES TEIXEIRA: In fact, Rogério, all segments except for replacement are growing strongly at 2-digit figures. For replacement, we know that new car sales dropped. Therefore, the -- short cars also dropped, and that's a lower universe for us to provide replacement. But besides replacement, all segments are growing strongly, not only daily, also monthly. Uber, as you mentioned, we see a huge potential for that market, but that doesn't explain our growth. We are consistently growing in all segments, be it for individuals or corporates. To remind you as well, Rogério, I think you're comparing the margin growth. But I'd like to remind you that we had an adjustment in the second quarter this year that was impacted by the truck drivers' strike. So the volume is a bit under what we expected, and that helped in the comparison quarter-over-quarter. But even without the strike effect, the growth was stronger in margin than what we saw in the first or even second quarter this year. ROGéRIO ARAúJO: Perfect, very clear. OPERATOR: Next question is from Lucas Barbosa from Morgan Stanley. LUCAS T. BARBOSA, RESEARCH ASSOCIATE, MORGAN STANLEY, RESEARCH DIVISION: My first question is about RAC growth. When we look at quarter-over-quarter, the RAC fleet in the period grew 7% and average operating fleet grew 2%. My question is if that has been in relation to a mismatch of [positions] in sale of vehicles, or if you're growing more in margin? You already mentioned that a bit, but do -- should we expect more growth to the margin in the fourth quarter? MAURICIO FERNANDES TEIXEIRA: Usually, yes, Lucas, because that's a peak period for us. So we start to buy cars and fill up the fleet, so we can get ready for the peak in demand in the fourth quarter, and obviously the first quarter '19 as well. The peak of vacation period is December, January and then Carnival and then starts to become stable. LUCAS T. BARBOSA: Second one is about the follow-up on RAC depreciation. So do you consider BRL 1,300 level sustainable? Or is that just to catch up depreciation once and for all? So in other words, this current condition to remain for the next year to deliver [both] 3% of margin EBITDA in Seminovos, would you maintain the depreciation level? Or should it go down a little? NORA MASCARENHAS LANARI: Good question. Depreciation is our way to mark to market. So we're going to do that every time we see a variation in market trends. It is a level that seems okay, but once again, we're not going to mark too much upwards or downwards as necessary. We see a positive sales volume and also good dilution of fixed cost. And car inflations are already reflected in that depreciation which we booked. So I don't believe it's going to be much higher than that. So the trend should be to remain the same, maybe a little lower, but we will calibrate that according to market condition. It's also worth noting that usually in the second half, the carmakers start to launch the models for the following year. So it's usual to have this type of depreciation, because you're starting to sell a car that has 1 year of use. And in the beginning of the year, you're selling the car for that year. So it's not untypical -- atypical to have that adjustment. But the levels make sense. If we continue at those levels, we would have an annual average depreciation of RAC close to BRL 1,000, just a quick average. Because it's -- which is still 20% under average depreciation of last year. So that shows our efficiency in managing our assets. And then Lucas, when we look at the depreciation in percentage of the asset, we're running at the best size in the company, if you consider the track record for the last 3 years. LUCAS T. BARBOSA: Great, Nora. That helps a lot. OPERATOR: Next question is from Lucas Marquiori from Banco Safra. LUCAS MARQUIORI, RESEARCH ANALYST, J. SAFRA CORRETORA DE VALORES E CAMBIO LTDA, RESEARCH DIVISION: I have two questions as well. You briefly talked about the strong margin expansion in RAC and fleet. And then in the release, you broke that down a little. You talked about SG&A. But I'd like to hear some more about that improvement, where it's coming, is it just through fixed cost? Or I want to know if it's sustainable in both divisions in RAC and fleet? The second question just about RAC, the rate increased 4% quarter-over-quarter. So I wanted to know how much that is going back to the low level that you had in the second quarter to encourage, because of the strike? Or how much of that is the mix? So we can understand how the rates are going to behave in the fourth quarter. NORA MASCARENHAS LANARI: Thank you, Lucas, for your question. Relating to the margin increase, we know that in Car Rental, especially in RAC, we have gains in operational scale to be captured because the fixed cost is higher. So growing at the levels that we're growing, there is a natural dilution of fixed costs and expenses. We weren't seeing that as obvious before because we were investing in the company, in processes, in technologies and in best practices, in order to gain more productivity for the future and be able to support the company's growth. So now we're reaping the fruit in the leverage ratio and all the improvements that we've been implementing in the past years. So we do have an increase in the margin, but we've also still been reinvesting a lot, we believe, at higher levels for the company in the future. So we're getting ready for that in advance, the -- all the levels and infrastructure to bear that growth, and make sure our clients remain satisfied as well, as their productivity is important. In relation to the costs breakdown, in ITR in Note 21, it gives you more details. So the costs and expenses line had an improvement. That means they grew under the growth of the fleet revenues and rented fleet. So in fact, we're starting to deliver certain leverage, operating leverage. But as Mauricio said, we're still investing in improvements. And you'll see these improvements mainly in the third party line, because it's one of the few that increased in quarter-over-quarter figures. The next question about the RAC rate, it's there because in the second quarter this year, especially in June, we had to encourage the demand through price to resume volume after the truck drivers' strike. So I'd say that approximately BRL 69.5 of average rate for the second quarter wouldn't have been at that level. They would probably be closer to BRL 70. However, we saw that going to BRL 70, going up to BRL 72. So now we start to see a better pricing scenario. We've been able to capture the opportunities through the system and competitive intelligence. And the trend, it's still positive, but obviously, that does depend on the competitive environment. For the third -- fourth quarter, we have a certain comfort in saying that, that rate increases a bit more because of the seasonality effect. So it's a mix effect, and quarter-over-quarter, it's very small. In the second quarter to the third quarter, it -- the mix effect, it's not really more -- it's more of a price effect. In the year-over-year, you have the mix effect. That's why the average rate year-over-year dropped 2.2%, but so far with a positive trend. OPERATOR: Next question is from Bruno Amorim from Goldman Sachs. BRUNO AMORIM, EQUITY ANALYST, GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: I have two questions. My first one is that I'd like to know if you have any evidences of a deterioration of the Seminovos market as a consequence of new car prices not going up so strong. So the margin decreased a lot in the third quarter and coincided with the moment where the company started to sell more cars, 30,000 and an average of 20-something in the past quarters. So I'd like to know if that's a market trend and not something that specific -- specifically happened to Localiza, given that you had to increase the amount of sales substantially. And the second one, if we look at the ROIC, it's up for the company in the first 9 months. And considering the amount that you reported for the first half, we can consider that ROIC was 12% in the third quarter. And next year, it's implicit that the interest rates will increase 150 bps. So if the company is running at a ROIC of 12% next year with interest rates that could go up, we can see compression to the ROIC WACC spread, or the spread between the ROIC and the debt cost [post is of] 200 bps. I'd like to know if that makes sense, given that you've been saying that those Seminovo margin levels and potentially ROIC is the new normal for the company, in the company, and if the company understands that the spread compression is natural and acceptable. NORA MASCARENHAS LANARI: Thank you, Bruno, for your question. About Seminovos, we don't see market deterioration. Obviously, the -- the country's macroeconomic condition, the crisis, unemployment, lack of access to funding is a challenge for us. But we don't consider, in the company, that the market deteriorated. We just didn't have a price increase that we did in the past, but I -- we don't see it deteriorating. It's the rate. In the fourth quarter, there is a rate we have to sell to renew the fleet. And the bond, I don't see it as an increase of price. I -- we don't see the deterioration. And we're included in the same macroeconomic environment as everyone, but I don't see deterioration. In relation to ROIC, in fact, we are paying attention to the interest rates. We're comfortable with the spread levels that we have, because it's stable compared to last year, with a capital base that's much higher and very strong growth, maintaining profitability. If we break down the ROIC per business segment, in fleet, we're already pricing new contracts with the higher ROIC, because we always consider the future interest rates according to contract tenure. So we're already capturing higher ROICs in the ROIC in the beginning of the year. So that's automatic. In fleet, the spread is following the interest rates and pushing the ROIC up. That's going to happen naturally. And we also see movements in the opposite direction, with ROIC from fleet dropping proportionally to the interest rates. And now it's going up again. It's already happening. In rent a car, it's more dynamic, I can adjust the prices after -- according to the competition with the market. So we manage that because they're short-term contracts. And therefore, I can make decisions when the interest rate actually goes up. Right now, it's an expectation. We're going to closely monitor that. If interest rates go up, we're going to assess if we're going to raise prices or not. And RAC is more of a tactical decision, if they actually go up. MAURICIO FERNANDES TEIXEIRA: Bruno, to help you with market evidences in that sense, the IBGE publishes a study for new car and used car inflation. So according to the IBGE, this year and last year, the car inflation -- new car inflation has been dropping, the best evidence that you have probably. It doesn't reflect our evidences for a couple of reasons. The first one is that the IBGE price is public. There is a negotiation in the different market prices' practice. So it doesn't reflect our mix either. It's for the market, and it doesn't really reflect on the cars that we are buying. So in the point of view of evidence, it's probably the best one we had, because now new car prices are going up at a smaller scale. OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) Our next question is from Victor Mizusaki from Bradesco BBI. VICTOR MIZUSAKI, RESEARCH ANALYST, BRADESCO S.A. CORRETORA DE TíTULOS E VALORES MOBILIáRIOS, RESEARCH DIVISION: I have two questions. The first one is a follow-up about the RAC rates. Since you talked about the mix, I think Mauricio mentioned replacement in other segments grew at 2-digit levels. But when we look at the average rate and then at 2%, that the segment would be pulling that rate downwards. Does that make sense? And the second one about fleet, my question is for this strong growth that we've seen in fleet, are you somehow changing the strategy for the segment, closing shorter contracts instead of 2-, 3-year contracts? NORA MASCARENHAS LANARI: Victor, thank you for your question. Your analysis does make sense in relation to price. The growth levels are at 2-digit levels, but they're different according to each segment. MAURICIO FERNANDES TEIXEIRA: Victor, about fleet, there's no change in strategy for this segment. We're still pursuing good customers, good contracts, long-term relationship with these contracts -- with these customers. We're not changing contracts or compressing our spread. We're maintaining our profitability, looking for long-term relationships with profitable customers. I'd also like to highlight, Victor, that our scale contributes towards our competitiveness in fleet. In the past, off the top of my mind, we added approximately 50,000 cars to the fleet. So we're more efficient in purchase and sales, and that's been helping our competitiveness in fleet. But we are not changing the strategy. It's still growth with profitability. And we're very cautious in fleet pricing because you're locked in 2- to 3-year contracts. So we are very wise in pricing fleet. Thus, pricing considering future interest rates and lockups to maintain the spread, that's what we want in these contracts. OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) I'd like to hand over to Mr. Mauricio Teixeira for his closing remarks. MAURICIO FERNANDES TEIXEIRA: Thank you very much for attending. And our IR team are at your disposal for additional clarifications. Have a great day. OPERATOR: The Localiza conference call is now over. Thank you for your presence, and have a good day. EDITOR: Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call. The interpreter was provided by the Company sponsoring this Event. [Thomson Financial reserves the right to make changes to documents, content, or other information on this web site without obligation to notify any person of such changes. In the conference calls upon which Event Transcripts are based, companies may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding a variety of items. Such forward-looking statements are based upon current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those stated in any forward-looking statement based on a number of important factors and risks, which are more specifically identified in the companies' most recent SEC filings. Although the companies may indicate and believe that the assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements are reasonable, any of the assumptions could prove inaccurate or incorrect and, therefore, there can be no assurance that the results contemplated in the forward-looking statements will be realized. THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN EVENT TRANSCRIPTS IS A TEXTUAL REPRESENTATION OF THE APPLICABLE COMPANY'S CONFERENCE CALL AND WHILE EFFORTS ARE MADE TO PROVIDE AN ACCURATE TRANSCRIPTION, THERE MAY BE MATERIAL ERRORS, OMISSIONS, OR INACCURACIES IN THE REPORTING OF THE SUBSTANCE OF THE CONFERENCE CALLS. 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User may not reproduce or redistribute the material except for user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon Thomson Financial's or ASC's copyright or other proprietary rights or interests in the material; provided, however, that members of the news media may redistribute limited portions (less than 250 words) of this material without a specific license from Thomson Financial and ASC so long as they provide conspicuous attribution to Thomson Financial and ASC as the originators and copyright holders of such material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation.]
Subject: Copyright; Institutional investments; Interest rates; Franchisees; Webcasting
Company / organization: Name: Thomson Financial; NAICS: 511210, 518210, 519190
Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Oct 25, 2018
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: Linthicum
Country of publication: United States, Linthicum
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Law--Corporate Law
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2131297164
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2131297164?accountid=4840
Copyright: 2018 Thomson Financial and ASC LLC
Last updated: 2018-11-16
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 420 of 474
Gays for Bolsonaro: Why Many Will Overlook His Homophobic Rants
Author: Brandimarte, Walter
Publication info: Bloomberg Wire Service ; New York [New York]27 Oct 2018.
Abstract:
” ‘Gay Kit’ Strong rejection of the Workers’ Party and former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva drive Bolsonaro’s backers, and that isn’t different in the gay community. Civil unions were recognized more than 10 years ago and in 2013 same-sex marriage was legalized. Official data is non-existent, but at least 445 violent deaths of gay people were counted last year, according to Gay Group of Bahia, the nation’s oldest gay-rights association.Full text: (Bloomberg) -- Brazilian presidential front-runner Jair Bolsonaro has flaunted a macho distaste for gays. He’s recommended that parents beat effeminate boys. He’s said he would prefer a dead son to a homosexual one. And he has the vote of Tiago Pavinatto, a gay lawyer and columnist for O Estado de S. Paulo, one of the nation’s largest newspapers. Bolsonaro has “flirted with homophobia because he’s an ordinary, rude man and he knows that,” said Pavinatto, 34. “He will be surrounded by people who will ensure gay rights be respected.” This is no random, one-off case. Pavinatto is part of a surprisingly large segment of the gay community -- 29 percent, according to a Datafolha survey this week -- who intends to vote for the former Army captain. And it underscores just how strong the desire is among many Brazilians to prevent the party of Bolsonaro’s opponent, Fernando Haddad, from returning to power. Hopeful Wager Disgust with corruption during the 14-year rule of the Workers’ Party runs so deep that some gay voters have been willing to bet that Bolsonaro’s hostility is a mere ploy. Others support Haddad with great reluctance or are refusing to vote entirely. Brazil’s gay groups, flourishing in its cosmopolitan cities, have been made a scapegoat in Bolsonaro’s grievance-fueled campaign. The candidate has pointed to homosexuals as evidence of moral decay as he preaches a return to conservative values. A glance at Grindr in Brazil shows profile after profile on the gay dating app replaced with #EleNao memes -- #NotHim, the rallying slogan of those who believe Bolsonaro threatens the young democracy. Some men add the name of Haddad, and others warn Bolsonaro supporters not to bother getting in touch. But even on Grindr, the captain has supporters. “I hope he will change Brazil and give us security, education and health,” said Andre Barbosa, a 35-year-old accountant who lives in Rio de Janeiro and changed his Grindr profile name to “Bolsonaro 17” -- the candidate’s number on the ballot. “So far, they have only robbed our country.” ‘Gay Kit’ Strong rejection of the Workers’ Party and former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva drive Bolsonaro’s backers, and that isn’t different in the gay community. But gays find themselves torn between disapproval of corruption associated with Lula’s legacy and resistance to a candidate who has repeatedly antagonized them. Some of Bolsonaro’s most outrageous remarks were made years ago when a presidential bid wasn’t in the cards. But even during the campaign he frequently criticized an initiative to fight homophobia in public schools. It was abandoned by the federal government after conservative criticism, but Bolsonaro still brings up the “gay kit” that he claims was designed to turn children into homosexuals. Bolsonaro’s press office didn’t reply to a request for comment about his views on homosexuality. The candidate has distanced himself from his most inflammatory remarks and, three days before the Oct. 28 runoff, said that the government “has nothing do to with anyone’s sexual orientation” and he could theoretically appoint a gay person to his cabinet. Jair Bolsonaro on Homosexuals, Women, Rape and Slave Descendants The world’s largest Catholic country has a complicated relationship with homosexuality. For all the sexual liberation of Carnival, most Brazilians embrace conservative norms that are becoming even more ingrained under the growing influence of evangelical churches. Yet the courts have confirmed sweeping rights: Civil unions were recognized more than 10 years ago and in 2013 same-sex marriage was legalized. Subsequent attempts at declaring it unconstitutional have failed in the supreme court. But while Rio and Sao Paulo have gay bars and pride parades, Brazil remains a dangerous place. Official data is non-existent, but at least 445 violent deaths of gay people were counted last year, according to Gay Group of Bahia, the nation’s oldest gay-rights association. The data, compiled from media reports, show the deaths more than doubled since 2003, when the Workers’ Party came into power. The organization laid part of the blame on former President Dilma Rousseff for abandoning a bill criminalizing homophobic speech or discriminatory acts. Haddad supports such a measure. No Choice The Gay Group of Bahia’s founder, anthropologist Luiz Mott, said he’s supporting Haddad despite being against the Workers’ Party. “We’ve never had a politician so openly anti-LGBT,” he said in a Facebook post denouncing Bolsonaro. But Pavinatto dismissed the idea that violence might increase thanks to Bolsonaro’s rhetoric: “Militants talk about the large number of gays killed in Brazil, but who was in charge of the country for 14 years?” Others just can’t bring themselves to pick either. Leandro Waldvogel, a lawyer and former diplomat, said the Workers’ Party government not only failed to prevent violence at home, it also supported the regime of Uganda, where gays are systematically tortured and killed, in exchange for support for its bid to join the United Nation’s security council. “There’s no chance I’m voting for the PT, because I don’t believe in their project for Brazil,” he said, referring to the party by its Portuguese abbreviation. “That goes beyond the issue of corruption.” Vitor Ramos, 40, a marketing strategist said he would vote for Haddad with a “heavy heart.” “Some of my friends drank the Kool-Aid and will vote for Bolsonaro, but most of them fear that minorities like ours are in danger, as well as our own democracy.” To read more: Your Guide to Brazil’s Uncommonly Divisive Election To contact the reporter on this story: Walter Brandimarte in Rio de Janeiro at [email protected] To contact the editors responsible for this story: Vivianne Rodrigues at [email protected], Stephen Merelman ©2018 Bloomberg L.P.
Subject: Homophobia; Homosexuality; Corruption; Gays & lesbians; Elections
Location: Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil Uganda
People: Rousseff, Dilma Bolsonaro, Jair Lula da Silva, Luiz Inacio
Company / organization: Name: Facebook Inc; NAICS: 518210, 519130
Publication title: Bloomberg Wire Service; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Oct 27, 2018
Publisher: Bloomberg LP
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2125639217
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2125639217?accountid=4840
Copyright: ©2018 Bloomberg L.P.
Last updated: 2018-10-27
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 421 of 474
Robert Bowers and Cesar Sayoc: The two faces of hate in America this week
Publication info: USA Today (Online) ; Arlington [Arlington]29 Oct 2018.
Abstract:
Your cheat sheet to today's news: The Pittsburgh shooting suspect appeared in court, so did the accused pipe bomber Cesar Sayoc. An Indonesian passenger jet carrying 189 people crashed.
Full text: It’s only Monday? We’re Emily Brown and Ashley Shaffer, audience editors at USA TODAY. We’re going to break down some pretty intense stories for you. But first, meet Stetson, a happy, healthy 5-month-old "miracle baby. " Here are today’s headlines. ‘It never ends. ’ Robert Bowers, the long-haul trucker accused of fatally shooting 11 worshippers in a hate-driven rampage at a Pittsburgh synagogue, made a brief court appearance in a wheelchair Monday and was ordered back for a preliminary hearing Thursday. Jon Pushinsky, a member of the Tree of Life Synagogue who came to bear witness, was struck by Bowers’ everyday appearance. “It was not the face of villainy that I thought we’d see,” he said. • For one of the shooting survivors, Judah Samet, the attack was the second time anti-Semitism almost took his life — the first being the Holocaust. “It never ends,” he said. • The shooting was the deadliest attack against the Jewish community in U. S. history. More packages. More names. The strip club deejay accused of mailing suspicious packages to critics of President Donald Trump may have been targeting a much larger number of victims, fueling continuing concerns that additional devices may yet be undiscovered in the nation’s mail streams. As Cesar Sayoc made a brief court appearance Monday, the FBI intercepted a suspicious package addressed to CNN in Atlanta, bringing the total number of bombs to at least 15. Next? Sayoc will be back in court Friday when the government is expected to present more evidence. Eventually, he’ll be transferred to New York where his case will be tried. • Sayoc “was a lost soul,” said Ronald Lowy, a Miami lawyer who has represented Sayoc and the family for years. "He just won’t see reality. ” Phew, that was heavy. Need to restore your faith in humanity? This kindergarten class surprised the school custodian with a heartfelt gift. Trump prepares migrant caravan’s un-welcome party The Pentagon is deploying up to 5,200 active duty troops to the U. S. -Mexico border in an effort to prevent members of a migrant caravan from illegally entering the country, a U. S. official said Monday. The official also said the president is expected to deliver a speech on Tuesday to outline further actions to halt the migrant caravan, which could include limiting, or halting, the ability of migrants to request asylum. With the caravan grabbing headlines and border crossings on the rise, the migrants may soon play into a fight expected to pick up immediately after the election: funding Trump's proposed border wall. No survivors expected in plane crash An Indonesian Lion Air passenger jet with 189 people on board crashed into the sea shortly after taking off from Jakarta early Monday. Indonesian search and rescue officials say the reason for the crash is still uncertain and confirmed that the plane's emergency local transmitter beacon did not emit a distress signal, though the plane’s black box has not yet been found. Sadly, they do not expect to find any survivors. ICYMI Is this the greatest team in Red Sox history? Japan's Princess Ayako gave up her royal title to marry for love. A couple found a hidden camera in their Carnival Cruise bedroom. The Cleveland Browns fired head coach Hue Jackson and offensive coordinator Todd Haley, the first NFL coaching changes this season. Brazil's new president has said many offensive things.
Subject: Professional football
Location: Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Mexico United States--US New York Jakarta Indonesia Judah Brazil Cleveland Ohio Japan Atlanta Georgia
People: Trump, Donald J Jackson, Hue Bowers, Robert Haley, Todd Sayoc, Cesar Jr
Company / organization: Name: Lion Air; NAICS: 481111; Name: CNN; NAICS: 515210; Name: National Football League--NFL; NAICS: 711211, 813990; Name: Cleveland Browns; NAICS: 711211; Name: Federal Bureau of Investigation--FBI; NAICS: 922120
Publication title: USA Today (Online); Arlington
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Oct 29, 2018
Section: news
Publisher: USA Today, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network, Inc.
Place of publication: Arlington
Country of publication: United States, Arlington
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2126703018
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2126703018?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright USA Today, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network, Inc. Oct 29, 2018
Last updated: 2018-10-30
Database: US Southeast Newsstream
Document 422 of 474
Brazil election: captain of industry
Publication info: FT.com ; London (Oct 29, 2018).
Abstract: None available.
Full text: The riotous Lenten carnival for which Brazil is famous has started early as far as equity investors are concerned. They are already getting carried away in the festive frenzy. Voters in Latin America’s biggest economy have elected a self-styled tropical Donald Trump, the rightwing former army captain Jair Bolsonaro.Market sentiment has soaredon hopes that the new president will tackle corruption, oversee a liberal economic agenda and push through long-overdue reform of a pension system that threatens to overwhelm the country’s budget. Investors are also happy that Paulo Guedes, a University of Chicago-educated banker, has been tapped to lead the economy ministry. Brazil’s Bovespa equity index hit a record high at Monday’s open — a gain of 18 per cent since poll numbers started moving in Mr Bolsonaro’s favour about six weeks ago. The real has strengthened and 10-year government bond yields are down about 250 basis points to 10 per cent. Many global investors may well have avoided emerging market assets of late. That suggests the party might go on a little longer. The optimism might well last until Mr Bolsonaro takes office early in 2019. But thenreality must bite. Brazil has a budget deficit near 8 per cent of gross domestic product, well over double its size after the financial crisis. Promises of a major privatisation programme to cut it will ring hollow. The government carried out a series of these sell-offs 25 years ago, and deficits today are worse. The only privatisations which could raise the money needed would be state energy companies such as Petrobras and Eletrobras. Most legislators will see the former as untouchable, while Mr Bolsonaro has shied away from selling Eletrobras. Without big sales, Mr Bolsonaro would have to narrow the deficit by cutting spending, which could reduce economic growth. Worse, Brazilian exports are sensitive to a slowing China, its main trading partner. That leaves Brazilian shares, which trade a tenth pricier than EM peers on a forward price-to-earnings ratio, looking expensive. Best wait for the party to fade before entering the fray. Lex recommends the FT’s Due Diligence newsletter, a curated briefing on the world of mergers and acquisitions. Sign up at ft.com/newsletters
Subject: Budget deficits; International finance; Economic growth; Gross Domestic Product--GDP
Location: China Brazil Latin America
People: Trump, Donald J Bolsonaro, Jair
Company / organization: Name: Petroleos Brasileiro SA; NAICS: 211111; Name: University of Chicago; NAICS: 611310; Name: Sao Paulo Stock Exchange; NAICS: 523210
Publication title: FT.com; London
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Oct 29, 2018
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Trade Journals
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2126705900
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2126705900?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Oct 29, 2018
Last updated: 2018-10-30
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 423 of 474
Brazil election: captain of industry: Twitter: @FTLex [Middleeast Region]
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]30 Oct 2018: 10.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: The country's stock market has underperformed wider emerging markets, if currency movements are taken into account. The election of the authoritarian Jair Bolsonaro as president points to a more liberal economic agenda and fiscal reform, which has sent stocks higher and bond yields lower. The riotous Lenten carnival for which Brazil is famous has started early as far as equity investors are concerned. They are already getting carried away in the festive frenzy. Voters in Latin America's biggest economy have elected a self-styled tropical Donald Trump, the rightwing former army captain Jair Bolsonaro. Market sentiment has soared on hopes that the new president will tackle corruption, oversee a liberal economic agenda and push through long-overdue reform of a pension system that threatens to overwhelm the country's budget. Investors are also happy that Paulo Guedes, a University of Chicagoeducated banker, has been tapped to lead the economy ministry. Brazil's Bovespa equity index hit a record high at yesterday's open — a gain of 18 per cent since poll numbers started moving in Mr Bolsonaro's favour about six weeks ago. The real has strengthened and 10-year government bond yields are down about 250 basis points to 10 per cent. Many global investors may well have avoided emerging market assets of late. That suggests the party might go on a little longer. The optimism might well last until Mr Bolsonaro takes office early in 2019. But then reality must bite. Brazil has a budget deficit near 8 per cent of gross domestic product, well over double its size after the financial crisis. Promises of a big privatisation programme to cut it will ring hollow. The government carried out a series of these sell-offs 25 years ago, and deficits today are worse. The only privatisations that could raise the money needed would be state energy companies such as Petrobras and Eletrobras. Most legislators will see the former as untouchable, while Mr Bolsonaro has shied away from selling Eletrobras. Without big sales, Mr Bolsonaro would have to narrow the deficit by cutting spending, which could reduce economic growth. Worse, Brazilian exports are sensitive to a slowing China, its main trading partner. That leaves Brazilian shares, which trade a tenth pricier than EM peers on a forward price-to-earnings ratio, looking expensive. Best wait for the party to fade before entering the fray.
Subject: Investments; Bond issues; Budget deficits; International finance; Economic growth; Gross Domestic Product--GDP
Location: China Brazil Latin America
People: Trump, Donald J Bolsonaro, Jair
Company / organization: Name: Petroleos Brasileiro SA; NAICS: 211111; Name: Sao Paulo Stock Exchange; NAICS: 523210
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 10
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Oct 30, 2018
Section: News
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2139375337
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2139375337?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Oct 30, 2018
Last updated: 2018-11-30
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 424 of 474
Brazil election: captain of industry: Twitter: @FTLex [Europe Region]
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]30 Oct 2018: 10. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: The riotous Lenten carnival for which Brazil is famous has started early as far as equity investors are concerned. They are already getting carried away in the festive frenzy. Voters in Latin America's biggest economy have elected a self-styled tropical Donald Trump, the rightwing former army captain Jair Bolsonaro. Market sentiment has soared on hopes that the new president will tackle corruption, oversee a liberal economic agenda and push through long-overdue reform of a pension system that threatens to overwhelm the country's budget. Investors are also happy that Paulo Guedes, a University of Chicagoeducated banker, has been tapped to lead the economy ministry. Brazil's Bovespa equity index hit a record high at yesterday's open — a gain of 18 per cent since poll numbers started moving in Mr Bolsonaro's favour about six weeks ago. The real has strengthened and 10-year government bond yields are down about 250 basis points to 10 per cent. Many global investors may well have avoided emerging market assets of late. That suggests the party might go on a little longer. The optimism might well last until Mr Bolsonaro takes office early in 2019. But then reality must bite. Brazil has a budget deficit near 8 per cent of gross domestic product, well over double its size after the financial crisis. Promises of a big privatisation programme to cut it will ring hollow. The government carried out a series of these sell-offs 25 years ago, and deficits today are worse. The only privatisations that could raise the money needed would be state energy companies such as Petrobras and Eletrobras. Most legislators will see the former as untouchable, while Mr Bolsonaro has shied away from selling Eletrobras. Without big sales, Mr Bolsonaro would have to narrow the deficit by cutting spending, which could reduce economic growth. Worse, Brazilian exports are sensitive to a slowing China, its main trading partner. That leaves Brazilian shares, which trade a tenth pricier than EM peers on a forward price-to-earnings ratio, looking expensive. Best wait for the party to fade before entering the fray.
Subject: Bond issues; Budget deficits; International finance; Economic growth; Gross Domestic Product--GDP
Location: China Brazil Latin America
People: Trump, Donald J Bolsonaro, Jair
Company / organization: Name: Petroleos Brasileiro SA; NAICS: 211111; Name: Sao Paulo Stock Exchange; NAICS: 523210
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 10
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Oct 30, 2018
Section: News
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2139375911
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2139375911?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Oct 30, 2018
Last updated: 2018-11-30
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 425 of 474
Brazil election: captain of industry: Twitter: @FTLex
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]30 Oct 2018: 20. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: The riotous Lenten carnival for which Brazil is famous has started early as far as equity investors are concerned. They are already getting carried away in the festive frenzy. Voters in Latin America's biggest economy have elected a self-styled tropical Donald Trump, the rightwing former army captain Jair Bolsonaro. Market sentiment has soared on hopes that the new president will tackle corruption, oversee a liberal economic agenda and push through long-overdue reform of a pension system that threatens to overwhelm the country's budget. Investors are also happy that Paulo Guedes, a University of Chicagoeducated banker, has been tapped to lead the economy ministry. Brazil's Bovespa equity index hit a record high at yesterday's open — a gain of 18 per cent since poll numbers started moving in Mr Bolsonaro's favour about six weeks ago. The real has strengthened and 10-year government bond yields are down about 250 basis points to 10 per cent. Many global investors may well have avoided emerging market assets of late. That suggests the party might go on a little longer. The optimism might well last until Mr Bolsonaro takes office early in 2019. But then reality must bite. Brazil has a budget deficit near 8 per cent of gross domestic product, well over double its size after the financial crisis. Promises of a big privatisation programme to cut it will ring hollow. The government carried out a series of these sell-offs 25 years ago, and deficits today are worse. The only privatisations that could raise the money needed would be state energy companies such as Petrobras and Eletrobras. Most legislators will see the former as untouchable, while Mr Bolsonaro has shied away from selling Eletrobras. Without big sales, Mr Bolsonaro would have to narrow the deficit by cutting spending, which could reduce economic growth. Worse, Brazilian exports are sensitive to a slowing China, its main trading partner. That leaves Brazilian shares, which trade a tenth pricier than EM peers on a forward price-to-earnings ratio, looking expensive. Best wait for the party to fade before entering the fray.
Subject: Bond issues; Budget deficits; International finance; Economic growth; Gross Domestic Product--GDP
Location: China Brazil Latin America
People: Trump, Donald J Bolsonaro, Jair
Company / organization: Name: Petroleos Brasileiro SA; NAICS: 211111; Name: Sao Paulo Stock Exchange; NAICS: 523210
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 20
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Oct 30, 2018
Section: News
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2139380998
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2139380998?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Oct 30, 2018
Last updated: 2018-11-30
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 426 of 474
Brazil election: captain of industry: Twitter: @FTLex [Usa Region]
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]30 Oct 2018: 10. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: The country's stock market has underperformed wider emerging markets, if currency movements are taken into account. The election of the authoritarian Jair Bolsonaro as president points to a more liberal economic agenda and fiscal reform, which has sent stocks higher and bond yields lower. The riotous Lenten carnival for which Brazil is famous has started early as far as equity investors are concerned. They are already getting carried away in the festive frenzy. Voters in Latin America's biggest economy have elected a self-styled tropical Donald Trump, the rightwing former army captain Jair Bolsonaro. Market sentiment has soared on hopes that the new president will tackle corruption, oversee a liberal economic agenda and push through long-overdue reform of a pension system that threatens to overwhelm the country's budget. Investors are also happy that Paulo Guedes, a University of Chicagoeducated banker, has been tapped to lead the economy ministry. Brazil's Bovespa equity index hit a record high at yesterday's open — a gain of 18 per cent since poll numbers started moving in Mr Bolsonaro's favour about six weeks ago. The real has strengthened and 10-year government bond yields are down about 250 basis points to 10 per cent. Many global investors may well have avoided emerging market assets of late. That suggests the party might go on a little longer. The optimism might well last until Mr Bolsonaro takes office early in 2019. But then reality must bite. Brazil has a budget deficit near 8 per cent of gross domestic product, well over double its size after the financial crisis. Promises of a big privatisation programme to cut it will ring hollow. The government carried out a series of these sell-offs 25 years ago, and deficits today are worse. The only privatisations that could raise the money needed would be state energy companies such as Petrobras and Eletrobras. Most legislators will see the former as untouchable, while Mr Bolsonaro has shied away from selling Eletrobras. Without big sales, Mr Bolsonaro would have to narrow the deficit by cutting spending, which could reduce economic growth. Worse, Brazilian exports are sensitive to a slowing China, its main trading partner. That leaves Brazilian shares, which trade a tenth pricier than EM peers on a forward price-to-earnings ratio, looking expensive. Best wait for the party to fade before entering the fray.
Subject: Investments; Bond issues; Budget deficits; International finance; Economic growth; Gross Domestic Product--GDP
Location: China Brazil Latin America
People: Trump, Donald J Bolsonaro, Jair
Company / organization: Name: Petroleos Brasileiro SA; NAICS: 211111; Name: Sao Paulo Stock Exchange; NAICS: 523210
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 10
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Oct 30, 2018
Section: News
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2139381105
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2139381105?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Oct 30, 2018
Last updated: 2018-11-30
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 427 of 474
Brazil election: captain of industry: Twitter: @FTLex [Asia Region]
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]30 Oct 2018: 10. [Duplicate]
Abstract: None available.
Full text: The riotous Lenten carnival for which Brazil is famous has started early as far as equity investors are concerned. They are already getting carried away in the festive frenzy. Voters in Latin America's biggest economy have elected a self-styled tropical Donald Trump, the rightwing former army captain Jair Bolsonaro. Market sentiment has soared on hopes that the new president will tackle corruption, oversee a liberal economic agenda and push through long-overdue reform of a pension system that threatens to overwhelm the country's budget. Investors are also happy that Paulo Guedes, a University of Chicagoeducated banker, has been tapped to lead the economy ministry. Brazil's Bovespa equity index hit a record high at yesterday's open — a gain of 18 per cent since poll numbers started moving in Mr Bolsonaro's favour about six weeks ago. The real has strengthened and 10-year government bond yields are down about 250 basis points to 10 per cent. Many global investors may well have avoided emerging market assets of late. That suggests the party might go on a little longer. The optimism might well last until Mr Bolsonaro takes office early in 2019. But then reality must bite. Brazil has a budget deficit near 8 per cent of gross domestic product, well over double its size after the financial crisis. Promises of a big privatisation programme to cut it will ring hollow. The government carried out a series of these sell-offs 25 years ago, and deficits today are worse. The only privatisations that could raise the money needed would be state energy companies such as Petrobras and Eletrobras. Most legislators will see the former as untouchable, while Mr Bolsonaro has shied away from selling Eletrobras. Without big sales, Mr Bolsonaro would have to narrow the deficit by cutting spending, which could reduce economic growth. Worse, Brazilian exports are sensitive to a slowing China, its main trading partner. That leaves Brazilian shares, which trade a tenth pricier than EM peers on a forward price-to-earnings ratio, looking expensive. Best wait for the party to fade before entering the fray.
Subject: Bond issues; Budget deficits; International finance; Economic growth; Gross Domestic Product--GDP
Location: China Brazil Latin America
People: Trump, Donald J Bolsonaro, Jair
Company / organization: Name: Petroleos Brasileiro SA; NAICS: 211111; Name: Sao Paulo Stock Exchange; NAICS: 523210
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 10
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Oct 30, 2018
Section: News
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2139387023
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2139387023?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Oct 30, 2018
Last updated: 2018-11-30
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 428 of 474
Happy ‘National Jealousy Day’! Finland Bares Its Citizens’ Taxes
Author: Barry, Ellen
Publication info: New York Times (Online) , New York: New York Times Company. Nov 1, 2018.
Abstract:
Once a year, the authorities disclose the taxable incomes of all Finns, prompting talk of who’s up, who’s down — and who may be weaseling out of taxes.
Full text: HELSINKI, Finland — Shortly after 6 a.m. on Thursday, people began lining up outside the central office of the Finnish tax administration. It was chilly and dark, but they claimed their places, eager to be the first to tap into a mother lode of data. Pamplona can boast of the running of the bulls, Rio de Janeiro has Carnival, but Helsinki is alone in observing “National Jealousy Day,” when every Finnish citizen’s taxable income is made public at 8 a.m. sharp. The annual Nov. 1 data dump is the starting gun for a countrywide game of who’s up and who’s down. Which tousled tech entrepreneur has sold his company? Which Instagram celebrity is, in fact, broke? Which retired executive is weaseling out of his tax liabilities? Esa Saarinen, a professor of philosophy at Aalto University in Helsinki, described it as “a fairly positive form of gossip.” Finland is unusual, even among the Nordic states, in turning its release of personal tax data — to comply with government transparency laws — into a public ritual of comparison. Though some complain that the tradition is an invasion of privacy, most say it has helped the country resist the trend toward growing inequality that has crept across of the rest of Europe. “We’re looking at the gap between normal people and those rich, rich people — is it getting too wide?” said Tuomo Pietilainen, an investigative reporter at Helsingin Sanomat, the country’s largest daily newspaper. “When we do publish the figures, the people who have lower salary start to think, ‘Why do my colleagues make more?”’ he said. “Our work has the effect that people are paid more.” Employers, he said, “have to behave better than in conditions where there is no transparency.” A large dosage of Thursday’s reporting concerned the income of minor celebrities, and one journalist moaned at the thought of profiling another beauty pageant winner, noting that, “usually, they are broke as hell.” The country’s best-known porn star, Anssi “Mr. Lothar” Viskari, was reported to have earned 23,826 euros (about $27,000), of which 7,177 was capital gains. Roman Schatz, 58, a German-born author, rolled his eyes, a little, at Finland’s annual celebration of its own honesty. “It’s a psychological exercise,” he said. “It creates an illusion of transparency so we all feel good about ourselves: ‘The Americans could never do it. The Germans could never do it. We are honest guys, good guys.’ It’s sort of a Lutheran purgatory.” Mr. Schatz warned against taking all the financial figures released publicly at face value, noting that nontaxable income, like grants or business deductions, may not appear. “It makes me smile every time, because it’s my taxable income, and people say, ‘Roman Schatz makes less than a schoolteacher,’” he said. Economists in the United States have shown great interest in salary disclosure in recent years, in part as a way of reducing gender or racial disparities in pay. Transparency may or may not reduce inequality, but does tend to make people less satisfied, several concluded. A study of faculty members at the University of California, where pay was made accessible online in 2008, found that lower-earning workers, after learning how their pay stacked up, were less happy in their job and more likely to look for a new one. A study of Norway , which made its tax data easily accessible to anonymous online searches in 2001, reached a similar conclusion: When people could easily learn the incomes of co-workers and neighbors, self-reported happiness began to track more closely with income, with low earners reporting lower happiness. In 2014, Norway banned anonymous searches , and the number of searches dropped dramatically. “More information may not be something which improves overall well-being,” said Alexandre Mas , one of the authors of the University of California report. Flamboyant wealth has long been discouraged in Finland; a line of poetry capturing this idea — “if you’re lucky, hide it” — is so beloved that it has been set to music. The government has made individual tax data accessible to the public since the 19th century, though until recently citizens had to pore through bulky ledgers for what they wanted. Nowadays, Helsinki tabloids often assign up to half their editorial staff to cover the release of the data, and competition for computer terminals in the tax administration building is so intense that there was once a scuffle, which everyone agreed was totally un-Finnish. (The second-biggest news deployment of the year is for Finnish Independence Day, on December 6, when news organizations devote vast resources to reporting which A-listers have been invited to the presidential reception, and what they have decided to wear.) Many journalists have little love for the task. “I don’t see the point of calling up semi-ordinary people and asking they why they made so much money,” one grumbled — but others, like Mr. Pietilainen, clearly relish it. “One hundred and thirty thousand lines of Excel to process — how do you feel about that?” he said, with obvious appetite, as his colleagues stared at him. One of the great sports of National Jealousy Day is to publicly shame tax dodgers. In 2015, Mr. Pietilainen found that executives from several of Finland’s largest firms had relocated to Portugal so that they could receive their pensions tax free. His reporting caused such a stir that the Finnish Parliament terminated its tax agreement with Portugal, negotiating a new one that closed the loophole. What may sting more in Finland, said Mr. Saarinen, the philosophy professor, is disapproval. “These particular executives have destroyed their reputation,” he said. “I would be surprised if they didn’t care. Finland is a small society. There is a sense that as long as you’re a Finn, you’re always a Finn. They will show up at Christmas at Helsinki airport, they will be recognized, and they will feel it in people’s eyes: the disrespect.” Newspapers also anointed capitalist heroes on Thursday. Especially adored are the young owners of the gaming company Supercell, who declared a total of 181 million euros in taxable income this year, and were five of the 10 top-earning citizens. Supercell’s 40-year-old chief executive, Ilkka Paananen, went out of his way in 2016 to express his happiness at breaking Finland’s record for capital gains taxes, telling Helsingin Sanomat that “it is our turn to give something back.” This, said Onni Tertsunen, a graduate student at a downtown Helsinki cafe, is the kind of rich person Finns like. “He’s really humble,” he said. “That’s the thing in Finland, to be humble. If you show it around, no one likes you.” There are, of course, manifold other uses for income tax data. Tuomas Rimpilainen, a crime reporter, said he sometimes looked up the salaries of his professional competitors before asking his boss for a raise. (It worked.) “I’ve looked up my relatives,” said a colleague, Markku Uhari. “And my bosses,” Mr. Rimpilainen said. “No one likes to admit they do it,” said another reporter, Lassi Lapintie. “But everyone has done it.” For all the attention from the news media, strictly speaking, the release of the tax data is not really big news. “No one really conceals their income,” Mr. Saarinen said. “No one thinks it is conceivable that anyone would have the nerve to live in Finland and, outrageously, to avoid paying taxes,” he said. “People play by the rules, and they expect that to be the case. It’s the default.” He interrupted the interview, as several Finns did, to express bafflement over President Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns. “For Finns, that is unthinkable,” he said. “I don’t know if we have a law saying that a person seeking the office of the president of Finland should explain how they made their money. The society just expects that to happen. If it did not happen, the society would punish that candidate.” Credit: Ellen Barry
Subject: Happiness; Celebrities; Computer terminals; Taxes; Reporters; Taxable income; Capital gains
Location: United States--US Portugal California Rio de Janeiro Brazil Norway Finland Europe
People: Trump, Donald J
Company / organization: Name: Aalto University; NAICS: 611310
Identifier / keyword: Finland Income Tax Income Inequality Wages and Salaries Politics and Government Tax Shelters
Publication title: New York Times (Online); New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Nov 1, 2018
Section: world
Publisher: New York Times Company
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Blogs, Podcasts, & Websites
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2127764956
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2127764956?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright 2018 The New York Times Company
Last updated: 2018-11-03
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 429 of 474
Q3 2018 Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA Earnings Call - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]01 Nov 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Presentation OPERATOR: Good day, and welcome to the GOL Airlines Third Quarter 2018 Results Conference Call. This call is being recorded. (Operator Instructions) This event is also being broadcast live via webcast and may be accessed through GOL website at www.voegol.com.br/ir, and MZiQ platform at www.mziq.com. Those following the presentation via the webcast may post their questions on the platform, and their questions will either be answered by management during this call or by the GOL Investor Relations team after the conference is finished. Before proceeding, let me mention that forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of GOL's management on information currently available to the company. They involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to future events and therefore, depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors and analysts should understand that events related to macroeconomic conditions, industry and other factors could also cause results to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. At this time, I will hand you over to Paulo Kakinoff. Please begin. PAULO SéRGIO KAKINOFF, PRESIDENT & CEO, GOL LINHAS AéREAS INTELIGENTES S.A.: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to GOL Airlines third quarter conference call. I am Paulo Kakinoff, Chief Executive Officer, and I'm joined by Richard Lark, our Chief Financial Officer. RICHARD FREEMAN LARK, EXECUTIVE VP, CFO & IR OFFICER, GOL LINHAS AéREAS INTELIGENTES S.A.: Good morning, good to be with you today. PAULO SéRGIO KAKINOFF: This morning, we released our third quarter figures, also, we made available on GOL's Investor Relations website 3 videos with our results presentation, financial review and brief Q&A. We improved our operating indicators in the quarter. GOL's RPKs increased by 2.2% from BRL 9.6 billion in the third quarter 2017 to BRL 9.9 billion this quarter, driven by 4.5% increase in the number of transported passengers. Strong demand allowed GOL to continue driving pricing through dynamic revenue management. Average yield per passenger increased by 6.5% quarter-over-quarter, reaching BRL 0.274. Supply growth, ASK, increased 3.7% compared to third quarter 2017, driven by 0.2% increase in takeoffs and a 4.8% increase in seats. The average load factor was 79.1%, a decrease of 1.1 percentage points compared to same period in 2017. We continue to drive strong revenue growth. The combination of higher demand and optimized pricing resulted in net revenue for the quarter of BRL 2.9 billion, an increase of 8.3% compared to the third quarter 2017. Net RASK was BRL 0.232 in this quarter, an increase of 4.5% over same period 2017. Net PRASK increased 5% quarter-over-quarter, reaching BRL 0.217. Average fares increased by 4.2% from BRL 299 to BRL 312. GOL's 2018 guidance is for net revenues of approximately BRL 11.5 million. The GOL network serves high yielding routes and has the leading share in the corporate client segment. We have the largest share of business traffic in the country. The recently received 2 737 MAX 8s that are already operating in our fleet provide us reduced operating expenses, and in the near future, we will extend the range of our network, allowing us to serve new markets in South America, the Caribbean and the United States. With that, I'm going to hand you over to Rich, who is going to take us through some other highlights. RICHARD FREEMAN LARK: Thanks, Kaki. First, we'd like to comment about our controlled cost environment. Total CASK in the third quarter was BRL 0.218, 11.5% higher than in the same period in 2017 due to the increases in jet fuel prices. On an ex-fuel basis, CASK fell by 3.4%. GOL remains the cost leader in South America for the 17th consecutive year. While the average price of jet fuel increased by 3.7% in this quarter over the second quarter of 2018, the combination of stronger pricing, higher demand and operating result gains on fuel hedging permitted GOL's EBIT margin to reach 6.2% in the third quarter of 2018. Our operating income EBIT was BRL 180.5 million in this quarter and EBITDA margin was 12.3%. EBITDAR was BRL 651 million, a 22.5% margin. GOL's 2018 guidance is for an EBIT margin of approximately 11%. Second, we want to highlight our cash flow management. The combination of operating cash flow generation of BRL 461 million in the quarter and stable cash liquidity improved the company's financial flexibility. Total liquidity, including cash financial investments, restricted cash and accounts receivable, was BRL 3 billion, an increase of BRL 872 million versus the third quarter of 2017. Third, we would like to share the continued success of our liability management and refinancing. In spite of depreciation of the real against the dollar in the quarter, causing a net exchange and monetary variation loss of BRL 187 million, our net debt, excluding perpetual bonds to last 12 months EBITDA ratio, was 3.2x as of September of 2018, improving versus year-ago metrics of 3.4x. Continuing our work with an aim to deleverage, in October, GOL successfully concluded a liability management and refinancing exercise on its debentures issued by its wholly owned subsidiary GOL Linhas Aéreas, GLA. We fully amortized the total amount of BRL 1 billion and issued a new single series of nonconvertible and unsecured debentures in the amount of BRL 888 million, resulting in a net indebtedness reduction of BRL 138 million. The new debentures were issued at a yield of 120% of the Brazilian CDI interbank rate, which is approximately 7.68% in reais, with quarterly interest payments of approximately BRL 17 million and semi-annual principal payments of approximately BRL 148 million, with final payment to be made on September 28, 2021. It's worth mentioning that the yield on new debentures is substantially below that of the fully amortized debentures, which carried a rate of 132% of the CDI rate. We believe this is further evidence of the market's improved view of GOL's credit profile. This transaction is additional deleveraging of GOL's balance sheet and better matches GLA's operating cash flow generation with the amortization of its liabilities. The issuance reduced the company's cost of debt and improved its credit metrics. Considering the debenture issuance, the average interest rate is 7.7% for local currency debt and for dollar dominated debt, the average interest rate for the company is 6.8%. And to finalize, we present a preliminary quantitative analysis of certain indicators based on currently available information as of and for the last 12 months period ended September 30, 2018, considering the new standards of IFRS 16. The international accounting standards board, IASB, has recently issued IFRS 16 as a new accounting standard, which will become mandatory on January 1, 2019. As a result of the mandatory adoption of IFRS 16 as of January 1, 2019, we have analyzed the impact of this accounting standard on us, and our preliminary valuation shows an estimate of a significant reduction in net debt as well as an improvement in the net adjusted debt to LTM EBITDA ratio. Our preliminary valuation showed that total adjusted debt will reduce by BRL 1.7 billion to BRL 2.7 billion and that our annual EBIT margin will increase by 4 to 5 percentage points. Looking forward to the end of this year and 2019, we expect to confirm a scenario of continuous improvement for the Brazilian economy and the aviation industry in our country. We have maintained a commitment to financial discipline, managing the effects of the Brazilian currency through efficient capacity management and dynamic yield management. EBITDA and EBIT margins in 2018 are expected to be around 16% and 11%, respectively. And our revised guidance indicates earnings per share before currency gains and losses is expected to be between BRL 0.05 and BRL 0.25. Leverage measured as net debt excluding perpetual debt over EBITDA for 2018 should be slightly better than 2.6x, reflecting our commitment to reduce leverage in our balance sheet. For 2019, we expect our domestic capacity growth to be between 1% and 3% and non-fuel CASK to be around BRL 0.14. We also project an EBITDA margin of around 17% and expect to end the year 2019 with leverage of approximately 2.5x. Now I would like to return to Kakinoff. PAULO SéRGIO KAKINOFF: Thanks, Rich. In summary, we worked hard to maximize our results this quarter. This quarter was particularly challenging due to the accelerated depreciation of the U.S. dollar against the real, a trend that has already begun to reverse and due to the higher jet fuel prices. Our commitment to continuous improvement in our results has proven that our strategy of offering a differentiated high-quality product while relentlessly focusing on cost efficiency is bearing fruit. We remain focused on offering the best experience in air transportation, inclusive of services to our customers on new modern aircraft that connect our main market with the most convenient schedules. We remain attentive to very disciplined capacity and prudent management of our balance sheet and liquidity, maintaining our cost leadership and continuing as the preferred airline for our customers while driving sustainable margins and the returns for our shareholders. To finalize, on October 14, as previously discussed, we announced that our intention to affect the corporate reorganization, including the merge of Smiles. The reorganizations seeks to ensure the long-term competitiveness of the group; aligning the interests of all stakeholders; reinforcing capital structure; simplifying corporate governance; reducing operating, administrative and financing costs and expenses; and increasing the market liquidity for shareholders. It's also worth noting that in accordance with the company's commitment to the highest standards of corporate governance, the restructuring will further comply with all applicable rules and in particular, opinion #35 of the CVM. In this sense, an independent committee appointed by the Smiles' Board of Directors will negotiate the terms of the transaction with GOL's management. GOL's management will not appoint the members to this committee, which will have complete discretion to analyze all the merits of the transaction. In addition, the committee will also issue a recommendation to Smiles' board of directors. In this way, the terms of the reorganization depend directly on negotiations that will still occur and which, as soon as they are defined, will be duly communicated to the market. Now I would like to initiate the Q&A session. Questions and Answers OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) The first question comes from Michael Linenberg with Deutsche Bank. MICHAEL JOHN LINENBERG, MD AND SENIOR COMPANY RESEARCH ANALYST, DEUTSCHE BANK AG, RESEARCH DIVISION: Two things, one, in your guidance for capacity growth next year, the 1% to 3% for domestic, is that -- so that's ASKs, how does that compare to seats and maybe you can even throw in departures. I'm just trying to get a feel about whether or not you're going to be benefiting from some upgauging or if it's more stage length? It is, nonetheless, a modest growth rate. PAULO SéRGIO KAKINOFF: Michael, it's Kakinoff here. Our 5% growth considers basically the -- it's 100% related to seats too, and it's target to reach -- or to address, sorry, the 1% to 3% demand growth in domestic market and also to -- it includes a combination of higher stage length in international markets. So if you talk on domestic only, it means 5% demand growth expectation, is what we have considered. And therefore, we are targeting 1% to 3% domestic ASK growth. RICHARD FREEMAN LARK: And Mike, what we did -- you probably saw that we reduced the guidance on the fleet by one aircraft. We took it down by one aircraft, but we kept the same overall capacity growth, and that's really 2 effects. One is the effect of the MAX coming in, which has a greater ASK productivity, produces more ASKs. It's got 9 more seats and has a little bit longer stage length. In the domestic market, we're keeping the 1% to 3% domestic ASK growth for GOL, which is a little bit under domestic demand expectations that we have, which are around 5% based on this roughly 2x elasticity of Brazilian GDP, which we expect to be about 2.5% this year. So as we expect demand to be going a little bit above that at around 5%, we're -- this 1% to 3% capacity growth domestically is what's required to serve demand of the market and keep good rationality. And then the difference on that, the second point is what we're doing internationally, where we have a much larger relative expansion internationally because as you know, we're doing additional service starting next week to Miami and Orlando. We're also adding Quito, which will be in there next year as well as Cancun in Mexico. And so that's giving us that additional growth relative, and this is possible because of the MAX. And so the overall 5% to 10% capacity growth, the delta above that on the overall GOL integrated network is on the international side, which is also giving us sort of a little bit more diversification on the market side of the equation in terms of the markets that we're serving, away from just pure Brazilian demand, which also has a dollar billing component, as we've discussed. MICHAEL JOHN LINENBERG: Yes. Okay, no, that's helpful. And then, Rich, my second just to you on the gain on the sale of aircraft we saw in this quarter. Presumably, we're going to see that in the fourth quarter as well. As I recall, I think you mentioned that you were able to take advantage of that probably for multiple quarters. Is the amount going to be similar to what it was in the third quarter? And I'm just -- I'm trying to get to what -- like the margin guide for the year. Is it a similar number? Or is it going to be a bit less or more? Can you just -- any color around the size of that potential gain. I understand or appreciate the fact that the transaction may not have yet closed but anything that can get us like roughly to what you think it could be based on aircraft that have been positioned... RICHARD FREEMAN LARK: Yes, sure. We have 60 days left in the year. So we still have a lot of work to do here. But yes, it's -- as you're saying, we're transforming the fleet. We've got NGs going out, combination of owned NGs and leased NGs going out and then new MAXs coming in. So it's part of the fleet transformation, which will continue over the next 10 years, but as we're disposing of the NGs, there's 2 components, one, it depends on the market, which we're seeing a very good market now for our types of NGs, which are these midlife NGs, really good demand and then also the other -- that's a positive. The negative for us is that we can only do the fleet transformation to the extent that it matches with MAXs coming in. And as you know, our fleet plan with the MAXs coming in, and so we're tying the exit of the NGs with the entry of the MAXs, and then where we have a gap there, we have to negotiate a short-term operating lease, if you will -- short-term sale leaseback, if you will, on the NG that's going out, or we got to do some direct operating leases on MAXs -- on MAX 8s. All those things are in the works but to answer your -- all those things are in the work for the fourth quarter as well as for next year. We're working hard to try to accelerate the fleet transformation because it gives us huge gains on the productivity side of the equation as well as cost reduction and fuel savings. That being said, if we're successful in the next 60 days here, we should have a continuance of the fleet transformation, which would produce equity income similar to what we saw in the third quarter. OPERATOR: The next question comes from Roberto Otero with Bank of America Merrill Lynch. ROBERTO OTERO, ASSOCIATE, BOFA MERRILL LYNCH, RESEARCH DIVISION: Just one question from our side. If you could walk us through the one-time effect in the operating income this quarter and what to expect for the next few quarters? That's it. RICHARD FREEMAN LARK: Yes, sure. Bert, sure. Not -- part of the -- in addition to the income we're generating from the business we have, which sells tickets and transport passengers, the GOL Linhas Aéreas business, the airline operating company, if you will. In addition to that, what I just was talking with Michael was, the aircraft asset business that we had -- have, which is also part of our portfolio. And that we had around BRL 109 million of operating income on our fleet transformation disposal of our own 737 NGs. The other effect -- so that was about BRL 109 million in third quarter operating income from our asset management business -- the aircraft asset management business. In the other business we have, which is the loyalty program business, we had around BRL 60 million of one-time profits in income, which had about a BRL 39 million positive impact on EBIT on operating income, which was due to the reversal of 5 years of the PIS/COFINS taxes on revenues, which was a reversal of the application of those PIS/COFINS taxes on the breakage at our Smiles subsidiary. That created a total net income increase one-time of BRL 60 million and of that, BRL 39 million hit the operating income positive. OPERATOR: The next question comes from Duane Pfennigwerth with Evercore ISI. DUANE THOMAS PFENNIGWERTH, SENIOR MD, EVERCORE ISI INSTITUTIONAL EQUITIES, RESEARCH DIVISION: Just with respect to your 2019 guidance, Rich, can you talk about the underlying FX assumption that you expect in 2019? On the reduction in net financial expense from '18 to '19, is that already in the bag? Or is that based on refinancings that you expect? And then lastly, for the full year '18, earnings per ADS guidance, what is the assumed FX gain, if any, in the fourth quarter? RICHARD FREEMAN LARK: You mean 3 questions. Yes, let me go through the 3 questions here, and if you could just repeat number 2 and number 3, as I was -- your first question, I understood was what's our FX assumption for '19 overall, correct? DUANE THOMAS PFENNIGWERTH: Yes. RICHARD FREEMAN LARK: We're assuming that we're going to be something close to 3.6 by the end of this year. That's in our planning and how we're working, and we assume it's kind of going to be bouncing around that level for next year, perhaps with a slight appreciation to a 3.5 level. That's based our view on Brazilian economy and oil prices and how we do our risk management. I'm sorry, Duane. I blanked on your second part of the question. DUANE THOMAS PFENNIGWERTH: Oh, the -- in '19, you have, I think, about BRL 300 million of reduction in the net financial expense, basically, net interest expense. Is that kind of the run rate you're at today? Or is that based on transactions that you expect to do in the future? RICHARD FREEMAN LARK: Yes, sure. Yes, let me walk you through that because this year, we have an enormous amount of exchange rate variations caused by the dollar appreciation. Of -- if you -- this year, 2018 full year, we're expecting to have around BRL 800 million of net financial expense, excluding the exchange rate variations -- exchange rate variation should probably end up being around BRL 600 million negative in the full year results of 2018, okay? And meaning -- so that total number there is going to be about BRL 1.4 billion, BRL 800 million is actual net financial expense that we actually paid, and then the other component is the variation effect, which has -- it's basically, if you will, the exchange rate variation on our net spread of assets minus liabilities on the balance sheet, given that our aircraft assets are not denominated in dollars, and therefore, they depreciate in an appreciating dollar environment. Now for... DUANE THOMAS PFENNIGWERTH: I don't -- sorry, I don't mean to cut you off but just the -- understand that variation and how the assets don't get marked, but the debt does. But just for the -- just the net interest expense portion of that, I believe you're expecting a decline year-over-year, '18 to '19, and I was wondering... RICHARD FREEMAN LARK: Yes, I was flipping to that. I was going to say is that, from that starting point for next year, given what I just described on the exchange rate scenario, where we expect to finish the year and where expected to be throughout the year, we would expect minimal positive or negative exchange rate variations on the balance sheet for next year. So the rest of that roughly BRL 500 million is -- that we're guiding for next year of net financial expense is pure actual net financial expense, which is the effect on the balance sheet. And yes, that is declining by about BRL 300 million. I just wanted to separate from you -- there's no -- none of these exchange rate affects on the balance sheet in that number, just to kind of set that aside, understand how that goes in '18, also. But in 2019, that's a combination of 2 factors. One, it is continuing deleveraging, where we expect to take about another -- a slight deleveraging overall. As you saw, we just announced a -- further amortization of one of our Brazilian real denominated debts, which are going to be amortizing next year, an additional BRL 300 million during the course of the year. We also reduced the interest expense on that significantly. And so that's one component. The other component is, as we roll off, as we do these aircraft sales in our own portfolio, the financial leases roll off, and we're negotiating good deals on the MAXs coming in, that for next year, we've all done -- we've done in a sale leaseback mode and in operating leases. And of course, all of this is pre the IFRS 16 effects, which we can talk about separately, if you want. But that roughly BRL 300 million reduction is a function of deleveraging in a couple of different categories on our balance sheet as well as the reduced interest rates that we've been able to negotiate on some of our debt instruments. DUANE THOMAS PFENNIGWERTH: Okay, Rich. And then maybe if I can just sneak one more in, I know it's just a short amount of time, just a very few days, but could you compare bookings trends leading into the election versus bookings trends after the election. Are you seeing any acceleration or pickup in activity? PAULO SéRGIO KAKINOFF: Yes. Basically, among the business travelers, we see a slight improvement, which is mixed with the high season typical growth in our demands. So we believe that this is a kind of new trend. As I said, still, it's early but definitely growing. We are quite positive on that. OPERATOR: The next question comes from Savi Syth with Raymond James. SAVANTHI NIPUNIKA SYTH, AIRLINES ANALYST, RAYMOND JAMES & ASSOCIATES, INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: Just a few quick follow-up questions from me. First is on the NG side, how many aircraft are left to you that you can sell over the next few years? And second, on the sale leaseback of the MAXs, do you have any idea kind of what that can contribute next year? Because I'm guessing that will be kind of a positive impact as well to -- is it going to be other operating income? And then just on the -- sort of a third question, just on -- to follow up on the 4Q trends. It seems like your kind of guidance on revenue would imply RASK kind of really sequentially improving quite a bit, and I know the load factor is definitely helping in that direction. Any additional kind of thoughts on that would be greatly appreciated. RICHARD FREEMAN LARK: Sure, Savi, sure. The -- So just take those 3 questions. Yes, on the NGs, we finished the quarter with 25 in the -- of owned NGs in the portfolio. And as we've guided, we're in the process of disposing of those over the next 2 to 3 years. If we can find ways to accelerate the exchange to the MAX with -- not increasing the fleet plan but just -- an increase in the participation of the MAXs in our overall fleet, we'll do that. And we have the flexibility to dispose of those 25 NGs faster if we want to. But right now, I think you should expect that those should be kind of -- to come out of the fleet over the next 24 to 36 months. And it's important to emphasize that, that is a regular component of our business model in that business. As we dispose of the NGs, we're also taking on the MAX portfolio. We're also going to be adding some finance leases -- using the finance lease mechanism within the MAX portfolio also, which will also create that income from -- for us over the cycle. As you were mentioning in -- for next year, our entire delivery schedule for next year on the MAXs was done in that sale leaseback format. And yes, we will have -- we will also have some operating gains as we receive those aircraft in the fleet next year that would also impact positively operating income. As you know, we don't disclose the prices on those deals, but it should be similar to what we've experienced historically. And finally, on the fourth quarter, yes, I could -- a couple of points. I mean, fourth quarter PRASK, if you will, year-over-year -- I can also help you sequentially, year-over-year, we expect it should be up around 5% to 6% on load factors as we've guided kind of in the low 80s, 80%, 81%, which will give us a RASK of kind of a 45% increase versus the fourth quarter of last year. And that's a slight increase over the third quarter. Remember in Brazil, November, December, January, February will be kind of -- it's another high season for us because we're now going to our, if you will, our summertime, which is the peak in January, high leisure traffic and then Carnival is not in the month of February this year, so February should extend with that high VFR and leisure traveling. So we're -- we start to get a pickup in overall demand here over the next 4 months seasonality wise. Around the fare side and on the yield side, we do see some slight improvements in that, even given the big increases that we've had in the last 5 or 6 months. We're being successful and keeping good pricing power, especially as we get into the high demand season now, which will run kind of until February. SAVANTHI NIPUNIKA SYTH: Just to follow on -- the sale leaseback, what's kind of been the historical rate? I'm just kind of curious. RICHARD FREEMAN LARK: No. As I was saying, we don't disclose the numbers that we're negotiating with on these deals. So you'd have to wait to see that in the -- as we realize those gains going forward in the portfolio, obviously, the positive based on our prices and our contracts and our -- and the way we negotiate these deals. We generally focus on, when we do a sale leaseback, minimizing the lease rate because our focus is on having the absolute lowest operating cost per ASK, and then the difference on that ends up being the upfront cash that we realized on the sales. OPERATOR: The next question comes from Uifer Mizraki (sic) [Victor Mizusaki] with Bradesco BBI. VICTOR MIZUSAKI, RESEARCH ANALYST, BRADESCO S.A. CORRETORA DE TíTULOS E VALORES MOBILIáRIOS, RESEARCH DIVISION: I have 2 questions here. The first one in the press release, you mentioned about the IFRS 16 that you'll be -- implement next year, and your adjust net debt could drop like BRL 1.7 billion to BRL 2.7 billion, so that's a lot. So I don't know if you can give any color around the potential implications for GOL, for example, if it's possible to refinance our bonds in order to reduce the credit spread? And my second question, just follow up on forward looking for Q4, we can see load factor going up in your presentation. And now we have a scenario of falling FX rate, so can we assume that you have all these, let's say, revenues at a much higher FX and then for Q4, will likely see a very strong EBIT margin? RICHARD FREEMAN LARK: Victor. The first question, yes, we provided some preliminary valuations on the impacts of IFRS 16. We've been getting this year a lot of questions on that issue. And we have finalized all the preliminary analysis, now that has to go into the full-year audit. These numbers will become official as of January 1, and we will present the 2018 numbers as well. But based on the initial results of that, which is -- involve consultants as well as our own team, we estimate reduction in adjusted net debt of BRL 1.7 billion to BRL 2.7 billion. And then the counter party on the operating income side of plus 400 to 500 basis points on the EBIT margin. And the numbers we provided in the release are the pro forma numbers on the last 12 months ended September 18, 2018, as if we -- as if that was applied on the balance sheet today -- on today's balance sheet, you would then see -- if converted to IFRS 16, you would see BRL 1.7 billion to BRL 2.7 billion net -- adjusted net debt reduction. On your question on load factor and the currency, if I understood it correctly, and if not, please repeat it. I think we should expect to see the high correlation of domestic market yields with currency with the U.S. dollar, is historically when we have rational capacity management, in other words, capacity growing below demand. In our market, we have a pretty good, very high correlation -- 70% correlation of Brazilian yields with the U.S. dollar, almost a dollarized revenue, if you will. But it's very important there to have capacity growing below demand. And that's why we're very focused on that in our work. We expect domestic capacity next year to be growing on average at 5% year-over-year and our domestic -- I'm sorry, domestic demand growing at 5%, and our domestic capacity plan is a 1% to 3% growth, which should allow us to continue to get a pretty good recapture. Having said that, in the short term, given that we're in the seasonality cycle of increasing demand in November, December, January. January is only second to July in terms of demand. We should see some good buoyancy in fares and yields, even if the Brazilian real is appreciating versus the U.S. dollar now that a fair amount of the political uncertainty is resolved. But if that wasn't exactly your question, please ask me. VICTOR MIZUSAKI: Yes, no. That's it. And Richard, just a last question. Think about your guidance for next year. You do not have any of the impact related to the IFRS in your current guidance for next year, right? RICHARD FREEMAN LARK: I think maybe we have a bad audio here, Victor. I'm sorry, I can't -- I couldn't get the question. VICTOR MIZUSAKI: Your guidance for next year, do you incorporate the impact of the IFRS 16? Or it may change because of the IFRS 16 next year? RICHARD FREEMAN LARK: No, no, I'm sorry. Now I get it, I get it. No, are the -- we have not yet shifted our reporting methodology to the IFRS 16. We'll only do that with -- most with the first quarter of 2019. And so probably what we'll do -- when we provide our fourth quarter numbers and whatever we talk about with next year, the historical will still be in the current format, and then the first quarter will be the first quarter that we will present fully retroactively adjusted to the IFRS 16 methodology for this particular issue. But in February -- on February 28 next year, when we disclose our full year results, we'll also be providing what the actual 2018 audit confirms in terms of the IFRS 16 calculation. So you have a -- you have a pretty good view on how that would impact. But given that our overall growth in assets and liabilities between where we are now and next year is minimal, the impacts will be similar, within the range that we're providing for you guys. OPERATOR: The next question comes from Bruno Amorim with Goldman Sachs. BRUNO AMORIM, EQUITY ANALYST, GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP INC., RESEARCH DIVISION: Yes, sure. So a quick one from my side. So could you please just remind us to what extent, if any, GOL still benefits from payroll tax reductions? And what you expect for 2019? RICHARD FREEMAN LARK: Sorry, so you were asking about additional payroll tax reduction? We don't -- we currently don't expect any changes from where we are right now in terms of that. I think you're talking about the potential loss of the current situation? BRUNO AMORIM: Yes. RICHARD FREEMAN LARK: We don't have any updates on that now. PAULO SéRGIO KAKINOFF: There is no horizon on that yet. We need to wait until the next year's -- I mean, political environment to understand that whether this kind of point of view is going to stay or not. RICHARD FREEMAN LARK: Yes, we're just -- we're in the process now of a change in the government, and so in January, the new administration will assume and then we maybe will have visibility on a lot of these tax issues and institutional issues across Brazil. I think we'll have to wait until January to get more clarity on that. Anything that comes up between now and then would be speculative because with many issues, the government going out is not allowed to affect changes. And so we'll have to wait until the new government comes in and see what -- if anything changes, what the policy will be. And so I expect we'll be talking about that in March, when we talk about our fourth quarter results. OPERATOR: The next question comes from Stephen Trent with Citi. STEPHEN TRENT, DIRECTOR, CITIGROUP INC, RESEARCH DIVISION: The couple of mine have been answered. Just 1 or 2 follow-ups for you. I'm just curious, in terms of the domestic market, what you're seeing from your other competitors. There seems to be one relatively small competitor where the -- its financial health is maybe a bit of a question mark. And then the second question, maybe very early at this stage, but if I'm not mistaken, João Doria is going to be the next São Paulo governor. And any early read from him with respect to whether São Paulo might take a second look at its jet fuel taxation? PAULO SéRGIO KAKINOFF: Actually, Kakinoff here, actually, we have no reading on the new São Paulo governor policy on it. Basically, we know that he is always trying to make the most out of the current assets, and São Paulo has some airports, those could incentivized to host more flights, but honestly, we didn't see any kind of information or even any input, which could be understood as our capacity to read the new governor's policy. And regarding the competitors, we do see more rational behavior. We could have said that this rational as it should be, but I believe that the market will behave accordingly over the next month, mainly because some of the models, at least from our point of view, they are simply not sustainable. So I think that this is kind of likely landscape scenario for the next period. OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) The next question comes from Dan McKenzie with Buckingham Research. DANIEL J. MCKENZIE, RESEARCH ANALYST, THE BUCKINGHAM RESEARCH GROUP INCORPORATED: At the risk of kicking a dead horse here and going back to some of your -- the prior question or commentary. But you've got a lot of U investor -- U.S. investors that really don't track the local Brazilian news or economy. Seems, as you point out, the country's on the cusp of a lot of change, it implies a better operating environment, seems like your outlook factors in a tiny bit of this. So first, would you -- it seems like -- would you agree with respect to the outlook? And secondly, and I know you don't want to speculate on reforms getting passed, but is there a consensus view on if they're likely to get passed at this point or is it just simply too tough to call? So again, just trying to get at this idea of perhaps the operating environment next year being more likely to surprise on the upside or if the outlook for 2019 is really just sort of factoring in steady state? PAULO SéRGIO KAKINOFF: In considering our outlook for 2019, we are not considering any kind of boost in the economy, okay? But if I may, I would like to share with you some of my personal view on what could go positively regarding our economy. First of all, this kind of combination of having a low inflation rate plus low prime rate considering Brazilian standards, okay? And even only a marginal GDP growth is something not only pretty powerful to sustain the demand but also could be considered somehow new to -- in relation to our history. I mean, if you go back in 5 decades, you're not going to find not even a single year where we were able to live with 6.5% prime rate in Brazil, 4-plus something inflation rate and then positive GDP. This is the situation this year. And it's going to be added by also a quite new additional factor, which is political stability. As this is the current outlook, for the first time in 4 years, we are supposed to get rid of pretty much full and final influences, such as impeachment, change of the congressman and all this kind of turbulence. So I believe that path should leave a better, more dynamic economy, is there. But at the moment, nobody knows exactly what's going to be the economy -- the policies for the economy at the beginning of the next government. And I -- personally, I am quite positive because there is this powerful combination, and now it's added by more political stability. I don't know whether Richard want to talk... RICHARD FREEMAN LARK: Yes, I think, in terms of -- it's a good question because we're actually -- we're actually beyond the inflection report -- inflection point on demand before this recent kind of backup on the currency as it was related to the elections. What I mean by that is that, last year was the -- 2017 was the first year of growth following about 6 years of slowdown and contraction and recession. And so when you think about the longer cycle, we're probably now -- we're clawing our way on year 2 of what should be -- this positive part of the growth cycle for the next 3 to 4 years until we get to the next turn, if you will. And so I think that's a good question to ask because we're all feeling this out here in Brazil in a variety of sectors, feeling our way out on the other side of this election cycle and how we address the challenges of the demand cycle as opposed to a contraction cycle. We've spent the last -- since 2012, we've been gradually downsizing GOL and then in 2015, '16, the final part of that was a reduction in assets and return of -- we eliminated 29 aircraft from the fleet, rightsized the fleet, rightsized the liabilities in kind of the '16 period to prepare for this growth cycle with the right demand/supply scenario. And now we've just kind of eliminated the uncertainty of -- on the political side, and there's a lot of work that has to be done still, but next year, we're going to be dealing with those new components in terms of what, if any, policy changes would be, and as Kakinoff mentioned, we never had, in modern Brazilian economic history, this combination of inflation and interest rates at 4-plus-7%. We never had it ever. And -- but on the negative side, we still do have extremely high unemployment in Brazil, which has a big impact on demand of a variety of sectors, including ours. This is something that has been building for the last 6 years now. It's somewhere between -- the official numbers are 12%, real numbers are probably higher than that. And so that portion of the economy, if you will, which, for us, is the more VFR client, visitors, friends and relatives, is still lagging, for sure. And they're still, if you will, trying to recompose their coffers, fill up their coffers again with some income and savings. But the Brazilian piece, as Kaki was mentioning, sorry -- the corporate piece, the Brazilian business piece is really the key driver of our business. And that's our main customer. It's over 70% of our revenues and over 50% of our customers, and 70% of our revenues are coming out of people traveling for business purposes, which are driven by what's going on in the core economy. In Brazil, also very commodity, natural resources driven, and so all these kind of components will play into what happens with demand next year. And this 5% demand growth will be tied to whatever GDP ends up being. We're working with roughly 2.5%, and you can work with a 2x elasticity on that. So I'd keep your eye on that. I would keep your eye on how GDP growth, which is the best leading indicator that we use here on what can happen with demand. So if GDP growth picks up to 3%, I think you could expect 6% or maybe more demand growth. So that's how I would -- for folks not sitting with us here inside of Congonhas Airport in a hangar, seeing the flows and the massive traffic jam that's coming in here to Congonhas Airport. Tomorrow is a holiday here in Brazil, and so we've got a lot of people traveling. And so if you want to get into Congonhas Airport, you got a bit of a traffic jam to get in here today, but for those who aren't kind of seeing that here locally, that's how I would approach it then. I would try to keep your eye on what happens with GDP estimates, as the best estimate that the social science can predict on what's going to be happening with the animal spirits here in Brazil next year. That's how I would answer that question. DANIEL J. MCKENZIE: Yes, it's going to be fun to watch, that's for sure. Just kind of an airline specific question, where you're at with respect to discussions with Delta regarding a potential JV here? And at some point, what's the potential or not to include Aeromexico? PAULO SéRGIO KAKINOFF: Actually, this JV is something -- is considered just -- or got treated by us in a speculative way, so we are having some ideas, thoughts on it. Clearly, there is a potential to have that be implemented. But there are still some regulatory issues to be solved. I don't believe that is something to be deployed anytime soon. But Delta and GOL, they have a long history of very positive and rich partnership. And I think that's a natural development to have, I'd use an even tighter relationship with them. But there are too many obstacles to be removed, starting by the regulatory environment and also, the network of both airlines in South America, Latin America, should be addressed before we could go on a more substantial discussion on JVs. DANIEL J. MCKENZIE: Interesting. Just out of curiosity, what's the potential for doing something similar with Aeromexico or... PAULO SéRGIO KAKINOFF: Yes, Aeromexico is one of our partners. We are codesharing with them already for some years. We don't even start any kind of discussion-related potential JVs. Theoretically, yes, but at the moment, it's just merely speculation. RICHARD FREEMAN LARK: Yes, a complement to that, Dan. We have a unique component here among global low-cost carriers. In our business model, the GOL business model, we have over 90 codeshares and interlines that are taking advantage of our network here in Brazil, which is the largest network in terms of capillarity. And so when you look at how we're working today globally, we sell tickets in 140 countries around the world, and we're working with over 90 different airlines in a variety of formats, codeshared, interlined on our network. Where, today, we're generating -- over 6% of our total revenues are coming out of revenues generated from these partnerships onto the GOL network. And so it's a -- there's a very global aspect to our business in terms of people -- airlines around the world. And people that want to travel to Brazil accessing our network and traveling, of which Delta and Aeromexico are already part of that. And as Kaki said, we want to keep developing that business of -- in terms of monetizing the value of our network and our position as the largest domestic carrier and the attractiveness of that, also, from the product side, we don't see any restrictions today at all with how global international airlines look at the attractiveness of our product in terms of doing the last mile distribution here on our domestic network and then also from our local customers, they're able to access what ends up being a very global network through the GOL website, through these very large, almost massive number of codeshares and interlines that we've developed here over the last 15 years. That's a slight deviation from the pure low-cost carrier model, but it's something for our model -- it's like I said, it's generating over BRL 600 million with incremental revenues for us, which have a very, very high contribution margin. OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) The next question comes from Josh Milberg with Morgan Stanley. JOSHUA MILBERG, EQUITY ANALYST, MORGAN STANLEY, RESEARCH DIVISION: Kaki, Richard. This is far afield of the results, but I was hoping you could give a little bit of your perspective on the issue of IMO 2020? And just whether that's something that you think could lead to a meaningful shift in your fuel hedging strategy? RICHARD FREEMAN LARK: Yes, the short answer is no. We don't see any impact of that in terms of what we're doing. Keep in mind that in Brazil, that basically all gets filtered through what we get through the Brazilian supply chain with basically -- fuel prices -- jet fuel prices in Brazil being basically determined by the Petrobras mechanism, which is basically international prices on the cost side. And so we basically are paying international prices with a bit of a lag. So in there is what's going on with WTI, Brent, the crack spread and then the U.S. dollar to Brazilian real exchange rate. And so to the extent that, that increase is international prices, we would see that impact all airlines here in Brazil. And then that just goes into how we normally do the risk management, which is just kind of remembering. The first component for us on the risk management is it starts with the capacity decision in terms of keeping that in a position where we can keep a very high degree of pricing power so to the extent that, over a period of time, we need to deal with increasing cost from oil prices, we have a high degree to pass those on the customers. And so with normal volatilities, that kind of gets absorbed into the regular revenue management. And so what we do on the hedging side of the equation, we get -- we basically try to protect against the shorter-term volatility. For example, we're about 80% hedged here for the fourth quarter in the high 70s, and we're about 50% hedged for the first half of next year in the high 70s. So that's to protect us against if we get a big run-up in oil prices, that we can kind of work them through the system on the revenue management side and remembering that, that revenue management ability is only possible if we've got a rational capacity management. Now the other point I would add is that one of the reasons why we've -- we're investing billions of dollars in our fleet renewal with the 737 MAX is overall related to this -- the fuel component. The MAX -- that we've already got 2 operating in our fleet today, is delivering as advertised the 15% fuel economy. And so as we transform from the NGs to the MAXs, we're getting kind of an operational hedge, if you will, on -- relative also to competitors. So on an absolute basis, it's the 15% cost reduction versus our current NGs. And when I say the 15% cost reduction, what I mean is, when we phase out a MAX -- when we phase out an NG and put in a MAX, that's a 15% fuel economy on day 1. Having said that, our competitors are -- have a different productivity there. And so this also opens up a further gap for us on the competitive side, which is our key tenet here at GOL to maintain a substantial gap, if you will, on the CASK -- on the CASK side of the equation. But they always kind of roll in. No, we're not kind of taking any specific actions to deal with the additional, if you will, costs or charges or taxes that are going to be applied based on the shipping element, if you will, of fuel, but we think we'll be able to manage that through the combination of the rational capacity management, dynamic yield management and then complimenting that with what we do on the hedging side. And the real victory for us is as -- this is all happening at a time when we are transforming our fleet from the NGs to the MAXs. And so we're pretty excited about that. And so that's all going to kind of get caught up in that. So I think that IMO component, it obviously will be in our cost structure, but it won't -- we don't think it's going to have any impact at all on our -- on the economics of our business. OPERATOR: Okay. This concludes today's question-and-answer session. I would like to invite Mr. Kakinoff to proceed with his closing remarks. Please go ahead, sir. PAULO SéRGIO KAKINOFF: Okay, ladies and gentlemen, I hope you found our presentation and the Q&A session helpful. Our Investor Relations team is available to speak with you as needed. Thank you very much. OPERATOR: This concludes the GOL Airlines conference call for today. Thank you for -- very much for your participation. And have a nice day. [Thomson Financial reserves the right to make changes to documents, content, or other information on this web site without obligation to notify any person of such changes. In the conference calls upon which Event Transcripts are based, companies may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding a variety of items. Such forward-looking statements are based upon current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those stated in any forward-looking statement based on a number of important factors and risks, which are more specifically identified in the companies' most recent SEC filings. Although the companies may indicate and believe that the assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements are reasonable, any of the assumptions could prove inaccurate or incorrect and, therefore, there can be no assurance that the results contemplated in the forward-looking statements will be realized. 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User may not reproduce or redistribute the material except for user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon Thomson Financial's or ASC's copyright or other proprietary rights or interests in the material; provided, however, that members of the news media may redistribute limited portions (less than 250 words) of this material without a specific license from Thomson Financial and ASC so long as they provide conspicuous attribution to Thomson Financial and ASC as the originators and copyright holders of such material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation.]
Subject: Copyright; Chief executive officers; Airlines; Cash flow; Webcasting
Location: South America
Company / organization: Name: Thomson Financial; NAICS: 511210, 518210, 519190; Name: GOL Airlines; NAICS: 481111
Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Nov 1, 2018
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: Linthicum
Country of publication: United States, Linthicum
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Law--Corporate Law
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2133483047
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2133483047?accountid=4840
Copyright: 2018 Thomson Financial and ASC LLC
Last updated: 2018-11-30
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 430 of 474
In Finland, Every Citizen's Taxable Income Is Revealed: [Foreign Desk]
Author: Barry, Ellen
Publication info: New York Times , Late Edition (East Coast); New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]02 Nov 2018: A.8.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: HELSINKI, Finland -- Shortly after 6 a.m. on Thursday, people began lining up outside the central office of the Finnish tax administration. It was chilly and dark, but they claimed their places, eager to be the first to tap into a mother lode of data. Pamplona can boast of the running of the bulls, Rio de Janeiro has Carnival, but Helsinki is alone in observing "National Jealousy Day," when every Finnish citizen's taxable income is made public at 8 a.m. sharp. The annual Nov. 1 data dump is the starting gun for a countrywide game of who's up and who's down. Which tousled tech entrepreneur has sold his company? Which Instagram celebrity is, in fact, broke? Which retired executive is weaseling out of his tax liabilities? Esa Saarinen, a professor of philosophy at Aalto University in Helsinki, described it as "a fairly positive form of gossip." Finland is unusual, even among the Nordic states, in turning its release of personal tax data -- to comply with government transparency laws -- into a public ritual of comparison. Though some complain that the tradition is an invasion of privacy, most say it has helped the country resist the trend toward growing inequality that has crept across of the rest of Europe. "We're looking at the gap between normal people and those rich, rich people -- is it getting too wide?" said Tuomo Pietilainen, an investigative reporter at Helsingin Sanomat, the country's largest daily newspaper. "When we do publish the figures, the people who have lower salary start to think, 'Why do my colleagues make more?"' he said. "Our work has the effect that people are paid more." Employers, he said, "have to behave better than in conditions where there is no transparency." A large dosage of Thursday's reporting concerned the income of minor celebrities, and one journalist moaned at the thought of profiling another beauty pageant winner, noting that, "usually, they are broke as hell." The country's best-known porn star, Anssi "Mr. Lothar" Viskari, was reported to have earned 23,826 euros (about $27,000), of which 7,177 was capital gains. Roman Schatz, 58, a German-born author, rolled his eyes, a little, at Finland's annual celebration of its own honesty. "It's a psychological exercise," he said. "It creates an illusion of transparency so we all feel good about ourselves: 'The Americans could never do it. The Germans could never do it. We are honest guys, good guys.' It's sort of a Lutheran purgatory." Mr. Schatz warned against taking all the financial figures released publicly at face value, noting that nontaxable income, like grants or business deductions, may not appear. "It makes me smile every time, because it's my taxable income, and people say, 'Roman Schatz makes less than a schoolteacher,"' he said. Economists in the United States have shown great interest in salary disclosure in recent years, in part as a way of reducing gender or racial disparities in pay. Transparency may or may not reduce inequality, but does tend to make people less satisfied, several concluded. A study of faculty members at the University of California, where pay was made accessible online in 2008, found that lower-earning workers, after learning how their pay stacked up, were less happy in their job and more likely to look for a new one. A study of Norway, which made its tax data easily accessible to anonymous online searches in 2001, reached a similar conclusion: When people could easily learn the incomes of co-workers and neighbors, self-reported happiness began to track more closely with income, with low earners reporting lower happiness. In 2014, Norway banned anonymous searches, and the number of searches dropped dramatically. "More information may not be something which improves overall well-being," said Alexandre Mas, one of the authors of the University of California report. Flamboyant wealth has long been discouraged in Finland; a line of poetry capturing this idea -- "if you're lucky, hide it" -- is so beloved that it has been set to music. The government has made individual tax data accessible to the public since the 19th century, though until recently citizens had to pore through bulky ledgers for what they wanted. Nowadays, Helsinki tabloids often assign up to half their editorial staff to cover the release of the data, and competition for computer terminals in the tax administration building is so intense that there was once a scuffle, which everyone agreed was totally un-Finnish. Many journalists have little love for the task. "I don't see the point of calling up semi-ordinary people and asking they why they made so much money," one grumbled -- but others, like Mr. Pietilainen, clearly relish it. "One hundred and thirty thousand lines of Excel to process -- how do you feel about that?" he said, with obvious appetite, as his colleagues stared at him. One of the great sports of National Jealousy Day is to publicly shame tax dodgers. In 2015, Mr. Pietilainen found that executives from several of Finland's largest firms had relocated to Portugal so that they could receive their pensions tax free. His reporting caused such a stir that the Finnish Parliament terminated its tax agreement with Portugal, negotiating a new one that closed the loophole. What may sting more in Finland, said Mr. Saarinen, the philosophy professor, is disapproval. "These particular executives have destroyed their reputation," he said. "I would be surprised if they didn't care. Finland is a small society. There is a sense that as long as you're a Finn, you're always a Finn. They will show up at Christmas at Helsinki airport, they will be recognized, and they will feel it in people's eyes: the disrespect." Newspapers also anointed capitalist heroes on Thursday. Especially adored are the young owners of the gaming company Supercell, who declared a total of 181 million euros in taxable income this year, and were five of the 10 top-earning citizens. Supercell's 40-year-old chief executive, Ilkka Paananen, went out of his way in 2016 to express his happiness at breaking Finland's record for capital gains taxes, telling Helsingin Sanomat that "it is our turn to give something back." This, said Onni Tertsunen, a graduate student at a downtown Helsinki cafe, is the kind of rich person Finns like. "He's really humble," he said. "That's the thing in Finland, to be humble. If you show it around, no one likes you." There are, of course, manifold other uses for income tax data. Tuomas Rimpilainen, a crime reporter, said he sometimes looked up the salaries of his professional competitors before asking his boss for a raise. (It worked.) "I've looked up my relatives," said a colleague, Markku Uhari. "And my bosses," Mr. Rimpilainen said. "No one likes to admit they do it," said another reporter, Lassi Lapintie. "But everyone has done it." For all the attention from the news media, strictly speaking, the release of the tax data is not really big news. "No one really conceals their income," Mr. Saarinen said. "No one thinks it is conceivable that anyone would have the nerve to live in Finland and, outrageously, to avoid paying taxes," he said. "People play by the rules, and they expect that to be the case. It's the default." He interrupted the interview, as several Finns did, to express bafflement over President Trump's refusal to release his tax returns. "For Finns, that is unthinkable," he said. "I don't know if we have a law saying that a person seeking the office of the president of Finland should explain how they made their money. The society just expects that to happen. If it did not happen, the society would punish that candidate." Credit: ELLEN BARRY; Johanna Lemola contributed reporting.
Subject: Happiness; Celebrities; Computer terminals; Reporters; Citizens; Taxable income; Capital gains
Location: United States--US New York Portugal California Rio de Janeiro Brazil Norway Finland Europe
People: Trump, Donald J
Company / organization: Name: New York Times Co; NAICS: 511110, 511120, 515112, 515120; Name: Aalto University; NAICS: 611310
Publication title: New York Times, Late Edition (East Coast); New York, N.Y.
Pages: A.8
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Nov 2, 2018
Section: A
Publisher: New York Times Company
Place of publication: New York, N.Y.
Country of publication: United States, New York, N.Y.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
ISSN: 03624331
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2127857923
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2127857923?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright New York Times Company Nov 2, 2018
Last updated: 2018-11-02
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 431 of 474
Gallery introduces Columbia to Brazilian culture
Author: Sullivan, Nick
Publication info: University Wire ; Carlsbad [Carlsbad]04 Nov 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Publication: The Daily Gamecock, University of South Carolina - Columbia, Columbia SC. Carla Ferreira brought South America to Columbia on Saturday with her open gallery, "Snapshots of Brazil."
Ferreira, an associate professor of English at Brazil's Universidade Federal de São Carlos, has been at USC as a visiting researcher for three months now. She saw the gallery, located in Hollings Special Collections Library, as an exciting opportunity to share an overview of Brazilian culture and equip students and faculty with the knowledge necessary to one day pursue opportunities in Brazil.
"This gallery itself is very important to me because it is a chance for me to spread the news about my country," Ferreira said. "People, they know about Brazil, but they don't know some basic information or important information if you want to go there."
The presentation opened with a series of images that typify the average person's conception of Brazil: pristine beaches, vibrant parrots and the lively carnival. Ferreira said that although these may be important aspects of Brazilian life, there is much more to the South American country.
Brazil is broken down into five main regions, each with their own cultures and climates: North, Northeast, Central-West, Southeast and South. Whereas northern regions are known for their warm weather, the south is susceptible to snow storms. In addition, there are slight variations in dialect, music, environment and ethnicity.
"The weather is different, food is different, people are different, you cannot tell what a Brazilian is like. Only when the person says, 'I'm a Brazilian,'" Ferreira said.
Another major component of the gallery was the countering of misconceptions.
For one, monkeys will not be found roaming the metropolitan streets of Rio de Janeiro or swinging over the buildings of São Carlos. Aside from the rainforests, Brazilians only find monkeys at the zoo.
Ferreira also explained how many people hear she is from Brazil and approach her speaking Spanish under the misconception that it's Brazil's language, when it's actually Portuguese.
A third significant component involved the ability to go to Brazil as a student or teacher. She noted that there are English Teaching Assistant programs in which American students work with Brazilian professors to sharpen students' English-speaking skills. Professors can also travel to Brazil through research programs, just as Ferreira has traveled to USC.
Her gallery concluded with a Q&A session in which Ferreira fielded the audience's questions, ranging from the state of race relations in Brazil to how her views on American culture have changed since living here.
Ferreira, who previously lived in Iowa for a short time, admitted that she was surprised by how different Southern culture is from Northern culture in the U.S. In other words, American culture is just as diverse as Brazilian culture.
"We are samba, soccer, carnival. We are coffee, but not just that. That's just a part of Brazil," Ferreira said.
Credit: Nick Sullivan
Subject: Race relations; Brazilian culture; American culture
Location: South America Brazil United States--US Rio de Janeiro Brazil Iowa
Company / organization: Name: University of South Carolina; NAICS: 611310
Publication title: University Wire; Carlsbad
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Nov 4, 2018
Section: News
Publisher: Uloop, Inc.
Place of publication: Carlsbad
Country of publication: United States, Carlsbad
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2129758318
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2129758318?accountid=4840
Copyright: © 2018 UWIRE, a division of Uloop
Last updated: 2018-11-06
Database: Social Science Premium Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 432 of 474
SMILING, SWEATING AND RESISTING OPENS AT CCA DERRY~LONDONDERRY
Publication info: M2 Presswire ; Coventry [Coventry]05 Nov 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: M2 PRESSWIRE-November 5, 2018-SMILING, SWEATING AND RESISTING OPENS AT CCA DERRY~LONDONDERRY (C)2018 M2 COMMUNICATIONS http://www.m2.com November 2, 2018 Smiling, Sweating and Resisting Bárbara Wagner & Benjamin de Burca, Mitch Conlon, Sonia Boyce, Susan Connolly 27 October - 21 December 2018 Smiling, Sweating and Resisting is a group exhibition of works that circulate around the idea of the carnival and its promiscuous, politically-charged performances. The exhibition departs from the Halloween celebrations in Derry, where suppressed divisions and counternarratives to the conflict of the last 50 years can be seen to emerge in distorted forms, carnivalesque inversions and the overlay of dissonant symbolic systems. Works in the exhibition use carnival and the carnivalesque to think through the conditions of plantation life and sugar production in the Caribbean and their dependence on the transatlantic slave trade (Sonia Boyce); the nascent bashment, hip hop and dancehall scenes in Belfast in the early 2000s (Mitch Conlon); and the intersection of vernacular culture, gender and socio-economic issues in northern Brazil, as embodied in 'Frevo' dance traditions (Bárbara Wagner & Benjamin de Burca). Inspired by these works and the visual vocabulary of the carnival, Susan Connolly's exhibition design uses 'process' colours at an outsize scale to consider the slippage between the precision of printing and the imperfections inherent in the handmade. Events accompanying the exhibition include peer critique, artist surgeries and CCA's reading group booksvscigarettes. Visit cca-derry-londonderry.org/exhibitions/smiling-sweating-and-resisting for the full list. About CCA:Centre for Contemporary Art Derry~Londonderry (CCA) fosters a wide range of artistic, curatorial, and critical practices through five programme streams: research and production, exhibition-making, public programmes, publishing, and residencies. Mission: CCA creates opportunities for audiences to experience ambitious, experimental and engaging art, and for emerging artists to develop successful careers. We welcome artists and projects with a connection to our region and collaborate with others to strengthen the arts, locally, nationally and internationally. CCA is supported by Arts Council Northern Ireland and Derry City and Strabane District Council. * For more information regarding media usage, ownership and rights please contact Centre For Contemporary Art Derry~Londonderry. Distributed by http://www.pressat.co.uk/ ((Comments on this story may be sent to [email protected]))
Subject: Contemporary art
Location: Brazil Northern Ireland
Publication title: M2 Presswire; Coventry
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Nov 5, 2018
Publisher: Normans Media Ltd
Place of publication: Coventry
Country of publication: United Kingdom, Coventry
Publication subject: Communications
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2129401941
Document URL: https://login. proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2129401941?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright © M2 Communications, 2018
Last updated: 2018-11-05
Database: SciTech Premium Collection
Document 433 of 474
Tribalistas turn the Hammersmith Apollo into a huge club
Author: Cartwright, Garth
Publication info: FT.com ; London (Nov 5, 2018).
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Sunday evening found a traffic-choked Hammersmith taking on a Latin ambience as crowds of exuberant Brazilians gathered outside the Tube and bus stations. The cause of this outpouring of South American pride was the UK debut of Tribalistas, a supergroup from Rio consisting of Arnaldo Antunes, Carlinhos Brown and Marisa Monte. Tribalistas appeared in 2002 with an eponymous debut album that topped both Brazilian and Portuguese charts, sold 3m copies worldwide and won a Latin Grammy. They never toured or gave interviews and, beyond releasing a song in support of gay marriage legislation in 2013, all returned to their solo careers. Monte, aged 51, is a superstar in Brazil, celebrated both for her talents as a singer-songwriter and business acumen. Brown, 55, made his name as a samba percussionist with pop smarts — Shakira, Herbie Hancock and Sergio Mendes are on his CV. Antunes, 58, is a noted songwriter and poet. In 2017 the trio re-entered the studio and released an album (again called only Tribalistas, again topping Brazilian and Portuguese charts). Finally they are touring. The capacity audience, drawn heavily from London’s Brazilian community, roared their approval from the minute Tribalistas took the stage. The trio, backed by a guitar-bass-drums-percussion quartet, blend their voices to create a lush celebration of Brazilian music and here they conveyed a real sense of joy. The only uncertain moment came when Antunes, in faltering English, explained why it had taken them 15 years to reach London — this prompted several audience members to shout for him to speak Portuguese. Monte took over, deftly addressing the fans as “our London tribe”, and all went smoothly again. While Tribalistas operate as a musical democracy — sharing songwriting and production credits — it is Monte who stands centre stage and is most often featured as lead singer. The influence of both The Beatles and French singer Françoise Hardy is apparent in Tribalistas’s melodic odes to love and unity. The trio’s outfits also reflect a similarly late-1960s sensibility, feather boas and crushed velvet jackets being requisite stage wear. For the first hour Tribalistas sang acoustic songs with gentle bossa nova rhythms. This encouraged audience participation in singing along with choruses but lacked dynamism. The second hour saw Brown, who surrounds himself with an array of percussive instruments, stepping forward and upping the tempo. Joined by the band’s drummer and percussionist, he unleashed furious samba rhythms and the Apollo metamorphosed into a huge club with the audience dancing in and out of their seats. Tribalistas rode this energy, the trio creating a carnival-style celebration, and ended the performance by dancing their way offstage. A week after Jair Bolsonaro was elected president of a very divided Brazil, Tribalistas demonstrated a musical unity that left everyone happy. ★★★★☆ Credit: Garth Cartwright
Subject: Songwriters; Audiences; Singers
Location: Brazil United Kingdom--UK
People: Bolsonaro, Jair Hancock, Herbie
Company / organization: Name: Beatles; NAICS: 711130
Publication title: FT.com; London
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Nov 5, 2018
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Trade Journals
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2129776750
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2129776750?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Nov 5, 2018
Last updated: 2018-11-06
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 434 of 474
Q3 2018 Dufry AG Earnings Call - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]05 Nov 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Presentation OPERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Dufry's Q3 2018 Results Conference Call and Live Webcast. I'm Sherry, the Chorus Call operator. (Operator Instructions) And the conference is being recorded. (Operator Instructions) The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Mr. Julián Díaz, CEO of Dufry. Please go ahead, sir. JULIáN DíAZ GONZáLEZ, CEO & DIRECTOR, DUFRY AG: Thank you very much for the introduction. Good afternoon, and thank you for participating in the call. Participating -- presenting the results here today are myself, Julián Díaz; and Andreas Schneiter, CFO. As in previous calls, we are going to use the presentation disclosures today in our website. Let's move to Page 3 of the presentation. On Slide 3, you can see the topics for today's call. I will first review our operational performance in the period, and Andreas Schneiter then will present the financials. And finally, I will return for a trading update on October and my closing remarks. If we move now to Page 5 of the presentation with the highlights of these 9 months, we managed to post a good set of results despite the adverse conditions we experienced in some operations during the peak summer season. Turnover for the 9 months grew by 4.6%, with the largest share being contributed by organic growth reaching 3.1%. Most of the operations performed well, except for Spain, Brazil and Argentina, who have slowed down and impacted the organic growth in the third quarter. Excluding the impact of these 3 countries, organic growth will have amount to positive 2.8% for the third quarter and to positive 6% for the 9 months. We will talk about in more detail in the next slide. We continue to have a very healthy flow of new space being added to the business. Up to September, we added over 18,000 square meters of gross new commercial space across 121 shops (sic) [127 shops]. We expect further additions as we already signed a contract, which will contribute around 16,000 new square meters of commercial space in 2018 and throughout 2000 -- or beginning 2019. We also continued working on the renovation of existing shops by refurbishing over 27,000 square meters of retail area during the first 9 months of 2018. Moving to the gross profit margin. We reached 59.9% compared with 59.4% last year. The improvement of 50 basis points is mainly due to the renegotiation and better terms with global and local suppliers. Our EBITDA margin expanded by 40 basis points to 12.3% from 11.9% in 2017. And EBITDA, in absolute amounts, reached CHF 806 million, 8.5% higher compared with previous year. Despite the challenges we have seen in the third quarter, we have confirmed our capability to generate resilient cash flow. Our free cash flow has increased by 33.1%, reaching CHF 620 million, and equity free cash flow increased by 59.1%, reaching CHF 430 million. Cash EPS also increased in the 9 months by 4.5% and reaching CHF 6.07 per share. The contribution of the business operating model implementation was fundamental to these results. Efficiencies totaling CHF 33 million are already reflected in these 9 months' financials, which is already more than previously estimated. For the full year results, we have therefore increased our expectation to around CHF 40 million efficiencies to be reached in 2018, leaving the remaining CHF 10 million to benefit the P&L in 2019. Now we also confirm, again, the CHF 50 million to be generated in savings within the implementation of the business operating model. Last but not least, we have already completed on 31st October our share buyback program, CHF 400 million originally expected to run for 12 months. I will discuss the return to shareholders in the following slides. Let's move now to Slide #6. Regarding organic growth. Looking at organic growth development on Slide 6, you can see the top chart, that after a very strong performance in 2017 and an ongoing positive development in early 2018, organic growth started to slow in the second quarter of 2018 and turning negative in the third quarter. Looking at organic growth by division, we see that the slowdown is mostly concentrated in the division of Southern Europe and Africa and division Latin America. The chart also shows that in our other divisions, we have positive growth. This is also reflected in the organic growth performance, if excluding the impact of Spain, Brazil and Argentina, which amounted, plus 2.8% positive for Q3 and plus 6% for the 9 months, but let's move to the next slide, where we will go in more detail, division by division. In Slide #7, division Southern Europe and Africa. Organic growth in our division, Southern Europe and Africa, fell by 2.1% in the first 9 months, while in the third quarter, organic growth is lowered to minus 5.2%. Spain, which accounts for about 2/3 of the division and which saw record years of growth in 2017 and before, had a weak performance with single-digit negative growth in the third quarter. While the number of passengers and tourists were largely flat, spend per passenger was affected by an unfavorable nationality mix of passengers, which caused a decline in spend per passenger. In detail, we show a higher number of British, German and French tourists going to Turkey and other Mediterranean destinations in the peak summer months instead to Spain. To drive growth going forward, we have launched some pilot initiatives in 4 regional airports, and agreed with Aena, the Spanish airport operator, these initiatives. These initiatives are focused in improving sales and expected to provide best practice for other airports. Performance in other operations in the third quarter was as follows: Africa, after a very positive first half of the year with double-digit organic growth, negative environment in the third quarter with double-digit decline in Morocco and Ghana; single positive performance in Egypt and Nigeria; very positive middle single-digit growth in Turkey; low single-digit growth in Italy; and good positive double-digit growth in France and Malta. We move to Slide #8, Division 2, U.K. and Central Europe. We reached 3.6% in the first 9 months and 4.2% in the third quarter. Those figures exclude the negative impact from the closing of our operations in Geneva last year, starting in October 2017. Therefore, it was the last quarter of disclosure to affect organic growth. Overall, trading continued to be healthy in the region. In the third quarter, we even saw growth acceleration mainly due to the pickup in the United Kingdom, where several operations benefit from refurbished stores and intensified in-store marketing efforts. Elsewhere in the division, performance continued to be solid as follows: Switzerland, with positive middle single-digit organic growth for the third quarter and first 9 months; Sweden continued with its positive performance; while Finland was flat in the first 9 months. If we move now to Slide #9, division Eastern Europe, Middle East and Australia. Organic growth in the first 9 months for division -- for this division increased to 15.2%. In the third quarter, organic growth decreased -- also -- reached 4.4% positive. Even the high comparatives of the previous year as well as the annualization of the reopening of the Melbourne operation after its complete refurbishment, and this is, in our view, a solid performance. Within the division, Russia, kept the good performance seen in the year and grew middle single digits. Bulgaria, Serbia and Armenia all had good growth. We saw a strong performance in the Middle East, with most operations growing double digit, Jordan, Kuwait and India. Sharjah also performed well with single-digit growth. In Asia, we saw lower organic growth due to the high comparatives, resulting in the following performance for the third quarter: Macau and Cambodia, with a strong double-digit growth; and South Korea, with high single-digit growth; China, Hong Kong and Singapore were negative following the same pattern of the previous quarter due mainly to the closing of some operations in these countries; Indonesia was slightly negative after several quarters of double-digit growth; and Australia continues to grow double digit, driven by the full renovation of the stores. If we move now to Page 10, Latin America, Division #4. As you can see, in the top of the left chart, here is where we see the most pronounced change in terms of growth. Organic growth came from positive 9% in the first quarter to minus 11% in the third quarter. This means a change of 20 percentage points in a few months. As mentioned before, the main reason for this decline is the extreme currency volatility in Brazil and Argentina. In the third quarter, the Brazilian real devaluated by 20% versus the U.S. dollar, while the Argentinian peso lost 45%. These types of movements typically reduce the purchasing power of customers even we do sell our products in hard currencies and considering the fact that in Brazil and Argentina, our main customers are Brazilians and Argentinians. Thus, they are directly impacted by the currency devaluation. Indeed looking at the performance, we see organic growth mirroring the movement of currencies. This development also started to show some effects in other South American countries. On the other hand, performance in Central America continued to be very strong. Our cruise division continues to grow at high double-digit growth, benefiting from the several new contract wins and openings realized in the last few quarters. We also saw good performance in Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, among others. Mexico has the exception of weighing flat in the third quarter after a strong half year 2018 and single-digit positive performance in 9 months. If we move to Slide 11, Division 5, North America. Organic growth in North America remaining very strong at 7.5% in the first 9 months and 7.1% in the third quarter. The Duty Paid part of the business, which is mainly convenience, continues to grow strongly at the back of a steady growth in the number of passengers, increase in the spend per passenger as well as positive impact of the new concessions. Our duty-free shops are also performing well with middle single-digit growth. If we move to Page 12 of the presentation. Regarding passenger growth, I will now explain both charts and tables that show a very strong picture. The global increase in passenger number has continued to be very strong and the expectations of industry experts remain very solid. This is a good sign that the industry keeps its good and resilient fundamentals. Looking at our own footprint, passenger growth expectation is different: first, as we are still underrepresented in Asia and we are currently unable to control the full scope of this growth; and second, in the third quarter particularly, we have been impacted by the 3 markets disclosed before, Spain, Brazil and Argentina. If we move to Slide 13, with respect to drive in organic growth, 2 main pillars are the opening of new retail space and the refurbishment of our existing stores. In the 9 months 2018, we have opened a total of 18,000 square meters of gross new retail space, and we are targeting 26,000 for the full year 2018. The main highlights of the new openings so far are as follows: in Madrid, new Hudson shops; in Malaysia, the first downtown shop in this specific country; for cruise lines, I would like to name the 12 new ships that we have opened in early summer, with cruise lines such as Holland America, Carnival and P&O; and finally, 23 new stores in several North American locations. Looking at the refurbishments, we have been very active on the renovation of our operations. And up to September, we have renovated 58 stores, equal to 27,000 square meters of retail space. Among the main projects are as follows: Malaga, 3 stores; Heathrow Terminal 3, New Generation Store; Glasgow, main store; Bali, 2 stores; and Cancun Terminal 3, New Generation Store. When we do these refurbishments, we consistently also implement our digital strategy elements, I mean, at improving the shopping experience for our customers and driving sales. Good examples are the 2 New Generation Stores we'll launch in Heathrow Terminal 3 and Cancun Terminal 3, with an extensive use of digital technology. Here, we have also already considered the first learnings of the other New Generation Stores opened last year. In this context, we have also equipped ourselves, associated with the tables, with a lot of considerable improvement in customer service through better product information. In Slide 14, new contracts and pipeline. Among the new space signed so far within the year and totaling 15,000 square meters, the main contracts already disclosed are: the new airport operation in Perth, Australia; the 10 new stores in Philadelphia; 1 new store in St. Petersburg; and 2 new stores in Chile; as well as several shops at Chicago Midway and Boston Logan in the U.S. Moreover, we have an important project pipeline of close to 40,000 square meters we are currently working on. This potential opportunities are currently mostly located in Southern Europe and Africa, Division 1, as well in the Division 2, U.K. and Central Europe. If we move to Page 15 for commenting on business operating model. I would like to update you on the current status of the implementation of the business operating model implementation, one of the most important internal project, as it's allowed us to generate a total of CHF 50 million of operating efficiencies, which will be reflected in our P&L in 2018 and 2019. The business operating model is currently being implemented in several countries in Europe, Middle East and Asia. So far, implementation has been started in 47 countries, of which 23 have been already received the first certification, and 11 of those have passed the second certification. The benefits are already visible in the P&L, and we expect to already see an impact in the first CHF 40 million in full year 2018, which is considerably higher than the CHF 26 million originally planned. The remaining CHF 10 million will be bill-up and be reflected in 2018 results. If we move to Page 16, as already mentioned at the beginning of the presentation, in this page, I would like to give you an update on the cash return to shareholders during 2018. First, on May 17, 2018, we paid a dividend of CHF 3.75 per share, for a total of CHF 200 million. With respect to the dividend payment to shareholders, we have committed to pay at least the same amount as previous year, equal to a minimum of CHF 200 million and up to a sustainable return level of 40% of cash net earnings as a target. Additionally, on October 31, we have just completed ahead of time the share buyback program of CHF 400 million with what is scheduled to last 12 months until May 2019. In total, we spent CHF 402 million and purchased over 3.3 million shares, which we intend to cancel, as already announced. Moreover, we have increased our own holding of treasury shares by buying 878,000 shares for an amount of CHF 121 million, thus further reducing, obviously, the number of shares in the market. If we move to Page 17 regarding the digital strategy. In 2018, we have opened 2 additional New Generation Stores, 1 at Heathrow Terminal 3 and 1 at the Cancun Airport Terminal 3 in Mexico. In both stores, we have also been able to implement the first learning from the previous installations in Madrid, Melbourne, Cancun Terminal 4 and Zurich. The next New Generation Stores to be opened will be Buenos Aires and Amman in 2019. Our online reserve and collect platform had been extended to 21 countries, covering 81 airports, by the end of September, and we will further increase coverage by the end of the year. On the platform, we have also further improved the assortment and the value proposition. The footprint of RED by Dufry, our customer loyalty program, has also been extended and covers now 36 countries and 160 airports. And last but not least, we have equipped our sales associates of 40 stores in 14 countries with a sales target, which allowed to considerably improve the service provided to the passengers. And now I am passing to Andreas Schneiter for continuing with the financials. ANDREAS SCHNEITER, CFO, DUFRY AG: Thank you, Julián, and good afternoon and good morning, everyone. Let's move to Page 19, where we have the growth components. Reported growth was positive in the third quarter due to positive FX translation effect. As Julián already explained in detail, there was a slowdown in organic growth in the third quarter due to challenging external factors in certain markets. This effect clearly shows in the like-for-like growth that turned negative to minus 0.9% in the third quarter. As to net new concessions growth, Q3 was below previous quarters mainly because of some of the projects annualized in the second quarter, such as Melbourne, where the expansion went live at the beginning of Q3 last year. Generally, net new sales contributions tends to fluctuate because of the timing and the size of such projects. Based on our current project portfolio, we expect that net new concessions growth will accelerate again in the fourth quarter. Overall, Q3 top line performance has been lower than what we originally expected. Having said this, and considering the pressure on the top line, we have delivered good results overall and our other KPIs as we will see shortly. There has been a good gross margin progression, we could improve EBITDA margin, and we have generated a very good free cash flow and equity free cash flow. The performance of the third quarter illustrates that we do have a very robust business model that can be managed tightly. And although we're not entirely happy with the performance, we do feel that we have managed the business well and delivered good results, given circumstances. If we move then to Page 20, I would like to talk about the FX impact. In the case of Dufry, the FX impact that you see is the translation effect converting into Swiss francs all the different currencies where we sell our products. You see our main currencies in terms of sales are at the bottom of the -- bottom right chart. These are the U.S. dollars, the euros and the British pounds. In this context, let me make one additional comment because we do price in those currencies, our organic growth is also measured in these currencies, e.g., this means our organic growth in Latin America is based on U.S. dollar sales and not based on local currency sales. Then on the top left chart, we see the evolution of the FX impact on turnover. In the 9 months, we had a positive FX translation effect of 1.5%, and we had a similar positive impact in the third quarter of 1.3%. At the bottom left chart, we see the evolution of our main currencies versus the Swiss francs, which point to a negative translation impact in Q4 due to the strengthening of the Swiss franc against the euro and the British pound. Then if we move to Page 21, to the income statement, and let's move directly to gross margin as we already talked about turnover. Gross margin improved by 50 basis points, driven by negotiations with suppliers and also initiatives that we developed together with the brands, mainly related to promotions and the so-called brands plan. There was also a slight benefit from mix effect. Concession fees increased by 30 basis points to 28.1% in the 9 months. Of this increase, about 2/3 is attributable to the Spain contract, where the lack of growth, in combination with the increase in minimum guarantees, led to a relative increase in concession fee charge. For all the rest of the business, the net increase was about 10 basis points. Personnel expenses and other expenses together improved by 30 basis points in the period. This is mainly due to the efficiencies from the business operating model as explained by Julián, and you can see well the improvement in the general expenses. The positive impact of the business operating model and the personnel expenses is not fully visible as there were some underperformance in some operations and some increases in personnel expenses in North America offset this improvement of the business operating model. As a result, EBITDA grew to CHF 807 million and EBITDA margin improved 40 basis points to 12.3%. Then moving on, depreciation and amortization was slightly higher than in previous quarters at 6.4% of turnover. This is due to an increase in depreciation, which is related to our continued investments in new space and refurbishments. Amortization was almost stable in Swiss franc terms and slightly decreased as a percentage of turnover. Just as a reminder, more than 80% of the amortization is related to acquisitions. Linearization was a CHF 27 million charge for the 9 months. As a reminder, linearization comprises of the noncash elements of the Spanish contract, this means the straight lining of the minimum guarantee increases over the period of the contract terms as well as the prepaid concession fees. Due to the seasonality of the Spanish business, the linearization is positive for Q3. For Q4, there will be a charge again. For the full year, the linearization charge will be around CHF 50 million. Our operation result for the 9 months was CHF 32 million. Of this amount, about half is related to new projects and startup as well as restructurings and closings. Financial results improved by 25% to CHF 99 million. This is mainly due to the refinancing that we executed in 2017 as well as the lower net debt that we had along 2018. Income tax was CHF 92 million in the 9 months, and there was a big increase year-on-year of about CHF 55 million. Of this amount, CHF 47 million were incurred in the first half of the year. And as we mentioned at the time, the first half year increase related to deferred taxes that are noncash in nature, about CHF 35 million, and of those CHF 35 million, about CHF 20 million are one-off charges, which are, in majority, related to the restructuring in the U.S. that we did due to the Hudson IPO. Then the third quarter specifically, the increase in taxes was CHF 8.5 million, and the tax rate moved to about 27% from 23%. So the third quarter is more representative as there were no material one-off items, although the devaluation in Brazil and Argentina resulted in an increase in deferred tax charges. In addition, there is a mix effect, whereby we accrued more profits and taxes in those operations where we grow faster. Now taxes are quite difficult to forecast. Our best estimation at this stage is that for full year 2018, we will have a tax charge of about CHF 100 million in the income statement. Moving on. Noncontrolling interest were CHF 49 million, of which the largest part is due to our business in North America. This CHF 49 million already includes the Hudson minorities from the IPO that we did in February this year. The result then basically is cash earnings, which improved by CHF 7 million to CHF 319 million. Let's then please move to Page 22, where we have the cash EPS. If you look at the top chart, we show a bridge from last year's to this year's cash net earnings. As you can see, the tax charge negatively impacted the cash EPS for 2018. As I mentioned beforehand, because the largest part of the increase in taxes is noncash and includes also one-offs, the actual result does not fully reflect the real performance. The effect of loan from one-offs is about CHF 0.40 per share. Then if we move to Page 23, we can talk about the cash flows, and we have shown here our KPIs in that context. For the 9 months, we had a record cash generation with free cash flow at CHF 619 million and an equity free cash flow at CHF 430 million. We will see all the details in the coming slides, but before we go there, let me make one comment. 2018 is the first year for some time where the cash flow has not been impacted by any exceptional items and that, that reflects the cash generation of our business. In our view, 2018 is actually a good proxy for future performance. Moving through the numbers. I would like, first, to refer on the seasonality chart at the bottom of the page. As we had mentioned 3 months ago in our latest -- in our last results conference call, some of the positive impacts, which normally makes Q3 the strongest quarter in terms of cash generation, were anticipated in Q2, specifically the positive impact of net working capital during busy season. The key point here is that we have a very strong cash generation for the 9 months and we shouldn't necessarily look just the quarter. Despite a lower top line growth, our expectations for the full year remains largely unchanged compared to previous calls. For the free cash flow, we expect to reach an EBITDA conversion at the higher end of our range of 50% to 55%. And for the free -- for the equity free cash flow, we expect to end up at the lower end of the previously indicated range of CHF 350 million to CHF 400 million for the full year 2018. Now we can move to Page 24. We will look at the free cash flow components in more detail. In the first 9 months of 2018, we saw a positive net working capital inflow of CHF 94 million, of which about half is due to changes in core net working capital as you can see at the bottom of the right chart. You also can see there that we already have core net working capital below 5% in the second quarter this year. The other half of net working capital improvement was due to a better noncore net working capital. Cash taxes were CHF 81 million compared to CHF 69 million last year. Compared to the taxes in the income statement, cash taxes are much more stable and growing more in line. For capital expenditure, we reached CHF 181 million in the first 9 months. You can see the evolution in the bottom left chart. As a percentage of turnover, CapEx is slightly below 3% versus a normal level of 3% to 3.5%. Then moving to Slide 25. Here, we have mainly 2 items to be discussed: interest and minorities. Interest paid was CHF 127 million for the first 9 months, CHF 30 million lower than 1 year ago. As already mentioned, the improvement is due to the refinancing executed last year as well as lower debt levels. Cash flow related to minorities were CHF 56 million, and this is CHF 22 million higher than last year. About half of this increase is just the timing difference, whereby we paid dividends to minorities in Q3 this year, whereas, last year, we paid the same dividends in Q4. On Page 26, then we have the bridge from equity cash flow to net debt. On one hand, we have the proceeds from the Hudson IPO, which is CHF 665 million, and on the other hand, we have the cash that we returned to the shareholders, i.e. the share buyback, the purchase of treasury shares and the dividend payment that we made in May. As for 30th of September 2018, we returned about CHF 600 million to our shareholders since the beginning of the year. After the completion of the share buyback last week, the total amount for 2018 will be CHF 720 million. Then on Page 27, we have the balance sheet. There is no major comment. The asset size hasn't really changed. Concession rights continue to decrease as we amortize them. On the liabilities and equities side, we have an increase in equity, which is due to the Hudson IPO, and the decrease in net debt, which is due to a combination of IPO proceeds and the cash generation as explained beforehand. Then on Page 28, we have net debt evolution, which reached CHF 3.01 billion as for September 2018. Our covenant was 2.92x net debt-to-EBITDA. With this, we are within our target range of 2x to 3x net debt-to-EBITDA and well below the maximum threshold of 4x leverage that we have agreed with the banks. As mentioned in our earlier calls, we have a long-term financing in place and there are no maturities before 2022. In October 2018, we extended our RCF facility by 1 year to 2023, so we further improved our maturity profile. To conclude, a few comments on IFRS 16. If we move to Slide 29, we have a refresher on the different aspects of IFRS 16 that I don't want to go into details there. This is just for those people that may not have all the effects at the top of their mind. On Page 2017 (sic) [Page 30], you may know that we have IFRS 16 being implemented for 2019, so the first time reporting will be Q1 2019. The current status is that we have now -- that we are now in the final stretch of our review. Compared to our previous indications, we have a lower impact on the balance sheet and to a lesser extent also on the lines in the income statement. Our current estimate for the balance sheet effects, currency trends towards the CHF 4 billion mark and amortization impact is expected to be below CHF 1 billion. As you may remember, from 2019 onwards, EBITDA will not be a meaningful KPI anymore. We will focus more on cash flow metrics as they remain largely unchanged, and we also will attempt to provide some additional metrics that will allow to track performance of our business before and after the change to IFRS 16. This concludes my part of the presentation, and I'd like to hand back to Julián again. JULIáN DíAZ GONZáLEZ: Thank you, Andreas. I will now move to Slide 31 -- sorry, 32. In the first 4 weeks of October, regarding the trading update, net sales were gradually improving, with organic growth close to plus 1%. The improvement in organic growth is due to a number of factors, including seasonal lower exposure in Spain and better performance in this market too; generalization of the Geneva closing last year in October; further improvement in performance in Asia, U.K. and U.S.; and the contribution of the new openings mainly in Asia, such as the Hong Kong MTR train terminal operation and the new shops in Perth. For the full year, we therefore expect an ongoing year-on-year performance improvement for the group overall, with the information as follows: an organic growth for the full year of between 2% and 3%; an EBITDA margin between 12% and 12.3%; and a confirmed level of equity free cash flow, as Andreas mentioned, of CHF 350 million, CHF 400 million. In Slide 33, what we have, as a conclusion, is to summarize the performance in the first 9 months. I would like to really remark the resilient set of results realized despite the adverse conditions in some of our key markets. Despite the slowdown in sales, we have further expanded our margins at gross profit and EBITDA levels, and we have confirmed our cash generation capability. We have reached and advanced implementation stage of the business operating model, and we have completed the share buyback program. And we are executing as planned our other goals set for the year 2018, which are further expansion of the digital initiatives in the context of E-Motion as well as to continue focusing in cash generation. I think, so far, the situation in 2018 has been challenging, especially in the third quarter, but we are, especially in this set of financials, showing again the resilience of the business model. That's all from our side, and if possible, we can now move on the Q&A session. Thank you very much. Questions and Answers OPERATOR: . (Operator Instructions) The first question is from Jörn Iffert, UBS. JöRN IFFERT, DIRECTOR AND ANALYST, UBS INVESTMENT BANK, RESEARCH DIVISION: And there would be 4, 4 quick ones, please. The first one is, looking into first half 2019 on organic growth, I mean, can you roughly share with us what is your expectations on net new shop extensions going through the first half '19? And any other initiatives for servicing that you can return to around mid-single-digits organic growth in the first half '19, or will it remain at the low single digit? Give your current and best guess. Second question would be on the EBITDA margin. If I read it correctly, you are guiding that the Q4 EBITDA margin is down around midpoint of the guidance, 50 basis points. Is there something special we should consider on the concession fees across profit margin? And then here's also a question, how should we think about margin progress in the first half '19? And third question, on the cash flows, I mean, you said 2018 should be a good proxy for 2019. Don't you see the risk that you have to do prepayments for concession renewals in 2019? And then the last question, very quickly on your strategy, the U.S. -- you see the Hudson proceeds through the share buyback. Does it mean that there is limited M&A prospect in Asia? Or how shall we read it? JULIáN DíAZ GONZáLEZ: Okay. Thank you for the questions. Let me start with the like-for-like in Q1. It still is very early so because even we don't have the budgets finalized. But I see 2018 in -- sorry, 2019 Q1 in a different mood. Last year, we grew 7.5%. As in this year, obviously, in terms of comparable, it's going to be more difficult to compare in order to reach the level of 7.5%, a lot of things have changed, for example. What is going to happen in Brazil? What we have seen during the last 10 days, 15 days is a significant turnaround. After the elections, the exchange rate normalized, and as a consequence, the situation, in terms of performance, sales performance, is improving. Argentina doesn't move a lot. Spain is improving. And I think, obviously, it all depends on the circumstances, but I think the toughest comparable next year will be Q1. For the year, I cannot tell you anything, but I can, obviously -- so yes, as soon as we know the information, we will provide the market information with more accurate facts because now it's just a perception. Regarding the EBITDA margin for the Q4, I think you need to -- obviously, there are some elements that may limit EBITDA margin development. Number one is the new businesses that we are open -- that we are opening and we opened. As you know, and I commented on that, the cruise lines and some of the businesses in Asia are lower margin, even that, obviously, they have an IRR expected at the same level and sometimes higher than the business that we are operating today. This will have, let's say, an impact in the margin. And the second one is Spain, Brazil and Argentina. If Spain, Brazil and Argentina are not turning around as we are expecting, especially Spain and Argentina, the fixed cost will be over-proportional to the situation and also main, but the percentage. But within this range of EBITDA that I mentioned, all these things are considered. Regarding the cash flow... ANDREAS SCHNEITER: So on the cash flow, I think, you were mentioning that there should be any prepayments. Look, I think, we highlighted many times that prepayments are actually not normal course of business in our industry. And as far as we know, from today's perspective, there's no such things there. So I would reiterate or confirm that based on what we know today, there shouldn't be anything one-off in 2019. JULIáN DíAZ GONZáLEZ: And regarding the M&A, I don't want to obviously repeat myself many times, but I have seen, and I am still repeating that the business -- travel retail is very fragmented, that the best way of allocating capital in this company is to continue with this type of growth, especially in Asia. And if the question is are you going to consider a delay in the strategy? The answer is, no. I think, the opportunities will happen when they happen. And obviously, the conditions are related to the vendors. If they decide to sell, I think, we should consider the opportunities and one of the, let's say, basic principles of our business operating model is to continue with the growth of consolidating the business. JöRN IFFERT: Okay. Only last one, Julián, would you really -- is it 100% sure that you are canceling the shares or could you use the shares you bought back also for M&A prospects in 2019? JULIáN DíAZ GONZáLEZ: The idea of these shares was not originally that. The idea is still not originally that. We acquired these shares in a situation where we saw the price, we saw that it was a package of good value, because we saw that the value of the share price at this time was really low and we thought it was a good deal for the company investing in our own shares, that's all and still they are there. If in the future they are used in an M&A transaction, why not. But today, it's not the intention. OPERATOR: Next question comes from the line of Edouard Aubin, Morgan Stanley. EDOUARD AUBIN, HEAD OF LUXURY GOODS, MORGAN STANLEY, RESEARCH DIVISION: Just 3 quick ones for me. Just to follow up on the space growth, so sorry, if I missed the answer, but it came in below expectation in Q3. Could you be reaccelerating the space growth in '19 towards the 2% historical average? That's number one. Number two, on the gross margin, I guess, that was the positive, so one of the positive surprise of Q3, which is a 90 basis point expansion year-over-year and you've mentioned some of the drivers of that. So that came ahead of your annual guidance, I guess, of 30 to 40 basis points. Based on what you said regarding EBITDA in the fourth quarter, should we expect a much less significant expansion of the gross margin in the fourth quarter? And what should we be expecting towards 2019? Again, should we come back to the 30 to 40 basis points? And lastly, on -- I know, it's a bit premature to talk about EBITDA for '19, but given that you've pulled forward some of the benefits of the BOM program, should we be looking at an EBITDA margin in '19 more or less in line with what you -- in percentage terms of what you are likely to post in '18? JULIáN DíAZ GONZáLEZ: Okay. Regarding the new space, I think, it's very similar to previous year, it's 4.2%. The difference is closed operations along the year. I don't see any difference with previous year that we have been always between 3% and 6%. Then probably what happened in this quarter is that there are annualized FX, especially in Cancun and in our Greece Division in Asia. But this is something that happened because we were opening at the beginning of the year spaces that now are at the -- at comparable level impacting less in the positive side, but I still believe that between 4% and 6% of new growth space is possible every year. Regarding the gross profit margin, obviously, is -- in my view, it's a sustainable situation, because the gross profit margin has been, for a while, one of our main drivers. We have been negotiating with suppliers locally and globally, especially locally, for improving the gross profit margin and, I think, during the Q4, we are going to see a similar increase. Regarding EBITDA for 2019, it's difficult. As I said, we have not even finalized the budget. I cannot comment on the specifics until I have a more clear and obviously transparent information. I prefer to avoid the discussion about full year 2019 until we know what is going to happen. EDOUARD AUBIN: Okay. So Julián, on the gross margin thing, so I mean, if your guidance implies a contraction of EBITDA of around 40 to 50 basis points in Q4, what you're saying is that you can still -- you should be in a position to post a 90 basis points or something gross margin improvement in the fourth quarter? JULIáN DíAZ GONZáLEZ: I think, this is a realistic information in terms of gross profit margin. In terms of the Q4, obviously, as a consequence of what I said regarding the full year is a consequence. I am going to -- I want to clarify that, because I repeat it. There are new businesses that we are consolidating with lower EBITDA margin, especially the cruise lines. And I said that at the beginning of the year. And we have added -- we are going to add this year close to 13 new cruise lines. It's a different business, but in terms of IRR, it's, as I said, similar or higher, and I'm now going to avoid new concessions from new businesses, because EBITDA margin is lower than higher. It is a different business that is consolidated. There are also other businesses in Asia with lower EBITDA margin that started to be consolidated in the 1st of October. And this is happening. And also, it's happening, what I said, there are operations like Spain, Brazil and Argentina, that due to the lower, in this case, sales have a fixed component of the costs that are impacting also the possibility of continuing with obviously the same level of gross profit margin -- sorry, of EBITDA margin. Those are the reasons. OPERATOR: Next question comes from the line of Jon Cox, Kepler Cheuvreux. JON COX, HEAD OF SWISS EQUITIES AND HEAD OF EUROPEAN CONSUMER EQUITIES, KEPLER CHEUVREUX, RESEARCH DIVISION: A couple of questions on my side. Just looking at your comments, again, about reiterating at least CHF 200 million on dividend -- on the next dividend, the way I look at it, it has to be over CHF 4 per share just to get to CHF 200 million, because, obviously, you've reduced your share count. When I look at consensus, it looks like it's around CHF 3, CHF 3.8. Do you think that consensus dividend expectations for next year are too low? That's the first question. Second question, I wonder if you just give us a bit of an idea on the size of those new businesses, which will obviously have a negative impact on mix, just roughly? Is it like a couple of percent or whatever it may be, those new businesses coming through, so we can try and think about what the margin of those businesses might be coming on. The second question. Third question, just a nuts and bolts on the working capital and CapEx evolution. Core net working capital continues to remain well under control, any thoughts on where it could go next, Andreas? Or do you think it probably will remain now roughly where it is? Same on CapEx, you mentioned below 3% in Q3. What is your best guess for the year as a whole? And then just a last question, if I can, on Spain and Aena, and that contract coming up in 2020, you said, you wouldn't sign a similar contract in the future. I'm sure the negotiations are pretty intense. Just wondering where we are there, particularly, as you are launching new projects with Aena, which we think that you are in the driving seat, at least, to try and maintain those contracts. Yes, any update there, that would be much appreciated. JULIáN DíAZ GONZáLEZ: Do you want to start with it, Andreas? ANDREAS SCHNEITER: I'll start with the working capital and CapEx. Look, I think, we are currently at a good level, in the sense, look, we will try to improve the working capital as we can, but I -- as we always said, look, the 5% that we have now seems like a realistic target. It's hard to material improvement, so that's why I would think that the levels that we have today for working capital and CapEx are actually sustainable. If we can improve it marginally, obviously, we'll try to do that, but I wouldn't expect any big change, and thus as such, and also, if you want the cash flow generation, equity free cash flow and free cash flow shouldn't materially change from a structural point of view, that's why we feel that the 2018 numbers actually are a good proxy as I have tried to explain beforehand. Sorry, and the dividend, yes, look, that's probably our mistake. When we think about it, it's like the same amount, so I would argue the CHF 3.75 are probably the base case. The board hasn't decided anything yet, so I think what -- the proper way of forecasting that is to take the CHF 3.75 type of share that is outstanding, so it's just below the CHF 200 million that Julián mentioned. But this is our mistake, because we still think on the full number of shares. JULIáN DíAZ GONZáLEZ: Okay. From my side, Jon, regarding the size of the new business, obviously, depends on the performance, but is between 3% and 5% of the total sales. If we are able to open everything on time, this is the full year impact. And then if [we are], obviously, depending on the months -- or depending on the number of days you open the business. Regarding the Spanish contract, I think, I have been very transparent with that. The conditions are not the best conditions in a contract for us. In fact, this is a very tough contract, especially due to the minimum annual guarantee in 2 of the lots, lot #1 and lot #2. This is public information. What we have done is we have agreed with Aena. The implementation in 6 -- in 5 airports in Spain of a project that we'll consider the traffic flow, the configuration of the shops, the brands, the assortment, the pricing policy, the digital approach and also new opportunities of businesses that may arise during the discussion in order to show up that after 6 years or 5 years of operating this contract, the company -- as you know, the contract was awarded to the former World Duty Free operation that now is operated by us. And we believe that with these changes in the operation, there is a possibility to really overpass the problem with a minimum annual guarantee. We just started the renovation of some of these airports and we expect that during the next 3, 6 months, we will be able to show up Aena that this is a different, obviously, way of doing things. As you know, when you agree -- and I'm not talking about specifics of the contracts, because, as you know, it was a very difficult moment in time when World Duty Free agreed about this situation due to the economy in Spain and due to the situation of the Spanish airports at that time, then the original business plan was based in assumptions and was based in the current market conditions in -- at this time. Today, we believe that with all the changes that happened, not only in the airport environment, but also in domestic market in Spain and in the countries where the passengers are coming from, the commercial offer in the Spanish airports in the retail part, in the duty-free I'm talking about, requires a different approach. As a consequence, the test is probably the best example, because it's not the elliptical discussion. It's a practical and specific discussion, comparable with previous performances in 2018 and 2017. If the results of this test are as we expect, I think it's obvious that we will be very interested to continue. And I think this is the assumption that we only work with at this stage of the process. Depending on this performance, everything else is possible. But I think, first of all, we need to wait and see the performance and see what the reality is. JON COX: So just to confirm, the -- you think that what you've done there on these pilot programs should deliver better revenues? And if that's the case, then you're happy to sort of maintain the form of the current contract, including a new minimum annual guarantee? JULIáN DíAZ GONZáLEZ: That's a yes. OPERATOR: Next question comes from the line of Paul Bonnet, Bank of America Merrill Lynch. PAUL JACQUES PHILIPPE BONNET, ANALYST, BOFA MERRILL LYNCH, RESEARCH DIVISION: Yes, just three quick questions from me. The first one is actually on the business operating model, just wanted to know a little bit, because at your Capital Markets Day, earlier in 2018, you said you were expecting to save CHF 26 million in 2018, now you say CHF 40 million in 2018, but I guess, the business operating model, the whole idea behind it was to save on the operating expenses, right? And when I look at the operating expenses and the first 9 months of this year, actually, I only see a little bit of leverage on the operating cost, but otherwise pretty much everything is unchanged. And so the 40 bps increase in the EBITDA margin actually comes fully from the gross margin increase. Should we actually expect any savings -- cost savings on the operating expenses? So that is my first question. Then my second question is, actually, I thought one of the disappointing thing about the results actually came from Asia, and you pointed toward the tougher comparison base. So effectively, the comparison base is approximately 6 percentage point tougher, so between Q2 and Q3 last year, but actually the performance of the business deteriorated from 23% to 4% between Q2 and Q3 this year. So where does the 12 percentage point underlying deceleration come from? It's the second question. And then the third question is on the net new concessions. I just have a little bit of hard time to reconcile exactly how this works, because, in the last 2 quarters, we've seen approximately 2% that was coming from that. But the reality is, if my understanding is correct, when you open a new concession, this should last approximately, well, 4 quarters, right, before this is in the base. So I don't really understand how come we had only 2 quarters of around 2% and before that we had below 1% and now we have below 1% again. So if you can enlighten me a little bit on that, that would be much appreciated. JULIáN DíAZ GONZáLEZ: Okay. Regarding the business operating model, I think, I have repeated this many, many times, is, we target CHF 50 million total impact in the P&L in 2018 and 2019. Initially, we forecast an impact in the P&L 2018 of CHF 26 million. Due to the acceleration of the implementation of most of the initiatives of the business operating model, we have explained during the presentation that -- is that to -- is that expecting CHF 26 million in 2018 will be CHF 40 million. And the reason is the acceleration of obviously the implementation of this business model. So far, in the P&L 9 months, what you've seen is CHF 33 million. PAUL JACQUES PHILIPPE BONNET: So can you just point to me where those CHF 33 million are, because the only thing I can see is the general expenses went from 4.9% of sales to 4.6%, which for me, is CHF 80 million, not CHF 36 million. ANDREAS SCHNEITER: Yes. So -- this is Andreas, Paul. Look, I think, you have, on one hand, the general expenses that is one thing. On the other -- that's what I tried to explain in my speech is like you have personal expenses and I know that you don't see an improvement there, but I think, you have 2 elements that go against each other. On one hand, you have the business operating model improvements, but on the other hand, you have 2 things: on one hand, you have a negative impact, for example, in Spain, because of the lower performance of the business; and then you also have a negative impact in North America from increases in personnel expenses. So although you don't see it there, reality is that the business operating model has delivered there as well. But it's not something where you just can say, look, let's go straight there, because there are these 2 elements that, if you want, offset the improvement. PAUL JACQUES PHILIPPE BONNET: Okay, fine. So in the underlying business, in the normal course of business, we should have seen around CHF 33 million to CHF 36 million, but now we're only seeing, like, CHF 20 million, because that was the difference due to the lower organic growth. Is it what you mean? ANDREAS SCHNEITER: The lower organic growth and the cost increases in the North America, correct. PAUL JACQUES PHILIPPE BONNET: Okay, amazing. Okay. And what about the 2 others, please? JULIáN DíAZ GONZáLEZ: Yes, I think, in Asia, I think, I commented during the presentation. You have number one is the annualization of Australia. Number two is the annualization of the Asian cruise line business. And number three is the slowdown in some operations in Asia, especially in Indonesia, that during the first quarter, was double digit growth and in the third quarter was almost flat. Net of new concessions, I think, the net of new concessions, is, as -- I think I commented on that before. If -- new concessions contributed 4.2% of gross of the sales. Closed concessions 2.9% during the first 9 months of 2018. And this 1.3% net added to the FX impact -- sorry, added to the like-for-like CHF 1.8 million result, an organic growth of 3.1%. In previous quarters, what we had is a participation of 1.9%. The reality here is, again, the comparable with previous quarters, because now what we have is, and this especially, the cruise line business in Asia. Australia, the last year was the first time that we opened with a full renovation of shops, it's a comparable. And now, it's moving to, obviously, like-for-like impact when you have trade. PAUL JACQUES PHILIPPE BONNET: Okay. So considering that the comparison base actually gets another around 15 percentage point offer into Q4, are we going to see negative organic growth in Asia into Q4? Is it a possibility? JULIáN DíAZ GONZáLEZ: No way. I think, in Asia, we have very good new operations and we started the 1st of October and November, that we'll mitigate any possible negative impact, will be positive. PAUL JACQUES PHILIPPE BONNET: Okay. And so what about the phasing of the net new concessions, which is my last question. JULIáN DíAZ GONZáLEZ: Andreas, new concessions. ANDREAS SCHNEITER: So look, I think, as you pointed out correctly, I think your concept is absolutely right. So whenever we open or close a new business, obviously, that will go into the net new concessions lines for 4 quarters. Now obviously, depending on how big the project is and when it starts, you may have every quarter openings and closings. So to give you an example, in Q4 2017, we closed Geneva. That's why you would see actually quite a strong drop in the quarterly net new concessions growth in Q4 last year, okay? Now for example, Melbourne, that was a big one that we opened beginning of Q3 2017 that will roll off now -- or that has rolled off actually in Q3. I think, because it's project by project, there is no, if I can call it that way, systematic tier on what the growth can be depending on what comes off and what goes on, the numbers may fluctuate. And I think, again, that is something that I wanted to explain in my speech, so you cannot just take any given quarter and take that as a run rate. There is some volatility there. The key point for us here is like Q4, again, it should accelerate, because there's a number of new projects, which are actually quite sizable, and Julián commented about it, they go online or they have gone online in Q4. OPERATOR: Next question comes from the line of Mischa Rölli, Crédit Suisse. MISCHA RöLLI, ANALYST, CRéDIT SUISSE AG, RESEARCH DIVISION: Yes, just a couple from my side. First one, just as a clarification, with your Q4 guided implying around 46 bps of EBITDA margin decrease, I wondered, I mean, does this also -- does this guide also imply a mid-single-digit decline in organic growth in Division 1 in Q4? I'm asking, because, obviously, the Aena winter guide, capacity guide has also some seat capacity data, is suggesting quite remarkable recovery in Q4, but also Q1 '19, so is this already -- does it still imply around mid-single-digit decline? JULIáN DíAZ GONZáLEZ: Sorry, can you -- so -- the line cutoff several times during the time that you were asking the question. Can you please repeat, like, we cannot hear the question. MISCHA RöLLI: Sure. So with the Q4 guide implying 40 to 50 bps of EBITDA margin decrease. I wonder does this guide also imply a mid-single-digit decline in organic growth in Division 1 in Q4, so -- because, obviously, we have seen -- there's some seat capacity data and also the Aena guide for winter capacity suggesting quite remarkable improvement in traffic growth. So that will be my first question. And then my second question is, I think, in the press release, you speak about structural issues in Spain. Are those comments simply, basically, related to the minimum annual guarantee? Or what else do you mean with structural issues? Has there been any change to the duty-free environment there? And the third question would be, I mean, I guess, you guys have quite a good view of how the Chinese consumers feel in general, so in addition to what you already commented on APAC growth, is there any, sort of, slowdown for Chinese in any sense? JULIáN DíAZ GONZáLEZ: Okay. Regarding the Division 1 organic growth in Q4, we don't expect that double-digit organic growth in Q4 for Division 1, in fact, the Spain, that is the main -- has been the main reason of the negative organic growth, is improving significantly, number one. Number two, the structural changes in Spain means, and I think during the presentation there was a specific comment about one issue that is very relevant, the growth in the traffic in Spain -- international traffic in Spain increased by, I think, 1%. The difference is the profile of the passenger in this increase. British passengers and other nationalities decreased by around 4%, 5% during the period that we are talking about. As a consequence, because these passengers were substituted by Spanish passengers, the spend per passenger has been significantly impacted. But the problem is, the problem is that, one, let's say, British has around EUR 10, EUR 11 per head, and 1 Spanish passenger is EUR 2 per head. This is the main structural problem that I tried to explain and probably it's not well explained. Regarding the Chinese customers, what we have seen, in general, is not any slowdown, it's a drop in the spend per passenger. And what the reason is, depending, obviously, the destination, but the main reason that we have seen is that the type of Chinese passenger traveling today is a bit different than 2 or 3 years ago. We are welcoming in several of the locations where we have Chinese passengers, different passengers profile, lower profile than before. And I think, this is something that has been repeated in most of the locations that we have been operating. It's not the impact in number of Chinese passengers, it's more the change of profile of the Chinese passengers. OPERATOR: Next question comes from the line of Peter Testa, One Investment. PETER TESTA, ANALYST, ONE INVESTMENTS S.A.G.L.: Just 3 things. One, maybe, just following on your comment on the Chinese passengers. Is that something you saw happen, say, during the second half of the year? Or is that a longer-term comment that you're making? And then just 2 things on mix to make sure I understand. On the Spain, Brazil and Argentina factor, I guess, because of the season, Brazil and Argentina have a higher weight in Q4, so even though the difficult trading happened in Q3 and it's a bit recovering in Q4, that higher weight is what gives you the point on the operating leverage that you are making? And then the third question is just on the cruise side. It's about 3% of sales. I was wondering if you could give us some sense based upon the business, one, what, sort of, base of sales that would represent, just to give us some context for that opportunity to be able to understand your comment about it? JULIáN DíAZ GONZáLEZ: Yes. Regarding the Chinese passengers, I think, this is a gradual change that we have seen over the past years, but essentially in 2018. There are more Chinese passengers traveling with -- obviously, there are various profile lower than before were, obviously most of the passengers were high level. Now we have also mass market Chinese. The second one is the seasonality. Spain, as you know, is very seasonal, especially in Q3. And the recovery of Spain that is, in fact, happening now made no impact at the level, obviously, needed in order to accelerate organic growth, but is not going to that much the performance. Brazil and Argentina are different cases. Brazil, depending on what we have seen, is an improvement compared with Q3. And Brazil has a very, let's say, good performance during Q4. It's not like in northern hemisphere, it's like more in the southern hemisphere. Argentina is not an improvement. Argentina remains the same and is going to be tough, as a consequence. Spain, even in the case that recovers, is not having the important impact that we have lost during the Q3. Brazil, if Brazil recovers, we will have a significant good impact in Q4, because it's an important quarter, and Argentina is not moving a lot. I don't think that we should consider Argentina recovering. PETER TESTA: Okay. And then on the cruise point, just so that I understand the context for what you're talking about? JULIáN DíAZ GONZáLEZ: Obviously, the -- what we disclosure in our information is around 3% generated by the cruise business in the top line in the P&L. But I have this commented on before was that we have opened during this year and most of these cruises have been opened at the beginning -- at the last part of September, beginning of October and along the last quarter new 30 cruise lines. The contribution of these in a full year basis will be between 3% and 5%. And I think depending, obviously, gradually, the implementation and the starting of this business will increase even, obviously, the percentage of participating in the total sales. This is the size of the magnitude. PETER TESTA: Okay. So that 3% to 5% is cruise alone on top of the normal gross openings? JULIáN DíAZ GONZáLEZ: Yes. OPERATOR: Next question comes from the line of Rebecca McClellan, Santander. REBECCA ANNE MCCLELLAN, EQUITY ANALYST, GRUPO SANTANDER, RESEARCH DIVISION: Can you hear me? JULIáN DíAZ GONZáLEZ: Yes, yes, perfectly. REBECCA ANNE MCCLELLAN: Yes. I have got 4 questions for you, please. Firstly, the organic growth of 1% that you saw in October, was that a combination of improvements in the like-for-like and the new space? Or is it, sort of, more reflection of the new space from the cruises as well as reduced, sort of, dilution from Geneva? My second question is, can you remind us to what the MAG inflation in 2018 and 2019 is? And are you hoping to, sort of, get a inflationary-neutral or less inflationary MAG situation under, sort of, new contract terms? My third question is, what do you think has driven the improvement in Spain in the last weeks? And finally, you talk about cruise in Asia, only business as being slightly dilutive or the mix effect, the margin being lower. Is that at the growth or is that predominantly at EBITDA? JULIáN DíAZ GONZáLEZ: Okay. The organic growth increase is -- we are talking about days, in the first weeks of October, the 1% is mainly due to the new space and the comparable with Geneva last year. We haven't seen all the detail, but still it's very premature to say something else. In my view, there are also 2 aspects that could be positive: one is the sales in Spain that are not negative so far or were not negative during this day so far; and the improvement of the operation in Brazil, that is still negative, but is better than during the Q3. Those are the main changes in the organic growth during the first days of October. Regarding the inflection in the MAG in Spain, it's public information. This year has increased -- the minimum annual guarantee increased by 6%. And next year, I'm not sure, but I think, it's another 6% in 2019. Regarding the -- if we were -- if we are going to be able to overpass this inflection in terms of sales, it's obvious, in 2018, it's not going to happen, but I think, with the initiatives that started and the trend that we are seeing now, in 2019, may happen. Why? Because the -- obviously, the spend per passenger during the time that we have initiated this project that I comment on, the sales results are positive, but nothing concrete, because it still is very short time. The cruise business have 2 different levels: one is, obviously, impacting the top line; but also the EBITDA margin, as a business, is a lot lower than the EBITDA margin in any standard duty-free airport operation. For division -- and if you remember, I comment on that at the beginning of the year, we want, I think, 40 cruise lines and these cruise lines are going to be consolidated during 2018 and beginning of 2019 and this is -- may impact the margin. But this is reflected in the guidance that we have commented on in the press release. REBECCA ANNE MCCLELLAN: Okay. So sorry, Julián, just 2 things, firstly, so the cruise, is it a lower gross margin as well as EBITDA margin? JULIáN DíAZ GONZáLEZ: It's not a gross margin, it's the concession fee. REBECCA ANNE MCCLELLAN: Okay, excellent. And secondly, just about the Spanish MAG inflation, I mean, it's difficult to tell, obviously, with Aena, et cetera, but I am assuming that one of the things that you probably want to erase from any future contract is significant inflation in the MAG, right, because that's been fairly penalizing. JULIáN DíAZ GONZáLEZ: It's a very important factor, because in this contract, as you know, gradually, the MAG increases significantly, the first year that we took over the contract, the increase in the minimum guarantee was around 15% or 16%, and gradually, 6% per year. We have seen this in '17, '18 and I think in '18. Obviously, the key point here, Rebecca, is if we can really drive more sales per passenger. And personally, I am convinced that we can do it. The difference is that, in this case, we need to really show up and test it with Aena. We are doing this project together. They are very, obviously, interested that the top line is increasing significantly, I would say. And we expect, during the next 3 or 6 months, good results on this initiative. The first result, and I don't want to really identify these good results, because the new initiatives -- because we've been doing a lot of things during 2018 and probably some of these projects already impacted the sales. The sales results are very -- are positive. We turned around the situation of going negative. Now the situation is flat to positive week by week. REBECCA ANNE MCCLELLAN: Okay. But the improvement in Spain recently isn't -- I mean, it's too small, right? It's just pilot. So the improvement in Spain is what, because there's been a pickup in international passengers or... JULIáN DíAZ GONZáLEZ: No. The international passengers is more or less the same. As you know, the British passengers that is probably the most -- not probably, is the most important customer we have in Spain, have shifted from Spain to other destinations. And to substitute these passengers with lower spend per passenger, like, it's happening with the Spaniards, it's a big challenge, because you have, obviously, this is the proportion that when I said 10 to 2, it's the real proportion, it's not something -- I am not guessing here, it's a real proportion. OPERATOR: Next question comes from the line of Gian Marco Werro, MainFirst. GIAN MARCO WERRO, ANALYST, MAINFIRST BANK AG, RESEARCH DIVISION: Just 1 or 2 questions for. The first one regarding Latin America. Do you expect a spillover effect in Latin America also influencing the growth and organic growth in Mexico? And do we think this growth could also shift into negative territory maybe in Q4 and also in H1 2019? And then the second question may be more hypothetical, but assuming that you intend to further increase your cash EPS also in the future, what would be an optimal level in net debt-to-EBITDA to start a new share buyback probably if you don't find a suitable target in Asia soon? JULIáN DíAZ GONZáLEZ: Okay. Regarding Mexico, being fair, I don't think that Mexico has the race to go through our process of negative EBITDA. What happened during the Q3 -- sorry, negative organic growth? What happened during the Q3 is a very more straight point is, we have opened many shops, the traffic, in different terminals. The type of traffic in Cancun has changed from terminal to terminal. We have been under renovation for a long time. We have opened 2 new big shops, one of them was in a current terminal, the other one in a new terminal and this impacted the organic growth. This is -- what I have seen over the past 2 or 3 weeks is, again, they are reinitiating the same growth than before. Then is the classification of net-debt... ANDREAS SCHNEITER: Yes, so look, I think, as I said, we are currently at around 2.9x, so that is at the higher end of the range. So if you do the very simple math, so if we were not to do any acquisition for the next couple of years and assuming that we will keep the dividend as we have indicated now, we probably would be at around 2.5x in a couple of years or just below 2.5x. So ultimately, this is a decision by the board of directors. This is not our decision. But I think from a management point of view, I would feel comfortable. Obviously, look, we, kind of, give ourselves a year or a couple of years before we need to decide or before we really have -- feel on pressure to do another share buyback. So I think we're in the sweet spot in the sense that if we can do M&A, we have the financial flexibility to do so, but we also still have enough leverage that it will make sense to delever if there is nothing in the short term. OPERATOR: We have a follow-up question from Jörn Iffert. JöRN IFFERT: Julián, as you speak about the mix of changing with the rising shares of cruise lines having lower margins, this is also resulting that you put under review your medium-term EBITDA target of 13%? JULIáN DíAZ GONZáLEZ: As I said, Jörn, it is very difficult to say today what is going to happen in the middle term EBITDA margin. I don't have the answer. I don't know. I think what we have today is as a consequence of what we have done over the past year. And I think the 2 acquisitions at that time justify the EBITDA that you mentioned. The reality in terms of margin for the future, I prefer to have a clear understanding about 2019 and the impact of the new businesses in order to answer properly the question. I don't know. OPERATOR: That was the last question. JULIáN DíAZ GONZáLEZ: Okay. That's all. Thank you very much for participating in the presentation and in -- and the call. All the questions were very interesting. Thank you very much. Bye-bye. OPERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now over. Thank you for choosing Chorus Call, and thank you for participating in the conference. You may now disconnect your lines. Goodbye. [Thomson Financial reserves the right to make changes to documents, content, or other information on this web site without obligation to notify any person of such changes. 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Subject: Copyright; Airports; Cash flow; Commercial space; Passengers
Location: Africa Argentina Brazil Turkey Spain Southern Europe
Company / organization: Name: Thomson Financial; NAICS: 511210, 518210, 519190
Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Nov 5, 2018
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: Linthicum
Country of publication: United States, Linthicum
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Law--Corporate Law
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2135141014
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2135141014?accountid=4840
Copyright: 2018 Thomson Financial and ASC LLC
Last updated: 2018-12-06
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 435 of 474
POP [Asia Region]
Author: Cartwright, Garth
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]06 Nov 2018: 6.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: POP Tribalistas Hammersmith Apollo, London aaaae Sunday evening found a trafficchoked Hammersmith taking on a Latin American ambience as crowds of exuberant Brazilians gathered outside the Tube and bus stations. The cause of this outpouring of South American pride was the UK debut of Tribalistas, a supergroup from Rio consisting of Arnaldo Antunes, Carlinhos Brown and Marisa Monte. Tribalistas appeared in 2002 with an eponymous debut album that topped Brazilian and Portuguese charts and sold 3m copies worldwide. They never toured or gave interviews and, beyond releasing a song in support of gay marriage legislation in 2013, all returned to their solo careers. Monte, aged 51, is a superstar in Brazil, celebrated both for her talents as a singer-songwriter and business acumen. Brown, 55, made his name as a samba percussionist with pop smarts — Shakira, Herbie Hancock and Sergio Mendes are on his CV. Antunes, 58, is a noted songwriter and poet. In 2017 the trio re-entered the studio and released an album (again called only Tribalistas, again topping Brazilian and Portuguese charts). Finally they are touring. The capacity audience, drawn heavily from London's Brazilian community, roared their approval from the minute Tribalistas took the stage. The trio, backed by a guitar-bass-drums-percussion quartet, blend their voices to create a lush celebration of Brazilian music and here they conveyed a real sense of joy. The only uncertain moment came when Antunes, in faltering English, explained why it had taken Tribalistas 15 years to reach London — this prompted several audience members to shout for him to speak Portuguese. Monte took over, deftly addressing the fans as "our London tribe", and all went smoothly again. While Tribalistas operate as a musical democracy — sharing writing and production credits — it is Monte who stands centre stage and is most often featured as lead singer. The influence of both The Beatles and French singer Françoise Hardy is apparent in Tribalistas' melodic odes to love and unity. The trio's outfits also reflect a similarly late-1960s sensibility, feather boas and crushed velvet jackets being requisite stage wear. For the first hour Tribalistas sang acoustic songs with gentle bossa nova rhythms. This encouraged audience participation but lacked dynamism. The second hour saw Brown, who surrounds himself with an array of percussive instruments, stepping forward and upping the tempo. Joined by the band's drummer and percussionist, he unleashed furious samba rhythms and the Apollo metamorphosed into a huge club with the audience dancing in and out of their seats. Tribalistas rode this energy, creating a carnival-style celebration, and ended the performance by dancing their way off stage. A week after Jair Bolsonaro was elected president of a very divided Brazil, Tribalistas demonstrated a musical unity that left everyone happy. CREDIT: Garth Cartwright CAPTION: Furious rhythms: Carlinhos Brown of Tribalistas Angel Manzano/Redferns
Subject: Songwriters; Audiences; Singers
Location: Brazil United Kingdom--UK
People: Bolsonaro, Jair Hancock, Herbie
Company / organization: Name: Beatles; NAICS: 711130
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 6
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Nov 6, 2018
Section: News
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2150966565
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2150966565?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Nov 6, 2018
Last updated: 2019-03-22
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 436 of 474
POP [Europe Region]
Author: Cartwright, Garth
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]06 Nov 2018: 6.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Tribalistas Hammersmith Apollo, London **** Sunday evening found a trafficchoked Hammersmith taking on a Latin American ambience as crowds of exuberant Brazilians gathered outside the Tube and bus stations. The cause of this outpouring of South American pride was the UK debut of Tribalistas, a supergroup from Rio consisting of Arnaldo Antunes, Carlinhos Brown and Marisa Monte. Tribalistas appeared in 2002 with an eponymous debut album that topped Brazilian and Portuguese charts and sold 3m copies worldwide. They never toured or gave interviews and, beyond releasing a song in support of gay marriage legislation in 2013, all returned to their solo careers. Monte, aged 51, is a superstar in Brazil, celebrated both for her talents as a singer-songwriter and business acumen. Brown, 55, made his name as a samba percussionist with pop smarts — Shakira, Herbie Hancock and Sergio Mendes are on his CV. Antunes, 58, is a noted songwriter and poet. In 2017 the trio re-entered the studio and released an album (again called only Tribalistas, again topping Brazilian and Portuguese charts). Finally they are touring. The capacity audience, drawn heavily from London's Brazilian community, roared their approval from the minute Tribalistas took the stage. The trio, backed by a guitar-bass-drums-percussion quartet, blend their voices to create a lush celebration of Brazilian music and here they conveyed a real sense of joy. The only uncertain moment came when Antunes, in faltering English, explained why it had taken Tribalistas 15 years to reach London — this prompted several audience members to shout for him to speak Portuguese. Monte took over, deftly addressing the fans as "our London tribe", and all went smoothly again. While Tribalistas operate as a musical democracy — sharing writing and production credits — it is Monte who stands centre stage and is most often featured as lead singer. The influence of both The Beatles and French singer Françoise Hardy is apparent in Tribalistas' melodic odes to love and unity. The trio's outfits also reflect a similarly late-1960s sensibility, feather boas and crushed velvet jackets being requisite stage wear. For the first hour Tribalistas sang acoustic songs with gentle bossa nova rhythms. This encouraged audience participation but lacked dynamism. The second hour saw Brown, who surrounds himself with an array of percussive instruments, stepping forward and upping the tempo. Joined by the band's drummer and percussionist, he unleashed furious samba rhythms and the Apollo metamorphosed into a huge club with the audience dancing in and out of their seats. Tribalistas rode this energy, creating a carnival-style celebration, and ended the performance by dancing their way off stage. A week after Jair Bolsonaro was elected president of a very divided Brazil, Tribalistas demonstrated a musical unity that left everyone happy. CREDIT: Garth Cartwright CAPTION: Furious rhythms: Carlinhos Brown of Tribalistas Angel Manzano/Redferns
Subject: Songwriters; Audiences; Singers
Location: Brazil United Kingdom--UK
People: Bolsonaro, Jair Hancock, Herbie
Company / organization: Name: Beatles; NAICS: 711130
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 6
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Nov 6, 2018
Section: News
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2150967067
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2150967067?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Nov 6, 2018
Last updated: 2019-03-22
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 437 of 474
POP
Author: Cartwright, Garth
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]06 Nov 2018: 10.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Tribalistas Hammersmith Apollo, London **** Sunday evening found a trafficchoked Hammersmith taking on a Latin American ambience as crowds of exuberant Brazilians gathered outside the Tube and bus stations. The cause of this outpouring of South American pride was the UK debut of Tribalistas, a supergroup from Rio consisting of Arnaldo Antunes, Carlinhos Brown and Marisa Monte. Tribalistas appeared in 2002 with an eponymous debut album that topped Brazilian and Portuguese charts and sold 3m copies worldwide. They never toured or gave interviews and, beyond releasing a song in support of gay marriage legislation in 2013, all returned to their solo careers. Monte, aged 51, is a superstar in Brazil, celebrated both for her talents as a singer-songwriter and business acumen. Brown, 55, made his name as a samba percussionist with pop smarts — Shakira, Herbie Hancock and Sergio Mendes are on his CV. Antunes, 58, is a noted songwriter and poet. In 2017 the trio re-entered the studio and released an album (again called only Tribalistas, again topping Brazilian and Portuguese charts). Finally they are touring. The capacity audience, drawn heavily from London's Brazilian community, roared their approval from the minute Tribalistas took the stage. The trio, backed by a guitar-bass-drums-percussion quartet, blend their voices to create a lush celebration of Brazilian music and here they conveyed a real sense of joy. The only uncertain moment came when Antunes, in faltering English, explained why it had taken Tribalistas 15 years to reach London — this prompted several audience members to shout for him to speak Portuguese. Monte took over, deftly addressing the fans as "our London tribe", and all went smoothly again. While Tribalistas operate as a musical democracy — sharing writing and production credits — it is Monte who stands centre stage and is most often featured as lead singer. The influence of both The Beatles and French singer Françoise Hardy is apparent in Tribalistas' melodic odes to love and unity. The trio's outfits also reflect a similarly late-1960s sensibility, feather boas and crushed velvet jackets being requisite stage wear. For the first hour Tribalistas sang acoustic songs with gentle bossa nova rhythms. This encouraged audience participation but lacked dynamism. The second hour saw Brown, who surrounds himself with an array of percussive instruments, stepping forward and upping the tempo. Joined by the band's drummer and percussionist, he unleashed furious samba rhythms and the Apollo metamorphosed into a huge club with the audience dancing in and out of their seats. Tribalistas rode this energy, creating a carnival-style celebration, and ended the performance by dancing their way off stage. A week after Jair Bolsonaro was elected president of a very divided Brazil, Tribalistas demonstrated a musical unity that left everyone happy. CREDIT: Garth Cartwright CAPTION: Furious rhythms: Carlinhos Brown of Tribalistas Angel Manzano/Redferns
Subject: Songwriters; Audiences; Singers
Location: Brazil United Kingdom--UK
People: Bolsonaro, Jair Hancock, Herbie
Company / organization: Name: Beatles; NAICS: 711130
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 10
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Nov 6, 2018
Section: News
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2150968786
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2150968786?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Nov 6, 2018
Last updated: 2018-12-07
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 438 of 474
POP [Usa Region]
Author: Cartwright, Garth
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]06 Nov 2018: 6.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Tribalistas Hammersmith Apollo, London aaaae Sunday evening found a trafficchoked Hammersmith taking on a Latin American ambience as crowds of exuberant Brazilians gathered outside the Tube and bus stations. The cause of this outpouring of South American pride was the UK debut of Tribalistas, a supergroup from Rio consisting of Arnaldo Antunes, Carlinhos Brown and Marisa Monte. Tribalistas appeared in 2002 with an eponymous debut album that topped Brazilian and Portuguese charts and sold 3m copies worldwide. They never toured or gave interviews and, beyond releasing a song in support of gay marriage legislation in 2013, all returned to their solo careers. Monte, aged 51, is a superstar in Brazil, celebrated both for her talents as a singer-songwriter and business acumen. Brown, 55, made his name as a samba percussionist with pop smarts — Shakira, Herbie Hancock and Sergio Mendes are on his CV. Antunes, 58, is a noted songwriter and poet. In 2017 the trio re-entered the studio and released an album (again called only Tribalistas, again topping Brazilian and Portuguese charts). Finally they are touring. The capacity audience, drawn heavily from London's Brazilian community, roared their approval from the minute Tribalistas took the stage. The trio, backed by a guitar-bass-drums-percussion quartet, blend their voices to create a lush celebration of Brazilian music and here they conveyed a real sense of joy. The only uncertain moment came when Antunes, in faltering English, explained why it had taken Tribalistas 15 years to reach London — this prompted several audience members to shout for him to speak Portuguese. Monte took over, deftly addressing the fans as "our London tribe", and all went smoothly again. While Tribalistas operate as a musical democracy — sharing writing and production credits — it is Monte who stands centre stage and is most often featured as lead singer. The influence of both The Beatles and French singer Françoise Hardy is apparent in Tribalistas' melodic odes to love and unity. The trio's outfits also reflect a similarly late-1960s sensibility, feather boas and crushed velvet jackets being requisite stage wear. For the first hour Tribalistas sang acoustic songs with gentle bossa nova rhythms. This encouraged audience participation but lacked dynamism. The second hour saw Brown, who surrounds himself with an array of percussive instruments, stepping forward and upping the tempo. Joined by the band's drummer and percussionist, he unleashed furious samba rhythms and the Apollo metamorphosed into a huge club with the audience dancing in and out of their seats. Tribalistas rode this energy, creating a carnival-style celebration, and ended the performance by dancing their way off stage. A week after Jair Bolsonaro was elected president of a very divided Brazil, Tribalistas demonstrated a musical unity that left everyone happy. CREDIT: Garth Cartwright CAPTION: Furious rhythms: Carlinhos Brown of Tribalistas Angel Manzano/Redferns
Subject: Songwriters; Audiences; Singers
Location: Brazil United Kingdom--UK
People: Bolsonaro, Jair Hancock, Herbie
Company / organization: Name: Beatles; NAICS: 711130
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 6
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Nov 6, 2018
Section: News
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2150969205
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2150969205?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Nov 6, 2018
Last updated: 2018-12-07
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 439 of 474
Q3 2018 Fincantieri SpA Earnings Call - Final
Publication info: Fair Disclosure Wire ; Linthicum [Linthicum]09 Nov 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Presentation OPERATOR: Good morning. This is the Chorus Call conference operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Fincantieri 9 Months 2018 Results Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Giuseppe Dado, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead, sir. GIUSEPPE DADO, CFO, FINCANTIERI S.P.A.: Yes. Good morning, everybody. Together with me, there are Mr. Maestrini, the General Manager; and Mr. Ragni, the Deputy General Manager. We'll start going through the presentation that we handed -- that we published this morning. So the first 9 months of -- the results of the first 9 months of 2018 are in line with the business plan targets. Revenues were up 8.5% with respect to the same period of last year, and EBITDA margin at 17.3% versus 6.5% last year. We reached yet another record in terms of backlog. We are now well over EUR 32 billion at almost 6.5x 2017 revenues with a backlog of EUR 26 billion, 104 ships, and a soft backlog of EUR 6.5 billion. In this quarter, we -- in this past quarter, in the third quarter, we had important commercial achievements, notably the acquisition of a new important customer, TUI Cruises, a company which is a JV between TUI AG and Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. For this company, we're going to build 2 new-concept, LNG-powered cruise ships. And we are very, very proud of that because I mean, we add another client in our client portfolio in this business. We also saw the conversion of the 2 options linked to the order at this time last year from Norwegian Cruise Lines. We had another confirmation of an order for Cunard, which is the luxury brand of Carnival. And we signed an MoA with Princess Cruises for 2 new-generation cruise vessels. In the U.S., through Marinette -- Fincantieri Marinette Marine, we acquired a contract for the 15th LCS vessel for U.S. Navy, the LCS 29; and an order from the U.S. government to advance work in support of the construction of 4 Multi-Mission Surface Combatants vessels for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Through Vard, we also acquired contracts for another expedition cruise vessel from Hapag-Lloyd and 2 expedition cruise vessels from Viking. After the quarter, we further -- add further achievements because we signed an MoA with MSC Cruises for the construction of 4 ultra-luxury cruise vessels. And this is a further -- testify to further expansion in the relationship with MSC. We signed a contract with Virgin for a fourth cruise ship. And on the international cooperation side, we signed an agreement -- we established an agreement with Leonardo to expand the scope of Orizzonte Sistemi Navali. And we announced the start of discussions aimed at the definition of the terms of conditions for the creation of a JV with Naval Group. Finally, from November 2, Vard has been delisted. Fincantieri now holds a 96% stake in the company, and the company is not listed anymore in the Singapore Stock Exchange. Going through Page 4. These are pictures of the main orders. Please note that the deliveries now go up to 2027 when it comes to Norwegian Cruise Lines, and for TUI Cruises, 2026. So this further lengthens our visibility in the backlog. The same goes with the orders with the -- for the cruise vessels in Vard. On Page 6, you can see the main deliveries. We just delivered the Littoral Combat Ships, Sioux City and Wichita, in the U.S. and the second vessel for Ponant from Vard. On Page 7, order intake and backlog by segment. As you can see, orders for 2018 have reached EUR 7.6 billion, quite a healthy growth with respect to last year. And the growth, it's -- you can see it across all the segments, both in Shipbuilding and Offshore, although Offshore has acquired a diversified set of new contracts. And this brings both down to the record levels of backlog and soft backlog that we reached at the end of September 2018, as I said before, EUR 32.5 billion. When it comes to Page 8, the backlog deployment. We had a total of 104 ships in the backlog. Those -- this number goes up to 118 if we consider the ships we had in the soft backlog, although we don't include them in these charts. We further expanded visibility above -- beyond 2022 up to 2027, as I said before. And as you can see right now in 2022, we have reached the target of 5 ships that we expected to have in the business plan. We also further expanded visibility up to 2022 in Vard in the Offshore segment. Going through revenues and EBITDA. At group level, EUR 3.9 billion in revenues. You see there has been good growth both in Offshore and in Shipbuilding. In Offshore, thanks to the effects of the diversification strategy that we deployed with Vard, and of course, in Shipbuilding, as expected. And the growth, you will see in the next pages comes mostly from the ramp-up of the programs in the naval segment. EBITDA margin -- EBITDA and EBITDA margin at 7.3%, EUR 281 million at group level. Robust growth in the margin in Shipbuilding and stable margin in systems and components. Their margin for Offshore for the 9 months is negative. This -- we will see further in the following pages the reasons for this. Page 10. The revenues in Shipbuilding, EUR 2.9 billion. As I mentioned before, most of the growth comes from the naval business. As you can see, revenues in the cruise are pretty much stable with respect of last year. Their growth, 20% growth in volumes and revenues in naval is thanks to the ramp-up of the programs for the Italian Navy and the Qatari Navy. EBITDA margin, 9.1%, so in line with our expectations. And of course, this is thanks to the ramp-up in revenues in naval and the construction of sister cruise vessels that came at higher margins. And on Page 11, we can comment to Offshore. The revenue growth was very good, almost 23% despite the negative effect of the EUR-NOK exchange rate. And this is thanks to the effects of the diversification strategy, the possibility for Vard to acquire back ships and vessels outside of the pure offshore market and notably the cruise segment. And this has occurred thanks to the -- of course, to the support of Fincantieri. But the EBITDA margin at minus EUR 16 million, minus 1.9%. Of course, this reflects a one-off event: the loss on the sale of a vessel whose contract has been canceled. And we finally found a buyer, and we perfected the sale in the third quarter. And on the other side, performance reflects the challenges that Vard is facing in, let me say, aligning its production network and its production facilities to the new types of vessels that it is required to produce and to deliver. On the systems and components segment, revenues are up 24% -- 25% versus last year. The increase in volume is driven by the -- of course, by the increase in volumes in notably -- mostly in the Shipbuilding business, cruise and naval. And we see an increase in the volumes of cabins and public carriers and, again, the workload related to the 2 programs in the naval business. On Page 13, net working capital and net debt. Of course, the dynamics of our net working capital are mostly related to the production volumes in cruise, and they move, let me say, according with the production plan of cruise vessels. We do expect to deliver one more vessel this year. It's scheduled at the end of November. But the levels are pretty much in line with our forecast, both in the net working capital and net financial position. Please note that construction loans are at EUR 570 million, of which EUR 510 million are related to Vard. Going to the outlook. We confirm the outlook and the guidance for 2018. Results are expected to be in line with the targets of the business plan. We expect the delivery of 3 units in Shipbuilding: one cruise, as I said before, and 2 naval vessels. The Italian fleet renewal program is fully operational, and we are starting the first phases of the production activities for the Qatari order. On Offshore, we expect the continuation of the construction activities related to the backlog acquired. We are going to focus even more on the organizational and production adjustments that we need to do in order to improve Vard's efficiency. And this -- of course, the delisting of the company will allow us to be more -- even more effective from November on. And of course, when it comes to Equipment, Systems and Services, we confirm the growth trend, thanks to the deployment of the programs that we mentioned before. So we -- when it comes to targets, we confirm the increase of revenues between 3% and 6%, an EBITDA margin of approximately 7.5% and a net debt between EUR 0.4 billion and EUR 0.6 billion. Now we are happy to take questions. Questions and Answers OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) The first question is from Monica Bosio with Banca IMI. MONICA BOSIO, RESEARCH ANALYST, BANCA IMI SPA, RESEARCH DIVISION: My question is on Vard. The results are very good for the cruise and the naval segment, while Vard is affected by one-off and some production alignment challenges. Can you please quantify the amount of the one-off related to the sale of the vessel and the amount obviously of the production alignment challenges? Can we expect that the problems, the issues on the production alignment might be solved in the last quarter and that the company can achieve in the last quarter a breakeven? Or are you expecting a breakeven only from 2019? GIUSEPPE DADO: On Vard, the one-off effect, this in -- it's double digits. It's roughly EUR 13 million. And I mean, as I said before, now Vard is delisted, now we are going to make organizational changes, deep organizational changes to the company as we have a lot more freedom to do so. When it comes to the breakeven, I don't expect breakeven in the last quarter. We are working for a better 2019, let me put it this way. OPERATOR: Your next question is from Matteo Bonizzoni with Kepler. MATTEO BONIZZONI, EQUITY RESEARCH ANALYST, KEPLER CHEUVREUX, RESEARCH DIVISION: Two question. One is still on Vard, just to elaborate a little bit more on your ambition for 2019. So this, let's say, margin weakness was in part not expected, particularly not the one-off side of that, but the transition, the impact that the transition from the OSV business to cruise is having on the profitability of Vard. In general, for 2019, can you elaborate on profitability for Vard? And the second question, on the contrary, in Shipbuilding, we have seen the EBITDA margin in Q3 exceeding 10% with 9.1% in the 9 months, significantly above the 9 months of the last year that was 6.6%. So we are speaking about 250 basis point improvement of the profitability in the Shipbuilding. How much comes from cruise, how much from naval? And we know that you don't disclose the EBITDA by cruise and naval. But just in qualitative terms, the drivers for this profitability increase were more in cruise, as we suppose, or also in naval? GIUSEPPE DADO: Okay. I'm not going to comment on 2019. On the one-off event, please note that although we took a hit on our P&L, the vessel that we finally sold was in our -- has been in our inventory for, I guess, over 2 years because this vessel was originally contracted with Harkand, which was one of the first, let me say, offshore businesses that went -- actually went bankrupt. The sale of this vessel, although has implied a negative effect in the P&L, has allowed us to offload our balance sheet of the vessel in inventory and to reduce also our debt vis-à-vis the bank that has financed the construction loans. So we take it, of course, as a positive event in -- for Vard. Again, on Vard, 2019, of course, we aim at improving their situation, both from an operational and organizational standpoint. And -- but I'd rather, of course, not to speak about numbers at this stage. When moving on to Shipbuilding, the improvement on qualitative terms, I already mentioned during the presentation that compared to last year, we had a substantial growth in revenues coming from the naval business. As you saw in the page on Shipbuilding, 20 -- the growth in Shipbuilding comes, I would say, exclusively from the growth in revenues in naval, 20% more with respect to last year. And that is a first-level effect -- or first-level driver on the growth of the marginality. Second, notwithstanding the fact that revenues in cruise were pretty much stable with respect to last year, of course, margins are gradually improving, as we said in the past years, thanks to the fact that we are putting in production and advancing, progressing in the work of cruise vessels that were acquired at higher margins. OPERATOR: Your next question is from Giuseppe Mapelli with Equita. GIUSEPPE MAPELLI, ANALYST, EQUITA SIM S.P.A., RESEARCH DIVISION: I have some question that is still related to the situation of Vard. The first one is related to the one-off. Can you confirm me that the one-off is not being booked in the third quarter but was already reported in the second quarter, so it's something that's not explaining what went, I would say, wrong in the third quarter for Vard? And my second question on Vard, just to understand, because you stated that you are working on the operational network. And I would like to know why these expenses have not been considered as a CapEx, not operating expenses, as if you are changing the operating landscape or network that could be also the opportunity to use CapEx. And my question is still on Vard, just to understand what's going on. We can assume that is a situation similar to Promar or 2 or 3 years ago, so -- and people that are working on a new kind of ships that are, let's say, on a learning curve that maybe could improve in 2019. And let's say, my last question is on the projection for the Shipbuilding division. The margins in the 9 months that fall in the third quarter experienced a pickup. Just to understand this, I think was that expected? And just to understand if this, I would say, is a lost opportunity due to the situation that has occurred on the other end on Vard. GIUSEPPE DADO: Yes. On the one-off effect, yes, it was -- on the second quarter, we did -- we've rolled off the asset, the sale of the asset. And I spoke about the sale so far was perfected in the third quarter. That's all of '19. When it comes to CapEx versus expenses and to the fact that I spoke about organizational changes in Vard, unfortunately, what we have in mind and what we need to do does not really require a substantial amount of CapEx because changing the way we work or making organizational changes does not entail huge amounts of CapEx in Vard. Therefore, what you see in terms of impact is close to P&L. Is the situation similar to what we saw 3 years ago in Promar? No, I would say no. It's not because -- I mean, Promar is based in Brazil, and Brazil is a geography that's very difficult to do business in, especially in a sector that has faced a huge deep crisis when it comes to new orders. And also, the situation in Brazil was affected -- is affected by this -- the corruption scandal that has occurred in the country. It is a matter of making progress of climbing the learning curve for Vard. But again, now that the company is finally delisted, although we don't have the full majority of the company, in a way, we have no more excuses and no more obstacles in doing what we need to do and what we want to do there. Shipbuilding margins, was that expected? Yes, it was expected in a way that -- as I said many times, as we progress in the construction and in the delivery of vessels, we can, let me say, show the improvements of our production and the improvements of our -- we can realize on the quality -- we can realize results on the quality of our backlog. We kept saying and we are saying that our backlog as either of very good quality, both in terms of size, in terms of number of ships, in terms of visibility in the future and, of course, in terms of margin. And you see the results of the quality of our backlog flowing into our P&L as we progress in the construction and the delivery of the programs that we have in -- again, in our backlog. And that's it. OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) Your next question is from Gabriele Gambarova with Banca Akros. GABRIELE GAMBAROVA, ANALYST, BANCA AKROS S.P.A., RESEARCH DIVISION: The first one relates to the Italian defense spending caps. You were -- you are expected to get a contract for a couple of submarines. So I was interested -- I wanted to ask you if you see this contract at risk or if it's a phase. And the second question, always on naval. I saw that in Q3, the top line for naval operations went up by almost 29%. So I was wondering if -- I mean, what do you see for Q4? Because if I'm not wrong, there is a certain seasonality. So I was wondering if you see strong upside on this -- let's say, starting from this basis, around EUR 318 million or if this can be considered, let's say, a sort of run rate even for Q4. GIUSEPPE DADO: Okay. On the submarines, I'd rather not comment on what appeared in the press. Of course, the Italian Navy is a partner. We have already this very big program to do for them. There is always discussions for new projects, but we'll see what happens in the next future. On the revenues, did you say plus 29% in revenue growth? GABRIELE GAMBAROVA: In Q3, I mean, yes. GIUSEPPE DADO: Okay, in Q3 because -- yes, I would -- before I spoke about 9 months, so it was 20 -- roughly 20%, 22%. Again, the growth -- and I'm not going to go into detail for fourth quarter, but within the growth of the revenues for -- at group level, of course, the contribution of the naval business is substantial, and it is in line with what we expected when we said revenues are going to grow once we start producing and manufacturing the 2 programs that we have in the contract. I'd rather not to give any guidance for fourth quarter therefore. But yes, we are going to grow to the point and to the target that we need to achieve the overall growth between 3% and 6% at group level. But... GABRIELE GAMBAROVA: Okay. If I -- can I ask you if more generally speaking, in -- let's say, in naval, there is a certain degree, a certain level of seasonality. Because I see... GIUSEPPE DADO: No, I don't see seasonality in naval. I mean, there is no seasonality in our business. If you want to see some form of seasonality, it's usually more linked to the cruise business in which in the past years, the deliveries of cruise vessels are more concentrated in the first half of the year. And in this -- you saw this in this year because we had 4 deliveries in the first half and just 1 in the second half and will be roughly the same next year. But in the naval business, programs have -- are lengthier, so at longer time frames. And there is no concentration of deliveries throughout the year -- throughout the calendar year. And on top of that, consider that being the projects paid at milestones, there is not even seasonality or big swings in the financial flows when it comes to naval projects. No, no. The answer is no, I don't see any seasonality in the naval business. OPERATOR: Your next question is from Alessandro Pozzi with Mediobanca. ALESSANDRO POZZI, BANCA DI CREDITO FINANZIARIO S.P.A., RESEARCH DIVISION - RESEARCH ANALYST, MEDIOBANCA: I have 2 questions. You had a great quarter for order intake. I was wondering if perhaps you can give us more color on the pricing in the cruise orders. I was wondering if the stronger order intake is also coming with stronger pricing. The second question, on STX. I was wondering if you can give us an update. I believe you are waiting for antitrust clearance, but I was wondering if you can give us -- if you have an update on the time link -- on the time line for the completion on the cruise part of the deal. GIUSEPPE DADO: Yes, we definitely had a great quarter in order acquisition. And also, we had a great month of October, I would say, in order acquisition, although those letters of intent are not yet -- let me say, have not yet turned into contracts. But we like a lot the new client, TUI Cruises. We like a lot the expansion of the relationship with both MSC and Virgin. NCL confirmed the 2 options of the -- of last year's order. Those ships were worth, I recall, EUR 800 million each. But when it come -- and prices came pretty much in line with the trends that we have announced in our business plan, so we're quite happy. I'd rather not to give you specific numbers there, but we are pretty -- we're satisfied and happy on that. On STX, you asked for an update, but you gave an update. We are waiting for the antitrust clearance, and we have no news about that. Otherwise, we would have disclosed the news, I guess. OPERATOR: The next question is from Michele Baldelli with Exane. MICHELE BALDELLI, VP OF EQUITY RESEARCH OF ITALIAN MID CAP, EXANE BNP PARIBAS, RESEARCH DIVISION: I've got 3 questions. The first one is if you can update us on the ongoing tenders in the naval division that you are participating in worldwide. Second questions relate to if you can provide an update on when to expect the delivery or, anyway, the workout of the next prototypes for cruise. And the last question relates to the vessels that are still in the inventory and where, let's say, you need to find a buyer because the client has gone bust or, let's say, is not anymore present. GIUSEPPE DADO: Okay. On the naval tenders, we have been shortlisted in Brazil, we are being -- we have been shortlisted in Romania, and those are the big, big, big projects that we are tendering to. We are waiting for the final response, but there's nothing more to comment or say. We have been awarded the first phase of the Future Frigate program for the U.S. market, but we are far from a final award there, okay? On prototypes, I believe that -- well, this year, we only had one prototype in delivery -- no, 0 prototypes in delivery. And also, for next year, we don't have any prototype being delivered. The first prototype that we expect deliveries in 2020 is a ship for Virgin, okay? So pretty much in line with what we said when we presented the business plan. When it comes to vessels in inventory in Vard, we don't disclose that number. Of course, we do have some vessels that are being charted out, waiting for a final sale. We are working heavily on finding potential buyers there. MICHELE BALDELLI: Okay. Because just as an update, I found on the half year report of Vard that there was written that 2 vessels were classified in the work in progress and one in finished good. Shall I assume that one of these 3 has been get rid of and will you see -- have the other 2 to place? GIUSEPPE DADO: Yes. The one that was classified in inventory was sold is the vessel, the one that I mentioned before that had these -- the one-off effect in the P&L of Vard. MICHELE BALDELLI: And the other one -- the other 2 that are in work in progress are kind of similar vessels? GIUSEPPE DADO: They are not completed yet. They're smaller. No, it's not -- they are not the same size, not the same complexity. They are way smaller. OPERATOR: (Operator Instructions) Mr. Dado, there are no more questions registered at this time. GIUSEPPE DADO: Okay. Thank you very much. OPERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining. The conference is now over. You may disconnect your telephone. Thank you. [Thomson Financial reserves the right to make changes to documents, content, or other information on this web site without obligation to notify any person of such changes. In the conference calls upon which Event Transcripts are based, companies may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding a variety of items. Such forward-looking statements are based upon current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those stated in any forward-looking statement based on a number of important factors and risks, which are more specifically identified in the companies' most recent SEC filings. Although the companies may indicate and believe that the assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements are reasonable, any of the assumptions could prove inaccurate or incorrect and, therefore, there can be no assurance that the results contemplated in the forward-looking statements will be realized. 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User may not reproduce or redistribute the material except for user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon Thomson Financial's or ASC's copyright or other proprietary rights or interests in the material; provided, however, that members of the news media may redistribute limited portions (less than 250 words) of this material without a specific license from Thomson Financial and ASC so long as they provide conspicuous attribution to Thomson Financial and ASC as the originators and copyright holders of such material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation.]
Subject: Copyright; Acquisitions & mergers; Investments; Business plans; Cruise lines; Offshore; Armed forces
Location: United States--US
Company / organization: Name: Thomson Financial; NAICS: 511210, 518210, 519190
Publication title: Fair Disclosure Wire; Linthicum
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Nov 9, 2018
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: Linthicum
Country of publication: United States, Linthicum
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Law--Corporate Law
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2136833446
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2136833446?accountid=4840
Copyright: 2018 Thomson Financial and ASC LLC
Last updated: 2018-12-01
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 440 of 474
Jailbreaks, Submarines, a Gold-Plated AK-47: El Chapo’s Trial Will Tell an Epic Tale
Author: Feuer, Alan
Publication info: New York Times (Online) , New York: New York Times Company. Nov 11, 2018.
Abstract:
Two years have passed since the Mexican drug lord Joaquín Guzmán Loera was extradited to New York. His trial begins on Tuesday.
Full text: Even as the Mexican police jet started its descent into Long Island, Joaquín Guzmán Loera had no idea where he was going. All he knew was that hours earlier, he had been whisked from a prison in Ciudad Juárez and put aboard the plane. But as an airport glimmered on the ground outside his window, Mr. Guzmán — shackled, handcuffed and in the care of two American law enforcement agents — anxiously asked where he was being taken, according to a person briefed on the trip. One of the Americans answered him in Spanish. “Bienvenido á New York,” he said. It was nearly two years ago that Mr. Guzmán, the infamous drug lord known as El Chapo, was extradited from Mexico and flown across the border, ending one of the century’s most notorious criminal careers. As the longtime leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel, he wore many guises: the savvy smuggler who packed cocaine in cans of jalapeños , the brutal killer said to have shot up a Puerto Vallarta nightclub and the folklore hero who twice escaped from prison. But this week, after decades of eluding officials in his homeland, where he was convicted in 1993 on drug and homicide charges, the legendary kingpin will finally go on trial in a United States court. At the trial, which is scheduled to start Tuesday in Federal District Court in Brooklyn, the government will attempt to portray Mr. Guzmán as an underworld executive whose sprawling empire routinely trafficked tons of heroin, cocaine and marijuana across four continents in an ever-changing fleet of trucks, planes, fishing boats and submarines. With evidence that includes drug ledgers, satellite photos and secretly recorded audiotapes, prosecutors plan to argue that during his more than 20 years in business, Mr. Guzmán, now 59, raked in $14 billion in illicit profits, a fortune he protected with a vast payroll of corrupt officials and an army of professional assassins. The trial will be a watershed moment in America’s war on drugs and in the fraught relationship between the United States and Mexico. Leaders of cartels in Mexico have enormous resources to bribe, and terrorize, local law enforcement. (Mr. Guzmán, using bribes, previously escaped from prison in 2001 and 2015 .) His extradition after his arrest in Mexico in early 2016 required almost a year of hard-fought appeals. But the trial in New York, which prosecutors say could last up to four months, will be more than a mere legal battle: It will allow the government to tell the epic tale of Mr. Guzmán’s remarkable life story. Numerous rivals, allies and underlings, along with cartel experts and law enforcement officers, are expected to recount how Mr. Guzmán rose from a poor teenage laborer who got his start in crime by farming marijuana in rural Sinaloa to become the Al Capone of the international drug trade who Forbes magazine once placed on its annual list of billionaires . It is a testament to the scope of Mr. Guzmán’s operation that before his extradition he was already under indictment in six separate federal judicial districts, among them San Diego, Miami, Chicago and El Paso. This trial will be held in Brooklyn on the orders of Loretta Lynch, the former United States attorney general who also once served as Brooklyn’s top federal prosecutor. The Brooklyn indictment, originally filed in 2009, stems from a series of obscure contract killings that occurred in New York in the early 1990s, according to three current and former law enforcement officials. Federal agents investigating the contract killings tied them to a Colombian trafficker from the Norte Valle drug cartel: Juan Carlos Ramírez Abadía, known as Chupeta, Spanish slang for Lollipop. Despite altering his face with plastic surgery, Mr. Ramírez was arrested in Brazil in 2007 (in the company of his bodybuilder lover) and was sent to Brooklyn where his case was handled by some of the same prosecutors who will be trying Mr. Guzmán. Mr. Ramírez later became a government informant, helping the authorities prosecute Alfredo Beltrán-Leyva, one of Mr. Guzmán’s closest allies . Mr. Ramírez may also appear as a witness at the Guzmán trial. Indeed, as part of their case, prosecutors are expected to present a thumbnail history of the Latin American drug trade and will show how Mr. Guzmán worked hand in hand with the Colombian cartels throughout the 1990s. But within a decade, the government has said, the Colombians abandoned their American distribution routes as the country passed new extradition laws that put traffickers at risk for prosecution in the United States. Mr. Guzmán stepped into the vacuum, prosecutors say, creating routes in places like New York, New Jersey, Illinois and Texas, even as he expanded into India and China. With profits at “staggering levels,” court papers say, he became a hardened crime lord, willing to protect his turf with ruthless torture and bloodshed. But he also cultivated an image as a modern-day Robin Hood, a mythic bandit extolled in ballads called narcocorridos and became known for carrying a diamond-encrusted pistol and an AK-47 plated in gold. He was also known, perhaps most famously, for his jailbreaks and escapes. In 2001, assisted by the warden, Mr. Guzmán broke free of the Puente Grande prison , possibly hidden in a laundry cart, according to some accounts. More than a decade later, after his recapture, he escaped from the Altiplano prison — this time, on a motorcycle his associates left for him in a mile-long tunnel they had dug into the shower of his cell. After one of the most extensive manhunts ever undertaken by the Mexican government, Mr. Guzmán was captured again in January 2016 , following a trudge through the sewers in the Sinaloan town of Los Mochis. He had recently evaded several other raids by Mexican authorities, including a close brush after he was interviewed by the American actor Sean Penn . Given his Houdini-like talents, authorities in New York immediately placed Mr. Guzmán in 10 South , the maximum security wing of Manhattan’s federal jail. There, he spent more than 20 months incommunicado and locked in a cell for 23 hours a day. But alternate — and secret — arrangements have been made for the trial, largely because the ordeal of escorting him in a police-led motorcade across the East River to the courthouse would have required an only-in-New York traffic nightmare: the twice-daily closure of the Brooklyn Bridge . Security has been similarly tight at the courthouse. The building in Brooklyn Heights is regularly swept by bomb-sniffing dogs and patrolled by a heavily-armed task force of United States marshals, local court officers and a tactical team from the New York Police Department’s Emergency Services Unit. The jurors — five men and seven women — will remain anonymous and will be driven by guards to and from the trial each day. The prosecution has gone to extraordinary lengths to safeguard witnesses who are scheduled to testify , refusing to name them in advance of the trial and keeping them under round-the-clock protection. But public documents have provided some clues as to who might take the stand. The potential witnesses include Mr. Ramírez; Vicente Zambada-Niebla, a son of Mr. Guzmán’s longtime deputy; Pedro and Margarito Flores, brothers from Chicago who have previously testified that they served as his American distributors; and Damaso Lopez Nuñez, the warden from the Puente Grande prison who helped him escape. Attacking the credibility of these witnesses will likely be a central thrust of the defense, which will be handled by three experienced lawyers . The lead lawyer, A. Eduardo Balarezo, is a cartel specialist who once represented Mr. Beltrán-Leyva. Mr. Balarezo is joined by Jeffrey Lichtman, who is perhaps best known for keeping the Mafia scion, John Gotti, Jr., out of prison . Rounding out the team is William Purpura, who once worked for the Baltimore drug kingpin Richard Anthony Wilford. Almost from the start, the legal team has protested that Mr. Guzmán’s conditions of confinement, and the Matterhorn of evidence provided by the government through discovery have deprived him of the possibility of a fair trial. In the last few weeks alone, prosecutors have handed the defense 14,000 new pages of documents — many of them in Spanish. The documents are said to offer details on some of the 33 murders that Mr. Guzmán is accused of committing. “In all of their collective experience, defense counsel have never seen anything like this,” the lawyers recently wrote. More than once, they have called the prosecution “a trial by ambush.” But even though the lawyers have complained at length, Mr. Guzmán has scarcely said a word at pretrial hearings. His typical demeanor in the courtroom is a loose, vacant gaze and an almost medicated silence, which seem at odds with his vicious reputation. His only public statement came in March when he wrote a letter to Judge Brian M. Cogan that opened with the magisterial line: “I, Joaquín Guzmán Loera, want to explain to you the problems that I have regarding my case.” Mr. Guzmán told the judge that he had not seen his wife — the former beauty queen Emma Coronel Aispuro — in more than a year. He also noted that he missed his twin daughters, who were six at the time. In September, the daughters, Emali and Maria Joaquína, celebrated their seventh birthdays with a lavish Barbie-themed party (carnival rides, gold chandeliers, scores of pink balloons). Photos of the party became an instant social media sensation . And last week, apparently still missing his family, Mr. Guzmán had his lawyers file a motion to Judge Cogan asking, as a “humanitarian gesture,” that he be allowed to embrace his wife in court before the beginning of the trial. Judge Cogan wrote that while he was “sympathetic,” a spousal hug, however brief, would put the court’s security at risk at the very moment when Mr. Guzmán’s "motivation to escape” was "particularly strong.” In the end, the motion was denied. Credit: Alan Feuer
Subject: Cocaine; Court hearings & proceedings; Cartels; Attorneys; Extradition; Trials; Prison escapes; Judges & magistrates; Public prosecutors
Location: Chicago Illinois Mexico New York United States--US
People: Guzman, Joaquin (El Chapo)
Identifier / keyword: Drug Abuse and Traffic Drug Cartels Organized Crime Guzman Loera, Joaquin Sinaloa (Mexico) Cogan, Brian M Extradition New York City
Publication title: New York Times (Online); New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Nov 11, 2018
Section: nyregion
Publisher: New York Times Company
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Blogs, Podcasts, & Websites
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2131715898
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2131715898?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright 2018 The New York Times Company
Last updated: 2019-02-15
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 441 of 474
El Chapo's Trial Is Set to Expose a Drug Lord's Epic Criminal Career: [Metropolitan Desk]
Author: Feuer, Alan
Publication info: New York Times , Late Edition (East Coast); New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]12 Nov 2018: A.19.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Even as the Mexican police jet started its descent into Long Island, Joaquín Guzmán Loera had no idea where he was going. All he knew was that hours earlier, he had been whisked from a prison in Ciudad Juárez and put aboard the plane. But as an airport glimmered on the ground outside his window, Mr. Guzmán -- shackled, handcuffed and in the care of two American law enforcement agents -- anxiously asked where he was being was taken, according to a person briefed on the trip. One of the Americans answered him in Spanish. "Bienvenido á New York," he said. It was nearly two years ago that Mr. Guzmán, the infamous drug lord known as El Chapo, was extradited from Mexico and flown across the border, ending one of the century's most notorious criminal careers. As the longtime leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel, he wore many guises: the savvy smuggler who packed cocaine in cans of jalapeños, the brutal killer said to have shot up a Puerto Vallarta nightclub and the folklore hero who twice escaped from prison. But this week, after decades of eluding officials in his homeland, where he was convicted in 1993 on drug and homicide charges, the legendary kingpin will finally go on trial in a United States court. At the trial, which is scheduled to start Tuesday in Federal District Court in Brooklyn, the government will attempt to portray Mr. Guzmán as an underworld executive whose sprawling empire routinely trafficked tons of heroin, cocaine and marijuana across four continents in an ever-changing fleet of trucks, planes, fishing boats and submarines. With evidence that includes drug ledgers, satellite photos and secretly recorded audiotapes, prosecutors plan to argue that during his more than 20 years in business, Mr. Guzmán, now 59, raked in $14 billion in illicit profits, a fortune he protected with a vast payroll of corrupt officials and an army of professional assassins. The trial will be a watershed moment in America's war on drugs and in the fraught relationship between the United States and Mexico. Leaders of cartels in Mexico have enormous resources to bribe, and terrorize, local law enforcement. (Mr. Guzmán, using bribes, previously escaped from prison in 2001 and 2015.) His extradition after his arrest in Mexico in early 2016 required almost a year of hard-fought appeals. But the trial in New York, which prosecutors say could last up to four months, will be more than a mere legal battle: It will allow the government to tell the epic tale of Mr. Guzmán's remarkable life story. Numerous rivals, allies and underlings, along with cartel experts and law enforcement officers, are expected to recount how Mr. Guzmán rose from a poor teenage laborer who got his start in crime by farming marijuana in rural Sinaloa to become the Al Capone of the international drug trade who Forbes magazine once placed on its annual list of billionaires. It is a testament to the scope of Mr. Guzmán's operation that before his extradition he was already under indictment in six separate federal judicial districts, among them San Diego, Miami, Chicago and El Paso. This trial will be held in Brooklyn on the orders of Loretta Lynch, the former United States attorney general who also once served as Brooklyn's top federal prosecutor. The Brooklyn indictment, originally filed in 2009, stems from a series of obscure contract killings that occurred in New York in the early 1990s, according to three current and former law enforcement officials. Federal agents investigating the contract killings tied them a Colombian trafficker from the Norte Valle drug cartel: Juan Carlos Ramírez Abadía, known as Chupeta, Spanish slang for Lollipop. Despite altering his face with plastic surgery, Mr. Ramírez was arrested in Brazil in 2007 (in the company of his bodybuilder lover) and was sent to Brooklyn where his case was handled by some of the same prosecutors who will be trying Mr. Guzmán. Mr. Ramírez later became a government informant, helping the authorities prosecute Alfredo Beltrán-Leyva, one of Mr. Guzmán's closest allies. Mr. Ramírez may also appear as a witness at the Guzmán trial. Indeed, as part of their case, prosecutors are expected to present a thumbnail history of the Latin American drug trade and will show how Mr. Guzmán worked hand in hand with the Colombian cartels throughout the 1990s. But within a decade, the government has said, the Colombians abandoned their American distribution routes as the country passed new extradition laws that put traffickers at risk for prosecution in the United States. Mr. Guzmán stepped into the vacuum, prosecutors say, creating routes in places like New York, New Jersey, Illinois and Texas, even as he expanded into India and China. With profits at "staggering levels," court papers say, he became a hardened crime lord, willing to protect his turf with ruthless torture and bloodshed. But he also cultivated an image as a modern-day Robin Hood, a mythic bandit extolled in ballads called narcocorridos and became known for carrying a diamond-encrusted pistol and an AK-47 plated in gold. He was also known, perhaps most famously, for his jailbreaks and escapes. In 2001, assisted by the warden, Mr. Guzmán broke free of the Puente Grande prison, possibly hidden in a laundry cart, according to some accounts. More than a decade later, after his recapture, he escaped from the Altiplano prison -- this time, on a motorcycle his associates left for him in a mile-long tunnel they had dug into the shower of his cell. After one of the most extensive manhunts ever undertaken by the Mexican government, Mr. Guzmán was captured again in January 2016, following a trudge through the sewers in the Sinaloan town of Los Mochis. He had recently evaded several other raids by Mexican authorities, including a close brush after he was interviewed by the American actor Sean Penn. Given his Houdini-like talents, authorities in New York immediately placed Mr. Guzmán in 10 South, the maximum security wing of Manhattan's federal jail. There, he spent more than 20 months incommunicado and locked in a cell for 23 hours a day. But alternate -- and secret -- arrangements have been made for the trial, largely because the ordeal of escorting him in a police-led motorcade across the East River to the courthouse would have required an only-in-New York traffic nightmare: the twice-daily closure of the Brooklyn Bridge. Security has been similarly tight at the courthouse. The building in Brooklyn Heights is regularly swept by bomb-sniffing dogs and patrolled by a heavily-armed task force of United States marshals, local court officers and a tactical team from the New York Police Department's Emergency Services Unit. The jurors -- five men and seven women -- will remain anonymous and will be driven by guards to and from the trial each day. The prosecution has gone to extraordinary lengths to safeguard witnesses who are scheduled to testify, refusing to name them in advance of the trial and keeping them under round-the-clock protection. But public documents have provided some clues as to who might take the stand. The potential witnesses include Mr. Ramírez; Vicente Zambada-Niebla, a son of Mr. Guzmán's longtime deputy; Pedro and Margarito Flores, brothers from Chicago who have previously testified that they served as his American distributors; and Damaso Lopez Nuñez, the warden from the Puente Grande prison who helped him escape. Attacking the credibility of these witnesses will likely be a central thrust of the defense, which will be handled by three experienced lawyers. The lead lawyer, A. Eduardo Balarezo, is a cartel specialist who once represented Mr. Beltrán-Leyva. Mr. Balarezo is joined by Jeffrey Lichtman, who is perhaps best known for keeping the Mafia scion, John Gotti, Jr., out of prison. Rounding out the team is William Purpura, who once worked for the Baltimore drug kingpin Richard Anthony Wilford. Almost from the start, the legal team has protested that Mr. Guzmán's conditions of confinement, and the Matterhorn of evidence provided by the government through discovery have deprived him of the possibility of a fair trial. In the last few weeks alone, prosecutors have handed the defense 14,000 new pages of documents -- many of them in Spanish. The documents are said to offer details on some of the 33 murders that Mr. Guzmán is accused of committing. "In all of their collective experience, defense counsel have never seen anything like this," the lawyers recently wrote. More than once, they have called the prosecution "a trial by ambush." But even though the lawyers have complained at length, Mr. Guzmán has scarcely said a word at pretrial hearings. His typical demeanor in the courtroom is a loose, vacant gaze and an almost medicated silence, which seem at odds with his vicious reputation. His only public statement came in March when he wrote a letter to Judge Brian M. Cogan that opened with the magisterial line: "I, Joaquín Guzmán Loera, want to explain to you the problems that I have regarding my case." Mr. Guzmán told the judge that he had not seen his wife -- the former beauty queen Emma Coronel Aispuro -- in more than a year. He also noted that he missed his twin daughters, who were six at the time. In September, the daughters, Emali and Maria Joaquína, celebrated their seventh birthdays with a lavish Barbie-themed party (carnival rides, gold chandeliers, scores of pink balloons). Photos of the party became an instant social media sensation. And last week, apparently still missing his family, Mr. Guzmán had his lawyers file a motion to Judge Cogan asking, as a "humanitarian gesture," that he be allowed to embrace his wife in court before the beginning of the trial. Judge Cogan wrote that while he was "sympathetic," a spousal hug, however brief, would put the court's security at risk at the very moment when Mr. Guzmán's "motivation to escape" was "particularly strong." In the end, the motion was denied.AuthorAffiliationFollow Alan Feuer on Twitter: @alanfeuerPhotograph
Subject: Attorneys; Trials; Public prosecutors; Prison escapes; Cocaine; Social networks; Court hearings & proceedings; Cartels; Extradition; Judges & magistrates
Location: Mexico United States--US New York Long Island New York
People: Guzman, Joaquin (El Chapo)
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/11/nyregion/el-chapo-trial-united-states-brooklyn.html
Publication title: New York Times, Late Edition (East Coast); New York, N.Y.
Pages: A.19
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Nov 12, 2018
Section: A
Publisher: New York Times Company
Place of publication: New York, N.Y.
Country of publication: United States, New York, N.Y.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
ISSN: 03624331
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2131761810
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2131761810?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright New York Times Company Nov 12, 2018
Last updated: 2019-02-15
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 442 of 474
Brazil: Basic data
Publication info: EIU ViewsWire ; New York [New York]12 Nov 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Brazil: Basic data
Land area
8,547,400 sq km. Population
207.7m (2017 estimate) Main cities
Population at last census (2012 official estimate; m) São Paulo: 11.4 Rio de Janeiro: 6.4 Salvador: 2.7 Brasília (capital): 2.6 Fortaleza: 2.5 Belo Horizonte: 2.4 Climate
Mainly tropical and sub-tropical; mild on the southern coast and in the higher regions Weather in São Paulo (altitude 760 metres)
Hottest month, December, 23-30°C; coldest month, June, 15-22°C, average monthly minimum and maximum; driest month, August; wettest month, February Language
Portuguese Measures
Metric system Currency
Real (R); average exchange rate in 2017: R3.2:US$1 Time
The states along the coast, as well as eastern Pará, Brasília-DF, Minas Gerais, Goiás and Tocantins, are three hours behind GMT (official time in Brazil); the states of Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Rondônia, most of Amazonas, Roraima and western Pará are four hours behind GMT; the states of Acre and the south-western part of Amazonas are five hours behind GMT Public holidays
January 1st (New Year's Day); February 10th-14th (Carnival); March 30th (Good Friday); April 21st (Tiradentes); May 1st (Labour Day); September 7th (Independence Day); October 12th (Nossa Senhora Aparecida, the patron saint of Brazil; also Children's Day); November 2nd (All Saints' Day); November 15th (Proclamation of the Republic); December 25th (Christmas Day)
Subject: Economic conditions; Economic indicators; Background
Location: Brazil Latin America
Publication title: EIU ViewsWire; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Nov 12, 2018
Publisher: The Economist Intelligence Unit N.A., Incorporated
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Political Science--International Relations
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2132113482
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2132113482?accountid=4840
Copyright: (c) 2018 The Economist Intelligence Unit Ltd. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. No further reproduction is permitted.
Last updated: 2018-11-13
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 443 of 474
GearBest's 11.11 global broadcast attracts extensive exposure and engagement
Publication info: PR Newswire Europe Including UK Disclose ; New York (Nov 14, 2018).
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Dora Wu, +86-13724315717, [email protected] SHENZHEN, China, Nov. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Last Saturday, GearBest held one of the its biggest event of the year - the "Get closer, save bigger" 2018 Global broadcast carnival for Singles' Day, with 12 YouTubers coming from America, France, Portugal, Spain, Russia, Brazil and Germany and broadcasting the event from GearBest's headquarters in Shenzhen. This was the third 11.11 festival for GearBest and also the first time GearBest brought its global interaction from an offline experience to online broadcasting, marking the kickoff of GearBest to take the initiative in getting closer with consumers and influencers and share the story behind GearBest. A trip inside GearBest On 11th Nov, YouTubers from around the world gathered in GearBest's Shenzhen headquarters to join the opening ceremony and 11.11 celebration. Through face-to-face interaction with GearBest team members and their products, the influencers not only got to know the complete operation process, which transforms a simple idea to an excellent product, but also the GearBest operating philosophy and corporate culture. The YouTubers were invited to visit GearBest warehouse in Pingshan. From smart sorting to voice order and control, the whole 50,000 sqm warehouse is operated under the assistance of intelligent management and it takes less than 100 employees to fully manage everything. Additionally, the YouTubers got to visit the GearBest exhibition room for various popular electronic products, such as Xiaomi smartphones and DJI drones, and give their reviews and usage experiences. As always, GearBest prepared huge amounts of giveaways and sales online to show their appreciation to their fans and followers for always being supportive. Meanwhile, over 50,000 youtubers and influencers around the world were sharing and interacting at the same moment with their fans at home. Although they could not join GearBest on the ground, the internet connected everyone with the celebration as they gave their best wishes for GearBest in the coming years. Record-breaking moment Months of preparation for the broadcast event brought GearBest extensive exposure and engagement. By 12th Nov, the total reach of GearBest 11.11 celebration has topped 8,600,000. Meanwhile, GearBest performed unexpectedly well in the major targeted countries. In Russia, GearBest had the best performance with revenue growing 10 times bigger during the 11.11 festival. As electronic consumer countries, GearBest Japan and Germany also had sensational results with quadrupled sales on 11.11. According to Google Trend, the interest in "GearBest" during the festival became 4 times higher. The event was also supported by brands from the suppliers Dibea, Oclean, Elephone, Poptel, Beelink, FIIDO, Chuwi, Teclast, Tanix, Motospeed and more, some of whose sales were 15 times greater than average daily sales. After the excitement of 11.11, GearBest will begin preparations for the next big anniversary in 2019. According to Pauline Wang, the Senior Marketing Manager of GearBest, the interaction with influencers and YouTubers will still be the highlight. "For 2019, the campaign will focus more on the open platform transformation and brand upgrading. The investment and excitement will be even greater," said Pauline. About GearBest Founded in 2014, GearBest is a leading global cross-border e-commerce B2C website, committed to providing great value shopping experience for global consumers. Bringing global goods to Turkey and exporting Turkish products to the world, GearBest will continuously act as a communication bridge between Turkey and the world. Website: www.gearbest.com Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/784631/GEARBEST_youtubers.jpg
Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/784630/GEARBEST_youtuber_kristian.jpg
CREDIT: GearBest
Subject: Consumers; Festivals
Location: Portugal China Brazil Turkey Spain Russia France Germany Japan
Company / organization: Name: Google Inc; NAICS: 334310, 519130
Publication title: PR Newswire Europe Including UK Disclose; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Nov 14, 2018
Dateline: SHENZHEN, China, Nov. 15, 2018
Publisher: PR Newswire Association LLC
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Trade Journals
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2133037989
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2133037989?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright © 2018 PR Newswire Europe Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Last updated: 2018-11-14
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 444 of 474
Cirque Italia: A behind-the-scenes look at the Barnes Crossing carnival
Author: Carreon, Cristina
Publication info: TCA Regional News ; Chicago [Chicago]16 Nov 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Nov. 16--TUPELO -- Cirque Italia, a visiting water circus, is tucked into the north end of the parking lot of The Mall at Barnes Crossing. Behind the scenes, the climate-controlled tent, designed by Ferrari, is being warmed by heaters, the lighting is checked and the stage is cleaned before the show can begin later in the evening. Circus clowns and brothers, Alex Acero and Yvinson Acero are in plain clothes before the show. Makeup, costumes and accessories integral to the opening act of Cirque Italia's Gold Unit will be added later. Yvinson, who is from Colombia, has been with the show two years; Alex, who is from Brazil, has been a part of it for three years. "We do the comedy part for the entire show, me and my brother, and I started doing this because of him," Yvinson Acero said. "We're kind of like the ringmasters and clowns," Alex Acero said. "We do a bunch of stuff, we juggle, we do a trampoline act and use the audience sometimes." Cirque Italia was started by Manuel Rebecchi in 2012. Rebecchi, born and raised in Milan, Italy, came from a circus family. His grandmother, Moira Orfei, was the founder of the largest circus show in Europe. That's how Rebecchi came to know and love the circus. The Acero brothers are third-generation circus performers and have worked with several well known circuses throughout the United States, Canada and South America. Cirque Italia media rep Sarah Kessler said most circus performers come from multi-generational circus families. "They have fifth, sixth and seventh generations, but we'll have an exception sometimes," Kessler said. The siblings' family has a history of horseback riding -- their mother was a trick rider for circuses while the two were growing up. "There was lot of homeschooling," Alex Acero said. The two have performed in Canada, Peru, Brazil, Colombia and the United States. The biggest performance the two have been a part of was at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The two agree the biggest payback from the job is making people laugh. "You get to make families forget about problems for a few hours, which I think is the best part," Alex Acero said. "They just have fun and forget about anything else." In addition to the Aceros' comedy act, there is a bamboo pole aerial act and net aerial act, a Chinese Water Pole act, contortionists, juggling, a slack wire act, and a roller skating act performed by the Gianuzzi family. Cirque Italia is a family-focused show that features water fountains, a water curtain and a wheel of death above a 35,000-gallon water stage. Kessler said there are only three similar stages -- one in Dubai, the other in Las Vegas. Visitors can find the Cirque Italia Gold Unit show outside Sears under the large white-and-blue-striped tent. There will be three shows today and tomorrow at 1:30 p.m., 4:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. before the circus leaves Mississippi. [email protected] Twitter: @Ccarreon90 CREDIT: By Cristina Carreon
Subject: Circuses
Location: Italy United States--US New York Canada Mississippi Dubai United Arab Emirates Peru South America Brazil Las Vegas Nevada Colombia Europe
Company / organization: Name: Cirque Italia; NAICS: 711190; Name: Twitter Inc; NAICS: 519130; Name: Madison Square Garden Co; NAICS: 711310
Publication title: TCA Regional News; Chicago
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Nov 16, 2018
Publisher: Tribune Content Agency LLC
Place of publication: Chicago
Country of publication: United States, Chicago
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2134062146
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2134062146?accountid=4840
Copyright: (c)2018 the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal (Tupelo, Miss.) Visit the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal (Tupelo, Miss.) at www.djournal.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Last updated: 2018-11-17
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 445 of 474
If You're Thinking About Retiring in Spain; A writer tells what it's like to live in a country he fell in love with decades ago
Author: Land, Albion
Publication info: Wall Street Journal (Online) ; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]19 Nov 2018: n/a.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: The clip-clop of a mule's hoofs sometimes breaks the silence as I gaze out my window on the almond groves and vineyards that fill this narrow mountain valley as it descends to Spain's Costa Tropical. Tranquility is what the village of Albondón offers, in contrast to the glitz and noise of the seaside resorts only a few miles away. I fell in love with Spain back in the '80s and spent 11 years working as a journalist in Madrid, where I met my wife and where our two children were born. I always dreamed of retiring to Spain, and wanted a return to my rural roots after spending most of my life in big cities. Jamón serrano I eventually settled on Albondón in the Alpujarra region on the southern flank of Andalusia's Sierra Nevada. Summers are far from blistering and winters are fairly mild, and it's only a 25-minute drive to the beach and just under an hour to Trevélez, the high-sierra town known for its jamón serrano, Spain's famous air-cured ham. In 2005, I bought a dilapidated stone house of indeterminate age on the edge of Albondón and hired a contractor to renovate it. It had been unoccupied for decades and looked it. It had no proper plumbing, or kitchen, and had to be completely rewired. After just a year, it was habitable, with four bedrooms, two bathrooms and a kitchen. I succeeded in keeping many of the original features, such as the exposed beams, a wood-burning bread oven and tile floors. After further improvements over the years, I now have a cozy, rustic village house. Now pushing 68, I retired here on my own nearly three years ago. Albondón is one of Andalusia's famed whitewashed villages. Most of the few hundred souls here are farmers working small holdings of almonds, grapes, olives and figs. The village has three little grocery stores, two bakeries, five bars, a pharmacy and a butcher, where beef can only be had by special order. Pork is the big thing here, and a few family-raised pigs are slaughtered every winter, yielding a wealth of sausages, chorizo, black pudding and, of course, ham. If you've got a strong stomach, you can easily wangle an invitation to the daylong event. Just don't agree to help hold any of the pigs. Between the coast and the Sierra Nevada are miles of rolling countryside where wild oregano, thyme and fennel grow. Night skies, unpolluted by light, offer an awe-inspiring panorama of stars. There are many hiking trails, and opportunities for horseback riding and mountain biking. And it is incredibly cheap. Each month my simple but comfortable existence costs me about $1,600, although I own my house outright so I don't have either rent or a mortgage, and my property taxes are a paltry $16 a month. I have comprehensive private health insurance, for which I pay less than $150 a month. Fortunately, I've not had occasion to check out the two large hospitals less than an hour away, but have found private clinics most satisfactory for specialists. My car costs me about $145 a month, including insurance, though excellent train and bus services offer lots of sightseeing possibilities with super discounts for senior citizens. My landline, mobile and internet cost me $35 a month for ample basic service. And electricity, which powers most of my heating, is around $60. Houses in the village can be had for as little as $30,000, though that could mean spending as much again or more in renovation costs. Places in the country, complete with mature fruit trees and vines, might set you back four or five times as much, depending on the acreage, ease of access and whether water and electricity are already connected. Be warned: For Americans, asking prices are likely to be inflated. Don't hesitate to haggle. You'll also need a good lawyer, because the deeds on many properties are woefully out of date, and often have to be redone. To buy a home in Spain, all a foreigner needs is his or her passport, a Spanish bank account, and a foreigner's identification number, which can be obtained at a Spanish embassy or consulate. Retirees from abroad commonly apply for a non-lucrative residence visa, which allows one to live in Spain but not work. Along with your personal details, you will need to supply a certificate of good health, proof that you have no criminal record, that you have private health insurance and that you have the funds to support yourself. Albondón is in the province of Granada. While it may appear to be geographically isolated, it is actually just a day trip from several Spanish treasures: the city of Granada and its marvelous Alhambra palace; the Mediterranean jewel of Málaga, whose delightful old town is packed with tasteful shops and excellent restaurants; and the little-known but charming provincial capital of Almería, with its 10th century Moorish fortress and medieval cathedral. There are also at least three golf courses within an hour's drive and opportunities for sailing, windsurfing and other water sports. Walks in the orchards Yet I rarely leave the village and the surrounding countryside, except for supplemental shopping or a doctor's appointment in nearby towns. On a typical day, I'll take my dog for a long early-morning walk through the almond orchards, then stop in at a bar for café con leche and a slab of toast topped with freshly pulped tomato, tuna and olive oil--all for a shade over $4. I start and finish the day with prayer and spend much of the time in between catching up with all of the books I never had time to read, bingeing on Netflix and experimenting with my passion of cooking. Since leaving journalism, I've retooled as a literary editor. Tuesday evenings I'll join many of the village's expats for drinks. They are mostly English, but also German, Dutch, Irish, Welsh and Scandinavian. On Friday nights, many of us go to a place with excellent tintos de verano (a sort of poor man's sangria), superb tapas and music from the '80s. It can get a bit lonely here during the winter, with few souls venturing out at night, but that is all compensated for during the warmth of the spring and summer, when we have two rousing festivals, with fireworks and music. At the San Isidro festival, in May, we eat a local specialty of uncooked fava beans served with salt cod, and drink a strong local wine. That will be followed by fried breadcrumbs brought to life with chorizo and sweet peppers. The second festival, in late August, honors the village's patron saint, Louis IX, the French king and crusader, with a small carnival of local delicacies, flamenco dancing, big bands, theater and rides for the children and trovo for the old timers. A cultural landmark of the Alpujarra, trovo is a typically humorous poetic duel between two singers, who make up their verse on the fly accompanied by guitar, violin and plenty of wine. Mr. Land can be reached at [email protected]
. Share Your Story... If you have retired abroad and are interested in writing a column about your experience, you can write to us at [email protected]
If You're Thinking of Retiring In... * Cultural Offerings of Mexico's San Miguel de Allende
(April 2018) * A Northerner Retires to the Warmth of Brazil
(November 2017) * Love at First Sight: Retiring in Italy
(April 2017) * Starting Over in Montevideo, Uruguay
(March 2016) * Congenial and Cultural Living in Amsterdam
(January 2015) Credit: By Albion Land
Subject: Passports & visas; Costs; Diplomatic & consular services
Location: Italy Mexico Brazil Spain Nevada Uruguay Sierra Nevada Mountain Range
Company / organization: Name: Netflix Inc; NAICS: 512120, 518210, 532230
Publication title: Wall Street Journal (Online); New York, N.Y.
Pages: n/a
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Nov 19, 2018
Section: Life
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York, N.Y.
Country of publication: United States, New York, N.Y.
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2135161631
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https:/ /search.proquest.com/docview/2135161631?accountid=4840
Copyright: (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Reproduced with permission of copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
Last updated: 2018-11-20
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Major Dailies
Document 446 of 474
If You're Thinking About Retiring in Spain; A writer tells what it's like to live in a country he fell in love with decades ago
Author: Land, Albion
Publication info: Wall Street Journal (Online) ; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]20 Nov 2018: n/a.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: The clip-clop of a mule's hoofs sometimes breaks the silence as I gaze out my window on the almond groves and vineyards that fill this narrow mountain valley as it descends to Spain's Costa Tropical. Tranquility is what the village of Albondón offers, in contrast to the glitz and noise of the seaside resorts only a few miles away. I fell in love with Spain back in the '80s and spent 11 years working as a journalist in Madrid, where I met my wife and where our two children were born. I always dreamed of retiring to Spain, and wanted a return to my rural roots after spending most of my life in big cities. Jamón serrano I eventually settled on Albondón in the Alpujarra region on the southern flank of Andalusia's Sierra Nevada. Summers are far from blistering and winters are fairly mild, and it's only a 25-minute drive to the beach and just under an hour to Trevélez, the high-sierra town known for its jamón serrano, Spain's famous air-cured ham. In 2005, I bought a dilapidated stone house of indeterminate age on the edge of Albondón and hired a contractor to renovate it. It had been unoccupied for decades and looked it. It had no proper plumbing, or kitchen, and had to be completely rewired. After just a year, it was habitable, with four bedrooms, two bathrooms and a kitchen. I succeeded in keeping many of the original features, such as the exposed beams, a wood-burning bread oven and tile floors. After further improvements over the years, I now have a cozy, rustic village house. Now pushing 68, I retired here on my own nearly three years ago. Albondón is one of Andalusia's famed whitewashed villages. Most of the few hundred souls here are farmers working small holdings of almonds, grapes, olives and figs. The village has three little grocery stores, two bakeries, five bars, a pharmacy and a butcher, where beef can only be had by special order. Pork is the big thing here, and a few family-raised pigs are slaughtered every winter, yielding a wealth of sausages, chorizo, black pudding and, of course, ham. If you've got a strong stomach, you can easily wangle an invitation to the daylong event. Just don't agree to help hold any of the pigs. Between the coast and the Sierra Nevada are miles of rolling countryside where wild oregano, thyme and fennel grow. Night skies, unpolluted by light, offer an awe-inspiring panorama of stars. There are many hiking trails, and opportunities for horseback riding and mountain biking. And it is incredibly cheap. Each month my simple but comfortable existence costs me about $1,600, although I own my house outright so I don't have either rent or a mortgage, and my property taxes are a paltry $16 a month. I have comprehensive private health insurance, for which I pay less than $150 a month. Fortunately, I've not had occasion to check out the two large hospitals less than an hour away, but have found private clinics most satisfactory for specialists. My car costs me about $145 a month, including insurance, though excellent train and bus services offer lots of sightseeing possibilities with super discounts for senior citizens. My landline, mobile and internet cost me $35 a month for ample basic service. And electricity, which powers most of my heating, is around $60. Houses in the village can be had for as little as $30,000, though that could mean spending as much again or more in renovation costs. Places in the country, complete with mature fruit trees and vines, might set you back four or five times as much, depending on the acreage, ease of access and whether water and electricity are already connected. Be warned: For Americans, asking prices are likely to be inflated. Don't hesitate to haggle. You'll also need a good lawyer, because the deeds on many properties are woefully out of date, and often have to be redone. To buy a home in Spain, all a foreigner needs is his or her passport, a Spanish bank account, and a foreigner's identification number, which can be obtained at a Spanish embassy or consulate. Retirees from abroad commonly apply for a non-lucrative residence visa, which allows one to live in Spain but not work. Along with your personal details, you will need to supply a certificate of good health, proof that you have no criminal record, that you have private health insurance and that you have the funds to support yourself. Albondón is in the province of Granada. While it may appear to be geographically isolated, it is actually just a day trip from several Spanish treasures: the city of Granada and its marvelous Alhambra palace; the Mediterranean jewel of Málaga, whose delightful old town is packed with tasteful shops and excellent restaurants; and the little-known but charming provincial capital of Almería, with its 10th century Moorish fortress and medieval cathedral. There are also at least three golf courses within an hour's drive and opportunities for sailing, windsurfing and other water sports. Walks in the orchards Yet I rarely leave the village and the surrounding countryside, except for supplemental shopping or a doctor's appointment in nearby towns. On a typical day, I'll take my dog for a long early-morning walk through the almond orchards, then stop in at a bar for café con leche and a slab of toast topped with freshly pulped tomato, tuna and olive oil--all for a shade over $4. I start and finish the day with prayer and spend much of the time in between catching up with all of the books I never had time to read, bingeing on Netflix and experimenting with my passion of cooking. Since leaving journalism, I've retooled as a literary editor. Tuesday evenings I'll join many of the village's expats for drinks. They are mostly English, but also German, Dutch, Irish, Welsh and Scandinavian. On Friday nights, many of us go to a place with excellent tintos de verano (a sort of poor man's sangria), superb tapas and music from the '80s. It can get a bit lonely here during the winter, with few souls venturing out at night, but that is all compensated for during the warmth of the spring and summer, when we have two rousing festivals, with fireworks and music. At the San Isidro festival, in May, we eat a local specialty of uncooked fava beans served with salt cod, and drink a strong local wine. That will be followed by fried breadcrumbs brought to life with chorizo and sweet peppers. The second festival, in late August, honors the village's patron saint, Louis IX, the French king and crusader, with a small carnival of local delicacies, flamenco dancing, big bands, theater and rides for the children and trovo for the old timers. A cultural landmark of the Alpujarra, trovo is a typically humorous poetic duel between two singers, who make up their verse on the fly accompanied by guitar, violin and plenty of wine. Mr. Land can be reached at [email protected]
. Share Your Story... If you have retired abroad and are interested in writing a column about your experience, you can write to us at [email protected]
Journal Report * Read more at WSJ.com/Retirementreport
More in Encore * If You Want Your Grandkids to Inherit Money
* What Doctors Don't Say About Cataract Surgery
* Grading 'Grace and Frankie'
* Why You Shouldn't Retire When Your Spouse Does
If You're Thinking of Retiring In... * Cultural Offerings of Mexico's San Miguel de Allende
(April 2018) * A Northerner Retires to the Warmth of Brazil
(November 2017) * Love at First Sight: Retiring in Italy
(April 2017) * Starting Over in Montevideo, Uruguay
(March 2016) * Congenial and Cultural Living in Amsterdam
(January 2015) Credit: By Albion Land
Subject: Passports & visas; Costs; Diplomatic & consular services
Location: Italy Mexico Brazil Spain Nevada Uruguay Sierra Nevada Mountain Range
Company / organization: Name: Netflix Inc; NAICS: 512120, 518210, 532230
Publication title: Wall Street Journal (Online); New York, N.Y.
Pages: n/a
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Nov 20, 2018
Section: Life
Publisher: Dow Jones & Company Inc
Place of publication: New York, N.Y.
Country of publication: United States, New York, N.Y.
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2135654441
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https:/ /search.proquest.com/docview/2135654441?accountid=4840
Copyright: (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Reproduced with permission of copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
Last updated: 2018-11-26
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Major Dailies
Document 447 of 474
140-Tage-Kreuzfahrt fur "die 1 Prozent der 1 Prozent" besucht alle Kontinente - so sieht das unfassbar teure Luxusschiff innen aus
Author: Warren, Katie
Publication info: Business Insider Deutschland ; Berlin [Berlin]20 Nov 2018: 11.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Euch kann eine klassische siebentägige Kreuzfahrt, die in ein paar bekannten Häfen hält, nicht uberzeugen? Dann vielleicht diese absolute Luxusreise: 2020 wird die Reederei Silversea eine 140-tägige Schiffsfahrt starten, die alle sieben Kontintente anfährt - und von 62.000 bis 240.000 US-Dollar pro Person kostet. Beworben wird die Reise nun bereits mit dem Namen Legends of Cruising. Die Kreuzfahrt beginnt am 6. Januar 2020 in Fort Lauderdale in Florida, wird an insgesamt 62 Häfen 32 verschiedener Ländern halten und endet am 25. Mai 2020 in Amsterdam. Bis zu 382 Gäste werden erwartet. "Anders als alle andereren Kreuzfahrten, die jemals gemacht wurden, gibt euch Legends of Cruising die Moglichkeit, einen Fuß auf alle sieben Kontinente zu setzen", verspricht die Webseite von Silverseas. Es gibt diejenigen, die glauben, zu den ein Prozent zu gehoren und die, die es tatsächlich tun. Und dann gibt es noch diejenigen, die Teil des einen Prozents des einen Prozents sind", lässt die Webseite verlauten. Genau fur diejenigen ist die Kreuzfahrt gedacht. Laut Silversea handelt es sich bei Silver Whisper um eines "der besten Schiffe, was Weltreisen betrifft". Das Schiff verbinde die Annehmlichkeiten eines großen Resorts und "den Charme eines stylischen kleinen Luxushotels."
Quelle: Silversea
2020 wird die Silver Whisper in See stechen und dabei das erste Kreuzfahrtschiff sein, das alle sieben Kontinente besichtigt, wie Silversea berichtet.
Quelle: Silversea
Das Schiff wird an mindestens 62 Häfen in 32 Ländern halten.
Quelle: Silversea
Die Reise soll am 6. Januar 2020 in Fort Lauderdale beginnen...
Quelle: Silversea
... und sich zunächst in Richtung Suden bewegen, und damit Häfen in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Rio de Janeiro, Brasilien, Buenos Aires und Argentinien ansteuern.
Quelle: Silversea
Silver Whisper wird bis zu 382 Gäste aufnehmen und auch auf der Antarktischen Halbinsel Halt machen.
Quelle: Silversea
Passagiere haben die Moglichkeit, von Board zu gehen und sich Fuhrungen anzuschließen oder auch mit dem Floß näher an die Natur und Eisberge heranzukommen. Wie Silverseas schreibt, wird jedem Passagier ein Parka zur Verfugung gestellt.
Quelle: Silversea
Das Schiff wird dann an der Kuste Chiles in Richtung Westen entlangschippern.
Quelle: Silversea
Einige der anderen Stopps sind beispielsweise Sydney in Australien und...
Singapur...
...Mumbai...
... und zahlreiche Ziele in Europa, darunter auch Rom, Barcelona, Lissabon und Dublin.
Das Reiseende wird am 25. Mai angesetzt, 140 Tage nach dem Start in Florida.
Quelle: Silversea
Die Exkursionen an Land beinhalten eine "Karnevalerfahrung" in Rio...
Quelle: Silversea
... oder Kanufahren in den Meereshohlen Thailands...
Quelle: Silversea
Eine Suite auf dem Schiff beginnt preislich bei 62.000 US-Dollar pro Person. Die sogenannten Veranda Suites sind ab 85.000 US-Dollar pro Person buchbar.
Quelle: Silversea
Die Suiten bieten mehr Platz als normale Zimmer.
Veranda-Suiten beinhalten ein marmoriertes Badezimmer mit zwei Waschräumen und einer separaten Dusche und Badewanne.
Quelle: Silversea
Durch Glasturen konnt ihr auf die Veranda gelangen.
Quelle: Silversea
Passagiere konnen sich in der Lobby entspannen und die Aussicht genießen.
Quelle: Silversea
Im großzugigen Dinnersaal gilt freie Sitzplatzwahl, sodass jeder Gast es sich selbst aussuchen kann, wo er sitzen mochte.
Quelle: Silversea
Im Restaurant erwarten euch regionale Spezialitäten wie etwa chilenischer Wolfsbarsch, während ihr durch die chilenischen Fjorde gleitet oder auch Chicken Korma auf dem Weg nach Mumbai.
Quelle: Silversea
Sogar die Korridore des Schiffs sind aufwändig dekoriert.
Das Schiff bietet zahlreiche Plätze zum Entspannen, wie etwa das Pooldeck.
Quelle: Silversea
Im Beautysalon konnt ihr unter anderem Haarstyling, Manikure und Pedikure in Anspruch nehmen.
Quelle: Silversea
Kosmetische Gesichtsbehandlungen, Ganzkorperpackungen und Massagen konnt ihr im Spa erhalten.
Quelle: Silversea
Das Fitnessstudio stellt euch Gewichte, Laufbänder, Crosstrainer und Ergometer zur Verfugung. Ihr habt dabei ebenfalls die Moglichkeit, Pilates, Yoga, Zirkeltraining und Aerobic-Kurse zu besuchen.
Quelle: Silversea
Auf dem Schiff gibt es auch eine Luxus-Boutique.
Quelle: Silversea
Die teuersten Suiten kosten 240.000 US-Dollar pro Person - waren laut Silversea allerdings sofort ausverkauft.
Quelle: Silversea
Andere Suiten sind allerdings noch immer erhältlich.Wer sich mit dem Reservieren beeilt, kann sich auf einige Vorteile freuen. Dazu zählen beispielsweise 2.000 US-Dollar Boardguthaben, Rundfluge in der Business Class, ein Gepäckservice vom Wohnort bis zum Schiff sowie einen Wäschedienst und unbegrenztes Wlan.
Quelle: Silversea
Ein Sprecher von Silversea sagte Business Insider, dass die Tickets vermutlich komplett ausverkauft werden wurden. Erwartungsgemäß sollen 30 bis 40 Prozent der Gäste die komplette Weltreise machen.
Quelle: Silversea
Das gunstigste Ticket kostet 240.000 US-Dollar fur eine 140-tägige Reise. Das sind 1.714 US-Dollar pro Tag - viel mehr, als eine Reise in dem Zeitraum sonst kosten wurde. Kreuzfahrten in der Karibik kosten normalerweise etwa 499 US-Dollar pro Person, also etwa 71 US-Dollar pro Tag.
Quelle: Carnival
Wenn ihr jedoch die gunstigste Suite des Schiffs bucht, die 62.000 US-Dollar fur die Rundfahrt durch die sieben Kontinente kostet, dann kann euch das trotzdem gunstiger kommen, als andere Kreuzfahrten zu ähnlichen Konditionen zu buchen - und bei denen ihr vor allem nur funf Kontintente besichtigen konnt.
Weblink: https://www.businessinsider.de/so-sieht-das-schiff-aus-auf-dem-eine-suite-240000-dollar-pro-nacht-kostet-11-2018
Location: Puerto Rico Florida United States--US Rio de Janeiro Brazil Mumbai India
Company / organization: Name: Business Insider; NAICS: 519130
Publication title: Business Insider Deutschland; Berlin
First page: 11
Number of pages: 1
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Nov 20, 2018
Publisher: Axel Springer Syndication GmbH
Place of publication: Berlin
Country of publication: Berlin
Publication subject: Business And Economics, General Interest Periodicals--Germany
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: German
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2136214442
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2136214442?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright finanzen.net GmbH. All Rights Reserved.
Last updated: 2018-11-21
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 448 of 474
The future of mobility, not one solution but many
Publication info: Business Mirror ; Makati City [Makati City]23 Nov 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: IN 1807, when he patented the first hydrogen-powered engine, François Isaac de Rivaz could have been forgiven for thinking he had found the future of transport. Yet here we are, more than 200 years later, still wrestling with the same question. What will drive us tomorrow? Some still say hydrogen. Some say battery electric power. Some say natural gas. I say, we must explore all the options. I believe that the future of transport will be shaped not by one solution, but many. De Rivaz's hydrogen car may not have been a success, but we can learn from his inventiveness, his vision, his will to do things differently. Because when it comes to the future of transport, we need every solution we can get-whether it is the rise of the electric jeepneys, tricycles or scooters on Manila's roads or plans for a national network of electric vehicle charge points. In Photo: John Abbot We face a pressing challenge. Transport accounts for more than a quarter of the world's energy use and one-fifth of global energy-related CO2 emissions. There are a billion cars on the roads today and this is expected to double by 2040. We must all consider this region's energy future and how society will meet demand, while reducing emissions to tackle climate change and air pollution. Last month the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) outlined the need for an ever more rapid transition to a lower-carbon world. This begins with CO2 emissions falling sharply from 2020. That is barely a year away. We need multiple solutions because no one solution can meet all needs, in all places, at all times. That is certainly a key conclusion of Shell's latest scenario work, which was cited by the IPCC. Our Sky scenario sets out a challenging but plausible route the world could follow to meet the aims of the Paris agreement and restrict the rise in global average temperature in this century to well under 2°C. Given its significant impact, the transport sector must rise to this challenge. And to find solutions, we have to continue to work together. Indeed, Shell is in many ways heading on the same path as the Philippines and the wider region. Take battery electric cars. Indonesia, for example, has introduced incentives for electric cars on imports and battery manufacturing. China accounts for about half of global production and has the highest number of electric cars on the road. And in the Philippines, Shell is in talks to install the first network of fast charging points in the country in 100 of its forecourts. In Europe, Shell acquired NewMotion, one of Europe's largest providers of charge points, operating more than 40,000 private points for homes and businesses. When it comes to hydrogen as a fuel, it has potential for heavy freight, including rail. De Rivaz would certainly approve. In Japan their vision of a 'hydrogen society' begins in 2020, with plans for fleets of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles serving the Olympic Games in Tokyo. Shell too, is increasing its investment in hydrogen. In Germany, for example, our plans include a joint venture to establish a nationwide network of 100 filling stations by 2019. Natural gas also has potential in trucking and shipping. China, for example, has the world's largest fleet of vehicles running on liquefied natural gas. Last year the number of LNG-powered trucks it produced rose to 96,000. Shell now has one LNG filling station in China, through a joint venture, and nine in Europe. We have also signed deals in shipping with Carnival to supply the world's first LNG-powered cruise ships and with Sovcomflot, to supply the first LNG-powered oil tankers. And both Shell and the region recognize the potential of advanced biofuels, which could help the aviation sector in the future. In Indonesia the B20 regulation is a positive step toward the country's emission-reduction targets. At Shell, we are already one of the world's biggest producers of biofuels, through our joint venture in Brazil, Raízen. It produces about 2 billion liters a year of ethanol from sugarcane, and continues to explore advanced biofuels. Digitalization, too, is creating potential for many other solutions. We see a future in which autonomous vehicles are connected and working as fleets. It is a future of innovative business models from ride sharing to mobility-on-demand. In Manila Shell has developed Connected Freight, which uses sophisticated route-optimisation technology to make inner-city deliveries more efficient. There are plans to expand to other cities in the Philippines, to Singapore and across Southeast Asia. Meanwhile, Shell's work continues to improve today's fuels and lubricants. Together with car makers-and policy-makers-we can continue to improve the efficiency of engines. And in shipping, Singapore is one of three ports where Shell is testing our new very low sulphur fuel oil. There is much happening, but if we want to meet the challenge posed by the future of transport, we must work together on a multitude of solutions. If we focus on one only, we risk the fate of de Rivaz's hydrogen engine. And we must not let brave ideas stall, just when we need them most.
Subject: Biodiesel fuels; Emissions; Electric vehicles; Hydrogen; LNG; Natural gas
Location: Southeast Asia Philippines Germany Singapore China Brazil Indonesia Japan Europe
Company / organization: Name: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; NAICS: 541712, 928120
Publication title: Business Mirror; Makati City
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Nov 23, 2018
Publisher: AsiaNet Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd.
Place of publication: Makati City
Country of publication: Pakistan, Makati City
Publication subject: Business And Economics
ISSN: 19081189
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2137099981
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2137099981?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright 2018 Business Mirror
Last updated: 2018-11-24
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 449 of 474
Among At-Risk Populations Worldwide, DKT International's Social Marketing Programs Help Prevent the Spread of HIV/AIDS Through Education and Contraceptives: World AIDS Day 2018 highlights the importance of DKT's partnerships, educational campaigns, and contraceptive products that promote safe sex
Publication info: PR Newswire ; New York [New York]30 Nov 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Jaimie Weiner, 646-964-4446, [email protected] WASHINGTON, Nov. 30, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- With the World AIDS Day 2018 Red Ribbon Campaign in full swing, DKT International, a global non-profit dedicated to family planning and HIV/AIDS prevention, continues its efforts to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS through its country and regional initiatives to increase condom use. Although the world has made progress in curbing the advance of HIV/AIDS and its treatment, in 2017, 36.9 million people worldwide were living with HIV, and 1.8 million people became newly infected. This represents a decline in annual new infections of 18% since 2001; nevertheless, the world continues to grapple with the HIV epidemic. DKT continues to provide high quality, affordable condoms and innovative marketing and education in 24 countries around the world, greatly reducing the risk of HIV/AIDS. "DKT's educational efforts and aggressive social marketing campaigns promote condom use every single day in the most underserved and remote regions of the globe from Africa to Latin America and Asia, comprising almost 63% of the world's population," says Chris Purdy, CEO and President of DKT International. "By making condoms available and affordable, in 2017 alone, we were able to provide 666 million condoms, contributing to 36 million couple years of protection (CYPs) worldwide. Because complacency is the enemy of progress, we hope people will participate in the many World AIDS Day events and contribute to the organizations working so hard to make HIV/AIDS a thing of the past." DKT's multi-faceted educational and condom promotions are based on the unique needs and culture of each region. Here are a few examples: Since 1989, DKT International's core mission has been to provide safe and affordable options for family planning and HIV prevention through social marketing. DKT is one of the largest private providers of contraceptives and family planning services in the developing world. SOURCE DKT International CREDIT: DKT International
In Brazil, DKT sold 122,516,120 condoms, conducting "blitz" campaigns in which it distributes free samples of its Prudence brand condoms at festivals, nightclubs, bars and special events, such as Carnival, the World Cup, and the "Terça Trans" festival in São Paulo, one of the largest celebrations for the trans community in Brazil.
With multiple programs operating throughout India, more than 522 million condoms were sold in 2017. DKT India operates nationwide, including in many rural villages that have no pharmacies. Villagers purchase necessities from the nearest market towns, where DKT conducts special promotional activities and provides three different condom brands to more than 80,000 retailers.
Focusing on HIV/AIDS prevention as well as family planning, DKT Philippines has launched a variety of educational campaigns, including one promoting condom use in brothels and hotels. DKT's TRUST brand of condoms have become the leading condom in the market, with more than 100 million sold.
About half of Kenya's 50 million people are age 25 and under, an important population segment needing both information and products for sexual and reproductive health. The country has a very high unmet need for modern contraception among youth and at-risk populations. Kiss and Fiesta condom sales totaled more than one million. TV ads for Kiss featured Joe Chuma, a popular and outspoken celebrity and candidate for the country's presidency.
View original content to download multimedia: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/among-at-risk-populations-worldwide-dkt-internationals-social-marketing-programs-help-prevent-the-spread-of-hivaids-through-education-and-contraceptives-300758415.html
Subject: Human immunodeficiency virus--HIV; Family planning; Social marketing; Condoms; Acquired immune deficiency syndrome--AIDS; Disease prevention; Birth control; Education
Location: Kenya India Philippines Latin America South America Africa Brazil Asia
Company / organization: Name: DKT International; NAICS: 813219; Name: DKT Brazil; NAICS: 326299
Publication title: PR Newswire; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Nov 30, 2018
Dateline: WASHINGTON, Nov. 30, 2018
Publisher: PR Newswire Association LLC
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2139692759
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2139692759?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright PR Newswire Association LLC Nov 30, 2018
Last updated: 2018-11-30
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 450 of 474
Brazil: Basic data
Publication info: EIU ViewsWire ; New York [New York]01 Dec 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Brazil: Basic data
Land area
8,547,400 sq km. Population
207.7m (2017 estimate) Main cities
Population at last census (2012 official estimate; m) São Paulo: 11.4 Rio de Janeiro: 6.4 Salvador: 2.7 Brasília (capital): 2.6 Fortaleza: 2.5 Belo Horizonte: 2.4 Climate
Mainly tropical and sub-tropical; mild on the southern coast and in the higher regions Weather in São Paulo (altitude 760 metres)
Hottest month, December, 23-30°C; coldest month, June, 15-22°C, average monthly minimum and maximum; driest month, August; wettest month, February Language
Portuguese Measures
Metric system Currency
Real (R); average exchange rate in 2017: R3.2:US$1 Time
The states along the coast, as well as eastern Pará, Brasília-DF, Minas Gerais, Goiás and Tocantins, are three hours behind GMT (official time in Brazil); the states of Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Rondônia, most of Amazonas, Roraima and western Pará are four hours behind GMT; the states of Acre and the south-western part of Amazonas are five hours behind GMT Public holidays
January 1st (New Year's Day); February 10th-14th (Carnival); March 30th (Good Friday); April 21st (Tiradentes); May 1st (Labour Day); September 7th (Independence Day); October 12th (Nossa Senhora Aparecida, the patron saint of Brazil; also Children's Day); November 2nd (All Saints' Day); November 15th (Proclamation of the Republic); December 25th (Christmas Day)
Subject: Economic conditions; Economic indicators; Background
Location: Brazil Latin America
Publication title: EIU ViewsWire; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Dec 1, 2018
Publisher: The Economist Intelligence Unit N.A., Incorporated
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Political Science--International Relations
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2139812748
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2139812748?accountid=4840
Copyright: (c) 2018 The Economist Intelligence Unit Ltd. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. No further reproduction is permitted.
Last updated: 2018-12-01
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 451 of 474
Why the beyond beautiful Brazil is a must-visit place [Lifestyle]
Publication info: The Economic Times ; New Delhi [New Delhi]02 Dec 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: By: Annabel Dsouza When your Instagram feed looks like a poorly curated travel magazine, with acquaintances hopscotching all over Europe, and a depreciating rupee makes your own tour plans seem like a financial suicide mission, the motivation to travel doesn't run quite high. And yet Brazil ought to feature in every traveller's must-visit list. While it is beyond beautiful, the current exchange rate of about `18 to the Brazilian real makes it positively irresistible. Don't let the exorbitant flight fares scare you. If one has to pay upwards of Rs 40,000 for a return ticket to a destination as common as Madrid, it is only fair to pay twice that to cross one continent and two oceans to touch the pearlescent shores of Brazil. If you can gather enough travel miles and pay a little bit more, Emirates and Qatar Airways are two of the most competitively priced carriers that will take you from Mumbai or New Delhi to Sao Paulo with one stop in under 24 hours. If there's anything more endearing than the famous joie de vivre of the Brazilians, from Uber drivers to museum managers, it has to be the pristine beauty of the treelined avenues and clear blue skies of Sao Paulo. Take, for instance, the massive Ibirapuera Park, designed by that Latin American god of modern architecture Oscar Niemeyer and located in the dead centre of the bustling metropolis. For a fee of six reals, the Museo Afro Brasil in the Ibirapuera gives a crash course in the ethnic diversity of the Americas. Apart from indigenous people, Africans and European migrants, Brazil is home to the world's largest Japanese population outside the Land of the Rising Sun. Sao Paulo, no wonder, bustles with sushi bars as well as party clubs. It is also home to some of the finest street graffiti by Eduardo Kobra, a contemporary muralist. His kaleidoscopic graffiti of Brazil's diverse ethnicities as well as famous personalities such as Formula One hero Ayrton Senna is both therapy and inspiration. Soul Food There's nothing more exciting for a coffee lover than to be in the holy land of the brew. Coffee, in all its variations, is for the day while nights are devoted to cachaca, an alcoholic cashew brew, which is so strong and delicious that it may well be the mother of the humbler Goan feni. Have it neat or in the more charismatic caipirinha cocktail, and you are ready for the carnaval of life. Having visited the country in the thick of the carnival season, we were party to many public carnavals, where streets are sealed off at both ends, techno music blares and copious amounts of beer and food are on sale. The delicious national dish feijoada is a rich, slow-stewed gravy of black beans and meat, while the quintessentially Brazilian barbecue or churrasco features not only various types of meats but also pineapple and corn on the cob. The juicy tropical fruits, the glittering spread of seafood and the exquisite varieties of cheese and chocolates all contribute to Brazil's culinary heritage. Blame it on Rio The city of Rio de Janeiro is to blame if you find yourself swaying to the rhythms of samba music as soon as you touch down on its frighteningly short runway. A global party destination since the late 1980s, Rio is far more expensive than Sao Paulo but much more affordable than other party cities like Las Vegas or Ibiza. Set aside daytime for the city's natural attractions while you party all night, and you will have a holiday to remember. Goodbye sleep, hello Rio. During carnival season - usually February - Brazil is one big street party. And when in Rio you can't miss the mother of all carnavals at the Sambodromo, a specialised parade stadium for thousands of revellers who come to cheer the dancers who lead the floats. For a slightly steep fee of 500 reals, you can book a premium seat at the Carnaval do Rio de Janeiro, which is not only the largest carnival in the world but is also on Unesco's Intangible Cultural Heritage List. In typical Brazilian style, the event organisers will request you to get food and drinks to be shared with the new friends you will make at the Sambodromo but to kindly leave drugs and weapons at home. You can revel in Rio without breaking the bank. Scale the Corcovado Mountain in the Tijuca National Park in a rack rail coach for a view of the breath-taking Christ the Redeemer. Ride the cable car to the Sugarloaf Mountain where you can quietly observe marmoset monkeys swinging on the branches of tropical trees. Skip the overpriced hotels along the beautiful yet crowded coastline of Copacabana beach, and explore hostels and homestays. Research online and plan well in advance so as not to compromise on safety, especially in the peak carnival season. From the fantastic view of our homestay balcony in the romantic but slightly secluded, elevated neighbourhood of Santa Teresa, we could gaze at the solitary Sugarloaf Mountain against multiple shades of blue where the sky meets the ocean. To be fair, unlike the organised tourism industry of Europe, Brazilian attractions are easy on the pocket but lack the simple professionalism of, say, guided audio tours. Hence, Indian football enthusiasts may find it difficult to cut through the thick Portuguese accents of friendly tour guides in Rio's Maracana Stadium, terra santa of Brazilian football. Clicking selfies with the feet moulds of Brazilian legends Pele, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and others is the closest one can get to these gods of the game. Obtaining a tourist visa can be painful for some, but all things considered, the land of the Amazon and armadillos offers a delicate balance of nature, history and contemporary culture. It is the perfect answer to the wanderlust of value-conscious, adventure-seeking Indian. Obrigada (thank you) Brazil!
Subject: Travel; National parks; Cultural heritage
Location: Ibiza Qatar Americas Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil Las Vegas Nevada Sugarloaf Mountain Mumbai India Europe
People: Ronaldinho
Company / organization: Name: Tijuca National Park; NAICS: 712190; Name: Qatar Airways; NAICS: 481111
Publication title: The Economic Times; New Delhi
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Dec 2, 2018
Publisher: Bennett, Coleman & Company Limited
Place of publication: New Delhi
Country of publication: India, New Delhi
Publication subject: Business And Economics, General Interest Periodicals--India
ISSN: 09718680
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2140228924
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2140228924?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Bennett, Coleman & Company Limited Dec 2, 2018
Last updated: 2018-12-01
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 452 of 474
Book by Illinois Music Professor Looks at How Brazilian Forro Music, Environment Are Connected
Publication info: Targeted News Service ; Washington, D.C. [Washington, D.C]03 Dec 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: The University of Illinois System-Urbana-Champaign issued the following news release: Forro music, originating in northeastern Brazil, is both a well-known dance music evoking images of the rural countryside and a protest music intimately tied to the landscape and the hardship caused by drought. University of Illinois music professor Michael Silvers - an ethnomusicologist who specializes in the music of Brazil - looks at the connections between forro music and nature and how both are affected by power and politics in his new book "The Voices of Drought: The Politics of Music and Environment in Northeastern Brazil," published by the University of Illinois Press. Silvers is a scholar in the new multidisciplinary field of ecomusicology, exploring the relationships between music, culture and nature. Much of what is written about northeastern Brazil concerns drought and its social and economic implications for the region, Silvers said, and forro music is no different. "Drought is all over the lyrics of this music. Most of the best-known songs talk about the landscape and the experience of drought exile and of being a drought refugee," he said. His book is a series of case studies, each exploring how forro music answers questions about music's relationship to the environment. He argues that answers to these questions can be located in matters of power, inequality and social justice. "We have to pay attention to the human actors," Silvers said. "I think the primary thing that connects music to nature is the people who make it and listen to it and make sense of it and experience it and dance to it." Early forro music from the 1940s-1960s has been characterized as kitschy dance music, but Silvers argues that much of it was protest music. Musicians sang about the drought and many of the songs were directed at the government, asking for help in the form of loans, drought-proof employment and public works. "It was not just asking for rain and lamenting the migration to the city. There also are some really specific and direct appeals for help," Silvers said. "Some of these songs are very well-known but not thought of as protest music," he said. "The northeasterners were a maligned and marginalized population in the Brazilian imagination, and one of the goals of the music was to humanize these people and paint a portrait of their experience." Silvers looks at the relationship between natural resources and the making of music and musical instruments, and the effect of environmental decline. He writes about carnauba wax, produced only in northeastern Brazil as a drought adaptation of the carnauba palm tree. The wax was used for wax cylinder phonographs and later for wax masters for early 78 rpm records. "It's a story about Brazil's economy, drought adaptation and trade with the U.S. directly related to the creation of popular music and capturing and mass producing sound," he said. The book also chronicles the Brazilian government's cancelation of state-funded Carnival celebrations from 2014-2016 because of the country's economic crisis and ongoing drought. Carnival celebrations are seen by some as an inherent element of Brazilian citizenship, Silvers said, and Brazilians questioned why the government wasn't fulfilling its responsibility to support the parties. "Here's an example where the cost of drought has directly affected musical production," he said. The book recounts how forro music is a way of conveying environmental knowledge. The song lyrics often relate to natural phenomena that predict the weather or the harvest. Silvers said rain prophets share predictions for the rainy season each year, and they often refer to forro music and its lyrics. "Not only does this music convey this ecological knowledge, but because the music is so closely related to regional identity, it signifies ecological knowledge itself as a source of local identity and pride," he said. During the Workers' Party era (2003-2016), economic change and social reforms in the country created a new middle class and an emphasis on cultural programs to promote traditional music practices, but they've also created a context in which a pop culture version of forro has thrived. "The paradox is, the same government supporting traditional culture is also producing a class of people interested in mass-produced culture. We need to understand that audiences and music makers aren't excluded from economic changes and changing values related to neoliberalism," Silvers said. "Isn't it the prerogative of the new middle class to listen to crappy pop music?" Even with the popularity of a more mainstream version of forro, the traditional form of the music is reaching broader audiences. "Today, (traditional) forro is seen as folklore, a more mythical representation of the northeast," he said. MSTRUCK-6536175 MSTRUCK
Subject: Middle class; Drought; Books; Politics; Dance music
Location: Brazil United States--US Illinois
Company / organization: Name: University of Illinois Press; NAICS: 511130; Name: University of Illinois; NAICS: 611310
Publication title: Targeted News Service; Washington, D.C.
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Dec 3, 2018
Dateline: CHAMPAIGN, Illinois
Publisher: Targeted News Service
Place of publication: Washington, D.C.
Country of publication: United States, Washington, D.C.
Publication subject: Public Administration
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2148903130
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2148903130?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright © Targeted News Service. All Rights Reserved.
Last updated: 2018-12-04
Database: US Southeast Newsstream
Document 453 of 474
Private tour captures the color and culture of Rio during Carnival
Author: McClure, Rosemary
Publication info: Los Angeles Times (Online) , Los Angeles: Tribune Interactive, LLC. Dec 3, 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Celebrate sun, skin and samba at Rio de Janeiro's annual Carnival on a nine-day Scott Dunn tour that includes viewing the massive holiday parade at the Sambadrome. The private tour, which can be customized, also provides opportunities to get to know the Brazilian city. Among the highlights: a helicopter tour for a bird's-eye view of the city's Christ the Redeemer statue and a visit to the Lapa district to hear live samba music. Carnival, held prior to Lent each year, draws millions of visitors to see elaborate costumes and parades. The tour includes a guided visit and VIP tickets to the main Sambadrome parade. Dates: March 1-9 Price: From $3,800 per person, double occupancy. Includes accommodations, private transfers, breakfast, tickets to some Carnival events and other activities with a private guide. International airfare, tips and gratuities not included. Info: Scott Dunn, (858) 523-9000 Credit: Rosemary McClure
Location: Rio de Janeiro Brazil
Publication title: Los Angeles Times (Online); Los Angeles
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Dec 3, 2018
Section: Travel
Publisher: Tribune Interactive, LLC
Place of publication: Los Angeles
Country of publication: United States, Los Angeles
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Blogs, Podcasts, & Websites
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2149073477
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2149073477?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Tribune Interactive, LLC Dec 3, 2018
Last updated: 2018-12-04
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 454 of 474
Vietnam: The city of bravery, beauty and myths
Author: Moussa, Sahar
Publication info: TCA Regional News ; Chicago [Chicago]05 Dec 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Dec. 05--Visiting Vietnam is a very unique experience for anyone who wants to be educated about culture, history and myths, and enjoy the beauty of nature at the same time. Vietnam is a country that is known for its resistance and strength of its people who went through a lot of loss, pain and courage. The minute you land in Hanoi, you will be dazzled by the rice fields and spacious landscapes. This country stood fiercely and won the war against the US because they were armed with myths and legends of their ancestors that talk about resistance, hope and magic. I had the privilege to visit north and south Vietnam along with a Kuwaiti media delegation, invited by Emirates airlines. It was an exceptional journey in two unique entities in the same country. In the north, you can sense that people are still living in the past, cherishing their ancestors and preserving the heritage. In the south, due to its growing economy and expensive shopping centers, people -- especially the youth -- tend to look to a more futuristic future. Till this day, you can see the French influence, especially in the old buildings in Hanoi in the north of Vietnam that stand as witness of the French colonization in 1887. In the south, you can sense the American influence in terms of military, economy and expanding cities. Vietnam is a very rich country when it comes to agriculture. It is one of the world's richest agricultural regions and is the second largest (after Thailand) exporter worldwide and the world's seventh largest consumer of rice. With a history of planting tea for over 2,000 years, Vietnam is one of the largest and oldest tea-producing countries in the world. As for coffee, its production has been a major source of income since the early 20th century. It is the second largest coffee producer in the world after Brazil, with robusta coffee accounting for 97 percent of Vietnam's total output. I have been travelling for business trips with Emirates for a long time now, and my motto for this airline is and will always be: "If you want to be spoiled, travel with Emirates airlines". Our visit from Kuwait to Hanoi wouldn't have been as perfect and comfortable if it wasn't for this exceptional airline. This is not a surprise, because according to the 2019 list of the world's best airlines, Emirates won the in-flight entertainment award for the second time. The flight from Dubai to Hanoi is approximately six hours. When visiting Vietnam, you will have an incredible and unforgettable experience with its endless attractions and touristic sites, cultural landmarks and inexplicable yet delicious cuisine. Here are some places that I strongly recommend if you are planning to visit Vietnam. North Vietnam: Hanoi The Old Quarter Hanoi, located on the banks of the Red River and the capital of Vietnam, is considered to be one of the most ancient capitals in the world. If you are the kind of person who enjoys street-cheap shopping such as shoes, souvenirs and handicrafts, the Old Quarter is the place to be. It is preferable to reach there on weekends (Friday, Saturday and Sunday). Hanoi weekend night markets usually start from around 7:00 am onwards and stretch from Hang Dao Street to the north to the edge of Dong Xuan Market. Hanoi weekend night markets are full of life, music, roadside stalls, local food vendors, street artists and children playing games and enjoying their childhood away from the Internet and technology. It is very vibrant, colorful and illuminated with decorative lights, which make it easier for tourists to take pictures of the sites within the area. The Old Quarter's markets are like a never ending carnival during the weekends. Forty percent of Vietnamese people work in the government sector, while 60 percent have their own businesses. They are very good in selling things and bargaining. So most probably during your shopping there, the most enjoyable new skill that you will gain is bargaining technique -- it is a way of life over there. In the evening, if you are tired from all the shopping, bargaining and the excitement, you can take a cyclo ride tour -- famous three-wheeled carriers that take you around the Old Quarter to explore the exciting local daily life of Hanoians and get you back to your hotel. Hoan Kiem Lake Hoan Kiem Lake or Sword Lake as the legend says is considered to be the center of Hanoi, not only physically but also symbolically. The lake is full of tortoises, and because the tortoise is considered a sacred animal in Vietnam's culture (along with the dragon, phoenix and unicorn), Hoan Kiem Lake has become a holy place that nurtures tortoises. The lake also surrounds Ngoc Son Temple, a pagoda sitting in the center of a small island. The lake and temple are probably the most famous places in Hanoi to rest and enjoy the view, especially since they offer plenty of trees and shaded spots and are a great place to sit back and watch the locals. 'Standing newspaper' After a leisurely walk in the early morning around the lake, don't forget to stop at the corners to see locals reading the "Standing Newspaper". The aim of the standing newspaper is to serve the people and not for private benefit. Every morning at 6:00 am before going to work, people simply stand and read the paper on the stands, or they can listen to the news through speakers in the streets while they are drinking their famous coffee or tea. The Temple of Literature With the special beauty and the harmony of architectural works with historical value, the Temple of Literature is one of the most favorite attractions in Hanoi. Founded in 1076, Quoc Tu Giam was established within a temple to educate Vietnam's royalty, mandarins and members of the elite. The university functioned for an incredible 700 years, and its gardens and well-preserved architecture offer a fascinating glimpse into Vietnam's past. You can get there in around 10 minutes by taxi from Hoan Kiem Lake and one hour if walking. It is Vietnam's oldest imperial academy under the feudal courts and the first national university. The temple was built in dedication to Confucian philosophy and still holds a spiritual significance for each generation of students and educators in Vietnam at present. The temple has been chosen as Hanoi's symbol of wisdom, talent and study. One cannot explore the depth of Hanoi if skipping a visit to the very symbol of this old city. Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Ba Dinh Square is also considered an important touristic attraction in Hanoi. It is the final resting place of Ho Chi Minh, the most iconic and popular leader of Vietnam, known to his people as 'Uncle Ho'. His body is preserved in a glass case at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in central Hanoi. Ba Dinh Square in front of the mausoleum is noteworthy as the site where President Ho declared the independence of Vietnam on September 2, 1945. The square is composed of 240 patches of grass divided by intersecting concrete pathways -- make sure not to walk on the grass. The spacious and clean square is an excellent place to go jogging, do yoga or simply enjoy walking in a peaceful environment. The puppet show You can know and feel the essence of a country through its arts and culture. You cannot visit Vietnam without watching the famous puppet show or the traditional water puppet. In fact, the Vietnamese call themselves the water civilization because of the water puppet shows that they have created. It is a famous Vietnamese art with over 800 years of history. The tradition of water puppet theatre stems from a time when rice paddy fields were flooded and villagers would entertain people by standing in waist-deep water with the puppets performing over the water. Using large rods to support the puppets, it appears as if they are moving across the water with the puppeteers hidden behind a screen. Performances are accompanied by a Vietnamese orchestra playing traditional music using drums, wooden bells, horns, bamboo flutes and cymbals. There are also authentic Vietnamese operatic songs telling the story being acted out by the puppets. Seeing puppets come to life performing traditional folklore, legends and historical tales is an act that gives you a glimpse of ancient history. Halong Bay No doubts Vietnam is an interesting country filled with myths and legends, which makes it a unique place. If you want to travel back in time where dragons and brave men fought using magic and fire, then a cruise trip to Halong Bay is the answer. In ancient Vietnamese, Halong literally means "descending dragon" and originates from a legend of this ancient land. The legend says that during the old time when the country was newly formed, Vietnamese had to fight against fierce invaders coming from the north through the sea. Feeling sorry for the country, the Jade Emperor sent Mother Dragon and her children to earth to help ancient Vietnamese people defend the country. While the mighty enemies were attacking the mainland, the Mother Dragon and her children suddenly appeared and incinerated the enemies with their divine fire and giant emeralds. The emeralds from the dragon's mouth were scattered around the battlefield on the sea and formed an invincible defensive wall that left the enemy battleship fleet sinking. Thanks to the dragons, the northern invaders were finally swept away and peace finally came back the Southeast Asian country once again. After thousands of years, the wall of emerald turned into islands and islets of different sizes and shapes. After the battle, the Mother Dragon and her children didn't go back to the heavens, but stayed in the mortal world and turned into human form and help people in planting, cropping, raising cattle, reclaiming and expanding the country. To remember the help of Mother Dragon and her children, the people named the bay where the Mother Dragon descended "Ha Long or Halong", and the bay where her children descended "Bai Tu Long", which means "Thanks to the Dragon's children". This legend is also a part of the general belief that Vietnamese people have dragon origins. (Taken from www.halongbay.info/news/the-legend-of-halong-bay.html) You can discover one of Vietnam's most spectacular northern jewels with a private Halong Bay day cruise. If you are staying in the center of Hanoi, you can depart from the buzzing streets of Hanoi in the early morning, leaving the city buildings behind in exchange for the beauty of the Red River Delta. On your way, you will pass by smaller towns and farmlands, enjoying views of the typical Vietnamese countryside. After reaching, you can board a private junk-style boat, cast off and cruise across the emerald green waters of UNESCO-listed Halong Bay. You can enjoy sitting in the dining area or in the open-air top deck to admire the scenery and the refreshing sea breeze. You will be navigating around the bay's 1,500 limestone islands, providing an opportunity to see these remarkable, geologic wonders from up-close and afar. There are several caves you can discover there, but the one I saw was Thien Cung Cave (Heaven Cave), which is located in the north of Dau Go Cave. The cave has numerous stalactites and stalagmites with special and strange shapes such as dragon, phoenix and four pillars. Entering the cave is like entering a portal to another time and era. After enjoying this phenomenal experience, you can enjoy lunch that will be served on board. Personalized service by the ship's crew will be offered while feasting on delicious, fresh seafood and a selection of Vietnamese dishes. After dining, the ship will begin circling back to port, and you can end this incredible day by relaxing on the open-air top deck while enjoying more breathtaking views and the refreshing salty sea air. Pearl farm If you are a pearl lover, then you have come to the right place. Before going to the Halong Bay cruise, make sure to tell your tour guide to make a stop at the Legend Pearl Halong Bay showroom. Vietnam is a producer of Akoya cultured pearls. Many pearl farms are located in region around Halong Bay. Before entering the showroom, you will see the pearl harvesting and preparation process that goes into making the shiny pearl jewelry you wear. The prices are not as cheap as you think but slightly cheaper due to the cheap labor. South Vietnam Your journey will not be complete without visiting south Vietnam. It will take you approximately two hours by air from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City. South Vietnam has another flavor than the north. You can feel it in the air, the weather is slightly cooler and the people are different. Cu Chi Tunnel Before visiting the Cu Chi Tunnel, make sure to be well-prepared and wear long sleeves, pants and a hat to cover your head, because you will be doing some crawling while experiencing the tiny tunnels that Viet Cong soldiers used in order to survive. It is definitely not for claustrophobic people, because these tunnels are not a joke at all. At Cu Chi Tunnel, you can find facts about the tunnel with details of well-known victories, and also visit structures that simulate the former liberated area of Cu Chi during 1960-1975. The relics of Cu Chi Tunnel are preserved at Ben Duoc and Ben Dinh. Ben Dinh tunnel is the one I had the opportunity to visit -- it has historic revolutionary relics recognized by the state as national relics. It was the base of the Cu Chi District Party Committee during the resistance to the US. It was also a place for dining, living and meeting, as well a unique battle deployment with contributions to fighting the enemy and national salvation. After you finish your incredible and eye-opening tour, visit a shooting range at your own expense to try firing an AK-47 or MK 16 machine gun, then pass by the souvenir shops to seek closure for this once-in-a-lifetime experience. The FITO Museum As early as the 2nd century BC, Vietnamese have used hundreds of plant species for medicinal purposes. Statistics from the Vietnam ministry of health show that 1,800 medicinal plant species have been found in Vietnam. So if you are interested in herbs and medicine, the FITO Museum is a must-see. A unique blend of traditional and modern architecture, the museum includes a ground floor and five upper floors that are home to 18 exhibition rooms. The museum has an impressive collection of 3,000 items relevant to traditional Vietnamese medicine dating back to the Stone Age, along with implements used to prepare traditional medicine such as knives, grinders, mortars and pestles, pots and jars. You can also find books and documents on traditional Vietnamese medicine. Don't forget to buy a few herbal medicines and tea on your way out -- trust me, you will not regret it. Independence Palace 'From Norodom Palace to Independence Palace 1868-1966' explores the nearly century-long history of the building that once served as the seat of French colonial government in Cochinchina. It subsequently witnessed many dramatic episodes in the rise and decline of the government of Ngo Dinh Diem, the founding leader of Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). The Independence Palace was designed by architect Ngo Viet Thu, the first and only Vietnamese man to win the Grand Prix de Rome in 1955. The palace is a harmonious combination of wind, water and sunlight. It reflects the Eastern traditional philosophy and Vietnamese national characters. The Independence Palace is not only a special symbol of architectural art, but also an important historical Vietnamese relic. The palace is pretty huge and it will take you at least two hours to roam it. War Remnants Museum The War Remnants Museum is one of Ho Chi Minh City's most enticing cultural and tourist sites. Founded on Sept 4, 1975, the War Remnants Museum is a member of the International Network of Museums for Peace (INMP) and the International Council of Museums (ICOM). It's a unique museum in Vietnam to systematically study, collect, conserve and display exhibits on war crimes and consequences inflicted on the Vietnamese people by foreign aggressive forces. Simultaneously, the museum appeals to everybody to oppose unjust wars, preserve global peace and promote friendship and solidarity among nations. It consists of three floors divided into rooms. The ground floor has an open-air exhibition on the imprisonment system during the Vietnam War and international support for the Vietnamese people in their resistance war. On the second floor you have a conference room, war crimes section and Agent Orange effects and Agent Orange consequences through children's painting. The third floor has exhibits on the historical truth, requiem, Vietnam war and peace, Agent Orange during the Vietnam War and white doves. Maybe the most complex and touchy feeling that I experienced was at the War Remnants Museum. Each and every room exhibits photographs of young soldiers, women and children who lost their lives during the war. When entering the rooms, you can sense the silence, heaviness and sadness that weigh on visitors reading the names and dates of each photograph taken, a reminder of the violence, brutality and cruelty of humankind and war. In my opinion, the museum is a very important place to see and visit to understand the bravery and suffering of the Vietnamese people up-close and personal. If you have more time to spend in southern Vietnam, you can also visit these interesting places: The Old Saigon Post office, Dong Khoi Street (formerly Rue Catinat), Continental Hotel, City Hall and Ben Thanh Market. Definitely, don't miss out the Saigon Opera House, which is also known as the Municipal Theater. The building stands as one of the impressive sight in Saigon -during both night and day. Saigon Opera House was built in 1898 by the French architect Eugene Ferret in the "flamboyant" style of the French Third Republic. My advice to you is to go to the entrance, ask about the night's show, book a ticket and enjoy the memorable experience of traditional and modern art that the talented Vietnamese artistes present. Tips on the road: Tip 1: If you're a first-time visitor to Vietnam, I recommend you to research the history and background of the country before travelling, to understand the dynamics of the country in order to appreciate it more. Tip 2: The official currency of Vietnam is the Vietnamese dong. Most shops and hotels accept the US dollar. It's handy if you bring some dollars. It is harder to find a place to exchange money in the north than the south. In case you need to withdraw money from an ATM , it's better to do it at an international bank . You will need an average budget of $40 to $50 per day. Tip 3: The internet is very fast. It is better to get a line with internet or only internet if you wish from the airport, it is easy, fast and cheap. Tip 4: Travel light and take light clothes and your most comfortable walking shoes, because if you really want to enjoy Vietnam, you have to explore it on foot -- and trust me, there is a lot of walking. Tip 5: It is a must to try their cold or hot tea and coffee along with their dry fruits that they serve along with the tea or coffee. You will never taste anything that good elsewhere. Don't forget to buy several packs of coffee with its specially-designed kettle and herbal tea. Also if you like handmade art , they are really known for their artistry in making amazing drawings on boxes, it would be a good souvenir for yourself and your beloved ones. Tip 6: Whenever you are in souvenir shops or any shop, bargain, bargain and bargain. Tip 7: Where to stay? I had the privilege to stay at two hotels. The first one is Hotel De l'Opera Hanoi M Gallery and the second one is Mejectic Hotel -Ho Chi Minh City. I strongly recommend them both. Excellent location, amazing and luxurious architecture, clean and the service is awesome. Tip 8: It is rare but not impossible to find halal or Arab restaurants -- just make sure to do your research and Google the restaurants around you beforehand. CREDIT: By Sahar Moussa
Subject: Internet; Opera houses; Airlines; Shopping; Coffee; Hotels & motels; Bargaining
Location: United States--US Vietnam
Publication title: TCA Regional News; Chicago
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Dec 5, 2018
Publisher: Tribune Content Agency LLC
Place of publication: Chicago
Country of publication: United States, Chicago
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2150005803
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2150005803?accountid=4840
Copyright: (c)2018 the Kuwait Times (Safat, Kuwait) Visit the Kuwait Times (Safat, Kuwait) at www.kuwaittimes.net/ Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Last updated: 2018-12-05
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 455 of 474
National Gallery of Art 2019 Winter Film Program Features Gordon Parks Retrospective, Washington Premieres, Cinema From Portugal, and Discussions With Filmmakers
Publication info: Targeted News Service ; Washington, D.C. [Washington, D.C]07 Dec 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: The National Gallery of Art issued the following news release: The 2019 winter film season (January-March) at the National Gallery of Art features several special cinematic events, Washington premieres, archival retrospectives, and discussions with renowned filmmakers. Special events during the winter season include the Washington premieres of Gray House by Austin Jack Lynch and Matthew Booth and The Image Book by Jean-Luc Godard. There are also screenings of several recent documentaries: On the Wings of Brancusi, Breaking the Frame, Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda, Acid Forest, and More Art Upstairs. Screenings of new restorations include Jean-Pierre Melville's When You Read This Letter from the mid-1950s and Ishmael Reed and Bill Gunn's extraordinary Personal Problems (1980), which is screened with Ishmael Reed in person. This season also features a retrospective of films by American photographer and filmmaker Gordon Parks presented in conjunction with the exhibition Gordon Parks: The New Tide, Early Work 1940-1950. Other series during the winter months include a complete retrospective of French filmmaker Jean Vigo; the occasional series From Vault to Screen, which focuses this season on the classic cinema of Portugal in archival prints from Cinemateca Portuguesa; and Hollywood's Poverty Row Preserved by UCLA, a look at the B-movie producers of the Golden Age in Hollywood and their offbeat, low-budget works that ultimately sparked the indie film movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Films are shown in the East Building Auditorium, in original formats whenever possible. Seating for all events is on a first-come, first-seated basis unless otherwise noted. Doors open 30 minutes before showtime. Films are subject to change on short notice. For up-to-date information, visit nga.gov/film. Special Events On the Wings of Brancusi American premiere January 2, 4, 10, 12:30 p.m. Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957) has been a fascinating and enduring influence on a generation of American artists. Insights into Brancusi's legacy are presented by artists Carl Andre, Lynda Benglis, Ellsworth Kelly, Martin Puryear, Richard Serra, Donald Judd, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, and others. Locations include the recreated Brancusi studio at the Centre Pompidou, the Philadelphia Museum of Art's Brancusi gallery, and studios and exhibitions of the artists. Anne d'Harnoncourt (director emeritus of the Philadelphia Museum of Art), Margit Rowell and Ann Temkin (cocurators of the 1995 Brancusi retrospective at the Philadelphia Museum of Art), critics Robert Storr and Richard Woodward, and others offer interpretive commentary. (Edgar Howard and Susan Wald, 2018, 52 minutes) Gray House Washington premiere Austin Jack Lynch and Matthew Booth in person January 5, 2:30 p.m. A striking synthesis of sound and image in a hybrid documentary/fictional form, by filmmaker Austin Jack Lynch (son of David Lynch) and photographer Matthew Booth is, at times, purposefully mysterious. Shifting between the natural world and architectural spaces, using both real and simulated settings, the film is a meditation on landscape, loss, loneliness, and human need. (Austin Jack Lynch and Matthew Booth, 2017, 75 minutes) Personal Problems Ishmael Reed in person January 6, 4:00 p.m. From 1979 to 1981, with little money but exceptional talent, a group of avant-garde artists assembled in New York to produce what American poet, playwright, artist, and essayist Ishmael Reed calls an "experimental soap opera" with a largely African American cast and crew. Unusual in the history of cinema, the actors in Personal Problems define themselves and their roles, and they largely improvise, thereby avoiding the stereotypes offered up by Hollywood. After a flurry of showings in 1981, the remaining 54 video copies of Personal Problems lay in Reed's attic for three decades until they were rediscovered by curator Jake Perlin, who brought a copy to Lincoln Center and BAMcinematek at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. (Ishmael Reed and Bill Gunn, 1980, 165 minutes) Rosenwald Aviva Kempner in person January 11, 19, 1:00 p.m. Rosenwald documents the remarkable collaborations between businessman and philanthropist Julius Rosenwald, author and educator Booker T. Washington, and African American communities in the South. Together they built over 5,000 schools during the Jim Crow era, a time when few African Americans received any public education at all. Rosenwald also established a fund that awarded grants primarily to unusually talented African American artists and intellectuals, including Marian Anderson, Ralph Bunche, W. E. B. DuBois, Ralph Ellison, Dr. Charles Drew, John Hope Franklin, Zora Neale Hurston, Gordon Parks, James Baldwin, Jacob Lawrence, and Woody Guthrie, among others. (Aviva Kempner, 2015, 95 minutes) Godard's The Image Book January 27, 4:30 p.m. The reclusive 88-year-old Jean-Luc Godard (the only French New Wave director still living) continues to practice his enigmatic art. In this most recent work, The Image Book, he probes the topics that have preoccupied his late work--the state of film aesthetics, the discourse between history and cinema, the borders between filmmaking and other forms of image making--forming a broad philosophical inquiry into the state of the modern world. (Jean-Luc Godard, 2018, subtitles, 90 minutes) Hip-Hop's Great Day: Gordon Parks and A Legacy of Photographic Inspiration Nelson George, Adrian Loving, and Vikki Tobak in person February 17, 2:00 p.m. In a multidimensional presentation and discussion, artist and educator Adrian Loving and scholar Vikki Tobak explore the visual influences of Gordon Parks's legacy in photography and film, particularly his famous photograph A Great Day in Hip Hop (XXL Magazine) from September 1998. Tracing his impact on music videos directed by artists such as Fab 5 Freddy and Kendrick Lamar, Loving and Tobak celebrate Parks's ingenuity, dedication, and power. An excerpt from Nelson George's latest film, A Great Day in Hip Hop, is also screened and discussed. A book signing of Contact High: The Visual History of Hip-Hop follows. (Approximately 100 minutes) When You Read This Letter Washington premiere of the restoration February 17, 5:00 p.m. Celebrated chanteuse Juliette Greco--known as la Muse de l'existentialisme in mid-20th-century Paris--plays Sister Therese, a nun who leaves behind the quiet security of her convent to run a family business and help her real sister (Irene Galter) escape the clutches of a shifty lowlife (Philip Lemaire). A recently restored and rarely screened work from Jean Pierre Melville, When You Read This Letter has the added advantage of Henri Alekan's elegant location shooting, most of which took place in a now unrecognizable South of France. An intriguing missing link in Melville's influential oeuvre, When You Read This Letter has until now never been released in the United States. (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1953, subtitles, 104 minutes) Breaking the Frame preceded by Carolee, Barbara, and Gunvor March 3, 5:00 p.m. With Breaking the Frame, filmmaker Marielle Nitoslawska crafts a daring profile of the radical New York artist Carolee Schneemann, a pioneer of performance art and avant-garde cinema. (Marielle Nitoslawska, 2012, 100 minutes). It is preceded by Carolee, Barbara, and Gunvor, personal portraits of three highly influential and prolific artists: Schneemann, Barbara Hammer, and Gunvor Nelson. (Lynne Sachs, 2018, 8 minutes) Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda March 17, 4:30 p.m. Artist, musician, singer, and composer extraordinaire Ryuichi Sakamoto is known for responding to even the smallest environmental shifts and tensions. This mindfulness is at times expressed in mixing the familiar tones and textures of life with manufactured and erratic sounds, such as those produced by the water-damaged grand piano he discovered and used after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident. Sakamoto finds inspiration in unrelated sources--from the physical world to movie scores, from experimental music to ethnomusicology. After the Fukushima accident he was inspired by the antinuclear power movement, and after his own cancer treatments, he created the very personal async solo album. Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda, shot over five years, is an elegant and understated portrait that sheds light on one of the most interesting musical minds of the era. (Stephen Nomura Schible, 2017, 100 minutes) Black Dreams at Sea: The Sardine Fisherman's Funeral and An Opera of the World Elizabeth Alexander and Manthia Diawara in person March 23, 2:30 p.m. Painter Ficre Ghebreyesus (1962-2012) from Asmara in Eritrea and filmmaker Manthia Diawara from Bamako in Mali meet metaphorically in this program focusing on their work. Political refugees, activists, scholars, artists, and storytellers, both men settled in the United States and found themselves working odd jobs, joining the African American community of poets, and hunkering down within their own artistic practice. Ficre Ghebreyesus's epic painting The Sardine Fisherman's Funeral centers on the abebuu adekai, the figurative coffin of the Ga people in Ghana, replete with symbols, historical references, and Eritrean iconography expressing a depth of feeling for the power of the sea. Manthia Diawara's film An Opera of the World (2017), based on the African opera Bintou Were, mines the Malian filmmaker's own migration experience against the backdrop of recent tragedies on the Mediterranean Sea. Diawara's film features contemporary philosophers and employs footage of refugees in exodus, probing cinema's power to bear witness. Manthia Diawara and Elizabeth Alexander--poet, essayist, playwright, scholar, and president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation--discuss and contrast these works following the screening. (Approximately 100 minutes) Acid Forest March 24, 4:30 p.m. Imagine a dead forest as a tourist attraction, a place where human visitors are not only observers, but are also observed by thousands of black birds. Lithuanian artist Rugile Barzdziukaite (this year representing her country at the Venice Biennale) is known in the art world for her focus on "the gap between objective and imagined realities in a manner that cuts through anthropocentric ways of thinking," writes critic Kaleem Aftab. Beautiful, repellent, and mesmerizing, Acid Forest--largely achieved through complex aerial shots from a bird's perspective within a now treeless national park in Lithuania--eavesdrops on tourists' reactions to the obvious devastation before them. (Rugile Barzdziukaite and Dovydas Korba, 2018, 63 minutes) Presented in association with the Environmental Film Festival More Art Upstairs March 30, 1:00 p.m. For three weeks in September, beer-fueled debates in the bars of Grand Rapids, Michigan, are focused on art. Thousands arrive for ArtPrize, a competition and fair that allows ordinary people to engage with blue-chip artists in ways that rarely happen at more established venues like Art Basel. More Art Upstairs follows five artists exhibiting work in this unusual populist experiment. The public gets to vote, via their phones, on the art that should qualify to win half the prize money--the largest monetary award in the art world. What attracts the artists, in turn, is the chance to prevail in a public vote and gain exposure to some of the country's top critics, who award the other half of the prize. Part game show, part riveting art exploration, More Art Upstairs grapples with the democratization of culture, artists' need (or not) to connect with their audiences, and the fading of the canonical art establishment. (Jody Hassett Sanchez, 2017, 77 minutes) Film Series The Films of Gordon Parks January 12-February 10 Best known as a groundbreaking photographer, Gordon Parks was also a prolific and influential filmmaker. This series of films and videos contextualizes Parks's early interest in the power of motion pictures, highlights his own film productions, and explores his influence on new generations of filmmakers and artists from the second half of the 20th century to the present day. Programmed in conjunction with the exhibition Gordon Parks: The New Tide, Early Work 1940-1950. Special thanks to the Gordon Parks Foundation. Films of the New Deal January 12, 1:00 p.m. A program of government-sponsored documentaries that directly influenced Gordon Parks, this program features short newsreels produced by the Office of War Information. Examples include Manpower (1942, 10 minutes), It's Everybody's War (1942, 18 minutes), and The Negro Soldier (produced by Frank Capra, 1944, 43 minutes), among others. (Approximately 90 minutes) Louisiana Story January 12, 3:30 p.m. Produced by the Standard Oil Company when Parks was employed there as a photographer, the iconic documentary feature film Louisiana Story follows midcentury oil extraction alongside the day-to-day life of a young Cajun boy, a witness to that unrelenting expansion. Robert Flaherty's focus on the lush landscape of Louisiana and on its inhabitants as the "actors" in his film directly influenced Parks's interest in the power of nonfiction storytelling. (Robert Flaherty, 1948, 79 minutes) Gordon Parks: Early Documentaries January 13, 4:00 p.m. In June 1961 Life magazine published Parks's seminal photo-essay Freedom's Fearful Foe: Poverty, a profile of one family living in a favela on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Flavio is a portrait of that family's eldest son and his daily struggle to survive (1964, 18 minutes). Flavio is followed by two other journalistic works: Diary of a Harlem Family (1968, 20 minutes) and The World of Piri Thomas (1968, 60 minutes). Special thanks to the University of Indiana Libraries Moving Image Archive The Learning Tree January 19, 4:00 p.m. The Learning Tree was the first production by a major Hollywood studio (Warner Brothers) to be directed by an African American. Gordon Parks's feature film debut is based on his 1963 semi-autobiographical novel of the same name about a teenager growing up in rural Kansas during the 1920s. Remarkably, Parks not only wrote the screenplay adaptation of his own novel and directed the film, he also produced it and composed the musical score. The Learning Tree was included in the National Film Registry by the United States National Film Preservation Board in 1989. (1969, 35mm, 106 minutes) Shaft January 26, 2:00 p.m. The commercial success of The Learning Tree prompted a multiyear contract with MGM Pictures, leading to Parks's hugely successful second feature film, Shaft. Single-handedly reviving the dormant private-eye genre, the story of John Shaft (played by Richard Roundtree) is told as much with narrative as through dynamic camera work and fast-paced editing. It is enhanced by Isaac Hayes's iconic score, particularly the Oscar-winning theme. (1971, 98 minutes) Shaft's Big Score January 26, 4:00 p.m. Building on the global commercial success of Shaft, Shaft's Big Score raised the bar for the crime-fighting genre with pyrotechnics and even more adrenaline-rousing, high-speed chase scenes. Richard Roundtree's tough, skilled detective invited visions of a James Bond-like franchise, and this sequel showcases an even more heroic John Shaft, intent on solving the mystery of a friend's murder and the delivery of a small fortune intended for an inner-city children's center. (1972, 106 minutes) Leadbelly February 2, 2:00 p.m. With the success of his "blaxploitation" titles and crime dramas, Parks negotiated his next feature to be of more personal and historic interest: the biography of famed folk blues singer Huddie Ledbetter. Nicknamed "Leadbelly" by a madam, the man who wrote "Goodnight Irene" and "Rock Island Line" traverses the South with his twelve-string guitar. Leadbelly's life recalls an African American past characterized by racism, poverty, and imprisonment, as well as ingenuity, racial solidarity, and self-expression. Although lauded by critics, the film was not successfully promoted and proved a commercial failure, even though it is one of Parks's most intimate films. (1976, 126 minutes) Solomon Northup's Odyssey February 3, 4:00 p.m. Eight years after Leadbelly, Parks returned to filmmaking, directing, writing, and scoring this drama for public television's American Playhouse series. Based on Northup's biography Twelve Years a Slave, Solomon Northup's Odyssey depicts the title character's harrowing experiences in forced servitude. A black man born free in upstate New York, Northrup worked as a carpenter and a talented violinist until he was lured away from his family to Washington, DC, where he expects to play a concert. Instead he is drugged, shackled, and sold into slavery in Louisiana. (1984, 133 minutes) Half Past Autumn: The Life and Work of Gordon Parks preceded by The Weapons of Gordon Parks February 9, 2:00 p.m. Part of Warren Forman's Artists at Work documentary series, The Weapons of Gordon Parks is an early record of Parks told in his own words before his success as a filmmaker (1967, 28 minutes). It is followed by the HBO-produced documentary Half Past Autumn, an insightful and personal portrait narrated by Alfre Woodard, featuring interviews and reminiscences with Parks, his friends, collaborators, and family members. (Craig Rice, 2000, 101 minutes) Moments without Proper Names preceded by Martin February 10, 4:00 p.m. Asked to make an autobiographical film for public television, Parks constructed a cinematic collage of his music, still photographs, archival news footage, and narration drawn from his lifetime of creative work. A filmic poem, Moments without Proper Names explores themes of childhood, racism, black self-determination, success, poverty, and war: all subjects that Parks dedicated his life to addressing with his art. (1988, 60 minutes) It is preceded by Parks's final film, Martin, a production of his ballet based on the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., made for KCET public television, Los Angeles. (1989, 55 minutes) Jean Vigo February 16 Although he made only four films, Jean Vigo's (1905-1934) career had a profound effect on the history of art cinema, and Vigo himself is a treasured figure, due in part to his short and difficult life. Combining surrealist motifs with poetic sequences and mixing cinema verite with metaphor, Vigo's film treatments are infused with a sense of social justice, ultimately leading to problems with censors followed by numerous small edits to his work. Jean suffered poor health from an early age and finally died at age 29, three weeks after the Paris premiere of his now beloved L'Atalante. Jean Vigo's work has recently been restored and rereleased. A propos de Nice followed by Jean Taris, champion de France and Zero de conduite February 16, 2:00 p.m. Jean Vigo's first film mixes footage of strollers along Nice's Promenade des Anglais with scenes that mock the city's class inequities. In the background is the Carnival of Nice with its strange and fanciful papier-mache figures. Mimicking the Soviet montage artists to create a swirling urban mosaic (cinematographer Boris Kaufman was the brother of Russian experimenter Dziga Vertov), Vigo depicts the outlandish within this famed Riviera city--and all under cloudy skies. (1930, silent with musical score, 23 minutes) A commissioned sports documentary on the famous French swimmer who competed in three Summer Olympics, Jean Taris, champion de France is also an abstract reflection on the human form in movement. (1931, silent with musical score, 9 minutes) In Zero de conduite, four boys feeling the pains of boarding school life stage an uprising. Basing his scenario on his own bitter childhood memories, Vigo comments on youthful rebellion--adding surreal motifs like an epic slow-motion pillow fight--making insinuations that reach far beyond school life. This new restoration, the director's cut with previously unseen sequences, eliminates the intertitles added to earlier prints. (1933, 49 minutes) L'Atalante Restored director's cut February 16, 4:00 p.m. A delicate tale of a barge-master and his bride filmed on the canals northeast of Paris during the winter of 1934 blends the serenity of poetic realism with tinges of surrealist futility. While earlier restorations of Vigo's masterwork reinstated bits of missing footage, this new restoration, using preserved nitrate prints, is much closer to the 1934 director's cut. Maurice Jaubert's avant-garde film score (Jaubert also scored Zero de conduite) is one of the best in French poetic cinema. (1934, subtitles, 89 minutes) Restored in 4K by Gaumont in association with Cinematheque Francaise and The Film Foundation, with the support of CNC, L'Immagine Ritrovata, and L'Image Retrouvee laboratories. From Vault to Screen: Portugal February 23-March 9 The occasional series From Vault to Screen brings together new restorations and overlooked treasures from major film archives around the world. During the winter season, the focus is on the holdings of Cinemateca Portuguesa--Museu do Cinema, a major collection in Lisbon. Although censorship laws limiting freedom of speech influenced the national culture until the 1970s, Portugal's artists and filmmakers managed to produce a small but interesting body of work. At first, they made literary adaptations, innocent comedies, and historical dramas, but by the mid-20th century, the transnational cinematic "new wave" was influencing domestic production. By the mid-1980s Portugal's legendary film maestro Manoel de Oliveira, a titan of world cinema, was astutely probing the mysteries of love and life and winning awards at major film festivals. In six programs, the series From Vault to Screen blends an engaging range of cinematic styles and eras in both new restorations and original prints. Special thanks to Linda Lilienfeld, Sara Moreira, Teresa Borges, Tiago Baptista, and the staff of Cinemateca Portuguesa. Aniki-Bobo preceded by Douro, Faina Fluvial February 23, 2:00 p.m. Douro, Faina Fluvial poetically depicts the lives of laborers who work along the Douro River in Porto. As the first film by Manoel de Oliveira (1908-2015), Portugal's most celebrated director, it is now a national treasure. (Manoel de Oliveira, 1931, 19 minutes) Oliveira's first feature-length work, Aniki-Bobo, cast children from Porto's streets as protagonists in a drama inspired by a simple childhood rhyme. Using neorealist technique and adapting a story by Jose Rodrigues de Freitas, the film's critical reception was at first only lukewarm. Today Aniki-Bobo is recognized as a landmark of world cinema. Twenty-one years passed before his next feature, Acto da Primavera (Rite of Spring), appeared in 1963. (Manoel de Oliveira, 1942, subtitles, 71 minutes) Os Verdes Anos (The Green Years) February 23, 4:00 p.m. An influential but undervalued artist of postwar European cinema, Paulo Rocha (1935-2012) was most famous for Mudar de vida (1966), a neorealist love story filmed in a coastal village. Yet his lesser-known first feature Os Verdes Anos is both a sensitive new wave drama and a poetic city symphony, with lingering views of Lisbon's architecture, streets, and parks recorded at all hours of the day. Luc Mirot's verite cinematography is both natural and thoughtful, carefully avoiding any extravagance. A young man arrives from the provinces ready to try his luck at shoemaking. He meets a young working-class woman, the two start a relationship, and all seems secure. Yet Rocha's outwardly simple tale hides deeper complexities, as the young man, feeling the hostile modern urban malaise, loses his trust in humanity and attempts to rebel. (Paulo Rocha, 1963, subtitles, 87 minutes) A Revolucao de Maio (Revolution in May) February 24, 4:00 p.m. A film of historical prominence, Revolution in May was produced by the National Secretary of Propaganda to mark the 10th anniversary of the demise of Portugal's First Republic and the rise of the Estado Novo (New State or Second Republic, 1933-1974). Led by Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, the Estado Novo was a right-leaning corporatist regime fueled by deeply conservative and autocratic ideologies that empowered Salazar to institute censorship and a secret police force to subdue opposition. Images and excerpts from the speeches and public appearances of Salazar were assembled with techniques derived from Russian montage, shaping what one critic called "a film of nationalist exultation." Revolution in May remains the only Portuguese fiction film that overtly delves into political propaganda. (Antonio Lopes Ribeiro, 1937, 138 minutes) Belarmino March 2, 2:00 p.m. Belarmino portrays the life and times of Belarmino Fragoso (1931-1982), a favorite Portuguese fighter whose career in the ring spanned the 1950s through the 1970s. A landmark film from Portugal's new wave (Cinema Novo Portugues, an extension of the global movement that energized international film production during the 1960s), Belarmino was a surprising break from previous traditions of Portuguese cinema. With its casual documentary-style renderings of working-class Lisbon, compelling compositions filmed by Augusto Cabrita (a renowned midcentury Portuguese cinematographer), and footage of Belarmino himself training or strolling the city's streets, the film garnered sympathetic reviews from the European press and won the prestigious Premio da Casa da Imprensa in Portugal for its director, a new wave legend. (Fernando Lopes, 1964, subtitles, 80 minutes) Ossos March 2, 4:00 p.m. With his distinctively minimalist approach, Pedro Costa has earned the reputation "the Samuel Beckett of cinema." Ossos, a tale of young lives torn apart by tragedy and misfortune, became Costa's first entry in a trilogy set entirely in a decaying quarter of Lisbon, a haven for immigrants from former Portuguese colonies in Africa. The use of natural light, long takes, and low-key, shadowy shooting fostered the film's documentary tone. (Pedro Costa, 1997, 35mm, subtitles, 94 minutes) Tabu March 9, 4:00 p.m. Director Miguel Gomes has been praised for his aesthetic audacity--his recent six-hour, stylistically intrepid Arabian Nights, for example, transposes the timeless Middle Eastern folk tale to contemporary Portugal. In Tabu Gomes again mixes new elements with traditional form, crafting a structure that is part myth, part melodrama, and part poetic experiment. The film's multidimensional plot combines ill-fated love, rousing adventure, colonial mutiny, and political commentary. (Miguel Gomes, 2012, subtitles, 118 minutes) Hollywood's Poverty Row Preserved by UCLA March 9-31 During the 1930s and 1940s hundreds of low-budget but boldly conceived genre films were created in Hollywood's so-called Poverty Row--a stretch of B-movie studios along Gower Street from the Paramount lot to Sunset Boulevard. These often short-lived studios speedily compiled scripts and completed productions within days, usually employing casts of upstart actors. Some of them also released films from other outlier producers of offbeat work. The influence of these frequently fly-by-night operations should never be underestimated--their creations showed an artistic daring and, in retrospect, even anticipated the indie film movement of later decades. Several factors contributed to Poverty Row's decline, among them the advent of television and the general demise of the studio system. UCLA Film & Television Archive has made it their mission to rescue and preserve the films of Poverty Row. This series, a sampling from their collection, also features newsreels and short subjects of the era. The Vampire Bat preceded by Hearst Metrotone News and Jack Frost March 9, 2:00 p.m. With an atmosphere worthy of Universal's contemporaneous horror films, this slick little thriller from Phil Goldstone's ambitious Majestic Pictures finds mad doctor Lionel Atwill at work in a village where bodies are turning up mysteriously drained of blood. In a cast that includes Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Melvyn Douglas, and Dwight Frye, could a creepy local guy (Frye) be responsible? (Frank R. Strayer, 1933, 65 minutes) Before the feature: Hearst Metrotone News, vol. 4, no. 250 (1933, 9 minutes) and Jack Frost (Ub Iwerks, 1934, 9 minutes) The Sin of Nora Moran preceded by Hearst Metrotone News and Balloon Land March 10, 4:30 p.m. An audacious use of flashbacks within flashbacks contributes to the feverish, hallucinatory tone of this lurid melodrama about a circus performer (the enigmatic Zita Johann) who becomes the mistress of an ambitious politician. Accused of a murder she did not commit, she prepares to die in the electric chair. (Phil Goldstone, 1933, 65 minutes) Before the feature: Hearst Metrotone News, vol. 4, no. 269 (1933, 9 minutes) and Balloon Land (Ub Iwerks, 1935, 7 minutes) False Faces preceded by Hearst Metrotone News and Snow White March 16, 2:00 p.m. Self-proclaimed cad Lowell Sherman (Way Down East) stars in and directs this difficult-to-classify mix of sophisticated comedy and grotesque horror, playing an unscrupulous surgeon whose innovative face-lifting technique proves to have some significant shortcomings. (Lowell Sherman, 1932, 35mm, 81 minutes) Before the feature: Hearst Metrotone News, vol. 4, no. 226 (1932, 9 minutes) and Snow White, a Betty Boop cartoon (1933, Dave Fleischer, 7 minutes) Damaged Lives preceded by Hearst Metrotone News and Dancing on the Moon March 16, 4:00 p.m. Fate sticks out her foot to trip a young businessman, who returns from a debauched night on the town with a case of VD, which he promptly communicates to his innocent fiancee. Edgar G. Ulmer's pioneering film on exploitation (Ulmer also cowrote the screenplay) benefits from lush production values, thanks to underwriting by the Canadian Social Health Council. (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1933, 61 minutes) Before the feature: Hearst Metrotone News, vol. 4, no. 252 (1933, 9 minutes) and Dancing on the Moon (Dave Fleischer, 1935, 8 minutes) Mamba preceded by Hearst Metrotone News and Me and the Boys March 23, 12:00 p.m. Crazed colonialism rages in this rare two-strip Technicolor production with a sadistic, insistently unlovable Jean Hersholt as a plantation owner in German East Africa. He imports an aristocratic bride (Eleanor Boardman) from the old country, only to find her falling for British officer Ralph Graves. (Albert S. Rogell, 1930, 78 minutes) Before the feature: Hearst Metrotone News, vol. 1, no. 269 (1930, 9 minutes) and Me and the Boys, a musical short with Estelle Brody and Ben Pollack's jazz band (1929, Victor Saville, 9 minutes) Strange Illusion preceded by News of the Day and Grampy's Indoor Outing March 30, 4:00 p.m. Edgar G. Ulmer's hallucinatory version of Hamlet is transposed to a Los Angeles sanitarium, where a young man (Jimmy Lydon) has dreams of his mother (Sally Eilers) being seduced by a stranger, who promptly appears in the wolfish form of actor Warren William. (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1945, 87 minutes) Before the feature: News of the Day, vol. 17, no. 288 (1945, 8 minutes) and Grampy's Indoor Outing, a Betty Boop cartoon. (1936, Dave Fleischer, 7 minutes) Hollow Triumph March 31, 4:30 p.m. A-List actors Paul Henreid and Joan Bennett play the leads in this little-known and handsomely photographed (by celebrated cinematographer John Alton) film noir. On the run from a murderous rival, a gangster (Henreid) assumes the place--and the mistress (Bennett)--of a prominent psychologist who just happens to be his double. Hard-hitting and gritty, the film, based on a 1946 novel by Murray Forbes, is a Poverty Row masterwork. (Steve Sekely, 1948, 35mm, 83 minutes) Restored 35mm print from the UCLA collection Contact: Laurie Tylec, 202/842-6355, [email protected] MSTRUCK-6543495 MSTRUCK Laurie Tylec, 202/842-6355, [email protected]
Subject: Art galleries & museums; Artists; Winter; African Americans; Actors; Books
Location: Portugal
People: Reed, Ishmael Parks, Gordon Godard, Jean-Luc
Company / organization: Name: National Gallery of Art; NAICS: 712110; Name: Philadelphia Museum of Art; NAICS: 712110
Publication title: Targeted News Service; Washington, D.C.
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Dec 7, 2018
Dateline: WASHINGTON
Publisher: Targeted News Service
Place of publication: Washington, D.C.
Country of publication: United States, Washington, D.C.
Publication subject: Public Administration
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: Engl ish
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2151686688
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2151686688?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright © Targeted News Service. All Rights Reserved.
Last updated: 2018-12-08
Database: US Southeast Newsstream
Document 456 of 474
Family will pay $100,000 for photographer to document their travels for a year
Author: WGHP-TV; Greensboro
Publication info: TCA Regional News ; Chicago [Chicago]12 Dec 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Dec. 12--A dream job is available for anyone who loves photography and travel. A wealthy family in the United Kingdom is looking for a photographer to travel the world with them and document their travels, according to Perfocal, a website that connects people in need of photographers. The job pays £80,000 (a little more than $100,000) per year and the family will also cover travel, food and accommodation expenses. The family is looking for a photographer who can work up to 10 hours per day and be willing to travel on a moment’s notice. The job posting said the photographer would need to be willing to travel internationally with the family for long periods of time. “Throughout the residency, the photographer will accompany us to events like the Formula One Grand Prix in Monaco and Abu Dhabi, diving in the Maldives, Mardi Gras in New Orleans and the Rio de Janeiro Carnival, as well as skiing in Val d’Isere.” The position is open for 12 months but, “should the candidate fit in, there is an opportunity for an extension.” The family hopes to hire the photographer by February 2019. For more information on the position, click here.
Subject: Mardi Gras
Location: Monaco Abu Dhabi United Arab Emirates Rio de Janeiro Brazil Maldives United Kingdom--UK
Publication title: TCA Regional News; Chicago
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Dec 12, 2018
Publisher: Tribune Content Agency LLC
Place of publication: Chicago
Country of publication: United States, Chicago
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2154767043
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2154767043?accountid=4840
Copyright: (c)2018 WGHP-TV, Greensboro Visit WGHP-TV, Greensboro at www.myfox8.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Last updated: 2018-12-12
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 457 of 474
Travel, Food, Fashion, Health! It's Pinterest's Top 100 Trends For 2019
Publication info: B & T Weekly ; Surry Hills (Dec 12, 2018).
Abstract:
Travel: Off the beaten track More than two times more travellers use Pinterest vs. top online travel agency sites.1 For 2019, they’re coming here to dream up new ways to travel, from atypical destinations to unusual (and more earth-friendly) modes of transport. Gather a group, clear their calendars, keep the location hush-hush, and practise shouting ‘Surprise!’ (Searches for surprise destination +192%) The autumn colours are a’ changin’: Sipping hot cider, autumnal leaves crunching underfoot… it’s no wonder that people are warming up to autumn getaways. (Searches for moon gatherings +54%) Photobomb: Smoke bombs of every colour add big drama to wedding, engagement and just-for-fun photos. Oat milk, everyone’s new favourite dairy alternative, is delicious and environmentally friendly.Full text: Social media site Pinterest has today unveiled its top 100 trends for 2019 based on its user searches. The company claims its annual list is based on data from its 250 million visitors each month, while 175 billion ideas have been saved to three billion boards to-date. The list covers everything from travel, health, food, home to men’s and women’s style. Check it out below: Travel: Off the beaten track More than two times more travellers use Pinterest vs. top online travel agency sites.1 For 2019, they’re coming here to dream up new ways to travel, from atypical destinations to unusual (and more earth-friendly) modes of transport. No man’s island: Majorca no more! Instead, people are diverting to less-travelled islands for that rare pura vida experience. (Searches for less-travelled islands +179%) Destination unknown: Gather a group, clear their calendars, keep the location hush-hush, and practise shouting ‘Surprise!’ (Searches for surprise destination +192%) The autumn colours are a’ changin’: Sipping hot cider, autumnal leaves crunching underfoot… it’s no wonder that people are warming up to autumn getaways. (Searches for autumn scenery +94%) Hot springs have sprung: People are seeking restoration and relaxation in hot springs - from high-end resorts to rustic natural springs. (Searches for hot springs +32%) Game of stones: Travellers are choosing to avoid the queues at Versailles and are seeking out the most divine, distant and deserted castles. (Searches for abandoned castles +142%) All’s fare in bus travel: Whether it’s a one-day tour or a trip from Caracas to Patagonia, thrifty travellers are boarding the bus. (Searches for bus travel +32%) Oh Rio, Rio: The Summer Olympics may be over, but Rio’s still got the sand, the city and the carnival. (Searches for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil +142%) Out-of-the-way towns: People are seeking out small towns for their bucolic views, unique B&Bs and low-key R&R. (Searches for small-town travel +276%) A wheelie good tour: Both cycling enthusiasts and casual peddlers are trying bike tours - plus, all that cardio means more cheese-eating en route. (Searches for bike tours +64%) Waste not, jaunt not: ‘Zero-waste travel’ means strategic and sustainable packing, eating and even hotel-ing. (Searches for zero-waste travel +74%) Health and wellness: What comes naturally? Pinterest is where people come to reconnect with themselves and try something new, without worrying about who Likes it. So it’s fitting that ‘self care’ (+140% in searches) is the big theme in health and wellness for 2019, including new trends in eating, exercising and sleeping. Bring on the bakuchiol: Bakuchiol, the natural, gentler alternative to retinol, is the clear-skin choice among skincare buffs. (Searches for bakuchiol +275%) Respect your elders: Elderberries are on the rise thanks to their healthy and anti-inflammatory properties. (Searches for elderberry recipes +685%) The great indoors: Flexible bands that can strengthen your whole body? Sounds like an irresistible way to exercise indoors. (Searches for band workouts +1,913%) Natural ginger: People are getting back to their roots by using this soothing oil for baths, massages and even as a condiment. (Searches for ginger oil +659%) Healthy habits: Diligent diners are using nutrition plans to be more mindful about what they eat. (Searches for nutrition plans +475%) Bee earth friendly: No more cling film! Get stung by the freshest zero-waste trend: reusable beeswax wraps. (Searches for beeswax wraps +146%) Getting very sleepy: Turns out that the way to sleep like a log is to keep a sleep log - just one of many sleep-ish ideas to try. (Searches for sleep optimisation +116%) Dry idea: People are ditching alcohol and opting for a life of sobriety, turning to Pinterest for motivational quotes and non-alcoholic drink ideas. (Searches for sober living +746%) DIY goat-milk soap: The ‘greatest of all time’ goat-milk soap is easy to make, and gives a gentle, moisturising clean. (Searches for goat-milk soap +231%) Cape not included: Add matcha, maca and other superfood powders to juice or a smoothie for a superhero boost. (Searches for super powders +144%) Hobbies and interests: Do what you love With 8 billion hobby and interest Pins to choose from, there’s almost no end to what people will find when they go looking for some side-project inspiration. And more than one Pinner has become so successful that they transformed their side project into their full-time dream job. Do the hustle: People are turning their passions into profits - from candle-making to DJ-ing to online tutoring. (Searches for side hustles at home +690%) From tree to taco: Gardeners don’t need to have a farm to make their own guacamole, all they need is soil, patience and how-to instructions. (Searches for how to grow an avocado tree +101%) The shipwright stuff: Rather than wait for boats to go on sail, crafty captains are building their own. Just watch out for icebergs! (Searches for boat building +169%) Easy saves: Weekly savings planners are helping people to cut back on spending, pay off debt and even save up for something nice. (Searches for 52-week savings plan +295%) Pour one out: Embrace your inner Jackson Pollock with simple DIY drip-and-pour acrylic painting. (Searches for acrylic pour painting +660%) Rust never sleeps: Photographers around the world are snapping the overgrown, peeling, yet beautiful disarray of decaying buildings. (Searches for urban-decay photography +44%) Sketchy behaviour: Half journal, half canvas and 100% inspiration, a well-loved sketchbook is any artist’s must-have. (Searches for sketchbooks +513%) Clay OK: Ceramics have been a thing since Ancient Mesopotamia. But in 2019, handmade plates and bowls are really kiln it. (Searches for ceramic pottery +475%) Corpus canvas: Body painting is a low-commitment way to try out a tat - so get some skin in the game! (Searches for body painting +444%) Chalk couture: Everyone’s using our fave artistic sedimentary rock, for everything from creating standout signage to colouring concrete. (Searches for chalk art +664%) Celebrations: Momentous moments When it comes to get-togethers, Pinterest has all the ideas people need. Invitations, decorations, food, drinks, cake, photo props, outfit inspiration - it’s all right here. You’ll even find new ways and reasons to celebrate. The little things: From impromptu picnics to mini-getaways, no moment is too small to celebrate. (Searches for mini moment celebrations +113%) Bake a wish: Here’s a cake trend that you can count on: Number-shaped cakes are on the rise in 2019. (Searches for number cakes +314%) Party in the back: Backyard weddings keep things cosy and cost-friendly (and they’re a great incentive to finish weeding). (Searches for backyard wedding +441%) Full-moon fun: Gather up those night-owl friends for an evening of stargazing and moonlight. (Searches for moon gatherings +54%) Photobomb: Smoke bombs of every colour add big drama to wedding, engagement and just-for-fun photos. (Searches for smoke-bomb photography +436%) Say it in neon: People are celebrating their biggest moments in life with personal messages spelled out in lights. (Searches for neon wedding sign +281%) Godparent proposals: People are giving their baby’s prospective godparents an offer that they’re unlikely to refuse. (Searches for godparent proposals +152%) New gold standard: Brides are going for gold as they glide and shimmer their way down the aisle. (Searches for gold wedding gowns +1,552%) Garland ho! Draped over the table, swagged around the ceiling or lined up together like a curtain, flower garlands are everywhere. (Searches for flower garland +1,154%) Doughnut décor: People are going nuts for doughnuts as colourful, edible party displays - raised, old fashioned and sprinkled. (Searches for doughnut décor +748%) Food: Veggie tables Food brings us all together - around the table and around the world. With 23 billion recipes and dining ideas to discover, Pinterest has got you covered from breakfast to late-night snack attacks. What’s on the menu for 2019? Healthy, sustainable meals made with unusual ingredients. The mighty mushroom: Nutrient-packed mushrooms are springing up everywhere, from coffee drinks to chocolate bars. (Searches for mushroom recipes +64%) Going pegan: Part paleo, part vegan, the pegan diet is taking root with people on the hunt for some healthy habits. (Searches for eating pegan +337%) Amazing graze: Family-style grazing tables are a feast for the eyes, and an open invitation for everyone to dig in. (Searches for grazing tables +163%) Recipes you knead: Bread baking is on the rise, especially when it comes to fermented loaves like sourdough. (Searches for baking bread +413% from last year) Inspired infusions: A slice of ginger makes the water go down, and has digestive and anti-inflammatory benefits, too. (Searches for ginger water +353%) Pin the oxtail: People are hungry for oxtail recipes that they can try at home - especially if they’re slow-cooker friendly. (Searches for oxtail recipes +209%) Din Tin Tin: Foil-packet dinner recipes are perfect for busy cooks: Little prep, little mess, but a lot of flavour. (Searches for foil-packet dinners +759%) Jam on it: A toast to homemade jam, from raspberry to blackberry to whatever-you-got-berry. (Searches for homemade jam +829%) Move over almond milk: Oat milk, everyone’s new favourite dairy alternative, is delicious and environmentally friendly. And vegan too! (Searches for oat milk +186%) Pass the chocho: People won’t get bored of this versatile gourd. A superfood, chayote (chocho) complements all kinds of cuisine. (Searches for chayote recipes +76%) Home: Living colour People use Pinterest to get their houses feeling more like home. Homebodies come looking for everything from day-to-day DIY projects (83% of home searches) to remodels, landscaping and other monumental undertakings (60%).2 No paint, no gain: Don’t tear up that tile: People are painting their parquet floors with bold colours and mosaic patterns. (Searches for painted floor tiles +1,276%) Switching to ’metric: If you’re angling for a fresh look, try painting some colourful, geometric shapes on your walls. (Searches for geometric paint +225%) Spinning yarns: People are wrapping up their walls (and themselves) in fabric for a textured, artsy aesthetic. (Searches for textile art +1,718%) Rebel yellow: Embrace bold, mustard-yellow walls, or try out small accents for a colourful pop. It’s a must! (Searches for mustard yellow +45%) Grow up the wall: Vertical gardens are on the rise for people looking up floor-to-ceiling greenery to suit their lifestyles. (Searches for vertical gardens +287%) Get tinspired: Give your room some vintage style: From splashbacks to wallpaper, tin is in! (Searches for tin interiors +563%) Paper beats paint: Bold wallpaper (think tropical leaves or bright prints) makes a big statement and breathes new life into rooms both big and small. (Searches for bold-print wallpaper +401%) Creative cacti: Grab a cactus (ouch!) and celebrate any occasion with well-composed succulents. (Searches for cactus arrangements +235%) Fired up: Indoor and outdoor fireplaces are heating up - the more modern and sleek, the better. (Searches contemporary fireplace +763%) Pool your resources: All the perks of a swimming pool, without any of that eye-stinging chlorine. (Searches for natural swimming pools +262%) Men’s style: Old meets new One reason that people find it so easy to find ideas that they love on Pinterest is that everything’s so visual. There’s no need to know exactly what something’s called to search for it. Just click on those corduroy trousers to find out where to buy them, or show your barber that fade you want and let them do their thing. Wash me: Welcome back, light-wash denim! (The ’90s called. They said, ‘You’re welcome’.) (Searches for light-washed denim +70%) It’s a sling thing: Carry the weight of the essentials on one shoulder, sling-bag style. (Searches for sling bags +1,184%) Just in the slick of time: Guys are looking classically cool around the clock with throwback wristwatches. (Searches for vintage watches +98%) Clash with class: Pinstripe and polka dots? Tartan and toile? Mixing prints is the new power move. (Searches for mismatched prints +89%) Vive le fade: People are buzzing about this trim for good reason: It’s neat, tidy and timeless. (Searches for French crop haircuts +84%) Corduroy of course: 2019 is the year of corduroy, from comfortable casual trousers to professorial blazers. (Searches for corduroy +507%) Bottoms up: Men in flood-ready cropped trousers are showing off their ankles and flashing their fashionable socks. (Searches for cropped trousers +671%) Scarf it up: Plain or patterned, scarves are keeping necks warm and men looking stylish. (Searches for neck scarves +29%) Smarten up with tartan: It’s hip to wear squares. Prep-school tartan trousers can be dressed up or down, mixed or matched. (Searches for tartan trousers +267%) No more no-shows: Sock it to ’em with quarter socks. Try a pop of colour or a fun print for fancier ankles. (Searches for quarter socks +266%) Women’s style: Patterns of sustainability Women come to Pinterest for looks that match their unique style, whether they’re heading out to brunch or a day at work (70% of style searches) or prepping for their next spectacular va-voom special occasion (60%).3 Just kente get enough: From dashikis to cocktail dresses, African wax prints and kitenges look stunning on every continent. (Searches for African-print fashion +229%) Up your shell game: Hares beware: Slow and steady wins the race with these versatile, sophisticated tortoiseshell earrings. (Searches for tortoiseshell earrings +679%) Slay in your lane: People are riding high on cycling shorts, for everything from active wear to statement outfits. (Searches for cycling shorts +1,323%) Wrap stars: Cosy, chic, robe-like wrap dresses mean never having to choose between comfort and style again. (Searches for robe silhouettes +689%) Mod squad: People are going incognito in an instant with beautifully blocky oval sunglasses. (Searches for oval sunglasses +591%) It’s bamboo voodoo! Stay connected to nature by carrying all the essentials in a striking, structured bamboo handbag. (Searches for bamboo bags +2215%) Ruche hour: Flattering gathered gowns, trousers and coats are sending ripples through the style world in 2019. (Searches for ruche +108%) Trainers that talk: Feet are finally getting the starring role that they deserve, supported by kickin’ colours and lit laces. (Searches for statement trainers +2,211%) Second skin: Step aside, leopard print! Snakeskin prints just slithered into the lead (and onto tights and skirts and…). (Searches for snake print +642%) Ethical threads: Rentable looks and recycled materials make for show-stopping style that doesn’t punish the planet. (Searches for sustainable fashion +34%) Beauty: Standout shine 2019 is about mixing natural styles with pows of gloss and colour. And women from all different cultures, with all different skin tones, are coming to Pinterest to find ideas to try-and they’re 2.4x more likely to experiment with different makeup vs. women on other platforms. 4 Hooray for grey: People are growing out their natural grey hair and letting that silver shine through. (Searches for going grey +879%) Baby fringes are highbrow: The next big thing in hair styles? Baby fringes. In 2019, the just-above-the-brow crop is making the cut. (Searches for short fringes +51%) Dip in: Wave goodbye to chipped nails! Powder dipping lasts longer than traditional gels, and is way easier to remove. (Searches for powder-dip nails +442%) Ooh-la-lashes: People are giving their lashes a lift with natural solutions - think castor oil, grapeseed oil and aloe vera. (Searches for natural lash lifts +52%) Just like magic: It may sound like sorcery, but old-school witch hazel is gaining popularity as a skincare solution. (Searches for witch hazel +305%) Go glossy: From lips to lids, gloss is helping people make their best features shine. (Searches for glossy make-up +89%) The standout pout: Smart mouths everywhere are pairing barely-there make-up with a bold red kisser for added attention. (Searches for standout lip colour +467%) Almond joy: Here’s a nutty new manicure trend: almond nails, named after the rounded shape of the nut. (Searches for almond nails +97%) The next exfoliant: People are lathering up with gentle liquid exfoliators for brighter, smoother skin. (Searches for liquid exfoliator +58%) Lilac locks: Prepare to see lots of lilac in 2019 - this pretty pastel hair colour trend is growing fast. (Searches for lilac hair +1,077%) Children and parenting: Modern family When it comes to parenting, it’s hard to know what’s most important: giving the kids an inspiring space to grow up, or just getting them to sleep. Either way, 56% of parents on Pinterest say it is their go-to spot to learn about parenting ideas and products, and 81% say they couldn’t live without it. Rustic touches: Parents are adding just a touch of rugged and weathered to that soft and warm nursery. (Searches for rustic nursery ideas +136%) Share the love: Toy-sharing subscriptions mean less waste, and they offer children a steady supply of new distractions. (Searches for toy-share subscriptions +313%) For the record: Get every inch and pound of your baby’s birth stats printed up to hang in the nursery. (Searches for birth-stats print +315%) Hunt and gather: Scavenger hunts bring the party to life, and help to burn off all that sugar. (Searches for birthday scavenger hunt +302%) Lost in the woods: Once upon a time, there were enchanted forest parties with toadstool chairs, indoor trees and fairy garlands. And they all lived happily ever after! (Searches for enchanted forest party theme +238%) Listen up: Parents are opting for audiobooks instead of screens to get children into storytime (and off to sleep). (Searches for audio storytellers +126%) Smart sleepers: Self-rocking, white-noise-playing bassinets soothe babies off to sleep, and they stop parents losing sleep too. (Searches for smart bassinets +851%) Tiny house beds: Fun is back in the frame with a transitional toddler bed that your little one can call home. (Searches for house frame floor beds +90%) Keeping everything in line: Stylish geometric patterns and shapes are making their way into the children’s room. (Searches for geometric décor +1,178%) The breast pump ever! No cables. No bottles. Just hands-free breast pumping on the go… finally! (Searches for wireless breast pump +114%) Sign in with LinkedIn Please login with linkedin to comment Pinterest
Subject: Parents & parenting; Travel; Milk; Skin; Sleep; Trends; Painting; Nutrition; Advertising agencies
Company / organization: Name: Cold Brew Labs Inc; NAICS: 518210
Publication title: B & T Weekly; Surry Hills
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Dec 12, 2018
Section: Marketing
Publisher: The Misfits Media Company Pty Ltd.
Place of publication: Surry Hills
Country of publication: Australia, Surry Hills
Publication subject: Advertising And Public Relations, Business And Economics--Marketing And Purchasing
ISSN: 13259210
Source type: Trade Journals
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2154886233
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2154886233?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Misfits Media Company Pty Ltd. Dec 12, 2018
Last updated: 2019-01-02
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 458 of 474
Department of State Issues Briefing at LiveAtState With Ambassador Sales
Publication info: Targeted News Service ; Washington, D.C. [Washington, D.C]14 Dec 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: The U.S. Department of State issued the following special briefing: HOST: Welcome to LiveAtState, the State Department's interactive virtual press briefing platform. I'm delighted to welcome participants joining us today from around the Western Hemisphere region and across the globe. Today we'll be speaking with Ambassador Nathan A. Sales, the U.S. Coordinator for Counterterrorism. Ambassador Sales leads the State Department's Counterterrorism Bureau and serves as the principal advisor to the Secretary of State on international counterterrorism matters. Before joining the State Department, Ambassador Sales was a distinguished legal scholar and previously served as deputy assistant secretary for policy in the Department of Homeland Security. He also worked on counterterrorism policy in the Department of Justice. He's happy to take your questions today on the threats posed by transnational terrorist groups, including ISIS, al-Qaida, and Lebanese Hizballah, on the - to the collective safety and security of the countries in the Western Hemisphere and their citizens. He is also happy to comment on the results of yesterday's landmark ministerial conference on counterterrorism in the Western Hemisphere region, hosted by the Department of State. Before I turn it over to Ambassador Sales for some opening remarks, I would like to make a few comments on procedures for questions. You can start submitting your questions now in the box on the top right of your screen that says "Type your question." Please, feel free to leave questions in English, Spanish, or Portuguese, and our moderators will translate as necessary. If you see a colleague ask a question you'd also like us to answer, you can up-vote it by clicking the "Like" button to the right of that question. We will try to answer as many as we can, but our time is limited, so show your support for the questions you'd most like us to cover. A quick note on interpretation as well. This programs is being presented online in English with a Spanish voiceover. The broadcast is in stereo, however, so you can isolate one language by selecting a specific audio channel on your device. If you're listening through headphones, you should hear English in one headphone and Spanish in the other. If you would like to receive a transcript of today's briefing and links to broadcast-quality audio and video files, please fill out the short survey by clicking on the "Polls" tab at the top of the event page. You can also submit questions and request transcripts by emailing [email protected] With that, let's get started. Ambassador Sales, thank you for joining us today. I'll turn it over to you for opening remarks. AMBASSADOR SALES: Well, thanks very much. Hello and good morning. Yesterday the State Department hosted a ministerial-level dialogue focused on counterterrorism in the Western Hemisphere. Thirteen key North, Central and South American partners joined the United States for this landmark meeting. It's tempting to think of terrorism as a problem that's confined to the far reaches of the globe, but these partners and the United States know that transnational terrorist groups pose a threat here in our own hemisphere, whether it's ISIS or al-Qaida or Iran-backed terrorist groups like Hizballah. These threats must be taken seriously. I look forward to answering your questions today on the ministerial and the work we'll be doing to keep our neighborhoods safe from transnational terrorist threats. HOST: Great. With that, let's get started with questions. Our first question comes from Monalisa Freiha from the An-Nahar Newspaper, and it is: Have you noticed any changes in Hizballah activities since imposing more sanctions on the organization and the re-imposing of U.S. sanctions on Iran? AMBASSADOR SALES: We know that Iran is the principal benefactor of Hizballah. Hizballah receives - in the past has received some $700 million a year. That's an enormous amount of money and it's money that should properly be going to the Iranian people to address their needs and to address their priorities. Instead, we know what the priority of the Iranian regime is. It's to spread bloodshed around the world using its proxies. We know that - we've seen evidence that as we have tightened the screws on Iran by imposing sanctions, we know that the money that otherwise would have been made available to Hizballah has to go to other purposes, which makes it even more important for us and for our partners to use our own efforts to cut off the sources of money that Hizballah will be looking to use to make up for the revenues that they're losing as a result of sanctions on Iran. HOST: Thank you. Next question comes from O Estado de Sao Paulo in Brazil. The question is: There have always been rumors of Hizballah activity in the Triple Frontier between - excuse me, I just lost that question. There we go, got it back. There's always been rumors of Hizballah activity in the Triple Frontier region between Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. How is the situation now? Is there any - are there any new findings about activities in that area? AMBASSADOR SALES: Yes. Well, Lebanese Hizballah has fundraising networks across the globe, not just in the Middle East but also in Africa and in South America as well, and one of the regions in which they have been most active in funneling money back home for use in terrorism is the tri-border region of Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil. Just a couple of months ago Argentina froze the assets of the Barakat Clan, which is one of the most prolific fundraising networks that Hizballah has in the region, and we commend Argentina for that step. In addition, shortly after that the Government of Brazil arrested a leader of the Barakat Clan, Barakat himself, in connection with this fundraising network. We commend Brazil for that effort as well and we look forward to a successful resolution of that case. HOST: Another question coming in now from Brazil, from Patricia Campos Mello from Folha de Sao Paulo: The incoming administration in Brazil has stated that protection of the borders is a top priority. How could the U.S. work with Brazil to strengthen border protection, and what are the main terrorist threats now in Brazil? AMBASSADOR SALES: I think the recent election in Brazil creates a new opportunity for a renewed and expanded partnership between our two countries and we look forward to exploring the possibilities of that relationship as the new administration takes office in Brazil. When it comes to border security, one of the most important things we can do to secure our borders or that any country can do to secure its borders is to make sure that they have the data they need to analyze inbound and outbound international travelers. Last December the United Nations Security Council adopted a new resolution, Resolution 2396, which calls on all UN member-states to analyze passenger name recognize data. This is essentially the data you give to an airline when you book a ticket. This is a very powerful tool that we can use to spot known terrorists, but just as importantly, to spot unknown terrorists by identifying links between bad actors we know about and folks who are not yet on our radar screen. We'll be looking to work with Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, any country in the region, any country in the world to stand up these capabilities. HOST: Staying on Brazil, another question from O Estado de Sao Paulo: Are there ISIS cells operating now in Brazil? AMBASSADOR SALES: Well, we know that ISIS has been active in the Western Hemisphere. Just last - just this year the Carnival plot in Trinidad and Tobago opened a lot of people's eyes about the need to be mindful of this threat here at home. ISIS is not just in Syria and Iraq. It's not just in Mindanao in the Philippines. The Trinidad and Tobago plot is a reminder that we need to be aware of this threat here and to take decisive action against it. We've worked very closely with Trinidad and Tobago on the plot and in the aftermath of its uncovering, and we're eager to work with other partners in the Western Hemisphere on this threat as well. HOST: So next question comes from Beatriz Pascual Macias with the EFE news agency. She asks: In the Western Hemisphere, what is the possible connection between transnational organizations such as the ELN and terrorist groups such as Hizballah, and did this topic come up in yesterday's ministerial? AMBASSADOR SALES: Our focus was largely on transnational terrorist groups, those backed by state sponsors, such as Iran-backed terrorist groups including Hizballah, as well as the transnational terrorist groups that we have been focusing on since 9/11, namely al-Qaida and its offshoots, as well as ISIS and its global network of affiliates. HOST: Another question along the same lines, an advance question that we got from reporter Maria Zuppello who is also in Sao Paulo, which is: Do you have any information about partnerships between groups like the Calabrian mafia and jihadists in Latin America? AMBASSADOR SALES: We know that terrorists are opportunistic. We know that they will look for any opportunity available to them to raise money, to move weapons, to move personnel. So we have to be mindful of any possible links to organized crime or other illicit businesses in order to cut off the flow of money, in order to cut off the flow of persons and material. HOST: New question coming in from Cristobal Vasquez with Caracol Radio in Colombia. The question is: Is the FARC guerilla organization going to be taken off the U.S. terrorist list considering the peace agreement recently signed in Colombia? Has the FARC continued their drug-dealing activities? AMBASSADOR SALES: Well, our hope is that the recent agreement gives the people of Colombia what they deserve, which is peace and stability. We'll be watching this very closely to ensure that the terms of the agreement are faithfully implemented by all parties. HOST: Turning to Europe, we have a question from Anton Chudakov with the TASS News Agency in Russia. He says: Deputy Secretary Sullivan will lead an interagency counterterrorism dialogue with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Syromolotov in Vienna on the 13th of December. Can you say anything about your expectations concerning the meeting and what topics might be discussed? AMBASSADOR SALES: Right. So we remain concerned about destabilizing behavior by Russia. Despite those concerns, the deputy secretary will be meeting with his Russian counterpart to see if there are areas of mutual cooperation that we can address to improve the security and safety of the American people. If a country has information that can save American lives, we want to hear about it. HOST: A question coming in now - let's see, turning to the Middle East, a question from Al Zaman newspaper: The U.S. names Hamas a terrorist group. What about the Israeli bombs on Gaza that kill children? AMBASSADOR SALES: Well, Hamas has been very clear in its ambitions. It is an eliminationist group that denies the right of Israel to exist. That is why the United States has never wavered in our condemnation of this group as a terrorist organization. It was one of the first groups we designated as a terrorist organization back in 1997, and successive administrations since then have seen it for what it is: a group that is devoted to the destruction of Israel and that uses terrorism as a tool to accomplish that. HOST: Continuing in the Middle East, also from Al Zaman newspaper. They mention: Israel has discovered a second tunnel between Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. How would you describe that connection? AMBASSADOR SALES: A connection between what? HOST: That's a good question, and unfortunately, maybe we can throw it back to the reporter to clarify that question and come back to it. AMBASSADOR SALES: Right. In the meantime, let me just say that the United States supports any reasonable effort that any country must take to defend itself against external threats. We know that these tunnels are a tool for moving personnel, for moving weapons to commit terrorist attacks on Israel, and we support the right of Israel to defend itself. HOST: Another advance question coming in from Maria Zuppello in Sao Paulo, to return it back to our Western Hemisphere focus: We know that Hizballah is in partnership with the PCC and some Colombian cartels like the Urabenos. What about these - what connection is there between these criminal groups and jihadists in Latin America? AMBASSADOR SALES: Well, we must always be mindful of the risk that terrorist groups will opportunistically seek to leverage relationships with organized crime, illicit businesses, or other bad actors. Terrorist groups are opportunistic. They will seek chances to raise money to support their operations, to smuggle personnel in order to commit terrorist attacks. And we must always be mindful of the adaptive nature of our adversaries. They will work with whoever suits their interests to work with. We have to be mindful of that and keep an eye on it and take steps to counter it. HOST: Staying again in the Western Hemisphere region, Valentina Antolinez from RCN Radio asks: Does the United States have any evidence of alliances between the Colombian guerrillas and the Government of Venezuela? AMBASSADOR SALES: Well, we have called on the Government of Venezuela to respect the human rights of its citizens. We are watching with great distress the unfolding humanitarian situation in Venezuela. We are also hopeful, as I indicated earlier, that the peace agreement in Colombia holds and that the people of Colombia receive the benefits of that agreement: peace, stability, order, and tranquility. HOST: Staying on the same theme, another question, if there's anything to add, from O Estado de Sao Paulo in Brazil, about: Is there any evidence of collusion, any collusion at all between Colombian guerrillas, mostly the ELN, and the Venezuela army, specifically in drug trafficking in the Andes? AMBASSADOR SALES: I think my previous answer covers that one as well. HOST: Covers that one, great. Staying on Venezuela, a question from Jesus La Patilla - Jesus from lapatilla.com: How do you see the Venezuelan Government's relationship with Iran? What would be the approach of the U.S. Government for the coming months and years? AMBASSADOR SALES: Well, the Government of Venezuela has no qualms about associating with some of the world's most sordid actors, Iran being among them. Iran is, as we all know, the world's preeminent state sponsor of terrorism. It uses terrorism as a tool of statecraft, committing attacks and carrying out operational planning in places as far afield as Africa, South America, Europe. Just the past several months we've seen Iranian diplomats - I use the term advisedly - orchestrating terrorist plots in the heart of Western Europe - a plot to bomb a political rally outside of Paris, a plot to assassinate figures in Denmark. This is not the sort of regime with which any respectable nation should seek to do business. HOST: Another question coming in from Patricia Campos Mello in Sao Paolo, which is: Besides financing Hizballah, what other terrorist activities do you see ongoing right now in Brazil? AMBASSADOR SALES: Let me talk a bit about the sorts of threats we have to be prepared to address. We have to be prepared to address terrorist financing, whether it's Hizballah financing or al-Qaida or Iran. And I'm speaking not just to Brazil and the region, but globally. We also have to be mindful of the risk of terrorist travel. Terrorists rely on travel to raise money, to case their targets, to receive training. And so we need to have in place the tools to identify terrorists as they seek to cross our borders and prevent them from doing so. We also have to be mindful of the utility of criminal prosecutions. We tend to think of counterterrorism as kinetic, as military, and the Defeat ISIS Coalition's efforts against ISIS in its false caliphate of Syria and Iraq are an excellent example of what that can look like. But terrorism isn't just for the military. It's also a crime that is effectively addressed through prosecution in civilian courts. And so we have to be aware of conduct that terrorists and their supporters might be committing that runs afoul of our laws, and the need to use our criminal laws to cut off that threat to us and our allies. HOST: Another question from Caracol Radio, from Cristobal Vasquez: Is the United States open to giving military support to Colombia considering Maduro's threats to security in the region? Also considering that the Russians are providing Venezuela with airplanes. AMBASSADOR SALES: I'm going to defer to my colleagues at the Pentagon and in our Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, as my writ is more narrowly focused on terrorism problems in particular. HOST: So getting back to that core issue of terrorism problems, Alfredo Crespo asks: What are - what important links exist, or are there, between al-Qaida and ISIS now? AMBASSADOR SALES: ISIS is an offshoot of al-Qaida. The group that we now know as ISIS was originally formed in Iraq in the 2000s, early 2000s, when it was known as al-Qaida in Iraq. The groups differ in important respects in terms of their aspirations and tactics, but they are fundamentally aligned with each other insofar as they both seek to use violence as a tool for achieving political ends. That's the very definition of terrorism, and al-Qaida and ISIS are examples of that without peer in this world. HOST: Great. Well, I can see we are getting close to running out of time, so I'd like to ask viewers if you have any last questions to submit, please get them in now. We have Ambassador Sales for a few more minutes, ready to answer your questions. Let me turn to another question about Venezuela from Duda Teixeira. He asks, simply: What are the terrorist groups that are being supported by Venezuela today? AMBASSADOR SALES: Well, we have a statutory framework in the United States that spells out what criteria must be met in order for a country, any country, to be named a state sponsor of terrorism. What it boils down to is the Secretary of State must make a determination that a particular country has repeatedly provided support to acts of international terrorism. Now, here at the State Department we're constantly monitoring any country around the world to assess whether there is reliable information that would indicate whether or not a country meets that statutory threshold. HOST: We have - going to turn to an advance question from reporter Carmen Chamorro. She's asking about violent social movements that are taking place in Europe right now in places like Spain and France. Do you think these show evidence of a specific pattern of terrorism or is it possible that there is a main power sponsoring these social movements? AMBASSADOR SALES: It's difficult to answer that question without knowing a bit more about the specific movements that the questioner has in mind. What I can tell you is that at the State Department, and throughout the U.S. Government's counterterrorism bureaucracy, what we're focused on as our top priority are transnational terrorism groups that pose a threat to the United States national security, and that pose a threat to the interests of our country, and that pose a threat to the safety and security of Americans abroad. HOST: We've talked about connections between terrorist groups and organized crime in a number of different countries. On that theme, we have a question from Carolina Rivera, who asks: Do you have any information that there are terrorist groups connected to organized crime, specifically in Mexico? AMBASSADOR SALES: Well I think I'm going to fall back on the answers that I've given to similar questions earlier. We know that terrorist groups, globally, are opportunistic. We know that they seek opportunities to work with organizations and individuals that will help them facilitate their terrorist agenda. They're looking for hired guns who will help them move money, move weapons, move people. We have to mindful of that threat, whether it's in our hemisphere or elsewhere around the world. HOST: And I think we have time for one last question, again, turning to Patricia Campos Mello from Folha de Sao Paulo. The Brazilian congress is debating new legislation for the prosecution of terrorism activity. Previously, this type of crime was not characterized in the penal code. What is the importance of anti-terrorism legislation and is the United States consulting with Brazilian authorities on that topic? AMBASSADOR SALES: It's really important for Brazil or any country to have on its books laws that are adequate to address the terrorist threat. Here in the United States, we have a law known as the material support statutes, which makes it a crime to provide weapons, money, expert advice and assistance, and various other types of support to terrorist organizations. That has enabled us to stop American citizens who might be tempted to go fight for ISIS, who might have made plans to go fight for ISIS, who might be raising money for Al-Qaida and so on. I think that kind of law is a model for what other countries can do to equip their prosecutors with the tools they need to address whether it's Hizballah, ISIS, Al-Qaida, or any other transnational terrorist group. HOST: Well, thank you sir. That is unfortunately all the time we have for today. To participants, thank you for your questions, and of course, thank you, Ambassador Sales, for joining us. To those who are watching online, let me remind you, if you would like to clip audio or video from today's program, we will be able to send you links to broadcast-quality files momentarily. We will also provide a transcript as soon as it is available in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. If you would like to receive any of these products, please remember to fill out the survey located on the "Polls" tab of this event page, or you can send an e-mail to [email protected] Thanks again for your participation and we hope that you can join us for another LiveAtState program very soon. 07K-Vail-6552882 07K-Vail
Subject: Organized crime; Sanctions; Terrorism; Threats; Counterterrorism; Transnationalism
Location: Iran Argentina Brazil United States--US Paraguay Western Hemisphere
Company / organization: Name: Department of State; NAICS: 928120
Publication title: Targeted News Service; Washington, D.C.
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Dec 14, 2018
Dateline: WASHINGTON
Publisher: Targeted News Service
Place of publication: Washington, D.C.
Country of publication: United States, Washington, D.C.
Publication subject: Public Administration
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2156452175
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2156452175?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright © Targeted News Service. All Rights Reserved.
Last updated: 2018-12-15
Database: US Southeast Newsstream
Document 459 of 474
China to Halt Punitive Tariffs on U.S. Cars, Auto Parts Starting Jan. 1; Georgia Officer Killed; Launches of Hedge Funds at Lowest Level in 18 Years; Software Failure Blamed For Missing Strzok-Page Texts
Publication info: Finance Wire ; Lanham [Lanham]14 Dec 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: MARIA BARTIROMO, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK ANCHOR: Hey there, ladies. Good morning to you. Happy Friday, and good morning, everyone, thanks for joining us. I'm Maria Bartiromo, and it is Friday, December 14th. Your top stories right now just before 6:00 a.m. on the East Coast. We are looking at another tough day for markets. Stocks in selloff mode right now. Weaker than expected economic data out of China overnight, as well as Europe this morning, weighing on investors. The Dow Jones Industrials Average right now down 225 points, that is down one percent on the Dow, one percent on the S&P, and better than one percent lower on the NASDAQ, down 73 points on the NASDAQ right now. And the markets yesterday, well, they were a little closed actually at the -- at the close. The declines we're seeing now put the Dow and the S&P 500 on track to erase the gain for the week. Yesterday, the Dow was up 70 points, the S&P was down a fraction, and the NASDAQ was down about 28 points at the close yesterday. Let's check the markets in Europe this morning on the heels of this selloff going on on Wall Street, the European Indices are down across the board. FT-100 down 56 points, almost one percent. CAC Quarante in Paris down 41 points, also almost one percent lower, and the DAX Index down about one percent, a hundred and two points lower on the DAX Index this morning. In Asia overnight, declines across the board. The Nikkei Average the worst performer, down better than two percent on the session overnight. Well, we're taking a look at China. Talking tough on China, President Trump touting his trade success in a new interview with Fox News' Harris Faulkner yesterday. Watch. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have great respect for President Xi. He's not a capitulator, but I will tell you this, China's economy, if it's in trouble, it's only in trouble because of me. (END VIDEO CLIP) BARTIROMO: Plus issuing a new threat to General Motors, President Trump slamming the automaker again after its layoff announcement. The stock is at $35.11 a share. As you can see, that chart is -- has been lowering over the last six months. We got the fallout coming up. Caffeine on demand, Starbucks expanding its delivery program across the country. What to expect when making your next order. And a view out of this world, Virgin Galactic's test flight reaches space, we have more of this unbelievable image later this hour coming up. All those stories coming up this Friday morning. And joining me to break it all down, FOX Business Network's Dagen McDowell. Third Seven Advisors' Market Strategist, Michael Block, and maslansky + partners President, Lee Carter, here once again this morning. Good to see you. LEE CARTER, PRESIDENT, MASLANSKY + PARTNERS: Great to be here. BARTIROMO: Welcome. Good to see you. MICHAEL BLOCK, MARKET STRATEGIST, THIRD SEVEN ADVISORS: Morning. Another interesting day in the markets. BARTIROMO: Yes. What's going on this morning from your standpoint, Michael? BLOCK: Well, look, you have this Chinese data overnight, retail sales in China making a 15-year low, industrial production, two and a half year-low, and in Europe, you have France according to the flash manufacturing PMI. They're back into contraction there. We've seen some of the protests over there, and, well, it's starting to manifest itself. Europe, China, not showing the growth that we have here. And here we are looking for a trade deal, so there -- there's a lot of growth slowdown happening worldwide. BARTIROMO: Over the years, we used to debate whether or not there's a coupling and decoupling in terms of the global economy. I don't think it's any -- anybody's guess that, yes, we are going to see weakness in Europe and Asia, it's going to hit the U.S. There's no decoupling going on. DAGEN MCDOWELL, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK ANCHOR: Right. That -- that's kind of one of the major of three things weighing on the market, that's one of the things that the weakness oversees pulls the U.S. down. If not into recession, very slow growth in the next year, number one, number two, what the Federal Reserve is doing to not just the economy, but to the markets in terms of the -- removing money from the financial system and the liquidity problems and volatility it creates there, and then number three, it is the trade deals, and do these headlines matter? Does the tough talk matter? Ultimately, at some point, the markets are going to need to have the administration put up and, well, stop talking. BARTIROMO: Yes. Well -- MCDOWELL: Or say something. BARTIROMO: Right, right, right. We're going to see how this impacts things, but the uncertainty of it in terms of what these tariffs mean for output -- input costs and profit margins is questionable, and that's what's weighing on this markets, as well as interest rates. We got a Fed meeting next week. We are expecting the rates to go higher again. Joining the conversation this morning is Tennessee Congressman and House Committee on Appropriations Member, Chuck Fleischmann, with us this morning. The CEO of Citizens Financial Group is back with us, Bruce Van Saun is here. BlackRock Global CIO of Fixed Income, Rick Rieder is here to walk us through what's happening in terms of interest rates, and Enseo Founder and CEO, Vanessa Ogle, is here as well. We got a big three hours. Don't miss a moment of it. Our top story, of course, this hour, is breaking news, and then China is halting punitive tariffs on U.S. autos, car parts starting January 1st. This is trade tensions are hanging over the economy, China is going to be stopping these punitive tariffs on U.S. cars and auto parts beginning January 1. This is just happening. The Wall Street Journal also conducted a survey finding that 47.3 percent of economists' view on the U.S.-China trade dispute as the top economic threat for 2019. President Trump sounding off on the trade tensions in an interview with FOX News' Harris Faulkner on "OUTNUMBERED OVERTIME", watch. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) TRUMP: I've established a fantastic relationship with President Xi who is the head of China, the absolute head of China and I think we're going to work a fantastic deal for both countries, but a fantastic deal for us, we're going to get China to open up. We have placed tremendous tariffs on China that when China sends things into America now, they're paying 25 percent interest on everything they send in. And we've only gone to a certain crunch, $250 billion. It's 25 on the first 50 billion -- HARRIS FAULKNER, FOX NEWS CHANNEL ANCHOR: Uh-hmm. TRUMP: And then it's 10 on the rest, but it goes to 25 on January 1st, but I released them of that temporarily until the end of the 90 days to see whether or not we can make a deal. But just one thing, after that, I have another -- additional $267 billion worth of taxes essentially to put on China, and they don't want that. That would be devastating for China. (END VIDEOTAPE) BARTIROMO: Well, this is a big fight between the U.S. and China. It is more than just trade, but now we see this news this morning, Michael, China halting punitive tariffs on cars, on U.S. cars, auto parts, your reaction to the President's comments and these developments coming out of China this morning. BLOCK: There's some positive developments. The tariffs are going lower, we've seen U.S. soybeans flowing back into China. We've seen those agreements made. The problem is the messaging's off here. This doesn't have to be a fight here. You know, they're progress, and everyone wants the same thing, we want the best deal possible from the American vantage point. But we also -- China wants to invest in the United States. China wants free trade. The data that we'd cited at the top of the show, which was terrible overnight, they need to do something there. They have a credit mess, they have an emerging middle class. Xi has a lot of constituents here. Look -- and President Trump is going to engage in some brinksmanship here and I understand that, there's a method to the madness, but there, you know, there needs to be this focus on positivity. Markets will like that. BARTIROMO: Yes. BLOCK: Economic confidence will grow if the message is positive. And, you know, earlier this week, I -- BARTIROMO: Well, what's positive about China stealing I.P. from us for decades? BLOCK: Well, I'm not saying -- BARTIROMO: What's China -- what's positive about China not opening up its markets? BLOCK: That's not -- BARTIROMO: These are -- these are serious issues. BLOCK: No, those are serious issues, but, A, they want to open up the markets, and B, we can stay positive but say we're also not going to roll over and let I.P. theft happen. There -- there's -- these are all factors that go into the whole equation. MCDOWELL: this -- BLOCK: But it doesn't have to be confrontational, it's more matter of fact of, like, you're going to shut down this I.P. theft, this is how we're going to enforce it, and this is -- this is part of the deal. MCDOWELL: Well, I just want to point out -- CARTER: This -- MCDOWELL: I just want to point out really quickly, you said it doesn't have to be confrontational but you're talking about the President of the United States who is confrontational, that's his nature. CARTER: Right. BLOCK: Yes. That's fine. MCDOWELL: And so I just always focus on people get so upset about the messaging, no offense, Mike Block -- BLOCK: I know. No. MCDOWELL: -- with all due respect, but it -- the President's going to message the way that he messages. CARTER: Right. MCDOWELL: Lee. CARTER: But I was going to talk about -- MCDOWELL: I didn't mean to interrupt. CARTER: No, but I was going to talk about that, too. This President is a confrontational messenger, especially on trade. He loves to talk tough, he -- and he is going to fight. The thing that I find fascinating is this is in a different model than we have seen in any of the other trade deals that he has made. And so fact that people are so nervous about this one is fascinating to me because he has made deals doing -- using the same model and I think he's confident using the same model. I know China's very different. But I'm curious what it's going to take for the markets to feel less anxiety, because people trusted that he was going to get these other deals done. They're not necessarily trusting that it's going to get this deal done. I want to know what's so different this time. BARTIROMO: I think he needs to see concrete changes out of -- out of Beijing. And, you know, you're all saying how confrontational he is with China, good. I'm glad -- MCDOWELL: Right. BARTIROMO: -- he's confrontational with China. I mean that -- this is a different situation than the steel and aluminum tariffs across the world with our -- against our friends. But China, they have been a bad actor, and this is not just an economic story, this is much more than trade. BLOCK: It's -- MCDOWELL: I -- BLOCK: Yes. BARTIROMO: They just got behind Boeing. They we wanted to surveil Boeing with this most recent deal. They're behind the hack at Marriott. I mean these are serious issues, so. MCDOWELL: Which, by the way -- BLOCK: True. MCDOWELL: -- I woke up this morning to a fraud alert from American Express and they suggested it's because of the Marriott hack, so somebody had stolen my credit card. So -- BLOCK: Wow. MCDOWELL: -- in terms of the impact on individual's -- individual lives in this country, it's hitting home. BARTIROMO: Right. MCDOWELL: And nobody knows whether it was China exactly, but that credit card was out there and somebody stole it to buy themselves some lovely massages over Christmas. But to that point -- BARTIROMO: Oh my God. BLOCK: Really? MCDOWELL: But in terms of the -- in terms of the messaging and the confrontational nature, I do think what -- the President has the right and the personality to communicate with the American people and the rest of the world the way that he does. I think he starts to get into difficult territory where people in the administration try to be President Trump -- BARTIROMO: Yes. MCDOWELL: -- in terms of the way -- CARTER: That's fair. MCDOWELL: -- that they're speaking, in terms of talking about the market, talking about interest rates -- BARTIROMO: Yes. MCDOWELL: -- I think that that doesn't help in terms of what you're hearing out of the White House. BARTIROMO: Yes. MCDOWELL: And I've said that before. BLOCK: But, look -- BARTIROMO: Yes, you have. BLOCK: -- I'm not President Trump either, maybe you should consider me, I'm not -- I'm not wearing white, it's after Labor Day, but maybe I'm like the little angel sitting on his shoulder. So, maybe that's my role all of a sudden, BARTIROMO: This is new information this morning, what are your thoughts of this? China halting additional tariffs on U.S.-made cars. We're are seeing little bits of progress and I don't know if we should be believing it, buying into it, or not, like yesterday with The Journal's story that they want to open up markets, that they want to get -- MCDOWELL: Right. BARTIROMO: -- a handle on I.P. MCDOWELL: Well, The Journal reported this earlier in the week. Not yesterday, but two or three days ago, that China would lower the punitive tariffs. We should point out that the tariffs earlier this year started at 25 percent, a 25-percnet import tariff on American manufactured automobiles. It went to 15 percent, and then when the trade fight with the U.S. heated up during the summer. It went to 40, so it looks like that they're just reducing it back to the 15 percent was the report that I read earlier. BLOCK: Right. MCDOWELL: But -- so this is just a cooling of tensions -- BARTIROMO: Right. And -- MCDOWELL: -- if you will. BARTIROMO: And in the same vein, yesterday we've reported that was going to China buy all those soybeans, right? BLOCK: Yes. MCDOWELL: Yes. BARTIROMO: And then there was a $1.2 trillion in agricultural purchases overall. Well, if they're going to buy those soybeans, they're just going back to what they were buying before they started to pull in. So, again, we are basically at the beginning once again. This is not new that they are buying these soybeans. CARTER: But this is what's so interesting to me, is that there is progress, or are these little tealeaves, so to speak, that you're seeing that there's some things that are positive, and the markets aren't necessarily responding and people are still nervous, saying this is the number one concern. I mean the President talked tough to Canada, he talked tough to Mexico, deals got made. He's talking tough to China and deals are starting to happen. BARTIROMO: Yes. CARTER: So I'm just curious when is that going to take hold? BLOCK: It's working. I think a lot of what's going on in the markets right now is pain. I know we want to talk about G.M. G.M.'s stock not doing well. But look what stock is doing well, Tesla. What's going on there? I'm going to argue that it's market dynamics. There's a lot of pain out there in the markets, we're seeing more of that this morning. When a stock like Tesla's going up and a stock like G.M.is not going up, it tells me that there's a lot of dysfunction. MCDOWELL: Or the -- BLOCK: It means the (INAUDIBLE) are being squeezed, lungs are getting hurt, this is -- this is little -- this is -- MCDOWELL: Or the invest -- BLOCK: -- dirty stock market stuff. MCDOWELL: Or that investors are smoking what Elon Musk has been smoking. BARTIROMO: Yes. I'm with you. MCDOWELL: I mean that's possible. BARTIROMO: All of them? BLOCK: It's possible. BARTIROMO: I'm with you. What -- MCDOWELL: It -- BARTIROMO: Yes. MCDOWELL: In terms of euphoria around that stock. BARTIROMO: Right. MCDOWELL: Euphoria is a drug, you know what I mean? You know, that -- the market euphoria is like a drug. BARTIROMO: I mean is Tesla -- BLOCK: I'm sticking with pain. BARTIROMO: Has tesla made any money? I mean is that -- MCDOWELL: They turned -- they turned -- they turned a profit the most recent quarter and they have been hitting their production numbers on the Model 3. BARTIROMO: Because the valuation, I know, is way up there. BLOCK: All right. Well, let me -- let me say, if so, it's because Elon Musk has stopped with the distractions and he's focused. BARTIROMO: Uh-hmm. MCDOWELL: Yes. BLOCK: What does that tell you? BARTIROMO: Meanwhile, the President in that interview yesterday made it clear about how he feels and looks at General Motors, watch this. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: They've changed the whole model of General Motors. They're going to all-electric. All-electric's not going to work. I don't run a car company, but all-electric is not going to work. It's wonderful to have it as a percentage of your cars, but going into this model that she's doing, I think, is a mistake. But to tell me a couple of weeks before Christmas that she's going to close in Ohio and Michigan, not acceptable to me and she's either going to open fast or somebody else is going to go in, but General Motors is not going to be treated well. (END VIDEO CLIP) BARTIROMO: Not going to be treated well. Now they did get a huge bailout, Dagen, you know. MCDOWELL: And they still owe the U.S. treasury $11.2 billion, that's what the U.S. taxpayer lost on that deal. This is -- this is the problem with bailouts, it opens you up to criticism, but I'll point out to President Trump, if G.M. doesn't make these changes, and it's not just about electric vehicles, it's about stopping making small cars like the Impala that people aren't buying, it's focusing on the SUV's and pickup trucks, by the way, which is a subsidized vehicle in this country because we have 25 percent import tariffs on light trucks. So, that's a subsidy for all the U.S. automakers. But just let them operate the business, you want them to be healthy. Otherwise, they're going to come asking for another bailout down the road. BARTIROMO: That's right. That's right. They should be able to operate the business the way they want. And by the way, you stated they're not buying small cars, that's right. You know what else they're not buying? Electric cars. People want big SUV's. That is what is selling. MCDOWELL: Right. BARTIROMO: This has been the case for a while, even with oil where it is. MCDOWELL: Absolutely, and I'll point out coming up what's going on in China with electric vehicles. It's an oversupply that they're trying to rectify as part of the change in policy in China. BARTIROMO: All right. We will take a short break. When we come back, Starbucks right at your door. The coffee giant hoping to boost sales with the new delivery service, we've got those details right after this break. And then a billion dollar view, check this out, how Virgin Galactic's launch brings the U.S. one step closer to space tourism and beyond. Back in a moment. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Markets are lower this morning. Take a look. The Dow Industrials right now down better than 200 points. The S&P is down 21 and the NASDAQ down 67 points. You know that Europe yesterday lowered its targets on economic growth with the Mario Draghi news conference. There's that. And we had weaker than expected economic data out of China overnight. Meanwhile, there's this, a police officer gunned down in Georgia. Cheryl Casone with the details now in headlines, Cheryl. CHERYL CASONE, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK ANCHOR: Yes, Maria. The police officer was shot and killed when a routine traffic stop turned violent. The suspect shot the officer in the head while he ran from this car. This happened in Dekalb County, Georgia. He also shot and wounded the officer's K9 before being killed in a shootout with police himself. The fallen officer was with the department for less than two years. His brothers in blue in tears outside of the hospital. This is the 46th officer shot and killed in the line of duty this year. Well, let's head overseas, the French Government reportedly now looking for a new CEO to replace Carlos Ghosn after he was indicted in Japan for underestimating his compensation. Renault's board is resisting pressure, though, to fire Ghosn. Ghosn who was dismissed as Chairman of Nissan Motors, Renault's partner, was arrested last month. He's charged with underreporting 43 million in income. Shares of Renault down 36 percent so far this year. A lot of layers to this story we're still following for you. Well, starting early next year, Starbucks is going to be offering delivery. About 2,000 Starbucks stores across the country are going to partner with Uber Eats to bring a cup of Joe or your latte to your doorsteps. The new plan outlined to investors yesterday here in New York, part of a broader plan to reach more customers. Taking a look at shares of Starbucks, trading lower in the premarket, down more than three percent. We're watching a broader market selloff right now. Well, Costco sales numbers surged in the last quarter, but it still fell short of expectations, same-store sales grew 8.8 percent, traffic growth's only five percent, but sales totaled 33.3 billion, that fell about three billion below the expectation, so the stock is down about three percent overnight. Up 22 percent so far of the year, but the stock is under pressure this morning. And those are your headlines, Maria. Back to you. BARTIROMO: All right, Cheryl. Thank you so much. CASONE: Uh-hmm. BARTIROMO: That chart of Costco look -- looks good. Starbucks delivery, good move. CARTER: It's -- I'm ready for it right now. Can it come right now? I need a caffeine. BARTIROMO: Yes. They need to deliver it to the set. CARTER: Exactly. I'm waiting. I think it is a good move. I mean everything is becoming more and more convenient, people are loving to get things delivered, don't want to get out, why not, see how it goes for them. BARTIROMO: Uh-hmm. MCDOWELL: And Amazon at Whole Foods is kind of separating itself from Instacart, that company, they're going to do their own delivery. I've used Instacart. It's not great, so I think that if Whole Foods takes charge of its own delivery, that's probably better for them, I think. BARTIROMO: And they could because Amazon acquired Whole Foods -- MCDOWELL: Right. BARTIROMO: -- and they've got their own delivery service. MCDOWELL: Right. BARTIROMO: And we'll take a break. When we come back, software failure, the DOJ'S deflection on why so many of Peter Strzok and Lisa Page's text messages went missing. Wait until you hear this excuse. Then cash crash, a money spill on a New Jersey highway, causing a nightmare during rush hour. Take a look at these pictures, we're going to tell you what happened when the truck unloaded all those cash on the ground, stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: Hopefully, the fed won't be raising interest rates anymore because if you compare us to -- FAULKNER: Uh-hmm. TRUMP: -- as an example, President Obama, he had zero interest rates. Anybody can make money with zero interest rates. I'm almost at a normalized interest rate and yet our economy is soaring, our jobs are soaring, our businesses are doing tremendously. (END VIDEO CLIP) BARTIROMO: That was President Trump reiterating his stance on the Federal Reserve and interest rates to FOX News's Harris Faulkner yesterday. The Central Bank holding its last meeting of the year next week. We are expecting rates to go higher again at the meeting. Joining us right now is Florida Bankers Association President and CEO, Alex Sanchez. Alex, good to see you. ALEX SANCHEZ, PRESIDENT & CEO, FLORIDA BANKERS ASSOCIATION: Maria, thank you for having me. BARTIROMO: Are you expecting the Fed to raise rates and what's the impact from your standpoint on the smaller and regional banks? SANCHEZ: I think that, Maria, I think the Fed is going to slow down now to wait and see to see how the economy's doing as we head into 2019, so I think -- in talking to my bankers, I think there will be a slowdown in that process. BARTIROMO: Because you think the economy is slowing? SANCHEZ: Yes, I think so. I think so. BLOCK: You know -- CARTER: I think they're not going to announce one right now. You think it'll slowdown before or after this next -- SANCHEZ: I think that -- that's a difficult one. CARTER: OK. SANCHEZ: That's going to be a difficult one, Lee, but I think the, you know, China, we obviously are waiting for a deal to be made with China. I think that's going to help confidence again. I think people are on pins and needles right now to see -- and the President's doing the right thing. This is something that needed to be done years ago, but, you know, people are on pins and needles waiting for that agreement to be done. And so I think the Fed is going to, you know, see how the global economy's doing and how that impacts our country. BLOCK: You know, Alex, earlier this year, Wells Fargo, over the summer, they -- during earnings, they commented that there's a lot of competition amongst banks in commercial lending. And that was making, you know, spreads tighten up a little, but are you still seeing banks competing a lot for commercial loans? And, you know, if not, it sounds like there might be a slowdown. What can -- what can, you know, be done to really encourage more borrowing frankly to get the economy going? SANCHEZ: I think, you know, look, the banks are in the business of lending. They want to lend, if they don't lend, they don't eat. BLOCK: Right. SANCHEZ: So we want to lend, but to the right customer who has the right financials who can repay, obviously. We certainly don't want to get back into an '08 situation, so it's a very competitive environment, even with the -- we're at a historical low in the number of banks in our country, and I think that's an issue that we should be all concerned about. We're down to 5,000 or so banks from -- BARTIROMO: Down from like nine, right? SANCHEZ: Right. And then down from 19 20 years ago, so I think -- we're not seeing the start-up banks like we used to. We have four in Florida, so that's a positive, where investors are coming back in and investing in a community bank to grow it and to serve the communities that they're in. But we -- Chairman McWilliams of the FDIC just came out last week and said she's very concerned that there's not enough new community banks being put up in the country. And so I think Congress needs to start looking at these issues along with many issues. BARTIROMO: Well, we've got a new Congress now -- in the New Year, Congresswoman Maxine Waters set to take over as Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee in the New Congress. What do you think her agenda will be? What are your expectations here? SANCHEZ: Well, Maria, look, she's a -- she's been a long-time member of Congress and she's got two routes to go, she either uses her subpoena powers to investigate the President and the -- and different industries, or she will look at ways to improve this economy, to keep this economy strong for -- not only for her constituents, but all Americans and I think there's a lot to look at there -- BARTIROMO: Uh-hmm. SANCHEZ: -- if you're Chair Maxine Waters, like extending community reinvestment to credit unions who do not reinvest back in the -- in the communities like banks do. Looking at BSA/AML Reform on a bipartisan basis last week, Senators Cotton and Warner led an effort of bipartisan senators. So, look at reforming that system that hasn't been looked at since early 170s. BARTIROMO: Uh-hmm. SANCHEZ: Bankers are spending a lot of money being the police enforcement agency for our government and I rather see our banks redeploy those assets to your point because back into the economy, for every 100,000 -- BARTIROMO: But is that the reality of it? I mean that's -- is that what she's going to do? I mean what are your expectations in terms of what she's going to do? SANCHEZ: I think, hopefully, if the senate, with senator -- a Democratic like Senator Warner and others who are looking at this issue that will help the chair, you know, enforce her hand to look at issues to follow her democratic colleagues. There's so much positive that we need to do to help the economy. For every $100,000 our banks spend on compliance cost, it's $1 million less we lend in the community. So, she needs to look at issues like that, look at issues like low-income housing and look at all the things our banks are doing to promote that. I know that's an important issue for her. BARTIROMO: Uh-hmm. SANCHEZ: She needs to look at the number of community banks that we have at the lowest point in our nation's history. She needs to look at ways to work with Chairman McWilliams at the FDIC to increase that number. So, there's so much to do. (INAUDIBLE) banking, Maria. BARTIROMO: Yes. SANCHEZ: That's a security issue. Right now, 33 states have legalized marijuana one way, shape, or form and they cannot get banking services, they have former military veterans guarding warehouses with moneys from the floor to the -- to the ceiling because they cannot get banking services. BARTIROMO: Wow. SANCHEZ: So we need to look at issues like that. There's a full agenda that Maxine Waters and I hope she chooses to road to -- to look at ways to increase the economic activity of our country. BARTIROMO: We'll see about that. Alex, it's good to see you. Thanks so much. SANCHEZ: Thank you, Maria. BARTIROMO: Alex Sanchez joining us there. Coming up later this morning, the CEO of Citizens Financial Group, Bruce Van Saun is with us. Talk about lending and the overall economy with him. So, stay with us for that, first pay up, the artist behind mega hit Blurred Lines forcing to pay Marvin Gaye's family over copyright infringement, we will tell you how much. Plus what a view, Virgin Galactic taking an incredible spaceflight bringing the United States that much closer to space tourism, back in a moment. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: how much. Plus, what a view, Virgin Galactic taking an incredible space flight, bringing the United States that much closer to space tourism, back in a moment. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back, everybody, good Friday morning, thanks so much for joining us, I'm Maria Bartiromo, and it is Friday, December 14th, your top stories right now, 6:33 a.m. on the East Coast. The bears are up early this morning, take a look. Markets are, once again, under selling pressure this morning, down 217 points on the Dow Jones Industrial Average, down 23 on the S&P, both down almost one percent. NASDAQ down better than one percent, at 73 points lower on the NASDAQ. This, on top of a mixed story yesterday, the Dow Industrials were up 70 points, but the S&P was down a fraction, and the NASDAQ gave up about 28 points on the session, yesterday, at the close. In Europe this morning, the indices are lower. FT 100 down 56 points, the CAC Quarante is down 50, better than one percent, and the DAX Index, down 112, also down one percent. Asian markets, overnight, down across the board and the worst performer was Japan, as you can see. Breaking news this morning, China is set to halt punitive tariffs on U.S. autos and car parts, beginning on January 1st. Plus, texting scandal, the Department of Justice report says a technical glitch caused texts between ex-FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, to go missing, details coming up. Plus, a cash grab, drivers on a New Jersey highway were scrambling to get as much as they can, as an armored truck spilled money during rush hour, on the road, incredible pictures. Plus, heading to the final frontier, a look at the future of tourism, as Virgin Galactic hits a new milestone in space travel. All those stories coming up this morning, but first, our top story right now, and that is markets in focus, Futures indicating a selloff at the start of trading this morning, over more uncertainty over government shutdown and the U.S.-China trade. We, of course, have the Federal Reserve meeting on interest rates next week, and investors are taking their money out right now. Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, says equity funds saw $27.6 billion of outflows, in the week that ended December 12th. According to Bank of America's data, that is the second largest weekly exit on record. Joining us right now is Optimal Capital, Director of Strategy and Market Analyst, Frances Newton Stacey, along with Alpha Innovations President and CEO, Larry Newhook. Good to see you both. Thanks so much for joining us. LAWRENCE NEWHOOK, PRESIDENT & CEO, ALPHA INNOVATIONS: Thanks for having me. BARTIROMO: Your reaction to this volatility in the market, Frances. FRANCES NEWTON STACEY, DIRECTOR OF STRATEGY, OPTIMAL CAPITAL: Yes, certainly, the fed is tightening, and so, the overall aggregate money supply is reducing and traders are no longer fulfilling all of the areas. They're rotating into things that they think that they're going to do well. And there are just areas that have sold off, so -- BARTIROMO: What do you think? STACEY: What do I think? I think that if the fed continues to tighten throughout the next year, I think we could be in a bear market, because I think it's going to put pressure on the debt markets. We have record amounts of leverage, everywhere, in the system, specifically subprime autos, specifically student loans, and credit card debt, which is already starting to default. And you raise those interest rates and they're quarter points, but over the large amount of money, in the system, after quantitative easing, that's a lot, and it puts pressure on the debt system, so we're going to see some credit problems. We have 9 trillion outstanding in corporate bonds. BARTIROMO: Larry, are you also a seller? NEWHOOK: Not at this stage. I think we're -- we agree -- we are seeing some rotation. We've seen money going back into E.M., which has been the real laagered here. And so, I think this is part of the normal rotation. We've got a lot of volatility that, you know, have investors nervous in that, so I think this is quite normal and quite expected. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So Larry, your firm's called Alpha Innovations, which has me asking, where is the Alpha going to be in 2019, where can investors go for the outperformance? You just mentioned the merging markets. Is that an area you are focused on and what else? NEWHOOK: Sure, if you at, you know, where Alpha is not, these days. It's very hard to pick -- generate Alpha, you know, with that -- you know, as a long-short generalist, you're trading U.S. large caps. It's very, very difficult. You have a lot of the big players competing with each other, trying to mind (INAUDIBLE) Alpha, and that's very difficult. E.M., as you mentioned, certainly, there's much more opportunities there. They're more efficient and there's been a real pullback from, you know -- from those markets. So, E.M. is certainly one that I would be looking at if I was in -- looking at equity strategies for sure. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's the catalyst there for E.M.? You know, what countries can lead, is it China, is it Brazil, is it Mexico, what else? NEWHOOK: I think it's -- I think more the Latin American countries versus China, at this stage. MCDOWELL: I want Frances, I want to ask you, though, what you're talking about the Federal Reserve, the markets have already, basically, told the fed, don't keep hiking interest rates every quarter next year. When the difference between the two-year yield and the 10-year yield got down to narrowest level, in what, seven years? I think it got down to 11 basis points or 0.11 percentage points. The market -- and then, the fed, basically, places the story in The Wall Street Journal, and says, wait, wait, wait, we're taking await -- we are going -- we're going to look at a wait-and-see approach next year. The market is already right in terms of stabilized, if you look at what's going on in treasuries in the last week. So, is that really a worry at this point, because the fed -- it's pretty clear that after the rate hike next week, which is still expected, some people put the odds at 50 percent, right, exactly. STACEY: I think it's still expected, yes. MCDOWELL: But, next year, it looks like that worry is certainly on the sidelines, if not wiped away. STACEY: So, remains to be seen. And I think, with quantitative easing, we've never actually unloaded this much money off of the balanced sheets, so we're a little bit in unprecedented times when it comes to normal tightening cycles. And the other thing is -- MCDOWELL: Which I've said on the show all year long. BARTIROMO: Yes. MCDOWELL: That you don't know what the impact will be because you're unwinding something that we've never seen before. STACEY: Totally. BARTIROMO: Fifty billion a month. STACEY: And the most interesting thing about it, is they're looking at unemployment and jobs, and those are lagging indicators. So what they are doing is reducing the money supply, which is a leading indicator. And then, those are lagging indicators. So, it takes a little while for things to filter through the system before you actually see the effects. Which is why, sometimes, they get caught behind or off guard, as we've seen in the past. BARTIROMO: So, you've got 50 percent of your money in stocks, and then 50 percent in alternatives. Talk to us about alternatives because hedge funds, for one -- STACEY: Yes. BARTIROMO: According to hedge fund research, the number of new hedge funds, launched, is at its lowest level in 18 years. The number of funds being liquidated, also declining. However, we know that hedge funds have not done well, where are you in terms of alternatives? STACEY: So, alternatives, we do direct private equity, we do hedge funds. We're very selective with the hedge funds. I mean, obviously, we have some exposure to EQR, Millennium, Renaissance, Paloma. Paloma's one of our favorites. It's been around for 35 years and has great performance. So, there are -- there are winners and losers in hedge funds. I think the reason that the hedge fund industry is suffering in general, is the fee compression. But, I think hedge funds will make a comeback, because I think active management during heightened volatility is going to favor passive. And if you saw the volatility trade in February, some of the "ETFs" that are supposed to be Voltrades or inverse, actually failed, because the (INAUDIBLE) writers don't let you, kind of, have human intervention. So, I think, as volatility rises, hedge funds are going to come into favor. BARTIROMO: And your equity part of the portfolio is what, not ETFs? STACEY: There are few ETFs, but mostly mutual funds that represent like all of the major sectors. You know, our U.S. equities, there are only about five percent of our portfolio right now, so we're very underweight U.S. equities. BARTIROMO: So, what do you do on a day like today, when the market is down so much? Are you a seller right now? STACEY: We have sold a lot already. And so, we're waiting to get back in, obviously. There's a lot selling because of the taxes, also, at the end of the year. So, we're looking for a little bit of a bounce in January. I see a little bit of a bottom building, for a little bit of a -- potentially, a bear market rally. But if we are in a bear market, it's really determined by the fed. BARTIROMO: Yes. Larry, are there opportunities, right now, with valuations having come down the way they are, where would you be putting your bets? NEWHOOK: Right now, we're -- what hedge funds should be doing is actually, you know, secure -- focusing on security selection and not taking market bets, especially at this point, in the cycle. If you look at where -- a lot of hedge funds have done really poorly this year is because of they've had a lot of beta in their portfolios. And if you strip away, you know, the beta that's in these portfolios -- MCDOWELL: What does that mean? NEWHOOK: Sorry, it means the market exposure. So, even though you think a hedge fund is hedge, most of the -- most hedge funds are not. And that, you know, they have been writing this tail-wind of market exposure for the past several years. Now, they've paid that back or their investors have paid that back in October and in November. So, I think that the managers (INAUDIBLE) going to do well in this upcoming market, are the ones that will -- that are hedge -- that, you know, aren't taking systematic risks in their portfolios and focusing on what they do best, which is security selection. BARTIROMO: All right. We will leave it there. Frances, Larry, good to see you both. NEWHOOK: Thank you. STACEY: Thank you. BARTIROMO: Thank you so much, Frances Newton Stacey, Larry Newhook. Coming up, the case of the missing texts, more excuses out of the Justice Department, now they're blaming a glitch for losing texts from Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, we've got the details there. Then, a real cash lane, literally, an early morning money spill on a New Jersey highway, causing a nightmare for commuters, everybody wanted to stop their cars and grab the dollar bills. Back in a moment, right here. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Now, the big selloff coming this morning at the open. Meanwhile, get this, the Justice Department is now blaming a software hiccup for the missing text messages sent between former anti-Trump officials Lisa Page and Peter Strzok, Cheryl Casone with the details there, Cheryl. CASONE: Yes. This new report says that a technical glitch prevented investigators from discovering text messages between former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, says government phones given to them were wiped out, once Strzok was fired from working on the Russia probe. And the Special Counsel claims there were no substantial text messages on the phone, before it was reset separately. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are investigating whether President Trump's 2017 inaugural committee misspent some of the record $107 million it raised from donations. This was a big report on The Wall Street Journal that came out yesterday. They're reporting investigators are examining whether some of the committee's top donors gave money in exchange for access to the incoming Trump administration, which could be a violation of federal corruption laws. Now, the White House says it has no knowledge of the investigation, we'll keep you posted. Well, this was interesting, chaos in a New Jersey highway yesterday, after cash spilled out of a security truck, drivers jumping out of their cars. Yes, grabbed handfuls of bills. This resulted in multiple accidents, Maria, and heavy traffic, during yesterday's morning commute. This was the scene, near MetLife Stadium, right outside of New York City. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ROBIN THICKE, SINGER: Hey, hey, hey. That man is not your maker. And that's why I'm going to take a good girl. I know you want it. (END VIDEO CLIP) CASONE: Yes, they weren't dancing to this New Jersey, yesterday. Remember the copyright infringement case we told you about between Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines and Marvin Gaye's (INAUDIBLE) well, the thing is finally over. A judge ruling Thicke and co-writer Pharrell Williams must pay Gaye's family, $5 million, 2 million less, than they won at trial, back in 2015. The Gaye's family is going to also earn half of Blurred Lines' royalties, in the future. And I've got one more thing for you, Maria, Virgin Galactic taking a big step toward space tourism with the historic test flight yesterday. The spaceship climbed more than 50 miles above California's Mojave Desert, touching the edge of space. Virgin Galactic, now, the first U.S. company to send humans to space without any support from a government space agency. Founder, Richard Branson, declared that the pilot's (INAUDIBLE) this is kind of cool, space is Virgin territory, I kind of like that. And Maria, I will say, there are -- there are some chatter on Twitter about that New Jersey cash crash. BARTIROMO: Yes. CASONE: That folks are going to be in trouble if they don't return the money. BARTIROMO: Wow. CASONE: And police have already put out alert if you have any information about the folks that were seen on the road. Please contact us. I wonder what they are going to ask. BARTIROMO: And there must be cameras around in terms of checking out their license plates. CASONE: Yes, I mean, multiple accidents. Come on, folks in New Jersey, what were you thinking? MCDOWELL: Yes, thanks for reinforcing the national attitude toward people in Jersey, D-U-M-B, stupid, get back in your car. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As we -- as we call in New Jersey, Thursday. BARTIROMO: All right. Coming up (INAUDIBLE) two Marvel movies hitting the silver screen, this weekend, the first since the passing of Marvel legend, Stan Lee, a full box office report, next up. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) SHAMEIK MOORE, ACTOR, MILES MORALES (voice): If I don't destroy the collider, none of us will have a home to go home to. JAKE JOHNSON, ACTOR, PETER PARKER (voice): Remember what makes you different, is what makes you Spider-Man. MOORE: Officer, I love you. BRIAN TYREE HENRY, ACTOR, JEFFERSON DAVIS (voice): Wait, what? (END VIDEO CLIP) BARTIROMO: That was a clip of the new comic book blockbuster, Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse. The animated take on Marvel's web-slinging hero, swings into theaters today. And joining me right now is in the FOX White House, Michael Tammero. You saw this animated -- MICHAEL TAMMERO, FOX NEWS HOST AND SVP OF MARKETING: Yes. Hello Maria. BARTIROMO: Hello Michael. TAMMERO: A different take on the Spider-Man franchise. BARTIROMO: Did you like it? TAMMERO: The audiences are really going to love it. Visually, it's captivating. You know, these movies have grossed up to about $2 billion, all the different various Spider-Man combinations combined. BARTIROMO: Wow. TAMMERO: So, this looks probably due about $30 million at the box office, this weekend, coming at number one. BARTIROMO: I'm a fan. I'm a fan. I like the idea that it's a Spider- Verse. That opens you up to a whole universe of Spider-Men and women. TAMMERO: Yes. And there's a lot of spider people in this movie. BARTIROMO: Is that right? So, you liked it? TAMMERO: Yes, so, something a little different. BARTIROMO: Thumbs up on it. TAMMERO: Thumbs up. BARTIROMO: All right. Once Upon A Deadpool, a PG-13 recut of Deadpool 2, also in theaters, your take on this? TAMMERO: I loved this movie when it first came out. I love the R-rated version. But this, you know, Ryan Reynolds is looking to sort of expand his audience in this movie, so they're re-releasing it as a P.G. version of it, definitely fun, new footage. So, if you've seen the original, you will want to see this one, again, as well. BARTIROMO: And we should say, these are the first Marvel films released since the passing of Stan Lee. TAMMERO: About a month since he's passed, and he was -- Stan Lee wasn't in the original Deadpool 2. They did edit him into this one, very touching tribute post credits and audiences will want to stick around to see at the very end. BARTIROMO: Do you think that impacts people going to see them because he just passed? TAMMERO: Definitely. BARTIROMO: Yes. TAMMERO: I mean, he's the -- he's the one who made it all possible, if you think about it. BARTIROMO: An icon. TAMMERO: He's an icon, yes, absolutely. BARTIROMO: All right. Also opening this weekend is The Mule, starring Clint Eastwood and Bradley Cooper. TAMMERO: Yes. BARTIROMO: I'm excited to see Bradley Cooper again. There's a lot of buzz around this film. Does it live up to the hype? TAMMERO: I haven't seen this one yet, but I cannot wait to see it. I just had this conversation with Bill Hemmer. Clint Eastwood is 88 years old. I'm told this is probably some of his best work to date, he directs and stars in this movie. You know, I remember him just telling me, I think, back in 2012 or '16, for American Sniper. He was retiring. He said anything but (INAUDIBLE) I feel like there's a new movie every year. So, he is an American treasure. Savor every moment (INAUDIBLE) he's fantastic. BARTIROMO: He really is. The post-apocalyptic adventure, Mortal Engines, also hitting theaters, expectations, this is a blockbuster, right? TAMMERO: It'll come in, probably, around $10 million. BARTIROMO: OK. TAMMERO: It's one of these based on the why novel, Universal. BARTIROMO: I mean, you've got some highly-anticipated movies, though. They're making their debuts as they always do at the end of the year -- TAMMERO: Christmas. BARTIROMO: -- around Christmas, like -- TAMMERO: Yes. BARTIROMO: -- Aquaman, Mary Poppins Returns, Bumble Bee, Welcome to Marwen -- TAMMERO: Pick one. BARTIROMO: Yes. TAMMERO: I don't know where to start. I mean, this 2018 is shaping up to be the best box office in American history, surpassing 2016's record of 20 -- $11.4 billion. And I have to say, since I've been doing this, it's probably the best year, in terms of covering movies. The movies have been so good. BARTIROMO: They've been -- they've been really good. TAMMERO: Right out of the gate with Black Panther in January, you know, breaking all sorts of records and D.C. is number one at the box office this year. BARTIROMO: But, you know what else I think? I think the movie theaters are also doing their fair share, in other words, they've gotten better. TAMMERO: Yes. BARTIROMO: Even I went out to the movies. I stopped going to the movies because they were disgusting. TAMMERO: And that's the key, Maria Bartiromo. BARTIROMO: Yes, they helped -- TAMMERO: The sales are not only up, but attendance is up, more people are going to the theaters than ever before. BARTIROMO: Yes, good stuff. TAMMERO: That's the big take away. BARTIROMO: The movie theater, I saw A Star Is Born, gorgeous. TAMMERO: Love. BARTIROMO: Love. TAMMERO: Love. BARTIROMO: Good to see you. TAMMERO: Good to see you. BARTIROMO: Michael Tammero. Still ahead, the seat on the trading floor, get this, New York Stock Exchange executives are being accused of using fake traders to impress the Snap CEO. They wanted to look like more people were on the floor, next hour, here. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) END END [Copy: Content and Programming Copyright 2018 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2018 ASC Services II Media, LLC. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of ASC Services II Media, LLC. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.] [Show: MORNINGS WITH MARIA] [Date: December 14, 2018] [Time: 07:00:00] [Tran: 121402cb.231] [Type: SHOW] [Head: Border Funding Battle; Strasbourg Shooter Killed; Oprah Winfrey Slims Down as Weight Watchers Spokesperson] [Sect: News; Domestic/News; International] [Byline: Maria Bartiromo, Dagen McDowell, Cheryl Casone, Lauren Simonetti] [Guest: Lee Carter, Michael Block, Chuck Fleischmann] [Spec: Budget; Immigration; Congress; Women; Terrorism; Lifestyle] (COMMERCIAL BREAK) MARIA BARTIROMO, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK ANCHOR: Welcome back. Good Friday morning, everybody. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Maria Bartiromo. And it is Friday, December 14th. Your top stories right now at 7:00 a.m. on the East Coast. Stocks are selling off again this morning, take a look. Weaker than expected economic data out of China overnight, and uncertainty over Europe's economy weighing on investors this morning. Futures indicating a decline at the start of trading of 188 points, that's three-quarters of 1 percent lower. The S&P is down 21, and the Nasdaq is down 62 points right now, about 1 percent. This after the markets were little changed yesterday. It was a mixed story. Dow Industrials were up 70 points at the close, quarter of a percent. But the S&P 500 was down a fraction and the Nasdaq was down a third of a percent, 28 points lower on the Nasdaq yesterday. In Europe this morning similar story, down across the board. FT 100 down two-thirds of a percent, CAC 40 in Paris down 1 percent, DAX index down 90 points almost 1 percent lower there as well in Germany. In Asia overnight, declines across the board. Nikkei average in Japan the worst performer. There you see the European markets. Asia also down across the board with the Japanese market down better than 2 percent. We are watching China. It is in focus again this morning. Beijing reportedly suspending additional tariffs on American-made cars. What it means for the trade truce, coming up. Little by little, we're seeing China make some real moves here. Shutdown showdown is on. The government could shut down in a week if a deal is not made. President Trump is calling on Democrats to come to the table. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The fact is, they've always supported fences and walls and partitions, but you know what, they only don't want to do it because of me. They have to put the people ahead of politics. (END VIDEO CLIP) BARTIROMO: What lawmakers are expecting on the Hill a week from today -- that's coming up straight ahead. British Prime Minister Theresa May meanwhile under pressure. European lawmakers are pushing her to break the deadlock within her government. Make a move, Theresa May. Putting on the show. The New York Stock Exchange under fire this morning after it reportedly brought in fake traders to make the floor look busier than it would have otherwise. That's all for the show to show the Snap CEO how busy the NYSE is. All those stories coming up this Friday morning. And joining me to break it all down -- Fox Business Network's Dagen McDowell, ThirdSeven Advisors market strategist Michael Block, and the president of Maslansky & Partners Lee Carter. Great to see everybody this morning. DAGEN MCDOWELL, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK ANCHOR: Great to see you. LEE CARTER, PRESIDENT, MASLANSKY & PARTNERS: What can you say about -- MCDOWELL: -- hiring basically background actors to wander around the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, made famous by Maria Bartiromo, by the way. I want to add that. BARTIROMO: Thank you so much. MCDOWELL: It's changed it a lot since you were on the floor. BARTIROMO: At one point when I was on the floor in the peak, there were five rooms with 5,000 people on all of those floors -- in all of those rooms. Today, there are under 500 people in one room. MICHAEL BLOCK, MARKET STRATEGIST, THIRDSEVEN ADVISORS: You could play a full court game of basketball in there now and no one would notice or get in the way. BARTIROMO: Yes. So there was a time when the traders were there, busy, trying to get their orders in and every second mattered. It's a different time right now because of the digital trading opportunities. BLOCK: Evolution. BARTIROMO: Yes. MCDOWELL: So much going on in the markets, too -- today. BARTIROMO: We've got a lot coming up this morning. Joining the conversation is the CEO of Citizens Financial Group Bruce Van Saun is with us this morning. Along with the CIO of Blackrock Global. CIO of Fixed Income Rick Rieder is here, he's going to navigate interest rates for us. And then Enseo founder and CEO Vanessa Ogle is here. Along with the host of "VARNEY & CO." Stuart Varney joining the conversation as well. Don't miss a moment of it. We've got a big two hours coming up. We kick it off here at this hour -- news on the shutdown showdown possibility. A government shutdown is potentially a week away as lawmakers are struggling to find a compromise on border funding. President Trump is calling on Democrats to support border security to avert a shutdown. But House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said it is not the Democrats who are standing in the way. Watch. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: Let's not talk about what might happen. Let's talk about what we can do right now to keep government open. There is strong bipartisan support to do that. The only obstacle is the President of the United States. (END VIDEO CLIP) BARTIROMO: This comes as border officials announce a mission complete and begin sending 1,700 U.S. troops at the southern border home. Joining us right now is Tennessee congressman and House Appropriations Committee member, Chuck Fleischmann. Good to see you, sir. Thanks very much for joining us. REP. CHUCK FLEISCHMANN (R-TN), HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: Good morning. BARTIROMO: What's your take in terms of the latest at the border right now? Can the troops start going home in your view, or do you still have a border problem? FLEISCHMANN: There is a border problem and what's why we really need to fund the wall. And that's why the President is right. That's why the House Appropriations Committee was correct in voting to fund the wall -- fully fund the wall. Unfortunately, the Democrats on one hand have had the rhetoric where they say they want the wall and want border security and then they change their mind. I think the President is right. I think they're trying to make it about him and we just can't let that happen. BARTIROMO: Well, I mean Nancy Pelosi just said we have bipartisan support and it's just the President standing in the way. Is that just a talking point? Is that just, you know, wanting to fight and not get anything done? Because it's not in step with what you just said. FLEISCHMANN: Well, when you look at the rhetoric that we have seen, they say they want border security and they repeat it whether it's Pelosi or Schumer and then their actions don't match up with that. Let's face it, $5 billion is not a lot of money for wall funding. This is a position that is very reasonable. The American people want it. The wall is being built. We've had some funds committed towards that. But we have got to keep America safe. I don't know why they're doing this now, why they're choosing to pick this fight right now. But it's a fight that the American people don't deserve. The American people deserve border security. They want the wall. The wall needs to be built. BARTIROMO: Well, maybe they just don't want President Trump to have any victories. I mean we know all of these investigations that they're gearing up to do in the next two years. As you gear up for the next congress and the House Appropriations Committee and it will be making history, what are you going to do in terms of ensuring that you get things done and it's just not a lot of bluster? FLEISCHMANN: Well, it's another excellent question. As you know, my past history as an appropriator in the majority has been very successful. The House Appropriations Committee has gotten its bills done. We're moving towards what we call regular order, doing the people's work. Clearly it's going to be more challenging in the minority. The Republicans control the Senate. The Democrats will control the House. And that includes the Appropriations Committee. I think what we're going to have to do is get down to work, make sure that we fund the government, keep these key programs going, and doing the people's work. Will it be challenging? Sure it will. Now one thing that is a little bit different. As an appropriator as opposed to someone -- what I mean for our listeners -- someone who is involved in the discretionary spending of the government, whether that's defense, whether that's the wall, homeland security, there is usually a little bit more of a comity between the parties on that as opposed to the authorizers. BARTIROMO: Yes. FLEISCHMANN: So hopefully we'll be able to get the work done. The key will be, will the Democrats set the tone for a fight against the President early? I hope not. BARTIROMO: Yes. FLEISCHMANN: Or will they say let's get down and continue to do the work that the House has done in the 115th Congress which I think has been exemplary. BARTIROMO: So what are the odds of a government shutdown one week from today? FLEISCHMANN: Well, this is very atypical. 75 percent of the government has already been funded. So Defense, I don't think we need to scare the American people -- Defense, Energy and water -- a lot of those bills have been funded. BARTIROMO: Right. FLEISCHMANN: The 25 percent that is out there is -- sure there's a potential for that. Let's hope that we can avert a government shutdown, especially right here at Christmas time. The economy's doing well. BARTIROMO: Yes. FLEISCHMANN: The country is upbeat. So I'm going to continue to be the optimist and hope that the Democrats back away from this dangerous rhetoric, back away from this dangerous position -- candidly I think it's an untenable position right now. BARTIROMO: Meanwhile let's talk a bit about the appropriations committee. Because as I just mentioned, it's about to make history. Two women are poised to lead the committee for the first time next year. FLEISCHMANN: Yes. BARTIROMO: You've got New York Congresswoman Nita Lowey. Nita Lowey will assume the chairmanship when Democrats take over the House. Texas Congresswoman Kaye Granger will serve as the panel's top Republican. So you currently serve in the committee. How significant is this for Congress and the U.S., in your view? FLEISCHMANN: Well, I think it's important that we continue on both sides of the aisle to promote women and women in leadership. I know both ladies. Congresswoman Lowey is from New York. We've had many conversations. I have actually a good working relationship with her. In addition to Kaye Granger who will be our ranking member, the top Republican on the committee, another outstanding lady. They will work well together, I think. In addition to that, we're going to see more subcommittee chairmen who are women on appropriations. Energy and water which is so important to my district in Oakridge and toward Chickamauga Lock and Chattanooga; Marcy Kaptur, the longest serving woman in Congress will chair that committee. So hopefully we'll be able to reach some common ground and make sure that we fund the government and do the right things. But it's all going to depend on what the Democrats do when they take over the House. Will they let the President lead and do his job? I think he's doing an outstanding job. Or will they attack him? If they attack, we'll have gridlock. If they work with him, we'll have progress. BARTIROMO: Yes. It doesn't look like they're going to work with him Congressman, frankly speaking. I mean they wouldn't even look in his eyes the other day when they were in the meeting in the Oval Office. And by the way, do the Republicans have a problem with women? I mean when you look at the new Congress right now, you've got many more women elected on the Democrat side versus the Republican side. And there's the speculation that you and your party have real issues with suburban women, college-educated women. What are you going to do about it? FLEISCHMANN: We're going to continue to promote women. Look at Marsha Blackburn who has served in the House with me. She won a great victory in Tennessee. She's going to serve. We have more women moving into leadership in the United States senate. So some of those losses have been women acceding to better and stronger positions. And we have many women in the cabinet. So I think what we need to do is stick with our strong Republican agenda. BARTIROMO: Yes. FLEISCHMANN: We want a strong economy. We want to make sure that we fix health care in a way that all Americans can benefit. But yes, I think we need to continue to message to women and continue to make sure that women have an opportunity, whether it's creating a business, whether it's in the workplace. And let me give Congress credit. In the House, we voted to make sure that no person, no man, no woman, will ever be subject to sexual harassment again. We're seeing progress but there's always progress to be made. BARTIROMO: Real quick on trade -- Congressman. Do you see an end to any of this in the first quarter or in the new Congress? The USMCA is now being debated -- a lot of Democrats say they're not going to sign it. They're not going to vote for it, rather, as is. So there could be some changes coming there. And then there's the open question of China. FLEISCHMANN: Absolutely. Trade is work in progress and it will be for quite some time. It looks like China just bought some soybeans yesterday - - that's a step in the right direction. Let's face it. The issue with trade with China is about intellectual property. It's larger than just trade. But when you look at Europe, the E.U.; when you look at Canada, Mexico, this is going to take some time. It took us a long time to get into this trade war -- BARTIROMO: Yes. FLEISCHMANN: -- get into this trade mess, get into this trade deficit. It's not going to change overnight. But give the President credit. He has made tremendous strides. I've been a long supporter of the President. I was overwhelmed by the success he's had in the trade realm so far. And I'm fundamentally a free trader. BARTIROMO: Yes. FLEISCHMANN: My state Tennessee has benefited overwhelmingly from free trade. But he's getting these people to the table and let's hope someday we have a world, the optimist in me says where there's no tariffs, no trade barriers, and we can have truly free trade and America will win. BARTIROMO: Yes. Well, the President said that's what he's looking for. FLEISCHMANN: Yes. BARTIROMO: Congressman -- it's good to see you this morning. Thank you. FLEISCHMANN: Always a pleasure -- Maria. Thank you. BARTIROMO: Congressman Chuck Fleischmann joining us there in D.C. Coming up, the trade tensions are apparently easing with the news today. China making moves to appease the United States holding off on key auto tariffs. We're breaking down this major move. Then Tesla is cutting prices in China. Then fake it until you make it -- the New York Stock Exchange is being accused of hiring fake traders to impress a CEO. Back in a minute right here. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Futures are lower this morning, take a look. We are expecting a decline at the start of trading to the tune of 200 points lower, down 1 percent on the Dow; down 1 percent on the S&P; and 1 percent lower on the Nasdaq, 68 points lower right now. A lot of nervousness this morning over trade among other things. The Christmas market in France meanwhile is open again this morning after that deadly attack this week. Cheryl Casone with the details there -- Cheryl. CHERYL CASONE, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK CORRESPONDENT: Yes -- Maria. Twenty-nine-year-old Cherif Chekatt who killed three people and injured several others at a Christmas market, that Christmas market in Strasbourg was spotted by French police just over a mile away from the scene of the crime. He started firing at officers but he was killed by those officers. The mass shooting Tuesday triggered a widespread search for Chekatt. ISIS has claimed responsibility for that attack. But yes, that market is now reopening. And it's very popular with tourists for the holiday. Well, this is a good story. The "New York Post" is reporting that back in late 2016 executives at the New York Stock Exchange ordered dozens of regulatory staffers down to the trading floor so it looked busier than it really was. All part of an elaborate plan to impress Snap CEO Evan Spiegel. Now the (INAUDIBLE) was all caught on video -- we were just showing that to you. But former NYSE president Thomas Farley disputes the "Post" story. He said Spiegel never toured the NYSE or set foot on the floor prior to the IPO. Snap ended up taking its $3 billion to NYSE's sort of its arch rival Nasdaq. We'll show you the video - you decide. Ok. Here is this, LVMH making room in its portfolio for a hotel operator. Remember, they're a luxury goods company but they're buying Belmond for $2.6 billion, that's $25 a share, 40 percent premium over the stock's closing price yesterday. Belmond's hotels include Cipriani in Venice, yes please. Taking a look at shares of Belmond soaring in the premarket, 40 percent jump almost right now. Wow. And then finally check this out. How about a roller coaster ride on the high seas? We told you about this when it first got announced. A new Carnival Mardi Gras ship is going to have the attraction on the top deck. It's the first time a roller coaster has been on a cruise ship. It's going to be called Bolt Ultimate Sea Coaster. It's going to be an 800-foot series of drops, turns and twists at speeds of nearly 40 miles an hour. Shares of Carnival are down 14 percent this year so far this year. Maria -- if you want me to do the roller coaster for you, I will do that for you. BARTIROMO: Yes, because I'm not doing it. CASONE: I mean I bet it would be fun. BARTIROMO: You have a little daredevil in you, don't you -- Cheryl? CASONE: Oh yes. BARTIROMO: You definitely do. CASONE: Big time. Yes. BARTIROMO: Remember when you were on -- were you on a roller coaster and you were filming it -- that was hilarious. CASONE: I screamed the entire time. BARTIROMO: Would you go on this? Would you go on? MCDOWELL: It's not the roller coaster that's scary. It's being on that cruise ship with all those people. BARTIROMO: Yes. Exactly. MCDOWELL: With all those people. CARTER: So you're saying we're not going to do the show from the boat? BLOCK: Are they going to -- do they close down the roller coaster after the all you can eat buffet? I mean how does that work? MCDOWELL: Thanks for that, Mike Block. BARTIROMO: Oh God -- Michael. All right. Coming up, does anybody smell chicken this morning? Here in the studio? You're not going to believe this. Ok. It's a fire log that smells like fried chicken. How you can get your hands on this fire log to make your home smell like fried chicken over the holidays. We've got it here. Plus this, Oprah not pulling her weight apparently. Wall Street analysts reportedly worrying about her role at Weight Watchers and what's going on with the stock today. It's had a great run under her leadership. But we're going to check out what's happening now at Weight Watchers. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Well, Oprah Winfrey apparently not seen in the marketing for Weight Watchers in a while. Lauren Simonetti with all the details here in terms of analysts complaining about Oprah Winfrey. LAUREN SIMONETTI, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK CORRESPONDENT: I know. Let's take a look at what this is all doing to the stock price of Weight Watchers. If you look at the chart since June, the shares have been cut in half. It was $103 in June, closed at $49.77 yesterday. You spoke about Oprah Winfrey, which reminds us of the good old days. Watch this. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) OPRAH WINFREY, TV HOST: This is the joy for me. I love bread. I love bread. I now just manage it. So I don't deny myself bread. I have bread every day. (END VIDEO CLIP) SIMONETTI: I have bread every day too. But you remember that -- the three famous words, "I love bread", saying that in a gluten free world. That did wonders for the company. Oprah Winfrey still is at the company. She still sits on the board. She still has a sizable stake in Weight Watchers, which is now called WW, by the way. She still has a stake and a big presence in WW. But as you noted -- Maria, she hasn't been in any of the marketing. They've turned to other celebrities including D.J. Khalid Oprah also has her own line of nutritious food. It's called O That's Good -- pizza, soups and sides and competition from Hello Fresh, the Keto diet, Whole Foods, Plated, Blue Apron. So there's competition on a lot of sides and moving parts to this story. They've been losing subscribers. And when she first did that commercial in 2016, they actually -- I think in the quarter after they boosted their numbers by like a million. So that was a win for the company. So Oprah, your contract is up in 2020. Where is your voice now? Because recently WW needs you. BARTIROMO: Well, the stock did really well initially when she came on board as you said. But I'd like to know what happened since June. I mean it's cut in half. It's got to be more than just Oprah not being in the marketing right -- Michael. BLOCK: Well Q2 they had a big upside surprise. Remember this is one of the stocks that investors love to hate. This is one of the stocks that the consumer-based traders, the hedge funds love to short the stock. You had a big squeeze in this. They had big numbers middle of the year. BARTIROMO: But Lauren said -- I mean all the competition. BLOCK: And then everything just kind of dropped out, you know. We're seeing consumer under pressure. There's a lot of factors -- (CROSSTALK) MCDOWELL: We're not seeing the consumer under pressure. BARTIROMO: They're strong (ph). BLOCK: We're seeing some of the retailers, you know, look at Costco overnight. We're seeing the numbers are ok but the stocks are coming in. MCDOWELL: That was true. (CROSSTALK) CARTER: There's also a lot of competition in habit forming kind of apps and other kinds of things. You don't just need Weight Watchers to track. You've got my fitness pal -- there's (INAUDIBLE) -- all these other -- SIMONETTI: It's also about wellness in general. CARTER: Yes. SIMONETTI: Instead of just counting calories and writing down and keeping note of what you eat, it's about just being healthy in general and living that style which we thought was behind the WW name change. But they said not really. MCDOWELL: At Weight Watchers, if you want to lose pounds though, it's one of the easiest ways to do it. What were you going to say? SIMONETTI: I didn't mean to interrupt you but Oprah hasn't tweeted about her weight since January of 2017 when she said she lost 40 pounds. Maybe if she tweets that the 40 pounds is still off or she lost some more we'll see nice movement in the stock again. I'm serious. The power of celebrity. BLOCK: It wouldn't surprise me. BARTIROMO: Wow. CARTER: The stock price follows her weight. SIMONETTI: Do you remember what she did to the beef industry on her talk show in Boston? (CROSSTALK) MCDOWELL: Stock up, weight down. Weight up, stock down. There you go. SIMONETTI: In the meantime. BARTIROMO: Thank you, Lauren. CARTER: Brings the Weight Watchers down (ph). BARTIROMO: Coming up, the trade dispute continues but Beijing is moving closer to making some changes. We're going to check on the conflict between the U.S. and China when we come back and how it's impacting markets. Then between a rock and a hard place, the details as British Prime Minister Theresa May tries to salvage the U.K.'s exit from the European Union, coming up. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Good Friday morning, everybody. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Maria Bartiromo and it is Friday, December 14th. Your top stories right now, 07:30 a.m. on the East Coast. Red on the screen this morning, take a look at markets, down across the board. It's going to be another rough opening this morning with the Dow Jones Industrial average down 200 points, almost one percent. S&P 500 down 22, also almost one percent and the NASDAQ with a 63 point decline, almost one percent lower there as well. This after the major indices finished mixed yesterday. Dow Industrials were up 70 at the close. S&P 500 was flat and the NASDAQ was down 28 points yesterday. In Europe this morning, similar story. We are looking at sellers dominating. We had the flash Purchasing Managers Indexes in Europe, they were weaker than expected. We had China data overnight that was weaker than expected on the economy there, and that is weighing on investors. FT- 100 down three-quarters of a percent in London, CAC Quarante down one percent in Paris, the DAX Index in Germany down almost one percent, 87 points lower. Asian markets all lower overnight. Take a look, the China industrial production numbers and the GDP were below estimates. Shanghai Composite down 1-1/2 percent and the Hang Seng down 1-2/3 percent. Meanwhile, U.S.-China trade, China is halting additional tariffs on U.S. autos and car parts beginning January 1. Plus, this, get a move on. We've hit the first deadline to get your presents shipped on time for Christmas, only a couple more days left. And then there's this, 11 herbs, spices and fire, details on Kentucky Fried Chicken's new fire log that will have your home smelling like a bucket of KFC for the holidays. Yes, all right Meanwhile this, Asian markets overnight lower across the board. China hit after reports that the Chinese economy suffered a deeper downturn last month than expected. The slowdown could also be made worse by a trade conflict with the United States if an agreement is not reached within the 90 day deadline. Markets in the U.S. reacting to the downturn in Asia as well. Take a look, markets are under pressure this morning to the tune of 200 points lower on the Dow. Now, new reports this morning that China will halt tariffs on U.S. autos and car parts beginning in the New Year. Joining us right now, the Wall Street Journal global economics editor, Jon Hilsenrath. And Jon, we mentioned earlier that the -- that the Journal broke the story earlier in the week that China would be halting these tariffs. How important is this or significant? Do you think that this is a turning point in these discussions? JON HILSENRATH, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I mean, I do think that the discussions are progressing. You know, and this relates to everything that you just reeled off on the Chinese economy and the globe -- and the global economy. You know, both sides are being hit right now. The U.S. economy looks like it's slowing down, certainly U.S. stock markets are very weak. China's slowing down even more. You know, in addition to all the numbers you put out there, retail sales in China were among their worst I think in the past 15 years. So, the Chinese don't like what's going on with the economic backdrop. And as a result, I think -- I think you see them trying to make some concessions. You know, there -- one thing we should say about the auto tariffs is part of what they're doing is unwinding retaliatory tariffs that they put on a while ago. So, there's still long -- there's still a long way to go before there's -- from the Trump administration's perspective, actual progress on you know, addressing all the concerns it's raised over the last few years. DAGEN MCDOWELL, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK ANCHOR: But it could help -- it certainly, Jon and -- it's Dagen McDowell. I pointed out -- HILSENRATH: Hi, Dagen. MCDOWELL: The Wall Street Journal broke this news I think on Tuesday that China was going to move to do this, particularly on the punitive auto tariffs. So they go back to 15 percent which is where the China had reduced them in the middle of the year. HILSENRATH: Right. MCDOWELL: Before this fight broke out with the United States. But it might ease some of the tensions even more than we realize because I believe Volvo has signaled that it was going to pull back on investment plans here in the United States because it ships a lot of cars from the U.S. to China, so it will help jobs in the U.S. in the sense of BMW that makes SUVs down in South Carolina or Mercedes-Benz or even Volvo, any automaker foreign or domestic that has jobs here that ships to China. HILSENRATH: Yes, so a couple of points. You mentioned BMW and Volvo. Ironically, among the biggest beneficiaries of this Chinese -- of this Chinese move are German auto manufacturers. Because you say they're producing here in the U.S. and exporting from the U.S. to China where some of the U.S. manufacturers do some production over there. I do think it's a sign that the two sides, the Trump administration and Beijing are trying to make progress because both sides are feeling pressure to get something done. But as I say, this is unwinding retaliatory tariffs that they had put in place a while ago. There's still a lot that the Trump administration wants them to do before it's convinced there's real progress. You know, we've talked a lot on this program about intellectual property theft. You know, they're making soundings there too on changing their patent laws but there's a lot to accomplish in 90 days and 90 days is not a lot of time to do it. BARTIROMO: Yes, but you know what, I mean, just to see this little bits and pieces of progress makes you feel like at least the conversations are ongoing and maybe we will get some solutions. Look, that HILSENRATH: Yes, it's better than not talking at all, that's certainly the case. BARTIROMO: Exactly. So, you've got the China issue but then there's Europe. So, we had the Purchasing Managers Index this morning in Europe, they were weaker than expected, falling short. Some people are saying that the protest in France was one of the big issues there and that's temporary. But then there's Britain. We've got Italy with the budget issues. British Prime Minister Theresa May in Brussels for day two of talks with the European council. She's trying to finalize that deal for the U.K. to exit the European Union. The first day of talks did not go well, Jon. E.U. leaders standing their ground that there's no room to renegotiate here. What's your take on Europe and how it's going to spill onto the U.S. when you've got all these problems throughout Europe right now? HILSENRATH: Well, let me say two things. First of all, on Europe, the European economy is one of the biggest disappointments on the global stage this year. It started out the year and ended 2017 on a pretty strong note. And we were all talking at the beginning year about a synchronized global upturn. Europe has disappointed and for a lot of the reasons that you just raised. Italy's budget problems, Brexit, Germany is suffering because of China's slowdown you know, and we have these protests going on in France. There's just big disappointments all across Europe. And that leads me to the second point. What does this mean for the U.S.? So, you know, we just did a survey of economists. We do this monthly survey. And we ask them what are the biggest threats to the U.S. economy in the coming year? More than half of them said it was global trade. The U.S.-China trade differences, the global stage. You know, these problems could hurt the U.S. economy in 2019. Interestingly, only four of more than 60 people that we asked said it was the Fed. We talk a lot about the Fed raising interest rates, the White House talks a lot about the problems that causes. The economists we talk to say no, it's the global backdrop and not the Fed that's the biggest threat to the U.S. BARTIROMO: Yes, I mean, it's like -- you know, the coupling issue. It's going to hit the U.S. at some point. You have to expect that. And the other issues globally as well. So we'll see how severe it gets. Jon, good to see you this morning. Thanks so much. HILSENRATH: Great to be here, thanks. BARTIROMO: And of course we know that the Fed meets next week. You are expecting a rate hike, I know that, Jon. HILSENRATH: The big question is -- you know, what language do they put after that. It looks like they are sensitive to what's going on in the global stage. They're sensitive to inflation moderating a little bit. And next year they're not going to be on autopilot with rate increases. They're going to be taking it on a meeting by meeting basis. BARTIROMO: All right, we'll leave it there. HILSENRATH: So, we might get a slowdown in rate increases next year. BARTIROMO: In 2019. HILSENRATH: Right. BARTIROMO: Well, they're really choreographing that well. Jon, thank you. Jon Hilsenrath. We want to tell you about the week that was because it was a busy one here. Check out the top moments from MORNINGS WITH MARIA this weeks. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. STEVE SCALISE (R), LOUISIANA: It's all been about China really. When you talk to our allies around the world, they all know that China's the real big fish that you've got to go catch if you're going to get free trade. And so, the fact that they've got this 90 day detente. Hopefully that means they're getting closer. I don't want to see tariffs being used long term. PETER NAVARRO, DIRECTOR, TRADE AND INDUSTRIAL POLICY AND WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL TRADE COUNCIL: Well, we must do is hold fast, stay tough and focus on the prize. The prize for this country and for the world and for China really is complete structural reform. GORDON CHANG, CONTRIBUTOR, DAILY BEAST: 90 days you could have a deal but whatever deal we arrive with at the Chinese isn't going to hold. Got to remember Xi Jinping wants to dominate technology and those 10 now 11 sectors. KEVIN HASSETT, ECONOMIC ADVISORS CHAIRMAN, WHITE HOUSE COUNCIL: In the middle of the negotiations, that's a very high stakes negotiation with China and President Trump just as he did with USMCA and with Korea is determined to get a great deal for Americans that's great for us, great for the Chinese, great for global growth. HOGAN GIDLEY, DEPUTY PRESS SECRETARY, WHITE HOUSE: China has been cheating us for quite some time. And the world community knows this. It's just the first time we've had a president stand up to China. CURTIS CHIN, ASIA FELLOW, MILKEN INSTITUTE: A little bit of China out of control. And kudos to President Trump for calling China out on behavior that I think many business executives in Asia really know that's what's happening. GREG BROWN, CHAIRMAN AND CEO, MOTOROLA SOLUTIONS: What we found was Huawei was stealing trade secrets and confidential files from Motorola with Chinese nationals that were our employees. MARTIN FELDSTEIN, FORMER ECONOMIC ADVISOR, RONALD REAGAN: The economy right now is great. Look at it. Unemployment, inflation, growth are all fabulous. But it's all very fragile and so over the next two years it there's a better than even chance we'll see a downturn. CHARLES PLOSSER, FORMER PRESIDENT, FEDERAL RESERVEBANK OF PHILADELPHIA: Presidents have always tried to influence the Fed a bit. But they tend to do it behind the scene, quietly. BARTIROMO: Not this one. PLOSSER: Not this one. I think it's really bad to have this debate in public because you lose confidence in the Fed. ALAN GREENSPAN, FORMER CHAIRMAN, FEDERAL RESERVE OF THE UNITED STATES: We're moving into a state of stagflation, which we haven't seen in this country for quite a while. SHEILA BAIR, FORMER CHAIRWOMAN, U.S. FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION: There's obviously a lot of global trade issues, geopolitical risk. So -- and global growth is slowing down. So, I think that uncertainty is really playing into market volatility. REP. JIM JORDAN (R), OHIO: There are Republican votes to build a border security wall and deal with the asylum law changes that we have to have to address the caravan issue. That's the position the Freedom Caucus has taken. More importantly, that's the position of the American people. REP. ANDY BARR (R), KENTUCKY: The American people want border security, they want homeland security, they want to stop the flow of illegal drugs into our community. STUART VARNEY, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK ANCHOR: I have frankly no idea where this thing is going. I mean, it could be that the Brits crash out on March 29th of next year with absolutely no deal of any kind, they just leave. Could be they stay in. MCDOWELL: At least the British can once again look across the English Channel and say at least we're not France. VARNEY: There but for the grace of God go I, yes, very true. BARTIROMO: Top business leaders, entrepreneurs, journalists, even athletes launching a new group accelerated group called 100K Ventures, that's 100,000 Ventures. It gives early stage companies based in flint, Michigan a much needed investment boost. VICTOR CRUZ, SUPER BOWL CHAMPION: Silicon Valley meets industrial America. And we went to Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana. And in our stop in Flint, you just realize that there's incredible spirit there. Seeing entrepreneurial -- you know, energy in Flint was just amazing. And you had no choice but to help. You want to give back. You want to be able to serve these under-served communities, similar to where I grew up and where I came from, so. RESHMA SAUJANI, FOUNDER AND CEO, GIRLS WHO CODE: Us being there to encourage them, to support them, to like cheer them on, to like continue the legacy that's already there in Flint is I think what we really want to do. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. We've got a selloff on our hands, Dow Industrials down 200 points right now, three-quarters of a percent, lower on the Dow. The S&P and the NASDAQ is down 62, down almost one percent. Meanwhile, today is the first holiday shipping deadline for guaranteed Christmas delivery. Cheryl Casone with the details, Cheryl. CHERYL CASONE, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK ANCHOR: Boy, here we go. Santa can't do it all alone, folks. The U.S. Postal Service is setting today as the deadline for ground shipments if you want your packages just to reach their destinations in time for Christmas. The deadline at FedEx for grounded home delivery is this next coming Monday. The last day to ship packages via UPS Three Day Select, next Tuesday. Speaking of shipping, Amazon doing its part to help last minute shoppers. Extending the free shipping in the same day delivery for all customers by four days, no minimum purchase required. Alaska Airlines taking ugly Christmas sweaters to new heights. Customers wearing their best sweaters to the airport next Friday can board their flight early. And back by popular demand, employees will be wearing their ugliest sweaters for the entire month. And to keep customers in the holiday spirit, boarding music and free holiday movies are going to be playing all month long. Maria, this of course reminds me of all the sweaters that we wore last year. I loved our sweaters. BARTIROMO: It was so much fun. CASONE: I still have mine in my office. BARTIROMO: Me too. CASONE: (INAUDIBLE) OK, and then finally, there's this. Forget pine needles and gingerbread. KFC wants your Christmas to smell like fried chicken. They are selling limited edition fried chicken scented yule logs. It's 11 herbs and spices fire log, that's what it's called, can burn up to three hours. But they do warn it may result in a craving for chicken or attract hungry bears. It's on set. No we can't obviously light it for you Maria, for certain fire code violations. LEE CARTER, PRESIDENT, MASLASNKY + PARTNERS: Thankfully. BARTIROMO: You don't -- you don't have to light it. I can smell it. CASONE: Can you -- can you smell it? I can smell it. CARTER: It stinks. CASONE: Yes, do you like it? CARTER: You want things to smell like chicken? MCDOWELL: Let me just -- since I'm from the south, in case you didn't know. Every proper southern home should have the scent of fried chicken. There should always be a plate of freshly cooked fried chicken sitting on top of the stove. (CROSSTALK) MCDOWELL: No, but you don't need that because the scent is already there. MICHAEL BLOCK, MARKET STRATEGIST, THIRD SEVEN ADVISORS: I'm holding out for the taco bell you know ornaments. CASONE: I was going to get you all like Kentucky Fried Chicken like lipstick for Christmas. I guess you don't want that, Maria. CARTER: I'd rather have the chicken. I want the food. I don't want the smell. CASONE: Everything that they do sells out. This thing sold out in hours. You can't get it. We have one here, that's it. You can't buy this right now. People buy this stuff. BLOCK: Is there a warning like -- is there like a label in there like you shouldn't eat that? Like how (INAUDIBLE) BARTIROMO: It really smells like fried chicken. CASONE: It says smells like fried chicken right on the label. CARTER: Well, who said -- who said it smells like a bouillon cube? BARTIROMO: I did. CARTER: It smells like a bouillon cube. MCDOWELL: Yes, it smells like it was dipped in chicken bouillon. BARTIROMO: By the way, when I -- when I do a real fire, I like the smell. CASONE: Of a real fire? BARTIROMO: Of a real fire. MCDOWELL: And I like -- CASONE: So, you don't want to take this home? MCDOWELL: Even being a -- BARTIROMO: No. MCDOWELL: -- even being a vegan, I like the smell of real fried chicken. You know what, here's a Christmas gift, give people a cast iron skillet so they can learn how to cook it themselves. CASONE: In oil like my grandmother used to make it. MCDOWELL: Peanut oil and you have to season it. Buy an old one at a flea market that's seasoned. CASONE: The big black ones. MCDOWELL: There's my advice for their holiday season. BLOCK: And how do you season -- how do you season for a chicken? BARTIROMO: Well, a big thank you to KFC for the chicken fire log. CASONE: Maria is still taking this home. BARTIROMO: All right, I love it. OK. Coming up, hotels that feel like home. See how the hospitality industry is transforming the way you vacation, wait until you see all these perks. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Home you away from home, Enseo is making hotel rooms more comfortable and smart with inn room entertainment and remote temperature control. Joining us right now is the founder and CEO of Enseo, Vanessa Ogle. Vanessa, great to see you, thanks you so much for joining us. VANESSA OGLE, FOUNDER AND CEO, ENSEO: Good morning, Maria. Thanks for having me. BARTIROMO: Tell us about Enseo and what you -- you founded this company. OGLE: I did, 18 years ago. BARTIROMO: Congrats. OGLE: Thank you. BARTIROMO: But tell us about the platform that you've created. OGLE: So, the Enseo platform provides services technical services to people places, like hotels and schools. So we do things like bring Netflix into hotel rooms, create Wi-Fi networks. The ability to change the temperature and thermostat in the room, locate things in the hotel. BARTIROMO: You can do so much more today in a hotel room than you ever before because of technology. OGLE: It's incredible. And it's amazing the way the technology in the hotels goes for any hotel, whether it's the luxury segment or the economy segment, the technology that's going in is really -- is really fun right now. MCDOWELL: In terms of the economy, how does the economy look? Because you can see the entire hotel industry in terms of the room supply, new rooms coming online and how well booked they are and the kind of room rates that these hotels are charging. OGLE: So, we're seeing really strong performance right now from the hotel segment. The ADR or the average daily rate of the rooms is continuing to be strong. Occupancy in hotels is continuing to be strong. And new build construction, we have a lot of rooms coming out of the ground right now. So, we're seeing really a lot of good strength in the -- in the segment today. BLOCK: So how does Enseo work? You have subscribers? How does someone subscribe to your service? OGLE: So if a hotel is a customer bars, they buy our equipment and they put it in a hotel or they put it in a school and then they sign a subscription with us. So that you can walk in to your hotel room and use your own Netflix or your own music that's on your phone and listen to your music or watch your Netflix. CARTER: So how is it different than you're just going into a hotel that has regular Wi-Fi, you log-in to your own Netflix account, how is the experience different for folks? OGLE: Well, the experience can be different. First of all, there wasn't the ability to bring Netflix into the hotel room before we did it at Enseo. So, it's something that we pioneered. And now the opportunity is really to have a personalized room when you walk in. So when you walk into that room, we can know what your preferences are and understand that we want your preferences with Netflix and temperature and what's your favorite channel. So it all is preloaded for you, nice, seamless experience when you walk into your room. BARTIROMO: Yes, what other benefits, walk us through the benefits of having this technology equipped with Enseo platform. OGLE: So the benefits to the technology to the guest is that they get their own content the way they want it. So they have an at home experience. They have a seamless experience on their Wi-Fi when they walk in. So, all of their devices can connect. And the benefits to the owner or the hotel operator is that it can lower their operating expenses because they have to pay less money for content that comes in and they can actually make sure that the temperature is down when the room isn't occupied. So they actually save money on operating the property. MCDOWELL: Does this service allow me to bypass the perfunctory infomercial that you're forced to watch every time you turn the television on in a hotel room. BARTIROMO: Yes, you're right. MCDOWELL: And it's like -- you can -- and when you turn it off it's never on the channel that you -- on which you left it. That's a huge pain in the neck if you travel a lot. OGLE: Yes, so this is one of the things that's coming is this personalization. So you get to have your experience, your way when you walk into your hotel room, not just the the advertisement that someone wants to throw at you. BARTIROMO: So how do you grow? You've got to get more hotel room -- hotels to sign up. You're currently available in 5 million hotel rooms in North America. Used by 50 million people last year. Where does the growth come from next at Enseo? OGLE: We only have actually 250,000 rooms but we had 50 million users on our platform in the last 12 months. Certainly our growth comes from signing up new hotels, both domestically and internationally and also our platform now is going into K-12 schools. And so that's a big growth segment for us as well. BARTIROMO: What's the downside risk? Because you know, we've been talking this week about one of the big stories, and that is the hack into Marriott and there's speculation that China was behind that hack into Marriott. And if I've got my whole network in a hotel room, am I -- am I more vulnerable than I would have been otherwise? OGLE: Well, that's one of the benefits of the technology. Is that you actually can have your room be your network instead of being on the network at large. So it really kind of isolates all of your technology into just that room. So it's a big benefit from a security perspective. BARTIROMO: That's interesting. So it's then you're no longer on the Marriott system, you're in your own system. But you still are on the Marriott system because you have to sign in there for the hotel. OGLE: Well, again, if we have the seamless sign-in, then you can -- you just show up and you just seamlessly are in your network in your room. And so, there's not all of the things that you have to do, the speed bump as it were before you can log onto the network. BARTIROMO: Great. Vanessa, great to have you. Thanks so much. OGLE: Thanks for having me. BARTIROMO: Vanessa Ogle, joining us there. Still ahead, President Trump not happy with General Motors decision to lay off thousands of American workers, his comments next hour right here, MORNINGS WITH MARIA continues. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Good Friday morning everybody. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Maria Bartiromo and it is Friday, December 14th. Your top stories right now, 8:00 a.m. on the East Coast. END [Copy: Content and Programming Copyright 2018 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2018 ASC Services II Media, LLC. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of ASC Services II Media, LLC. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.] [Show: MORNINGS WITH MARIA] [Date: December 14, 2018] [Time: 08:00:00] [Tran: 121403cb.231] [Type: SHOW] [Head: Starbucks Is Going To Sell Nitro At All Its U.S. Stores; China Seeks To Defuse Trade War With Reversals On Cars And Corn; Huawei CFO Out On Bail; Holiday Gas Prices; Ministry of Supply's Mercury Jacket Is First Intelligent-Heated Jacket] [Sect: News; Domestic] [Byline: Maria Bartiromo, Dagen McDowell, Edward Lawrence, Cheryl Casone, Stuart Varney, Jared Max] [Guest: Lee Carter, Michael Block, Rick Rieder, Bruce Van Saun, Gihan Awarasiriwardena, Bob Herbold] [Spec: General Motors; Jean-Claude Juncker; Mario Draghi; Model S; Tesla; Model X; Waymo; Starbucks; UberEats; Apple; iPhone; Ministry of Supply; A.I. Jacket; Huawei; Gas Prices] MARIA BARTIROMO, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK ANCHOR: -- 14th. Your top stories right now 8:00 a.m. on the East Coast. Stocks are selling off this morning, weaker-than-expected economic data out of China overnight as well as uncertainty in Europe with the purchasing manages indexes weaker than expected in Europe. It's all weighing on investors. Dow Industrials down 200 points, almost one percent lower. S&P 500 down 22 and the NASDAQ down 67-1/2 points this morning. It's looking like a lower opening for sure. Markets were little changed yesterday meanwhile. The Dow was up but the S&P and the NASDAQ were lower with these declines. We are now seeing the Dow and the S&P 500 on track to erase any weekly begins that were in place. Yesterday the NASDAQ down 28 points, a third of a percent. Dow Industrials up a third of a percent yesterday at the close. In Europe this morning, selling is persisting. Take a look at the indices with the FT-100 down 43 points, two-thirds of one percent. CAC quarante in Paris down 45 points, almost one percent. And the DAX in Germany down two-thirds of one percent, 73 points lower right now in Germany. In Asia overnight, declines across the board. Japan the worst performer there down about two percent on the Nikkei Average. And of course, Chinese economic data was out like industrial production and that was weaker than expected overnight and that had the Shanghai Composite down 1-1/2 percent and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong down 1-2/3 percent. China trade is in focus. It's another sign this morning of conversations though. Perhaps in easing of tensions. Beijing is now confirming at the Wall Street Journal report earlier this week that it will suspend additional tariffs on American-made cars. Plus, tough talk for General Motors. President Trump issues a warning for CEO Mary Barra after the plan closure announcement in an interview with Fox News's Harris Faulkner. Watch. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Tell me a couple weeks before Christmas that she's going to close in Ohio and Michigan, not acceptable to me and she is either going to open fast or somebody else is going in but General Motors is not going to be treated well. (END VIDEO CLIP) BARTIROMO: Oh, the fallout coming up. And then Waymo under attack. People targeting the self-driving cars, slashing their tires, throwing rocks at these cars. More on this road rage for driverless cars. What is the road rage? Anyway, we're going to get into that. Caffeine on demand. Starbucks is expanding its delivery program across the country. What to expect in making your next order at Starbucks. By the way, that stock is down 3-3/4 points -- percent this morning. Starbucks is down almost four percent. Costco is under pressure. Adobe is under pressure. All worries about growth here. We're going to get into it in the premarket. We got some serious losers this morning. All those stories coming up this Friday morning. And joining me to break it all down, Fox Business Network's Dagen McDowell, Third Seven Advisors market strategist, Michael Block, and the president of Maslansky and Partners, Lee Carter. Great to see you this morning. DAGEN MCDOWELL, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK ANCHOR: MCDOWELL: Some little punchy when you're like, and we've got some serious losers here. Welcome. (CROSSTALK) LEE CARTER, PRESIDENT, MASLANSKY + PARTNERS: So we shouldn't take that personally? BARTIROMO: No. Come on, you guys. (CROSSTALK) MCDOWELL: I couldn't resist. MICHAEL BLOCK, MARKET STRATEGIST, THIRD SEVEN ADVISORS: Unfortunately, the stock market is a loser again this morning. And I think that's a big thing and, you know, again, there's been a lot of pain of pain felt from end of the third quarter on, and we're seeing a lot of retrenchment here. I think it's still just slow aftershocks from there in addition to data slowing around the world and everything else going on. Investor -- some traders wanted volatility while now they have the volatility. You got to be careful what you wish for. BARTIROMO: Well, what about? What's going on in Europe? I mean, how serious is this and do expect it hit the United States and accelerate these expectations that growth is going to slow here? Problems all over Europe. BLOCK: It's a risk. We could say the U.S. is the best house in the block. The fact to the matter is we had France with this manufacturing PMI this morning going to contraction for the first time in 27 months. And, you know, look, this week I had an op-ed on foxbusiness.com by open market letter to President Trump trying to think about positive things to encourage how to get the economy and markets back on track. Maybe my next letter needs to be to Jean-Claude Juncker in the E.U., you know, about what we could do here. Maybe Europe is too hung up on these deficit targets for France and Italy. Maybe that's the wrong thing to be focusing on right now. BARTIROMO: Well, send a let the tore Mario Draghi because yesterday what did he say, Dagen, that didn't make a lot of sense? He said, the risks are still to the downside in Europe but we're go is to go stop stimulus. MCDOWELL: I couldn't make heads or tails of it, but again that does go to central bank policy something Stephanie Pomboy has talked about all year long is that you have the ECB that will stop its bond-buying program. The Federal Reserve simultaneously is reducing its balance sheet now below $4 trillion. That is removing -- the stimulus disappeared -- that type of stimulus disappears from the central bank in Europe. And it -- and here at home, the Fed's removing money from the financial system and that's one of the reason that you see the markets as wild as they are. BARTIROMO: Yes. We're going to talk about that coming up. Joining the conversation this morning, the CEO of Citizens Financial Group, Bruce Van Saun is with us this morning, along with the chief investment officer of Blackrock global fixed income, Rick Rieder is joining us this morning as we look at rates and the economy and the slowdown expectation. Host of "VARNEY & COMPANY", Stuart Varney is going to weigh in as well. Don't miss a moment of it. We got a big hour coming up. And we kick it off with this top story this half an hour. China halt punitive tariffs on U.S. autos and car parts beginning January 1. This is trade sensations hang over the economy. Edward Lawrence is live at the White House this morning with the very latest. And Edward, we should point out the Journal broke this story on Tuesday, Beijing is now confirming they are in fact halting those tariffs. EDWARD LAWRENCE, FOX BUSINES NETWORK REPORTER: Yes, exactly. This morning we're learning that China is confirming they were going to raise tariffs an additional 25 percent that's now been suspended for three months. The President cautiously optimistic there is a trade truce as economists -- about half of economists are telling the Wall Street Journal op-ed there that they believe a recession or they believe that China could be the biggest problem in 2019 for the U.S. economy. They have to watch that. And now the President makes no mistake though it's his policies that have brought China to the table. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I will tell you this. China's economy, if it's in trouble, it's only in trouble because of me. That's the only reason it's in trouble because I placed billions and billions. We've taken in $11 billion worth of taxes that I taxed China, $11 billion. We haven't made any money with China, we lost money with China. (END VIDEO CLIP) LAWRENCE: And those taxes you're talking about, the tariffs he imposed, the President still saying he will not back down until something is on paper. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: I have an additional $267 billion worth of taxes, essentially to put on China and they don't want that. That would be devastating for China. And they are now agreed to go and buy soybeans, tremendous amounts of soybeans, you see that already happening. (END VIDEO CLIP) LAWRENCE: And that already started signs that Chinese may be change the way that they deal with this administration because of the tariffs and the weakening economy in China. Now, the made in 2025 plan, their proposal is to change now to downplay the role of dominance in that tech industry space and possibly open market access to foreign companies. However Chinese experts want to make sure that there is substance there and it's not just window dressing. Maria? BARTIROMO: All right, Edward. Thank you so much. Edward Lawrence is at the White House. Thank you so much. We want to bring in right now, Blackrock Global CIO Fixed Income, Rick Rieder. And rick, it's always a pleasure to talk to you. RICK RIEDER, CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER OF GLOBAL FIXED INCOME, BLACKROCK: Thanks, Maria. BARTIROMO: Thank you so much for joining us. (CROSSTALK) BARTIROMO: Because we've had all of these new signals in the last couple of weeks. When the -- first let's talk rates because the interest rate market has been really the fuel for the volatility in the stock market, isn't that right? RIEDER: So I think it's what started. I think actually we go back to September when the Fed came out and said we're not sure where the neutral rate is, we may be far from it. You talk about something markets can't take. Its uncertainty around the discount rate on your assets, since then you're starting to get some better news out of the Fed. I mean, we're going to hear next week. I think the dynamic is they're probably going to go next week unless the markets really have a hard time the next few days but they're going to go next week. But then I think it's going to be completely data centric from there and quite frankly the intrasensitive parts of the economy, housing, auto, small business. You're seeing some changeable softness. So, you know, it changes the dynamic. By the way, it means you can use interest rates now in your portfolio. You know, we've talked about in your show for a long time just by two years, just by two years because that's where you don't want to get hurt with rates rising. All of a sudden rates don't have to rise anymore, it's a really big deal for markets longer term. BARTIROMO: It's a really big deal and you were on this show about a month ago and you said look, there are opportunities in the short term. RIEDER: Yes. BARTIROMO: The two-year, and the -- three-year even or the 10-year so close to three percent. But, you know, I go back to what President Trump said about Jay Powell and, you know, you got to say even though you really don't want the President of free world telling the Fed how to operate, he was right, I mean he was looking at the economy and saying things are slowing, maybe you don't need all these rate hikes. Yesterday he was on Fox News and he said, he hopes the Fed doesn't raise interest rates anymore. Watch this. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: You look at inflation, it's very low. Hopefully the Fed won't be raising interest rates anymore because if you compare us to as an example, President Obama, he had zero interest rates. Anybody can make money with zero interest rates. I'm almost at a normalized interest rate and yet our economy is soaring, our jobs are soaring, our businesses are doing tremendously. Apple just announced they're going to investing billions of dollars in this country that just happened. (END VIDEO CLIP) BARTIROMO: So the economy is doing well, but not all that well, because the expectations are the things are going to slow in the coming years, right? RIEDER: Yes, Maria. I think there's some really big points here. I think -- I think there are couple things to be said. First of all, the Fed has moved 10 times. You can step back and look at the -- at the grand landscape what's happened and some of the intrasensitive parts of the economy are slowing. BARTIROMO: Ten times is a lot. RIEDER: It's a lot. You moved the front-end of the yield curve. You move real rates back over three percent. It's a very big deal. Second thing, there's something really important. We should put more and more people to work in this economy. When you increase jobs, wages are accelerating a bit, wages doesn't mean inflation. What more and more people are doing is they're actually saving. It's not like 20 years ago where you buy a new T.V., new radio, because of services, because of technology, you don't create wages up and inflation rises. The Fed has nothing to be worried about. Put more people to work, think about what people have in terms of college costs, in terms of retirement et cetera, put more people to work. There is no reason -- we don't have to choke off the economy but do I agree to some extent that given how much we've moved, the Fed can take a step back, evaluate the data, maybe your get another hike in next year or two. Let the economy gain its footing, actually the economy is in good shape. We're just going to slow a bit from what is a very, very strong pace but you don't have to keep moving if inflation is not chasing, inflation is decelerating, it's pretty impressive. BARTIROMO: Right. And this is exactly what Ray Dalio said when he came on the show last week, says the Fed is not going to be able to do it, they're not going to be able to raise rates three times which is what a lot of people think. Now you're saying one or two. RIEDER: No, I've been saying for -- I was at your show last time. BARTIROMO: You're -- I know, you've been saying a long time. RIEDER: Yes. BARTIROMO: You came on this program two months ago, three months ago and said that the Fed is not going to be able to raise rates that much. RIEDER: There's no way. I mean, do they go one time next year maybe, maybe a second. I don't think they're going to try to. That being said, Maria inflation -- top line inflation is going down too, we think this year down to 1-1/2 percent. In economy that's still growing at over two percent. It's pretty good but it doesn't mean you have to lift interest rates. BARTIROMO: Right. RIEDER: Their goal -- the obligation of the Fed is price stability, it's not two, it's price stability. If you're trending the 1-1/2, you're putting a lot of people to work, let it go. BARTIROMO: Yes. RIEDER: And evaluate it and see, gosh, do we need this inflation accelerating a little bit then you could tweak it but right now no need to. BARTIROMO: And how about those Inflation numbers? I mean, the CPI yesterday was a yawn. RIEDER: Right. BARTIROMO: The PPI is a yawn, there's just no real significant moves in terms of inflation. RIEDER: Maria, you know, I think it's, you know, we talked about it earlier about the structural changes in the economy. You know, we've talked about autonomous cars, you look at transportation goods what's happening versus 10 years ago, you look at food and agriculture. BARTIROMO: That's a great point. RIEDER: Cost of food is going down, cost of transportation is going down, cost of apparel is going down. We don't get accelerating inflation like we have before because there are structural dynamics in play in what is a -- there was economy today that's different than others when people say wages up inflation is coming, it's an overheat, just doesn't happen. BARTIROMO: OK. But real quick before you go. I mean, are you worried about growth? Because yes, the Fed might not be able about to raise rates as much but that's because the economy is growing but it's about to slow. So, how worried are you that European issues are going to impact the U.S- China issues are going to impact and the slow down accelerates. RIEDER: So I think you can't -- you can't discount them entirely. By the way, it's a series of things in Europe including exports to China that could improve, there's a border issue in Germany, this French protest. I don't think the Europe is falling off a cliff and I think China will start to stabilize, the U.S. is going to grow over two percent. We're going to hit on unemployment rate in this in the low threes, maybe three percent, pretty hard to go on a recession when you're putting -- when they have that many people at work. So I'm not worried about the U.S. falling off a cliff or going into a recession any time soon. Just slower growth. BARTIROMO: Do you still want to buy the front end in fixed income? What do you want to buy? RIEDER: So, not that I still want to buy the front end, I love the front end but for the very first time, Maria, in a long time, I actually like owning longer term interest rates because now you have a Fed that will be data focused. It means when you own a portfolio of equities or other risk, gosh, interest rates in the longer end of the curve can actually now move with my risk or help me against my risk. It's a really big deal. BARTIROMO: So you're talking about the 10-year, the 30-year? RIEDER: The 10-year work, the 30-year less slow because of how clot the curve is but certainly the 10-year treasury, I think you can own fixed income again. BARTIROMO: Just under three percent, it's a nice return to get. RIEDER: Pretty good. BARTIROMO: Rick, it's great to have you on the show. RIEDER: Thanks for having me. BARTIROMO: Thank you so much. Rick Rieder, you're going to be my special guest this weekend on "WALL STREET". So thank you for joining us on that. Rick Rieder from Blackrock. Coming up, more trouble for General Motors. President Trump fires off a fresh round of attacks on the auto maker. We're going to bring it to you. And then Starbucks on your doorstep. The coffee giant's latest collaboration as it launches plans to hand deliver your caffeine. Back in a minute right here. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Tesla is responding to China suspending its tariffs on U.S. autos. Cheryl Casone with the details. Cheryl? CHERYL CASONE, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK ANCHOR: It's very interesting, Maria. China additional imposing tariffs on American cars back in July. It's part of its retaliation in the trade war between the two countries. Well, today, it suspended those tariffs for three months and this will start in January. Tesla wasting no time reacting to this cutting prices on its Model S in China. According to the electric car maker's Chinese Web site, the price of certain Model S cars was cut but the 15 grand Model X's -- X, excuse me, by about $9400. So that was pretty instantaneous. Shares of Tesla are low in the premarket about three quarters of a percent. Well, President Trump still is upset with General Motors over its plan to close four factories in the U.S. and cut up to 15,000 jobs in North America. In an interview with Fox News, Trump question G.M. CEO Mary Barra strategy. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The nation got to see you as G.M. said, you know what, we're going to wipe away 15 percent of the workforce right before Christmas and you said, I want to talk. TRUMP: Yes. I called them to tell me a couple of weeks before Christmas that she is going to close in Ohio and Michigan, not acceptable to me. And she is even going to open fast or somebody else is go in but General Motors is not going to be treated well. (END VIDEO CLIP) CASONE: Well, Trump suggested that the new trade deal with Mexico and Canada makes it very uncomfortable for G.M. to build cars outside of the U.S. Well, Waymo self-driving cars turning into Target for tax in Arizona. Police have been called more than 20 times after people slashed tires, thrown rocks, even pointing guns at Waymo vehicles, yes. According to one newspaper there, one man showed as opposition to Waymo by standing in front of the car and he wouldn't budge until the cops came. Waymo has been testing its autonomous cars in Arizona using backup drivers. Waymo is a unit of Google, Parent Alphabet low in premarket down 1-1/2 percent. Well, starting early next year, Starbucks is going to be offering delivery to about 2000 Starbucks stores from across the country. They're going to be partner with UberEats to bring that cup of (INAUDIBLE) latte in your doorstep. The new plan outlined to investors yesterday here in New York. It's part of a broader plan to reach more customers. Shares of Starbucks are trading low in the premarket down almost four percent. Of course the question, Maria, is my latte in New York City going to be still warm if it's February? Just asking. BARTIROMO: It's definitely a question but we'll see. BLOCK: We in New York are relieved to hear this delivery news because -- I mean, yesterday I had to walk a half block to find Starbucks and it was -- (CROSSTALK) CARTER: You can -- you can get it delivered. Now, don't ask. Go on there. I can find a way to get anything delivered. I am master of that. BLOCK: Cool. MCDOWELL: Making the streets unsafe for pedestrians because of all the people on those motorize bicycles that sit on the sidewalk. BARTIROMO: That's dangerous. MCDOWELL: It is dangerous and you know where Mayor Bill de Blasio on this? Nowheresville. BLOCK: Well, luckily this neighborhood is not infiltrate with tourist through all their head to the clouds (INAUDIBLE) god bless you all. BARTIROMO: We'll take a break. When we come back. Volatility on Wall Street. We're taking a look at rates and growth, Citizens Financial Group CEO Bruce Van Saun is weighing in on markets swings, the Federal Reserve and the lending environment. That's next. And then President Trump touting his trade policy. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: I have great respect for President Xi, he's not a capitulator but I will tell you this, China's economy, if it's in trouble, it's only in trouble because of me. (END VIDEO CLIP) BARTIROMO: More of the Commander-in-Chief's plans to keep China in line coming up. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. We're talking about a pretty good sell-off on this -- on Wall Street today at the open down about 200 points on the Dow Jones Industrial average. There are concerns over global growth and trade driving the wild action in the market last few weeks. Overnight you had weaker-than-expected Chinese economic data as well as the purchasing manager's indexes in Europe. On tap next week, the Federal Reserve meeting, we are expecting another increase in interest rates. Joining us right now to talk more about all of the above is Citizens Financial Group CEO, Bruce Van Saun. Bruce, it's good to see you. Thanks so much for joining us. BRUCE VAN SAUN, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, CITIZENS FINANCIAL GROUP: Thanks. My pleasure. BARTIROMO: Let's talk about your expectations, for this economy because there's all these worries about what's going on in Europe going to hit the U.S. and as well that things are just going to slow down in the coming two years. Is that what you're seeing from your lone book? VAN SAUN: No. Actually, the domestic economy still in very good shape. I think the GDP growth will exceed three percent this year, maybe it moderates to 2-1/2 or three next year. Unemployment on its way to 3-1/2 inflation under control. Both signs of a very healthy economy. BARTIROMO: Rick Rieder was just with us from Blackrock noting that the Federal Reserve has raised rates 10 times since zero. How has it impacted your business? VAN SAUN: Well, banks typically benefit based on the way balance sheet is positioned as rates move up, loans replace quickly and your deposit rates you bring up more slowly. So we're benefiting and it hasn't been enough to really slow loan demands. So we've actually continued to see reasonably good loan demand. I think given the point though that the Fed has moved so quickly, right now the market anticipates a hike in December and then maybe a pause, maybe there's one next year, most probably two which I would agree with. I think it's -- there's been a lot of medicine and let's sit back and see how the patient has responded to -- (CROSSTALK) BARTIROMO: Yes. That's a very different exception than just six months ago, Michael. BLOCK: Yes. Bruce, where are you seeing the most demand for commercial loans right now, like what kind of sectors, what kind of businesses? VAN SAUN: Yes. I think that sectors that have been faster growing so technology, healthcare, you know, we've seen -- we've seen reasonable growth there. Energy, there's still a lot of exploration taking place. And then also general industrials I think in general folks have good cash flow and we continue to see good borrowing demand. BARTIROMO: And you're the bank for the iPhone, if you want to have a plan for your iPhone, citizens has the exclusive financing partnership with Apple, more than half iPhone buyer opt for installment plans. What does that tell you? VAN SAUN: Well, it's a -- I think it's a great program. Apple has designed a terrific customer experience where you can take advantage of all of their new releases and upgrade your phone and we provide the financing for that. I do think there is an avenue to leverage what we've designed there to start change the point of self-financing model. So we're looking at other partnerships, so stay tuned on that front. BARTIROMO: And in terms of the growth going forward, you just presented, I'm looking at some of the notes you had -- you were relevering the balance sheet post the IPO. Tell us how you're allocating capital right now. VAN SAUN: Yes. Well, it's been pretty balanced, so we're probably growing our commercial bank a little faster than consumer bank. There's more loan demand on the commercial side. We have a great consumer bank and we just want to scale it up, so we've hired experienced loan officers from other banks, moved into some other regions. So we've seen nice growth there. On the consumer side we've focused on niches where there's may be less competition, so education refinanced loans has been big spot for us. And then areas like the Apple financing -- point of sale financing. MCDOWELL: What is the consumer look like in terms of their financial health whether they have taken on too much debt or not? VAN SAUN: I think the consumer has been fairly conservative, there is not extreme amounts of debt. You have to watch the subprime space but ultimately -- MCDOWELL: Except prime autos, one of our earlier guest talking about -- VAN SAUN: That is right. That's right. But if you look at the benefits to regular folks today we've had real wage growth this year for the first time in a long time that's positive. Tax reform has put cash back in folks' pockets, so I think the withholding benefit, tax benefit being lower is also benefiting the individual. So, savings rates have stayed up but also consumers have more buying power, so that's been positive. BARTIROMO: Do you need to acquire to gain more scale? I mean, obviously the number of banks has shrunk in the last decade. VAN SAUN: Right. BARTIROMO: What does the acquisition story look like for you? VAN SAUN: Well, we've been -- we've been acquiring fee-based businesses, so if we want to get deeper in some of our services that we can offer to our customers, we bought an M&A shop last year, we bought a wealth advisor recently, we bought a mortgage company this year, we haven't focused on full banks. One of the things we did to grow is we were the first regional bank to launch a national digital bank called citizens access and we're on track to have over 2-1/2 billion deposits in less than six months, so that's been very successful as well. So you don't necessarily have to grow with brick and mortar, you have to get really good at the digital gain, that's where the real opportunity lies. BARTIROMO: It's an opportunity but also a risk, right? Because cybersecurity is an issue, growing concern, data breaches all the time. VAN SAUN: Yes. BARTIROMO: What are you doing in that regard? More and more people using online banking as a tool. How do you protect the information? VAN SAUN: It is really, really important. And it starts with leadership so we brought in a very experienced head of our cybersecurity area and she is populated area with a lot of good people and we've given her all the tools, the latest technology that she needs to make sure that our customer's information is secure. BARTIROMO: It's a great story. Bruce, it's good to have you on the show. VAN SAUN: Yes. My pleasure. BARTIROMO: Thank you so much, Bruce Van Saun there, CEO of Citizen. We are waiting on the retail sales number right now. We are expecting the retail sales number to be up two-tenths of a percent, this for the month of November. And of course, the markets are down 212 points right now in terms of expectations for growth slowing down. So, once this number comes, we'll see how the consumer has been doing. You said that the consumer is in good shape. VAN SAUN: Yes, that's our view. BARTIROMO: Yes. MCDOWELL: But the stocks, it will be interesting to see the retail stocks. BARTIROMO: It's in line with estimates, up two-tenths of a percent on the retail sales number, so not a major move, markets are not reacting. But the retail story has been very strong, so that's why I don't understand how this economy is supposed to slow down so much. Retail sales in line with expectations, up two-tenths of a percent. Business spending has been strong. Although, the cap spending story has also been questioned in terms of that's going to start slowdown with the tariffs coming onboard. Would you agree with that, Bruce? VAN SAUN: Yes, I do think that's one to watch, it's moderated as the years gone by, and I think part of that is linked to the question of tariffs. MCDOWELL: And I was just pointing out Mike Block because we were even debating because that's all we talk about even in the breaks is the financial news. Is that the retail -- the core -- the overall numbers look good but these -- a lot of these stocks have been hammered. VAN SAUN: Yes. MCDOWELL: They were hammered specifically in November. In department stores. (CROSSTALK) BLOCK: There are a lot of crowded trades in the long sided. So, you know, the XRT, which is the retailer ETF really has taken a hit here. Just going through these numbers, I will point out a bright spot expectations were low, x-autos and gas, this number did beat by a tenth of a percent over the consensus according to -- two-tenths of a -- two-tenths of a percent actually. So, a little bit better on -- when we get into the guts (INAUDIBLE) we'll see how the market reacts. BARTIROMO: No reaction so far. Markets down 197 points, very close to where we were before the number. November retail sales up two-tenths of a percent right now. We'll take a short break. When we come back, the technology threat from China. We're taking a look at the developments following the arrest and release of the CFO of Huawei. Then, a late-night thriller, we've dramatic highlights from last night's Chargers-Chiefs game. Back in a moment, right here. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Good Friday morning, everybody, thanks so much for joining us. I'm Maria Bartiromo, and it is Friday, December 14th. Your top stories right now 8:35 a.m. on the East Coast. Breaking news, we've just got the November retail sales numbers. Sales were up two-tenths of a percent for the month, that was in line with expectations. No change in market direction as result of this numbers. Futures were down 214 points before the number, that's where they are right now, down almost one percent on the Dow; almost one percent lower on the S&P; and better than one percent lower on the NASDAQ, 75 points lower right now on the lower right now on the NASDAQ. It's going to be a lower opening, for sure. European indices are also under pressure. Take a look, FT-100 down two- thirds of a percent, CAC Quarante down one percent, and the DAX Index down two-thirds of a percent, 62 points lower. Asian markets in the red overnight. As you see, we had weaker-than-expected economic data out of China and out of Europe, this morning. Worst performer overnight was Japan, down better than two percent. Trade tensions appear to be easing. China says it will halt additional tariffs on U.S. autos and car parts beginning in the New Year, beginning January 1. This, as concerns rise over the fate of the CFO of Huawei. We are breaking it all down this morning. And then this, our top story this half an hour, the technology threat and China, the CFO of Huawei out on bail this week. She was arrested, you know, on charges that she violated U.S. trade law. Huawei is one of the largest smartphone makers in the world. Joining us right now is Herbold Group Managing Director and former Microsoft COO, Bob Herbold. Bob, it's good to see you. Thanks so much for joining us. BOB HERBOLD, MANAGING DIRECTOR, HERBOLD GROUP: Hi, Maria. BARTIROMO: Your reaction to what took place over the Huawei news. You know, initially, we thought, oh, it's about Iran sanctions, but then we learned that this is a company that the Chinese government has been using for espionage. HERBOLD: And if that's true, that company is in serious trouble. I mean, they are the big kahuna relative to the cellular tower equipment business, they are the leader globally in patents. They took over that lead in 2017. They've been heavily involved in setting the standards for 5G technology, along with Ericsson and Nokia, and Samsung and Qualcomm. So, this is a company that is critical to the smartphone cellular business, and the more we learn about the involvement of China, the more worrisome it is, and that's why you see governments backing away. So, they have a huge trust problem right now, and they're not handling it well. And that's just a critical issue for the technology industry. BARTIROMO: Yes, and I'm glad you mentioned 5G, because with 5G, the stakes are even higher. Look, you're a former leader at Microsoft, we had on Steve Ballmer recently, we have Brad Smith, president currently at Microsoft, to talk about the China issue. You probably saw it firsthand, right, where 90 percent of the companies in China use the Microsoft platform but only one percent pay for it. HERBOLD: It's true. It's rugged country in which to do business. You'd think they changed their ways and become a full participant in the global economy, but they continue to want it -- want to do it the so-called "Chinese way," and I think they're going to run into some major problems, as they try to pursue leadership in the technology sector, on a global basis. And I think Huawei is example number one. BLOCK: Hey, Bob, Mike Block here. So, what can -- what can the U.S. do and what can companies here do to, not throw the baby out with the bathwater, but rather, protect their I.P. but also be able to do business. Can technology itself be utilized to help enforce at the company level, these sort of -- these I.P., you know, the legitimacy of intellectual property here? HERBOLD: Very much so. And frankly, the technology companies involved in this business need to play much stronger roles. You know, we have a problem in the U.S., if you go back to Bell Labs where a lot of this technology was originally developed, that became lucent. That got purchased by Alcatel, Alcatel gets purchased by Nokia, and all of a sudden, you look around and say, wow, there really isn't a strong player in that sector right now, from a technology standpoint. So, we have to become much more of a strength in this area, and it requires a lot of support from the U.S. government to make this happen. But we have Qualcomm who's a major player in terms of the handset itself, but relative to cellular towers, we're not strong right now. MCDOWELL: I was -- Bob, I was going to ask you, it's Dagen McDowell, what specifically should the government be doing because we are watching, say, the social media space and the online advertising space, dominated by just a few players that have gotten bigger and bigger and bigger through acquisitions like a Facebook or even a Google. How can the government help, or how should the government intervene in these tech industries? HERBOLD: Well, I think the most important thing is tech talent, OK? The fact is, we do a lot of things to discourage the foreign student who's here at our finest universities getting educated. And so, if you look back to 2011, 45 percent of Chinese students upon graduation were going back to China. Today, that number is 80 percent. Why is that? Well, we continue to make it very difficult to get the right visa, we continue to make it very difficult to find a job, to stay here, in fact, the government is floating a lot of policies that say, after a year, if you're a computer science graduate, in fact, we want you out of here by a year. So, it's -- we're doing the wrong things relative to the immigration issue. The immigration issue is so screwed up because on the high end, we should be luring these people here and encouraging them to stay, the talented people. And so, we have a tech talent problem that is number one, in my mind. Secondly, we need to encourage companies to do the right thing from a technology standpoint. And you do that in a lot of different ways. Relative to the social media folks, they're in for heavy weather, they haven't been fessing up to users just exactly what they're doing with their information. And sooner or later, the governments around the world are going to say, hey, people need to opt-in or opt-out right up front. That's the only way that you can make it legit, that these people are participating in what you're doing with their data. BARTIROMO: Yes, we agree with you. We agree with you, Bob. We talk about that every morning. Do you think more regulation is on the way then? HERBOLD: I do, relative to the social media world. BARTIROMO: Yes. Bob, it's good to have you on the show this morning. Thanks so much. HERBOLD: Thank you. BARTIROMO: Bob Herbold joining us there. Coming up, prices at the pump. The outlook heading into the holiday travel season. Stuart Varney weighs in on that. Then, the jacket of the future. Wait until you see this. How one company is using artificial intelligence to keep you warm this winter. Back in a moment. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Low gas prices making a better holiday travel, that's for sure. Joining us now, the host of "VARNEY & COMPANY," Stuart Varney to weigh in. Stu? STUART VARNEY, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK ANCHOR: Look, Maria, I'm absolutely determined to find something really positive on a Friday morning -- BARTIROMO: Good. VARNEY: With all this talk of impeachment and political problems and build the wall or shut the government down. I bring you good news. The national average gas price is down to 2.39 per gallon, it's gone down in -- that's - - that's rounding up. It's actually 2.39, I think may have yesterday's prices up there, but be that as it may, it's 2.39 and the cheapest gas in the country is in the great State of Missouri, where the average of all gas stations is 1.97 per gallon. I've counted nine states where the average price is below two-ten, and then, of course, there's California where the average price is $3.40 per gallon. BARTIROMO: Wow. VARNEY: One whole dollar over the national average. I thought I'd bring you some good news on a day when a lot of Americans are going to be driving. BARTIROMO: I like the good news, Stu. And you know -- and you have to believe that when people have more money in their pockets, they will spend more money around the holidays and we'll get a good fourth quarter, good holiday shopping season. VARNEY: I have to believe that. I got to watch those retail sales numbers. Sure. BARTIROMO: Yes. VARNEY: All right, thanks very so much, Maria. BARTIROMO: Thank you. VARNEY: I'm sorry, I just want to bring good news. BARTIROMO: We love it, Stu, you always make us happy. Stuart -- MCDOWELL: I'm laughing because I know Stuart is thrifty, and he's not above driving across two or three states to get your best gas prices. BARTIROMO: Just because of the gas. VARNEY: Dagen, you're being very diplomatic. The correct word is cheap, OK? As simple as that. (LAUGHTER) BARTIROMO: There you go. Stuart, I know you'll have more of this in about 10 minutes. We'll see you at the top of the hour. "VARNEY & COMPANY" begins 9:00 a.m. Eastern, right after MORNINGS WITH MARIA. Join Stuart coming up right after this program. But first, by the skin of their teeth, the dramatic highlights from last night's Chargers-Chiefs nailbiter. We've got it for you, coming up. And then, turning up the heat, the first jacket that keeps you warm with artificial intelligence. Back in a moment. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Gearing up for winter with A.I. Artificial Intelligence. Ministry of Supply has designed the first intelligent heated jacket, equipped with a built-in thermostat to keep you warm. The jacket's artificial intelligence allows it to detect your body's temperature and the outside temperature and it will automatically adjust the heat as you transition from one environment to another. Joining us right now is the Ministry of Supply co-founder and president, Gihan Amarasiriwardena. Good to see you, Sir, thank you so much for joining us. GIHAN AMARASIRIWARDENA, CO-FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT, MINISTRY OF SUPPLY: Thanks for having me. BARTIROMO: The jacket looks fantastic, tell us how it works. AMARASIRIWARDENA: Yes. So, the jacket has three heating panels built into it, and it uses a battery to generate heat, but what makes it unique is we have temperature sensors in it, so we can measure what the outside temperature is, your body temperature, but also, there's an accelerometer, so we can detect if you're standing in a cold bus stop, or you're running to catch the train, and tune the heat that way. BARTIROMO: So, you could actually ask Amazon's Alexa to change the temperature. AMARASIRIWARDENA: That's right, you can. So, you know, you're waking up and you're getting ready to go out the door, you can say, Alexa, turn on my jacket, and it'll preheat, so it's ready to go. BARTIROMO: How did it -- how did it feel to you, Dagen, you were modeling it earlier? MCDOWELL: Perfectly temperature control. That's what I'll say. AMARASIRIWARDENA: Thanks. MCDOWELL: But are people skeptical? Like, do you have a hurdle to jump to convince people of the technology in this jacket? AMARASIRIWARDENA: That's a great question. So, one of the things that we really focus on is making sure it's a jacket that looks great, that looks like a normal winter jacket, and that was kind of the most important thing, making sure it didn't have visible lights in it. You know, it wasn't something that was too difficult to use. So, literally, you throw in the jacket, you put it on smart mode, and as soon as you walk out the door, it's ready to go. BLOCK: Where can someone buy this -- your jackets? AMARASIRIWARDENA: Yes, so we have seven stores across the U.S., including here in New York, and then also online on our Web site. BARTIROMO: You say this jacket is everything proof. It's odor proof, waterproof, TSA friendly, even machine washable. How? AMARASIRIWARDENA: That's right. Yes, so we've been making outdoor gear for several years, and we figured out how to make waterproof jackets, and we've been using a really interesting material that is actually made out of recycled coffee grounds. And coffee is a great odor neutralizer. So, we blend that with recycled polyester and the result is this great odor-proof jacket. CARTER: So, you guys all graduated from MIT, there's a lot of science in this jacket. AMARASIRIWARDENA: Yes. CARTER: And it says in your materials that it's pretrained, so as soon as you get this thing, it's ready to go. Can you tell me about the pre- training? What's does that mean? AMARASIRIWARDENA: Yes. So, we had several individuals across the country actually wear the jacket in different scenarios, and we could figure out, you know, what does someone's commute look like and actually understand how much heat they needed. And from this data, we're able to actually train the model, so that when someone puts it on, it already has a really good model based on what most people like. MCDOWELL: But in terms of growing the business, it's got to be more about more than just jackets. So, what's the next step? What's the expansion of the technology? AMARASIRIWARDENA: Yes. So, our core business, we make, you know, dress, shirts, blazers, but we're actually looking at, you know, how do we apply this in beyond just kind of a city jacket, but, you know, ski wear, and even looking beyond into some garments that actually -- MCDOWELL: I think your store is on Madison and 53rd Street, am I right? AMARASIRIWARDENA: So, we had -- we have a popup there and we have one in Soho right now. Yes. MCDOWELL: OK. So, yes, I pay attention to these. BARTIROMO: Fantastic. Gihan, congrats, great to see you. AMARASIRIWARDENA: Thank you. BARTIROMO: Thank you so much. The jacket looks fantastic. And we appreciate you joining us this morning. AMARASIRIWARDENA: Thanks. BARTIROMO: Gihan Amarasiriwardena, thank you, sir. Coming up, positively adorable, the newest player in the NHL that's taking over the rink, next up. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) BARTIROMO: Welcome back. Thursday Night Football on Fox, another thriller. Jared Max, what a game. JARED MAX, FOX NEWS SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: What a game. Worthy exemption than the norm to see a great matchup on paper translate to a great football game. But, you know, just like that possible, Super Bowl preview last month between the Rams and the Chiefs, this battle for the AFC's best record, monumental. The Chargers cut a 14-0 deficit in half on this touchdown by Mike Williams who would score twice more here in on a 19-yard run, and he would get the Charges in position to force overtime with this touchdown four seconds to go. Extra point goes to overtime, right? Well, they say we're going for the win on a two-point conversation. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is likely the final play that matters. End zone wide open. What a night for Mike Williams. Wow. Chargers win, 29-28. L.A. is 11-3, tied with Kansas City top the AFC and the West, and the Chargers claims the playoffs. How do you get rid of the blues? Well, you have the St. Louis Blues office puppy, Barclay, come to practice. Barclay is being fostered by the team to become an assistant's dog. Now, check him out, not only with the stick but with the puck. And most impressive here, Maria, how does he keep his footing? He doesn't even have any special shoes on and he can skate around and not even slip and side. CARTER: Oh, my goodness. BARTIROMO: It is so cute. MCDOWELL: Because dogs can do everything better than humans. BARTIROMO: Yes. MCDOWELL: Pretty much. CARTER: Look at that. Oh, my gosh. BARTIROMO: He is so cute. MAX: I love it. Look at Barclay go. BARTIROMO: He looks young, he's a real puppy. He's got a lot of puppy in him. CARTER: He is a real puppy. MAX: Inspire folks to go on Central Park on the ice this winter with your dog. BARTIROMO: So great. MCDOWELL: My favorite yellow lab is Persia who is our bomb-sniffing dog in the building and she doesn't really work that well because you walk up to her and she goes on her back with her legs in the air -- (CROSSTALK) MCDOWELL: is belly rubs. BARTIROMO: She wants a belly rub. Doesn't everybody? (LAUGHTER) BARTIROMO: Have a great weekend, everybody. Great show today. CARTER: Great to be here. Great day, too. BARTIROMO: Lee Carter, Michael Block, Dagen, always a pleasure. I'll see you this weekend. MCDOWELL: Always. A great week always with you. Yes, Maria, Sunday, "SUNDAY MORNING FUTURES." END [Copy: Content and Programming Copyright 2018 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2018 ASC Services II Media, LLC. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of ASC Services II Media, LLC. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.]
Subject: Copyright; Presidents; Interest rates; Advisors; Television news; Tariffs
Location: China United States--US Asia Europe
People: Trump, Donald J Van Saun, Bruce
Company / organization: Name: Nasdaq Stock Market Inc; NAICS: 523210; Name: Fox News Channel; NAICS: 515120
Publication title: Finance Wire; Lanham
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Dec 14, 2018
Publisher: CQ Roll Call
Place of publication: Lanham
Country of publication: United States, Lanham
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: En glish
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2157630267
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2157630267?accountid=4840
Copyright: 2018 ASC Services II Media, LLC
Last updated: 2019-06-27
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 460 of 474
Major airports start Special Operations 2019
Publication info: Brazil Business News ; Sydney [Sydney]17 Dec 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Dec. 17 -- The Special Operation 2019 begins on Monday (17) in 11 Brazilian airports. About 200 civil servants of the National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC) will work in shifts to cover the periods of greater movement and greater flow of passengers, according to the characteristics of the airports involved. The idea is to step up assistance to passengers in relation to the services offered by airlines. This year, Operation 2019 will be carried out in two phases: year-end period - from December 17 to January 6, 2019; and the other between February 25 and March 9, 2019, during the Carnival period. Among the commitments assumed by the airlines are to maintain maximum occupancy of check-in positions at peak times, reinforcement of employees at exclusive ticket booths for information and registration of demonstrations, suspension of overbooking , increase in staff strengthening of ground crew training, among other services. Check out the airports that will have enhanced services: * Galeao and Santos Dumont - Rio de Janeiro / RJ * Congonhas and Guarulhos - Sao Paulo / SP * Viracopos - Campinas / SP * Brasilia - Distrito Federal * Confins - Belo Horizonte / MG * Curitiba - Sao Jose dos Pinhais / PR * Porto Alegre - Porto Alegre / RS * Salvador - BA / BA * Fortaleza - Fortaleza / CE * Recife - Pernambuco / PE * Manaus - Amazonas / AM Disclaimer: The Above Content is Auto-Translated Source: Government of Brazil Copyright 2017 Contify.com
Subject: Airports; Airlines; Air travel
Location: Brazil Rio de Janeiro Brazil
Publication title: Brazil Business News; Sydney
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Dec 17, 2018
Publisher: Athena Information Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
Place of publication: Sydney
Country of publication: India, Sydney
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2157860522
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2157860522?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright 2017 Contify.com
Last updated: 2018-12-18
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 461 of 474
Berlin Panorama first wave includes Joanna Hogg, Jonah Hill projects
Author: Parfitt, Orlando
Publication info: Screen International ; London (Dec 18, 2018).
Abstract:
A Dog Called Money – Ireland / UK by Seamus Murphy with PJ Harvey Documentary World premiere - Debut film Award-winning photographer Seamus Murphy provides a glimpse into the creative process of groundbreaking British musician PJ Harvey filming her in a London recording studio and during their joint travels to Afghanistan, Kosovo and Washington D.C.. Flatland – South Africa / Germany / Luxembourg by Jenna Bass with Faith Baloyi, Nicole Fortuin, Izel Bezuidenhout World premiere An unusual road movie from South-African filmmaker Jenna Bass about friendship, female self-determination and the social power structures of a divided nation. Jessica Forever – France by Caroline Poggi, Jonathan Vinel with Aomi Muyock, Sebastian Urzendowski, Augustin Raguenet, Lukas Ionesco, Eddy Suiveng, Paul Hamy, Maya Coline European premiere - Debut film Filmmakers Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel (winners of the Golden Bear for Best Short Film for As Long as Shotguns Remain in 2014) return with their French end-of-days dystopia Jessica Forever, in which a group of orphan rebels are fortified in a villa with heavy arms to brace for a drone war with a faceless enemy.Full text:
22 films in the Panorama programme so far, with nine directorial debuts.
The first 22 titles from the 2019 Berlin Film Festival (Feb 7-17) Panorama programme have been revealed.
Scroll down for the full line-up
The European premiere of UK director Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir, starring Tilda Swinton, her daughter Honor Swinton-Byrne and Tom Burke, and the world premiere of Seamus Murphy’s PJ Harvey documentary A Dog Called Money are among the titles confirmed today.
The line-up also includes the directing debuts of actors Jonah Hill (Mid90s) and Alexander Gorchilin (Acid), and Rob Garver’s documentary What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael, about the hugely influential film critic.
There are 17 features and five documentaries so far, with 14 world premieres and nine directorial debuts. More titles will be announced in the coming weeks.
The full line-up is below. Descriptions provided by the festival.
37 Seconds – Japan
by HIKARI (Mitsuyo Miyazaki)
with Mei Kayama, Misuzu Kanno, Makiko Watanabe, Shunsuke Daitō, Yuka Itaya
World premiere - Debut film
Director HIKARI, aka Mitsuyo Miyazaki, tells the story of Yuma, a young Japanese woman who suffers from cerebral palsy. Torn between her obligations towards her family and her dream to become a manga artist, Yuma struggles to lead a self-determined life.
Dafne – Italy
by Federico Bondi
with Carolina Raspanti, Antonio Piovanelli, Stefania Casini
World premiere
Dafne is a self-aware and bright young woman with Down syndrome. When her mother dies, she has to attend to her father too, on top of attempting to process her own grief.
The Day After I’m Gone – Israel
by Nimrod Eldar
with Menashe Noy, Zohar Meidan
World premiere - Debut film
Nimrod Eldar’s first feature tells the stories of injured animals, injured daughters and an injured country. Leaving Tel Aviv might be the last hope for the single father.
A Dog Called Money – Ireland / UK
by Seamus Murphy
with PJ Harvey
Documentary
World premiere - Debut film
Award-winning photographer Seamus Murphy provides a glimpse into the creative process of groundbreaking British musician PJ Harvey filming her in a London recording studio and during their joint travels to Afghanistan, Kosovo and Washington D.C..
Estou Me Guardando Para Quando O Carnaval Chegar (Waiting for the Carnival) – Brazil
by Marcelo Gomes
Documentary
World premiere
A documentary film about the Brazilian town of Toritama, the self-proclaimed capital of jeans. The workers of the city’s self-managed small businesses only get one real break from their self-exploiting lives in the textile business: the annual Carnival.
Eynayim Sheli (Chained) – Israel / Germany
by Yaron Shani
with Eran Naim, Stav Almagor, Stav Patai
World premiere
Israeli director Yaron Shani presents the second part of his “Love Trilogy”, the story of policeman Rashi, whose private life is thrown out of balance by a sudden loss of authority on the job.
Flatland – South Africa / Germany / Luxembourg
by Jenna Bass
with Faith Baloyi, Nicole Fortuin, Izel Bezuidenhout
World premiere
An unusual road movie from South-African filmmaker Jenna Bass about friendship, female self-determination and the social power structures of a divided nation.
Greta – Brazil
by Armando Praça
with Marco Nanini, Denise Weinberg, Demick Lopes, Gretta Star
World premiere - Debut film
Armando Praça’s directorial debut depicts a queer, intergenerational Brazil. An older, gay nurse takes one of his patients into his own home. His neighbour, an ailing transwoman, is part of this parallel society portrayed in this moving drama.
Hellhole – Belgium / Netherlands
by Bas Devos
with Willy Thomas, Alba Rohrwacher, Lubna Azabal, Hamza Belarbi
World premiere
In his second feature, Belgian director Bas Devos paints the portrait of a wounded city in enigmatic images: at its centre stand Brussels and the haunting stories of the city’s lost souls.
Jessica Forever – France
by Caroline Poggi, Jonathan Vinel
with Aomi Muyock, Sebastian Urzendowski, Augustin Raguenet, Lukas Ionesco, Eddy Suiveng, Paul Hamy, Maya Coline
European premiere - Debut film
Filmmakers Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel (winners of the Golden Bear for Best Short Film for As Long as Shotguns Remain in 2014) return with their French end-of-days dystopia Jessica Forever, in which a group of orphan rebels are fortified in a villa with heavy arms to brace for a drone war with a faceless enemy.
Kislota (Acid) – Russian Federation
by Alexander Gorchilin
with Filipp Avdeev, Alexander Kuznetsov, Arina Shevtsova, Alexandra Rebenok, Savva Saveliev
International premiere - Debut film
The stylistically confident and energetic directorial debut by 26-year-old actor Alexander Gorchilin deals with sex, drugs, and young adults’ search for meaning in modern-day Russia.
Mid90s – US
by Jonah Hill
with Sunny Suljic, Lucas Hedges, Katherine Waterston, Na-kel Smith, Olan Prenatt
European premiere - Debut film
Oscar-nominated actor Jonah Hill’s debut behind the camera is his shot on 16mm declaration of love to the 1990s. Hill takes us into the summer of 13-year-old Stevie and depicts his life between domestic violence and the newfound recognition from a group of local skaters.
Los miembros de la familia (Family Members) – Argentina
by Mateo Bendesky
with Tomás Wicz, Laila Maltz, Alejandro Russek
World premiere
In Los miembros de la familia (Family Members), young Argentinian director Mateo Bendesky lets a family tale characterised by calm imagery unfold: in an abandoned house on the coast, the secrets of a pair of siblings gradually come to light.
Monos – Columbia / Argentina / Netherlands / Germany / Denmark / Sweden / Uruguay
by Alejandro Landes
with Julianne Nicholson, Moisés Arias, Sofia Buenaventura, Julián Giraldo, Karen Quintero
European premiere
Eight adolescent members of a paramilitary squad and their hostage hide in the Colombian mountains. The accidental killing of their treasured milk cow “Shakira” starts a battle for survival.
O Beautiful Night – Germany
by Xaver Böhm
with Noah Saavedra, Marko Mandić, Vanessa Loibl
World premiere - Debut film
The feature debut by Xaver Böhm is the newest production from Komplizen Film. In this Faustian tale, anxious Yuri encounters death in the form of an Austrian. Yuri is forced to confront his fears.
Selfie – France / Italy
by Agostino Ferrente
Documentary
World premiere
Agostino Ferrente’s documentary deals with police violence and the long shadow the Mafia still casts over today’s Italy. Two adolescent Neapolitans portray themselves and their surroundings with their smartphones.
Shooting the Mafia – Ireland / US
by Kim Longinotto
Documentary
European premiere
Shooting the Mafia is a portrait of the life and work of Italian photographer Letizia Battaglia, who has been documenting the crimes of the Mafia in Palermo for decades.
Skin – US
by Guy Nattiv
with Jamie Bell, Danielle Macdonald, Vera Farmiga, Bill Camp, Mike Colter
European premiere
Israeli-born director Guy Nattiv takes a deep dive into the USA’s neo-Nazi scene in Skin. His film tells the true story of skinhead Bryon Widner and his attempts to leave his extreme right-wing past behind.
The Souvenir – United Kingdom
by Joanna Hogg
with Honor Swinton-Byrne, Tom Burke, Tilda Swinton
European premiere
Renowned British auteur filmmaker Joanna Hogg depicts the ill-fated relationship between a young film student and a charismatic but secretive man. Featuring Tilda Swinton’s daughter Honor Swinton-Byrne in her first lead role.
Temblores (Tremors) – Guatemala / France / Luxembourg
by Jayro Bustamante
with Juan Pablo Olyslager, Mauricio Armas Zebadúa, Diane Bathen, María Telón
World premiere
Guatemalan director Jayro Bustamante (Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize for Ixcanul 2015) presents his second and highly personal feature. The coming out of an evangelical father shatters his family, his community and uncovers a profoundly repressive society.
To thávma tis thálassas ton Sargassón (The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea) – Greece / Germany / Netherlands / Sweden
by Syllas Tzoumerkas
with Angeliki Papoulia, Youla Boudali, Christos Passalis, Argyris Xafis, Thanassis Dovris
World premiere
The newest film from Greek director Syllas Tzoumerkas and his second collaboration with Angeliki Papoulia, star of the New Greek Cinema (Dogtooth, The Lobster), is a fierce and untamed crime tale, told in larger-than-life images.
What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael – US
by Rob Garver
with Sarah Jessica Parker, Quentin Tarantino, Alec Baldwin, David O. Russell, Paul Schrader
Documentary
International premiere - Debut film
The portrait of the work of controversial film critic Pauline Kael (1919-2001) and her influence on the male-dominated worlds of cinema and film criticism.
Credit: Orlando Parfitt
Subject: Domestic violence; Motion picture directors & producers; Documentary films; Actors; Shotguns; Recording
Location: Kosovo Italy Ireland Russia Denmark Israel United Kingdom--UK Afghanistan Argentina Brazil France Uruguay Sweden Sargasso Sea Luxembourg Netherlands Greece United States--US South Africa Guatemala Germany Washington DC Belgium Tel Aviv Israel Japan
People: Rohrwacher, Alba Swinton, Tilda Colter, Mike Baldwin, Alec Hogg, Joanna Parker, Sarah Jessica Waterston, Katherine Burke, Tom Saavedra, Marko Landes, Alejandro Hedges, Lucas Hill, Jonah Shani, Yaron Tarantino, Quentin Russell, Paul Battaglia, Letizia
Publication title: Screen International; London
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Dec 18, 2018
Section: News
Publisher: Media Business Insight
Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London
Publication subject: Communications--Television And Cable, Motion Pictures
ISSN: 03074617
Source type: Trade Journals
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2158254757
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2158254757?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Media Business Insight Dec 18, 2018
Last updated: 2018-12-19
Database: Performing Arts Periodicals Database; SciTech Premium Collection
Document 462 of 474
New Year’s Eve in Dubai: 81 places to celebrate 2019
Author: Zaki, Yousra
Publication info: Gulf News ; Dubai [Dubai]20 Dec 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Highlights
It’s hard to believe another year is drawing to a close. With 2019 just around the corner excitement is high! Wondering how to celebrate the New Year?
Simon Rimmer
End the year with great views from the terrace of the Marina where you can catch a glimpse of the JBR fireworks. The Scene is going against the grain this New Year and letting guests enjoy the moment for less. Entry is free to the venue and people can just take a seat and order off the menu. Bottles of bubbles are priced from Dh199, bottles of spirits from Dh420 and your choice on how you want to dine.
Location Pier 7 Cost Free, a la carte ordering Timings December 31 from 7pm onwards
Nola Eatery and Social House
Nola is being chill and laidback this NYE with no set menu, no buffets, just come in, have a nice dinner and party until it’s 2019.
Location JLT Cluster P Cost Free entry, a la carte ordering Timings December 31 from 6pm onwards
Jules
Head to the Mexican bar for a Coyote Ugly themed New Year’s Eve party. Jules is offering a three course dinner menu with a glass of sparkling grape.
Location Le Meridien Dubai Hotel and Conference Centre Cost Dh199 per person including food and one glass of sparkling Timings December 31 from 9pm to 3am
Mazz Music Bar
The Barsha bar will be hosting an 80s and 90s evening where their band Rozx Empire and resident Dj Mars will entertain the crown until night time.
Location CityMax Hotel in Al Barsha Cost Dh100 including one house beverage, Dh200 including three house beverages, Dh299 including five house beverages and a food platter, Dh1,100 including a bottle of premium beverage and a food platter.
JB’s Gastropub (JBR Firework Views)
The JBR venue will have a live DJ, Dancers and a three course meal on offer.
Location Amwaj Rotana Hotel, JBR Cost Dh109 including two house beverages and no food, Dh279 including unlimited house beverages, Dh239 including a three course dinner with soft beverages and and a welcome sparkling grape, Dh399 including a three course dinner with house beverages Timings December 31 from 8pm to 1am
Zero Gravity (JBR Firework Views)
Dance on the sand and at the poolside to an international DJ double-bill featuring Rudimental and Sigala under a sky filled with fireworks. For those who want to start the day early, tickets for New Year’s Eve celebrations will include access to the beach and pool, with changing facilities and lockers.
Location Dubai Marina Cost Dh200, Dh250, Dh300 are regular entry only tickets released in limited quantities as each one gets sold out, Dh400 at the door on the day, Dh1,000 includes unlimited food and beverages from 8pm to 2am, plus exclusive access to the first floor terrace with its own bars and bathrooms. Timings December 31 from 12pm onwards
Barasti (JBR Firework Views)
Fatman Scoop and the Bassjackers will headline this years’ festivities. Enjoy New Year’s Eve by the beach and dance all night long. Forget those heels and kick-off 2019 with your toes in the sand.
Location Dubai Marina Cost Dh210 online, Dh249 at the gate for entry Timings December 31 from 7pm to 4am
Asia De Cuba
The recently opened Latin restaurant is hosting a New Year’s Eve party with a carnival theme. There will be dancing, beverages and plenty of that Latino flair.
Location Westin Dubai Mina Seyahi Beach Resort and Marina Cost Dh299 including house beverages only, Dh555 including bubbly Timings December 31 from 11pm to 3am
Jazz @ Pizza Express
The pizzeria will be hosting a 70s to 90s party with old school music across the decades, glow sticks and Italian food.
Location JLT, Cluster A Cost Dh299 including house beverages Timings December 31 from 8am to 1am
Lucky Voice
Who doesn’t love Karaoke? It will be a great way to enjoy New Year’s Eve with friends. Head to Lucky Voice for unlimited food and beverages. Party the night away with a live DJ to all the biggest hits of 2018 and more.
Location Grand Millennium, Barsha Heights Cost Dh250 including food and soft beverages, Dh450 including food and sparkling beverages Timings December 31 from 9pm to 1am
The Market Place and Shanghai 30
Ring in the New Year with unlimited dining and beverages, as well as DJ entertainment from 2 different outlets for the price of one.
Location Marriot Al Jaddaf, The Market Place and Shanghai 30 Cost Dh249 per person for food and Dh399 per couple including food and soft beverages, Dh349 per person and Dh599 per couple including house beverages Timings December 31 from 6pm to 2am
House Party Dubai and Cirque le Soir
Jump on the bed, party in the bath (clothes on!) and dance on the sofa, as both venues join forces for the ultimate party. With music from both the 90s and more recent chart hits, you’ll be on the dancefloor all night long. Cirque will have unusual performers and great music too.
Location Fairmont Hotel Shaikh Zayed Road Cost Dh300 including unlimited beverages until 1am Timings December 31 from 7pm to 4am
Luigia
Ring in the New Year at Luigia, with a crafted four course culinary celebration at a pocket friendly price. Due to the specialty of the dishes offered on the Christmas and NYE menus, a 48 hour advance booking policy has been put in place to ensure the kitchen has adequate time to prepare.
Location Rixos Premium JBR Cost Dh350 per person including food Timings December 31 8pm onwards
Capital Club (Burj Khalifa Views)
One of Dubai’s private business Clubs, the Capital Club, is giving you the chance to avoid inflated prices and crowds with special dining and beverage packages. Packages include a three-course dining experience for Dh250 per person or Dh500 per person including beverages. The Club is also offering a Midnight package at Dh250 per person, for free-flowing bubbles and macaroons for one hour in the Club’s Botanical Garden. The dinner menu includes, duck liver parfait and camembert with apricot relish to start, wild trout with tarragon butter sauce and milk fed tenderloin for main course, and mulled grape poached pears and hot chocolate fondant for dessert. End the night at its private Burj Khalifa terrace. Dance for the rest of the night until 3am to the sounds of resident jazz singer, Arianna Bianchi and the Club’s resident DJ.
Location Capital Club Dubai Gate Village, DIFC Cost Dh250 per person including food, Dh500 including food and beverages, Dh250 per person for one hour for a post-midnight beverage deal
Loca
Celebrate 2019 in style in Dubai, at Loca. The evening at the Dubai Marine Beach Resort & Spa outlet, will include unlimited food and free-flowing beverages for Dh400. The DJ will play foot-tapping tunes and commercial beats throughout the night.
Location Dubai Marine Beach Resort and Spa Cost Dh400 per person including food and house beverages Timings December 31 from 8pm onwards
Nezesaussi Grill
Say howdy to the New Year like a true stockman from the Southern hemisphere. Join friends and family at Nezesaussi Grill for a cowboy-inspired celebration. Tuck into festive culinary favourites from South Africa, Australia and New Zealand with free-flowing beverages.
Location Manzil Downtown Cost Dh395 per person including a meal and house beverages Timings December 31 from 7pm to 3am
Links
It’s time for leg warmers, side ponytails, fingerless gloves and shoulder pads as Links steps back in time with a classic 80’s themed New Year’s Eve celebration. The venue will have views of the Dubai skyline. Get ready to groove to the classics with an 80’s themed decor and a dress code as well as a buffet on spread.
Location Emirates Hills, Address Montgomrie Cost Dh399 per person including food and soft beverages, Dh599 per person including food and house beverages Timings December 31 from 8pm to 1am
Ibn Al Bahr (Palm Jumeirah Views)
Try a set menu of Lebanese food from the shores of Lebanon with a selection of seafood to ring in the New Year. The experience at Club Vista Mare will include a beach party afterwards where there will be a concert set-up, performances by a live DJ, light installations, party tracks and more that will add to the ambience. Club Vista Mare on Palm Jumeirah is setting the stage for a spectacular New Year’s Eve celebration with a firework display and culinary feast across its restaurants.
Location Club Vista Mare, Palm Jumeirah Cost Dh560 including food and soft beverages, Dh784 including food and unlimited house beverages Timings December 31 from 7pm onwards
Seven Sands (JBR Fireworks Views)
Celebrate the New Year Emirati style with an all-inclusive six-course menu and live Arabic entertainment. Set in a seaside location overlooking Bluewaters Island and the Arabian Gulf, guests can look forward to a gourmet dinner with an Emirati twist. The New Year’s Eve menu includes a choice of locally inspired dishes like the chicken mashwai and aish wu lahem, and the signature date pudding, aseeda bobar or fresh fruit platter. There will also be a belly dance performances and a live singer from 8pm.
Location The Beach JBR Cost Dh399 including food and unlimited soft drinks, Dh450 including shisha Timings December 31 from 7pm onwards
Flair no. 5
The evening will include lots of music and great food. The tasty bites, include prawn croquette, crispy calamari, and duck gyoza to name a few. Enjoy the ‘wonderland’ themed rooftop venue on New Year’s Eve.
Location Podium Level, The Ritz-Carlton DIFC Cost Dh300 inclusive of food and four beverages, Dh800 per person for VIP tables Timings December 31 from 8pm to 3am
Hotel Cartagena (Burj Khalifa View)
The Latin restaurant will be hosting a carnival themed night brunch. If you’ve tried their brunch before, then you can expect similar dishes as well as the same fun atmosphere, including the DJ, the colourful Brazilian dancers and views of the Burj Khalifa Fireworks.
Location JW Marriot Marquis, Business Bay Cost Dh395 including food and soft beverages, Dh495 including food and house beverages with sparkling grape, Dh795 including dinner with bubbly.
Andalucia Tapas
Ring in the New Year with a lineup of entertainment at Andalucia Tapas and Grill. Enjoy a Latino band, live singers, go-go dancers and DJ put on a show when the clock strikes midnight. Guests will also receive NYE party favours, while they enjoy a set menu. The dinner includes ceviche, gambas al ajilo, patatas bravas, baby calamari and croquettas de pollo for starters and a range of grills for the main course.
Location Jebel Ali Recreational Club Cost Dh475 including food and house beverages, Dh575 including food and premium house beverages, Dh675 including food and bubbly, Dh375 for a house beverage only package without food Timings December 31 from 7pm onwards
Katsuya by Stark (Burj Al Arab View)
Celebrate the end of yet another year with a Japanese dinner. Located in Jumeirah Al Naseem and overlooking the Arabian Sea, with front-row seats to the Burj Al Arab New Year’s Eve fireworks. Enjoy some sushi rolls through the a la carte menu.
Location Jumeirah Al Naseem Hotel Cost Dh500 minimum spend Timings December 31 from 8pm onwards
QE2
Spread across two decks, the New Year’s Eve Brunch will be hosted in the Lido and The Pavilion. Choose from indoor or outdoor seating and enjoy a selection of international cuisines from the buffet, as well as free-flowing beverages. The NYE Brunch features a live music band as well as a dedicated interactive kids area with activities to keep them entertained throughout the evening.
Location Port Rashid Cost Dh450 per person including food and soft beverages, Dh795 including food and house beverages Timings December 31 from 8pm to 2am
Aji (Palm Jumeirah Views)
Have some Peruvian-Japanese cuisine to ring in the New Year. Club Vista Mare will also include a beach party afterwards where there will be a concert set-up, performances by a live DJ, light installations, party tracks and more that will add to the ambience. Club Vista Mare on Palm Jumeirah is setting the stage for a spectacular New Year’s Eve celebration with a fireworks display and culinary feast across the restaurants.
Location Club Vista Mare, Palm Jumeirah Cost Dh495 including food and soft beverages, Dh895 including food and unlimited house beverages indoors or Dh995 including food and unlimited house beverages outdoors Timings December 31 from 7pm onwards
Copper Dog
Kick start 2019 with a license to thrill, as Copper Dog turns into the glamorous hide out of 007, with a James Bond theme party.
Location Double Tree by Hilton Cost Dh450 including house beverages only, Dh650 including Set menu and house beverages Group Offer: 2 free on 8 tickets purchased Timings December 31 from 9pm to 1am
Joe’s Backyard
The newly opened Joe’s Backyard celebrates the New Year with great views and good food at the Holiday Inn, Dubai Festival City. Joe’s will offer a cook-out to remember, with a five-course menu on offer for the evening, you can expect an unlimited selection of meats, from smoked brisket, hanger steak, lamb shoulder and roast chicken. Alongside the signature meats, you can choose between salmon that is smoked in-house or fresh Oysters to start, ribeye carpaccio, bresaola and truffle mozzarella as a second course and grilled fish or tiger prawns as a main. If you can make room for dessert, Joe’s cheesecake and grilled pineapple will end your night on a sweet note.
Location 19 floor of the Holiday Inn, Dubai Festival City Cost Dh499including food and soft beverages, Dh649 including food and house beverages Timings December 31 from 8.30pm to 12.30am
Scot’s American Grill
Enjoy live jazz music with a celebratory four-course menu created especially for the occasion.
Location Scot’s American Grill, Marriot Al Jaddaf Cost Dh499 per person including house beverages, Dh899 per couple including house beverages Timings December 31 from 7pm to 1am
Gaucho DIFC
Add an Argentine fiesta to your celebration. Begin the evening on the outdoor terrace over a couple of beverages. Then indulgr in shared starters, from braised beef back ribs and tuna ceviche to argentinian king prawns and watermelon salad. Mains include pan seared salmon, fillet steak or asparagus risotto and finish off the evening with a dessert platter to share, including dulce de leche and chocolate brownies, chocolate truffles and poached plums.
Location Daucho DIFC Cost Dh470 including food and soft beverages, Dgh560 including food and house beverages, Dh670 including food and sparkling grape, Dh790 including food and bubbly Timings December 31 from 7pm to 11pm
Blue Marlin Ibiza
Blue Marlin welcomes Dixon and Ame to the venue for an unmissable set on New Year’s Eve. Dixon, currently ranked as number one DJ on Resident Advisor's Top 100 DJ poll and the symbiotic Kristian Beyer, Ame DJ, will be tag teaming back to back to bring guests a conceptually driven music production.
Location Ghantoot Cost Dh500 for ladies and Dh700 for men including house beverages Timings December 31 from 7pm onwards
Riva Beach (Palm Jumeirah Views)
Enjoy views of Palm Jumeirah’s fireworks, as Riva serve up a feast with upbeat music by DJ Samer EGY all night.
Location Shoreline 8, Palm Jumeirah, Dubai Cost Dh450 Beverage package, includes free-flowing house beverages without food, Dh600 Silver package, includes food and soft beverages, Dh750 Gold package, includes food and house beverages, Dh380 Kids package, includes food and soft beverages Timings December 31 from 7pm to 2am
Qasr Al Sultan Boutique Hotel (Qasr Al Sultan Fireworks)
Qasr Al Sultan is all set to welcome 2019 with their very own firework show. Guests can enjoy an open buffet while watching the live entertainment and special New Year welcome with Dina Hayak, Lebanese singer.
Location Qasr Al Sultan Boutique Hotel Cost Dh495 per adult stage side inclusive of soft drinks, Dh600 per adult inclusive of soft drinks and juices, Dh950 per adult inclusive house beverages.
Boardwalk
Celebrate in style with a 1920s themed party. Enjoy a four-course set menu with a beverage package, which includes 1920’s styled cocktails and a live swing band from 8pm to 1am.
Location Boardwalk, Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club Cost Dh470 for food and soft beverages, Dh 600 for food and house beverages, Dh700 for food and sparkling Timings December 31 from 8pm to 1am
Lakeview
Lights, Camera, Action! Lakeview will be transforming into a Hollywood Gala Dinner for the family. Enjoy an evening of elegance, dancers and magicians and sing along to the live band and DJ.
Location Lakeview, Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club Cost Dh495 for food and soft beverages, Dh595 for food and house beverages, Dh850 for food and sparkling Timings December 31 from 8.30pm to 1am
Ruya Dubai (JBR Views)
The restaurant and bar located at the Grosvenor House is offering Anatolian cuisine and views over Dubai Marina this New Year’s Eve. Enjoy the festivities with friends and family. There will be a resident DJ and live entertainment setting the atmosphere for the night.
Location Grosvenor House Hotel, Dubai Marina Cost Dh500 minimum spend per person Timings December 31 from 7pm to 3am
Breeze Beach Grill (Palm Jumeirah Views)
On New Year’s Eve, Breeze will offer buffet stations as well as a beach party with a concert set-up, performances by a live DJ, light installations, chart-busting tracks and more that will add to the ambience. Club Vista Mare on Palm Jumeirah is setting the stage for a spectacular New Year’s Eve celebration with a firework display and culinary feast across its restaurants.
Location Club Vista Mare, Palm Jumeirah Cost Dh495 including food and soft beverages, Dh895 including food and four hours of unlimited house beverages, Dh350 for kids aged 6 to 12 Timings December 31 from 7pm onwards
Cafe Belge
Enjoy a Masquerade Party Brunch at Café Belge where you can try their high-end Belgian cuisine, with music, a live band and a mask on to celebrate 2019.
Location Ritz Carlton DIFC Cost Dh495 including food and house beverages, Dh195 for children Timings December 31 from 7pm onwards
La Cirque
On New Year’s Eve the French-Italian restaurant will host a five-course dinner of European inspired dishes.
Location Ritz Carlton DIFC Cost Dh495 including food and house beverages, Dh195 for children Timings December 31 from 7pm onwards
Tap House (Palm Jumeirah Views)
Enjoy a four-course set menu at Tap House. Dinner will be followed by a beach party with a concert set-up, performances by a live DJ, light installations, party tracks and more that will add to the ambience. Club Vista Mare on Palm Jumeirah is setting the stage for a spectacular New Year’s Eve celebration with a firework display and culinary feast across its restaurants.
Location Club Vista Mare, Palm Jumeirah Cost Dh555 including food and soft beverages, Dh777 including food and unlimited house beverages, Dh111 for kids aged 6 to 12 Timings December 31 from 7pm onwards
Aqua Chill
Aqua Chill is hosting a New Year’s Eve rooftop party at Marriott Al Jaddaf’s for great food, beverages and views of the Burj Khalifa fireworks with a DJ to entertain.
Location Aqua Chill at Marriott Al Jaddaf Cost Dh549 per person including food and house beverages, Dh999 per couple including food and house beverages Timings 6pm to 2am
Stars n Bars
Welcome in the New Year with views of La Mer Beach, Burj Khalifa, and the Downtown Dubai’s Skyline. They will be offering VIP seating on the terrace, as well as indoor dining areas. An evening of bites, beats, and free flowing beverages will take you into 2019. Dinner will include a three course menu and four hours of unlimited beverages
Location La Mer Cost Dh500 per person including food and house beverages indoors, Dh750 per person including food and house beverages and indoor with a view, Dh1,000 per person including food and house beverages and terrace seating Timings December 31 from 7pm onwards
RAS Beach Vibes Lounge (Palm Jumeirah Views)
Enjoy the taste of the Caribbean with a set menu. Club vista mare will come together for a beach party with a concert set-up, performances by a live DJ, light installations, chart-busting tracks and more that will add to the ambience. Club Vista Mare on Palm Jumeirah is setting the stage for a spectacular New Year’s Eve celebration with a firework display and culinary feast across its restaurants.
Location Club Vista Mare, Palm Jumeirah Cost Dh599 including food and soft beverages, Dh899 including food and unlimited house beverages, Dh1,199 for food and premium beverages including bubbly Timings December 31 from 7pm onwards
Dubai Opera (Burj Khalifa Views)
Celebrate with a night of music, dancing and beverages in the building auditorium in the form of a party in the heart of Downtown Dubai, offering a views of Burj Khalifa and the firework display. With live music by Chinua Hawk Band playing a variety of hits from Michael Jackson to Ed Sheeran. As festivities carry on, DJ Said Mrad and DJ C will keep guests up on their feet mixing tunes until 2am. Dress to Impress in Black and White (with a touch of gold to celebrate)
Location Dubai Opera, Downtown Dubai Cost Dh700 per person including 4 beverages, food costs extra Timings December 31 from 7pm to 2am
Chill Out Lounge
Have a fun New Year with views of the Burj Khalifa fireworks and Dubai skyline.
Location Viewing Gallery, Marriot Al Jaddaf Cost Dh699 per person including food and house beverages, Dh1,299 per couple including food and house beverages Timings December 31 from 6pm to 2am
QD's
Celebrate New Year’s Eve at Dubai’s Creekside venue with a splash of color! Enjoy an evening of glow in the dark themed with UV face painting, and live entertainment alongside our resident DJ from 8pm until 2am.
Location QD’s, Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club Cost Dh650 for food and house beverages, Dh850 for food and premium beverages and sparkling with priority Creekside seating Timings December 31 from8pm to 2am
The Square New Year’s Eve Gala Dinner
Count down to the New Year in an al fresco location at City Walk. Enjoy the atmosphere of City Walk and dine at three different locations including LIMA Dubai, Toro +KO and Galvin Bistrot and Bar come together to celebrate in style. The evening begins with a bubbly and canapé reception, where guests can enjoy small bites from each restaurant. Dinner will include a four-course feast at their chosen venue. After dinner everyone will move to The Square as DJ Kenny Carpenter gets the party started, with a selection of premium beverages flowing freely all night. After 1am warm croissants and hot drinks will be served
Location City Walk, The Square New Year Gala Dinner Cost Dh650 per person including food and free flowing house beverages Timings December 31 from 8pm to 2am
Ranches Restaurant
Bid farewell to 2018 with your friends and family while appreciating the magnificent views and unique ambience under the stars. Enjoy a selection of beverages and a fantastic celebratory feast as the night is complemented with live DJ, Duo music and fireworks to end the year in style.
Location Arabian Ranches Golf Club Cost Adult Dh695 including food and house beverages, Young Adult Dh445 including food and soft beverages, Child Dh195 Timings December 31 from 8pm to 2am
Kenza
Say cheers to 2018 at Kenzas carnival-themed countdown. With the return of the fireworks display at Burj Khalifa, Kenza Restaurant have a great view of the show. The food buffet will include a salad bar, cheese and cold cuts station, sushi and seafood bar, a live barbecue station and a dessert corner. Guests can dance the night away with a live band playing a medley of upbeat and feel-good tunes.
Location Ramada by Wyndham Downtown Dubai Cost Dh699 including food and house beverages indoors, Dh999 including food and house beverages for premium seats, Dh1,199 including food and house beverages for VIP tables Timings December 31 from 7pm onwards
Baker-Finch Room
Dress to impress and join this exceptional adult only black-tie gala dinner at the exclusive Baker-Finch Room. Enjoy performances and a spectacle of fireworks. Surrender to the spirit of celebration, spectacular views, a delightful feast and beverages as you prepare to embrace the New Year surrounded by glamour.
Location Arabian Ranches Golf Club Cost Dh695 including food and house beverages Timings December 31 from 7.30pm to 2am
The Courtyard
Count down to the New Year in an alfresco setting at The Courtyard. There will be an extensive buffet selection complemented by beverages in an outdoor setting.
Location Manzil Downtown Cost Dh650 per person including food and soft beverages, Dh999 per person including food and house beverages and a bottle of bubbly Timings December 31 from 8pm to 3am
Mitra
Watch the New Year fireworks light up by the creek from Mitra, an Indian fusion bistro and Dubai’s only floating Indian restaurant. Guests can enjoy a fun evening by the creek with dinner, beverages and music on the house with an exclusive bubbly toast to ring in 2019.
Location Dubai Creek Cost Dh499 per couple indoors including food and soft beverages, Dh599 per couple outdoors including food and soft beverages, Dh899 per couple outdoors including food and house beverages Entry free for children under 5 years Timings December 31 from 8pm onwards
Play Restaurant
Embrace the glamour of The Great Gatsby for Play’s ‘Great New Year’ celebrations. Expect decor, tasty dishes such as ottoro gunkan with 24 carat gold leaf and grilled king crab with lemon butter sauce, accompanied by performances including live singer, violin player and saxophonist. Dress to dazzle, and bring back the splendor of the ‘roaring twenties’.
Location The H Hotel Dubai, Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai Cost Dh650 per person for food only, Dh300 additional for house beverages and Dh500 extra for bubbly Timings December 31 from 9pm onwards
Soho Garden
Bring in 2019 with Soho Garden’s Golden Garden Party. From 8pm till late with three-tier packages starting from Dh799, and the headline act will be announced closer to the date. Add sparkle to your evening and enjoy their golden themed oasis with views of the Burj Khalifa firework display. Dinner guests will receive a complimentary glass of bubbly at midnight.
Location Meydan Hotel Cost Dh799 including unlimited house beverages, Dh999 including unlimited house beverages and a three-course dinner, Dh1,099 including unlimited house beverages, three course dinner and VIP access to Elrow festival
Carluccio’s, The Dubai Mall (Burj Khalifa Views)
Watch see the New Year while celebrating Italian style at Carluccio’s The Dubai Mall. The restaurant will offer a five course meal including Italian truffle burrata with a fresh carnival mix and plum tomatoes with olive oil and fresh basil, a creamy pumpkin soup with parmesan croutons or calamari fritti rings with a smooth lemon mayonnaise to name a few dishes.
Location Dubai Mall Cost Dh799 per person including food and soft beverages, and a festive gift hamper for each table Timings December 31 from 7pm onwards
Carine
The French Mediterranean restaurant by the Chef Izu Ani is presenting La Belle Epoque, an exciting New Year’s Eve celebration, where you can enjoy live entertaining piano sessions while you eat and vibe to the the music of DJ Stephane with a splash of fireworks to usher in the New Year.
Location Emirates Golf Club Dubai Cost Dh850 per person minimum spend Timings December 31 from 7pm onwards
Nineteen
With views of the golf course and the firework display to be seen from the terrace of Nineteen, the Mediterranean restaurant sets aside a Mediterranean inspired menu combined with unique presentation and flavours to compliment this special evening. The four-course set menu will offer white truffles and seafood while a live band plays throughout the evening.
Location Arabian Ranches Golf Club Cost Dh888 including food and sparkling beverages Timings December 31 from 7.30pm to 2am
Maison Assouline (Burj Khalifa Views)
Welcome the New Year with views of the Burj Khalifa fireworks. Enjoy a four-course ‘Dinner in the Library’ which will include truffle hummus served with crispy flatbread, a delicious veal roll with yellow fin tuna mousse, caviar blinis, quail eggs and roe salmon. The main course includes sea bass with tomato and olive, and marrowbone and saffron risotto. The dinner ends with a signature Sacher tart. You can enjoy dinner on the terrace overlooking the Dubai Fountain.
Location Maison Assouline, Fashion Avenue, The Dubai Mall Cost Dh900 including food and soft beverages for indoor seating, Dh1,500 including food and soft for terrace seating Time from 8pm until late
Cavalli Club
The nightspot will be turned into an intergalactic as you get blasted into space – think, rockets, spaceships and a galaxy far, far away!
Location Fairmont Hotel, Shaikh Zayed Road Cost Dh900 for women, Dh1,100 for men including house beverages, Dh1,650 including a four curse menu and unlimited beverages Timings December 31 from 9pm to 4am
Ramusake (JBR Views)
Welcome New Year’s Eve with views of the Dubai Eye, JBR Beach and Palm Jumeirah with a special menu prepared for the night. Celebrate outdoors on the terrace or indoors in the cool restaurant.
Location Double Tree by Hilton Cost Dh995 per person including food and house beverages indoors, Dh1295 per person including food and house beverages outdoors, Dh2,500 including food and bubbly Timings December 31 from 8pm onwards
Five Guys (Burj Khalifa Views)
Burger lovers are invited to join Five Guys on New Year’s Eve at their Dubai Mall branch. Celebrate the big night with unlimited burgers and hotdogs, grilled cheese sandwiches, fries, sodas and milkshakes all enjoying the Burj Khalifa fireworks show. Two seating options are available on the night; Gold and Silver. Those who select the Gold package will be located in the extended seating area on the promenade, specially allocated by The Dubai Mall to provide views of the evening’s event. Gold tickets are priced at Dh1,500 per person. The Silver package gives guests access to the outside terrace area of Five Guy and are priced at Dh1,200 per person. Both packages are inclusive of unlimited orders of Five Guys. The venue will also host entertainment such as a photo booth with props and a media wall for guests to capture their moments. Each guest will leave with a goodie bag which includes a Five Guys branded T-shirt, pen, metal water bottle, ceramic mug and a voucher for a meal for 2, including burgers, fries and beverages.
Location The Dubai Mall Cost Dh1,200 minimum spend for terrace viewing, Dh1,500 minimum spend for Promenade Timings December 31 from 7pm onwards
Beefbar
This New Year’s Eve, Beefbar Dubai will offer a culinary journey called “Meat Me Mondays”. The themed night will offer fine meats from a VIP menu at Dh1,000 per guest. Live entertainment and surprise performances will liven-up the venue for visitors, and those arriving before 8pm, or booking before 1 December, will be offered a bottle of complimentary French bubbly to sip on throughout the night at the Monte Carlo inspired spot.
Location DIFC, Al Fattan Currency House, Podium Level, Dubai Cost Dh1,000 per person including food and house beverages Timings December 31 from 8pm to 2am
Cipriani (Burj Khalifa Views)
Inspired by Wes Anderson’s motion picture, the theme at Cipriani this year will be incorporated throughout each aspect of the restaurant. The venue will add quaint artefacts and ornate detailing and the Cipriani staff will dress like Gustave’s team too. A live band coming from London will play a large repertoire from vintage to contemporary songs alongside their Socialista resident DJ. Enjoy an a la carte dinner of traditional Italian dishes served with celebratory sparkling grape and crafted beverages.
Location DIFC Cost Dh1,200 per person including food and house beverages Timings December 31 from 8pm onwards
Bagatelle
The fab French restaurant will host a lavish evening, full of glamour and everything in between to welcome 2019.To kick-off the celebrations, Clarita De Quiroz will perform with a live piano session. Followed by a live saxophonist and resident DJ Sam Starks. The evening will include an unlimited selection of beverages along with a set menu, that includes some favourites such as pizzetta à la truffle noire, linguini au homard epice, and salade Bagatelle.
Location Fairmont Dubai, Shaikh Zayed Road Cost Dh1,300 per guest (Dh 550 set menu and Dh750 min. spend per guest on beverages) from 10pm and 10.30pm until late, Dh550 per guest for the first seating (beverages based on consumption) for an Early Seating from 7pm to 9pm
Sean Connolly (Burj Khalifa Views)
Get ready to party like it’s 1970, as Sean Connolly at Dubai Opera hosts a 70’s Roller Disco dinner. Dig out your sequins, your hot pants, your gold leggings, and channel your inner Studio 54 starlet. The menu features dishes such as line-caught French sea bass with Scottish scallops and carabineros red prawns, king crab linguine with Amstur royal caviar and popular delights including mushrooms with buffalo ricotta gnocchi and Alba truffles. The evening starts with a welcome beverage on the house from 7pm followed by dinner starting from 8pm. Children are welcome to join the celebrations.
Location Dubai Opera Cost Dh1,500 for indoor seating Dh2,000 for outdoor seating Timings December 31 from 7pm onwards
La Petit Maison
If you missed the Cannes party last May, there’s another chance to enjoy some glamour at La Petite Maison Dubai. The French restaurant will host a New Year’s Eve party inspired by the world’s most glamorous film festival. Named Tous Celebres Ici – meaning ‘everyone’s famous here.’ The soiree will offer Mediterranean cuisine. Featuring festival décor and a live DJ until 3am.
Location DIFC Cost Dh1,500 per person minimum spend Timings December 31, from 7pm onwards
Armani/Ristorante (Burj Khalifa Views)
Enjoy seven courses including lobster risotto, slow cooked turbot with white truffles, wagyu tenderloin and a divine golden sugar spun sphere with tonka bean foam and a mandarin crumble.
Location Armani Hotel Burj Khalifa Cost Dh1,500 including food and soft drinks Timings December 31 from 6pm starting with 1-hour complimentary welcome beverages at Armani/Lounge
Huqqa (Burj Khalifa Views)
Huqqa will be offering a four-course dinner menu and direct views of the Burj Khalifa. The popular hangout will present Anatolian Turkish cuisine such as cig kofte, leek pide, macaron balls, tavuk shish kebap, wagyu beef kebap and of course Turkish baklava for dessert. There is also an option of booking the VIP room for a maximum of 10 people for Dh25,000 which will include unlimited shisha, non-alcoholic bubbly, bites, nuts and dessert. The terrace at Huqqa sits directly in front of the Burj Khalifa, so your view of the fireworks show will be uninterrupted.
Location The Dubai Mall, Fashion Avenue extension Cost Dh1,500 per person including food and soft beverages for indoors, Dh2,500 per person including food and soft beverages for outdoors, Dh25,000 for VIP Timings December 31 from 7pm onwards
Armani/Amal (Burj Khalifa Views)
Amal will offer a five courses vegetarian and non-veg option, featuring Goan styled lobster, grilled halibut with curry leaves, lamb rogan josh, broccolini and asparagus poriyal and Japanese eggplant in a peanut sesame sauce.
Location Armani Hotel Burj Khalifa Cost Dh1,500 including food and soft drinks Timings December 31 from 6pm starting with one-hour complimentary welcome beverages at Armani/Lounge
Armani/Deli (Burj Khalifa Views)
The menu features wagyu beef carpaccio with forest mushrooms, langoustine risotto with burrata, slow cooked veal with foie gras and a midnight chocolate surprise.
Location Armani Hotel Burj Khalifa Cost Dh1,200 including food and soft drinks Timings December 31 from 6pm starting with one-hour complimentary welcome beverages at Armani/Lounge
Armani/Hashi (Burj Khalifa Views)
They are offering six courses to feast on. Enjoy a starter of botan shrimp, sea urchin and royal Beluga caviar followed by sashimi and tempura, with a wagyu main and special dessert.
Location Armani Hotel Burj Khalifa Cost Dh1,500 including food and soft drinks Timings December 31 from 6pm starting with one-hour complimentary welcome beverages at Armani/Lounge
Armani/Mediterraneo (Burj Khalifa Views)
Will have a seafood bar dedicated to live cooking. Expect some foie gras, lobster, turkey, chestnuts, truffles, oysters, whole Scottish salmon and caviar as well as enough indulgent desserts to keep you full all night.
Location Armani Hotel Burj Khalifa Cost Dh1,200 including food and soft drinks Timings December 31 from 6pm starting with one-hour complimentary welcome beverages at Armani/Lounge
Fogo de Chao (Burj Khalifa Views)
Toast to the year gone by and welcome 2019 with a Brazilian fiesta, full of colour, flavor and live entertainment with views of the Burj Khalifa Fireworks. Enjoy some of Brazil’s culinary favourites with a Churrasco experience that celebrates the traditions of Brazil.
Location DIFC Cost Dh1,500 per person indoors including meats, Market Table, unlimited soft drinks, house pours, grape, bubbles and desserts all night, Dh2,000 per person outdoors including meats, Market Table, unlimited soft drinks, house pours, grape, bubbles and desserts all night Dh800 for the Bar Package including Free-flowing soft drinks, house pours, grape and bubbles, as well as a selection of Brazilian bites Timings December 31 from 8pm onwards
Brasserie 2.0
Celebrate the end of 2018 with a big buffet full of different dishes from all over the world. Make sure you stop by their dessert buffet, it is one of the best in town.
Location Le Royal Meridien Beach Resort and Spa Cost Dh2,100 per person including food and house beverages
Gunaydin Dubai (Burj Khalifa Views)
Enjoy a five course Turkish Dinner this New Year’s Eve with views of the Burj Khalifa Fireworks.
Location Souk Al Bahar, Downtown Dubai Cost Dh2,250 per person including food and house beverages for outdoor seating, Dh1,850 per person including food, house beverages for indoor seating Timings December 31 from 7pm onwards
Rixos the Palm (Palm Jumeirah Fireworks)
Step back in time with to an era of glamour at the Rixos The Palm Dubai, New Year’s Eve Prohibition Party. Enjoy the buffet and the live performance that will transport back to the 1920s. As midnight strikes the grand fireworks display at the Palm Jumeirah will be in full view,
Location Palm Jumeirah Cost Dh2,500 per person including food and house beverages, Dh1,250 per child including food and soft beverages Timings December 31 from 8pm onwards
The Restaurant (Burj Khalifa Views)
The venue is designed like a mansion with each room made to look like rooms you would find at a home. Dining room, living room, library. They are hosting a special four course dinner with views of the firework show.
Location Address Boulevard Cost Dh2,800 per person including food and house beverages Timings December 31 from 7pm to 3am
Rockfish (Burj Al Arab Views)
The seafood, beachside restaurants will offer front row seats to the Burj Al Arab fireworks, as well as an eight course set menu with free flowing beverages and a bottle of bubbly to share at midnight. All of the guests can then head to the NYE after party at Shimmers in Mina A Salam.
Location Jumeirah Al Naseem Cost Dh3,800 per person including food, house beverages and a bottle of bubbly to share Timings December 31 from 8pm onwards
Pierchic (Burj Al Arab Views)
The over the water seafood restaurant is offering a Gala dinner with live entertainment and a red carpet. Dinner will include six courses with caviar, white truffle and vintage bubbly. Watch the fireworks of the Burj Al Arab from across the water and celebrate with music. Dress to impress.
Location Al Qasr Hotel, Madinat Jumeirah Cost Dh3,500 including food and bubbly, Dh4,500 including food and premium seating with bubbly, Dh5,500 including food and front row seating with bubbly Timings December 31 from 8pm to 12.30am
The Galliard (Burj Khalifa Views)
The Galliard is throwing a ‘Million Dollar Guitar Party’ to ring in 2019. There will be music by live performers as well as a DJ in addition to a 7 course set menu, which will star with assorted Turkish olives and dips on the table followed by cold starters, such as Tuna marine, pastirma, a cheese platter and stuffed mussels, then hot starters which will include a cigborek, stuffed vine leaves and more. The salad and mains will follow, where you can choose from duck confit, beef tenfderloin or piruhi truffle and end your dinner with a chocolate soufflé and a coco sutlac. The Turkish-Mediterranean spot has an up-close view of the Burj Khalifa. The hotspot brings dancing waiters to your night as well.
Locations Address Downtown Cost Dh2,500 indoors including food and house beverages and Dh3,500 outdoor including food and house beverages Timings December 31 from 8pm onwards
The Midnight Gala (Burj Al Arab Views)
This New Year’s Eve, celebrate at the Midnight Gala at the Madinat Jumeirah. It will include an open buffet, house beverages and a DJ to set the NYE mood.
Location Dh3,710 per person including food and house beverages, Dh2,340 for children ages 12 to 20 years old Timings December 31 from 8pm onwards
Al Qasr Beach (Burj Al Arab Views)
This is a VIP special evening designed for couples who want to enjoy a private dinner on the beach with front row seats to the Burj Al Arab Fireworks. You have the option of choosing a six course set menu in a private, cabana, tent or a premium white tent. A bottle of bubbles is included.
Location Al Qasr Hotel, Madinat Jumeirah Cost Dh7,500 for two people including a six course set menu in private cabana, Dh10,000 including a six course set menu in a private Arabic tent, Dh15,000 including a sex course set menu in a white tent in a premium location Timings December 31 Time upon request
© Al Nisr Publishing LLC 2018. All rights reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).
Subject: Music; Fireworks; Food; Beverages; Dance; Hotels & motels; Restaurants
Location: Dubai United Arab Emirates
Publication title: Gulf News; Dubai
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Dec 20, 2018
Publisher: SyndiGate Media Inc
Place of publication: Dubai
Country of publication: United States, Dubai
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United Arab Emirates
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2158433883
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2158433883?accountid=4840
Copyright: © Al Nisr Publishing LLC 2018. All rights reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).
Last updated: 2018-12-20
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 463 of 474
The day in the markets: What you need to know
Author: Shellock, Dave
Publication info: Financial Times ; London (UK) [London (UK)]21 Dec 2018: 28.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Stock markets suffer fresh turmoil in wake of Fed meeting Treasury yield curve flattens Oil prices resume downward path Krona gains after Riksbank lifts rates Another bruising session across global markets saw stocks, oil prices and the dollar come under renewed pressure and the Treasury yield curve flatten further as participants remained unsettled by the previous day's comments from Jay Powell, chairman of the Federal Reserve. The US central bank raised interest rates by 25 basis points on Wednesday, as expected, and lowered its forecast for further increases in 2019 to two from three. But despite the downward revision, Mr Powell's comments in the post-meeting press conference were not seen as being as dovish as many had hoped. Moreover, he said the reduction of the Fed's balance sheet would remain on "autopilot". "The Federal Open Market Committee is putting much less weight on macroeconomic headwinds than many other forecasters," said Paul Shea, strategic economist at Miller Tabak. "It is less concerned about a flat yield curve and weak housing than we are. It cares less about slumping equities prices than most participants in those markets realise. "Finally, it views weakening financial conditions more as a 'return to normalcy' than a sign of impending recession." The sell-off on Wall Street yesterday drove the Nasdaq Composite index into bear market territory, defined as a fall of 20 per cent or more from a recent high. The S&P 500 traded as much as 16 per cent down from the record peak it reached in September while across the Atlantic the Stoxx Europe 600 hit levels not seen for more than two years. The dollar index fell to its lowest point for a month, in response to the shallower path of tightening forecast by the Fed, while the US Treasury yield curve flattened, with the gap between two- and 10-year yields falling as low as 9.1bp, according to Refinitiv data — close to a recent 11-year low. Meanwhile, persistent concerns over global growth helped drive Brent oil to a fresh 15-month low of $54.54 a barrel, taking its decline over the course of the week to 9.5 per cent. The risk-averse mood in the markets pushed the yen to its highest level against the dollar since mid-September while gold hit a six-month high. The Fed was not the only central bank in the news yesterday. Sweden's Riksbank surprised many in the markets by raising its key interest rate by 25bp to minus 0.25 per cent, driving the krona higher against both the euro and the dollar. "However, the Riksbank remains cautious as it slightly lowered its interest rate path. It does not expect the next increase until the second half of 2019," said Antje Praefcke at Commerzbank. The Bank of England, meanwhile, failed to stir the markets as its Monetary Policy Committee voted unanimously to leave rates unchanged. "Not surprisingly, the tightening bias seems suspended for now with the central bank in limbo until the outlook on the Brexit scenario becomes clearer, which won't be the case until next year now," said analysts at Action Economics. Dave Shellock Market turmoil and weak dollar drive gold to six-month high $ per troy ounce Source: Refinitiv 1,160 1,180 1,200 1,220 1,240 1,260 1,280 Markets update US Eurozone Japan UK China Brazil Stocks S&P 500 Eurofirst 300 Nikkei 225 FTSE100 Shanghai Comp Bovespa Level 2469.65 1328.95 20392.58 6711.93 2536.27 85430.69 % change on day -1.49 -1.44 -2.84 -0.80 -0.52 -0.28 Currency $ index (DXY) $ per € Yen per $ $ per £ Rmb per $ Real per $ Level 96.407 1.142 111.670 1.264 6.897 3.847 % change on day -0.647 0.000 -0.548 0.000 0.023 -0.581 Govt. bonds 10-year Treasury 10-year Bund 10-year JGB 10-year Gilt 10-year bond 10-year bond Yield 2.762 0.227 0.025 1.133 3.339 9.505 Basis point change on day -5.460 -1.100 -0.420 -0.800 -2.400 -7.100 World index, Commods FTSE All-World Oil - Brent Oil - WTI Gold Silver Metals (LMEX) Level 299.27 55.28 46.42 1255.00 14.65 2845.50 % change on day -1.02 -2.11 -1.98 0.70 -0.07 0.58 Yesterday's close apart from: Currencies = 16:00 GMT; S&P, Bovespa, All World, Oil = 17:00 GMT; Gold, Silver = London pm fix. Bond data supplied by Tullett Prebon. Yesterday s close apart from: Currencies = 16:00 GMT; S&P, Bovespa, All World, Oil = 17:00 GMT; Gold, Silver = London pm fix. Bond data supplied by Tullett Prebon. Main equity markets S&P 500 index Eurofirst 300 index FTSE 100 index | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Oct 2018 Dec 2400 2560 2720 2880 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Oct 2018 Dec 1320 1360 1400 1440 1480 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Oct 2018 Dec 1,300 Jun 2018 DecBiggest movers % US Eurozone UK Ups Newmont Mining 5.02 Hcp 1.83 Ppl 1.53 Dominion Energy 1.44 Scana 1.43 Ucb 1.55 Novo Nordisk 1.08 Brenntag 0.77 Enel 0.47 Colruyt 0.45 Smurfit Kappa 3.67 Severn Trent 2.91 National Grid 2.39 Fresnillo 1.81 Segro 1.48 % Downs Twitter -12.63 Conagra Brands -12.31 Carnival -9.58 Helmerich & Payne -6.22 Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd -5.90 Prices taken at 17:00 GMT Deutsche Bank -7.04 Commerzbank -6.55 Seadrill -5.86 Ing -5.12 Inditex -5.07 Based on the constituents of the FTSE Eurofirst 300 Eurozone Carnival -10.83 Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust -3.86 Antofagasta -3.69 Micro Focus Int -3.59 Glencore -3.29 All data provided by Morningstar unless otherwise noted. CREDIT: Dave Shellock
Subject: Interest rates; Yield; Central banks; Bond issues; Stock exchanges
Location: Sweden United States--US United Kingdom--UK China Brazil Japan Europe
People: Powell, Jerome
Company / organization: Name: Bank of England; NAICS: 521110; Name: Newmont Mining Corp; NAICS: 212221; Name: National Grid; NAICS: 221122; Name: Twitter Inc; NAICS: 519130; Name: Sao Paulo Stock Exchange; NAICS: 523210; Name: Federal Open Market Committee--FOMC; NAICS: 921130; Name: Tullett Prebon; NAICS: 523120; Name: Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd; NAICS: 483112; Name: Deutsche Bank AG; NAICS: 522110, 551111
Publication title: Financial Times; London (UK)
First page: 28
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Dec 21, 2018
Section: Companies and Markets
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: London (UK)
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London (UK)
Publication subject: Business And Economics--Banking And Finance, Political Science
ISSN: 03071766
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2168781833
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2168781833?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Financial Times Limited Dec 21, 2018
Last updated: 2019-01-21
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 464 of 474
The Leading Hotels of the World Introduces 11 New Members
Publication info: Targeted News Service ; Washington, D.C. [Washington, D.C]22 Dec 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: The Leading Hotels of the World, a collection of uncommon luxury hotels, issued the following news release on Dec. 24: The Leading Hotels of the World, Ltd is pleased to announce the addition of 11 remarkable properties to its collection of more than 400 independent luxury hotels. Sharing a common dedication to personalized hospitality, the distinguished new members offer varied styles of architecture and design, and immersive cultural experiences delivered by passionate hoteliers. "We are delighted to introduce this group of eleven outstanding new members to our portfolio," said Deniz Omurgonulsen, Vice President, Membership, The Leading Hotels of the World. "In 2018 Leading Hotels welcomed more than 50 new members to our collection. Among these were well-established properties in popular destinations and brand new-builds, many leading the luxury resurgence in emerging markets. This impressive group of new members further connects our guests to their respective destinations and delivers Leading Hotels' signature personalized service." Spanning the globe, these noteworthy new members can be found in nine countries, from the sandy beaches of Mexico to the ultra-modern streets of Singapore and snow-topped mountains of Italy. Of the 11 hotels, nine opened in late 2018 and an additional opening in Madrid is set for early 2019. The Leading Hotels of the World new members include: NORTH AMERICA Silversands Grenada (St. Georges, Grenada) An ode to sophisticated simplicity and outstanding service, newly built Silversands Grenada opened its doors December 2018. This intimate luxury resort sits on a stretch of more than seven hundred feet of beach front and features stunning design, immersive activities, and fresh local cuisine from Grenada. Each of the property's 52 guestrooms, suites, and villas are oriented west for impeccable sunset views. Guests will enjoy unwinding at the Silversands Spa, lounging by the longest infinity pool in the Caribbean (at 330 feet) or exploring the island's chocolate factories and spice fields. At night, fine dining awaits at Asiatique, evening rhythms take over the lively beach club with its resident DJ, and a more tranquil atmosphere can be found at the lounge, Puro, with an extensive collection of rums and the finest cigars from around the world. An uncommon experience not to miss: Observe Grenada's flourishing chocolate industry firsthand at a "Bean to Bar Chocolate Tour." The team at Silversands Grenada can help facilitate a truly unique experience at the historic Belmont Estate plantation that dates back to the 1600's. The tour takes the discerning chocolate lover on a journey of the delicate crafting of chocolate, from the bean to the bar. Guests will a visit the cocoa fields for a demonstration of harvesting, cracking, collecting, and tasting of fresh beans, followed by a tour of the Grenada Chocolate Factory with a chocolate making tutorial and a lunch featuring dishes made from chocolate. TRS Coral Hotel (Cancun, Mexico) Located in the Mexican Caribbean, just north of Cancun, the white sand beaches of Costa Mujeres provide a photo-ready backdrop for this adults-only hideaway. Opened November 2018 and designed with contemporary flair using eco-friendly materials, the hotel's 469 guestrooms are stylish sanctuaries, each with outdoor space, hydro-massaging tubs, and panoramic views. In addition to shimmering pools and a fully-outfitted spa and fitness facilities, guests enjoy swim-up suites, a private beach club, and dedicated concierges. Foodies can indulge at one of the many restaurants and bars (including five themed eateries and a 24-hour sports bar) or take in a thrilling live multi-sensory dinner show. An uncommon experience not to miss: Enjoy the award-winning CHIC Cabaret & Restaurant, a one-of-a-kind culinary and sensory experience. The evening offers an exquisite multi-course meal, enjoyed while absorbing breathtaking acrobatics, stunning choreography and music from all genres. The audience becomes part of the performance with an immersive dining experience that moves through history and to different parts of the world, from the Moulin Rouge in Paris to the '50s Rock 'n' Roll era and present day with pop and Latin hits. SOUTH AMERICA Fasano Belo Horizonte (Belo Horizonte, Brazil) Opened October 2018, Fasano Belo Horizonte is a cosmopolitan retreat within the bustling city of Belo Horizonte. The hotel is located in the Lourdes district within walking distance of city's Mercado Central, a lively indoor market, and many of the area's museums and cultural destinations. Designed with style and sophistication by Bernardes Arquitetura, Hotel Fasano Belo Horizonte features 77 spacious accommodations, a relaxing spa, fitness center, and business center. Expertly-crafted cocktails and a cozy atmosphere await in Baretto, the property's award-winning bar. To complete the experience, Fasano Belo Horizonte is home to the first hotel-based Gero restaurant, a distinguished Italian eatery, aligning with the Fasano family's tradition of gastronomic excellence. An uncommon experience not to miss: Make sure to visit the Inhotim Institute, one of the most important collections of contemporary art in Brazil and located an hour from Belo Horizonte. The team at Fasano Belo Horizonte can help organize a trip to this captivating contemporary art center and botanical garden. The area blends forests and gardens with an extensive collection of rare tropical species and internationally significant contemporary art installations. Fasano Salvador (Salvador, Brazil) Located in the UNESCO World Heritage city of Salvador and opened December 2018, Fasano Salvador holds a historic address within an iconic building from the 1930s, the former headquarters of the newspaper A Tarde. The hotel's prime setting in front of Castro Alves Square offers sweeping views of the Bay of All Saints and the city's Portuguese colonial architecture. Carefully designed by the renowned architect Isay Weinfeld, Fasano Salvador is complete with 70 expansive apartments, a rooftop pool, relaxing spa, business center and noteworthy epicurean offerings. Culinary excellence is at the heart of the Fasano experience and is highlighted at the Fasano Restaurant, one of the most distinguishing features of the hotel, serving up traditional Italian cuisine. An uncommon experience not to miss: Explore Salvador, known for its energy and unadorned beauty, with guidance from Fasano Salvador's skilled team. The hotel staff can recommend carefully crafted itineraries based on a guest's interest. From the Pelourinho, the old historic center of Salvador, and Casa de Jorge Amado, a cultural museum housed in a former mansion, to Casa do Carnaval, an interactive carnival house, there are numerous options in walking distance of the property. EUROPE BLESS Hotel Madrid (Madrid, Spain) Located in the Salamanca district and only steps away from the city's many attractions, BLESS Hotel Madrid opens in January 2019. The hotel stands out for its unique style and timeless design in the most exclusive neighborhood in the center of the city. Distinguished by its sensory architecture, the property's modern design is equipped with the most advanced technology and features 111 spacious guestrooms and suites. BLESS Hotel Madrid delivers fabulous experiences and personalized services, such as flower decoration, pet-friendly amenities, a unique 'Bathology' soap butler and the 'BlessedBed' complete with pillow and/or aroma menus. Culinary delights start with Michelin-starred chef Martin Berasategui, who presents authentic and healthy creations that truly embody Basque roots, redefining haute cuisine. An uncommon experience not to miss: Bowl while enjoying carefully-crafted cocktails. At Feten Clandestine Bar, BLESS Hotel Madrid's bowling bar with an air of exclusivity, the mysterious yet discreet atmosphere provides the perfect backdrop for some of the most exciting cocktails in Madrid. Mixologists serve up well-balanced drinks complementing Martin Berasategui's distinguished bar menu at this exclusive speakeasy bar and bowling alley. Capri Tiberio Palace (Capri, Italy) With its glamorous style and retro flourishes, Capri Tiberio Palace is a charming boutique hideaway that mirrors the colorful essence of Capri. Just a short stroll from the famed Piazetta and its boutique-lined lanes, the petite hotel is adorned with 1950's-inspired furnishings, mod-style curios, hand-painted tiles, vibrant textiles, and bold pops of color. The property features 45 guestrooms and suites, serene views from the suite terraces, a spa with a hydrotherapy circuit, and an indoor-outdoor pool lined with eclectic artworks. In terms of gastronomy, the sea-view Terrazza Tiberio restaurant serves up Mediterranean and Caprese classics crafted with seasonal ingredients and a menu of Italian favorites cooked to certified glatt kosher standards. An uncommon experience not to miss: Indulge in a truly fresh experience in Capri Tiberio Palace's private vegetable garden. From gastronomic tours where guests can pick their own vine-ripe tomatoes, zucchini, and peppers to enjoy for lunch or dinner, to sunset yoga classes, the garden is an oasis of greenery and relaxation. To further the experience, the talented culinary staff can create a special cooking class to teach guests about traditional Italian cuisine. Buon appetito! Le Massif (Courmayeur, Italy) Located in the center of Courmayeur, Le Massif opened its doors December 2018. The pristine mountainside property features 78 guestrooms and suites, all with a modern-Alpine aesthetic and windows framing spectacular views of Mont Blanc. Just a stone's throw from the ski lifts, Le Massif is ideally located for enjoying the mountains, whether hiking during the summer or skiing in the winter with the help of a ski concierge and ski butler. Epicures will love Le Massif's dining options, which include a gourmet restaurant as well as a steakhouse and grill at the main hotel or La Loge du Massif at the chalet on the ski slopes at Plan Checrouit, serving traditional mountain cuisine alongside the PA-NI-NO boutique bar. An uncommon experience not to miss: With a guide arranged by Le Massif, guests can ski along the picturesque crossing of The Vallee Blanche, an ungroomed 24-kilometer ski route, 18 kilometers of which are situated on a glacier! Arriving at the last station of the Skyway Monte Bianco, guests will descend on the glacier and reach Colle del Flambeaux where they can start the descent into The Vallee Blanche. A refuge is located about halfway along the route offering unmatched views and the perfect resting spot to enjoy a refreshment. Maison Albar Hotels - Le Monumental Palace (Porto, Portugal) Built in 1923 in a Neoclassical style and opened November 2018, Le Monumental Palace is based upon the elegant French art of living while connecting Porto's past to its future. Only a few steps from Clerigos, Bolhao market, and Dom Luis I Bridge, the hotel features 76 guestrooms and suites. The atmosphere dances between Art Nouveau and Art Deco with high ceilings creating a striking luminosity. Le Monumental Palace perfects the art of French hospitality and offers the most desirable amenities, including a spa, pool, lounge and library. The culinary scene is a bastion of French gastronomic excellence with three different locations placed under the high command of the French Michelin-starred chef, Julien Montbabut. From the traditional brasserie fare to creative cuisine and tapas to go, guests will find a mix of the latest culinary trends and dining traditions with great sophistication and a love for detail. An uncommon experience not to miss: Escape the long lines at Livraria Lello, the famed bookstore that serves as a window into the city's history. Le Monumental Palace's staff can set up an exclusive, private night visit to the bookshop complete with a traditional Portuguese Fado music show and a glass or two of port wine curated by the house Sommelier. Internationally recognized as one of the most beautiful bookshops in the world and reportedly the inspiration behind JK Rowling's Harry Potter novels, a night at Livraria Lello is sure to delight and intrigue. ASIA The Capitol Kempinski Hotel Singapore (Singapore City, Singapore) Housed in Stamford House and Capitol Building, The Capitol Kempinski Hotel Singapore is a quintessential masterpiece of beautifully conserved architecture uplifted with a modern touch and bespoke hospitality. Located in the heart of the civic and cultural district, the stunning property features 157 luxurious guestrooms and suites, a lobby lounge, an outdoor saltwater relaxation pool, a fitness center and spa, an exclusive event space, as well as a trendy bar and a signature restaurant led by a Michelin-starred chef. The discovery continues with unparalleled shopping and dining experiences within footsteps at the connected Capitol Piazza, and direct access to the legendary Capitol Theatre, where celebratory galas and extraordinary gatherings take place. An uncommon experience not to miss: Journey down the charming civic district in an exclusive vintage Vespa sidecar. Explore museums, memorials and parks, including St. Andrew's Cathedral, National Gallery, and Chijmes as you marvel at some of the country's most iconic attractions and gain insight into this precinct where modern Singapore began. The PuShang Hotel and Spa (Xiamen, China) Nestled between Xiamen's magnificent oceanfront and its most vibrant business district, The PuShang Hotel and Spa opened October 2018. The vibrant hotel draws its inspiration from both aspects of the region and offers easy access to the best of the city. Architecturally rooted in the rich heritage of the province, 188 guestrooms and suites afford unprecedented views across the property's magnificent landscape and the ocean. The PuShang Hotel and Spa also features bars, lounges, meeting spaces, and a comprehensive wellness offering which are sure to redefine the standards of luxury hospitality in the region and beyond. From the finest Chinese cuisine to the savors of the Mediterranean, the hotel's two flagship restaurants and bars offer guests a world of flavors. An uncommon experience not to miss: For those looking to experience Xiamen's impressive natural surroundings, The PuShang Hotel and Spa's knowledgeable team can recommend a carefully-curated morning stroll. Choose from a walk around Wuyuan Bay Wetland Park, an ecological park that is an important stopover for migratory birds and home to over 50 species including egrets and black swans, or travel to the pedestrian-only island of Gulangyu, a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site with a charming mix of architectural styles around the world. The RuMa Hotel and Residences (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) A new urban haven within the vibrant heart of Kuala Lumpur's Golden Triangle and steps from the center of the business and entertainment districts, The RuMa Hotel and Residences opened its doors in November 2018. The posh new property features 253 luxuriously appointed guestrooms and suites, a library lounge, modern Malaysian eatery, UR SPA, a state-of-the-art gym, outdoor pool bar, and a Barber at The RuMa by Truefitt & Hill. Within its contemporary and luxurious setting, the urban resort captures all the intimacy of a home run by an accomplished host with their mantra of "Hostmanship," a signature host and guest experience. An uncommon experience not to miss: With its central location, The RuMa Hotel provides access to the best of what the city has to offer and can set up unique opportunities for travelers to discover hidden treasures of Malaysian heritage. Throughout this unique and multicultural community, guests can take on an outdoor excursion to the nearby Kanching Falls, or bravely ascend the 272 steps to explore the Batu Caves, said to be over 400 million years old and currently the home of one of the most popular Hindu shrines outside of India. Document provided to Targeted News Service as a news release through an RSS feed. MSTRUCK-6562499 MSTRUCK
Subject: Architecture; Contemporary art; Hotels & motels; Restaurants; Design; Factories; Museums; Beaches; Cultural heritage
Location: Mexico Kuala Lumpur Malaysia Singapore Brazil Grenada
Company / organization: Name: United Nations Educational Scientific & Cultural Organization; NAICS: 928120
Publication title: Targeted News Service; Washington, D.C.
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Dec 22, 2018
Dateline: NEW YORK
Publisher: Targeted News Service
Place of publication: Washington, D.C.
Country of publication: United States, Washington, D.C.
Publication subject: Public Administration
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2159682161
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2159682161?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright © Targeted News Service. All Rights Reserved.
Last updated: 2018-12-22
Database: US Southeast Newsstream
Document 465 of 474
Come to "Capital of Pandas" for the International Food Festival of Chengdu
Publication info: PR Newswire ; New York [New York]23 Dec 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Ms. Hou, Tel: 86 28 85282139 CHENGDU, China, Dec. 23, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- What will pop into your mind when the word "carnival" is mentioned? You might think of parade floats in Brazil, passionate dance in Cuba, or tomato fight in Spain. Yet in Chengdu, a southwest city in China, the answer is: food. On December 18, the 15th International Food Festival of Chengdu and 2018 Hotpot Culture Month of Chengdu-City of Gastronomy was launched in Chengdu, China. The food carnival will end on January 10, 2019. The International Food Festival of Chengdu is an important local food culture festival. Up to now, 14 sessions have been held to sustain and grow local cuisine scene. The annual event makes Chengdu an ideal place to enjoy food. As a highlighted food festival brand in Chengdu, this year's session comes with the theme "Food Culture-Inheritance, Innovation, Inclusiveness, Openness". Focusing on the development trend of global catering industry, the festival aims to shape Chengdu into an international food industry pacesetter and a visible cuisine city, and build a world-class food industry ecosystem. While world-renown Sichuan cuisine ranks top among "Eight Cuisines" in China, Chengdu is where Sichuan cuisine originated and develops. Early in 2010, Chengdu was rated as "City of Gastronomy" by UNESCO, the first Asian City that had received such an honor back then. At present, there are more than 100,000 catering stores and 600,000 catering workers in Chengdu. Last year, Chengdu achieved RMB 79.4 billion of sales revenue in catering industry, second only to Guangzhou. With strong industrial base and obvious comparative advantages, Chengdu has congenital conditions in both time and place for developing Sichuan cuisine industry. In 2015, Chengdu was identified by Ministry of Commerce of the P.R.C as a pilot city for optimizing the environment to promote the transformation development of the catering industry, Chengdu's Sichuan cuisine industry has since then embarked on a journey of rapid development. In recent years, Chengdu has launched projects such as the evaluation on Sichuan cuisine flagship store in building Sichuan cuisine "Five Famous (famous food, famous restaurant, famous chef, famous festival (meeting) and famous street (district))" brand system, the protection and inheritance of "time-honored brand" restaurants, the internationalization of Sichuan cuisine, the establishment of "Chengdu Sichuan cuisine overseas promotion center" and the acceleration of the development of "Internet Plus cuisine", and has set up "Chengdu Sichuan cuisine overseas promotion center" abroad to bring Chengdu cuisine originally on the streets of the city into an orderly industrial development track. Chen Xiaobing, an officer of Chengdu Municipal Commission of Commerce, said: "I think Sichuan cuisine has entered a stage needing industrialization and going out of Sichuan and China, and in the process of going out, it shall be industrialized." Market is the best witness to the industry. Today, Sichuan cuisine is no longer just a delicacy on Chengdu people's dining tables, and a large number of Chengdu catering brands are going abroad to make the world have a taste. The famous Chengdu catering enterprises such as Haidilao Hot Pot, Old House, Chengdu Impression and Sichuan Folk have opened hundreds of chain stores overseas. Sichuan cuisine is one of the most popular Chinese cuisines for overseas consumers, according to The Survey on Overseas Recognition of Chinese Cuisine organized by the Chinese Cuisine Association and the Global Times in 2017. Being recognized in international market, the mission as the origin of Sichuan Cuisine, and the responsibility as a world "City of Gastronomy", all these mean a bright future for the catering industry in Chengdu as it seeks to go global. Bian Jiang, Vice Chairman of China Cuisine Association, said: "We are witnessing an enabling role of food culture in boosting communication, understanding, and friendship among people of all countries, and it is important for Sichuan Cuisine to make greater efforts in overseas expansion." He also holds that the international development of Sichuan cuisine should be deepened continuously while focusing on the promotion of Sichuan cuisine's traditional culture. This can be done through building international brands of Sichuan cuisine, telling stories concerning Sichuan cuisine well in international languages, governmental coordination and promoting the interconnected development of Sichuan cuisine industry and other measures. "With the cognition, acceptance and love of overseas people as the start point and the purpose, for Sichuan cuisine, efforts should be made in adjusting cultural dissemination means, enriching presentation modes and adding international elements." Behind the "internationalization", lies the inheritance and innovation of Chengdu food's tradition and elements. "The hot taste should reflect its art while the numb its feeling." How to make "better" Sichuan cuisine, Lan Guijun, Sichuan cuisine master in Chengdu, emphasizes that innovation should be made based on the inheritance while adhering to the "root". Now, with the reputation and influence of the City of Gastronomy, and the ideas and modes of industrial development, food is bringing unprecedented opportunities to Chengdu in the context of open international view and economic thinking. At the food festival, there are a wide range of distinctive Chengdu cuisines such as Pork Lungs in Chili Sauce, Spicy Hot Pot, Hot Chuan, which are highly praised by gourmets all over the world. Chengdu food, is becoming one of the most recognizable symbols of the city. For Chengdu, behind the food carnival, lies not only the satisfaction of appetite, but also the confidence and determination of Chengdu food industry to go global. Image Attachments Links: SOURCE The Organizing Committee of the 15th International Food Festival of Chengdu CREDIT: The Organizing Committee of the 15th International Food Festival of Chengdu
http://asianetnews.net/view-attachment?attach-id=327200
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View original content to download multimedia: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/come-to-capital-of-pandas-for-the-international-food-festival-of-chengdu-300770569.html
Subject: Globalization; Food; International; Inheritances; Industrial development; Catering; Festivals
Location: Cuba China Brazil Spain
Company / organization: Name: United Nations Educational Scientific & Cultural Organization; NAICS: 928120
Publication title: PR Newswire; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Dec 23, 2018
Dateline: CHENGDU, China, Dec. 23, 2018
Publisher: PR Newswire Association LLC
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2159932354
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2159932354?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright PR Newswire Association LLC Dec 23, 2018
Last updated: 2018-12-24
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 466 of 474
Future of transport will be shaped by multiple solutions
Author: Abbott, John
Publication info: The Business Times ; Singapore [Singapore]25 Dec 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: IN 1807, when he patented the first hydrogen-powered engine, François Isaac de Rivaz could have been forgiven for thinking he had found the future of transport. Yet here we are, more than 200 years later, still wrestling with the same question. What will drive us tomorrow? Some still say hydrogen. Some say battery electric power. Some say natural gas. I say, we must explore all the options. I believe that the future of transport will be shaped not by one solution, but many. De Rivaz's hydrogen car may not have been a success, but we can learn from his inventiveness, his vision, his will to do things differently. Because when it comes to the future of transport, we need every solution we can get - whether that is Singapore's vision of an intelligent transport system and a city for cyclists and pedestrians, or trials of drones for delivering light freight. We face a pressing challenge. Transport accounts for more than a quarter of the world's energy use and one-fifth of global energy-related CO2 emissions. There are a billion cars on the roads today and this is expected to double by 2040. We must all consider this region's energy future and how society will meet demand, while reducing emissions to tackle climate change and air pollution. In October, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) outlined the need for an ever more rapid transition to a lower-carbon world. This begins with CO2 emissions falling sharply from 2020. That is barely a year away. We need multiple solutions because no one solution can meet all needs, in all places, at all times. That is certainly a key conclusion of Shell's latest scenario work, which was cited by the IPCC. Our Sky scenario sets out a challenging but plausible route the world could follow to meet the aims of the Paris agreement and restrict the rise in global average temperature in this century to well under 2 deg Celsius. Given its significant impact, the transport sector must rise to this challenge. And to find solutions, we have to continue to work together. Indeed, Shell is in many ways heading on the same path as Singapore and the wider region. Take battery electric cars. In Singapore, the ride-hailing app Grab will start using 200 new electric vehicles from 2019. Indonesia is considering tax incentives to boost the battery industry. And China accounts for about half of global production and has the highest number of electric cars on the road. Shell is increasing its activities too. In Europe, for instance, we acquired NewMotion, one of Europe's largest providers of charge points, operating more than 40,000 private points for homes and businesses. EXPLORING OPTIONS When it comes to hydrogen as a fuel, it has potential for heavy freight, including rail. De Rivaz would certainly approve. In Japan, its vision of a "hydrogen society" begins in 2020, with plans for fleets of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles serving the Olympic Games in Tokyo. Shell, too, is increasing its investment in hydrogen. In Germany, for example, our plans include a joint venture to establish a nationwide network of 100 filling stations by 2019. Natural gas also has potential in trucking and shipping. China, for example, has the world's largest fleet of vehicles running on liquefied natural gas. Last year, the number of LNG-powered trucks it produced rose to 96,000. Shell now has one LNG filling station in China, through a joint venture, and nine in Europe. We have also signed deals in shipping with Carnival to supply the world's first LNG-powered cruise ships and with Sovcomflot, to supply the first LNG-powered oil tankers. And both Shell and the region recognise the potential of advanced biofuels. These can help in the aviation and maritime sectors, where liquid fuels will still be required. At Shell, we are already one of the world's biggest producers of biofuels, through our joint venture in Brazil, Raízen. It produces about 2 billion litres a year of ethanol from sugarcane, and continues to explore advanced biofuels. Digitalisation, too, is creating potential for many other solutions. We see a future in which autonomous vehicles are connected and working as fleets. It is a future of innovative business models from ride sharing to mobility-on-demand. It is a future we could see on the streets of Singapore. Meanwhile, Shell's work continues to improve today's fuels and lubricants. Together with car makers - and policy makers - we can continue to improve the efficiency of engines. And in shipping, Singapore is one of three ports where Shell is testing our new very low sulphur fuel oil. There is much happening, but if we want to meet the challenge posed by the future of transport, we must work together on a multitude of solutions. If we focus on one only, we risk the fate of de Rivaz's hydrogen engine. And we must not let brave ideas stall, just when we need them most. CREDIT: John Abbott
Subject: Biodiesel fuels; Emissions; Electric vehicles; Hydrogen; LNG; Natural gas; Joint ventures
Location: Germany Singapore China Brazil Indonesia Japan Europe
Company / organization: Name: Royal Dutch Shell PLC; NAICS: 213112, 221210, 324110; Name: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; NAICS: 541712, 928120
Publication title: The Business Times; Singapore
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Dec 25, 2018
column: COMMENTARY
Section: Opinion
Publisher: The Financial Times Limited
Place of publication: Singapore
Country of publication: United Kingdom, Singapore
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2160137100
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2160137100?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright © 2018 Singapore Press Holdings
Last updated: 2018-12-25
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 467 of 474
Israel's Hebrew press reviews Israel-Russia relations
Publication info: BBC Monitoring Middle East ; London [London]27 Dec 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: By BBC Monitoring Israel press on 27 December commented on the recent airstrikes in Syria attributed to Israel and the early elections. Israel-Russia relations Alex Fishman in centrist, mass circulation Yediot Aharonot says: "The war between wars Israel is successfully conducting in Syria in recent years has exhausted itself the moment the Russians decided that conditions are ripe in Syria for restoring sovereignty to [Syrian President Bashar] Assad... The Russians intend to defend the regime opposite any element which endangers its stability: Iran, Israel or Turkey... The announcement the Russian defence ministry issued yesterday [26 December] accusing Israel of denting air traffic and the Russian foreign ministry announcement accusing Israel of violating Syrian sovereignty and Security Council Resolution 1701 for denting Lebanese sovereignty are the last nail in the Israeli illusion that what used to be will be..." Yoav Limor in free, pro-Netanyahu Yisrael Hayom says: "The aerial attack attributed to the air force on Tuesday [25 December] in Damascus was clear signalling that in spite of the strategic changes in the region Israel will continue acting to thwart Iranian entrenchment in Syria and the transfer of advanced combat means to [Lebanese] Hezbollah... This was the biggest, most significant attack since in the incident in which the Russian plane was downed in September... Before the attack, warning was given to the Russian air base at Hmeimim, hence, the Russian claim that the attack endangered civilian flights is strange to say the least, because they were given the opportunity to warn and divert every plane in the region..." Amos Harel in left of centre, independent broadsheet newspaper Haaretz says: "The wide scale air attack in Syria on Tuesday [25 December] attributed to Israel took place less than a week after [US] President [Donald] Trump announced the pull-out of American forces from the country... Israel is signalling that in spite of Trump's announcement and the Russian anger at the downing of the Russian plane in September it is free to continue attacking targets in Syria should the need arise... Yesterday [26 December], PM Netanyahu found himself at an embarrassing event when at the beginning of the meeting with Yesha settler council its director general Yigal Dilmoni complimented him on 'liquidating Hezbollah men tonight'. Netanyahu was forced to answer: 'I am not connected to this'..." Editorial of English-language Jerusalem Post says: "Now that Israel has decided to hold early elections, the government has to be particularly cautious about any moves that could trigger a conflagration in the region... As the IDF demonstrated this week, it will not hesitate to take action against Iran in Syria or elsewhere if Israel's security is threatened. While that's how it should be, there is a real danger of Syria becoming a flashpoint for a new conflict involving Israel... It is essential for Netanyahu to protect Israel's interests by coordinating with Moscow to foil any Iranian plots against it... We urge him to be tough but smart in acting against Iran in Syria, especially now with new elections on the horizon." Early elections Yossi Verter in left of centre, independent broadsheet newspaper Haaretz says: "Israel is going to elections when the candidate with the best chance of establishing the next government is a person whom police and the State Attorney's Office recommend indicting in at least two bribery cases... It is vital [for him] to reach the hearing which will determine his fate as prime minister who has just been elected. The people gave me their trust knowing the claims and suspicions against me, he will claim... He will oblige his future partners to agree to legislation ala the 'French law', determining that a prime minister cannot not be tried as long as he serves. Sounds delusional, but this is the plan and there is no other plan..." Headlines Haaretz: Left of centre, independent broadsheet newspaper: - Knesset approved bill for its dissolution in snap process, Knesset members agreed to vote only on agreed bills - Many Knesset members who addressed the plenum yesterday exploited meeting to sum up their work over the last four years. - Gantz and Yaalon hold contacts about joint contest of elections - Former two chiefs of staff Moshe Ya'alon and Benny Gantz have been conducting contacts to explore running together in upcoming elections. - Netanyahu: Media enlisted to left turnaround - PM Netanyahu told Yesha settler council left trying to affect government turnaround through enlisted media; success of left danger to settlement enterprise. Yediot Aharonot: Centrist, mass circulation newspaper: - Parting company with seat - The Knesset voted to dissolve itself yesterday and going to elections on 9 April. - Generals' front - Assessment: Former chiefs of staff Moshe Yaalon and Benny Gantz are conducting contacts with the view of running together in upcoming elections. - Elections carnival: Netanyahu leaves for Brazil - PM Netanyahu leaves today for six day visit to Brazil to attend swearing in of President Bolsonaro. Yisrael Hayom: Pro-Netanyahu, free newspaper: - Zionist Camp sinks to 7 mandates, Gantz sweeps 15, Likud leads with 31 - Yisrael Hayom poll shows list of former chiefs of staff Ya'alon and Gantz yet to be launched came second to Likud in poll with 15 mandates. - PM to associates: I will not quit in any scenario - PM Netanyahu says in private conversations: The law is clear, even if I am indicted, I will not be going. - PM to councils' leaders in Judea and Samaria [West Bank]: "Elections battle for the home" - PM Netanyahu met leaders of around 20 local councils in the West Bank told them we must win in upcoming elections. This is a battle for the home. BBC Monitoring in Hebrew, English 27 Dec 18 CREDIT: Quotes package from
Subject: Councils; Sovereignty; Prime ministers
Location: West Bank Turkey Russia United States--US Israel Samaria Jerusalem Israel Iran Brazil Syria
People: Yaalon, Moshe
Company / organization: Name: Hezbollah-Party of God; NAICS: 813940; Name: Jerusalem Post; NAICS: 511110
Publication title: BBC Monitoring Middle East; London
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Dec 27, 2018
Dateline: ISRAEL
Publisher: BBC Worldwide Limited
Place of publication: London
Country of publication: United Kingdom, London
Publication subject: Business And Economics, Political Science
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2160678508
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2160678508?accountid=4840
Copyright: Quotes package from/BBC Monitoring/© BBC
Last updated: 2018-12-27
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
Document 468 of 474
Mark your calendar, pack your bags: A globetrotter's guide to the world's big events in 2019
Author: Backenheimer, Margaret
Publication info: TCA Regional News ; Chicago [Chicago]27 Dec 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Dec. 27--Where in the world do you think you're going? The coming year's celebrations, commemorations and festivals will entertain journeyers to every corner of North America, as well as to Asia, South America and Europe. Check out our annual calendar for some of the best pairings of place and event in 2019. January 16-24: Berlin -- 100 Years Bauhaus: The Opening Festival. Art movement jump-starts centennial with 100 artists at the throttle. 19-20: Matera, Italy -- European Capital of Culture Opening Ceremony. Two thousand band members set the beat for a year of festivities at Matera (sharing its reign with Plovdiv, Bulgaria). 19-27: Detroit -- North American International Auto Show. The future of motor vehicles charges up in Motor City. 24 to Feb. 3: Park City, Utah -- Sundance Film Festival. The spotlight is on independent cinema with awards from the jury and audience. 31 to Feb. 11: Sapporo, Japan -- Sapporo Snow Festival. Millions chill out at showcase of ice and snow sculpture, 70th edition. February 3: Atlanta -- Super Bowl LIII. Gridiron gladiators grapple for glory at goal-line gala. 15-24: Indio, Calif. -- National Date Festival. Ostrich races are just one of 1,001 Arabian Nights-themed delights. 16 to March 2: Nice, France -- Carnival of Nice. French Riviera forecast: intermittent parades and heavy showers of confetti. 21-24: Cable to Hayward, Wis. -- American Birkebeiner Cross-Country Ski Race. Long-distance skiers and even some very determined dogs test their endurance in the snow. 26: Grand Canyon, Ariz. -- Grand Canyon National Park 100th Birthday. Natural Wonder hosts party with a view. March 1-9: Rio de Janeiro -- Carnival. The ultimate street party beguiles upwards of 2 million revelers a day. 2-10: Philadelphia -- Philadelphia Flower Show. This year's infusion of "Flower Power" knocks the edge off winter. 8-17: Austin, Texas -- South by Southwest. Breakthrough artists and speakers cover the future, from blockchain to cannabusiness. 16-24: Maastricht, Netherlands -- European Fine Art Fair. 260 dealers push museum-quality pieces into the marketplace. April 5-7: Norman, Okla. -- Medieval Fair. "King Arthur" presides over roundtable of feasts and follies. 13 to Sept. 2: Seattle -- "Destination Moon -- The Apollo 11 Mission." Traveling exhibit touches down with relics and displays from first moon landing 50 years back. 21-27: Hilo, Hawaii -- Merrie Monarch Festival. Big Island stages "world's largest hula competition." 26-28: St. Albans, Vt. -- Vermont Maple Festival. Dozens of sweet events stick with you. May 4-11: Seville, Spain -- April Fair of Seville. Andalusian arts and antics prevail in the Recinto. 19: San Francisco -- Bay to Breakers. "World's largest footrace" leads to post-race "Finish Line Festival." 24 to June 9: Charleston, S.C. -- Spoleto Festival USA. 150 top performers of opera, drama, theater and jazz bedazzle crowd of 80,000. 24 to Oct. 13: London -- "Leonardo da Vinci: A Life in Drawing." Buckingham Palace presents 200 masterpieces on 500th anniversary of the artist's demise. 26: Speedway, Ind. -- Indianapolis 500. Drivers do laps at the Brickyard for a bottle of milk, 103rd running. June 1-2: Monterey, Calif. -- Castroville Artichoke Festival. "Artichoke Center of the World" sizzles with thistles, California's state vegetable. 7 to July 7: Nine cities in France -- FIFA Women's World Cup. "Largest women's sporting event on Earth" features 23 soccer-crazed nations, plus defending champion USA. 26-30: New York -- WorldPride NYC/Stonewall 50. WorldPride makes first U.S. visit to mark 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising. 26-30; July 3-7: Washington, D.C. -- Smithsonian Folklife Festival. "Social Power of Music," especially in Benin and Brazil, sounds this year's theme. 27 to July 6: Montreal -- Montreal International Jazz Festival. 40th rendering of "world's largest jazz festival" enthralls 2 million listeners. July 4-7: New Orleans -- Essence Festival. This "party with a purpose," addressing African-American issues and experiences, turns 25, with 500,000 on hand. 12-14: Veneta, Ore. -- Oregon Country Fair. Counterculture chic takes charge for the 50th (not so) straight time. 18-21: San Diego -- Comic-Con International. Comics and pop culture get serious consideration by 130,000 devotees. 19-21: Baltimore -- Artscape. Free festival is all art: performed, photographed, sounded, sculpted and seen. 26 to Aug. 11: Lima, Peru -- Pan American Games. Athletes of the Americas compete in 39 sports, including BMX cycling and Basque pelota. August 2-26: Edinburgh, Scotland -- Edinburgh International Festival. High art performance fest coincides with city's earthier Festival Fringe. 8-18: Chengdu, China -- World Police and Fire Games. Olympics for firefighters and police covers archery, angling, darts and dragon boat races. 9-11: Huntington Station, N.Y. -- Walt Whitman Bicentennial Birthday Celebration. Hear America singing at big party for America's bard. 9-11: Abbotsford, British Columbia -- Abbotsford International Airshow. Feats of flight are performed by Thunderbirds, Snowbirds and CF-18 Hornets. 17-18: Santa Fe, N.M. --Santa Fe Indian Market. Ten thousand shoppers buy authentic Southwest treasures from 1,000 artists on the Plaza. September 6-10; 13-16: Bad Durkheim, Germany -- Wurstmarkt. Six-century-old festival is to wine what Oktoberfest is to beer. 7-8: Hoylake, England -- Walker Cup. Great Britain and Ireland's amateur golfers take on the U.S. team, captained by Nathaniel Crosby (Bing's son). 11-15: Reno, Nev. -- National Championship Air Races. "World's fastest motorsport" draws 150,000 fans of aerobatics. 16-22: Bardstown, Ky. -- Kentucky Bourbon Festival. 50,000 visitors take a sip, then watch the bourbon barrel-rolling races. 20 to Nov. 2: Twelve cities in Japan -- Rugby World Cup. "World's third-largest sporting event" scrimmages from Tokyo to the samurai town of Kanazawa. October 5-13: Albuquerque, N.M. -- Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. Mass ascensions and the Special Shape Rodeo add up to "the world's largest hot-air balloon gathering." 11-19: Kitchener and Waterloo, Ontario -- Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest. Bavarian bash boasts beer halls, polka stages and a Canadian Thanksgiving Day parade. 16-19: Circleville, Ohio -- Circleville Pumpkin Show. Orange is the color for this banquet of pumpkin weigh-ins, parades and pie-eating contests. 17-20: Plovdiv, Bulgaria -- European Capital of Culture, "100% Plovdiv." Stage play continues Plovdiv's reign as the co-Cultural Capital of Europe with Matera, Italy. 26-28: Galway, Ireland -- Galway Aboo Halloween Festival. Ireland's most haunting event materializes on the medieval streets of Galway. November 2: Terlingua, Texas -- Terlingua International Chili Championship. Granddaddy of all chili contests fires up in Big Bend country. 16-24: Lucerne, Switzerland -- Lucerne Piano Festival. Nine days of keyboard wizardry zip from classical to jazz. 16 to Dec. 31: Copenhagen -- Christmas in Tivoli. Holiday season culminates in parades, fireworks and rides at Denmark's landmark amusement park. 23: Plymouth, Mass. -- America's Hometown Thanksgiving Celebration. The nation's story struts its stuff in chronological history-book parade. 28 to Dec. 31: Coos Bay, Ore. -- Holiday Lights at Shore Acres. Lighted sculptures of whales and puffins illuminate seaside gardens. December 1-12: Puerto Vallarta, Mexico -- Our Lady of Guadalupe Celebration. Aztec and Christian motifs mesh as thousands parade through the streets nightly. 4: New York -- Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in midtown Manhattan. 8: Honolulu -- Honolulu Marathon. Over 26 miles in paradise, take in the sights, from Waikiki Beach to Iolani Palace. 14: Montgomery, Ala. -- Alabama's Bicentennial. Parade, cake and dedication of Bicentennial Park mark big birthday for 22nd state. 26-31: Sydney -- Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. Diamond edition attracts scores of yachts, mainly sloops, to the devilish Tasmanian Sea. Dates are subject to change. Always check in advance to confirm dates and details. CREDIT: By Margaret Backenheimer
Subject: Motion picture festivals; Jazz; Moon; Airplane racing; Tournaments & championships; Boat racing; Parades; Art; Soccer; Music festivals; National parks; Cities
Location: Italy Ireland Denmark Americas Detroit Michigan England Hawaii Brazil Alabama Indianapolis Indiana France Asia Abbotsford British Columbia Canada Europe Atlanta Georgia Baltimore Maryland Mexico Germany Grand Canyon China Bulgaria California Benin Japan Kentucky
People: Whitman, Walt (1819-92) Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519)
Company / organization: Name: Spoleto Festival USA; NAICS: 711320; Name: Edinburgh International Festival; NAICS: 711310; Name: Festival International de Jazz de Montréal; NAICS: 711310; Name: Comic-Con International; NAICS: 813410; Name: European Fine Art Fair; NAICS: 453920, 711320; Name: Grand Canyon National Park; NAICS: 712190; Name: Federation Internationale de Football Association--FIFA; NAICS: 813990; Name: Sundance Film Festival; NAICS: 512131, 711320
Publication title: TCA Regional News; Chicago
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Dec 27, 2018
Publisher: Tribune Content Agency LLC
Place of publication: Chicago
Country of publication: United States, Chicago
Publication subject: Business And Economics
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2160704658
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2160704658?accountid=4840
Copyright: (c)2018 the Chicago Tribune Visit the Chicago Tribune at www.chicagotribune.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Last updated: 2019-01-17
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection; US Southeast Newsstream
Document 469 of 474
The Sicario’s Tale, Part 2: Inside Pablo Escobar’s Cocaine Air Force: A quarter-century after the death of cocaine king Pablo Escobar, his right-hand man reveals his secrets in an exclusive new series for The Daily Beast.
Author: Kryt, Jeremy
Publication info: The Daily Beast ; New York [New York]27 Dec 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: CALI, Colombia—This is the second in a series of interviews with Jhon Jairo Velásquez Vásquez, also known as “Popeye” because he was once a sailor in the Colombian navy. More importantly, for several years he served as the ranking sicario, or hitman, of the Medellín Cartel under Pablo Escobar, who was killed 25 years ago this month. Popeye says he personally murdered hundreds of people and ordered the deaths of thousands more. Indeed, since his release from prison in 2014, after serving a 23-year sentence, he has been using YouTube and other social media to build a cult of personality around himself and his associates. These efforts to grow his legend have already yielded a fictional Netflix series about his exploits and an upcoming feature film. In 2018 he was again arrested pending a new investigation, although he maintains he is innocent of the fresh charges against him. Despite his checkered past—or because of it—Popeye remains a role model to many in the cartel underworld. Part One of this series chronicled Escobar’s attempt to kill a presidential candidate with a bomb on a plane that murdered more than 100 people, but missed the target. Here, in the second installment, Popeye talks about Escobar’s own private air force, and how he used it to smuggle more than a dozen tons of cocaine a day across the U.S. border. * IN COLD BLOOD Escobar’s Hitman Speaks: ‘I Blew Up More Than 100 People’ Jeremy Kryt During the Medellín Cartel’s heyday in the mid-’80s—at the height of the crack epidemic in the United States—Escobar supplied about 80 percent of the world’s cocaine, including up to 15 tons a day destined for the U.S. market, much of it by air. THE DAILY BEAST: I understand Escobar took great pride in his so-called “air force,” which included planes for both smuggling and personal use. Also that there were some pretty wild times and airborne fiestas. Can you tell us more about how Pablo used his planes? POPEYE: Pablo Escobar managed a fleet of almost 140 planes that he used for almost all his drug trafficking operations. But his only pleasure plane was a Lear Jet. Back in the ’80s there were only two Lear Jets in all of Colombia. One owned by Pablo Escobar, and the other by businessman Julio Mario Santodomingo. Escobar’s Lear was the “Avión Superior,” a super-plane where Pablo Escobar had fun. Once he took $2 million in cash and flew off to the carnival at Rio de Janeiro—and spent everything he’d brought with him, right down to the last dollar. He flew to the U.S., too, and had a good time. TDB: What other kinds of “good times” did he have aboard the Lear? And what were the logistics involved in flying that thing around in Colombia? POPEYE: This high-speed plane couldn’t land at the airstrip of the Hacienda Nápoles [Escobar’s compound]. Its force and size only allowed it to operate out of Olaya Herrera, the Medellín city airport. Once several beautiful Brazilian women flew to Medellín in the Lear Jet and from there in a King 300 to the Nápoles ranch. The beauties made love to each other for the delight of the mighty capo at 30,000 feet. Roberto Striedinger was the pilot. It wasn’t easy to find someone qualified to fly this powerful machine. And the Avión Superior was never used for cocaine trafficking—but only for the pleasure of El Patrón. TDB: So aviation was a key factor in the Medellin Cartel’s ability to process cocaine on an industrial scale, which in turn allowed Escobar to become the world’s top supplier. Can you talk a little about the size and scope of the production process, and how planes were employed in shipping the raw materials to the lab? POPEYE: At that time the cocaine paste, the base, was brought from Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador in small planes to the Colombian wilderness, passing from one jungle airstrip to another.A powerful trafficker received planes like the Navajo Caneca and the [Cessna] Centurion in Leticia, in the Colombian Amazon. From there other small planes took the cocaine paste to a super-laboratory of the Medellín cartel. Evaristo Porras, a cocaine addict, had total control in Leticia. From there he coordinated shipments off to Tranquilandia, the super-laboratory owned by Pablo Escobar, José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha, and Jorgé Luis Ochoa Vásquez. TDB: I’ve seen pictures of the ruins at Tranquilandia, and it does look to have been huge. What was the lab’s capacity? And what role did the Escobarian “air force” play in all of this? POPEYE: On the plains of Yarí, 30,000 kilos [about 66,000 pounds] of cocaine were processed in the Colombian jungle every month. These small-plane operations were conducted on a grand scale. Some of the planes were used to haul cocaine paste, others acetone and ether, to process the paste and turn it into pure cocaine. Other aircraft moved personnel, food, and fuel for the large power plant that illuminated the huge laboratory. The chain of processing stations was built in the heart of the jungle. The laboratory waste would not be a problem, a river would swallow the runoff near the laboratory and the smells would not be a mess either, the jungle would absorb them. The soul of the laboratory was the complex of paved runways. TDB: I wonder just how Escobar used these aircraft for exporting contraband from Tranquilandia. For example, I’ve heard steps were taken to increase cargo capacity, and change each plane’s papers and identification markers. How did that work, please? And what did the smuggling routes look like? POPEYE: When the processed cocaine was ready it was flown from the lab to all over the world in airplanes with great cargo capacity and good autopilot capabilities. The ideal plane was the King 300. The interior would be dismantled, the chairs removed, anything superfluous or heavy thrown out and replaced with containers. Additional fuel could be carried on the wings. Depending on the destination, it could carry [up to] 700-900 kilos [1,540 – 1,980 lbs] of cocaine. The load would be just cocaine and fuel, and the pilot would bring his mechanic. The routes were to the USA, Mexico, the Bahamas, Cuba, Panama, Haiti, and Nicaragua. Aircraft went with cocaine and returned with money and weapons. Aircraft purchases were often made in the U.S. with front companies. The planes’ registrations were altered as were the national flags, depending on the destination. The flotilla also included turbo command aircraft, and each plane was carefully chosen for its mission. Next up: From the Jungle to the Junky — How Escobar outfoxed law enforcement to smuggle cocaine into the U.S.
Subject: Aircraft; Laboratories; Cocaine; Social networks; Cartels
Location: Nicaragua Mexico United States--US Bolivia Peru Cuba Rio de Janeiro Brazil Ecuador Haiti Bahamas Colombia Panama
People: Escobar, Pablo
Company / organization: Name: YouTube Inc; NAICS: 519130; Name: Netflix Inc; NAICS: 512120, 518210, 532230
Identifier / keyword: Assassination Cocaine Colombia Drug Cartels murder Pablo Escobar
Publication title: The Daily Beast; New York
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Dec 27, 2018
Section: world
Publisher: The Newsweek/Daily Beast Company LLC
Place of publication: New York
Country of publication: United States, New York
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2160967386
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2160967386?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright The Newsweek/Daily Beast Company LLC Dec 27, 2018
Last updated: 2018-12-28
Database: US Southeast Newsstream
Document 470 of 474
Mark your calendar, pack your bags: A globetrotter's guide to the world's big events in 2019
Author: Backenheimer, Margaret
Publication info: Chicago Tribune (Online) , Chicago: Tribune Interactive, LLC. Dec 27, 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Where in the world do you think you’re going? The coming year’s celebrations, commemorations and festivals will entertain journeyers to every corner of North America, as well as to Asia, South America and Europe. Check out our annual calendar for some of the best pairings of place and event in 2019. January 16-24: Berlin — 100 Years Bauhaus: The Opening Festival. Art movement jump-starts centennial with 100 artists at the throttle. 19-20: Matera, Italy — European Capital of Culture Opening Ceremony. Two thousand band members set the beat for a year of festivities at Matera (sharing its reign with Plovdiv, Bulgaria). 19-27: Detroit — North American International Auto Show. The future of motor vehicles charges up in Motor City. 24 to Feb. 3: Park City, Utah — Sundance Film Festival. The spotlight is on independent cinema with awards from the jury and audience. 31 to Feb. 11: Sapporo, Japan — Sapporo Snow Festival. Millions chill out at showcase of ice and snow sculpture, 70th edition. February 3: Atlanta — Super Bowl LIII. Gridiron gladiators grapple for glory at goal-line gala. 15-24: Indio, Calif. — National Date Festival. Ostrich races are just one of 1,001 Arabian Nights-themed delights. 16 to March 2: Nice, France — Carnival of Nice. French Riviera forecast: intermittent parades and heavy showers of confetti. 21-24: Cable to Hayward, Wis. — American Birkebeiner Cross-Country Ski Race. Long-distance skiers and even some very determined dogs test their endurance in the snow. 26: Grand Canyon, Ariz. — Grand Canyon National Park 100th Birthday. Natural Wonder hosts party with a view. March 1-9: Rio de Janeiro — Carnival. The ultimate street party beguiles upwards of 2 million revelers a day. 2-10: Philadelphia — Philadelphia Flower Show. This year’s infusion of “Flower Power” knocks the edge off winter. 8-17: Austin, Texas — South by Southwest. Breakthrough artists and speakers cover the future, from blockchain to cannabusiness. 16-24: Maastricht, Netherlands — European Fine Art Fair. 260 dealers push museum-quality pieces into the marketplace. April 5-7: Norman, Okla. — Medieval Fair. “King Arthur” presides over roundtable of feasts and follies. 13 to Sept. 2: Seattle — “Destination Moon — The Apollo 11 Mission.” Traveling exhibit touches down with relics and displays from first moon landing 50 years back. 21-27: Hilo, Hawaii — Merrie Monarch Festival. Big Island stages “world’s largest hula competition.” 26-28: St. Albans, Vt. — Vermont Maple Festival. Dozens of sweet events stick with you. May 4-11: Seville, Spain — April Fair of Seville. Andalusian arts and antics prevail in the Recinto. 19: San Francisco — Bay to Breakers. “World’s largest footrace” leads to post-race “Finish Line Festival.” 24 to June 9: Charleston, S.C. — Spoleto Festival USA. 150 top performers of opera, drama, theater and jazz bedazzle crowd of 80,000. 24 to Oct. 13: London — “Leonardo da Vinci: A Life in Drawing.” Buckingham Palace presents 200 masterpieces on 500th anniversary of the artist’s demise. 26: Speedway, Ind. — Indianapolis 500. Drivers do laps at the Brickyard for a bottle of milk, 103rd running. June 1-2: Monterey, Calif. — Castroville Artichoke Festival. “Artichoke Center of the World” sizzles with thistles, California’s state vegetable. 7 to July 7: Nine cities in France — FIFA Women’s World Cup. “Largest women’s sporting event on Earth” features 23 soccer-crazed nations, plus defending champion USA. 26-30: New York — WorldPride NYC/Stonewall 50. WorldPride makes first U.S. visit to mark 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising. 26-30; July 3-7: Washington, D.C. — Smithsonian Folklife Festival. “Social Power of Music,” especially in Benin and Brazil, sounds this year’s theme. 27 to July 6: Montreal — Montreal International Jazz Festival. 40th rendering of “world’s largest jazz festival” enthralls 2 million listeners. July 4-7: New Orleans — Essence Festival. This “party with a purpose,” addressing African-American issues and experiences, turns 25, with 500,000 on hand. 12-14: Veneta, Ore. — Oregon Country Fair. Counterculture chic takes charge for the 50th (not so) straight time. 18-21: San Diego — Comic-Con International. Comics and pop culture get serious consideration by 130,000 devotees. 19-21: Baltimore — Artscape. Free festival is all art: performed, photographed, sounded, sculpted and seen. 26 to Aug. 11: Lima, Peru — Pan American Games. Athletes of the Americas compete in 39 sports, including BMX cycling and Basque pelota. August 2-26: Edinburgh, Scotland — Edinburgh International Festival. High art performance fest coincides with city’s earthier Festival Fringe. 8-18: Chengdu, China — World Police and Fire Games. Olympics for firefighters and police covers archery, angling, darts and dragon boat races. 9-11: Huntington Station, N.Y. — Walt Whitman Bicentennial Birthday Celebration. Hear America singing at big party for America’s bard. 9-11: Abbotsford, British Columbia — Abbotsford International Airshow. Feats of flight are performed by Thunderbirds, Snowbirds and CF-18 Hornets. 17-18: Santa Fe, N.M. —Santa Fe Indian Market. Ten thousand shoppers buy authentic Southwest treasures from 1,000 artists on the Plaza. September 6-10; 13-16: Bad Durkheim, Germany — Wurstmarkt. Six-century-old festival is to wine what Oktoberfest is to beer. 7-8: Hoylake, England — Walker Cup. Great Britain and Ireland’s amateur golfers take on the U.S. team, captained by Nathaniel Crosby (Bing’s son). 11-15: Reno, Nev. — National Championship Air Races. “World’s fastest motorsport” draws 150,000 fans of aerobatics. 16-22: Bardstown, Ky. — Kentucky Bourbon Festival. 50,000 visitors take a sip, then watch the bourbon barrel-rolling races. 20 to Nov. 2: Twelve cities in Japan — Rugby World Cup. “World’s third-largest sporting event” scrimmages from Tokyo to the samurai town of Kanazawa. October 5-13: Albuquerque, N.M. — Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. Mass ascensions and the Special Shape Rodeo add up to “the world’s largest hot-air balloon gathering.” 11-19: Kitchener and Waterloo, Ontario — Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest. Bavarian bash boasts beer halls, polka stages and a Canadian Thanksgiving Day parade. 16-19: Circleville, Ohio — Circleville Pumpkin Show. Orange is the color for this banquet of pumpkin weigh-ins, parades and pie-eating contests. 17-20: Plovdiv, Bulgaria — European Capital of Culture, “100% Plovdiv.” Stage play continues Plovdiv’s reign as the co-Cultural Capital of Europe with Matera, Italy. 26-28: Galway, Ireland — Galway Aboo Halloween Festival. Ireland’s most haunting event materializes on the medieval streets of Galway. November 2: Terlingua, Texas — Terlingua International Chili Championship. Granddaddy of all chili contests fires up in Big Bend country. 16-24: Lucerne, Switzerland — Lucerne Piano Festival. Nine days of keyboard wizardry zip from classical to jazz. 16 to Dec. 31: Copenhagen — Christmas in Tivoli. Holiday season culminates in parades, fireworks and rides at Denmark’s landmark amusement park. 23: Plymouth, Mass. — America’s Hometown Thanksgiving Celebration. The nation’s story struts its stuff in chronological history-book parade. 28 to Dec. 31: Coos Bay, Ore. — Holiday Lights at Shore Acres. Lighted sculptures of whales and puffins illuminate seaside gardens. December 1-12: Puerto Vallarta, Mexico — Our Lady of Guadalupe Celebration. Aztec and Christian motifs mesh as thousands parade through the streets nightly. 4: New York — Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in midtown Manhattan. 8: Honolulu — Honolulu Marathon. Over 26 miles in paradise, take in the sights, from Waikiki Beach to Iolani Palace. 14: Montgomery, Ala. — Alabama’s Bicentennial. Parade, cake and dedication of Bicentennial Park mark big birthday for 22nd state. 26-31: Sydney — Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. Diamond edition attracts scores of yachts, mainly sloops, to the devilish Tasmanian Sea. Dates are subject to change. Always check in advance to confirm dates and details. 5 most wish-listed Chicago Airbnb rentals » Going dark: Stargazing destinations near and far lure 'astro tourists' to the night sky » 13 best untouched beaches in the world » Credit: Margaret Backenheimer
Subject: Motion picture festivals; Jazz; Moon; Airplane racing; Tournaments & championships; Boat racing; Parades; Art; Soccer; Music festivals; National parks; Cities
Location: Italy Ireland Chicago Illinois Denmark Americas Detroit Michigan England Hawaii Brazil Alabama Indianapolis Indiana France Asia Abbotsford British Columbia Canada Europe Atlanta Georgia Baltimore Maryland Germany Grand Canyon China Bulgaria California Benin Japan Kentucky
People: Whitman, Walt (1819-92) Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519)
Company / organization: Name: Airbnb; NAICS: 561599; Name: Spoleto Festival USA; NAICS: 711320; Name: Edinburgh International Festival; NAICS: 711310; Name: Festival International de Jazz de Montréal; NAICS: 711310; Name: Comic-Con International; NAICS: 813410; Name: European Fine Art Fair; NAICS: 453920, 711320; Name: Grand Canyon National Park; NAICS: 712190; Name: Federation Internationale de Football Association--FIFA; NAICS: 813990; Name: Sundance Film Festival; NAICS: 512131, 711320
Publication title: Chicago Tribune (Online); Chicago
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Dec 27, 2018
Section: Lifestyles - Travel
Publisher: Tribune Interactive, LLC
Place of publication: Chicago
Country of publication: United States, Chicago
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Blogs, Podcasts, & Websites
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2161067624
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2161067624?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Tribune Interactive, LLC Dec 27, 2018
Last updated: 2019-01-17
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 471 of 474
Pack your bags [Corrected 12/30/2018]: A globetrotter's guide to the world's big events in 2019
Author: Backenheimer, Margaret
Publication info: Chicago Tribune ; Chicago, Ill. [Chicago, Ill]30 Dec 2018: 1.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: Where in the world do you think you're going? The coming year's celebrations, commemorations and festivals will entertain journeyers to every corner of North America, as well as to Asia, South America and Europe. Check out our annual calendar for some of the best pairings of place and event in 2019. January * 16-24: Berlin -- 100 Years Bauhaus: The Opening Festival. Art movement jump-starts centennial with 100 artists at the throttle. * 19-20: Matera, Italy -- European Capital of Culture Opening Ceremony. Two thousand band members set the beat for a year of festivities at Matera (sharing its reign with Plovdiv, Bulgaria). * 19-27: Detroit -- North American International Auto Show. The future of motor vehicles charges up in Motor City. * 24 to Feb. 3: Park City, Utah -- Sundance Film Festival. The spotlight is on independent cinema with awards from the jury and audience. * 31 to Feb. 11: Sapporo, Japan -- Sapporo Snow Festival. Millions chill out at showcase of ice and snow sculpture, 70th edition. February * 3: Atlanta -- Super Bowl LIII. Gridiron gladiators grapple for glory at goal-line gala. * 15-24: Indio, Calif. -- National Date Festival. Ostrich races are just one of 1,001 Arabian Nights-themed delights. * 16 to March 2: Nice, France -- Carnival of Nice. French Riviera forecast: intermittent parades and heavy showers of confetti. * 21-24: Cable to Hayward, Wis. -- American Birkebeiner Cross-Country Ski Race. Long-distance skiers, inexhaustible bicyclists and even some very determined dogs test their endurance in the snow. * 26: Grand Canyon, Ariz. -- Grand Canyon National Park 100th Birthday. Natural Wonder hosts party with a view. March * 1-9: Rio de Janeiro -- Carnival. The ultimate street party beguiles upward of 2 million revelers a day. * 2-10: Philadelphia -- Philadelphia Flower Show. This year's infusion of "Flower Power" knocks the edge off winter. * 8-17: Austin, Texas -- South by Southwest. Breakthrough artists and speakers cover the future, from blockchain to cannabusiness. * 16-24: Maastricht, Netherlands -- European Fine Art Fair. Two hundred sixty dealers push museum-quality pieces into the marketplace. April * 5-7: Norman, Okla. -- Medieval Fair. "King Arthur" presides over a roundtable of feasts and follies. * 13 to Sept. 2: Seattle -- "Destination Moon -- The Apollo 11 Mission." The traveling exhibit touches down with relics and displays from the first moon landing 50 years back. * 21-27: Hilo, Hawaii -- Merrie Monarch Festival. Big Island stages "world's largest hula competition." * 26-28: St. Albans, Vt. -- Vermont Maple Festival. The sweet events stick with you. May * 4-11: Seville, Spain -- April Fair of Seville. Andalusian arts and antics prevail. * 19: San Francisco -- Bay to Breakers. "World's largest footrace" leads to post-race "Finish Line Festival." * 24 to June 9: Charleston, S.C. -- Spoleto Festival USA. Performers of opera, drama, theater and jazz bedazzle crowd of 80,000. * 24 to Oct. 13: London -- "Leonardo da Vinci: A Life in Drawing." Buckingham Palace presents 200 masterpieces on the 500th anniversary of the artist's demise. * 26: Speedway, Ind. -- Indianapolis 500-Mile Race. Drivers do laps at the Brickyard for a bottle of milk, 103rd running. June * 1-2: Monterey, Calif. -- Castroville Artichoke Festival. "Artichoke Center of the World" sizzles with thistles, California's state vegetable. * 7 to July 7: Nine cities in France -- FIFA Women's World Cup. "Largest women's sporting event on Earth" features 23 soccer-crazed nations, plus defending champion USA. * 26-30: New York -- WorldPride NYC/Stonewall 50. WorldPride makes its first U.S. visit to mark 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising. * 26-30; July 3-7: Washington, D.C. -- Smithsonian Folklife Festival. "Social Power of Music," especially in Benin and Brazil, is this year's theme. * 27 to July 6: Montreal -- Montreal International Jazz Festival. 40th rendering of "world's largest jazz festival" enthralls 2 million listeners. July * 4-7: New Orleans -- Essence Festival. This "party with a purpose," addressing African-American issues and experiences, turns 25, with 500,000 on hand. * 12-14: Veneta, Ore. -- Oregon Country Fair. Counterculture chic takes charge for the 50th (not so) straight time. * 18-21: San Diego -- Comic-Con International. Comics and pop culture get serious consideration by 130,000 devotees. * 19-21: Baltimore -- Artscape. Free festival is all art: performed, photographed, sounded, sculpted and seen. * 26 to Aug. 11: Lima, Peru -- Pan American Games. Athletes of the Americas compete in 39 sports, including BMX cycling and Basque pelota. August * 2-26: Edinburgh, Scotland -- Edinburgh International Festival. High art performance fest coincides with city's earthier Festival Fringe. * 8-18: Chengdu, China -- World Police and Fire Games. Olympics for firefighters and police covers archery, angling, darts and dragon boat races. * 9-11: Huntington Station, N.Y. -- Walt Whitman Bicentennial Birthday Celebration. Hear America singing at a big party for America's bard. * 9-11: Abbotsford, British Columbia -- Abbotsford International Airshow. Feats of flight are performed by Thunderbirds, Snowbirds and CF-18 Hornets. * 17-18: Santa Fe, N.M. --Santa Fe Indian Market. Ten thousand shoppers buy authentic Southwest treasures from 1,000 artists on the Plaza. September * 6-10; 13-16: Bad Durkheim, Germany -- Wurstmarkt. Six-century-old festival is to wine what Oktoberfest is to beer. * 7-8: Hoylake, England -- Walker Cup. Great Britain and Ireland's amateur golfers take on the U.S. team, captained by Nathaniel Crosby (Bing's son). * 11-15: Reno, Nev. -- National Championship Air Races. "World's fastest motorsport" draws 150,000 fans of aerobatics. * 16-22: Bardstown, Ky. -- Kentucky Bourbon Festival. 50,000 visitors take a sip, then watch the bourbon barrel-rolling races. * 20 to Nov. 2: Twelve cities in Japan -- Rugby World Cup. "World's third-largest sporting event" scrimmages from Tokyo to the samurai town of Kanazawa. October * 5-13: Albuquerque, N.M. -- Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. Mass ascensions and the Special Shape Rodeo add up to "the world's largest hot-air balloon gathering." * 11-19: Kitchener and Waterloo, Ontario -- Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest. Bavarian bash boasts beer halls, polka stages and a Canadian Thanksgiving Day parade. * 16-19: Circleville, Ohio -- Circleville Pumpkin Show. Orange is the color for this banquet of pumpkin weigh-ins, parades and pie-eating contests. * 17-20: Plovdiv, Bulgaria -- European Capital of Culture, "100% Plovdiv." Stage play continues Plovdiv's reign as the co-Cultural Capital of Europe with Matera, Italy. * 26-28: Galway, Ireland -- Galway Aboo Halloween Festival. Ireland's most haunting event materializes on the medieval streets of Galway. November * 2: Terlingua, Texas -- Terlingua International Chili Championship. Granddaddy of all chili contests fires up in Big Bend country. * 16-24: Lucerne, Switzerland -- Lucerne Piano Festival. Nine days of keyboard wizardry zip from classical to jazz. * 16 to Dec. 31: Copenhagen -- Christmas in Tivoli. Holiday season culminates in parades, fireworks and rides at Denmark's landmark amusement park. * 23: Plymouth, Mass. -- America's Hometown Thanksgiving Celebration. The nation's story struts its stuff in a chronological history-book parade Saturday. * 28 to Dec. 31: Coos Bay, Ore. -- Holiday Lights at Shore Acres. Lighted sculptures of whales and puffins illuminate seaside gardens. December * 1-12: Puerto Vallarta, Mexico -- Our Lady of Guadalupe Celebration. Aztec and Christian motifs mesh, as thousands parade through the streets nightly. * 4: New York -- Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Midtown Manhattan. * 8: Honolulu -- Honolulu Marathon. Over 26 miles in paradise, take in the sights, from Waikiki Beach to Iolani Palace. * 14: Montgomery, Ala. -- Alabama's Bicentennial. Parade, cake and dedication of Bicentennial Park mark big birthday for 22nd state. * 26-31: Sydney -- Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. Diamond edition attracts scores of yachts, mainly sloops, to the devilish Tasmanian Sea. Dates are subject to change. Always check in advance to confirm dates and details. ---------- Margaret Backenheimer is a freelance writer. CAPTION: Photo: The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is the largest balloon event in the world. MADDIE MEYER/GETTY ; Photo: Hawaii's Merrie Monarch Festival honors King David La'amea Kalakaua, whose flamboyant, fun-loving ways earned the leader the moniker "Merrie Monarch." GETTY ; Photo: Known as the Olympics of police and firefighters, the World Police and Fire Games take place in Chengdu, China, in August. SEAN PAVONE/GETTY ; Photo: Lima, Peru, plays host to the Pan American Games this summer in South America. GETTY ; Photo: Denmark's Tivoli Gardens gets festive for the holidays. GETTY; Photo: TRAVEL; A globe-trotter's guide to 2019 (Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta) SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN/AP (News section, Page 1) CREDIT: By Margaret Backenheimer, Chicago Tribune
Subject: Motion picture festivals; Jazz; Fires; Moon; Airplane racing; Tournaments & championships; Boat racing; Art; Parades; Soccer; Music festivals; National parks; Cities
Location: Italy Chicago Illinois Ireland Denmark Americas Detroit Michigan England Brazil Hawaii Alabama Indianapolis Indiana Asia France Abbotsford British Columbia Canada Europe Atlanta Georgia Baltimore Maryland Germany Grand Canyon Bulgaria China California Benin Japan Kentucky
People: Whitman, Walt (1819-92) Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519)
Company / organization: Name: Spoleto Festival USA; NAICS: 711320; Name: Edinburgh International Festival; NAICS: 711310; Name: Festival International de Jazz de Montréal; NAICS: 711310; Name: Comic-Con International; NAICS: 813410; Name: European Fine Art Fair; NAICS: 453920, 711320; Name: Grand Canyon National Park; NAICS: 712190; Name: Federation Internationale de Football Association--FIFA; NAICS: 813990; Name: Sundance Film Festival; NAICS: 512131, 711320
Publication title: Chicago Tribune; Chicago, Ill.
First page: 1
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Dec 30, 2018
Section: Travel
Publisher: Tribune Interactive, LLC
Place of publication: Chicago, Ill.
Country of publication: United States, Chicago, Ill.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
ISSN: 10856706
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2161349210
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2161349210?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright Tribune Interactive, LLC Dec 30, 2018
Last updated: 2019-01-17
Database: US Major Dailies
Document 472 of 474
Pack your bags; A globetrotter's guide to the world's big events in 2019
Author: Backenheimer, Margaret
Publication info: The Baltimore Sun ; Baltimore, Md. [Baltimore, Md]30 Dec 2018: R.1.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: January *16-24: Berlin - 100 Years Bauhaus: The Opening Festival. Art movement jump-starts centennial with 100 artists at the throttle. *19-27: Detroit - North American International Auto Show. The future of motor vehicles charges up in Motor City. *31 to Feb. 11: Sapporo, Japan - Sapporo Snow Festival. Millions chill out at showcase of ice and snow sculpture, 70th edition. February *15-24: Indio, Calif. - National Date Festival. Ostrich races are just one of 1,001 Arabian Nights-themed delights. *16 to March 2: Nice, France - Carnival of Nice. French Riviera forecast: intermittent parades and heavy showers of confetti. *26: Grand Canyon, Ariz. - Grand Canyon National Park 100th Birthday. Natural Wonder hosts party with a view. March *1-9: Rio de Janeiro - Carnival. The ultimate street party beguiles upward of 2 million revelers a day. *2-10: Philadelphia - Philadelphia Flower Show. This year's infusion of "Flower Power" knocks the edge off winter. *16-24: Maastricht, Netherlands - European Fine Art Fair. 260 dealers push museum-quality pieces into the marketplace. April *13 to Sept. 2: Seattle - "Destination Moon - The Apollo 11 Mission." Exhibit touches down with relics and displays from first moon landing 50 years back. *21-27: Hilo, Hawaii - Merrie Monarch Festival. Big Island stages "world's largest hula competition." *26-28: St. Albans, Vt. - Vermont Maple Festival. The sweet events stick with you. May *4-11: Seville, Spain - April Fair of Seville. Andalusian arts and antics prevail. *24 to June 9: Charleston, S.C. - Spoleto Festival USA. Performers of opera, drama, theater and jazz bedazzle crowd of 80,000. *24 to Oct. 13: London - "Leonardo da Vinci: A Life in Drawing." Buckingham Palace presents 200 masterpieces on 500th anniversary of the artist's demise. June *1-2: Monterey, Calif. - Castroville Artichoke Festival. "Artichoke Center of the World" sizzles with thistles, California's state vegetable. *7 to July 7: Nine cities in France - FIFA Women's World Cup. "Largest women's sporting event on Earth" features 23 soccer-crazed nations, plus champion USA. *26-30: New York - WorldPride NYC/Stonewall 50. WorldPride makes first U.S. visit to mark 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising. July *4-7: New Orleans - Essence Festival. This "party with a purpose," addressing African-American issues and experiences, turns 25, with 500,000 on hand. *19-21: Baltimore - Artscape. Free festival is all art: performed, photographed, sounded, sculpted and seen. *26 to Aug. 11: Lima, Peru - Pan American Games. Athletes of the Americas compete in 39 sports, including BMX cycling and Basque pelota. August *8-18: Chengdu, China - World Police and Fire Games. Olympics for firefighters and police covers archery, angling, darts and dragon boat races. *9-11: Abbotsford, British Columbia - Abbotsford International Airshow. Feats of flight are performed by Thunderbirds, Snowbirds and CF-18 Hornets. *17-18: Santa Fe, N.M. -Santa Fe Indian Market. Ten thousand shoppers buy authentic Southwest treasures from 1,000 artists on the Plaza. September *6-10; 13-16: Bad Durkheim, Germany - Wurstmarkt. Six-century-old festival is to wine what Oktoberfest is to beer. *16-22: Bardstown, Ky. - Kentucky Bourbon Festival. 50,000 visitors take a sip, then watch the bourbon barrel-rolling races. *20 to Nov. 2: Twelve cities in Japan - Rugby World Cup. "World's third-largest sporting event" scrimmages from Tokyo to the samurai town of Kanazawa. October *5-13: Albuquerque, N.M. - Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. Mass ascensions and the Special Shape Rodeo add up to "the world's largest hot-air balloon gathering." *17-20: Plovdiv, Bulgaria - European Capital of Culture, "100% Plovdiv." Stage play continues Plovdiv's reign as the co-Cultural Capital of Europe with Matera, Italy. *26-28: Galway, Ireland - Galway Aboo Halloween Festival. Ireland's most haunting event materializes on the medieval streets of Galway. November *2: Terlingua, Texas - Terlingua International Chili Championship. Granddaddy of all chili contests fires up in Big Bend country. *16-24: Lucerne, Switzerland - Lucerne Piano Festival. Nine days of keyboard wizardry zip from classical to jazz. *16 to Dec. 31: Copenhagen - Christmas in Tivoli. Holiday season culminates in parades, fireworks and rides at Denmark's landmark amusement park. *28 to Dec. 31: Coos Bay, Ore. - Holiday Lights at Shore Acres. Lighted sculptures of whales and puffins illuminate seaside gardens. December *1-12: Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - Our Lady of Guadalupe Celebration. Aztec and Christian motifs mesh as thousands parade through the streets nightly. *4: New York - Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Midtown Manhattan. *26-31: Sydney - Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. Diamond edition attracts scores of yachts, mainly sloops, to the devilish Tasmanian Sea. Dates are subject to change. Margaret Backenheimer is a freelance writer. Credit: By Margaret Backenheimer - Chicago Tribune Caption: The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is the largest balloon event in the world. Hawaii's Merrie Monarch Festival honors King David La'amea Kalakaua, whose flamboyant, fun-loving ways earned the 19th century leader the moniker "Merrie Monarch." The weeklong festival features a hula competition, hula shows, a Hawaiian arts fair and more. Lima plays host to the Pan American Games this summer in South America. Maddie Meyer/Getty Getty Getty
Subject: Festivals; Moon; Tournaments & championships; Boat racing; Parades; Art; Soccer; National parks
Location: Italy Ireland Chicago Illinois Denmark Americas Detroit Michigan Peru Hawaii Rio de Janeiro Brazil France Abbotsford British Columbia Canada Europe Baltimore Maryland Mexico Spain Netherlands New York Germany South America Grand Canyon China Bulgaria California Japan Kentucky
People: Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519)
Company / organization: Name: Spoleto Festival USA; NAICS: 711320; Name: European Fine Art Fair; NAICS: 453920, 711320; Name: Grand Canyon National Park; NAICS: 712190; Name: Federation Internationale de Football Association--FIFA; NAICS: 813990
Publication title: The Baltimore Sun; Baltimore, Md.
First page: R.1
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Dec 30, 2018
Publisher: Tribune Interactive, LLC
Place of publication: Baltimore, Md.
Country of publication: United States, Baltimore, Md.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
ISSN: 19439504
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2162790195
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2162790195?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright © 2018 The Baltimore Sun
Last updated: 2019-01-17
Database: US Southeast Newsstream
Document 473 of 474
PACK YOUR BAGS; A globetrotter's guide to the world's big events in 2019
Author: Backenheimer, Margaret
Publication info: Orlando Sentinel ; Orlando, Fla. [Orlando, Fla]30 Dec 2018: F.1.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: January *16-24: Berlin - 100 Years Bauhaus: The Opening Festival. Art movement jump-starts centennial with 100 artists at the throttle. *19-27: Detroit - North American International Auto Show. The future of motor vehicles charges up in Motor City. *31 to Feb. 11: Sapporo, Japan - Sapporo Snow Festival. Millions chill out at showcase of ice and snow sculpture, 70th edition. February *15-24: Indio, Calif. - National Date Festival. Ostrich races are just one of 1,001 Arabian Nights-themed delights. *16 to March 2: Nice, France - Carnival of Nice. French Riviera forecast: intermittent parades and heavy showers of confetti. *26: Grand Canyon, Ariz. - Grand Canyon National Park 100th Birthday. Natural Wonder hosts party with a view. March *1-9: Rio de Janeiro - Carnival. The ultimate street party beguiles upward of 2 million revelers a day. *2-10: Philadelphia - Philadelphia Flower Show. This year's infusion of "Flower Power" knocks the edge off winter. *16-24: Maastricht, Netherlands - European Fine Art Fair. 260 dealers push museum-quality pieces into the marketplace. April *13 to Sept. 2: Seattle - "Destination Moon - The Apollo 11 Mission." Exhibit touches down with relics and displays from first moon landing 50 years back. *21-27: Hilo, Hawaii - Merrie Monarch Festival. Big Island stages "world's largest hula competition." *26-28: St. Albans, Vt. - Vermont Maple Festival. The sweet events stick with you. May *4-11: Seville, Spain - April Fair of Seville. Andalusian arts and antics prevail. *24 to June 9: Charleston, S.C. - Spoleto Festival USA. Performers of opera, drama, theater and jazz bedazzle crowd of 80,000. *24 to Oct. 13: London - "Leonardo da Vinci: A Life in Drawing." Buckingham Palace presents 200 masterpieces on 500th anniversary of the artist's demise. June *1-2: Monterey, Calif. - Castroville Artichoke Festival. "Artichoke Center of the World" sizzles with thistles, California's state vegetable. *7 to July 7: Nine cities in France - FIFA Women's World Cup. "Largest women's sporting event on Earth" features 23 soccer-crazed nations, plus champion USA. *26-30: New York - WorldPride NYC/Stonewall 50. WorldPride makes first U.S. visit to mark 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising. July *4-7: New Orleans - Essence Festival. This "party with a purpose," addressing African-American issues and experiences, turns 25, with 500,000 on hand. *19-21: Baltimore - Artscape. Free festival is all art: performed, photographed, sounded, sculpted and seen. *26 to Aug. 11: Lima, Peru - Pan American Games. Athletes of the Americas compete in 39 sports, including BMX cycling and Basque pelota. August *8-18: Chengdu, China - World Police and Fire Games. Olympics for firefighters and police covers archery, angling, darts and dragon boat races. *9-11: Abbotsford, British Columbia - Abbotsford International Airshow. Feats of flight are performed by Thunderbirds, Snowbirds and CF-18 Hornets. *17-18: Santa Fe, N.M. -Santa Fe Indian Market. Ten thousand shoppers buy authentic Southwest treasures from 1,000 artists on the Plaza. September *6-10; 13-16: Bad Durkheim, Germany - Wurstmarkt. Six-century-old festival is to wine what Oktoberfest is to beer. *16-22: Bardstown, Ky. - Kentucky Bourbon Festival. 50,000 visitors take a sip, then watch the bourbon barrel-rolling races. *20 to Nov. 2: Twelve cities in Japan - Rugby World Cup. "World's third-largest sporting event" scrimmages from Tokyo to the samurai town of Kanazawa. October *5-13: Albuquerque, N.M. - Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. Mass ascensions and the Special Shape Rodeo add up to "the world's largest hot-air balloon gathering." *17-20: Plovdiv, Bulgaria - European Capital of Culture, "100% Plovdiv." Stage play continues Plovdiv's reign as the co-Cultural Capital of Europe with Matera, Italy. *26-28: Galway, Ireland - Galway Aboo Halloween Festival. Ireland's most haunting event materializes on the medieval streets of Galway. November *2: Terlingua, Texas - Terlingua International Chili Championship. Granddaddy of all chili contests fires up in Big Bend country. *16-24: Lucerne, Switzerland - Lucerne Piano Festival. Nine days of keyboard wizardry zip from classical to jazz. *16 to Dec. 31: Copenhagen - Christmas in Tivoli. Holiday season culminates in parades, fireworks and rides at Denmark's landmark amusement park. *28 to Dec. 31: Coos Bay, Ore. - Holiday Lights at Shore Acres. Lighted sculptures of whales and puffins illuminate seaside gardens. December *1-12: Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - Our Lady of Guadalupe Celebration. Aztec and Christian motifs mesh as thousands parade through the streets nightly. *4: New York - Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Midtown Manhattan. *26-31: Sydney - Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. Diamond edition attracts scores of yachts, mainly sloops, to the devilish Tasmanian Sea. Dates are subject to change. Margaret Backenheimer is a freelance writer. Credit: By Margaret Backenheimer - Chicago Tribune - Margaret Backenheimer is a freelance writer. Caption: PHOTO: The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is the largest balloon event in the world. Maddie Meyer/Getty
Subject: Festivals; Moon; Tournaments & championships; Boat racing; Parades; Art; Soccer; National parks
Location: Italy Ireland Chicago Illinois Denmark Americas Detroit Michigan Peru Hawaii Rio de Janeiro Brazil France Abbotsford British Columbia Canada Europe Baltimore Maryland Mexico Switzerland Spain Netherlands New York Germany Grand Canyon China Bulgaria California Japan Kentucky
People: Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519)
Company / organization: Name: Spoleto Festival USA; NAICS: 711320; Name: European Fine Art Fair; NAICS: 453920, 711320; Name: Grand Canyon National Park; NAICS: 712190; Name: Federation Internationale de Football Association--FIFA; NAICS: 813990
Publication title: Orlando Sentinel; Orlando, Fla.
First page: F.1
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Dec 30, 2018
Publisher: Tribune Interactive, LLC
Place of publication: Orlando, Fla.
Country of publication: United States, Orlando, Fla.
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--United States
Source type: Newspapers
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2163018278
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2163018278?accountid=4840
Copyright: Copyright © 2018 Orlando Sentinel
Last updated: 2019-01-17
Database: US Southeast Newsstream
Document 474 of 474
2018 Calabar Carnival unfolds beauty of the Africa story
Publication info: Ghana News Agency (GNA) ; Accra [Accra]31 Dec 2018.
Abstract: None available.
Full text: By Dennis Osei Osei Gyamfi, GNA courtesyJedidah Promotions Calabar, Dec. 31, GNA - Africa's long heldrich cultural history and heritage was told in a symbolic fashion at presumablythe largest and longest tourism event in West Afica. Filled with enthusiasm, colour, and glamour,the 2018 Calabar Carnival attracted over two million tourists, who gathered inthe city of Calabar, to learn the African story with over 50 million televisionaudience, watching the street parade and International Carnival competitionfrom live broadcast. Calabar Carnival is an annual, special andpopular cultural festival, that displays African culture and heritage by meansof music, dressing, drama and other cultural creativities of talented persons-and it is held every December in Calabar, Nigeria. The festival, is usually a 32-day annualstreet party from December 31 to January 1, and this year's editionparticularly, under the theme; 'Africanism' was used to tell the story of theAfrican race. The festival, is understood to be the peak oftourism in Cross River state, and perhaps the whole of Nigeria, as touristsfrom all over the world gather for the period to share in the African history. Participants were highly costumed in anadmirable spectacle that reflected the cultural heritage of the African people. The drama, music, dance and costume showcasedby particapants were all creatively tailored to tell a particular story aboutthe African race. Over 26 countries from different continents joinedin this year's procession and display of culture and heritage from of Nigeriaand other parts of the continent. Among the list of countries that participatedin the International Carnival competition were Ghana's Carnival Queens, Mexico,South Africa, Indonessia, Lithuania, Brazil, Kenya, Senegal, Tanzania,Switzerland, United States of America, Canada and Ukraine. These countries who participated in theInternational Carvival competition at the U.J Esuene Stadium infrint of judgeswho scored marks for the best participants. At the end of the competition, the 1st prizewas awarded to Switzerland, while the second and third prize were given toMexico and Lithuania, respectively. Eventhough Ghana's Carnival Queens gave aninteresting account of how the Ga's journeyed from Egypt to present location inGhana, it was not enough to win them any laurel. For the many other events that was held, amongthe highlights of the Carnival was the Calabar Carnival Parade that featured 50,000costumed revellers who performed in five major carnival bands and other 10non-competing bands in a 12 kilometer parade route. It was filled with colour, sparkle, DJs, livemusicians, steel bands, incredible floats and costumes, speaking high volume ofthe African unity and strength. Thousands, lined up the streets to watch theparade in admiration and the atmosphere was electricfying. Passion 4, won in the overall battle of thebands and street parade, with Seagull placing second and Freedom band comingthird. As commented by Professor Ben Ayade, Governorof Cross River State, the 2018 Calabar Carnival was a platform to showcaseAfrica to the world. “With the theme Africanism, Africa has theopportunity of telling the whole world its story the way it knows best which isthrough its dance and bright colours," he said. “Civilisation started in Africa, so Africamust take its pride of place in the world. We are also here to show that Africaas a continent is the future, Europe is the past while Asia was the present,”he added. Calabar hosted the world successfully withoutany blemish throughout the duration of the festival. Some tourists who spoke to the GNA commendedthe - Cross River State Carnival Commission for the quality level ofhospitality, security, transport system and organisation. "The exhilarating display of the richAfrican culture and heritage was worth every minute in Calabar," Nora, aUkrainian said. GNA © 2018 Ghana News Agency (GNA) Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).
Subject: Culture; Parades; Cultural heritage; Festivals
Location: Mexico Lithuania Switzerland United States--US South Africa Kenya Canada Nigeria Egypt Senegal Africa Brazil Ghana Asia Ukraine Europe Tanzania
Publication title: Ghana News Agency (GNA); Accra
Publication year: 2018
Publication date: Dec 31, 2018
Publisher: SyndiGate Media I nc
Place of publication: Accra
Country of publication: United States, Accra
Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--Ghana
Source type: Wire Feeds
Language of publication: English
Document type: News
ProQuest document ID: 2161758556
Document URL: https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/docview/2161758556?accountid=4840
Copyright: © 2018 Ghana News Agency (GNA) Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).
Last updated: 2018-12-31
Database: ABI/INFORM Collection
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